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)
TORONTO – Unifor says workers at a Walmart warehouse in Mississauga, Ont., have voted to join the union.
The union says it’s Walmart’s first warehouse to unionize in Canada.
Unifor national president Lana Payne says the employees stood up for their rights and the union is excited to get to work on their first collective agreement.
Unifor’s campaign at Walmart’s facility began in December 2023.
The vote was held from Sept. 10 to 12.
Unifor represents 315,000 workers across the country.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
MONTREAL – A 20-year-old man arrested over an alleged Islamic State terror plot to kill Jews in New York City will return to court in December in Montreal.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, a Pakistani national living in Ontario, was arrested last week in Ormstown, Que., allegedly on his way across the border into New York state.
Khan has been charged in the United States with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to a terrorist organization, and officials are seeking to have him extradited to stand trial.
He was not present for a hearing today in Quebec Superior Court, where lawyers said they are waiting for extradition documents and for authorization from Canadian officials before proceeding in the case, which will return before a judge on Dec. 6.
U.S. authorities allege that Khan, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, intended to use “automatic and semi-automatic weapons” in a mass shooting at a Jewish centre in Brooklyn around Oct. 7, the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel.
Authorities allege he began planning his attack in November 2023.
Earlier this week, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Khan arrived in Canada in June 2023 on a student visa.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
