Stories byPolicy Options

Fast-tracking projects before coastal carbon is mapped could put natural carbon stores at risk and undermine Ottawa’s own nature strategy.

The diesel and hydroelectric generators built for industry in Canada's North are expensive and aging, write Lynne Couves and Rosa Brown in Policy Options. Repair and improvement can’t be the sole burden of communities.

A plurilateral alliance built on clean steel and aluminum could reduce reliance on the U.S. and China while accelerating industrial decarbonization.

Nuclear power is neither nimble nor affordable and it’s about time the Ontario government stopped posturing otherwise, writes University of Toronto energy policy lecturer Samuel Buckstein in a post for Policy Options.

Ottawa is missing how community food systems can strengthen resilience, reduce supply chain risks and anchor national security at the local level.

Improving energy efficiency in housing can cut emissions and lower costs, but it requires targeted policy, better coordination, and higher standards, HEC-Montreal’s Pierre-Olivier Pineau writes for Policy Options.

Short-term supply shocks can raise prices, but structural shifts in global energy demand are weakening the case for new oilsands investment.

Canada’s push to industrialize homebuilding runs into zoning fragmentation, regulatory complexity and local labour risks that could slow the promise of prefab. Inspiration can be found from the Netherlands to Japan.

As Ottawa responds to global economic upheaval, rural and small-town Canada risks being left without the tools needed to adapt and thrive, writes Rachel Samson, vice president of research at the Institute for Research on Public Policy.

Canada’s fragmented approach to mining assessments has left regulators, communities and industry working with incomplete information as they head into a modern mining rush.

Public policy experts warn that for anyone already struggling, chaotic disaster responses increase vulnerability and the risk of poverty, health crises, and death.

As AI, climate change, and the energy transition reshape trade and investment, Canada needs bold yet carefully designed industrial policies to stay competitive, Rachel Samson of the Institute for Research on Public Policy writes in Policy Options.

Our overdependence on resource extraction and export is growing, Jim Stanford writes in Policy Options. We must reverse the trend by helping our value-added industries survive Trump.

Canadians are facing yearly flood disasters while governments, builders, and insurers debate how to keep homes safe. We all know the weather is changing, so why are we still building where we shouldn’t? ask Gary Martin and Ruth McKay in a post for Policy Options.

Housing, economic growth, national security and immigration may seem separate from climate change or biodiversity loss, but that idea is both artificial and costly, writes Justina Ray, president and senior scientist at Wildlife Conservation Society Canada.

As Ottawa pursues an efficiency-focused growth strategy, it must avoid undermining natural assets or environmental integrity, experts warn—calling for streamlining, but not deregulation.

Ottawa has spent almost a decade studying, consulting and designing a new flood insurance framework—now it must fund it, writes Jordan Brennan for Policy Options.

If nature is central to Canadian identity, more Canadians should be able to experience the physical and mental benefits of the great outdoors.

As premiums soar for climate-risk insurance, governments must be part of the long-term solution, writes urban economist Robyn Brown.

Amid U.S. trade tensions, Canada is eyeing interprovincial transmission as a nation-building tool. But Efficiency Canada’s Brendan Haley warns that without investment in local renewables and energy-efficient microgrids, history may repeat itself—with megaprojects crowding out innovation and delaying climate progress.