Should First Nations go with socialism or free enterprise?
May 8, 2008
First Nations on Vancouver Island—and throughout British Columbia—are getting restless. Everywhere there is prosperity, development, construction, high employment, except on their reserves. They want in, but are held back, they say, by the Indian Act and the slowness of land claims and treaty settlement, which combine to prevent access to the natural resources they believe are theirs. Will another generation be lost, their leaders ask, before share in the pie?
The Ahousaht First Nation is considering the challenges and potential benefits of development following the time-honoured communal traditions of her people. The opportunity/challenge comes from Selkirk Metal of Vancouver, which, in the time-honoured custom of the mining fraternity, has acquired the mineral rights to Catface Mountain, which was worked decades and several owners ago, and could hold 155 million tonnes of copper.
Selkirk offers jobs, and depending on the terms of treaty and land claim negotiations, the Ahousaht could be in for royalties as well.
But the Ahousaht, says elected chief Keith Atleo, are leery of both the damage to the environment mining might do and the potential impact on their community life of high-paying industrial jobs for jobs for some members.
Atleo is wary too. “I’m sitting on the fence,” he says. “I have to respect the wishes of the community,” he says, referring to a vote of the community’s assembly authorizing the council to conduct an environmental impact study with Selkirk as well as test drilling to assay the deposit. “But I’m also sitting as an hereditary chief.”And the seven chiefs of the Åhousaht have a special responsibility to protect the nation’s culture.
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Marina Threatens Adams River Sockeye
April 8, 2008
Just thirty years ago, the newly created Adams River Recreation Area was renamed Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park to honour the avid fly-fisher, pioneering conservationist, acclaimed author and magistrate from Campbell River. But now, as the conservation community gears up to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Haig-Brown’s birth, the 1076 hectare provincial park named after him is facing major threats from a 160-slip marina proposed on 21 acres of lake just 400 metres from the mouth of the Adams River.
The Columbia Shuswap Regional District is holding a public hearing on April 21st for a re-zoning application by New Recreations Ltd. to build the marina and a 218-unit commercial and residential development at the former Cottonwoods Campground.
Even though Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park is listed as one of the “World’s Greatest Natural Areas” by the World Conservation Union’s World Commission on Protected Areas and the lower section of the Adams River is recognized as a B.C. Heritage River, the concerns expressed by the Ministry of Environment did not faze CSRD directors who approved the second reading of the application on March 20th.
In a letter to the CSRD, Ministry of Environment staff identified a list of concerns that include: impacts on the secluded beach adjacent to the mouth from boaters; potential spills from boats (gas/oils and sewage) and the effect this would have on the beach area, as well as the impact to fry and fish habitat along the Adams River delta; potential impacts on eagles and nesting birds; and potential impacts to the local trout fishery and to salmon spawning and rearing.
As a fish habitat biologist explained, the shoreline area near the mouth of the river is sensitive habitat for salmon fry. An increase in boat traffic will force the fry to move into deeper waters where they face predation by larger fish. The marina and the docked boats also provide shade for predators who will then feast on the fry. And very little is known about the cumulative impacts issue, as use of the lake increases every year.
Many local residents of the Lee Creek area are also extremely concerned about the proposed marina. The results of a recent survey conducted by the Lee Creek Ratepayers Association and completed by over half of the residents shows that over 80 percent of those surveyed are opposed to the marina. As well, local residents are very concerned about proposed high density developments that could result in an increase of over 3,000 summer residents in this small area.
In order to raise public awareness about the threats that the proposed marina and development poses to the salmon, other wildlife and the park; an alliance of citizen and environmental groups are holding a rally at 1 pm on April 12th at the West Beach just east of the old Cottonwoods campground. In addition to speeches, entertainment, and cake to honour Roderick Haig-Brown’s anniversary, there will be a “migration” to the endangered beach next to the river’s mouth via hiking, biking or canoeing.
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Hare-less: Yellowstone's Rabbits Have Vanished, Study Says
February 18. 2008
Jack rabbits living in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have apparently hopped into oblivion. A study speculates that the disappearance of jack rabbits may be having region-wide impacts on a variety of other prey species and their predators. No one knows what caused the rabbits to disappear.
According to the study, historical records from more than 130 years ago indicate that white-tailed jack rabbits were once locally abundant in Greater Yellowstone, a 60,000 square kilometer (23,166 square mile) ecosystem that contains both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. However, the WCS study found that no jack rabbit sightings could be confirmed in Yellowstone since 1991 and only three in Grand Teton since 1978.
No one knows what caused the rabbits to disappear, according to the study's lead author, Dr. Joel Berger, a Wildlife Conservation Society conservationist, and professor at the University of Montana. "It could be disease, extreme weather, predation or other factors," Dr. Berger said. "Since the rabbits blipped off without knowledge, there has simply been no way to get at the underlying cause."
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'Muzzle' Placed On Federal Scientists
Environment Canada policy meant to control media message
Margaret Munro, Canwest News Service
February 1, 2008
Environment Canada has "muzzled" its scientists, ordering them to refer all media queries to Ottawa where communications officers will help them respond with "approved lines."
The new policy, which went into force in recent weeks and sent a chill through the department research divisions, is designed to control the department's media message and ensure there are no "surprises" for Environment Minister John Baird and senior management when they open the newspaper or turn on the television, according to documents obtained by Canwest News Service.
"Just as we have 'one department, one website' we should have 'one department, one voice'," says a PowerPoint presentation from Environment Canada's executive management committee that's been sent to department staff.
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The U.S. goverment is ready to shake hands with the internet
January 27, 2008
U.S. National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drawing up plans for cyberspace spying that would make the current debate on warrantless wiretaps look like a “walk in the park,” according to an interview published in the New Yorker’s print edition today.
Debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “will be a walk in the park compared to this,” McConnell said. “this is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.”
The article, which profiles the 65-year-old former admiral appointed by President George W. Bush in January 2007 to oversee all of America’s intelligence agencies, was not published on the New Yorker’s Web site.
McConnell is developing a Cyber-Security Policy, still in the draft stage, which will closely police Internet activity.
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Growing Up Online
Just how radically is the internet transforming the experience of childhood?
January 24, 2008
Jessica Hunter was a shy and awkward girl who struggled to make friends at school. Then, at age 14, she reinvented herself online as Autumn Edows, a goth artist and model. She posted provocative photos of herself on the Web and fast developed a cult following.
"I just became this whole different person," Autumn tells FRONTLINE. "I didn't feel like myself, but I liked the fact that I didn't feel like myself. I felt like someone completely different. I felt like I was famous."
News of Jessica's growing fame as Autumn Edows reached her parents only by accident. "I got a phone call, and the principal says one of the parents had seen disturbing photographs and material of Jessica," her father tells FRONTLINE. "I had no idea what she was doing on the Internet. That was a big surprise."
In Growing Up Online, FRONTLINE takes viewers inside the very public private worlds that kids are creating online, raising important questions about how the Internet is transforming childhood. "The Internet and the digital world was something that belonged to adults, and now it's something that really is the province of teenagers, " says C.J. Pascoe, a postdoctoral scholar with the University of California, Berkeley's Digital Youth Research project.
"They're able to have a private space, even while they're still at home. They're able to communicate with their friends and have an entire social life outside of the purview of their parents, without actually having to leave the house."
As more and more kids grow up online, parents are finding themselves on the outside looking in. "I remember being 11; I remember being 13; I remember being 16, and I remember having secrets," mother of four Evan Skinner says. "But it's really hard when it's the other side."
At school, teachers are trying to figure out how to reach a generation that no longer reads books or newspapers. "We can't possibly expect the learner of today to be engrossed by someone who speaks in a monotone voice with a piece of chalk in their hand," one school principal says.
"We almost have to be entertainers," social studies teacher Steve Maher tells FRONTLINE. "They consume so much media. We have to cut through that cloud of information around them, cut through that media, and capture their attention."
Fears of online predators have led teachers and parents to focus heavily on keeping kids safe online. But many children think these fears are misplaced. "My parents don't understand that I've spent pretty much since second grade online," one ninth-grader says. "I know what to avoid."
Many Internet experts agree with the kids. "Everyone is panicking about sexual predators online. That's what parents are afraid of; that's what parents are paying attention to," says Parry Aftab, an Internet security expert and executive director of WiredSafety.org. But the real concern, she says, is the trouble that kids might get into on their own. Through social networking and other Web sites, kids with eating disorders share tips about staying thin, and depressed kids can share information about the best ways to commit suicide.
Another threat is "cyberbullying," as schoolyard taunts, insults and rumors find their way online. John Halligan's son Ryan was bullied for months at school and online before he ultimately hanged himself in October 2003. "I clearly made a mistake putting that computer in his room. I allowed the computer to become too much of his life," Halligan tells FRONTLINE. "The computer and the Internet were not the cause of my son's suicide, but I believe they helped amplify and accelerate the hurt and the pain that he was trying to deal with that started in person, in the real world."
"You have a generation faced with a society with fundamentally different properties, thanks to the Internet," says Danah Boyd, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. "It's a question for us of how we teach ourselves and our children to live in a society where these properties are fundamentally a way of life. This is public life today."
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Internet bird database in works
January 18, 2008
Nature lovers from all over B.C. are being asked to get out their binoculars and notebooks and participate in an ambitious science project aimed at mapping the province for breeding birds.
The intent is to compile a long-term Web database, the B.C. Breeding Bird Atlas, from which scientists can track changes in bird species and abundance resulting from influences such as urban development or, increasingly, climate change.
"The big one is the pine beetle," said Rob Butler, a retired Canadian Wildlife Service biologist who is coordinating the effort. "We'll see the repercussions on birds from the changing forest."
More than 300 bird species breed in B.C., more than in any other province. Sixty-five of those -- including the tufted puffin, ancient murrelet, and sage thrasher -- breed nowhere else in Canada.
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A BC volcano in the middle of endless stands of dry timber
December 15, 2007
Nazko Cone is a small potentially active basaltic cinder cone in central British Columbia, Canada, located 75 km west of Quesnel and 150 kilometers southwest of Prince George.
The volcano has been dormant since the 7200 BP eruption. On October 10, 2007, a small swarm of earthquakes appeared 20 kilometres west of Nazko Cone.[2] Most of these earthquakes were magnitude 1.0 or less; some as strong as M 3.1 or 3.2 were centered 25 kilometres below the surface. The cause of this seismic activity is believed to be the upwelling of magma because the area is not close to any faults or tectonic plate boundaries.[2] This is the first indication of potential volcanic activity in Canada since around 1830 to 1850 in northwestern British Columbia.
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Big wind power being scoped in the Monashee
December 3, 2007
Don Elzer - The Monster Guide
With the fervor of a windstorm a division of one of Canada’s largest financial management corporations might be positioning itself to create a wind power grid in some of the Monashee’s most pristine and remote areas.
The Brookfield Power Wind Corporation of Gatineau, Quebec owner of the largest wind farm in Canada has made application to the Integrated Land Management Bureau for a license to install wind power monitoring towers on unsurveyed Crown land in numerous locations including the vicinities of Home, Ferry and Fish Lakes as well as West Bruar and Gunnar Creeks all located in the Cherryville area.
The applications appear to be speculating that there may be consistent winds generated from the Graystokes and Aberdeen Plateaus on the east slope of the Columbia watershed summit above the North Granby drainage.
Brookfield Power has developed and successfully operated hydroelectric power facilities for over 100 years. Brookfield Power’s portfolio comprises almost 3,900 megawatts of capacity and includes over 150 hydroelectric power generating stations located on 60 river systems and also includes 1 wind farm, and 2 thermal plants, principally in northeastern North America and Brazil.
The company is a division of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. a global asset manager focused on property, power and other infrastructure assets with approximately US$90 billion of assets under management. The corporation was in the news recently when they came very close to taking over the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Brookfield Asset has a massive portfolio of interests that includes power, timber and infrastructure that includes the construction of bridges and roads. A number of Brookfield’s facilities are owned in partnership with retail investors through 50% owned Great Lakes Hydro Income Fund (TSX:GLH.UN).
Today, Brookfield is one of the lowest cost producers of electricity in North America and recognized as one of the largest private owner-operators of low cost, renewable, hydroelectric power facilities.
Now the company is setting it’s sights on British Columbia.
In October, the company announced that it had acquired two hydroelectric generating facilities in Northeast British Columbia from East Twin Creek Hydro Ltd. The two run-of-river facilities, which are located near the communities of McBride and Valemount, have a combined installed capacity of 7.4 megawatts and produce approximately 29 gigawatt hours of energy annually. All the power generated by the facilities is sold under long-term purchase agreements with B.C. Hydro.
Brookfield Power’s renewable power generation portfolio in BC, now includes five hydro stations on five river systems and the company is now targeting a major move into wind power.
In Ontario, the company is investing in the development of wind energy projects and has recently completed its 189 MW wind farm in Northern Ontario, the largest of its kind in Canada.
Last week the company announced that it closed a C$300 million bank facility in connection with its 189-MW Prince Wind Project through a wholly-owned subsidiary, Brookfield Power Wind Prince Financial Corporation. Proceeds of the financing will be used to repay the existing construction credit facility for Prince Wind.
Prince Wind, the largest operating wind farm in Canada with 126 wind turbines situated on nearly 20,000 acres overlooking Lake Superior northwest of Sault Ste. Marie, is capable of producing enough clean, renewable energy to power 40,000 homes annually.
The wind farm was commissioned during the fourth quarter of 2006 and has been fully operational for one year. All the energy produced by Prince Wind is sold to the Ontario Power Authority under long-term power purchase contracts expiring between 2026 and 2028.
Presently Brookfield Power has a number of applications in the southern interior of BC for the testing of wind power. It remains uncertain as to whether there is potential for full-scale wind farms in the Monashee and the rest of the southern interior.
Last month the Okanagan Shuswap Land Resource Management Monitoring Committee began an examination of both the public process and the state of applications for independent power generation in the Okanagan Shuswap after it received questions and concerns regarding the future of transmission facilities in the region and the overlapping use of crown land.
Presently, the public can give input into Brookfield’s applications in the Monashee by directing written comments to Mathew Simons, Senior Natural Resource Officer, 210-301 Victoria Street, Kamloops BC V2C 3A3. Deadline for comments and submissions is September 21, 2007.
The full application including site maps can be found online at: LWBC
To learn more about Brookfield Power:
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