A Proposal to Create a Pan-Canadian Energy Information Organization (CEIO) (original) (raw)
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Making Energy Policy: The Canadian Experience
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Achieving Sustainability of the Energy Sector in Canada
OECD Economics Department Working Papers, 2008
Achieving sustainability of the energy sector in Canada Energy represents a major sustainable-development challenge for Canada. In the short term, labour shortages and infrastructure bottlenecks are likely to hinder energy developments and need to be addressed. In addition, provincial fiscal management could be improved by adopting prudent allocation and withdrawal rules of revenues from non-renewable resources to and from a long-term fund. Eventually the main challenge will be to curb greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), despite the rapid expansion of high emitting sectors. The effectiveness of environmental policies could be enhanced by better federal-provincial coordination. Efforts should be concentrated on designing and implementing an emissions-trading scheme compatible with corresponding systems abroad. Finally, effective and efficient systems of regulation and taxation are essential to facilitate the timely realisation of energy supply plans.
2018
Like many other industrialized democracies, Canada faces serious challenges and crucial decisions when it comes to governing a twenty-first century energy system. These are seen in ongoing controversy over siting of wind farms, pipelines, new hydro, and transmission lines; tensions between movement on climate change and other energy objectives like oil sands development, fracking development, competitiveness and consumer affordability; and the reform of the National Energy Board, to name but a few. One of the linchpins of a modern energy system is the relationship between policymakers and regulators when it comes to public decision-making. This interim report aims to lay out the challenges that Canada faces in this area-within and between provincial/territorial and federal levels-and to explore options for informed reform of existing systems. It builds on the workshop "From Best Practices to Next Practices: Policy-Regulatory Relations in Energy Decision-Making", held on June 6 & 7 2017 at the University of Ottawa. This event featured a range of participants from government, Indigenous organizations, industry, ENGOs, and academia. The discussion focuses primarily on the relationships between, and roles of, policymakers (elected officials, executive branch, and legislature) and regulators (appointed officials, their agencies, and specialized professional staff). It also addresses critical issues that affect and are affected by this relationship, including Indigenous and public involvement, and collaborative processes. It is part of the broader Public Authorities research stream of the Positive Energy project, and is a detailed extension of the System Under Stress paper released in early 2017. System Under Stress outlines several tensions underlying policy-regulatory relations. 1 The dividing line between policy and regulation in substantive and procedural terms, including the tension between regulatory independence and the need for communication and interaction between policymakers and regulators. 2 The governance of regulators by policymakers. 3 Planning challenges that are increasingly emerging between broad policy frameworks and detailed regulatory arrangements.
ENERGY AND ENERGY LITERACY IN CANADA: A SURVEY OF BUSINESS AND POLICY LEADERSHIP
Lots of people have opinions about Canadian energy, how we use and export it, its costs and its impacts on the environment. In the end, however, it is leaders in business and policy circles whose opinions can have a greater impact on influencing how the rest of us think about energy, and ultimately, how our national energy picture eventually unfolds. Remarkably, however, a survey of leaders in business and policy-making across the country finds that their knowledge about Canadian energy systems is not that much deeper or different than the Canadian public at large. Their opinions about how we should use, conserve and export energy are also strikingly similar. Anyone presuming that leaders in business and policy have a firm understanding of how Canadians get their energy might be startled to discover that, in Ontario, Alberta, the Atlantic region and Saskatchewan, a substantial fraction of these "elite" survey respondents incorrectly identify the primary resource used for energy in their province. Nor are business and policy leaders the ardent free traders some of us might expect when it comes to energy exports and imports. While an overwhelming majority (89 per cent) of survey respondents considered it important or at least somewhat important to decrease Canada's reliance on the U.S. market for our exports, 56 per cent of those surveyed also advocated for more Canadian energy independence, even if it meant reduced revenue for the Canadian economy. Not only that, but they largely believed that eliminating energy imports and relying exclusively on Canadian sources would somehow result in an overall drop in energy costs. Furthermore, a strong majority of policy-makers and business leaders had a general agreement that it was worth bearing higher energy costs in the future if it resulted in better environmental quality. Additionally, when it came to evaluating who they could trust for reliable information about energy, business and policy-making elites proved just about as skeptical as the general public when it came to companies, industry groups and government officials, ranking all three fairly weakly on trustworthiness. They saw academics and economic experts as slightly more trustable sources for information, though even those sources had limits. And while environmental and community groups and activists were given generally middling scores for trustworthiness, business leaders, interestingly enough, actually ranked these activist groups as just a bit more reliable than did policy-makers. Finally, a clear preference in both groups was revealed for more planning and systematically adapting to changing energy markets and environmental conditions through the development of some form of public policy energy strategies.
An Energy Policy for British Columbia
BC Studies: The British Columbian Quarterly, 1982
Canadians, and especially British Columbians, are particularly fortunate because of their endowed wealth of natural resources. In a world threatened by disruptions in the supply of vital commodities such as energy, both Canada and British Columbia are in the nearly unique position of having sufficient aggregate energy resources to meet anticipated demand into the twenty-first century. Major B.C. energy resources include hydropower, natural gas, coal, uranium and biomass. 1 * The author is grateful to his colleagues, Catherine Eckel and Michael Margolick, for their constructive comments on an earlier draft of this paper. 1 Current B.C. proven "reserves" are as follows: petroleum-179 million stock tank barrels (MMSTB), natural gas-7.5 trillion cubic feet (TCF), coal-2.8 billion tons, uranium-6416 tons of elemental uranium, hydropower 24,000 megawatts capacity.
Canada’s energy perspectives and policies for sustainable development
Applied Energy, 2009
A regression analysis is performed to make projections for the Canadian energy production and consumption. These have been increasing and are projected to increase even further in the near future. The primary energy production and consumption are projected to increase by 52% and 34%, respectively, by 2025 over 2004 if business as usual. The amount of fossil energy resources is finite and the extraction, transportation and combustion of fossil fuels cause environmental pollution and climate change. On the other hand, energy plays an important role in the economic and social development of Canada. Canada can develop further from an energy balance point of view, but this alone cannot be sustainable, because of the negative consequences of the major energy use on the environment. Application of energy localization and diversification is a promising solution, but in order to reach that, better energy efficiency and more use of renewable energy are necessary. Instead of non-compulsory policies Canada's policy approach should have more compulsory policies. Only then Canada can be made to develop further in a sustainable manner.
Energy Literacy in Canada: A Summary
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Surveys among the general population, business and policy leaders, and aboriginal Canadians reveal that, among all three groups, there is ample general knowledge about the way Canadians use energy and the costs related to it. But when they think about economic and social policy issues of importance, Canadians tend to consider energy a low priority. While this may be the consequence of living in an energysecure country, given that the economy’s strength, growth and resilience are so intimately linked to secure and sustainable sources of energy, that lack of engagement can only be problematic for policymakers dealing with energy-related issues. It can lead to important choices being made without widespread public awareness, input and agreement. But, even more worrisome is that these surveys found that all three Canadian cohorts surveyed severely lack trust in the key voices that speak on energy issues. They hold negative views of energy company executives, mistrust information from in...
Public policy discourse, planning and measures toward sustainable energy strategies in Canada
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2008
Since the 1970s, Canada has formulated various strategy measures to accelerate the development of energy efficiency systems and renewable energy technologies and has made significant progress. ''From 1990 to 2003, Canada's energy efficiency improved by an estimated 13%, or 883.3 petajoules, saving Canadians almost $13.4 billion in 2003 alone and reducing annual greenhouse gas emissions by 52.3 megatonnes''. In 2000, about 17% of Canadian primary energy supply came from renewable sources (with hydroelectric, combustible renewables and waste). Canada is a leader in devising and implementing energy options for sustainable development. However, the nation still has great scope for furthering energy efficiency and more use of renewable energy. Canada has a higher aggregate intensity-absolute energy use per capita or per unit of GDP-than most International Energy Agency (IEA) countries, ranking second and fourth, respectively. In 2000, Canada used only a small amount of renewable energy (without hydroelectric, combustible renewables and waste), accounting for 1.3% of its primary energy supply. Canada has made little use of wind power compared to other industrialized countries. By June 2004, Canada's installed capacity was 341 megawatts (MW), compared to 13,407 MW installed by late 2003 in Germany, the country with the largest installed capacity. Canada's current small-scale hydroelectric capacity is about 2000 MW. Canada also has a few grid-connected wood-waste-fired power plants operational or under construction, with a