Green Party of Nova Scotia

Building a Sustainable Future Together

Nova Scotia’s Energy Plan Lacks Ambition

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First Published in the Chronicle Herald, December 12, 2020

It was recently announced that Alberta, the province at the heart of Canada’s fossil fuel industry, will retire it’s last coal-fired electricity plants seven years ahead of schedule, and add capacity using wind and solar alternatives. The reason isn’t government regulation or pressure from environmental groups, but saving money. Renewables are now cheaper than coal.

Meanwhile the latest Integrated Resource Plan for 2020, published a couple of weeks ago by Nova Scotia Power (NSP), confirms that Nova Scotia will continue to burn coal for the foreseeable future, potentially until 2040. This plan defies market realities and shows a lack of ambition for a province rich with renewable resources that could easily meet all our energy needs, while saving taxpayers billions of dollars and creating new jobs in the process.

Proponents of coal may argue that the plants already exist, or that rushing to replace them with alternatives will cost money that Nova Scotia ratepayers would have to absorb. This ignores the fact that all of Nova Scotia’s coal-fired power stations are near end of life and will require hundreds of millions of dollars in maintenance and upgrades to keep working another twenty years. It makes sense to spend that money upgrading our energy infrastructure to handle our future needs, when interest rates are at historic lows, rather than expensively patching up old clunkers only to have to replace them down the road.

Coal is famously one of the most carbon-intense forms of energy production, but it extracts a very high cost beyond pollution or price per ton. NSP will not reveal where it buys our coal from other than to say “world markets”, a euphemism for the lowest bidder, which may include nations with unsafe, unregulated mining operations and corrupt governments unfriendly to Canada and our values. Today, China is the world’s largest coal producer. In the Americas it’s Columbia and Venezuela.

Decades ago when the world was ignorant of the dangers of climate change, at least we mined coal locally, creating jobs and keeping energy investments in our own province. The average Nova Scotia household now spends $1500 on electricity per year and rising, burning most of that money on foreign fossil fuels of unknown origin while exporting a big slice of our economy. Those are hard earned dollars that leave Nova Scotia and never come back.

The good news is that this intolerable situation can be stopped. According to studies produced for NSP we are only using a third of the wind resources available. Many other studies including one recently produced by the University of Calgary, indicate that wind generation is much cheaper than coal, cost competitive with natural gas, and continues to get cheaper every year whereas all fossil fuel prices are projected to increase substantially.

Utility-scale batteries can be used to store energy for times when wind is not blowing and to balance the grid, another area in which Alberta has shown leadership. Named the eReserve, the first of three 20 mega-watt class storage plants near Peace River began construction in September, which when finished will be the largest utility battery in Canada.

If Alberta, a province with more than four times our energy needs and a much colder climate can replace coal with renewables, there really isn’t any reason why Nova Scotia cannot. We need to demand more from NSP, and join the leaders circle in sustainable energy economy. Sticking with coal will cost Nova Scotians much more, and keeps us dependent on dirty, foreign energy.

Press Release – Vigilantism in the Fisheries Dispute

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

THERE IS NO PLACE IN CANADA FOR VIGILANTISM

 

The Green Party of Nova Scotia condemns in the strongest possible terms the illegal acts of vigilantism demonstrated by some Fundy shore commercial fishermen over the past 24 hours.  

Canadian civilians are not allowed to enforce regulations or interpret  laws, or deputize themselves to do so.  Governments and police are the sole authorities empowered to regulate resources and enforce laws.  

21 years of inaction towards the practical application of the Moderate Livable fishery by successive governments represents a complete dereliction of duty to both Mi’kmaq and non-native communities, leading  some to desperate and criminal acts.

 

The events of the past few days in Comeauville, Saulnierville and Metahegan are extremely dangerous, shameful, and demand immediate provincial government action to guarantee the safety of all people and protect the rule of law.  

In the past 24 hours, groups of commercial fishermen admitted, through spokesmen Colin Sproul, the president of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermans Association, and Martin Mallet of the Maritime Fishermans Union, to taking the law into their own hands, removing lobster traps and releasing catch that did not belong to them, which Sproul contends was done under the supervision of RCMP and DFO authorities.  They also admit to cutting lines to traps, adding to the growing pile of ghost gear polluting the ocean. In Comeauville dozens of vehicles and more than 50 men identified and surrounded the home of an individual they allege purchased lobster in a manner they considered illegal. 

Under what legal jurisdiction did these fishermen operate when they confiscated property not belonging to them?  Which authority from the RCMP or DFO appointed commercial fishermen as deputies in regulatory enforcement?  Was permission or training given to everyone, or specific individuals?  The mob that assembled in Comeauville claim they were protesting, but made clear accusations offering no evidence towards an unnamed individual, while openly flaunting provincial COVID laws governing social distancing and masks. 

Canadians do not have the right to enforce regulations or interpret laws.  The acts committed over the past days are equivalent to theft, vandalism, illegal dumping, intimidation, and mob rule without any accountability or liability to the public.  If police, federal and provincial authorities tolerate this behaviour, then governments are complicit in normalizing vigilantism and exploiting those commercial fishermen to solve problems they are responsible for.

The Green Party of Nova Scotia condemns acts of vigilantism in any form. We live in a land of law and order.  The Mi’kmaq people used legal means over 21 years to have their rights ruled on in the public court system.  The commercial fishermen of Nova Scotia who participated in the events of the last week would be well served to follow the Mi’kmaq example of how to respect the laws of Canada.

Thomas Trappenberg and the Green Party of Nova Scotia Stand with Evidence

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Yesterday, the executive director of the Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia published an editorial in which he accused Thomas Trappenberg, leader of the Green Party of Nova Scotia, of leading a misinformation campaign against his industry.

Lacking evidence and without citing any specific case of misinformation, the attack, which also names the Ecology Action Centre and four citizen-led groups like the Healthy Bays Network, is damaging because it sours what was until now a civil and democratic discussion about an important issue.

The debate about aquaculture is important because our oceans are not just a massive part of our economy, but vital to how we identify ourselves as Nova Scotians.

This is why thousands of people from all political backgrounds, including an independent MLA and three official parties, have formed their own local groups like the ones named by Mr. Smith to educate and organize the discussion around the development of open-pen aquaculture.

These citizen-led movements flooded town halls and MLA offices in shared opposition to open-pen aquaculture, based on conclusions in publicly available scientific studies like a 2018 analysis by Dalhousie University department of biology, and the Cohen Commission Judicial Inquiry in B.C., where demonstrated that the practice was unsustainable in its current form.

When using evidence to support an argument, it is important to show where that information comes from. Mr. Smith points to the Coller-Fairr Protein Index as proof that open-pen aquaculture is a very sustainable practice, however that study was commissioned to “raise awareness of the material ESG risks and opportunities of intensive animal production.” according the website. The data and conclusions are not available to the public but only investors in equity markets.

If Mr. Smith laments a lack of transparency in the open-pen aquaculture debate, then it does not help that his sole publicly available source of supporting documentation comes from a $1.2 million study by the Cooke Industrial Research Chair for Sustainable Aquaculture, a position created and funded by Cooke Aquaculture, a paid member of Mr.Smith’s Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia. Cooke currently holds the controversial open-pen leases in the province, which were renewed recently with severely limited public debate .

We need a vigorous discussion on economic and resource development in Nova Scotia. “As a physicist, a science professor and as leader of the Green Party, I consider it a requirement to maintain an open mind, to always keep the door open to new information and challenges to established facts, if and when demonstrable new facts come to light.” states Thomas.

“This is the only way we move society forward. Together, with shared facts.”

As of this moment, the facts are that open-pen fish farms often consume more protein than they produce (it takes more food to grow the fish than the food value contained in the fish), and very serious problems of contamination from faeces, antibiotics and sea lice from the farmed fish into the open ocean remain unsolved. Large scale die-offs, like the one that left 10,000 dead salmon in Liverpool Bay reported by CBC last year, cause catastrophic damage to local ocean life. TIANS, the Tourist Industry Association of Nova Scotia, currently endorses closed-pen aquaculture only.

These are the facts.

It is important for Nova Scotians to be properly informed about the issues, and to be clear about the sources of information especially in this era of fake news. Defamatory claims of misinformation are unhelpful, unless of course, they are backed by demonstrable, repeatable facts.