Environmenal Justice NGOs Assert Priorities to New Territorial Ministers
November 8, 2019
A coalition of environmental justice advocates including the Council of Canadians is calling for a more consultative approach to law-making, urgent action on the caribou crisis and new approaches to costing the environmental and cultural impacts of development.
Alternatives North, the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – NWT Chapter, Council of Canadians – NWT Chapter, and Ecology North made the calls to action in letters sent to newly appointed territorial Cabinet Ministers.
The agencies have called on the territorial Ministers of Lands, of Justice, of Industry, Tourism and Investment, and of Environment and Natural Resources to ensure the involvement of the public and stakeholder groups in developing regulations for the Mineral Resources Act, Public Land Act, Protected Areas Act, and Environmental Rights Act, and in the creation of the proposed Forest Act.
The agencies have asked that the “development process be workshopped with broad stakeholder involvement and that participant funding be made available since volunteers and unfunded projects cannot be relied on for this type of work”.
The groups also called for:
- urgent action on the NWT Species at Risk Recovery Strategy for Barren Ground Caribou, including the urgent development of a consensus management agreement in time for the Assembly’s first winter session
- new legislation to allow corporations to incorporate as “benefit corporations”. This approach would establish a system where companies apply a monetary cost to their environmental and cultural impacts and create “environmental profit and loss statements”
Read the letters to the Ministers of:
Calling on NWT Assembly to Implement UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples
October 28, 2019
The NWT Chapter of the Council of Canadians is a strong advocate for the implementation of UNDRIP and has lobbied the NWT Legislative Assembly to embed UNDRIP in post-devolution legislation. Our efforts in this regard fell on deaf ears within the 18th Assembly but we see that the 19th Assembly will be very different.
This Assembly needs to do better and fulfil its principled support of UNDRIP. It is time for this Assembly to fulfil the promise it made in 2008.
Read the letter from the NWT Chapter of the Council of Canadians, calling on the NWT Legislative Assembly to implement the United Nations Charter on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
Living Well in a Low Carbon World
On April 23rd, the NWT Chapter hosted a community discussion to inspire actions to avert catastrophic climate breakdown. The discussion led a calendar of Earth Week events sponsored by Ecology North, a Yellowknife-based NGO. Four speakers set the stage for the discussion.
The some 40 community members in attendance shared many good ideas for moving the NWT to a low carbon world. They recognize the role we all have in changing the current climate narrative, being positive and hopeful, and inspiring efforts to decarbonize our communities. We can look to car sharing co-ops and electric vehicles, use renewable energy sources, support local food production, and advocate for energy efficient buildings and equipment. We can champion on-the-land education and stewardship programs so more people care about the natural world.
Chapter Comments on Environmental Rights Act
The NWT Chapter of the Council of Canadians has made comments on the proposed bill to create a new NWT Environmental Rights Act.
Read the submission.
Living Well in a Low Carbon World–Panel Discussion
Join panelists for a moderated community discussion to inspire and take action to avert climate breakdown.
Tuesday, April 23, 2019 @ 7:00 pm
Northern United Place Auditorium
Hosted by the Council of Canadians NWT Chapter
Panelists include:
Opening Comments – Lois Little, Co-Chair, NWT Chapter
Thoughts on Climate Change and Climate Action
Craig Scott, Executive Director, Ecology North: What a low carbon world looks like.
Kimberly Fairman, Executive Director, Institute for Circumpolar Health Research: Sharing knowledge to facilitate adaptation to climate change
David Bob, President, Northern Territories Federation of Labour: Sustainable communities as envisioned by the Delivering Community Power campaign
Ella Kokelj, Sir John Franklin High School; Student led climate strikes and actions to take for a livable planet and safe future
Chapter Challenges NWT MLAs’ Comments on the Site C dam
March 12, 2019
In recent statements in the NWT Legislative Assembly, MLAs raising the issue of the Site C dam on the Peace River have pointed to the authority of trans-boundary water agreements and the protections they provide against the negative impacts of the dam. These statements are as false as the ability of these agreements to protect our waters.
The NWT Chapter of the Council of Canadians continues to work with the Slave River Coalition and folks throughout Treaty 8 Territory including in the Peace River Valley to try to stop the proposed Site C dam on the British Columbia side of the Peace River. We oppose this unnecessary, destructive, and costly dam for its negative downstream impacts, its trampling of Indigenous rights and title, and threats to food sources and water.
Chapter Calls for New Laws to Honour UNDRIP
February 25, 2019
The Council of Canadians including the NWT Chapter has called on the Legislative Assembly to to embed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in post-devolution land and resource legislation.
“Given the status of the various pieces of post-devolution legislation now is the time to truly make a meaningful commitment to UNDRIP and for the NWT Legislative Assembly to be the first jurisdiction in Canada to embed it in our post-devolution legislation. Embedding UNDRIP in our legislation would be consistent with the unanimous endorsement of the Declaration by the 16th NWT Legislative Assembly in 2008, when we were the first jurisdiction in Canada to embrace UNDRIP.”
ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch Thursday February 7 7 PM at Northern United Place
ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch is screening Thursday February 7 at 7 PM at Northern United Place.
A cinematic spectacle documenting humanity’s massive reengineering of the planet, ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch is a four years in the making feature documentary film from the multiple-award winning team of Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky.
The film follows the research of an international body of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group who, after nearly 10 years of research, are arguing that the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the mid-twentieth century, because of profound and lasting human changes to the Earth. The film was applauded at the Toronto International Film Festival and is screening across Canada in conjunction with a major photographic exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
The filmmakers have traversed the globe using high end production values and state of the art camera techniques to document evidence and experience of human planetary domination. The Council of Canadians NWT Chapter is presenting this film using high definition projection and enhanced sound production.
Humbling, harrowing and urgent, ANTHROPOCENE: The Hunan Epoch documents the human calamities that have accumulated to evolve a new era of Earth’s existence. It is the definition of the new world confronting our efforts to avoid planetary disaster.
CoC NWT Comments on Draft GNWT Climate Change Action Plan 2019-2023
December 3, 2018
The NWT Chapter has commented on the GNWT’s 2030 NWT Climate Change Strategic Framework Draft Action Plan 2019-2023. The Chapter is disappointed that the Action Plan promotes a ‘business as usual’ approach even while recognizing that “the effects of climate change are advancing more rapidly in NWT and northern Canada than the rest of Canada and the world” (p.29). In light of the climate threats facing this jurisdiction, we expected an aggressive and innovative Action Plan but this Plan is neither.
NWT Chapter Comments on Draft Wood Buffalo National Park Stakeholder and Public Review Plan
November 29, 2018
The Council of Canadians has submitted comments on Parks Canada’s Wood Buffalo National Park World Heritage Site Action Plan Draft for Stakeholder and Public Review.
The comments assert that the Site C dam will have significant impacts on Wood Buffalo National Park and that the Government of Canada cannot fulfill its responsibilities for protection of the Park’s Outstanding Universal Value if the Site C dam is permitted to proceed.
The key recommendation is that “Parks Canada must conduct an environmental and social impact assessment of Site C to ensure that every effort is made to mitigate negative impacts to the Peace-Athabasca Delta and Wood Buffalo’s unique ecosystem. If impacts cannot be mitigated, the Site C project must be abandoned.”
NWT Chapter - Council of Canadians 