Lawrence Solomon, Policy Director

Lawrence Solomon is one of Canada’s leading environmentalists. His book, The Conserver Solution (Doubleday), which popularized the Conserver Society concept in the late 1970s, became the manual for those interested in incorporating environmental factors into economic life.

An advisor to President Carter’s Task Force on the Global Environment (the Global 2000 Report) in the late 1970′s, he has since been at the forefront of movements to reform foreign aid, stop nuclear power expansion, save the world’s rainforests and convert free roads to toll roads. He is a columnist with National Post (Toronto) and has been a columnist for the Globe and Mail (Toronto), a syndicated columnist, a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and the editor and publisher of the award-winning The Next City magazine.

He is author or co-author of seven books, including Energy Shock (Doubleday), In the Name of Progress (Doubleday), Breaking Up Ontario Hydro’s Monopoly (Energy Probe), Power at What Cost (Doubleday), Toronto Sprawls (University of Toronto Press) and, most recently, The Deniers (Richard Vigilante Books).

Mr. Solomon is a founder and managing director of Energy Probe Research Foundation and the executive director of its Energy Probe and Urban Renaissance Institute divisions. He also helped found the World Rainforest Movement, Friends of the Earth Canada, and Lake Ontario Waterkeepers.

Mr. Solomon’s 1982 model for electricity reform was adopted in the UK in 1989, leading to the demise of nuclear and coal power in the UK and its adoption of high efficiency natural gas technologies. His model has since become the dominant model for electricity sector restructuring in the world. His recommendations in the late 1980s and early 1990s for reforms in Ontario’s natural gas sector contributed to an industry restructuring that yielded both economic and environmental benefits.

His 1996 model for the satellite tolling of roads has been adopted throughout the European Union. He holds patents for toll road technology for the EU, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico, and Brazil.

Previous Employees

Brady Yauch, Executive Director and Economist

Brady Yauch was an economist at the Consumer Policy Institute (CPI). He has appeared before federal parliamentary committees, as well as regulatory boards, such as the Ontario Energy Board. He has published extensively in trade magazines and newspapers, including the Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun and Winnipeg Free Press, among others. He has also appeared in both radio and television news channels to discuss energy issues. He holds a Masters in Economics from York University and a Masters in Writing and Cultural Politics from the University of Edinburgh. Prior to coming to CPI, Brady worked at the financial TV station Business News Network (BNN) and previously as a researcher and consultant at Probe International and Energy Probe where he wrote on a wide range of subjects, with a focus on foreign aid policies and the carbon credit markets.