Trudeau gets an unexpected ally in the climate change wars
OTTAWA—Central bankers, the arms-length public servants who try to enhance their countries’ economies by influencing commercial borrowing rates, are generally seen as some of the world’s most remote, pointy-headed, and cautious people. Aside from the apparent millions who view international banking authorities through the lens of idiotic, paranoid conspiracy theories, most citizens likely don’t think […]
NATO and the intelligence technology complex
When the North Atlantic Treaty Organization marked its golden anniversary in Washington 20 years ago, there was bickering, but it was mostly behind the scenes at the Ronald Reagan Building and at the nearby Willard Hotel, among surrogates still un-nannied by smartphones. At the time, in April 1999, the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia over Slobodan […]
‘Small but mighty’: New Democrats say they’re up to the task as MPs pile on critic jobs
The NDP’s lead critics say they’re feeling good about their “small but mighty” caucus, which they say can bring change in a minority government and attention to their “critical work” by hammering home the party’s “widely popular” priorities. At the Nov. 28 critic announcement, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh (Burnaby South, B.C.) said he was proud […]
The electrification pathway has some unanswered questions
As Canada is deciding how to manage its carbon emissions, policy-makers are considering ‘electrification provided by renewable energy sources’ as a pathway. Currently, Canada’s grid is over 80 per cent non-emitting, and this percentage will increase as current policies are enacted. However, expanding our electricity systems to substitute existing fossil fuels with renewables creates several questions as […]
Quadruple carbon tax to meet 2030 targets or pay more to hide costs, Ecofiscal Commission report says
Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, an independent group of economists focused on aligning government policy with Canada’s emissions reduction goals, released its final report on Nov. 27, and is calling for dramatically increasing the carbon tax by 2030 to meet greenhouse gas emissions targets under the Paris Agreement. The report also said that, compared to regulations and […]
Indigenous participation in energy sector an exercise in Indigenous self-determination, economic development
Now that the dust has settled from the election, the newly re-elected Liberal government will have to take stock of this election campaign and what issues were missed. For Indigenous communities, much was lost or distorted. When a group called Climate Justice Edmonton attempted to hold a “climate strike” in Edmonton on the Friday before […]
The big deal in going small: Canada’s nuclear energy future
Canada’s nuclear energy industry has a storied history. The industry’s prominent decades spanned the 1940s to the early 1990s and involved the domestic deployment and international export of its flagship technology i.e., the Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactor. However, the last three decades have been sobering for the industry. No new CANDU plants have been […]
LNG: local problem or global solution?
The LNG industry has barely launched in Canada, but it has already become the poster child for a dilemma: how to appropriately account for our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Is LNG—which will be produced more cleanly in Canada than anywhere else in the world—an “environmental saviour”? Or is it a “carbon bomb that will blow […]
Claims of a clean, green energy future based on an electrified natural gas industry must not go unchallenged
VANCOUVER—In late August, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau travelled to Vancouver to announce that the federal government had agreed to financially support a new hydroelectric transmission line project in British Columbia’s remote northeast region. In a memorandum of understanding signed with the provincial government, the federal government committed $83.6-million to the project, which will cover nearly […]
Canada’s energy narrative needs an urgent reboot
WATERLOO, ONT.—The positive contribution to Canada’s economic well-being by the fossil fuels resource sector—oil, coal, gas—is well-recognized, a matter of record and fully accepted by Canadians. Primarily Alberta and Saskatchewan, but also British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia have been in the vanguard, bringing technological innovation and business acumen to deliver jobs, prosperity, […]
