On this edition of Journal, we examine one of the received truths in British Columbia: that one of our economic advantages is that BC offers businesses and industry a plentiful supply of hydroelectric energy at reasonable cost.

What could be a better pitch? It is clean energy to run your enterprise.

In fact, Premier Eby has had press conferences highlighting the government’s demand that new mines, LNG, data centres, will be powered by electricity.

Sounds pretty appealing in a time of climate awareness. But is it the reality?

A couple of hard facts – for the third year in a row, BC has not produced enough electricity to even serve our own current needs, let alone all these new initiatives. That’s right: we import electricity.

And, besides that, according to Energy Futures, BC Hydro has a backlog of demands for more clean energy.

So we already have an electricity deficit in our province, a queue of current requests for more permits while at the same time, we are actively encouraging new businesses to electrify, customers to buy electric cars, and home heating to move away from natural gas to electric heat pumps.

Realizing the impending crisis, the Premier announced this week heavy users such as AI and data centres will have to compete for electricity through a managed process. How will that work? Who decides which businesses win the lottery?

Barry Penner, Chair of the Energy Futures Institute and a former BC cabinet minister calls this “a serious case of policy dissonance.”

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Carole Taylor's Journal is a public affairs dialogue that digs deep into the most pressing issues of our times. For more, see our website at http://www.caroletaylorsjournal.ca.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Journal: an examination of the worrisome new expansion of what it means when we talk about food security.

In the good old days – actually only 9 months ago – when Journal last spoke with Lenore Newman, one of Canada’s top experts in this field, much of the focus was on the effects of climate change: how our supply chains must adjust and how Canada’s own agriculture would be affected.

Who would have believed that Lenore would now pen an op-ed that says, “We are living in a world of sharks who don’t think twice about sacrificing communities to the whim of politics.”

She goes on to say that “an irascible US government could starve us within days and we would have no easy alternatives.”

Wow. This, of course, comes on the heels of our Prime Minister’s remarkable speech at Davos, where he posited that “a country that can’t feed itself, fuel itself, defend itself has few options.”

So, this discussion of food security has become a lot more serious – and fast. What if CUSMA goes away? What if 100% tariffs were put on all food imports – remembering that over half of our agrifood imports come from the United States? What if the border was “temporarily” closed?

So what are we to do? As Prime Minister Carney has said, “Nostalgia is not a strategy.”

To help guide us in this discussion is Dr. Lenore Newman. Besides being the Director of the Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley, she also holds a Canada Research Chair in food security.

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Carole Taylor's Journal is a public affairs dialogue that digs deep into the most pressing issues of our times. For more, see our website at http://www.caroletaylorsjournal.ca.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this edition of Journal, we take a closer look at one piece of our health care system that doesn’t usually get much attention, even though we see them working on our streets all the time: paramedics.

We hear about doctor shortages and nurse shortages, but did you know we have a paramedic shortage? In rural and remote areas of the province alone, there are close to 400 vacancies.

The problem is exacerbated when an emergency call comes in but the ER is closed or on diversion. According to Mayor Goetz (of Merritt, British Columbia), a paramedic – if available – must transport and accompany the patient around 100 kilometres to the nearest hospital for emergency care. That takes time, leaving the community vulnerable.

Also, the province does not allow the service to pre-schedule overtime coverage in advance when there are known holes in the schedule – for vacations, as an example. This results in a patchwork system, sometimes covered by firefighters but often resulting in wait times that are too long.

So, a few questions:

What is a day in the life of a paramedic like?

What training is required?

Why aren’t more people applying for these vacant positions?

I can’t help but worry about the constant stress that our overdose crisis has added to the job of being a paramedic. Imagine reviving the same person over and over again with the same result. That must take a toll.

To talk about some of these issues is Ian Tait, spokesperson for the Ambulance Paramedics of BC, who are currently in negotiation with the government. What are the biggest issues and possible solutions?

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Carole Taylor's Journal is a public affairs dialogue that digs deep into the most pressing issues of our times. For more, see our website at http://www.caroletaylorsjournal.ca.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.