Expert Q&A: How blended finance can help Canadian communities unlock capital for impact - UVic News

Insurance and guarantees made up 14% of concessional support, but projects still have to be able to pay their own way Blended finance will not close the climate funding gap in emerging markets on credit enhancement alone, according to a new Moody’s Ratings report, which says deals scale only when projects progressively become commercially viable. Insurers appear on both sides of that equation, as providers of credit and political risk cover that makes deals investable and as buyers of the bonds that let them scale.

Larry Smith inherited his love of Philly sports from his parents. Now, in a family of five, he’s watching that love take on a whole new meaning. Philly sports are a family affair. / Photographs courtesy of Larry SmithOn a September night in 2023, the 13-year-old in my house had a question: “Is this the Super Bowl?” My son and I were doing what Philadelphia sports fans do when our team is playing: inhaling pretzels and popcorn and beer and soda and cheering and screaming like it was the most important event of our lives. It was actually game two of the 17-game football season, but to the 13-year-old (called Bean), who at the time didn’t know a Philadelphia Eagle from a Philly cheesesteak, the world my son and I inhabited during a Thursday night football game was a strange, new universe. Four months earlier, Bean, their older sister, Leela, 15, my son, Lukas, 12, and my partner, Melanie, had entered that universe together as a blended family. The kids weren’t exactly strangers — Melanie and I had been dating for a few years.

The 20th annual Cape to Cabot road race is taking place tomorrow. The grueling 20 km trek sees participants running from one historic landmark to another: From Cape Spear to Cabot Tower on top of Signal Hill. The race starts at 8 a.m., and because of that there are a few related road closures in St. John’s. Between 7:45 and 11a.m. there will be numerous road closures along the route. A full list can be found online at VOCM dot com. Expect traffic impacts from 7:45 a.m. to 11 a.m. on routes including Blackhead Road, Southside Road, Water Street, Harbour Drive, Duckworth Street, Temperance Street and Signal Hill Road.

On Monday, Albertans vote on whether to stay in Canada or hold another binding referendum on quitting Canada. If the vote goes as polls suggest, a majority of Albertans will mark an X to stay in Confederation, and Premier Danielle Smith has said if that’s so, she expects everyone to accept it and move on. Leaders of the independence movement contest that. And political watchers are divided about whether separation — previously a fringe sentiment — will now be a prominent, permanent feature of Alberta’s political landscape, as in Quebec. Julian Castro-Rea, a political-science professor at the University of Alberta who studies the separation debates in Quebec and Alberta, believes as long as Alberta feels alienated from the Canadian capital — feeling that Ottawa benefits from Alberta’s resource economy without giving back — the movement will have fuel. “Even if the referendum is lost, the westernization will still be around, because it’s kind of a way which, traditionally, Albertans have related to the rest of Canada,” says Castro-Rea, who believes western alienation may remain indefinitely. Story continues below advertisement