With our major trading partners, the United States and China, having recently ratified the Paris climate agreement, there is mounting pressure on Canada to come up with a plan to meet its emissions reduction targets. It’s time for Ottawa to take action and put in place a floor price on carbon nationwide.
If the goal is to reduce Canada’s carbon emissions in a way that causes the least amount of economic damage, a uniform price on carbon that applies across the entire country is the best option. A national carbon price has many advantages: It eliminates unproductive jockeying between provinces to attract business and doesn’t push firms across borders solely because of carbon price differentials.
To date, the provinces have…
The Ontario government has signaled that it is going to find a way to reduce your electricity bill. For this to work, it should stop relying on hiking your taxes to lower your electricity bill and instead focus on real reform of the electricity system.
Most previous plans to reduce electricity bills relied on having taxpayers or other electricity users foot the bill for lower electricity costs only for some. The first plan was the Ontario Clean Energy Benefit, which came straight from tax dollars. That was replaced by the Ontario Electricity Support Program for low-income households. The province puts the cost of that program on other electricity users.
The government also recently eliminated the Debt Retirement…
Ontario’s math system is broken. So why isn’t the government fixing it?: Globe and Mail Op-Ed
Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office’s (EQAO) 2015/2016 results from mathematics assessments should give parents in the province reason to worry. There was some positive news in that reading and writing scores increased over five years, but mathematics scores plummeted. The percentage of Grade 3 students who met the provincial math standard fell to 63 per cent from 68 per cent over five years. The results were worse for Grade 6 students. Only 50 per cent met the provincial math standard, down from 58 per cent five years ago.
Early achievement in math has been shown to predict later academic achievement, financial success and future career options. The recent EQAO results should further increase government efforts…
