Cent In Canada Research Articles

Why the Construction Trades Have a Valuable Role in Meeting the Climate Challenge

The construction industry accounts for 18 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. There is extensive evidence that this can be reduced significantly by implementing aggressive net zero building practices. However, the way the industry is organized impedes this achievement because it fails to promote the development of a broadly based, highly qualified, climate-literate workforce. Successful low carbon construction requires enhancement of workers’ knowledge, skills, and competencies because it requires much higher energy performance standards than traditional construction practice. Yet the industry remains wedded to the current system of low-bid, low-quality construction to cut costs. The organization of much construction work reflects a Taylorist approach, with extensive piecework and subcontracting that relies heavily on precarious, unskilled, and semi-skilled workers. Most employers avoid investing in trades training, leaving it to governments, unions, and individual workers to fund workforce development. Committed to a deregulated market with minimal government interference in their profit-making activities, many contractors oppose tougher building and energy regulations while lobbying against higher labour standards, occupational certification requirements, and union organizing. To meet their net zero targets, governments must recognize that market forces are inadequate to create the well-trained, highly skilled workforce needed. Major policy interventions are required to force industry to make the necessary changes in vocational education and training (vet) and employment practices – changes designed to upskill the construction workforce and give workers and unions a greater voice in shaping climate-informed building practice.

Protected and conserved coastal areas in Canada: insights with respect to Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

Despite coastal area being recognised as an important subcomponent in protected and conserved areas targets for over a decade, it has been orphaned in both national and international reporting. In this paper, we provide the first progress report on protected and conserved coastal area in Canada. While 13.6 per cent of Canada’s coastal area is protected and conserved, there is substantial variation across Canada’s three oceans and Great Lakes, jurisdictional authorities, and marine/terrestrial ecosystems. Importantly, Manitoba (37.3 per cent) and the Yukon (45.1 per cent) have already achieved the 30 per cent coastal protection target of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF). However, Newfoundland and Labrador (7 per cent) and the Northwest Territories (8 per cent) currently fall significantly short. Very poor protection is evident in several marine bioregions and terrestrial ecozones, including across the Arctic, the Newfoundland and Labrador Shelves (0.7 per cent) and the Hudson Bay Complex (5.1 per cent). The Great Lakes require urgent and focused conservation attention, with lakes Ontario (3.6 per cent) and Erie (3.7 per cent) exhibiting a dismal amount of coastal protected and conserved area. Our results highlight the importance of explicitly reporting on the status of coastal area protection and we outline several considerations that can be used by the global conservation community to support more effective coastal protection, accounting and reporting vis-à-vis Target 3 of the KM-GBF

If It Matters, Measure It: A Review of Methane Sources and Mitigation Policy in Canada

Methane, an important greenhouse gas with high global warming potential, is critically under-regulated and overlooked by policymakers in Canada. In this paper, we seek to close the science-policy knowledge gap by reviewing the sources of methane emissions in Canada, policies in place, and mitigation options for each source. We show three primary sectors account for 94 per cent of Canada’s methane emissions: oil and gas, agriculture, and waste. The oil and gas sector is the largest contributor to national methane emissions, as well as the only sector with methane regulations and a methane reduction target. Livestock is the largest single source of methane emissions in Canada, however, and agriculture is the largest source of unregulated and unpriced methane in Canada. Our review reveals that methane emissions management for all sectors is hindered by emissions measurement challenges. Due largely to these challenges, most of Canada’s methane emissions are unregulated and policy options are limited. Broadly, options include command and control regulation or financial penalties for oil and gas methane, incentives for farm-level reductions in agricultural methane, and upstream or downstream waste recovery. Better methane management is crucial to achieving Canada’s 2030 and 2050 emissions reduction goals. Key short-term policy actions are improving and standardizing current emissions estimates and identifying unregulated sources. Longer-term actions require further study of cost-effective regulatory options across all sources, to support stricter regulations or well-defined market-based approaches with measurable outcomes.

Federal Britain: The Case for Decentralisation

The United Kingdom’s current devolution settlement leads to unrepresentative government and has an inbuilt bias towards ‘big government’. This situation is exacerbated because nations with devolved government are over-represented in the UK parliament compared with their population, when it might be expected that they would be under-represented. • The UK has the most centralised government of the G7, as measured by the proportion of revenue raised by sub-central government. In the UK, only 5 per cent of revenue is raised locally, compared with 50 per cent in Canada and 13 per cent in France, which is the next most centralised country by this measure. • Measured by the proportion of total government spending undertaken by sub-central government, the UK does not fare quite as badly. However, it is among a group of three countries in which between 20 and 30 per cent of all government spending takes place at sub-central central government levels – this is much less than the G7 average. A further indication of the degree of centralisation in the UK is the fact that, in 2011, local authorities had over 1,300 statutory duties laid down by parliament. In other words, local government has substantial spending responsibilities, Summary xv but very often these involve fulfilling statutory obligations. • There are a number of benefits from decentralising government, e.g. it promotes greater experimentation, better matching of services to local preferences and greater competition between providers of governmentfunded services. • Theory is confirmed by the evidence. Fiscal decentralisation is associated with higher national income, better school performance and higher levels of investment. In particular, the decentralisation of revenue-raising powers has a stronger effect on performance than the decentralisation of spending. The evidence suggests that increasing the local share of taxation from 5 per cent to 20 per cent (still low by G7 standards) could raise GDP per capita by 6 per cent. With especially low levels of revenue decentralisation, and as a large country, the UK is in a particularly good position to gain from transferring powers and revenue-raising responsibilities from central to local government. • The UK needs to reform in two areas. Firstly, a federal state should be created with Scotland and either the rest of the UK (RUK), or England, Wales and Northern Ireland separately, becoming nations within a federal union. The federal government should have a very limited number of powers including defence, foreign affairs and border control and a small parliament and executive. No other proposed solution to the ‘English question’ can provide the same stability or beneficial Summary xvi economic outcomes. Secondly, there should be radical decentralisation of powers within Scotland and RUK to local government. The principle that should be followed is that of ‘subsidiarity’: this does not mean central government pushing powers downwards while keeping ultimate control. Rather, control should be at the local level unless functions cannot be performed locally. Current UK government proposals to devolve powers to cities do not deal with the problems identified by this research and may well exacerbate them. • Federal states have a tendency towards centralisation, the US being an important example. Centralisation would be prevented by requiring unanimity among the parliaments of all the individual nations as well as agreement of the federal parliament before any further powers were passed to the federal (UK) level. • Within the federal nations, responsibility for the following should be transferred from national government to the local level: environmental policy; working-age welfare; education and health; granting of permissions for and regulation of natural resource exploitation; lifestyle regulation; policing; and housing and planning. Local authorities could join together to provide some functions, such as policing, where local geography or other circumstances make that desirable. In addition, there should be complementary reforms to promote autonomy for individuals, families and civil society institutions, especially in relation to health and education. Summary xvii • Except for working-age welfare, which would be largely financed by government grant but administered by local government, all local government functions would be financed entirely by local revenue streams. These would come from user charges and from some combination of the following, to be determined at local level: taxes modelled on the current council tax; land value taxes; taxes on business property; natural resource levies; consumption taxes; variation in income taxes; and tourist taxes. • Two crucial principles must be applied when implementing these proposals. Firstly, revenue must be raised by the layer of government that is undertaking spending. Secondly, one layer of government must not bail out the debts incurred by any other layer of government. To prevent the problems seen in the euro zone, the central bank would not accept Scottish or RUK (or English, Welsh and Northern Irish if appropriate) bonds as collateral in monetary policy operations.

Secret Service: Political Policing in Canada from the Fenians to Fortress America by Reg Whitaker, Gregory S. Kealey, and Andrew Parnaby (review)

Reviewed by: Secret Service: Political Policing in Canada from the Fenians to Fortress America by Reg Whitaker, Gregory S. Kealey, and Andrew Parnaby Dennis Molinaro Secret Service: Political Policing in Canada from the Fenians to Fortress America. Reg Whitaker, Gregory S. Kealey, and Andrew Parnaby. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012. Pp. 720. $90.00 (cloth), $36.95 (paper) A comprehensive history of Canada’s intelligence service is long overdue. For years scholars in this relatively new field have made do with myriad studies that focused on particular aspects of Canada’s security [End Page 161] state. While a number of studies created by scholars such as Larry Hannant, Steve Hewitt, Gary Kinsman, Mercedes Steedman, and Patricia Gentile remain informative and influential, the field has lacked one comprehensive history of Canada’s security state. With Secret Service: Political Policing in Canada from the Fenians to Fortress America, authors Reg Whitaker, Gregory Kealey, and Andrew Parnaby have come together to address this need. The study, which builds on decades of research and the scholarship of others, is a valuable one for those researching Canada’s security state and for those interested in its connection to Canadian history, broadly speaking. The span of the book is large, beginning with the early Fenian threat to British North America and ending in the contemporary post-9/11 world. The book centres on the concept of “political policing,” which the authors explain is “the notion that there are limits to ideas acceptable in the public sphere,” and that while democracies like Canada pride themselves on their openness and freedoms, political policing has nevertheless taken place and usually in order to defend the “political/economic status quo.” The book is thus an attempt to explain and shed light on how this policing was carried out within the shadows that typically surround the intelligence world. As the authors rightly point out, a study of the world of surveillance also entails discussing its targets, a veritable laundry list of Canadian radicalism and radicals throughout Canada’s history. As the authors show, Canada’s forays into state security did not begin with the formation of its security service, the rcmp. The first perceived threats came from the Fenians and from radicals from India, both considered dangers to British imperialism. The early security service, then, was very much in the service of empire. A large portion of the book deals with the seemingly constant obsession Canada had with communists, both real and suspected. Given the Cold War conflict, some of that obsession is understandable, while much of it was not. The authors use troves of primary sources to reveal in shocking detail just how invasive the security state was, with security files at one point existing for about 7 to 8 per cent of Canada’s adult population. Meticulous records were kept about largely mundane groups such as the Ladies Auxiliary of the Mine Mill Union and included such incriminating details as the number of “cookies sold” during bake sales. The authors also contribute to a revision of the rcmp’s involvement in the October Crisis of 1970, in many ways absolving the force of the charge that it failed to provide reliable intelligence on the flq to the government, which contributed to Trudeau’s invocation [End Page 162] of the War Measures Act. According to the authors, this was not the case, and thus the government’s use of the act appears to have been more politically motivated than previously believed. The remainder of the book deals with topics that have called out for more research such as the Mackenzie and Macdonald Commissions into the rcmp’s “dirty tricks” and the formation of csis, a move the authors characterize as “pouring old wine into new bottles,” at least in the early years of the new intelligence organization. Discussions of the security service’s failure on Air India and of the new “war on terror” round out this expansive and detailed book. Yet the exhaustiveness of the volume also reveals some of its drawbacks. Topics are sometimes dealt with more briefly than a reader would like – perhaps a necessary evil, given the study’s scope. The book also avoids an...

Who Can Work Where: Reducing Barriers to Labour Mobility in Canada

Barriers to labour mobility for regulated professions and skilled trades remain a problem in Canada. Canadian governments have tried to reduce them through the Labour Mobility Chapter of the Agreement on Internal Trade, which all governments signed in 1994. There are nearly two million of these workers, or about 11 per cent of Canada's workforce. Restrictions on their ability to work anywhere in the country have negative implications for the country's productivity, labour supply and future economic prospects. In 2009, Canadian governments decided to revise the Labour Mobility Chapter to eliminate remaining barriers to mobility for workers in Canada. All Provinces and territories have now agreed that a worker certified for an occupation in one province or territory would be recognized as qualified for that occupation by all other provinces and territories. This is an innovative initiative in Canadian domestic trade policy. If Canadian governments apply the revised Chapter rigorously, they should accomplish their objective. There are still problems, however, including the limited scope of the Chapter. In addition, governments can exclude some occupations from the Chapter unilaterally. There is no easy way to challenge these exclusions. There are still differences in occupational standards, as well as some professions that are recognized in some jurisdictions but not others. The Backgrounder makes several recommendations: The Chapter should apply to all government measures that restrict worker mobility; Canadian Governments should apply the advice of the Competition Bureau and take steps to ensure that the level of regulation of professions and skill trades does not hinder competition so that consumers have access to the broadest range of services at the most competitive prices; An independent adjudicator should review any proposal to exempt a measure from the coverage of the Labour Mobility Chapter, to ensure that the exemption achieves a legitimate objective; and Governments should establish a national Administrative Appeal Tribunal to resolve disputes between applicants and regulators. The Tribunal should be accessible, transparent, low cost and quick. Like the rest of the world, Canada will face a labour crunch in the next 10 years. Unless Canada ensures that its professionals and skilled workers can work anywhere in the country, it could limit our ability to attract the people our economy needs.

The Wanless report and decision-making in public health

The 2004 Wanless report expressed disappointment with the substantial gap that exists between evidence and policy in public health, emphasizing in particular the importance of evidence to make the economic argument for investing in public health. 1 The report recommended setting quantified national objectives for all important determinants of health for the medium and long term. Furthermore, it highlighted the need to develop an evidence base on the cost-effectiveness of existing interventions that could inform future developments. To inform the Wanless report, we were commissioned to review the public health decision-making processes in eight industrialized countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. 2 As expected, significant differences in the organization of public health were found among these countries. These differences can be largely attributed to: differing challenges to population health; the political and historical context of public health decision-making, for example in the relative emphasis placed on individual and collective actions; the extent of centralization or decentralization of government; the extent of pluralism in policy-making; the role of nongovernmental organizations; and the important, but less well-documented role of informal mechanisms and interest groups in the policy process. Furthermore, there were significant differences in the reported level of spending on public health as a proportion of total health expenditure across countries, as reported by the OECD, ranging from 1.4 per cent in Australia to 7.3 per cent in Canada. 3 However, these differences must be interpreted in the light of the challenges of defining the boundaries of public health with its multiplicity of funding sources. Despite these differences, some common features emerge. Goals are typically aspirational. They often include issues such as tackling inequalities in health and reducing tobacco consumption. There is, however, little evidence of the use of the quantitative targets for public health that have characterized policy in the United Kingdom. An exception is Finland, where a government resolution on health included specific, measurable targets for the period 2001–2016. 4 The Dutch strategy to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in health also included quantified targets. 5 Although there is growing awareness of the need to develop a system for evaluating public health programmes, remarkably few policies have been subject to an evaluation of effectiveness and even fewer have been examined for cost-effectiveness. For example, the Netherlands is the only country among those examined that had a systematic, research-based approach to public health policy, in this case focussed on socio-economic inequalities in health. 5 This is, however, changing as countries are formulating new national strategies and initiating new evaluations of current interventions. Among the eight countries reviewed, only in Australia has cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) been undertaken to a significant extent. The Australian Ministry of Health and Ageing assessed the economic return on investment of past public health programmes to reduce road injuries, HIV/AIDS, coronary heart disease, measles and tobacco consumption. 6 In each case, they estimated the costs and health benefits attributed to the programmes, total return to society of investment in these programmes and more narrowly, savings to government. This research found that investments in all five areas yielded a substantial net benefit from a societal perspective. However, these evaluations were ad hoc and not part of a national programme to systematically and continually evaluate programmes. Similar cost-effectiveness evaluations have been conducted in the United Kingdom, however, they remain peripheral to the policy-making process. There are many reasons why the use of economic evaluation in public health is limited. One is that the evaluation of complex interventions such as for public health issues is intrinsically difficult. 7 In clinical medicine, evaluation has largely been limited to single interventions, such as drugs or medical devices, in highly controlled circumstances that often have limited generalizability. In the field of public health, the time taken to implement a project, coupled with the frequently long lag period before an outcome might be detected, means that by the time results are available the intervention has already moved on. There is also the

The Canada-US Softwood Lumber Dispute

Gilbert Gagne is an Assistant Professor in Department of Political Studies at Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec, where he teaches international relations.THE EXCHANGE OF GOODS AND SERVICES between Canada and United States constitutes largest trading relationship between two sovereign states. Each country is other's main trading partner. In 2000, value of Canada-US trade amounted to nearly CDN$700 billion; now, over CDN$1.5 billion of merchandise crosses border daily.(1) The overwhelming proportion (95 per cent) of this bilateral trade takes place smoothly and free of tensions. When disputes have arisen, two countries have held positions of plaintiff and defendant in almost equal proportions. Tensions and conflicts have tended to involve issues of essentially circumscribed economic and political scope.Canada's exports of softwood lumber to United States represents a notable exception to this generally harmonious trading relationship. The softwood lumber dispute has proven most significant between two countries in terms of trade volume, complexity, procedures, politicization and duration. Superlatives abound in references to this conflict: the largest trading dispute in largest trading relationship in world. Canada is highly dependent on American market, which in 2001 accounted for 40 per cent of country's gross domestic product (GDP) and 87 per cent of its exports. Softwood lumber is one of Canada's main export sectors, with exports to United States accounting for 70 per cent of Canadian lumber production and amounting to nearly CDN$10 billion in 2001.Trade disputes in agricultural and commodity products, as with softwood lumber, can take on a further political dimension because they affect large numbers of citizens, often regionally concentrated--a factor that gives their votes extra weight. The softwood lumber conflict has unfolded primarily between province of British Columbia, which accounts for about 50 per cent of Canada's exports, and US region of Pacific Northwest, which encompasses states of Washington, Oregon and California. In Canada, it has been estimated that more than 300,000 workers have been directly or indirectly affected by conflict and that roughly 300 communities are dependent on forestry sector as their primary source of employment.(2)Although it has historical antecedents dating back to 1950s, and even to turn of century, softwood lumber dispute began in 1983, when US authorities first asked whether Canadian lumber exports are subsidized. The main issue at stake is whether fees charged by provincial authorities to private firms--to harvest trees on public lands (stumpage rights)--are artificially low and constitute unfair subsidies. Canada has insisted that this is a matter of public policy that is in no way related to trade and subsidization. In contrast to United States, Canada and some other countries apply a more tempered model of economic liberalism, which allows for a greater role for State in certain key sectors such as ownership and management of natural resources. Debates over issues of this kind are likely to increase in a context of economic globalization.The softwood lumber conflict really began when US authorities concluded in 1986 that stumpage rights were specific and insufficient, and, as a result, could be subject to countervailing duties (CVDs). For Americans, position is that it is essential to protect a major industry that is under direct competitive threat from unfairly subsidized imports. For Canadians, argument is that United States is unilaterally and arbitrarily deciding how provincial governments should tax and manage their resource industries. The softwood lumber dispute has gone through different stages, some highly conflictual; there have been peaks followed by periods of relative calm when ad hoc, temporary arrangements have been implemented to prevent US retaliation. …

Trends of Poverty and Income Inequality in Cross-National Comparison

Comparative research on poverty, income inequality and the effectiveness of income transfer systems has flourished during the last two decades, largely owing to the contribution of the Luxembourg Income Study. So far, however, the majority of comparative analyses have been based on a single year. In this paper, we have analysed cross-national patterns of poverty and income inequality with special emphasis on their stability. We examine trends in poverty and income inequality between 1980 and 1995 in nine countries representing three different ideal types of social policy. The differences in poverty among the countries studied correspond with the respective models of social policy more clearly in the mid-1990s than they did 15 years earlier. Generally speaking, the poverty rate is slightly under 5 per cent in the Nordic countries, around 7.5 per cent in Central Europe, 10 per cent in Canada, 12.5 per cent in the UK, and as high as 17.5 per cent in the USA. In all countries included in the analysis, the primary distribution – based on market income – has become less equal than before. In each country, the proportion of the population able to achieve subsistence from the market alone has decreased continuously. This trend is more significant than the change in actual poverty, which means that the absolute poverty-alleviating impact of income redistribution systems became stronger in these countries during the period 1980–1995. The analysis of income inequality produced a similar picture. In comparison to poverty, however, the change is rather less extensive. The Nordic countries, in particular, have been able to respond to the rise in market income differences so that the income inequality for disposable incomes has hardly increased at all. Canada shows a parallel trend. The USA and, in particular, the UK reflect a movement in the opposite direction. Trends in poverty in various population groups are analysed. By 1995 poverty had turned into a risk for young adults in all the countries studied. The poverty rate increased for the 18–30 age-group in all countries, while an opposite trend was observed among the elderly, in particular those aged over 65. The poverty rate among the elderly is now below the average population rate in all the countries studied.

Fiscal Redistribution in a Fragile Federation: Moscow and the Regions in 1994

Despite mass privatization and market reforms in Russia, the central state continues to redistribute considerable amounts of money between the country's eighty-nine regions. About 4.3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) – or 31 per cent of federal tax revenues – was transferred back to the budgets of the regions in 1994. The average region recovered about 45 per cent of the taxes it remitted to the centre in different kinds of budget transfers, up from 37 per cent in 1993. But this understates the true scale of redistribution. In addition, many federal spending programmes, while not explicitly targeted at particular regions, had a geographically concentrated impact. This includes ‘indirect’ transfers due to revisions of the proportion of tax the regions were permitted to keep from those proportions voted in the federal budget. Russia's 4.3 per cent compares to grants to state governments of 0.7 per cent of GDP in Austria (1992), 2.5 per cent in the United States (1992), 3.6 per cent in Germany (1992), and 3.9 per cent in Canada (1991) (calculated from OECD, Revenue Statistics of OECD Member Countries: 1965–1994 (Paris: OECD, 1995)).Aleksei Lavrov, ‘Rossiiskiy Byudzhetny Federalizm: Pervie Shagi, Pervie Itogi’, Segodnya, 104 (7 June 1995), p. 5.

Climate change: Facts, strategies, choices and innovations

Canada's Action Plan is the federal response to its international obligation under the UN Framework Convention of 1992 whereby Canada must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to the 1990 level by the year 2000. The Plan is failing completely, because of its essentially voluntary nature. Overall, greenhouse gas emissions will have increased 13 per cent in Canada between 1990 and 2000, four per cent more than the population increase for that period. Five other plans studied by government agencies are projected to fail to achieve the called-for reductions in emission. An analogous plan, the Rational Energy Plan, developed by a network of nongovernment organizations, is projected to enable the federal government to achieve its obligations under the Framework Convention and also its further obligations under the 1995 Berlin Mandate. This Plan has been analyzed using the government's own analytical tools which project that it will offer Canada substantial annual increases in employment for at least ten years, more prosperous households for more than ten years, and a smaller federal deficit for at least eight years. The federal government has no viable alternative to adopting this plan as soon as practicable. This paper explains some of the needed preliminaries to introducing the Plan, together with examples of tax-shifting and of easily implemented stick-and-carrot inducements to making the Plan work in a sea of partly hostile provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Newfoundland). The Plan will not be easy to implement because of necessary changes in human habits of thinking and attitudes. A new and simple strategy for reducing fuel wastage on highways is introduced in this paper; and also the concept of extended cogeneration, the Rational Energy Plan itself being a particularly fine example.

Modelling Trade Adjustment to Reform in Chinese Agriculture

Grain, especially wheat and barley, make up more than half of Canadian export sales to China, and that country is the largest single off-shore market (outside North America) for Canadian potash (potassium chloride, an essential ingredient for crop production in several countries). Grain and potash together have accounted for virtually all of Canadian-Chinese trade, while almost all of the grain and all of the potash is produced in the Western Canadian province of Saskatchewan where the foreign merchandise trade surplus has been equivalent to over 20 per cent of Canada's merchandise trade surplus every year except one since 1988 and more than 17 per cent every year since 1965. Little is known about the adjustments that can be expected in Canada with economic reform in China. Clearly they come by way not just of CanadianChinese bilateral trade, but also the trade of Canada and of China with third countries. China is but one of several markets in the world for Canadian grain and potash, and Canada is but one of several suppliers of these products to world markets. This paper develops a measure of the changing structure of a country's export earnings and of the effects of economic reform in a trading partner. The effect on changes in total export earnings of changes in the magnitude of individual commodity and country export earnings is separated from the effect of changes in the commodity and country mixes of the earnings. Assuming for simplicity that the adjustment to a new equilibrium is a continuous process, the relation describing the multi-commodity, multicountry equilibrium flow of export earnings can be transformed into a logarithmic relation, and, thus, into a relation expressed in terms of the natural rates of growth of export earnings. These reflect the magnitudes of the earnings. A displacement from equilibrium is the time derivative of the equilibrium relation and is expressed in terms of the natural rates of growth of individual commodity and individual country export earnings and the proportion of individual commodity and country export earnings in the total.

Enhanced Oil Recovery: Retrospect And Prospect

Introduction Outside of the ‘oil patch’, few people are aware that an oil reservoir normally will yield only a fraction of the oil held underground. However, much time and effort has been devoted to projects designed to recover a higher proportion of oil-in-place, to what in industry jargon is called enhanced recovery techniques. At present, enhanced recovery schemes1 account for about one-third of Alberta's conventional recoverable crude oil reserves. And as in the fullness of timeexploration prospects suffer from depletion, the ability to obtain more from what has already been found becomes of progressively greater importance as a source of additional oil supply. This paper looks at various aspects of enhanced recovery over the last decade or so, focussing on experience in Alberta where some 85 per cent of Canada's current conventional oil reserves is located. Trends in the nature and volume of reserves, costs, pricing provisions and economic incentives are examined. Finally, comments are made on the future outlook. Enhanced Recovery Reserve Trends Table 1 shows data for selected years on key features of Alberta oil reserves over the past decade. Over the 1973 to 1983 period, the TABLE 1. Recent trends in Alberta oil reserves. Available in Full Paper. average recovery factor for Alberta crude oil reserves fell by four percentage points [Column (2), Table 1], a reflection of a shift in the mix of reserves toward those with lower primary recovery factors especially heavy oil deposits such as Suffield and Provost. The relatively static volume of enhanced recovery reserves [Column (3) has somewhat reduced the share of such reserves in the over-all total [Column (4)] 2. The decline of late in the enhanced reserves recovery factor [Column (5) J is caused by the downward revision of many light and medium oil waterflood schemes. Examples here include Judy Creek BHL and Pembina Belly River. In short, the story of the last decade is that enhanced recovery reserves have shown no distinctive trends: they account ow for much the same proportion of provincial reserves as they did in 1973;similarly, the average recovery factor for enhanced recovery schemes has remained virtually constant. These trends seem disappointing in that although oil prices have been subjected to government controls nevertheless average wellhead prices rose over the decade by some $164/m3 ($26/bbl), an increase very considerably in excess of the rate of inflation. In other words, prices rose markedly in real terms. Ostensibly, suchan environment should and/or would ake the inception of new enhanced recovery schemes-especially those economically dubious at lower price levels more attractive and lead one to expect a strong growth in enhanced recovery reserves3. What, then, has happened to thwart the inception of more enhanced recovery schemes? The answer must lie in the interaction of the key elements of costs, ‘net back’ prices and technological scope. We look at each of these in turn.

Canada''s Solar Demonstration Programs: Results And Implications For the Future

Introduction While many may think that Canada is too far north, and too cold a country to hope to have any realistic solar energy potential, it has in fact been in the solar business for many years. In spite of the fact that Canada is rich in many natural resources, there is a clear commitment to develop its renewable energy resources, including solar energy. Renewable energy, excluding hydro-electricity, contributes currently about four per cent of Canada's energy supply. This amounts to about 400 PJ of energy and comes from previously photo synthetically captured solar energy: bio-energy. The combustion of wood residues by the Canadian forest industry and the use of firewood for residential space heating have increased dramatically during the last few years. The direct solar potential in Canada is quite large. Solar radiation levels in several areas of the country match those in the southern U.S.A. The potential for solar energy was recognized over a decade ago when an R&D effort was initiated by the National Research Council. The primary emphasis was directed in solar thermal through the development of solar collectors. Other areas such as passive solar and photovoltaics have also been pursued. This paper concentrates on Canada's past developments and its future programs in active solar energy. Previous Programs Major efforts in active solar thermal energy really picked up in 1978 when, largely in response to rapidly-increasing world oil prices, programs were instituted tQ increase solar R&D funding, develop a solar manufacturing industry, provide a market for this industry's products, and demonstrate solar applications to the public. Nearly half of Canada's (with government and industry) expenditures on solar energy development over the past five years has been on research and development. Approximately 80 to 90% of the government's outlay for this work is contracted out to private industry. Only a small in-house staff is used to manage these contracts and do some limited laboratory work. This is consistent with over-all Canadian federal policy of contracting Out scientific research and development needs:product and industrial development andsystem trials with monitoring and analysis. Among the many accomplishments in this area is the creation of one of the most advanced solar certification centres in the world-the National Solar Test Facility, operated under the auspices of the NRC near Toronto, Ontario. In 1978 a program known as PASEM (Program of Assistance to Solar Energy Manufacturers) gave grants totalling Over $4 million to a selected group of ten companies to basically set up a manufacturing capability for solar energy products. A follow-on program to that one was then introduced: PUSH (Purchase and Use of Solar Heating), where the federal government procured and installed active solar heating systems on federally-owned buildings across Canada. This provided a ready market for the fledgling solar industry and accepted the high, initial risk associated with the as yet, untried products. Other programs also were set up to subsidize the initial cost of active solar systems used by the private and commercial/ industrial sectors.

Coal Conversion Research Program At the Alberta Research Council

Abstract This paper discusses the Alberta Research Council's long-term research program in coal conversion, formulated in consultation with government and industry and implemented in collaboration with other R & D centers. Programs are presented under the following headings: Coal Liquefaction, Coal Pyrolysis, Fluidized-Bed Technology, Underground Coal Gasification and Coal Technology Information Center. Coals and process types being investigated in the liquefaction and pyrolysis programs are described and examples are presented of preliminary results from in-house tests and from tests at other centers. Introduction The Alberta Research Council (Council), a Crown corporation founded in 1921 to promote responsible economic development in Alberta through science and technology, has a staff of 500 working at laboratories and offices in Edmonton. Nisku, Devon, Red Deer, Calgary and Lethbridge. Operating under the authority of the Alberta Research Council Act, it has a mandate to conduct research: related to the utilization and upgrading of the natural resources of Alberta; on new and improved technical processes and methods that are, or might be, used in Alberta industries; on behalf of, or in conjunction with, persons, firms or organizations that wish to avail themselves of the expertise and facilities of the Council; in the natural sciences with the objective of improving the welfare and progress of urban and rural life in Alberta. The Research Council's 15-member board of directors includes representatives from government, industry and universities. In 1979, the board of directors and the Alberta Government approved a long-range plan which was developed in consultation with representatives of the private sector, government and universities(1). The plan identified the following four main thrusts:expansion of research on oil sands and heavy oils;major expansion of research on coal;further development of services to industry and pursuit of new ways to work with industry;a substantial effort focused on those frontiers of science likely to be of long-term economic benefit. The Research Council also conducts an ongoing natural resources research program(2). Alberta's oil sands deposits are among the world's largest known reserves of oil. Alberta also has over 70 per cent of Canada's known coal reserves, with an energy content at least equivalent to all the known reserves of oil sands and heavy oil in the province(3). As sources of conventional oil dwindle and exploration and development costs for new resources increase, both coal and oil sands will become increasingly important in the quest for energy self sufficiency and possible export of synthetic liquids. Coal as a Source of Liquid Fuels The extent of Alberta's Plains Coal, together with its quality and availability at relatively low cost, makes it an attractive source of liquid fuels to meet the energy demands of future years. Although coal can be converted to many end products such as fuel gas and synthesis gas for hydrogen and ammonia production. liquid fuels remain the most desirable product mainly because they can be transported more cheaply over long distances and their high energy density makes them uniquely suitable as fuels for transportation and agriculture(4,4a).

Taxes and Tariffs and the Evaluation of the Benefit from Foreign Investment

This paper contains a framework for the estimation of the tax revenues gained by a country because it has access to foreign investment. Both private direct and indirect investment are considered along with foreign borrowing by the host country's government. This framework is used to evaluate the tax benefit received by Canada from this source for the period from 1965 to 1974. By 1974 the tax benefit from foreign investment had grown to between $2.2 and $3.4 billion annually. This is equivalent to between 1.5 and 2.5 per cent of Canada's gross national product. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Current And Required Economics In Relation to Further Alberta Enhanced Recovery of Conventional Crude

Abstract The status of Alberta crude oil reserves is reviewed briefly in respect to currently established recovery factors and the technical potential for additional recovery enhancement. A hypothetical pool is evaluated, with consideration given to the economics of pressure maintaining the pool by water flood, solvent flood and micellar solution flood. In each case, the technology is assumed to be proven and the recovery factor for each mechanism is established at a level generally believed applicable for a flood of that genre. Projected proration factors are applied to determine the comparative allowable that would result from depletion of the example pool by each of the cited depletion mechanisms. These are then extended into future cash flows and discounted rates of return, using the appropriate capitol cost, operating costs, royalties and taxes associated with each scheme. The schemes are then analyzed on an incremental basis to determine comparative economic potential related to the ultimate recovery of each scheme. The technical practicality of "exotic" depletion schemes is considered in terms of the need to proceed with theexotic scheme early in the producing life of the pool. Economic calculations for the hypothetical pool show that exotic schemes frequently cannot compete economically with waterflood operations. Therefore, under current economic conditions, exotic recovery is normally not feasible and, where it is feasible, would proceed only after the water-flood reserves of the pool have been totally, or almost totally, recovered. This deferment could seriously reduce the incremental tertiary economics to the point of making tertiary recovery entirely impractical. Consideration is given to methods of improving the economic attractiveness of enhanced recovery schemes throughroyalty and tax relief. A simplified cost-benefit analysis of the impact of such relief is presented. Introduction THE ENERGY RESOURCES CONSERVATION BOARD (ERCB) estimated that the year-end 1975 initial recoverable conventional reserves of the Province of Alberta amounted to some 11.5 billion barrels, This represents a recovery factor of 32.5 per cent of 35.4 billion barrels initially in place. The ERCB estimates that without the subsisting enhanced recovery projects, which are mostly water flood and solvent flood, the primary depletion recovery would be some 21.4 per cent. Thus subsisting enhanced recovery projects in Alberta have increased recoverable reserves by 50 per cent. Nonetheless, about 65 per cent of the oil in place discovered to date will not be recovered under current operations. The National Energy Board, in its 1975(1) report Oil Canadian Oil Supply and Requirements, estimated that by 1985 Canadian demand for indigenous feed stocks would exceed available supply by about 500,000 barrels per day. Under such circumstances, it is incumbent upon industry and government to ensure that the recovery of oil from established reserves is optimized. Alberta currently accounts for over 85 per cent of Canada's 6.65 billion barrels of proven remaining crude oil reserves and about 85 percent of its oil producibility. Enhanced recovery can and must play a vital role in meeting Canada's future supply problems. In order to do so, technical research and its application must proceed expeditiously and the economic environment must be favourable.

The Canadian nuclear power program

Nuclear-electric generating stations, predominantly the 2000 MWe Pickering station near Toronto, currently produce 5 per cent of Canada's electric energy. By the year 2000 nuclear plants will probably supply more than 40 per cent of the country's electricity. The CANDU system, featuring pressure tube reactors, heavy water moderator and natural uranium fuel, is the preferred type and will remain so for many years to come. Envisaged is the evolutionary development of the CANDU fuel cycle to embrace the use of thorium and thereby extend nuclear fuel resources by a matter of centuries. The history of the Canadian nuclear power program, its present status and future outlook are reviewed, as are the safety and environmental aspects of nuclear power.

Photo Maps at 1:50,000 for Northern Canada

Sixty per cent of Canada remains to be mapped at the scale of 1:50,000. Much of this remaining area is devoid of man-made features and is terrain that is difficult to portray cartographically. The requirement for maps suitable for exploration and development needs could be filled by photo maps if the challenge of producing them from existing photography can be met. Some of the photographic defects present in this photography are discussed in relation to their effect on the appearance of water areas and the necessity for delineating minor drainage. In addition, a compilation method is proposed that would minimize the photographic defects and would provide a more rapidly compiled, informative map of unsettled areas.

Communications facilities and user problems in the Canadian Arctic

The total area of Canada (land area and fresh water) is around 10 million sq km, making it the second largest country in the world, second only to the Soviet Union.For various historic and economic reasons Canada's population of 20 million is very largely concentrated in the southern part of the country, with about twothirds of the population living in large urban centres. The heavy broken line on Fig 1 shows the northern boundary of the densely populated portion of Canada. Only 1·5 per cent of Canada's total population, or 300000 people, live north of this frontier, and out of this total only about 38000 live in the Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories. The Yukon has a population of only twenty seven people per 1000 sq km, and the Northwest Territories of eight people per 1000 sq km. The total Eskimo population in both territories is about 13600 and the total Indian population some 8000.