Alberta’s Big Climate Step

Event Details

  • Thursday, May 26, 2016
  • 12:30-1:30 pm MDT
  • Free
  • Online

Alberta’s Big Climate Step

Live Panel Discussion about Bill 20

On Tuesday, May 24th, the Alberta government tabled its Climate Leadership Implementation Act, also known as Bill 20. The bill details the province’s carbon levy, as well as on how the revenues will be recycled, including tax cuts for small business, investments in green infrastructure and clean tech, and rebates to households. If passed, the legislation will also establish Energy Efficiency Alberta. Join us for a panel discussion to discuss the newly tabled carbon pricing legislation with local experts.

Special Guest

Member

Shannon Phillips

MLA for Lethbridge-West, Minister of Environment and Parks, and Minister Responsible for the Climate Change Office

Shannon Phillips was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, representing the constituency of Lethbridge-West, on May 5, 2015.

On May 24, 2015, Ms. Phillips was sworn in to cabinet as Minister of Environment and Parks and as Minister Responsible for the Status of Women. On February 2, 2016, Ms. Phillips was named the Minister Responsible for the Climate Change Office.

Prior to serving with the Legislative Assembly, she worked with the Alberta Federation of Labour as a policy analyst for five years.

She also spent five years as a member of the board of directors for the Womanspace Resource Centre, a nonprofit organization that provides resources, referrals and education to the community and to individual women.

In 1999 she received a bachelor of arts with honours in political science and in 2002 she completed her master of arts, both at the University of Alberta.

Together with her two sons Ms. Phillips resides in Lethbridge, Alberta.

Moderator

Member

Chris Ragan

Chair, Canada's Ecofiscal Commission
McGill University, Department of Economics
Christopher Ragan has been teaching economics at McGill University since 1989. He is also a Research Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute where from 2010 through 2013 he held the Institute’s David Dodge Chair in Monetary Policy, and for many years was a member of the Institute’s Monetary Policy Council. From January 2009 through June 2010, he was the Clifford Clark Visiting Economist at the Department of Finance in Ottawa, where he served as a senior advisor to the Minister and other senior Finance officials. During 2004-05, he served as the Special Advisor to the Governor of the Bank of Canada. Ragan is the author of Economics (formerly co-authored with Richard Lipsey), which after fourteen editions is still the most widely used introductory economics textbook in Canada. Ragan also has a regular column in The Globe and Mail. During the mid-1990s he was the founding Editor-in-Chief of World Economic Affairs. Chris Ragan received his B. A. (Honours) in economics in 1984 from the University of Victoria and his Master’s degree in economics from Queen’s University in 1985. He then moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where he completed his Ph.D. in economics at M.I.T. in 1989.

Expert Panel

Member

Sara Hastings-Simon

Director, Clean Economy Program, Pembina Institute
Sara Hastings-Simon is the director of the Pembina Institute’s clean economy program in Alberta. Sara has experience in renewables, energy efficiency and cleantech, through the lenses of policy, business and technology. Her work has included research and presentations on success factors in the cleantech industry, international and domestic policy for climate change and emissions reduction, consulting work on key business issues in the cleantech sector with utilities, solar developers, venture capital firms and governments, and development of a detailed model of the North American power sector.
Prior to joining the Pembina Institute, Sara was the manager of the cleantech practice at McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm. She holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Geneva.
Member

Trevor McLeod

Director of the Centre for Natural Resources Policy, Canada West Foundation

As Director of the Centre for Natural Resources Policy, Trevor McLeod investigates and makes recommendations on policies that will champion the responsible development of the West’s natural resources. Trevor has worked in corporate and natural resources law, regulatory compliance in forestry, and in the Alberta Department of Energy, focusing on energy market diversification.

A native of Meadow Lake, Sask., he holds a B.A. and a J.D. from the University of Saskatchewan and a Masters degree in law from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. His nuanced understanding of the issues facing natural resource development in western Canada will help the Foundation deliver practical solutions.

Member

Trevor Tombe

Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Calgary
Trevor Tombe, (PhD) is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Calgary, and prior to that was an Assistant Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. He received a PhD and MA from the University of Toronto and a BBA from Simon Fraser University. His research focuses on the intersection of international trade and macroeconomics, with a particular focus on the factors influencing productivity, trade flows, GDP, employment, and other aggregate outcomes. He has published in a variety of leading economics journals, has written various policy papers through the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, and is an occasional contributor to Maclean’s and the Financial Post.