Environment and sustainability
In Canada, regulations adopted by every level of government have historically helped to make this one of the safest, most desirable places to raise a family. But a slow, steady, and quiet erosion of regulations by our governments put Canadians' health, safety and well-being increasingly at risk. This primer on regulation, by the CCPA's Trish Hennessy, tells the story of Canada's slippery slide into deregulation. It also provides resource information to learn more about regulation issues in Canada.
Ce que nous ne savons pas peut nous faire mal. Il y a eu, au cours de la dernière génération, une érosion lente, régulière et silencieuse de la réglementation causée par des gouvernements désireux de « réduire la paperasse », de rendre le Canada « plus concurrentiel » et les gouvernements, plus « rentables ».
"Petrol's Paid Pipers," from the Winter 2011 Our Schools / Our Selves,examines industry-funded lessons on bitumen mining that have been developedand currently promoted to teachers in Alberta as a strategy to promote apositive corporate image while maintaining an uncritical business-as-usualapproach to development.
The debate over the future of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. has been limited to the issue of which private interests should control the potash industry in Saskatchewan. There has been little to no discussion of the most important issue: who should own and control the economic rent received from the extraction and use of Saskatchewan’s natural resources?
Regina — The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Saskatchewan Office today released Exploiting Saskatchewan’s Potash: Who Benefits? by John W. Warnock. The new report considers the history of potash exploitation in the province with an eye to answering the question of whether the people of Saskatchewan are receiving the full benefit from the exploitation of this strategic natural resource.
Last month the Winnipeg Free Press published a full page of criticism regarding the decision to run the Bipole III transmission line down the West Side of Lake Winnipeg. The critique consists of two parts, namely, an open letter by 18 retired engineers titled, “Engineers united on east side,” and an article by Jim Collinson, “’All or nothing’ wrong approach on east side.” These articles contribute little to the discussion regarding hydroelectric development in Manitoba because they are based on narrow and out-dated ways of thinking about the issues at hand.
This paper is written as part of an ongoing project, Green Energy Project Saskatchewan. GEPS is a civil society group, established to research the conversion of Saskatchewan’s electricity grid to sustainable options by the earliest possible date.
Regina — The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Saskatchewan Office released today Transforming Saskatchewan’s Electrical Future: The Potential for Wind and Solar Power, by Mark Bigland-Pritchard, a member of Green Energy Project Saskatchewan. The report offers a practical and workable set of integrated proposals for electrical generation in the medium and long term that has the potential to transform Saskatchewan from coal-dependent laggard to a renewable energy leader.
There are many things that distinguish “supernatural” British Columbia from other jurisdictions. But one of the most enduring of them is its abundance of publicly owned lands.
While many of us may not realize it, about 94 per cent of BC is Crown or public land. And over the decades the wealth generated from that land – the royalties and taxes from forest, natural gas, and mining activities – has enriched public programs such as health care, education and transit to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.