1000 CARS PARTICIPATED IN CALGARY!

Calgary police say more than 100 tickets to be issued after pro-Palestinian car rally

Wed., May 19, 2021,

A convoy of vehicles drove through Calgary on Sunday in solidarity with Palestine. (Ahmed Abdallah/Facebook - image credit)

Calgary police say a car rally in support of Palestinians on Sunday unexpectedly grew from 200 vehicles to an estimated 1,000 — and now they expect to issue around 100 tickets to participants who strayed from the planned route and caused safety and traffic concerns for hours.

The rally was held to show solidarity with Palestinians in the ongoing conflict with Israel.

It started near the Calgary Zoo at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday with hundreds of cars disrupting traffic along 17th Avenue S.W. and downtown and delaying CTrain service.

In a news release Wednesday, police said they spoke with organizers prior to the event and stressed the importance of obeying all traffic laws.

"[We] called on them to conduct themselves with public safety as a priority," the release said.

'Running red lights, blocking intersections'

Police said organizers initially indicated there would be around 200 vehicles participating in the rally on a predetermined route through downtown. But the event grew to an estimate 1,000 vehicles and deviated from the designated route, which led to significant traffic issues and safety concerns over a five-hour period, police said.

"Vehicles driving down the wrong side of the road, running red lights, blocking intersections for significant periods of time, drivers on their cellphones while passengers (including young children) hung from windows and sunroofs," police said in the release.

"Stunting, firing of flares and fireworks from within vehicles or in crowds, and significant noise levels late into the evening led to several complaints from residents in the area."

50 complaints, two arrests

Police said they received more than 50 complaints in connection to the rally.

Two arrests were made at the event, one for mischief to property and the other for an altercation

Police said their priority during the rally was not to issue tickets but to ensure the safety of all those there, including officers and attendees. They said attempting ot issue tickets to all those committing offences would have resulted in escalating the situation.

Police said they were able to gather evidence using body worn cameras, car dash cams and traffic light cameras.

"The investigation is expected to lead to approximately 100 summonses being issued to the registered owners of the vehicles who participated in the offences," said the release.

"This information is not intended to paint all those that participated in the rally with the same brush. The violation tickets are being issued based solely on the behaviours of the participants who failed to adhere to traffic laws and risked their own safety or that of others."

Police said they vow to continue to work with protest organizers to plan safe events in the future.

OMG ITS BOATY MCBOATFACE
New coast guard ship beset by malfunctions, training delays 18 months after N.S. arrival

Wed., May 19, 2021

The CCGS Capt. Jacques Cartier sits at the Dartmouth dock of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography on May 14, 2021. (Steve Lawrence/CBC - image credit)

A year and a half after Canada's new offshore fisheries science vessel, the Capt. Jacques Cartier, was delivered to its Halifax-area base, the coast guard ship has yet to complete sea trials or begin the training missions needed before it can become operational.

CBC News has learned that equipment failures, delays receiving parts, and COVID-19-related travel restrictions in Nova Scotia have combined to upend the timetable.

Mission-critical training that was supposed to start in April 2020 is now scheduled to begin late next month.

The ship is expected to depart the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth this week to resume sea trials to test and calibrate instruments, including a vital trawl winch that seized up and stopped working entirely during the last trial in December.

CCGS Capt. Jacques Cartier is the second of three offshore fisheries science vessels built under Canada's national shipbuilding strategy at a cost of $778 million by the Seaspan Shipyard in North Vancouver.

It was delivered to Nova Scotia in November 2019.

No smooth sailing

A series of short sea trials last fall tested oceanographic equipment — which measure conductivity, temperature and depth — and acoustic and trawling gear on board.

As is not unusual during the shakedown of a new ship, problems were found.

There were data communication and software issues with acoustic sensors and malfunctions with the winches, according to records released under access to information laws.

The most serious mishap was the total failure of the starboard trawl winch which reels up the nets and heavy metal weights used to keep the nets on the ocean bottom.

Winch problems again

The winch stopped working with more than two kilometres of cable in the water and could not be restarted.

DFO said the acoustic sensors have since been repaired and are awaiting testing.

The winch issue has also been identified and fixed.

"The problem aboard the CCGS Capt. Jacques Cartier was attributed to a singular bearing failure rendering the gearbox non-operational. The bearing has been replaced under warranty and the gearbox issue has been resolved," DFO said in response to questions from CBC News.

The CCGS Capt. Jacques Cartier (centre) is expected to depart the Bedford Institute of Oceanography this week.(Steve Lawrence/CBC)

The department did not make anyone available for an interview.

Winch problems were also found on the other two offshore fisheries research vessels, CCGS Sir John Franklin and CCGS John Cabot, but DFO said those issues were unrelated to the failure last December on the Capt. Jacques Cartier.

"The other OFSVs [offshore fisheries science vessels] experienced a different issue with their trawls, which was a slight axial movement in the trawl winch drums. A solution for all three vessels has been determined," the department said.

"CCGS Capt. Jacques Cartier's and CCGS Sir John Franklin's have both been repaired. To date, CCGS Sir John Franklin's trials of the repaired drums have been successful."

Refit of new ship not unusual: DFO

Since the last sea trial, the Capt. Jacques Cartier has undergone one alongside refit where the cooling system was cleaned and flushed under warranty.

Inspections were underway last week. The ship was also waiting for parts for the sea water system.

DFO said it was not unusual for a brand new ship to undergo a refit.

"Our vessels have an annual maintenance routine consisting of regulatory surveys, as well as routine preventative maintenance to equipment," the department said.

$20M set aside to ready ships for service

DFO set aside $20 million to bring the East Coast fisheries research vessels — the Capt. Jacques Cartier and the John Cabot — into service over a two-year period.

This was to take place in three phases: sea trials and calibration of system, practice and proficiency, and active comparative fishing.

Comparative fishing is when the new and existing offshore research vessels fish side by side during the regular survey program.

The bow of the CCGS Capt. Jacques Cartier in North Vancouver on Wednesday, June 5, 2019.(Ben Nelms/CBC)

These cruises have been deemed "mission-critical" by DFO's science branch to ensure continuity in the collection of data used to assess fish stocks worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

None of the five comparative cruises for the Capt. Jacques Cartier planned between April 2020 and March 2021 were completed.

DFO is still trying to figure out when it will carry out training scheduled for 2021-22.

"The coast guard is working with our regional science partners on the schedule. Both Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and the coast guard are committed to maximizing the number of programs/surveys we can deliver in the context of the ongoing pandemic to support the needs of resource managers and decision-makers," DFO said.

Waiting for extended refit of older ship

The Capt. Jacques Cartier's first alongside fishing trip is planned with CCGS Alfred Needler — a 39-year-old offshore research vessel with its own problems.

A $1.7-million refit at Newdock shipyard in St. John's was supposed to end in April. It had to be extended due to expanded steel work.

DFO said structural steel on the trawl deck and flume tank by way of the galley deck all require renovation.

The Alfred Needler is not expected back in service until mid-June.

The original plan for the Capt. Jacques Cartier and the John Cabot called for comparative fishing to start in April 2020 and conclude in December 2021, involving eight calibration experiments totalling 43 additional weeks of vessel time.

Seaspan Shipyards launched the CCGS Capt. Jacques Cartier in North Vancouver nearly two years ago.(Ben Nelms/CBC)

DFO declined to quantify COVID-related delays and equipment-related malfunctions.

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the coast guard as it has all Canadians. Refit schedules have been impacted due to restrictions on interprovincial travel and isolation requirements, delays in material deliveries, as well as provincial regulations regarding health and safety requirements," DFO said.

Sea trials also raised concerns about access to the wet lab on board the Capt. Jacques Cartier.

The wet lab is where science crew examine and count marine life retrieved during trawls. One route took personnel past cabinets containing the ship's high-voltage electrical system.

The other required them to walk outside to get to the wet lab.

The coast guard committed to modifications.

CN Rail says Bill Gates and the Caisse support its bid for Kansas City Southern

Wed., May 19, 2021

CAISSE IS THE QUEBEC PENSION PLAN = CPP IN ROC

Canadian National Railway Co. says its push to create a continental railway with the US$33.6-billion acquisition of Kansas City Southern has the backing of Bill Gates and the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec.

"It's time to be bold and create the 21st Century railroad," CEO JJ Ruest told an investor conference on Wednesday.

"It will be a transformative combination to the benefit of both companies shareholders, customers and communities."

Ruest said there's "great enthusiasm" for creating a railway servicing the U.S., Mexico and Canada that is more competitive than trucking.

He said most of its shareholders support the combination despite concerns raised by its fifth-largest shareholder, Britain's TCI Fund Management.

He pointed to public support from Cascade Investment LLC, controlled by Bill Gates, and the Quebec pension fund manager.

Kim Thomassin, the head of investments for the Caisse, said in a letter that it believes the deal has the potential to "not only create jobs in a company based in Montreal, but also to open new markets to Quebec export companies and stimulate the economic recovery as a whole."

"This acquisition is in line with CDPQ’s objectives to support both Quebec companies in their international growth and the transition toward a low-carbon economy," Thomassin wrote.

The Caisse is CN Rail's ninth-largest investor with a 1.7 per cent stake, according to financial data firm Refinitiv.

Cascade Investment is the largest with a 14.3 per cent stake. TCI Fund holds a 2.9 per cent interest.

On Tuesday, TCI, who is also CP Rail's largest shareholder, urged CN's board to drop its bid for KCS because of the sizable break fee CN Rail would be forced to pay if its voting trust is not approved by the U.S. railway regulator.

"Making what is essentially a C$2 billion bet with company money on this one, unknowable, decision would be extremely reckless," TCI wrote in a letter to CN's board of directors.

Ruest said the company discussed the transaction even before its offer was made.

"We welcome the feedback and the view of all of our shareholders, most of them actually are very excited about the combination and what it could do to make the company much more valuable in the long-term," he told the Bank of America Securities transportation, airlines and industrials conference.

Canadian Pacific Railway CEO Keith Creel is expected to laud the benefits of its own offer and criticize its Canadian rival's bid Thursday when he appears at the conference. The Calgary-based railway has until Friday to decide whether to increase its offer for KCS.

Ruest said the combined railway network will provide more options for railway customers and generate more than the $1 billion in synergies it originally estimated.

The chief executive also said he's confident that the U.S. railway regulator, the Surface Transportation Board, will ultimately endorse the deal once its conducts a full review of its voting trust and imposes certain conditions.

"Our strong balance sheet, cash flows, financial outlook and industry leading rating profile will provide certainty that we have the financial strength to satisfy the STB public interest analysis."

The STB said CN's bid would be evaluated on stricter merger criteria created in 2001 whereas CP Rail received a waiver for its alternative offer.

CN expects a KCS shareholder vote on its offer in early July, approval and closing of its voting trust in the second half of the year and final STB approval in late 2022 or early 2023.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 19, 2021.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CNR, TSX:CP)

Ross Marowits, The Canadian Press

Talks between Enbridge, Michigan to continue over Line 5 standoff, mediator says

Wed., May 19, 2021



WASHINGTON — The mediator in the dispute between Enbridge Inc. and the state of Michigan over the controversial Line 5 pipeline says the two sides plan to keep talking.

Retired U.S. district court judge Gerald Rosen, who was appointed in March to oversee the talks, says the parties discussed a "range of issues" when they met Tuesday.

Rosen's three-sentence report filed with the federal court in Michigan says the talks will continue and both sides anticipate further sessions together.

Rosen's report offers no details as to when the next meeting will take place or how long the talks are likely to continue.

But it suggests the pipeline, which proponents insist is a vital energy conduit for much of the U.S. Midwest as well as Ontario and Quebec, will remain in operation for the time being.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer originally wanted the line shut down by May 12 to prevent an ecological disaster in the Straits of Mackinac, where the cross-border pipeline crosses the Great Lakes.

"The parties and I are continuing discussions and we anticipate further sessions together," Rosen writes in the document filed Wednesday.

"I will report further to the court after my next session with the parties."

The federal government in Ottawa joined the legal fray last week with an amicus brief that argued a shutdown would deal a "massive and potentially permanent" blow to Canada's economy and energy security, as well as risk lasting damage to relations with the United States.

If allowed to stand, Michigan's "unilateral action" would foster doubt about any foreign-policy commitments the U.S. might choose to make if any one state can so easily undermine them, the brief said.

Calgary-based Enbridge has said it plans to continue to operate the pipeline in the absence of a court order, which it doesn't consider likely.

The dispute first erupted in November when Whitmer abruptly revoked the easement that had allowed Line 5 to operate since 1953.

Enbridge insists the pipeline is safe and has already received the state's approval for a $500-million tunnel beneath the straits that would house the line's twin pipes and protect them from anchor strikes.

Advocates for keeping the pipeline operating, including Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan, say Line 5 delivers more than half the propane and home heating oil consumed in Michigan, and is a vital source of energy for Ohio and Pennsylvania as well, to say nothing of Ontario and Quebec.

Doing away with it would lead to a massive increase in the number of tanker trucks and oil cars on North American highways and railroads, increasing greenhouse gas emissions as well as the risk of a spill.

Not everyone in Canada, however, opposes Whitmer's efforts. A number of Indigenous groups in Ontario support a shutdown, as does Green party Leader Annamie Paul.

And Michiganders themselves remember well an Enbridge spill in 2010 that dumped more than 3.3 million litres of diluted bitumen into the Kalamazoo River, fouling more than 40 kilometres of shoreline.

Sarah Hubbard, a legislative expert in Michigan with lobbying firm Acuitas LLC, told a Wilson Center panel last week that Whitmer — who faces a re-election campaign next year — finds herself trying to satisfy two of the constituencies who got her elected in 2018: organized labour and environmentalists.

"That's where I see it right now — you've got these two major factions that are her supporters really fighting with each other over this," Hubbard said.

"She's trying to figure out how to thread the needle."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 19, 2021.

The Canadian Press

UK's National Grid to step into U.S. offshore wind

Nina Chestney
Thu., May 20, 2021

LONDON (Reuters) - UK-listed grid operator National Grid has partnered with Germany utility RWE to develop offshore wind projects in the United States, it said in its full-year results on Thursday.

The company's investment arm National Grid Ventures has signed a joint venture partnership agreement with RWE Renewables to jointly develop offshore wind projects in the coastal region of the Northeast U.S.

Under the agreement, NGV and RWE will work together to explore opportunities in the U.S. offshore wind market with an intention to jointly bid in a future federal seabed lease auction.

"As the U.S. offshore wind market is opening up, we see this as a perfect opportunity," National Grid Chief Executive John Pettigrew told Reuters in an interview.

The firm is already active in U.S. onshore wind, having bought renewables developer Geronimo Energy in 2019.

In its results, the company said its underlying operating profit was down 5% to 3.28 billion pounds ($4.7 billion) from a year earlier, due to the impact of COVID-19.

The company has recommended a final dividend to bring its full-year payout to 49.16 pence, up 1.2% from a year earlier.

In March, it said it would buy England's largest electricity distribution business WPD from U.S.-based PPL for 7.8 billion pounds. National Grid said it expects that acquisition to be completed by July.

It is also it selling Rhode Island utility the Narragansett Electric Company (NECO) to PPL for $3.8 billion, which it expects to be completed in the first quarter of next year.

The process for the sale of its UK gas transmission business will be launched in the second half of this year because work needs to be done on separating it out from the rest of the company, Pettigrew said.

($1 = 0.7083 pounds)

(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Jan Harvey)

U.K. Is Pushing for G-7 to Adopt Mandatory Climate Reporting


Alex Morales, Alessandra Migliaccio and Alberto Nardelli
Wed., May 19, 2021,



(Bloomberg) -- U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is pushing the Group of Seven economies to impose mandatory reporting of environmental risks on their big companies, people familiar with the matter said.

Under the proposals, the biggest companies would report annually on their exposure to risks and opportunities presented by climate change. It would follow guidelines set out in 2017 by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures.

While a final communique has yet to be agreed on for the June 4-5 meeting, the people said climate disclosure is a priority being pushed by the U.K. presidency in the finance track of the G-7 talks this year. A senior U.K. official said the discussions are on a knife-edge and could yet go either way.

The drive comes as the U.K. seeks to burnish its post-Brexit credentials as a global leader on climate change. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has already announced the most ambitious target to cut greenhouse gases among major developed countries, and its other aims during its G-7 presidency include persuading the other nations to phase out fossil-fuel subsidies.

Sunak spoke in the past week about the issue with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, according to the British official. The U.K. wants to make the proposal work and if it succeeds, it will mark a major step to getting markets to play their part in the transition to a net zero economy, the official said.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden is expected on Thursday to order his administration to create a strategy to quantify risks for both public and private financial assets posed by climate change in yet another sign that the idea is gaining momentum.

The U.K. chancellor in November announced that the U.K. would “mandate climate disclosures by large companies and financial institutions across our economy by 2025” in measures that go “further” than the TCFD proposals. He said the U.K. was the first G-20 nation to do so.

French President Emmanuel Macron has also championed transparency on corporate efforts to address climate change , saying in December that “binding” international agreement on the disclosures is needed. Italy also supports the efforts, and is pushing the issue in its presidency of the G-20.

Michael R. Bloomberg, the founder and majority shareholder of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, is the chair of TCFD.

MEECH LAKE TOO

Quebec's push to change Constitution could impact all Canadians, experts argue

Wed., May 19, 2021


OTTAWA — Nearly three decades after the failure of the Charlottetown accord, Quebec's status as a distinct society and hand-wringing over constitutional reform are back on the table.

Quebec rolled out proposed language reforms last week that aim to make unilateral changes to the Canadian Constitution. Known as Bill 96, the legislation seeks to amend the country's supreme law to enshrine Quebec's status as a nation and its official language as French.

An initial Justice Department analysis concluded Quebec can go ahead with the changes, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Tuesday.

But experts disagree, saying constitutional tweaks to language use require a parliamentary green light. They also warn against treating the pair of provisions as symbolic baubles on an unchanged Charter of Rights and Freedoms, highlighting potential legal implications from the Constitution on down.

Federal parties that run candidates across the country are handling with care the question of Quebec's language and identity as they look to avoid stirring up anger in the province ahead of a possible election this year, while the Bloc Québécois seizes a chance to shore up francophone protections — and votes.

The Bloc will table a motion in the House next week calling on lawmakers to pledge they'll steer clear of any legal challenges to the provisions and that Quebec does not need House support for them to go through, Leader Yves-François Blanchet said Wednesday.

"I strongly doubt that the present prime minister of Canada was raised being told every day that Quebec is a rightful nation."

Blanchet added that Trudeau likely knows if he does not fall in line with Quebec Premier François Legault's l00-page language overhaul that "he will have a huge price to pay in Quebec."

Constitutional expert Emmett Macfarlane says that at a minimum, Quebec would need to win authorization from the House of Commons and the Senate for the "official language" amendment to pass.

"The proposal cannot be accomplished unilaterally," said Macfarlane, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo.

Section 43 of the Constitution states that an amendment for "any provision that relates to the use of the English or the French language within a province" must be authorized by the Senate, the House and the legislature of the province to which it applies.

The assertion of Quebec as a nation has an even higher threshold for inscription in the Constitution, said Michael Feder, a Vancouver-based lawyer with expertise in constitutional law.

Legault's argument in favour of a unilateral edit relies largely on Section 45, which states that each provincial legislature "may exclusively make laws amending the constitution of the province."

But Feder and other critics say defining a province as a nation could have knock-on effects across the country, not just in Quebec, with the potential to rejig the structure of the federation rather than just pin on a constitutional accessory.

"I have some difficulty understanding what that means and why it’s being inserted into the Constitution if not to affect other provinces, and for that matter the federal government," Feder said.

For changes relevant to the federation as a whole, he said the standard amending formula would apply: requisite approval from the House, Senate and seven or more provinces comprising at least 50 per cent of the population.

The ramifications of the two provisions are hard to gauge, but could open the door to greater provincial power for Quebec or the exclusive use of French in its legislature, among other changes, Feder added.

"It’s sort of a bedrock principle of constitutional interpretation that provisions are read in light of one another. So once it’s in, if you’ve got a provision saying Quebecers form a nation, it has to be given meaning. You can’t just say it’s mere symbolism and we’ll do what we always did."

In 1993, a subsection was added to the Charter after the House and Senate teamed up with the New Brunswick legislature to adopt resolutions recognizing the province as officially bilingual. The amendment was "bilateral," notes a 2018 report from New Brunswick's official languages commissioner, rather than unilateral.

"If New Brunswick decided to do exactly the same thing (as Quebec currently) — or conversely decided to make English its only official language — it too could do that unilaterally. And that strikes me as untenable," Feder said.

David Taylor, a spokesman for federal Justice Minister David Lametti, said minority language rights would remain secure in Quebec regardless of the new amendment, citing Section 133 of the Constitution. It guarantees that either language can be used in courts and legislative debates in Quebec.

“It’s the interplay between those two pieces that Quebec continues to respect its obligations under Section 133," he said.

Meanwhile, angst is growing behind the scenes among some Quebec Liberals, who occupy 35 of the province's 78 seats in the Commons.

"I think it needs clarity. I think what Trudeau said was maybe interpreted not as what it was meant to be, and not as clear," said Mitchell Brownstein, chair of the Liberal riding association for Mount Royal on the Island of Montreal and mayor of Côte Saint-Luc.

"Any debate on language is not a good thing, as right now we have relative peace with respect to the issue of language in Quebec. And we’d like it to stay that way and not create another exodus of young people who have concerns.”

Macfarlane said he would have no issue with any province declaring itself a distinct society so long as the Constitution doesn't come into play.

"But just throwing up our hands because the political incentives are to accommodate Quebec is not healthy for democracy and the rule of law," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 19, 2021.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

Financial players grapple with whether to divest from Alberta's oilsands

Wed., May 19, 2021


At first it community groups like churches divested from the oilpatch. Now, the movement includes some of the world's largest banks and pension funds. (Kyle Bakx/CBC - image credit)

When the New York State Pension Fund recently decided to pull the plug on its investments in Alberta's oilsands, one major player remained in its portfolio.

The fund — the third largest public pension in the United States — said in December it would transition its financial portfolio to net-zero friendly investments by 2040. It announced last month it was selling off securities in seven Canadian oilsands companies and would not make future investments in them because they don't have viable plans to adapt to a "low-carbon future."

Canadian Natural Resources and Cenovus Energy were among the companies on the blacklist, but Suncor Energy was noticeably absent. The fund decided the Calgary-based company still had the pension fund's support, for now, and would be reviewed again next year.

The organization pulled more than $7 million US out of the oilsands after evaluating companies based their transition strategies, capital expenditures, and environmental targets, among other factors.

Still, while some environmental groups applauded the fund for its divestment from the oilsands, the majority of the pension fund's support for the oilsands remains unchanged as it sticks with Suncor. It held more than than $19 million in Suncor shares as of the end of 2020.The company shows signs of being a player in a low-carbon economic transition, in part by investing in wind farms and cleaner forms of energy.

The fund's divestment on its own doesn't represent a lot of money for a sector worth billions of dollars. But it sends a powerful signal. The announcement highlights how investors are increasingly focused on climate change and comes as the effort to reduce financial support for fossil fuels shows no signs of abating.

At the same time, it also shows how some large financial players still see some value in backing the oilpatch.

The divestment movement is not new, but has grown from having community groups, such as churches, deciding to no longer invest in oil and coal companies to having major global financial players, such as Blackrock and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, follow a similar path.

The money pipeline

In the last decade, environmental groups have targeted the construction of new oil and gas pipelines as a way to stifle growth of oil production. They're now applying pressure on the financial community to choke off support to the industry.

"There's actually a global movement to try and cut off the money pipeline to sort of the big banks and big pension funds to sort of say, 'You guys have got to get out of fossil fuels,'" said Keith Stewart, senior energy strategist with Greenpeace Canada.

Banks are going to face the same kind of pressure in the next decade as oil companies have experienced over the last decade, he said.

When one financial player pulls its support of the oilpatch, the impact is minimal. However, as more groups decide to divest, the financial consequences begin to be felt more and more by fossil fuel companies as the pool of potential investors gets smaller.

"It's having an impact, but part of the thing is, I think that the world is kind of realizing that, 'OK, this is way more complicated,'" said Mark Little, Suncor's chief executive, in an interview.

Further innovation is required to reduce emissions, he said, especially in energy-intensive sectors such as steel and cement production and long-haul aviation.

"The wind farm can't be the solution to every problem. It's not. So we need to find innovative solutions," said Little.

Others say there are geopolitical risks if investors continue to turn their backs on North American oil companies, which may only benefit countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia.

"The divestment movement has just taken capital out of the most transparent and, arguably, most environmentally responsible segments of the global oil and gas industry," said Peter Tertzakian, an economist and deputy director of the ARC Energy Research Institute.

Climate concerns

Around the globe, more than 1,300 groups have divested from fossil fuels in recent years, according to 350.org, an international environmental group based in the U.S. More than two dozen banks and other large financial institutions have specifically divested from the oilsands.

Still, the precise number of firms and how much investment has been pulled from the sector is difficult to quantify. Some firms decide to divest from the entire industry, while others have certain stipulations, such as still supporting some companies with a limited amount of their oil and gas production in the oilsands.

On Tuesday, the International Energy Agency released a report detailing how the global energy industry can bring carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050 and give the world a chance of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 C. Besides projects already in development, it said there are "no new oil and gas fields approved for development in our pathway,."

The pressure facing big banks and the financial community will only intensify as the next UN climate summit, known as COP 26, approaches.

Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney is advising the U.K. government as it prepares to host the November event. He has said part of the meeting will focus on how the private financial sector can "retool" so that investors take climate change into account when making financial decisions.


Pressure on banks

Canada's big banks have recently faced more scrutiny about their financial backing of the oilpatch.

RBC, Canada's largest bank, declined an interview, instead pointing to chief executive David McKay's recent comments at its annual general meeting in April.

"When we do finance responsible energy projects, they must be approved within the laws, the regulations and the policies of the jurisdictions within which they operate," he said. "I would say they must also be evaluated against international standards and our own enhanced due diligence frameworks and our human rights statement."

The oil and gas industry represents 1.6 per cent of RBC's total credit exposure, said McKay. The figure has since dropped to 1.1 per cent, a spokesperson said. RBC's loan exposure to the oilpatch is above $7 billion.

Instead of divestment, some investors try to work with companies to improve environmental performance. The strategies can even be complimentary, rather than opposing tactics.

A major investor can put a company on notice and push for change. If that doesn't work, the investor can take out the money and leave.

"Divesting from the oilpatch sends a very loud and clear message," said Jackie Cook, the Vancouver-based director of investment stewardship research at Morningstar, an American financial services firm.

She acknowledged there's also a case for having a seat at the table — but that "there's a danger that keeping a seat at the table just means you are carrying on with business as usual."

Cook points to Legal and General Investment Management, the U.K.'s largest asset manager, as an example of a firm that uses both strategies.

In the past, the firm divested from ExxonMobil because it was considered a climate laggard, but also praised another U.S. oil producer, Occidental Petroleum, for disclosing its total carbon emissions and setting reduction targets.

Voice at the table

In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change galvanized global concern over climate change as its report showed the world would need to halve emissions over the next decade to stand a chance of meeting the temperature goals in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The oilsands are responsible for about 11 per cent of Canada's total emissions, according to 2018 data from the federal government.

"Anybody in the investment management world right now probably has clients asking about this issue," said Alex Letko, a Montreal-based partner with Letko Brosseau, which manages $19 billion in assets.

The investment firm recently reviewed whether to continue investing in the oilpatch.

It looked at electric vehicle trends and forecasts for the amount of oil used in many industries, such as marine shipping and plastic production. At the same time, the group considered the ethics as climate change is an urgent problem.

In the end, it decided to stay the course, at least for now.

"We believe that actually having a voice at the table is more conducive to positive change than not," said Letko.

"Further down the line, there will be realities that perhaps will have to be reckoned with."

Manufacturers are newest targets for ransomware attacks, study finds

Wed., May 19, 2021



TORONTO — North American manufacturing companies are increasingly targets for cybercriminal gangs that use malicious software to shut down businesses if they don't pay a ransom, according to a report published Wednesday.

Research from Waterloo, Ont.-based cybersecurity consultancy eSentire says six known criminal gangs hit at least 292 new victim organizations globally in 2021 so far, including Bombardier Inc.

Other Canadian organizations known to have been directly or indirectly affected by ransomware include Molson Coors, B.C. equipment maker Sierra Wireless, and retailer Home Hardware.

The eSentire report says the criminal groups it tracks continue to hit governments, health care providers and school districts, but several have increased their attacks on the manufacturing sector this year.

That includes DarkSide, which the FBI has said is behind this month's shutdown of the Colonial pipeline system in the United States, and the Ryuk-Conti crime group, which eSentire says had six Canadian manufacturer victims so far this year.

Manufacturers are targets because the technical nature of their business means they can be shut down, and they are under pressure to react quickly, eSentire vice-president Mark Sangster said in an interview.

"Which of course then means you've got leverage over that company, and those companies tend to pay," Sangster added.

"When an assembly line is down, it's either extremely expensive to restart or causes delays in the supply chain and those delays lead to … secondary economic penalties like lost revenue, lost customers."

The manufacturing sector also has many private companies that are under less obligation to reveal that they've been attacked, giving their peers a false impression that they're not likely targets, he said.

"If they don't see themselves as a victim, they're sure as heck not going to invest what they need to protect their business," he added..

"And they don't know what to do, frankly, to protect themselves. That's why it's open season for these criminals."

eSentire says it doesn't know how many of the victim companies that it has identified have paid ransoms but notes some recent targets, such as Taiwan-based Quanta Computers and India-based Tata Steel, refused.

Because of the risk to their reputations, Sangster said, private companies often don't reveal when they've been shut down by a ransom attack or if they paid a ransom.

In the United States, the government requires victim organizations to report when a ransom is paid. And it could be a crime to make payments, if the receiver is listed by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control.

"We don't have any equivalency in Canada yet," Sangster said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 19, 2021.

David Paddon, The Canadian Press

Colonial Pipeline confirms it paid $4.4M to hackers

Wed., May 19, 2021



NEW YORK (AP) — The operator of the nation’s largest fuel pipeline confirmed it paid $4.4 million to a gang of hackers who broke into its computer systems.

Colonial Pipeline said Wednesday that after it learned of the May 7 ransomware attack, the company took its pipeline system offline and needed to do everything in its power to restart it quickly and safely, and made the decision then to pay the ransom.

“This decision was not made lightly," but it was one that had to be made, a company spokesman said. “Tens of millions of Americans rely on Colonial – hospitals, emergency medical services, law enforcement agencies, fire departments, airports, truck drivers and the traveling public.”

Colonial Pipeline’s CEO, Joseph Blount, told The Wall Street Journal he authorized the payment because the company didn't know the extent of the damage and wasn't sure how long it would take to bring the pipeline's systems back.

The FBI discourages making ransom payments to ransomware attackers, because paying encourages criminal networks around the globe who have hit thousands of businesses and health care systems in the U.S. in the past year alone. But many victims of ransomware attacks, where hackers demand large sums of money to decrypt stolen data or to prevent it from being leaked online, opt to pay.

“I know that’s a highly controversial decision,” Blount told the Journal. “But it was the right thing to do for the country."

Blount said Colonial paid the ransom in consultation with experts who previously dealt with the group behind the attacks, DarkSide, which rents out its ransomware to partners to carry out the actual attacks.

Multiple sources had confirmed to The Associated Press that Colonial Pipeline had paid the criminals who committed the cyberattack a ransom of nearly $5 million in cryptocurrency for the software decryption key required to unscramble their data network.

A ransom payment of 75 Bitcoin was paid the day after the criminals locked up Colonial’s corporate network, according to Tom Robinson, co-founder of the cryptocurrency-tracking firm Elliptic. Prior to Robinson’s blog post, two people briefed on the case had confirmed the payment amount to AP.

Blount told the Journal the attack was discovered around 5:30 a.m. on May 7. It took Colonial about an hour to shut down the pipeline, which has 260 delivery points across 13 states and Washington, D.C., Blount said. That helped prevent the infection from potentially migrating to the pipeline's operational controls. But there are lingering issues. Blount said Colonial is still unable to bill customers following an outage of that system.

The pipeline system delivers about 45% of the gasoline consumed on the East Coast, and Colonial, which is based in Alpharetta, Georgia, halted fuel supplies for nearly a week. That led to panic-buying and shortages at gas stations from Washington, D.C. to Florida.

Colonial restarted its pipeline a week ago, but it took time to resume a full delivery schedule, and the panic-buying led to gasoline shortages. More than 9,500 gas stations were out of fuel on Wednesday, including half of the gas stations in D.C. and 40% of stations in North Carolina, according to Gasbuddy.com, which tracks fuel prices and station outages.

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Associated Press Writer Frank Bajak contributed to this report from Boston.

Cathy Bussewitz (), The Associated Press