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…
If a company has a data breach involving personal data (i.e. staff names, addresses, Social Insurance numbers), there are three laws that may apply in Canada: 1 – PIPEDA – Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act – Canada PIPEDA is Canada’s federal law covering cyber privacy and mandates that “… notification shall be given as soon as feasible…”. We have called the Office of the Privacy Commissioner who is the regulator and asked for clarification on what “…as soon…
The first time you heard of antitrust laws being used to break up large companies you likely thought that that it would result in a destruction wealth. Depending upon your political persuasion or past experience with the company, that may or may not have bothered you. However, it is important to remember that the driver behind antitrust law is to increase competition and innovation, there by creating more wealth. In fact, breaking up large companies is usually advantageous to the…
In the video below Canada’s top civil Servant Michael Wernick explains what is wrong with the media coverage of the SNC-Lavalin Case. He starts by explaining that there are many things in Canadian Politics that worry him: Inflammatory language “like treason and traitor” from social media and supposedly responsible politicians alike Physical violence against politicians “I am afraid someone is going to get shot this year during the political campaign” Foreign interference Reputation of people trying to help their country being…
There is much talk about “Deferred Prosecution Agreements” because of the SNC Lavalin bribery scandals. The insinuation from many media outlets is that a Deferred Prosecution Agreement lets companies go without punishment. This is far from how DPA’s actually work. Here are the top five things everyone should know about Deferred Prosecution Agreements: 1 – What a Deferred Prosecution Agreement Is: A Deferred Prosecution Agreement effectively has the company plead guilty and do whatever the Government prosecutor wants them to…
We wanted to know more about Canada’s oil refineries so we spent a few hours collecting information and mapping it. We show where the refineries are, the year they were constructed and how much they produce. The bubbles are scaled correctly to give you a sense of proportion at a glance. Click to Expand Map Location Year Constructed Operator Details Type Capacity (in 1000s) Lat Long Burnaby, BC 1936 Parkland Fuel (formerly Chevron) Refinery 55 49.1 123 Prince George,…
Below are the biggest conventional oil discoveries of 2018 grouped by the country they were found in. As you can see, these top 10 countries alone found more than 6 Billion of Barrels of Oil Equivalent. Those that want to “keep it in the ground” are just not realizing that oil is a global commodity. As large as Canada and the US are at producing it, if we don’t others will. That means blocking pipeline like the Northern Gateway, Energy…
We spent many hours pouring over old records, press releases and news articles to generate this complete time line of all things Trans Mountain. Many of the entries are linked to specific websites as references. Entries without link were mostly taken from THIS file sourced from the now defunct BCWaters.org site. We also have picture gallery of both old and new Trans Mountain images HERE. 1947 Feb Oil discovered near Leduc (near Edmonton) Alberta 1951 Mar Trans Mountain Pipeline Company Company…
At first glance, the November 30th 2018 announcement that Marriott Hotels / Starwood had their reservation database hacked and 500 million client records stolen seems like just another data breach that we have all become accustomed to. However the Marriott breach is no run of the mill event, here’s why: 1 – The Marriott breach is the third largest breach in history: Marriott is the owner of some major brands that you likely have had dealing with and those were…
At URTech.ca we are pretty serious about tech and tech these days includes “the cloud”. The problem is that most people really don’t understand what “the cloud” is and so this video will quickly clear up any questions you have: Ok… that was pretty damn funny and is most places “safe for the office” but the question remains of what is the cloud… seriously. The simplest and very correct way to explain “the cloud” is that it is just someone…
Today the former leader of the Alberta Wild Rose party Brian Jean published an op-ed in the Edmonton Journal explaining his view that Canadian courts have now seized too much power: Something is fundamentally wrong. Our courts, motivated by virtue-signalling and triggered by legal actions funded by foreign interests, routinely override the explicit wishes of our legislatures and have now claimed the powers to overrule the executive decision-making powers of cabinet. Mr. Jean does not point out that the courts are one…
There is much hype on the so-called “non-market” clause in the USMCA (aka. NAFTA 2.0): ‘Astonishing’ clause in new deal suggests Trump wants leverage over Canada-China trade talks: experts SOURCE Chinese embassy in Canada condemns ‘US veto’ clause in North America trade deal SOURCE Beijing attacks USMCA clause seen as blocking efforts to expand trade with Canada, Mexico SOURCE Alarm bells ring over non-market economy clause SOURCE and it many political opponents wrote things like: Conservative MP Michael Chong accused…
In an era of apparently undeniable Russian state sponsored interference in American and UK Elections social media companies like Facebook, Twitter & Google have been called to account for their part in the ‘attacks’. This begs the question, how much responsibility do internet and social media companies really have for blocking misinformation by primarily foreign entities? In this video Bloomberg explores Keith Rabois’, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and PayPal Vice President, opinion that social media is just another form…
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…
The Canadian Federal Government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has legalized recreational cannabis (pot) as of October 17th, 2018. As a result of this legalization, cannabis companies have been massively expanding their traditional indoor facilities to meet the expected new demand. Indoor hydroponic facilities offer very good security protections but are vastly more expensive than outdoor facilities. How Much Does It Cost To Grow Marajuana? The cost to grow cannabis below is in 2018 Canadian Dollars and represents the average reported…
Let’s be clear that General Motors and all automobile manufactures do NOT want government regulation to mandate a Zero Emissions, Zero Crashes and Zero Congestion world, but they do want laws that: approach those achievable goals are shared in many jurisdictions apply to everyone In the video below GM President Dan Amonn explains GM’s GOALS of Zero Emissions, Zero Crashes and Zero Congestion and that their investments are very long cycle that need to be based on consistent regulations to avoid…