When the Kenney government brought down its 2022-2023 budget on February 24 of this year, it was already out of date. This luckiest of provinces can’t keep up with the price of oil. Alberta’s mid-year fiscal update for ‘21-’22 had already reported a phenomenal revenue turnaround. A $17 billion deficit in ’20-’21 shrank to a… Continue reading Alberta’s Royalty Windfall
Posts
Nova Scotia’s Discriminatory Tax on CFAs
The Houston government is playing the short game like everyone else these days, searching for revenue at least political cost,. The long game requires the federal government to step up to the plate and start advocating measures in the interests of the majority of Canadians irrespective of where they live – measures that address the climate emergency, universal public health care, electoral reform, child and seniors’ care, adequacy of housing, and so forth.
Colonialism: The Home Front – Bay du Nord
Much has been made of the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC’s) acknowledgement in its Sixth Assessment Report that persistent colonialism is a causal factor (with “high confidence”, no less) for catastrophic climate change. And it is a noteworthy addition. However, both the wording in the report and much of the positive reaction to it underestimate the pervasiveness of colonialism and colonial relationships beyond the obvious geopolitical level.
Bay du Nord: The Avoidable Fiasco
The Trudeau Liberals decision to approve a massive new oil and gas development in the deep and stormy waters of the North Atlantic off Newfoundland and Labrador is a perfect illustration of corporate colonialism at work. Big Oil has had its way. The rest of us be damned! From the disingenuous impact assessment process behind… Continue reading Bay du Nord: The Avoidable Fiasco
Bay du Nord: Just Say No!
Equinor, Norway’s giant state-owned oil company and the Canada’s Husky want to drill dozens of oil wells in the massive $6.8 billion Bay du Nord project in very deep water in the stormy Atlantic 500 kilometres east of Newfoundland and Labrador. Quite apart from the fact that the project’s planned production of 200,000 bbls of… Continue reading Bay du Nord: Just Say No!
The NDP/Liberal Deal: An Unfolding Tragedy?
There is much to applaud in the NDP/Liberal “supply-and-confidence agreement”, not least the promise of 3 years of stable government, and perhaps greater certainty of the Liberals actually keeping some of their election promises. Any optimism is, of course, based on the agreement being honoured, and it would be naive in the extreme to think… Continue reading The NDP/Liberal Deal: An Unfolding Tragedy?
Nova Scotia Needs an Alternative, Sustainable Economic Strategy
Opposing Offshore Oil Exploration is an Essential Part of an Alternative Economic Strategy for Nova Scotia “investments in fossil fuel industries create far fewer jobs than green economy investments” (Marc Lee and Amanda Card, “A Green Industrial Revolution”, CCPA, 2012) My thesis is that the long-run returns to the province from investment in a restored… Continue reading Nova Scotia Needs an Alternative, Sustainable Economic Strategy
Recollections from The Dene Rights Struggle in the NWT
what was it I shared with the Dene that energized my participation in their fight for recognition of their rights?……In a nutshell, colonial forces and experiences pervade all our lives, though they are manifested in very different ways and to very different degrees. Nevertheless, common cause in opposing those forces is natural.
The Colonial Experience
A discourse on the nature of the colonial relationship, typical of Indigenous/settler relations, but also pervasive in late capitalist societies.