We’re an ocean nation, with a land-locked Prime Minister
PARLIAMENT HILL—Canada is truly an ocean nation. Our long coastline touches on three oceans, Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic, and hundreds of communities and tens of thousands of jobs are dependent on marine health. We have benefited from our marine regions through the wealth gained through the fisheries and tourism as well as traditional aboriginal […]
Tsunami debris cleanup puts intergovernmental collaboration to the test on the Pacific Coast
Federal and provincial officials are urging public calm as they prepare an action plan to clean up tonnes of refuse from last year’s tsunami that is destined for North America’s Pacific Coast. When the water-logged remnants of a Harley Davidson washed up on British Columbia’s Haida Gwaii islands last month it was an ominous […]
Feds say they’re ‘untangling’ environmental assessments for resource development
The federal government’s omnibus Budget Implementation Bill’s provisions to gut environmental assessments and the Fisheries Act are “short-sighted,” “irresponsible,” and “risky,” when it comes to offshore oil and gas drilling and protecting Canada’s waterways, say opposition MPs. “Budget 2012 coupled with C-38 is a retreat from protecting our oceans,” Green Leader Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf […]
Fisheries minister’s discretionary authority over ocean resources expands with C-38
Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield spent his first year on the file promoting regulatory reform, and the changes that he and other members of government have been touting over the past year are set to expand Cabinet’s discretion over ocean resources. “I believe strongly that with some changes at DFO, Canada’s fishing industry has the potential […]
Ocean experts decry ‘glacial’ process for approving Marine Protected Areas
The feds are speeding up the approval process for major energy projects, but the approval of marine protected areas remains a drawn out process. Three regions of Canada’s vast ocean waters have been listed as “areas of interest” for marine protection since 1998. “We’ve made a commitment that we’re going to focus on marine […]
A climate change policy hardly anyone talks about
The time has come to think differently about climate change. For too long the debate has been monopolized by two parties. One has got religion, fervently believing in man-made climate change, and that only large changes in human behaviour can stave off disaster. Their opponents argue that the science is uncertain, unsettled and inconclusive, […]
There’s no realistic alternative to the F-35s
OTTAWA—At last—a defence debate Canadians can get excited about. The government has been caught understating the cost of the F35 Joint Strike Fighter. We’ve been misled, say the auditor general and the Parliamentary budget officer. Outrage is the order of the day. Or not. For every expert in high dudgeon because the cost of […]
Most successful fishing nations give fishers right a share of catch before they go out to fish
Writing in the National Post last Wednesday John Ivison said that Ottawa was finally getting serious about fishery reform on the East Coast. Not before time. The fishery should be a source of wealth and prosperity for Atlantic communities, not a social program and gateway to EI benefits as it is today. It would […]
Sell to China, but never change who we are to do so
OTTAWA—Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Canada’s greatest prime minister, had two sage pieces of advice for Canadians about trade. First, free trade with the United States is the indispensable cornerstone of our prosperity. Second, we should build on that primary relationship by seeking markets wherever they are to be found. A century later, that is still […]
Canada’s monumental economic challenge: our increasingly schizophrenic attitude to natural resource development
OTTAWA—One of the best Canadian politicians of his generation, Macdonald left behind him an enduring and powerful legacy. No, no, not Sir John A. The other one: Donald S. Macdonald. A Trudeau-era Cabinet minister, Macdonald is best remembered for his job post-politics. At Trudeau’s behest he headed the eponymous Macdonald Royal Commission, which reported […]
