Hodgson, Smallridge – Unlocking Indigenous Financing: Are Loan Guarantees the Answer?
From: Glen Hodgson and Diana Smallridge To: Reconciliation observers Date: January 17, 2024 Re: Unlocking Indigenous financing: are loan guarantees the answer? The federal government’s recent Fall Economic Statement included a commitment to establish a loan guarantee program to foster Indigenous equity ownership in major natural resource sector projects. This offers clear recognition that significant amounts of Indigenous financing […] Carbon pricing needs a makeover – Globe and Mail
Support for Canada’s federal carbon tax for the control of greenhouse gas emissions appears to be crumbling after Ottawa’s decision in the fall to exempt home heating oil from the tax until 2027. Polling by the Angus Reid Institute indicates that two-thirds of Canadians support a further exemption for all home heating fuels, including natural gas, and many (42 per cent) want the carbon tax abolished altogether.
Yet exempting natural gas from the carbon tax, or eliminating the tax altogether, would actually harm most of the households who support the idea. That is because the proceeds from the tax are pooled and then rebated to households in the jurisdiction in which they are collected (the federal carbon tax applies…
Charles DeLand – Plan B, Please, for Federal Carbon Policy
To: Canadians Concerned about Climate Change From: Charles DeLand Date: January 3, 2024 Re: Plan B, Please, for Federal Carbon Policy Suggestions that Canada’s rising emissions prove federal carbon policy is not working miss the mark. The country’s energy efficiency has, in fact, improved considerably under the carbon tax, but rapid population growth means more emissions. Now, unfortunately for […] Charles DeLand – Alberta Needs a Stable Policy Approach to Power
From: Charles DeLand To: The Hon. Nathan Neudorf, Alberta Minister of Affordability and Utilities Date: December 19, 2023 Re: Alberta Needs a Stable Policy Approach to Power Background It’s all electricity all the time in Canada these days as we come to grips with the green transition and its electric vehicles, its electric heat pumps […] Putting Together a Holiday Dinner Basket
We at the C.D. Howe Institute wish you a happy holiday season. We also wish we could wish you an affordable one. We asked how big a bite a holiday dinner for ten would take out of the average weekly wage of a worker in Canada, Australia, the UK and the United States. The painful answer is […] Leonard Waverman – Why Government Electric Vehicle Mandates Won’t Work
From: Leonard Waverman To: Canadian automotive observers Date: December 18, 2023 Re: Why Government Electric Vehicle Mandates Won’t Work On Dec 31 2022, the federal Liberal government mandated that in 2035, 12 years from now, no internal combustion engine cars and light trucks can be sold in Canada. This ban takes place gradually, beginning at 20 percent of electric […] Has Ottawa destroyed its own carbon tax? Canada needs a climate Plan B – Globe and Mail
Suggestions that carbon pricing is not working because Canada’s emissions have kept rising miss the mark, as a large chunk of the increase is due to rapid population growth. The country’s energy efficiency has, in fact, improved considerably under the carbon tax introduced by the federal government.
But unfortunately for carbon price supporters, Ottawa has directly contradicted the principle underlying the tax. In late October, it decided to selectively pause its application to heating oil, a fuel used primarily in homes in Atlantic Canada, ostensibly on affordability grounds, but largely viewed as a cynically political move. Quite logically, provincial leaders immediately asked for exemptions covering fuels used in their regions…
Grant Sprague – Frameworks and Emission Caps: Another No-Consultation Ottawa Initiative
To: Canadians Concerned about Climate Change From: Grant Sprague Date: December 14, 2023 Re: Frameworks and Emission Caps: Another No-Consultation Ottawa Initiative Our federal environment minister went to Dubai for COP and all we got was a framework on an oil and gas emissions cap. No matter how the details of this “cap” and framework end up, there are […] Duncan T. Munn – Nuclear Energy and LNG are Keys to Low-Carbon Canada
From: Duncan T. Munn To: Energy observers Date: December 4, 2023 Re: Nuclear Energy and LNG are Keys to Low-Carbon Canada The national conversation about net-zero has tended to focus on renewable energy, such as wind and solar, both of which have important roles to play. But nuclear energy and liquefied natural gas (LNG) have also emerged as pragmatic […] Nuclear power and LNG are key to a low-carbon future – Financial Post Op-Ed
The national conversation about net-zero has tended to focus on renewable forms of energy, such as wind and solar, both of which have important roles to play in future. But nuclear energy and liquefied natural gas (LNG) have also emerged as pragmatic drivers on the road toward a low-carbon future. Each has its own unique advantages.
Nuclear stands out as a reliable source of base-load electricity. Unlike wind and solar installations, which produce much less energy than their rated capacities when, respectively, the wind isn’t blowing or the sun shining, nuclear reactors can operate more or less indefinitely at close to capacity output. That ensures a stable energy supply, offsetting the intermittency associated…
Grant Bishop – Ottawa Needs to Get Back to Carbon Pricing Basics
From: Grant Bishop To: Climate policy observers Date: November 14, 2023 Re: Ottawa Needs to Get Back to Carbon Pricing Basics Last month, a Supreme Court majority held that the core of the federal Impact Assessment Act (IAA) is unconstitutional – a “Trojan horse” of federal overreach into provincial jurisdiction. Amid much criticism, this legislation was enacted […] Grant Sprague – The Supreme Court Was Clear: Governments Need to Align on Green Agenda
From: Grant Sprague To: Canada’s governments Date: November 6, 2023 Re: The Supreme Court Was Clear: Governments Need to Align on Green Agenda Four years ago, the federal government enacted the Impact Assessment Act (IAA), also known as Bill C-69. The reception was not good. In some circles, the legislation became known as the “no-more […]