TRUMP'S BORDER WALL FACES ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES

The process to begin a project like this is comparable to a highway or an oil pipeline, involving years of environmental study and land surveying, experts said. Trump's executive order called for a full study of the border to be completed within 180 days.

"[Surveyors have to] very precisely delineate the path that the structure is proposed to take," said Clendenin. "You got to have boots on the ground... surveying something within a foot or five feet of accuracy."

IRVING OIL & TAXPAYER HANDOUTS

The LNG terminal – which unloads natural gas from tankers that steam into Saint John’s port. The terminal is at the center of a bitter dispute pitting the region’s largest energy company, Irving Oil Ltd, against Saint John’s city hall. In so doing, it’s become a potent symbol of all the problems inherent with corporate welfare in Canada – and in New Brunswick especially.

THE BARTON REPORT

You'll have to scroll through the Advisory Council on Economic Growth (dubbed "The Barton Report") to find information on what is upcoming in policy for Canadian Agriculture. This paragraph is of interest:

To be sure, the government should first and foremost adopt policies that enable the economy as a whole to succeed, as has been the impetus for all of the Council’s recommendations. In practice, however, these policies will meet and take effect within sectors—some of which, like agfood, will benefit from additional policy focus and tailoring aimed at removing specific obstacles.

UNITED THEY STAND, DIVIDED THEY FALL

Politics in western Canada have gone sharply downhill in style, substance and strategy. Four provinces that were once united are now divided, often bitterly.

This is dangerous, because the premiers face the same old problem — the risk of being ignored, overlooked or even abused by Liberal Ottawa, which will always favour Ontario and Quebec.

ONTARIO'S GREEN ENERGY INSANITY

Ontario Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault claimed his government spent $35 billion fixing a broken electricity sector since coming to power in 2003. Premier Kathleen Wynne says it was $50 billion. But neither of them provided an accounting as to exactly what the money was spent on, and how it benefitted ratepayers.

Rex Murphy speaks up.

THE STICKY FINGERS OF GOVERNMENT

The federal government is handing over $30 million every year to Manitoba child welfare agencies, but it turns out the agencies aren't seeing a dime of that.

Manitoba's families minister admitted Friday that for the past decade, money from the federal government's children's special allowance has been taken from the agencies and given to the provincial government to be put into general revenue.

THE INSATIABLE APPETITE OF GOVERNMENT

An internal Service New Brunswick email obtained by CBC News shows senior provincial government assessment officials invented renovation amounts for 2,048 homeowners with large assessment increases this spring, allowing the province to evade a legal 10 per cent cap on the homes' property tax bills.