It is time to confront Canada’s staple trap
Perversely, governments get captured by the staple industry and lock the country in. Our currency becomes a petro-dollar, our state a petro-state.
Climate Action
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With U.S.-China climate deal, Canada’s isolation deepens
Canada is already seen as having Russia, Saudi Arabia and other similar states as its principal allies on climate change – any attempt to present itself as a more constructive country on this issue will be seen as the farce it is.
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Energy costs, climate crisis spur need for home retrofit plan
Retrofits are unique in that if their cost can be spread over a long enough period they can be paid for out on the savings that are achieved. What is needed therefore is a long term program of financing that would allow any homeowners across the country to retrofit their homes.
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Government must champion green transition
The federal role must therefore be to show leadership by bringing the provinces together to develop a national plan, leveraging investment, and supporting a long-term transition through targeted innovation, research, development and commercialization of new technologies.
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The race is on: the UN climate summit and the pursuit of a low-carbon economy
The task for those wishing to move the issue forward, in Canada or internationally, is on the one hand to keep up the pressure from movements, and on the other hand to get creative in leveraging strategically astute national governments and their negotiators at the UN process.
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Conservatives learn efficiency, not fossil fuels, the path to energy security
Energy efficiency is an obvious solution because it is quick, portable, abundant, and cheap. Unlike pipelines that take years to build, energy efficiency efforts can be ramped up within months.
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As climate landscape shifts, Canada sticks head in the (tar) sands
In the face of these challenges the Minister of Natural Resources reacted by repeating the untruth that Keystone XL will not increase GHG emissions. Our federal government has stuck its head back in the tar sands.
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Keystone XL and Canada’s Resource Trap
Canada’s brand of the resource curse is called the “staples trap”. The pattern was articulated by celebrated Canadian economic historian Harold Innis in his studies of Canadian staple resource economies.
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Why is Joe Oliver okay with 2°C of warming?
Even though Canada has an abundance of clean energy resources and the potential to find the innovative capacity to take advantage of them, the staples mentality informs the federal government’s policy and politics.
