The U.S. is leaving the Paris Agreement, Canada’s not. Why follow on weakening car emissions standards?
Fixated on reversing the progress made under its predecessor, the current United States administration plans to weaken vehicle emissions standards. Less fuel-efficient vehicles in the U.S. are bad for Canada’s climate, but things could get much worse if Canada adopts weaker standards as well. Due to the linked nature of U.S. and Canadian auto regulations […]
Trans Mountain pipeline myth-busting, of a different sort
PARLIAMENT HILL—In last week’s Hill Times online, Colleen Collins of the Canada West Foundation promised to bust myths about Kinder Morgan. Instead, she gave us just another dose of propaganda. Allow me to respond. Diluted bitumen spills can’t be cleaned up Collins claims that the 2010 Enbridge spill in the Kalamazoo River proves diluted bitumen […]
Reality check needed on pipeline rhetoric
Last week, before the Liberal government made the extraordinary announcement that it would buy the Kinder Morgan pipeline, a majority of Senators moved to push the government on the pipeline by passing Bill S-245. Throughout the process of crafting their legislative message to the Trudeau government, I witnessed pro-pipeline Senators repeatedly invoking the “rule of […]
Senate committee likely to amend C-45 on home pot cultivation, says sponsor
The Senate Social Affairs Committee will likely recommend a change to the cannabis legalization bill’s terms for growing pot at home, says its sponsor in the Red Chamber. “I suspect there will be something in home cultivation. It has been probably one of the most-discussed issues,” said Ontario Independent Senator Tony Dean. “I would be […]
Senate debate on Trans Mountain reveals reliance on myths, not facts
The good news is that the Senate just passed a bill to declare the Trans Mountain pipeline project to be “for the general advantage of Canada.” But the not so great news is that the record of the debate shows that some myths are still out there which anti-pipeline folks like British Columbia Green Party […]
Could this year’s Charlevoix talkfest be the last of the G7 summits?
OTTAWA—Conceived as a kind of fireside chat among the leaders of the biggest industrial democracies, the first high-level international “summit” was hosted by French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing at the Chateau de Rambouillet outside Paris in 1975. While the need to deal with the economic crisis set off by the 1973-74 oil shock was urgent […]
Here’s what MP Cathy McLeod ought to know about carbon pricing
Re: “Northerners deserve a government that has their back,” (The Hill Times, May 16, p. 17). Let’s have all the facts. In decrying Justin Trudeau’s “carbon tax,” Conservative MP Cathy McLeod fails to mention that under the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change, each province and territory is free to choose their preferred […]
We need more than campaign slogans to effectively deal with climate change
Re: “Northerners deserve a government that has their back,” (The Hill Times, May 16, p. 17). Conservative MP Cathy McLeod makes the assumption that putting a price on carbon emissions is an attempt “to govern the North paternalistically,” and that things will cost more. Things will cost more, particularly if we don’t reduce our carbon […]
Minister Carr tops lobbying list as groups ramp up on environmental assessment, fisheries bills
Energy and environment groups focused their April lobbying efforts on Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr, as they pushed the pros and cons of environmental assessment and fisheries bills, and continued to press the government on getting construction started on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. A May 17 search of the lobbyists’ registry showed groups logged […]
Political opportunism one reason for Conservative rejection of carbon pricing
TORONTO—My late great, friend Fraser Mustard, founder of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, would often ask, “why is there such a gap between what we know and what we do?” The British economist, Diane Coyle, asked the same question in a different way in her 2011 book on “how to run the economy as […]
