In his recent "Economic and Fiscal Update," federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced a "bold new plan to make our country a world leader" through public-private partnerships. The financing provided through such partnerships, Mr. Flaherty explained, is a way "to get more out of infrastructure investments."
Holding polluters accountable
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Our water and our air are under siege, and our governments are doing precious little to protect them. Warnings have been sounded by two of Canada’s most prominent environmental watchdogs. Together, they demonstrate the pressing need for a new approach to environmental protection.
When the well runs dry
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When the water pipes leading into the Vancouver Island community of Tofino very nearly went dry before the Labour Day weekend, Mayor John Fraser pushed the proverbial panic button, issuing an order compelling local businesses to turn off their taps. His Honour claimed it was necessary, since no rain had fallen the entire summer to replenish Tofino’s water supply. But the edict would cost resorts, restaurants and other tourist businesses dearly, as customers cancelled en masse their long-weekend getaways to the scenic Pacific community.
Private water
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At a time when so many Canadian municipalities are facing problems with their water and sewage systems, it might seem ironic – even annoying – that the Canada Pension Plan should be contributing $1-billion to the proposed acquisition of a private water utility in the U.K.
A right to harm: How right-to-farm laws violate rural residents’ property rights and promote unsustainable farming practices
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A presentation to Property Rights, Economics, and Environment: Land Resources, an international conference organised by the Centre d’Analyse Economique Environnement and the International Centre for Research on Environmental Issues. The conference took place in Aix-en-Provence, France, on June 26-28, 2006.
Agriculture, the Environment, and Private Property Rights
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A speech to the Annual Conference of the Alberta Agricultural Economics Association, held in Red Deer, Alberta, on May 4, 2006.
Water: The slow, steady fight for regulatory reform
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The political and regulatory changes that we fight for can be discouragingly slow – so slow, sometimes, as to be almost imperceptible. And yet, looking back over the course of a decade or two, there is great reason to take heart. That is one of the lessons brought home to me by a study we have just completed.
Standing Ground
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Danielle Smith, campaign director of the Alberta Property Rights Initiative, interviews Elizabeth Brubaker on the use of common-law property rights to protect the environment.
Creating Viable Water Systems: Emerging Best Practices in Governance
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Prepared for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. This report examines reforms to the governance of municipal water systems in Ontario, considers factors determining their success or failure, identifies emerging solutions to lingering problems, and draws lessons that may help solve some of the problems plaguing aboriginal water systems.
Water: safety first
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The people of Walkerton, Ont., don’t want to take any more chances. That’s why the townsfolk, and those in the neighbouring communities that comprise the amalgamated municipality of Brockton, have decided to turn to a private firm to operate their water and wastewater systems. "We want to hire someone we can trust," Brockton Mayor Charlie Bagnato states. "In the name of safety, and to keep everyone happy, we have to get someone we can rely on."
The native water crisis
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Will we never learn? Once again, we watch with horror as a community struggles with contaminated water. And once again, we are appalled by our governments responding with political fixes rather than lasting solutions.
Kashechewaste
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Plop, plop go the bags of money being dropped from a plane into the Kashechewan swamp. "That ought to do it" says the pilot as he flies out of the National Post’s editorial cartoon. The cartoon captures the absurdity of the political response to the discovery of E. coli in the drinking water of the native community in Northern Ontario.
Political pigsty
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With the passage of a new Planning Act last month, Manitoba’s NDP government furthered its 33-year campaign to foist factory farms on an unwilling public, ensuring that neither individual property rights nor the desires of a local community can stop large farm operations that create nuisances or pollute the environment.
Bhopal, Ontario
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Elizabeth Brubaker writes in the National Post that blaming the Walkerton tragedy on privatization is utter nonsense. The tragedy resulted from massive public-sector failure. Continue reading
All industries – including agriculture – must obey our environmental laws
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Canada’s powerful farm lobbies would have you believe that farmers operate under too many rules. The Ontario Federation of Agriculture complains of a "multitude" of unjustified laws and regulations, while the BC Agriculture Council lobbies for a "real reduction of regulation."
Back off, farmers
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Traffic chaos again disrupted Toronto yesterday as convoys of tractors – in the second such demonstration in as many weeks – converged on Queen’s Park to demand more privileges for farmers. Last week, 8,000 farmers organized by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture lined up at the legislative trough for cash. Yesterday’s protesters, led by the Lanark Landowners’ Association, demanded a different kind of subsidy: freedom from accountability.
Industrial farms shouldn’t trump the rights of our citizens and communities
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In her annual letter to supporters, Elizabeth Brubaker argues that provinces are stripping citizens of their property rights and disempowering local governments in order to promote industrial farming. Continue reading
Invasive agriculture
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Last month, 150 residents of Ashburn, Ont., filed a civil lawsuit against Greenwood Mushroom Farms, claiming the stench from the farm has created a nuisance. Thanks to a provincial law designed to promote agriculture, the judge hearing the case will have to consider not whether GMF’s operations are harmful but whether they are "normal" – a standard that defies economics and undermines the property rights of all rural residents.
Empowering individuals and communities to curb pollution from farms
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Should hog farmers be allowed to create odours so foul that they make neighbours physically ill? Should cattle farmers who follow manure-management rules be exempt from local bylaws limiting their size and density? Should vegetable farmers be allowed to send clouds of black dust across neighbouring lands, or awaken neighbours throughout the night with cannon explosions designed to scare away wildlife? How much pollution is "necessary" or "acceptable," and who should decide?
As property rights slide, odours rise
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Last Friday, in a national "day of action" against factory farming, rural Canadians denounced the giant feedlots, mega hog barns and concentrated poultry operations that increasingly threaten their health and well-being. While demonstrators in Saskatchewan and Ontario called for provincial moratoriums on the hog industry’s expansion, activists in Alberta and Manitoba cut to the heart of the matter, insisting on local control over the siting of livestock operations. Their demands point to an often-overlooked fact: In robbing Canadians of their property rights, heavy-handed provincial legislators have brought us factory farms.
Environment Probe 