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Billions and trillions
Re Institutional investors must lead our transition to long-term sustainability (April 2): Government subsidies to the fossil fuel industry are not just $674-billion (U.S.) but a whopping $5.3-trillion (projected), according to the International Monetary Fund. In a 2015 paper, the fund calls this a conservative estimate and outlines the many perverse incentives contained in the subsidies with serious effects on economic growth and the environment.
So it shouldn't be too difficult to find the $1-trillion needed to invest in clean air, to increase funding to mitigate climate change and to reduce the effects on the poor in developing countries who suffer the most from climate change and the loss of biodiversity. Elizabeth McAllister, World Bank retiree and McLeod Group member, Ottawa
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Mind the gap
Re Trade gap swells as U.S. lull sideswipes exports (April 5): The fact that Canada's historically positive trade balances have turned negative is actually directly related to our dismal trade performance with China.
In 1988, Canada earned a $1.6-billion surplus with China, and by the end of 2015, that surplus had turned into a $45-billion deficit. During the same period, our surplus with the United States increased from $14.8-billion in 1988 to $115-billion by the end of 2015, a tenfold increase.
It's only thanks to our success in our trade with the United States that Canada was able to generate substantial surpluses, albeit substantially reduced from what Canada used to enjoy. Unfortunately, even those modest surpluses have since vanished, directly related to our grossly mismanaged relationship with China. John Bruk, North Saanich, B.C.
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Bad politics, science
Re A national carbon tax is the better way to square the liberals' deficit circle (April 1): This strategy is bad politics and bad science. A hefty carbon tax should be directed solely toward halting man-made climate change.
This means applying 100 per cent of the revenue to 1) support development and implementation of technologies to wind down man-made greenhouse-gas emissions and 2) support development of commercial methods to continuously extract existing man-made carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and permanently sequester it. Peter Gammon, St. John's
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Anesthetized
Re Ottawa has been ignoring a critical piece of trade advice for 30 years (March 26): David Wolfe is clothed in sheep's clothing when he advocates a 1970s-style industrial policy in the guise of a 21st-century model for the challenges of our technology-intensive industries.
A small, open economy like Canada's can no longer protect itself from international competition by opting out of elements of the Trans-Pacific Partnership or other market-opening trade deals. It's folly to think otherwise, especially in technology services trade, which cannot be stopped at the border.
On the contrary, too little competition has anesthetized Canadian business from adopting innovation-based strategies. For a refresher, Mr. Wolfe should acquaint himself with the Council of Canadian Academies study Paradox Lost: Explaining Canada's Research Strength And Innovation Weakness. Andrei Sulzenko, Ottawa