Environment, resources & sustainability

Burning wood pellets

A burning question

Oct 19, 2022
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BC government needs to say how many trees are falling to wood pellet industry Recently, two respected news organizations aired investigative documentaries showing how trees in BC’s drastically over-cut primary forests are chopped down only to be turned into wood pellets that are burned by the millions of tons to make electricity in the United… View Article

Reconciliation in action?

Jul 13, 2022
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Far from it, says chief of holdout First Nation over deal with province on Site C In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was tasked with informing all Canadians about what happened to Indigenous Peoples in residential schools, defined the word reconciliation as a process of “establishing and maintaining a mutually respectful relationship between… View Article

The sound of silence

Jun 21, 2022
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Weeks stretch to months, months to years as BC government clamps down on information  When debate on the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Act began last fall Stephanie Cadieux, then Liberal MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale, was among many to note how British Columbians are waiting longer and longer to obtain information from government… View Article
Damage on Highway 7 damage at Ruby Creek from the November 2022 flooding events

Government to investigate deadly landslide

Jun 16, 2022
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Months after five killed, experts to determine if failed logging road caused fatal mudslide Seven months after a mudslide killed five people on Highway 99, the provincial Ministry of Forests is launching an investigation into the event, marking the first time that it has indicated that a failed logging road may be behind the tragedy…. View Article
Illustration of pump jacks at oil wells.

Anticlimactic and anti-climate: BC’s oil and gas royalty review

Jun 13, 2022
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The BC government’s recently completed review of its royalty regime for oil and gas is both anticlimactic and anti-climate. After many months of public engagement—including an independent review, discussion paper, hundreds of public submissions, and a “what we heard” report—the public release is surprisingly brief and the regime remains steadfastly committed to growing oil and… View Article

Opening the floodgates

Jun 1, 2022
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More than climate crisis behind last November’s rising waters, death and destruction; experts urge province to make course correction   First of Two Parts When Premier John Horgan declared a provincial state of emergency in the wake of last November’s horrific floods, landslides and deaths, he was quick to name the culprit.  The “never seen before”… View Article

A deadly wake-up call

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In aftermath of a landslide that killed five, experts say government must act now to avoid more “preventable” deaths Second of Two Parts (read the first) As 2021 drew to a close, Premier John Horgan said many British Columbians would remember it “as the year that climate change arrived on our doorsteps.”  Whether it was… View Article

The Revolving Door: Troubling questions raised as BC’s chief forester prepares to work for global wood pellet giant, Drax

Apr 6, 2022
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At mid-afternoon on Monday (April 4), senior staff at British Columbia’s Ministry of Forests were told that one of their highest-ranking members—the province’s chief forester, Diane Nicholls—was entering the revolving door that would sweep her seamlessly out of government employ and into the industry her ministry regulates.  “Diane is leaving us to further her work… View Article