A member of Manitoba’s trucking industry is calling out the alleged “human trafficking” of foreign truckers, some of whom are earning few, if any, wages in the province.
In several cases, trucking companies set up corporations, bought houses, then moved in foreign workers, many from South Asia, an anonymous industry executive told the Winnipeg Sun, noting the problem is Canada-wide and years old.
“Canada is like an old cow. The west feeds it, Ontario and Quebec milk it and we can well imagine what it is doing in the Maritimes,” Tommy Douglas, the father of Medicare and former Saskatchewan premier once said of our economy.
Canadians elected a new livestock manager in 2015, Justin Trudeau, who didn’t know the difference between a teat and a tail. Like a city cousin showing up at the family farm, Trudeau donned jeans, a cowboy hat and spurs and began wreaking havoc. Canadians stood and watched as he leapt onto the cow’s back, shouted “sunny ways” and drove the economy straight through the nearest fence. Continue reading “SNELL: Trudeau, Singh and the great Canadian cow”
There’s a good reason Chief Clifford White, a First Nations LNG Alliance board member and hereditary leader of the Gitxaala Nation near Prince Rupert, B.C., walks a fine line when it comes to resource development on or near his territory.
There’s a lot happening near the remote island village of Lax Klan (Kitkatla) – the $14.5 billion Coastal GasLink pipeline terminus, the $18 billion first phase of LNG Canada, and the proposed $3 billion Cedar LNG facility, 50 per cent owned by the Haisla Nation – all at the Port of Kitimat 120 kilometres east. To the north, the Nisga’a Nation and its partners have proposed the $10 billion Ksi Lisims LNG terminal on Pearse Island.
Once operating, the projects will deliver LNG by ship to Asian markets. A 2022 study by Wood Mackenzie found that Canadian LNG exports could reduce net emissions in Asia by 188 million tonnes per year through 2050 by providing a cleaner alternative to coal.
With an eye on legacy, Edward Innes is helping maintain environmental standards along a section of the Coastal GasLink pipeline near Terrace B.C.
The 78-year-old Elder of the Kitselas First Nation has been a construction monitor and community liaison (CMCL) on the project since 2019 – observing people, projects, and wildlife. He has completed over 550 reports, which are uploaded to a community database.
“I tell these people who are working on the [Coastal GasLink] project – this is history, just like the highway and railway,” says Innes, adding he sometimes reports in Sm’algyax – the Kitselas language. He is one of the last language keepers in the community. Continue reading “Kitselas First Nation language keeper helping monitor Coastal GasLink pipeline construction”
Even though Kitimat, B.C. receives around two metres of rain a year, nothing can dampen the spirit of its three-term mayor when it comes to the emerging liquefied natural gas (LNG) export industry and its benefits.
Phil Germuth is enthusiastic as he speaks about the west coast town of 9,000 permanent residents. There’s a lot happening – around 6,000 camp-based construction workers at the LNG Canada site within eyeshot of town and 6,000 in the region and beyond working to complete the Coastal GasLink pipeline. The proposed Cedar LNG terminal, 50 per cent owned by the Haisla Nation, will also create hundreds of construction jobs.
“Kitimat is a great example of Canadian industries that are at the leading edge of environmental protection,” says Germuth, who owns a local automotive repair business.
Continue reading “Kitimat, B.C. thriving alongside emerging LNG industry”
The Haisla Nation on Canada’s west coast has reason to celebrate.
The community’s $3 billion proposed Cedar LNG project now has provincial and federal environmental approval to proceed.
Meanwhile, the Nation is taking delivery of a fleet of environmentally friendly tugboats to support the LNG Canada project.
Days before Cedar LNG’s approval, HaiSea Marine, majority owned by the Haisla Nation in partnership with shipbuilder Seaspan ULC, celebrated the naming and blessing of its new tugboat fleet, which is under construction in Istanbul, Turkiye.
The fleet – with arrival dates in 2023 – includes three fully electric harbour tugs and two LNG-powered escort tugs that will guide LNG carriers through the Douglas Channel to open water – 36 hours round trip. Continue reading “Haisla Nation taking delivery of new tugboats as B.C. LNG project approved to proceed”
Nuclear energy provided about 10 per cent of global power in 2021, says new research from the Canadian Energy Centre.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), global nuclear power generation increased over the last twenty years, reaching 2,653 Terawatt hours in 2021. Canada’s share has remained comparatively stable (86.8 TWh in 2021), but it could grow as small modular reactors are built to help satisfy increased electricity demand across the country.
John Gorman, CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Association, shared his perspective with the Canadian Energy Centre on the state of nuclear power and what the future could hold.
CEC: What role does nuclear energy play in the world today? Continue reading “The future of nuclear power in Canada: Q&A with John Gorman, CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Association”
The Western Canada Sedimentary Basin contains some of the largest oil and gas reserves on earth, extracted using world-leading knowledge and technology.
At 1.4 million square kilometres, larger than the entire country of Peru, the vast WCSB accumulation of sedimentary rock stretches from the Rocky Mountains to the Canadian Shield to the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories.
The wedge-shaped geological structure is roughly six kilometres thick under the Rocky Mountains and thins to zero at its eastern margin in Manitoba and northern Saskatchewan.
Over the decades, geologists like Nicole Renella of Cabra Consulting, along with countless geophysicists, engineers and technologists, have developed sophisticated methods for discovering and producing oil and gas from porous rock.
A growing number of Indigenous people are being employed in Canada’s oil and gas industry and the sector has eliminated the wage gap with non-Indigenous workers, according to new federal statistics.
Indigenous people make nearly three times more in the energy sector than in other industries – $140,400 versus $51,120, says recent census data published in a report by the Indigenous Resources Network (IRN). In particular, Indigenous women are thriving, earning $115,400 versus $43,600 in other industries. Pipeline jobs for women pay the most, $151,000 for crude oil and $113,000 for gas.
“These numbers show the resource sector is valuing the skills and experience that Indigenous workers bring to the table,” says John Desjarlais, board chair of the Indigenous Resource Network.
Continue reading “Indigenous workers are earning high wages in Canadian oil and gas industry”
