The News Rundown

Alberta to pause new solar and wind power projects for six months amid review of end-of-life rules

Alberta has decided to pause all approvals for new wind and solar power projects larger than one megawatt for the next six months.
The pause is aimed at reviewing the locations of these projects, their impact on the power grid, and the rules governing their end-of-life phase.
For those unaware Alberta has seen an uptick in renewable energy due to decreasing costs in solar technology.
Alberta has a generation capacity of about 18,200 MW. On paper this seems like a lot but most of the time, we are not hitting that number.
As of recording we are generating 9900MW.
Of that 2% is wind and 7% is solar.
When the weather gets extremely hot or cold the amount of power we need goes up and we start to rely on our neighbours of BC, Saskatchewan, and Montana for energy imports.
This is important because our grid becomes inherently expensive which was caused by a push to get off coal and de-carbonize by the former Notley government and by the importation of energy from our neighbours.
This is important because it underscores the need to generate more energy and to do it in a responsible way.
The UCP has already pledged to look at nuclear energy but all options are going to be on the table.
With the decreasing cost of solar many are wanting to get into the energy market and start up new projects.
The government wants to make sure they do it right focusing on concerns of land owners ensuring that important agricultural lands are not taken up by solar farms and that the end-of-life phase of these projects is handled properly and not offset to rural municipalities to handle the decommissioning.
Affordability and Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf said that measures could include mandatory security bonds that renewable developers must pay to ensure projects can be cleaned up when they reach the end of their life.
The government will look at:
Development of power plants on specific types or classes of agricultural or environmental land.
The impact of power plant development on Alberta’s pristine viewscapes.
Mandatory reclamation security requirements for power plants.
Development of power plants on lands held by the Crown.
The impact of the increasing growth of renewables on Alberta’s generation supply mix and electricity system reliability.
This last point is the most interesting since other jurisdictions in the US have faced rolling black-outs due to grid reliability and of course cost.
A lot of people don’t realize it but our current generation statistics speak volumes in that solar accounts for 1291MW while gas accounts for over 10,000MW. And for those wondering, coal is now down to under 1,000MW hovering at 820MW.
The story continues to be told by the numbers.
While our solar numbers are going up we also have to look at our storage capacity because obviously, solar doesn’t work at night or when it’s cloudy.
Alberta only has storage capacity for 90MW.
So while solar can go up and we can have investment and should have investment, a solar strategy needs to be paired with a solar storage strategy.
This combined with the concerns of land owners, municipalities, and the question of end-of-life planning for the solar arrays raises questions that the government is right to investigate.
The pause will last until February 29th and affects 15 projects.
Many have seen this story as a purely partisan move by the UCP and it might be but it’s also asking good questions.
Newly elected NDP MLA for Calgary Elbow Samir Kayande said with this pause we will now have less “free electricity” but these projects are nothing but free.
Many of the solar projects and wind turbines rely on rare earth metals that are sourced from Asia and Africa.
The government should expand their review into where the companies building these projects source their materials from and ensure that the already existing environmental regulations for decommissioning are strong enough to handle the removal and cleanup of any components that use rare earth metals.
So while the media and partisans have called this a partisan move, there are really tough questions that need to be asked and more may be revealed than we know.
Supplementals:

It's been a challenging week for residents and visitors of Osoyoos, a small town in the Okanagan valley of BC near to the BC border with the US. A wildfire that started in the US didn't need a passport or visa as it quickly crossed the border and started threatening to burn closer to the town. Many residents had to evacuate their homes and only just today received the word yesterday as of recording that they could go back.
BC Wildfire Service information officer Shaelee Stearns said that planned burns along the north, west and northeast flanks of the fire have controlled its spread and favourable winds have blown the fire away from town. Stearns said Friday’s objective was to tie those planned burns together, as well as patrolling and mopping up areas in the north and northeast flanks.
FIrefighters have taken the threat very seriously, and thankfully conditions weren't bad enough to cause the fire to sweep into the town of 6,000 that swells to about 10,000 with seasonal visitors. That was what happened in 2021 when record high temperatures during the heat dome event sparked a wildfire that completely burned the town of Lytton, BC to the ground.
British Columbia is starting the BC Day long weekend with hot, dry weather, although thunderstorms and a chance of showers is forecast for some of the driest regions of southern B.C. starting Saturday. August is historically known as one of the most challenging months for wildfires in B.C.
The BC Wildfire Service currently lists more than 350 active wildfires burning in the province, including 13 that are considered of note, meaning they are highly visible or threaten communities.
Northeast of Kamloops, officials with the Thompson-Nicola Regional District are asking boaters to stay away from all areas on the east side of Adams Lake as debris rolls down steep hills from a wildfire that forced residents from about 100 properties on Wednesday.
Have no fear though, Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Minister Bowinn Ma stated Wednesday that the government is monitoring what she says continues to be a “critical situation” for the province. As for the cause of the fires? Ma put it bluntly: “We are experiencing the impact of climate change.”
Never mind the fact that many of these fires have been started by humans. Whether by arsonists, or idiots with campfires and cigarettes, it's more clear than ever that climate change has not caused the wildfires to start. Sure, it may have had an impact on how large the wildfires have been able to grow, but not how they start.
Arrests have been made this spring and summer of arsonists all around the province, from Sooke, to Vernon and Kamloops, to Nanaimo. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith didn’t flinch in early June when asked by talk show host Ryan Jespersen about the intensity of the current wildfire season. She said: “I’m very concerned that there are arsonists. There have been stories as well that we’re investigating and we’re bringing in arson investigators from outside the province.”
Hardly anyone in the country is unaffected. There is a direct and visceral threat to home and security for the tens of thousands who have been forced to flee. Then there’s a fear of job loss and security for those who work in sectors including oil and gas. Not to mention the physical and emotional stress on firefighters forced to work without adequate resources or funding. Millions more Canadians have been trapped under smoky skies caused by fires thousands of kilometres away. And of course, fires in the US impact Canadians just as fires in Canada impact Americans.
Prominent left wing outlet claims that blaming arson for wildfires instead of climate change amounts to the same sorts of crazy conspiracy theories that we saw in 2021 during the heat dome, where space lasers owned by Jewish bankers were supposedly the cause of Lytton's destruction, which of course is crazy. Arsonists do have an impact, and it's not just a conspiracy theory to talk about how its affecting the rest of the continent.
Humans do cause a majority of wildfires, and while lightning strikes do cause fires that burn about 2/3 of the land damaged by wildfires, fires started by arson are more likely to spread nearer to population centres.
Now that's not to say that there haven't been damaging conspiracy theories and misinformation. In early June, the B.C. Wildfire Service released a video explaining how it uses planned ignitions — a fire management tactic that strategically burns areas of the forest a fire hasn’t reached as a way to contain it. But in a doctored version of the video going viral online, footage from the service is edited so all you see is a yellow helicopter flying above a smoke-filled forest in Donnie Creek, in the northeastern part of the province, with a torch suspended from one of the wings shooting flames into the trees. The words “it was a setup” flash on the screen.
But it's clear that politicians have foregone the fight against wildfires and climate change in the face of petty partisan attacks. Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said his ability to act on wildfires was limited by political differences. “What would greatly help our capacity to accelerate our fight against climate change in Canada is if I didn’t have to fight with certain jurisdictions all the time on doing the bare minimum to fight climate change, if I wouldn’t have to fight the Conservative Party of Canada.” Guilbeault forgets that his government has been in power for 8 long miserable years and does not have to fight with opposition to get anything done. Indeed, a large list of climate legislation has been passed, and has it helped? Clearly not, as the wildfires still rage.
So what's the solution? Well, it's clear that legislating hasn't had an effect, and we can't fight mother nature's lightning strikes. So perhaps dealing with arsonists may be a way that we can help alleviate some of the pressures by reducing the numbers of wildfires started. While left wing rags may call that a conspiracy theory, sometimes in history such positions have been denounced when time eventually proves it to be true.
Supplementals:

Alberta pulls support for 2030 Commonwealth Games, bid efforts cancelled

Alberta will not be hosting the 2030 Commonwealth Games. The Government of Alberta has withdrawn its support from the bid.
The joint effort, which included the cities of Edmonton and Calgary, the Tsuut’ina Nation, Enoch Cree Nation, and the Government of Canada, aimed to unite communities across the province in a grand celebration of sport and culture.
Tourism and Sport Minister Joseph Schow cited financial feasibility concerns as the primary reason for the province's withdrawal. The estimated cost of the games was a staggering $2.68 billion.
93% of the financial burden would have been on Alberta taxpayers.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation applauded the move noting the cautionary tale of Victoria, Australia, cancelling its plans to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games due to an estimated cost exceeding $6 billion CAD.
Also in Tourism and Sport Minister Joseph Schow’s mandate letter was a requirement that Alberta hold a referendum before tax dollars are put towards sporting tournaments.
The decision comes as a disappointment for many, especially for those who were eagerly anticipating the opportunity to advance reconciliation with Indigenous partners.
Mayors Amarjeet Sohi and Jyoti Gondek have indicated an interest in exploring other opportunities for hosting major sporting events and investing in sports and recreation facilities to attract athletes.
Now while most of the focus has been on the international messaging that Alberta will miss out on, it’s starting to emerge that many people in Edmonton and Calgary were looking to use the bid to get funding for “much-needed” upgrades to facilities, their own words.
Amanda Espinoza, executive director of operations with the Alberta 2030 Commonwealth Games Committee, said "Doing so would really fill that infrastructure gap for training all year round, and certainly for people to participate in national and international level competition.”
Facilities are a key argument for bringing any international sporting event to our borders but we also need an administrative framework.
The question of an international sporting event always raises the spectre of money and administration.
To this date there has been one international sporting event that was on budget and administered properly, that was the Vancouver 2010 winter olympics.
The 2030 Commonwealth Games did not have a blueprint to follow and there has been a history of the Commonwealth games running over budget.
Given that the expertise exists in Canada there is no reason why bids for sporting events should not be pursued if they have the blessing of the population by referendum and follow a framework close to that of Vancouver 2010.
The BC government shutdown Vancouver’s 2030 bid despite it having buy-in from First Nations communities and a commitment to follow a process similar to 2010.
The framework wasn’t in place for the Commonwealth games but the First Nations buy-in was.
Instead, the Alberta government should use this as a learning opportunity for future bids to put the province and Canada on the map.
Examples could be another Commonwealth games bid, a Calgary winter olympics bid or a joint Edmonton-Calgary summer games bid with high speed rail investment between the cities.
Of course none of this should happen without the approval of the population but the importance of international events when done properly should not be understated.
Supplementals:

Firing Line

Trudeau pans Poilievre's approach as 'dangerous for Canadians'

Less than a week after naming his new cabinet vowing a renewed focus on the concerns of Canadians, the one name Prime Minister Justin Trudeau couldn’t keep out of his mouth on Monday was Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
At an event announcing multimillion-dollar joint federal-municipal investment towards building more homes in Hamilton, Ont., Trudeau brought Poilievre up multiple times in a campaign style attack, from panning his housing, health and homelessness policy proposals, to distilling his leadership style down to "cuts and be angry," while vowing the Liberals intend to take a different tack.
The prime minister, during the press conference was wearing a bandage in the middle of his forehead, the result of what the PMO says was from bumping his head over the weekend while playing with his kids. Perhaps the bump on his head jostled his brain somewhat as the angry retort to a question from a reporter seemed to be the very thing he was complaining Poilievre of doing.
These latest comments build on a renewed messaging approach launched last week— an effort by an embattled minority Liberal government to reset the agenda—seeking to present a clear contrast between what a re-elected Trudeau team would offer and what a vote for Conservative change could mean for the country.
With still several hot weeks left before the fall sitting of Parliament will see the two leaders square off across the aisle in question period, both men have been travelling across Canada to drum up support.
Poilievre, for his count, has always been quick to blame many of Canada's problems on the Liberal government of Trudeau, saying that their policies have affected housing and inflation far worse than any other government in Canadian history.
"After eight years of Justin Trudeau, things are going very badly… Something new is happening in Canada: tent cities in almost every town, village, and metropolitan centre. Something that was almost unheard of eight years ago before Justin Trudeau, but what do you expect people to do? They can't pay [a] 100 per cent increase in rent."
Poilievre went on: "This is the misery and brokenness that people are living as a result of eight years of Justin Trudeau. But, the good news is that it wasn't like this before Justin Trudeau and it won't be like this after he's gone. A common-sense Conservative government will reverse his policies and bring home the Canada we know and love."
Trudeau made another gaffe this week, when in a press conference he claimed that housing isn't a 'primary federal responsibility', in his own words. Many responders wonder what exactly is the point of the federal minister for housing. Trudeau forgets that when he was running for office in 2015, he promised to tackle housing. 8 years later, we see how that's gone.
In fairness to the prime minister, he was technically correct in his remarks. Unlike national defence or the postal service, the housing market and its growing list of woes do not fall solely or even primarily to the federal government. But when a growing number of Canadians are watching their futures get trampled to death by soaring housing costs, pointing out how the division of powers works in Canadian federalism isn’t likely to be well received. That’s especially true when the leader of the Opposition and his social media team can contrast the prime minister’s statement with his previous words on the subject.
Even the Toronto Star, one of the most Liberal friendly newspapers in the country, penned a piece called "Sorry, Prime Minister Trudeau, housing is your primary responsibility".
Housing may not be the “primary responsibility” of Trudeau’s federal government but it is the primary responsibility of every person I know under the age of 40: those struggling to keep the houses they already own amid punishingly high mortgage rates and those trying and failing to get into the market for the first time.
Housing is the primary responsibility of Canadians who want to start families but who can’t afford anything beyond a one-bedroom rental — if that. It is also the primary responsibility of seniors forced out of their homes as a result of rent increases, not to mention asylum seekers and homeless people forced to sleep on the street.
The primary responsibility of the people should be the primary responsibility of its federal government. Housing should not be characterized as a problem the feds are kindly willing to “help with”; it should be a problem they are working tirelessly to solve. Not only have they failed to meet the housing moment with sufficient policy solutions; they seem incapable of meeting the cultural moment with the emotional response it deserves.
The prime minister’s suggestion that housing isn’t his primary responsibility is essentially an extremely high level version of a federal government employee telling an exasperated Canadian on the other end of the phone line, “excuse me while I transfer your call.”
There’s a second truth embedded in Trudeau’s comment, one that’s much more significant than the technicality around the division of powers and responsibilities. If housing isn’t a “primary federal responsibility,” that’s at least in part because his own government refuses to treat it as one. If it could move mountains during the COVID-19 pandemic, why can’t it be bothered to nudge more than the most modest molehills when it comes to housing? When young Canadians are practically begging for a shock-and-awe strategy, why are the Trudeau Liberals giving them shrug-and-blah instead?
That approach was personified by the recent announcement in Hamilton, one that will deliver a grand total of 214 new units of housing. Yes, every little bit helps right now, but when the prime minister is personally announcing such tiny drops in the proverbial bucket, it makes you wonder if the Liberals have any intention of filling it — or if they even know how.
Say what you like about Pierre Poilievre and how he may seem like he's stoking anger, but the federal Conservative party leader does not downplay Canadians’ desperation in the face of the housing crisis. In fact, he’s so invested in highlighting the lunacy of that crisis — i.e. calling out the wild expensiveness of modest Canadian homes — that he recently apologized to a woman for referring to her small Niagara Falls house as a “tiny little shack” in order to make a point about the overpriced real estate market. The gimmick was a bit silly, of course, but its spirit — one of frustration, disbelief, and anger — was spot on.
The Conservatives don’t have a quick fix for the housing crisis, of course, and that’s in part because there are no quick fixes here. But at least they’ve figured out how to show they care about it. “We will fight tooth and nail against big cities that say no to more housing,” Conservative housing critic Scott Aitchison tweeted. “And yes, it is a fight for more housing. The gatekeepers and special interests will do everything they can to stop Pierre Poilievre and I. But it is a fight worth having.”
He’s right. As the Globe and Mail’s editorial board noted in a recent piece, the backlog is still at the civic level, where governments continue to slow-roll the sort of major changes that are required. In cities like Vancouver and Victoria, councils have made superficial improvements to their zoning laws that were kneecapped (deliberately, one suspects) by the additional regulations and requirements they imposed. “The housing market is tilted against new buyers and renters,” they wrote, “with existing and new supply running well below demand. This is the root cause of Canada’s housing supply squeeze and blame can be pinned on local politicians who oversee rules that allow — and mostly disallow — new housing.”
Yet for some reason the federal Liberals can’t or won’t tap into this feeling. “You don’t solve problems by scaring people, by stirring up anger,” the prime minister said recently, referring to Poilievre. People are scared and angry already. If Trudeau’s government doesn’t find a way to join this fight, housing-sensitive voters — and especially younger ones — have every reason to give Poilievre’s Conservatives a trial run.
Supplementals:

Quote of the Week

"After eight years of Justin Trudeau, things are going very badly… Something new is happening in Canada: tent cities in almost every town, village, and metropolitan centre. Something that was almost unheard of eight years ago before Justin Trudeau, but what do you expect people to do? They can't pay [a] 100 per cent increase in rent." - Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Trudeau’s housing strategy.

Word of the Week

Anger - a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility.

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Show Data

Episode Title: Shrug and Blah

Teaser: Alberta reviews new renewable energy projects, the source of BC’s wildfires is debated, and Alberta pulls support for the 2030 Commonwealth Games bid. Also, Trudeau and Poilievre trade barbs on housing.

Recorded Date: August 5, 2023

Release Date: August 6, 2023

Duration: 53:51

Edit Notes: None

Podcast Summary Notes

Duration: XX:XX