Book about Canadian pipelines wins $50K Donner Prize for best book on public policy

Former TransCanada executive Dennis McConaghy has won the 2020 Donner Prize for his book Breakdown. 

The $50,000 award recognizes the best public policy book by a Canadian.

Breakdown looks at the ongoing debate over pipelines and explores the tensions between the opposing sides of the issue through economic, environmental and political perspectives.

Front Burner20:18Debating Canada's energy and climate future

The shelving of the Teck Resources Frontier project — an oilsands mine twice the size of Vancouver — has many arguing over the right balance between climate action and resource development. Today on Front Burner, we get two viewpoints on Canada's energy future: former TransCanada executive Dennis McConaghy and Stand.earth program director Tzeporah Berman. McConaghy says Canada is punishing itself while the rest of the world continues to profit off hydrocarbons. Berman believes markets and political leaders are turning the page on fossil fuels and Canada needs to do the same.

"It addresses arguably one of the most contentious and consequential sets of policy issues facing Canada today — the nexus of resource development, climate change, Indigenous rights and Alberta alienation. It presents the history of four pipeline projects and overlays the political decisions that have resulted in many projects not being supported or being delayed significantly," the jury said in a statement. 

"McConaghy outlines several pragmatic strategies that can be used to reduce or remove the bottleneck to move large infrastructure projects forward (or create earlier certainty that they should not) so that investment (domestic and foreign) will be attracted to Canada."

The shortlist and winner was chosen from 74 submissions by the jury.

The 2020 jury was comprised of economist David A. Dodge, engineer Elizabeth Cannon, economist and professor Jean-Marie Dufour, business leader Brenda Eaton and academic and former MLA in the Nova Scotia legislature, Peter Nicholson. 

Trans Mountain purchase

7 years ago

Duration 7:14

Dennis McConaghy and Gwyn Morgan on the federal government's move to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline.

The remaining finalists will receive $7,500 each. They were Empty Planet by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson, Living With China by Wendy Dobson, The Wealth of First Nations by Thomas Flanagan and The Tangled Garden by Richard Stursberg with Stephen Armstrong.

The Donner Prize was founded in 1998. Past winners include Donald J. Savoie for What Is Government Good At?, Doug Saunders for Arrival City and David E. Smith for The People's House of Commons.