Rouge Park in autumn. Canada’s Rouge National Urban Park Act began second reading in the Senate earlier this week after sailing through the House of Commons is just six months. Tobias C. Enverga Jr., a Stephen Harper appointed Senator for Ontario, is acting as the bill’s sponsor in the Senate.
Continue readingTag: Ontario politics
reeves report: Ontario’s endangered species get their day in court
Endangered American Eel. LAWYERS ACTING ON BEHALF of the Ontario government told the courts last month that Ontario’s endangered species legislation is now only concerned with the most dire of species listed under the law. The Woodland Caribou; the American Eel; the Blanding’s Turtle — these and more than 150 other
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Pretty much every time I hear Canadian Prime Minister Stephen…
Pretty much every time I hear Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper or one of his Conservative minions speak, I think of this song: “Propaganda” by the defunct punk/Oi! band Blitz. The same goes for when I hear Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne or one of her provincial Liberal hacks spew BS
Continue readingreeves report: Contentious Rouge Park Bill Passes Third Reading
Despite united opposition against the proposed National Urban Park, Conservative Bill C-40 passed third reading Monday. The legislation is now on its way to the Tory-dominated Senate for further review. Orchard Trail in Rouge Park. The passage of Bill C-40 in Ottawa earlier this week, creating the country’s first National
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Ontario Politics Chatter: The Beer Store Monopoly, eyes on Sudbury.
I haven’t talked a lot about Ontario Politics much of late, but for my first post of the New Year, a few things have caught my eye I wished to comment on. First, the Beer Store and its attempt to bring local craft beer dealers onboard is being viewed by
Continue readingreeves report: 2014 — Canada’s Year of the Pipeline
Keystone XL wasn’t the only pipeline project to rankle Canadians in 2014. WIDESPREAD PUBLIC DEBATE on building vast networks of snaking energy pipelines throughout Canada dominated the country’s environmental newsreel in 2014, and will continue making headlines in the year ahead. A collection of Canada’s top environmental NGOs told Reeves Report the climate change
Continue readingCalgary Grit: 2014 Person of the Year
Every December, I name a “Person of the Year” – the individual who left their mark on Canadian politics over the past year, for good or for bad. Below is a list of recent choices: 2013: Rob Ford & Naheed Nenshi 2012: Allison Redford 2011: Jack Layton 2010: Rob Ford
Continue readingreeves report: Loopholes threaten Ontario Greenbelt
The Greenbelt Alliance wants better protection for the ecologically sensitive area, which remains at risk from sprawl, mega-highways and contaminated soil. Map of Greenbelt and other protected lands in Southern Ontario. SOUTHERN ONTARIO’S 7,200 square kilometre Greenbelt and the prime farmland and headwaters it contains remain at significant risk from expanding
Continue readingreeves report: NDP to refuse support for Rouge National Urban Park bill
Everyone wants the 10,500 acres in the Rouge Valley to be made into a national urban park, yet few but the Harper Tories think their plan for the green space is the best path forward. Rouge Park at Sunrise. (Flickr Photo Courtesy of Snuffy.) ON A MEDIA TOUR this week of
Continue readingreeves report: Ontario Invasive Species Act gets second chance
A control test site for invasive plant phragmites at Wasaga Beach on Lake Huron. LIBERAL NATURAL RESOURCE MINISTER Bill Mauro reintroduced the Invasive Species Act Wednesday, the first standalone legislation in Canada geared towards stopping the spread of invasives into the province There is currently a patchwork of more than 20 different federal
Continue readingreeves report: NDP propose tough rules for importing Asian carp
On Oct. 1, New Democratic MP Brian Masse from Windsor, Ontario introduced a private member’s bill calling for tougher action and better coordination across Canadian governments in the fight against Asian carp. The bill would make it illegal to import Asian carp — or “invasive carp,” as Masse calls it
Continue readingreeves report: Ontario and Ottawa face off over fate of Rouge Park lands
A STANDOFF IS BREWING east of Toronto in the Rouge Valley between Queen’s Park and the federal government over the proposed Rouge National Urban Park. Ontario Infrastructure Minister Brad Duguid made it clear to federal Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq that the province would not hand 5,400 acres of land it
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Is That The Pitter Patter Of Little Feet I Hear?
Sorry. False alarm. Turns out it was the sound of Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath doing a fancy dance as she practices her routine for the November leadership review she is facing. In Toronto this past Saturday, more than 200 members of the party’s provincial council were witness to the
Continue readingreeves report: Transportation sector key to reducing GHG emissions in Ontario: ECO
GETTING SERIOUS about tackling greenhouse gases has to start with dramatically cutting emissions from Ontario’s transportation sector, the province’s environmental watchdog warned recently. In releasing his latest update on efforts to curb climate change-inducing emissions in Ontario, Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller told reporters at Queen’s Park the biggest sector emitter
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Andrea Comes Down From Her Perch
But only a little bit. And only because her campaign is being criticized from within. As I noted in a recent post, Ontario NDP leader Andrea’s Horwath’s hubris following what almost everyone else would call a failed Ontario election campaign has been both unseemly and wholly unjustified. She initially avowed
Continue readingreeves report: ECO urges province to create new climate action plan
SO MUCH OF THE THINKING around climate change has evolved since 2007 that Ontario’s seven-year-old climate action plan is now “irrelevant” according to Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller. In releasing Looking for Leadership: The Costs of Climate Inaction this morning, Miller said the province has been a leader in the climate file but has
Continue readingreeves report: Ottawa completes $400,000 Asian carp science lab
A $400,000 ASIAN CARP science lab was opened by Public Works Minister Diane Finley Monday as part of $17.5 million committed by Ottawa to fight the spread of this aquatic invasive species. Captured grass carp at Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans research lab in Burlington, ON (Andrew Reeves) The new lab
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Andrea Horwath: Her Smugness Takes A Hit
The other day, while watching some reactions to the Ontario Throne Speech, I couldn’t help but note a truculent and smug Andrea Horwath, the leader of an NDP party now diminished by her foolish decision not to support a progressive budget, thereby triggering an election that few wanted. She opined
Continue readingreeves report: Ontario adds Climate Change to MOE Portfolio
IN ANNOUNCING her new cabinet last week, Premier Kathleen Wynne has charged former Transportation Minister Glen Murray with taking over Ontario’s newly revamped environment ministry. Murray, the sitting MPP for Toronto Centre and former mayor of Winnipeg, assumed command of the environment ministry from veteran MPP Jim Bradley who is
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Disingenuous At Best, Hypocritical At Worst
To listen to post-election Ontario Tories and to take them at their word would suggest that the lot of them were simply dupes of Machiavellian forces over which they had no control. Up to and including the day of the election, they all appeared to be solidly behind their leader
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