Housing affordability, Canada’s green transition key budget planks as feds’ fiscal plan addresses ‘uncertain world’
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s second budget sets out $62.6-billion in new spending, with billions earmarked to make the hot housing market fairer, push Canada’s green transition, and bounce the country back from the COVID recession in an uncertain global economy. The 304-page document titled “A Plan to Grow Our Economy and Make Life More Affordable,” […]
Now is Canada’s chance to become the world’s agri-food powerhouse
When Russia’s army invaded Ukraine, it not only caused massive humanitarian and political tragedies, but also destabilized world food systems. Ukraine and Russia are usually in the world’s top five wheat exporters, accounting for about 25 per cent of global wheat trade. Additionally, Russia and Ukraine also contribute enormous amounts of fertilizer (especially phosphate) and […]
Tax credit for carbon capture the wrong horse to back in a race against time
Scarcely a year into my first job with now defunct Britoil in 1986, I lost my job like many others as oil prices crashed. Young and optimistic, I went to Africa and applied my skills to building a dam. Eventually, I returned to the oil and gas sector, building a 30-year career, half of those […]
Canada needs to act swiftly, collaboratively to implement key climate measures
With the March 29 release of the Emissions Reduction Plan, Canada has laid out a clearer roadmap for its efforts to fight climate change and achieve its net-zero target. But we can’t continue the course without learning from the detours we have already taken. Just a few short years ago, the mere mention of the […]
Wilson-Raybould’s memoir, two Michaels’ saga land on Shaughnessy Cohen shortlist
“Indian” in the Cabinet: Speaking Truth to Power by former Liberal cabinet minister-turned-Independent-MP Jody Wilson-Raybould is among the finalists for this year’s Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. Wilson-Raybould’s memoir, released amid the federal election campaign last September, details her swift rise within and even swifter disillusion with the federal political system, going from a […]
How will we respond to the clear threat to Canada’s infrastructure?
Catastrophes such as the 2021 B.C. floods make it impossible to ignore just how vulnerable Canada’s infrastructure is to the impacts of climate change. The damage these catastrophes are increasingly inflicting on infrastructure across Canada—including roads, bridges, buildings, homes, water systems, and electricity grids—is costing governments, businesses, and households billions of dollars in extra maintenance […]
Federal infrastructure funding needs to live up to the times
Just two years ago, there was a rush on toilet paper. Canadians were stocking up and supply chains could not meet demand. Fast forward to today: it is food prices that are the focus in the grocery store. Supply chains are hurting; droughts, floods, and wildfires have ravaged communities; and some of the most productive […]
Senate’s new net-zero policy has ‘ambitious but achievable’ targets, says Sen. Deacon
The Red Chamber has a new green target after adopting an environmental and sustainability plan that one of the policy’s authors says is the first of its kind for a national parliamentary body. “We have to, as an organization, address our own climate footprint and hold ourselves to account,” said Independent Senator Colin Deacon (Nova […]
Feds must solve ‘certainty challenge’ to reach emissions targets: Q&A with Michael Bernstein
The Liberal government’s “ambitious” emissions reduction plan lacks priorities and appears “closer to a wish list” than an action plan, says Michael Bernstein, the executive director of a think tank devoted to climate change policy. “One of the concerns I took away after having read the plan is just what a long list of items […]
Politics This Morning: Guilbeault taking questions on climate plan, new IPCC report
Good Monday morning, There are three more days to go until Finance Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND tables Budget 2022. Expect the usual jockeying to shape the conversation before and after it is released. The House of Commons is sitting today and the rest of this week, before taking a two-week break. The Senate is not sitting […]
