Open Letter on Carbon Pricing READ

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Feb 6 2019

Redwater decision is progress, but environmental liabilities run deep

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Climate and Energy

by Simon Dyer, Chris Ragan & Blake Shaffer The Supreme Court of Canada last week overturned the Court of Appeal of Alberta’s decision in the closely-watched Redwater legal case. The court’s ruling ensures environmental cleanup costs will get priority over creditors when companies go bankrupt. The Redwater decision reinforces the polluter-pay principle, which is reassuring for […]

People snowshoewing and talking, possible about climate change, need to talk about it, and climate action
Jan 30 2019

Show and Tell: It’s time to stop hiding our support for climate action

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Climate and Energy

Earlier this month, an all-star lineup in the United States endorsed a plan for a carbon tax. Signed by 45 economists from across the political spectrum, the list included former Federal Reserve chairs and Nobel Prize winners. If that’s not carbon pricing going mainstream, I don’t know what is. Yet despite the growing consensus and […]

Going ahead with the city-wide organics collection program also offers significant benefits.
Jan 23 2019

Wasted efficiency: Saskatoon is moving in the wrong direction on waste management

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Livable Cities

Saskatoon is backpedalling on smart waste policy. Bold initiatives were approved in 2018 to reduce landfilled waste and save money, but Council seems to be hitting the brakes. Ignoring Saskatoon’s waste management problem isn’t going to make it go away, however. In fact, further delay will just cost the city—and its residents—more. Problem on the […]

Jan 9 2019

Carbon pricing works—even if emissions are still rising

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Climate and Energy

An old, debunked argument against carbon taxes has flared up recently: If total emissions aren’t falling, the tax must not be working. Let’s quash that myth. We at the Ecofiscal Commission and others have written extensively and consistently on this subject (see here, here, here). Without new policies, emissions have been trending up. But bending […]

Dec 12 2018

Artificially cheap: Why landfills should charge the full cost of waste disposal

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Livable Cities

The last blog in our solid waste series explored how charging households directly for their garbage can make municipal collection systems more efficient. But household waste represents only one-third of Canada’s total solid waste. Two-thirds is industrial and commercial waste, most of which is taken directly to local landfills. This blog looks at the importance […]

The coalition government in British Columbia released its own newly-minted CleanBC strategy
Dec 6 2018

Ramping up: Ambitious climate policy returns to British Columbia

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Climate and Energy

It’s been a pivotal few weeks for provincial climate policy. Ontario released its new climate strategy last week, scaling back provincial targets and replacing its cap-and-trade system with a mix of regulations, subsidies, and a pricing system for heavy emitters. Yesterday, the coalition government in British Columbia released its own newly-minted CleanBC strategy. Happy holidays, […]

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