All posts by Gareth Madoc-Jones

Changes to hydro project approved despite ministry concerns

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By Gareth Madoc-Jones

British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office allowed changes to a controversial hydroelectric project despite warnings from B.C.s Ministry of Environment.

Concerns were raised after proponents for the Kokish River Hydroelectric Project applied to increase the amount of water diverted away from the Kokish River for its 45-MW operation. An EAO document obtained through a freedom of information request reveals EAOs Executive Director Doug Caul was aware of additional risk to fish and fish habitat, before he approved the changes.

The EAO is considered a “neutral agency” operating within B.C.s MOE. The EAOs executive director approves/denies amendments to environmental assessment certificates, but they can also defer decision making to the environment minister.

For the Kokish River Hydroelectric Project, the executive director didn’t defer despite MOE staff concerns.

MOE staff are members of a working group set up to provide feedback to the EAO on potential impacts (environmental, economic, social, heritage and health) associated with a proposed project.

Gwen Barlee, the national policy director for the Wilderness Committee, filed the FOI request. “I’d nearly call it a fake process that you have this sort of rubber stamping environmental assessment process,” says Barlee. “We have good people within the MOE, we have good scientists, we have good hydrologists, we have good biologists, but their voices are muted.”

The Kokish River is located 15 km east of Port McNeill on Vancouver Island, B.C. The hydroelectric project opened in September 2014 and is owned and operated by Kwagis Power, a partnership between the ‘Namgis First Nation and Brookfield Renewable Power Inc.

The hydroelectric power is generated by diverting water out of the Kokish River into a buried pipe for a nine-kilometre stretch adjacent to the waterway. The water eventually flows through turbines before reentering the river downstream.

Barlee says the Wilderness Committee has been “vehemently opposed” to this project that’s located on a river home to coho, chum, pink and sockeye salmon, as well as cutthroat, steelhead and rainbow trout.

On February 25, 2013, about a year and a half before the project’s construction was complete, Kwagis Power applied to have its maximum diversion flow rate increased from 23.3 m3/s to 25.0 m3/s between Oct. 16 and June 15. Maximum diversion flow rate is the maximum amount of water the project is allowed to divert away from the river.

Stephen Weijs, a University of British Columbia assistant professor in hydrotechnical engineering, says it’s difficult to know the impact the increase in maximum diversion flow rate has on the Kokish River. “That depends both on the size of the river, but also on the distribution of water throughout the year,” says Weijs. He adds, the increase in flow rate will allow the project to generate more electricity for part of the year.

In a written statement, the MOE says the EAO was satisfied the effects to fish and fish habitat would be minimal.

However, in the FOI document, Kwagis Power estimates its proposed changes would result in a 0.1 per cent loss of summer steelhead spawning habitat and a 0.3 per cent to 0.9 per cent loss of chinook salmon spawning habitat.

Kwagis Power is also responsible for monitoring and reporting the project’s impact on the environment to the MOE. The MOE says so far there have not been any reports of negative impacts to fish and fish habitat due to this project.

Regardless of the reports, the Wilderness Committee isn’t happy with the way projects have been approved in B.C. “You see time and time and time and time again, the government’s own experts, when they’re in the MOE, are routinely ignored,” says Barlee.

Relevant pages

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Crossing and trespasser deaths total 830 since 2004

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By Gareth Madoc-Jones

Between 2004 and 2015, there have been 585 trespasser accident deaths and 298 crossing accident deaths on Canadian railways. These two categories make up 830 of the 966 total people killed on Canada’s train tracks during this period.

To view all 966 Canadian railway deaths from 2004 to 2015 scroll below.

These numbers originate from a Transportation Safety Board database. They’ve been recently published on the government of Canada’s open data website in a data set called “Rail Occurrence data from January 2004 to present.”

The data set reveals CP and CN Railways make up for 796 of the 830 people killed in crossings and trespassing related accidents. CN railways have 321 trespasser deaths and 164 crossing deaths, while CP has seen 206 trespasser deaths and 105 crossing deaths since 2004.

In separate email responses to the high death tolls, both CN communications director Mark Hallman and CP Rail spokesperson Salem Woodrow say their organizations have been focused on education and enforcement to prevent crossing and trespasser deaths.

Transport Canada says its teamed with the railway industry to support a non-profit organization called Operation Lifesaver to educate the public about the dangers of trespassing on railways. “One of the goals of Operation Lifesaver is the prevention of trespassing incidents that often lead to serious injury or death,” Natasha Gauthier, a spokesperson for Transport Canada, says in an email.

Mike Regimbal, the national director for Operation Lifesaver, admits “the laws are there” for rail safety at crossings and for trespassers. “Each incident we believe is preventable and our messaging is stay away from the tracks. If you have to cross the tracks, do it at a safe location,” adds Regimbal.

Regimbal also acknowledges a significant number of the 585 trespasser deaths since 2004 have been suicides. “Most people consider those types of events a railway problem. Well, they’re not. It is a community issue and there’s the mental health component with that.”

Transport Canada could not provide any numbers related to suicide deaths on railways. A study into railway suicides at the Center for Research and Intervention on Suicide and Euthanasia at the Université du Québec à Montréal indicates there was an average of 43 suicide deaths per year between 1999 and 2008 on Canadian railways. The report also reveals close to 38 per cent of all Canadian railway deaths during the ten-year period were suicides.

To view the UQAM-CRISE report on railway suicides click below.



Aside from suicides, Russell Brownlee, a civil engineer working for Giffin Koeth, a consulting firm specializing in rail safety, says he thinks railways can do more to encourage the use of proper crossings to prevent trespasser deaths. “Having them trespass because they have to walk very long distances is something that we’ve really ignored in the past,” says Brownlee, adding that building fences, installing security cameras, providing “nice” pathways and including signage to the shortest route can help discourage trespassing.

As far as dealing with crossing deaths, the previous federal government passed legislation on November 27, 2014 to ensure all railways in Canada upgrades its railway crossings by 2021 to new safety standards. They include new rules for signage, sight lines and surface of the crossing.

Crossing deaths dropped from 20 in 2014 to 13 in 2015 when the new legislation was in effect for the first full year. Brownlee doubts the 35 per cent drop in crossing deaths has anything to do with the new rules, since full compliance isn’t required for another five years.

And it appears railway deaths had already been dropping prior to the new crossing laws. In the past five years, the number of combined trespasser and crossing deaths on Canadian railways reveals a downward trend, falling from 66 deaths in 2011 to 43 deaths in 2015. It’s not entirely clear what can explain the decline, but Regimbal says getting this number down to zero is the target, but it’s “not realistically attainable.”

Coaching tradition lives on at Coquitlam stadium

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By Gareth Madoc-Jones

Tara Self is building on a legacy at the stadium named after her dad. One hundred twenty up and coming athletes train under her guidance at the state-of-the-art facility now called Percy Perry Stadium.

Year after year the Coquitlam Cheetahs program has been developing some of the top track and field athletes in British Columbia.

Self’s father Perry was the Cheetahs original head coach when the stadium formerly known as Town Centre first opened in 1991.

Self, 41, remembers when she first trained at the new stadium as a teenager. “After running on gravel and cinder for years it was really quite amazing to have a real track,” says Self.

She was a member of the Cheetahs that until this time had trained at a local high school’s cinder track.

Town Centre was built on the northeastern edge of the city in a former industrial area. “There was nothing else out there, you didn’t go beyond the track, beyond the track was the gun club way up on the hills,” recalls Self.

Coquitlam’s mayor back then, Lou Sekora, pushed for the project because the city was bidding for the 1991 B.C. Summer Games. “We needed to have a stadium,” says Sekora, adding it was eventually built on a 108-acre parcel of land purchased from the Lafarge cement company for a dollar.

It was originally meant to serve amateur athletes, but it didn’t take long to attract world-class talent. In 1993, ten-time Olympic medalist Carl Lewis raced in a track meet at the stadium.

During this time Self had been evolving into one of the country’s top sprinters. Just five years after she began training at the new facility, Self ran for the Canadian national 4×100-metres sprint team at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta and again at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney.

Along with Tara, Peter Ogilvie, a 100-metres and 200-metres sprinter, as well as Tim Kroeker, a 110-metres hurdler, are Cheetahs who’ve competed at the Olympics.

While this elite group faced the best, at the heart of the Cheetahs are hundreds of kids. Thomas Overs began training with the Cheetahs in 1998 at the age of ten under coach Percy. “I thought I was a long distance runner and he told me, ‘You know what you’re fast, you can sprint and you just need to work on these things,’” says Overs, who was later recruited by Simon Fraser University’s track team where he competed for four years.

Percy died in 2005 and two years later the city renamed Town Centre Stadium after him.

Prior to passing away Percy made a request. “My dad asked me when he was sick if I would take over coaching because he couldn’t do it anymore and I couldn’t say no at that point and I kind of just figured you know I’ll just fill the hole until someone else comes along. And what happened was I fell in love with it and I’m still there,” admits Self.

In 2007, the stadium received $10 million in upgrades that included a new roof and seats. The track has also been recently resurfaced. “It’s one of the top two or three probably in Canada both because the surface itself is a top of the line surface. It’s called a Mondo surface, so it’s fast,” says Paul Self, Tara’s husband who also coaches for the Cheetahs.

Together, Tara and Paul are committed to the Cheetah’s. And by the looks of it the Self’s could be involved for many more years. Their twin nine-year old daughters will begin training with the team later this year.

DOCUMENTATION

(1.) The first document is an information bulletin for a public hearing I found on the internet after a Google search for the phone number for former mayor of Coquitlam mayor Lou Sekora. I typed ‘Lou Sekora 604’ into the search field and on the second page of results I found a posting with his cell number from 2008. I immediately called the number and Sekora picked up. Now in his 80s, he helped explain how the city was able to build the stadium. This was an important detail in the narrative.

Document located at: http://www.dave.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/ywca-528-comolake-public-hearing.pdf

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(2.) The second document is a detailed history of the Harry Jerome International Track Classic. Paul Self couldn’t remember exactly what year Carl Lewis raced at Town Centre Stadium when he mentioned it. He thought it was 1992 or 1993. I did a Google search of the track meet and at the meet’s official history page it explains how “Carl Lewis ran the anchor leg for his Santa Monica Track Club team in the men’s 4×100-metre relay.” This was important in confirming the year when Lewis raced at the stadium.

Document located at: http://www.harryjerome.com/history/history/

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Canadian Pacific profits fall $132 million in fourth quarter
By Gareth Madoc-Jones

CP Rail’s 2015 fourth quarter profits have fallen by $132 million when compared to the same quarter in 2014. This marks a 29.3 per cent slide in net income.

The decreased profits can be attributed to two main factors in CPs fourth quarter report. Commodity shipments across Canada have been reducing resulting in declining revenues. As well, the low Canadian dollar is costing the company tens of millions in additional interest payments for its long-term debt in US dollars.

Over the fourth quarter, revenue from shipping commodities dropped $74 million when compared to the previous quarter. When breaking this loss down into commodity categories, crude oil shipments fell by $25 million, equating to 5,000 fewer carloads over the three-month period.

To view the annotated financial report click below.



Professor Raymond Cox, the finance chair at Thompson Rivers University, says falling oil prices are to blame for the decrease in crude oil shipping revenues. “With the drop in oil prices that’s put a depressing effect on the Alberta economy, putting it into a recession and that’s rippling over into the Canadian economy overall and as such shipping has declined and obviously a sub-component of that is shipping oil,” says Cox.

Other commodity categories also had sizable drops in revenues. Metals, minerals and consumer products fell by $40 million. US grain, coal, potash as well as domestic and international intermodal shipments combined for a further loss of $79 million.

The low Canadian dollar is also eating into CPs profits. The most recent quarterly report shows $100 million in losses from paying off long-term debt in US dollars. “Having just been informed that CP Rail has a high amount of US dollar denominated debt, then obviously their interest payments in US dollars are more expensive now that the loonie’s gone down,” says Cox.


Canadian Pacific Railway, TSX stock price in US dollars by GarethMJ on TradingView.com

What’s also worth noting is CPs stock price on the Toronto Stock Exchange. In April 2015, the stock peaked at $198 US a share. Over the course of the next nine-months the stock fell by 51 per cent to a low of $97 US in mid-January 2016. Cox says this dip is not only attributed to the low loonie and falling oil prices, but also to two failed attempts to purchase the American railroad Norfolk Southern Corp. for an estimated $30 billion.

“So far they’ve been rebuffed by the company and they have raised their offer price,” says Cox, adding, “Even if they succeed they have the winners curse where they overpay for the stock and that would have a short run negative impact on CP Rail stock price.”

Norfolk Southern isn’t giving any indication a deal with CP Rail is close. In fact, they have said CPs proposals have not only been unsolicited, they’ve been grossly inadequate.

CPs stock has rebounded in the past week and a half. It’s now trading at around $120 US a share. This rise in stock price follows the decision by CP to cut 1000 jobs this year. The cuts were announced on Jan. 21, the same day CP released its fourth quarter results. “Despite challenging economic conditions and lower commodity prices, we continue to focus on what we can control – lowering costs, creating efficiencies,” said Harrison in the quarterly report.

Even though CPs profits have been shrinking they still managed to post fourth quarter earnings of $319 million and $1.35 billion for the entire 2015 year. While some might believe these bottom line numbers are impressive, CPs CEO has demonstrated by the job cuts the company is willing to take significant action in an attempt to reverse the trend in falling profits in 2016.