April 21, 2021 Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines, Strategic Network and Agency Policy Division 77 Grenville Street, 6th Floor Toronto, ON M7A 2C1 Canada RE: ERO number 019-3007 – Long Term Energy Planning Dear Ms. Thompson, I …
A life-cycle view essential on EV battery opportunities and risks
Published in The Hill Times, June 21, 2021 Mark Winfield and Sumeet Sooch Sustainable Energy Initiative, York University Over the past few months, the economic opportunities that the electrification of transportation, particularly the widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), might …
Ford government endangers gains on water quality.
June 24, 2021 Published in the Hamilton Spectator, June 28, 2021. A defining feature of Ford government has been its dismantling of the province’s frameworks for environmental protection in the name of ‘cutting red tape.’ The process began almost immediately …
Letter to the Editor re: Pandemic has proved we don’t need red tape, Toronto Star, June 19, 2021
Below is the text of my original letter to the Toronto Star in response to Jamie Watt’s June 13, 2021 column. The text was heavily edited in the version printed in the Star. June 13, 2021 The Editors The Toronto …
Has the Yonge-Eglinton Centre become a case study in how not do to urban intensification?
A version of this article was published in the Toronto Star, November 9, 2021 The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is subject to intense economic and population growth pressures. Over the past two decades, a strong consensus has emerged that it …
How Ontario can recover from Doug Ford’s COVID-19 governance disaster
Published in The Conversation, April 27, 2021, The Hamilton Spectator, May 10, 2021 The past week has been one of the bleakest in a dark year for Ontario residents. The variant-driven third, and most serious, COVID-19 wave as brought the …
Ontario’s back to the future approach to planning
February 25, 2021 Published in the Hamilton Spectator, March 9, 2021 Twenty-five years ago, Mike Harris’ ‘common sense revolution’ heralded a shredding the province’s planning rules, and proposals for a network of highway expansions in every direction outwards across the …
Cleaning up Ontario’s Hydro Mess
January 2021 One of the central promises in the 2018 platform of the Ontario Progressive Conservative party was to “clean up the hydro mess.” And a mess there certainly is with the costs of subsidies out of general provincial revenues …
Ford struggles on the environment, pandemic, reflect a failing approach to governance
December 13, 2020 Published in the Hamilton Spectator December 15, 2020. Last week’s resignation of most of the province’s Greenbelt Council has again highlighted the Ford government’s apparent disregard for environmental issues, and its willingness to acquiesce to demands presented …
Climate and shifting markets define energy challenges for Canada
Published in The Hill Times, December 7, 2020 The state of energy policy in Canada, as it relates to fossil fuels, is defined by two major issues: the stalling out, with the possible exception of Quebec, of meaningful progress on …