By Ryan Rocca Global News – Posted February 14, 2020 6:35 pm – Updated February 14, 2020 10:52 pm
Protesters are seen blocking off the intersection of Yonge and Dundas streets in downtown Toronto Friday evening. Global News
A group of demonstrators blocked off the intersection of Yonge and Dundas streets in downtown Toronto during the evening commute on Friday.
The
demonstration was held in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation, many
of whose members oppose the building of the Coastal GasLink liquefied
natural gas (LNG) pipeline in northern British Columbia, which would
pass through the nation’s unceded territory.
by News Staff and The Canadian Press – Posted Feb 14, 2020 10:14 am EST – Last Updated Feb 14, 2020 at 11:31 am EST
A car is charged at a charge station for electric vehicles on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 1, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
TORONTO — Two of Ontario’s biggest utilities have formed a
new company to create a province-wide fast-charger network for electric
vehicles.
The Ivy Charging Network is scheduled to have 160 Level-3
fast-chargers at its 73 locations throughout southern, eastern and
western Ontario.
The Ivy is a limited partnership owned equally by the government-owned Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One Ltd., a publicly-traded former Crown corporation that owns the province’s largest electric grid.
They say the Ivy network will be an unregulated business that can provide a new revenue stream for both companies without affecting Ontario electricity rates.
Where the government goes from here is an open
question, but there is an old saying that if you find yourself at the
bottom of a hole, the first thing you do is to stop digging, writes Mark
Winfield.
Dec 26, 2019 Opinion by Mark Winfield (Professor of Environmental Studies at York University)
Greg Rickford PC MPP, the Minister of Energy, Mines, Northern Development and Indigenous Affairs during question period in the Ontario Legislature. He is fond of quoting climate change denial media sources to support his government’s viewpoints. – Steve Russell,Toronto Star file photo
A defining feature of Ontario politics in the aftermath of the
October federal election has been the emergence of a rebranded version
of Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government.
The bombastic, aggressive tone of the government’s first year in office has, for now, been replaced by one of moderation.
But there’s been one notable exception to the
Ford government’s supposed willingness to change direction. On
environmental and energy issues, the government remains on the same path
of disruption and destruction that defined its first piece of
legislation that dismantled the previous government’s climate change
strategy.
That point was highlighted again in the provincial auditor’s
recent report. The report from the auditor, whose office has taken on
the former environmental commissioner’s responsibilities, makes clear
that there are major gaps in the government’s so-called made-in-Ontario
environmental strategy tabled last year.
In addition to highlighting the gaping holes in the government’s
climate change plans, the report highlighted a host of other
environmental challenges facing Ontario, including ongoing urban sprawl,
air pollution, water quality and biodiversity protection.
Rather than changing direction in response to the auditor’s
report, the government’s assault on the environment seems to be
continuing. Its most recent iteration is Bill 132, a massive omnibus
bill ostensibly aimed at reducing “red tape” adopted last week. Buried
in its details is an attempt to undo the previous Liberal government’s
moratorium on neonicotinoid pesticides, widely identified as posing
serious risks to pollinators.
Other provisions of the act weaken the rules around forestry
operations, mining, water taking, gravel pits and quarries and
pollution.
The government is moving forward with a parallel proposal that would dismantle the province’s regulatory framework for controlling industrial water pollution, first established in the early 1990s as the Municipal-Industrial Strategy for Abatement (MISA) program.
