Last day of the @nationalobserver.com fundraiser! We're $27,000 short of our goal for the Climate Solutions Reporting Project. If you've been thinking about donating, today's the day. Help us get this across the finish line: www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/124263

We had an awesome year @nationalobserver.com! So excited for the work we have planned for the New Year!!

NEW FROM ME:“We have a federal [industrial pricing] backstop that we should be willing to enforce if provinces aren't willing to do what they're supposed to,” said @stevenguilbeault.bsky.social “It's in federal law. I don't understand why we're not doing it." www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/18/n...

This story is such a great example of one of the use cases for Civic Searchlight. By searching across municipalities, @natashabulowski.bsky.social was able to build a far more comprehensive picture of data centre debates than we could have done even a year ago.

Across Alberta, municipalities are weighing the pros and cons of hosting AI data centres. I used @nationalobserver.com's Civic Searchlight tool to figure out which towns are looking at data centres and dig into how they are thinking about the costs & benefits www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/16/n...

It's not just Kevin O'Leary's big (stalled) project: using Civic Searchlight, @natashabulowski.bsky.social got inside the data centre debates happening across Alberta, from the prairies to mountain towns.

📣 We're calling on Vancouver city councillors to reject a plan that would introduce a $10 fee on freedom of information requests at its upcoming council meeting today. #cdnfoi caj.ca/vancouver-ci...

Employment in oil and gas is in terminal decline and won’t be saved no matter what Carney and Smith cook up, according to new research from the Centre for Future Work provided exclusively to @nationalobserver.com. The only responsible choice for governments is to plan for the transition.

Amazing work here by @rorywh.bsky.social: an AI slop factory churning out thousands of videos and posts on everything from climate denial to lizard people is, essentially, just going where the money is now. Rory tracked down the Canadian rapper running the page.

NEW: Hundreds of public servants are being let go at federal agencies that monitor climate risks, @natashabulowski.bsky.social reports

Thanks to Front Burner and @jaymepoisson.bsky.social for having @maxfawcett.bsky.social and myself on to sort through what to make of Carney’s climate retreats. Crucial topic right now.

The Net-Zero Advisory Body is *legally* mandated to consult on Canada’s climate plans but has been completely ignored by Carney and Dabrusin. It appears that it is being bled dry — and now two of its most prominent members have quit in frustration.

For the feds, what the MOU means depends on who you are talking to on any given day, which is as much a comms problem as it is a substantive policy problem if it leaves industry, potential investors & even government MPs confused, writes @supriya.bsky.social www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/03/o...

Steven Guilbeault tells @woodsideful.bsky.social about his decision to leave cabinet over the pipeline deal: “When the agreement came out someone texted me saying, ‘The only thing missing from the agreement is Pierre Poilievre's signature,’ and I went yeah, I think that sums it up."

In @stevenguilbeault.bsky.social’s first English-media interview since resigning over the pipeline MOU with Alberta, the former cabinet minister said the government isn’t being honest with the public and is betraying its commitments.

For some First Nations leaders, the prospect of conflict with provincial and federal governments over plans to send another pipeline to the B.C. coast brings back vivid memories of years past. For many youth, it’s a whole new call to action. #cdnpoli www.thestar.com/politics/fed...

In another rebuke of the Alberta-Ottawa MOU, UCP delegates passed a motion calling on the provincial government to abandon all “net-zero laws, regulations, policies and agreements.” @readtheorchard.org for @nationalobserver.com www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/01/n...

Environment minister Julie Dabrusin was grilled on whether she supports a new oil pipeline by both the Bloc Québécois and Conservatives at a committee meeting Monday morning. Dabrusin would not say whether a new oil pipeline would increase GHGs. www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/01/n...

Doug Ford has scrapped legislation that required large buildings in Toronto to install green roofs. I wanted to see how this bylaw has transformed the tip tops of the city since it was introduced in 2009. Here's one example. For @nationalobserver.com

Carney is reportedly preparing to push forward a pipeline to the coast. Catherine McKenna has been here before, and has some words of warning.

BC Liberal MP Will Greaves said the feedback he's getting from constituents "is almost universally opposed to lifting the tanker ban and is deeply skeptical of building another pipeline to tidewater through the central interior of BC." @nationalobserver.com www.nationalobserver.com/2025/11/26/n...

Carney is blowing up his own coalition with this pipeline stuff. You can tell from the Liberal MPs comments they're not happy, their constituents aren't happy, and if Carney pursues this path he'll ignite way more opposition than he's bargaining for.

“If we don’t have the resources to deal with a smaller vessel like this, how are we ever going to respond to a supertanker full of bitumen?”

BC and First Nations must be consulted on possible changes to the federal ban on oil tankers off the province's northwest coast, Liberal MPs say, as Alberta and Ottawa work towards an agreement that could reportedly involve a new bitumen pipeline. @natashabulowski.bsky.social reports.

In a bid to eliminate "red tape," the Carney budget just stripped away one of the few ways Canadian regulators review the pesticides that go on your food.

The chaos and confidence votes on the federal budget forced ministers to leave critical international climate negotiations a week early, right as negotiations are going down to the wire. From me and @woodsideful.bsky.social www.nationalobserver.com/2025/11/19/n...

New from me and @natashabulowski.bsky.social on Carney's decision today to refer Ksi Lisims LNG, which would require a new gas pipeline snaking through Indigenous territory without consent, to the Major Projects Office. Expect more court challenges to this carbon bomb in the months ahead.

Vancouver residents are having a huge, negative reaction to Mayor Ken Sim's proposed 2026 budget and alleged plans to eliminate the city's sustainbility department. More than 630 people registered to speak and the meetings will likely stretch into next week www.nationalobserver.com/2025/11/13/n...

With everything going on these days, it’s easy to miss when local governments get up to some sketchy stuff. Take Vancouver, where Mayor Ken Sims is planning to eliminate the city’s sustainability and climate department!!! Yes, really. My partners at @nationalobserver.com have the scoop:

Worth noting that because Sim brought forward his proposal for a property tax freeze requiring millions in cuts with just weeks left in the budget process, this is not up for public debate and is not outlined in the documents available to councillors when they vote on this

SCOOP: Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is planning to eliminate the city's sustainability and climate department under the guise of a push to prevent increases to property taxes in his proposed 2026 budget. Great source work by Marc Fawcett-Atkinson to uncover this www.nationalobserver.com/2025/11/11/n...

This is MAJOR!

Alberta and Saskatchewan cited their ongoing conversations with the feds when asked to comment on aspects of the federal budget that suggest the provinces will have to fall in line with the federal industrial carbon price. www.nationalobserver.com/2025/11/06/n...

Since April's election, oil and gas lobbyists notched at least 177 meetings with federal officials — a third of which were in September alone. If the budget is any indication, they successfully persuaded Mark Carney's government.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget did not deliver new investments on climate or clean tech. In fact, some experts say it takes a step backwards.

Communities on Vancouver Island have been asking for changes to how privately managed forests work for years. The BC government confirmed to CNO that those changes are not coming.

In response to Alberta’s use of the notwithstanding clause, labour groups are vowing retaliation. Danielle Smith's attack on bargaining rights has unions raising the spectre of a general strike: pressprogress.ca/alberta-labo...

Even after Ontario's disastrous experience with Trump, BC Premier David Eby will run his own anti-tariff ads in the US. His office said the prime minister has not been consulted on the ads, @natashabulowski.bsky.social reports.

At a time when fossil fuel projects are part of Ottawa’s nation-building agenda, new research shows climate impacts driven by burning fossil fuels could cause more damage to GDP than previously thought. via @natashabulowski.bsky.social www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/29/n...

NEW from me: The funding agreement for the national public alerting system for extreme weather, air quality, wildfires and other threats, expires on Aug. 31, 2026, and “urgent action" is required to sustain Canada's alerting capabilities, reveals an ATIP www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/28/n...

Climate and energy policy could emerge as a wedge issue during the federal NDP leadership contest, said poli sci prof David McGrane. These fissures have existed within the NDP for years, and the leadership contest could settle the matter. www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/24/n...

Climate and energy could become wedge issue in NDP leadership contest by @natashabulowski.bsky.social @nationalobserver.com www.nationalobserver.com/2025/10/24/n...

Firefighters, wildfire survivors and climate advocates are calling on the government to provide more long-term funding for firefighters, rural communities and Indigenous land guardians — and block new fossil fuel projects.

Alberta's "hyperloop" proposal is in limbo, with no visible progress and a discouraging Transport Canada study. But an Alberta government master plan could put some momentum behind the unproven, risky technology, @natashabulowski.bsky.social reports.

Ever heard of Measurement Canada? This regulatory agency ensures the accuracy of commercial and retail measurements, including gasoline, electricity and even groceries. But it's highly specialized operations could be threatened by climate change www.nationalobserver.com/2025/09/26/n...

It's the first landfill proposal in the province selected for fast-tracking under Premier Doug Ford's newly enacted Bill 5 — which makes the project immune to many of the checks and balances it would otherwise face. Great story here from @matinsarfraz.bsky.social

Important deep dive on who sits on the major projects Indigenous Advisory Council from @natashabulowski.bsky.social. Crucial point, Indigenous advisors cannot be a substitution for genuine consultation as Carney pursues his major projects agenda. www.nationalobserver.com/2025/09/25/n...

The courtyard in the middle of the Louvre was once a parking lot. Like so much of downtown Paris though, it's been wrested from cars and returned to human beings. I went there to see what that feels like. My new column:

#StarExclusive: Tesla used an automated system to make a run on the bank of Canada’s dwindling EV subsidies, outmanoeuvring Canadian dealerships that filed claims manually and were left short millions of dollars, the Star has learned.