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Alberta Premier Rachel Notley has escalated the dispute with British Columbia over the Trans Mountain pipeline by banning B.C. wine. What could be next in this escalating food fight? Banning Alberta beef from B.C.? Not allowing Albertans access to salmon fishing from B.C. ports?

Perhaps instead of bickering, the premiers of both provinces, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, should consider what we need to accomplish.

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In the 2015 Paris accord, Canada committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 523 megatonnes per year by 2030. As the auditor general points out in his 2017 report, we are currently on track to exceed that target by over 200 megatonnes, and Canada does not have a coherent plan for reaching its goal. Downright Trumpian, it seems.

In November 2015, an expert panel of the Royal Society of Canada issued a report on what was needed to be able to safely transport crude oil, including both bitumen and diluted bitumen. They found that we knew surprisingly little of what was necessary to safely transport these materials, and to mitigate the damage from the inevitable spills.