Foreign Affairs

Canada in Afghanistan

This week the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development published a comprehensive parliamentary report on Canada’s engagement in Afghanistan encompassing the interrelated elements of security, peacebuilding, development, and governance. The report acknowledges the difficulties and challenges confronting a long-term commitment to Afghanistan and its people, and its recommendations recognize that both realism and resolve will be required to deliver the benefits promised to Afghans.

http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/canada-afghanistan/assets/pdfs/faaerp10-e.pdf

Making Peace in Afghanistan

Even though consensus on Afghanistan is rare, there is one key issue on which everyone agrees: that the insurgency in southern and eastern Afghanistan will not be defeated on the battlefield, writes Ernie Regehr in an article for the Centre for International Governance Innovation. Regehr claims that reconciliation efforts will have to reach well beyond official bodies to engage civil society organizations and educational institutions through initiatives such as people-to-people reconciliation, intercommunal and regional diplomacy efforts, and education programs in order to support a culture of peace in Afghanistan.

http://www.cigionline.org/community.igloo?r0=community&r0_script=/

Canadian Defence Policy Changes with Climate in the Suddenly Accessible Far North

In a recent report from the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Alec Crawford discusses how Canada's longstanding concern about its Arctic sovereignty and security are increasingly shaped by climate change and the resulting reduction of sea ice. "The exploitation of the area's mineral deposits will become more cost-effective, and the region's vast oil and gas resources—which are believed to account for one-quarter of the world's undiscovered reserves—will ironically become more accessible due to climate change," Crawford writes. http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2008/com_security_dimensions.pdf

Economy

Bank of Canada’s Update of the Canadian Economy

Three major developments are affecting the Canadian economy: the protracted weakness in the U.S. economy; ongoing turbulence in global financial markets; and sharp increases in the prices of certain commodities—particularly energy, says the latest financial report from the Bank of Canada. The most recent monetary policy report details the current state of the Canadian economy, looking at interest rates, fiscal policy, commodity and energy prices, and offers an outlook for the future.

http://www.bank-banque-canada.ca/en/mpr/pdf/update170708.pdf

Canadians’ Purchasing Power is Up While Economic Growth is Down

After 18 Consecutive quarters of positive growth, Canada’s real gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.1% over the previous quarter, a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute finds.  Nevertheless, author Colin Busby explains, Canadians’ real incomes are up and unemployment is at a modern-day low. The explanation is that the market prices of Canadian exports have been rising rapidly while the market prices of many of the items Canadians import have been falling – what is called a positive terms-of-trade shock. Busby argues that this situation mitigates against expansionist fiscal policy and loose monetary policy for policymakers. 

http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/ebrief_59.pdf

Canadian Growth Weakens, But Manufacturing Sector to Benefit from Stable Loonie

Declining exports will limit Canada’s economic growth to just 1.7% in 2008—but manufacturers can expect some relief next year as the Canadian dollar remains just below parity, according to a new report from the Conference Board of Canada. “Over the last four years, Canada’s economy has been a mix of very strong consumer spending held back by a weak trade sector, a trend that has continued right through the early months of 2008,” said Pedro Antunes, Director, National and Provincial Forecast.  “Luckily for manufacturers, the loonie seems to have stopped riding the coat-tails of rising energy prices.”

http://www.conferenceboard.ca/press/2008/canadian-summer08.asp

Economic Security in Nova Scotia

In a new report from the Centre for the Study of Living Standards, authors Lars Osberg and Andrew Sharpe examine trends in economic security in Nova Scotia from 1981 to 2007. They conclude that economic security in Nova Scotia decreased during the 1981-2007 period using an aggregate index based on security from the economic risks imposed by four key factors – unemployment, illness, old age, and single parenthood. http://www.csls.ca/reports/csls2008-05.pdf

Energy

Canada Well Positioned to Be a Global Leader in Gas Hydrate Development

As the search for new global energy sources continues, and conventional natural gas supplies decline in North America, a 13-member panel of experts appointed by the Council of Canadian Academies has concluded that Canada is well positioned to be a global leader in exploration, research and development, and eventual production of natural gas from gas hydrate. According to the Council, there is still a pressing need for further research to better quantify the large Canadian gas hydrate resource and the economic, environmental and technical uncertainties involved, meaning that commercial production is not likely to take place within Canada for at least two decades.

http://www.scienceadvice.ca/documents/(2008_07_07)_News_Release.pdf

Canada’s Nuclear Renaissance: Implications for Public Policy

Last month, the Public Policy Forum held a half-day dialogue in Toronto with more than 30 CEO’s and senior officials from a variety of areas within the public and private sector to discuss the implications of the world’s renewed interest in nuclear energy. The session sought to examine current trends nationally and internationally in nuclear energy, outline key public policy challenges, and discuss whether Canadian policy and regulatory regimes are adequate for this new era of nuclear development. The Public Policy Forum report synthesizes the content of the discussion.

http://www.ppforum.ca/common/assets/publications/en/nuclear_renaissance_report.pdf

Domestic Policy

Why Saving Resource Dollars Makes Sense

Given that Alberta is on the verge of posting a record amount of oil and gas revenue, it is a good time to review why saving more makes sense, asserts Robert Roach of the Canada West Foundation. Roach extols the virtues of saving money to build a permanent, reliable stream of cash for the future in case oil and gas deposits run out or if prices drop. He writes that such a fund would bring fiscal stability to the province, as well as promote intergeneration fairness. 

http://www.cwf.ca/V2/cnt/commentaries_200807071446.php

Report for City of Edmonton Gives Insight into Infrastructure

The Canada West Foundation has released a paper assessing the capacity of Edmonton’s current sources of revenue to meet a growing infrastructure funding “gap” or “deficit” that the city now says will be $19.2 billion over the next 10 years (until 2017). The paper argues that Edmonton will not be able to address its infrastructure funding issue in a meaningful way given the financial tools currently at its disposal and offers ways in which to manage the situation. http://www.cwf.ca/V2/files/Delivering_goods.pdf

Immigration

Canadian Immigrant Labour Market: Analysis by Region of Postsecondary Education

As immigrants integrate into the Canadian labour market, many initially face difficulties finding employment, reveals a new study from Statistics Cananda. The report finds that even university-educated immigrants aged 25 to 54 who arrived in Canada within the previous five years were less likely to be employed in 2007 than their Canadian born counterparts. And this was true regardless of the country in which they obtained their degree. The gap in employment rates between degree-holding immigrants and the Canadian born, however, narrowed the longer an immigrant had been in Canada. For university-educated immigrants who had landed in Canada more than 10 years earlier, their employment rate in 2007 was comparable to that of the Canadian born. http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/080717/d080717a.htm

Education

University of Saskatchewan-led Team Designs “Immune Buildings” to Combat Chemical Warfare and Diseases

Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan have opened a new engineering lab to design a ventilation system that could protect schools, hospitals, and other public buildings from chemical warfare and bioterrorist attacks. “Think of it as a complex fire alarm for industrial chemical spills, airborne diseases, and biological warfare strikes on vulnerable public spaces,” says engineering dean and lead researcher Janusz Kozinski. http://www.usask.ca/research/news/read.php?id=808&newsid=1

Simon Fraser University Fights Cybercrime

A new research centre to fight cybercrime is being established at Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus, thanks to a $350,000 grant from the provincial government.  The centre is a joint venture of SFU, the province, and the International Society for the Policing of Cyberspace (POLCYB), a B.C.-based non-profit organization established to prevent and combat crimes on the Internet. The International Cybercrime Research Centre will be headed by Bill Glackman of SFU’s School of Criminology. It will investigate online crime trends and help to develop new tools to counter cybercrime.  http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/Stories/sfunews0710080110.shtml