Many people are deeply worried about Canada’s weak economic performance. But in Davos for the World Economic Forum our Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said don’t worry, be happy, we’re an investment magnet because: “Canada is absolutely determined that decarbonization for us, will mean more jobs, more growth, more manufacturing and we recognize, government needs to play a role to make that happen.”
Green dreams are made of these. But what actual evidence exists for this rosy view?
Why big fleet buyers are going into reverse on electric cars
Three years ago, London’s biggest taxi company reached a fork in the road.
Regulations announced by Transport for London meant all private hire vehicles registered in the capital would have to meet tougher green emission standards by 2023.
For Addison Lee chief executive Liam Griffin, it meant a choice: invest in plug-in hybrid cars, or “go full electric” and stump up millions for a new fleet of electric cars.
5 Year plans didn’t work well in the Soviet Union either.
Ever since the federal government signalled an open bar for subsidies for the electric vehicle industry, the list of companies wanting to set up shop in this country in exchange for taxpayer cash just keeps growing. We learned recently that both Honda and Toyota have added their names to it. If the past is any guide, there’s a good chance Ottawa will give each of them a wad of Canadian taxpayers’ money.
During the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual summit in Switzerland, one of the unelected organization’s most powerful members called for nations to enforce “carbon taxes” on a global level to force the public to “transition” into the globalist climate agenda.
During a panel discussion at the Davos event, Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan laid out plans for introducing a ” globally coordinated system of carbon taxes.”
Right-wing parties have cottoned on to voter rejection of green policies
In hindsight, 2024 may well be remembered as the year of the Great Reversal on EU climate policy. That many of the most ambitious emissions goals will not be achievable has been common knowledge for a while now, but until recently the policies themselves had not been questioned. There was a widespread consensus that the European Union was in position to be a global leader for emissions reductions and the green transition away from fossil fuels.
Does Joe Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry, ever listen to himself?
He made this dunderheaded speech at the World Economic Forum, unwittingly contradicting himself as he sought applause from the elites.
When it comes to electric vehicles (EVs), the Trudeau government and Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault are putting the policy cart before the technology horse.
If last week’s extreme cold temperatures over most of the country taught us anything, it’s that EVs just aren’t practical (yet) for a country this big and this cold.
OTTAWA — One of Canada’s leading business groups has accused the federal government of eroding the country’s economic standing through its failure to constrain spending and more quickly adopt policies to cash in on the global transition away from fossil fuels.
The Business Council of Canada, a lobby group based in Ottawa, sent that message in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday.
In the letter, which the group provided to the Star, council president and chief executive Goldy Hyder warned that government inaction in areas like spending restraint and reforms to the process to approve major projects is undercutting the Canadian economy.
Recognize this: This article is written to suggest the “Business Council of Canada” representing Canada’s corporate welfare class gives a damn about the so called transition away from fossil fuels and supports Trudeau’s lunatic climate policies.
In fact the BCC only want Trudeau to make it easier for them to cash in on his Net Zero fraud before the public kicks that nonsense to curb.
The BCC in their insatiable greed heartily supports Trudeau’s destructive mass immigration scam. They do not hold your best interests at heart.
Key committee only looked at ‘a single year of data’ when making controversial green energy claims
Britain’s climate watchdog has privately admitted that a number of its key net zero recommendations may have relied on insufficient data, it has been claimed.
Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith, who led a recent Royal Society study on future energy supply, said that the Climate Change Committee only “looked at a single year” of data showing the number of windy days in a year when it made pronouncements on the extent to which the UK could rely on wind and solar farms to meet net zero.
“They have conceded privately that that was a mistake,” Sir Chris said in a presentation seen by this newspaper. In contrast, the Royal Society review examined 37 years worth of weather data.
Is it time to start asking whether electric vehicles have any redeeming value in 2024? Given the recent spate of bad news surrounding them, the answer to that question is becoming clearer.
As RedState reported, Ford has cut the production of its “Lightning” electric pickup truck in half. Why? Mainly because no one wants to buy them. Why do they not want to buy them? Because they are overpriced, unreliable, and impractical.
Jonathan Wilkinson, the federal minister of natural resources and energy, has said that developing the clean electricity grid of the future — the cleaner and bigger grid we need to support a a net-zero economy — is a “nation-building project akin to the building of the railway.”
Comparisons to Canada’s great accomplishment of the 19th century require some caveats now. But setting aside the worst elements of the railway’s construction, the comparison suggests both the importance of the work and the effort that will be required to finish it. From conception to the last spike, the national railway project took 14 years to complete.
So how’s it going so far?
Rocked by two weeks of farmers’ demonstrations against cuts in diesel subsidies, Germany now faces hundreds of disaffected hauliers protesting, as they assembled in Berlin Friday morning to oppose plans for raising road tolls and carbon taxes on their industry.
Approximately 1,500 trucks paraded along the A13 road towards Berlin in a two-kilometre long convoy before paralysing the city centre on Friday afternoon. Truckers are getting organised against recent government tax hikes and foreign, predominantly Eastern European, drivers undermining wage rates.
The German farmers and truckers are still protesting against planned tax increases.
Do you support the farmers?
— PeterSweden (@PeterSweden7) January 19, 2024
Speaking to a panel at the World Economic Forum, finance minister Chrystia Freeland characterized “decarbonization” as the singular issue defining the world economy.
“I think we are living in a moment that is comparable only to the industrial revolution itself in terms of energy transition and the way we need to retool all of our manufacturing,” she said.
“We have to hustle; we think this is the moment that cement is being poured for the new economy.”
Key member of the WEF's 'Board of Trustees' and deputy PM of Canada, Chrystia Freeland, asserts that the Net Zero "energy transition" is a "hugely transformative moment in the whole global economy", which will require us to "retool all of our manufacturing".
She goes on to… pic.twitter.com/c4hyjhtXKJ
— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) January 19, 2024
An extreme cold snap which led to near minus 50 degrees Celsius (58 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures in much of Western Canada over the weekend, and nearly caused one province’s power grid to collapse due to a failure of wind and solar power, saw many call out Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government’s green energy agenda which is looking to phase out carbon-based power in favor of “renewables.”
Frigid cold of historic proportions in western Canada has amplified the limitations of renewable energy in Alberta’s power grid and the potential for federal environmental policies to make matters much worse and possibly life-threatening.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith had on Jan. 10 described the challenges her province faces stemming from Ottawa’s “dangerous ideological policies.” Her words proved to be prescient, as just three days later, the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) told Albertans “to immediately reduce their electricity use to minimize the potential for rotating outages across the province.”
