Veteran Arctic journalist and author, Ed Struzik will be presenting his latest book, The Big Thaw: Travels in the Melting North. Showcasing photographs from his eleven trips throughout the north, he documents the profound changes to the shape of the Arctic as it stands at the frontlines of global warming, and its possible future as the center of international struggle, underground smuggling and ecological disaster.

About the Author
Ed Struzik is a naturalist-turned journalist who has spent the better part of the past 29 years focusing on the Arctic. He is the recipient of more than 30 awards for his writing including the Knight Science Fellowship at Harvard and MIT, the Southam Fellowship at the University of Toronto and the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy. Ed Struzik currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta.

Peter Victor challenges the priority that rich countries continue to give to economic growth as an over-arching objective of economic policy. The challenge is based on a critical analysis of the literature on environmental and resource limits to growth, on the disconnect between higher incomes and happiness, and on the failure of economic growth to meet other key economic, social and environmental policy objectives.

Well known Canadian journalist and author, Andrew Nikiforuk will be discussing his latest book, Tar Sands. The book is a critical exposé of the open-pit mines that have made Canada one of the worst environmental offenders on earth.

While the world goes green, Canada has elected to go black into the tar. The frenzied development ($100 billion and counting) of the tar sands in Fort McMurray, Alberta, in the last six years has made Canada the world’s fifth greatest global exporter of oil and turned the country into "an emerging energy superpower."

Combining extensive scientific research and compelling writing, Andrew Nikiforuk takes the reader to Fort McMurray, home to some of the world’s largest open-pit mines, and explores this twenty-first-century pioneer town from the exorbitant cost of housing to its more serious social ills. He uncovers a global Deadwood, complete with rapturous engineers, cut-throat cocaine dealers, aimless bush workers, American evangelicals, and the largest population of homeless people in northern Canada. He also explains that this micro-economy supplies gasoline for 50 percent of Canadian vehicles and 16 percent of U.S. demand.

Readers will learn that tar sands:

• burn more carbon than conventional oil,
• destroy forests and displace woodland caribou,
• poison the water supply and communities downstream,
• drain the Athabasca, the river that feeds Canada’s largest watershed, and
• contribute to climate change.

The book does provide hope, however, and ends with an exploration of possible solutions to the problem.

About the Author
Andrew Nikiforuk is a well-known Canadian journalist whose work has appeared in Saturday Night, Maclean's, Canadian Business, Report on Business, Chatelaine, Equinox, and Canadian Family and in both national newspapers. His books include Pandemonium, Saboteurs, which won a Governor-General's Award, and Fourth Horseman. He lives in Calgary, Alberta.

Refineries in the Great Lakes Basin are rapidly expanding to accommodate crude oil from the Alberta oil sands. This conference, "How the Oil Sands Got to the Great Lakes Basin: Pipelines, Refineries and Emissions to Air And Water," was intended to provide an opportunity, in a university setting, to inform public opinion about the impacts of refinery expansion in the Basin, drawing on data analysis, shared information and public discussion. Emphasis was placed on the cumulative effect of refinery expansions on water quality, air quality and human and non-human downwind communities in the Basin. The conference provided a bilateral opportunity for interactive public comment and dialogue from experts involved in a wide range of disciplines.

The conference began with a presentation of the conference paper by the author, journalist David Israelson. Panel members representing government, environmental sciences, law, non-government organizations, academia, industry and the business community shared points of view on issues relating to the refinery expansion.

The discussion was webcast live and a record of the conference proceedings, including questions and answers, is now available on the POWI website for on-demand viewing (see link below).

Conference Agenda
Conference Paper
Webcast (Archived)

On Friday, May 16, 2008 from 9:00-10:30 AM the Library of Parliament convened a seminar on A Model Act to Preserve Canada's Water that was released by the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies earlier this year.

This paper was prepared by the Canadian Water Issues Council (CWIC). The discussion was hosted by the Program on Water Issues at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto.

Few public policy objectives command greater consensus in Canada than the principle that Canada should not permit the bulk removal of freshwater from its natural basins. Recent reports argue strongly that Canada is not doing all it can to protect our water resources.

"A Model Act for Preserving Canada's Waters" was prepared by the Canadian Water Issues Council (CWIC) in association with the Program on Water Issues at the Munk Centre to address the need for federal action. The discussion of the paper focused on the central public policy question: are there options available to Canada to deter bulk water removals that are both consistent with Canada's trade obligations and desirable from other public policy perspectives?

This discussion was webcast live on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 (9:30 AM EST). An archived version is now available along with French and English audio recordings.

The Program on Water Issues at the Munk Centre for International Studies hosted the following book presentation on November 26, 2007: The Economics of Happiness: Building Genuine Wealth (Speaker: Mark Anielski).

The Program on Water Issues at the Munk Centre for International Studies hosted the following book presentation on November 14, 2007: Hot Air: Meeting Canada's Climate Change Challenge (Speaker: Jeffrey Simpson).

Drawing on expertise from various perspectives, this "day of discussion" was designed to raise issues and stimulate dialogue on emerging domestic, bilateral and continental water policies of significance to Canadians. It focused on the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) that many contend is a blueprint for both the deep economic integration of Canada, the United States and Mexico, as well as a sharing of continental energy.