Of the limited changes made to the renegotiated NAFTA agreement—also known as the USMCA—perhaps the most significant relates to the system of investor protections that permits foreign firms to challenge government policies, laws and court decisions through private arbitration. Under the USMCA, this investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system will no…
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Photo credit: Richard Bradley It seems like the wrong time to be cutting back on flood protection. In the past week, rising water has closed Highway 17 east of North Bay, submerged entire sections of communities like Bracebridge, and brought Ontarians out in droves to fill sandbags. At one…
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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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On Wednesday morning, 338 young women filled the seats of the House of Commons and spoke about their concerns for Canada and hopes for the future. This is the second time that Equal Voice has hosted Daughters of the Vote, bringing a diverse group of women aged 18 to 23…
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The performance of the Nova Scotia economy is a mixed bag. After years of little or no employment growth, the labour market improved marginally in 2018. Overall employment increased by 2.1%, and the unemployment rate decreased from 8.2% to 6.9%, still significantly higher than the national rate of 5.8%. These…
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Climate action under the current federal government has followed a now-familiar pattern: identify the need for real change, commit to taking ambitious action, and then propose modest policies that only tinker around the edges of our fossil fuel-based economy. Budget 2019, as in past years, does many things right on…
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The much-anticipated final report of Canada’s Just Transition Task Force was released on Monday. The task force was announced in late 2017 and spent the past year studying the potential impacts of the national phase-out of coal-powered electricity generation for coal workers and their communities. The new report—and its 10…
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Hundreds of activists and organizers traveled to Ottawa last week to discuss the future of Canadian climate to counter climate change and climate injustice. Over four days, they converged to discuss advocacy strategies and the need to create a just and livable future. The event, PowerShift: Young and Rising, wrapped…
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When I first heard the phrase “generational genocide” used in the context of climate change, I was both shocked and skeptical. The term genocide is reserved for the most sickening and violent atrocities in human history—the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, the extermination of Indigenous…
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