Author: Susan

The David Suzuki Foundation is hosting a petition, ready to sign, asking the federal government to build an east-west electricity grid powered by renewables. We’re asking all CRED-NB Champions to please consider signing the petition, HERE.

A massive build out of renewable energy, connected regionally and nationally, is the best way out of the energy bind we are in with our reliance on fossil fuels. A policy of building only renewable energy and storage systems will boost our fight against plans in New Brunswick for a new fossil gas plant north of Sackville.

This new national petition follows on from a letter on the same theme sent to PM Carney in July, signed by 105 groups across Canada, including CRED-NB and allies in New Brunswick. That letter was also organized by the David Suzuki Foundation as part of their ongoing campaign to encourage our governments to build only renewable energy systems.

NB Lung has an open petition to oppose plans to build new gas infrastructure in Tantramar, expand operations in Belledune, and potentially extend a pipeline from Quebec.

The action alert will be sent to provincial politicians each time you sign. Please sign HERE.

New Brunswick is proposing to build a new fossil gas plant, which has a lovely but deceptive project name: “Centre Village Renewables Integration and Grid Security Project.” Sounds great right? Don’t be fooled: fossil gas is not needed for grid security or to support variable renewable energy. The plan is to put this plant on Route 940 north of Sackville, near Midgic and Centre Village. Local MLA Megan Mitton has strongly objected to the proposed development.

New Brunswick doesn’t need it. Many storage options exist and new ones are developing rapidly – to provide grid security and pair with wind and solar energy without adding more GHGs to the atmosphere when operating. (Read CRED-NB core member Tom McLean’s article on storage HERE.)

The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) posted the notice that comments are open on the initial fossil gas project description summary, HERE. The deadline for your comments is August 13. We encourage everyone to put in a comment – even a simple email will help. CRED-NB will submit a comment.

The IAAC will hold two Public Open Houses

Tuesday, August 12, 2025, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Sackville Music Barn
18 Station Rd.
Tantramar, NB

and

Wednesday, August 13, 2025, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre
182 Main St.
Tantramar, NB

Comments can also be provided during Public Open Houses. IAAC will include all comments in their Public Consultation Report.

If you want to stay informed of the latest updates, we encourage you to sign up for the newsletter of CRED-NB member NBASGA – the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance who are active on this file. Website HERE.

CRED-NB Champion Emma Fackenthall published a story in the NB Media Co-op about the new wind energy projects led by Indigenous communities in New Brunswick.

“In what could potentially be a pivotal step toward a just energy transition, NB Power has announced four wind energy agreements with Indigenous communities across the province. The new Power Purchase Agreements total more than 450 megawatts (MW) of wind-generated electricity, enough to power 82,000 New Brunswick homes based on the average residential consumption of 1,700 kWh per month.

Beyond the headline of low-cost wind power lies a deeper narrative: climate justice, Indigenous leadership, and intertwining environmental responsibility with economic reconciliation.”

Read the full article HERE.

A Parliamentary petition, now open for signatures, was developed by Ole Hendrickson, a CRED-NB ally in Ontario concerned about the link between civilian nuclear power and the nuclear weapons industry. We share his concern. Key info from the petition:

• Canada is poised to award a multi-billion dollar contract — the largest federal contract ever — to a consortium of U.S. companies;
• If this happens, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, a former Atomic Energy of Canada Limited subsidiary, will be owned by American firms calling themselves “Nuclear Laboratories Partners of Canada.”;
• The new contract would last up to 20 years, cost taxpayers over 24 billion dollars, and allow private commercial work at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited sites across Canada;
• Hundreds of millions of dollars in contract management fees would be paid annually to firms that operate U.S. nuclear weapons facilities;
• Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ current projects include a $1+ billion facility to enable plutonium research, and a tritium extraction facility; plutonium and tritium are key explosive ingredients in nuclear weapons;

Read the rest of the petition and sign it HERE.

If you’ve never signed a parliamentary petition before, your name will not be displayed but after signing, you’ll get an email that you click to confirm your email address. You can also choose to get updates on the petition.

CRED-NB member New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance (NBASGA) spokesperson Jim Emberger published a commentary in the Telegraph Journal this week.

“On Earth Day, “Seniors for Climate” rallied at the legislature to remind governments that solutions to recent economic turmoil must reflect climate science.

“Unexpectedly, Premier Susan Holt visited the rally and delivered an enthusiastic address in support of the rally’s message. Days later, she contradicted her uplifting remarks by promoting gas and bitumen pipelines, and LNG exports as Canadian nation-building solutions. That she didn’t recognize her contradictions places her in a new constituency that accepts industry propaganda that climate change can be solved, while burning more fossil fuels.”

Read the full article on the NBASGA website, HERE.

CRED-NB is a member of the Climate Action Network Canada that condemns Parliament’s reckless passage of Bill C-5’s controversial Building Canada Act. The Act erodes democratic principles, runs roughshod over Indigenous rights, shuts Canadians out of decisions that could affect them, and puts the environment at risk.

Bill C-5 sets a dangerous precedent. It gives sweeping and potentially unconstitutional powers to the federal Cabinet to bypass environmental laws and legal safeguards. The Bill allows decisions to be made about “national interest” projects with little public participation, without robust environmental impact assessments, and without the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples.

Read the full media release HERE.

CRED-NB is a member of Climate Action Network Canada that issued a statement condemning the glaring absence of climate change, and climate solutions, from any of the G7 statements released today.

“The leaders of the world’s richest and most powerful countries published a statement on fighting wildfires that completely ignores climate change—the root cause that’s making wildfires so much more deadly and extreme,” said Caroline Brouillette, Executive Director of Climate Action Network Canada.

“What’s the point of a coalition of like-minded countries if it isn’t even capable of mentioning the existential crisis facing humanity? Instead of showing leadership, Canada’s G7 Presidency catered to the lowest common denominator—for the sake of appeasing a President who couldn’t even be bothered to stick around to the end of the summit.

“Canada was smart to invite other leaders from Global South countries, but it is past time to imagine coalitions that maintain multilateralism without exposing ourselves to the whims of climate deniers like President Trump.

“The G7 Leaders’ Summit was a test of Canada’s climate leadership, and Prime Minister Carney failed.”

Canada must focus on increasing our energy security.

Unfortunately Ontario is increasing reliance on the U.S. by building four U.S. GE-Hitachi nuclear reactors which require U.S. enriched uranium fuel.

This is not the time to increase our economic and energy dependency on the U.S. Sharing renewable electricity interprovincially can cut that dependency.

As Prime Minister Carney has suggested, Canada can be an energy superpower, but only if we follow the world by focusing on low-cost, reliable renewable energy.

We do not need a power corridor from coast to coast. We need more east-west interconnection of regional and distributed transmission systems. This would allow the growth and sharing of new community-based, low-cost renewable energy, creating local green jobs while meeting Canadian needs.

CRED-NB is a member of the coalition of groups that publish the SMRs Information Task Force Bulletin. This information is from the June 2025 bulletin. Read the full edition HERE.