| 'Green Power' Transmission Grid Meetings Held | 08 May 07 |
 Provincial energy and natural resources Ministers from Manitoba, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador met with aboriginal leaders and electricity infrastructure representatives to discuss potential for a cross-Canada 'green power' transmission grid.The April 19, 2007 Ottawa meeting resulted in a statement urging a national policy for electricity trade among provinces. The aim is to fuel construction of an east-west transmission grid to enhance assumed economic opportunities for Aboriginal peoples and other local communities. The statement recognized the need to protect ecological integrity by establishing conservation first principles for any energy grid project. 'Conservation First', articulated by the WWF, CBI, CPAWS and other environmental organizations in Canada, requires that valuable and vulnerable parts of a boreal forest region be protected from development impacts before development decisions are made. "Canada's Boreal Forest is the largest terrestrial storehouse of carbon on the planet. . . Protecting the carbon stored in intact Boreal Forest ecosystems must be part of the plan for any new resource development project," said Anna Baggio Director, Conservation Land Use Planning for CPAWS Wildlands League. The conservation group outlined pre-conditions a cross-country grid project must meet:
View the April 19, 2007 CPAWS Wildlands League release and backgrounder (PDF) View the April 20, 2007 Globe and Mail article on the Corporate Knights website View information on the WWF's 'Conservation First' approach View Manitoba Wildlands' information on the east-west power grid View Manitoba Wildlands' March 15, 2007 news item Sources: Corporate Knights, Globe and Mail, Wildlands League, The Tyee
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