Canada 's New Government
Supports Clean Air and Energy Efficiency
Projects in Nova Scotia with $42.5 Million
from Trust Fund - Pictou (Nova Scotia),
May 12, 2007 – Canada’s Minister of the
Environment, John Baird, joined by the Minister
of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Canada
Atlantic Opportunities Agency, Peter MacKay,
and Nova Scotia’s Minister of Environment
and Labour Mark Parent, today announced
$42.5 million in funding for Nova Scotia’s
part of Canada’s $1.5 billion trust for
clean air and climate change. The trust
was set up by Canada’s New Government to
support provincial and territorial projects
to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions
and air pollution.
“With our announcement in Nova Scotia today,
Canada’s New Government has completed negotiations
with all ten provinces and three territories,”
said Minister Baird. “By working to address
each province’s unique environmental challenges,
Canada is getting real results for the environment
on both a local level and a national scale.”
“Nova Scotia’s environmental initiatives
reflect the type of balanced action that
Canada’s New Government is encouraging,”
said Minister MacKay. “By supporting Nova
Scotia’s environmental initiatives, we can
work together on behalf of all Nova Scotians
to find concrete and realistic solutions
to our shared environmental challenges.”
“We are pleased the federal government
is here today, joining forces with us in
dealing with climate change. This fund will
support Nova Scotia’s new Environmental
Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act commitments,”
said Minister Parent. "With strong
federal leadership like we see today, we
will be able to accelerate our plans to
achieve 18.5 percent renewable energy, and
reduced harmful emissions, by 2013.”
The federal funding creates the Nova Scotia
Green Trust and is intended to support projects
consistent with Nova Scotia's belief that
climate change is real and that humans play
a role in such change. The initial announcements
will help the Province reduce its greenhouse
gas emissions immediately by over 20,000
tonnes of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas,
and 400 tonnes of sulphur dioxide per year,
which helps reduce acid rain. In addition,
about 30 tonnes per year of harmful particulate
matter will be eliminated. Nova Scotia has
indicated that it will use the funding to
support several provincial projects, which
will include:
converting the heating plants at the Capital
District Health Authority from burning Bunker
C to natural gas. This will create a market
for natural gas on the peninsula of Halifax
to enable suppliers to bring gas across
the harbour and make it available to businesses,
home-owners and the universities, which
will further reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
pending the outcome of a strategic environmental
assessment, expanding Nova Scotia’s portfolio
of renewable energy to include funding for
one or more tidal power pilot project;
establishing the Nova Scotia Municipal
Climate and Clean Air Fund to enable Nova
Scotia municipalities to take on projects
that will reduce carbon emissions;
setting aside funds to conduct studies
and experiments in the sequestration of
Carbon Dioxide; and
establishing the Nova Scotia Environmental
Technology Fund to support the development,
commercialization, and use of new technologies
and applications to reduce greenhouse gases.
Canada ’s New Government is taking a leadership
role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions
and air pollution with diversified and complementary
measures, including its aggressive regulations
to reduce emissions in all sectors. These
initiatives will stop the increase of greenhouse
gas emissions by 2010 and no later than
2012 and achieve an absolute reduction of
150 megatonnes of greenhouse gases by 2020.
Our plan will also cut air pollution in
half by 2015.
Canada’s New Government will also continue
to work in close partnership with provinces
and territories to promote collaborative
approaches to reduce air emissions. This
will avoid unnecessary duplication of effort
so Canadians get the maximum environmental
benefits with the least amount of administrative
and cost burden for industry.
For more information about the Federal
Government of Canada’s environmental initiatives,
please visit: http://www.ecoaction.gc.ca
For further information on Nova Scotia’s
programs, please visit: http://www.gov.ns.ca/enla
Eric Richer
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of the Environment
+ More
Canadian Horizontal Drilling Ltd. Fined
for Violation of Court Order
EDMONTON - May 9, 2007 –Canadian Horizontal
Drilling Ltd. (CHD) of Wetaskiwin, Alberta,
was fined $7,500 in Alberta ProvincialCourt
on May 4, 2007, for contravening a Sentencing
Order issued under the federal Fisheries
Act.
In March 2004, CHD received a Sentencing
Order following a conviction for violating
subsection 36(3) of the Fisheries Act for
a December 2000 release of bentonite drilling
mud into Gunderson Creek near Grande Prairie,
Alberta.
One of the requirements of the Order was
that CHD publish an article about the offence,
on or before the end of September 2004,
in a publication widely available to the
Alberta horizontal drilling industry. The
Court noted that although CHD finally published
the article in October 2006 in Oilweek magazine,
it did not meet the September 2004 deadline
imposed by the Order.
Environment Canada's enforcement staff
investigates potential pollution offences
under the Canadian Environmental Protection
Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999) and the Fisheries
Act. They help ensure that companies, government
employees, and the public comply with legislation
and regulations that protect Canada's environment.
Ryan Levitt
Enforcement Officer
