Wednesday August 13th, 2014 – 10am
Posted Aug 13, 2014 11:37:51 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The first hour of the 570 Midday Show
10:00 Ward Councillor Paul Singh, City of Kitchener
About 20 homes in the Laurentian Hills neighbourhood are contending with termites, the city’s only known cluster of the destructive pests. The problem was brought to the city’s attention last fall, although it’s believed the pests may have been present there for several years. The city provided waste bins so that residents could properly dispose of yard wood such as mulch and planters in the hopes of depriving termites of a food source. Now, they’ll be sending out bylaw notices to 13 homeowners who have not yet chemically treated their properties. The city requires treatment by a licensed pest control firm to control the spread of the termites and to make sure the structures are protected. Homeowners could be fined if they don’t comply. Ward Coun. Paul Singh said he’s lobbied on the residents’ behalf to obtain more assistance from the city. “We need to live up to a certain responsibility,” he said. Residents are asking for financial help because that provision exists in the city bylaw, Singh said, adding that if the city won’t help cover the costs, the bylaw should be changed to reflect that. Staff should investigate other methods being used in other communities to see if the problem can be eradicated here before it spreads, Singh said.
10:30 Philippe Crabbe, Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences for University of Ottawa
The world’s most debated pipeline could be worse for global warming than previously believed, a new economic analysis says. Keystone XL could produce four times more greenhouse gases than the U.S. State Department calculated in January – those estimates did not take into account that the added oil from the pipeline is likely to decrease prices and increase consumption – which would probably create more pollution, researchers say. In the study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, Erickson and Michael Lazarus, of the Stockholm Environment Institute in Seattle, Wash., evaluated how building Keystone XL could affect oil prices: they found that for every barrel of oil obtained from Alberta’s oilsands as a result of the pipeline, global oil consumption would increase by 0.6 barrels because the surplus oil would lower oil prices and encourage people to use more. The beleaguered pipeline project proposed by TransCanada would allow crude oil extracted from Alberta’s oilsands to be refined on the Gulf of Mexico coast. It will cut through at least six U.S. states and carry about 820,000 barrels of crude a day.
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