Tausi Insider

Construction workers on the top floor of the Time and Space condominium project in Toronto on Oct. 11. Fred Lum/Tausi Insider Canada’s federal housing agency is lending billions of dollars to boost construction of rental homes without routinely disclosing the recipients of the money or where the units are being built, shrouding in secrecy a program designed to address the country’s housing shortfall by providing developers with low-cost financing. The Rental Construction Financing Initiative is one of Ottawa’s major efforts to boost home construction. It was announced in 2016 with $2.5-billion in funding, which has grown to more than $25-billion, making it the largest program in the government’s National Housing Strategy, a bundle of different initiatives intended to improve access to affordable units. RCFI is administered by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which as of this summer had committed to $13.6-billion in loans through the program. The developers receiving the m...

A totem pole is pictured outside the Kinder Morgan Burnaby Terminal and Tank Farm in Burnaby, B.C., on June 20, 2019. JASON REDMOND/AFP/Getty Images Robert Merasty is the executive director of the Indigenous Resource Network and former chief of Flying Dust First Nation. With the continuing global energy crisis, Canada is looking at ways to fast-track resource development infrastructure. For example, the federal government’s recent fiscal update provided $1.28-billion to improve its response time in assessing major projects. While this could help Ottawa in its regulatory approval process, there’s still a piece missing: The industry needs more support from Indigenous communities if it wants to move projects along quicker. The federal government has said multiple times that its duty to consult with Indigenous communities affected by mega-projects does not equal to their having a veto. But time and again, Indigenous opposition has been a major force in stopping or delaying energy infra...

A monster Canadian National Railways locomotive on Nov. 11, 1926. John Boyd/Tausi Insider Jackie Forrest is the executive director of the ARC Energy Research Institute and co-host of the ARC Energy Ideas podcast, a weekly show that explains the latest trends and news in Canadian energy and beyond. Slashing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions to 40 per cent to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050 is no small endeavour. Think long electricity transmission lines, carbon pipelines, hydrogen facilities and new critical mineral mines. The green shift will require hundreds of billions of dollars in new investments across the country. It’s kind of like Canada’s first megaproject, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). CP-T It, too, was a colossal undertaking to build infrastructure across this vast, sparsely populated land from coast to coast. It, too, faced huge challenges. But where they differ is that, despite all its challenges and the technological limitations...

The Canadian government on Wednesday approved an expansion to TC Energy’s TRP-T NOVA Gas Transmission Ltd (NGTL) pipeline system in Alberta, which will help improve market access for western Canadian natural gas. The West Path Delivery 2023 (WP2023) project will add about 40 kilometres of new natural gas pipeline to the existing 25,000-kilometre NGTL system, which ships gas across Canada and to U.S. markets. It is part of a $1.2-billion expansion program first announced by TC in 2019, and underpinned by approximately 258 million cubic feet per day of new long-term firm service contracts. Canadian natural gas production has grown to record levels of nearly 18 billion cubic feet per day, but congestion on export pipelines has left gas stranded in Alberta and British Columbia, resulting in volatile market moves and deep prices discounts. Federal natural resources minister Jonathan Wilkinson approved the project with 34 conditions related to environmental protections and the involvement ...

Oil rig floorhands from Akita Drilling at Cenovus Energy's Christina Lake SAGD project, south of Fort McMurray, Alta., on Aug. 15, 2013. Todd Korol/Reuters Cenovus Energy Inc. CVE-T has forecast a bump in its capital spending next year, as the Calgary-based company looks to increase both oil production and refining. The move reflects a wider trend among fossil fuel companies, many of which have cautiously raised forecast capital spending after reaping record profits because of sky-high global energy prices. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., for example, announced last week it expected to spend $5.2-billion in its capital budget next year to help grow production, and Suncor Energy Inc. also forecast higher capital expenditures. Alex Pourbaix, the president and chief executive officer of Cenovus, said in an interview Tuesday that most of the oil and gas industry has been cautious about increasing capital spending over the past two years. But he said he expects that to change. “Almos...

Oil rig floorhands from Akita Drilling at Cenovus Energy's Christina Lake SAGD project, south of Fort McMurray, Alta., on Aug. 15, 2013. Todd Korol/Reuters Cenovus Energy Inc. CVE-T has forecast a bump in its capital spending next year, as the Calgary-based company looks to increase both oil production and refining. The move reflects a wider trend among fossil fuel companies, many of which have cautiously raised forecast capital spending after reaping record profits because of sky-high global energy prices. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., for example, announced last week it expected to spend $5.2-billion in its capital budget next year to help grow production, and Suncor Energy Inc. also forecast higher capital expenditures. Alex Pourbaix, the president and chief executive officer of Cenovus, said in an interview Tuesday that most of the oil and gas industry has been cautious about increasing capital spending over the past two years. But he said he expects that to change. “Almos...

Maurice Moreau, Glencore Canada Environmental Management Systems Lead for Ontario and Quebec, holds nickel samples at the Glencore facility at Quebec Port in Limoilou on Aug. 17. Stephanie Foden/Tausi Insider Ottawa is vowing to cut red tape in the mining sector in an attempt to move large resource projects along faster, after facing intense criticism that Canada risks being left behind in the global scramble to secure critical minerals. In the federal government’s long-awaited critical minerals strategy, unveiled on Friday, Ottawa acknowledged that getting a Canadian mine for the minerals into production can take up to 25 years. That is far slower than other international mining jurisdictions that Canada competes against, such as Australia, in which projects are developed in a fraction of that time. “We recognize that, although responsible regulations are vital, complex regulatory and permitting processes can hinder the economic competitiveness of the sector and increase investment ...

Pakistan’s Supreme Court endorsed on Friday a settlement for Barrick Gold ABX-T to resume mining at the Reko Diq project, one of the world’s largest underdeveloped sites of copper and gold deposits, it said in an order. The endorsement was a condition of the settlement for Barrick to resume work on the project in the southwestern province of Balochistan, bordering Afghanistan and Iran, in which it will invest $10 billion. Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, the head of a five-judge panel, read out the operative part of the brief order in court. “The agreements … have not been found by us to be unconstitutional or illegal on the parameters and grounds spelt out,” read the order seen by Reuters. President Arif Alvi had asked the court to review the deal. In an out of court agreement this year, Barrick Gold ended a long-running dispute with Pakistan, and agreed to restart development. Under the deal, the company withdrew its case in an international arbitration court, which had slapped a pe...

To steal a phrase from supermodel Linda Evangelista, who wouldn’t wake up for photo shoots that paid less than $10,000 a day, investment bankers at global platforms such as RBC Capital Markets and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. don’t typically get out of bed to split a $1-million fee. Yet RBC RY-T and Goldman GS-N – firms built for billion-dollar financings – put their muscle and brands behind a $23-million stock sale last month for junior miner Frontier Lithium Inc FL-X. The bought deal, initially pitched as a $20-million offering then upsized because of investor demand, earned the two lead dealers and four other banks just $1.1-million. The Frontier financing highlights how the biggest banks are jockeying for position in critical minerals and the emerging supply chain for electric vehicle batteries. RBC and Goldman won lead roles last month raising money for a company that previously worked with small-cap mining specialists Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. and BMO Capital Markets, which co-l...

A construction worker walks past the steam generating facility at the Cenovus Foster Creek SAGD oil sands operations near Cold Lake, Alta., in 2012. The company is part of Pathways, a group of six companies responsible for about 95 per cent of oil sands production. Todd Korol/Reuters A coalition of oil sands companies eyeing a massive new emissions-reduction project in northern Alberta will this winter begin exploratory drilling of underground reservoirs in which it hopes to store captured carbon, as part of its goal to produce net-zero oil by 2050. But Kendall Dilling, president of the Pathways Alliance, said there’s still another year or two of project development and applications for regulatory approvals before the planned carbon capture project hopefully gets the green light. The multibillion-dollar proposal includes a pipeline to gather captured carbon from more than 20 oil sands facilities and move it to an underground storage hub near Cold Lake, Alta. “We want to turn dirt and...

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault takes part in a news conference in Ottawa, on Sept. 15. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press The federal government is blocking development of Glencore’s Sukunka open-pit metallurgical coal mine project located near Tumbler Ridge, B.C. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says the scientific evidence gathered in assessing the proposal showed that its negative impacts were significant and could not be mitigated. The project assessment by British Columbia raised concerns about southern mountain caribou and its critical habitat, grizzly bear mortality and the discharge of mercury and selenium. Glencore had proposed the construction and operation of an open-pit mine that would have produced three million tonnes of hard coking coal per year for export to overseas markets. The mine life of the project was expected to be more than 20 years. The government says the decision does not prevent Glencore, or others, from submitting new project proposals and does...

Mariano Abarca is shown in this still image taken from 2009 video in Chicomuselo, Chiapas. Dominique Jarry-Shore/The Canadian Press The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal from family and supporters of a Mexican activist who was killed after opposing a Canadian company’s mining project. The applicants had asked the top court to review a federal ombudsman’s decision not to investigate the matter. The case stretches back to 2007 when Calgary-based Blackfire Exploration Ltd. opened a barite mine in Chiapas, Mexico, prompting local opposition, demonstrations and a blockade of a route to the project. After being beaten and threatened with death for leading protests over the mine’s environmental and social effects, activist Mariano Abarca was fatally shot outside his home in November 2009. Members of Abarca’s family and organizations concerned with mining abuses asked the public sector integrity commissioner in 2018 to probe whether there was wrongdoing by members of the Canadi...

The U.S. Department of Energy on Friday announced a conditional loan of $700 million to an Australian mining company to pursue a proposed lithium project in Nevada, as the U.S. seeks domestic supplies for a key component in electric vehicle batteries. The move ups the ante in what’s already a high-stakes battle over President Joe Biden’s energy agenda and conservationists fighting to protect an endangered wildflower found only at the proposed mine site on a high desert ridge halfway between Reno and Las Vegas. Ioneer Ltd. has hoped to begin mining at Rhyolite Ridge by 2026 in Esmerelda County. The Energy announcement said the site could produce enough lithium to support production of about 370,000 electric vehicles annually for decades. The loan would be the latest project to demonstrate the Biden administration’s commitment to strengthen the nation’s battery supply chain, electrify the transportation sector and cut reliance on fossil fuels and foreign supplies of raw materials, the ...

Interest in undeveloped land and the money spent building homes has skyrocketed in B.C. J.P. MOCZULSKI/Tausi Insider There’s a scene that plays out all too often at Gerald Christie’s regional district office: Someone will walk in with high hopes to build their dream home on an undeveloped piece of property they just bought, only to find out the massive financial hurdles they didn’t realize they’ll face. Mr. Christie, manager of development services for the Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) in Salmon Arm, B.C., said those owners could have saved themselves a lot of grief if they’d done their due diligence. Interest in undeveloped land and the money spent building homes has skyrocketed in that part of the province’s Interior. The CSRD issued 1,187 building and planning permits between 2016 and 2019. That number nearly doubled to 2,177 permits for the period from January, 2020 to November, 2022. In larger regions such as the Greater Toronto Area, undeveloped land remains a fasci...