Last Monday, the Canadian government published final regulations banning the manufacture and import of certain single-use plastics by the end of 2022 (Reuters).
Last week, the Government of Canada began the public engagement phase of its National Adaptation Strategy. The strategy is Canada’s first-ever framework meant to address and adapt to climate change impacts. From May to July of 2022, the government is seeking public comment related to short-term action that can support longer-term goals and address adaptation priorities.
The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically increased reliance on single-use plastics, resulting in a plastics pollution crisis faced by many countries around the world. A French environmental nongovernmental organization recently released a video showing masks and gloves littering the seabed of the Mediterranean Sea.
On February 4, Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal ruled against four challenges by First Nations groups against the controversial expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline.
On June 18, Canada passed a new law banning the import and export of shark fins. Called the Fisheries Act, the new law also requires depleted fish populations to be rebuilt. Canada, which is the largest importer of shark fins outside of Asia, is the first G20 country to ban the export and import of shark fins. For the full story, see https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-canada-fisheries/canada-becomes-first….
Canada's top court has ruled that energy companies must fulfill their environmental obligations before paying back creditors in cases of insolvency and bankruptcy, effectively requiring companies to clean up old oil and gas wells rather than leaving them for others to clean up.
Canada's Syncrude has pleaded guilty to the deaths of 31 blue herons at its oil sands mine in northern Alberta and fined C$2.75 million. According to Alberta's energy regulator, the birds died after becoming oiled in an abandoned sump that was built to collect process-affected water containing residual bitumen from a storage site at the mine. Syncrude was previously fined C$3 million for negligence in the 2008 deaths of 1,600 ducks in a toxic tailings pond.
On October 23, Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, announced a plan to tax industrial emitters and fuels in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and New Brunswick. The fuel surcharge is expected to raise about 2.3 billion Canadian dollars in revenue next year, much of which will be sent out as benefits to individuals. The tax on large industrial emitters will begin in January, and the fuel tax will take effect in April. For the full story, see https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/10/25/stories/1060104259.
After 10 North Atlantic right whales were killed in Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence over the past two months, the Canadian government is ordering certain ships to reduce speeds to prevent more deaths. 2017 has been the deadliest year for the endangered mammal since scientists began tracking their numbers in the 1980's. Vessels that are 20 meters or longer are temporarily restricted to a maximum speed of 10 knots in the western portion of the Gulf. For the full story see http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-canada-whales-idUKKBN1AR20O.
Canada announced that it planned to impose a cap on pollution in provinces that refuse to adopt a national price on carbon. Last December, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reached a deal with 8 of the 10 provinces to introduce a carbon price to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, and threatened to impose it on holdout provinces. Thursday, the government proposed a tax on fossil fuels that would increase annually. Under Trudeau's plan, carbon pollution would cost $10 a ton in 2018, rising by $10 a year until it reaches $50 in 2022.