Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment - BC chapter

As physicians dealing with the interaction between the environment and peoples’ health, we are seriously concerned about the proposed Cedar LNG project. 

First, we think that the assessment should have a federal review rather than a provincial review. We feel that a project of this size requires the more comprehensive federal review, especially since the federal review is more likely to consider human health issues. We believe any review that does not take human health impacts into consideration is deeply flawed.

Secondly, we are very concerned about existing health patterns affecting people in the Peace Region, the region from which most of the fracked gas will originate. Recent studies show higher incidences of respiratory disease, cancers and ill-effects on newborn babies in that region of BC, compared to averages for the province, strongly suggesting a connection to the fracking industry there.

Most important, we are concerned about the climate crisis. Canada has not reduced its carbon footprint at all during the last 20 years, and current projections suggest that our per capita GHG production -- already one of the highest in the world -- is scarcely declining at all. In line with international agreements, we need to reduce our emissions by 30% by 2030.  Building more LNG facilities will make this goal impossible.

Also, we wish to point out that an anomaly in GHG attribution has led many to underestimate the climate impact of projects in BC or Canada as a whole. This anomaly is the custom of attributing GHGs produced by fossil fuels extracted in one country, but burned offshore, to the latter setting -- the country where their use takes place. But climate warming has a global impact, and affects all parts of the planet. This custom is therefore naive and unscientific, and should not be used in the assessment of this project. Instead, the total life-cycle GHG production of this project should be the metric by which its climate impact should be judged.

Climate change is already affecting Canadians in multiple ways. Extreme weather events -- intensified wildfires, rain and wind events, and flooding in particular -- are causing human deaths and costing our governments increasingly large monetary and material resources. How much longer will we continue to suffer these effects before we start to act?

Please ensure that an environmental review actually works to protect the environment and human health. 

   Sincerely,

Larry Barzelai and Warren Bell, on behalf of the BC branch of CAPE (Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment)