[All] Fwd: CoC Guelph Update

[Robert Milligan]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: coc guelph <e-list at coc-guelph.ca>
> Date: November 29, 2010 9:37:14 PM GMT-05:00
> To: coc guelph <coc.guelph at gmail.com>
> Subject: CoC Guelph Update
>
>
> Media Release: Canadian Civil Society Groups Participate in Caravans  
> to Cancun Climate Talks
>
> The Council of Canadians is currently in Cancun, Mexico for the UN  
> climate negotiations taking place from Nov. 29-Dec. 10. While the  
> last round of talks failed to produce a binding agreement, the  
> Council of Canadians is working with allies, social justice  
> organizations, environmental groups and thousands of concerned  
> people as part of a burgeoning grassroots climate justice movement  
> to demand “system change, not climate change.”
>
> Click here to read more about our actions in Cancun and read the  
> blogs that give so much information from day to day.  For example,
>
> SAN PEDRO - MINING
> 10:15 am - We are approaching the town of San Pedro and beginning to  
> see some of the destruction caused by a Canadian company operating a  
> gold and silver mine here.
> We are told that the company uses cyanide to separate the minerals  
> from the rock and that this in turn is polluting the local water  
> sources.
>
> 12:45 pm - We have just concluded a several hour visit to San Pedro.
> As we walked the kilometre into the town (the road too small for the  
> bus), local organizers held a banner and chanted, 'Water yes,  
> cyanide no'.
> We were welcomed in a square - with music and kind words - by  
> members of this community. They told us that NewGold removed the top  
> of their mountain to get at the gold and silver.
>
> The mountain was as tied to their identity as a community, and the  
> act could be considered, for example, akin to turning Lake Louise  
> into a tailings impoundment area.
> NEWS: Canadian diplomats in DC worked with corporations to kill US  
> climate legislation
>
> Postmedia News reports that, “Canadian diplomats in Washington have  
> quietly asked such oil-industry players as Exxon Mobil and BP to  
> help ‘kill’ U.S. global-warming policies in order to ensure that  
> ‘the oil keeps  a-flowing’ from Alberta into the U.S. marketplace…”
>
> NEWS: Kavanagh compares Boat Harbour and Sandy Pond
>
> The St. John's Telegram reports that, "Ken Kavanaugh, a retired  
> teacher from Bell Island, a Council of Canadians spokesman and  
> chairman of the Sandy Pond Alliance ( which opposes using a 38  
> hectare lake for mine tailings in Long Harbour) says while the  
> industries and times are different, there is a similarity with Boat  
> Harbour -  the economic pressure placed on residents to compromise  
> the environment for jobs" .
>
> UPDATE: Protecting the Independence watershed in Dolores Hidalgo
>
> A community gathering has just concluded this Sunday afternoon at a  
> park in the Mexican town of Dolores Hidalgo.
>
>
> NEWS: Enviropig and supersized salmon may be first GM animals  
> allowed into food system
>
> In a largely pro-biotechnology lead article recently, the Globe and  
> Mail reports that, “Under development for more than a decade, the  
> University of Guelph’s 20 Enviropigs are close behind a Canadian- 
> made supersized salmon in a race to become the first genetically  
> modified animals allowed into the food system.”
>
> P3 Hospitals in Canada.
> The National Post reports that, "Government contracts that see  
> private companies finance, build and partially run new hospitals  
> appear to be quietly becoming the norm across Canada."
> "Industry statistics show that 55 privately developed health-care  
> facilities...have opened or are in the works in five provinces. The  
> list includes 38 in Ontario... From hospitals to new emergency  
> departments and nursing homes, there are also nine P3 projects in  
> B.C., five in Quebec, two in New Brunswick and one in Alberta."  
> Examples include the Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre  
> in B.C., a mental-health centre in Saint John, N.B, and Toronto’s  
> historic Women’s College Hospital.
>
> "Private companies do not actually own the facilities. They raise  
> the money, design the structure, construct it and often manage at  
> least the 'hard' services like climate-control and building upkeep  
> over the term of the contract, usually 30 years. Sometimes they also  
> supply the medical equipment and run services like laundry,  
> housekeeping and catering. In exchange, the group gets a yearly  
> payment from the hospital. Public hospital administrators manage the  
> actual medical services."
>
> "Critics say...that the arrangements are often not as advantageous  
> as they are made to look. A 2008 analysis by the Ontario auditor  
> general concluded that the Brampton Civic Hospital...would end up  
> costing almost $200-million more as a P3 than if it had been built  
> the traditional way. In a report this summer, the Quebec auditor  
> general concluded that private-public projects at two Montreal  
> hospitals would not cost less and might be more expensive than if  
> built by government. ...Hospitals are also stuck with those fixed  
> payments to the consortium every year, meaning any cutbacks would  
> have to come in other areas..."
>
> "Once P3 hospitals are up and running, support staff tend to be  
> lower paid than the public-sector norm, said Mary Catharine McCarthy  
> of the Canadian Union of Public Employees in Ottawa."
>
> Early in the new year the Council of Canadians will be hiring a  
> health care campaigner and re-dedicating ourselves to defending and  
> expanding public health care in Canada.
>
> The National Post article is at http://www.nationalpost.com/news/features/Private+sector+role+hospitals+longer+taboo/3879909/story.html 
> .
>
>
>

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