Hydro has lost its intended focus on meeting Manitoba demand and bringing in electricity at the lowest cost possible for Manitoba ratepayers. The Utility’s development designs, based on overly optimistic forecasts of export demand and maintaining cost pressures on the new build, represent ‘gambling’ with ratepayers’ money.
Environment
Hunting for Habitat: The Rise and fall of an Alberta Proposal for the Private Production of Ecological Goods and Services
The Alberta government failed to realize an opportunity to harness private interests for the public interest when it shelved its Hunting for Habitat proposal, which would have compensated private landowners for opening up their lands to hunters and allowed some tags to be sold.
Media Release – The Private Production of Ecological Goods and Services: The rise and fall of an Alberta policy proposal for hunting
A new study by the Frontier Centre looks back at a 2008 Alberta proposal that sought to compensate private landowners for protecting habitat for wildlife and argues that the widely-misunderstood proposal was a great way to balance competing public and private interests.
Political Potshots won’t clean up Lake Winnipeg
A recent announcement that Lake Winnipeg is in the running for a threatened lake designation should focus our attention on finding incentive-based solutions.
Featured News
Heroin: U.S. Withdrawal, Counternarcotics Policies in Afghanistan, and the Looming Epidemic
There are many natural and geo-political phenomena that will affect the next several decades; climate change, COVID-19 and its variants, social unrest, and rising tensions between China and the United States amongst them. As governments and societies learn to...
Why Cash Is Still King in Switzerland
When I audited an economics class in the Rice University School of Business, the lecturer compared inflation to slow-growing cancer and deflation to a heart attack. The implication was that deflation, which is the declining prices, is fatal and worse than inflation....
Who Knows How to Make a Carbon-Neutral Pencil?
Alert readers may have noticed an apparent contradiction in my last two columns on ‘carbon-footprints’. The first column opened with: “Government has floated a proposal that all buildings be assessed for their carbon footprint before issuing a building consent. This...
Let’s Be Smart About the Environment
Do we have to wreck our prosperous economy in order to secure the value of a clean environment? Environmental extremists must recognize that when governments use sledgehammers to accomplish laudatory goals, they do more harm than good.
Polar Bear Hunt a Way of Life
RESOLUTE, Nunavut -- In 26 years of chasing polar bears, Nathaniel Kalluk has never had another hunt like it. "It was springtime, many years ago," he begins, running a hand through hair coal black contrasted by one eyebrow white as the predator he stalks. "We were...
The Real Threat to the Ice Bear
The transformation of the ice bear into an icon to justify new regulations has more to do with politics than real environmental danger. Inuit communities are managing the species at a very high standard.
The Law and the Lore
Introduction If you have the good fortune to attend a conference on “The Sustainable Management of the Central Forests” or “The Sustainable Management of the Chatham Fisheries” you will listen to a fine collection of papers based on solid science and sound economics....
Industry Caught in ‘Carbon Credit’ Smokescreen
Companies and individuals rushing to go green have been spending millions on "carbon credit" projects that yield few if any environmental benefits. A Financial Times investigation has uncovered widespread failings in the new markets for greenhouse gases, suggesting...
Climate Change, and the Policy Dilemma
New Zealand has a long history of taking leading edge positions on public policy issues, and has a proud tradition of leading political and social change. More recently, especially during the term of the fourth Labour Government, New Zealand was a world leader in...
Recycling is Not Worth the Cost
Many people feel that it is their moral duty to recycle but is that really the best way to keep the Earth green?
Applying “Systems Intelligence” to Transport
Part A of a three part written presentation to the Annual Land Transport Summit, 2007