Ecological Fiscal Reform

Canadian Tire has admitted its stores have been charging consumers too much for eco fees since they came into effect on July 1. The company says it was the result of a computer glitch.

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The Sierra Club of Canada says the program is important because hazardous material that isn't disposed of properly can become a health and environmental risk.

"Our water waste management systems aren't designed to capture those (hazardous materials) and process them out. (The systems) are about sanitizing, so they tend to go right through the system and end up in our drinking water, so we are drinking a watered down version of it," said John Bennett, executive director of the Sierra Club.

About a year ago, Alberta’s then-finance minister Iris Evans made a bold prediction while waist-deep in a global recession: Alberta, Canada’s economic engine, would shed only 15,000 jobs in 2009. And by 2010, the province’s economy would be well on its way to recovery.

In the ensuing 14 months, 84,000 Albertans have lost their jobs — more than five times Evans’s optimistic prediction — many who had worked in the province’s bread-and-butter industry: oil and gas. But environmental groups say there is a solution to Alberta’s boom-bust energy economy: Renewable energy.
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