Most of us are so focused on the activities of the crazy U.S. president that we are failing to miss crucial issues happening at home.
Yet these issues impact our short- and long-term well-being too, and they need our immediate attention.
With little fanfare, the carbon tax for consumers was removed last week, dropping gas prices by about 20 cents a litre. There were no parades in the streets or yahoos at the gas stations because most of us know that we either pay now or pay later. The environmental costs of increasing fossil fuel use SA国际影视传媒� the main driver of climate change SA国际影视传媒� will become more apparent as we move into wildfire season.
Let's remember that eight firefighters lost their lives during the 2023 fire season SA国际影视传媒� one of them in the NWT SA国际影视传媒� and Yellowknife and numerous other communities were evacuated.
There remain serious concerns about permafrost thaw in the North causing homes to shift and potentially become uninhabitable.
It is hoped that water levels will be up this year, although it's not looking good.
The carbon tax, which was the federal government's attempt to deal with the crisis, was consistently rebuked by Canadians. In a sad turn of events, the tax, which was returned to us via rebates, was eliminated. The loss of the tax forced Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre to dig into his bag of catchy phrases, looking for another grade school punchy name-calling slogan.
It would have been one thing for the Liberal government to say they would remove the tax and replace it with something else that would help us achieve our goal or reducing fossil fuel use, but they didn't. They just removed the tax. That is probably why people at the gas pumps were not jumping with joy. We knew there was a trade off and the trade off was protecting the environment.
We need to remember that this failure to protect the environment is another of our big concerns with the Trump administration which essentially denies climate change. With scientists being fired by an out-of-control Elon Musk and a president who reinstated plastic straws because they won't affect sharks. The American administration poses one of the biggest threats to our environment since the introduction of coal.
Eliminating the carbon tax was not a win for Canadians; it was just one more environmental nightmare to pass on to the next generation. To that extent, we are as bad as our southern neighbours.
The other heartbreaking issue was the discovery of almost 50 caribou carcasses on the winter road between Yellowknife and the diamond mines over the past winter. These animals face extinction and every animal lost is one more step to losing caribou altogether. Every year we hear government and community leaders express their frustration and condemnation, but this just keeps happening. This is about caribou rights, not people's rights. The wasted meat is theft. Twenty-two of those cows were pregnant, which means whoever committed this atrocity stole from future generations.
This needs to be seen as a crime and we need to see more Environment and Climate Change officials out there hunting down offenders. It is nonsense that we just sit around and shake our heads year after year. The waste of these animals is nothing short of murder, and offenders need to be appropriately charge. Let's remember that this herd went from half a million in the mid-'80s to approximately 7,000 today. This is unacceptable.
Yes, the trump administration poses an existential threat, but let's not forget crucial issues at home. We can't let trump rob us of our commitment to ourselves.
