Indigenous Land Rights in Australia: Lessons for a Canadian Northern Corridor

The Canadian Northern Corridor (CNC) research project is currently exploring the concept of creating a pan-Canadian infrastructure corridor consisting of a multi-modal (road, rail, pipeline, electrical transmission and communication) transportation right-of-way traversing Canada’s north and near north. With a goal of connecting Canada from north to south and coast to coast to coast, the CNC, and particularly any infrastructure built within it, would necessarily directly and indirectly affect a significant number of Indigenous communities and a diverse range of constitutionally protected rights and interests. As Canada commits to implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the CNC must be conceptualized in a manner that ensures respect for the rights and interests of Indigenous communities along the corridor if it is to be a forward-looking, nation-building project

Indigenous Land Rights in Australia: Lessons for a Canadian Northern Corridor

The Canadian Northern Corridor (CNC) research project is currently exploring the concept of creating a pan-Canadian infrastructure corridor consisting of a multi-modal (road, rail, pipeline, electrical transmission and communication) transportation right-of-way traversing Canada’s north and near north. With a goal of connecting Canada from north to south and coast to coast to coast, the CNC, and particularly any infrastructure built within it, would necessarily directly and indirectly affect a significant number of Indigenous communities and a diverse range of constitutionally protected rights and interests. As Canada commits to implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the CNC must be conceptualized in a manner that ensures respect for the rights and interests of Indigenous communities along the corridor if it is to be a forward-looking, nation-building project

From Smokes to Smokestacks: Lessons from Tobacco for the Future of Climate Change Liability

In this article, we imagine a future Canada (circa 2030) wherein the world has managed to avoid the worst climate change but nevertheless has begun to experience considerable warming. Governments of all levels, but especially provincial ones, are incurring unprecedented costs to mitigate the effects of climate change and to adapt to new and uncertain climatic regimes. We then consider how legislatures might respond to these challenges. In our view, the answer may lie in the unprecedented story of tobacco liability, and especially the promulgation in the late 1990s of provincial legislation specifically designed to enable provinces to recover the public healthcare costs of tobacco-related disease. Although comparisons between the tobacco industry and the fossil-fuel industry are increasingly common, this article is the first to consider the legally-relevant differences and similarities between these two contexts in detail. It also sets out the main elements of a potential Climate Change Damages and Adaptation Costs Recovery Act. As will be seen, the design of such legislation engages several complex legal issues, implicating not only tort doctrine but also questions of legislative competence and private international law. Nevertheless, our initial assessment is that such legislation is both likely and feasible. Our analysis focuses primarily on Canadian law but should also be relevant to other jurisdictions that are increasingly grappling with the costs of climate change mitigation and adaptation

Experience with Carbon Taxes and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Systems

Carbon taxes and emissions trading systems (ETSs) to limit emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are increasingly common. At the end of 2015, 17 GHG ETSs were operational in 55 jurisdictions, and 18 jurisdictions collected at least one carbon tax. This paper assesses the performance of carbon taxes and ETSs with respect to environmental effectiveness (reduction of emissions regulated by the instrument), cost-effectiveness (marginal abatement cost), economic efficiency, public finance, and administrative issues. Data on emissions subject to carbon taxes are rarely reported. We estimate the taxed emissions for 17 taxes in 12 jurisdictions from 1991 through the end of 2015. All 17 taxes have reduced emissions relative to business-as-usual. Six of the jurisdictions actually reduced emissions, although in at least three of those jurisdictions the reductions appear to be due to other policies. The small sizes of reduction in almost all 17 cases are partially due to the low tax rates; the modest and uncertain changes in tax rates over time; and the limited response of taxed sources, such as fossil fuels, to price changes. Actual emissions declined for at least six of 10 ETSs. Other policies and developments, such as the 2009 recession, contributed to the reductions, but estimates of the share of the reduction attributable to the instrument are rare. All of the ETSs have accumulated banks of surplus allowances and most have implemented measures to reduce these banks. On average, the marginal cost of compliance is substantially lower for ETSs than carbon taxes. ETS experience has been shared bilaterally and via dedicated institutions. As a result, most ETSs have increased the share of allowances auctioned; adopted declining emissions caps; specified future caps and floor prices several years into the future; shifted to benchmarking for free allowance allocations to emissions-intensive, trade-exposed (EITE) sources; reduced accessibility to foreign offset credits; and established market stability reserves. By contrast, there is little evidence of shared learning and virtually no change to the design of carbon taxes. We found no jurisdiction that routinely tracks the taxed emissions. Very few jurisdictions regularly assess the effectiveness of the tax in achieving emission reductions. Additionally, adjustments to the tax rate often are unpredictable after an introductory period of three to five years. Both instruments reduce emissions, but ETSs have performed better than carbon taxes on the principal criteria of environmental effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. Many jurisdictions have implemented both a carbon tax and a GHG ETS, and every jurisdiction that has adopted either instrument has also implemented other policies. More research is needed to improve the design of both instruments and their interaction with non-market-based carbon policies because the use of multiple instruments produces complex interactive and distributional effects. While economically inefficient, market-based policies should be supplemented by non-market-based policies to ensure sustained political support

Aegilops sharonensis genome-assisted identification of stem rust resistance gene Sr62

The wild relatives and progenitors of wheat have been widely used as sources of disease resistance (R) genes. Molecular identification and characterization of these R genes facilitates their manipulation and tracking in breeding programmes. Here, we develop a reference-quality genome assembly of the wild diploid wheat relative Aegilops sharonensis and use positional mapping, mutagenesis, RNA-Seq and transgenesis to identify the stem rust resistance gene Sr62, which has also been transferred to common wheat. This gene encodes a tandem kinase, homologues of which exist across multiple taxa in the plant kingdom. Stable Sr62 transgenic wheat lines show high levels of resistance against diverse isolates of the stem rust pathogen, highlighting the utility of Sr62 for deployment as part of a polygenic stack to maximize the durability of stem rust resistance

Origin and evolution of the bread wheat D genome

Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) is a globally dominant crop and major source of calories and proteins for the human diet. Compared with its wild ancestors, modern bread wheat shows lower genetic diversity, caused by polyploidisation, domestication and breeding bottlenecks1,2. Wild wheat relatives represent genetic reservoirs, and harbour diversity and beneficial alleles that have not been incorporated into bread wheat. Here we establish and analyse extensive genome resources for Tausch’s goatgrass (Aegilops tauschii), the donor of the bread wheat D genome. Our analysis of 46 Ae. tauschii genomes enabled us to clone a disease resistance gene and perform haplotype analysis across a complex disease resistance locus, allowing us to discern alleles from paralogous gene copies. We also reveal the complex genetic composition and history of the bread wheat D genome, which involves contributions from genetically and geographically discrete Ae. tauschii subpopulations. Together, our results reveal the complex history of the bread wheat D genome and demonstrate the potential of wild relatives in crop improvement

Origin and evolution of the bread wheat D genome

Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) is a globally dominant crop and major source of calories and proteins for the human diet. Compared with its wild ancestors, modern bread wheat shows lower genetic diversity, caused by polyploidisation, domestication and breeding bottlenecks. Wild wheat relatives represent genetic reservoirs, and harbour diversity and beneficial alleles that have not been incorporated into bread wheat. Here we establish and analyse extensive genome resources for Tausch’s goatgrass (Aegilops tauschii), the donor of the bread wheat D genome. Our analysis of 46 Ae. tauschii genomes enabled us to clone a disease resistance gene and perform haplotype analysis across a complex disease resistance locus, allowing us to discern alleles from paralogous gene copies. We also reveal the complex genetic composition and history of the bread wheat D genome, which involves contributions from genetically and geographically discrete Ae. tauschii subpopulations. Together, our results reveal the complex history of the bread wheat D genome and demonstrate the potential of wild relatives in crop improvement

Environmental impact assessment in Nunavut: meeting Inuit needs

Bibliography: p. 266-278.The Nunavut Agreement includes development impact provisions to assess and monitor the impact of projects within the Nunavut Settlement Area. These provisions were included within the Agreement to provide Inuit with an effective role in the environmental decision making processes which directly affect them, to protect the ecosystem, and to protect traditional Inuit lifestyles, all in a more effective manner than federal legislation. This thesis argues that the Nunavut Agreement has achieved these goals, meeting or surpassing the protection which would otherwise have been afforded Inuit of Nunavut by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. A comparison of the Nunavut Agreement and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, and specifically the screening and review bodies created by the two instruments, the process triggers, the scope of assessment and the review process, provides the foundation for this argument

Rights-based 'recognition': the Canadian experience

Comparative study often provides an unexpectedly rich vein of insight in the field of Indigenous law and policy. The lessons can be elusive, often buried in contextual difference, but Australia’s wavering progress on the Constitutional recognition of Indigenous peoples provides a context in which further, tenacious comparative inquiry might prove useful. Canada is an obvious, but imperfect comparator in this context. It is imperfect because the 1982 constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and treaty rights in Canada was in legal terms a very different initiative to that being considered in Australia. Here, such a ‘rights-based’ approach to constitutional recognition has been carefully and fearfully evaded. Certainly a Canadian style formula would be unlikely to make it through the notoriously narrow gate of Australian constitutional reform. Yet the Canada-Australia constitutional comparison is still a valuable one. The Canadian wording is not the only rights-based formula that might present itself, and in any event the Canadian experience is a striking one from the perspective of any observer. Indeed the scale of the Canadian endeavour perhaps helps to put the increasingly modest Australian efforts in perspective. Moreover, whatever the jurisdictional variances, in developed and responsible nations differences in the treatment of Indigenous peoples demand rather than preclude comparison. Yet there is a more constructive element to the comparison to be undertaken here. The constitutional reform in Canada has led to some interesting and unexpected places - initially a somewhat utilitarian notion of ‘reconciliation’ and some conspicuous fresh interplay of law and politics, but also a renewed focus on fiduciary-type government obligations and a strengthening framework of consultation and consent. It is an interesting story for intending constitutional travellers. Its unexpected turns confirm the lesson from our own 1967 reform initiatives that large visions can be unpredictable in operation. But more importantly, we in Australia can perhaps deliberately point ourselves, by whatever means we can, to the best of the paths that Canada has found. These are paths that appear to be leading Canada to a growing consensus and institutional balance

From Smokes to Smokestacks: Lessons from Tobacco for the Future of Climate Change Liability

In this article, we imagine a future Canada (circa 2030) wherein the world has managed to avoid the worst climate change but nevertheless has begun to experience considerable warming. Governments of all levels, but especially provincial ones, are incurring unprecedented costs to mitigate the effects of climate change and to adapt to new and uncertain climatic regimes. We then consider how legislatures might respond to these challenges. In our view, the answer may lie in the unprecedented story of tobacco liability, and especially the promulgation in the late 1990s of provincial legislation specifically designed to enable provinces to recover the public healthcare costs of tobacco-related disease. Although comparisons between the tobacco industry and the fossil-fuel industry are increasingly common, this article is the first to consider the legally-relevant differences and similarities between these two contexts in detail. It also sets out the main elements of a potential Climate Change Damages and Adaptation Costs Recovery Act. As will be seen, the design of such legislation engages several complex legal issues, implicating not only tort doctrine but also questions of legislative competence and private international law. Nevertheless, our initial assessment is that such legislation is both likely and feasible. Our analysis focuses primarily on Canadian law but should also be relevant to other jurisdictions that are increasingly grappling with the costs of climate change mitigation and adaptation