I have spent several weeks on a rollercoaster of feelings when it comes to fracking. First came relief, as the Nova Scotia review of hydraulic fracturing, led by David Wheeler, acknowledged the complete lack of social license for development of Nova Scotia’s unconventional onshore resources. The panel’s final report enshrined community consent as the only path forward for fracking in this province.
Then came elation, as our government recognized the high level of concern Nova Scotians have about fracking and announced a ban on the process—the ecstatic culmination of over four years of (unpaid) work that myself and my amazing colleagues and so many inspiring community leaders have dedicated to elevating the voice of the people on this issue.
Next, there was expected disappointment as industry hyperbole flooded our media outlets, declaring the collapse of Nova Scotia’s economy because we’d rejected the risks of a shale gas industry that has never operated in Nova Scotia, and therefore never contributed to our economy in the first place.
Now there is confusion and frustration as those media outlets continue to bemoan the loss of non-existent jobs, and as government proposes drafty legislation that leaves too much unsaid.
Since when does the future of our province and the prosperity of our communities hinge on a single, volatile, extractive industry? I am in shock that our main media outlets seem to think Nova Scotians are so desperate and so gullible as to believe that all hope is lost because we’ve stood up for ourselves and demanded sustainable, visionary options for our economic future.
Let’s give ourselves some respect. A new Nova Scotian economy, based on the principles of sustainability and local prosperity, is no dream. It is a present and growing reality.
Efficiency Nova Scotia, an award-winning institution and North America’s first independent efficiency utility, has created over 1,200 jobs in this province in four years while reducing energy consumption by 5.5 percent. Somehow we never hear these numbers, and instead an entire election war was waged over whether this incredibly successful institution should continue to operate. Let’s celebrate and protect what we’ve built, instead of buying into the airy-fairy claims of risky and unestablished industry.
Wind development companies that call Nova Scotia home have secured millions of dollars in contracts to build wind turbines and clean up our electricity supply. HRM’s Solar City program was so successful that it had 10 times the amount of anticipated registrants in its first year. This innovative financing model that helps homeowners install solar thermal panels on their roofs and reduce electricity costs has now been made available to other Nova Scotia municipalities. The Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy is a centre of excellence on research into in-stream tidal energy and operates Canada’s foremost test site for tidal energy technologies.
As with all energy production, renewable energy projects have impacts, both desired and undesired. But those impacts are measured against stabilized electricity prices, the growth of local economies and the shutting down of coal plants that pollute our communities and threaten our health. Let’s open our eyes to the incredible and innovative path we are already treading, instead of slipping back into outdated ideas of prosperity.
These highlights are such a small fraction of the wealth of brilliant examples I could draw from to show how we Nova Scotians are investing in ourselves and in our homes to trace the future of our province. From value-added fisheries to sustainable agriculture to community-led forestry: We are generating these jobs now, we are seeing returns from these investments now and those returns are enriching our communities right here, right now.
So give me a break on the alarmist fracking propaganda. Government: give us legislation that encompasses fracking of all unconventional fuels, defines what hydraulic fracturing actually is, enshrines community consent and doesn’t give a free pass for “testing and research.”
Nova Scotians have had our say and we say leave it in the ground. We don’t need to threaten our water to dig up the last dregs of non-renewable fossil fuels right now. We’ve got other things on the go, and we’re working together to build an economy that works for us and on our terms.
Catherine Abreu is the energy coordinator of the Ecology Action Centre
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This article appears in Oct 16-22, 2014.
Well said! Succint, clear and logical. No fracking, no way. Global warming is not a figment of the imagination.
Cue the character assassinations and “rationalists” about the necessity of growth at any cost in 5…4…3…2…1…
Well said, Catherine. There is still waste water from the last “test wells” in 2008 and the company who made the mess is nowhere to be found, now that it’s time to clean up the mess.
Great analysis… we are creative, and the work of building a green cooperative economy, as an alternative to a fossil fuelled extractive economy, is a task worthy of inspiring a new generation.
The last paragraph of Miss Abreu article includes ” We don’t need to dig up the last dregs of non renewable fossil fuels RIGHT NOW”. Unfortuneately we could well afford to get our hands on some much needed ‘Gas”to fire our electrical generators which continue to spew toxins of all kinds on those Nove Scotians close to them. These people are dying of cancer and should be getting some assitance from Ecology Action RIGHT NOW. Fracking in places carefuling chosen way from habitats could well service this need and help many of our residents in who are in dyer need and the aforementioned dying from coal dust.
Nice, Cat. I hope people listen. They don’t all have to agree, but when the question is out there, and when people like you make rational and passionate arguments, then hopefully a more educated public will demand that the government continues to make informed decisions.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1243725-shifting-to-eco-economy-a-climate-imperative
Very positive article, but until we see the result of young and middle-aged Nova Scotians actually STAYING here for the best years of their lives instead of leaving in droves for greener pastures, this is just a fictional pep talk.
Though some might think that fracking in an area remote from residences is a safe option, they have failed to consider the fractured geological structure that exists in NS. It could take years for a contaminated water resource to affect a residential location; but that does not make the occurrence any more palatable. Water is life, and life is precious. NS has existed without a shale gas industry up to this point, and will continue to exist without it in the future… the sky is not falling and Ms Abreu’s article makes that point exceedingly well.
Nobody does “alarmist fracking propaganda” better than the Ecology Action Center, remember when Jennifer West lied her ass off about fracking well leak rates on CBC news? How about the “toxic” waste in Debert that turned out to be safer than the ordinary treated water which the sewage systems put back into the harbour and watersheds all the time? Remember when NOFRAC put on their Ebola suits and played Mr Dressup for a photo-op at the Debert “toxic” waste pond, pretending to do “tests,” on that pond of normal treated water that is lower on a WHIMS scale than dish detergent, and then the page was disappeared from NOFRAC’s website because it was such an embarrassment at what liars and manipulators and fear-mongers they are?
” still waste water from the last test wells ” This ignorant comment just shows how brainwashed people are by the Ecology Anti-Science Center. You mean the waste water in Debert that has been treated and tested and is cleaner than the ordinary treated water that the municipalities put back into the harbours and watersheds from their sewage systems anyway? The Council of Canadians and Catherine Abreau and Jennifer West ran a big misinformation campaign in Debert, saying that the safe treated water was actually radioactive waste, so Debert wouldn’t even put it in their sewage plant, so we make taxpayers pay to store it Obsessively-Compulsively in that ridiculous holding pond, when it should simply be dumped into the river! Storing that “toxic” waste is pointless since it’s not toxic. The anti-fracking fanatics will not accept reality that their “toxic” waste water in Debert is not actually toxic, so the NoSHaleGasNB facebook page is now saying that Atlantic Industrial Services (the company that treated the water) is part of a conspiracy.
So Catherine Abreau from Ecology Action Center dictates energy policy and resource development policy in Nova Scotia now. The Government of Nova Scotia is not Province House, 1726 Hollis Street, it’s Ecology Action Center, 22 Fern Lane. Look for the ugly building with a bunch of junk stuck to the side of it.
So, the NEW economy is: no shale gas exploration & dvelpment, and taxpayer dollars subsidizing Efficiency NS & windmills…how is that different from the OLD economy? That sounds like what we’ve been doing.
How many people have heard about the unmarked tanker trucks that snuck into Parrsboro one night and dumped waste water off the wharf until a few of the locals chased them off? The plant life in the harbour was white (dead) in the morning. Now tell me that the waste water in Debert is clean!!
” Efficiency Nova Scotia, an award-winning institution and North America’s first independent efficiency utility, has created over 1,200 jobs in this province in four years while reducing energy consumption by 5.5 percent. “
And where is the peer reviewed paper to support this claim ?
It’s “Scooby Doo and The Hunt for the Missing Radioactive Fracking Waste,” starring Catherine Abreau, and featuring Miles Howe as Shaggy . Here is evidence of how downright paranoid the Ecology Action Center, Council of Canadians, Sierra Club, NOFRAC, NSPIRG and their cult worshippers are: Unable to accept the test results showing the treated wastewater in Debert is even cleaner than the normal treated waste water the sewage systems put back into the harbours and rivers every day, NoSHaleGAsNB FB page is now setting out to “prove” a conspiracy. Since the lab test results came back clean, the company that did the lab tests is big fat stinking corporate liar http://bit.ly/1yKQ14x
“NS has existed without a shale gas industry up to this point, and will continue to exist without it in the future” Yeah that’s some existence with the highest unemployment, highest out-migration, highest debt per capita ratio, highest taxes, highest rates of youth unemployment, families torn apart as sons and daughters and grandchildren move to Alberta to work on the oil fields, which the environmentalists are also trying to abolish. LOL @ the Ecology Action Center’s fart-catchers writing on this comment board to worship their beloved cult leader “Cat”
Anyone criticizing Ms. Abreu for being an “Upper Canadian” as one of the commenters here did, should just fuck right off. We live in a country where people can move from province to province, and we’re all Canadians.
Do you think Cape Bretoners making a living in Fort Mac have to deal with people upbraiding them for being from a different province? No, they don’t—that kind of parochialism is unique to some hicks from some of the more unfortunate backwaters of our province. The faster Nova Scotia’s population ratio tilts from these places to our urban centres, especially the capital, the better the whole province will be, socially and economically. Fortunately, that’s happening, and as a result the economy is diversifying.
Anyway, we don’t need magical thinking about silver-bullet booms that will fix everything. We need a complex, layered, multifaceted economy that can withstand shocks and ups and downs in particular industries. Some Canadian provinces have failed to do that, notably the ones most dependent on resources (hence why Albertans are casting a nervous eye to global oil prices the past week—an OPEC upset could ruin their province).
But in Nova Scotia we have the chance to create something more sustainable. Kudos to Ms. Abreu for stating what should be obvious.
@Eric McLeod
Just to correct your misconceptions, Nova Scotia does not have the highest taxes (that’s Quebec), nor the highest dept per-capita (Quebec again, followed by Ontario), nor the highest unemployment (still Newfoundland, then New Brunswick).
Out-migration is a major problem, though–and dare I say that it’s due at least as much to our abysmally gloomy attitudes and cultural expectation of leaving, as it is to economic reality. Toronto, for example, has significantly worse employment rates than Halifax for youth and adults, as well as lower incomes. Montreal is even worse. But do residents of those cities blather on about running away to Alberta? No. Because being a perenially defeatist gloom-master is not part of the culture. It is here. We could have 100% employment and an average income of 100k, and Nova Scotians would still be banging their sad-bastard drums and complaining that we’re the next Greece.
We need a sense of reality, and we need to understand we’re not so desperate that we need to uncritically embrace every industry that comes along promising a few jobs in exchange (potentially, because I don’t pretend to know the real risks of non-risks of fracking) for the health of our environment.
@Pigeon So you’re saying we have one of the worst performing economies in Canada, and we have one of the worst out-migrations and shrinking populations in Canada, and this is Nova Scotians own fault because they don’t think positively enough? We don’t need jobs from icky oil companies, we can just think positively! Wow it’s magical thinking! Nova Scotians should stop whining and embrace de-growth and economic backwardness like Ecology Action Cult says, right Pigeon? If only Nova Scotians had a better attitude about having the highest unemployment in Canada, the lowest wages, the highest taxes. Nova Scotians are such stupid bumpkins for wanting shale gas development and all those icky jobs that come with it, we should all be grateful to the Ecology Action Center social justice crusaders who saved us from those horrible oil companies who right Pigeon?
Don’t worry everybody, we don’t need icky jobs from oil companies, Pigeon has a plan: just think positive ! I’ll just think positive while I starve.
@ Pigeon “we’re not so desperate that we need to uncritically embrace every industry that comes along” The EAC’s fart catchers uncritically embrace every utterance from Jennifer West and “Cat” Arbeau. When has Ecology Action center ever made criticisms of fracking industry without lying and making up stuff to smear them?
I don’t think anyone believes fracking will make or break Nova Scotia’a economy. However, the review of fracking led by David Wheeler suggested that more research was needed before a decision could be made on fracking in NS. This is a very reasonable recommendation, and one would would think that a temporary moratorium until this research was completed would have sufficed. Instead, Andrew Younger and NS government shouted from the rooftops “FRACKING IN NS BANNED INDEFINITELY, NO NEW JOBS WELCOME”. This rash decision was not consistent with Wheeler’s recommendations, and sends a terrible message to any companies looking to open up shop here. This whole mess is less about fracking, and more about NS government’s perceived attitude toward welcoming in new industries that can help us with our unemployment, low wages, high taxes. I’m not saying we should frack (let thorough expert research decide that, not propaganda from either side), I’m just saying we should give it, and any new industry that knocks on our door, a fair chance, otherwise the knocks might stop altogether.
As someone in their mid-twenties who has a hard time justifying staying in NS financially, the government’s handling of this situation has been very discouraging and has not inspired hope for this province’s economic future. Another strike toward a plane ticket west.
If Nova Scotia is not prepared to say yes to some of the resource based opportunities they have, I hope they won’t say yes to the transfer payments provided to them by the “have” Provinces that have permitted the opportunities to stimulate their economies and create some jobs. It would be hypocritical to accept money under this pretense.
@ Cindy Nesbitt:
You don’t understand how equalization works. Provinces are not required to undermine their own decision-making process simply in order to be net beneficiaries. Alberta is not allowed to force Nova Scotia to frack, or Ontario to expedite the exploitation of the ring of fire, or force Quebec to resume uranium and asbestos mining, under threat of ceasing their contributions to the federal transfer pot. That’s not how it works, at all.
And anyone holding up Alberta as some sort of economic ideal doesn’t have the long view in mind: Fully 24% of that province’s GDP is directly tied to oil and gas, and another quarter is tied indirectly to it, in the service and professional sectors. Alberta has been spending way beyond its means for years, avoiding debt by plundering its once-rich Heritage fund (the rainy-day fund specifically implemented by Premier Lougheed in the 70s, to insulate the province against commodity price swings). Now that they’ve exhausted that, Alberta is heading into a debt situation again.
The province has also failed to diversify its economy sufficiently, which means that the province is brutally exposed to fluctuations in global oil markets. Alberta is in great shape now. It won’t be forever, and following their lead is a very bad idea if we want to be in solid financial shape in ten or 15 years. What we need to do is build a professional, urbanized economy—not one based on non-renewable extraction of a resource that can be more cheaply produced elsewhere, and which will eventually (probably sooner than we think) become obsolete due to the disruption that will be wrought by renewable energy tech.
Building a provincial economy based on oil-extraction is, in 2014, like investing all your bucks in laying down telephone landlines in 1995.
@Cindy Nesbitt
Oh, also, we are saying YES to many of our resource opportunities: Offshore oil and gas, forestry (although not clear-cutting, which some people bizarrely think we should permit), mining of various types, fishing, mineral exploration and more.
All of these are much more productive than shale gas is likely to be—it merits further study, but we probably don’t HAVE much frackable gas anyway. This whole discussion is red herring.
yikes, this article seems to be bringing out the worst in people. except pigeon, thank god for pigeon’s commentary. it is the only sane and sensible shizz in this comment section.
NOT SURE why the coast chose to run the author’s picture to primarily illustrate this article — seems like a poor choice (more fodder for personal attack) and seems to be agitating the muggles.
Hey Comandra,
Go and check out any other Voice of the City and you’ll find we run photos of the author with them (give or take a few low-res submissions). It might seem “like a poor choice,” but part of standing up and publishing your “voice” is having your name and your face attached. Those are our rules.
Right now the Ecology Action Center is selling tickets for 500$$ a pop to see pseudo-scientist quantum-woo charlatan anti-science crackpot Vandana Shiva give a lecture about how GE-vitamin A enriched rice causes Vitamin A deficiency.
Obviously from reading the comments it’s just bitter frackers that read these sorts of articles now, most environmentalists and other intelligent people have moved on.
yikes, this article seems to be bringing out the worst in people. except pigeon, thank god for pigeon’s commentary. it is the only sane and sensible shizz in this comment section.
NOT SURE why the coast chose to run the author’s picture to primarily illustrate this article — seems like a poor choice (more fodder for personal attack) and seems to be agitating the muggles.
What new economy is she taking about? Government-funded grants to Efficiency NS ??
The author hasn’t really described what the new Nova Scotia economy looks like. Energy efficiency is certainly important to economic growth, but the basis of an economy is its ability to produce goods and services people want. In a global economy these means people outside our provincial borders. Sticking up wind towers and waiting for the checks to role in just ain’t gonna do it.