Blog

On February 8, 2018, the Government of Canada announced major changes to the assessment of energy projects subject to federal oversight. This blog post provides the highlights of the most important changes, and what they mean for the regulatory process overall. Before getting into the details, it is useful to review the broad features of […]

Each year, in mid-December, the federal government releases its calculation for what each province is entitled to receive as equalization. This time, the numbers are especially important. They show how much Alberta’s recession lowered its ability to raise revenues. They show Ontario has graduated to “have” status, but (interestingly) will still receive equalization payments. They […]

Back in May 2017 I wrote a blog post providing estimates of potential carbon tax costs to households for different levels of the carbon tax (this was based on a briefing note I produced at the request of the Senate). These numbers have been used and quoted by others, most recently in a National Post […]

The first ‘to do’ item in the ministerial mandate letter—the ‘job jar’ for Canada’s Energy Minister, James Carr, is,   Work closely with provinces and territories to:  develop a Canadian Energy Strategy to protect Canada’s energy security; encourage energy conservation; and bring cleaner, renewable energy onto a smarter electricity grid.[1]   Based on the evidence […]

Calgary is a big, diverse, vibrant city. We’re proud of our western heritage, but we’re also keen for outsiders to recognize that Calgary is more than just cowboys and pickle corn dogs. Still, in one important respect, people across the country regularly call Calgary the “wild west” – campaign finance. As we’ll see, they’re probably right […]