The rail tragedy at Lac Mégantic, Québec, has opened a debate about the safety of railway in urban areas. Some argue a safety measure would be the relocation of rail lines away from urban areas. Those against this option make economic arguments about community sustainability and the high costs of relocation.
Year: 2013
Incredible Drivel
Your pet is causing global warming In this morning's Winnipeg Free Press: Fido's Footprint - Pets are a growing part of the climate change conundrum
Common Sense Education X: Focus On The Essentials
Common Sense Education gives parents, teachers and students a direct window into the foolish fads that afflict our public education system. This last of ten episodes concludes with a plea to schools to focus on the essentials to advance student achievement. The series...
Common Sense Education IX: Education Faculties
Common Sense Education gives parents, teachers and students a direct window into the foolish fads that afflict our public education system. This ninth of ten episodes reveals the vast gulf between what teaching methods education faculties believe work, and what...
Featured News
Energy Inquiry Shows the Problem and the Way
If a public inquiry found that hundreds of millions of dollars was being funnelled by foreign entities to undermine Canadian industry, should we conclude there is nothing wrong? Remarkably, the public inquiry’s final report into anti-Alberta energy campaigns did the...
Why Millennials Prefer DIY Investing
One-third of Canadian millennials prefer going solo when it comes to managing and investing their money. Online financial education and tools are changing the rules of the game and threatening to affect financial advisors how emails affected mailmen. A recent poll...
What We Can Learn About Open Markets From Wine and Wheat
Canadian history is filled with tales of protected industries destined for oblivion because of free trade, foreign threats or lost subsidies. But the worst-case scenario rarely plays out as predicted. Consider two prominent examples from the past quarter-century: the advent of free trade for Ontario’s wine industry and the end of the subsidized freight rates for Western grain farmers. In both cases, disaster was predicted. Yet both sectors adapted and emerged stronger.
First Nations accessing bond market in greater way
First Nations with access to own source revenue can access funds on the bond market that allow them to finance large resource projects.
Mobile Wireless Competitors for Sale
It is clear that Industry Canada and the CRTC do not want a re-consolidation to occur. It is less clear if they can adjust the rules more in favour of competition.
Manitoba Aims to Expedite Subdivision Approvals
Finally, what appears to be some good news out of Manitoba. Winnipeg in particular needs to accommodate population growth for the first time in a long time. Modernizing the approval process for subdivisions could help meet that demand. Additionally, it should hopefully help take some pressure off of the rental market in Winnipeg, which has a vacancy rate of less than one percent.
Selinger’s Broken Tax Promise is the Least of it
The Selinger government is amending provincial balanced budget legislation to enable its surprise PST increase. More troublingly, it is taking clear measures to exempt itself from the legislation in the event of foreseeable financial challenges the government refuses to prepare for.
Media Release – Earth Day’s Credibility Damaged by Dominance of Climate Activists: Legitimate environmental concerns being shortchanged by focus on bogus global warming scare
Ottawa, Canada, April 22, 2013: “Earth Day participants must distance themselves from the climate scare or risk the event degenerating into irrelevance,” said Tom Harris, executive director of the Ottawa-based International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC). Noting the intense climate focus in this year’s Earth Day Network advertising, Harris warned, “As the hypothesis that humanity’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are causing dangerous global warming falls into disrepute, all those associated with the climate alarm will also lose credibility.”
Recycling Is Garbage
Believing that there was no more room in landfills, Americans concluded that recycling was their only option. Their intentions were good and their conclusions seemed plausible. Recycling does sometimes makes sense — for some materials in some places at some times. But the simplest and cheapest option is usually to bury garbage in an environmentally safe landfill. And since there’s no shortage of landfill space (the crisis of 1987 was a false alarm), there’s no reason to make recycling a legal or moral imperative. Mandatory recycling programs aren’t good for posterity.
How Rich Rockefellers Battle the People’s Pipeline: Rockefeller billions vs Canadian energy and sovereignty – and US jobs, security and families
Americans concerned about gasoline prices were encouraged by the Pew Research Center’s new poll, whose headline blared, “Keystone XL Pipeline draws broad support.” A score box showed 63% supporting and only 23% opposing the pipeline that would transport oil from Canada’s vast Alberta oil sands deposits through the Plains states to Texas refineries.
BCE Acquisition of Astral Media Round 2 Part 3 – Telus Strategy vs BCE Strategy
Given BCE’s history in the content business, the Telus strategy has a lot going for it.