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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
Antitrust concern about big business underestimates customers’ power, and benefits
The size of a business is generally a reflection of its success at satisfying a lot of customers in a very productive way. Size, however, does not make businesses less vulnerable. Industry leaders such as the GAFA companies (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon) were only recently the disruptors of the markets they entered. Soon enough, […]
Resource sector making progress on reconciliation
The resource sector is moving hand in hand with Indigenous peoples in Canada and the outcomes will be theirs to own together—literally. From early equity to preferred procurement, Canada’s resource sector has been making strides toward implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 92 (CTA 92), which implores the private sector to bring […]
Is Canada’s oil sector an appropriate target for industrial policy support?
Canadian discussions on the future of oil quickly descend to partisan polemics, with the environmental community arguing that climate change realities mean we need to leave it in the ground, and the oil patch arguing that it’s better that we produce it than our unethical global competitors. It’s hard to see a bridge between those […]
Canada is on the cusp of a historical energy transformation, let’s do it
The year 2020 is expected to be the largest and most abrupt economic contraction since the Great Depression. The cautious expectation is that, once a vaccine for COVID-19 becomes widely available, the economy can enter a quick rebuilding phase. In the months to come, the federal government will be seeking to kick-start Canada’s economic recovery, […]
Experts and parliamentarians look ahead to SMR action plan to be released in near future
When Seamus O’Regan was sworn in as minister of natural resources on Nov. 20, 2019, his mandate letter didn’t explicitly mention nuclear energy, although it did use language like “clean technology” but he’s clearly communicated his intention to make nuclear a big part of Canada’s clean energy future. “He’s been more active on this file […]
Approaching the Biden administration on energy: don’t lead with Keystone
A Biden administration represents opportunities and challenges for Canadian energy, but to be successful in its relations with Washington, Canada needs to think differently about how it approaches the U.S. Gone are the days when the U.S. looked to Canada as a pivotal energy supplier and crucial pillar of national energy security. What happened? Two […]
