Canada's Pacific Dock Workers Ordered by Labor Watchdog to End Strike
The Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), a federal watchdog, ruled on Wednesday that the Pacific coast dock workers' strike must end because their union did not provide the required 72-hour notice before the walkout."This strike is illegal," Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan said on Twitter after the ruling.
Canada to Aid Developing Nations Fight Climate Change
Canada will provide aid to developing countries to combat climate change, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Friday ahead of talks on global warming, which he has promised will show the country is serious about tackling the issue. Canada will give C$2.65 billion ($1.98 billion) over the next five years, the newly elected Trudeau announced during a trip to Malta, where he was meeting the heads of Commonwealth countries. The funding will help support the transition to low-carbon economies and will target the poorest and most vulnerable countries. The contribution is part of an agreement Canada made in 2009 to work with developed countries to provide $100 billion a year by 2020 from various sources.
Alberta Panel to Review Climate-change Policy
The Canadian province of Alberta, the biggest source of U.S. oil imports, announced the members of its climate change policy review panel on Friday, part of its pledge to implement new rules on greenhouse gas reductions. Environment Minister Shannon Phillips said the panel would offer recommendations to the government by early November, ahead of a key United Nations climate change conference in Paris in December, but did not say when new GHG targets are likely to come into effect. The five members of the panel are University of Alberta energy economist Andrew Leach, former Suncor Energy executive Gord Lambert, Enbridge Inc executive Linda Coady, Pembina Institute board member Stephanie Cairns and Angela Adams, a Metis Fort McMurray school district trustee.
Canada Passed on U.S.-Mexico Climate Announcement
Canada declined a U.S. invitation last week to jointly announce climate policy cooperation with Mexico, with Ottawa saying it has not yet finalized its own domestic strategy, sources from both countries familiar with the discussions said on Thursday. On March 24, three days before the United States and Mexico announced they would partner on a high-level bilateral clean energy and climate policy task force, U.S. officials approached Canadian counterparts asking them to join the effort, three sources said. One source said that while Canadian officials said they were supportive of North American harmonization of climate policy they were not yet prepared to join the continental partners.
Canadian Shipbuilding Effort Hits Stormy Sea
The future of a government program to revive western Canadian shipbuilding remains clouded after investigators released a damning report about cost overruns and bureaucratic bungling. The directors of the B.C. Ferries Corp. resigned after auditors alleged the cost of designing and building a new type of high-speed catamaran ferry had risen from the originally planned $137.9 million to approximately $288.9 million. The report was the latest bad news to buffet the Pacificat fast ferry project, which was launched in 1994 in hopes of developing and building a lightweight passenger ship in British Columbia that could be marketed internationally.
