January 9, 2012 – Republic of Mining

Taming regulatory red tape key to [mining] investments in North – by Jennifer Brown (Canadian Lawyer – January 09, 2012)

January 9, 2012

http://www.canadianlawyermag.com/

If Canada wants to keep the investment community interested in the country’s natural resource sector it should find ways to better manage the red tape posed by regulatory regimes in this country.

As part of its Top 10 Business Issues with Legal Implications for 2012, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP cites the need to keep foreign investors interested in Canada’s Far North and specifically the need to address aboriginal consultation requirements and environmental regulations as potential hurdles.

In particular, Adam Chamberlain, the national leader and a partner in the climate change group at BLG, cited the special regulatory environment in Nunavut as an area with its own unique challenges. “You’re dealing with a regulatory framework that is substantially different than anywhere else in the country,” says Chamberlain.

He notes that Nunavut is the only territory that exists because of a modern land claim agreement.

NEWS RELEASE: Foreign Funding Poll: British Columbians Worried About Foreign Investment in Canadian Resources, Not Philanthropic Support for Environmental Groups

January 9, 2012

January 9, 2012

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwire – Jan. 9, 2012) – A poll released today by BC environmental groups shows that almost 75 percent of British Columbians are worried about foreign investment in Canadian natural resources. The poll results show that only a small minority of British Columbians (15%) are concerned about charitable funding provided by US philanthropic foundations to Canadian environmental groups.

The vast majority of British Columbians are worried about US and Chinese investment and control over Canadian natural resources.

“These poll results suggest that the oil lobby’s attacks against environmental groups are out of touch with the true values of British Columbians. The real issue is the unacceptable risk of a foreign-funded pipeline-oil tanker project that would ram pipe through unceded First Nations lands to ship some of the world’s dirtiest oil across thousands of fragile salmon-bearing rivers and streams,” said Will Horter, Executive Director of the Dogwood Initiative.

Nuclear waste-free zones promoted [in Northern Ontario] – by Carl Clutchey (Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal – January 9, 2012)

January 9, 2012

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

Two prominent Aboriginal organizations have come out against a proposal to bury nuclear waste in Northern Ontario.

The separate declarations by Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) and the Union of Ontario Indians (UOI) come as a half a dozen Northwestern Ontario municipalities continue to explore the possibility of hosting an underground storage facility for spent fuel bundles from nuclear reactors.

In separate news releases, NAN and UOI trash a search by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization to find a community willing to host a disposal site. “We have a mandate from the Creator to protect our lands and waters and have been doing so for thousands of years,” NAN Grand Chief Stan Beardy said.

“Nuclear waste is a poison that will damage our homelands.”

Titanic clash looms over proposed Northern Gateway pipeline – by Les Whittington (Toronto Star – January 9, 2012)

January 9, 2012

The Toronto Star, has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

OTTAWA—A biologist, an energy lawyer and an aboriginal geologist will sit down Tuesday in a recreation centre in the wilderness of northern British Columbia to initiate what could be the fiercest environmental standoff ever seen in Canada.

Before the hearings in B.C. and Alberta are completed next year, more than 4,000 people are expected to appear before the three-member panel vetting the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta through the Rockies to the B.C. coast.

Like the now-stalled Keystone XL project in the United States, the planned pipeline to carry tarsands-derived crude oil across the mountains to a new supertanker port in northern B.C. is shaping up as a titanic clash of economic and environmental imperatives.

Two peoples in one city – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (January 9, 2012)

January 9, 2012

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

WHILE issues unique to far northern First Nations unfold in places like Attawapiskat, a different set of challenges confronts aboriginal people who move south and the cities that become their homes.

Thunder Bay has always had native neighbours at Fort William. But the aboriginal population of the city itself grew 22.6 per cent between 2001 and 2006. It is estimated that one in five people living in Thunder Bay today is aboriginal, almost 40 per cent of them under the age of 20.

A recent report from Statistics Canada projects that in 2031, Thunder Bay will be one of five cities with the largest aboriginal populations in the country.

This growth will transform Thunder Bay in many ways. It is already straining services. A report to city council tonight updating the Urban Aboriginal Strategy recommends spending $125,000 to maintain the UAS advisory committee.

Oil-sands pipeline hits its highest hurdle – by David Ebner (Globe and Mail – January 9, 2012)

January 9, 2012

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

KITIMAAT VILLAGE, B.C.— The struggle to transport the harvest of Alberta’s vast oil sands enters a new arena this week – a village on the rugged British Columbia coast where the hopes of Canada’s biggest pipeline operator will meet a business-savvy first nation with little appetite for black gold.

Public vetting of Enbridge’s proposed $6.6-billion Northern Gateway oil-sands pipeline begins Tuesday. The arguments concerning aboriginal land rights and environmental impact promise a regulatory fight that could travel all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Reflecting the high stakes, the Harper government prepared a new warning, to be made public on Monday, that regulatory reviews for major energy projects should be accelerated and protected from interference by “radical environmental groups financed from the United States.”

Radical groups’ spur Tories to speed pipeline review process – by John Ibbitson (Globe and Mail – January 9, 2012)

January 9, 2012

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

OTTAWA – The Conservative government will bring forward new rules to greatly shorten environmental reviews of pipelines and other major projects, arguing that “radical groups” are exploiting the reviews to block proposals vital to Canada’s economic future.

On the eve of hearings into the proposed Northern Gateway oil pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific coast, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver released a strongly-worded open letter Monday condemning some opponents of the pipeline. A copy of the letter was provided in advance to The Globe and Mail.

The letter warns of “environmental and other radical groups” including “jet-setting celebrities” funded by foreign special interest groups who “threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological ends.”

They system “is broken,” Mr. Oliver concludes in the letter. “It’s time to take a look at it.”