Canada should not stray from climate commitments in face of criticism
Things look bleak these days for the Trudeau government’s Pan-Canadian Framework on climate change (PCF). The framework represents Canada’s primary compliance path with the Paris Climate Accord, requiring provinces to establish a price on carbon or have one imposed by Ottawa. Opposition Conservatives have railed against the plan in the House of Commons. Newly-elected Ontario […]
Now is no time to build a pipeline
Recent extreme weather across the country is evidence of a warming world: heat waves and drought in central Canada, forest fires in British Columbia last summer, flooding earlier this spring in the Prairies or in the Maritimes. Temperature records have been set all over the world in recent weeks, from across Asia to the Middle […]
Federal government should update Canadian Environmental Protection Act before next election
I just find it so demoralizing that the federal government has delayed addressing the urgently needed changes to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act for a year and has now announced it will not be updating the act before the next election. It shows me the government works for industry against citizens because thousands of citizens […]
Circumpolar Inuit gather for historic assembly in Alaska
UTQIAGVIK, ALASKA—Inuit from four circumpolar nations are gathered on the shores of the Beaufort Sea this week for the quadrennial general assembly of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC). They include Canada, Alaska (United States), Greenland, and Chukotka (Russia). The meeting is taking place in the birthplace of the international Inuit organization, founded 41 years ago […]
Time to get serious about interprovincial electricity trade
With cross-border clashes on issues, ranging from pipelines, to booze, to out-of-province licence plates, the provinces have room for improvement when it comes to working together. It’s no different when it comes to electricity. While restrictions on bringing some beer across provincial borders (as in the recent Comeau case in the Supreme Court) can be […]
Feds should update Canadian Environmental Protection Act sooner than later
The Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), Canada’s primary law on pollution and toxic chemicals, is very outdated, placing lives at risk. The government took a year to respond to important recommendations on strengthening CEPA, but recently announced that it will not introduce legislative changes before the next election. Postponing action comes at a price. According […]
Canada’s future is clean: Grit MP Rudd
It’s a report developed with Canadians—for Canadians. A vision for Canada’s energy future—and a plan to get there. The Generation Energy Council’s new report is less of a blueprint than a North Star for Canada’s clean-energy future—pointing us to where Canadians want to go, and how to achieve that transformation. The report is filled with […]
Can Canada get to 90 per cent non-emitting by 2030?
Energy: it’s a topic Canadian politicians can’t stop talking about. But the energy conversation is often framed around what we need to cut in the decades ahead—oil production, carbon pollution. Which is important, but what is missing is the equally important conversation around what we need to build. And build we must. The federal government […]
Why we should be pulling out all the stops to expand renewable energy
It is time to face some hard facts about the climate crisis. The Paris target is not a politically derived imaginary number without consequences. It is a best guess, based on science (with greater risks that it is too optimistic a number than that it is too conservative). We know human activity has already changed […]
Canada’s potential future in renewable energy: Cannings
Recently, I travelled with Canada’s Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr to the World Energy Leaders Summit and G20 energy meetings in Argentina. One of the main themes of these talks was the “grand transition” to a low carbon future. While there are political pressures to make this transition, pressures driven in part by the Paris […]
