Latest news with #IainRankin
CBC
18-06-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Opposition MLAs worry N.S. government is shelving environmental racism report
Opposition MLAs are concerned the Nova Scotia government could be shelving a report on environmental racism after senior Public Works officials told a committee on Wednesday that they have not seen that report or its recommendations a year after it was completed. In March, Deputy Premier Barb Adams said during question period that the report and its recommendations "are being used by all government departments." "This is an entire government approach in order to deal with the issues that the panel wanted to be addressed," Adams said at the time. "All government is reviewing those projects and working on the recommendations." But during a meeting of the legislature's public accounts committee on Wednesday to discuss an auditor general's report on contaminated sites, Public Works deputy minister Paul LaFleche and other senior officials said the report has not been shared with them. LaFleche later told reporters he would ensure staff in his department familiarize themselves with it. Public Works is responsible for dealing with the findings of reports and, when it comes to contaminated sites, cleaning them up and containing them, he said. "If something needs to be done by our department, we will be doing it," LaFleche said. Liberal MLA Iain Rankin said it's hard to explain why LaFleche and other officials would not have seen the report by now and he's left to conclude that the government is worried about the findings. "They're not being transparent," he told reporters. "That tells me that they're not putting a high priority on rectifying the issue of environmental racism … I think you could say it's been shelved." Minister won't say if she's read recommendations NDP MLA Lisa Lachance said it's disappointing that the report is not being made public and equally concerning that it's not been shared more broadly within the highest ranks of the government. "We all know the stories from Boat Harbour, from Africville from Shelburne," Lachance told reporters. A former dump was located in Shelburne next to a historic Black community in the 1940s, leading to ongoing concerns about health risks and effects. Africville is the former historic Black community in Halifax's north end that was denied municipal services and eventually expropriated by the city to make way for construction of the MacKay Bridge. Boat Harbour, a former tidal estuary next to Pictou Landing First Nation, was converted to a treatment lagoon for pulp mill waste after the community was misled by government and company officials of the day about the potential impacts. A former Liberal government, with all-party support, forced its closure in 2020 and a cleanup process has since been initiated. The creation of the panel and its report was the result of an NDP amendment to a piece of major environmental legislation from the Progressive Conservative government in 2022. The province received the report from the panel in June of 2024. Last month, Justice Minister Becky Druhan, who is also responsible for the Office of Equity and Anti-Racism, refused to say if she's read it and her department later said the report and its recommendations were never intended to be made public. The government has not made African Nova Scotian Affairs Minister Twila Grosse available to take questions on the matter.
CBC
25-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Liberal bill would require considering wood heat for N.S. public buildings
Liberal House leader Iain Rankin says a bill his party tabled last week at Province House would create new markets for the forestry industry while helping to heat public buildings with something other than oil. The Wood Chip Heating Systems in Public Buildings Act would require Nova Scotia government officials to consider wood heat systems in all new public buildings or in cases of major retrofits, including for schools and hospitals. In an interview last week, Rankin said there would be multiple benefits to the initiative. "For the climate, because it is a renewable resource. It could be a cost savings to the province because of the volatility of oil prices — so it's displacing oil — and it creates a good economic advantage to areas of the province that are predominantly rural." Rankin said the bill is a nod to the 2018 Lahey report on sustainable forestry practices, which advocated for the use of efficient wood heat as a way to create markets for wood chips and low-grade forestry byproducts from ecological forestry. The industry has struggled to find such markets since the shutdown of the Northern Pulp mill in Pictou County five years ago. When Rankin was lands and forestry minister in a former Liberal government, he said there was an extensive list of public buildings that could be converted to wood heat. Since the change in government in 2021, however, he said it seems like there is less interest in using wood heat. He called on Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton to champion the cause as a way to promote more ecological forestry and create economic development for rural communities. In a recent interview, Rushton said he's interested in exploring new markets for low-grade wood and chips, and noted an ongoing assessment of the viability of a new pulp mill in Queens County and the potential creation of a hub for sustainable aviation fuel that would use biomass as part of the process. Rankin's bill comes on the heels of a report from Nova Scotia-based TorchLight Bioresources, which makes the case for the development of biomass combined heat and power plants, along with associated district heating networks, throughout the province. Another option that incorporates wood heat The plants would be fuelled with low-grade wood products and the byproducts of ecological forestry, with generated electricity going into the grid and generated heat being delivered to homes and buildings through a network of underground pipes. The process is common in countries such as Denmark, Finland and Sweden, according to the report. "None of this is experimental, this is actually what has driven decarbonization in these [countries]," Jamie Stephen, TorchLight's managing director, said in a recent interview. Although the establishment of the power plants and pipe networks would cost billions of dollars, the report points to financing options through pension funds and private-sector equity investment without relinquishing ownership. Co-operative ownership, which is common in Europe, is another option. Stephen said combined district heat and power plant systems would help control heating costs in the province while making Nova Scotia less dependent on energy imports and positioning the province to become a net exporter of energy.
