Economy
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday dismissed Budget Office arithmetic showing climate change regulations will cost Canadians thousands a year. Guilbeault said the numbers were wrong but provided none of his own.
“Their analysis takes the same unbalanced modeling approach as they did with the analysis on the price on pollution,” Guilbeault told reporters. “The Budget Office is consistently failing to take into account the steep and rising costs of climate change.”
Budget Officer Yves Giroux in a report said new regulations to take effect July 1, the Clean Fuel Standard, will cost Canadians nationwide. “Our analysis focuses on the cost to households in 2030, the year in which the ultimate reductions in carbon intensity are achieved,” said the report A Distributional Analysis Of The Clean Fuel Regulations.
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Read Moreew proposals to boost supply. Builders and analysts appealed for a cut in taxes and mandatory charges on new construction.
“We need more housing supply in Canada,” Hussen told the Commons public accounts committee. “We have the fastest growing population in the G7. We have a very low housing supply of all types.”
CMHC in a report last June 23 estimated building trends leave Canada short about 3,500,000 new homes by 2030, the equivalent of more than 440,000 homes annually. New construction currently averages about 200,000 new homes a year.
“On current trends the housing stock increases from about 16 million in 2019 to over 18.6 million by 2030 for Canada,” said the report Canada’s Housing Supply Shortages: Estimating What Is Needed To Solve Canada’s Housing Affordability Crisis By 2030. “We project that over 22 million units will be required to achieve affordability.”
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Read MoreThe battle over the operation of the multi-national Enbridge Line 5 pipeline appears to have no end. American anti-energy activists—invigorated by their victory in shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada—have set their sights on Line 5 and won’t quit until the line is shut down one way or another. Cross-border pipelines could soon be a thing of the past, and Canada’s energy security is vulnerable due to this.
Line 5 carries Canadian petroleum products. It begins in Superior, Wisconsin, crosses Michigan, and terminates in Sarnia, Ontario, where the products are refined. It has been safely operating for over 65 years and it services energy needs in the Northeastern United States and Canada with over half a million barrels a day of petrochemicals. If the line were to be suddenly shut down, it would wreak economic havoc. Ideologically driven opponents to the line don’t care about the consequences, though, and they may have their way soon.
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Read MoreCMHC in the largest known privacy breach of any federal agency last year mistakenly emailed personal information on 45,000 homeowners to an unnamed bank. The Privacy Commissioner was never notified, according to newly-disclosed records.
“An email with an MS Excel attachment was sent to an external lender employee showing personal information and outstanding loan balances,” Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation wrote in an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons. “The file had been filtered for this lender and included records for other lenders that could be unfiltered.”
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Read MoreThe Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) wants the government to cancel its upcoming second carbon tax after a report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) 0n Thursday.
“Canadians are already struggling to afford gasoline and groceries and the last thing we need is another carbon tax that makes life more expensive,” said Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the CTF.
“The PBO is clear: the second carbon tax will cost families hundreds and even thousands of dollars.”
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Read MoreThis essay presents empirical evidence about poverty in Canada. It employs a basic needs approach to defining and measuring poverty and uses three different Statistics Canada databases to help estimate the prevalence of poverty. Specifically, a basic needs approach measures the degree to which households have the basics in terms of food, clothing, shelter, and other basic necessities rather than measuring their income level compared to other households as some measures of poverty. It also examines the weaknesses of both the Statistics Canada data and the basic needs poverty measure. It is important to understand that data is not perfect and no measure of poverty is going to be perfect. With that out of the way, we can focus some attention on the most important findings.
In terms of the incidence of “income poverty,” that is, the number and percentage of Canadian households (and individuals) with reported incomes below the basic needs threshold, data from the three Statistics Canada databases are broadly consistent. Income poverty for households appears to be in the 5 to 7 percent range; for individuals, it is in the 4 to 6 percent range.
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Read MoreMost of the job cuts made by the telecommunications company will take place in the United Kingdom
British Telecommunications (BT) will cut 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade in an attempt to cut costs.
Customer services roles will account for up to a fifth of all redundancies.
Departing customer services staff will be replaced by technologies, including artificial intelligence.
However, the overall cut backs will include both staff and contractors.
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Read MoreIn what could be a body blow to Alberta’s already strained infrastructure, a European energy consultancy is warning that up to 80% of the province’s oil sands production is at risk due to the worsening wildfire situation.
According to Oslo-based Rostand Energy, up to 2.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of mined and pumped bitumen is at risk due to “extreme” and “very high” wildfire warnings in the northern part of the province. Given that Alberta produces about 3.4 million bpd of upgraded synthetic oil and raw bitumen, that means about 80% of the province’s daily output is at risk of shut-ins or damage.
Of projected production for the month of May, Rystad said about 60% are subject to “extreme” wildfire warnings, while another 40% are in areas with “very high” risk, it said.
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Read MoreSaskatchewan Premier Scott Moe threw down a challenge to Environment Minister and CN Tower-scaler Steven Guilbeault to “come get me” if he has issues with using coal for power after 2030.
Premier Moe tells Environment Minister to ‘Come get me’
Moe and Guilbeault have been exchanging barbs for weeks.
Earlier this month, Moe said Saskatchewan might ignore the upcoming clean electricity standards dictated by Guilbeault and the Trudeau Liberals.
Guilbeault subsequently fired back at Moe, saying that by failing to shut down coal-fired power plants past 2030, he would be violating the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (EPA) framework — and that would be a Criminal Code offense.
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