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1. Canada’s air quality is much improved—no need for more costly regulation

   Appeared in the Financial Post, April 21, 2017 This Saturday is Earth Day, a worldwide celebration of environmental protection. Canadians care about the environment, especially the quality of the air we breathe. According to a survey conducted in 2016 by ...

2. Canada's Air Quality Since 1970: An Environmental Success Story

   Canadians have long been concerned about the state of our air quality and the belief that air pollution is a major problem seems to be widespread. This publication examines the evolution of air quality in Canada from the 1970s onward and looks at how the ...

3. William Watson: Among the ecofiscalists

   My friend and McGill colleague Chris Ragan is also the founder and current chair of Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, a foundation-supported group of prominent Canadian economists and others who have given themselves the mission of selling ...

4. It’s official—Ontario’s coal phase-out was all for nothing

   Appeared in the Financial Post, January 17, 2017 The federal Liberal government plans to impose a national coal phase-out, based on the same faulty arguments used in Ontario, namely that such a move will yield significant environmental benefits and reduce ...

5. Did the Coal Phase-out Reduce Ontario Air Pollution?

   In 2005, the province of Ontario began a process that would eventually lead to the phasing out of its coal-fired power plants, the largest of which were the Lambton and Nanticoke facilities in southern Ontario. The rationale for shuttering these plants ...

6. Actually, fossil fuels won’t stay ‘in the ground’

   The UK MailOnline has an article that should brighten Canadian spirits—at least those in Western Canada. Environmentalists have taken to throwing around the claim that the world must leave its fossil fuel resources “in the ground.” They ...

7. A federal carbon tax—a cash grab that could damage the economy

   Provincial carbon taxes will continue to distort energy markets, raise energy and food prices, and reduce economic competitiveness. ...

8. Gloomy report misrepresents Canada’s environmental performance

   Canada’s greenhouse gas levels have been declining since 2005. ...

9. Fossil fuel-free activists should focus first on self-sacrifice

   UBC students, faculty and staff groups have passed resolutions calling for the university to divest itself of fossil fuel investments. This effort has not convinced the university’s board of governors. At its most recent meeting, it ...

10. Ban on oil tankers—what happened to evidence-based policy?

    Appeared in the Vancouver Sun, November 25, 2015 During the recent election campaign, the new federal government committed to pursuing evidence-based public policy. In the mandate letters delivered to each minister at the end of last week, there’s a ...