Should the Province of Alberta buy the Trans Mountain Pipeline from Kinder-Morgan if they want to walk away from the project? That question was posed to Alberta Premier Rachel Notley today and she responded with an emphatic ‘Yes!’. It has become abundantly clear, whether you are for or opposed to this particular pipeline or not, that having the relatively simple twinning of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline fail to be built would signify the end of even medium scale infrastructure…
In the last decade the Dutch have reduced prison inmate populations by 50% and those sentences average to about 90 days in jail. Many people expected this drastic reduction of inmates to lead to a notable increase in crime because: Dangerous, proven criminals are being quickly released back onto the street There is virtually no deterrent effect to being jailed in the Netherlands Contrary to this expectation the fact is that Dutch system has also reduced crime by nearly 40%.…
In the aftermath of the Facebook / Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook has upped the reported number of user profiles included from the original number 50 million to 86 million. Most of those users profiles were from Americans but 660,000 of them were Canadian. Those are some big numbers. To give credit where credit is due, CEO Mark Zuckerberg just announced that Facebook will be providing security consistent with the new European based “General Data Protection Regulation” (GDPR), to ALL Facebook…
GDPR is the acronym for Europe’s “General Data Protection Regulation” which is the toughest set of personal privacy regulations in the world. You can see from the GDPR Timeline on the right that companies have had about 3 years to get their systems into compliance, and it comes into full force in May 2018. Below are the top ten things all companies and people need know about GDPR: 1: Does GDPR Apply To Me? GDPR applies only to: CITIZENS of…
There is a crisis at Facebook because of the constant negative media coverage of the Cambridge Analytica scandal causing users to question staying on the product and that has caused Facebook stock drop a truly staggering $70B in value in 11 days. It’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, owns 28.2% of the company so he has lost $20B personally. There is a also crisis being experienced by some Facebook users that have finally realized Facebook and nearly all other ‘free’ online services…
The US congress now has an Artificial Intelligence “Caucus” considering regulating how Artificial Intelligence (AI). One the items they are looking into is figuring out if citizens should have a right to know that they are talking / chatting with an Artificially Intelligent piece of software or a human. Many people feel tricked when they find out that they have been talking or chatting with an AI when the default assumption has been that people are talking or chatting with…
After limited debate the US Senate overwhelmingly approved a further reduction in “Dodd-Frank” banking regulations introduced in 2010 to avoid another 2008 style bank generated economic collapse. Dodd-Frank‘s primary mechanism for doing this was to require financial institutions that were “too big to fail” to withstand stress tests. The idea being that if your bank was going to need a government bail out in the event of failure, effectively making you and me the banks insurance company, that such banks…
There has been much talk in the recent decade about banning disposable plastic bags. The basic argument is that consumer grade disposable single use plastic bags are the root cause widespread environmental damage but have ready alternatives, so why are will still using them? As is often the case with political issues, there is no simple answer to the question “Should single use plastic bags be banned?”. Below are some of the facts and you can decide for yourself if…
At the heart of the Canadian Federal Governments announcement today about fixing the process that determines if a large scale project is in the best interest of Canada or not, is a desire to limit ability Provincial, Municipal and interest groups (like ‘First Nations’) to stall approved projects. The idea is to: increase consultation so everyone’s voice is heard set firm and visible rules for industry so that “goal posts” are not being moved after the fact determine what is…
One of the most contentious issues between Canada and the United States on North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is chapters 11, 19 and 20 the dispute mechanisms. Chapter 19 is the one most are fired up about: …binational panel of five arbiters, agreed upon by both parties, who will determine whether or not the duties have merit based on U.S. domestic laws. Source: macleans.ca/opinion/why-naftas-chapter-19-is-worth-fighting-for/ CANADIAN ARGUMENT FOR THE NAFTA DISPUTE MECHANISM: Canada has politely stated that the United States is…
On January 15 2018, the Canadian Federal Government laid out the details of it plan to implement a $50/tonne carbon tax in proposed legislation named the “Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act”. The highlights are: The Federal Tax will only apply in Provinces and Territories that do not have a comparable carbon tax already in place That means, as of today, it will apply only to 20% of the Canadian population Specifically those in Saskatchewan, most Atlantic provinces, NWT, Nunavut, Yukon will…
Do you want to understand Global Warming without the political hype? Dr. David Maenz has written and important book for 2018 explaining the science of global warming, it’s impacts and viable solutions. The Price of Carbon is an easy read. You don’t have to be a climate scientist to understand his clear explanations and simple charts. The book includes a brief history of the earth, where we are today, future climate scenarios and how to fix the problems. It also…
There is a global crisis with municipal recycling programs that is affecting YOUR community as of January 1st 2018. China is now rejecting all used plastic, except “high grades”. High Grades are used materials that are fully sorted. This means mixed plastics, aka Low Grade, will no longer be taken. The problem for us is that we rely on China’s cheap and efficient labour force to sort low grade plastics for us. This video explains the Chinese “National Sword” policies…
It used to be very clear that Alberta had a spending problem and not a revenue problem. However, since the 2014 oil crash, the world and Alberta have forever changed. Historically, oil ‘busts’ were the result of a downturn in some key economy that reduced the demand for oil & gas products. Today we have the worlds first notable price downturn caused by over production of oil, with no end in site. This over production was started intentionally by Saudi…
The Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from Alberta to the BC coast has been stalled for the last 6 months. Today Rachel Notley received a standing ovation at a talk in BC in which she explained the economic and environmental argument for the pipeline.
A brief panel discussion about the legal (and therefore political) implications of data collection in cars.