The Saskatchewan government often explains its approach to climate change policy as one of “balance,” concerned that any environmental regulations do not do undue harm to Saskatchewan’s economy. This of course has been the primary argument behind the government’s opposition to a federal carbon price, or what Premier Scott Moe…
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Outwardly, election night looked “normal”. The polls were pretty reliable, the pundits offered their usual platitudes, politicians appeared jubilant or contrite in front of the cameras depending on how voters had treated them. But while it looked mostly familiar, there were a few signs that things weren’t quite the same….
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By Simon Enoch & Emily Eaton One of the key pillars for cities attempting to achieve 100 percent renewability is perhaps obvious—renewable power. Exemplary renewable cities like Portland, Oregon, and Austin, Texas, have met or exceeded their renewability goals in large part through the purchase of renewable power from a…
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Yesterday, the Saskatchewan government revealed its plan to “re-open the Saskatchewan economy.” I will leave critiques about whether the plan adequately addresses testing and the public health needs of the province to those more qualified to make them. Suffice it to say I, like many others, was relieved just to…
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Today, the Saskatchewan government was supposed to release its annual budget. Instead it will release only its spending plans, recognizing that its revenue numbers are—in the words of the Premier—”no longer relevant today.” This decision was somewhat overdue: the opposition NDP requested a delay in the budget more than a…
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Today the Leader-Post published my response to Minister Gord Wyant’s recent op-ed that argued the Saskatchewan government would continue to use the P3 model for certain new public infrastructure. In that response, I noted that “politicians have fallen in love with the P3 model because it allows them to push…
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First, the good news. The release of the government’s first climate resilience report finally gives the Saskatchewan public a series of goals and targets that can allow us to measure and assess the government’s progress towards climate adaptation and mitigation. Moreover, the release of the report further demonstrates that the government…
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If there was any silver lining for those concerned with climate change in yesterday’s carbon tax/monster truck rally that rolled through Regina, it was the degree to which Premier Scott Moe and even some of the demonstrators went out of their way to concede the realities of climate change and…
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Yesterday’s Saskatchewan budget didn’t hold many surprises and that was probably to be expected. Scott Moe’s government has yet to face the electorate and has no real public mandate to make any significant changes. Because of this lack of democratic legitimacy, a cautious, incremental approach, that hewed to the path…
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The most recent IPCC report further underlines the necessity of urgent action on climate change if we are to limit the most devastating effects of a warming planet. As the report states, we now have a mere 12 years now to implement aggressive carbon reductions in order to…
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