Undermined – Bolstering supply chain resilience through a Canada–Australia resource alliance
Canada and Australia cannot afford to be passive actors in the increasingly turbulent world of resource geopolitics.
Heather Exner-Pirot
While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Heather Exner-Pirot.
Canadian coal – From dirty secret to critical mineral: Heather Exner-Pirot
Coal is often treated as a relic of the past – dirty, declining, and politically toxic. Yet globally, it remains indispensable, the backbone of electricity systems in Asia and the primary input for global steelmaking.
Indigenous consent is an objective, not a standard, for resource development
In Canadian resource development, the concept of “consent” has become a litmus test for ideological and philosophical divides. While such debates may be intellectually stimulating, they pose a serious obstacle to project development. Proponents seek clear expectations and standards when committing capital and building things. The Canadian legal and political systems have plodded along inelegantly on the question of Indigenous...
Building Canada’s Energy Future Should Top the List in Huntsville
Canada is at a pivotal moment in its energy transition, with hundreds of major projects — spanning LNG, hydrogen, wind, nuclear, hydro, pipelines, and Indigenous-led infrastructure — representing over $600 billion in actual and potential investment. According to the Government of Canada’s Canadian Centre for Energy Information, “In 2023, there were 223 planned (announced, under review, or approved) major energy...
High costs, low returns - Canada’s wildly expensive emissions cap
Canada is the world’s third-largest exporter of oil, fourth-largest producer, and top source of imports to the United States. Much of Canada’s oil wealth is concentrated in the oil sands in northern Alberta, which hosts 99 percent of the country’s enormous oil endowment: about 160 billion barrels of proven reserves, of a total resource of approximately 1.8 trillion barrels. This...
(Im)balance of power – How federal overreach fuels Western Alienation
Western anger is largely fuelled by Ottawa’s decade-long legislative and regulatory agenda, which trampled on provincial jurisdiction while specifically targeting the oil and gas industry – a major source of Western Canada’s wealth.
Northern corridors: Hype or hope? Heather Exner-Pirot
In the rush to diversify Canada’s trade routes and export destinations, provincial, territorial, and federal politicians of all partisan stripes have heralded new corridors and ports. With major ports already established on the Pacific side, in Vancouver and Prince Rupert; and the Atlantic side, in Montreal, Halifax, and Saint John; attention has turned to the Arctic.
Canada’s greenwashing amendment: A failure of process and policy
On April 30, 2024, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance pushed through a late-stage amendment to the Competition Act under Bill C-59: The 2023 Fall Economic Statement. The “greenwashing amendment,” as it has come to be known, has had a dramatic silencing effect on the many businesses and associations across the country that want to communicate their environmental...
Securing the future – Canada’s deep geological repository for nuclear waste: Heather Exner-Pirot
In the coming year, Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) – a consortium of nuclear energy and waste producers – will choose the site for its deep geological repository: a final resting home for the spent nuclear fuel Canada has produced since the 1950s and will continue to produce in the future.
Ruthless, reckless, damaging: the Hon. Steven Guilbeault is MLI’s Policy-maker of the year
The Liberals have been chided for focusing on communications over substance, for announcing policies rather than implementing them. But there is an exception to this rule: the ruthlessly efficient Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. No one else in Canada has been as influential, and, in my view, no one else has done so much damage. From an emissions cap to toxic...