Action Alerts
- Posted by Sam McWilliams
- Hits: 3320
The New Brunswick Lung Association has lead a small committee* to review the New Brunswick Environmental Impact Assessment Regulation under the Clean Environment Act. We have identified the need for change, the benefits that could arise from stronger legislation, current weaknesses and areas where the Regulation is very out of date, and have made recommendations that will modernize the process.
We are now welcoming your review of our recommendations and your sign-on if you would like to support our campaign. Please see the attached full document here. The summary is below.
We have an excellent window of opportunity now for the Province of New Brunswick to modernize legislation that assesses and mitigates impacts from proposed industrial activities. During the Covid-19 Pandemic, New Brunswickers have become more aware of the importance of health protection and have been proud of the actions the multi-party government committee has taken. We want to see our government continue to be a national leader. Given that the New Brunswick Environmental Impact Assessment process is very out-of-date, now is an excellent time to develop new legislation that will be supported by New Brunswickers.
The current EIA process has inconsistencies that cause uncertainties and inefficiencies experienced by the proponent. These could discourage potential developers from choosing NB for their project. Developers need to be confident in a consistent and transparent assessment process.
The New Brunswick government has committed to responsible resource development and sound legislation is imperative to managing our natural resources on which all of us rely.
New Brunswick struggles with a declining economic situation. The cost of health care in the province is steadily increasing. Full cost-accounting of new enterprises is essential. Our government must take into account the health and social costs of new enterprises when going through the approval process for new initiatives. A strong modernized Impact Assessment Act can help to greatly reduce the negative health and social costs of new projects.
It is critically important that New Brunswick has a robust and modern Impact Assessment process especially as we grow forward into a new post-Covid world where New Brunswickers want to ensure that new developments will not compromise their health, their environment or the social fabric of their lives that make New Brunswick such a great place to live and raise a family. New Brunswickers now expect that their health will be protected, that Impact Assessments are undertaken with proactive consultation with First Nations and community stakeholders and that the process is transparent.
We can take action to join other Canadian leading jurisdictions that have modernized their Impact Assessment legislation to better protect the health of New Brunswickers and protect all aspects of our environment.
We are asking that the province create a new Impact Assessment Act that is modelled after updated Acts in the leading jurisdictions in Canada, notably the Federal Impact Assessment Act (2019) and the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Act (2018). Modern Impact Assessment processes include consideration of human health, community and social impacts and compounded impacts. Thus Impacts Assessment now go beyond environmental impacts, and responsibility will involve more than one government department. The new Impact Assessment legislation should therefore be a stand-alone Act.
Below are the recommendations developed by the Committee. The full Report provides the rationale and details.
- The NB Impact Assessment Act should be consistent with current and common IA methodology.
- The NB Impact Assessment Act requires a formal statement of guiding principles.
- The NB Impact Assessment Act needs to expand analysis of anticipated impacts.
- The NB Impact Assessment Act must include a stand-alone, transparent health impact assessment process that proactively engages stakeholders. The full cost of negative health and other social outcomes must be calculated and balanced with the financial benefits of the project.
- Schedule A needs to be either expanded or changed to show clear parameters without listing specific activities.
- The NB Impact Assessment Act needs more oversight and rigor for engagement with First Nations and the public (on reviews committees, through notification of standing lists of interested parties) and for any consultation.
- The NB Impact Assessment Act needs to more effectively and transparently incorporate scientific evidence into decision-making.
- Decision-making associated with The NB Impact Assessment Act needs to be transparent.
- Approved projects need regular standardized and publicly transparent monitoring, using best practices.
- Cases of non-compliance must be identified, made public and quickly remedied.
- A system to measure and report on the effectiveness of the The NB Impact Assessment Act needs to be developed and implemented.
- Regular reviews of the Act are needed.
*Committee Members:
- William Anderson, PhD.
- Chris Buse, PhD. University of British Columbia Postdoctoral Fellow and Affiliated Researcher with the Centre for Environmental Assessment Research
- Gordon Dalzell, Saint John Citizen’s Coalition for Clean Air
- Barbara MacKinnon, PhD. President and CEO New Brunswick Lung Association
Contact: barb.mackinnon@nb.lung.ca
- Posted by Sam McWilliams
- Hits: 3056
We are welcoming you to review our recommendations in the attached white paper, and your sign on as a supporter of any recommendation, a whole pillar, or the whole document. If you would like to lead any one area of these recommendations we are completely open to collaboration and to following your lead.
This advocacy campaign is lead by our new Foundation for Resilient Health, which is built on the strong foundation of the Canadian Network for Human Health and the Environment (a subsidiary of the New Brunswick Lung Association). The Foundation for resilient health expands on our work with health professionals, health and environment organizations, and on our expertise in environmental health. The Foundation for Resilient Health springboards from this history, trust, and evidence-based expertise, into the realm of promoting the key pillars of resilient health.
The four pillars for action laid out in our attached White Paper include:
- Our Natural Environment - protecting our natural support system
- Climate Change - recognizing the existential threat posed by climate change and taking immediate action
- Public Health and Wellness - shifting the health care focus to wellness and illness prevention
- Economy - improving financial equity in Canada
Our pillars and recommendations were developed following consultation with many key experts across Canada and are founded in scientific evidence. We have engaged the services of a national lobbyist to help us bring these issues to the attention of our Members of Parliament and we will work with our elected officials to achieve change in these areas. Some recommendations can be achieved in the short term; others will take perhaps years of engagement.
We invite you to read our White Paper that forms the backbone of our advocacy plan. We are inviting you to let us know if some or all of our recommendations resonate with the broader goals of your organization. If you would like to add the name of your organization as a supporter of any recommendation, a whole pillar, or the whole document, please let us know. If you would like to lead any one area of these recommendations we are completely open to collaboration and to following your lead.
If you respond by signing-on we will collaborate with you as our work progresses.
To sign-on or for more information email mlangille@resilient-health.ca
Click here to see the invitation to sign-on and for more information on the Foundation for Resilient Health.
- Posted by Sam Arnold
- Hits: 5205
In November 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a special report issuing a challenge for all humanity. Unless fossil fuel use is reduced 50 percent by 2030 and 100 per cent by mid-century, climate chaos could destroy the underpinnings of civilization, including agriculture and the food system, coastal communities, ocean productivity, and the global economy.
This urgent challenge confronts all people, regardless of their beliefs or political affiliation.
Climate experts warn for Earth to remain habitable for humans the global temperature must not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. But the planet is still on track to reach between 2 to 4-plus degrees Celsius (3.6 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, which would be a catastrophe for humanity.
The growing numbers of emergency events linked to global warming include huge forest fires and the thawing of Arctic permafrost both of which release vast quantities of CO2, the melting of glaciers and polar ice leading to sea level rise and loss of drinking water, invasive species impacting the local environment, massive rainfalls and increased floods, prolonged droughts, ocean acidification and more frequent severe storms around the world. This emergency, if not effectively addressed now, will severely impact human wellbeing and economic life. Climatologists and climate scientists have been issuing increasingly stern warnings, yet the majority of politicians continue to pretend things are under control. They continue to advocate for business as usual with “responsible resource development” and a “balanced approach” to combatting climate change so they can continue to profit.
With a federal election coming on October 21st, Canadians have an ideal opportunity to make the climate emergency an issue that can no longer be disregarded. Likewise, Americans will have the same opportunity November 3rd, 2020.
Mark Carney, the Bank of England Governor, warns that businesses that fail to adapt to climate change will go bust. “Companies that don’t adapt – including companies in the financial system – will go bankrupt without question…What the capitalist system needs to do is to manage the risks around climate change and be ready for the different speeds of the adjustment.”
What’s required is the rapid decarbonization of the world’s economy. New Brunswick, Canada, and the entire world MUST mobilize quickly to substantially lower greenhouse gas emissions by switching to the low carbon economy with clean, renewable energy. This will create far more new and lasting jobs than the fading fossil fuel economy can provide.
At stake is the future for the coming generations and perhaps the very existence of the human civilization on planet Earth.
We must act upon the climate emergency with the same determination and speed that was mobilized for World War II. What will you do now to help preserve a livable planet for future generations?
Please consider doing the following:
- Share this call to action with all your contacts, particularly educators and clergy, or anyone in a position of influence and power.
- Ask your provincial and federal politicians and candidates for political office in Canada for their position on the “climate emergency.” Americans can do the same for state and national candidates in the U.S. in 2020.
- Vote only for candidates who present a clear plan for addressing the climate emergency.
- Continually seek ways to lower your own carbon footprint.
Present and future generations will thank you for your help!
- Posted by Raissa Marks
- Hits: 4246
Over this past year, who stands out in your mind?
We invite you to nominate a group or individual deserving of one of the NBEN awards which will be presented in style at Eco-Confluence 2019. Send an e-mail to nben@nben.ca describing your nominee’s work. Nominees must be members or associates of the NBEN , not including current Steering Committee members.
Nomination deadline is Friday, October 11, 2019.
- Posted by Caroline Lubbe-D'Arcy
- Hits: 4999
