Ontario Government Far North Act Coloring Book

Livio Di Matteo is Professor of Economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Visit his new Economics Blog “Northern Economist” at http://ldimatte.shawwebspace.ca/

Click Here for the: Far North Act Colouring Book

The Far North of Ontario and in particular, the Far North Act, has generated a contentious set of policy issues for Ontario’s government.  For the uninformed, the Far North Act is a process for community-based land use planning and development, that is also setting aside from development an interconnected area of conservation lands of at least 225,000 square kilometres — an area that is about 20 per cent of the landmass of Ontario.

To put it into context, it is an area about twice the size of southern Ontario — which represents only about 10 per cent of Ontario’s land mass.  There is concern about its impact on the long-term development prospects of Northern Ontario and the First Nations in the Region.  A response of the provincial government is that the Act has been misunderstood and needs to be better explained.
Read the rest of this entry »

This column was published in today’s  Sudbury Star , the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. It is the start of a monthy mining column for the Sudbury Star.

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant and columnist who blogs at www.republicofmining.com ; stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

Last year the global population reached seven billion. More than half of us now live in urban centres and experts estimate that figure will climb to 70% by 2050. China is witnessing the largest rural to urban migration in the history of mankind in its stampede to industrialize and modernize. China also has become the world’s second largest economy and currently needs to build the equivalent of two cities the size of Toronto and Sydney Australia every year to accommodate this rapid growth. India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia and other developing countries are following in its footsteps but at a less frenzied pace.

According to a recent study by McKinsey & Company, “up to three billion more middle-class consumers will emerge in the next 20 years compared with 1.8 billion today, driving up demand for a range of different resources.” Notwithstanding the current depressed prices of some metals, most analysts feel that the current mining commodity super-cycle will last for decades. It is estimated that over the next 25 years, we will need to dig out of the ground as many minerals as consumed since the beginning of time. Read the rest of this entry »

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

OTTAWA— Boosting economic activity on aboriginal land will be the dominant focus of Tuesday’s gathering with native chiefs, as Stephen Harper aims to bring first nations on board with his efforts toward increased natural-resources development.

The Prime Minister’s vocal support of a pipeline from Alberta’s oil sands to the Pacific Ocean is just one high-profile example of the economic stakes riding on smooth relations with first nations.

With the government planning a budget with a focus on cuts – as well as long-term job creation and changing demographics – the Tuesday summit in Ottawa, according to government officials, will include a discussion of how aboriginal communities with high unemployment can contribute to development projects that are expected to face shortages of skilled labour.

Read the rest of this entry »

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

The heated debate over new export pipelines has morphed in recent days into a debate over foreign meddling into Canadian oil sands development.

The issue was thrust into prime time by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver when they questioned the legitimacy of foreign environmental organizations stirring the pot against the Northern Gateway pipeline, a Canadian project they have turned into an extension of their successful fight in the U.S. against Keystone XL.

Foreign groups shot back the debate over the oil sands is a global one, and that foreign oil companies are also meddling into Canadian affairs because they are driving their expansion.

Here’s the wrinkle: according to an independent poll by Toronto-based Forum Research Inc., Canadians are more worried about increasing foreign ownership in the oil and gas industry, which lately has seen a surge in Asian purchases, than about foreign environmental organizations targeting the oil sands. Read the rest of this entry »

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Don’t just follow the money — expose the hysterical misrepresentations and the tactics

Congressional Republican attempts to force U.S. President Barack Obama’s hand on the Keystone XL pipeline produced the required result on Wednesday, at least from the GOP perspective. The President gave the project the thumbs-down, and Republicans instantly castigated Mr. Obama as a job destroyer.

For his part, the President naturally made no mention of toadying to radical greens, and even claimed that he had nothing against the pipeline, which would create tens of thousands of jobs and is designed to take up to 900,000 barrels a day of diluted bitumen from the Alberta oil sands to the Gulf Coast. His rejection, rather, was due to Congress’s “rushed and arbitrary deadline,” which prevented the State Department from gathering material necessary to “protect the American people.”

Such electoral manoeuvering has hardly done Keystone sponsor TransCanada — or the oil sands more generally — any favours. Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed “profound disappointment” at Wednesday’s decision, and reportedly told Mr. Obama of Canada’s determination to diversify export markets. This will be easier said than done. Read the rest of this entry »