What will it take for the Trudeau government to ban single-use plastics?
Canada is in a plastic waste crisis, and Canadians know it. But despite all signs pointing to the need to follow the lead of other jurisdictions taking steps to ban single-use plastics, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and the Trudeau government have largely skirted the issue. What will this mean for the pending national strategy on […]
Senate to decide on fate of tanker ban, Liberals leaving U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade bill until last minute
Several high-profile government bills are entering the final stretch of scrutiny by Senators this week, with a decision on whether or not to kill the controversial tanker ban bill, C-48, on the docket, and third reading debate on the government’s sweeping environmental impact assessment bill, C-69, expected to begin early this week. The government has […]
Bill C-48, the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, is having a hard go in the Senate. Should this bill get passed? Why or why not?
Cameron Ahmad Liberal strategist “The environment and the economy must go hand in hand. That’s a key principle that Andrew Scheer fails to understand when he says he wants to make pollution free again. Coastal communities understand better than anyone the need to take action to protect our environment and they expect their government to […]
Senate compromise on government’s signature impact assessment bill would put maligned regulators back in charge on environmental review panels
Senators on the Environment Committee changed the government’s signature impact assessment bill last week to give industry regulators the majority of seats on environmental review panels, reversing a key clause in the bill that sprung from widespread criticism and distrust of the role those regulators had played in assessments under the previous Conservative government. Those […]
If this week’s dumb shrieking battles are any sign, this election won’t be pretty
OTTAWA—The past week provided a sadly predictable look ahead at this fall’s federal election. Dynamism was eschewed for dumb shrieking battles that we have seen a million times before and ultimately advance nothing but the same old partisan pepper spray. Sprinkle in the silly and you get a feel for what is coming our way. […]
Senators come together on C-69 amendments, but far off pace to meet May 16 deadline for committee
Senators on the Environment Committee found common ground last week on proposed amendments to curtail the environment minister’s powers to intervene in the early stages of the new environmental assessment process laid out under Bill C-69, the sweeping reform to environmental reviews introduced by Environment Minister Catherine McKenna. However, the Senators on the committee were […]
Ottawa-area MP Karen McCrimmon overlooked for commitment to helping flooded community
Re: “Local MPs pitch in to help combat flooding as water levels continue to rise,” (The Hill Times, May 1, p. 2). I was extremely disappointed that the text of Neil Moss’ article did not include the name of my Member of Parliament, Karen McCrimmon. Ms. McCrimmon is one of the hardest-working constituency MPs in […]
A lesson for the boys in short pants: the war on data hurts us all in the end
OTTAWA—In a few short months Canadians will head to the polls to elect our next government. But before they do, voters need to appreciate that their ballots will have lasting effects for years to come—well beyond a single government’s mandate, and in ways exceeding the imaginations of election platforms. Following nearly 10 years of Conservative […]
Trying to derail serious climate change action will someday be viewed as the crime it is
OTTAWA—Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer kept joking at the press gallery dinner the other night about the persistent questions about his party’s lack of a climate-change plan six months before a federal election. Yes, yes, it’s coming, he chuckled. This while newly elected Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, now considered the leader of the right-wing “opposition” to […]
The sad state of Canada’s left wing
OAKVILLE, ONT.—According to recent media reports, Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer supposedly blundered when he secretly met not too long ago with oil company executives to plot a grand strategy aimed at ousting the Liberals from power. Why was that meeting seen as a blunder? Well, in ordinary times, such a move would certainly cause […]
