Off the Air

Opening Spaces will be going off the air.

Our programmers are volunteers and their every day lives have overtaken their ability to keep the show running.

We hope the show will continue at some later point.

Thanks to all our listeners.

O/S

Community Supported Agriculture Potluck

When: Sunday, March 18 at Potluck at 5:30pm, Presentation at 6:30pm.

Where: Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre, 2900 13th Ave, Regina

Join Regina EcoLiving and Farmer Direct Cooperative for an informative and inspring workshop on Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

CSA is a partnership of mutual commitment between a farm and a community of supporters which provides a direct link between the production and consumption of food. Members of a CSA invest in a farm each spring and receive fresh produce, meat and eggs throughout the summer and fall (some products throughout the winter as well). The advantages with CSA is that you get the opportunity to know the area where your food is being grown, you get to know the farmers who grow your food, and you get an opportunity to learn more about sustainble agriculture by helping out at harvest etc.

The workshop will feature a presentation and discussion by Keith and Monica Neu who are certified organic farmers out of Hudson Bay, SK. Keith and Monica are interested in starting a CSA and would like to know if people in Regina are interested in joining.

Come out and learn more about CSA! Meet farmers who are dedicated to sustainable agriculture and healthy food! Learn how you can eat more locally and how you can get more involved in the production of your own food! Try samples of locally grown food (Keith has promised to bring some products including organic ground beef for people to bring home and try!)

Please bring a dish to share, and your own plate, a fork and a glass.

This is a family friendly event, everyone is welcome!

For more information: contact Regina EcoLiving at reginaecoliving@yahoo.ca or call 546-3676

Uranium Mining and Saskatchewan's Cancer Rates

Saskatchewan is home to at least one third of the world's uranium production. The volume of nuclear waste at these mines is phenomenal. Every day carcinogenic radioactive elements seep into the water, the air and the land.

Not surprisingly, Saskatchewan’s cancer statistics are apparently some of the worse in the country. According to the Canadian Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute of Canada:

· Every day, 13 Saskatchewanians will be diagnosed with cancer and 6 will die from cancer.

· An estimated 4,700 new cases of cancer and 2,300 deaths from cancer were expected to occur in Saskatchewan in 2004.

· While cancer incidence in Saskatchewan has fluctuated moderately over the past twenty years, the number of new cases (male and female) has increased dramatically. This increase in numbers poses a grave and growing threat to the vitality of our health care system.

· Incidence rates for major cancer sites among men are higher in Saskatchewan than the Canadian average for all provinces.

· To put these data into local perspective, in the Premier’s riding of Saskatoon Riversdale an estimated 78 people will die of cancer in 2004 and 38 will get cancer. Looking ahead, of the 16,601 people currently residing in Saskatoon Riversdale an estimated 6,719 will get some form of cancer during their lifetime and 4,229 will die from cancer. [1] (emphasis retained)

While it may be impossible to say exactly who or what is responsible for this epidemic, surely one of the largest producers of carcinogenic/radioactive compounds should be a likely suspect.

And would it not be wise to keep the uranium mining industry from producing more of these cancer-causing wastes?

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[1] “Saskatchewan Cancer Statistics” (Information prepared by CCS / NCIC) as found at http://www.controlcancer.ca/frameset_campaign.htm

Dr. Helen Caldicott in Regina Tuesday March 6

Widely regarded as one of the great public speakers of the era, Dr. Helen Caldicott is an articulate and passionate advocate of citizen action to remedy the nuclear and environmental crises and has demonstrated a consistent ability to galvanize people from all walks of life to believe in their own capacity to bring about positive change. Her latest book is Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer.

Some of her other accomplishments include:
- Co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility (organization awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1985)

- Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize by Linus Pauling, a Nobel Laureate- Profiled in Oscar-winning short film, If You Love this Planet

For more information see Dr. Caldicott's website at www.helencaldicott.com

Dr. Helen Caldicott Lecture

When: Tuesday, March 6 at 7 pm.

Where: Education Auditorium, University of Regina

Book signing to follow.

Cost: Free

For more information: http://scratchpost.cc.uregina.ca/spr/
Phone: (306) 585-4117, Email: hcvisit@gmail.com

Interview with Martine Carlina of Organic Lifestyles Magazine

Martine Carlina is the editor and publisher of Organics Lifestyles magazine.

Martine told listeners that the magazine was launched about a year and half ago, and deals with food, health and wellness issues.

Lately the magazine has also been looking at larger issues, such as climate change and the environment. Last issue, the magazine looked at Environment Minister Rona Ambrose's poor performance in bringing Canada into compliance with the Kyoto treaty.

The upcoming issue contains at interview with Richard Heinberg, who was recently in Regina lecturing on the topic of Peak Oil/Gas.

More information about the magazine can be found at:

http://organiclifestyles.ca/

The interview will be replayed Monday morning at 9 a.m.

So Where Does That Oil and Gas Rent Money Go?

During our interview, John Warnock defined the concept of economic rent.

Key to this concept is that fact that, "Natural resources are a free gift from nature." As such, resources like oil and gas are considered public property, with governments entitled to exact payments, royalties and taxes on behalf of the public to compensate for the extraction and depletion of the resource by private corporations.

In the context of the oil and gas industry, economic rent is the difference between the cost of exploration, field development and extraction, and the final market price. According to Mr. Warnock, "These costs include a normal rate of return on investment." In other words, oil and gas companies have already made their profits even before the calculation of rents. The remaining economic rent is extremely valuable. It's up for grabs, and who gets it and in what proportions becomes a political contest between between public authorities and private interests.

In many parts of the world, governments insist on claiming a very high portion of this rent. In Saudi Arabia, the organization of the oil industry allows the Saud government to collect nearly 100% of rent. The Russian government in 2005 claimed 90% of oil rent.

What is interesting in all this, is that if international oil companies don't like giving up this lucrative rent to national governments, they are free to find a Saudi or Russian oil field elsewhere. Oil companies, making a normal rate of return, and with really no where else to go, stay.

Every once in a while, private oil companies do get aggressive. For example, in Venuzuela, where government demands a 50-50 sharing of oil between their national oil company and private oil corporations, there was a coup in 2002 against nationalist president Hugo Chavez. The subsequent installation of a "business friendly" president resulted in wide spread rioting, leading to the re-installation of Chavez as president.

In Saskatchewan, it appears that recent provincial governments surrendered this rent without much of a fight. According to Mr. Warnock's report, "...the average actual [oil] royalty rate would thus be less than six percent." For natural gas, "...corporations do not pay any royalties until the incentive [25 million cubic metres] has been extracted." As a result, "...the royalties received by the people of Saskatchewan for the extraction of natural gas are lower than those collected in Alberta and British Columbia."

Questions: Should Saskatchewan bring itself in line with other jurisdictions and insist on claiming a higher portion of this economic rent? Should we be using this rent to help cushion our transition into an energy depleted world?

Again, John Warnock's report can be downloaded at http://www.ualberta.ca/~parkland/research/studies/OilSaskWeb.pdf

Running Out of Natural Gas? Brrr....

During the interview Mr. Warnock suggested that Canada could run out of natural gas in as little as 10 years. Mr. Warnock's Report stated that, "Saskatchewan's conventional oil and gas reserves are being rapidly depleted, and shipped off to the United States. We have only an eight year supply of natural gas at current rates of extraction."(emphasis added)

This does not bode well for people living in Saskatchewan's harsh winter climate. Anyone who heats their home or business with natural gas is facing a potentially life-threatening situation.

Sadly, the provincial government's actions are apparently exacerbating the problem, by increasing depletion rates, and exhausting this resource even sooner.

The Report noted that, "In February 2006 Premier Lorne Calvert and Industry and Resources Minister Eric Cline went to Washington to meet with Vice President Dick Cheney, to make it clear to him that the government of Saskatchewan is fully behind exporting even more energy, if that is possible." (emphasis added)

Furthermore, "There has been no public debate on this government strategy, most likely because it is strongly supported by the two opposition parties, the Saskatchewan Party and the Liberal Party."

The Report suggests that there may be some very cold winter days ahead for people who use natural gas to stay warm during the winter.

So what do you think? Would the provincial government be going in the right direction with this type of strategy? Should there be more public debate on this issue?