Latest news with #VickyLutes
CBC
16-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
New Brunswick's Environmental Trust Fund rejected 40% of applications this year
Social Sharing New Brunswick's Environmental Trust Fund is continuing to go through years of accumulated savings to support community-based environmental projects, and the provincial Environment Department is not rushing to find the program a new source of revenue. Two years ago, the province terminated dedicated income for the trust fund, which was set up more than 30 years ago to support "grassroots environmental restoration and protection" projects. This year, the fund is using "the accumulated surplus to continue to support priority projects while alternative funding sources are evaluated," department spokesperson Vicky Lutes said in an email. "It's too early to say what the fund will look like in the future." The trust fund was financed initially by dedicated video lottery revenues and later by a fixed share of bottle deposit money. But it was left without any long-term funding when the former Progressive Conservative government overhauled the bottle deposit system in 2023 legislative changes and redirected what had been environmental trust fund revenue to a program run by the beverage industry. WATCH | Environmental fund remains without a dedicated source of income: Liberals criticized PCs for not finding financing fix for environmental fund, but where's theirs? 2 hours ago Duration 3:45 In 2024, New Brunswick Liberals expressed disappointment the former Higgs government had no plan to finance the Environmental Trust Fund after terminating the fund's access to bottle-deposit money. Now, the Liberals are in power but have no plan to announce themselves. In 2023, former PC environment minister Gary Grossman said new "revenue streams" for the Environmental Trust Fund to replace bottle-deposit money would be evaluated, but nothing came of that before the Blaine Higgs government lost the general election last fall to the Liberals under Susan Holt. In early 2024, then Liberal environment critic Gilles LePage criticized Crossman and his department for leaving the trust fund without its own income source. "I thought the plan would be available this year because we've been waiting for a full year," Lepage said during a legislature committee examination of the department's budget. "It's kind of worrisome for some organizations that do excellent work under that fund, so I'm very disappointed." Lepage is now the environment minister but has not announced any plan of his own. A request this week to interview Lepage about the fund was not granted. The trust fund did have an interest-generating surplus in its accounts of $40.9 million built up over 30 years and has been using that money to keep itself running. It has already spent nearly half that amount and has been depleting what's left at a rate of more than $20,000 a day. In April the province announced the fund would be supporting 196 community projects this year with $9.7 million. But to keep to that number, 40 per cent of applications for funding by groups had to be rejected, and in some cases successful projects were granted less than they asked for. Ten years ago the trust fund rejected fewer than 20 per cent of applications it received. Beverly Gingras, the executive director of the New Brunswick Conservation Council, said her group has been awarded two trust fund grants for this year, but a third application was turned down. In a letter explaining that rejection the department cited "limited funds" as an issue. Gingras said the long-term and dedicated funding for the trust fund, which has supported more than 5,000 projects around New Brunswick since its inception, is a major worry to people working on environmental issues. "Groups like mine and other not-for-profits are very, very concerned," Gingras said. "We really do understand the value of that program Nicole Waaler of the Huntsman Marine Science Centre in Saint Andrews is also hoping for a resolution. The centre runs a successful marine debris reduction program that was profiled by the Environmental Trust Fund three years ago as one of its success stories. Waaler said a grant application to continue with the program this year was approved by the trust fund, but for $50,000, $5,000 less than the group requested. "We are very supportive of the Environmental Trust Fund," Waaler said. "Whether its for climate change or marine debris or watershed things, there are all kinds of cool stuff that people are working on, and so I hope the Environmental Trust Fund can continue." The trust fund has fallen out of favour with governments in the past and has had its financial support seized, redirected and whittled down multiple times. Adjusted for inflation, its budget for financing community projects this year is two-thirds smaller than it was 30 years ago. The Green Party's Megan Mitton said she would like to see the Holt government act quickly to secure the trust fund's future — as the Liberals once urged the Higgs government to do — without it having to burn through all of its savings first. "I guess I'll echo what Minister LePage said when he was the critic for environment," Mitton said. "I'm surprised and disappointed there is not a plan in place."
CBC
10-04-2025
- General
- CBC
At least 174,000 litres of diesel recovered from gas station leak in Woodstock, province says
The New Brunswick government now says 174,000 litres of diesel fuel leaked from an Irving gas station in Woodstock, up from earlier an estimate of 100,000 litres. And it's significantly larger than the 5,000 litres first estimated when the leak was discovered in December. "To date, approximately 174,000 litres of diesel has been recovered," said Vicky Lutes, spokesperson for the Department of Environment and Climate Change, in an email. Back in mid-December, a Tim Hortons on Beardsley Road, which is beside Murray's Irving gas station and restaurant, reported its water was contaminated with fuel. That led the restaurant and gas station to close following the discovery of the diesel leak at the Irving. The new figure comes two days after the department announced it was launching provincewide inspections of retail gas stations to "confirm regulatory compliance and to ensure that site owners have proper measures in place for detecting and managing petroleum product spills." The statement posted on the Department of the Environment website also says the inspections have been launched after "receiving further information last week from Irving Oil Ltd. on the circumstances of the spill." CBC News requested an interview with Environment Minister Gilles LePage to ask about the inspections, but was told he was unavailable. On March 25, LePage said in the legislature there was an investigation into the leak. CBC News has requested additional details about that process, but the department has not provided any. In the more than three months since CBC News began reporting on this leak, no one from the Department of Environment or Irving Oil Ltd. has been made available to answer questions about the leak and the potential risks to local well water. According to documents obtained by CBC News through a right to information request, the diesel leak was first detected on Dec. 13, 2024. Irving Oil Ltd. was deemed the party responsible for the leak by the province. A faulty elbow pipe leading to an underground storage tank was found to be the source. But so far neither Irving Oil nor the province have stated how long the fuel had been leaking. Some people in Woodstock have said they detected diesel in the water at the Tim Hortons several weeks before anything was done. According to Service New Brunswick's property-based environmental information database, there are four double-walled underground fuel storage tanks at the Beardsley Road Irving station, which are registered with the province under the Petroleum Product Storage and Handling Regulations. Three are used to store diesel, while the fourth houses gasoline. One of those diesel tanks was installed in 2003 and holds 65,000 litres of fuel. A second 50,000-litre tank was also installed in 2003. The third was installed in 2016 and has a storage capacity of 100,000 litres. It is unclear which tank housed the faulty elbow pipe. But all handle less fuel than is reported to have leaked. Those same documents list the Irving Oil property and the neighbouring Tim Hortons as contaminated with petroleum, and they say Irving Oil Ltd. is the party responsible for remediation. 29 days ago Duration 4:49 For three months, crews have worked to clean up what could be more than 100,000 litres of diesel. But neither Irving Oil Ltd. nor the province has answered questions about how the leak went undetected. CBC News requested an interview with Irving Oil Ltd. but did not receive a response. On April 7, the company issued a statement on its website about the spill. "On-site filtration systems ensured public safety was not compromised at any time as a result of this incident. Potable well water testing – both regulated and voluntary – has been ongoing in the surrounding area with results consistently falling within safe parameters," the statement says. That statement goes on to say that "systems and processes in place to protect against and prevent this unfortunate incident did not operate as intended. We have undertaken a thorough and extensive review of this matter to prevent further occurrences."
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
At least 174,000 litres of diesel recovered from gas station leak in Woodstock, province says
The New Brunswick government now says 174,000 litres of diesel fuel leaked from an Irving gas station in Woodstock, up from earlier an estimate of 100,000 litres. And it's significantly larger than the 5,000 litres first estimated when the leak was discovered in December. "To date, approximately 174,000 litres of diesel has been recovered," said Vicky Lutes, spokesperson for the Department of Environment and Climate Change, in an email. Back in mid-December, a Tim Hortons on Beardsley Road, which is beside Murray's Irving gas station and restaurant, reported its water was contaminated with fuel. That led the restaurant and gas station to close following the discovery of the diesel leak at the Irving. The new figure comes two days after the department announced it was launching provincewide inspections of retail gas stations to "confirm regulatory compliance and to ensure that site owners have proper measures in place for detecting and managing petroleum product spills." The statement posted on the Department of the Environment website also says the inspections have been launched after "receiving further information last week from Irving Oil Ltd. on the circumstances of the spill." CBC News requested an interview with Environment Minister Gilles LePage to ask about the inspections, but was told he was unavailable. On March 25, LePage said in the legislature there was an investigation into the leak. CBC News has requested additional details about that process, but the department has not provided any. In the more than three months since CBC News began reporting on this leak, no one from the Department of Environment or Irving Oil Ltd. has been made available to answer questions about the leak and the potential risks to local well water. According to documents obtained by CBC News through a right to information request, the diesel leak was first detected on Dec. 13, 2024. Irving Oil Ltd. was deemed the party responsible for the leak by the province. A faulty elbow pipe leading to an underground storage tank was found to be the source. But so far neither Irving Oil nor the province have stated how long the fuel had been leaking. Some people in Woodstock have said they detected diesel in the water at the Tim Hortons several weeks before anything was done. A faulty elbow pipe leading to an underground diesel storage tank was found to be responsible for the leak, which is now estimated at 174,000 litres, to date. (Province of New Brunswick) According to Service New Brunswick's property-based environmental information database, there are four double-walled underground fuel storage tanks at the Beardsley Road Irving station, which are registered with the province under the Petroleum Product Storage and Handling Regulations. Three are used to store diesel, while the fourth houses gasoline. One of those diesel tanks was installed in 2003 and holds 65,000 litres of fuel. A second 50,000-litre tank was also installed in 2003. The third was installed in 2016 and has a storage capacity of 100,000 litres. It is unclear which tank housed the faulty elbow pipe. But all handle less fuel than is reported to have leaked. Those same documents list the Irving Oil property and the neighbouring Tim Hortons as contaminated with petroleum, and they say Irving Oil Ltd. is the party responsible for remediation. CBC News requested an interview with Irving Oil Ltd. but did not receive a response. On April 7, the company issued a statement on its website about the spill. "On-site filtration systems ensured public safety was not compromised at any time as a result of this incident. Potable well water testing – both regulated and voluntary – has been ongoing in the surrounding area with results consistently falling within safe parameters," the statement says. That statement goes on to say that "systems and processes in place to protect against and prevent this unfortunate incident did not operate as intended. We have undertaken a thorough and extensive review of this matter to prevent further occurrences."
