‘Different factors’ fuel housing crisis, not international students: Trudeau

Speaking to reporters after this year’s cabinet retreat in Charlottetown, Trudeau said international students were just the latest group being blamed for the housing shortage.

“We have to be very careful. Over the past years, we’ve seen a lot of different people and a lot of different groups blamed for the housing crisis. At one point it was foreign homebuyers. At another point it was developers being super aggressive. Another point, it was under-investments by various orders of government. Now it’s people saying, ‘Oh, it’s international students,’” Trudeau said.

“Yes, there’s a lot of different factors that go into this housing crisis. But it’s something that has been brewing and developing over the past number of decades.”

A number of Trudeau’s cabinet colleagues have echoed this sentiment recently, but have also spurred questions about whether the government’s immigration targets need to be reviewed as the country struggles to cope with a housing crisis.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Tuesday that changing the new immigration target isn’t a conversation he’s had with any fellow ministers, but he said the government must tailor its policies on immigration and housing to acknowledge the link between the two. |Read more https://globalnews.ca/news/9914141/justin-trudeau-housing-crisis-canada/|

#politics #cdnpoli #housing #crisis #immigration

Safety inspections are required on inactive Alberta oil and gas wells. Thousands are overdue

More than 10 per cent of the approximately 75,000 inactive oil and gas wells in Alberta are overdue for inspection, according to data from the provincial energy regulator compiled by The Narwhal.

The number of wells overdue for inspection has more than doubled since 2018, to more than 7,500.

Inactive wells no longer produce oil or gas but have not yet been permanently sealed, nor has the land around them been cleaned up https://thenarwhal.ca/report-buried-by-alberta-government-reveals-mounting-evidence-that-oil-and-gas-wells-arent-reclaimed-in-the-long-run/. Alberta has no timelines on how long wells can sit inactive but does require them to be monitored by the companies that own them, with results reported back to the regulator.

Inspections are supposed to be carried out to check for risks to the public and environment https://thenarwhal.ca/alberta-energy-regulator-list/, including excess pressure, leaks, wellhead failures and other problems.

As of Aug. 8, there were 7,596 wells identified on the Alberta Energy Regulator’s inactive well list https://www.aer.ca/regulating-development/rules-and-directives/directives/directive-013 that were overdue for inspections out of a total of 73,989 inactive wells covered under what’s known as Directive 013 https://static.aer.ca/prd/documents/directives/Directive013.pdf, which sets out the rules for suspending inactive wells. |Read more https://thenarwhal.ca/alberta-energy-regulator-well-inspections/|

#OilWells #Cleanup #inspection #AER #abpoli #environment

Would You Buy a Used Energy Strategy from This Guy?

Suncor CEO Rich Kruger wants to double down on oil sands production while Canada burns and the world bakes. Investors are thrilled. What planet do they think they live on?

It’s 2023. Huge swaths of Canada are on fire. Much of the world is baking, burning, drowning, or starving. And the new CEO of Calgary-based Suncor Energy wants his company to go all-in on its oil sands operations after it sold off all its wind and solar projects.

“We have a bit of a disproportionate emphasis on the longer-term energy transition,” Rich Kruger told analysts earlier this week. “Today, we win by creating value through our large integrated asset base underpinned by oil sands.”

If you live downstream or downwind of Suncor’s operations, or if you’re like all of us and depend on the atmospheric systems the company is doing its best to broil—what could possibly go wrong?

And if you’re an investor who expects this company to survive its own business strategy as governments tackle the climate emergency and the wider investment picture shifts—or even if you expect your other investments to deliver as advertised despite mounting climate chaos—what in the world are you thinking?

At least the new Suncor CEO is performing as expected, however unpalatable and dangerous that performance might be. |Read more https://energymixweekender.substack.com/p/would-you-buy-a-used-energy-strategy|

#suncor #doubles-down #environment #cdnpoli #pollution #FreeReign #GlobalWarming

Housing crisis to take centre stage at Liberal cabinet retreat in Charlottetown

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to deliver a new mission for his cabinet at a three-day retreat in Charlottetown this week, in a bid to restore Canadians’ sense of economic security and their confidence in his government.

It is a very different cabinet from the one that last sat in the House of Commons, following a major shuffle in July. Seven of the 38 ministers were replaced entirely and 19 were given new files.

The housing affordability crisis will take on new levels of importance for the government, with a specific focus on younger Canadians whose early adult years have been dominated by the disruptions of COVID-19 and whose dream of even being able to afford to rent their own home is marred by rising costs. |Read more https://halifax.citynews.ca/2023/08/20/housing-crisis-to-take-centre-stage-at-liberal-cabinet-retreat-in-charlottetown/|

#cdnpoli #liberals #retreat #issues #housing #Charlottetown