Province seeks expressions of interest for hydrogen fuelling stations
The Alberta Government is looking for feedback about the potential development about hydrogen fuelling stations.
In a release Wednesday, the province said they hope the stations will help “support future low-emission transportation needs”.
Alberta Energy is seeking expressions of interest to help the government gauge the potential for a provincial network of hydrogen fuelling stations owned and operated by the private sector.
“Alberta has the potential to be a global hydrogen leader. To help make that reality, we need to have the infrastructure in place to support its use,” said Pete Guthrie, Minister of Energy.
“Hydrogen fuelling stations could power heavy-duty commercial vehicles, help reduce emissions and support future adoption in other mobility sectors. We are a province driven by innovation, and I look forward to reviewing the proposals.”
According to the province, research suggests that Alberta can produce some of the lowest-cost clean hydrogen in the world. With the growing use of hydrogen fuel electric vehicles and hydrogen-diesel dual combustion vehicles, they see an opportunity to reduce emissions in Alberta’s transportation sector while supporting the province’s growing hydrogen economy.
“This represents an important initial step forward on the road to a lower-emission future,” said Dale Nally, Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the input we receive from stakeholders and potential partners in this innovative enterprise. Once again, Alberta is leading the way in this cutting-edge opportunity.”
The expression of interest is focused on the heavy-duty transportation sectors because they are the most likely to be early adopters of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles.
Industry will be asked to provide information including potential locations, capital and operating costs, delivery and storage, and safety considerations. In addition, the expression of interest will gather information to assess the potential for the infrastructure to be used for general commercial and personal use of Albertans.
In 2021, Alberta released its Hydrogen Roadmap, which outlines the province’s vision to deploy Alberta-produced hydrogen across domestic and global markets. Transportation was identified as a major market to integrate clean hydrogen. To help ensure this market grows in the future, a reliable fuelling network that meets the needs of Albertans and industry is required.
More information on the expression of interest and Alberta’s Hydrogen Roadmap is available at alberta.ca.
Shandro tells Alberta Law Society hearing he was protecting family
CALGARY — Justice Minister Tyler Shandro told a Law Society of Alberta hearing Wednesday into complaints about his conduct that he was protecting his wife and family.
Shandro, who was Alberta’s health minister in 2020, took the stand in his own defence at the hearing that is looking into complaints that he committed professional misconduct on three separate occasions.
He told the hearing that there was an escalation of threats against him and his wife beginning in December 2019 through to March 2020. The United Conservative Party government at the time was embroiled in rocky negotiations with health-care unions and the Alberta Medical Association.
Shandro said he and his wife Andrea received between 900 and 1000 threats during that time.
“There were threats of physical violence, there were death threats, there were threats of sexual violence. Some of the most grotesque were voice mails that she (Andrea) had received that were quite distressing to her,” Shandro said.
“It culminated on March 20 of somebody actually coming to Andrea’s office to physically attack her.”
Shandro said Calgary police were called and interviewed them.
He said he was shocked when a long-time supporter sent a note to his wife’s office accusing the couple of being in a conflict of interest.
Janice Fraser said Shandro represented her family as a lawyer and she supported his run for office. Fraser said that changed after she sent a note to Andrea Shandro, one of the co-founders of Vital Partners, a health insurance agency.
“Dear Andrea, you and your husband Tyler Shandro (who I used to have a tremendous amount of personal and professional respect for up until 2020) are considered to be in a conflict of interest by Albertans. We will not forget,” reads the comment posted on the company website.
Fraser said she was traumatized when she received an email from Shandro.
“Janice, sending threatening notes to my wife is completely inappropriate and must stop,” Shandro replied.
“If you want to believe lies about her on social media that’s up to you. But you can send your threatening emails to this office and this office only. Email her again and it will be referred to protective services.”
Fraser said Shandro should have known the threat would trigger her post-traumatic stress disorder, which is related to the matters on which he had represented her in the past, so she reached out to various media outlets as a way of protecting herself.
“It was pretty scary. Protective services to me means the police and it felt extremely threatening. It petrified me,” she told the panel.
“I had some PTSD about all of that terrible experience with the system and trying to get justice for my kids. So I was quite shocked that he would say that because he knew my past and he should have known that this would be quite triggering to a person with a criminal injuries background.”
Shandro said his spouse was living in fear at the time.
“She had difficulty sleeping. She was worried that she would have to change her name. She was worried she would have to move to another province, that she would have to leave the business. It was a distressing time for her,” he said.
Shandro said he saw the note addressed to his wife and not him as a threat.
“Directly contacting your spouse is inherently threatening,” he testified.
“I think she knew by not going to me and going directly to Andrea would be interpreted as being threatening to our family.”
Shandro also addressed complaints from two Red Deer, Alta., doctors over his obtaining their private numbers and calling them at home.
The two doctors had attempted to speak to Shandro at a government announcement and were angry he wouldn’t stop.