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Canada, other G7 nations launch sustainable mining alliance at COP15 nature meeting

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Canada, other G7 nations launch sustainable mining alliance at COP15 nature meeting

Canada and other G7 countries have formed a new alliance to compel mining companies to adopt more environmentally sustainable and socially responsible standards as they ramp up critical mineral supply chains.

Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced the agreement among countries that are trying to reduce China’s dominance in the critical mineral field on Monday at the COP15 biodiversity talks in Montreal.

Critical minerals refer to about three dozen metals and minerals needed for most modern technology, including laptops and cellphones. But they are also essential to rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles, as well as energy storage, and renewable energy production in solar panels and wind turbines.

The World Bank predicted in 2020 that demand for critical minerals, including lithium, copper, nickel, graphite and rare earth elements, will rise 500 per cent by 2050.

Wilkinson has said many times the transition to net-zero emissions and a 100 per cent clean energy electricity grid, will not happen without expanding critical mineral mining.

The announcement came three days after Wilkinson published Canada’s critical mineral strategy, which aims to expand Canada’s critical mineral production in a way that is environmentally sustainable, ensures Indigenous equity and improves global security.

Canada and the United States are among the western democracies that have made clear China cannot be allowed to dominate critical minerals in a way that gives it political influence similar to Russia’s leverage over oil and gas exports to Europe.

China is the clear dominant player in critical minerals, particularly in the refining and processing and manufacturing uses.

All G7 countries but Italy have joined the alliance, as has Australia.

The Canadian strategy is focused only on domestic mining, and Wilkinson acknowledged it is silent on the sustainability of raw materials that are mined elsewhere and brought to Canada for further processing or used in the manufacturing of batteries.

The alliance is an attempt to extend the Canadian strategy globally, though it is not clear how heavy-handed Canada or any of the others will be about ensuring imported critical minerals follow the same environmental and social standards as those mined at home.

It also does not specify what role the alliance will play in ensuring their own companies follow the standards when operating on foreign soil. Canada’s mining companies have a good reputation for sustainable mining practices at home, but internationally it is a different story. There have been several lawsuits filed against Canadian companies for environmental damage, health impacts and human rights violations in other countries.

The alliance members are also not clear on whether they will limit exports of raw materials mined in their territories to China. Canada has already begun enforcing a new policy to limit the role state-owned enterprises in non-democratic countries play in Canadian critical minerals, forcing three Chinese companies to sell their ownership stakes in some small Canadian mining developments.

But there are many more, including the only currently producing lithium mine in Canada, which is in Manitoba.

Wilkinson told The Canadian Press in an interview Friday that the Liberal government is “very live” to concerns about exporting too much raw material to China for refining, processing and use in manufacturing, and that the issue is being discussed.

The COP15 nature talks are an effort by most countries in the world to agree to policies that will both halt and repair the destruction that human activities, including mining, have brought on global ecosystems and wild species. Some environmental advocates aren’t pleased the Canadian government is announcing in the middle of the event a strategy that expands mining.

Caroline Brouillette, national policy director at the Climate Action Network Canada, said the strategy is disconnected from conversations happening at COP15 and reinforces “our dependence on destructive business models that exhaust resources and harm communities.”

— Mia Rabson in Ottawa and Jacob Serebrin in Montreal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2022.

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Two youths arrested after emergency alert issued in New Brunswick

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MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.

Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.

A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.

Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.

Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

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World Junior Girls Golf Championship coming to Toronto-area golf course

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MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.

The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.

Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.

“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.

“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”

McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.

“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”

Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.

Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.

“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.

“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”

Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.

Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.

Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.

“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.

“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”

The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.

Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.

Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.

Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.

“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

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Purple place: Mets unveil the new Grimace seat at Citi Field

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NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.

The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”

Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.

That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.

New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.

The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.

The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.

“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”

Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.

So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?

“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.

“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”

___

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