What is This Election About?

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What Is This Election About?

Canada Going in the Wrong Direction

Today we learn that reports show that growth in the Tar Sands is negating all progress in reducing Canada’s contribution to greenhouse gases.  The report recommends we buy carbon credits abroad to offset our own pollution.  I can’t think of a stupider solution to this problem. 

Activists have been telling Prime Minister Harper for years that expanding the Tar Sands is a wrong-headed policy and today’s news proves it.  It is not possible to be a legitimate world citizen and expand production in the Tar Sands.  They are simply too dirty.  We have to leave the vast majority of Tar Sands oil in the ground.  In fact, we have to leave a great deal of conventional oil and gas in the ground – let alone unconventional sources that are even less efficient.  (See Canada’s carbon budget in extended data table 3.)

How can it possibly help Canadian economic development to buy carbon credits from other countries, in effect financing their conversion to renewable energy, while we stay stuck in this old, dirty technology.  How will Canada ever compete in the twenty-first century with a carbon-based energy system? 

The only way forward for Canada is to plan a quick transition to renewable energy.  All investment towards oil and gas exploration, tar sands expansion, and fracking should be redirected toward developing the technology and infrastructure to run our factories, heat our homes and run our cars on renewable energy. 

It’s time for Harper to start planning Canadian economic policy in the interest of Canadians in this and coming generations.  It is time for Canada to cooperate with world efforts to respond to the climate crisis, instead of lining the pockets of his buddies in the oil sector at everyone else’s expense.

A Moment of Encounter

A young man sat beside me on the bus.  We chatted about climate change.  I asked him if he cared about climate change, and when he avoided my eye, I followed with --" do you think we can do anything about it?"

His reply: "The baby boom generation don't care about us.  They'll never do anything about it."

Then, this evening I saw a very articulate young man speaking for the younger generation.  He spoke very caringly about the elders whom we all love, but he said the total benefits to be distributed are being loaded toward the elderly and the situation of young people is so hard and so discouraging.  They are feeling they have no chance for a good job and a chance to raise a family.  Longer years in school.  Bigger debts.  Poorer quality lower paying short term jobs instead of hopes of a career.  Incredibly expensive housing whether to rent or to own.

For those who are lucky enough to have a real job, the TFSA's and tax credits will help.  For those who don't make enough to pay taxes, there is nothing.  Just higher costs and precariously low  incomes.  Maybe we in the baby boom had better consider how much we are asking for ourselves and think about how we are supporting the next generation to succeed.  Perhaps we should look at Free University Education to the Bachelor's Degree.  Maybe we should start building the renewable energy future so that they will have a sustainable economy in good relations with the earth and jobs that support a family.

Maybe there should be serious consultation with young people to see what they perceive would be the most helpful to them instead of prescribing solutions ourselves.

This is a time when we really have to step up, and deal with the misguided perceptions of reality in this society.  We have to look reality directly in the eye and face up to our responsibilities.  We cannot let this conversation devolve into who got the most and who got screwed.  We have a lot of changes to make and we won't get there if we don't work together.  Don't let "THE MAN" divide us into young and old, weak and strong, different ethnicities or interest groups.  The political alignments -- Liberal, NDP, Conservative, Wild Rose, Bloc, Green, Tea Party -- even these must not be allowed to divide us.  All of us are needed in the new world.  All of our creativity.  All of our knowledge.  All of our skills.  All of our vulnerabilities.

I fasted on Parliament Hill on Earth Day for ClimateFast.  We were HUNGRY FOR CLIMATE LEADERSHIP AND JUSTICE.

Doreen Stevens, an amazing Algonquin singer and artist sung to the energies of the universe and brought them into our circle.  Here she is presenting ClimateFast with a beautiful butterfly mosaic.  The butterfly is one of the sacred symbols of transformation -- in almost all traditions.  We are amazed at the ability of nature to create these on-going life-long transforming organisms.  They are symbols of our own potential transformation.  Doreen has done our Annual Fast and Vigil great honour in giving us this mosaic.  All the members of ClimateFast express their deepest gratitude to her for this honour.

We do this work, fasting on parliament hill, holding events, and speaking with Senators and MP's because we want our leaders to know that we don't want to be the generation that sucked their children dry.  We want them to succeed and flourish.  But we also want them to work with us to adjust our ways of doing things, especially in relation to First Nations, the vulnerable people, and the environment.  We must live sustainably and share the wealth.  Our young must have what they need to thrive.  And our elders must have dignity and security and compassion as they learn to let go of this one precious life time each of us has.  To find out more about this, check out ClimateFast

End Subsidies on Fossil Fuels

In 2009 Canada promised the world at the G20 that it would phase out subsidies to fossil fuels.  Over five years later we have not finished the job.  To give the Harper Government some credit, before 2009 they did announce plans to eliminate 4 major subsidies worth about $879 (according to a July 10, 2014 Pembina Report.).   Clear Federal subsidies such as ACIT (Atlantic Canada Investment Tax Credit) and ACCA (Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance) are in the process of being phased out.  But there are still about  $1.4 Billion in provincial subsidies to that sector and as defined by the World Trade Organization,

the Federal Government is still heavily subsidizing exploration and development.  The CEE (Canadian Exploration Expense), and the CDE (Canadian Development Expense) are an attempt to support the very expensive and high risk efforts of companies to explore for new reserves (for example in the Arctic). Pembina reports the value of CEE and CDE subsidies at about $711 million in 2008 based on a report by  Enviroeconomics Inc.  

This does not take into account the subsidy we are giving them by refusing to implement an aggressive, fair, equitable, and effective price on carbon that would bring the government or—with a fee and dividend approach, the people of Canada—up to another $34 billion a year.   Such a price might start as low as $10-30 per tonne and be increased over time.  ($34 billion would represent $212 per tonne and would certainly encourage people to find alternatives to fossil fuels.)

If we are going to subsidize the oil companies, we should be subsidizing them to aggressively clean up the tailings ponds in the oil sands and generally clean up their mess after themselves.  Our current fossil fuel energy strategy seems to be to try to get as much as possible out of the ground before they become stranded assets.  Some say the recent fall in oil prices is a cyclical thing.  These things just happen and oil will go up again.  I am not an economist, but as an ordinary citizen who reads and watches closely, I would like to offer a different theory.

In the energy sector there are many changes going on.  There are so many factors in play, all in change, that no one has any idea how this scenario will play out.  There is a very large and successful divestment movement led by 350.org that is having an impact on larger investors.  Recently professors at both UBC and McGill voted to have their Universities divest from fossil fuels.  More and more people are getting off oil and gas and getting on to renewable energy all around the world.  We understand we have to aggressively reduce our use of oil and gas and coal.  Will demand continue to grow?  Or is it slowing and will it start to go down?  If oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, the US fracking industry, and Alberta Oil sands as well as Russia and China all insist on increasing production the price will stay down.  If  committed energy users stay focused on reducing consumption even though oil is cheap because of the pollution current inventories will stay high and prices cheap.  The big question is -- when will EVERYONE, companies included, realize that these energy assets have become stranded assets that must be left in the ground?  

Wouldn’t it be good if our economic system supported real leadership from our oil and gas sectors to recognize the truth of what is going on around them and to stop this last grasping for the old gravy train from this industry.  As happened with the apartheid boycotts, our energy sector needs relief from the requirement to maximize profits.  The world community needs them to stop throwing good money after bad.  We must have a moratorium on drilling in the Arctic signed on to by every nation bordering the Arctic Ocean.  We don’t need any new pipelines to continue to supply our current clients in the oil and gas sector.  And we need them to clean up their mess – and not dump it off on the taxpayer to do for them after they collect on $711 million of tax deferrals, which they will not have to pay because they were unable to bring their assets to er to the market for sale.

Service stations in this country need to transform to servicing and recharging electric vehicles, and Canada needs to develop a leading edge electric auto sector.  We need tremendous research and development into state of the art storage systems for electrical energy, and computer support networks for a complex, interactive, electric grid.  

If the energy sector wants to make money by exporting energy, let them get serious about investing in our technologies and capacities in renewable energy.  We have the renewable energy capacity if we want to develop it.  As a society we need to produce and bring down the cost of geothermal technology to the point where every home can be heated using a heat pump and a solar collector – or some other equally low energy approach.  People and communities don’t have to wait for big energy to take the lead.  All over Canada people are forming energy co-ops like Solar Share in Toronto, or Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op in Ottawa to build the energy infrastructure of the future.

And our political leaders must begin to plan for the changes that will be required in our cities in order to accommodate this rapid change.  Our lifestyles will change and our cities have to develop in such a way as to accommodate those changes.  All three levels of government will be needed to help the Canadian population change their whole system of heating homes.  We still need much more aggressive conservation and retrofit programs and they must be available to public housing as well as to the private homeowner.  We need to build food stores into every neighbourhood and not assume everyone will have a car.  We’ll be walking and biking more.  The Ecology Ottawa “complete street” program is a prototype for all cities.  And we will need a lot more public transit.

Ontario is to be congratulated for its clear, aggressive, and urgent strategy to bring Ontario into the twenty-first century based on low use of fossil fuels.  They are showing great leadership.  I hope the other provinces will come to the table with equally great strategies and that we can all learn to work together to build a strong Canadian economy in a low fossil-fuel world.  The time to build the Canada we want is now.

Will CBC Report the Details on Rail Derailment?

Dear CBC News;

This morning CBC reported a rail derailment in the North, which involves a fire that has raged more than 24 hours, and an oil spill of "crude oil".  The incident is receiving very little coverage on either radio or TV and after a whole day we are still not getting more details.  Why aren't you informing the public on this spill?  Following are some of the pieces of information I am looking for in your news reporting:

• What kind of rail cars were carrying the oil?  Are these more of the older, less safe rail cars, or are they newer, "safer" ones?
• What were they carrying?  Was the "crude oil" conventional crude, or dilbit -- tar sands oil suspended in diluent?
• How big was the oil spill?
• What is the emergency response process and how long will it take to put out the fire and to begin the cleanup?
• What are the difficulties of cleaning up such an oil spill on snow in winter temperatures?  What are the resources and plans to clean up a spill in this kind of isolated location?
• What would be the consequences if they fail to clean it up before spring?  What water bodies are nearby that may be affected?

Be assured, Canadians do care about serious rail accidents and oil spills, including in isolated locations.  We are concerned about the safety of carrying oil out of Alberta by train.  We are as concerned for the natural environment in the North as we are in the South.  Please keep us informed.

Ethical Investing

A Response to the Current 2014 12 08, 9:30 am

Dear Anna Maria Tramonti;

Many of your guests were missing the point or downplaying the urgency of the Fossil Fuels divestment movement.  The problem we are facing as a human species is that we have an extremely limited world carbon budget to spend.   In 2012, that budget was 565 Gigatons that could be safely burned and still meet our world-accepted target of two degrees Celsius.  It is less now.  The existing reserves at that time were 2795 gigatons.  That would mean we would have to leave 4/5 of current reserves in the ground and not develop them – at least not for use as fuel.  The IPCC has made this information clearly available to all.

This means that new reserves recently reported in the Arctic must not be developed.  It means we should not triple production in the tar sands.  It means that if the oil sector wants to stay in business in an ethical, sustainable way, it has to take the immense profits our system has allowed them to make out of oil and gas and coal, and use that money to develop our future—a future that does not involve burning oil and gas.  So much of our capital is locked up in these huge extractive industries focused on environmentally destructive megaprojects.  We have to release this capital in order to build a new sustainable way of living that respects the earth and all life.

I want to invest in an energy company that is developing electricity storage systems for renewable energy.  I want to invest in a company that is building the infrastructure for electric vehicles across North America so I don’t have to fill up at the pump with gasoline.  I want to invest in new ways to heat my home, and in any kind of processes that help us conserve and use less energy.  Mr. Yeager from the Wild Rose party pays a disservice to the people of Canada when he says we don’t know where our gasoline comes from.  He accuses us of being ignorant and stupid.  It is the oil industry that has its head in the sand. 

The small bits of tinkering discussed by Michelle Du Cordova of NEI Investments will not be enough.  I agree with her that there will be a place in the mix for oil companies – especially those focused on supplying plastics.  But it will be a much smaller place than what they have now.  We need to take all our capital, and all our creativity and ingenuity and make a transition to 100% renewable energy for as many sectors as possible by 2030.   I hope Ms. Cordova will take her clout as a shareholder and begin to communicate this message to our oil company leaders.

In the meantime, to invest in fossil fuels is to sentence our grandchildren to a dangerous, chaotic, uncertain future.  It is so stupid, when we can already see that an economy based on renewable energy has the potential to create more, better-paying jobs, distribute wealth better all over the world, and do much less damage to the environment.

Working for a better future for all humanity and companion species,

Rev. Frances Deverell

Retired Unitarian Minister in the Community in Ottawa and

Ottawa host, ClimateFast.ca

ClimateFast Report

October Greetings Unitarian Universalists, Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice and Supporters of ClimateFast! 

For the third year in a row a group of dedicated climate activists held a fast and vigil (Sept. 28 - October 2) on Parliament Hill to draw the public's attention to the climate crisis and the need to act now. We continue to urge our political leaders, senators and members of parliament to sign the politicians' pledge for the climate, namely, 1. Put an end to fossil fuel subsidies 2. Put a price on carbon 3.Support the development of a renewable energy plan for Canada. In conjunction with the annual Ottawa Peace Festival we held a number of climate conversations, including an intergenerational conversation at the University of Ottawa, (plus screening of 'Do the Math!' by 350.org climate scientist Bill McKibbon); an interfaith discussion at St. Paul's United Church and an activist conversation at the headquarters of Oxfam.

All the participants agreed that meeting with one another in the flesh, and sharing our individual and collective stories - the highs and the lows - renewed our spirits and was a practical exercise in coalition building. We are part of a growing  people's movement worldwide. Like the Indigenous-led 'Idle No More' movement, ordinary Canadians are starting to stand up and speak out for the rights of Mother Earth. Aside from the climate conversations, organized and led by the Reverend Frances Deverell, we watched two new films at the local library -  'Hands On: Women, Climate, Change' and 'The Change Agents'. a coming-of-age, must-see movie for all secondary students in Canada. 

The 'Climate Fastival' on the Hill brought together a wide array of musicians, including Unitarian troubadours, Chris White         and Tony Turner and their talented back-up performers. And of course, the Ottawa Raging Grannies put in an appearance,         with Ottawa First's Ria Heynen taking the vocal lead. Ottawa First's Chalice Choir also took part in the 'Climate Fastival'.         Our red and white CUSJ banner was on prominent display alongside Citizens' for Public Justice and ClimateFast's bilingual 'Hungry for Climate Leadership' banner. 'Just Voices' community-based Choir graced us with the 'Song for the Climate' and other sing-along songs at our Opening Ceremony on Parliament Hill the first evening and again at the Closing Ceremony.

We were blessed to have Anishnawbe elder Annie Smith St. George and her Metis husband, Robert, lead the Closing Ceremony by candlelight along with the Spirit Flowers Drumming Group led by Gabrielle Fayant. As we went around the circle,               each person spoke from the heart and lifted one other up by highlighting memorable moments from the Ottawa Peace Festival and ClimateFast activities. We were blessed to have the company of fellow climate faster Joseph Boutilier, (unityfortheclimate.ca) the brave young man from Victoria, B.C. who unicycled all the way to Ottawa to raise awareness of the need for personal and political action on the climate. Another wonderful young transgender anarchist from Montreal, Atshak Kanimischt, also joined the ClimateFasters this year. She preached a gentle message of diversity and fluidity of body, mind and heart. She also promised to bring more young people to next year's Climatefast.

Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, fasted in solidarity with us and brought along her fellow Green MP, Bruce Hyer, to address the crowd on the benefits of Citizens' Climate Lobby's (CCL) proposed carbon pollution fee, called 'carbon fee and dividend'. NDP Matthew Kelway also urged us to sign a petition in support of his Private Member's Bill on the re-introduction of the 'Climate Change Accountability Act'. Liberal John McKay also spoke of the urgent need to act on climate but with an election coming up in 2015, the Liberal Party has yet to issue a party platform on pricing carbon, perhaps well aware of the fact that one of their own, Stephane Dion, was roundly trounced for his proposed 'ecotax' during the last election. 

If 'political will' is lacking in our national, provincial and local governments to start transitioning  to a green economy, then it is up to us, the citizens of Canada, to do our part and create the political and physical environment to act for a secure and liveable future. Luckily, we are seeing moves in that direction from many quarters. NDP MP, Peggy Nash, commended the Climate Fast activists on the Hill to the House and as a result, Peter Julian, Official Opposition House Leader, invited us to last Friday's National Forum on Clean Energy and Industry. The forum brought together MPs, NGOs, the Canadian public and experts on renewable energies, energy efficiency, sustainable industries and urban centres as well as European experts on international models of energy already in use. Not only was this a perfect way to end our week on the Hill, but we also managed to get four more MPs, both Liberals and NDPs, (and another one since) bringing our total to 123 MPs, who have signed the pledge.          We even found a few sympathetic Conservatives,but,much like the few remaining environmental scientists working for the federal government, they too are muzzled or 'whipped' into silence from above.

It would seem that a healthy democracy depends very much on a healthy work 'environment' in all senses of the word. 

A final word of thanks goes to Ottawa First and all the congregations who took park in ClimateFast's letter writing campaign around the first of October - our ongoing monthly campaign to not only fast (food or carbon) on the first of the month (fastfortheclimate.org) but to write or meet with our elected MPs. Make sure to c.c. the Minister of the Environment,              Peter Kent, and the Opposition Critics and Leaders. We are still waiting for the Hon.Thomas Mulcair and the Hon. Justin Trudeau to sign the pledge. Perhaps you could encourage them to follow the lead from their own caucus members. Speaking of pledge, have you signed the individual or group pledge yet? 

You will find the latest sample letter and October newsletter online at www.climatefast.ca .

2015 will be a watershed year, a major turning point, not only because of the upcoming federal election but also for the world at large.   Ban Ki-Moon, the current Secretary-General of the United Nations, pointed out at the People's March for the Climate, that the 21st U.N. Climate Change Summit, taking place in Paris at the end of next November, has, as its objective, the first binding, Universal Agreement on Climate - an ambitious but necessary goal if we are not to exceed the danger point of 2 degree Celsius global mean temperature rise.     In otherwords, we can't afford not to act in order to avoid runaway climate change. The next decade will be decisive for the future of our children and 'the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part'. (7th Unitarian Universalist principle) The 6th source of our faith 'instructs us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature'. The time for a re-set and a re-balancing act is NOW.

In faith,

Margaret Rao

President, Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice

'Standing on the Side of Love & Justice'