Government to subsidize pipeline

 Rachel Doran, president and executive director of Clean Energy Canada, a think tank at Simon Fraser University, asks in an article in the Globe and Mail: “Is it really a good idea for the government to subsidize a pipeline?”

Decreasing Investment in Fossil Fuel in 2026

But while the share of private energy investment going into fossil fuels has slumped from 50 per cent to 28 per cent over the past decade, fossil fuels now receive about as much money from taxpayers through subsidies as they do from private investors, keeping their costs artificially lower.

Yes, oil is our biggest export, but its contribution to Canada’s GDP combined with gas was 3.8 per cent in 2025. All told, 56,000 Canadians worked directly in oil and gas extraction in 2025, compared with 108,000 in electric power generation, transmission and distribution, according to Statistics Canada. (Doran & Keller, 2026)

When the Government finances economic development there seem to be many mouths to feed. The trade-offs in seeking political support and voters before the next election call may sometimes fall into the category of “short term gain for long term pain”.

References

Doran, R., & Keller, T. (2026, October 1). Opinion: Is it really a good idea for the government to subsidize a pipeline? The Globe and Mail. Retrieved October 3, 2026, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-is-it-a-good-idea-to-subsidize-the-west-coast-pipeline/? 

Housing Crisis Recent History

The evidence of the housing crisis in Nova Scotia is as close as our neighborhood park. This crisis has been building for many years. This article reviews some analysis and proposals from a few years ago. 

Ball Park Housing Crisis

Michal Rozworski writing in Policynote, in 2019, locates the roots of our housing crisis in austerity, debt and extreme speculation.

In 1993, the last federal budget tabled by Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government ended all new federal funding for social housing construction outside of First Nations reserves. The feds were out of the business of creating new social housing, as they put it. This was a marked change from previous decades when the federal government helped finance about 20,000 units of social housing per year—from direct public housing in the 1960s and into the ‘70s to non-profit and co-op housing in the 1980s. In most provinces outside BC and Quebec, provincial governments did not pick up the slack following the 1993 announcement.

Post War Housing

 

With the sudden imposition of social housing austerity, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) shifted from homebuilder to mortgage insurer. The move away from direct and indirect public provision only further solidified long-standing economic and cultural pressures toward home ownership. And with this move the federal government only accelerated the transformation of housing from human necessity into investment good, to be supplied almost exclusively by the private sector. (Rozworski, 2019)

Joel Roberts reporting for the Breach, in 2021, suggests that fixing Canada’s housing crisis will require bold socialist politics. He suggests that politicians have finally taken note of the crisis. But they aren’t offering real change.

Canada’s housing crisis demands bold transformation, and a good place to start would be dramatically increasing federal spending on social housing whose rent is geared to income. That would provide immediate relief for the hundreds of thousands on waiting lists. 

Furthermore, we desperately need a large-scale community-based land acquisition strategy based on sustainable living, not returns for investors. The strategy should empower community-based land trusts to create permanently affordable, energy-efficient, community-oriented rental housing en masse. If the federal government can find $150 billion to buy government-insured mortgages during the pandemic, it should have no trouble financing this transformation of rental housing.  

Beyond a major revitalization of the social and community housing sector, we also need robust inclusionary zoning targets for private-sector housing, stronger rental protections for tenants, and emergency funding for shelters and transitional housing operations. 

But what politicians are hesitant to tell you is that the housing crisis goes beyond housing. If we are to address the affordability crisis in rental markets, house prices will likely fall. More bold housing policies are thus unlikely to find much favour among homeowners who increasingly rely on rising prices to secure their retirement or to access further bank credit. As the Parliamentary Secretary on Housing put it in a recent interview: “We know that Canadians rely on homeownership to secure their place in the economy.” (Roberts, 2021)

Roberts Recommendations

Increasing federal spending on social housing

Zoning targets for private-sector housing

Stronger rental protections

Emergency funding for shelters

Alex Cooke of Global News , in 2021, asked how did Nova Scotia get to the point where there are hundreds of people at night with no place to go?

The answer to that question is multi-faceted, says Jeff Karabanow, and the issue has been decades in the making.

Karabanow, a professor of social work at Dalhousie University, said advocates have been arguing for decades for municipal and provincial governments to create more affordable housing.

Now, people are paying the price for the “inactivity and inaction” around affordable housing.

“We’ve been very, very concerned for a long time that there is going to be an explosion on the streets if we couldn’t wrap our heads around some form of rapid-styled affordability housing that has supports embedded in it, that has to be taken by the province as the lead,” he said.

Add that to the stagnation of wages, the skyrocketing cost of living, and housing increasingly being seen as an investment opportunity rather than a social good, and we’ve created a “perfect storm” for the crisis we’re seeing today, he said — a crisis that shouldn’t exist in a rich country like Canada.

“We live in such a rich and fairly safe environment … especially Nova Scotia, where the numbers aren’t huge yet, we can really be providing everybody who needs, wants, some form of safe, stable housing. We could be providing that pretty easily,” he said.

“I think it’s become, for me, just a sense of inequity and injustice.” (Cooke, 2021)

Karabanow’s “Perfect Storm”:

Stagnation of wages

Skyrocketing cost of living

Housing as investment rather than social good

Perfect Storm around housing

The analysis of the housing crisis in these articles from 2019 and 2021 have identified the need for investment by government in affordable rental housing to rectify the inequity and injustice that continues to increase the number of homeless people in Nova Scotia.

References

Cooke, A. (2021, December 1). Nova Scotia's housing crisis: How the emergency has reached a boiling point - Halifax | Globalnews.ca. Global News. Retrieved September 5, 2023, from https://globalnews.ca/news/8413242/halifax-nova-scotia-housing-crisis-day-1-global-series/ 

Roberts, J. (2021, September 17). Fixing Canada's housing crisis will require bold socialist politics ⋆ The Breach. The Breach. Retrieved September 5, 2023, from https://breachmedia.ca/fixing-canadas-housing-crisis-will-require-bold-socialist-politics/ 

Rozworski, M. (2019, June 14). The roots of our housing crisis: Austerity, debt and extreme speculation. Policy Note. Retrieved September 5, 2023, from https://www.policynote.ca/the-roots-of-our-housing-crisis-austerity-debt-and-extreme-speculation/ 

Housing and Investment

In a variation of the question about housing as a human right, Sheldon MacLeod reporting on the Saltwire web page asks two questions in an interview with Dr. Levitin-Reid, a CCPA-NS Research Associate and an Associate Professor in the MBA in Community Economic Development program at Cape Breton University.

Right or Commodity?

Is housing a basic human right or an investment?

Can homes and apartments be commodities and at the same time be considered a basic human need?

MacLeod asks if it's the type of housing that is not being built by the private sector that is sorely missing in this path to affordability. Catherine Levitin-Reid sees a need for a massive investment in non-market housing.

Well, I see as far as housing supply, we need a massive investment in non-market housing. So, some of that should be public housing. Some of that should be nonprofit, and cooperative housing as well, but all nonmarket — all available with a goal of providing affordable housing for Nova Scotians, rather than making profit for owners. (MacLeod, 2023)

MacLeod inquires about the changes in the past that helped commodify housing stock. Catherine Levitin-Reid notes that the federal government pulled out of the building of affordable housing in the early 1990s and the province didn't step up and take its place.

This really is a key reason why we are experiencing the affordable housing crisis that we are today. Certainly, when there was that modest reinvestment that began around 25 years ago, we just didn't see the scale of investment that was required. And then they also at that point in time, started relying more on private sector partners to build affordable housing. And that housing has agreements in place so that that housing has to be affordable for 15 years. But after that rents can be increased. (MacLeod, 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. 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)

Pressures arising from housing insecurity continue to negatively impact homeless people and persons in danger of loss of housing. This is a problem that requires government attention.

References

MacLeod, S. (2023, June 29). THINKING OUT LOUD: Rent supplements don’t always add up to affordable housing. SaltWire. Retrieved July 5, 2023, from https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/opinion/local-perspectives/thinking-out-loud-rent-supplements-dont-always-add-up-to-affordable-housing-100869008/ 

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/ 

Ponder People Power and Profit

Two of the transitions that Nova Scotia must make in the near future involve action to reduce the GHG in power generation and provide affordable housing for many of our citizens. Recent media coverage points to market forces that are apparently acting against these transitions.

 

Transition needed in Energy Generation

 

The Canadian Renewable Energy Association calls on the Nova Scotia Government to restore consumer confidence by challenging recent actions taken by Nova Scotia Power Inc. in proposing a significant system access fee for solar energy installations.

Solar Energy Installation

 

“We are calling on the Government of Nova Scotia to intervene to ensure that Nova Scotians can continue to pursue rooftop solar installations and make significant climate-friendly investments in the province,” said Brandy Giannetta, CanREA’s Vice-President of Policy, Regulatory and Government Affairs. NSPI’s proposed system access charge, of $8 per kilowatt of solar PV capacity per month, or nearly $800 per year for the average solar home in Nova Scotia, would erase approximately 60% of the economic value of solar net-metering.1

A Media Release from the Sierra Club of Canada declares it is time to break up with Nova Scotia Power. NSPI’s announcement that it wants to charge a premium on homeowners with solar panel installations is a huge step backward for renewable energy in the province.

“The company is gaslighting homeowners who want to be part of the climate solution,” says National Program Director Gretchen Fitzgerald.. “It’s giving the public the false impression that homeowners with solar panels are cashing in on low electricity at the expense of other customers. That’s simply not true. It takes most solar customers at least ten years just to pay off the loans for their solar panel installation.”2

The Sierra Club suggests NSPI’s proposed 10 percent rate hike over three years, while maintaining its 9 percent guaranteed profit rate underscores the problem of a private energy monopoly.

“Nova Scotians are waking up to the reality that there is no way forward with Nova Scotia Power. If we want affordable, reliable, and clean renewable energy in this province, it can’t be controlled by a private multinational and a rubber stamp review board,” says Deveaux. “We need to recognize that electricity is an essential service. We shouldn’t have to tell Nova Scotia Power that reducing greenhouse gas emissions isn’t a luxury; it’s essential too.”2

Taryn Grant, of CBC News, reports that investors make a fifth of home purchases in Halifax where real estate prices continue to soar.

CBC and Bank Of Canada Chart

 

The report provides context, although it does not directly answer the question of how much investors are responsible for driving up real estate prices.

In Halifax, the average home sale was 26 per cent higher in 2021 than the year before, and 14 per cent higher in 2020 than the year before that, according to statistics reported by the Nova Scotia Real Estate Association. Most major Canadian cities have seen investor activity grow in recent years, but Halifax has seen one of the biggest jumps. Since 2014, investor purchases rose more than four per cent in Halifax, second only to Ottawa's five per cent growth.3 

Providing power to Nova Scotia through publicly owned, community or province wide utilities would recognize the public interest in providing a high standard of electrical service while at the same time leading the transition to reduce the GHG emissions without the need to maintain shareholder dividends. Social action groups are increasingly making the case that in the often severe and constantly changing climate of Nova Scotia, adequate housing is a right and a necessity for health and welfare. When housing is bought and sold as a commodity, the cost of shelter becomes subject to the laws of supply and demand. Unfortunately, demand drives the price up and investors seem to have little interest in increasing the supply of affordable accommodations.

 

References

1	(2022, January 28). Nova Scotia Power's proposed “system access charge” would .... Retrieved January 29, 2022, from https://renewablesassociation.ca/nspi-proposal-would-devastate/
2	(2022, January 28). Media Release: Time to Break Up With Nova Scotia Power. Retrieved January 29, 2022, from https://www.sierraclub.ca/en/media/2022-01-28/media-release-time-break-nova-scotia-power
3	(2022, January 29). Investors make a fifth of home purchases in Halifax, where real .... Retrieved January 29, 2022, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/nova-scotia-real-estate-home-prices-investors-bank-of-canada-1.6330903

 

Stakeholders change Oil and Gas Investment

 

The Oil and Gas industry is dealing with stakeholder reluctance to invest in future oil and gas developments in Canada.

Looking at gas and oil investment

 

Emma Grane and Jeffrey Jones reporting in the Globe and Mail, write that  Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. were recently handed significant defeats over their approaches to fighting climate change. Canada’s Suncor Energy Inc. announced a long-awaited target to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 that put the oil sands producer’s ambition in line with the federal government’s commitment under the Paris Agreement.

Shareholders – including the world’s largest fund managers – are also forcing companies to account for, and deal with, the risks they face in the global transition to cleaner energy sources. Suncor Energy aims to cut emissions by more than one-third while boosting oil production “Obviously, there’s an enormous amount of attention focused on how we move forward,” Mark Little, Suncor’s chief executive officer, said in an interview. “I think it actually says people are wanting energy companies and oil producers to be part of the solution, and, quite frankly, I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that. “The oil industry globally deploys enormous amounts of capital, it has massive technical project execution and operational capabilities, so it’s hard for me to envision how the world actually achieves its ambition without industries like the oil industry participating in the energy transition.” Suncor’s net-zero plan comprises strategies to meet an interim target of cutting emissions by 10 megatonnes a year by 2030. They include adoption of carbon capture, use and storage; production of low-carbon fuels and hydrogen; fuel switching in its oil sands operations; and renewable power generation, including wind energy. Importantly, Suncor is setting company-wide CO2 targets rather than intensity goals. That’s a departure from most of its Canadian peers, which measure their emissions per barrel produced.1

Nick Wells of the Canadian Press reports in the Globe and Mail that a First Nations group criticizes Woodside Petroleum’s move to sell its Kitimat LNG stake. Woodside Petroleum Ltd., an Australian company, says it plans to sell its 50 per cent stake in the 480-kilometre Pacific Trail Pipeline and the proposed LNG facility at Bish Cove.

The First Nations Limited Partnership, which represents 16 First Nations in northern B.C., says the decision to sell is both disappointing and poses a threat to its members’ commercial interests. Woodside’s announcement comes after Chevron Canada Ltd, the operator of the project, said earlier this year that it would stop funding further feasibility work on the project. The company put its interest up for sale in December 2019, but has failed to find a buyer.2

The risk associated with investment in oil and gas in Canada is connected to the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with IPCC recommendations and IEA plans to achieve global temperature targets.

 

References

1	(2021, May 26). Big Oil loses carbon emissions showdown in landmark case - The .... Retrieved May 27, 2021, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-canadas-oil-industry-on-watch-after-dutch-court-orders-shell-to-cut/
2	(2021, May 21). First Nations group criticizes Woodside Petroleum's move to sell .... Retrieved May 27, 2021, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/article-first-nations-group-criticizes-woodside-petroleums-move-to-sell/

 

Making housing a human right in Nova Scotia

 Stephen Wentzell is writing in the Nova Scotia Advocate about a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia (CCPA-NS)

A plan for affordable housing

 

that is making nearly 100 recommendations to address affordable housing and homelessness crises across the province.

Using an intersectional lens, the report aims to significantly reduce income inequality in the province, where nearly one in four children live below the poverty line. The report sends a stark reminder of the cost of government inaction on poverty, “costing Nova Scotia $2 billion per year in economic loss, $279 million in excess public service costs, and $231 million in foregone revenue.”  The kicker: The report’s 95 recommendations are cumulatively cheaper than the cost of government inaction. Among the directives is a push to build or acquire 33,490 additional units of permanently affordable, non-market housing for Nova Scotians over a 10-year-plan.1

The discussion on affordable housing needs to consider dealing with housing as a human right.

Municipal action for affordable housing

 

We must weigh the cost of this initiative by comparing it to the cost of inaction on this key economic determinant of health.

1(n.d.). Nova Scotia Advocate. Retrieved May 26, 2021, from https://nsadvocate.org/