Liberal MPs suggest more than 100 amendments to government’s environmental impact assessment bill
Liberal MPs have proposed more than 100 changes to the government’s wide-ranging Impact Assessment Bill, including to the role of energy regulators in the new environmental assessment process. The amendments put forward by Liberal members of the House Environment Committee respond to problems with the bill, C-69, raised by those who testified to the committee, […]
The sharing economy: a low-hanging fruit for sustainability
With the strong focus in Canada and globally on improving environmental sustainability, there is far too much emphasis on trying to make business-as-usual more efficient instead of also being smart. Utilization of infrastructure—and the built environment in general—remains very low. For example, ask yourself how much building space (work, home, and elsewhere) is devoted entirely […]
Canada poised to truly harness value of big data
VICTORIA, B.C.—A rough calculation suggests that 50,000 copies of the complete works of Shakespeare would fit on a smart phone. Astounding as this might have been 20 years ago, it is now a mundane fact about consumer electronics, as the ability to miniaturize and store data has kept pace with the increased processing power found […]
Is there really an economic case for Kinder Morgan?
CHELSEA, QUE.—The environmental dangers involved in the controversial twinning of the Kinder Morgan pipeline through British Columbia are easy to see, if not to quantify. The first is increased odds of a calamitous spill in the face of a sevenfold increase in oil tanker traffic in Vancouver Harbour. The second is that, by extending the […]
It’s time Canada act on the Sustainable Development Goals
Last week, the federal environment and sustainable development commissioner, who operates within the auditor general’s office, issued an audit report on Canada’s preparedness to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—a set of 17 global goals for economic, social, and environmental sustainability that were adopted in 2015 and agreed to by all 193 members of the United Nations, including Canada. […]
Another approach to Canada’s bitumen quagmire
There will be both a significant financial and political cost no matter what decision is taken to resolve the current impasse on the Kinder Morgan pipeline project. Why not investigate an alternative? What if governments helped finance a refinery in Alberta to refine the bitumen to a state that it is less hazardous for transport? […]
New studies show Canadians unaware of flood risk
Imagine this—your home was severely damaged when a torrential downpour caused a nearby river to overflow its banks and water gushed into your basement. Then when you made an insurance claim, you found you did not have coverage and had to bear the financial burden on your own. This situation is a reality for a […]
With fed-prov tension rising, court deals provinces another high card
OTTAWA—The fault lines in Canada’s federal-provincial arrangement never disappear; they just lie dormant from time to time. With the system already under renewed pressure from the Trans Mountain pipeline dispute between Alberta and British Columbia, the Supreme Court of Canada came down with its long-awaited decision in the so-called “free the beer” case, an epithet […]
Trudeau puts it all on the line for a pipeline that’s unlikely to be built
OTTAWA—On the evening of July 25, 2010, an oil pipeline owned by Enbridge Inc. ruptured near Marshall, Mich. During the 17 hours it took for the company to turn off the flow, more than three million litres of crude from Canada’s oilsands made its way into the Kalamazoo River. The discharge of diluted bitumen—heavy tarsands […]
Kinder Morgan project a test of Trudeau’s competency, puts his 18 B.C. seats at risk, say pollsters
Whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gets the Kinder Morgan pipeline project built, as he says he will, voters will judge as a test of his competency, say pollsters. And the stakes are high, with the Liberals’ 18 seats in British Columbia at risk. Much of his credibility is bound up in his ability keep the project his […]
