As Canadians are becoming all too aware, the spectre of a recession, no matter the definition, looms large during an election campaign. Despite such prominence, the recent debate made it abundantly clear that none of the candidates understand why the economy stopped growing in the first half of the year and they have even less [...]
The national energy strategy just mapped out by Canada’s premiers contemplates, among other things, how to speed up the approval process for interprovincial pipelines. Even as the agreement was being hashed out, however, attention was already turning to a burst pipeline at Nexen’s Long Lake oil sands site that spilled 31,000 barrels of bitumen, sand [...]
What does Canada’s economy look like with oil prices at $40 a barrel? Certainly it won’t be the energy superpower envisioned by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. If $40 a barrel still seems a ways off, consider that the benchmark price for oil sands crude is already trading in that price range. What’s more, if production [...]
The Northern Gateway Project, introduced in the middle of the last decade, promises to keep British Columbia mired in debate for years more to come. Despite the National Energy Board’s recent approval, staunch opposition from First Nations groups and environmentalists looks set to suspend the pipeline in a state of legal limbo. Across the border, [...]