The City of Toronto has the largest transit system in Canada that includes 2200 buses and they are now testing 10 fully electric units from each of New Flyer (Canada), BYD (China), and Proterra (US) Here are the numbers: 25% more reliable 30% few parts less items to inventory and manage saves money 25% lower maintenance costs 60% quieter which is a big deal for drivers and communities 75% reduction in energy costs $32,000 /bus /year energy savings $70 million…
It is oft said by those who disapprove of carbon taxes that: Carbon taxes are ineffective Carbon taxes target the wrong people The Canadian Federal Government does not have right to impose a carbon tax All three of these statements are demonstrably incorrect. University of Ottawa Professor of Law and Economics, Stewart Elgie, explains that the dissenting judges in the Saskatchewan and Ontario carbon tax cases are not disagreeing with the principle that the Federal Government has the right to…
If you live in Alberta, BC, Ontario… ok… Canada, or the US or UK or Australia… ok… if you live on planet earth, you have heard about Carbon Taxes. Those that are for them claim they will cure all environmental ills and those against claim they are just another government tax grab. We dug into the facts and came up with 5 Myths about Carbon Taxes we thought you would find interesting: MYTH 1 – Carbon Taxes Don’t Change Behaviour…
Imagine a scenario in which a major Canadian based company is facing the prospect of being seriously damaged as a result of their own wrongdoing, nearly a decade ago, in a third world country like India or Algeria, but not inside Canada or any of its notable partners. Imagine that company lobbying to admit their guilt, change management, pay massive fines in the $250M range and have a knife held to their throat for a decade to make sure they…
Much is being made about the 12% decline in new vehicle sales in Alberta this past December. It is being attributed to the price of “Western Canadian Select” oil collapsing in the fall of 2018 and the Notely NDP Governments response to it. Also, Oshawa Ontario’s GM plant closure has caused much news relating to how many vehicles are sold in Ontario and how the plant closure will affect GM sales going forward. We wanted to know what the numbers…
Three days ago Linda Mcquaig wrote an article in the Toronto Star saying: Trudeau should consider buying GM and making electric cars …Yet, oddly, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau showed no such careful consideration when he promptly jumped in with 4.5 billion taxpayer dollars to purchase the leaky, 65-year-old Trans Mountain pipeline last spring, declaring it “in the national interest” to ensure the pipeline’s expansion after the corporate owner threatened to back out of the project. And taxpayers could be on…
So should you be concerned or even afraid of the Islamic Party of Ontario? That is a fair question as Canada is a very liberal democracy and the IPoO is… well… not. We spent several hours researching the party and wrote up the 10 Quick Facts You Should Know About the Islamic Party of Ontario which includes: 4 – The Islamic Party of Ontario wants to roll back or ban: Abortion: Abortion is a federal issue so Provincial parties are free to…
We recently saw the graphic shown on the right (click to enlarge it) that seems to be a slander campaign about the so called “Islamic Party of Ontario”. So we decided to look into the situation and pulled out the following facts. 1 – The Islamic Party of Ontario is Real: They have a poor quality but apparently legitimate website with a notable founder and leader Jawed Anwar. There has been some effort to tie the Islamic Party of Ontario…
How many times can politician cry wolf before the electorate stand up and say, that is not “our way”: Conservatives believe in small government and limited regulation Liberals believe in larger government and substantial regulation or at least they used to: Alberta: United Conservative Party (UCP) Leader Jason Kenny is calling for the Provincial Government to actually step into the private sector and demand oil production cuts. The “right” would say the solution is to increase the royalty rates temporarily…
Below is a list of the of the six cars GM is dropping from production in 2019. All of these products make up just 8% of General Motors’ US sales and if you exclude the Cruze, that number falls to just 3.5%. If you exclude the Cruze and the Impala, the remaining 4 cancelled cars only provide GM with 1.7% of sales. There is a reason the stock market bounced GM up on this news. Do the math, GM is…
UPDATED: Jan 20 2019 – At first emotional pass it appears that there is little to be done about GM’s announcement they are closing the Oshawa Ontario factory, but there are options and there is work to yet to be done. Here is the list of thing that should be considered and quickly: 1 – Hope a Different Company Buys the GM Factory To Make Cars on Contract… Maybe Even GM’s In mid-January 2019 it became apparent that there are…
Nearly two years ago we wrote an article in our sister site URTech.ca explaining that Machine Learning and AI companies are increasingly putting their resources in the area along Canada’s 401 highway through heavily populated area’s of Quebec and Ontario. The so called Toronto – Montreal Corridor actually extends from Waterloo Ontario to Montreal, but no-one outside of the region knows where Waterloo is so we just say Toronto, Montreal. Today we are astounded by the variety and quality of education,…
Without any question Quebec generates the most electricity from renewables because of their massive and expanding hydro infrastructure. You might also be surprised to find some cities have completely given up coal. Calgary which gets 84% of its electricity from Natural Gas and 16% from Wind power. Below are the sources of electricity for each Canadian Province.
There has been much debate in recent weeks about the size of Toronto City Council. Currently there are 47 elected councilors in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and newly elected Ontario Premier (and former Toronto City Councillor) Doug Ford announced he is reducing that number to 25. You can make solid arguments on both sides of this issue: Reasons To Keep Toronto City Council at 47 Better representation The cost of each councilor only about 0.00008% of Toronto’s $14.2B annual budget…
Ontario Premier Doug Ford recently opposed additional hand gun controls by the City of Toronto. Patchwork legislation on hand gun control would be very difficult to enforce and would likely have very little positive effect. Handgun control needs to handled at a much larger level. Canadian Provinces are very large compared to US States (as large as Texas + ALL of the New England States combined) and only well connected to any other Province on its eastern side to Quebec. …
Over the years many knowledgeable people have downplayed the contributions that Solar and Wind can play in the future. On the other side we keep hearing about massive increases in Solar and Wind electricity production due to costs dropping precipitously. So we wanted to know how often the so called experts are correct and how often their predictions are wrong. For the purposes of this article we will focus on predictions from the IEA (International Energy Association) because it is…