Carr’s cabinet post praised by Prairie stakeholders, but experts and MP wary of road ahead
After recovering from a blood cancer diagnosis that forced him out of cabinet after the 2019 election, Jim Carr is back in the new post as the special representative to the Prairies. The title is old—Mr. Carr has held it since the election—but the spot in cabinet is new. Prior to re-joining cabinet, Mr. Carr was […]
How Erin O’Toole can resolve his climate dilemma
When the Liberals announced their ambitious new climate plan last month, which includes raising the carbon price through 2030, they upped the ante on what credible climate policy should look like. With a federal election looming on the horizon, it’s now up to Erin O’Toole and the Conservative Party to propose a serious climate plan […]
Former innovation minister Bains was most-lobbied minister in 2020
As COVID-19 changed the course of history and the government’s agenda, former innovation minister Navdeep Bains emerged as the most-lobbied minister in 2020, taking the top spot from Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, who was the most sought-after minister in 2019, according to a Hill Times analysis of all monthly communication reports filed with the lobbying […]
Finance Committee chair Easter top non-cabinet-MP target for lobbyists in 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic kept MPs away from Ottawa for most of the year, but that didn’t stop lobbyists from meeting with MPs to try and influence both the government’s and the opposition’s agenda. Liberal MP and House Finance Committee chair Wayne Easter was lobbied 190 times in 2020, the most for an MP not serving […]
Canada well-positioned to both buy and sell cleantech products
Canada is making ambitious plans to tackle climate change. While the rest of us were just trying to reach the finish line before the holidays, the federal government was busy budgeting for green stimulus and making plans to meet our Paris Agreement commitments by increasing the carbon tax and making large outlays on clean infrastructure. […]
Trudeau government’s new climate plan is insufficient
GIBSONS, B.C.—In 2014-2015, led by the newly formed Ecofiscal Commission, there was a bloom of comment, editorials and op-eds advocating carbon pricing as a climate mitigation method. As a British Columbia climate activist, I was familiar with the failure of our province’s vaunted carbon tax, so I gathered 15 or so of the authors, prominent […]
Post-COVID world will change us all forever
Just as the post-Trump America is a very different place, the post-COVID world will change us all forever. Virtual meetings have gone from being a techie tool used by geeks to the go-to place for people to meet globally. A year ago, no one could have envisioned an international meeting of leaders on global warming […]
New small modular reactor action plan a key step for new technology’s growth amid ‘incredible demand,’ says industry group
Canada’s new Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Action Plan is a significant step for the emerging technology’s potential place in the country’s energy grid, say stakeholders who are pushing the government to embrace “first-mover” advantage in the nascent domestic and international market. The plan was released on Dec. 18, 2020, by Natural Resources Canada and builds […]
Canadians’ appetite for climate action growing, but beware of polarization
Last fall, the federal government released a flurry of new climate measures: net zero by 2050 legislation, a climate plan that will increase the carbon price to $170 per tonne by 2030, and strategies for hydrogen and small modular nuclear reactors. Ottawa says these measures pack the policy muscle needed to hit the country’s 2030 […]
Focus on keeping industry, not politicians, in Canada
Canadian politics began 2021 with an almost obsessive focus on some elected officials leaving the country over the holidays. For Canadian workers, a more serious concern is whether trade-exposed and energy-intensive industries might leave the country in response to the carbon tax increase announced just ahead of the holiday season. Shortly before both controversies, Ottawa’s […]
