While reporting on the trial of Wiebo Ludwig and Richard Boonstra for the National Post, Christie Blatchford managed unintentionally to articulate the real issue in the subterfuge that runs as deep as the many hydrocarbon-emitting wells in the northwestern part of Alberta.
A Wastewater Treatment Privatization Case Study: Indianapolis, Indiana
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An examination of the elements contributing to one privatization’s economic, environmental, and labour-relations successes.
Privatizing water works
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As Halifax considers a private-sector solution to its sewage problem, Elizabeth Brubaker debunks critics’ claims that water privatization is a failure.
NDP warns against P3 sewage treatment plants
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The New Democrats are cautioning Halifax regional council about pitfalls private ownership could pose for the city’s planned sewage-treatment plants.
Unnatural Disaster: How Politics Destroyed Canada’s Atlantic Groundfisheries
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A chapter from Political Environmentalism: Going behind the Green Curtain, a collection of essays edited by Terry Anderson exploring the ways in which politics and environmentalism mix to produce perverse results. In this chapter, Elizabeth Brubaker documents the ways in which politicians, pursuing their short-term interest in putting voters to work, subsidized the expansion of the cod fishery and set catch levels exceeding those recommended by their own scientists.
They get the gold, we get the shaft
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Canada’s mining industry knows how to strike it rich, but it closely guards its secrets, for fear others will jump its claims. Now, the secret’s out. Here’s how it’s done.
Saving Canada’s endangered species
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I am writing to ask for your help in saving our endangered species. Over the last 200 years, we have lost at least 27 species or subspecies of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, molluscs, butterflies, and plants. The Queen Charlotte Islands no longer support a woodland caribou population; grizzly bears and black-footed ferrets no longer roam the Prairies; Ontario has lost the longjaw cisco and the blue walleye; the great auk and sea mink have disappeared from eastern Canada; and the Atlantic walrus and gray whale have abandoned the northwest Atlantic Ocean.
Conservation that works
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Conservation programs based on rewards rather than punishments have been widely tested and shown to work. In 1991, England established a Countryside Stewardship Scheme to conserve the landscape and to protect and extend wildlife habitats.
How not to save species
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A proposed law forcing land owners to protect endangered species may actually hasten their demise. There are better ways of saving nature.
Case of the stolen gene
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In this Alberta Report article by Carla Yu, Elizabeth Brubaker speculates that Roundup Ready Canola seed could be deemed a trespass if it drifts onto someone’s property. Continue reading
Privatizing water leaves us high and dry
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In her Aug. 5 article “Private operator best for Halifax system,” Elizabeth Brubaker gives CUPE a failing grade, claiming we did not do our homework; yet she has presented no facts to back up her position, a position which appears to be based solely upon ideology.
Private operator best for Halifax system
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Earlier this year, CUPE national President Judy Darcy proclaimed that the "proposed privatization of new water treatment facilities in Halifax gets a big ‘F’."
Halifax’s political sewage problem
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Bill Maden figures he takes his dip in Halifax harbour at the only safe time of the year – the dead of winter. For a quarter-century, Mr. Maden, a personal investment advisor, has organized the Polar Bear Club’s New Year’s Day swim.
Public-private fight focus of sewage debate
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Opinions are mixed regarding the choice to publicly or privately run Halifax’s new sewage treatment plants. Several competitors are vying for the rights to build the $316 million project, and the Halifax Council has prepared a list of three potential companies while the debate heats up on what types of effects privatization would have on cost, quality and accountability.
What Margaret Thatcher never said about water
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To refute my article describing the benefits of privatizing water and sewage utilities, Toronto union leader Brian Cochrane cited devastating criticisms from unlikely sources(Letters, March 9). Mr. Cochrane told your readers that former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher called water privatization her "one mistake," and that an editorial in the Financial Times of London called the privatization "a rip-off, a steal, a plunder, a legalised mugging, piracy, licensed theft, a diabolical liberty, a huge scam, a cheat, a snatch, and a swindle."
Environment Probe’s tenth anniversary
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I’m feeling a little nostalgic. It’s the tenth anniversary of Environment Probe’s founding, and as I look back over my time here, I find my mind wanders less to the small victories we’ve had from time to time, and more to the rewarding comments I’ve received from supporters over the years, comments that touched and inspired me and led me to squirrel them away in a special file. I’d like to share several of them with you.
Toronto Needs the Water Privatization Option
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Next Tuesday, Toronto City Council will vote on a recommendation that it rule out the privatization of water supply or sewage treatment in the city. This ill-considered recommendation reflects union politics rather than a reasoned analysis of the merits of private sector involvement. If councillors approve it, they will prevent the city from capturing tremendous economic and environmental benefits.
Toronto water fight
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Toronto faces a motion to reject the idea of privatizing its water and sewage systems. Worldwide experience shows that could be a mistake.
Cod don’t vote
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On July 2, 1992, Canada’s fisheries minister banned cod fishing off the northeast coast of Newfoundland and off the southern half of Labrador. The northern cod stock, once one of the richest in the world, had collapsed. The moratorium on northern cod marked an unprecedented disaster for virtually all of Canada’s Atlantic groundfisheries – the fisheries for species that feed near the ocean floor.
Owners are protectors (review of Property Rights in the Defence of Nature)
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Ask an environmentalist how to ensure an ongoing healthy ecology, and he will almost certainly suggest more government regulation. Who would have thought that a more effective method has always been available within the English-speaking world? Yet this method has kept the British Isles green, even though their population density is 75 times greater than Canada’s.
Environment Probe 