Media should be informing society about UN climate report: British Columbia reader
As guardians of the media and purveyors of the truth, I beseech you to read The Guardian’s coverage, “World leaders ‘have moral obligation to act’ after UN climate report,” (Oct. 8). It is up to the media to let its readers and listeners know what is happening in the world in which we live. Please […]
Trudeau should be doing so much more to fight climate change
Last week, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a devastating report on the irreversible impacts of climate change. Here in Canada, we still don’t have the federal leadership needed to move quickly to help fight climate change and it doesn’t look we’re going to have it any time soon. The world has […]
Humanity’s turkey is cooked while politicians play hot potato with climate change
OTTAWA—Over the Thanksgiving weekend Canadians were reminded again of the perils of unaddressed climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a gloomy report. Effectively the panel argued that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels means the world can keep “a semblance” of the ecosystems we have; conversely, adding another 0.5 […]
Fisheries and Oceans Canada needs to take stronger lead to protect marine mammals
In the midst of all the major news coverage of NAFTA 2.0 last week, Canada’s federal Environment Commissioner Julie Gelfand tabled three audits and an annual report last Tuesday, which deserve some attention and government action. Specifically, in her audit on the protection of marine mammals, Ms. Gelfand found that Fisheries and Oceans Canada, along […]
‘There were far too many jobs eliminated,’ May urges feds to restore staffing capacity after departments found failing on marine mammal protections, toxic substances
After a recent audit found federal departments failed to act swiftly to protect endangered marine mammals in Canada and are dropping the ball on ensuring regulations to control toxic substances are actually effective, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May says it’s clear departments still lack “core capacity” after Harper-era staffing cuts. “There were far too many […]
Daughters of the Vote to return to Parliament Hill in 2019
Equal Voice’s Daughters of the Vote program, which brought young women representing every federal riding in Canada to sit in the House of Commons Chamber in Centre Block in 2017, will return in March 2019. On March 8, 2017, young women aged 18 to 23 came from all corners of Canada to Parliament Hill to […]
The future of work in a warming world
Extreme weather may be the topic on everyone’s lips, especially in the aftermath of Ottawa’s recent tornados, but the silence about the future of work in a warming world is deafening. The consequences of global warming will shake up the nature of work and the availability of employment for people in every country. In an […]
To get the benefits of innovation, Canada needs a national effort
Canadian efforts to extract social and economic benefit from innovation have not only been late but tepid. For too long, pundits and policy-makers considered innovation manna that falls from heaven without any strategy or government involvement. We have focused on attracting jobs and getting access to foreign technology rather than on building a Canadian innovation […]
Clean-tech innovation: why are there still barriers?
The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been positioning itself as promoting clean growth and innovation. The “superclusters” may prove to be very effective enablers of innovative technologies. At this stage, they remain experimental. But the easy things to promote innovation and clean-tech are still untouched. It is hard to know why. It is […]
Tackling global warming must be this government’s top priority
It was exciting to have the prime minister visit our Okanagan city of Penticton, B.C., this summer. I am glad that his trip in early August coincided with one of our few smoke-free days. After that, for more days than I care to count, the scene up and down our grape-growing valley was more like […]
