While the rest of the world was focused on the Beijing Olympics last summer, the Quebec government was engaged in a risky political manoeuvre in the region of Bécancour (population 11,051), 125 km northeast of Montreal.
On August 19, the government and Hydro-Quebec announced their decision to refurbish Quebec’s only operational nuclear reactor, Gentilly-2, at a proposed cost of $1.9 billion.
Energy policy
On Afghanistan’s northwest border lies Turkmenistan, a country with immense reserves of natural gas – the fourth largest in the world, according to the International Energy Agency. These gas reserves are of vital interest to the United States. Last January, three high-level Americans visited Turkmenistan’s President Berdimuhamedov. First came Senator Richard Lugar, senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Next was Admiral William J. Fallon, at that time in charge of U.S. Central Command. Then came Ambassador Steven Mann, Coordinator for Eurasian Energy Diplomacy.
OTTAWA—Today the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) released The Harper Record, the most comprehensive analysis of the Conservative minority government’s record to date.
“Scheduled for broad release in early October, we are releasing the electronic version of this book today, to help Canadians make informed choices about the future of their country,” says CCPA Executive Director Bruce Campbell.
This book is one in a series of CCPA publications that have examined the records of Canadian federal governments during the duration of their tenure.
The quest for control of energy resources has been dubbed the "new great game" – a rivalry for pipeline routes to access energy resources in Central Asia and the Caspian Sea.
It's a geopolitical game that is openly analyzed in U.S. think-tanks, widely reported in the Asian press but rarely commented upon in Canada. It began after the Soviet Union broke up and the five "Stans" of Central Asia became independent.
What do a Canadian province and a Scandinavian country have in common? It’s oil, of course. Both have vast deposits of the stuff. Both have tapped its extraction and sale to boost their economies.
But that’s where the comparison stops. Norway’s oil development policy is much more astute and effective—and lucrative—than Alberta’s.
(Ottawa) – Le nouveau rapport publié aujourd’hui par le Centre canadien de politiques alternatives (CCPA) soulève de sérieuses questions concernant les répercussions du projet de pipeline de gaz naturel en Afghanistan sur le rôle des Forces canadiennes dans ce pays ravagé par la guerre.
(OTTAWA) – A new report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) raises serious questions about the impact of a proposed trans-Afghanistan natural gas pipeline on the role of Canadian Forces in that war-torn country.
A Pipeline Through a Troubled Land: Afghanistan, Canada and the New Great Energy Game documents the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, which will transport natural gas 1,680 kilometres from southeast Turkmenistan through southern Afghanistan, to Pakistan and India.
EDMONTON – En vertu de l’ALÉNA, même si le Canada est confronté à une pénurie en gaz naturel et qu’il importe 49 % du pétrole qu’il consomme, il lui est défendu de diminuer ses exportations actuelles de pétrole et de gaz naturel vers les États-Unis, qu’il y ait pénurie intérieure ou pas.