Coastal GasLink employing nearly 1,000 local workers
TC Energy officials say nearly 1,000 workers in the Peace Region are employed on the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Public Affairs Advisor Heather Desarmia gave the Peace River Regional District an update Oct. 7 on the $6.6-billion pipeline project between the Peace region and Kitimat.
“When we take a look at all of Coastal GasLink’s pipeline construction activity within the Peace region, we’re looking at just shy of 1,000 personnel working on the assets,” said Desarmia.
There were 4,758 workers employed on the project at the end of August, surpassing the worker count of 4,000 last year.
Latest construction milestones include the completion of the Kitimat Meter Station, alongside water crossings completed at the Murray River and Burnt River near Sukunka. Work continues on the Sukunka River water crossing and by the Burnt and Merrick Mountain areas, with 90 kilometres of pipe installed.
Another 30 kilometres of pipe is expected, says Desarmia, while a three-kilometre connector is also being built in Groundbirch, and a compressor station under construction at Wilde Lake.
Desarmia added that safety is a top priority for the project and the company is doing its best to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“The measures we have in place have been reviewed by Northern Health and they do meet all the provincial health officer’s guidance to keep our workers, families, and communities safe,” she said.
tsummer@ahnfsj.ca
Tom Summer, Local Journalism Initiative, Alaska Highway News
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
BC
Why tensions are escalating on Wet’suwet’en territory over the Coastal GasLink pipeline
Updated Oct. 19, 2021, at 1:03 p.m. PT: This article was updated with details on Lihkt’samisyu clan chiefs deactivating a Coastal GasLink excavator.
Wet’suwet’en land defenders and supporters are occupying a Coastal GasLink pipeline worksite on Gidimt’en clan territory in northwest B.C. in an effort to prevent drilling under the Wedzin Kwa (Morice River), raising fears about escalating police actions.
The location, just upriver from the Unist’ot’en healing centre, is where TC Energy plans to lay pipe to connect fracking facilities in the northeast to the LNG Canada processing plant, currently under construction in Kitimat, B.C.
“I feel really overwhelmed at the magnitude of what they’re doing and what they’re trying to do,” Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, Gidimt’en Camp spokesperson and a supporting chief from Cas Yikh House, told The Narwhal in an interview at the site land defenders are calling Coyote Camp. “We knew that at some point, they would try to drill under Wedzin Kwa and we’ve always known that that’s something that is not allowed. It’s too sacred to us and too important to us to ever let that happen.”
Wickham spoke to The Narwhal on Oct. 8, standing on the drill pad, where land defenders recently installed a cabin. The small log building is surrounded by a vast muddy clearing and sits in the middle of the pipeline right-of-way.
Inside, two land defenders, one of whom is the daughter of Dinï ze’ (Chief) Woos of Cas Yikh House, unchain themselves after a police reconnaissance operation. Members of the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group, a tactical unit familiar to old-growth protestors at Fairy Creek, where more than 1,000 arrests were made and the conduct of officers was called into question by a B.C. Supreme Court judge, have been coming into the camp daily. In the first days of the Wet’suwet’en blockade at Wedzin Kwa, two people were arrested — one shocked with a Taser and the other subjected to physical force.
“Every other time there’s been a blockade or anything like that, it’s been … over a month before enforcement and they were enforcing Day 1, Day 2, and then every day since,” Wickham said.
She added the RCMP presence declined around Sept. 30 but picked up again shortly after.
“There were a few days there where they left us alone around Truth and Reconciliation Day,” she explained. “The day before, [Coastal GasLink workers] put up an orange shirt at the end of the road, which was really insulting. They harass us and keep us out of our territory, block us out of our territory, destroy our land and then have the audacity to put an orange shirt up for our children.”
Wet’suwet’en land defenders never left the territory after the events of early 2020, when RCMP arrested matriarchs and supporters at camps along the Morice River Forest Service Road while enforcing a court-ordered injunction, which led to rail blockades and solidarity actions across the country. But the conflict has been relatively quiet until late September.
“I feel like we’ve finally arrived at this huge, important time,” Wickham said. “This project is going to destroy everything that’s important to us and we are going to stand up and do absolutely everything in our power to defend it.”
On Oct. 17, neighbouring Lihkt’samisyu clan chiefs Dsta’hyl and Tse’besa deactivated a Coastal GasLink excavator and claimed it for the Lihkt’samisyu clan government, warning workers they will not stop until all equipment is removed from the territory.
“We want to make sure that you guys know that we mean business,” Chief Dsta’hyl said in a video recording after rendering the excavator immobile.
“Our government is going to be looking after our interests, ourselves — on all of the land,” the Chief said. “Logging, mining and everything else that’s on our territory. This is just the beginning.”
Here’s what you need to know about why events are escalating and the wider implications of the project.
On Sept. 22, Coastal GasLink cleared an archaeological site near the confluence of Ts’elkay Kwe (Lamprey Creek) and Wedzin Kwa, under a site alteration permit issued by the BC Oil and Gas Commission. The commission, a regulator for the province, declined numerous interview requests and told The Narwhal it issued the permit after consulting with the Wet’suwet’en.
“The consultation process involved the commission providing information to the [Office of the Wet’suwet’en] about the application for the permit,” the regulator wrote in an email, noting this occurred between May and July 2020. “We asked for comments on how the proposed activity may impact their interests.”
Chelsey Geralda Armstrong, an archaeologist working with the Office of the Wet’suwet’en, said the information was sent in an inaccessible format and noted a lack of response is insufficient grounds to proceed with clearing an important heritage site.
“Silence is not consultation,” she said in an interview. “There are some pretty murky rules around consultation in archaeology, especially for site alteration permits, which are essentially legal permits to destroy a site.”
The Narwhal’s request for an interview with Nathan Cullen, Minister of Lands and Natural Resource Operations, was declined, as were requests to speak with Premier John Horgan, Minister of Forests Katrine Conroy and Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Murray Rankin.
As for why the BC Oil and Gas Commission is issuing permits to impact archaeological sites, Armstrong told The Narwhal it is highly irregular.
“The [Oil and Gas Commission] was given a very special purview for the northeast only, to issue permits and to kind of fast track the permitting process for companies in that area,” she said. “Now, somehow with Coastal GasLink they managed to expand that purview to these areas where archaeology is just super rich, incredibly dense, incredibly prolific on the landscape and so the same rules that the OGC was going by for permitting in the northeast, they’re now applying here.”
The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, which oversees the Archaeology Branch, told The Narwhal it shares responsibility with the commission for this project. In an email, the ministry said it issues and administers permits to identify and assess sites and the BC Oil and Gas Commission authorizes impacts to protected sites.
Armstrong said policies and regulations notwithstanding, the B.C. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People makes it very clear on how the province should conduct itself on First Nations’ territories.
“You cannot destroy an archaeological site without free, prior, informed consent. I think that’s something that we as a society accept as a whole.”
Dinï ze’ Woos issued a cease and desist letter on Aug. 6.
“To be clear, we do not authorize or consent to the removal of, or any ‘alteration’ or impacts to our archaeological heritage,” the Chief wrote.
Coastal GasLink workers, despite opposition from matriarchs, chiefs and supporters, started clearing the site on Sept. 21.
“We were supposed to get to have a say before they destroyed our archaeology site,” Wickham said. “That never happened.”
The site was cleared and Gidimt’en members and supporters started gathering resources to prevent the company from further impacting the territory. After learning the drill site had also been cleared, land defenders occupied the location three days later.
As The Tyee recently reported, B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office issued a damning report after inspections this spring discovered the company is breaching the terms of its own environmental management plan, impacting wetlands and freshwater bodies at numerous locations.
The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change confirmed to The Narwhal its compliance and enforcement division is recommending an administrative penalty.
“If the certificate holder continues to be out of compliance with the conditions of its certificate, separate administrative penalties (up to $750,000) may be imposed for each day the contravention continues,” a ministry spokesperson wrote in an email. “Additional escalating sanctions such as court-imposed penalties of up to $1,000,000 for a first conviction and up to $2,000,000 for subsequent convictions are also authorized under the Environmental Assessment Act.”
TC Energy did not respond to a request for an interview and did not provide The Narwhal with any information.
The ministry said the penalty recommendation will be sent to Elenore Arend, chief executive assessment officer, or delegated to senior staff for a final decision.
Wickham said the company’s history of negatively impacting wetlands and failing to adequately prevent sediment from entering streams and creeks is why they are so determined to prevent drilling under the river.
“There’s no way that they’re ever going to just drill under Wedzin Kwa and destroy our territory, without pushback.”
“We need to see action,” Wickham said. “We don’t want to sit around and talk about it for two more years, as more of our territory gets destroyed. We want to see actual action: do something about the fact that [Coastal GasLink] has violated probably close to 100 of their permit conditions by now, do something about the fact that our archaeological sites are being destroyed.”
Freda Huson, matriarch and wing-chief of the Unist’ot’en Dark House Clan, said she’s confident the pipeline will never be completed.
“Everything’s working against them,” she told The Narwhal in an interview at the Unist’ot’en healing centre on the banks of the Wedzin Kwa. Coastal GasLink work trucks file past and cross the bridge in a steady stream. “People are still protesting and blocking them. The economy is not great.”
“I always tell people, ‘What are you gonna tell your grandchildren you did to prevent this from happening?’ This is the headwaters, why we’re fighting so hard. That’s where all the salmon spawn, we see them swim by here all the time to spawn. Salmon feed the bears, salmon feed us.”
Huson, who recently won a Right Livelihood Award for “her fearless dedication to reclaiming her people’s culture and defending their land against disastrous pipeline projects,” said the importance of water cannot be understated.
“You can’t survive on pop, you can’t survive on beer — you need pure water,” she said. “And you need that pure water to make all of those things. You need it to have a good cup of coffee, you need it to have a cup of tea and whatever else you want to drink. You even need it to make ice to go in your fancy drink. People don’t realize everything is connected.”
The conflict at Wedzin Kwa comes on the heels of a dispute between LNG Canada and TC Energy. In a recent project update, LNG Canada CEO Peter Zebedee expressed concerns about the pipeline’s rising costs and schedule delays.
“Progress along the [Coastal GasLink] pipeline is encouraging; however, we remain concerned that [Coastal GasLink’s] operator and parent company, TC Energy, has proposed significant increased cost estimates to complete the pipeline, over and above what was agreed to when we took our final investment decision in late 2018,” Zebedee wrote.
“[Coastal GasLink] can’t afford a huge conflict, especially with the disputes that they’re having with LNG Canada,” Wickham said. “I think that’s why the RCMP are being so bold and so aggressive in their tactics, because they really need to nip this in the bud quickly, for [Coastal GasLink] to be successful.”
As The Narwhal reported in July, the pipeline is heavily subsidized, including a $500 million loan the federal government provided last year to support the construction work.
“They can’t afford for this to build up in the media and they can’t afford for this to build up on the ground,” Wickham added. “Everybody thinks that Coastal GasLink is a done deal — but it’s not.”
“In Cas Yikh territory, the only thing that they’ve done is cleared the right-of-way and destroyed one of our archaeology sites and one of our sacred sites and one of the most important creeks in the territory.”
“Now they’re coming after the river.”
While the conflict on Wet’suwet’en territory centres around opposition to the potential impacts of the pipeline itself and a notable lack of consent from the Indigenous People whose territory is at risk, the impacts of the project, if completed, extend far beyond.
Coastal GasLink, if built, would have the capacity to transport up to 2.1 billion cubic feet of fracked gas every day, with the potential to expand to 5 billion cubic feet daily. Meeting that demand would impact numerous First Nations in northeast B.C., a region already deeply scarred by the sector.
As The Narwhal recently reported, there are more than 3,000 active oil and gas wells operating in critical caribou habitat, imperilling an iconic species and an important source of food, clothing and tools for Indigenous communities. A recent B.C. Supreme Court ruling found the province breached its Treaty Rights obligations by permitting and encouraging industrial development on a vast scale on Blueberry River First Nations territory.
As Chief Marvin Yahey told The Narwhal: “For the past 50 years, industrial development has totally wiped out all our traditional lands, our cabins and our trails … and also the wildlife.”
The precedent-setting ruling will put Treaty 8 First Nations in the driver’s seat when it comes to authorizing new projects in their traditional territories.
“The court’s ruling was very clear that the existing decision-making regime the province has is broken,” Maegan Giltrow, legal counsel for Blueberry River First Nations, told The Narwhal in an interview. “It doesn’t manage cumulative effects and it certainly doesn’t manage or protect Treaty Rights.”
How much of an impact the court decision will have on the fracking wells needed to fill the Coastal GasLink pipeline remains to be seen; however, the province will have to consider cumulative impacts on the landscape as new gas facilities are proposed.
“Recently, [Premier John Horgan] did a big speech about transitioning from oil and gas into clean energies,” Wickham said. “I would say: let’s see the action. The only resolution to this is to respect the chiefs’ decision and to implement [the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples] according to our own laws and values.”
The Canada Energy Regulator, a branch of the federal government that oversees the oil and gas sector, predicts an increase in B.C.’s natural gas production over the next two decades. However, as the province moves forward with a review of its royalty credit program, decreased economic incentive to build and operate new facilities could discourage investment in the sector. The review will include an opportunity for the public to provide feedback this winter.
While industry and governments love to talk about natural gas as a transition fuel, helping countries like China move away from other polluting fuel sources, climate scientists note the near-term impacts of methane emissions are causing rapid warmth and, if allowed to continue, those impacts will render global climate targets impossible to achieve.
As highlighted by a recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been.
“Unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5 C or even 2 C will be beyond reach,” the report noted.
The narrative of LNG as a transition fuel is further brought into question by a new International Energy Agency report, which details a series of scenarios based on current trends and government commitments to climate action and predicts what will happen to the fossil fuel industry if the world sticks to a shared goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
The report notes significantly that in a net-zero emissions scenario, total stranded capital — investments in LNG projects currently under construction — would be around $75 billion USD. In other words, investing in the sector now is a huge risk.
Fatih Birol, executive director of the agency, stressed in a press release the urgency of encouraging a rapid transition away from fossil fuels.
“The social and economic benefits of accelerating clean energy transitions are huge and the costs of inaction are immense.”
Matt Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Narwhal
As Chief Marvin Yahey told The Narwhal: “For the past 50 years, industrial development has totally wiped out all our traditional lands, our cabins and our trails … and also the wildlife.”
The precedent-setting ruling will put Treaty 8 First Nations in the driver’s seat when it comes to authorizing new projects in their traditional territories.
“The court’s ruling was very clear that the existing decision-making regime the province has is broken,” Maegan Giltrow, legal counsel for Blueberry River First Nations, told The Narwhal in an interview. “It doesn’t manage cumulative effects and it certainly doesn’t manage or protect Treaty Rights.”
How much of an impact the court decision will have on the fracking wells needed to fill the Coastal GasLink pipeline remains to be seen; however, the province will have to consider cumulative impacts on the landscape as new gas facilities are proposed.
“Recently, [Premier John Horgan] did a big speech about transitioning from oil and gas into clean energies,” Wickham said. “I would say: let’s see the action. The only resolution to this is to respect the chiefs’ decision and to implement [the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples] according to our own laws and values.”
The Canada Energy Regulator, a branch of the federal government that oversees the oil and gas sector, predicts an increase in B.C.’s natural gas production over the next two decades. However, as the province moves forward with a review of its royalty credit program, decreased economic incentive to build and operate new facilities could discourage investment in the sector. The review will include an opportunity for the public to provide feedback this winter.
While industry and governments love to talk about natural gas as a transition fuel, helping countries like China move away from other polluting fuel sources, climate scientists note the near-term impacts of methane emissions are causing rapid warmth and, if allowed to continue, those impacts will render global climate targets impossible to achieve.
As highlighted by a recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been.
“Unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5 C or even 2 C will be beyond reach,” the report noted.
The narrative of LNG as a transition fuel is further brought into question by a new International Energy Agency report, which details a series of scenarios based on current trends and government commitments to climate action and predicts what will happen to the fossil fuel industry if the world sticks to a shared goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
The report notes significantly that in a net-zero emissions scenario, total stranded capital — investments in LNG projects currently under construction — would be around $75 billion USD. In other words, investing in the sector now is a huge risk.
Fatih Birol, executive director of the agency, stressed in a press release the urgency of encouraging a rapid transition away from fossil fuels.
“The social and economic benefits of accelerating clean energy transitions are huge and the costs of inaction are immense.”
Matt Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Narwhal
Why elections matter: National child-care plan could create workplace gender equality
Claudine Mangen, RBC Professor in Responsible Organizations and Associate Professor, Concordia University 12 hrs ago
Canada’s progress on gender equality in economic participation and opportunity has stalled since 2006, when the World Economic Forum started measuring it. In fact, it has reversed while other countries have surged ahead.
Canada’s progress on gender equality in economic participation and opportunity has stalled since 2006, when the World Economic Forum started measuring it. In fact, it has reversed while other countries have surged ahead.
© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talks with a family following a child-care funding announcement in Montréal in August 2021.
Gender inequality in Canadian workplaces is most pronounced in leadership. Women comprise 15 per cent of small- and medium-sized enterprise owners and four per cent of CEOs; only 15 per cent of businesses have three or more women on their boards.
Michaele Ferguson, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, argues that the absence of women in power positions amounts to a “systematic exclusion of women from involvement in shaping the world in which they live.”
Gender inequality in Canadian workplaces is most pronounced in leadership. Women comprise 15 per cent of small- and medium-sized enterprise owners and four per cent of CEOs; only 15 per cent of businesses have three or more women on their boards.
Michaele Ferguson, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, argues that the absence of women in power positions amounts to a “systematic exclusion of women from involvement in shaping the world in which they live.”
A woman walks in Toronto’s Financial District.
That said, progress on gender inequality benefits not just women but everyone, since it’s estimated achieving equality would add $150 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2026.
How will the minority government that Canadians recently re-elected bring about such progress? To answer this question, I examine gender inequalities from two perspectives — the supply and demand sides — and delve into how policy can bring about progress.
Supply side gender inequality
Women and men supply their labour differently, which is heavily shaped by societal norms that typically assign care work predominantly to women and often stigmatize those women who don’t take on those responsibilities. Women are overwhelmingly the (unpaid) primary caregivers at home. Accordingly, women supply less labour to the paid labour market than men.
In September 2021, women continued to have a lower labour market participation rate at 84.8 per cent than men at 92.1 per cent.
That said, progress on gender inequality benefits not just women but everyone, since it’s estimated achieving equality would add $150 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2026.
How will the minority government that Canadians recently re-elected bring about such progress? To answer this question, I examine gender inequalities from two perspectives — the supply and demand sides — and delve into how policy can bring about progress.
Supply side gender inequality
Women and men supply their labour differently, which is heavily shaped by societal norms that typically assign care work predominantly to women and often stigmatize those women who don’t take on those responsibilities. Women are overwhelmingly the (unpaid) primary caregivers at home. Accordingly, women supply less labour to the paid labour market than men.
In September 2021, women continued to have a lower labour market participation rate at 84.8 per cent than men at 92.1 per cent.
A new mother shares a moment with her son in Victoria, B.C.
Given social norms, affordable child care is crucial for enabling women to participate in the paid labour market.
In its last budget, the government committed to funding child care across Canada, and the Liberals promised to uphold the pledge during the election campaign.
Whether and when we will see a national child-care strategy enacted depends on how long the new government will last and how much leeway provinces have in implementing the proposed plan. Should it succeed, it would help alleviate pent-up labour supply and address the supply side of workplace gender inequality.
Read more: Canadian election 2021: Will the national child-care plan survive?
Demand side gender inequality
Employers demand labour differently from women and men, which is also shaped by societal norms that position men as assertive, rational and ambitious, and women as caregiving, emotional and gentle. This privileges men and disadvantages women in the workplace, including during hiring, performance evaluation and promotion.
Read more: L’employé idéal est-il – encore – masculin ?
For example, many people are hired into jobs based on on their gender. As the pandemic painfully illustrated, more women are employed in service-producing industries (like hospitality) and more men are hired in goods-producing and professional occupations (like construction and engineering).
Given social norms, affordable child care is crucial for enabling women to participate in the paid labour market.
In its last budget, the government committed to funding child care across Canada, and the Liberals promised to uphold the pledge during the election campaign.
Whether and when we will see a national child-care strategy enacted depends on how long the new government will last and how much leeway provinces have in implementing the proposed plan. Should it succeed, it would help alleviate pent-up labour supply and address the supply side of workplace gender inequality.
Read more: Canadian election 2021: Will the national child-care plan survive?
Demand side gender inequality
Employers demand labour differently from women and men, which is also shaped by societal norms that position men as assertive, rational and ambitious, and women as caregiving, emotional and gentle. This privileges men and disadvantages women in the workplace, including during hiring, performance evaluation and promotion.
Read more: L’employé idéal est-il – encore – masculin ?
For example, many people are hired into jobs based on on their gender. As the pandemic painfully illustrated, more women are employed in service-producing industries (like hospitality) and more men are hired in goods-producing and professional occupations (like construction and engineering).
\
Construction workers do renovations to the Centre Block on Parliament Hill in June 2021.
The services sector experienced significant declines in demand due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and customer concerns about infection. The rapid digitization and automation fuelled by the pandemic might further change how businesses operate and what employees they need, including those in the services industry.
Read more: Digital technologies will help build resilient communities after the coronavirus pandemic
Fixing demand-side inequality requires grappling with societal norms, which evolve slowly. The proposed national child-care initiative, which could allow women to transition from unpaid caregiving work at home to paid work, addresses the woman-as-caregiver norm. It could break the bond between women and caregiving work; women would no longer be slotted into service occupations, which would open up more for men.
It might therefore further contribute to weakening the link between men and goods-producing and professional occupations, which could then welcome more women.
Training is key
Changing societal norms can be also achieved via training. The pandemic closed many businesses in the services industry, giving employees an opportunity to retrain, upskill or change occupations.
Governments can help by facilitating training. In 2019, a tax credit was introduced for Canadians who incur training fees. In its election platform, the Liberal Party proposed further training initiatives. The NDP, likely a key player in the new minority government, emphasizes training and lifelong learning in its election platform.
How many of these promises will actually become real policy and help employees update their skills remains to be seen.
Nonetheless, the recent federal election could be a game-changer for organizational gender inequality. In particular, the proposed Canada-wide child-care strategy could have a profound impact, spurring gender equality in both the supply and demand of labour.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Claudine Mangen receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
The services sector experienced significant declines in demand due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and customer concerns about infection. The rapid digitization and automation fuelled by the pandemic might further change how businesses operate and what employees they need, including those in the services industry.
Read more: Digital technologies will help build resilient communities after the coronavirus pandemic
Fixing demand-side inequality requires grappling with societal norms, which evolve slowly. The proposed national child-care initiative, which could allow women to transition from unpaid caregiving work at home to paid work, addresses the woman-as-caregiver norm. It could break the bond between women and caregiving work; women would no longer be slotted into service occupations, which would open up more for men.
It might therefore further contribute to weakening the link between men and goods-producing and professional occupations, which could then welcome more women.
Training is key
Changing societal norms can be also achieved via training. The pandemic closed many businesses in the services industry, giving employees an opportunity to retrain, upskill or change occupations.
Governments can help by facilitating training. In 2019, a tax credit was introduced for Canadians who incur training fees. In its election platform, the Liberal Party proposed further training initiatives. The NDP, likely a key player in the new minority government, emphasizes training and lifelong learning in its election platform.
How many of these promises will actually become real policy and help employees update their skills remains to be seen.
Nonetheless, the recent federal election could be a game-changer for organizational gender inequality. In particular, the proposed Canada-wide child-care strategy could have a profound impact, spurring gender equality in both the supply and demand of labour.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Claudine Mangen receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Pig-to-human transplants come a step closer with new test
Scientists temporarily attached a pig’s kidney to a human body and watched it begin to work, a small step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants.
Scientists temporarily attached a pig’s kidney to a human body and watched it begin to work, a small step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
Pigs have been the most recent research focus to address the organ shortage, but among the hurdles: A sugar in pig cells, foreign to the human body, causes immediate organ rejection. The kidney for this experiment came from a gene-edited animal, engineered to eliminate that sugar and avoid an immune system attack.
Surgeons attached the pig kidney to a pair of large blood vessels outside the body of a deceased recipient so they could observe it for two days. The kidney did what it was supposed to do — filter waste and produce urine — and didn't trigger rejection.
“It had absolutely normal function,” said Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led the surgical team last month at NYU Langone Health. “It didn’t have this immediate rejection that we have worried about.”
This research is “a significant step,” said Dr. Andrew Adams of the University of Minnesota Medical School, who was not part of the work. It will reassure patients, researchers and regulators “that we’re moving in the right direction.”
The dream of animal-to-human transplants — or xenotransplantation — goes back to the 17th century with stumbling attempts to use animal blood for transfusions. By the 20th century, surgeons were attempting transplants of organs from baboons into humans, notably Baby Fae, a dying infant, who lived 21 days with a baboon heart.
With no lasting success and much public uproar, scientists turned from primates to pigs, tinkering with their genes to bridge the species gap.
Pigs have advantages over monkeys and apes. They are produced for food, so using them for organs raises fewer ethical concerns. Pigs have large litters, short gestation periods and organs comparable to humans.
Pig heart valves also have been used successfully for decades in humans. The blood thinner heparin is derived from pig intestines. Pig skin grafts are used on burns and Chinese surgeons have used pig corneas to restore sight.
In the NYU case, researchers kept a deceased woman's body going on a ventilator after her family agreed to the experiment. The woman had wished to donate her organs, but they weren’t suitable for traditional donation.
The family felt “there was a possibility that some good could come from this gift,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery himself received a transplant three years ago, a human heart from a donor with hepatitis C because he was willing to take any organ. “I was one of those people lying in an ICU waiting and not knowing whether an organ was going to come in time,” he said.
Several biotech companies are in the running to develop suitable pig organs for transplant to help ease the human organ shortage. More than 90,000 people in the U.S. are in line for a kidney transplant. Every day, 12 die while waiting.
The advance is a win for Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics, the company that engineered the pig and its cousins, a herd of 100 raised in tightly controlled conditions at a facility in Iowa.
The pigs lack a gene that produces alpha-gal, the sugar that provokes an immediate attack from the human immune system.
In December, the Food and Drug Administration approved the gene alteration in the Revivicor pigs as safe for human food consumption and medicine.
But the FDA said developers would need to submit more paperwork before pig organs could be transplanted into living humans.
“This is an important step forward in realizing the promise of xenotransplantation, which will save thousands of lives each year in the not-too-distant future,” said United Therapeutics CEO Martine Rothblatt in a statement.
Experts say tests on nonhuman primates and last month’s experiment with a human body pave the way for the first experimental pig kidney or heart transplants in living people in the next several years.
Raising pigs to be organ donors feels wrong to some people, but it may grow more acceptable if concerns about animal welfare can be addressed, said Karen Maschke, a research scholar at the Hastings Center, who will help develop ethics and policy recommendations for the first clinical trials under a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
“The other issue is going to be: Should we be doing this just because we can?” Maschke said.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Carla K. Johnson, The Associated Press
Pigs have been the most recent research focus to address the organ shortage, but among the hurdles: A sugar in pig cells, foreign to the human body, causes immediate organ rejection. The kidney for this experiment came from a gene-edited animal, engineered to eliminate that sugar and avoid an immune system attack.
Surgeons attached the pig kidney to a pair of large blood vessels outside the body of a deceased recipient so they could observe it for two days. The kidney did what it was supposed to do — filter waste and produce urine — and didn't trigger rejection.
“It had absolutely normal function,” said Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led the surgical team last month at NYU Langone Health. “It didn’t have this immediate rejection that we have worried about.”
This research is “a significant step,” said Dr. Andrew Adams of the University of Minnesota Medical School, who was not part of the work. It will reassure patients, researchers and regulators “that we’re moving in the right direction.”
The dream of animal-to-human transplants — or xenotransplantation — goes back to the 17th century with stumbling attempts to use animal blood for transfusions. By the 20th century, surgeons were attempting transplants of organs from baboons into humans, notably Baby Fae, a dying infant, who lived 21 days with a baboon heart.
With no lasting success and much public uproar, scientists turned from primates to pigs, tinkering with their genes to bridge the species gap.
Pigs have advantages over monkeys and apes. They are produced for food, so using them for organs raises fewer ethical concerns. Pigs have large litters, short gestation periods and organs comparable to humans.
Pig heart valves also have been used successfully for decades in humans. The blood thinner heparin is derived from pig intestines. Pig skin grafts are used on burns and Chinese surgeons have used pig corneas to restore sight.
In the NYU case, researchers kept a deceased woman's body going on a ventilator after her family agreed to the experiment. The woman had wished to donate her organs, but they weren’t suitable for traditional donation.
The family felt “there was a possibility that some good could come from this gift,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery himself received a transplant three years ago, a human heart from a donor with hepatitis C because he was willing to take any organ. “I was one of those people lying in an ICU waiting and not knowing whether an organ was going to come in time,” he said.
Several biotech companies are in the running to develop suitable pig organs for transplant to help ease the human organ shortage. More than 90,000 people in the U.S. are in line for a kidney transplant. Every day, 12 die while waiting.
The advance is a win for Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics, the company that engineered the pig and its cousins, a herd of 100 raised in tightly controlled conditions at a facility in Iowa.
The pigs lack a gene that produces alpha-gal, the sugar that provokes an immediate attack from the human immune system.
In December, the Food and Drug Administration approved the gene alteration in the Revivicor pigs as safe for human food consumption and medicine.
But the FDA said developers would need to submit more paperwork before pig organs could be transplanted into living humans.
“This is an important step forward in realizing the promise of xenotransplantation, which will save thousands of lives each year in the not-too-distant future,” said United Therapeutics CEO Martine Rothblatt in a statement.
Experts say tests on nonhuman primates and last month’s experiment with a human body pave the way for the first experimental pig kidney or heart transplants in living people in the next several years.
Raising pigs to be organ donors feels wrong to some people, but it may grow more acceptable if concerns about animal welfare can be addressed, said Karen Maschke, a research scholar at the Hastings Center, who will help develop ethics and policy recommendations for the first clinical trials under a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
“The other issue is going to be: Should we be doing this just because we can?” Maschke said.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Carla K. Johnson, The Associated Press
EXXON UNION BUSTING
Vote on removing union from Exxon Texas refinery could come next month
Exxon Mobil begins lockout of workers from Texas plant
BEAUMONT, Texas (Reuters) - The U.S. National Labor Relations Board is expected to schedule a mid-November vote on removing the United Steelworkers union from Exxon Mobil's Beaumont, Texas, refinery, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Exxon locked out union members on May 1 after it and the USW were unable to agree on a new, six-year labor contract for the refinery and oil-blending and packaging plant. A vote on Exxon's proposed contract is ongoing and results are due this evening.
At least 30% of the plant's 650 members separately signed a petition calling for an NLRB vote to decertify the local union. Decertification is the formal name for the removal process.
An Exxon spokesperson was not immediately available to comment on the vote timing. The NLRB did not reply to a request for comment.
The NLRB will first consider the union's charge that Exxon improperly aided the removal petition before releasing any results from the vote, the person familiar with the matter said.
The USW in April filed a complaint with the NLRB alleging Exxon had violated federal law by providing an employee with decertification materials, employee email addresses and use of a company computer and email system to campaign for decertification.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; writing by Gary McWilliams; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
BEAUMONT, Texas (Reuters) - The U.S. National Labor Relations Board is expected to schedule a mid-November vote on removing the United Steelworkers union from Exxon Mobil's Beaumont, Texas, refinery, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Exxon locked out union members on May 1 after it and the USW were unable to agree on a new, six-year labor contract for the refinery and oil-blending and packaging plant. A vote on Exxon's proposed contract is ongoing and results are due this evening.
At least 30% of the plant's 650 members separately signed a petition calling for an NLRB vote to decertify the local union. Decertification is the formal name for the removal process.
An Exxon spokesperson was not immediately available to comment on the vote timing. The NLRB did not reply to a request for comment.
The NLRB will first consider the union's charge that Exxon improperly aided the removal petition before releasing any results from the vote, the person familiar with the matter said.
The USW in April filed a complaint with the NLRB alleging Exxon had violated federal law by providing an employee with decertification materials, employee email addresses and use of a company computer and email system to campaign for decertification.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; writing by Gary McWilliams; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
German publisher Axel Springer completes Politico takeover
BERLIN (AP) — German publisher Axel Springer SE said Tuesday it has completed its acquisition of U.S.-based political news outlet Politico.
The announcement came a day after Axel Springer ousted the top editor of its flagship publication in Germany over misconduct allegations.
The removal of Julian Reichelt from his post as chief editor of tabloid Bild was seen by some commentators in Germany as a possible nod toward concerns from its majority owner, U.S. investment firm KKR, following media reports that the 41-year-old had acted inappropriately toward female employees.
Axel Springer said in a statement that the acquisition of Politico, tech news site Protocol, E&E News and Agency IQ from founder Robert L. Allbritton was completed after it received the necessary regulatory approvals.
A purchase price wasn't announced, but German media have reported it to be about $1 billion.
“We have always believed deeply in the digital journalism business model and Politico is a prime example of how to make it work," Axel Springer quoted its chief executive Mathias Doepfner as saying.
"We will work with Politico to further elevate its growth potential and aim to help expand its offering internationally,” he said.
Axel Springer has increasingly moved beyond its traditional European publishing market in recent years, including by investing in specialist online portals such as recruiting site Stepstone.
The Associated Press
BERLIN (AP) — German publisher Axel Springer SE said Tuesday it has completed its acquisition of U.S.-based political news outlet Politico.
The announcement came a day after Axel Springer ousted the top editor of its flagship publication in Germany over misconduct allegations.
The removal of Julian Reichelt from his post as chief editor of tabloid Bild was seen by some commentators in Germany as a possible nod toward concerns from its majority owner, U.S. investment firm KKR, following media reports that the 41-year-old had acted inappropriately toward female employees.
Axel Springer said in a statement that the acquisition of Politico, tech news site Protocol, E&E News and Agency IQ from founder Robert L. Allbritton was completed after it received the necessary regulatory approvals.
A purchase price wasn't announced, but German media have reported it to be about $1 billion.
“We have always believed deeply in the digital journalism business model and Politico is a prime example of how to make it work," Axel Springer quoted its chief executive Mathias Doepfner as saying.
"We will work with Politico to further elevate its growth potential and aim to help expand its offering internationally,” he said.
Axel Springer has increasingly moved beyond its traditional European publishing market in recent years, including by investing in specialist online portals such as recruiting site Stepstone.
The Associated Press
Florida Man Finds Tooth of Megalodon, Biggest Shark to Ever Live, While Diving
A Florida man was left delighted last week after finding a tooth fossil from a megalodon, the largest shark to ever live.
A Florida man was left delighted last week after finding a tooth fossil from a megalodon, the largest shark to ever live.
A stock 3D illustration of a megalodon shark swimming. The sharks went extinct around 3 million years ago.
Michael Nastasio said he was "so happy" when he found a 6-inch-long megalodon tooth while fossil hunting off the coast of Venice.
The megalodon, also known as Otodus megalodon, was a huge shark and apex predator of the seas that is thought to have gone extinct around 3.6 million years ago.
The earliest fossils date from around 20 million years ago, suggesting that for around 13 million years the enormous fish dominated the oceans, according to the U.K.'s Natural History Museum. The museum describes the shark as the largest to ever live.
Researchers have never found a complete megalodon skeleton, but based on the sheer size of the animal's fossilized teeth, it is estimated that it grew to between 49 and 59 foot in length. The largest megalodon teeth to be found have been in excess of 7 inches.
On his huge 6-inch find, Nastasio said in a Facebook post that he had been hunting for a tooth of that size for around a decade. He is the boat captain at the Florida diving company Black Gold Fossil Charters.
"I'm so happy right now and literally still shaking," he wrote. "I was the last one in the water and saw it within the first five minutes of my dive. The tooth measures 6 1/16 [inches]."
He also posted photos that show him holding the tooth, which looks to be around the same size as his hand.
Megalodon shark teeth can be valuable depending on their size. Fossil website FossilEra allows people to buy and sell megalodon teeth, and while some examples can go for a few hundred dollars, others, such as a serrated 6.21-inch tooth, are valued at nearly $3,000.
Megalodon teeth have been found on every continent except Antarctica. Many examples have been found off the east coast of North America, as well as in rivers in North and South Carolina and Florida.
Earlier this year a three-pound, 6.45-inch tooth was found at a construction site in South Carolina. Outside of the U.S., a 4.3-inch long tooth was found this year in the U.K. on the Naze—a headland on the coast of Essex.
Megalodon teeth are relatively common fossils because sharks produce so many of them. Depending on what they eat, they can get through up to 40,000 teeth in their lifetime. Their teeth are also the hardest part of their skeleton.
The megalodon, also known as Otodus megalodon, was a huge shark and apex predator of the seas that is thought to have gone extinct around 3.6 million years ago.
The earliest fossils date from around 20 million years ago, suggesting that for around 13 million years the enormous fish dominated the oceans, according to the U.K.'s Natural History Museum. The museum describes the shark as the largest to ever live.
Researchers have never found a complete megalodon skeleton, but based on the sheer size of the animal's fossilized teeth, it is estimated that it grew to between 49 and 59 foot in length. The largest megalodon teeth to be found have been in excess of 7 inches.
On his huge 6-inch find, Nastasio said in a Facebook post that he had been hunting for a tooth of that size for around a decade. He is the boat captain at the Florida diving company Black Gold Fossil Charters.
"I'm so happy right now and literally still shaking," he wrote. "I was the last one in the water and saw it within the first five minutes of my dive. The tooth measures 6 1/16 [inches]."
He also posted photos that show him holding the tooth, which looks to be around the same size as his hand.
Megalodon shark teeth can be valuable depending on their size. Fossil website FossilEra allows people to buy and sell megalodon teeth, and while some examples can go for a few hundred dollars, others, such as a serrated 6.21-inch tooth, are valued at nearly $3,000.
Megalodon teeth have been found on every continent except Antarctica. Many examples have been found off the east coast of North America, as well as in rivers in North and South Carolina and Florida.
Earlier this year a three-pound, 6.45-inch tooth was found at a construction site in South Carolina. Outside of the U.S., a 4.3-inch long tooth was found this year in the U.K. on the Naze—a headland on the coast of Essex.
Megalodon teeth are relatively common fossils because sharks produce so many of them. Depending on what they eat, they can get through up to 40,000 teeth in their lifetime. Their teeth are also the hardest part of their skeleton.
Coal report on Albertans' views to be delayed one month, says panel chairman
EDMONTON — A report detailing how Albertans feel about open-pit coal mining in the Rockies will be delayed by a month, says the head of the committee preparing the document.
EDMONTON — A report detailing how Albertans feel about open-pit coal mining in the Rockies will be delayed by a month, says the head of the committee preparing the document.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
Ron Wallace said the report, the first of two his panel is expected to generate, will now be delivered to Energy Minister Sonya Savage by Nov. 15. That's the same due date as the second report, which is to contain recommendations on coal development.
"It was because of the overwhelming response and the need to accommodate that response with extra time that we had to approach the minister with the request for an extension," Wallace said in an interview Tuesday.
Savage confirmed the move in a post to the committee's website.
"To ensure we are able to devote the necessary attention to the input received, the committee was granted permission from the Minister of Energy to extend the deadline of the engagement report to match the deadline of our final report," the post said.
The extension comes as American researchers conclude that North America now has so many steelmaking coal proposals in the works that some mines may not meet profit forecasts, raising the danger they might be closed early.
"They're promising lots of job creation," said Ryan Driskell Tate of Global Energy Monitor, a U.S.-based research group. "There are lots of promises made early on that are not necessarily fulfilled."
Wallace's five-member panel has been canvassing the province for what people think about how — or if — coal development should proceed. It was established as a result of a massive public outcry at changes that removed protections for large swaths of the Rocky Mountains and their foothills that resulted in a flood of coal exploration permits being issued on some of Alberta's most cherished landscapes.
The panel was due Friday to deliver a summary of what it heard in a report to the minister. But Wallace said it received too much high-quality information to pull anything together before mid-November.
With submissions still trickling in, Wallace said the panel has received 177 detailed papers from environmental groups, coal companies, municipalities and First Nations. It held 67 meetings and took in 1,028 emails.
Most, he said, were "strongly opposed" to the industry's expansion.
"I would characterize the report as a reflection of an enormous pent-up demand for the public to speak to government," he said.
Meanwhile, Tate said a spike in coal prices has led to 15 steelmaking coal projects across North America that have advanced beyond initial exploration, 11 of them in British Columbia and Alberta.
Tate said if all those projects are built, the amount of coal exported to China and other Asian countries would have to more than double.
"They don't have very obvious consumers," he said. "Prices are one question. I'm not even entirely sure they have a stable market."
Tate said the current price spike is due to a diplomatic spat between China, the world's biggest steelmaking coal consumer, and Australia, its biggest producer. If the differences are resolved and China starts buying Australian coal again, prices could drop, he said.
Climate policies are also expected to reduce steelmaking coal demand. The report notes the International Energy Agency says meeting Paris Agreement goals would probably cut demand in half by 2040.
The outlook for Albertans is risky, Tate said.
"Albertans will be dependent on the net-zero (carbon) targets of other countries."
Worse, he said, is the risk of stranded assets — mines that have made their environmental impact but are shuttered by poor profitability before the promised economic benefits are realized.
"This is a volatile market that is undergoing a lot of changes," said Tate.
Provided with a copy of Tate's report, Alberta Energy spokeswoman Jennifer Henshaw said no decisions on coal will be made until after Wallace's panel delivers its recommendations.
"The report will provide valuable insight and guidance as we determine the next steps to ensure modern coal policy is developed," she said.
The Coal Association of Canada did not respond to a request for comment on the Global Energy Monitor study.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2021.
— Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960
Bob Weber, The Canadian Press
Ron Wallace said the report, the first of two his panel is expected to generate, will now be delivered to Energy Minister Sonya Savage by Nov. 15. That's the same due date as the second report, which is to contain recommendations on coal development.
"It was because of the overwhelming response and the need to accommodate that response with extra time that we had to approach the minister with the request for an extension," Wallace said in an interview Tuesday.
Savage confirmed the move in a post to the committee's website.
"To ensure we are able to devote the necessary attention to the input received, the committee was granted permission from the Minister of Energy to extend the deadline of the engagement report to match the deadline of our final report," the post said.
The extension comes as American researchers conclude that North America now has so many steelmaking coal proposals in the works that some mines may not meet profit forecasts, raising the danger they might be closed early.
"They're promising lots of job creation," said Ryan Driskell Tate of Global Energy Monitor, a U.S.-based research group. "There are lots of promises made early on that are not necessarily fulfilled."
Wallace's five-member panel has been canvassing the province for what people think about how — or if — coal development should proceed. It was established as a result of a massive public outcry at changes that removed protections for large swaths of the Rocky Mountains and their foothills that resulted in a flood of coal exploration permits being issued on some of Alberta's most cherished landscapes.
The panel was due Friday to deliver a summary of what it heard in a report to the minister. But Wallace said it received too much high-quality information to pull anything together before mid-November.
With submissions still trickling in, Wallace said the panel has received 177 detailed papers from environmental groups, coal companies, municipalities and First Nations. It held 67 meetings and took in 1,028 emails.
Most, he said, were "strongly opposed" to the industry's expansion.
"I would characterize the report as a reflection of an enormous pent-up demand for the public to speak to government," he said.
Meanwhile, Tate said a spike in coal prices has led to 15 steelmaking coal projects across North America that have advanced beyond initial exploration, 11 of them in British Columbia and Alberta.
Tate said if all those projects are built, the amount of coal exported to China and other Asian countries would have to more than double.
"They don't have very obvious consumers," he said. "Prices are one question. I'm not even entirely sure they have a stable market."
Tate said the current price spike is due to a diplomatic spat between China, the world's biggest steelmaking coal consumer, and Australia, its biggest producer. If the differences are resolved and China starts buying Australian coal again, prices could drop, he said.
Climate policies are also expected to reduce steelmaking coal demand. The report notes the International Energy Agency says meeting Paris Agreement goals would probably cut demand in half by 2040.
The outlook for Albertans is risky, Tate said.
"Albertans will be dependent on the net-zero (carbon) targets of other countries."
Worse, he said, is the risk of stranded assets — mines that have made their environmental impact but are shuttered by poor profitability before the promised economic benefits are realized.
"This is a volatile market that is undergoing a lot of changes," said Tate.
Provided with a copy of Tate's report, Alberta Energy spokeswoman Jennifer Henshaw said no decisions on coal will be made until after Wallace's panel delivers its recommendations.
"The report will provide valuable insight and guidance as we determine the next steps to ensure modern coal policy is developed," she said.
The Coal Association of Canada did not respond to a request for comment on the Global Energy Monitor study.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2021.
— Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960
Bob Weber, The Canadian Press
China's Xi faces resistance to property-tax plan - WSJ
(Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping is facing resistance over a nationwide property tax aimed at curbing housing speculation, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of government deliberations.
Explainer-Is China finally ready to roll out a property tax?(Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping is facing resistance over a nationwide property tax aimed at curbing housing speculation, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of government deliberations.
Meeting commemorating 110th anniversary of Xinhai Revolution in Beijing
Earlier this year, Xi assigned to Han Zheng, the most senior of China's four vice premiers, the task of rolling out the levy much more widely, according to the report.
However, Beijing is now settling for a limited tax plan because of strong pushback, while a proposal involving state-provided affordable housing is emerging as an alternative, the WSJ reported.
An initial proposal to test-run the tax in some 30 cities has been scaled back to around 10, the report said.
In an essay in the ruling Communist Party journal Qiushi, published by the official Xinhua news agency on Friday, Xi had called for China to "vigorously and steadily advance" legislation for a property tax.
China has mulled such a tax for over a decade but faced resistance from stakeholders including local governments themselves, who fear it would erode property values or trigger a market sell-off.
In internal debates, the feedback to Xi's property-tax plan from both the party's elites and its rank-and-file members has been overwhelmingly negative, the WSJ report said, citing the people familiar with the deliberations.
(Reporting by Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
Earlier this year, Xi assigned to Han Zheng, the most senior of China's four vice premiers, the task of rolling out the levy much more widely, according to the report.
However, Beijing is now settling for a limited tax plan because of strong pushback, while a proposal involving state-provided affordable housing is emerging as an alternative, the WSJ reported.
An initial proposal to test-run the tax in some 30 cities has been scaled back to around 10, the report said.
In an essay in the ruling Communist Party journal Qiushi, published by the official Xinhua news agency on Friday, Xi had called for China to "vigorously and steadily advance" legislation for a property tax.
China has mulled such a tax for over a decade but faced resistance from stakeholders including local governments themselves, who fear it would erode property values or trigger a market sell-off.
In internal debates, the feedback to Xi's property-tax plan from both the party's elites and its rank-and-file members has been overwhelmingly negative, the WSJ report said, citing the people familiar with the deliberations.
(Reporting by Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
Security guards walk into a building in front of apartment blocks in Beijing
Ryan Woo, Liangping Gao and Samuel Shen
Tue, October 19, 2021
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's long-mooted - and long-resisted - property tax is set to gain new momentum as President Xi Jinping throws his support behind what experts say would be one of the most profound changes to the country's real estate policies in a generation.
The idea of a levy on home owners first surfaced in 2003 but has failed to take off due to concerns that it would damage property demand and tank prices, hurting household wealth and future real estate projects, and triggering a fiscal crisis for local governments addicted to land sales for income.
But the push by China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong to narrow disparities between ultra-rich urbanites and the rural poor under the banner of "common prosperity" may provide the needed political will to push through a nationwide property tax, currently on the legislative agenda for 2021-2025.
WHY A PROPERTY TAX?
A property tax may finally tame surging home prices.
Average home prices have soared more than 2,000% since the privatisation of the housing market since the 1990s in a fast-urbanising China, and in recent years, creating an affordability crisis especially among millennials.
The seemingly unstoppable price gains have also ignited speculative purchases, sparking frenzied construction, often funded by rampant borrowing that has now ensnared developers - including the severely indebted China Evergrande Group - and stoked fears of wider risks to the economy.
WILL THE TAX BE LEVIED NATIONWIDE?
In pilot programmes rolled out in 2011, the megacities of Shanghai and Chongqing have taxed homeowners, albeit just those possessing higher-end housing and second homes, at rates from 0.4% to 1.2%.
But the pilots have not widened to more cities.
Richer regions are expected to implement property taxes first, with experts in recent weeks identifying the wealthy province of Zhejiang as one such candidate, as well as the southern boomtown of Shenzhen and the island province of Hainan.
"It would be a major policy change in the history of China's real estate development," said Betty Wang, senior China economist at ANZ in Hong Kong. "It would be a medium- to long-term policy change."
WHAT ABOUT THE TAX RATE?
A 0.7% rate is plausible, although in practice, China is likely to take a tiered approach with differentiated rates depending on the city, said Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics.
"In the U.S., some wealthy counties have effective property tax rates in excess of 2%-3%, while in others it is much lower. But the average effective rate across the U.S. is 1.1%. So it should be feasible to reach 0.7% in urban China," he said.
A 0.7% rate would have generated 1.8 trillion yuan ($281 billion) of tax revenue in 2020 and exceeded the net land sales of local governments last year, he added.
That hypothetical revenue would be equal to the size of Finland's gross domestic product.
HOW MAY LOCAL GOVERNMENTS BE AFFECTED?
A property tax will give local authorities a new source of income that they can re-invest in public services and infrastructure investment.
It may generate fiscal revenue equal to 70%-80% of land sales revenues, said Lu Wenxi, chief analyst at property agency Centaline.
If sustained, it can help local governments slowly cut their reliance on land sales, Lu said.
But local governments may not necessarily be the ones getting this new revenue, reducing their incentive to collect such taxes, said Rocky Fan, economist at Sealand Securities.
If local governments make use of the funds locally, that would go against the idea of "common prosperity", which requires a centralised redistribution mechanism, he said.
GRAPHIC: Mainland China's Reliance on Land Sales (by province) - https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-ECONOMY/PROPERTY-LANDSALES/gkvlgxwbzpb/chart.png
WHAT ABOUT DEVELOPERS?
A property tax will increase investors' holding costs of real estate assets. That would channel some housing stocks into the market from home owners, increasing supply.
As such, developers will face a slowdown in the inventory digestion rate and cash collection, further pressuring their cash-flow and stressing their liquidity, said a mid-size developer based in eastern China.
WILL CHINA'S CAPITAL MARKETS BE AFFECTED?
A property tax will boost the cost of holding real estate, triggering asset reallocation towards capital markets, said Sealand's Fan.
Real estate accounts for nearly 60% of urban household assets, compared with 20.4% allocated to financial assets including stocks and bonds, according to China's central bank. In contrast, U.S. households hold over 40% of their wealth in financial assets.
"(With a property tax) people won't be hoarding properties. Instead, they will allocate their money elsewhere, in capital markets, benefiting companies," Fan said.
But while the levy would diffuse financial risks in China's bloated property market in the long term, careful implementation is needed to blunt the short-term impact, he warned.
"You need to give the market time to digest, and respond to the policy. A stampede would trigger a property price crash, endangering financial health."
($1 = 6.4111 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Ryan Woo and Liangping Gao in Beijing and Samuel Shen in Shanghai; Additional reporting by Clare Jim in Hong Kong; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
SEC report questions trading apps after GameStop frenzy
GAMIFICATION OF WALL ST IS CASINO CAPITALISM SAYS CRAMER CNBC
US securities regulators studying the mysterious surge in GameStop shares in January called Monday for deeper examination of "game-like" features on some trading platforms.
A Securities and Exchange Commission report examining volatility in GameStop and other so-called "meme" stocks, said the wild market moves last winter highlighted the need for "potential study and further consideration" of ways to ensure "fair, order and efficient" markets.
"Consideration should be given to whether game-like features and celebratory animations that are likely intended to create positive feedback from trading lead investors to trade more than they would otherwise," said the 45-page SEC report, which stopped short of recommendations.
The report comes on the heels of earlier comments from SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who has previously criticized "gamification" on the online platform Robinhood, which is popular with younger investors.
Robinhood has been credited with introducing a generation of new individual investors to the stock market, but the platform is also known for features that critics say can make it addictive.
The SEC report describes GameStop's torrid rise of a little under $20 a barrel at the end of 2020 to a high of $483 on January 12 amid frenzied trading.
The surge was seen in some financial media as driven at least in part by a desire of retail investors communicating on the Reddit platform collaborating in an effort to retaliate against short sellers.
Seasoned investors viewed GameStop's movements as divorced from fundamental questions about the company's financial performance and its prospects.
The SEC report did not draw conclusions on the root cause of GameStop's volatility, saying, "Whether driven by a desire to squeeze short sellers and thus profit from the resultant rise in price, or by belief in the fundamentals of GameStop, it was the positive sentiment, not the buying-to-cover that sustained the weeks-long price appreciation of GameStop stock."Trading app Robinhood says facing US regulator inquiries
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