Canada has agreed to help Germany with its energy crunch, although few details of exactly how the two countries will work together were provided during a ceremony in Stephenville, N.L., on Tuesday.
Instead, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz signed what they called a “joint declaration of intent” that calls on the two countries to invest in hydrogen, establish a “transatlantic Canada-Germany supply corridor” and start exporting hydrogen by 2025. Trudeau called it a historic moment.
“We must look to resources like hydrogen which can and will be clean and renewable. We can be the reliable supplier of clean energy a net-zero world needs,” Trudeau said.
“The need for clean energy is almost limitless, and that’s where Canada, and Atlantic Canada specifically, gets to step up. With our renewable resources, we have a huge advantage.”
Scholz, accompanied by a contingent of leaders of Germany’s largest companies, including Bayer and Volkswagen, has been touring Canada this week to drum up alternative energy sources to Russian natural gas.
The agreement, which Trudeau called the “Canada-Germany hydrogen alliance,” was signed in a town where a company plans to build a large plant to convert wind energy to hydrogen and export ammonia to Germany. But the World Energy GH2 project — which would include 164 wind turbines along the nearby Port au Port Peninsula — has yet to undergo provincial environmental approval, and residents were told about it only in meetings that started in June.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz examine a hydrogen-powered toy car as they tour a trade show Tuesday in Stephenville, N.L. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
Under the agreement, Canada will export wind-generated hydrogen to Germany as that country looks to move away from Russian imports. While the Ukrainian war has made for an immediate crisis, Germany has also been shopping for long-term sustainable solutions.
“Our vision of the future and our shared aims are clear. Canadians and Germans and all our friends around the world look forward to good jobs, a strong economy and pure air,” said Trudeau.
“We cannot as a world continue to rely on authoritarian countries that will weaponize energy policy as Russia is, that don’t concern themselves with environmental outcomes, or labour rights or even human rights.”
Canada hopes to export Canadian-made hydrogen within three years.
Scholz said the German coast cannot keep up with the same wind conditions found in Newfoundland and Labrador, making the province an ideal location for hydrogen production.
He said hydrogen will play a major role in Germany’s future energy supply, especially in industries that are hard to decarbonize, such as shipping and aviation.
Scholz says Atlantic Canada presents a huge opportunity for Germany’s search for a new green energy source. (CTV/CBC)
“Germany expects a need of 90 to 110 terawatt-hours of hydrogen in 2030,” Scholz said.
“We believe that Atlantic Canada presents a huge opportunity for us but also for Canada to contribute to a green energy transition. Canada is a close and like-minded partner in the energy transition.”
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey said building wind farms in his province “just makes sense.”
The premier said N.L. had already engaged in “positive discussions” with Hamburg ahead of Tuesday’s ceremony regarding a declaration of intent on hydrogen. He said he hopes to sign the declaration when attending a wind conference hosted in Hamburg in September.
“Hamburg’s ambition to be a hydrogen hub for northern Europe, and our goal to be the same for Canada make it an ideal partnership,” Furey said.
Wind projects proposed for N.L.
The Port au Port project is already making its way through the red tape in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Situated on Newfoundland’s west coast — about 15 kilometres west of Stephenville — the peninsula is the proposed site for a wind farm operation that would make Stephenville the home of a plant that will turn hydrogen produced from windmills into ammonia.
World Energy GH2, the company behind the proposal, expects the Port au Port operation to produce hydrogen by mid-2024. The project is going through an environmental impact statement process that the company, according to the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, has a three-year-window to complete.
The operation would be the first of its kind in the province and is expected to create 1,800 direct construction jobs, 300 direct operations jobs and 3,500 indirect jobs, according to a media release issued by the company on Monday.
However, since that project’s announcement, some area residents and environmental groups have been raising concerns.
On Tuesday dozens lined the street near the Stephenville airport beginning at 10 a.m. NT in protest of Canada-Germany declaration, chanting and waving signs with slogans like “Newfoundland Is Not For Sale.”
Marilyn Rowe of the Environmental Transparency Committee, formed in response to the Port au Port wind farm and hydrogen proposal, said peninsula residents are “guinea pigs.”
“We don’t want to have this in our backyards so we are here protesting today because this deal is moving at lightning speed,” Rowe said while waiting for the dignitaries’ planes to touch down.
As enthusiastic as Canada is to move forward with hydrogen and clean energy projects, Trudeau said, the federal government wants to make sure they’re done right.
“Yes, we will have a rigorous process by which these projects are approved but I am extremely optimistic about the future we are building together,” he said.
A second project was proposed by Fortescue Future Industries, a subsidiary of the Australia Fortescue Metals Group based in Australia. FFI signed an memorandum of understanding with the Miawpukek First Nation on Monday for a feasibility study of a project that would produce green fuels on Newfoundland’s southwest coast using sea water and wind turbines.
Scholz looks on as Trudeau responds to a question from media in Stephenville on Tuesday. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
