CANADA

Parliament Budget officer provokes fresh round of suspicion over Trans Mountain profitability

Thu., December 10, 2020

Canada’s parliamentary budget officer has provoked a fresh round of suspicion about the long-term profitability of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline and expansion project.

The Dec. 8 report by Yves Giroux concludes that the government’s decision in 2018 to purchase and run the pipeline remains a profitable move only if Ottawa doesn’t take further steps to combat climate change, and if the planet maintains its unquenchable thirst for oil.

Both such scenarios are not guaranteed. The government itself has repeatedly said it will make its climate policy more stringent, including by ratcheting up its emissions target for 2030. And everyone from the fossil fuel giant BP to the oil export group OPEC have slashed their long-term oil demand forecasts.

The report caused NDP finance critic Peter Julian to call on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday to “stop rolling the dice on Trans Mountain” and to invest any further funding into “clean energy production.”

The federal government says it is not its intention to maintain ownership of the pipeline system for longer than it takes to complete the expansion project, “and beyond if that is necessary to protect the government’s investment,” as former finance minister Bill Morneau put it in 2018.

The government says it intends to divest from the asset after engagement with Indigenous communities, and that it remains committed to investing any earned dollars into clean energy projects.

Meanwhile, Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson has said there are “lots of different forecasts” concerning global energy demand, and that the next two decades will be a period of “transition” away from carbon-polluting fuels.

Giroux's report is an update to one his office published in January 2019, which indicated the government faced a significant risk of having overpaid for the project after shelling out “at the higher end” of its value.

Tuesday's report asserts that “the profitability of the Trans Mountain assets is highly contingent on the climate policy stance of the federal government.” If climate policy “continues to become more stringent,” wrote Giroux, it is possible for the value of the Trans Mountain assets to turn negative.

The Trudeau Liberals have tabled legislation, currently at second reading in the House of Commons, to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Net-zero emissions means that any carbon pollution emitted from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil or natural gas are offset with other initiatives like carbon-capture technology.

As well, Giroux noted that four-fifths of the pipeline’s use has been secured in the form of long-term contracts with energy companies to carry their fossil fuels, with the companies having agreed to pay even if they don’t provide the material for transport.

But, he added, “there is uncertainty around how much of the remaining 20 per cent capacity of the expanded pipeline system will be used.”

The tolls that the pipeline charges energy firms for this remaining space are higher than for the long-term contracts, but there is no requirement for shippers to use it, wrote Giroux.

There is also uncertainty around whether shippers will reapply for more long-term contracts after their existing ones expire.

Canada expects its crude oil production to continue climbing over the next two decades, but it could peak in 2039, according to federal energy regulator projections. In that scenario, the capacity coming from other pipelines would be more than enough to handle future crude oil growth, it said.

“In light of certain scenarios for oil supply in recent energy market projections, there is a risk that shippers will choose to not re-enter into committed contracts in the 2040s,” wrote Giroux.

If energy firms don’t re-enter these contracts, the tolls would change to equal the total cost of providing service, Giroux said — meaning a “less lucrative” outcome for Trans Mountain and a lowered value.

Analysts have also raised concerns about the long-term ability of Canada’s oilpatch to sell its mostly heavy, sulphur-rich crude oil to markets outside the United States, where 98 per cent of Canada’s oil exports are destined.

Finally, there are questions about when exactly the expanded pipeline will open for business, and whether the COVID-19 pandemic will delay the effort.

Giroux pointed out that the Crown corporation that owns and operates the pipeline has indicated in company reports that the pandemic “may increase certain risks related to development of the expansion project schedule.”

This past fall, sworn statements to regulators and construction plans appeared to indicate that Trans Mountain missed a key window for work near waterways to begin this year, meaning that construction could be delayed by two months or more.

The company has remained steadfast in its position, as it said again last month, that the expansion project’s schedule “remains intact with a planned in-service date of December 2022.”

Carl Meyer / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer

Carl Meyer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, National Observer

The Paris Agreement at 5: Time’s running out. How to get the world back on track to meet its climate goals


Margot Hurlbert, 

Canada Research Chair, Climate Change, Energy and Sustainability, University of Regina
Thu., December 10, 2020

The Paris Agreement on climate change, signed on Dec. 12, 2015, by almost 200 states, was hailed as the turning point to keep global warming in check. Progress, however, has been insufficient. (UNclimate change/flickr), CC BY-SA

COVID-19 has dramatically changed how we live our lives, reducing air travel and automobile use. But even these significant socio-economic changes are not the long-term changes needed to address climate change. We are still set to overshoot Paris Agreement target to keep the global temperature rise this century to below 2C and to pursue a limit of 1.5C.

Bigger lifestyle, technology and land-use changes must be adopted if we are to meet the target. And while the technology exists, the imagination necessary to achieve success may be lacking.

Five years ago, the Paris Agreement united countries around the world, each making individual pledges, called Nationally Determined Contributions, to lower carbon emissions. But these pledges haven’t been enough.

As a researcher studying climate change, energy and sustainability policy, solving the complex problem of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions keeps me up at night.
Addressing climate change is urgent

“The window of opportunity, the period when significant change can be made, for limiting climate change within tolerable boundaries is rapidly narrowing,” the authors of the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land wrote in 2019.

The world’s remaining carbon budget — the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that can be released and keep the world below its 2C threshold — could be depleted by 2028 unless thoughtful decarbonization of the economy occurs with post-COVID-19 recovery.

At this point, if the world does not begin to reduce the amount of carbon being released into our atmosphere, we will likely be unable to meet our Paris Agreement commitments. This means in five years we must be close to achieving net-zero carbon emissions.

It is clear urgent action is required — a combination of new technology (clean and renewable), energy efficiency and societal change. Stated policies only get us part way there, and more measures are required, including valuing nature’s contribution to people, rainwater harvesting, ensuring conservation easements, afforestation and reforestation, and protecting soils and wetlands.

New technologies will be necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep global temperature rise to 1.5C. (Beuttler C, Charles L and Wurzbacher J , 2019. The Role of Direct Air Capture in Mitigation of Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Front. Clim. 1:10.), CC BYMore

The majority of climate change scenarios consistent with the Paris Agreement rely on technologies that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or prevent it from being emitted.

Planting trees, using biochar (a charcoal-like substance) to store carbon in agricultural soils, capturing carbon directly from the atmosphere, burning organic materials such as switchgrass or loblolly pine to produce energy and capturing the carbon emissions, and other negative emission technologies can help keep the carbon budget in check. Carbon dioxide removal also occurs with agricultural best management practices that increase soil organic carbon content, reduce soil erosion, salinization and compaction.
All hands on deck — policy mixes are important

There is no one single policy solution to climate change. Instead we need a system or suite of policy portfolios. Economists prefer a carbon tax for its economic efficiency and because it is technology neutral and allows producers and consumers to make choices.

Read more: Climate change puts health at risk and economists have the right prescription

But markets are not always efficient and oftentimes new technology and innovation requires a different impetus. Carbon dioxide pipelines, infrastructure for electric or hydrogen vehicles and geothermal heating require government leadership.

Green financing, targeted tax credits (such as 45Q, a U.S. tax credit that encourages carbon dioxide capture), greater efficiencies in infrastructure, buildings and homes, and nature-based solutions, such as constructed wetlands, rainwater harvesting and protecting grass and grazing lands are all important measures to be advanced through incentives or regulation.

A key remaining question is how governments can make the best climate decisions in the face of increasingly legally binding commitments. Rigid provincial, territorial and sectoral targets give rise to burden-sharing decisions as certain sectors are exempted from regulating carbon emissions or businesses move to less rigid jurisdictions resulting in carbon “leaking” from one jurisdiction to another.

Climate accountability frameworks, such as those legislated in Manitoba, British Columbia, New Zealand and the U.K., break long-term targets into interim milestones and hold governments to account. President-elect Joe Biden’s planned changes to U.S. climate policy, including rejoining the Paris Agreement, will address some of these issues and bodes well for Canada’s advancing climate policy.
Change is happening

The World Economic Forum has created an Energy Transition Index to help policy-makers and businesses plot a course for a successful energy transition. Several countries such as Sweden, the U.K. and France have done well at reducing energy subsidies, achieving gains in energy intensity of GDP, and increasing the level of political commitment to pursuing aggressive energy transition and climate change targets. But Canada’s score has worsened between 2015 to 2020.

Governments are increasingly recognizing the need to embrace laws and policies with targets of net zero emissions by 2030 or 2050. Many countries, including Sweden, the U.K. and Hungary, have declared ambitious net-zero emissions goals — Suriname and Bhutan have already achieved these goals. Others are considering them. In all, 77 countries, 10 regions and more than 100 cities announced their commitment to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and the momentum continues to build.

Business is changing. Planning for the financial quarter or year end has become obsolete. As airlines realized during COVID-19, governments and funders are reticent to bail out an industry whose massive profits over the years have been paid to shareholders and used to buy back stocks, thereby making the companies less resilient. Business is now considering the long term.

A large number of global organizations have also declared carbon neutral targets, especially those with end-consumer-facing business models (including Amazon, Google, Apple, Cenovus Energy, TELUS and Maple Leaf Foods). Our youth recognize the intergenerational injustice of worsening future climate change impacts include storms, fires, droughts and floods. Seventy per cent of young people consider the speed of energy transition to be either stagnant or too slow, and they are willing to pay for it and accept the lifestyle changes required.

The Paris Agreement unified the world in setting a target of limiting global warming. The door is closing on achieving this target. The next five years are the years for ensuring through meaningful policy and action that this target is achieved!



This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Margot Hurlbert, University of Regina.

Read more:

Canada’s next budget update should include carbon

How Canada could benefit from a carbon budget

Margot Hurlbert receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Canada Research Chairs Programme, the Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear innovation at the University of Saskatchewan, and the Candu Owners Group Inc. 

Margot is a Professor at the University of Regina, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy and a Canada Research Chair in Climate Change, Energy and Sustainability Policy

Tipping point? Experts say the Paris agreement changed the climate on climate

Five years after it was passed, the Paris agreement may finally be changing the climate on climate change.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

"I've always known we're not going to act as soon as we could have," said Mark Jaccard, a widely consulted energy economist at Simon Fraser University.

"I also know that when we do start to act, it'll be very fast. It'll be one of those tipping points and it could be that we're at one right now."

On Dec. 12, 2015, 196 countries met in Paris and put their signatures on a legally binding treaty to do what it took to limit global warming to below two degrees Celsius and to create carbon-neutral economies by 2050.

Progress on those promises has been spotty.

The United Nations annual emissions gap report released this week points out that greenhouse gas emissions have continued to grow and reached record levels in 2019. Even with a seven per cent decline in emissions expected this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, atmospheric concentrations are expected to rise.

The Liberal government has committed Canada to being carbon neutral by 2050. But it has released no plan for the three to four per cent annual cuts that it would take to get there. Canada has never met any of its previous climate goals and is one of five G20 countries behind on its Paris commitments.

And yet ...

"We have a much stronger climate movement that we did," said Keith Stewart of Greenpeace. "A lot of the big forces in the world are starting to line up behind the transition."

More and more financial institutions — including, just this week, the $225-billion New York state pension fund — are divesting from fossil fuels or decarbonizing. The UN says 126 countries, including China, have either adopted binding net-zero goals or are considering them.

The cost of renewable energy is plummeting — 90 per cent for solar power, says an Oxford University publication. Some countries — again, including China — are putting end dates on the sale of gas-powered vehicles.

"The effort is picking up speed," Jaccard said.

Without Paris, Canada wouldn't have achieved what it has, federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told an online webinar Thursday.

"Canadians were really tired of inaction," he said. "The pan-Canadian framework was something that came out of the Paris agreement."

The federal Liberals have implemented a carbon tax, signed agreements to reduce methane releases, promised a clean-fuel standard to cut vehicle emissions, announced $1.5 billion in funding for electric buses and charging stations, and helped phase out coal-generated power.

"The Trudeau government is the only federal government Canada's had that is implementing the pricing and regulations that actually reduce emissions," Jaccard said.

Wilkinson promises even more.

"We know that more ambition will be required."

More is needed than just a new set of targets, Stewart said. Canadians who depend on the fossil fuel industry need help with the transition.

"There's a whole bunch of people who are going to be hurt badly if we don't do this properly," he said. "The rest of the country is going to be supporting Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland."

Jaccard said some way may be needed to prevent countries that aren't limiting emissions from having a trade advantage. Tariffs that penalize products from high-carbon jurisdictions are being discussed both at home and abroad, he said.

"How do you get any kind of collective action when there are easy rewards for cheating? You have to have penalty mechanisms."

Paris made a real difference and progress is out there, said Jaccard.

"I react strongly to people who say it's too late. The evidence doesn't support it.

"It's harder, which means we've taken longer to act on it, but I always knew we would act."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2020.

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

Fight climate change like we battle COVID-19, says Paris Accord's chief negotiator

By Elizabeth Pineau
Reuters Thu., December 10, 2020

Interview with Laurent Fabius, the Frenchman who made the Paris Climate Accord happen

PARIS (Reuters) - Laurent Fabius, the Frenchman who brought down the gavel to seal the Paris Accord on climate change five years ago, said he wished world powers had fought global warming as resolutely as they have confronted the coronavirus pandemic.

The agreement between almost 200 states on Dec. 12, 2015 was hailed as a potential turning point in efforts to contain global warming. It called for holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

While the long-term trend in global temperatures is now downwards, progress is insufficient, Fabius said, blaming a lack of political will among many governments, not least the United States under President Donald Trump.

However, in an interview with Reuters, he highlighted some positive developments, including President-elect Joe Biden's pledge to bring the United States back into the accord.

Governments have taken courageous financial and social decisions to halt the virus, but climate change poses an even graver threat, Fabius said.

"Unfortunately, we are not doing as much to fight climate change as we are to tackle the fallout from COVID," said Fabius, who was chief negotiator at the Paris talks and is now president of France's Constitutional Council.

He said it was critical that in the global recovery from the pandemic, the rebound is "green" and money is not ploughed into old, polluting industries.

The accord has brought some success, Fabius said. Scientific models had projected temperatures would increase 5 or 6 degrees and now estimated rises of 3 to 4 degrees by 2100. But this was still too high, he said.

The thresholds set by the Paris Accord reflect scientists' beliefs that a rise in temperatures of more than 2 degrees would doom the planet to a future of rising sea levels, catastrophic floods, droughts and storms, and food and water shortages.

BIDEN: A GAME-CHANGER?

Fabius, a former prime minister who was France's foreign minister at the time of the accord, recalled sleepless nights during two weeks of intense negotiations. The accord almost fell apart at the last moment.

He has a cherished replica of the green wooden hammer: cheers erupted and diplomats hugged as his gavel came down.

"Since then, it's not been the same. In particular there was the backtracking by U.S. President Donald Trump, which was bad for America but more so the rest of the world," he said.

The United States, the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter after China, formally exited the accord on Nov. 4, a day after Election Day, fulfilling a Trump promise to withdraw.

"A certain number of countries said to themselves: if the world's biggest power doesn't respect its commitments, why should we?" Fabius continued.

But he said there had been a geopolitical shift in recent months. Biden has promised to rejoin the accord, China has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2060 and Japan by 2050.

Fabius predicted that Biden's task will not be easy, with control of the U.S. Senate still up for grabs and energy lobby groups wielding huge influence in Washington.

"(But) to move things we need every country in the world to act, not just one county."

(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Frances Kerry)

KENNEY IS THE GREAT BEAST OF REVELATIONS

Alberta premier rejects criticism he waited too long to impose restrictions

HUMAN SACRIFICE

Thirteen deaths were reported to Alberta Health in the last 24 hours, bringing the province's death toll to 666.

COVID-19 fear leading to health care workers, ethnic groups being stigmatized

Alberta's chief medical officer of health spoke about stigma and compassion in her daily COVID-19 update on Thursday

© Supplied Staff putting on PPE inside the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, Alta. on Tuesday, June 16, 2020.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw said certain ethnic groups are being stigmatized and health care workers are being singled out as being higher risk of COVID-19 transmission.

"This has been a tough year and I know many people have fear, anxiety and frustration," she said.

However, "despite everyone's best efforts, every one of us is at risk of being exposed."

Read more: Stigma of COVID-19 left Alberta ‘long hauler’ and her family feeling ostracized

Hinshaw said outbreaks are identified because people care and want to stop any further spread. She said people who test positive should not be stigmatized. It will discourage others from also being tested and cooperating with public health officials.

Instead, Hinshaw asked Albertans to "treat them with the kindness you'd want to be treated with."

NDP releases Edmonton, Calgary hospitalization projections

The NDP said Thursday that Alberta Health Services' projections it obtained show hospitalizations in Alberta's two largest cities will increase by upwards of 50 per cent by Christmas Eve, while at the same time calling on the UCP to be more transparent with the data available.

The projections show as many as 324 Calgarians could be in hospital by Christmas, with 58 being treated in ICUs, according to the NDP, which represents a roughly 60 per cent increase.

In Edmonton, hospitalizations could rise by 50 per cent, the NDP said, with the possibility that 564 people could be spending Christmas in hospital, with as many as 111 in ICU.

Video: Alberta could see more than 1,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations by Dec. 24: AHS

Opposition Leader Rachel Notley called the UCP's response a "cloak and dagger" approach by not being as open as possible with all the information at hand, adding that it allows people to understand the decisions being made.

"When stalling the rate of growth of this virus, and the very nature of the crisis, comes down to the individual actions of all Albertans... public trust is even more important than ever," she said.

"And so, using the notion that you will hide information -- rather than disclose information -- as the rule of thumb, undermines the ability of all Albertans to do what they need to do to keep their neighbours safe."

Notley also called for Premier Jason Kenney to release the province's R value, which is the rate of COVID-19 reproduction -- or spread -- in the community.

In an emailed statement, AHS said the data the NDP was referring to was from the health authority's "early warning system," a tool used to prepare for changes in demand based on predictions of hospitalizations and ICU admissions.

"It provides a point in time forecast, and is updated constantly throughout the day," AHS said. "AHS is already increasing capacity to meet this forecast, and the potential for higher demand due to COVID-19."

AHS provided low, medium and high projections for each zone. By Dec. 24, Calgary could see between 145 (low), 222 (medium) and 345 (high) hospitalizations and between 26 (low), 40 (medium) and 58 (high) ICU admissions. Edmonton could see between 253 (low), 385 (medium) and 564 (high) hospitalizations and between 50 (low), 76 (medium) and 111 (high) ICU admissions, according to the forecasting.

As of Thursday, Edmonton had 371 people in hospital (72 in ICU) and Calgary had 201 people in hospital (40 in ICU).

AHS said in addition to more than 70 ICU beds that have already been freed up between Calgary and Edmonton in recent weeks, more beds are being secured in both zones, and plans are underway to secure more critical care capacity in the North, South and Central zones.

OPINION | On COVID-19, what would Lougheed have do

 CBC Thu., December 10, 2020, 

This column is an opinion from political scientist Duane Bratt, of Mount Royal University.

It is an intriguing parlour game to make historical comparisons with current events and speculate how historical figures would handle a current problem. The magnitude of COVID-19 invites such comparisons.

Preston Manning recently compared how Albertans responded to the Great Depression and World War II with our response to COVID-19. Ken Boessenkool wondered how premier Ralph Klein would have responded to the coronavirus pandemic.

While these comparisons are insightful, so far nobody has asked what premier Peter Lougheed would do if it were his government that was confronted with the health and economic challenges of COVID-19.

Lougheed remains Alberta's most revered former premier, so it is important to speculate about how he would have responded. These historical comparisons may be a "what if" game, but they also provide important insights into how different political leadership approaches respond to crises.

It is a way to apply counterfactual analysis to policy decisions. For example, comparing former Premier Alison Redford's response to the Calgary/High River flood in 2013 with Premier Rachel Notley's response to the 2016 Fort McMurray fire.

Lougheed would have handled it better

I argue that Lougheed, because of a combination of his individual qualities and the structural conditions of his time in office, would have handled COVID-19 in a much better fashion than Premier Jason Kenney.

For example, I can imagine Lougheed instituting a provincewide mask mandate, utilizing the federal tracing app and, if cases spiked, imposing an economic lockdown (but with financial compensation for business owners and workers to supplement federal programs).

Kenney's approach, as Lisa Young and I previously argued, has been marked by too much emphasis on political and partisan calculations. In contrast, I believe that Lougheed would have responded with a focus on mitigating the disastrous health impact, while at the same time taking steps to protect the economy, business owners and workers.

Lougheed could rely on his strong personal qualities.

Before becoming premier, he had built up a set of accomplishments in a variety of fields: athletics, academics, business and law.

He took over a moribund Progressive Conservative party in 1965 and within two elections was premier of Alberta. He was also highly charismatic and empathetic.

Lougheed, like Kenney, would have emphasized personal responsibility, but his persuasion powers were greater. Albertans, who nicknamed him Saint Peter, would have trusted him more, listened and followed his lead.

And for those not inclined to be influenced, like anti-maskers, Lougheed would have responded more quickly and assertively in condemning their behaviour.

Relationship with health sector better under Lougheed

Lougheed would also have had a better relationship with the Alberta health sector.

Kenney, unlike most other Canadian political leaders, never received a COVID-19 bump, due in large part to the fact his government continued to fight doctors, nurses and support workers in the midst of a health pandemic.

Lougheed greatly increased spending in the health-care sector as premier. Hospitals were built, medical schools expanded and additional doctors and nurses hired with increasing wages.

It is difficult to imagine the sorts of damaging leaks and rumours of a strained relationship with Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the chief medical officer of health, and Alberta Health Services occurring in a Lougheed government.

It's likely that Lougheed would be more receptive to the advice of medical professionals; although, like Kenney, he wouldn't allow them to dictate policy.

I would also anticipate more co-operation with the Trudeau government.

Lougheed was certainly not afraid to confront former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, as he did with the National Energy Program and the initial negotiations around the repatriation of the Constitution. He set a template for Kenney's fight with Justin Trudeau over energy policy and equalization.

Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

However, Lougheed, to a much stronger degree than Kenney, also knew when it was time to co-operate. Lougheed-Trudeau reached an accord on the NEP, and Lougheed eventually signed on to the 1982 Constitution.

To be fair, there have been moments, especially in spring 2020, when Kenney dialled down the anti-Trudeau rhetoric. The Kenney government is also working with the Trudeau government on vaccine rollout and field hospitals.

Unfortunately, the personal animus that Kenney and some members of his government feel toward Justin Trudeau periodically reappears — for instance, when members of his cabinet derisively referred to the federal COVID-19 tracing app as the "Trudeau app."

Structural factors benefit Lougheed

To be sure, Lougheed benefited from structural factors that gave him greater freedom of movement than the Kenney government.

One of the reasons that Kenney's approach has been so partisan is that Alberta is now a competitive two-party system. Kenney needs to worry about the NDP in the 2023 election.

We are also only a few years removed from the PC-Wildrose battles that contributed to the NDP's surprising election victory in 2015. Therefore, Kenney needs to be concerned about splinter movements on his right flank that could allow another NDP victory.

In contrast, Lougheed essentially vanquished Social Credit in the 1971 election (although remnants of the farther right would continue to exist throughout most of Lougheed's tenure).

Following his 1971 election, Lougheed would win over 90 per cent of seats and typically exceed 60 per cent in the popular vote in subsequent elections.

Lougheed, who put just as much emphasis on the "progressive" as the "conservative" in the Progressive Conservative party, was a true centrist. He could afford to respond to COVID-19 with less attention to partisanship than Kenney.

Lougheed also benefited from a strong economy throughout his time in office.

The oil shocks of the early 1970s flooded money into the provincial treasury. Even in the immediate aftermath of the NEP, Alberta was generating budget surpluses and could set some money aside in the Heritage Savings Fund.

Financial situation much worse today

In contrast, when Kenney was elected in 2019, he inherited a budget deficit of over $6 billion and $60 billion in accumulated debt.

Because of COVID, Alberta is now projecting a $21-billion deficit and almost $100 billion in debt.

While Alberta is still in a relatively strong fiscal position compared with other provinces, it is in a substantially worse position than at any time in the Lougheed years.

Thus, while Lougheed would have been able to provide stronger economic support programs for businesses and workers if he brought in more restrictive lockdown measures, Kenney has to be much more sensitive regarding the economic effects of his COVID-19 response because of the continuous downturn in Alberta's economy since 2014.

Historical comparisons are a useful exercise to show what other policy pathways could occur.

If Peter Lougheed had been confronted with COVID-19, he would have likely responded with calls for personal responsibility (but with more success because of his higher level of trust among Albertans), co-operation with the federal government, co-operation with the health-care sector and likely more restrictive provisions (but with financial compensation). This is a very different response than what we are currently seeing.

But despite the obvious differences in approach, that doesn't mean Jason Kenney wouldn't benefit, when struggling with policy responses to the COVID crisis, to ask himself, what would Lougheed do?

This column is an opinion. For more information about our commentary section, please readour FAQ.

Netherlands museum exhibition to tell story of Dutch slave trade

Daniel Boffey in Brussels DEC 10, 2020 THE GUARDIAN

The Netherland’s national art institution, the Rijksmuseum, will open its first major exhibition telling the stories of slaves and the Dutch people who enslaved them, as its director backed a government initiative to return thousands of looted treasures to former colonial lands.\

© Photograph: Peter de Jong/AP

The national slavery monument by Erwin de Vries in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Using 140 objects, ranging from two Rembrandt portraits of slave owners borrowed from the Louvre to a display of ankle chains used to keep people captive, the exhibition will examine 10 lives caught up in the Dutch slave trade between the early 17th century and 1863, when it was finally made illegal in Suriname and the Antilles.

During an online press conference, curators at the museum noted the significance of the groundbreaking exhibition, following a year in which the killing of George Floyd in the US by a police officer sparked global protests. But also this year the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, refused to apologise for his country’s colonial past, claiming it would be “too polarising”.

The Rijksmuseum director, Taco Dibbits, said he supported efforts to educate Dutch people about their past, including through changes to the school curriculum. He also offered his support to a government committee that will look into restitution claims over 100,000 pieces of art said to have been looted from Dutch colonies.

“Slavery was an essential component of the colonial period in the Netherlands and many generations have suffered unimaginable injustices as a result,” he said. “We felt that slavery is of great importance to our society today. Black Lives Matter shows the urgency that this subject is addressed.”

One of the lives featured is a slave called Wali who, along with 255 others, attempted to flee a Surinamese sugar plantation only to be caught and sentenced to be slowly burned alive. He was given a reprieve for fear of a wider uprising, but Wali died a slave.

The exhibition also looks at the story of Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit, who were painted by Rembrandt in all their finery in 1634. Soolmans’ wealth came from a refinery in Amsterdam that sourced its raw sugar from plantations using enslaved labour in Brazil.

Valika Smeulders, the head of the department of history at the Rijksmuseum, said: “I’ve been working on slavery history for years, and to be able to do this from the national museum of the Netherlands was a really a beautiful chance to think through how you do this for an entire country where people don’t agree necessarily on how to deal with this history.”

The exhibition will run from 12 February to 30 May 2021 in 10 rooms featuring the trans-Atlantic slavery in Suriname, Brazil and the Caribbean, and the part played by the Dutch West India Company and Dutch colonial slavery in South Africa and Asia, where the Dutch East India Company operated.

Smeulders said: “We will be telling you, not just through objects, but also through oral history. Old songs and old interviews recorded in the early 20th century of people who talk about their ancestors their grandparents, so that already takes you back to the 18th century.”

Dutch national museum to stage 2021 exhibition on slavery

Thu., December 10, 2020



AMSTERDAM — To tell the troubling story of the Netherlands' deep historical links to the slave trade, the country's national museum is making it personal.

The Rijksmuseum will open a major exhibition on the subject in February, bringing slavery to life by pulling into sharp focus the lives of 10 people, from a man enslaved in Ghana and transported to work in Brazil, to a wealthy Amsterdam socialite whose portrait was painted by Rembrandt van Rijn.

Work on the exhibition started in 2017, long before the Black Lives Matter movement swept the world this year and acted as a catalyst for debate on racial inequality following the death of Black man George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis on May 25.

“Black Lives Matters shows the urgency that this subject is addressed," the museum’s general director, Taco Dibbits, said Thursday in an online presentation unveiling details of the exhibition.

“Slavery was an essential component of the colonial period in the Netherlands, and many generations have suffered unimaginable injustice as a result,” Dibbits added. “The past has long been insufficiently examined in the national history of the Netherlands, including at the Rijksmuseum.”

The stories of 10 lives spread across 10 rooms of the museum span some 250 years of Dutch colonial history and four continents — Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. Exhibits range from the grim: a set of rusty iron shackles and a wooden frame that was used to hold slaves captive by their ankles, to the gaudy: a portrait of a Dutch East India Company trader, his family and — in the shadows behind them — two of their slaves.

The exhibition scheduled to open Feb. 12 comes in a year when the Amsterdam municipality will be considering making a formal apology for its role in the slave trade. Many of the grandest houses that line the Dutch capital's historic canals were funded by profits generated at least in part by the use of slaves in plantations from Brazil to the Dutch East Indies, the country now known as Indonesia.

The municipality already is staging an exhibition focusing on the city and its relationship to the slave trade at City Hall.

With the likelihood of visitor numbers still being restricted early next year, the Rijksmuseum will also make its exhibition available in an online form to help it reach as wide an audience as possible. In the museum itself, about 70 objects that are not part of the exhibition will also be given a second label highlighting their links to slavery.

“We hope that through those individual stories, you see the universal relevance of this history, because this is history that we have not left behind yet," said Valika Smeulders, the museum's head of history. "The discussions that come out of this history are relevant until today.”

___

Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands.

Mike Corder And Peter Dejong, The Associated Press

ERIC WILLIAMS Capitalism and Slavery

www.brucemakotoarnold.com/.../0/2/6/4026638/his-117-essay_1_doc… · PDF file

ERIC WILLIAMS from Capitalism and Slavery [19441 -----ERIC WILLIAMS (1911-1981) was born in Trinidad and Tobago, where he did his undergraduate work. He received his doctorate in history from Oxford and taught at Howard University in the United States before returning to his country. He led Trinidad and Tobago to independence within the British Commonwealth in 1962 and served as both …

Kids need media literacy education to match the rise of social networks: experts

IT SHOULD BE A COURSE IN SCHOOL

AT ALL GRADE LEVELS

Kids in Canada need greater access to up-to-date media literacy education to help them navigate what's real and what's fake or misleading online, experts say.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The rise of social media has led to the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation, which is spread intentionally, said Dr. Ghayda Hassan, a clinical psychologist and the director of the Canadian Practitioners Network for the Prevention of Radicalization and Extremist Violence.

"Because of the speed of access to information, cognitively, people do not have time to process and to validate the kind of information they receive, so there are a lot of biases that interfere," said Hassan, who is also a UNESCO co-chair for the prevention of radicalization.

"The fact that information is often on social media propagated by individuals that we may like, that we may trust or that we may directly know, gives them more credibility," she said in an interview.

The COVID-19 pandemic is stoking fear and fuelling social and economic instability, creating conditions that intensify conspiratorial thinking, she said, adding she's concerned that young people are particularly vulnerable.

Hassan is calling for stronger standards for how social media companies manage content on their platforms and a national strategy and mandatory curriculums covering digital media literacy in schools.

"It has to become obligatory material, just as you teach math to kids."

School curriculums in each province and territory have included media literacy for nearly 20 years, but the material largely hasn't been updated to reflect how media has changed since the 1990s, said Matthew Johnson, the director of education for the Ottawa-based non-profit MediaSmarts.

"The model today is not of a distribution chain, but of a network that is functionally infinite," he said. "In theory, anybody on YouTube can have as large an audience as a TV news network or a world leader."

Tools and signals that may have worked on stories from traditional print and broadcast media in the past, such as bylines or photo credits, may not be as useful for authenticating information on social media.

Some of those signals or markers of reliability, such as a professional-looking website, may even be counterproductive, said Johnson.

"That's often extremely misleading," he said. "The people who intentionally spread misinformation or disinformation know that we look at that, and so they will put a lot of effort into making something that looks good."

The extent to which media literacy is actually taught varies by province and territory, said Johnson. For example, B.C. has what he called an excellent digital literacy curriculum, but it's not mandatory. In Ontario, where media literacy is part of the evaluated language arts curriculum, he said it receives the least classroom time among other components.

"We don't have any good recent data about what teachers are actually teaching and what students are actually learning at a national level."

MediaSmarts offers parents, teachers and students tips for authenticating information, from fact-checking tools to finding and verifying original sources and checking others to assess the veracity and intent of a story.

It draws on key concepts in media and digital media literacy, including that digital media has unexpected audiences, that online experiences are shaped by the social networks and search engines themselves, and that what we do online can have real-world impacts.

Joyce Grant is a freelance journalist and the co-founder of TeachingKidsNews.com, a website she describes as a transparent source of news for kids that also helps them understand how credible news is made and how to spot content that's deceptive or misleading.

"Fake news, as it gets better, starts to better mimic journalism. So, really, what it comes down to now is critical thinking," said Grant, who began delivering in-class media literacy workshops around a decade ago.

She aims to help youth recognize echo chambers or silos on social media and break out of them by seeking out diverse sources of information.

The goal is also a healthy skepticism that asks, "What seems off about this? What is missing? Where are the points of view? Why did this person write this article or post?" said Grant.

"All of a sudden the light comes on, and then, yeah, they're all over it ... nobody wants to be fooled, right?"

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2020.

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press

'This is beyond a hate crime': Edmonton's Somali community reacts to attack on two women at Southgate Centre

Dylan Short POSTMEDIA

Members of Edmonton’s Somali community are raising concerns for their safety after an alleged hate-motivated assault occurred in broad daylight at a busy public area.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Southgate Centre.

City police responded to an assault on two Somali women wearing hijabs who were sitting in their car in the Southgate Centre parking lot on Tuesday. Edmonton police said in a news release Wednesday that a man approached the car yelling racist obscenities before he smashed the passenger-side window. One of the women fled the vehicle, and he chased her down and assaulted her. When the other woman tried to help, the man pushed her to the ground.

Jibril Ibrahim, president of the Somali Canadian Cultural Society, said he has not heard of such an attack taking place in Edmonton before.

“It’s a disturbing event,” said Ibrahim. “It adds a little bit of, you know, additional anxiety that the community is experiencing at this moment.”

Ibrahim said he has spoken to the victims of the attack. He said they are dealing with a number of injuries, including one to the neck and both to their mental health.

“I think the intention was to kill them or something,” said Ibrahim.

Naima Haile, a well-known member of the Somali community, said the attack has left her feeling afraid and unsafe in Edmonton.

“I feel unsafe. I’ve never felt unsafe in Canada before,” said Haile. “Is it my skin colour? Is it my scarf? I don’t know which one I need to shed.”

Haile said the nature of the attack — that it took place in broad daylight in a busy, public area — makes it even more worrisome. She said she can recall one instance where a young girl had her hijab pulled off her head by a group of kids, but never has there been a violent assault by an adult.

“This is a grown man. This is beyond a hate crime. I don’t know what to say,” said Haile.

She said the community is going to hold a Zoom meeting to discuss how they can move forward and what steps can be taken.

Ibrahim said more education is needed to ensure that such an attack doesn’t happen again.

“I just had a conversation with Edmonton Public Schools the other day and was talking about having interfaith calendars. I told them that maybe we should start giving some kind of education about other cultures and other faiths to students,” said Ibrahim.

“We need to create some kind of a social harmony and education is a No. 1 priority. That’s where we need to concentrate on.”

Edmonton police chief Dale McFee addressed the attack during a Thursday police commission meeting, saying it is “not acceptable.”

“The message is quite simple: it has to stop, it’s not acceptable, it never has been acceptable. But more importantly now, this isn’t the way we treat people in the city of Edmonton, and if you do, you’re going to be charged,” said McFee.

Richard Bradley Stevens, 41, is facing two counts of assault and one count of mischief. Court documents show his next scheduled court appearance is Jan. 5.

— With files from Lauren Boothby