Sierra Club Canada’s Actions Against Fracking in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
Fracking threatens human health, safe drinking water and progress made to combat climate change by lowering harmful emissions. Fracking projects in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia would open the regions to more fossil fuel projects at the expense of their citizens. Sierra Club Canada’s Atlantic Chapter is working to oppose the lifting of the fracking ban in these regions through several recent actions.
Podcast
The Environment in Canada Podcast episode titled above explores the recent actions of the Nova Scotia government under premier Tim Houston such as attempts to lift bans on fracking and uranium mining. These bans were put in place to protect Nova Scotians after consulting with citizens and were backed by health and economic research. The provincial government has also acted to promote fracking without consultations of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs. This podcast episode features Gretchen Fitzgerald and Ken Summers. They liken the government’s recent approach to centralizing power to President Donald Trump’s US government.
The podcast also discusses a strong resistance to the provincial government’s approach. This was demonstrated when over 500 people joined a rally for democracy in Halifax to push back.
Events
In October the NB Media Co-op invited activists and community groups to an event with the theme The Many Vs. The Money. People joined together to speak to the desire for a more social, economic and environmentally just society. The event had workshops and information tables.
Following the rally for democracy in Halifax, Sierra Club co-sponsored two events called The Many vs. The Money Town Hall, one in Antigonish and one in Moncton. These events focused on fighting back against corporate actors who value profit over collective community wellbeing and sought to strengthen connections across the broader movement and organize people together to build grassroots people power.
During the events people were educated about the fracking industry and the potential harms to people and the environment that fracking could cause in these regions.
Action Item
Sierra Club has created a pledge against fracking that supporters can add their name to. The pledge reads:
“Opening up this region to fracking and more fossil fuel projects threatens human health, safe drinking water, and progress we’ve made to bring climate emissions down.
I believe that clean energy and energy efficiency are the energy sources of the future for the Atlantic region. I commit to push for real climate solutions and stand against efforts to open our region up to fracking and other fossil fuel projects.”