Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 8
Wind Power in Canada
8.1 INTRODUCTION
Canada regards herself as responsible to all mankind for the peculiar ecological balance
that now exists so precariously in the water, ice and land areas of the Arctic archipelago.
We do not doubt for a moment that the rest of the world would ind us at fault, and hold us
liable, should we fail to ensure adequate protection of that environment from pollution or
artiicial deterioration.
—Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, House of Commons Debate (October
24, 1969)
In August 2007, the ice sheets choking of Canada's Northwest Passage
receded, permitting passage without the aid of an icebreaker for the irst time
in Canada's 150-year history.
1
Although this development presents economic
opportunities, it also exposes enormous ecological threats that, 50 years ago,
former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau professed Canada should strive to
avoid. Lamentably, Canada has played a role in this environmentally invidious
development due to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions it has produced in
proliic quantities over the course of its comparatively short history.
his chapter highlights the barriers to developing a cohesive national
energy strategy in a federal system where the states—or in Canada's case,
the provinces—enjoy constitutional sovereignty over electricity generation.
More than any other case study covered in this topic, this study on Canada
demonstrates how political institutions can produce conditions that make
it diicult to fully exploit wind power potential, despite public support for
such an outcome.
As of the end of 2012, Canada boasts the ninth highest amount of
installed wind power capacity in the world.
2
Based on this statistic alone,
it is tempting to conclude that Canada's wind power development policies
