Nobel laureate Paul Krugman says the US still needs several hundred billion dollars a month to repair a coronavirus-stricken economy


Emily Graffeo Nov. 5, 2020, 04:18 PM



Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman told CNBC on Thursday that the US still needs several hundred billion dollars a month to repair the economy as coronavirus cases continue to surge. 

"We're still 11 million jobs down from where we were before this thing hit and all of those people are without wages, state local governments are in extreme financial distress, thousands of businesses ... are on the verge of collapse," Krugman said.

Congress has been unable to reach a deal for additional pandemic relief since August, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday a second stimulus should be passed before years end.

Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman told CNBC on Thursday that the United States still needs several hundred billion dollars a month in economic stimulus to repair the economy as the coronavirus continues to spread and stifle job and business growth.

"We're still 11 million jobs down from where we were before this thing hit and all of those people are without wages, state local governments are in extreme financial distress, thousands of businesses — maybe hundreds of thousands — are on the verge of collapse," he said.

Krugman said it's difficult to pinpoint the exact price of the ideal relief package, but said that a "really, really big," one is needed to keep the US afloat: "We really are still very much in the disaster relief stage."

Last week, 751,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits, a decline from the week before, but much higher than economists' expectations

Benefits from the first fiscal stimulus package that totaled $2 trillion are ending or have already expired, and Congress has been unable to reach a deal for an additional relief bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday that a coronavirus relief package should be passed before the end of 2020.

In late October, Democrats blocked a smaller, $500 billion relief bill from Republicans, blasting it as inadequate to address the economic crisis. The bill would have implemented a $300 federal unemployment benefit through the end of December, provided more forgivable federal loans to small businesses, and provided $105 billion to help schools reopen. It omitted aid to states as well as $1,200 direct payments to taxpayers.

Krugman said enhanced unemployment benefits have been the "most important policy," but he doubted that McConnell would extend the benefits in any subsequent bill.

"That was far more effective than anything else in the package, but we've seen very, very little ... on the part of Senate Republicans to resume enhanced employment benefits," he said.

Amid election uncertainty and viral surge, U.S. economic recovery wobbles

By Howard Schneider

© Reuters/MIKE BLAKE FILE PHOTO: California closes indoor shopping malls as it pulls back from opeing due to sharp rise in positive coronavirus tests

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fresh signs the U.S. economic recovery may be faltering surfaced over the last week with high-frequency measures of retail traffic and jobs both ebbing amid a record-breaking surge in coronavirus cases.


Millions of formerly employed Americans remain sidelined by the recession triggered by the virus, and uncertainty over the future direction of the country - politically and economically - remains especially high in the shadow of this week's still-unsettled U.S. presidential election.

Foot traffic to retail locations turned lower, according to data collected by Unacast https://www.unacast.com/covid19/covid-19-retail-impact-scoreboard and Safegraph https://www.safegraph.com/dashboard/covid19-commerce-patterns and indexed to March 1, before a state of emergency was declared to combat the pandemic. The firms' information is based on cellphone movements matched against a library of identified retail locations.

Estimates of seated diners at restaurants collected by reservation site OpenTable https://www.opentable.com/state-of-industry fell for a third straight week.

Graphic: Retail in real time - https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ECONOMY/REOPEN/xegvbjdrnvq/chart.png

The number of people working declined for a second straight week at a sample of around 55,000 small businesses whose employee time is managed by Homebase https://joinhomebase.com/data.

The firm has been providing data on that set of businesses, all of which were open at the start of the year, to see how they fared through the pandemic. The number of them now open has fallen for six weeks in a row, from a post-pandemic high of 45,347 in mid-September to 44,403.

Graphic: A slump in small business? - https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ECONOMY/REOPENING/qmyvmjzjapr/chart.png

Employment at a broader set of industries, maintained by UKG https://www.kronos.com/about-us/newsroom/update-us-workforce-activity, has been sluggish, growing at less than 1% through October, virtually flat for the smallest businesses, and falling over the past week.

Graphic: Jobs in real time - https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ECONOMY/REOPENING/azgvoaggdvd/chart.png

An index of job openings maintained by the Indeed https://www.hiringlab.org Hiring Lab was relatively flat through October, at around 15% below the levels of a year ago. Estimates from analytics firm Chmura http://www.chmuraecon.com/blog, comparing new job openings to predicted levels without the pandemic, showed a deeper gap of more than 20%.

New claims for unemployment insurance, at 751,000 for the week ending Oct. 31, have changed little in recent weeks, stalled at a level above the peak seen during the 2007-2009 Great Recession.

Dave Gilbertson, UKG's vice president for strategy and operations, said it appears the new wave of infections has led to "extreme caution" when it comes to hiring plans.

The virus has now infected nearly 10 million people and the number of new cases topped 100,000 on Wednesday for the first time. Compared with the more geographically contained outbreak in the spring, centered in densely populated areas around the Northeast, COVID-19 is now in wide circulation, with the highest rates of infection in the Midwest. More than 233,000 people in the country have died.

The overall pace of recovery shows signs of plateauing, and a broader read on that will come on Friday when the U.S. Labor Department releases its monthly employment report for October. The country is expected to have added 600,000 nonfarm payroll jobs last month, according to a Reuters poll of economists. That would still leave a gap of roughly 10 million from pre-pandemic levels.

Even that data will be backward-looking, rooted in estimates from a government survey conducted three weeks ago.

In the more quickly evolving pandemic economy, economists have turned to alternative data sources to gauge conditions closer to real time.

Those indicators were the earliest to show the initial rebound in May and June. They have turned flat this fall, particularly in October as the coronavirus spread.

Adding to the economic risk now: Uncertainty over the outcome of Tuesday's presidential election and whether a still-gridlocked U.S. leadership will find ways to stem the country's twin health and economic crises.

Early measures helped. Legislation passed by Congress in March unleashed trillions of dollars of federal assistance for households and businesses, keeping establishments solvent and supporting personal income, spending and savings despite continued high unemployment.

New bankruptcy data from Epiq AACER for October showed that, while the number of Chapter 11 filings used by larger companies remains about 30% higher than the last year, the number of new filings fell more than 26% from September. Including personal and other commercial bankruptcies, overall filings are down more than 40% on a year-to-date basis compared to 2019.

A New York Fed https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/policy/weekly-economic-index#/interactive weekly index of projected gross domestic product rose last week and has climbed steadily, tracking the ongoing resumption of economic activity.

Graphic: NY Fed Weekly Economic Index - https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ECONOMY/WEI/azgpoagodpd/chart.png

But on a broad basis, the situation is at best uncertain.

An Oxford http://blog.oxfordeconomics.com/topic/recovery-tracker Economics broad recovery index fell for the third straight week and hit its lowest level since mid-August, driven by a sharp drop in health metrics that may be curbing people's willingness to move about and may be starting to suppress demand.

Graphic: Oxford Economics Recovery Index - https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-ECONOMY/OXFORDINDEX/yzdvxqzmkpx/chart.png

"The dangerous cocktail of surging Covid infections and fading fiscal support has led to a visible slowdown," wrote Gregory Daco, Oxford's chief U.S. economist. "The economy is sending distressing signals to policymakers."

(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Dan Burns and Paul Simao)

ESPN announces 300 layoffs, citing 'disruption' amid virus

ESPN announced Thursday it is laying off about 300 employees and cutting about 500 jobs from its global workforce

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

The cuts amount to about 10% of the employees at the sports network and are due largely to the impact of the pandemic on its business and the “tremendous disruption in how fans consume sports.”

“In the short term, we enacted various steps like executive and talent salary reductions, furloughs and budget cuts, and we implemented innovative operations and production approaches, all in an effort to weather the COVID storm,” Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN’s chairman, wrote in an email to employees. “We have, however, reached an inflection point.”

In addition to the layoffs, the company is planning to leave about 200 vacant positions unfilled.

ESPN did not say how many of the job cuts would come at its Bristol, Connecticut, campus, but said they would not be concentrated in any one area. On-air talent, the vast majority having personal contracts, is not expected to be heavily affected. But some of those contracts could be allowed to expire.

The company said it has more than 5,000 employees, including about 4,000 in Bristol.

The Disney subsidiary has recently been moving toward more direct-to-consumer offerings, including its ESPN+, a streaming service that has grown to about 8.5 million subscribers.

Pitaro said the discussions on how to reposition the company in a changing media landscape predate COVID-19, but said the pandemic had accelerated those discussions.

“Placing resources in support of our direct-to-consumer business strategy, digital, and, of course, continued innovative television experiences, is more critical than ever,” he wrote. “However, building a successful future in a changing world means facing hard choices. Making informed decisions about how and where we need to go – and, as always, in the most efficient way possible — is by far the most challenging job of any leadership team.”

The layoffs come three years after ESPN cut about 250 jobs, including journalists and on-air talent.

Pat Eaton-Robb, The Associated Press

California voters reject affirmative action measure despite summer of activism

OAKLAND — California voters rejected Proposition 16, a major blow to Democrats and social justice advocates who hoped a national reckoning on racial inequality following the police killing of George Floyd would translate into a long-sought repeal of the state’s affirmative action ban.

© Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo

 A California voter with her granddaughter walk after casting her ballot in-person on Election Day.

The measure placed on the ballot by state lawmakers was losing 44-56 after nearly 12 million votes were counted overnight.

Background: Public entities have been barred from taking race, gender or other personal identifications into consideration during admissions, hiring and awarding of contracts since 1996. That year, voters passed Proposition 209, a measure supported by Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and former University of California Regent Ward Connerly.

The law is a holdover of conservative policy in a state that has since elected a Democratic supermajority, and it has been blamed for racial enrollment disparities at the UC and California State University systems and a decline in public contracts awarded to businesses owned by women and people of color.

State lawmakers placed Prop. 16 on the ballot, believing they had a unique window of opportunity to repeal Prop. 209. A strong majority of California residents said they backed the Black Lives Matter movement after a summer of racial justice activism in response to the police killing of Floyd in Minneapolis.

Despite facing little opposition and polling that showed a significant majority of Californians believed racial and gender equality were among the most pressing issues this election, the Yes on 16 campaign failed to make significant inroads with voters. The campaign lost despite having support from the Democratic establishment and raising $31 million from liberal donors and foundations, compared to $1.6 million against.

Supporters struggled to garner attention in a campaign cycle dominated by expensive ballot fights over issues like gig-worker employment and dialysis clinic regulations that dominated airwaves.

What happened? Some of the lawmakers who helped place Prop. 16 on the ballot said they believe the Prop. 209 repeal language may have unnecessarily confused voters. They also suggested that the campaign needed to do a better job of educating the electorate on what affirmative action is and why it matters — and that was particularly challenging during an unprecedented early voting election with other well-funded campaigns competing for attention.

However, Connerly and other opponents said the California electorate continues to support the principles of Prop. 209 and do not want race or other personal characteristics to have weight in college admissions, public hiring decisions or contracting.

What’s next? Democratic lawmakers made clear in the weeks leading up to Nov. 3 that a defeat would not deter their effort to erase Prop. 209 from the state constitution. Legislative leaders have yet to indicate if they plan to pursue another measure on the 2022 ballot, though any effort to reinstate affirmative action would have to go through the voters.

Democrats’ down-ballot misery continues with state legislative battles


Heading into Election Day, Democrats had hoped to pick up a half-dozen or more state legislative chambers to get a foot in the door when many state politicians get to redraw congressional maps next year, lines that will last for the next decade and help determine which party controls Congress.

The Pennsylvania Capitol. (Julio Cortez/AP)

Instead, it’s possible Democrats end up with no new chambers, and it will be Republicans who leave 2020 with wins. Republicans picked up the New Hampshire House and Senate, giving them total control over governing in that state because they also kept the governor’s mansion. Republicans won another trifecta, as it is called when one party holds the state legislature and governorship, after their victory in the Montana’s governor race.

Arizona’s state House and state Senate are still outstanding and could be Democratic pickups. There’s a long shot chance that Democrats take the Pennsylvania House. But those are all ifs, and they are far from the only victories Democrats had hoped to be talking about right now.

These results are notable for two reasons:

1. It tracks with Democrats’ underperformance down the entire ballot. Democrat Joe Biden still has a path to win the presidency, but Democrats’ chances of taking the Senate majority are narrowing to almost nil. And Democrats will keep their majority in the House, but they may lose seats rather than win the 10 to 15 some in their party had predicted they’d gain. And they could end 2020 without picking up any state legislative chambers, or far fewer than they had expected.

2. The battle for state legislatures was historically static. You have to go back to the 1940s to find an election when so few chambers flipped parties, said Tim Storey, the executive director of the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures. On average, an election day brings about 10 chambers flipped. This time, it could be just two. “It’s jaw dropping to me how little change there is,” he said. “It’s almost like trench warfare. There was all this smoke and fire and stuff aimed at each other, and at the end of the day, only inches moved.”

The odds were in Democrats’ favor that they could do better, and not just because history suggests more legislative chambers were going to switch parties this November. Republicans control a majority of state chambers after investing heavily in this level of politics a decade ago. After President Trump’s 2016 win, Democrats finally started paying attention and giving money to state legislative battles. Democrats’ state legislative committee broke fundraising records this year and hoped that 2020 would bring a political realignment back in their favor.

And yet they were unable to flip the state House in Texas — perhaps their No. 1 target — or either chamber in North Carolina. They did not manage to flip the Minnesota state Senate despite that being one of their easiest challenges since they were only two seats away. Nor the Iowa state House.

Democrats say it’s a little too early to say 2020 was a total wipeout for them. They may well pick up state legislative seats, if not state legislative chambers. “The 2020 election is still days away from being settled,” Christina Polizzi, a DLCC spokeswoman, told The Washington Post in a statement earlier Wednesday. “We always knew this election was going to be difficult — we’re running on extremely gerrymandered maps. There are millions of votes still to be counted and we’re going to make sure every one of them is counted.”

And they did win a state Supreme Court seat in Michigan, flipping partisan control of that all-important state’s top court to Democrats.

But the door is shutting quickly on Democrats’ opportunities to pick up actual chambers. Democrats will pick up the pieces on why in the coming days and weeks. It seems immediately clear there’s a partisanship underlying these results from the state legislature on up that Democrats, especially, have not figured out how to work around.

“Voters are just so in line with their party,” Storey said. “Neither party seems willing to change right now or vote for the other side.”

Striking N.L. Dominion store workers suing police for trying to break up picket line

MOUNT PEARL, N.L. — The Dominion stores workers' union in Newfoundland and Labrador says it's suing the police after officers tried to break up its members' picket line last week.© Provided by The Canadian Press

Unifor said today in a news release it is filing notice of civil claim against the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary for breach of charter rights, negligence, negligent or wilful misrepresentation and for intimidation.

Last week, police showed up to a worker picket line outside a Weston Foods bakery and allegedly threatened union members with arrest for blocking trucks from leaving the parking lot.

Unifor says its members are back picketing outside the bakery today to show police and the parent company of Dominion stores, Loblaw Companies Ltd, that they won't be intimidated.

Weston Foods is a subsidiary of George Weston Ltd., which also owns the Loblaws stores.

Unifor says last week's picket line was peaceful and lawful, and that police threatened the workers with arrest.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2020.

Union wants better protections, pandemic pay reinstated for Alberta meat plant, grocery store workers
Emily Mertz 

A union that represents 32,000 Alberta workers, mainly in food processing and retail sectors, is calling for enhanced safety protections and the return of pandemic pay premiums for essential workers

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© Getty Images Union wants food-processing and retail workers in Alberta compensated and protected as COVID-19 cases rise.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 401 is concerned about rising COVID-19 case numbers in Alberta and pandemic fatigue or complacency.

Read more: Alberta records 2,268 new cases of COVID-19, 15 deaths since Friday

"The second wave of this pandemic is in full swing," union president Thomas Hesse said in a news release Monday.

"We are seeing a sharp increase in positive COVID-19 cases and further workplace outbreaks, including multiple cases at a Superstore in Calgary.

"These trends are terrifying, especially for workers who are still being told they are too essential to 'stay home' and that they no longer deserve pandemic pay premiums."

On Tuesday, Alberta Health confirmed, on average, 567 new COVID-19 cases per day over the last four days. The total number of active cases in Alberta hit 6,110 Tuesday. Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Alberta’s positivity rate has risen to 6.8 per cent.

Read more: Grocery chains install checkout shields, raise wages in response to coronavirus pandemic

In March, grocery chains across Canada temporarily raised wages.

Sobeys paid frontline workers in stores and distribution centres $50 more a week, regardless of number of hours worked. Workers with 20 hours or more a week received an extra $2 an hour.

Loblaws temporarily raised wages by an estimated 15 per cent, while Metro raised wages by $2 an hour.

Video: Loblaw employees rally on Labour Day for pandemic pay bonuses

However, most of those pandemic payments were scaled back or eliminated by summer.

With the coronavirus a part of Canadians’ lives for more than three months, Loblaws stores and distribution centres “have settled into a good rhythm,” Sarah Davis, Loblaw president, wrote in an email to workers sent on June 11 and obtained by the Canadian Press.

“With this stability and economies reopening, we have decided the time is right to transition out of our temporary pay premium.”

Read more: Grocery store execs were in communication before canceling coronavirus pay, MPs told

"Essential workers have been told they must come to work to provide key services to the public," said Karamjit Ryan, a UFCW member working at a Safeway pharmacy in Edmonton. "When the company took away pandemic pay, we felt like we went from 'heroes' to 'zeroes.'"

UFCW Local 401 says that 67 Alberta worksites represented by the union have been impacted by positive cases so far, ranging from a single case to more than 950 cases at a single site, most notably at Cargill High River. The union said it's seen "a sharp uptick" in reported cases in recent weeks.

As of Tuesday, Alberta Health said there were outbreaks at Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, a Walmart Supercentre in Grande Prairie, Canada Bread Company in Edmonton, Hello Fresh warehouse in Edmonton, Maple Leaf Poultry in Edmonton, Loblaw Freeport Distribution Centre in Calgary, Goodfood Market in Calgary, the Westwinds Real Canadian Superstore in Calgary, Harmony Beef in Rocky View County and Cavendish in Lethbridge.

Video: Coronavirus outbreak: What is hazard pay and why is it important during this pandemic?

The union also wants to see province-wide regulations. It says the face-covering bylaws and physical distancing rules are "often unenforced at the store level" and "left up to front-line workers to enforce," Hesse said.

Read more: Coronavirus: Grocery store workers should be ‘properly’ paid, Trudeau says

Michael Hughes, the communications coordinator for UFCW Local 401 told Global News it sent a letter to Premier Kenney on April 23, outlining safety standards and precautions the union wanted to see across Alberta's food industry.

The letter asked the province to, among other things, create a working group of labour, employers and health experts to set rules to protect workers in all food sector workplaces, immediately close worksites for 14 days when there's an outbreak and have employees isolate and be tested.

The letter also asked that hazard pay remain while the pandemic does and that employers offer paid leave for all workers who cannot work due to COVID-19.

Hughes said the union has heard "nothing" back from the government.

"The Alberta government was pretty busy acting to ensure flexibility for employers... but what they haven't done is ensure certain protections for food workers."

Read more: Alberta government announces $170M to support seniors amid COVID-19 pandemic

In a statement, a spokesperson for Alberta's ministry of labour said the government recognizes "the tremendous work of all Albertans throughout this pandemic."

Video: Unions push for pandemic pay as COVID-19 numbers climb

When it comes to pandemic pay, the province put $170 million towards long-term care and supportive living sites' staffing and supports.

"The funding supports topping up the wages of 12,000 health care aides by $2 an hour for the duration of the pandemic, increasing health care aide staffing levels by the equivalent of 1,000 positions, and providing paid practicums to fast-track another 1,000 health care aide students into jobs in continuing care facilities," ministry spokesperson Adrienne South said.

Read more: Alberta nurses’ union calls on AHS to bring back paid leave as COVID-19 pandemic continues

"The province remains committed to providing support for all health care aides that work in contracted facilities, including the many community-based, non-profit facilities."


The union said it's tried to seek change through the companies themselves, with little success.


"We've asked employers to fix these things. That's our first go-to," Hughes said.

"Obviously we've gotten nowhere with them. They're resistant to bring back these types of premiums."

Global News has called and emailed Loblaw Companies and Sobeys Inc. for a response to the union's call. This article will be updated if we receive a comment.

Read more: Hinshaw says Alberta Health has ‘implemented lessons learned at Cargill'

Hughes said Alberta has seen two of the largest outbreaks in Canada -- at the Cargill and JBS processing plants -- and the union wants the province to regulate safety precautions and investigate the cause of the outbreaks.

"We should feel ashamed at what happened at these plants... While the pandemic pay has been scaled back and basically put on the shelf by a lot of these employers, we're still facing the same risks," he said.

"It blows our mind that as the numbers increase to levels higher than they even were in the spring, employers are seeing cause to ease rules that were put in place to keep employees safe," Hughes added.


"Even if it means less production, protect those employees."

However, a spokesperson for Cargill stressed its safety protocols, many of which have been in place since March, have certainly "not been relaxed at any point as we remained focused on our employees' safety," Daniel Sullivan told Global News.

He said Cargill has worked with local health authorities to implement safety measures at facilities across Canada.

"This summer, we've added an additional 6,500 square feet of space to our cafeteria in our High River facility to allow for greater social distancing in common areas in anticipation of colder weather as well as expanded locker rooms for both men and woman along with additional washrooms," Sullivan said.

JBS said it continues to recognize employees during the pandemic "through a financial bonus program." The company also gave $2 million to support the community of Brooks.

Read more: JBS beef plant in Alberta returning to 2 shifts per day after COVID-19 outbreak

JBS spokesperson Cameron Bruett said the company has implemented "hundreds of safety interventions to protect our workforce and support our community, including screening and temperature checking all employees prior to entering the facility, staggering start times and break times to promote physical distancing, requiring the use of masks and face shields, erecting physical barriers where possible, installing UV germicidal air sanitation and plasma bipolar ionization technologies to neutralize potential viruses in the air, and removing vulnerable populations from our facilities with full pay and benefits."

Bruett said JBS had maintained all preventative measures and added more, including "new building structures to accommodate more social distancing during lunch and other breaks."

GLOBAL NEWS VIDEOS WITH ARTICLE

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/other/union-wants-better-protections-pandemic-pay-reinstated-for-alberta-meat-plant-grocery-store-workers/ar-BB1aHmWt?ocid=msedgntp

What happens to N.W.T. patients if Alberta hospitals are overwhelmed?
Sara Minogue CBC

© Codie McLachlan/CBC As COVID-19 cases escalate in Alberta, health officials in the N.W.T. have been assured that the agreement that allows for N.W.T. patients to travel south and access Alberta medical facilities like Edmonton's Royal Alexandra Hospital, will…

On Oct. 28, doctors from the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association wrote an open letter warning the local health-care system was at a "tipping point," citing record-high COVID-19 case counts and hospitalization rates.

That was almost a week before Alberta's chief medical officer of health announced that 2,268 cases had been logged in the previous four days, and said the province was at a "critical juncture."

The situation in Alberta is still not as dire as it is in Manitoba, where hundreds of doctors have warned that the health-care system is strained.

Manitoba's rising caseload prompted a warning from the Nunavut government on Oct. 31 that scheduled medical travel for people in the Kivalliq region, who rely on Manitoba medical services, could be affected. The health department said staff would review all scheduled travel and notify individual patients about possible cancellations.

Though the number of cases is higher in Alberta, it has more than three times the population of Manitoba, fewer COVID-19 cases per capita, and more health care available generally. © CBC News This chart tracks the daily COVID-19 cases reported in Alberta (in grey; top line) and Manitoba (in green; bottom line) since early October. Manitoba has fewer cases than Alberta, but its health-care system is closer to being overwhelmed. That's in part because Alberta has more than three times the population.

People in the territories rely heavily on Alberta for health care.

In addition to scheduled medical appointments, data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information shows that in 2019-20, N.W.T. residents were admitted to hospital overnight in Alberta's Edmonton zone 955 times. The previous year, that number was 1,004. Both numbers are a tally of "acute inpatient hospitalizations," or hospital stays that were not scheduled ahead of time, and can include patients who were admitted more than once.

In addition, N.W.T. patients received 522 day surgeries in Alberta's Edmonton zone in 2019-20, and 721 the previous year. 

Urgent services a priority

The N.W.T. Health and Social Services Authority (NTHSSA) has a longstanding agreement with Alberta in which N.W.T. residents are considered equal to Alberta residents in terms of access to services.

"[Alberta Health Services] has confirmed that this relationship will continue to be honoured as we move through the evolving pandemic situation," authority spokesperson David Maguire said in an email.

Maguire also said the authority has been closely monitoring the situation as cases have "escalated in recent weeks."

"The NTHSSA remains in close contact with counterparts in Alberta, as recently as last Friday [Oct. 30], and to date they have not advised of cancellations or reductions in booking of elective appointments or procedures or access to emergency care services," Maguire said.

Virtual care is already being used whenever possible, he added.

"Urgent critical services will always be a priority," said the N.W.T.'s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Kami Kandola in response to a question about out-of-territory care during a weekly COVID-19 briefing with reporters Wednesday.
Planning for the worst

The N.W.T.'s COVID-19 pandemic response plan operates on the explicit assumption that "the ability for Alberta to accept patients for transfer may be limited."

The plan envisions preparing to activate "external resources," such as field hospital supports, once about half of the 24 COVID-19 inpatient beds at Stanton Territorial Hospital are full.

Throughout the plan, it emphasizes efforts to "flatten the curve" to prevent the widespread illness.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, has also offered assurances that health services will remain available and accessible.

"While COVID[-19] has consumed much of our attention in our lives, we must not forget that babies are still being born, accidents are still occurring, and Albertans continue to experience a wide range of urgent health needs," Hinshaw said Tuesday.

"Our top priority is protecting the health system to ensure that COVID-19 does not threaten our ability to provide the essential care that Albertans require for all their health issues."

Hundreds of coal mining jobs to end as power company switches to natural gas


CALGARY — Alberta power producer TransAlta Corp. says it will end operations at its Highvale thermal coal mine west of Edmonton by the end of 2021 as it switches to natural gas at all of its operated coal-fired plants in Canada four years earlier than previously planned.© Provided by The Canadian Press

The announcement will result in hundreds of mine job losses as employment drops to 40 to 50 people involved in reclamation work, expected to take about 20 years, from a peak workforce of around 1,500, said CEO Dawn Farrell on a conference call on Wednesday.

TransAlta confirmed last week it had closed a $400-million second tranche of a $750-million investment by an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management, with the proceeds to be used to advance its coal-to-gas conversion program and other corporate purposes.

But on the call, Farrell said Brookfield's purchase of convertible securities wasn't responsible for the board's decision to accelerate its coal-to-gas conversions.

"It's really related to, overall, the economics of producing power in Alberta on coal with the carbon tax," she said on the call.

"We've currently got a $30 (per tonne) carbon tax, it'll be $40 by next year, $50 the year after. Coal plants get less economic and they're less flexible in a merchant market."

The percentage of power in Alberta generated from coal has fallen from more than 80 per cent in the 1980s to less than one-third now, in part due to rising provincial government prices on carbon that began in 2007. The electricity market was deregulated in 1996, which means prices are set through competition.

"It's good news for GHG reduction and the health of Albertans to have coal being phased out earlier," said Binnu Jeyakumar, director of clean energy for the environmental Pembina Institute, adding coal power profitability is becoming less attractive as the costs of renewable power fall.

She cautioned, however, that converted coal plants are unlikely to be as efficient as new natural gas powered plants and added that fugitive gas emissions from production and transportation of gas also present an ongoing GHG risk.

TransAlta said it will stop burning coal in its Keephills Unit 1 and Sundance Unit 4 plants, which will operate at lower capacity with natural gas, while it evaluates full conversion projects.

A conversion project at Sundance Unit 6 is to be complete in a few weeks and the conversions of Keephills Unit 2 and Unit 3 are to be wrapped up in 2021.

The company announced it will proceed with the full $800-million conversion of Sundance Unit 5 to allow it to produce about 730 megawatts when it comes online in Q4 2023.

"Our greenhouse gas emissions will be under 11.5 million tonnes by the end of 2022, down almost 70 per cent from 2005," said Farrell, who said it has cut 32 million tonnes per year across its worldwide operations since 2005 and 21 million in Canada.

"TransAlta has more than met it's fair share of the Paris agreement. To date, we alone have delivered 10 per cent of Canada's goal of a 220-million-tonne reduction for Canadians by 2030."

She said TransAlta should be a "sought after investment" for clean energy investors.

The company will still produce power from coal at its Centralia facility in Washington State, which has a transition agreement allowing it to burn coal until its end of life in 2025, Farrell said on the call.

TransAlta also owns a 50 per cent stake in the Sheerness power plant in western Alberta, which is operated by American firm Heartland Generation Ltd., and continues to burn coal although it has some dual-fuel capabilities.

TransAlta reported a loss attributable to common shareholders of $136 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $51 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

Revenue was $514 million, down from $593 million in the same quarter last year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:TA, TSX:BAM)

Dan Healing, The Canadian Press

TransAlta to end coal mining operations at Highvale in 2021, stop using coal in Canada
Lisa Johnson 

TransAlta Corp. says it will stop mining coal at its Highvale mine by the end of 2021 and will no longer use coal to generate power in Canada effective Jan. 1, 2022.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal 

A giant drag line works in the Highvale Coal Mine to feed the nearby Sundance Power Plant near Wabamun on Friday, Mar. 21, 2014.

In a Wednesday report of its third-quarter financial results, TransAlta said it was closing the mine, which is located south of Lake Wabamun, about 70 kilometres west of Edmonton, four years ahead of schedule in an effort to accelerate its environmental, social, and corporate governance goals.

The Highvale mine, which has been in operation since 1970, is one of three TransAlta-owned surface coal mines and Canada’s largest surface strip coal mine, covering more than 12,600 hectares, according to the Calgary-based company’s website.

TransAlta CEO Dawn Farrell said in a conference call that the company is on track to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by almost 70 per cent from 2005 levels by the end of 2022.

“TransAlta has more than met its fair share of the Paris Agreement,” said Farrell.

Under the agreement, Canada committed to reducing its emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

At TransAlta’s coal power generating stations, Keephills Unit 1 and Sundance Unit 4 will stop firing with coal and will only operate on gas, reducing their maximum capability to 70 MW and 113 MW, respectively.

“It’s really related to overall the economics of producing power in Alberta on coal with the carbon tax. If you look at Alberta, we’ve currently got a $30 (per tonne) carbon tax, it’s be $40 by next year, $50 the year after. Coal plants get less economic and they’re less flexible in a merchant market,” said Farrell.

TransAlta reported a net loss attributable to shareholders of $136 million for the quarter ending Sept. 30, compared with a profit of $51 million in the same quarter last year. The difference means a loss of 50 cents per diluted share this quarter, compared with a gain of 18 cents in the same quarter of 2019.

The company said the decrease was largely due to lower revenues, a write-down of its coal inventory, higher depreciation, and an increase in asset impairments and power purchase agreement termination payments, which were partially offset by foreign exchange gains and income tax recoveries.

Its revenue for the quarter was down to $514 million from $593 million in the same quarter last year.

TransAlta operates more than 70 power plants in Canada, the United States and Australia.

Conservation group says regulatory gaps in Canadian seafood supply chain pose threat


HALIFAX — An ocean conservation organization says Canada's “poorly regulated” seafood supply chain has hampered the fisheries sector and put ocean health in jeopardy.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

In a report released Thursday, Oceana Canada says the regulatory gaps are unwittingly contributing to illicit seafood fishing and trade.

“You could be buying something that says 'Product of the United States' but in fact, it was fished in a completely different country,” Sayara Thurston, the group’s seafood fraud campaigner and author of the report, said in an interview.

Global seafood supply chains are notoriously complex, Thurston said, making it difficult to track seafood to its place of origin and all too easy for “illegal, unreported and unregulated” products to make their way to Canadian retailers.

A previous Oceana Canada study found that Canada’s “insufficient labelling requirements” had led to significant mislabelling of seafood products.

Of 472 seafood samples collected from Canadian grocery stores and restaurants, nearly half were mislabelled. In part, that's because the place of origin on seafood products may only suggest the last place the product was processed, which is allowed under Canada’s current standards, she added.

The report calculates that the illicit seafood trade in Canada results in lost tax revenues of nearly $94 million, as unreported catches equal an estimated 14 per cent of the $3.9-billion annual landed value for marine fisheries.

The group also found Canadians are spending up to $160 million annually on seafood caught via undocumented fishing.

Thurston described the use of “modern slaves” in the global unregulated fish trade, which she said can involve the kidnapping and coercion of undocumented workers. Illegal fishing can also have drastic effects on fish populations as certain species can quickly become overfished.

The advocacy group is calling on the federal government to make good on its previously announced commitment to create a "boat-to-plate" traceability program, which would allow tracking of seafood from vessels and farms right though the supply chain to retailers.

In a letter released in December 2019, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mandated Minister of Health Patty Hajdu, who oversees the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan to collaborate on a tracking system.

According to the report, however, the ministries have yet to set a timeline to develop a system.

Some of Canada’s largest trading partners have already tackled the tracking issue, Oceana argues, including the United States and the European Union.

“What we're looking for is for Canada not to be left behind on this issue, to keep up with the global trend of increasing transparency in the seafood supply chain," Thurston said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2020.

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

Danielle Edwards, The Canadian Press