Roundup: New targets, same criticism

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It was Earth Day yesterday, and US President Joe Biden held a climate summit, which Justin Trudeau used as a platform to announce that Canada would be setting a more ambitious climate target of 40 to 45 percent reduction of emissions from 2005 levels, and naturally, that was panned from all sides. For the NDP, the Bloc and the Greens, it’s not enough, and for the Conservatives, it’s too much, and “empty words” that lack a plan (despite all evidence to the contrary). One of the spanners in the works here is the Americans announcing their own new targets, which sound more ambitious than ours – but are they really?

Enter economist Andrew Leach, who is offering a warning that we can’t commit to matching American emissions targets because our emissions mix is very different, so we’d be essentially making a different commitment than they are, which could hurt us. The Americans can get much further on reductions that we can with less stringent policies because of their emissions mix. Unfortunately, too many of our parties and party leaders seem to think that Canada is just a smaller version of America, and that we can simply copy their policies and divide by ten – but it doesn’t work like that, and we should call out this kind of thinking.

Good reads:

  • The government has implemented a thirty-day ban on direct flights from India and Pakistan in response to the explosion in variant cases in those countries.
  • As a reminder, expert opinion is largely that flight bans don’t tend to work, but more robust quarantine and screening does (assuming local authorities enforce it).
  • It looks like we’re not getting any AstraZeneca doses from India this month as planned, but more Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson doses will more than make it up.
  • Here is a reminder that the UK and Israel still had lockdowns for their third waves in spite of faster vaccination campaigns (despite what Erin O’Toole is trying to peddle).
  • One of the women who came forward with allegations about General Vance says he fathered her two children and considered himself “untouchable” by military police.
  • The current budget has $4 billion set aside to have an army of young Canadians lead a digital adoption for small businesses to get them online.
  • Funds from the 2019 budget on critical infrastructure cyber-security is still waiting for a legislative framework so that it can be spent.
  • Here is some of the behind-the-scenes drama to Doug Ford’s flailing panic last Friday, and that he was likely listening to his campaign director and pollster.
  • Andrew Leach evaluates Erin O’Toole’s climate plan, and offers some constructive suggestions to keep it from being the hot mess that it is at present.
  • Robert Hiltz savages Doug Ford’s teary press conference and the faux apology theatre that he put on display.

Odds and ends:

My latest piece for the CBA’s National Magazine looks at the regulatory sandbox for legal tech that has been approved for Ontario.

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: New targets, same criticism”

  1. Oh, so it was “allegedly” Nick and Kory who had input into Doug’s “strategy” or lack thereof. Yet another reason why nobody should take his lousy biased polls seriously. At least Doug didn’t lock down Kelsey’s otherwise Nick would have had to break in again.

    A useful reminder that this government full of incompetent crooks couldn’t even make licence plates.

  2. Hey J.B. That was harsh! I however tend to agree. After this latest Ford fiasco, I am content to envision thug oozing his way into the swamp of unelectability. I am trying hard, as the muck covers his hooded eyeballs, to contemplate one of the other totally inept parties who would be acceptable. The Canadian Coalition sounds like a flyer. Stay tuned!

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