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Dalhousie University’s decision to source “sustainable biomass” from J.D. Irving and Wagner a “piss-off”

News that Emera’s Brooklyn biomass plant is out of commission is making waves in Nova Scotia, while Dal’s biomass facility in Truro garners little publicity.

March 1, 2022 By Joan Baxter 3 Comments

In May 2021, Dalhousie University issued a tender for “sustainable biomass” to feed the bioenergy plant on its agricultural campus in Truro. At the end of July 2021, the university quietly awarded the contract — worth $1,318,187.50 — to J.D. Irving and Wagner Forest NS. This marked a departure for Dalhousie’s biomass plant, which for […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: agricultural campus, Anne McInerney, Atlantic Star Forestry Ltd, Bermuda, Biodiversity Act, biomass, biomass energy, biomass facility, Brooklyn Energy, Bruce Livesey, carbon accounting, CBC, clearcutting, climate change, climate crisis, Colchester County, Community Feed-in Tariff (COMFIT) Program, Cumberland County, Dal News, Dalhousie University, David Patriquin, ecological forestry, greenhouse gas accounting, greenhouse gas emissions, Greg Watson, Independent Review of Forest Practices In Nova Scotia, JD Irving, Jennifer Henderson, KC Irving, Lahey report, Michael Gorman, National Observer, Neenah Paper, New Brunswick, North Nova Forest Owners Co-operative, Nova Scotia Forest Notes, Nova Star Forestry Ltd, pulp mill, renewable energy, Rochelle Owen, sawmill residue, Scott Maritimes, soil carbon, Sproule Lumber, Stephanie Rogers, tax haven, Tom Miller, triad model, Truro, Wagner Forest Management, Wagner Forest NS, William Lahey

Proposed Wentworth Valley wind farm gets blowback

While local group fears negative effects, Northern Pulp stands to profit from the giant wind project because it’s on Northern Pulp land purchased with a loan from Nova Scotians.

December 6, 2021 By Joan Baxter 1 Comment

Let’s start with a quick Nova Scotia quiz. Question #1: What do the following three things have in common? (1) A large new wind farm proposed for Wentworth Valley, (2) an open pit gold mine at Moose River in Halifax Regional Municipality that is owned by Australia’s St Barbara Ltd and operated by its subsidiary […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: 3G Energy, Amherst, Angus Doane, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining Nova Scotia (AMNS), Beaver Dam gold mine, carbon dioxide, climate change, climate crisis, Community LIaison Committee, Dan Eaton, Darrell Dexter, Duff Montgomerie, electricity generation, Elemental Energy, Enercon, fossil fuels, Garfield Moffatt, Germany, government loan, greenhouse gas emissions, Gregor Wilson, Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), Higgins Mountain, Higgins Mountain Wind Farm, Kejimkujik National Park, Lunenburg, Maryam Baksh, Moose River, Moose River gold mine, Muskrat Falls, NDP government, Neenah Paper, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp Nova Scotia Corporation, Northern Timber, Nova Scotia Power Inc. (NSPI), Paul Pynn, Peggy's Cove, Protect Wentworth Valley, renewable energy, Sean Lewis, Shawn Duncan, solar energy, South Canoe, St Barbara Ltd, Stevens Wind Ltd, Strum Consulting, Supreme Court of British Columbia, Wentworth ski hill, Wentworth Valley, wind energy, wind farm, wind turbine

Paper Excellence’s very big deal

Northern Pulp’s parent company is set to acquire the North American pulp and paper giant Domtar. While the acquisition is getting very little media attention in Canada, around the world many people are worried about it — for many good reasons.

July 26, 2021 By Joan Baxter 8 Comments

It is a Very Big Deal. At 10am on Thursday, July 29, at a special virtual meeting, shareholders of Domtar, a giant in the North American pulp and paper industry, will vote on whether to accept the sale of all the corporation’s issued and outstanding shares of common stock to Paper Excellence for US$55.50 per […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: Alberta Wilderness Association, Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), Bloomberg, Brazil, British Columbia, BusinessWire, Catalyst Paper, CBC, China, CO2 emissions, Competition Bureau of Canada, COVID-19, creditor protection, Crofton, David Suzuki Foundation, default, deforestation, Domtar, Dryden, Eco-Business, Environmental Paper Network, Espanola, eucalyptus, Euromoney, Europe, forest fires, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), France, FSC certification, Global Forest Coalition, greenhouse gas emissions, Halper Sadeh LLP, Indonesia, Joshua Martin, Kalimantan, Kamloops, land grabbing, MacKenzie, Michael Gorman, Montral, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), North America, Northern Pulp, Northern Softwood Bleached Kraft pulp, Northern Timber Nova Scotia Corporation, Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI), OKI pulp mill, Ontario, Paper Excellence, Paper Excellence Brazil, Paper Excellence Canada, Paper Excellence Canada Holdings Corporation, peat fires, Port Alberni, Powell River, pulp and paper industry, pulp and paper mills, Quebec, Restore Our Earth, Reuters, Sara Webb, Saskatchewan, Sierra Club, Sinar Mas, Sinar Mas Group, South America, South Carolina, Stand Earth Canada, state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Sumatra, Supreme Court of British Columbia, Widjaja family, wildlife habitat, Windsor, WWF

Pieridae’s pipe dream

Pieridae Energy’s plans for a liquified natural gas plant in Nova Scotia sit in the sweet spot of an elaborate Rube Goldberg financing machine that requires Shell Oil offloading some aging gas wells in Alberta to a cash-strapped energy company living on the hope of sky-high gas costs in Germany years from now.

April 13, 2021 By Joan Baxter 4 Comments

If the Halifax Examiner inbox is anything to go by, there is no shortage of critics of Pieridae Energy and its plans to pipe natural gas into Nova Scotia, build a $10-billion liquefied natural gas plant in Goldboro on the province’s Eastern Shore, and then ship the LNG to Germany, a project the Halifax Examiner […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, News Tagged With: Alberta, Alberta Energy Regulator, Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project, Alfred Sorensen, Andrew Nikiforuk, Andy Gheorghiu, carbon offsetting, climate emergency, Environment Minister Randy Delorey, Environnement Vert Plus, Erikson National Energy, Fortum, fracked gas, Fracking, German Ministry of Economics and Energy, Germany, Goldboro LNG plant, greenhouse gas emissions, James Millar, Ken Summers, Larry Hughes, liquefied natural gas, Mark Dorin, Mark Horrox, natural gas, Nova Scotia Environment, Pascal Bergeron, Pieridae Energy, Polluter Pay Federation, Premier Iain Rankin, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Quebec Environmental Law Centre, Regan Boychuk, Shell Canada, SLAPP, Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, The Tyee, Third Eye Capital, Thomas Ciz, Uniper, US Department of Energy

The Climate Emergency

Part 4: Our current economy can't address the crisis; what are we going to do about it?

November 8, 2019 By Linda Pannozzo 3 Comments

Previously in this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. It’s not often that I root for the anti-hero in a book, but it seems that as I neared the end of Jeremy Lent’s latest book, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning — perhaps the longest book I’ve ever read at […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured, Province House Tagged With: Anders Hayden, circular economy, climate emergency, Copenhagen Accord, GDP, green economy, green growth, greenhouse gas emissions, Jeremy Lent, John Gowdy, Kyoto Protocol, Lahey report, Martin Sers, NDP leader Gary Burrill, Paris Agreement, Peter Victor, Premier Stephen McNeil, Robin Wall Kimmerer, State of the World: Governing for Sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals Act, Techno Split, The Energy Emissions Trap, ultrasociality, Worldwatch Institute

The Climate Emergency

Part 3: How to turn off the economic growth engine

October 24, 2019 By Linda Pannozzo Leave a Comment

At about 14 minutes into the recent Federal Leaders’ debate there was a back and forth between Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada, and Maxime Bernier, leader and founder of the People’s Party of Canada, in which Bernier — who advocates for free-market policies, liberalized trade and private property rights — called […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured Tagged With: Anders Hayden, Anthropocene, Atomic Age, climate emergency, ecological economics, economic growth, Elizabeth May, Federal leaders' debate, free market, GHG emissions, Great Acceleration, greenhouse gas emissions, Income inequality, Jonathan Swarts, Lars Osberg, Maxime Bernier, Milton Friedman, neoliberalism, Peter Victor, sustainable prosperity

Point, Click, Evict

Morning File, Thursday, October 24, 2019

October 24, 2019 By Philip Moscovitch 6 Comments

News 1. Crowns strike The province’s crown attorneys have gone on strike. The government says the action is illegal and is seeking an injunction to get them back to work. Writing in The Star Halifax, Taryn Grant explains: About 80 per cent of members of the Nova Scotia Crown Attorneys’ Association (NSCAA) voted in favour […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Andrew Rankin, Anjuli Patil, Aron Spidle, bad tenants, bicycle licensing, bike licenses, biking in Winnipeg, Bill 203, Brooke Gladstone, Chris Parsons, climate change, crown attorneys, Ecology Action Centre (EAC), Emma Norton, eviction, greenhouse gas emissions, Jack Julian, Jason Selby, Jeff Karabanow, John Collyer, Karissa Donkin, Kevin Russell, MLA Patricia Arab, Nadav Even-Har, On the Media podcast, Out of the Cold emergency shelter, Paul Schneidereit, pedestrian struck Robie and Coburg, Residential Tenancies Act, Stephen Thomas, Taryn Grant, Trevor Adams, violence in school

The climate emergency: Why it’s time to ditch the language of economic growth

September 26, 2019 By Linda Pannozzo 2 Comments

This is the first in a 4-part series exploring climate change and economic growth, green or otherwise. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel set in a near-future totalitarian state, the women are subjugated in various horrific ways including that they are allowed to move around anywhere within town but are unaware that […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured Tagged With: carbon laundering, climate emergency, consumption-based accounting, Ecology Action Centre, economic growth, Gardner Pinfold, GDP, greenhouse gas emissions, Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), Paris Agreement, production-based accounting, Stephen Thomas

McNeil government is moving slow with greenhouse gas reduction plan

Details are wanting, industry is worried, and regional cooperation is sidelined.

April 6, 2018 By Jennifer Henderson

Nova Scotia continues to resist a sales pitch from Ottawa to sign on to its system for reducing emissions starting in January 2019. That resistance comes despite a warning different carbon pricing regimes within Atlantic Canada could drive up administrative costs for companies such as Irving Oil, Wilson Fuels, Northern Pulp, and Lafarge Cement. Those...

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Filed Under: Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, carbon pricing, Dale Beugin, EcoFiscal Commission, Environment Minister Iain Rankin, greenhouse gas emissions, Jason Hollett, Jennifer Henderson, minister for Environment & Climate Change John Moffet

Nova Scotia’s cap-and-trade system to go easy on big corporate polluters

October 13, 2017 By Jennifer Henderson

Legislation introduced by the McNeil government to enable setting up a cap-and-trade system to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions as part of a Trudeau directive to slow climate change was debated briefly in the Legislature this week. What is missing from Bill 15 — “An Act to Amend Chapter 1 of the Acts of 1994-95,...

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Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Bill 15, Cap and Trade, greenhouse gas emissions, Jamie Baillie, Jason Hollett, Jennifer Henderson, Lenore Zann, Minister Iain Rankin, Stephen Thomas, Wayne Groszko

PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

A young man wearing a purple jean jacket and sporting a moustache lies on the green grass surrounded by pink plastic flamingos

Episode 80 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Singer-songwriter Willie Stratton has wandered a number of genre paths, starting with raw acoustic folk as a teen phenom, moving through surf rock as Beach Bait, and landing in a Roy Orbison-style classic country on his new album Drugstore Dreamin’. Ahead of his release show at the Marquee on Friday, he stops in to explain why mixing influences makes the best art, how he approaches the guitar, and what he likes about his day job as a barber.

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

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Recent posts

  • Feeding the discussion on breastfeeding and infant formula May 26, 2022
  • “I have to live with that, and I’ve lived with that for two-plus years”: emotional testimony about RCMP mistakes during the mass murders May 26, 2022
  • ‘Next thing I know I’m getting tased:’ Nova Scotia Police Review Board hearing into 2019 arrest on Quinpool Road underway May 26, 2022
  • Halifax committee recommends in favour of plan to move, restore, and add to historic Elmwood May 26, 2022
  • Retired Judge Corrine Sparks receives honorary degree from Mount Saint Vincent University May 25, 2022

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