EDMONTON - The Alberta government is planning to create standards for releasing treated oilsands tailings into the environment. Creating those standards is one of four new policy recommendations pitched by a government-appointed committee tasked over a year ago with studying tailings management options. Tailings are mixture of water, sand, bitumen residue and chemicals considered toxic to fish and other wildlife. As of 2023, nearly 1.4 trillion litres of the substance were stored in the [Read more]

OTTAWA - Ottawa's one-stop shop for industry to pitch plans for large industrial construction projects will be headquartered in Calgary. The Prime Minister's Office provided details today about the major projects office which is part of its plan to get big national projects fast-tracked through the approval process. The office will be headed up by former Trans Mountain CEO Dawn Farrell. The Liberal government rushed Bill C-5 through Parliament in June. It raised the ire of various Indigenous [Read more]

BERLIN - Canada is signing a critical minerals partnership with Germany that encourages the joint public financing of natural resources projects. Prime Minister Mark Carney says for too long, key Canadian minerals such as nickel and cobalt have gone underdeveloped while China and Russia dominate the global critical minerals market. Carney says the two countries also aim to closely co-operate in energy, including on liquefied natural gas and hydrogen energy. Carney is currently on a [Read more]

OTTAWA - Inflation cooled in July thanks largely to relief at the gas pumps, but Statistics Canada said grocery and shelter costs were accelerating last month. The annual rate of inflation fell to 1.7 per cent in July, the agency said Tuesday, down from 1.9 per cent in June. A 16.1 per cent decline year-over-year in gas prices tied mainly to the removal of the consumer carbon price earlier this year fueled the drop. Gas prices were also down 0.7 per cent on a monthly basis. StatCan [Read more]