To frack or not to frackNorthwest Territories/News North - Monday, April 27, 2015
Hydraulic fracturing has once again become the f-word of the day as the territorial government journeys from community to community to explain how it will regulate the controversial oil and gas extraction method.
Fracking, as it is more casually termed, is the process of injecting water that has been mixed with a number of chemicals at high pressure into bedrock in order to release oil or natural gas. It has earned a bad rap for a number of reasons: the process contaminates fresh water with unknown chemicals; there is evidence this chemical-laden water has led to the contamination of ground water and there is growing evidence it causes earthquakes.
On the other hand, fracking has helped to revitalize economies in areas where it happens. Industry, Tourism and Development Minister David Ramsay certainly regards this benefit as key for the economic future of the Sahtu, where the Canol field holds untold barrels of oil locked in shale rock. He told Alberta Oil Magazine in May 2013, "We have to understand this. If there is no fracking, there is no development. It's that simple."
No doubt a fracking project in the Sahtu would jumpstart both local and NWT economies. But many people in the territory are uncomfortable with it and have asked the GNWT to consider a moratorium until social and environmental cost and benefit analyses can be done. Ramsay told News/North last week a moratorium on fracking has never been a question for the government. Fracking has indeed been a question, albeit a question Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley forced his colleagues to debate through his motion for a moratorium last spring.
Maybe Ramsay thought it didn't count.
MLAs voted to defeat the moratorium but judging by the prickly response bureaucrats received at an Inuvik information session about newly-adopted fracking regulations last week, the question of whether to frack is still an open one for the people of the Northwest Territories.
It's fair for people to question fracking because it's hard to get good information on it. Most pro-fracking information comes from industry and it's easy to get mired in rhetoric and fear mongering when researching the potential dangers of fracking.
In June 2012 the Pacific Institute, a research and policy non-profit based in California, released a paper that explores the impact
of fracking on water supplies.
In it, the report's two authors say the risks simply aren't known yet.
"Most significantly, a lack of credible and comprehensive data and information is a major impediment to identify or clearly assess the key water-related risks associated with hydraulic fracturing and to develop sound policies to minimize those risks," states the report.
Granted, Environment and Natural Resources Minister Michael Miltenberger has pointed to $4 million the government has spent on baseline studies, so hopefully these studies will be able to tell us after the fact whether fracking has had any unwanted effects on NWT groundwater.
Nevertheless, there are clearly people uncomfortable with the Sahtu playing the guinea pig in the first place.
The government in charge has made up its mind on fracking. Last year's debate revealed only four MLAs - Bob Bromley, Wendy Bisaro, Robert Hawkins and Michael Nadli - were in support of the moratorium.
Elections are often decided on issues and the territorial election this fall will likely be no exception. If today's government is moving forward on fracking deaf to the concerns of constituents, in mere months these same constituents have the chance to go to the ballot box and tell their elected government how they feel about not being heard.
Rid communities of environmental wasteNunavut/News North - Monday, April 27, 2015
The advent of a warmer season brings joy to many people in Nunavut communities.
Finally, heavy coats can be shed in favour of lighter clothing, lakes are cleared to open an ice surface for outdoor skating and mounds of snow are melting to reveal the landscape underneath.
What is under some mounds of snow in many remote communities is not so pleasant, however. The heat of the sun melts the snow to reveal aging, rusting vehicles which are leaching motor oil, antifreeze, automatic transmission fluid and other contaminants into the environment.
Ironically, some of the abandoned vehicles, including a Ford pickup in Gjoa Haven, have the Government of Nunavut's logo on the door.
Vehicles are shipped to many coastal communities by barge, at huge expense, and are used by government employees and company workers until they no longer work. Now, dotting the otherwise pristine landscape, hundreds of rusting hulks are a blight on the land.
Arviat's senior administrative officer estimates that every vehicle ever shipped to the Kivalliq community was sitting in a makeshift metal dump a half-kilometre long and a couple of hundred metres wide.
That was the situation until Summerhill, a non-profit organization, brought its Tundra Take-Back pilot project to the community. It took advantage of the fact that the barge which delivers sea cans of supplies to the community in the open-water season goes back south empty.
The non-profit partnered with Nunavut hamlets, the Co-op and other companies, including Nunavut Sealink and Supply Inc., to remove 31 tonnes of waste and recyclables from Arviat and Gjoa Haven.
Eight sea cans of hazardous materials left Arviat, including car batteries, tires and switches that contain mercury.
Nunavut is fortunate to have an organization like Summerhill willing to undertake this monumental task. The details about the pilot project are contained in a report which is being used to request funding from government to expand the project to other Nunavut communities.
Environment Canada contributed $100,000 last year but it costs more than $120,000 to clean up just one community. The federal government has not committed more money and the Government of Nunavut has been silent on requests for funding.
Certainly, there are pressing issues, such as housing, education and mental wellness, where government money is required. However, governments and industry need to recognize they have contributed to the problem and must accept ownership of some of the abandoned vehicles.
Just as the vehicles have sat for years, it will take time for this initiative to spread to more Nunavut communities.
Government support is crucial for that to happen.
Northern advantage in GNWT's court Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, April 24, 2015
The territorial government is in a stalemate when it comes to attracting new residents to the North.
The government's stated goal is to increase the population by 2,000 people within five years. To put this ambitious number in context consider that over the past 15 years or so the NWT's population has only increased by 2,500. Since cracking 43,000 in 2004 it has not managed to break 44,000.
Last week, the Dominion Diamond Corporation announced it would no longer be flying workers out of Edmonton into Yellowknife for their work rotations. Dominion Diamond owns approximately 90 per cent of the Ekati diamond mine and is a 40 per cent owner of the Diavik diamond mine.
The company did not disclose the number of workers who would be affected by the change in policy but a 2013 document showed Ekati mine operations alone employed 1,200 workers on site with almost half living outside the Northwest Territories.
Elliot Holland, Dominion Diamond vice-president of projects, said the move was made to fulfill part of the company's stated obligation to support the North, its economy and its people.
"We have been assessing our policies to make enhancements to retain Northern-resident workers and to entice others to move north by promoting NWT as a great place to work, live and raise families," Holland stated in an e-mail.
Depending on the availability of seat sales, return flights from Edmonton to Yellowknife can cost anywhere between $400 and $700. Over the course of year, that adds up to a lot of good reasons for a current out-of-territory worker to consider a move north.
Dominion Diamond is walking the walk on promoting the North, and doing so at its own expense. Workers likely won't appreciate the change in policy and the move is bound to complicate ongoing contract negotiations with the Union of Northern Workers at Ekati.
But this isn't a walk Dominion Diamond should be expected to take alone.
Now is the time for the GNWT to step up and show affected workers and their families the advantages to living in the North amount to more than avoiding the financial penalty of paying for their own flights out of Edmonton.
For example, NWT residents and their children have access to what may be the most generous post-secondary financial assistance program in Canada. A student who completed grades one through 12 in the NWT could receive up to six years worth of grants and remissible loans toward his or her post-secondary education.
Northern workers also enjoy, according to Statistics Canada, some of the lowest personal income tax rates in the country.
Government leaders have said they support Dominion Diamond's corporate strategy. But they need to be doing more than that now that there are probably at least 600 people and their families considering their options.
One of those options includes moving to the NWT. Let's see the GNWT seize the opportunity to remind people of the tangible Northern advantages that already exist.
Landfill a future messDeh Cho Drum - Thursday, April 23, 2015
The state of the Fort Simpson landfill is a mess the current council has inherited after years of neglect by past councils to properly deal with the issue.
A report completed on the landfill for the village and delivered earlier this year highlights a number of issues. While some are minor, like building fences to keep scavenging bears and other animals out, other issues are serious - and pressing.
Testing to determine whether there has been groundwater contamination has never been done. The landfill was built in the 1980s. Think about that for a minute. Mayor Sean Whelly said the council plans to start monitoring water in the landfill, but the chance the damage has been done is a reality.
In a territory and community that prides itself on protecting the land and the pristine water systems, this is a failure.
It's not the current council's fault. The plans to test groundwater can be applauded, but the years of negligence is unacceptable. Doing the bare minimum required to maintain the landfill for the decades prior was a lapse in judgement of previous councils, many of which included current councillors.
But this isn't even the biggest environmental issue highlighted in the report. The landfill is nearing the end of its life. Unless the village finds the funds, the dump will reach maximum capacity in 4.5 years. And if council can find the money to build a new cell for waste storage at the facility it can extend the life of the dump for another decade.
The report indicates that in order to properly close the facility, the village needs to find approximately $1 million in funds over the next 13 years to cover the cost of closure and long-term maintenance of the site. The scariest thing is, in order to pay for this down the road, the village needs to start putting approximately $90,000 away annually to make sure the council who inherits this mess - literally - can pay for it. With little to no money to complete basic infrastructure projects in the village like much-needed road work and building renovations, this is a big issue.
The territorial government is working on a new community funding formula that will allocate desperately-needed money for the village, but that's not coming for a few years.
Unless the village can find a way to increase revenues, the landfill is going to be a major problem when it comes time to shut it down.
Taking a gamble on pro-industry stanceInuvik Drum - Thursday, April 23, 2015
In an election year, when promises by politicians have a tendency to become improbably large, the GNWT cabinet and members seem to have had an outbreak of honesty when it comes to fracking.
After the first few public meetings on the proposed new regulations, government representatives have taken a pounding. It's clear the public doesn't want to debate how fracking should be governed. Instead, it's been made perfectly clear the important question is to discuss whether NWT residents want fracking at all.
It's also perfectly clear the GNWT, having put most of its economic eggs in the resource industry basket, doesn't want to have that debate, period.
That would be a noteworthy clash of perspectives at any time but, coming as it does in an election year, there's bound to be fireworks, especially when the election has already been pushed back a month or so after discussions of delaying it for as long as a year.
It's rather difficult to say just what the cabinet is thinking embarking on this strategy under the circumstances, but it is refreshing.
Generally, as an election draws nigh, politicians frequently display a flexibility that would be a credit to a Cirque de Soleil performer as they scent the electoral winds like a salivating bloodhound.
Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay made that perspective perfectly clear during a recent visit to Inuvik.
An obviously well-scripted Ramsay said the government had never seriously considered a moratorium on fracking. Instead, since it's already been used here in the NWT, which means there are some regulations in place, and there are considerable reserves of oil and gas suitable for fracking, the GNWT simply wants to localize the regulations.
Ramsay and his cabinet cohorts deserve some props for at least being that honest, but it could be politically costly.
There's no room in that stance to consider whether the GNWT is putting the cart before the horse when it comes to fracking regulations, which was the overwhelming public response here in Inuvik.
That means there's a proverbial dialogue of the deaf going on, which doesn't bode well in an election year.
It's also the reason why the presenters have been government bureaucrats, rather than the decision makers. It allows the cabinet, which is in the driver's seat on the issue, to dodge the moratorium issue while the civil servants respond, rather feebly, with the standard claim of "we're not the political decision-makers" as they're used as cannon fodder.
That's a strategy that, understandably, is going to infuriate the public attending the meetings. It also does nothing to settle the issue.
It's not a good sign, that, with the election looming, the elected government representatives are coming across as either deaf, uncaring or arrogant.
They play this game at their peril, and they will likely have to pay the ferryman come this fall.
Harvest of complacencyYellowknifer - Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Why is it that more than 10 years after production ceased at Giant Mine the territorial government is just now finally warning people that eating mushrooms picked near Yellowknife may be hazardous to their health?
It's not like the mine's arsenic problem from five decades of smelting gold ore has been kept a secret buried in some mine executive's backyard. The issue been agonized over and studied to death for years.
Nonetheless, only after anticipation mounted of the army of pickers arriving to cash in on an expected bumper crop of morel mushrooms did the government warn of an arsenic danger in mushrooms. Morels are highly prized by chefs and connoisseurs for their meaty texture and earthy taste, with dried ones going for as much as $300 a pound.
It's telling that the warning is coming from the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI), not the Department of Health and Social Services. Clearly the GNWT is concerned about the negative publicity that might ensue should morels picked near Yellowknife be tested and found to be contaminated.
The NWT could have all the morels in the world within walking distance of Highway 3 but they will be worthless on the international market if instead of becoming the toast of haute cuisine, they are derided as "arsenic mushrooms."
The ITI warning is explicit. It recommends pickers stay 50 km from the city due to "arsenic and heavy metals" being detected in mushrooms. Veteran picker Joachim Obst, who's written guidebooks on picking mushrooms for the GNWT, said he's been warning the government for years about arsenic from Giant Mine and the long-term dangers it poses to local pickers, namely the side effects that can lead to a variety of cancers.
He has determined as little 1.4 grams per day of locally picked mushrooms will exceed Canadian health standards for toxic inorganic arsenic. He estimates "a few hundred" people in Yellowknife pick mushrooms each year.
No one Yellowknifer has spoken to, including Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Andre Corriveau, appears to doubt his claims, which makes the health department's cavalier response to the problem so troubling.
Corriveau echoed ITI's warning on Monday not to pick mushrooms around Yellowknife but declined to issue an advisory as he believes few people do pick mushrooms here and bizarrely, argued that an advisory might only encourage more people to pick mushrooms around Yellowknife.
Looking on the health department's website, there is no shortage of advisories. Several involve mercury warnings for fish from lakes, some of them far from populated areas.
It would seem prudent to at least post a few signs on nature trails warning people not eat the mushrooms. And instead of ignoring Obst's concerns dating back many years that hundreds of people are picking local mushrooms, the health department should to try to verify whether or not that's the case. Many people may be at risk.
It seems a reasonable proposition that the government should listen to these concerns when they come from the person it hired as an expert consultant on mushrooms.
Right now, what seems most important to the GNWT is the golden morel egg about to rolled out onto the world stage, not the people here in Yellowknife who have been picking and eating mushrooms for years.
Odds favour Harper re-electionEditorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, April 22, 2015
If I had $20 for every time someone told me Prime Minister Stephen Harper has to go, or for every time I was asked who would still vote Conservative after the political subterfuge we've swallowed during the past few years, I could move the old retirement plans up a year or two.
Of course, the problem with living in the North is that most people who follow federal politics are of the working middle class, and face the stereotypical good news, bad news situation.
The good news is, collectively, we of the lower middle class pose the biggest threat to Harper's kingdom.
The bad news is, he doesn't care that much.
Think of us as denizens of the four estates, with Uncle Stephen living comfortably in the first estate -- once the home of religious leaders who trumped even royalty, and now the modern day crib of government leaders.
We, on the other hand, reside in the third estate -- once home to peasants, serfs and slaves, and now the perch of workers and taxpayers. You know, common folk.
The strength of Harper's voter base resides in the second estate -- once home to the ruling elite such as kings and queens, and now the domain of business leaders.
And in the fact we in the third estate tend mostly to agree to disagree.
Add on the interests of those in the second estate are almost always in direct conflict of those who in the third, and the unavoidable begins to come into focus.
And, as anyone who has been paying attention can tell you, Harper and big business are darn cosy.
Harper won his majority government in 2011 with 39.6 per cent of the popular vote, which remains his high-water mark of support.
He has money behind him, and is a master tactician who knows how to defend the middle ground he's held to by Canadian voters, despite being far right in his thinking.
Harper is aided in his business-as-usual approach by a fractured left and centre that splits votes and lacks the ability to unite the Canadian electorate in a wave of support.
The latest projections from ThreeHundredEight.com, updated on April 13, predict the Conservatives taking the upcoming October election with 32 per cent (120 to 161 seats), followed by the Liberals at 31 per cent (98 to 136 seats) and the NDP at 22 per cent (61 to 88 seats).
In short, were the federal election to be held today, the odds of Stephen Harper still being prime minister tomorrow are high.
NDP leader Thomas Mulcair and the Liberal's Justin Trudeau have their work cut out for them if we're going to see a surge to victory in the next six months.
Their main hurdle, in addition to Harper's brilliance on the political battlefield, is finding an issue to overcome the middle-of-the-road thinking of average Canadian voters.
As recently as 2011, the Environics Group of Companies had the percentage of Canadians who favour big government at 45 per cent, and those who prefer smaller government at 40 per cent.
With even the disgrace of Senate members Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau unable to swing voter opinion away from the Conservatives, Trudeau and Mulcair are in tough to find a magic political bullet by Oct. 19.
Should odds prevail, the answer to the query of who would vote for the Tories appears to be -- just enough!
