Archives: RGI Blog

Wednesday, June 2, 2021

The Dog that Doesn’t Bark – A Case Study on Federal Regulation of Industrial Air Pollution in Canada

By Mike Beale RGI’s latest case study[1] The Dog that Doesn’t Bark -- Federal Regulation of Industrial Air Pollution in Canada pays homage to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes.  In a well-known story, Holmes solved a murder mystery by pointing to the “curious incident of the dog in the night-time”.  “The dog... More

Monday, June 15, 2020

Canada’s Fisheries Act – A Case Study on the Evolution of Canada’s Federal Water Pollution Regime

By Mike Beale RGI’s new case study, Canada’s Fisheries Act: the Evolution of a Modern Pollution Prevention Regulatory Regime tells the story of how Canada’s federal water pollution regime evolved over a 150 year period to what it is today. For those not immersed in this issue, the Fisheries Act is the legal basis... More

Friday, February 14, 2020

How I Spent Last Summer

By Mike Beale Last summer I had the occasion to immerse myself in the world of public policy as seen through an academic lens. I had agreed to participate as a panelist at an academic conference, and review three textbooks from my practitioner’s perspective. I must admit, I didn’t fully appreciate at the time... More

Friday, May 10, 2019

Coal-fired Electricity – The Story

Mike Beale A bit like Tolstoy’s unhappy families (see Anna Karenina), every regulation has its own story, and its own set of lessons. Coal-Fired Electricity – a Regulatory Case Study, in a Narrative of Canada-US Harmonization tells the story of Canada’s first federal regulations targeting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from stationary... More

Monday, April 29, 2019

Looking Behind the Label: How Transparent are Eco and Ethical Labels?

Philip Schleifer, Matteo Fiorini and Graeme Auld Pretty much every product one buys these days includes some form of label noting an ethical or environmental claim. The coffee you might buy, for instance, may carry a fairtrade label, or the label of the Rainforest Alliance, or a company’s own label, all of which are... More

Monday, April 29, 2019

Regulatory Reform: The Search for the Elusive Silver Bullet

Michael Presley Over the years, Governments of all stripes around the world have tried to come to grips with the fact that their regulatory systems need to be refined if not overhauled.  Recognition of the importance of regulatory reform will only increase as time passes because it remains one of the most important aspects... More

Monday, April 29, 2019

Where I’m Coming From…

Mike Beale. Hi. Let me introduce myself. I recently departed Environment and Climate Change Canada having spent my career working in environmental and energy policy, the last 13 years of which in a senior environmental regulatory position, and now enjoy the title of Practitioner-in-Residence at Carleton’s School of Public Policy and... More

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