Op-Eds
Published in the Globe and Mail on December 10, 2013
By Christopher Ragan
The federal government has a well-deserved reputation for being strong on the economy. In general, it pushes growth-promoting policies while avoiding the opposite.
At the same time, the government frequently repeats its commitment to reducing Canada’s greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions – by 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020. A few weeks ago, the environment minister reaffirmed this specific commitment.
There is a subtle disconnect here. It’s not that a strong economy and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions are mutually exclusive – they aren’t. The evidence is mounting, in Canada and elsewhere, that GHG emissions can be reduced…
Published in the Globe & Mail on November 11, 2013
By Christopher Ragan
As the federal political parties gear up for the 2015 election, platforms are developed that appeal to the political bases and distinguish the parties from each other. The NDP leadership is once again arguing the benefits of raising corporate income tax rates. Based on public comments, the current federal rate of 15 per cent would be raised to something like 20 per cent (or even higher?) if the New Democrats became the next government.
This is a perfect example of a promise that makes for good politics – at least among an NDP audience – but bad economic policy.
The political appeal is simple. As NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair…
Published in the Financial Post on February 1, 2013
By Finn Poschmann and Daniel Schwanen
The World Trade Organization, in 2011 and 2012, launched two dispute-settlement panels to examine electricity tariff measures set in place under Ontario’s Green Energy and Green Economy Act. In doing so, the costs that Ontario’s legislation had imposed on provincial electricity consumers, taxpayers and policymakers spilled over onto federal taxpayers, trade lawyers and negotiators.
Some history. Through the 2009 act, the Ontario cabinet, tapping into an understandable public affinity for things green, pushed into place legislative and regulatory changes aimed at replacing aging and carbon-intensive generating capacity with…
Published in the National Post on March 1, 2012
By Ben Dachis
It's one thing after another for Toronto's Mayor these days, who is facing his unlikeliest opponent yet in his plan to sell a share of Toronto Hydro: provincial taxes. Further, Toronto Hydro has started a public war with its regulator, the Ontario Energy Board, after the OEB rejected Toronto Hydro's application to pay for planned investment with rate increases.
Ontario's special tax policies for municipal electric utilities (MEUs) make selling more than 10% of Toronto Hydro difficult to justify. However, because owning only 10% of the utility would not give outside investors the control stake they would need to drive operational efficiency, they would be…
Published in the Financial Post on January 12, 2012
By James P. Feehan
Amid flags and fanfare in November 2010, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Danny Williams announced that the long awaited hydroelectric development of the Lower Churchill River was finally at hand. With premiers, energy executives and Innu leaders sharing the stage, all were agreed: A new plant would be built at Muskrat Falls in central Labrador, and the bulk of the power brought to the island.
The deal would offer favourable benefits to the Innu, a fifth of the power would flow through subsea cables to Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland’s oil-fired electricity plants could be shuttered. Surplus power would go to the Maritimes, New England and possibly…
