Why would Enbridge be chosen by Doug Ford’s government to administer the Canada Greener Homes Grant program?
It’s like having the fox look after the henhouse.
This is a program to help homeowners retrofit their homes to make them more energy efficient and reduce their carbon pollution by switching gas furnaces to heat pumps. Enbridge doesn’t make their money from the gas itself but by maintaining and expanding their distribution network. If an Enbridge customer no longer uses gas and disconnects from their network, that’s one less customer paying Enbridge for their infrastructure maintenance and expansion costs.
Ditto for new customers in new housing developments currently “forced” to connect to Enbridge’s distribution network. Why not have the Independent Electricity System Operator or Ontario Power Generation administer such home retrofit programs, or municipalities such as the City of Toronto that have ambitious climate action plans they want to implement? These entities would clearly have no conflict of interest or bias.
Tell your MPP to replace Enbridge as the administrator of the current and any future home retrofit programs.
This article was written by Jeffrey Jones and was published in the Globe & Mail on September 18, 2025.
A truck carries oil sand at Suncor’s facility near Fort McMurray, Alta., in September, 2023. Oil sands production is expected to keep breaking grounds while talks for other projects drag on.
Estimates by the Canadian Climate Institution show momentum has stalled nationally
Canada made no progress reducing total greenhouse-gas emissions last year, and weakening federal and provincial climate policies make it certain that the country will fall far short of its 2030 target, according to data compiled by a climate think tank.
In an early estimate, the Canadian Climate Institute said emission-reduction momentum has stalled nationally, remaining at 8.5 per cent below 2005 levels, about the same as in 2023, with oil and gas accounting for a large and growing share.
On the current trajectory, emissions are on track to be 20 per cent to 25 per cent under 2005 levels by 2030, well under the legislated target of 40 per cent to 45 per cent below, the institute said on Thursday.
The figures were included in the institute’s annual look at what the government’s official data are likely to hold when released in the next several months. The previous three editions proved close to the government’s numbers.
The gap puts meeting the 2050 target at risk, the institute said.
Increases in oil sands production have swamped any of the industry’s progress in per-barrel emission reductions, and cuts in many other sectors of the economy have slowed, said Dave Sawyer, the institute’s principal economist.
“We have been more cautious in the past, saying typically, if policies were implemented as announced, or as developing, we could see good progress. But now we think it’s out of reach,” Mr. Sawyer told reporters.
Oil and gas emissions rose 1.9 per cent in 2024, accounting for 31 per cent of the national total, according to the report, prepared by the institute’s 440 Megatonnes project. The electricity sector leads industries in reduction, falling 1.9 per cent to reach 59 per cent below 2005 levels.
The gap puts meeting the 2050 target at risk, the institute said.
Current federal, provincial and territorial policies appear set to limit overall improvements, Mr. Sawyer said. Ottawa and the provinces have weakened carbon-pricing programs and reduced the availability of electricvehicle subsidies. The government of Prime Minister Mark Carney has paused a federal EV sales mandate, and Saskatchewan has said it will extend the lives of three coal-fired power plants.
Oil sands production is expected to keep breaking records, while discussions about a proposed $16.5-billion carbon capture and storage project drag on.
The country would require reduction of 40 megatonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent a year between now and 2030 to hit the target. “And that’s well beyond current policy or historical progress,” Mr. Sawyer said.
Canada’s commitment to climate action has come under question as Mr. Carney – who has been one of the world’s most prominent voices in sustainable finance – has pledged to ease the way for a series of major industrial projects to counteract the effects of tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. He has promised to achieve the goal of turning Canada into a “superpower” in both clean and conventional energy.
Early this year, Mr. Carney removed the consumer carbon price, a move the institute said could add 20 megatonnes of emissions by 2030. He has also established the Major Projects Office to fast-track “nation-building” projects. The office is already considering a potential expansion of the LNG Canada project in Kitimat, B.C., and eventually could rule on a new oil pipeline – a prospect welcomed by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
Other projects among the first tranche announced include two critical-minerals mines, modular nuclear reactors in Ontario and an expansion of the Port of Montreal.
The emissions impact of the construction push is not yet known, Mr. Sawyer said. Expanding exports of liquefied natural gas would be emissions-intensive, but other possible projects such as electricity corridors and a Nova Scotia offshore wind farm would be positive, he said.
If the Pathways Alliance, the coalition of oil sands producers designing the massive carboncapture network, goes ahead with the project, that could be “a large and very lumpy emission reduction,” he said.
The institute said the country, which just struggled through another summer of destructive wildfires, should not backslide on climate policy. Instead, government should modernize industrial carbon pricing, finalize new methane regulations for oil and gas, invest in clean electricity, and make EVs and clean fuels widely available and affordable.
This article was written and published by the Toronto Star on September 3, 2025.
Tropical Storm Lorena formed Tuesday in the eastern Pacific Ocean off Mexico’s coast and forecasters say it could later reach hurricane strength. The storm’s maximum sustained winds were near 75 km/h. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm was expected to keep strengthening and could become a hurricane by Wednesday.
This Letter to the Editor was written by Val Endicott and was published in the Globe & Mail on September 2, 2025.
Re “B.C. Energy Minister wants to lead in clean power at home while exporting fossil fuels abroad” (Globe & Mail, Aug. 22):
The argument that Asian countries need our (expensive) gas is fast becoming a losing one. There are many red flags flying in the industry itself suggesting that Asian liquefied natural gas (LNG) markets are a volatile and risky business. They are so for many reasons, not the least of which is that inexpensive, climate-safe renewables are “unstoppable,” according to the International Energy Agency.
The emphasis on LNG is a colossal waste of money, and it is frankly unethical. LNG is not a bridge to clean energy. It is mostly methane – a greenhouse gas that is 80 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
If doing the right thing is not reason enough to stop building out LNG globally, then the International Court of Justice ruling is absolutely clear: If we pursue this course of action, we stand to be sued by those countries most affected by the fossil-fuel-induced climate crisis.
Our money and brainpower would be better spent building up renewable energy and our international reputation would be better served by being a global leader in doing so.
This article was written by Marco Chown Oved and was published in the Toronto Star on February 24, 2025.
Ontario has never burned so much natural gas to make electricity, firing up the polluting plants more often than at any time since the first ones were built in the 1990s.
According to yearend data from the Independent Electricity Systems Operator, the gas plants produced 24.6 terawatt hours of electricity in 2024 — a nearly 30 per cent jump from the previous year.
This ramp up of natural gas plants means there’s been a significant increase in local air pollution as well as far more planetwarming carbon emissions — quadruple the amount produced when Doug Ford was first elected premier.
As a result, Ontario’s highly touted clean energy advantage is eroding. The electricity grid, which was 96 per cent carbonfree in 2017, is now only 84 per cent green.
“We are going in the wrong direction,” said Jack Gibbons, chair of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance. “Doug Ford’s plan to ramp up the pollution from our dirty gas plants is bad for our health, bad for our climate and bad for our pocketbooks.”
Emissions are projected to continue to rise as Ontario’s reliance on gas plants increases until they make up 25 per cent of all energy produced in 2030, according to the IESO.
In response to questions, Ministry of Energy and Electrification spokesperson Natasha Demetriades said: “Ontario continues to have one of the cleanest electricity systems in the world,” and it projects the grid will be “near zero emissions” by 2050.
Ontario has more than two dozen gas plants, most of which were constructed in the early 2000s and 2010s to replace coal. Their use previously peaked at 22.2 terawatt hours in 2012, two years before the last coal plant was shut. The construction of renewables — wind turbines and solar farms — allowed the province to use less gas in subsequent years.
But Ford halted all construction of renewable energy when he was elected in 2018, even paying $231 million to cancel 758 green energy projects, some of which were partially built. And with nuclear reactors at Bruce and Darlington now offline for refurbishment, the province has had to lean on gas more than ever before, forcing gas plants that were only supposed to run a few hours a day to run nearly 24/7.
This has serious health implications for those who live near the plants, which includes millions of people in the GTA, where three major plants are located. The plants emit toxic ozone, nitrogen dioxides and particulate matter that have been linked to the development of childhood asthma.
They are also major sources of carbon emissions, which exacerbate the climate crisis and increase the likelihood of extreme weather disasters like flooding and forest fires.
The Port Lands gas plant has the dubious title of being the largest source of carbon emissions in the city.
“It’s not just a climate issue,” said Keith Brooks, programs director at Environmental Defence. “Almost all of Ontario’s gas is imported. Most of it is fracked gas from Pennsylvania and Ohio. Do we want to be spending all that money importing gas from the United States right now, when we’re entering into this trade war and talking about tariffs?”
Electricity demand in Ontario has been flat for more than 20 years. But new technologies like electric vehicles and heat pumps mean the province will need 75 per cent more power by 2050, according to IESO projections.
This anticipated surge prompted the Progressive Conservative government to announce the first construction of new nuclear plants in 30 years, with small “modular” reactors planned for Darlington, an expansion of Bruce and a new fullscale nuclear plant in Wesleyville.
While nuclear plants have the ability to produce large amounts of emissionsfree energy, lengthy construction times — often taking longer than a decade — and consistent cost overruns, have prompted critics to question a return to the technology when renewables are so much cheaper and quicker to build.
At the same time, the province put out a call for new gas plants and battery storage as a stopgap measure to meet peak demand on hot summer days when people crank up their air conditioners. Local opposition stymied several projects and the province was only able to get half as much gas generation as it wanted.
Meanwhile, renewable power has been on a tear, with wind and solar power projected to nearly triple worldwide by 2030. With solar prices having dropped by more than half in a single year, renewables are now cheaper than any other form of energy.
In Europe, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has accelerated the transition away from natural gas, which had spiked in price, and led to recordbreaking construction of wind and solar. A recent report by Pembina Institute, a clean energy think tank, made the case that green energy is needed to ensure long term prosperity and independence for Ontario.
“Grids around the world have managed to achieve up to 70 per cent of energy supplied from wind and solar and have done so reliably and affordably,” said Scott MacDougall, one of the report’s authors, citing Texas, California, Denmark and Germany as grids that are leading the world in renewable deployment.
Ontario, which once led the nation in renewable construction, has been stalled at about 1214 per cent wind and solar since 2018. “Ontario has a long way to go,” said MacDougall. “I don’t think it wants to lose its clean energy edge.”
In 2023, Ford’s Conservative government reversed its opposition to renewables and announced that the province would start rolling procurement of green power. A year later, however, then energy minister Steven Lecce quietly altered the bidding criteria, opening the door for new gas plants to be built.
Reliance on gas isn’t just a climate and cost concern, it’s also worrying from an energy security perspective, said Rachel Doran, vicepresident of policy and strategy at Clean Energy Canada. “We’re in a moment in time where there’s a heightened awareness about how much we’ve been dependent on trade via the U.S. Natural gas gets shipped across borders and you need more of it every time you fire up a natural gas power plant,” she said.
“Whereas once you’ve installed wind, solar and batteries, these are operating, producing energy domestically and increasing our energy security.”
China, U.S. could make things worse; Argentina pulls out of talks
This article was written by the Associated Press and was published by CBC News on November 14, 2024.
A wildfire burns in Jennings Creek, N.J., as world leaders gather for climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, on the other side of the world. Drought conditions are considered a major factor contributing to wildfires in the eastern U.S. (New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection via The Associated Press)
For the third straight year, efforts to fight climate change haven’t lowered projections for how hot the world is likely to get — even as countries gather for another round of talks to curb warming, according to an analysis Thursday.
At the United Nations climate talks, hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan, nations are trying to set new targets to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases and figure out how much rich nations must pay to help the world with that task.
But Earth remains on a path to be 2.7 C warmer than pre-industrial times, according to Climate Action Tracker, a group of scientists and analysts who study government policies and translate that into projections of warming.
If emissions are still rising and temperature projections are no longer dropping, people should wonder if the United Nations climate negotiations — known as COP — are doing any good, said Climate Analytics CEO Bill Hare.
“There’s an awful lot going on that’s positive here, but on the big picture of actually getting stuff done to reduce emissions … to me it feels broken,” Hare said.
The world has already warmed 1.3 C above pre-industrial times. That’s near the 1.5-degree limit that countries agreed to at 2015 climate talks in Paris. Climate scientists say the atmospheric warming, mainly from human burning of fossil fuels, is causing ever more extreme and damaging weather including droughts, flooding and dangerous heat.
Climate Action Tracker does projections under several different scenarios, and in some cases, those are going up slightly.
“This is driven highly by China,” said Sofia Gonzales-Zuniga of Climate Analytics. Even though China’s fast-rising emissions are starting to plateau, they are peaking higher than anticipated, she said.
WATCH | COP29 climate conference begins as Shell wins appeal on cutting emissions:
COP29 climate conference begins as Shell wins appeal on cutting emissions
Duration1:59
The COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, got off to a sombre start as climate scientists warned the world is now in the ‘final countdown to limit global temperature rise.’ On the same day, oil giant Shell won its appeal against a 2021 ruling that would have forced it to radically reduce its carbon emissions by 2030.
Another upcoming factor not yet in the calculations is the U.S. elections. A Trump administration that rolls back the climate policies in the Inflation Reduction Act and carries out the conservative blueprint Project 2025 would add 0.04 C to warming projections, Gonzales-Zuniga said. That’s not much, but it could be more if other nations use it as an excuse to do less, she said.
“Fossil fuels and emissions are not peaking,” said Sherry Rehman, chair of climate and environment committee in Pakistan’s senate. After 29 years of climate talks, Rehman said countries are “still talking in bumper stickers.”
“We need a transformative solution. We need strong delivery,” Rehman said.
$1 trillion US needed yearly
The major battle in Baku is over how much rich nations will pay for developing countries to decarbonize their energy systems, cope with future harms of climate change and pay for damage from extreme weather.
A special independent group of experts commissioned by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued its own estimate of costs and finances on Thursday, calling for a tripling of the old commitment. It said about $1 trillion US a year is needed by developing nations from all outside sources, not just government grants.
“Advanced economies need to demonstrate a credible commitment” to helping poor nations, the report said.
WATCH | COP29 held in the shadow of a re-elected Trump and a problematic host:
COP29 held in the shadow of a re-elected Trump and a problematic host
Duration7:33
Delegates at COP29, the annual UN climate conference, will have to navigate the scrutiny of another petro-state host in Azerbaijan and the expected retreat of U.S. climate policy under a re-elected Donald Trump. CBC’s international climate correspondent Susan Ormiston breaks down the hurdles standing between COP and meaningful climate action.
Negotiations on the needed grand total and structuring the overall amount have taken “a step back,” because a draft of just a few pages that was worked on for a year was rejected and the latest proposal with many options has more than 30 pages, said top European negotiator Veronika Bagi of Hungary. European Commission negotiator Jacob Werksman said there’s a “very significant gap” between what rich and poor nations propose.
German climate envoy Jennifer Morgan said “private investment has to be brought to the table” in order to fulfil developing countries needs. But Mariana Paoli of Christian Aid said any number that comes out of negotiations that’s not based in publicly-financed grants “will be meaningless.”
Relying on the private sector means climate cash will not be “needs-based, it will be profit-driven,” she said, adding that crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and bank bailouts prove that public funds are available.
“It’s about fairness, it’s about justice,” she said.
Getting climate cash is personal for many activists from vulnerable nations, like Sandra Leticia Guzman Luna, who is from Mexico and the director of the climate finance group for Latin America and the Caribbean. “We are observing the climate impacts causing a lot of costs, not only economic costs but also human losses,” she said.
Argentina pulls out of climate talks
Argentina withdrew from the climate talks on Wednesday on the orders of its president, climate skeptic Javier Milei. The Argentine government did not respond to requests from The Associated Press for comment.
Climate activists called the decision regrettable.
“It’s difficult to understand how a climate-vulnerable country like Argentina would cut itself from critical support,” said Anabella Rosemberg, an Argentina native who works as a senior adviser at Climate Action Network International.
A man holding a baby walks through a flooded street on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 21, 2024. Despite its vulnerability to climate change impacts, Argentina withdrew from the climate talks on Wednesday on the orders of its president, climate skeptic Javier Milei. (Rodrigo Abd/The Associated Press)
Also Wednesday, France’s environment minister, who was set to lead the delegation, pulled out of the talks after Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev called out France and the Netherlands for their colonial histories.
Agnes Pannier-Runacher called Aliyev’s remarks on France and Europe “unacceptable.” Speaking at the French Senate on Wednesday, Pannier-Runacher criticized Azerbaijan’s leader for using the fight against climate change “for a shameful personal agenda.”
“The direct attacks on our country, its institutions and its territories are unjustifiable,” she said.
COP29 negotiator Rafiyev declined to comment Thursday on Pannier-Runacher’s decision, but said “Azerbaijan has made sure we have inclusive process.”
“We have opened our door for everyone to come for constructive, critical discussions,” he said.
This article was written by Nathan Vanderklippe and was published in the Globe & Mail on June 19, 2024.
The Port of Vancouver says the Roberts Bank terminal expansion is critical to the future of Canada’s economy, and will support a 30-per-cent increase in the country’s Pacific container capacity. The project received federal and provincial approval last year.
Native Americans in Washington and Alaska who want status as aboriginal peoples of Canada are considering legal action against the government of British Columbia, after the province said it would create a consultation process on mining and industrial projects for U.S.-based groups that is separate from that held with Canadian groups.
The B.C. Environmental Assessment Office, in letters earlier this year to the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission, or SEITC, and the Lummi Nation, said it is working on a policy to consult Indigenous groups based outside of Canada that “will be different from that taken with B.C. First Nations.”
The letter confirmed that B.C. intends to give those U.S.-based groups a voice in the development of projects on Canadian soil, such as a current proposal to expand the Roberts Bank marine container terminal near Vancouver and mines in the province’s mountainous northwest corner.
But the Lummi in Washington State, and the Alaska tribes under the SEITC, argue that is not enough. They believe their peoples’ historic use of territory that is now Canada entitles them to be consulted in the same way as Canadian Indigenous groups.
“We want to be heard. And we want to be equals in consultation,” said Lummi Nation chairman Anthony Hillaire. The Lummi are prepared to fight for that right in court, he said.
It’s not clear yet what the new process will look like. The province is saying it could take months to complete.
“This work is complex and needs to be done in consultation and co-operation with Indigenous Peoples,” Sean Leslie, a spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, said in a statement. Early discussions with First Nations in B.C., he said, suggest they have a “strong interest” in the development of such a policy – which, he suggested, may not be ready in time for the projects of interest to the SEITC and Lummi.
The province may work with those two groups “on an interim basis in order to allow for the required regulatory and permitting processes to proceed in a timely manner,” he said.
The mining industry says a separate consultation process for U.S. groups has the potential to help smooth issues and expedite approvals. But Michael Goehring, president and chief executive of the Mining Association of BC, warned that if tribes use the process to contest mine permits it’s likely those projects will encounter increased administrative burdens and potential project delays.
The specifics of the new policy will determine whether it brings new certainty, or merely new problems, said Rudi Fronk, chairman and chief executive of Seabridge Gold, which is pursuing the KSM project, an open-pit copper, gold, silver and molybdenum mine in northwestern B.C.
“Introducing a new process also adds another layer of complexity to the permitting process,” he said. “Different consultation frameworks might lead to inconsistencies and confusion, both for project proponents and the consulted groups.”
In Alaska, tribal nations worry that Canadian mining projects, including the KSM project and the reopening of the Skeena Resources Ltd. Eskay Creek mine, threaten the Unuk River.
The 130-kilometre waterway flows from the mountains of northwestern B.C. before reaching tidewater in the Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness. The Unuk has historically been important for the harvest of eulachon fish, whose oil formed a cornerstone of the precolonial Indigenous economy.
Those subject to the effects of industrial development should be given equal treatment in consultation, regardless of which side of the border they call home, argued Louie Wagner, a fisherman in Metlakatla, Alaska, whose Brown Bear Clan has long fished and hunted on the Unuk.
“If they don’t protect the rivers, then we’re all going to lose the same thing,” he said.
U.S. Indigenous groups began to seek rights in B.C. after a 2021 Supreme Court decision, known as Desautel, in which Canada’s top court found that the Lakes Tribe in eastern Washington State should be considered aboriginal peoples of Canada, given their historical use of land that is now B.C.
That decision has created frictions with First Nations in Canada as U.S. groups assert a right to intervene on territory claimed by Canadian Indigenous groups and on projects that Canadian First Nations support.
The Washington State-based Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which includes the Lakes Tribe, has established its own footprint in B.C. by opening an office in Nelson. On the Eskay Creek project, the province and the Tahltan Central Government have agreed to a process that will allow the Tahltan Indigenous group to authorize permits.
The Desautel decision has shifted the legal landscape in Canada – and the very concept of the border – in ways that are not yet fully understood. The decision acknowledges that the responsibility of the Canadian government toward groups outside the country is different, and that therefore “the scope of the Crown’s duty to consult with them, and the manner in which it is given effect, may differ.”
A judicial review, scheduled for June 26, is expected to examine the Lummi petition on the Roberts Bank terminal expansion.
That project, the Port of Vancouver says, is critical to the future of Canada’s economy, and will support a 30-per-cent increase in the country’s Pacific container capacity. It received federal and provincial approval in 2023.
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