Environment and sustainability
(Vancouver) BC must stop exporting fossil fuels if the province is serious about dramatically cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to a new Climate Justice Project brief from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Whether the quest is for deeper democracy, protection of the planet, or enrichment of our way of living, the degrowth process starts with reducing the use of natural resources and energy. The moment is now, since we’re already in a period of degrowth and reassessing our dependence on free market capitalism. Yet turning around the mindset of a critical mass of believers in that system is a daunting challenge. The appeal of a degrowth movement for the task is its linking of a host of alternative initiatives, both as sources of and fallout from degrowth.
With the release of its National Food Policy on April 26, the federal Liberal Party is hoping to make agriculture a key election issue. Courting the rural vote with the “Rural Canada Matters” policy document, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff announced, after a tour of a Holland Marsh farm in Ontario, “Our farmers produce the healthiest, safest, highest-quality foods in the world – and we’ll help them get more of their products on our tables with Canada’s first comprehensive National Food Policy.”
Inside this issue:
Add Your Voice to the New Call for a Poverty Reduction Plan by the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition
Women in the Canadian Economy by Iglika Ivanova
Assistance Recipients on Government Hit List by Keith Reynolds
Climate Inaction and BC’s Budget by Marc Lee
A Closer Look at Low Wages in BC by Steve Kerstetter
Four years ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper abandoned Canada's Kyoto obligations in favour of his “made in Canada” plan. This option was also later dropped when he decided to align our climate action with that of the United States.
Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a maniac or an economist. So said economist Kenneth Boulding back in the 1970s. Concept, process or movement — décrosissance, to give its European popularity its due — is about creating a simpler society of more rewarding human relations by an equitable reduction of material flows or throughputs.
On May 12 EPC unanimously voted to accept a report prepared by Winnipeg Public Services. The Report recommends that the City award a contract to Veolia for the design, construction and, it appears, the shared operation of the South and North End sewage treatment plants. The Report assures readers that this is a good deal for Winnipeg. But those of us who have been following the process are not convinced.
Regina —The Saskatchewan office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ series "Transforming Saskatchewan's Electricity Future" was launched with the publication of "Sustainability is Achievable, But How Do We Get There?" by Mark Bigland-Pritchard and Peter Prebble.
In less than a decade, British Columbia has gone from environmental leader to environmental laggard in stewarding one of our most important natural resources. And it could not come at a worse time, as we grapple with climate change and its horrendous impact on our forests.
In what was once one of the greener jurisdictions on earth a major reforestation crisis is underway. A backlog of lands in desperate need of replanting has doubled in a decade, while public investments in tree planting have plummeted.