What we’re reading

• Some First Nation Leaders say the government failed to consult them before announcing the West Coast oil pipeline. Provincial and federal governments have a legal duty to consult with every Nation whose interests are affected. Read more about it in the CBC.
• An analysis suggests that the global demand for oil may have dropped by as much as 9%, showing that consumers and governments adjusted without a coordinated hold on oil usage and further casting doubt on the need for new fossil fuel projects. Read about it via Yahoo Finance.
• As the province pushes to increase logging rates, companies are now moving further into high-elevation forests once considered too remote to log, according to a recent investigation by The Tyee. B.C.’s most remote forests aren’t safe from the push for more logging, and the species that depend on them are running out of places to go, writes Ben Parfitt. Read it here.
• Alberta’s got a new plan for a southern pipeline to B.C.’s coast — it still won’t be easy. An already heavily trafficked B.C. estuary is under pressure to industrialize more for the proposed project. Read more about this via the CBC.
• Xatśūll First Nation urges Canada to better protect endangered mountain caribou after B.C. fails to do so. “We need the federal government to use the tools that it has,” said Kúkwpi7 (Chief) Rhonda Phillips of Xatśūll First Nation. Southern mountain caribou are listed as threatened under the Species at Risk Act. Read more in the CBC.
• BC Parks calls it ‘a luxuriously forested sanctuary.’ Just don’t try to visit. Carmanah Walbran Park is inaccessible to visitors, as B.C. approves logging company’s decision to gate roads. Read more about this in the Narwhal.
• B.C. just spent $74,900 to kill a single wolf in the Kootenays. The program exists to save at-risk caribou, but critics want Ottawa to move to preserve herds’ old-growth habitat. Read more about it The Tyee.