Tout juste avant la pandémie, il y a une éternité me semble, ma conjointe et moi avons compensé les émissions en gaz à effet de serre (GE)S de vacances en Argentine, s’aventurant ainsi dans la forêt des crédits carbone.
Le calculateur nous a proposé pour 189 $ l’attribution des 6,75 tonnes de CO2 absorbées par 48,21 arbres, leur vie durant, soit l’équivalent des GES émis par nos déplacements en avion et en voiture. Une transaction simple comme bonjour sur le site de Carbone boréal, un organisme associé à l’Université du Québec à Chicoutimi qui mène des recherches scientifiques sur la capture du carbone par la forêt boréale.
Ce geste individuel n’a pas stoppé le réchauffement climatique, ni d’…
Former Prime Minister Kim Campbell got pilloried in 1993 for saying an election is no time to discuss serious issues. Yet in September 2021, her words ring true. Foreign policy? We all but ignore the rest of the world. Monetary policy? Not something to think about, even with inflation above 4 per cent. Fiscal policy? Almost no one is talking about whether, over time, we will be willing and able to finance all the goodies being added to the federal budget.
The thing about serious issues is that, whether we discuss them during an election or not, they don’t go away. Even if borrowing stays cheap, the binge of deep-discount government spending is ending. Our discussions about fiscal policy will get serious when we are back to paying…
All the major political parties have put out their plans to deal with the housing market crises in Canada’s cities. The focus is on affordability. In other words, how to make home ownership easier for Canadians currently priced out of the housing market. But is there much the federal government can do? Unfortunately, the answer is no, with most levers – especially those that will encourage more supply – at lower levels of government.
First, let’s understand the constraint on affordability. The amount Canadians pay for their mortgages out of their disposable income is roughly the same as 30 years ago. However, with house prices skyrocketing, fuelled by low interest rates, the constraint to home ownership is getting the…
