Following the Paris climate summit last year -- and an ambitious 1.5 degree target to limit global warming -- the Trudeau government promised a First Ministers meeting within 90 days. Marc Lee joins us to discuss the outcome of that meeting, the road ahead for climate policy in Canada, and the issue of fossil fuel divestment and "stranded assets."
Marc Lee is a CCPA Senior Economist and Co-Director of the Climate Justice Project.
Environment and sustainability
By 2013 the Conservative government had cut overall federal taxes and other revenues to the lowest rate seen in more than 70 years. Between 2011 and March 2015, 25,000 to 30,000 federal public sector positions were eliminated. Between 2010 and 2015, 4,766 civil service jobs were lost in the prairie region (1,875 in Manitoba; 799 in Saskatchewan; 2,092 in Alberta).
If not reversed by the new government, significant spending cuts brought in by the federal Conservatives will compromise services and programs in the prairie region. These cuts have placed federal employees under tremendous stress while frustrating the public with undue delays in service delivery. If these cuts are not reversed and successful programs reinstated, future generations will have to deal with the consequences of loss of valuable services, deterioration of the environment and yet one more example of the tragedy of the commons.
In the face of a prolonged drought, water levels at Lake Mead, the giant hydroelectric reservoir that straddles the Nevada and Arizona borders, are lower than at any point since the iconic Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s.
For residents in California, Nevada, Arizona and northern Mexico a crisis looms. What alternative drinking water sources are there for millions of people? How many farms may fail? What will replace the “reliable” hydroelectric power that the Hoover and other dams once produced?
Ride-sharing service Uber wants into the Winnipeg taxi market. Looking past the marketing facade, Uber isn’t innovative or inevitable. Uber is in fact de-regulation of the taxi industry, modernized using smart phone applications and an aggressive expansion campaign.
A new Errol Black Chair paper explains how a combination of governmental policies and initiatives in Manitoba allows social enterprises to reduce Manitoba’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while training and employing Inner City workers. The provincial government and Manitoba Hydro are supporting social enterprises so they can work in two emerging ‘green’ sectors: building retrofits and alternative energy installations.
A new Errol Black Chair paper explains how a combination of governmental policies and initiatives in Manitoba allows social enterprises to reduce Manitoba’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while training and employing Inner City workers. The provincial government and Manitoba Hydro are supporting social enterprises so they can work in two emerging ‘green’ sectors: building retrofits and alternative energy installations.
The study makes the economic case for divestment from fossil fuels, due to risk factors such as aggressive new climate policies. It is aimed at informing pension fund trustees about the risks associated with fossil fuel investments, and for interested workers who want to better understand what their pension money is up to, and how to ask the right questions.
OTTAWA—Canadian pension funds are exposed to a wide range of risks from their holdings of fossil fuels, says a study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The study makes the economic case for divestment from fossil fuels, due to risk factors such as aggressive new climate policies. A review Canadian public pension fund annual reports found that action on climate change was not mentioned as a material risk to pension sustainability.
Today’s report from the Fraser Institute, LNG Exports from British Columbia: The Cost of Regulatory Delay, states that “revenue losses from regulatory delays imposed upon the BC LNG export market would be on the order of $17–23 billion (US) per year.” This, they say, is equivalent to 9.5% of 2014 BC GDP.