Keeping it fresh: New AI-based strategy can assess the freshness of beef samples

Scientists combine spectroscopy and deep learning in an efficient technique for detecting spoiled meat

GIST (GWANGJU INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY)

Research News

 

IMAGE: CONSUMING SPOILED BEEF IS DANGEROUS, BUT THERE ARE CURRENTLY NO SIMPLE AND EFFICIENT METHODS TO ASSESS BEEF FRESHNESS. view more 

CREDIT: UNSPLASH

Although beef is one of the most consumed foods around the world, eating it when it's past its prime is not only unsavory, but also poses some serious health risks. Unfortunately, available methods to check for beef freshness have various disadvantages that keep them from being useful to the public. For example, chemical analysis or microbial population evaluations take too much time and require the skills of a professional. On the other hand, non-destructive approaches based on near-infrared spectroscopy require expensive and sophisticated equipment. Could artificial intelligence be the key to a more cost-effective way to assess the freshness of beef?

At Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Korea, a team of scientists led by Associate Processors Kyoobin Lee and Jae Gwan Kim have developed a new strategy that combines deep learning with diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), a relatively inexpensive optical technique. "Unlike other types of spectroscopy, DRS does not require complex calibration; instead, it can be used to quantify part of the molecular composition of a sample using just an affordable and easily configurable spectrometer," explains Lee. The findings of their study are now published in Food Chemistry.

To determine the freshness of beef samples, they relied on DRS measurements to estimate the proportions of different forms of myoglobin in the meat. Myoglobin and its derivatives are the proteins mainly responsible for the color of meat and its changes during the decomposition process. However, manually converting DRS measurements into myoglobin concentrations to finally decide upon the freshness of a sample is not a very accurate strategy--and this is where deep learning comes into play.

Convolutional neural networks (CNN) are widely used artificial intelligence algorithms that can learn from a pre-classified dataset, referred to as 'training set,' and find hidden patterns in the data to classify new inputs. To train the CNN, the researchers gathered data on 78 beef samples during their spoilage process by regularly measuring their pH (acidity) alongside their DRS profiles. After manually classifying the DRS data based on the pH values as 'fresh,' 'normal,' or 'spoiled,' they fed the algorithm the labelled DRS dataset and also fused this information with myoglobin estimations. "By providing both myoglobin and spectral information, our trained deep learning algorithm could correctly classify the freshness of beef samples in a matter of seconds in about 92% of cases," highlights Kim.

Besides its accuracy, the strengths of this novel strategy lie in its speed, low cost, and non-destructive nature. The team believes it may be possible to develop small, portable spectroscopic devices so that everyone can easily assess the freshness of their beef, even at home. Moreover, similar spectroscopy and CNN-based techniques could also be extended to other products, such as fish or pork. In the future, with any luck, it will be easier and more accessible to identify and avoid questionable meat.

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About Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST)

Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) is a research-oriented university situated in Gwangju, South Korea. One of the most prestigious schools in South Korea, it was founded in 1993. The university aims to create a strong research environment to spur advancements in science and technology and to promote collaboration between foreign and domestic research programs. With its motto, "A Proud Creator of Future Science and Technology," the university has consistently received one of the highest university rankings in Korea.
Website: http://www.gist.ac.kr/

About the authors

Kyoobin Lee is an Associate Professor and Director of the AI laboratory at GIST. His group is developing AI-based robot vision and deep learning-based bio-medical analysis methods. Before joining GIST, he obtained a PhD in Mechatronics from KAIST and completed a postdoctoral training program at Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST).

Jae Gwan Kim is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Science and Engineering at GIST since 2011. His current research topics include brain stimulation by transcranial ultrasound, anesthesia depth monitoring, and screening the stage of Alzheimer's disease via brain functional connectivity measurements. Before joining GIST, he completed a postdoctoral training program at the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic at UC Irvine, USA. In 2005, he received a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from a joint program between the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, USA.

NASA’s InSight Detects Two Sizable Quakes on Mars

April 2, 2021 

Doug Messier 
Parabolic Arc All Space All the Time

NASA’s InSight lander used a scoop on its robotic arm to begin trickling soil over the cable connecting its seismometer to the spacecraft on March 14, 2021, the 816th Martian day, or sol of the mission. Scientists hope insulating it from the wind will make it easier to detect marsquakes. (Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The magnitude 3.3 and 3.1 temblors originated in a region called Cerberus Fossae, further supporting the idea that this location is seismically active.

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA’s InSight lander has detected two strong, clear quakes originating in a location of Mars called Cerberus Fossae – the same place where two strong quakes were seen earlier in the mission. The new quakes have magnitudes of 3.3 and 3.1; the previous quakes were magnitude 3.6 and 3.5. InSight has recorded over 500 quakes to date, but because of their clear signals, these are four of the best quake records for probing the interior of the planet.

Studying marsquakes is one way the InSight science team seeks to develop a better understanding of Mars’ mantle and core. The planet doesn’t have tectonic plates like Earth, but it does have volcanically active regions that can cause rumbles. The March 7 and March 18 quakes add weight to the idea that Cerberus Fossae is a center of seismic activity.

“Over the course of the mission, we’ve seen two different types of marsquakes: one that is more ‘Moon-like’ and the other, more ‘Earth-like,’” said Taichi Kawamura of France’s Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, which helped provide InSight’s seismometer and distributes its data along with the Swiss research university ETH Zurich. Earthquake waves travel more directly through the planet, while those of moonquakes tend to be very scattered; marsquakes fall somewhere in between. “Interestingly,” Kawamura continued, “all four of these larger quakes, which come from Cerberus Fossae, are ‘Earth-like.’”

The new quakes have something else in common with InSight’s previous top seismic events, which occurred almost a full Martian year (two Earth years) ago: They occurred in the Martian northern summer. Scientists had predicted this would again be an ideal time to listen for quakes because winds would become calmer.

The seismometer, called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), is sensitive enough that, even while it is covered by a dome-shaped shield to block it from wind and keep it from getting too cold, wind still causes enough vibration to obscure some marsquakes. During the past northern winter season, InSight couldn’t detect any quakes at all.

“It’s wonderful to once again observe marsquakes after a long period of recording wind noise,” said John Clinton, a seismologist who leads InSight’s Marsquake Service at ETH Zurich. “One Martian year on, we are now much faster at characterizing seismic activity on the Red Planet.”

Better Detection

The winds may have quieted down, but scientists are still hoping to improve their “listening” capability even more. Temperatures near the InSight lander may swing from almost minus 148 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 100 degrees Celsius) at night to 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) during the day. These extreme temperature variations may be causing the cable connecting the seismometer to the lander to expand and contract, resulting in popping sounds and spikes in the data.

So the mission team has begun trying to partially insulate the cable from the weather. They’ve started by using the scoop on the end of InSight’s robotic arm to drop soil on top of the domed Wind and Thermal Shield, allowing it to trickle down onto the cable. That allows the soil to get as close to the shield as possible without interfering with the shield’s seal with the ground. Burying the seismic tether is in fact one of the goals of the next phase of the mission, which NASA recently extended by two years, to December 2022.

Despite the winds that have been shaking the seismometer, InSight’s solar panels remain covered with dust, and power is running lower as Mars moves away from the Sun. Energy levels are expected to improve after July, when the planet begins to approach the Sun again. Until then, the mission will successively turn off the lander’s instruments so that InSight can hibernate, waking periodically to check its health and communicate with Earth. The team hopes to keep the seismometer on for another month or two before it has to be temporarily turned off.

More About the Mission

JPL manages InSight for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.

A number of European partners, including France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument to NASA, with the principal investigator at IPGP (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris). Significant contributions for SEIS came from IPGP; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in Switzerland; Imperial College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom; and JPL. InSight’s Marsquake Service is a collaborative ground service operation led by ETH Zurich that also includes on-duty seismologists from IPG Paris, University of Bristol and Imperial College London. SEIS and APSS Operations are led by CNES SISMOC, with support of CAB, and SEIS data are formatted and distributed by the IPG Paris Mars SEIS Data Service. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) supplied the temperature and wind sensors.

Thousands dead and a country in turmoil: Brazil’s countdown to Covid catastrophe

With more than 66,000 deaths in March alone, Brazil is in the midst of a health and political crisis. How did the country get to this point?

BySarah Newey, GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY CORRESPONDENT2 April 2021

A man mourns his mother in Manaus, a sprawling city in the Amazon that has been hit by two devastating waves of Covid-19 CREDIT: Simon Townsley

The calamity currently unfolding in Brazil is off the charts. In March alone, 66,570 people died of Covid-19, while daily fatalities in the vast country currently account for about a quarter of the global total.

A highly contagious variant, P1, is now rampant and there are few measures in place to contain its spread, pushing health systems to the brink of collapse.

Perhaps unsurprisingly a political crisis is also brewing. The heads of all three branches of the military resigned this week leaving president Jair Bolsonaro - dubbed the Trump of the Tropics - exposed.

There are growing calls for his impeachment and a Bidenesque overhaul of the country’s coronavirus response.

But for many, witnessing the pandemic unfold over the last year has felt akin to watching a slow motion car crash. Experts say the foundations for the current disaster were laid soon after the virus first reached Brazil, in late February 2020.

Here, we look back at the key moments in Brazil’s countdown to catastrophe.
March: Bolsonaro meets Trump

In January and February 2020, as it slowly dawned on the world that a “mystery pneumonia” detected in Wuhan, China was a growing threat, president Jair Bolsonaro’s public statements already pitted the challenge as the economy versus the virus.

But his comments at this stage were “nuanced” and largely in line with other leaders, says Lorena Barberia, an associate professor of political science at the University of São Paulo.

And Mr Bolsonaro did not object to legislation, introduced before Covid-19 was first detected in Brazil on 26 February, that gave states a mandate to introduce restrictions and allowed for emergency quarantine measures to be adopted at a national level.

Former US President Donald Trump with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro during a dinner in Mar a Lago, Florida, on March 7 CREDIT: BRAZILIAN PRESIDENCY/AFP/ALAN SANTOS


“But something appears to have happened in March, there’s a shift in discourse,” says Prof Barberia. “There’s lots of speculation that it’s linked to President Bolsonaro’s trip to Florida [to meet Donald Trump].

“In Miami Bolsonaro makes a speech claiming the pandemic is being exaggerated, and when he comes back to Brazil he starts to say other flus have killed more people,” she adds.

Members of Mr Bolsonaro’s delegation not only returned with Covid-19 infections, but a new approach.

April: Popular health minister fired

In the weeks after the Miami trip, as state and municipal governments set up coronavirus committees and taskforces, the national government did little to mobilise a coordinated pandemic response.

“This disconnect set us off on a bad track,” says Prof Barberia, adding that the lack of a clear chain of communication throughout the pandemic has allowed misinformation to spread like wildfire.

Then, in mid April, internal tensions burst onto the public stage when Mr Bolsonaro fired his popular health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, following clashes over the coronavirus response. The move sparked protests in cities across the country, as people banged on pots and pans from their windows to express frustration, fear and anger.

President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro with the former Minister of Health, Luiz Henrique Mandetta CREDIT: HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock


“There was this struggle building and building,” says Ricardo Parolin Schnekenberg, a Brazilian researcher at Oxford University. “And then when Mandetta left, it became very clear that we would have no guidelines, no rules, no restrictions, or any sort of protective measure from the federal government.

“If you ask me for my key moments, they are all between February and April 2020,” he adds. “Everything else is just a consequence of decisions made - or not made - during these months.”

April: Mass burials in Manaus

Also in April Manaus, a sprawling city in the heart of the Amazon, gained notoriety as hospitals were overwhelmed and images of mass burials lapped the globe.

“Manaus was taken by surprise,” the city’s Archbishop, Leonardo Steiner, told the Telegraph last autumn. “There was this denial of the disease, [the government] just said ‘no it doesn’t exist’... Certainly we would have seen fewer deaths had the approach been different.”

Experts say the outbreak in Manaus should have been a wake-up call for the federal government, at a point when fear had already driven people to stay at home, regardless of official policy.

A bird perches on the cross that accompanies the grave of a person who died in January, in the Nossa Senhora Aparecida Cemetery, where victims of covid-19 are buried, in Manaus CREDIT: RAPHAEL ALVES/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock


But disjointed decision-making continued. “We’ve never had a consistent and clear message coming from a position of authority, saying: this is what we know, this is what we don't know, this is your official guidance,” says Mr Schnekenberg.

Instead, Mr Bolsonaro pushed unproven treatments including hydroxychloroquine, joined anti-lockdown protests and declared “war” on state government leaders who adopted disease containment measures. When quizzed after the country's death toll first surpassed that in China, he simply replied: “I don't do miracles.”

This is one in a long list of controversial comments about the “little flu” from the President. “There’s no use trying to escape it, escape reality - we have to quit being a country of sissies,” he later said.

One tracking website, Aos Fatos, found Mr Bolsonaro has made more than 1,200 false or distorted statements about the pandemic since last March.

Nurses transport a patient infected with coronavirus to the 28 de Agosto Hospital in Manaus, as the health system is pushed to the brink CREDIT: Raphael Alves/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

In an editorial in the British Medical Journal, three professors from the University of São Paulo - Deisy Ventura, Fernando Aith and Rossana Reis - called this a “a barrage of propaganda against public health”.

A summer of missed opportunities

Missed opportunities continued throughout the summer, says Prof Barberia.

The federal government’s landmark scheme offering monthly payments of 600 reais(£77) to 68 million Brazilians was popular, but to get hold the cash people had to queue in long lines outside Caixa bank - potentially spreading the virus.

President Bolsonaro promoted the handout as an economic stimulus, rather than a measure to allow people to stay at home like the UK’s furlough scheme. “So we saw this huge movement in cities and in local communities all over Brazil,” says Prof Barberia, as people were encouraged to shop and go back to work.

Then, as cases began to ease from June, state and municipal governments attempted to introduce tiered restrictions. While a good idea in theory, measures became confusing and frequently changed, leading much of the public to ignore them altogether.

A health technician carries a thermal box with doses of the Chinese 

Coronavac vaccine in March 2021 CREDIT: Raphael Alves/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Yet the biggest missed opportunity was securing vaccines, says Mr Schnekenberg. Not only has Mr Bolsonaro repeatedly questioned the safety of jabs - “if you turn into a crocodile, it’s your problem,” he quipped - but he has had a lackadaisical approach to securing supplies.

The country finally agreed a deal with Pfizer for 100 million doses last month. It is hoped these will boost Brazil’s stuttering vaccination campaign, which has so far been heavily reliant on Chinese jabs secured by Sao Paulo state’s governor.

“For a country the size of Brazil, it’s just absurd that we have contracts with so few vaccine manufacturers,” says Mr Schnekenberg. “Even if we could now vaccinate at the rate seen in the US, it still would take months to be able to see the effects. So in the short term, we're in a very difficult situation.”
January: Contagious new variant hits

But policy alone isn’t to blame for the current crisis: the virus has had surprises of its own.

In January a highly contagious new variant, known as P1, was detected in Manaus, as the hard-hit city experienced a second devastating wave of infections. By February the city’s health system was once again on the brink, a surprise to many who believed the size of Manaus’ first outbreak would trigger some protection from a second.

Aerial view of the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery in Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil. The site was cleared in early 2020 as coronavirus deaths first surged - it is now full CREDIT: MICHAEL DANTAS/AFP

Prof Barberia says Brazil failed to “learn from what happened in the UK”, where the Kent variant triggered a major surge from late 2020.

“P1 could have been an opportunity for a really concerted effort to call a national coordinated response,” she says. “Instead I think we've really lost momentum.

“Testing and surveillance remains limited, and we allowed P1 to spread throughout Brazil without reacting. In hindsight, we even helped it’s spread - at least 15 states received Covid patients from Manaus,” she adds.
What next?

Experts say Brazil’s biggest problem has been believing that prevention wasn’t necessary, that they could treat their way out of the pandemic - care for the sick and let everyone else carry on as normal.

That was a mistake, says Prof Barberia, but with President Bolsonaro’s continued emphasis on the economy - and his insistence that state governors who introduce restrictions are “tyrants” - the approach doesn’t look set to change.

A Protester with crosses during demonstration in honor of victims of coronavirus in Brasilia CREDIT: Andressa Anholete/Getty Images


With a highly volatile political situation and a slow vaccination drive - only around seven per cent of the population have had a jab so far - most experts agree the country is in for a rough few months.

“We don't have stability in terms of ministers, and it's not very clear where we are at this moment with the armed forces, so we’re at a very difficult moment,” says Prof Barberia. “I’m very worried.”

“Honestly, I don’t know, but I can’t see it ending well,” adds Mr Schnekenberg. “I think we’re still going to see very high levels of mortality for quite some time.”

Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security

‘Like Boris Johnson Telling Steve Jobs How To Design The iPhone’: Experts Urge Overhaul Of U.K. Energy Market

David Vetter
Senior Contributor, FORBES
Sustainability
Climate research, renewables and circularity



We're producing and using electricity in new and smarter ways, but is the way the government ... [+] GETTY

The U.K. must overhaul its entire electricity market if consumers, the economy and the climate are to benefit from new innovations in green energy such as smart homes, electric vehicles and heat pumps, a new report has concluded.


While the way Britain produces its electricity is unrecognizable from 10 years ago, with renewables such as wind and solar power helping the country to get halfway to its net zero emissions target, the outdated way the government awards contracts is preventing consumers from feeling the full benefits of a decarbonized grid, and holding back efforts to achieve grid flexibility, the report contends.

Instead, says Energy Systems Catapult, the U.K. non-profit energy and tech center which authored the report, the government should give innovative energy and tech companies the ability to drive the push to net-zero carbon emissions by decentralizing its process of contracting energy providers.


“The current government-directed approach to energy is like Boris Johnson telling Steve Jobs how to design the iPhone,” said Guy Newey, strategy and performance director at Energy Systems Catapult. “The progress on renewables over the past 10 years has been extraordinary, but if we are to finish the job of decarbonising the power sector—and create new businesses and jobs—we need to unleash the potential of our brilliant digital energy innovators to create a more flexible and greener system.”

The Catapult recommends six major changes to the U.K.’s electricity market, including a demand for more accurate, real time electricity pricing, and an obligation for sellers to source ever more low carbon energy. The report also calls for investment mechanisms such as the government’s Contracts for Difference—a form of subsidy—to be phased out, making the argument that such mechanisms were designed for a far less mature market, where the business case for renewable energy was not yet proven. The Catapult argues that these should be replaced with “outcome-based” policy mandates.

Opening the market up in this way, the authors say, will enable consumers to take full advantage of new technologies such as battery storage, heat pumps and electric vehicles, and help maximize the effectiveness of digitization, whereby home heating and other services can be controlled from the customer’s smartphone, offering greater comfort and potentially lower bills.

The Catapult says the reforms would also help facilitate “energy as a service” business models, which bundle together low-carbon energy supply with low-carbon technologies such as heat pumps or solar panels and batteries, much like a payment plan from a mobile phone network.

“What’s needed is an aggressive evolution of the energy market,” Newey told Forbes.com. “You need a set of market signals that reflect the physics of a system where supply varies.”

MORE FROM FORBES'The Urgency Is Immense': Wind And Solar Power Double In 5 Years, But Countries Are Clinging To CoalBy David Vetter

Until recently, Newey explained, the relationship between people and electricity providers was entirely one-way, with energy flowing from generators to consumers. But with digitization, he said, energy consumption could now be controlled and stored flexibly, improving efficiency and reducing costs.

“These new innovations will benefit from our reform proposals because electricity markets will more accurately put a value on products and services that can utilise and store energy when it is cheap and plentiful, delivering a cost saving to the energy system,” he added.

Needless to say, firms in the energy sector have welcomed the proposals. Caroline Bragg, head of policy for the Association for Decentralised Energy, an industry body that represents a large number of energy services firms, said: “The center of gravity of the energy system is well and truly on the move—shifting from large generation and supply to energy users from industry, offices to our homes … This very timely report sets out how we can unleash the vast, hardly tapped potential of innovative offerings across zero carbon heat, flexibility and energy efficiency.”

“This is just the sort of market reform we need to drive down costs as we go renewable, to accelerate Britain’s green recovery and to make the U.K. the Silicon Valley of energy,” said Greg Jackson, CEO of Octopus Energy, a rapidly growing electricity supplier. “Adopting this approach we can make the green revolution faster and cheaper than anyone imagined. But we need to act now: neither the climate, nor citizens, should have to wait.”

For its part, the government in its recent Energy White Paper floated the possibility of energy market reform, while the U.K.’s influential Climate Change Committee in its Sixth Carbon Budget called for a “clear long-term strategy as soon as possible, and certainly before 2025, on market design for a fully decarbonised electricity system.”

In response to a Forbes.com request for comment on the report, a spokesperson for the government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) declined to say whether the Catapult’s recommendations would be taken into account in its reforms.

“As stated in our Energy White Paper, we are clear that we need to fully decarbonize electricity by 2050 as part of our commitment to building back better and greener from the coronavirus pandemic, and reaching our ambitious emissions targets,” the spokesperson said.

“It is the government’s job to create the right market conditions to deliver on that objective, encouraging competition to empower industry to find low cost routes to net zero. This is why we committed to a £1 billion net zero innovation portfolio in the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan—including £100 million for energy storage and flexibility—to help create the market competitors of tomorrow,” they added.

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David Vetter

I spent much of the past 20 years as a journalist in Asia. Now based in Europe, my key interests are in decarbonization and the circular economy.

U.S. FDA approves 2 at-home rapid COVID-19 tests. When will Canada catch up?
Hannah Jackson

Pressure is mounting for the Canadian government to authorize COVID-19 rapid tests to be used at home as more have been approved for use in the United States.

© Provided by Global News epa08998601 View of nasal swab samples at a test station for Covid-19 coronavirus in Montpellier, France, 09 February 2021. The top French medical authority (Haute autorite de Sante) has approved the vaccine AstraZeneca-Oxford for use in France, but only for people under 65, echoing decisions made in Sweden, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland over concerns about a lack of data on the effectiveness of the vaccine for over 65s. EPA/GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO ATTENTION: IMAGE PARTLY BLURED TO PROTECT PERSONAL INFORMATION

Earlier this week, the U.S. Food And Drug Administration (FDA) authorized two more over-the-counter COVID-19 tests that can be used at home to get rapid results.

Read more: ‘We need it now’: Experts say at-home coronavirus tests critical to fight 2nd wave

The FDA said Abbott’s BinaxNow and Quidel’s QuickVue tests can now be sold in the country without a prescription.

The tests allow users to collect a sample at home, with a nasal swab that is inserted into a test strip. The results are usually ready within 10 to 20 minutes.

Dr. Michael Mina of Harvard told The Associated Press that the expanded testing options would be critical as new virus variants spread and researchers study how long protection from vaccines lasts.

“Vaccines are incredibly important but they are not the end-all, be-all to this pandemic,” he told the outlet. “We need other tools in our arsenal and the widespread availability and rapid scale-up of tests for people to use in the privacy of their homes is going to be an extraordinary gain.”

How does Canada measure up?

To date, Health Canada has only authorized the sale and use of COVID-19 tests administered by health professionals or trained operators.

In an email to Global News on Saturday, a spokesperson for Health Canada said the agency "is aware of the approval of the COVID-19 tests" in the United States.

"It is important to recognize that Canada's context is different from the U.S.," the email read.

Video: Rapid COVID-19 testing for LNG workers starts at YLW

The agency did not expand on how exactly the context differs.

Read more: U.S. approves 2 more over-the-counter COVID-19 tests

To date, 63 tests to identify the novel coronavirus have been approved by the Canadian agency. Of those, 15 point-of-care or 'rapid tests' devices have been authorized for use.

Those tests, however, still require a health professional or trained personnel to administer.

However, the agency's website says it is "open to reviewing all testing solutions."

"This includes approaches that use self-testing kits, to enable individuals with or without symptoms to assess and monitor their own infection status."

Health Canada requires rapid tests to meet a minimum standard of 80 per cent sensitivity or accuracy before their application can be approved.

However, the federal government is allowing people who enter into the country at some land border crossings to administer their own test, in an effort to limit the amount of professionals needed.

Those samples are then sent to a lab for processing.

In a series of tweets Sunday morning, Kashif Pirzada, an emergency physician in Toronto, said "rapid tests need to be used ASAP to get workplace outbreaks under control."

"Many are sitting unused in warehouses across the country," he wrote. "You can combine the rapid strips (like Abbott Panbio) with much more accurate molecular tests onsite to recheck positive results (Abbott IDNOW)."


He said this, combined with "better masks, vaccinations, improved sick leave, will go a long way to get the situation under control."

The total number of COVID-19 infections in Canada topped one million on Saturday, as cases of the new, more transmissible variants continue to climb.

Several provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, have imposed more stringent measures in a bid to stem the spread of the virus, while officials work tirelessly to vaccinate the population.

Advocates have, for months, been urging Health Canada to approve over-the-counter rapid tests for use in Canada, saying they are key to identifying asymptomatic cases and would help alleviate lab backlog.

Video: COVID-19: Thousands attend Barcelona concert in arena after testing

In a previous interview with Global News, Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto, said while the rapid tests approved by Health Canada are useful, at-home screening tests could be even more so.

He said this type of screening test would be “enormously useful” in helping to alleviate the backlog of tests in Canada’s laboratories and would allow businesses and schools to remain open more safely.

Read more: Canada has approved another rapid coronavirus test. Here’s how it could help

He said they should be utilized not as a diagnostic test, but rather a "screening tool."

"It should be seen a little bit like taking your temperature at home," he explained, adding that anyone who receives a positive result would then follow up with a lab test to confirm the results.

Video: Saskatchewan Teachers Federation on need for testing amid variants

According to the Health Canada website, the agency is receiving a "very high volume of requests for authorization."

It was not immediately clear, though, how many of those applications were for rapid, at-home, or 'over-the-counter' COVID-19 tests.

--With files from The Associated Press

US Federal government sued as monarch butterfly, spotted owl await protection decisions

The Biden administration is continuing to field lawsuits filed over Endangered Species Act decisions made by the Trump administration.

The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Thursday over its failure to provide protections under the Endangered Species Act for 10 species "it admitted needed them," according to the organization.

MORE: Fate of monarch butterfly still hangs in the balance after endangered species decision

Among the species are the monarch butterfly, which in December the Trump administration decided that adding it to the list of threatened species was "warranted but precluded." This meant that while the monarch butterfly became a candidate for listing as an endangered species, it was not yet listed as the agency prioritizes other candidates.

The monarch butterfly was added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species in 2014 after it was determined that 90% of its population had declined from its original levels. While millions of the butterflies spent winters in the coastal groves of California in the 1980s, just 30,000 were counted in 2019

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© Elizabeth Sellers/USGS via Gado via Getty Images, FILE In this 2014, file photo, a monarch butterfly, an iconic pollinator species, alights on a plant.

The iconic butterfly's numbers have drastically diminished.due to increased use of farm herbicides, climate change and the destruction of milkweed plants, which is what monarch caterpillars eat and where monarch butterflies lay their eggs.© Elizabeth Sellers/USGS via Gado via Getty Images, FILEMORE: Government refusal to protect wolverines sparks lawsuit from conservation groups

Other species that the lawsuit describe as being left in "regulatory purgatory" are the northern spotted owl, which was found in December to warrant an uplisting from threatened to endangered, and the Eastern gopher tortoise, which has been awaiting protections since 1982

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© Don Ryan/AP, FILE In this May 8, 2003, file photo, a northern spotted owl sits on a tree branch in the Deschutes National Forest near Camp Sherman, Ore.

Northern spotted owl populations have continued to decline in the face of continued loss of old forests to logging and invasion of its habitat by barred owls, while the gopher tortoise, which need large, un-fragmented, long-leaf pine forests to survive, are severely threatened by development, which caused habitat loss and fragmentation.This limits food availability and options for burrow sites and exposes them to being crushed in their burrows during construction, run over by cars or shot, according to the Center for Biological Diversity

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© UIG via Getty Images, FILE In this undated file photo, a gopher tortoise is shown at Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park in Naples. Fla.

There have been a number of additional lawsuits brought against the federal government since Biden took office.

Multiple conservation groups sued the USFWS on March 25 over a decision by the Trump administration to deny the north Oregon coast population of red tree voles protection under the Endangered Species Act. Red tree vole populations have been devastated by logging, wildfires and inadequate protections on state and private lands. The USFWS found the vole warranted protection in 2011 but deemed that the protection was precluded by listing other species. The vole was then denied protections in 2019.

The Center sued the USFWS on March 25 to challenge the Trump administration's downlisting of the American burying beetle from endangered to threatened. The lawsuit requested that the endangered status be reinstated as the beetle continues to face threats from climate change and habitat destruction that are pushing it to the brink of extinction. The delisting came following the petition by the Independent Petroleum Association of America to delist the species, according to the Center.

Multiple conservation groups sued the USFWS on March 24 for refusing to designate critical habitat for the highly endangered rusty patched bumblebee. The USFWS stated in September that listing was "not prudent" because the availability of habitat does not limit the bee's conservation. The bumblebee was protected in 2017, but the USFWS failed to designate critical habitat by the statutory deadline.

The Center sued the USFWS on March 3 for failing to designate critical habitat and develop a recovery plan for Hawaii's threatened 'i'iwi, or "honeycreeper" bird. The USFWS listed the species as threatened in 2017.

© Sami Sarkis/Getty Images, FILE This Iiwi bird, on the island of Maui, has a long curved beak which enables it to extract nectar from flowers.

On Wednesday, the Center also filed a notice of intent to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service to make a decision on whether the Oregon coast spring-run chinook salmon warrants protection. Chinook salmon once thrived in all of Oregon's coastal watersheds but have largely disappeared due to logging, roads and other sources of habitat degradation, such as dams and poorly run hatcheries, according to the Center. The decision has been overdue since September.

On Feb. 4 the Biden administration responded to a lawsuit filed by multiple conservation groups on Jan. 19 -- one day before Inauguration Day -- by delaying a rule finalized in the last weeks of Donald Trump's presidency to eliminate long-standing, vital protections for more than 1,000 species of waterfowl, raptors and songbirds. The decision was made over a reinterpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.MORE: Animal conservation groups to sue federal government over dwindling giraffe population

Only 25 species were give protections under the ESA during Trump's four years in office, according to the Center.

In 2019, the Trump administration made changes to how the government handles endangered species, altering the requirements for how the government decides to add or remove species from the list of endangered animals that are regulated by the government, including limiting how much habitat must be protected.

The changes require separate plans for protecting any new species listed as threatened instead of granting them the same protections as those listed as endangered, a move that advocates say could make it more difficult to protect species that are threatened by human activity and climate change.MORE: How advocates say Trump's endangered species rules could threaten conservation

"The past four years were a dark period for endangered wildlife and the environment overall," Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement Thursday. "We're bringing this lawsuit to ensure these 10 species that so desperately need help are prioritized by the Biden administration, which has its work cut out for it to undo the incredible harm done under Trump."

A representative for USFWS declined to comment.

Bonnie Rice, a representative for the Sierra Club Endangered Species said to ABC News in a statement that "The Trump administration's Fish and Wildlife Service made a major push to strip as many species as possible of endangered species protections" including other animals like the grey wolf.

Rice said the Sierra Club is challenging Trump's rollbacks, some of which will be legal challenges.

The Sierra Club "is committed to protecting 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030 to halt extinction and we're encouraged by the Biden administration's early work to act on climate and review endangered species rollbacks," Rice also said in the statement.

Trudeau’s military misconduct response highlights ‘pattern’ of ignoring complaints: Singh

Amanda Connolly 

4/3/2021

GLOBAL NEWS

© Provided by Global News NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is seen during a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Wednesday February 3, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's response to multiple allegations of high-level sexual misconduct in the Canadian military adds to a "pattern of behaviour" when it comes to ignoring red flags and complaints, says NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.

In an interview with The West Block's Mercedes Stephenson, Singh said the government's lack of action in responding to the allegations about high-level appointees sends the message that women's complaints and safety are not being taken seriously.

"Right now, the message being sent is a woman came forward – women came forward in different cases – with complaints, they made it to the desk of the defence minister, and nothing was done. This falls directly at the feet of the prime minister," said Singh.

“So far, it looks like there’s a pattern of behaviour of ignoring sexual harassment or misconduct complaints – that women come forward, and nothing happens.”

“So far, the Liberal government’s sent the message they are not safe, and that’s wrong.”

READ MORE: Military facing ‘reckoning’ over misconduct but no details yet on action: Monsef

Global News first reported allegations of inappropriate behaviour against Gen. Jonathan Vance on Feb. 2.

Days later, the military promised an independent review into misconduct within its ranks but shortly after that, Adm. Art McDonald stepped back from his role as chief of the defence staff following an allegation.

Multiple sources have told Global News the complaint is an allegation of sexual assault.

And last week, CBC News reported another senior military leader is facing an allegation of sexual assault.

READ MORE: Trudeau says he did not personally know of 2018 Vance allegation

Trudeau said last week he was never made aware of one of the allegations against Vance, which was shared with his defence minister, Harjit Sajjan, in 2018. Sajjan's chief of staff then shared it with Trudeau's office and the staff at the Privy Council Office -- the department supporting Trudeau's office -- have said they discussed the matter with officials in the Prime Minister's Office.

Vance was appointed by the previous Conservative government but got a pay raise and term extension under Trudeau, while both McDonald and Vice-Adm. Haydn Edmundson were promoted to their current senior roles under the Trudeau government.

The web of revelations has led to questions about why no one appears to have acted on the allegations sooner, and why none of the people paid to advise Trudeau appear to have told him anything about a serious allegation against a senior appointee.

It is not the first time the government's vetting and handling of allegations against senior appointee has come under scrutiny in recent months.

VIDEO "Trudeau criticized for appointing Payette as Governor General"

Former governor-general Julie Payette resigned in January following a scathing independent review into allegations of workplace bullying and abuse during her time at Rideau Hall.

READ MORE: From a ‘great adventure’ to resignation: The rise and fall of Julie Payette

Trudeau abandoned the use of an advisory panel normally used to select governors-general when he appointed Payette, a former astronaut and scientist. And his government appears not to have checked with several of Payette's former employers about her workplace conduct.

CBC News has reported that Payette faced workplace conduct complaints dating back to the 1990s, and stemming from her time at the Canadian Space Agency, the Montreal Science Centre, and the Canadian Olympic Committee, including two internal investigations into her behaviour.

Trudeau has defended the vetting done on Payette, saying all procedures were followed but said in January that the government would look at what could be done to improve vetting of appointees.

Adios to Edmonton's Spanish-style apartment block and the unique community it fostered

Andrea Huncar 

EDMONTON JOURNAL

4/3/2021

I NEVER HAD THE PLEASURE TO LIVE IN THE MIRADOR, BUT HAD FRIENDS THAT DID

I LIVED IN A DIFFERENT SELF CREATED COOP APARTMENT BLDG WITH A SIMILAR SOCIAL ECOLOGY IN THE EIGHTIES; BALFOUR PLACE ON 116ST.

© Jamie McCannel/CBC El Mirador Apartments is one of the residential and commercial buildings near the intersection of 108th Street and Jasper Avenue that is being demolished for an incoming development.

Gatherings in the cherished courtyard of Edmonton's El Mirador Apartments are coming to an end after residents were told they have to move out by June 30.

The El Mirador is among the buildings being demolished at 108th Street and Jasper Avenue to make way for a commercial and residential development at the intersection's northeast corner.

With its white stucco walls, spiralling staircases and balconies, the wrecking ball won't just sweep away Edmonton's only known piece of Spanish Revival architecture. It will also demolish a unique building design that has fostered a sense of community for decades.

"A lot of the tenants became our roommates and the courtyard is our living room and our party room," said Charlie May, who has lived at El Mirador for the past 16 years.

"Every night after work, people would come out here and we'd all get together, sometimes 15, 20 people even, and we'd stay out till it got dark. Just chatting, having a few beers," he told CBC News this week.

"Sometimes when people move out, we'd have big going-away parties —and I mean big parties, lots of fun. The most amazing wedding that I'd ever attended took place here. And the porches were full of people. The courtyard was full of people."

The interior is just as impressive, with its original glass doorknobs, old fireplaces and hardwood floors.

'It's a beautiful building and it had a real heart. But now that's gone," May said. "It's very, very sad."

© Jamie McCannel/CBC Charlie May, a longtime resident of El Mirador, has years of fond memories of socializing in the complex's unique courtyard.

Community by design

According to the Edmonton Historical Board, the El Mirador was built in stages. Its core was a wood-framed house built in 1912 which in 1935 saw the addition of a 12-unit apartment building on the home's front. Another addition, in 1937, was a U-shaped building that created the building's distinctive courtyard.

El Mirador is not the kind of architecture typically found in Alberta, but rather is of a flavour more common in southern California, the historical board says on its website.

Unlike some building courtyards that sit unused, the design of El Mirador means tenants have to walk through the courtyard to get to their apartments.

News of the demolition has put a damper on residents' annual spring ritual of buying flowers and sprucing up the courtyard to usher in another summer of making memories.

Phillip Thomarat recalled years of parties and potlucks, Christmas dinners and Taco Tuesdays at the apartment that has been home for the past 18 years.

Former residents still turn up for festivities — and many are expected to attend the final going-away bash.

"It is kind of like living in a goldfish bowl because everybody's doors faces onto the courtyard," Thomarat said.

But that helped foster the sense of community spirit, he said.

"Neighbours have always helped out. We've always made lots of friends. It's just a great community."

The incoming project by Pangman Development Corporation will see a mid-rise building connecting 35- and 45-storey towers that stretch up into the skyline. It's a development that aims to revitalize the area with hundreds of rental and condominium units as well as street-level retail space.

"We're getting ready to start construction this summer," Pangman told CBC on Thursday. "We wanted to give tenants at least 90 days to find a new home."

Thomarat is pretty sure he won't find another home like El Mirador.

"In Edmonton, we have a lot of beautiful new buildings but this is something totally unique that I think should have been kept if possible," said Thomarat.

"It's a really good design for keeping people together and creating a community."

How the Alberta doctors' contract dispute could impact the UCP government now and in the 2023 election

Ashley Joannou 

4/2/2021

© Provided by Edmonton Journal (left to right) Health Minister Tyler Shandro and Premier Jason Kenney take part in a press conference where they provided an update on the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines through participating community pharmacies, in Edmonton Thursday March 18, 2021. The press conference was held outside the Shoppers Drug Mart at 5970 Mullen Way.


Tuesday’s decision by Alberta doctors to vote down a proposed master contract with the provincial government has thrown the already contentious relationship back into the fire.

After taking more than a year for the government and the Alberta Medical Association to reach the deal that doctors quashed, both sides are on their way back to the bargaining table. Political watchers say the longer the dispute drags on, the more it could influence other government contract negotiations on the horizon — and the 2023 election.
What are the obstacles?

Fifty-three per cent of doctors who voted said no to the deal.

The proposed contract gave Health Minister Tyler Shandro final say on budgetary decisions, University of Calgary health law professor Lorian Hardcastle, who has seen the rejected deal, said. While doctors understood the minister would have significant power, she said “a lot of people were concerned specifically how he would use that discretion.”

That mistrust has grown over the past year and throughout the pandemic. It began in February 2020 when Shandro ended the province’s master agreement with doctors and unilaterally imposed billing and compensation changes, in the name of fiscal responsibility and aligning Alberta’s costs with those of other provinces. Many of those changes were rolled back.

Doctors have said the numbers the government uses is not their take-home pay and does not account for overheard costs of running an office.

Shandro has also faced criticism during the conflict for his behaviour away from the bargaining table. In March 2020, he shouted at a doctor in his driveway over a social media post, and in April 2020 he contacted doctors on their personal phones.

Over the past year, some doctors have either left or threatened to leave the province, and the association sued the government over the ripping up of the contract.

Hardcastle believes the deal could have been ratified if it was being managed by someone other than Shandro.

Premier Jason Kenney has backed his health minister throughout the fight and on Wednesday said Shandro has his “full, 100 per cent confidence” amid calls to shuffle him out of his post.

Melissa Caouette, a political strategist and vice-president of business development and government relations at Edmonton’s Canadian Strategy Group, said the government may be reluctant to change the face of their negotiations mid-stream.

“I think that it could be interpreted that switching the person who’s dealing with those is sort of a signal that they’ve changed their mind on their stated desire to bring public sector compensation in alignment with other provinces, which is still a goal for them,” she said.

Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Mount Royal University, said Kenney could also be afraid of what shuffling Shandro out would signal to other negotiating groups.

“The next labour people are going to go well, if I’m the ATA, and I don’t agree to a deal with (Education Minister Adriana) LaGrange, is Kenney going to shuffle her out?” he said.

© Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press/File Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro has been at odds with doctors since he ended the master agreement for physicians in Feb. 2020.

More than one health-care bargaining table

Doctors aren’t the only ones in the medical community negotiating with the government.

Shandro also announced last year that he was scrapping the government’s deal with radiologists. The recently extended contract now ends in September.

Last month, Alberta’s largest nurses union, the United Nurses of Alberta, rejected a proposal to delay bargaining until June, which the government blamed on the pandemic.

Caouette said the loss to doctors makes those negotiations even harder for the government.

“Physicians are supposed to be the easiest historically to have these conversations with,” she said.

“I think that other groups are going to see what’s happened here, see (that) they can drag the fight on for a long time and I would imagine that some of those folks are going to hope to drive those conversations on and make this an election issue.”

Hardcastle said she could see having multiple organizations negotiating with the government at the same time embolden those groups to push and ask for more “because they’re not the only ones pushing back.”
Election 2023

With the government midway through its four-year term, Caouette said the doctors’ contract could be at risk of becoming an issue in the 2023 election.

“I think if it does persist, if there isn’t an agreement, it is going to have worse of an impact on the government than it does on physicians, especially if we are still in a state of heightened public health concern with the pandemic,” she said.

The striking down of the contract comes as the UCP government’s popularity slides.

In March, researchers with the University of Alberta and the University of Saskatchewan’s Common Ground project found that UCP support has swung significantly and directly to the NDP for the first time since the party was formed in 2017.

The poll found NDP support at 39.1 compared to 29.8 per cent for the UCP. Researchers noted that two other polls in the field at the same time also had the NDP significantly ahead.

Health care and education are two key areas voters care about come election time, Caouette said, and any uncertainty in those files leads to uncertainty amongst the electorate.

In rural Alberta — a key region for the United Conservative Party’s base — the link between physicians and their community may be stronger than in urban environments, she said.

“If we are in a situation where family physicians in rural Alberta are making a decision to leave, or perhaps scaled down or shut down their practices because of economic concerns, it’s definitely going to be something that the base is worried about,” she said.

To date, the government has denied doctors are leaving the province, saying its numbers show a net increase.
Now what?

While there’s no hard deadline for when a new contract has to be in place — doctors could continue with the status quo indefinitely — the uncertainty of working without one could have an impact on the province’s health-care system.

“It’s uncertainty for perhaps new graduates who may look at what’s happening and say, ‘I would like to work in another part of Canada versus Alberta.’ It is uncertainty for existing physicians who might be having some of the same thoughts as well,” Caouette said

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© David Bloom (left to right) Health Minister Tyler Shandro and Premier Jason Kenney adjust their face masks as they take part in a press conference where they provided an update on the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines through participating community pharmacies, in Edmonton Thursday March 18, 2021.

When it comes to getting back at the table, Hardcastle said the government seems unlikely to budge on two specific issues in the proposed contract that irked doctors: the end of binding arbitration, and the placing of a cap on physician compensation that would allow the government to withhold payment if the budget were exceeded. But there may be wiggle room with other points, such as potentially more consistent virtual care funding or a stronger grant program, she said.

When asked whether the government might try and impose a contract on doctors as they continue to butt heads at the bargaining table, Hardcastle said the status quo already gives government significant power.

Bratt believes that reading between the lines of the MacKinnon Report — commissioned by Kenney in 2019 to examine Alberta’s finances — offers a path where the government could impose contracts using Canada’s notwithstanding clause.

The report does not explicitly make that suggestion. It concedes that the “Supreme Court of Canada decisions on collective bargaining have limited the power of governments to set aside or impose collective agreements.”

However, it says legislative mandates can be used not as an ongoing way to conduct collective bargaining but “in exceptional circumstances such as the current situation in Alberta where the government has committed to balance the budget by 2022/23.” Since the pandemic, the government has backed away from that timeline.

The report later mentions that Saskatchewan used the notwithstanding clause in 1986 to overturn a court decision on labour relations.

“And so you negotiate” Bratt said. “If that doesn’t work, then you impose. And if it goes to the courts, well, we’ll take it to the courts. And if the courts ruled against us, then you use (the notwithstanding clause)."

Related
Kenney says Shandro has his ‘full, 100 per cent confidence’ after doctors vote down proposed contract with government
'I want to leave the rhetoric behind': Shandro extends olive branch in contrite letter to doctors
NDP calls for Health Minister Tyler Shandro's removal after he contacted doctors on their personal phones
Kenney rejects NDP's calls to fire health minister over confrontation with doctor

ajoannou@postmedia.com

Opinion: With Keystone cancelled, we must resuscitate Northern Gateway

THEY NEVER GIVE UP 

THIS ROUTE GOES THROUGH CONTESTED INDIGENOUS LANDS

Special to National Post 4/3/2021

U.S. President Joe Biden’s Day 1 decision to cancel the Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline is still being heavily litigated in the American press — and is now in the courts, with 21 states’ attorneys general filing suit. Even Democratic governors and senators like Joe Manchin are writing letters asking for a reversal of the decision due to its negative economic, environmental and strategic consequences.

© Provided by National Post The Enbridge Edmonton Terminal.

For the Americans, the country’s recent loss of energy independence combined with the cancellation of KXL and the Texas blackouts highlighted the fragility of energy supply and, stunningly, has increased essential imports from Russia, and OPEC states that don’t share its democratic values.

For Canada, however, the KXL cancellation has generated a different debate. Being dependent on the whims of U.S. politics for our largest and most valuable export is a strategic vulnerability. It hinders our ability to make sovereign decisions, which hinders our ability to make progress on the economy and the environment. It is time to change that. We need to build Canadian-controlled access to global energy markets. This means building the necessary infrastructure immediately.

The Trans Mountain (TMX) pipeline showed Canada that it’s possible to forge a public-private partnership on essential energy infrastructure that protects the public interest in balancing the economy and the environment. That pipeline is an important first step in giving Canadian energy companies direct access to growing Asian markets. Building the shelved Northern Gateway pipeline is the critical next step. It would offer a number of key benefits to Canadians.

First, it would expand Canada’s global economic reach and create thousands of jobs at a critical time for the economy. Canada thrives on supplying essential resources globally, and our growing and more efficient energy sector is now strong enough to move away from being reliant on the U.S.

As the U.S. oil industry is in free fall, Alberta has emerged as the most competitive major oil producer in the free world, hitting its all-time record oil production last quarter. Canada has more reserves than Russia, China and the U.S. combined. With our leaner and cleaner production positioned to grow another 25 per cent over the next decade, by 2030, Canada is expected to account for one-quarter of the entire free world’s oil production.

National infrastructure is a prerequisite to meeting these targets and growing our economy. When the U.S. cancels a project like KXL due to its own domestic politics, Canada cannot be seen as helpless. We have to act decisively to replace the lost capacity. Northern Gateway will add back 65 per cent of the oil that would have flowed through the KXL pipeline by 2025. It will also pivot that supply away from the U.S. to high-demand Asian markets, buttressing our sovereign economic and strategic relevance across Asia.

Second, Canada leads global energy markets with the best environmental, social and governance practices in the world, including methane regulation, water use and local stakeholder engagement — all while leading the world in decarbonizing oil production.

Since the Kyoto Accord, Alberta has reduced emissions per barrel by over 40 per cent. The average Canadian barrel is now cleaner than a barrel from California. Our recent projects are even better, and the latest study from researchers at the University of Calgary, University of Toronto and Stanford University found that, since 2018, oilsands emissions have been reduced far faster than initial models indicated, with our pace of decarbonization increasing.

Canadian barrels are getting cleaner, and this comes with cost savings that make our production leaner. This cleaner and leaner production is a double threat to state dictatorships that control 80 per cent of global reserves and place far lower value on ethical production commitments.

Third, we need to increase our ability to export our leaner and cleaner energy to Asian markets. Asia has 3.4 billion people who live in energy poverty. They need real solutions right now. With the right infrastructure, Canada can meet the needs of the emerging Asian middle class with cleaner Canadian energy solutions. Asia is the most important growth market for energy in the world and will take all of Northern Gateway’s 525,000 barrels per day the moment it is completed.

By the end of the decade, if Northern Gateway were built, Canada could be exporting five million barrels per day — 3.6 million to the U.S. and 1.4 million to Pacific tidewater. This pivot from our over-dependency on the U.S. will direct 30 per cent of our supply to key Asian markets, buttressing our commercial relevance and, with it, our soft power and diplomatic influence, particularly with China and India.

Canada can do this if we follow the model set by TMX. Following the government’s acquisition of TMX, a federal court decided that there had been insufficient Indigenous consultations and inadequate studies on how to minimize the impact of coastal tankers on marine life.

This led the government to conduct best-in-class consultations and marine studies, which in turn let the pipeline proceed. Like ports, airports and other public infrastructure, TMX showed that the government can play an essential role in funding and building essential Canadian energy infrastructure.

When TMX is completed in 2022, the government can use the assembled expertise and the proceeds from its subsequent sale to help finance Northern Gateway, and add best practices on tankers and Indigenous ownership to the original plan. This is a perfect moment to demonstrate to the world that Canada has the will and the capacity to build our own sovereign infrastructure to access markets and defend our economic and strategic interests globally.

Canada can meet Asia’s growing need for energy while leading the world in decarbonizaton, ethical production and environmental regulation. Building Asia-facing infrastructure is key to economic growth, jobs and our strategic relevance in that part of the world. Canada can do more in the world, and the world needs more of what we have to offer. Following TMX with Northern Gateway is an opportunity worth pursuing.

National Post

David Knight Legg is chairman of the ESG Working Group of the Province of Alberta and CEO of Invest Alberta Corporation. Adam Waterous is founder and managing partner of Waterous Energy Fund, a deep value, special situations investor in established North American oil and gas assets.

Carson Jerema: Keystone XL failure a major blow to Jason Kenney, but it's early days