Category Archives: Technology

44 ‘serious’ leaks reported at B.C. oil and gas sites in the past year

March 21, 2025 Guest Post

Editor’s note: A Natural Resources Canada news release from September 18, 2020 stated “There are 25,000 oil and gas well sites in B.C., of which approximately 770 are considered orphan. In addition, there are currently 7,933 dormant well sites in the province.”

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

This investigation is a collaboration between The Narwhal and the Investigative Journalism Foundation.

Oil and gas companies operating in British Columbia have reported 44 “serious” leaks at wellsites over the past year, according to publicly available BC Energy Regulator records.

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Communications

Mascon By Telus Cuts Off Some Cortes Customers, CityWest Update

March 20, 2025 Roy Hales 2 Comments

Mascon by TELUS informed at least 10 Cortes Island residents that their internet service will be terminated on June 2, 2025.

A dozen people were chatting about it on the Cortes Island Is Home Facebook page, where one typed a message to Regional Director Mark Vonesch, “The SRD was part of the whole CityWest to insure all communities were connected? Most of us do not have access to CityWest yet and now we are losing access to our only other option.”

Nancy Kendel posted a comment on the Tideline, “A LOT OF GOVERNMENT MONEY was given to the Connected Coast Partnership of CityWest and the Strathcona Regional District, but THE JOB IS NOT FINISHED! When will Cortes Island be connected?”

She also emailed Cortes Currents, which is what led to this story.

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Energy

Pembina Institute: Why Canada Needs An Emissions Cap for the Oil and Gas Sector

March 19, 2025 Roy Hales

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, the oil and gas sector is a major contributor to Canada’s economy, employing 182,000 people and generating $209 billion in GDP during 2023, yet it is also the source of 31% of Canada’’s Greenhouse gas emissions.

“Demand for oil and gas is not going to go to zero tomorrow. It is a transition that takes decades to undergo. There will be a role for oil and gas as we move forward along that transition, but it is likely to be a cleaner oil and gas sector as the rest of the world stops buying the oil and gas products that Canada and other countries produce. Which, I think, really underlines the importance of investing in decarbonization now while we’re still using oil and gas to 2050 and a little bit beyond if we get on a net zero trajectory,” explained Janetta McKenzie from the Pembina Institute, a Canadian think tank and non-profit focused on energy.

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Technology

The Quadra Project: Settling Mars

March 17, 2025 Ray Grigg

Life on Mars” is a playful but unsettling article in New Scientist (16 November, 2024). The authors, a biologist and a cartoonist, Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, are commenting on the aspiration of Elon Musk to start establishing a million person colony on Mars by 2030. “Has anyone thought this through?” they ask with a skepticism that summarizes the tragic-comic history of humanity on this planet.

“Mars sucks,” they suggest. Going there would be the equivalent of “moving to a toxic waste dump because your neighbours aren’t mowing their lawn often enough.” As they point out, launching rockets and performing antics in zero gravity is fun, but Mars would not be. The temperature varies from a chilly –153°C to only brief periods of a comfortable 20°C at high noon. And the air, which is mostly carbon dioxide and only 1% the density on Earth, would be fatal to anyone attempting to breathe it.

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