Over half of Canadians are now driving less as gas prices skyrocket across the country, a new survey says.
The Leger survey, conducted for BNN Bloomberg and insurance comparison company RATESDOTCA, found 54 percent out of roughly 1,500 Canadians surveyed say that are driving less due to mounting gas prices. Another 15 percent say they are planning to adjust their driving patterns.
OTTAWA — Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault will table a new greenhouse gas emissions plan in Parliament this morning.
The plan is a legal requirement under the net-zero accountability law the Liberals passed last year.
It will model emissions projections for different sectors that are feasible and necessary to achieve Canada’s current goal to curb emissions to no more than 60 per cent of what they were in 2005 before the end of the decade.
The “Greens” promise renewables, solar and wind power, will replace fossil fuels. After all, the wind and sun are free, and they don’t pollute!
Oops.
Now countries that embraced renewables are so desperate for power that they eagerly import coal, the worst polluter of all!
Do they apologize? No. Greens never apologize.
The reason Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux says most Canadians paying Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax are worse off financially, as opposed to the Trudeau government which claims most are better off financially, is simple.
It’s that their calculations depend on what’s being measured, and the federal government and Giroux are measuring different things.
It’s also because Giroux’s calculations better represent the true costs of the carbon tax.
GOLDSTEIN: Most of us pay more in carbon taxes than we get in rebates
Ever since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced his federal carbon tax, the Liberals have been dining out on their claim that 80% of Canadian households where it applies receive more in carbon tax rebates than they pay in carbon taxes.
“Our plan will … leave 8 out of 10 families better off …,” then environment minister Catherine McKenna tweeted on April 1, 2019 when Trudeau’s carbon tax came into effect.
In July of 2021, this writer took a little trip through rural Missouri. Besides visiting kinfolk whom I hadn’t seen for far too long, one purpose of my trip was simply to do something else, something different. You see, I’d become something of a recluse and I really needed to just go outside, blow the stink off, maybe even commune with Nature, whatever that is.
We need energy and renewables can’t provide, so best to just lean into it
Covid rates are abating just in time for surging gas prices to eclipse the pandemic as our crisis du jour, and people from both sides of the political aisle are crying out in unison: something must be done!
The current energy crisis debate consists of a few camps: one group professes that they can’t abide fossil fuels being used at all, while another can’t imagine living without them. The third group makes up the middle of the Venn diagram, and though a paradoxical state of mind, it contains the most members.
Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has clarified for the world, except those wilfully blind, that green policies weakened Europe and emboldened the ruthless dictator to reclaim territory of the former Soviet Empire.
The pain of soaring gas prices must be endured because any wider embrace of fossil fuels as an alternative is “madness” and threatens global climate targets, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned Monday.
The Liberal government is being accused of sending conflicting messages about the nuclear industry and how it can help adapt to a green environment.
The week the Liberal government put $27.2 million into a promising new small modular nuclear reactor — but at the same time its green bond program, meant to boost environmentally-friendly programs, specifically excludes investments in nuclear power.
The conflict shows mixed support at best for the industry, say critics.
No nuclear? No electric car! But you knew that.
Driving more slowly, turning down the air-conditioning, car free Sundays and working from home should be adopted as emergency measures to reduce the global demand for oil, according to a 10-point plan from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Such measures and changes to consumer behaviour would allow the world to cut its oil usage by 2.7m barrels per day (bpd) within four months – equivalent to more than half of Russia’s exports – the global energy watchdog said.
Ontario makes big promises with critical minerals plans but First Nations advocates remain concerned
Lawyers and advocates for First Nations in northern Ontario say they’re concerned the Ford government wants to press ahead with mining development in the Ring of Fire without properly involving First Nations or addressing their environmental concerns.
The government released its new critical minerals strategy Thursday at the Lac Des Iles mine, about 125 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, Ont., aimed at positioning Ontario as a provider of raw materials for items such as smart phones and electric vehicle batteries.
“Global businesses are searching for the materials, expertise and human power needed to build technologies of the future. And I’m here to say once again, look no further,” Premier Doug Ford told reporters at the election-style announcement.
One reason China was allowed a near monopoly in rare earths is that it is a messy business. But even if mined by virgin unicorns they’d still kill Ontario’s plans anyway.
Canada does not even make the top 10 nations for rare earth production and protectionist policy in the US must also be contended with; “Rare earths mining in the US now happens only at California’s Mountain Pass mine. In February 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order aimed at reviewing shortcomings in America’s domestic supply chains for rare earths, medical devices, computer chips and other critical resources. The next month, the US Department of Energy announced a US$30 million initiative to research and secure domestic supply chains for rare earths and battery metals such as cobalt and lithium.”
After a proposed project has undergone the mandatory 37 environmental assessments etc it’s a good bet Ontario will be regarded as an economic dead end.
And how can we compete with child labour in the Congo for those all important minerals?
Fake prices in the involuntary auto economy
In the magic world of the electric vehicle, nothing is priced at cost plus profit. Since there are no honest profits yet to be made in the Canadian EV market, the business of developing, producing, marketing and selling electric vehicles operates under a centrally planned command-and-control economic system. Nothing is real in the EV market, from the price of new Chevy Bolts to the cost of manufacture to the cost of filling up an EV at a charging station.
Give up your car and start walking. That’s an order. The International Energy Agency (IEA) on Friday directed global governments to urgently cut oil supply to domestic consumers and encourage compliance with its call for lowered consumption.
The IEA 10-point plan to drive “changes in the behaviour of consumers” and reduce gas demand at the pump includes reducing speed limits, working from home three days a week, more electric cars, car-free Sundays, more cycle lanes, cheaper public transport and greater use of long-distance trains over planes.
Working-class Americans are paying a heavy price for their elites’ moral posturing.
As gasoline prices in the US continue to surge to an unprecedented $7 a gallon in some places, President Joe Biden seems more interested in finding someone to blame than mitigating the problem. ‘Make no mistake, inflation is largely the fault of [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’, the president said on Friday at the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference. The president then cited a ‘fact checker’ in the New York Times and a Washington Post op-ed to counter anyone daring to lay the blame for skyrocketing prices at the feet of the president of the United States.
I guess if you’re going to gaslight working-class Americans who have been struggling with historic levels of inflation for over a year now, it’s good to have legacy media outlets backing you up.
