Transport Minister, Marc Garneau, said recently that rail safety is his number one priority. The federal budget pledged an extra $143 million over three years, to among other things “support new and expanded activities to strengthen oversight and enforcement” of rail safety.
While this is a laudable step, fundamental problems with the rail regulatory regime remain. Toronto mayor, John Tory and 17 counselors, raised some of these in a letter to the Minister.
Energy policy
Premier Christy Clark’s vow to push work at the $9-billion Site C dam “past the point of no return” may be music to the ears of some construction contractors, but not to all pulp and paper firms.
I often get asked about alternatives to our fossil-fuelled status quo. In recent years, there have been many new projects that point to the way forward, that get beyond vague statements about reducing carbon emissions and boosting clean energy. Our CCPA-BC office held a conference last year to examine new approaches to good and green jobs. One of our presenters was Lynne Fernandez from our Manitoba office, who offered some lessons for BC from Manitoba: a network of innovative projects engaging both the Manitoba government and social enterprises.
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.
From a lookout high atop a windswept bluff, the scale of work already underway at Site C is daunting. Large tracts of boreal forest logged. Vast amounts of topsoil stripped away for a trailer city to house hundreds of workers. Gravel from the fish-bearing river excavated to build a roadbed that will eat into the riverbank.
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?
With pipeline approvals stalled—Keystone XL denied, Northern Gateway dead, Energy East and Kinder Morgan in deep trouble— the oil industry is running out of room. Despite the collapse in oil prices, production is still expected to grow as existing investments come on stream. Especially in the short-term, it is looking to find alternate ways to move crude oil from Western Canada to market.
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.