Nouvelles des groupes
- Détails
- Publié par : Jon MacNeill
- Affichages : 9507
FREDERICTON — The Conservation Council of New Brunswick has released a powerful tool that shows people just how close the proposed Energy East oil pipeline will be to their home, cottage or favourite fishing hole.
The interactive Google Map allows users to see the nearly 300 points at which the oil pipeline will intersect rivers and streams in New Brunswick. It was generated using Google Earth Pro and documents from TransCanada Corporation, the North American oil and gas giant proposing to build the 4,600-kilometre Energy East oil pipeline from the tarsands in Alberta to export terminals in Quebec and Saint John.
“It’s a really neat tool,” said Stephanie Merrill, Freshwater Protection Program Coordinator for the Conservation Council of New Brunswick. “Whenever someone asks about the pipeline, I can bring up the map on my iPad and say, ‘there’s the route, and that’s how close your family cottage is to it.’ Or, ‘there’s the pipeline slicing through the river you’ve fished for years.”
The Conservation Council is calling on New Brunswickers to use the tool and see how the proposed pipeline will affect them. We’re encouraging people to share stories of their favourite fishing holes, hunting grounds, family cottages or homesteads that are in the pipeline’s path.
View the map on our website.
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- Détails
- Affichages : 8335
Depuis des décennies, Beth s’est révélée une force positive pour la communauté environnementale au Nouveau-Brunswick. Elle croyait fermement que c’étaient les actions des personnes qui pouvaient transformer le monde et elle pratiquait ce qu’elle croyait. Beth a fondé PANE (People Against Nuclear Energy) et le chapitre du sud-est du Conseil de conservation du Nouveau-Brunswick; elle est aussi la cofondatrice de SOS Water Sanqwan. En 2002, Beth a mérité le Prix Orca du RENB pour ses efforts inlassables dans la lutte contre la ville de Moncton qui voulait privatiser son système de distribution d’eau, et pour sa capacité de rallier des gens de divers milieux. En 2006, elle a mérité un deuxième prix du RENB, un prix spécial pour réalisations environnementales qui souligne son engagement passionné et inébranlable envers l’environnement et les gens du Nouveau-Brunswick, ainsi que son talent pour inspirer, motiver et former d’autres environnementalistes. Beth aimait beaucoup la vie et les jeunes personnes; elle a servi de mentor à plusieurs environnementalistes prometteurs au cours de sa vie.
Nous partageons la tristesse de la famille de Beth affligée par cette perte.
Une célébration de la vie de Beth aura lieu le mercredi 25 février à Moncton. Consultez http://www.funerairepassagefuneral.ca/obituary.asp?id=777#sthash.abjp2Rmh.dpuf pour plus de détails.
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Du Conseil de conservation du Nouveau-Brunswick:
In honour of Beth McLaughlin
New Brunswick has lost a fierce defender of our environment with the
passing of Beth McLaughlin on Sunday, Feb. 22.
Beth was on the Conservation Council board for years. She worked
tirelessly to make people aware of the dangers of nuclear power and she
was one of the key organizers who shelved the Jaakko Poyry
recommendations which sought to double the annual allowable cut in our
forest in the early 2000s.
Beth organized people around the province to ensure they attended the
hearings that determined the fate of our forest. She traveled across New
Brunswick and summarized what people had to stay at each hearing,
comments which were then used to defeat the recommendations. Even when
she became ill with cancer, Beth remained committed to protecting New
Brunswick's Acadian forest and to developing proposed legislation for an
Environmental Bill of Rights for New Brunswick. Her dedication and
service was honoured by the Conservation Council family when she was
presented with a Milton F. Gregg award for environmental activism in 2011.
Beth, a retired school teacher, encouraged her students to be active
citizens and to write letters to government. Beth earned a Masters of
Environmental Studies degree at the Université de Moncton in 2001. Her
thesis was on the topic of sustainable communities. Beth wrote a weekly
column for the Times & Transcript as well as plays and fiction with
environmental themes. She also ran an educational business focused on
sustainable communities with Françoise Aubin.
“From a young age, I always seemed to be aware of environmental issues,
if perhaps only in a peripheral way. My father loved to fish and he
would try to make weekly excursions to our family camp in the northwest
New Brunswick woods. We loved the outdoors,” Beth said as she recalled
the devastation caused by a spruce budworm outbreak and the widespread
spraying of insecticides over New Brunswick's forest in the 1970s,
during an interview for a story that honoured St. Thomas University alumna.
Beth was also a founding board member of Crossroads for Women, a shelter
for women and children living with family violence in Moncton.
Deepest condolences to her partner Helene, to our board members who were
such good friends of hers, and to all those who were blessed to know her
witty humour, tenacity and passion in the many fights that mattered.
Let's honour Beth's memory by renewing our commitment to protecting the
Acadian forest that she so loved and to building healthy communities in
this province.
- Détails
- Publié par : Jon MacNeill
- Affichages : 8470
MEDIA RELEASE
Today, Wednesday, February 18, 2015, David Coon, MLA for Fredericton South, introduced a bill to the Legislative Assembly called 'An Act to Return to the Crown Certain Rights Related to Wood Supply and Forest Management.'
The Conservation Council of New Brunswick looks forward to the debate that will now occur over this bill. The way our forest is managed needs to change. Clearcutting and herbicide spraying are outdated practices. Woodlot owners and workers need a fair shot at making a living here and treaties with First Nations must be respected.
We encourage everyone to follow the debate that will now occur between our MLAs about our forest. Now is the time to make our voices heard for forest conservation and twenty-first century forest management.
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The Conservation Council of New Brunswick
Established in 1969, the Conservation Council serves as the province’s leading voice for conservation and environmental protection. A leading public policy advocate, CCNB works to find practical solutions to help families and educators, citizens, governments and businesses protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, the precious marine ecosystem and the land, including the forests, that support us.
To arrange an interview, contact: Jon MacNeill, Communications Officer | 458-8747 | 261-1353 | [email protected]
Conservation Council of New Brunswick 180 St. John Street, Fredericton NB E3B 4A9506.458.8747 :: www.conservationcouncil.ca
- Détails
- Publié par : Matthew Abbott
- Affichages : 8002
MEDIA RELEASE
Halifax, NS — Business leaders, commercial and recreational fishing associations, scientists, lawyers and environmentalists are calling on Prime Minister Harper to halt the implementation of the proposed Aquaculture Activities Regulations. The changes will exempt the aquaculture industry from the Fisheries Act provisions that “prohibit the release of deleterious substances into water frequented by fish.” Despite broad-based opposition since the beginning of the regulatory change process, which started in 2011, the government of Canada has moved ahead in implementing these changes.
“These regulations will set back Canadian aquatic environmental protection measures several decades,” states Bill Ernst, a retired Environment Canada toxicologist. “They will eliminate Environment Canada’s role in enforcing the law with respect to aquaculture and hand responsibility over to Health Canada who do not have an undivided environmental protection mandate.”
The 120 signatories of an open letter sent today, including the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, contend that the proposed changes will lead to increased environmental risk through the discharge of increasingly powerful pesticides, and other potentially damaging substances into the aquatic ecosystem, significantly reduce government regulatory oversight, and damage Canada’s commercial interests as a provider of untainted seafood.
“We have been fishing alongside the aquaculture industry for decades and we know the impacts open-pen salmon farms can have on the traditional fishery. When the salmon aquaculture industry is poorly regulated it places our industry and livelihoods in jeopardy. We have grave concerns about the contents of the Aquaculture Activities Regulations, particularly the emphasis on aquaculture industry self-monitoring and regulation, and the capacity of DFO to enforce the proposed regulations,” says Maria Recchia, Executive Director of Fundy North Fisherman’s Association based in Southwestern New Brunswick.
“The value of our industry is based on a pristine, non-polluted marine environment,” says Stewart Lamont, owner of Tangier Lobster in Nova Scotia. “We have already dealt with the impacts of pesticides, and see federal fines levied on something that would now become legal. To have DFO authorize pollution from a coastal industry is simply baffling.”
A newly-released scientific study by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on the impacts of two pesticides used to treat sea lice, Salmonsan and Alphamax, shows that there are lethal effects on lobster and the risk from one of those, Alphamax, exists up to ten kilometres from sites of use and concludes that there is a general lack of data on pesticide impacts on a wide variety of other marine species.
“We already know that our oceans and coastal ecosystems are suffering from far too much pollution. With these proposed regulatory changes, we are actively allowing further pollution of our coastal waters. Our coastal industries, particularly those that rely on a healthy marine environment will be put at risk,” says Dr. Susanna Fuller, Marine Conservation Coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre.” In addition, our international reputation on environmental protection will be impacted – something we can’t afford, particularly given the importance of the export markets to our fisheries.”
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For More Information:
Matt Abbott, Fundy Baykeeper, Conservation Council of New Brunswick, [email protected] c: 506-321-0429 w: 506-529-8838 twitter @MattAbbot @FundyBaykeeper
Maria Recchia, Executive Director, Fundy North Fishermen’s Association e: [email protected] c:506-469-4191
Stewart Lamont, Managing Director, Tangier Lobster e: [email protected] 902.456.0712
Bill Ernst, retired toxicologist, Environment Canada e: [email protected] cell 902-999-5771, home 902 865 5771
Susanna Fuller, PhD. Marine Conservation Coordinator, Ecology Action Centre e: [email protected] c: 902-483-5033 twitter @sdfuller @EAC_Seamouse
Background Information:
Click here for the open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Consultations were held starting in 2011 on proposed changes to the Fisheries Act regarding treatment of sealice in the open net pen finfish farming industry. Proposed regulations were published in the Canada Gazette on August 23rd, 2014. http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2014/2014-08-23/html/reg1-eng.php
Conservation Council of New Brunswick 180 St. John Street, Fredericton NB E3B 4A9506.458.8747 :: www.conservationcouncil.ca
- Détails
- Publié par : Jon MacNeill
- Affichages : 8140
MEDIA RELEASE
Energy East oil pipeline: Back to the drawing board
FREDERICTON — The Conservation Council of New Brunswick says TransCanada Corporation has to head back to the drawing board to patch all the holes that have surfaced in its plans for the proposed Energy East oil pipeline.
On Wednesday, Feb. 11, Montreal newspaper La Presse reported that the Alberta-based oil giant had ruled out Cacouna, Que. - a beluga nursery ground - as the site of an export oil terminal.
TransCanada’s original plans for the 4,600-kilometre-long oil pipeline involved shipping crude oil from the tar sands in Alberta to export terminals in Cacouna and Saint John.
Following the report from La Presse, company spokesperson Tim Duboyce denied claims that a decision had been made on the Cacouna terminal. Duboyce was quoted as saying “the reality is we’re just not there yet,” stating all options were still on the table.
“Those kind of statements only firm up our point that this project should not be undergoing a review at this time,” says Lois Corbett, Executive Director of the Conservation Council.
“If all options are still on the table, how can regulators be expected to make an informed decision? Perhaps more importantly, how is it fair to ask the public to spend their time, effort, and money today reviewing and commenting on the pipeline’s environmental impacts when, because of the project’s state of flux, they aren’t fully known at this time?”
The National Energy Board began accepting applications for public participation in the hearing process on Feb. 3. People looking to submit comments to the board must apply by March 3.
“How can anyone making his or her living from providing whale watching tours in the Bay of Fundy feel confident participating in the energy board process, when they have no idea exactly how much of the 1.1-million barrels of oil will end up in nearby Saint John, or how many supertankers will be coursing through the world’s highest tides?” Corbett says.
“The company can’t even answer these questions yet, and when it comes to our water, fisheries, tourism and wildlife like the endangered Right Whale, New Brunswickers can’t afford to be left guessing.”
The Cacouna question hasn’t been the only snag in the pipeline proposal.
Earlier this week, TransCanada came under fire from Francophone communities for failing to provide its official filings in French. At the same time, First Nation leaders in Ontario demanded the National Energy Board halt its review until they are properly consulted.
“In our view, TransCanada only has one option before them right now: withdraw its application to the National Energy Board and rethink the need for this project,” Corbett says.
To arrange an interview, contact:
Jon MacNeill, Communications Officer | 458-8747 | 261-1353 | [email protected]
Conservation Council of New Brunswick 180 St. John Street, Fredericton NB E3B 4A9506.458.8747 :: www.conservationcouncil.ca
- Détails
- Publié par : Terry Wishart
- Affichages : 8203
Open letter to the Minister of Natural Resources
February 11, 2015
Minister Denis Landry
Chancery Place, 675 King Street
Fredericton, New Brunswick E3B 1E9
Dear Mr. Landry:
This is to express grave concerns about the lack of our government’s intervention on the forestry strategy introduced by the Alward government. With every passing day, more wood is being cut from our Crown Lands without the permission of its owners—the people of New Brunswick.
Seven years ago, in February 2008, the results of a comprehensive public survey (1) on forest management practices commissioned by DNR provided empirical evidence that industry was already harvesting too much fibre off Crown Lands and had too much control over our forests. As a cabinet minister at the time, you may recall that a tour organized to inform people about the results of this survey was cancelled by Donald Arsenault, then Minister of Natural Resources.
That survey represented how New Brunswickers wanted their forests managed. Those findings still apply, until proven otherwise, using a survey of the same scientific rigour.
New Brunswickers expected, then, as they do now, that our forests would be managed for the following, and in the order prescribed: water protection, wildlife habitat, fire protection, protection against thefts, disease and insect protection, biodiversity, and as a source of fibre for industry. A key finding, too, was that the public wanted more and better opportunities to provide input on the management of their forests. Clearly, this public opinion survey demonstrated that the Alward government had no social license to negotiate the type of forestry agreements that are now in place.
The choice is clear. On the one hand, our government may opt to abide by the new forest management agreements. On the other hand, however, our government can choose to accept the will of the majority of New Brunswickers. And it’s not as if industry had no other source of fibre. To paraphrase Morris Green, ex-Minister under the McKenna government, private woodlot owners have the wood to meet industry requirements. According to this view, there would have been no need to increase the annual allowable cut from our forests because it was already available from private woodlot owners. In sum, then, the issue is whether to allow industry or the owners of the forests to dictate how the people’s forests are to be managed.
Our own standpoint is that the forestry strategy must be halted. We maintain that other forest governance models, like community forests, as suggested during the hearings organized by the Legislative Select Committee on Wood Supply in 1999, would be more beneficial in terms of long-term job creation and developing our local economies. In fact, a recent study done by researchers at Simon Fraser University provides tangible evidence that “community forests perform better overall than other forms of tenures for selected indicators of local benefits” (i.e., diversification, local employment, and local value). Although some, like the four licensees might object to having their forest management agreements cancelled, we would argue that these agreements were made behind closed doors and without the involvement of the owners of this resource.
If the new Liberal government is to establish its credibility on this important issue, the forest strategy must be retracted immediately.
We look forward with great anticipation to hearing from you soon on this important file.
Links to New Brunswick Conservation Council productions 'Beau Bear' and 'Forbidden Forest'
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Lettre ouverte à le ministre des Ressources naturelles
Monsieur le ministre des Ressources naturelles,
Nous vous écrivons pour vous exprimer nos vives préoccupations face à l’absence d’intervention de notre gouvernement concernant la stratégie forestière introduite par l’administration Alward. Chaque jour, plus de bois est coupé sur nos terres de la Couronne sans permission de son propriétaire, la population du Nouveau-Brunswick.
Il y a sept années, en février 2008, les résultats d’une enquête publique exhaustive (1) sur les pratiques de gestion forestière, commandée par le ministère des Ressources naturelles, ont fourni des données empiriques qui démontraient que les entreprises récoltaient déjà alors trop de fibres des terres de la Couronne et qu’elles exerçaient un trop grand contrôle sur nos forêts. Comme membre du cabinet à l’époque, vous pouvez vous souvenir qu’une tournée organisée pour faire connaitre à la population les résultats de cette enquête avait été annulée par Donald Arsenault alors ministre des Ressources naturelles.
L’enquête démontrait comment les Néobrunswickois voulaient que les forêts soient gérées. Ces résultats sont toujours valides jusqu’à des preuves du contraire proviennent d’une enquête scientifique aussi rigoureuse.
Les Néobrunswickois s’attendaient alors, comme maintenant, à ce que nos forêts soient gérées en tenant compte des facteurs suivants et dans cet ordre de priorité : la protection de l’eau, la protection des habitats de la faune, la protection contre les incendies, la protection contre le vol, la protection contre les maladies et les insectes, la biodiversité, et la forêt comme source de fibres pour les entreprises. Une autre conclusion importante de l’enquête était que la population voulait avoir de plus nombreuse et de meilleures occasions de donner son opinion sur la gestion de ses forêts. Clairement, cette enquête sur les opinions de la population a démontré que l’administration Alward ne possédait pas l’autorisation sociale de négocier le type d’entente forestière qui est présentement en vigueur.
Le choix est clair. D’une part, notre administration provinciale peut choisir de respecter les nouvelles ententes de gestion forestière. Par ailleurs, toutefois, notre administration peut choisir d’accepter la volonté de la majorité des Néobrunswickois. Et ce n’est pas comme si l’industrie n’avait aucune autre source de fibres. Pour paraphraser Morris Green, l’ancien ministre de l’administration McKenna, les propriétaires de lots boisés possèdent le bois pour satisfaire les besoins de l’industrie. Selon cette autre option, il n’aurait pas été nécessaire d’accroitre la valeur des coupes annuelles permises des forêts de la Couronne parce les propriétaires privés de boisés auraient pu suffire à la demande. Donc en somme, l’enjeu consiste à permettre soit aux industries ou soit aux propriétaires des forêts de dicter comment les forêts doivent être gérées.
Selon nous, c’est la stratégie forestière qui doit être abandonnée. Tel que suggéré lors des audiences organisées par le Comité spécial de l’Assemblée législature sur l’approvisionnement en bois en 1999, nous soutenons que d’autres modèles de gouvernance comme les forêts communautaires seraient plus bénéfiques en termes de création d’emplois à long terme et de développement de nos économies locales. En fait, une récente étude préparée par des chercheurs de l’université Simon Fraser fournit des preuves concrètes que « les forêts communautaires donnent un meilleur rendement dans l’ensemble que les autres formes de tenure lorsque l’on considère les indicateurs des bénéfices locaux (comme la diversification, l’emploi local, la valeur locale). Bien que certains comme les quatre détenteurs de permis pourraient s’opposer à l’annulation de leurs ententes de gestion forestière, nous pourrions argumenter que ces ententes ont été conclues à huit clos et sans participation des propriétaires de la ressource.
Si la nouvelle administration Libérale veut établir sa crédibilité sur cet enjeu important, la stratégie forestière doit être désavouée immédiatement.
Nous attendons avec grand intérêt votre prompte réaction à cet important dossier et nous vous prions, monsieur le ministre, d’accepter l’expression de notre haute considération
Maggie Connell & Caroline Lubbe-D’Arcy, Co-Chairs
Council of Canadians Fredericton Chapter
Pamela Ross, Chair, Council of Canadians Moncton Chapter
Leticia Adair, Chair, Council of Canadians Saint John Chapter
cc: Premier Brian Gallant
Media
Liens au Nouveau-Brunswick Conservation Council productions 'Beau Bear' et 'Forbidden Forest'
