Dear Dal, I don’t want this

Dear Dalhousie University, 

Not cool.

Accepting $30 million from the provincial government to research onshore natural gas may have been your worst idea of the school year — and that’s saying something.

Dal, you’ve agreed to do this research in the face of several glaring warning signs. 

1. Not even a full year after the provincial government lifted its ban on fracking, it passed Bill 12, legislation that gives the provincial government more control over university funding and research. 

Bill 12, passed in March 2025, mandates Nova Scotian universities to “align research funded by the Corporation with the key research priorities determined under subsection (3)” — in other words, by “the Minister, in the Minister’s sole discretion.” 

For a school that claims “sustainability is woven into everything we do,” you’ve easily abandoned your principles the second the province came knocking with a $30 million offer. It’s particularly disappointing that you chose to collaborate with an overbearing government that recently inserted itself into your previously autonomous research decisions. 

2. Our climate crisis is worsening, urgently requiring innovative research into green alternatives to our current sources of fuel. The research you’ll be conducting won’t be innovative; it won’t help us address the climate crisis, it will only worsen it. This research is nothing more than a poor investment in our future and your reputation.

I’ve been here before

Like many in my generation, I have repeatedly found myself begging public and private institutions to listen to young people’s concerns about our future. 

When I was 12, I wrote letters to the federal government. When I was 15, I campaigned for HalifACT — Halifax’s plan to achieve a net-zero economy by 2050 — to be approved by the municipal government. When I was 18, I advocated for the provincial government to implement the Coastal Protection Act. 

I’ve faced disappointment before, but there’s something different about this letdown. Though I’ve learned not to take pride in my government, I’d like to be proud of my school. I choose to attend this institution and trust it with my future. I want to believe that it wants me to have a future. 

Don’t play dumb with me

Let’s face it, Dalhousie, you already know this is ridiculous. The debate on fracking in Nova Scotia was settled — over a decade ago. The topic does not need a $30 million revival.

In August 2014, a panel chaired by David Wheeler, a former president of Cape Breton University and the former dean of Dalhousie’s faculty of management, did extensive research into fracking in Nova Scotia. 

“The research was really, really sound at that time,” said Jonathan Langdon, the former Canada Research Chair in sustainability and a professor at St. Francis Xavier University, in an interview with the Dalhousie Gazette. 

“David Wheeler led a major commission that looked at everything,” he said. “There was no disputing the research. The risks are there.”

Langdon explained that the only significant change since that report is that fracking has become more automated — meaning it will create fewer jobs. 

Fracking can still lead to tremors or earthquakes. The methane gas released by fracking contributes to the climate crisis even more than CO2 emissions — and the risk of pollution from what Langdon terms a “cocktail of chemicals” to the water supply that so many rural Nova Scotians depend on hasn’t changed either. 

“We’re rolling the dice on people’s lives,” Langdon said.

Fracking is bad. We don’t need more research to tell us that. 

Bill 12 is unabashedly politicizing university research. The “research priorities” Dalhousie has to follow align with the plans of the provincial government, not the wishes of paying students or the best interests of Nova Scotians. 

Dalhousie, I am beyond disappointed that you are happily holding hands with a government that lifted the fracking ban without public consultation and against the wishes of Indigenous leadership. You don’t have to skip with glee down a road that leads to a possible return of fracking in Nova Scotia. 

I’m not mad… just disappointed

Dalhousie, you’ve also been showing incredible resistance to your students’ calls for divestment from fossil fuels and weapons manufacturing for years. Your utter disregard for your students and for the world we are creating is clear. 

Moreover, the deal conflicts with the very notion of free, independent research.

“This is government-commissioned research that is being contracted to Dal to do,” Langon said. “It’s not independent research. It’s not true research. 

“[The government] has answers they want, and they’re trying to get Dal to get those answers,” he said.

I’m dismayed that the dilution of independent research is celebrated by my university. We could be moving forward — instead, you chose to go backward, and you’re putting your reputation as an independent research institution on the line.

As a Dal student, I don’t want your reputation to be damaged. As a young person, I don’t want the damage that will be inflicted on our planet because of a minister’s agenda and a university’s greed. 

I wish you luck, Dalhousie. Trying to work with the provincial government is not easy — I know from experience.

Sincerely,

Amelia Penney-Crocker