Ontario Housing Minister Steve Clark resigns amid Greenbelt land swap controversy

OTTAWA – The federal government has published new draft regulations that will force oil and gas companies to slash their greenhouse gas emissions.

Here’s what that looks like, and what it might mean for the industry and for Canada’s climate targets:

1. What is an emissions cap and what does it target?

The government is essentially proposing to put a limit on how much oil and gas producers can pollute with greenhouse gas emissions. Those producers together account for 31 per cent of Canada’s total emissions.

Under the proposed regulations, those producers would be required to cut their emissions by about one-third below 2019 levels over the next eight years.

2. What are the oil and gas industry’s current emissions?

In 2022, the most recent year for which Canada’s emissions data is available, oil and gas production and refining emitted 256 million tonnes of carbon dioxide or its equivalent weight in other gases, including methane.

Emissions from the oil and gas sector have gradually declined since a peak in 2014, according to government data, representing a roughly 12 per cent reduction. The 2022 emissions are about on par with 2007 levels.

3. Can the industry meet the regulations without cutting production?

According to the government, it can — which is paramount to the entire proposal.

The government is pitching a cap-and-trade system as part of the proposed changes. In essence, companies will be given an emissions allowance equating to one unit per tonne of carbon pollution.

Companies that pollute less will be able to sell their leftover allowance units for profit, while companies that fail to reduce their emissions enough will have to buy allowance units — a maximum of 20 per cent of their emissions cap — from other companies to stay in compliance.

4. What would the industry do to meet the cap?

The government is hoping oil and gas companies reinvest their profits in technology that reduces greenhouse gas emissions without cutting their production.

Some of those initiatives include carbon capture technology, an area that some of Canada’s producers are already investing in. For instance, Shell announced in June it was launching two new carbon capture projects in Alberta. Both are expected to be operational by 2028.

Producers could also buy offset credits from decarbonization projects outside the oil and gas industry — like tree-planting programs — to be cap-compliant. Those credits can only be the equivalent of up to 10 per cent of their emissions cap.

5. What do the industry and environmental groups say about the proposed regulations?

Monday’s announcement was met with skepticism from Canada’s leading oil producers.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers — which represents about three-quarters of Canada’s oil and natural gas production — warned the cap would likely deter investment in Canadian oil and gas products, resulting in lower production and fewer jobs, and would hurt Canada’s GDP.

Environmental Defence, one of Canada’s leading environmental advocacy organizations, welcomed the proposed changes but called for them to be implemented sooner and for the government to close “loopholes” like allowing offset credits.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

VANCOUVER – Employers have locked out more than 700 unionized workers in the latest development in a labour dispute that the union says will shut down all ports in British Columbia until further notice.

The BC Maritime Employers Association said Monday that its “difficult decision” to impose the lockout came after the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 commenced “industry-wide strike activity” at employers’ terminals.

The employers association said in a release that the lockout in response to strike action would begin on the 4:30 p.m. shift on Monday and continue until further notice, but it would not affect grain or cruise operations.

“ILWU Local 514’s strike action has already begun to impact B.C.’s waterfront operations and strike activity can easily escalate, including a complete withdrawal of labour without notice,” the employers said in explaining its decision to lock out union members.

Local 514 said in an email response that members went to work as normal at 8 a.m. Monday, but an overtime ban was implemented and workers would “refuse to participate in technological change as their limited job action.”

A statement from the union on Monday in response to the lockout said employers have “deliberately and irresponsibly overreacted” to its overtime ban, which was aimed at restarting stalled talks that have been ongoing for almost two years.

Local 514 president Frank Morena said in the statement that the employers’ lockout is a “clear effort to force the federal government to intervene.”

Speaking in Parliament Monday, federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon reiterated that he spoke with both the employers and the union on the weekend and urged them to find a solution.

“It is their responsibility, and they need to do the work necessary to get an agreement,” MacKinnon said.

The minister’s comments come after questions by NDP parliamentary member Matthew Green.

“This blatant attempt to manipulate this Liberal government into undermining workers’ rights is an outrageous assault on free collective bargaining,” Green said in Parliament.

The employers association, however, said the only reason the lockout was triggered was because of strike action by the union.

Morena said the union’s negotiators are “ready to resume talks any time the BCMEA shows up.”

The two sides met for mediated talks last week, and Local 514 has accused employers of not showing up on the last day of scheduled talks on Thursday.

“Our union members have been trying since our contract expired March 31 of 2023 to reach a new collective agreement and have been more than patient in the face of BCMEA provocation, which continues today with a full-scale lockout,” Morena said in a statement Monday.

The union issued its notice of job action last Thursday in response to a “final offer” presented by employers a day earlier, an offer the association said would give a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year agreement ending in 2027.

“The BCMEA’s final offer to the union represents our best effort to settle the dispute and move forward with an agreement that recognizes the skills and efforts of 730 hardworking forepersons and their families, while also ensuring Canada’s West Coast ports remain reliable and stable for the many customers and supply chain partners who conduct business there,” the association said at the time.

The association also said the offer would include a 16 per cent increase in retirement benefits, additional recognized holidays and an average $21,000 lump sum for eligible employees that includes back pay since the contract expired.

“Despite ILWU Local 514’s regrettable decision to destabilize Canada’s supply chain, the BCMEA’s comprehensive offer remains open until withdrawn,” the employers association said Monday.

In its response Sunday, the union said the proposal from the employers failed to address one of the key concerns for workers: a staffing requirement that addresses the implementation of port automation at facilities such as DP World’s Centerm container Terminal in Vancouver.

Local 514 said employers have “demanded the union agree to having technological change provisions of the Canada Labour Code that apply to all federally unionized workers waived in a new contract,” a demand that Morena called “ludicrous.”

“The idea that our union would waive provisions of the Canada Labour Code that protect not only ILWU Local 514 but all Canadian workers is absolutely outrageous,” Morena said in the statement Sunday.

Morena also said employers told the union that they would remove parts of the existing collective agreement — including retroactivity on wages as well as welfare and other benefit improvements — if the union did not accept its final offer presented Wednesday.

The employers, in response to Morena’s comments, disputed a number of points raised by the union leader.

The association said its final offer not only matched a deal reached last year with longshore workers to end a dispute that included a 13-day freeze at B.C. ports, but also included “additional elements” specifically for Local 514 members.

“The BCMEA is not requiring any concessions of the union in our final offer, nor is the final offer removing any items from the existing collective agreement,” the employers said.

The labour disruption in Vancouver, Canada’s largest port, has prompted concern from both political and business leaders.

In a joint written statement, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen called on the federal government to “urgently intervene with binding arbitration” in future disputes, while also improving “its strategy for managing labour relations” in federally regulated transportation sectors.

“These ports export about $50 million worth of Alberta’s key commodities every day including agricultural, energy and manufacturing-related products,” the statement said. “A prolonged work stoppage will disrupt the movement of these products, backlog other transportation networks such as rail and trucking and damage the economies of Alberta and Canada.”

Chemistry Industry Association of Canada president Bob Masterson said in a statement that “this level of uncertainty further strains Canada’s reputation as a reliable trading partner,” while Fertilizer Canada urged government to legislate changes that would oblige service provisions to continue during strike or lockout in longshoring.

“We are once again on the brink of losing access to a critical trade corridor,” Fertilizer Canada president Karen Proud said in the statement, noting disruptions earlier this year when both major Canadian railways shut down due to labour strife.

“Potash fertilizer will be one of the hardest hit commodities,” she said. “We are asking both the BC Maritime Employers Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada to come to a resolution and avoid a catastrophic shutdown.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

British Columbia’s election agency says it has discovered that a ballot box containing 861 votes wasn’t counted in the recent provincial election, as well as other mistakes, including 14 votes going unreported in a crucial riding narrowly won by the NDP.

The errors prompted B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad to call for an independent review on Monday.

Elections BC said in a statement that the omission of the ballot box did not affect the result in Prince George-Mackenzie, the electoral district where the box was found.

It said the unreported votes in Surrey-Guildford were discovered last week during preparations for a judicial recount in the riding, where Garry Begg’s 27-vote victory propelled the New Democrats to a one-seat majority government.

Rustad called the errors “an unprecedented failure by the very institution responsible for ensuring the fairness and accuracy of our elections.”

“While I am not disputing the final outcome pending remaining judicial recounts, it’s clear that mistakes like these severely undermine public trust in our electoral process,” he said.

B.C.’s chief electoral officer, Anton Boegman, said in the statement that the discovery of the “anomaly” in the Surrey-Guildford count triggered a provincewide review.

“Our elections rely on the work of over 17,000 election officials from communities across the province. Unfortunately, unintentional human errors do occur in administering the vote,” he said.

The review, which started last Wednesday and ended Sunday, identified what the statement described as “data entry omissions” that resulted in mistakes impacting “a small number of votes” in 69 of the province’s 93 ridings.

It said the omissions “comprise only 0.05 per cent of total votes in those districts.”

The mistake resulted in 14 votes for Surrey-Guildford not being counted, it said.

The recounts in the province’s Supreme Court for that riding and Kelowna Centre are scheduled to take place on Nov. 7 and Nov. 8.

In British Columbia, voters can cast a ballot for their riding at polling stations across the province.

The statement said election officials in six ridings erred by not reporting out-of-district results that had been recorded on 11 tabulator tapes.

The statement said the number of unreported votes in each district did not affect the outcome in any of them, pending judicial recounts in the two ridings that had been triggered by their narrow margins.

Boegman said the errors were disclosed to the judges and parties involved in the recounts and added that election officials “were continuing our review to ensure that any additional omissions were identified.”

The statement said a recount of the ballot box in Prince George-Mackenzie, a riding easily won by B.C. Conservative Kiel Giddens, had been requested.

It did not explain how the ballot box was missed on the election day count.

Elections BC did not immediately respond to a request for more details.

Pending the judicial recounts, Premier David Eby’s NDP have 47 seats in the legislature, the slimmest possible margin to form a majority government in British Columbia.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

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