Some Carbon Tax Research

The net effect of the Federal Government Carbon Tax and the Rebate Payments coming to Nova Scotians will soon become evident. There does not seem to be an effective way to reduce GHG emissions without putting a price on carbon that will have the emitters pay and hopefully reduce emissions and reduce that cost. The links below are to articles that cite information about carbon tax.

Head Butting Climate Emergency https://tinyurl.com/synnjd8u 

Next Steps for Oil and Gas in Canada https://tinyurl.com/u9352b9h

Carbon Tax to reach climate goals https://tinyurl.com/rqtplg6 

Common ground and conservatives on carbon tax http://tinyurl.com/y232h2cb 

The emergency situation facing our planet requires emergency action to mitigate and adapt to the changing climate.

 

Emergency Response to Housing Need

The current economic situation and the rapid increase of population, particularly in HRM, has aggravated an already existing emergency situation that needs action to provide “deeply affordable” housing in Nova Scotia. Some recent views have been expressed on the immediate action required.

The new building is for the market... not the people in tents in the ballpark

Dr. Catherine Leviten-Reid is a CCPA-NS Research Associate writes in The Monitor.

A short-sighted vision that relies primarily on the market to ensure everyone has access to housing underestimates this issue's tremendous rippling impact, which erodes efforts to build a healthy, growing, more inclusive province. (Leviten-Reid, 2023)

Alex Cooke reports for Global News on differing viewpoints about social housing.

Jeff Karabanow, a professor at Dalhousie University and the co-director of Dal’s Social Work Community Clinic, says the province’s housing crisis has been happening for years, and is the result of disinvestment in social housing. (Cooke, 2023)

Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister John Lohr said in recent years, their efforts have touched about a thousand non-profit and co-op housing units through programs such as Compass, the Housing Trust of Nova Scotia, and the Land for Housing Initiative.

He couldn’t say how many of those units were rent-geared-to-income but said they were a mix of different options with more affordable rates.

In terms of “affordable” units going for 80 per cent of market value – a figure typically touted on housing announcements in Nova Scotia – Lohr said it “doesn’t work for some people, but for those it works for, it’s incredibly important.” (Cooke, 2023)

Halifax Councillor Waye Mason has expressed that in this time of likely global housing price collapse, high interest rates, and recession we are in need of the government to help preserve our labour force by funding affordable housing construction.

Finally and most importantly, you are responsible for affordable housing construction in Nova Scotia.  In the election, Premier Houston promised to deliver the Affordable Housing Commission report.  That report talks extensively about the need for social or below-market housing.   I say again to you Minister, the market will not produce below-market housing.

You need to have a massive plan to build affordable housing, and you needed it a year ago.  With the coming global housing price collapse, high-interest rates and recession, there has never been a better time for the government to help preserve our labour force by funding affordable housing construction. (Mason, 2022)

In A Good War, author and activist Seth Klein looks at the Second World War strategies and shows how they can be repurposed today for a rapid transition.

Addressing the need for adequate housing in Canada would seem to be connected to the difficulty of life in our winter without appropriate shelter. Housing insecurity creates particularly intense anxiety in our land of ice and snow. Immediate action on a large scale to mitigate this disastrous situation is appropriate for the government. 

References

Cooke, A. (2023, June 26). Nova Scotia hasn't built public housing in 30 years. Why that was a 'huge mistake' | Globalnews.ca. Global News. Retrieved June 26, 2023, from https://globalnews.ca/news/9784037/ns-public-housing-stagnant-supply/ 

Klein, S. (2020). A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency. ECW Press.

Leviten-Reid, C. (2023, June 26). Lack of affordable housing in Nova Scotia requires urgent action. The Monitor. Retrieved June 26, 2023, from https://monitormag.ca/articles/lack-of-affordable-housing-in-nova-scotia-requires-urgent-action/ 

Mason, W. (2022, November 15). Correspondence from Councillor Mason to Minister Lohr Regarding Housing. Waye Mason, Councillor. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://wayemason.ca/2022/11/15/correspondence-from-councillor-mason-to-minister-lohr-regarding-housing/ 

Housing and Ideology

Political ideology may motivate involvement in the process of developing policy and electing legislators. It may be a serious obstacle to effective action particularly in the areas of housing, health care, and response to the climate crisis.

Signs of Crisis in HRM

Halifax Councillor Waye Mason has expressed that in this time of likely global housing price collapse, high interest rates, and recession we are in need of the government to help preserve our labour force by funding affordable housing construction. His concerns have been expressed in a letter to Nova Scotia Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, John Lohr.

Finally and most importantly, you are responsible for affordable housing construction in Nova Scotia.  In the election, Premier Houston promised to deliver the Affordable Housing Commission report.  That report talks extensively about the need for social or below-market housing.   I say again to you Minister, the market will not produce below-market housing.

You need to have a massive plan to build affordable housing, and you needed it a year ago.  With the coming global housing price collapse, high-interest rates and recession, there has never been a better time for the government to help preserve our labour force by funding affordable housing construction. (Mason, 2022)

Dr. Catherine Leviten-Reid, a CCPA-NS Research Associate and an Associate Professor in the MBA in Community Economic Development program at Cape Breton University, reports that Nova Scotians urgently need the government to do more to address our province's lack of affordable housing.

Housing is a Human Right

Based on the last census, at least 48,000 renters in Nova Scotians reported paying at least 30 per cent of their income on shelter, leaving them vulnerable to losing their housing. That represents 35 per cent of tenants. That number is likely higher today.

The chronic lack of affordable units results in constrained choices for tenants or no choice at all. Responding to the chronic shortage of affordable housing primarily through rent supplements will not succeed without substantial investment in supply-side responses that generate affordable rentals. Beyond low vacancies, we know tenants face discrimination based on income source, interactions with the justice system, family type, and ethnicity, among other characteristics, again highlighting the need for greater tenant protection.

Changes to rent supplement design and the rental market are needed, as is a massive investment in public and nonprofit and cooperative rental housing stock. This investment must include scaling up the protection of existing affordable units by purchasing rental buildings for sale and facilitating ownership by non-market providers. The status quo level of investment is unacceptable, with more Nova Scotians finding themselves without a secure roof over their heads. (Leviten-Reid, 2023)

During the Second World War, Canadians and their government completely remade the economy -- retooling factories, transforming the workforce, and creating common cause among Canadians for the war effort. In A Good War, author and activist Seth Klein looks at the Second World War strategies and shows how they can be repurposed today for a rapid transition.

Housing in HRM from WWII

Canada Lands acquired approximately 34 hectares (86 acres) of the former military site at Shannon Park, Dartmouth in 2014 from the Department of National Defence (DND).

Deeply Affordable Housing Potential Site

The property includes a French immersion school. Large portions of the site have significant water frontage and offer a large, relatively flat area suitable for development. Steeper areas around the edge of the site offer views of the harbour.

Canada Lands undertook an extensive public engagement process, which resulted in the preparation of a preferred development plan in 2016. More recently, Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) sought community feedback to finalize the plan and prepare a development agreement. The plan has been evolving during the HRM planning and consultative process, with a focus on creating a community that provides opportunities for mixed use development. Although the majority of the plan will be focused on residential development, commercial and supporting professional services will be integrated. The final designs will ensure a mix of housing types and support public open space. The flow of the community will ensure pedestrian linkage throughout with strong connectivity to the future shoreline park. The development of the future parks will provide both active and passive green spaces. Public transit is also an integral part and consideration throughout. (Shannon Park, n.d.)

A short-sighted vision that relies primarily on the market to ensure everyone has access to housing underestimates this issue's tremendous rippling impact, which erodes efforts to build a healthy, growing, more inclusive province.

References

Klein, S. (2020). A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency. ECW Press.

Leviten-Reid, C. (2023, June 26). Lack of affordable housing in Nova Scotia requires urgent action. The Monitor. Retrieved June 26, 2023, from https://monitormag.ca/articles/lack-of-affordable-housing-in-nova-scotia-requires-urgent-action/

Mason, W. (2022, November 15). Correspondence from Councillor Mason to Minister Lohr Regarding Housing. Waye Mason, Councillor. Retrieved November 15, 2022, from https://wayemason.ca/2022/11/15/correspondence-from-councillor-mason-to-minister-lohr-regarding-housing/ 

Shannon Park. (n.d.). Canada Lands Company. Retrieved June 26, 2023, from https://www.clc-sic.ca/real-estate/shannon-park 

Administration Of Genesis 1:27 today

Outreach, an LGBTQ Catholic resource that offers news, essays, resources and community for LGBTQ Catholics, their families and friends, and those who minister to them in the Catholic church worldwide, has recently published some articles that may help us see that God’s plan for human sexuality is more than we may have previously considered.

Listening and care

Father Charles Bouchard, O.P., Dominican friar and the senior director of theology and sponsorship at the Catholic Health Association of the United States, suggests that the U.S.C.C.B.’s Administrative Committee may have wanted to say as little as possible. They urge that we employ “all appropriate resources to mitigate the suffering of those who struggle with gender incongruence.” This tells us to focus on what we can do for trans patients. 

We can listen, we can promote scientific research, we can provide pastoral and spiritual care and we can care for families. (It is noteworthy that the document uses the term “gender incongruence” while other parts of the Note seem to suggest that it is not a real medical condition that requires intervention.) 

Trans people are teaching us that human sexuality is more varied and complex than we might feel comfortable admitting. The bishops’ Note may open the door for serious discussions of the questions transgender experience raises. It may help us see that God’s plan for human sexuality is not entirely binary after all. Maybe we will discover that God is glorified by creation in more ways than we thought possible. (Bouchard, 2023)

Father Richard J. Clifford, S.J. , a leading Old Testament scholar, founding dean of the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry and the former dean of the Weston Jesuit School of Theology from 1983 to 1987, concludes that the expectation that this single verse (Genesis 1:27) can adjudicate modern controversies about gender is thoroughly misguided. There is no hint that the ancient author knew anything about the modern issue of gender identity. And the text gives no hint either. To use “male and female he created them” against (or for) contemporary discussions of gender is to read into the biblical text rather than read the biblical text.

Genesis 1 responds to the community’s doubts about their future by showing how God arranged that all animate beings would continue through their offspring. The text does this, in a strikingly original way, by affirming that God implanted in every living creature a seed (in Hebrew, zera‘) from which future generations will come. The word “seed” appears six times in the text, all occurrences referring to plant and animal life in Genesis 1.

God’s generous commitment to support human life is the proper context for interpreting “male and female he created them.”

For humans, however, the text uses an alternate expression to make the same point, “male and female he created them.” “Male and female” thus means that humans, by divine will, share the life-potency of other life forms on earth. God’s generous commitment to support human life is the proper context for interpreting “male and female he created them.”

In its context, it means that human beings have the same “seed mechanism” that assures them they will continue by begetting descendants to replace the generations that have gone before. Genesis 1:27 assures every human being, not only Israel, that God has implanted in them the means for continuing the future existence of the human race. (Clifford, 2023)

Pope Francis, in the encyclical “Laudato Si”, urges us to adopt a kinship relationship with nature.

Preference for Kinship

Our scientific study helps us to better understand the complex and wonderful role we have in the understanding and supporting all of Creation.

References

Bouchard, C. (2023, April 24). Catholic ethicist on U.S. bishops' directive: Transgender people teach us that human sexuality is "varied and complex". Outreach.faith. Retrieved June 25, 2023, from https://outreach.faith/2023/04/catholic-ethicist-on-bishops-directive-transgender-people-teach-us-that-human-sexuality-is-varied-and-complex/ 

Clifford, R. J. (2023, June 25). Richard J. Clifford, S.J.: Using "Male and female he created them" to adjudicate gender controversies is "thoroughly misguided". Outreach.faith. Retrieved June 25, 2023, from https://outreach.faith/2023/06/richard-j-clifford-s-j-using-male-and-female-he-created-them-to-adjudicate-gender-identity-controversies-is-thoroughly-misguided/ 

Focus on EV’s may not be top Climate Priority

Efforts to transition personal vehicles to BEV (Battery Electric Vehicles), or HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicles) from ICEV (Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles) may be a diversion from focus on more effective government action to mitigate the effects of the climate emergency.

graphic designed by Sam Parker

Selin Oğuz reports for Visualcapitialist that the International Energy Agency concludes the transportation sector is more reliant on fossil fuels than any other sector in the economy. In 2021, it accounted for 37% of all CO2 emissions from end‐use sectors. The graphic above, designed by Sam Parker, visualizes the life cycle emissions of battery electric, hybrid, and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

The Elements Visual Capitalist web page offers some other insights from the data that may not be as obvious at first. These insights help to identify areas of scientific and engineering efforts to further reduce emissions.

The production emissions for BEVs are approximately 40% higher than those of hybrid and ICE vehicles. According to a McKinsey & Company study, this high emission intensity can be attributed to the extraction and refining of raw materials like lithium, cobalt, and nickel that are needed for batteries, as well as the energy-intensive manufacturing process of BEVs.

Electricity production is by far the most emission-intensive stage in a BEVs life cycle. Decarbonizing the electricity sector by implementing renewable and nuclear energy sources can significantly reduce these vehicles’ use phase emissions.

By recycling materials and components in their end-of-life stages, all vehicle segments can offset a portion of their earlier life cycle emissions. (Oguz, 2020)

The International Energy Agency found that using energy more efficiently was the single largest potential contributor to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Fiona Harvey, Environment editor at the Guardian, writes that the latest IPCC report highlights key measures countries must take to avoid climate catastrophe.

Renewable energy in the form of wind and solar power is now cheaper than fossil fuels across most of the world and the IPCC found that solar power, wind power and reducing the conversion of land to agriculture were the three measures with the strongest potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions globally.

• Reduce methane

• Stop deforestation

• Restore other degraded land, and stop it being turned to agriculture

• Change agriculture, and change the way we eat

• Solar and wind power

• Energy efficiency

• Stop burning coal

• Put climate at the heart of all decision-making (Harvey, 2023)

The key measures identified in the latest IPCC report do not put transition to electric vehicles in the top eight necessary measures to avoid catastrophe.  Personal action may not be as effective in meeting net zero goals as transformation of the way we use our natural resources, generate electricity with solar and wind, increase energy efficiency, and put climate change at the core of government decisions.

References

Harvey, F. (2023, March 22). Eight things the world must do to avoid the worst of climate change. The Guardian. Retrieved June 25, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/21/methane-to-food-waste-eight-ways-to-attempt-to-stay-within-15c?CMP=share_btn_tw 

Oguz, S. (2020, May 20). Life Cycle Emissions: EVs vs. Combustion Engine Vehicles. Elements Visual Capitalist. Retrieved June 25, 2023, from https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/life-cycle-emissions-of-electric-hybrid-and-combuston-engine-vehicles/