Tesla Model 3 at March 2016 unveiling (Steve Jurvetson/Flickr) In my previous March 2016 article “Pipelines to Nowhere“, I made the point that the proposed Canadian pipelines are about increasing the international supply of petroleum when all the signs are that demand fossil fuels are levelling off over the longer
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The Common Sense Canadian: Suzuki: Volkswagen cheated climate, people’s health
Photo: Ben Harrington / Flickr CC licence Volkswagen was caught cheating on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emissions tests by installing “defeat devices,” which allowed its diesel vehicles to pass nitrogen oxide emissions checks but spew up to 40 times allowable pollutants once they were completed. The scandal has resulted in
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Canada should put the brakes on misleading, ineffective fuel economy standards
Photo: Flickr/Scott Molineaux CC licence For the last several decades, the fuel consumption requirements imposed on vehicle manufacturers in Canada were the same as those applied in the US. The premise of the Conservatives and Liberals alike has always been that Canada has no choice but to emulate the US,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Why Rafe Mair is begrudgingly voting “Yes” in Transit Plebiscite
Rafe Mair trusts Mayor Gregor Robertson (pictured) with our transportation future a tad more than the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation – despite big misgivings about transit management to date (Vision Vancouver/Twitter) I am a lifetime contrarian. Whatever I’m supposed to do, I rebel against. I have not changed much in my dotage. But I’m
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Cities, Transit get too small a piece of tax dollar pie
Photo: Translink Many people think of Canada as a landscape of forests, mountains, water and ice, but the Canadian experience is fast becoming focused on glass and concrete. Our 2011 census revealed that 81 per cent of us now live in cities. And despite taking up less land space, our
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Public-Private Partnerships a bad deal for BC: Finance Ministry report
P3 skytrain construction by SNC-Lavalin killed many businesses on Vancouver’s Cambie St. (Wikipedia) The following is republished with permission from Policy Note – the blog of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ BC office. By Keith Reynolds The BC Finance Ministry has produced a report much more critical of Partnerships BC and
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Metro’s congestion tax referendum is on the wrong track: Opinion
The following is a letter to the editor from Malcolm Johnston of Rail for the Valley. One has to shake one’s head with the ‘Metro Vancouver congestion improvement tax’ referendum, as clearly the Metro mayors haven’t a clue what they are talking about. The name, Metro Vancouver congestion improvement tax
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Ontario squanders extra $8 Billion on public private partnership infrastructure: A-G
A bridge built under the P3 model is likely to cost taxpayers more than a publicly funded one, says a new report Read this Dec. 9 story from The Globe and Mail on a new report from Ontario Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk suggesting that public private partnerships are far more costly to
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Zero Waste conference talks alternatives to landfills, incinerators
An upcoming conference hosted by the Zero Waste Alliance ans Zero Waste Canada in Nanaimo, BC will explore alternatives to landfills and incinerators. “The Zero Waste Alliance (ZWA) has a clear and simple vision: a prosperous and inclusive future without waste,” says the organization’s website. A future without waste and toxics
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Damaged container ship undergoes repairs to hull at Vancouver port
The CMA CGM Attila’s damaged hull, after striking the dock at Vancouver’s Centerm port (cell phone image) The container ship that struck the dock at a Vancouver port early yesterday morning is undergoing repairs to its damaged hull. The vessel, “CMA CGM Attila”, will likely remain moored at Vancouver’s Centerm container facility
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Large container ship ‘Attila’ strikes Vancouver dock
CMA GCM Attila, moored at Vancouver’s Centerm after striking dock (Photo: Damien Gillis) A large container ship, the “CMA CGM Attila”, struck the dock at Vancouver’s Centerm container port early this morning. The website MarineTraffic.com reports that the ship arrived at 4:52 AM local time. According to the Canadian Press, the Transportation Safety Board has
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Nearly 100% of US car sales could be electric in 15 yrs – the challenge is powering them with clean electricity
An electric smart car in Amsterdam – from the popular car sharing service, Car2go (Wikimedia Commons) There are those who suggest that a migration to a green economy is too expensive, that we must convert to natural gas as a transition fuel, that the subsidies for clean technologies are driving
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Some business groups want new recycling program trashed
By Steven Chua, The Canadian Press VANCOUVER – The B.C. government’s controversial new recycling program took effect Monday, irking some local business owners who say that additional costs will drive up the price of consumer goods. The new regulations require that all businesses that supply packaging and printed paper to B.C. residential
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Small is the new Big in sustainable urban revolution
Vancouver urban farm mixer (Photo: www.urbanfarmers.ca) “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will not themselves be realized.” That was American architect Daniel Burnham’s city-planning advice at the turn of the 20th century. More than 100 years later, he couldn’t be more wrong.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Is it time for a real war on cars?
Gridlock in China forces drivers out of their cars In railing against everything from bike lanes to transit spending, pundits and politicians often raise the spectre of a “war on cars.” Of course, there is no war on cars – but there should be. Cars directly kill and hurt more
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Nanaimo council rejects incinerator: “We won’t be Vancouver’s garbage dump”
Council chambers were overflowing with incinerator opponents last night (Photo: Trish Kuziek/Facebook) Read this April 15 story from the Nanaimo Daily News on city council’s unanimous rejection of a proposed waste incinerator to burn Metro Vancouver’s garbage at Duke Point. Nanaimo council voted unanimously Monday to rule out the city’s support for a proposed
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: With Duke Point incinerator, property values could go up in smoke
The following is a letter from Common Sense Canadian economic columnist and Gabriola Island resident Erik Andersen to Nanaimo city council, which is hearing arguments on a controversial, proposed waste incinerator at Duke Point this evening. Over the past several decades the City of Nanaimo has single-mindedly pursued a course of beautifying
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: MMBC could feed incinerators, put local recyclers out of business
Gibsons Recycling Depot owners Barb Hetherington and Buddy Boyd Read this April 11 story from the Coast Reporter on the growing controversy surrounding new waste management plans – including a move to privatize and corporatize garbage and recycling in in BC and the push to build multiple incinerators to deal with Metro Vancouver’s waste. Common
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Can Ontario Liberals raise the green for public transit expansion?
Photo: Wikimedia Commons by Maria Babbage, The Canadian Press TORONTO – With the prospect of an election growing more likely every day, the minority Liberals’ spring budget may turn out to be more campaign platform than peace treaty. It will also need to lay out a plan to fund a
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Transport industry driving a ‘SmartWay’ to tackle emissions
(Photo: Translog) by Jesse Yardley An innovative new method for tracking the transport industry’s fuel consumption may hold the key to reducing carbon emissions, according to a group of academics and industry representatives. Government partner Natural Resources Canada explains, “The SmartWay Transport Partnership is a collaboration designed to help businesses reduce fuel
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