blackbird

The Trudeau government killed the NOrthern Gateway Pipeline after Trudeau was elected in 2015. They were forced to buy the TMX expansion project. But they killed the Energy East proposal and put a tanker ban on the north west B.C. coast. They refused to allow building of natural gas pipelines to eastern Canada. We could have been shipping natural gas to Europe for years.

That is a lie. Look into the Northern Gateway Pipeline. It was going through the hearing stages under the Conservative government and when Trudeau came into power in 2015, he cancelled the Northern Gateway Pipeline. The Conservatives under Harper were supporting it. Trudeau killed it and put a tanker ban on the B.C. north coast.

The Liberal NDP government refused to build pipelines to eastern and western Canada and regulated the energy industry to the extreme. That meant Canada was not able to sell as much oil and natural gas to the rest of the world. Now when Trump imposes tariffs, we have no immediate alternative where we could have if we had built those pipelines and started shipping more oil and natural gas to the many countries in the world that want it. We will now pay a heavy price for the interference and blockage by the federal government to developing an international trade in the energy industry. "The Trudeau government cancelled the Energy East and Northern Gateway pipelines, and they have refused to move forward with the many liquefied natural gas export proposals put before them. Those decisions, driven by Trudeau’s environmental zealotry, will now hurt our country in very concrete ways." Trump and his team are going to hit Canada hard and our governments have decapitated our ability to sell our energy products to foreign countries. LILLEY: Trump warns tariffs coming for Canada on Feb. 1 quote After the election of Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister in the 2015 Canadian federal election, and the replacement of Conservative pro-pipeline MPs with Liberal Party of Canada MPs along the entire route of the pipeline in New Brunswick and part of the route in Quebec, the Canadian federal position became unclear. The Prime Minister had strongly condemned the Harper-era process of regulation, citing serious conflict of interest and mandate flaws,[36] and had also promised to "work with the provinces to map out a plan to reduce Canada's collective carbon footprint within 90 days of taking office by putting a price on carbon pollution." Other Harper-era approvals such as Northern Gateway had been sharply criticized [37] and even called a "farce" by some public officials objecting to the lack of oral cross-examination.[38] Northern Gateway was ultimately cancelled as well by the federal government in November 2016. unquote Energy East - Wikipedia It is time for Liberals and NDP to stop the denials. They are the cause of no pipelines and loss of many opportunities to sell natural gas and oil to foreign markets.

The Lib-NDP people ruined this country and it's time they paid something for it. It will take years for Conservatives to clean up the mess.

Oh, so we can't control the climate but we can change it? Contradicting yourself in one sentence is a sign of dementia or some mental problem.

You're lying. I don't recall even hearing about any rebate from 2008 to 2016. Probably never came in until later. What? I thought that was the whole purpose of carbon taxes. So you are lying again claiming climate change is not the reason for carbon taxes. So why are you supporting it? Just because you can and be ornery. Lying again. The excuse for carbon taxes has been to control climate change.

Even Michael Hardner's motto on the bottom of every post says: Click here to learn why Climate Change is caused by HUMANS. That is the motto over every carbon tax scammer/climate change control worshiper.

B.C. Liberals under Premier Gordon Campbell implemented the carbon taxes in B.C. in 2008. I kept receipts for the years after that up to 2016 and paid about $300 a year in carbon taxes and got no rebate. In those eight years it cost me about $2,400 as a retired person and no rebate. What difference does it make who implemented carbon taxes first. It was all a scam. No, that is false. Rebate have nothing to do That how much someone paid in carbon taxes. Look at the government website on rebates. It is based on income. That is totally false. Ask Trudeau or ask Michael Hardner on here. Every liberal and NDPer will tell you the purpose of carbon taxes is to control the CO2 emissions and thereby control global warming or the climate. If that is not the purpose, why is it called carbon tax?

Do you believe in Jesus Christ? What do you believe? People who are more concerned about trying to control the climate than where their own soul is heading need to give their head a shake and read the Bible. You are concerned about the wrong things. Hell is real; heaven is real. They are real places. Which place are you heading for? Read the gospel of John. "16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 KJV Worrying about climate change will do you absolutely no good. No benefit at all. Carbon taxes on Canadians is nothing but a scam. Most of the world don't pay carbon taxes. Russia, China, India, and the U.S., the biggest countries in the world and most powerful pay no carbon taxes. It is a scam. What we in B.C. paid the past 17 years has done nothing for the climate. Quebecers don't even pay carbon taxes. How is that fair? Wake up! It is nothing more than a wealth redistribution scheme. It is not rebated to those who paid the most carbon taxes. It is rebated according to income to a degree. Has nothing to do with how much CO2 someone emitted or paid in carbon taxes.

For the umpteenth time, man cannot control the climate and never will. Climate change is a normal occurrence.

You would have to be pretty dumb to think carbon taxes made any difference at all to greenhouse gas emissions or the climate.

Oil and gas is the main industry in Alberta. That is different than Ontario, Quebec, and B.C. which have other industries. I never heard Ford say Ontario will be willing to put an export tax on the auto industry. Obviously, they think they can use Alberta as a sacrificial offering.

If Trump is not stupid, why is he threatening to destroy the trade system with America's neighbours and start a trade war with Canada by imposing a tariff on the American people of 25% for imported goods from Canada? Where is the claimed unfairness in the existing trade between Canada and the U.S.? Where is the logic in what he is doing?

If flouridation hardens teeth so the kids get fewer cavities, then of course it stands to reason it hardens the rest of the bones in the body and makes them more brittle. Old people then become more susceptible to fractures and the serious problems that can cause.

quote The Liberal government will buy the Trans Mountain pipeline and related infrastructure for $4.5 billion, and could spend billions more to build the controversial expansion. Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced details of the agreement reached with Kinder Morgan at a news conference with Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr this morning, framing the short-term purchase agreement as financially sound and necessary to ensure a vital piece of energy infrastructure gets built. How much will the pipeline end up costing Canadians? 'When it's in Canadians' advantage to know them...then of course that's going to be fully transparent,' says Bill Morneau. "Make no mistake, this is an investment in Canada's future," Morneau said. Morneau said the project is in the national interest, and proceeding with it will preserve jobs, reassure investors and get resources to world markets. He said he couldn't state exactly what additional costs will be incurred by the Canadian public to build the expansion, but suggested a toll paid by oil companies could offset some costs and that there would be a financial return on the investment. Kinder Morgan had estimated the cost of building the expansion would be $7.4 billion, but Morneau insisted that the project will not have a fiscal impact, or "hit." unquote Liberals to buy Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5B to ensure expansion is built | CBC News Obviously they purchased it because they had no choice. At the time they paid 4.5 billion dollars. After that the price of everything exploded.

The evidence is that the Liberals have no use for Alberta and the energy industry. The history is the Liberals have been attacking the oil and gas industry and denying pipelines and putting restrictions on it. So it is natural to think the Liberals will use this opportunity to hammer the energy industry in Alberta by putting a high tariffs on oil and gas exports to the U.S. or cutting off the export of oil and gas from Alberta. The suspicion is the Liberals would seriously harm the energy industry in Alberta while doing much less with the exports of the other provinces.

So you're saying we had choice as to whether aboriginals should have a say in natural resource projects. Seems to the election was about choosing between to political parties to govern. Nothing do with what you are claiming. No it wasn't even part of the election at all. Same as the failing health care system and carbon taxes. Nobody had any choice on those things.

Why don't you think it should be shared equally between provinces?

That's is pretty dumb. NO province is going to agree to sacrifice itself for the benefit of the others. It is not fair either. I think you are just being contrary as usual. Any action against the tariffs should be distributed equally across the country so the pain is equally distributed. Strange you can not understand such a simple strategy.

It's quite simple. Why should one province and thousands of workers be sacrificed for the rest of the country? They shouldn't. Trudeau and the premiers should have come up with a better plan.

Says who? You? The truth is the citizens of B.C. were never asked. This is being done by Socialist, progressive woke politicians who could care less about the citizens of B.C. Their days are limited and when B.C. Conservatives get elected, it will be the end of this madness. I would say any rational person would have an issue with giving aboriginals any right to be involved in the decision-making process for natural resource projects. It is non of their business and they should not involved in it any more than the average person.

Natives do not have a right to control the resource industries. They may have a right to be consulted in the use of a piece of land which they occupy or may have a real impact on them. But apart form that, they should not expect to be involved. Natural resources falls under the authority of the provincial governments. Natives are about 5% of the population and should not be making decisions about natural resources that have a serious affect on the non-natives who are 95% of the population. Court cases have said natives have the right to hunt, fish, and trap on unused crown land.

Natural resources are under the jurisdiction of the provinces, not the federal government. Royalties go to the provincial governments.

" Currently, it takes up to 15 years to permit a new mine in Canada. To resolve the challenges with permitting and authorizations, provincial and federal governments must provide the resources to expedite environmental reviews and permitting. The federal government plans to accelerate permitting processes and expedite the production of critical minerals. However, other government policies continue to hurt Canada’s attractiveness for mining investment. A recent decision by Canada’s Supreme Court has declared certain provisions of Canada’s Impact Assessment Act (IAA) unconstitutional. The ruling specifically found the IAA’s provisions related to the assessment of “designated projects” to be outside the jurisdiction of the federal Parliament and, therefore, unconstitutional. This decision is expected to lead to significant revisions to the IAA, which was passed in 2019. A response by the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) noted the uncertainty caused by the ruling will impact the mining industry and Canada’s energy transition, with many projects across the country currently undergoing federal assessment and more entering the process. Highlighting the complex regulatory framework that mining projects face in Canada, including comprehensive provincial regulations and various federal requirements, the association argued there is a need to focus on regulatory certainty and investment competitiveness to position Canada for critical minerals success. It is essential that the effective and efficient regulation of the mining industry must become a priority for all levels of government in Canada." To permit, or not to permit, that is the question! - Canadian Mining Journal Up to 15 years?? Should anybody be surprised if companies find somewhere else to invest in. The bureaucracy in Canada is out of control and one reason why home prices in the major cities are way out of reach for the average middle class worker. The costs to be paid to the bureaucracy is apparently greater than the cost of the tradesmen who build the houses. Now add to that another hurdle. Companies must not only get through all the federal and provincial bureaucracy and permitting and reviewing studies, but now they must deal with aboriginal bands that might simply say no or demand they have a piece of the pie themselves. This could cause further costs and delays to starting a mine or other resource project. Some might just give up and go elsewhere in the world taking the jobs and investment with them.

The B.C. mining industry is now under serious threat. Since all of Canada adopted UNDRIP in 2016, this should be of concern to all of Canada. "A new Indigenous consultation process for mineral exploration in British Columbia could spell the end of its mining sector. If fully realized, Premier David Eby and the B.C. NDP would effectively shut down prospecting and early-stage mining exploration, killing investment needed to keep B.C. a leader in mining and metals production." The province is bringing in a new mineral staking system, without making any legislative or regulatory changes, on March 26. Mineral staking is the first step to setting up a mine: miners are automatically granted exclusive rights to explore and develop an area of land in B.C. by staking out a claim to it and registering that claim with the government. But, u nder the new system that takes effect this spring, claims will no longer be automatically granted when registered with the government. Instead, there will be a staking application process in which the government will not approve any claims until First Nations groups have been consulted. Under the old way of staking a claim, written into the law in 1859, prospectors were required to literally pound stakes into the ground to be granted the right to search for minerals in that area. This system was designed to ensure that even the smallest prospector with the right intuition and a little luck would have the same opportunity at staking a major discovery as a large mining outfit. The province moved to an online system in 2005, in which mineral claims are digitally staked in a provincial online mineral tenure registry, without the need to physically set foot on the property. The upcoming change in process is a response to a court challenge launched in 2021 by the Gitxaala Nation. The First Nation challenged the claims registry at the B.C. Supreme Court, claiming it violated their constitutional rights under Section 35. In 2023, Justice Alan Ross ruled in favour of Gitxaala , noting that while the environmental impact of prospecting was limited, the spiritual impact was significant enough to warrant consultation. The B.C. government could have appealed the ruling, but it chose not to. It’s not hard to see how the government’s new framework for staking mining claims in B.C. is unworkable, wide open to abuse and devastating to independent prospectors and small exploration outfits. It requires prospectors to disclose where they plan to stake before they can secure the rights to do so, which is akin to forcing a company to give away intellectual property and trade secrets. Imagine requiring a tech company to disclose its proprietary idea, trade secrets or software prior to issuing a development permit. What would happen? Every tech startup in Vancouver would move to Seattle the next day. This is the gun barrel B.C.’s mining industry is staring down. Further, the cost and time burden of consultation to stake a property based on a hunch is exorbitant for the prospector and is a poor use of many First Nations’ limited resources. These new requirements will ensure investment in B.C.’s mining exploration sector, already down $100 million  in 2023 compared to 2022, continues to fall. All told, the plan has serious implications for the industry, which had an $18-billion economic impact on the province in 2022 and supports 35,000 jobs. The direction of travel of B.C.’s current government is causing difficulties that extend far beyond prospecting and staking. In 2019, the B.C. Legislative Assembly unanimously passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), Section 3 of which explicitly establishes the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as the province’s framework for reconciliation. DRIPA requires the B.C. government to “take all measures necessary to ensure” the province’s laws align with UNDRIP. Further changes to the mining sector are in the works due to the province’s adherence to UNDRIP: the NDP aims to reform the law that regulates mineral rights in B.C., the Mineral Tenure Act, such that it aligns with DRIPA sometime in 2026. It is important to understand that UNDRIP itself was never intended to direct the laws of Canada; its focus was primarily directed at countries without human rights guarantees or laws to protect their Indigenous peoples from real and ongoing abuses. Amen. But that doesn’t mean that countries like Canada, which uphold the rule of law and believe that strong First Nations make for a better country, haven’t fallen within UNDRIP’s scope. In reality, UNDRIP and DRIPA are often used by overzealous anti-resource advocates to halt economic development in the province. Used as a guide, UNDRIP is a positive step to real reconciliation and should be celebrated, but it is currently being used as a blunt instrument that will cause more problems and animosity in the future. The instinct of B.C.’s current NDP government and its adherents to stymie development rather than find solutions that create prosperity should concern all British Columbians and Canadians. The federal Critical Minerals Strategy , designed to make Canada a mining superpower, is completely useless if no one can prospect, explore and build a mine; a result that would impact the future prosperity and success of everyone in our country. Prospecting is the creative destruction lab of mining. Without it, there is no future exploration and there are no future mines. Today, there are 16 proposed mines for critical minerals in B.C. Were they all to be built, B.C. would receive $36 billion of initial investment followed by an estimated $791 billion of economic  output over the mines’ lifetimes. None, absolutely none, of these mines would exist without prospecting and prospectors. The newly proposed staking reforms cast a chill over investment by killing off prospecting and thereby will slow or stop new mines from being found or developed in the province. Perhaps the worst part in all of this is that the new system, despite working to protect First Nations from prospectors’ claims, will also negatively impact First Nations communities that would have benefited from new mines. This is sad. Richer First Nations communities make for a stronger province and country. Mining and other resource industries have a unique ability to contribute, via First Nations partnerships, to real prosperity and reconciliation. The B.C. NDP must reconsider its planned changes to mineral staking and set prospectors free for the benefit of all British Columbians. Adam Pankratz is a lecturer at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business and a board member of Rokmaster Resources. National Post Adam Pankratz: The B.C. NDP's plan to destroy the province's mining sector