Op-Eds
Published in the Financial Post
Policy-makers around the world are trying to strike the right balance between reducing emissions, promoting economic growth and keeping energy secure, affordable and reliable. Getting the balance right is especially important in a country, like Canada, that produces large amounts of energy both for export and for domestic consumption in a cold climate.
Energy forecasts and scenarios from agencies such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) can help inform governments’ energy policies and regulations. But they are only forecasts, and they shouldn’t be baked into economic policy, especially when doing so pre-emptively damages our most important export industry and a pillar of our living…
Published in The Globe and Mail
Resources have been a major part of Canada’s economic prosperity since its founding. Yet, many Canadians downplay these important assets, viewing resources as a “curse” or “Dutch disease.” Instead, we should count ourselves lucky to inherit such abundance.
Going back to British economist David Ricardo, our comparative advantage in trade is to export products that are relatively cheaper to produce domestically while importing products that are relatively more expensive to produce at home. This is the case for Canada: Exports are dominated by the high productivity resource sector. Energy, forestry, fishing, mining and agriculture make up one-third of our export earnings. As for trade balances…
Published in the Financial Post
The prevailing discussion about Canadian energy use and production and climate initiatives omits some key considerations.
Canada is energy rich, well-endowed with oil, natural gas, hydro generation capacity and nuclear technology. Add in our substantial mineral, forestry, agriculture and fishery resources, and you could say that natural resources constitute Canada’s family business. For some reason, we seem to have forgotten, never knew, or have become embarrassed by this, despite the fact that natural resources, and energy in particular, anchor our economy, our prosperity, and to some degree, our geopolitical relevance in the world.
Natural resources account for 14.9 per cent of…
Pas facile de se faire une tête dans ce dossier, où promoteurs et opposants présentent des arguments valables, mais aussi des positions critiquables. Prenons de la hauteur pour en juger.
L’argument central avancé dans ce journal par le ministre de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et de l’Énergie, Pierre Fitzgibbon, est de « développer au Québec une économie basée sur des secteurs d’avenir » et de « réduire notre écart de richesse avec le reste du Canada » pour financer la santé et l’éducation.
Des objectifs louables, certes, mais le gouvernement de la CAQ ne semble appliquer qu’une moitié de la stratégie préconisée pour lutter contre le réchauffement climatique, qui est de s’attaquer tant aux risques…
The federal government recently finalized regulations for its “zero-emissions vehicle” mandate. The mandate requires sellers of light vehicles (passenger cars and light trucks) to sell a rising minimum of zero-emissions vehicles — basically, electric vehicles or EVs — every year, culminating with 100 per cent EVs in 2035, just 11 years from now. Reasonable forecasts of production and sales make clear that Ottawa’s timeline is unrealistic.
The mandate states that new light vehicles must be at least 20 per cent EVs in 2026, 60 per cent in 2030 and, as mentioned, 100 per cent in 2035. The theory is that these requirements will guarantee a market for EVs and therefore encourage imports, construction of domestic manufacturing…
