There’s never a dull moment in the debate over the safety of hydraulic fracturing.
natural gas
The Energy East pipeline project should be the biggest “no-brainer” pipeline of all those proposed across Canada.
Canada’s federal equalization program is motivated by good intentions. However, the program has unintended consequences, and creates perverse incentives that have allowed at least two “have-not” provinces to shun sensible economic opportunities.
Forty-one billion dollars. That’s the extra amount, over and above what was needed to keep pace with population growth and inflation between 2006 and 2013, this to fund Alberta government program spending in those years.
Since taking office in mid-September, Alberta’s new Premier Jim Prentice has talked an active game on the energy file. From the perspective of those who believe that Canada’s energy exports are vital to the country’s economic health, many of his comments seem positive. But there is one area where Mr. Prentice’s energy-policy comments are troubling.
In the recent New Brunswick election, an unremarkable engineering activity apparently took front and centre: hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, popularly known as fracking.
Nova Scotia’s government recently announced it would table legislation to establish a moratorium on the practice of hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) for the production of natural gas in the province. The ban, which follows a lengthy report on the safety of hydraulic fracturing, is indefinite, but not permanent. (One is reminded of the saying that there is nothing more permanent than a temporary tax.).
From the fur trade to fisheries and forests, Canada was built on the toil and sweat of those who wanted to prosper. But these days, it’s harder to create opportunity. And sometimes, government is to blame. The latest example comes from Nova Scotia.