Screwed By The Bell

Posted on by John Klein

Dear Morning Edition:

I was concerned that you read Bell’s reply to the story on Wednesday, without offering listeners important context for their weasel-word answer that their “project is developed in accordance of applicable regulatory and environmental requirements”.

PM Carney removed the Clean Electricity Regulations for Alberta’s oil projects, in his infamous MOU the other month. Premier Moe is all too happy to overlook his office’s predecessor’s promise to make SaskPower 50% renewable electricity in just over 3 years from now.

Please ask why Bell gets to build a methane power plant that clearly violates the very purpose of the Clean Electricity Regulations on power plants. The Harper government boasted a dozen years ago about ending coal power by 2035, but Moe plans to violate that promise, to help power Bell’s monstrosity outside of Regina. The Liberal government just passed this regulation 2 years ago to ensure that electricity producers like SaskPower would end emissions in the coming decade. We shouldn’t be cheering the destruction of our climate by Bell and others able to skirt emissions regulations through lobbying efforts from the Oil and Gas industry*.

Sincerely,

John Klein

Regina

Do Liberals Know What They’re Doing?

Posted on by John Klein

And if they don’t know, does that give them any excuse for the harm they’re unleashing? I get it Liberal partisans, you want a united Canada. I do as well. That cannot happen if the Prime Minister is making inter-generational blunders like expanding fossil fuels during a steepening climate emergency.

Trudeau spent his time building the unprofitable Kinder Morgan pipeline. It wasn’t in the National Interest then, or now. It helped transition Canada not to cleaner energy, but to a time with an insane American President that Congress won’t remove, and who can attack our country economically with a variety of vulnerabilities.

Here’s a segment from a recent Green Party of Canada email:

Do Liberal decision-makers really understand what “national interest” means?

It doesn’t seem that way, since they gave that designation to the West Coast — now dubbed Pacific Link — pipeline last week. This means they’re ready to ram it through approvals and environmental assessments using the Building Canada Act.

Here’s what Elizabeth has to say about the situation. The government is “committing Canadians to wasting another $40 billion plus of public dollars on an uneconomic, climate-killing pipeline,” she said.

When the last general election rolled around, Carney was best positioned to show Canada was united against American aggression. He probably still is, except he’s long exploited that. Not to ‘build Canada strong’, but to sell Canada out to fossil fuel executives while he rambles on about fictional “Decarbonized oil” and hyper-scale methane powered data centres, as if they’re not making him sound crazy in light of ecological reality.

Here’s how the Liberal’s last pipeline turned out:

Energy regulator hands oil giants discount worth billions to use Trans-Mountain pipeline

By Marc Fawcett-Atkinson October 5th 2026

The decision means that Canadians will not recoup the $40 billion in public funds spent on the project during the 20 year lifespan of its oil shipping contracts, according to regulatory filings.

— Canada's National Observer (@nationalobserver.com) 2026-10-05T14:52:55.074Z

I remember telling people that this pipeline would never be profitable. It’s a #StrandedAsset, it cannot be used to its normal End of Life, it will be abandoned early. Here’s something I wrote on the subject 8 years ago as National Post got it wrong, and National Observer got it right.

“That’s their business, not Canada’s”

Here’s more National Observer about the new pipeline:

“[Oil companies] are getting a sweet deal,”said Eugene Kung, a lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law who represented the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation in the regulatory proceedings. The First Nation opposed the toll agreement, arguing it will encourage Trans Mountain to cut costs and increase the risk of an oil spill. 

A Tseil-Waututh spokesperson said no one from the First Nation was “available to comment on these matters at this time.” 

Kung added that he’s concerned the decision will set a precedent for tolls on the new Pacific Link pipeline, which was advanced to the Major Projects Office on Thursday. If built, its cost is estimated at between $35.2 billion and $43.7 billion and Trans Mountain would own 45 per cent of the project. 

Trans Mountain did not respond to questions from Canada’s National Observer about its ability to maintain the pipeline and respond to spills with the new toll rate, more detailed financial estimates and whether the company will pursue a similar toll model for the Pacific Link pipeline, if approved. 

Here’s an 8 year old video from the Green Party. It honestly could be aired again now and still be perfectly relevant, only the faces in the Liberal Party, and the name of this next pipeline have changed.

It’s been said that Mark Carney is Canada’s latest Progressive Conservative Prime Minister.

“Time for Conservative politicians to stop playing games with our kids’ future.” – Catherine McKenna, 2018

Team Nuclear = Team Go-broke

Posted on by John Klein

Curtis Wilken: “what do you propose man. Freezing to death in the winter. Wind and solar wont cut it during the winter. Would you prefer people freeze to death?”

No, don’t freeze Curtis. Wind and solar work better than gas sometimes in the winter, it’s true. As does a public utility instead of what Alberta did.

How about we run the coal plants from November 30th to February 28 each year, and renewables the other 9 months?

“Saskatchewan in total isn’t even a blip on the radar in terms of world emissions.”

In total we’re a blip, but per capita we’re the wurrrrst. Shameful really. Do you know what it’s like to be the worst in the world at something important?

Curtis Wilken:

“Jon Klein depends on your definition of important is.”

Everyone not dying early, unable to have kids who can have kids, that’s important to every culture on the planet. If you don’t recognize that as important, you’re an extremist like a super-villain from end-of-the-world movies.

“Going broke to make zero impact isn’t a good plan either.”

Then don’t have that plan, man!

“The plan is to go nuclear.”

Oh, so you are on team Go-broke. Nuclear is how to go broke, after at least 10 years of planning and construction instead of installing solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal heating and power, and batteries next year and each of the next 10 years instead.

“I’d back that more than littering the countryside with solar panels and wind turbines.”

Why do you want to go broke in 10 years with nuclear instead?

“Everyone wants things right now….the plan is there, so it makes zero sense to spend a pile on any other renewables.”

It makes more sense to spend less and get more, I think. Speaking of plans, why is the current nuclear plan of the NDP and the Sask Party okay, but the old plan to ‘reduce emissions by 20% by 2020‘, or ‘Be 50% renewable at SaskPower by 2030’ no longer the plan despite Bad Wall saying his party would get it done? Scott Moe won’t, he’s a failure and planning to fail harder than anyone has ever failed before by rebuilding coal after 2026.

“Invest that money into nuclear.”

Team Go-broke = Team nuclear. Slowest to build, most costly to build and run, and clean up.

Regina’s Bell AI Data Centre 4 Times Larger than Reported

Posted on by John Klein

What this means? Bottom line is more ecological devastation.

If Bell isn’t making its own 300MW, then the Minister clearly lied about having enough power for this project, because we already don’t have enough renewable power to meet Bad Wall’s 50% renewable by 2030 for SaskPower target touted a decade ago.

Temu Hank Hill (Moe) is going to allow this without an environmental consultation hoop that effing SOLAR PANELS are being made to jump through. He could be requiring Bell to use only renewable energy for their data centre, or at least 50%, but there won’t be any such reasonable requirement. At this point, Mark Carney is also to blame for this as he pushes “AI for Everyone”.

ADDED:

“Clean Electricity Regulations finalized provide guardrails that will ensure that new investments in power generation will support the clean grid that will be the foundation of Canada’s efforts to build a net-zero economy by 2050.”

Bell/SaskParty are mocking your guardrails, former Minister of Environment and Climate Change Guilbeault. Carney doesn’t seem interested in seeing his Liberal Party’s own laws followed by big corrupt businesses.

Yelling at NDP for Gravy Plane Complaint

Posted on by John Klein

There are SaskParty trolls yelling at NDP MLAs on their Facebook pages:

Dwayne Dimen:

“Janet Boylan Sharpe at what bitching. The NDP does never offer solutions.”

Aleana Young: “Solution #1: don’t take a private jet for random and unnecessary travel ✅“

35 years ago PCs were embarrassed for taking personal computers as perks of being MLAs. One PC MLA even offed himself in part due to the allegation of financial impropriety. Jet-setting around Saskatchewan on the public dime for non-important reasons, is far more scandalous. Yet the SaskParty trolls in the comments on Aleana’s page couldn’t care less about the waste of public funds in the tens of thousands of dollars, many times more than what PCs went to jail for decades ago.

Here’s Jared Clarke, and Conway’s Instagram story’s take on the plane flights.

Edmonton Bike Struggles

Posted on by John Klein

Edmonton pushes ahead with bike network despite political pressure from Province of Alberta’s fascist UCP.

Well presented video version of that story, last month before they knew if the City of Edmonton would push ahead https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7298454

Would ABC News in the USA describe Edmonton City Council as having taken a “strategic retreat” if it had cancelled plans for an effective safe bicycle network? How are we to consider bicycles as a realistic solution among many to the air pollution crisis, if it takes years to implement their infrastructure, but only one bad Council or UCP (or Ford) government to undo the progress in a season with literal destruction or red tape hindrance?

Whose Strategy is The End of the World? Conservatives

Posted on by John Klein

I’ve been writing clearly for over a dozen years about how governments, are failing to address the pollution causing the climate crisis. Usually the biggest culprits are Conservative/Republican governments, but the Liberals and NDP in Canada aren’t above a little strategic failure themselves. Carney recently promised to raise emissions in the short term, while cancelling cleaner vehicle targets for 2030 and 2035 on top of that shameful admission.

I wonder if Greta Thunberg now regrets allowing Justin Trudeau to march with her, given what [little] his Liberal government accomplished and has now turned into as a result.

Blackstrap Park Review

Posted on by John Klein

I went camping at Blackstrap Provincial Park a couple times this season. When their survey asked for feedback, I gave a lot.

Pros:

I liked the trails. I had my ebike with me. The shower buildings were clean, though some of the taps and showers needed maintenance.
The beach side cafe has affordable ice cream options.
There were some helpful trail signs.

Needs Improvement:

I’d like to use an escooter, but they’re technically not allowed, even though it’s more convenient for me to bring, and it has the same impact as an ebike or bicycle on the trails.

There was no clear trail marker sign at the south end of the trail from Fishing point, only a pedestrian crossing sign, so when biking on the road from Kevin M. campground, I didn’t see where to turn left, and ended up climbing the rather steep winding highway hill instead, which I could have skipped had I known to turn.

My first visit was in Sunset Ridge, and there was more loud truck noise from campers driving in and out, because it’s so far from everything else. Making biking or escootering easier for people would reduce motor vehicle noises.

There could be more trees and chokecherries planted between a few of those newer campsites to improve privacy and ambience.

The fee for reserving a site online was more than 50% of the campsite booking, that is ridiculous. It’s more than Ontario Parks charge too. That it’s provided by an American company needs to be fixed as well.

Since I had a non-powered campsite, it would be nice to have a designated place I could park and charge my EV. I have access to free EV chargers, if that interests Sask Parks, and you could add it as an amenity like National Parks have already done. You could also then replace your costly gas fleet vehicles with ones that charge using SaskPower in an inexpensive way.
Since the survey is anonymous, you’ll have to reach out to PlunkEV to ask about their free chargers.

I didn’t find a convenient map on my smartphone outlining the suggested walking/biking trails for the park.

Respect From School Kids?

Posted on by John Klein

Schoolkids are famously respectful. Not!

Here’s one person replying to #StateRadio CJME’s question about how schools are doing.

Lorraine Scott:
“I believe the first step for children to learn is to learn respect. Respect for other people and laws and property. Without this trait children will not learn properly in any other avenue of their lives.
Parents and teachers are falling short of teaching respect”

The Another Brick In The Wall, theory?

Lorraine Scott, Saskatchewan’s school kids are not respected in schools today, that might be part of the problem.

Their Canadian Charter Rights are violated every day by the provincial government. They’re exposed to BSL-3 pathogens illegally.* They don’t get air conditioning and proper safe ventilation with fresh air needed for better brain activity, in most schools. That’s disrespect we’re teaching them is normal.

*No, school children cannot work in or even enter a Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory. So why can they attend schools where those biohazards are known by officials to be present?

Aranet4 sensor showing fresh indoor air of 570ppm CO2