A train station, a barracks and a dairy are among the 10 buildings in the South West that were granted protected status in 2025.
Historic England (HE) listed nine buildings across Devon and one in Cornwall on the National Heritage List for England for their special architectural, historic or archaeological interest.
There are more than 400,000 buildings, sites and landscapes on the list and 199 places across England were added to the list over the past year.
Claudia Kenyatta and Emma Squire, co-chief executives of HE said the sites “reveal the fascinating history that surrounds us all”.
There are three grades of listing, Grade II, Grade II* and Grade I which provide buildings of special architectural or historic interest with legal protection.
HE has awarded the following buildings a Grade II listing:
Casemate Barracks, Whitsand Bay Holiday Park near Torpoint
Former sexton’s house next to the Church of St Michael and All Angels in Honiton
Sharlands House including front wall and former stable in Braunton
Beara Court including attached service wing, stable block, garage, gate piers, garden walls and steps in Black Torrington
Woody Bay Station, lever hut and stable in Martinhoe
Gullet Farmhouse, entrance gate piers, garden walls, steps and sea wall, Home Barn with attached former laundry, a boathouse, Drive Cottage, a former motor garage and a dairy in South Pool
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As we stand at the threshold of 2026, the landscape of environmental advocacy in Canada has changed dramatically. Canada’s closest neighbour and biggest trading partner is driving massive political and economic restructuring. This has created great political and economic unease among Canadians at a collective and personal level.
These new threats have also forced public attention away from clean energy, climate change, plastic pollution, urban sprawl and chemical pollution. Unfortunately, many polluting industries have seized upon this moment to maximize their profits — lobbying decision-makers to roll back progress and carry out attacks on long-standing environmental protection rules and legislation.
These industries argue that it’s for the greater good — but is it? Evidence from history shows that societies succeed in the long term when they integrate protection of the environment into the economic and social development strategies. Those that do not tend to fail. In fact, for the first time in human history, scientifically conclusive evidence is telling us that moving forward economic progress must be grounded in what is best for the environment.
As we move into 2026, Canada has the opportunity to get some key things right to chart a course towards a better future. Here are our predictions for the biggest environmental wins coming our way next year.
Nation-Building Projects:
This year, the federal government has been hyper-focused on nation-building projects. Next year, we will advocate for these projects to align with moving Canada towards clean energy, climate action and protection of nature. Some ones to watch are:
High Speed Rail: The proposed route would run from Toronto through to Ottawa and Quebec City. This train would dramatically cut travel times and highway traffic and increase business and personal productivity. It would also replace fossil fuel powered planes with electric powered trains. Building it should also involve restoring forests and wetlands and delivering benefits to communities. We hope to see another route announced for Edmonton to Calgary.
Wind West: This renewable energy project would see the creation of massive offshore wind farms in Nova Scotia that could then be sent west to provide up to 25% of Canada’s electricity needs. We expect to see federal support help to move this project ahead and help remove the need for costly and polluting gas plants that are being pushed forward in Ontario and Alberta.
Clean Steel: It is key to Canada’s future competitiveness that we increase our steel exports to places outside of the U.S. (who has slapped big tariffs on it). A great way to do this and also reduce pollution is to switch from fossil fueled furnaces to electric ones. This will make our steel cheaper to manufacture and also more attractive to purchasers who want green steel. Algoma Steel has this process underway and great progress stands to come in Hamilton and in Quebec.
Public Transportation: The best way to have less gridlock is to have less cars on the road and that happens when commuters are given viable and affordable choices. Watch for action to roll out a focus on building more public transit infrastructure, giving existing transit greater priority on streets and increasing the frequency of how often a bus or a train comes.
Forever Chemicals:
The jig is up on the long-hidden truth about the risks of Polyfluoralkyl chemicals (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals”, to people and the environment. These include developmental effects, cancers and disruption of hormone regulation. These chemicals are found in a plethora of everyday products including non-stick coatings, menstrual products, and furniture. Fortunately, after long delays, 2026 is a year when we expect to see action by the federal government to ban at least some of the most egregious PFAS. We will be pushing for action on all of them.
Ontario Deposit Return:
If you live in Ontario, you’re probably sick of seeing littered plastic drink bottles.2026 is the year when we expect to finally see the Ontario government move to adopt a new deposit-return program that will put a price on non-alcoholic drink containers and, as a result, greatly increase recovery and recycling rates. It is not hard to do and 8 of the other 10 Canadian provinces already have successful programs in place.
Clean Energy:
The fossil fuel industry has worked hard to block renewable energy projects. Fortunately for all of us, the price of solar, wind and battery storage systems has dropped so dramatically that it will become increasingly difficult to convince citizens to stick with expensive and polluting gas and oil. Watch for an ongoing shift from gas furnaces to heat pumps and from gas plants to renewable energy production projects.
Electric Vehicles:
EVs will be back in style as both consumers and our governments recognize that they are better value and less polluting. There is no future for Canadian automakers and the jobs they provide if Canada tries to join the US in sitting out the move to EVs. We think we’ll be seeing more affordable EVs and a major government push on charging infrastructure.
Sustainable Housing:
Big changes to the rules that guide building in our cities will come this year. In the place of regulations that have prevented mid-rise buildings (think four stories with six apartments), we anticipate cities and towns will recognize that the housing crisis will be partly solved by encouraging more of this type of building. This will allow us to densify our existing neighbourhoods rather than relying on environmentally destructive urban sprawl.
No new pipelines:
Finally, the cynical Alberta-Federal MOU that undercuts Canadian climate action will run up on the rocks of its own making. Oil demand is expected to peak by the end of this decade, meaning the massive increases in oil sands production and risky bitumen pipeline to the British Columbia north coast make no economic sense. These projects will never move forward. We’ll be reading the MOU’s epitaph well before year-end.
Our vision for 2026 is clear: a Canada where clean water, a safe climate, and healthy communities ground all our efforts to create economic and social prosperity. Join us to help make it all happen.
A version of this post was originally published as an op-ed in the Globe and Mail.
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As of Jan. 1, most job postings in Ontario need to include salary figures, carbon monoxide alarms need to be on every level of a home and municipalities are now out of the recycling business.
The new job posting rule is one of several changes to Ontario’s Employment Standards Act
Courtney Ginson, the recruitment manager at Levert Personnel Resources in Sudbury, welcomes the changes and says many job seekers are nervous to ask about wages in interviews.
“It’s the uncomfortable thing that people have a hard time asking, they don’t know how to ask. But it’s something that they should know,” she said.
“And I think you’re going to get a better candidate when you do disclose that. There’s no point in posting a position and not disclosing the wage and then somebody applying and coming in for an interview and wasting everyone’s time.”
Among the other changes are a requirement that employers get back to job seekers no more than 45 days after an interview.
“We’ve all been in that position where we’ve applied for something and we’ve interviewed for something and we’re just… it’s unknown, no feedback given,” said Ginson.
“And we get our heart set on a great opportunity that we feel we are perfect for and then we just get nothing in response.”
The Ontario government now requires carbon monoxide alarms to be placed on every level of a home, not just outside sleeping areas. (Submitted by Lindsay Cail)
There are also new requirements as of Jan. 1 for carbon monoxide detectors in Ontario.
Alarms are now required on every floor of a home, not just outside of bedrooms.
“It gives you more time to get out of the home. It’ll give you more warning about the dangers of carbon monoxide and how to react to it and to save your family,” said former Brantford fire captain John Gignac.
He is the executive director of the Hawkins-Gignac foundation, which was created after four members of his family died of carbon monoxide poisoning in Woodstock in 2008.
Laurie and Richard Hawkins, who grew up in North Bay, and their two children died after a blocked vent from their gas fireplace caused carbon monoxide to build up in their home.
“Carbon monoxide is colourless, odorless, and tasteless, so the only way you’ll ever know it’s in your home is if you have a carbon monoxide detector. Otherwise you’re leaving it to chance,” Gignac said.
As of Jan. 1, responsibility for recycling programs has shifted from municipalities to the companies that produce the packaging waste. (Erik White/CBC)
Also with the coming of the new year, comes a big change in Ontario’s blue box program.
A law first passed in 2016, has now taken effect, shifting the responsibility for recycling from cities and towns to the companies that produce the packaging.
They have set up a non-profit called Circular Materials, that now oversees blue box collection across the province.
CEO Allen Langdon says the new provincial law lays out specific targets for how much must be recycled and how much can be sent to landfill.
“They vary from category to category. So cardboard and paper products would be the highest at 80 per cent and the lowest would be flexible plastics at 10 per cent,” he said.
“But starting in 2028 they will be legally enforceable targets and we will be expected to meet them.”
Greater Sudbury just made the switch and environmental services director Renee Brownlee says most people won’t notice.
But the city will continue picking up at apartment buildings and small businesses, which aren’t covered by the new program.
“If you start telling people that they can’t participate in recycling or you make it difficult for them, everything ends up going into the garbage and that is using up space in our landfill site unnecessarily,” Brownlee said.
“The changes that have been made really haven’t left municipalities a lot of time to give people a lot of notice. So a lot of things are a little bit at the last minute. Not exactly how we like to do things.”
Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie also moved over to the new privately-funded recycling program on Jan. 1, while North Bay made the switch last year.
Wearing a seatbelt has been mandatory in Ontario for 50 years, but provincial police say they are giving out more and more tickets in recent years. (AP)
A new Ontario law that took effect 50 years ago— on Jan. 1, 1976— made seatbelts mandatory for the first time in Canada.
But provincial police say, all these years later, they are now giving out more and more tickets for drivers and passengers not wearing them.
OPP wrote 13, 000 tickets for seatbelt violations in 2024, about 7,000 more than they gave out in 2020.
“Yeah it is surprising; once I looked into it that the charges are rising so much year over year. Seatbelt laws are nothing new,” said North Bay OPP Const. Kyler Brouwer, who used to be a car crash investigator.
Const. Kyler Brouwer speaks for the OPP in North Bay and used to be a car accident investigator.
“I’ve been to countless fatalities where you can see the person has been ejected. I’ve been to lots of collisions, where I’ve seen a complete rollover into the ditch, the person is just able to walk away because they were properly wearing their seatbelt.”
Brouwer says the number of seatbelt charges have also been trending up in northeastern Ontario.
About 700 tickets were given out in 2024, more than double what it was in 2020.
