In the drive to reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions, provide affordable energy, enhance energy security and provide benefits to Canadians, the country has an opportunity to play a vital role: exporting liquid natural gas.
According to the International Energy Agency, coal, oil and natural gas make up nearly 80 per cent of the global energy mix, and are expected to continue to comprise at least 62 per cent by 2050.
Natural gas is energy dense and emits the lowest pounds of CO2 per million British thermal units (btu) of all hydrocarbons. As such, it is an abundant low-emission substitute for coal and backstop for renewables in the evolving energy mix.
Both the United States and the European Union have displaced…
The decline of Canada’s labour productivity is making headlines across the country and raising concerns about the country’s economic prosperity. In real terms, per capita GDP has been stagnant since 2017. As University of Alberta economist Trevor Tombe has pointed out, Ontario’s output per capita is now on par with Alabama’s. More than ever, Canada needs tax reform to foster economic growth.
Lack of investment is not the sole explanation for our disappointing productivity performance but it is almost certainly a major contributor. The stock of business capital per worker has been on a declining trend since 2015. Canada fares very poorly compared to its neighbour: each U.S. worker, on average, benefits…
Canadian governments’ lack of transparency is a high-profile concern – and for good reason. Alongside such problems as bureaucratic circumvention of freedom of information laws and ministers responding to questions in legislatures or from the media with mechanical talking points, government finances are far too opaque.
Which brings us to the pandemic of 2020. COVID-19 was not only a health and economic crisis, it was a fiscal crisis. It prompted unprecedented jumps in government spending and borrowing. But how much exactly was going where? We don’t know.
Two years have passed since our federal, provincial and territorial governments closed their books on the fiscal year that ran from April 1, 2020, to March 31,…
