Missed opportunities of the past, frame the Bill 10 discussion for Ellis Ross in the Legislature this week

MLA's from all parties spoke to the theme of the NDP's Bill Ten this week, legislation that is designed to help push forward the LNG industry in the province by way of tax

As we outlined yesterday, Liberal MLA Todd Stone, a member of Christy Clark's Liberal government during the formative days of the LNG industry spoke to some of the past in his presentation this week, spending a fair portion of his presentation on the days of the Pacific Northwest LNG proposal and his travels through the region at the time.

Tuesday had seen the start of the debate and for the most part it was Andrew Weaver's show, the Leader of the Green Party, who is staunch opponent to any LNG policy, whether delivered by Liberal or NDP government, spoke at length about his concerns for the current direction that the NDP is taking towards the development of the industry in the province.

The LNG has long been one of Dr. Weaver's strongest debate topics during his time in the Legislature and his presentation recounted many of his previous themes and flagged a number of areas where he and his party take a very different path from the governing Liberals.

Tuesday also saw Skeena MLA Ellis Ross join the debate on Bill Ten starting his presentation with some focus on the past, noting how delays and backlash against development of the industry some of which he assigns to the now governing NDP, served to push British Columbia behind the development curve, ceding opportunity to the United States and other nations.

This is exactly why LNG got stalled, and this is why Kinder Morgan could get stalled: because of the misinformation, the propaganda machines and protests. Even NDPers showed up on protest lines. They signed anti-LNG petitions. I even asked a high-profile NDPer if they would come to Kitimat and actually distinguish between PNW in Prince Rupert and Kitimat. I didn't see that NDPer for another year. They would not support it, because in principle, they just did not support LNG. 

The Hansard record shows this in a debate in 2015 in the summer session. I read those comments. Two weeks of debate. Some of the members are still sitting on that side the House. I heard the member, the Leader of the Green Party, mentioning all the hypocritical statements that were made. I read that in the record. You even read it in the newspapers.  You can still google it. 

To say that now there's a turnaround and all those comments are now history…. No, those words meant something back then. They heightened the opposition to LNG. They heightened the misinformation. It heightened the hostilities on the blockades. It emboldened more people to come out and protest and set up blockades

As has been outlined before, the Skeena MLA is fully supportive of the LNG Canada proposal for his riding and particularly towards the job creation that it will provide for the region and his home community of Kitamaat Village and for the Haisla Nation.

The Skeena MLA does however have some concerns with the way that the NDP is approaching their new legislation  and called for more transparency from the government in how it handling the LNG file in the province.

I still support LNG. I still do. It is the future of my riding, and it's the future of B.C. It's the future of Canada. In fact, I want to continue supporting LNG, but as an MLA, I also have a job do on behalf of my riding, and on behalf of British Columbians, for that matter. The large part of my job down here in Victoria is to hold the government accountable. For that, I will need to see details of the agreement signed between the NDP government and any major project developer as outlined in the legislation. 

I do acknowledge the government's decision to repeal the LNG income tax. But I don't understand why the NDP government does not want to provide disclosure or transparency to this Legislature, to the people of B.C. I do not understand that. I do not understand why they want to repeal the legislation that forces them to bring agreements in detail to this House in the same manner that the PNW agreement was brought to this House in the summer of 2015. For two weeks, it was debated here. 

Why do we not do this for the LNG Canada agreement? I also understand why this LNG income tax was put in, in the first place. It was to ensure that B.C. molecules for natural gas were actually used instead of Alberta natural gas or instead of Saskatchewan natural gas, because in the end, it means revenues. Now if you take away this income tax, I want to know from the government: what is the protection or assurances that B.C. LNG gas molecules will be used for the export to Asia?

The apparent change of direction on LNG from the governing NDP flowed through much of the Skeena MLA's presentation, who frequently noted the missed opportunities and time lost in the years previous.

It's politics. But given their true nature and the importance of LNG to B.C., why did they not consider the impact their statements would have on people like us living up in the north who are trying to revitalize our economies and trying to keep our families at home for work? This is on top of the efforts of First Nations who, for the first time, were equal players at the table with government and industry. 

It's very discouraging to know that the people that were making these comments had no interest in what the people of the north were thinking or feeling at the time and didn't really care about northern communities like Kitimat or Terrace and what this would mean to us. An economy that was actually celebrating the modernization of an aluminum smelter — that was our claim to fame. That's what got us out of our stagnant economy. 

So LNG, over the process of 14 years, was actually starting to become a reality. We could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Then we started to see the opposition to it in 2015, officially, in this House. 

 I still support LNG, but the details have to be verified. I still believe if there's a lot of members in this House that are going to vote on this in principle, why wasn't this principle developed five years ago? That first window of LNG opportunity could have been ours. It could have been B.C.'s. 

Instead, we turned this over to the United States. We turned it over to Australia, to Qatar. Everybody took advantage of it, because they knew they had to strike while the iron was hot. Not B.C. Just because of the politics and misinformation. Louisiana. Instead, what we had was members of this House helping to shape a misinformed opinion of LNG in B.C.

The full presentation covers much more material from addressing poverty in the communities of the Northwest to carbon tax concerns, you can review the debate from the Legislature archive here, starting at the 1600 minute mark.

You can also view the days debate, which included extensive comments from the Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver from the Chamber Video for Tuesday afternoon.

Mr. Weaver's lengthy overview starts at the 1:30 PM mark, while Mr. Ross joins the debate at 4PM

For more items of note on the work of area MLA's at the Legislature see our archive pages below:

Skeena

North Coast

More notes related to the LNG Canada project can LNG in British Columbia can be found here.

Ghost of Pacific Northwest LNG project floated in Legislature debate this week

Todd Stone recounted some of the Liberal government's  engagement
with the North Coast during the earl days of LNG development, the Liberal
MLA spoke Wednesday as part of debate related to the
 NDP Government'sBill 10 to create Tax Credits for LNG companies

MLA's took to the debate this week on themes related to Bill 10 which the NDP government is moving forward as the LNG Canada project continues to make its forward momentum towards development.

The Bill is designed to provide for a Natural Gas Tax Credit for qualifying corporations

As part of the discussion through the week, Former Liberal Transportation Minister Todd Stone spoke to some of the atmosphere for potential investment that had been found not too long ago in the Prince Rupert area that made for the background to the now canceled Pacific Northwest LNG project.

Framed as part of the current progress for the development of the LNG Canada project in Kitimat, Mr. Stone first paid tribute to the work of then Haisla Chief Ellis Ross, who now sits as a Liberal MLA for the Terrace-Kitmat region.

Underlying those negotiations, underlying those tough moments of back-and-forth and underlying those many moments, I'm sure, of the member for Skeena, his colleagues, negotiating team and his people wondering if any of these projects would ever happen, if they would ever be able to actually realize the potential on behalf of their kids and grandkids…. It's all coming to fruition. 

 I again want to thank the member for Skeena for the leadership, the vision and the unwavering commitment that he has demonstrated to not just his people but to all Indigenous people and, indeed, to all British Columbians, that, again, the best poverty reduction plan strategy to meet the objectives of a poverty reduction plan is to have people working, to create good-paying jobs for people.

The Prince Rupert and area focus came about midway through Mr. Stones  expansive address to the Chamber on Wednesday afternoon, in among some of his themes was an interesting observation as to how the Pacific Northwest eventually did not move towards development ... but then offering up the added note that perhaps one day in the future it may move forward

Now this brings me to, again, my time in Transportation and spending a lot of days and weeks up in the northwest and along Highway 16 and in Terrace and Kitimat and right through to Prince Rupert, meeting with mayors and councillors, meeting with First Nations chiefs and councils, and being introduced to their communities, and being told over and over again the realities that they were experiencing in their communities, which was generally no growth. 

That was generally reflected in their young people graduating high school and then leaving town, leaving their community. It was largely reflected in small businesses struggling to barely make ends meet. It was largely reflected in walking down through downtowns like in Terrace and certainly in Kitimat and Prince Rupert — and every second or third door or window reflected a vacant space because the town had clearly seen better days — and talking to these folks about what life will be like when these kinds of projects finally get the go, when people are finally put to work and when people can finally see that there is a reason to be hopeful and optimistic about the future in their particular community. 

I remember going in to meet with the Lax Kw'alaams. It's a nation about 30 kilometres north of Prince Rupert. I believe I visited there first in July of 2015. I was there, again in a context of good faith on behalf of the province, to announce a number of projects we were partnering on with the Lax Kw'alaams. I remember the journey in, on Tuck Inlet Road. It was a gravel road, but it was pretty dusty. It was full of potholes. The bridges were one-lane bridges. You really didn't want to probably go over them at night, certainly not in fog. It was a challenge to get goods, not to mention their people, in and out of their community on a reliable basis. 

We were there to work in partnership with them, which resulted, in part, in a sweeping benefits package, a benefits deal, that was signed. We were there to announce that Tuck Inlet Road would be paved, and it has been. We were there to announce enhanced ferry service for the ferry that takes people to the start of Tuck Inlet Road. 

Those improvements were all made. I remember talking to the mayor of Lax Kw'alaams at the time. He was trying to express to me how important those infrastructure investments were for his people. He was trying to impress upon me the importance that jobs represented to his people. He said: "Let me take you down to the fish-processing plant, and you'll see what opportunity looks like." So we did, and there were a whole bunch of his people working hard, making some good money. He then took me to the recreation centre. I was immediately struck. It was this beautiful building, complete with basketball courts and a huge swimming pool that rivalled anything that I had seen in my own community in Kamloops. 

This was, again, a small community of barely 3,000 people. He said: "You know, those jobs helped pay for this swimming pool." The swimming pool was important because, frankly, as he said to me — and this is me paraphrasing: "We had a very serious issue of suicides, our youth in our community, because our kids were hopeless. Their parents weren't working. The kids had nothing to do." They had tried all kinds of different things, but the community made a big, bold decision in supporting his idea to put this rec centre up and this pool. He said: "You know, the best part of it is when those doors opened, in the several years since, we haven't had a single suicide in our community." 

That's the value of people working. That's the tangible benefit represented in investments in a community that are possible because people are working. That's how you can change lives in a community, a remote community. 

Now, of course, that particular project, didn't go — Pacific NorthWest LNG. It may still one day. 

It didn't go. It's unfortunate that it didn't go. But I use that experience that I had in that community to reflect the experience that I had in so many First Nation communities and non–First Nation communities throughout the northwest, as just a way to underline the importance of moving ahead with these kinds of projects, the importance of doing what it takes to ensure that there are projects like these that will provide good-paying, family-supporting jobs, particularly in rural and remote communities across the province.

Stone wrapped up his thirty minute presentation with some thoughts on the path ahead for LNG development in the province and the importance of the moment that the industry offers ahead.

Last but not least is the issue of transparency. We will be canvassing very thoroughly in committee stage the rationale in this bill for basically eliminating the requirement to bring an agreement like this one to the floor of the Legislature in its entirety for all MLAs to see and all British Columbians to see. We believe, as a fundamental principle, that that requirement for transparency is important and must be respected. 

That is why we brought forward the Pacific NorthWest agreement into this chamber, and it's why we think that this agreement with LNG Canada and any subsequent agreements should also be brought before this House.  

With that, I say this is an important moment for British Columbia. We've got to get this right. I am proud to have long supported the LNG industry. I look forward to the debate that's going to take place in this House in the coming days and weeks of this particular bill with respect to LNG Canada's project.

The full presentation and other discussion themes on Bill Ten for the day can be found from the legislature Archive here. Mr. Stones comments commence at 16:30PM.

The Liberal MLA's extensive notes can be viewed from the Legislature Video link starting at the 16:30 PM mark.

For more items of note from the Legislature see our archive page here.

Needle concerns in Port Edward

The District Council in Port Edward has called attention to an issue of concern in the community when it comes to the safe disposal of discarded needles, with the District noting that their public works crews have discovered a growing number of needles discarded throughout the community.

The notice for residents to be more cautious towards the disposal of needles was posted to the District Update for March (available here)

As the District notes in their advisory, Northern Health does offer a container program on the North Coast to provide for the safe disposal of needles in the region.

One idea that Port Edward or Prince Rupert community groups may want to follow up on is a program in Terrace that has been funded by Northern Health's Imagine Grant initiative.

In the Terrace case, The Terrace Clean Team addressed discarded needles and such by creating a clean up team which used Safe Injection Boxes and puncture proof gloves through funding from the grant.

Terrace Council explored the needle issue extensively last year and their findings make for an interesting look at how the issue has been handled across the Northwest.

More on the Imagine Grant program can be found here.

The Northern Health Unit is located in the Ocean Centre on the Third Avenue West Side of the building, you can also contact them at 250-622-6380.

For more items of interest from the District see our archive page here, while further background on Northern Health can be found from our Health Archives.

Port Edward names Interim Chief for Fire Department

The Port Edward Fire Hall, home to the District's Volunteer Fire Department

With Shawn Pettit having stepped away from his duties with the District of Port Edward after thirty years, the District's Volunteer Fire Department will be turning to Jason  Giesbrecht to take on the duties of Interim Chief.

The announcement of the temporary move, comes as part of the District's March update now posted to the Port Edward municipal website.

In the update, the Mayor and Council pay tribute to the work of now former Chief Pettit pointing to his professionalism over the last three decades as he steered the Volunteer Department through many challenging times and fire fighting experiences.

In addition to working emergency situations in the District, the Port Edward Volunteers also respond to calls for assistance along the Highway 16 corridor.

You can find some of their work over the years as part of our accounts from the files of Northwest Emergency Responders.

Money for Diana Lake, promise of update on Ridley Tax Dispute among notes from Port Edward update

A number of notes for Port Edward residents have now been made
available through the District's website

March apparently was a fairly busy month for the District of Port Edward, with a number of files taking up some of their time and making for a slight delay from Mayor Knut Bjorndal when it comes to the Update for residents posted to the District website.

Among one of the notes of interest for the community was some background on a recent presentation from Ridley Terminals to the District, with 79,000 dollars to be directed towards improvements at Diana Lake Park, which the District notes will help to restore the popular spot for use by the region's residents.

The District has also found an interim Fire Chief to take over from thirty year veteran Shawn Pettit who stepped aside earlier this year, with Jason Giesbrecht to take on the Fire Chief position on a temporary basis.

Residents have been advised that recycling is now taking place twice a week in the community, with pick ups arranged on Tuesday and Fridays, as well taxpayers were reminded that the District utility bill is due for payment by March 31st, with a ten percent discount for those who pay their bill on time.

The update also called attention to  a pair of issues of concern for the community, with a call for residents to obey the posted speed limits in the District as well as  for more attention to the disposal of needles around the District.

One other item offers up a somewhat mysterious note to the usual fare of the monthly update format, with Council making note that Prince Rupert and Port Edward have been in discussion surrounding the Ridley Island Tax Dispute, though how far along they may be towards a resolution to the long standing dispute isn't offered up as part of the March update

The one line teaser comes as part of the undated March review for Port Edward residents, which was recently posted to the Port Edward website.

Port Edward and Prince Rupert have been discussing the Ridley Island Tax Share Agreement. A press release will be made in the next week outlining the status of our conversations.

So far, there has been no press release posted to the Port Edward portal to provide for further details for residents related to the District's view on events through the month of March.

In addition to the ongoing dispute over the Ridley Island tax issue, the two communities recently were having some troubles when it came to a mutual aid agreement for the two Fire Departments.

As regular readers of the blog will recount, the ongoing discussions have been at times an acrimonious affair, spilling out into Social media on a number of occasions as Prince Rupert and Port Edward officials traded off accusations.

While we wait for further updates from either the District of Port Edward or the City of Prince Rupert, a look back at some of the history of the Ridley dispute can be found here.

Second Retail Cannabis location forwarded to the Province for final determination

Prince Rupert is one step closer towards retail sales for cannabis
with the City of Prince Rupert forwarding an application for a
store in the old Manson's Jewellers location to the province for action

Prince Rupert residents patiently awaiting the arrival of retail options for the purchase of cannabis are getting closer to some kind of an answer, with two applications now in the hands of the Provincial regulator for final approval.

At Monday evening's City Council session, Prince Rupert Council approved the application from Clarity Cannabis for a proposed retail store on Third Avenue West, to be located in the old Manson's Jewellers storefront.

At Monday's session the City's Manager of Community Development Hans Seidemann provided one final look at the application for Council prior to their vote, making note that the city had received only three responses to the request for comments and that the applicant had compiled with all of the requirements that the process calls for,

Councillor Nick Adey added some insight into the process as well, noting that the duty to consult with the public is that of the proponent and not the city's and how all the proper steps had been taken.

You can review Mr. Seidemann's report from page seven of Monday's Agenda, and view his presentation to Council below, starting at the 56 minute mark.




The Clarity Application joins that of The High Culture Shop as awaiting final approval from the provincial authorities, though a timeline towards when that decision is expected is not known.

Both proponents are hoping for a quick approval process in order to launch their commercial plans for the region.

You can examine some of the documentation related to the two applications from the City of Prince Rupert website here.

Further notes on the arrival of the Cannabis industry on the North Coast can be explored from our archive page.

Earth Hour arrives Saturday, but will anyone remember to dim the lights?

As it prepares to celebrate its twelfth anniversary, proponents of Earth Hour may be facing a bit of a lackadaisical reaction to the world wide quest to raise awareness to climate change and draw attention to the impact of it to wildlife across Canada and around the world.

The annual observation of Earth Hour is scheduled for tomorrow evening from 8:30 to 9:30 , with global participants preparing to power down for one hour to make their contribution towards sustainability, though if the results of last year an indication, the dedication is not what it once was.

In a report from BC Hydro prior to the 2018 edition, the hydro utility discovered that British Columbians still are inspired by Earth Hour, putting some of that inspiration towards turning off a light or two seems to be a bit of disconnect as the participation rate tumbled significantly from but five years ago.

A survey recently conducted for BC Hydro found that while 7 in 10 British Columbians say they are going to participate in Earth Hour 2018, actual participation has been on a steep decline in recent years. In 2008, the first year that Earth Hour went global (2008), British Columbia responded with enough lights turned off for one hour across the province to reduce B.C.’s total power use over 60 minutes by 2%. But on the tenth anniversary of the global event in 2017, B.C. reduced its consumption by just 0.3% (or just 15% of the savings in 2008). 

While it may seem natural to conclude that a drop in participation in B.C. means British Columbians are less concerned about the environment, the declining Earth Hour participation numbers are not necessarily an indication that British Columbians are not concerned. In fact, the survey conducted for BC Hydro found that 79% of British Columbians think Earth Hour is important. And those surveyed are still interested in conserving electricity; they just have a different motivation than those living in other jurisdictions.

The full review from BC Hydro makes for an interesting read into how British Columbians approach their conservation efforts and what they would like to see for the future.

For those looking to re-dedicate themselves towards sustainability initiatives, Saturday provides for the launching  point to get the British Columbia participation rate back up to the early days of the movement's success.

Hosted by the World Wildlife Fund, the Earth Hour website provides some background on history of the event, as well as some helpful hints on how you can expand the program in the community.




You can follow Earth Hour around the world through social media, with the Earth Hour twitter feed  and Facebook page just two options for the latest notes on how the hour is being recognized world wide.

Stories and contributions are also being provided through the thread of #Connect2Earth