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Alberta’s wholesale electricity market turns 25 years old this month and the competitive retail market reaches a somewhat more youthful 20-year milestone. I am not aware of any official celebrations to commemorate these events but nonetheless will raise a glass to what has proved an interesting journey, and while not without its issues, it […]
When it comes to public policy, Jenna Dutton’s approach is people-minded and community-focused. Dutton, Research Coordinator, Urban Policy Platform for The School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, said the platform is based on specific funding from a donor and the goal is to collaborate across the university and also across sectors with […]
The global economic lockdown implemented to contain the Covid-19 virus has caused the most severe economic downturn in Canada since the Great Depression in the 1930s. The cumulative output loss could easily amount to 15 percent of GDP by 2023 and could continue to grow for years thereafter. So far, the government policy response has, […]
Global economies have been heavily impacted in the wake of Covid-19. The coronavirus has created dramatic negative impacts on global growth and trade. The government response to restrict large components of the economy to safeguard public health resulted in massive job loss, reduced tax revenues, diminished consumer confidence, and increased public debt. As a result, […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us in many ways, most obviously with the health and economic realities of living with a ‘new’ and deadly virus without an effective treatment. Less understood are the short and long term impacts on people who are or will become dependent on social and health services to deal with the […]
These days the World Trade Organization (WTO) is facing many challenges. To say that it has fallen out of favour with the Trump Administration would be an understatement. The US is currently actively working to undermine the dispute settlement process of the WTO by blocking new appointments to the organization’s Appellate Body, on the grounds […]
The USMCA finally came into effect a few days ago, on July 1, 2020, committing the US, Canada and Mexico to the treaty provisions the three countries agreed to in the 34 chapters, four Annexes and 16 side letters that comprise the text of the Agreement. Among its many provisions is Article 19.17 (in the […]
In the ongoing war between US President Trump and Twitter over Twitter’s actions to fact-check one or two of the President’s more truth-stretching tweets, Trump has unveiled his chosen weapon to teach the social media platform a lesson. He is proposing to reinterpret elements of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. (I’ll […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown Canada and China together in ways that could not have been imagined three months ago. While the final chapter has not yet been written, it is clear that COVID-19 will have an indelible impact on the way that Canadians view China, for better and for worse. Maybe China will get […]