Ottawa outlines its $647M strategy to save Pacific salmon
The federal government released the broad strokes of its plan to save plummeting wild salmon stocks on the West Coast on Tuesday.
Federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan outlined the initial framework and guiding principles for Ottawa’s $647.1-million Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative (PSSI), announced as part of the recent federal budget.
Four key areas form the foundation of the strategy: conservation and stewardship, enhanced hatchery production, harvest transformation, and integrated management and collaboration, Jordan said.
Some B.C. salmon conservationists say the plan’s pillars and funding are positive, but the devil is in the details. Concerns raised include the use of hatcheries, the need to establish recovery plans, ensuring First Nations are true partners in the process, and that the entities steering the process are independent.
“Overall, it’s a positive announcement,” said Aaron Hill, executive director of Watershed Watch Salmon Society.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that it'll move things in the right direction.”
Many wild salmon stocks in B.C. and the Yukon are on the verge of collapse and bold action was necessary to reverse the trend, said Jordan, noting some populations have suffered declines of 90 per cent.
“The challenges facing Pacific salmon are enormous, but they're not insurmountable,” Jordan said.
“With the development of the historic Pacific salmon strategy, we will deploy the resources on a level that meets the scale of the crisis head on, and we will turn the corner.”
The four pillars support a strategic and co-ordinated long-term response rooted in collaborative action, she added.
“This is not a top-down approach,” Jordan said, adding Indigenous peoples, provincial and territorial governments, harvesters, stewardship partners, academia, environmentalists, and other stakeholders will be relied on to execute and guide the strategy.
The plan aims to develop stronger science and habitat restoration, stabilize and grow salmon populations and sustainable and reliable fisheries, as well as deepen communication and co-ordination between partners.
The funding is dedicated to conservation initiatives on the ground, Jordan said, adding the salmon strategy isn’t a new report or study.
Ottawa is partnering with the B.C. government on conservation through the province’s Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund (BCSRIF) to fund projects on the ground immediately, Jordan said.
In the recent budget, Ottawa committed a further $100 million to the $143-million program.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) will also begin planning and consultations to build new hatchery facilities to provide critical assistance for at-risk salmon stocks, Jordan said.
Video: Atlantic salmon returned from the ocean in greater numbers last year (cbc.ca)
“We're starting work immediately to consult with First Nations and local organizations to determine exactly where these hatcheries should be located to deliver the biggest impact,” Jordan said, adding DFO will take strategic steps to ensure that hatcheries won’t compromise wild fish stocks.
Strategic work with existing hatcheries will enhance their efforts where needed and aim to support economic opportunities for recreational fishers, she added.
Hill expressed concern that using hatcheries to support fisheries will further erode at-risk stocks by reducing the genetic fitness of wild salmon, and would see hatchery fish competing with endangered populations in the marine food web already under increasing duress.
“There is a need for hatcheries in some cases to rescue wild salmon runs from extinction,” Hill said, adding he’s pleased Jordan suggested DFO will take a conservation approach to their use.
“But the best way to do that is through a biological risk-assessment framework — something they currently have — but which is in a bit of a shambles and needs a massive overhaul,” he said.
DFO also urgently needs to develop science-based recovery plans for specific at-risk salmon populations, as required by 2019 changes to the Fisheries Act, Hill said.
Bob Chamberlin, a former vice-president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and a longtime advocate for wild salmon, said he wants Ottawa to abandon just consulting First Nations and work at a government-to-government level to enact the strategy.
Doing so is particularly relevant as Ottawa undertakes legislative changes to bring Canadian laws in line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), he said.
“This is one of those vital opportunities to get it right the first time, and create space for First Nations partnerships to develop and implement salmon restoration,” Chamberlin said.
Work is already underway to co-ordinate a First Nation salmon restoration framework in B.C. to identify priorities, he added
“That’s the work I’ve been doing for the past six months. I've talked to First Nations across B.C. and the support is overwhelming.”
As part of the strategy, a federal Pacific salmon secretariat will be developed to caretake and integrate the data collected under the initiative, Jordan said.
A restoration centre of expertise for Pacific salmon will also be created to provide technical expertise to support restoration efforts by salmon stewardship groups.
“This (centre) will break down silos, increase communication, and we will learn from these groups to ensure we are focused in the right direction and the right areas, and adapting as time progresses,” Jordan said.
To be effective, both the proposed secretariat or the centre of expertise shouldn’t be overseen by the DFO, which also regulates salmon farms in B.C. waters and might potentially ignore or suppress science suggesting the operations pose a threat to wild stocks, Hill said.
“The idea of a Pacific salmon secretariat could be a great thing, but I’m concerned it might just be a sort of administrative function within DFO,” Hill said.
“We’d really love to see something that's arm's length.
“I don't think we'll see a good outcome if they're the ones that are also in charge of rolling out this whole initiative and overseeing it.”
Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer
Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, National Observer
Thursday, June 10, 2021
UPDATES
Developer officially cancels Keystone XL pipeline project blocked by Biden
(Reuters) -A $9 billion oil pipeline that became a symbol of the rising political clout of climate change advocates and a flash point in U.S.-Canada relations was officially canceled on Wednesday.
(Reuters) -A $9 billion oil pipeline that became a symbol of the rising political clout of climate change advocates and a flash point in U.S.-Canada relations was officially canceled on Wednesday.
© Reuters/TODD KOROL A TC Energy pump station sits behind mounds of dirt from the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline as it lies idle near Oyen
Keystone XL, which was proposed in 2008 to bring oil from Canada's Western tar sands to U.S. refiners, was halted by owner TC Energy Corp after U.S. President Joe Biden this year revoked a key permit needed for a U.S. stretch of the 1,200-mile project.
Opponents of the line fought its construction for years, saying it was unnecessary and would hamper the U.S. transition to cleaner fuels. Its demise comes as other North American oil pipelines, including Dakota Access and Enbridge Line 3, face continued opposition from environmental groups.
"This is a landmark moment in the fight against the climate crisis," said Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. "We're hopeful that the Biden administration will continue to shift this country in the right direction by opposing fossil fuel projects."
The Keystone XL pipeline was expected to carry 830,000 barrels per day of Alberta oil sands crude to Nebraska, but the project was delayed for the past 12 years due to opposition from U.S. landowners, Native American tribes and environmentalists.
TC Energy owns the existing Keystone oil pipeline, which runs from Alberta to the U.S. oil storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, and to the U.S. Gulf, along with a power and storage business. It pledged to ensure a safe termination of the project.
"We remain disappointed and frustrated with the circumstances surrounding the Keystone XL project, including the cancellation of the presidential permit for the pipeline's border crossing," Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said in a statement.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump had approved a permit for the line in 2017, but it continued to face legal challenges that hampered construction. Biden had committed to canceling the project during his campaign and revoked the permit soon after taking office.
TC Energy swung to a loss in the first quarter, hit by C$2.2 billion ($1.81 billion) impairment charge related to the suspension of Keystone XL.
Its shares closed largely flat on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli, Anil D'Silva and Lincoln Feast.)
Keystone XL, which was proposed in 2008 to bring oil from Canada's Western tar sands to U.S. refiners, was halted by owner TC Energy Corp after U.S. President Joe Biden this year revoked a key permit needed for a U.S. stretch of the 1,200-mile project.
Opponents of the line fought its construction for years, saying it was unnecessary and would hamper the U.S. transition to cleaner fuels. Its demise comes as other North American oil pipelines, including Dakota Access and Enbridge Line 3, face continued opposition from environmental groups.
"This is a landmark moment in the fight against the climate crisis," said Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. "We're hopeful that the Biden administration will continue to shift this country in the right direction by opposing fossil fuel projects."
The Keystone XL pipeline was expected to carry 830,000 barrels per day of Alberta oil sands crude to Nebraska, but the project was delayed for the past 12 years due to opposition from U.S. landowners, Native American tribes and environmentalists.
TC Energy owns the existing Keystone oil pipeline, which runs from Alberta to the U.S. oil storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, and to the U.S. Gulf, along with a power and storage business. It pledged to ensure a safe termination of the project.
"We remain disappointed and frustrated with the circumstances surrounding the Keystone XL project, including the cancellation of the presidential permit for the pipeline's border crossing," Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said in a statement.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump had approved a permit for the line in 2017, but it continued to face legal challenges that hampered construction. Biden had committed to canceling the project during his campaign and revoked the permit soon after taking office.
TC Energy swung to a loss in the first quarter, hit by C$2.2 billion ($1.81 billion) impairment charge related to the suspension of Keystone XL.
Its shares closed largely flat on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli, Anil D'Silva and Lincoln Feast.)
Keystone XL pipeline project canceled by developer
By Matt Egan, CNN Business
The developer of the Keystone XL pipeline announced Wednesday it is pulling the plug on the controversial project after the Biden administration revoked its permit in January.
© Andrew Burton/Getty Images GASCOYNE, ND - OCTOBER 14: Miles of unused pipe, prepared for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, sit in a lot on October 14, 2014 outside Gascoyne, North Dakota. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
TC Energy, the Canadian company behind the project, said it decided to terminate the project after a comprehensive review of its options and consulting with the government of Alberta, Canada. The company said it would coordinate with regulators, stakeholders and Indigenous groups to ensure a safe exit from the project.
The cancellation ends more than a decade of controversy over the pipeline and marks a big win for environmentalists who argued the project threatened the environment and would only worsen the climate crisis.
The project aimed to carry oil from the tar sands of Canada into the United States, and it has been a political football for years.
On his first day in the White House, President Joe Biden revoked the permit his predecessor granted to Keystone XL, and also moved to re-enter the United States in the Paris climate agreement. TC Energy warned at the time that the decision by Biden would "directly lead to the layoff of thousands of union workers."
The end of Keystone XL will add to the pressure on Biden from environmentalists to terminate other projects, including Line 3 and the Dakota Access pipeline.
"The cancellation of Keystone XL is a reminder that this project was never needed and never in the public interest, and that it is time for the fossil fuel era to rapidly come to a close," David Turnbull, strategic communications director with Oil Change International, said in a statement.
The American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry's largest trade group, expressed disappointment over the news.
"It's unfortunate that political obstructionism led to the termination of the Keystone XL Pipeline," said Robin Rorick, vice president of midstream and industry operations at the API. "This is a blow to U.S. energy security and a blow to the thousands of good-paying union jobs this project would have supported."
Marty Durbin, president of the Chamber of Commerce's Global Energy Institute, said the decision to terminate the project was understandable given the administration's decision, but that ultimately "the American people will lose the most by not having access to affordable and reliable energy that would have been safely and efficiently transported by the pipeline."
Environmental groups, however, cheered the news.
"The termination of this zombie pipeline sets precedent for President Biden and polluters to stop Line 3, Dakota Access, and all fossil fuel projects," Kendall Mackey, campaign manager of 350.org's Keep It in the Ground campaign, said in a statement.
TC Energy, the Canadian company behind the project, said it decided to terminate the project after a comprehensive review of its options and consulting with the government of Alberta, Canada. The company said it would coordinate with regulators, stakeholders and Indigenous groups to ensure a safe exit from the project.
The cancellation ends more than a decade of controversy over the pipeline and marks a big win for environmentalists who argued the project threatened the environment and would only worsen the climate crisis.
The project aimed to carry oil from the tar sands of Canada into the United States, and it has been a political football for years.
On his first day in the White House, President Joe Biden revoked the permit his predecessor granted to Keystone XL, and also moved to re-enter the United States in the Paris climate agreement. TC Energy warned at the time that the decision by Biden would "directly lead to the layoff of thousands of union workers."
The end of Keystone XL will add to the pressure on Biden from environmentalists to terminate other projects, including Line 3 and the Dakota Access pipeline.
"The cancellation of Keystone XL is a reminder that this project was never needed and never in the public interest, and that it is time for the fossil fuel era to rapidly come to a close," David Turnbull, strategic communications director with Oil Change International, said in a statement.
The American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry's largest trade group, expressed disappointment over the news.
"It's unfortunate that political obstructionism led to the termination of the Keystone XL Pipeline," said Robin Rorick, vice president of midstream and industry operations at the API. "This is a blow to U.S. energy security and a blow to the thousands of good-paying union jobs this project would have supported."
Marty Durbin, president of the Chamber of Commerce's Global Energy Institute, said the decision to terminate the project was understandable given the administration's decision, but that ultimately "the American people will lose the most by not having access to affordable and reliable energy that would have been safely and efficiently transported by the pipeline."
Environmental groups, however, cheered the news.
"The termination of this zombie pipeline sets precedent for President Biden and polluters to stop Line 3, Dakota Access, and all fossil fuel projects," Kendall Mackey, campaign manager of 350.org's Keep It in the Ground campaign, said in a statement.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The sponsor of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline pulled the plug on the contentious project Wednesday after Canadian officials failed to persuade President Joe Biden to reverse his cancellation of its permit on the day he took office
.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
Calgary-based TC Energy said it would work with government agencies “to ensure a safe termination of and exit" from the partially built line, which was to transport crude from the oil sand fields of western Canada to Steele City, Nebraska.
Construction on the 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) pipeline began last year when former President Donald Trump revived the long-delayed project after it had stalled under the Obama administration. It would have moved up to 830,000 barrels (35 million gallons) of crude daily, connecting in Nebraska to other pipelines that feed oil refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Biden canceled the pipeline's border crossing permit in January over longstanding concerns that burning oil sands crude could make climate change worse and harder to reverse.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had objected to the move , raising tensions between the U.S. and Canada. Officials in Alberta, where the line originated, expressed frustration in recent weeks that Trudeau wasn't pushing Biden harder to reinstate the pipeline’s permit.
Alberta invested more than $1 billion in the project last year, kick-starting construction that had stalled amid determined opposition to the line from environmentalists and Native American tribes along its route.
Alberta officials said Wednesday they reached an agreement with TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada, to exit that partnership. The company and province plan to try to recoup the government's investment, although neither offered any immediate details on how that would happen.
“We remain disappointed and frustrated with the circumstances surrounding the Keystone XL project, including the cancellation of the presidential permit for the pipeline’s border crossing," Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said in a statement.
The province had hoped the pipeline would spur increased development in the oil sands and bring tens of billions of dollars in royalties over decades.
Climate change activists viewed the expansion of oil sands development as an environmental disaster that could speed up global warming as the fuel is burned. That turned Keystone into a flashpoint in the climate debate, and it became the focus of rallies and protests in Washington, D.C., and other cities.
Environmentalists who had fought the project since it was first announced in 2008 said its cancellation marks a “landmark moment” in the effort to curb the use of fossil fuels.
“Good riddance to Keystone XL,” said Jared Margolis with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of many environmental groups that sued to stop it.
On Montana’s Fort Belknap Reservation, tribal president Andy Werk Jr. described the end of Keystone as a relief to Native Americans who stood against it out of concerns a line break could foul the Missouri River or other waterways.
Attorneys general from 21 states had sued to overturn Biden’s cancellation of the pipeline, which would have created thousands of construction jobs. Republicans in Congress have made the cancellation a frequent talking point in their criticism of the administration, and even some moderate Senate Democrats including Montana's Jon Tester and West Virginia's Joe Manchin had urged Biden to reconsider.
Tester said in a statement Wednesday that he was disappointed in the project's demise, but made no mention of Biden.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate energy committee, was more direct: “President Biden killed the Keystone XL Pipeline and with it, thousands of good-paying American jobs.”
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on TC Energy's announcement. In his Jan. 20 cancellation order, Biden said allowing the line to proceed "would not be consistent with my administration’s economic and climate imperatives.”
TC Energy said in canceling the pipeline that the company is focused on meeting “evolving energy demands” as the world transitions to different power sources. It said it has $7 billion in other projects under development.
Keystone XL’s price tag had ballooned as the project languished, increasing from $5.4 billion to $9 billion. Meanwhile, oil prices fell significantly — from more than $100 a barrel in 2008 to under $70 in recent months — slowing development of Canada’s oil sands and threatening to eat into any profits from moving the fuel to refineries.
A second TC Energy pipeline network, known simply as Keystone, has been delivering crude from Canada's oil sands region since 2010. The company says on its website that Keystone has moved more than 3 billion barrels of crude from Alberta and an oil loading site in Cushing, Oklahoma.
___
Follow Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP
Matthew Brown, The Associated Press
Calgary-based TC Energy said it would work with government agencies “to ensure a safe termination of and exit" from the partially built line, which was to transport crude from the oil sand fields of western Canada to Steele City, Nebraska.
Construction on the 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) pipeline began last year when former President Donald Trump revived the long-delayed project after it had stalled under the Obama administration. It would have moved up to 830,000 barrels (35 million gallons) of crude daily, connecting in Nebraska to other pipelines that feed oil refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Biden canceled the pipeline's border crossing permit in January over longstanding concerns that burning oil sands crude could make climate change worse and harder to reverse.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had objected to the move , raising tensions between the U.S. and Canada. Officials in Alberta, where the line originated, expressed frustration in recent weeks that Trudeau wasn't pushing Biden harder to reinstate the pipeline’s permit.
Alberta invested more than $1 billion in the project last year, kick-starting construction that had stalled amid determined opposition to the line from environmentalists and Native American tribes along its route.
Alberta officials said Wednesday they reached an agreement with TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada, to exit that partnership. The company and province plan to try to recoup the government's investment, although neither offered any immediate details on how that would happen.
“We remain disappointed and frustrated with the circumstances surrounding the Keystone XL project, including the cancellation of the presidential permit for the pipeline’s border crossing," Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said in a statement.
The province had hoped the pipeline would spur increased development in the oil sands and bring tens of billions of dollars in royalties over decades.
Climate change activists viewed the expansion of oil sands development as an environmental disaster that could speed up global warming as the fuel is burned. That turned Keystone into a flashpoint in the climate debate, and it became the focus of rallies and protests in Washington, D.C., and other cities.
Environmentalists who had fought the project since it was first announced in 2008 said its cancellation marks a “landmark moment” in the effort to curb the use of fossil fuels.
“Good riddance to Keystone XL,” said Jared Margolis with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of many environmental groups that sued to stop it.
On Montana’s Fort Belknap Reservation, tribal president Andy Werk Jr. described the end of Keystone as a relief to Native Americans who stood against it out of concerns a line break could foul the Missouri River or other waterways.
Attorneys general from 21 states had sued to overturn Biden’s cancellation of the pipeline, which would have created thousands of construction jobs. Republicans in Congress have made the cancellation a frequent talking point in their criticism of the administration, and even some moderate Senate Democrats including Montana's Jon Tester and West Virginia's Joe Manchin had urged Biden to reconsider.
Tester said in a statement Wednesday that he was disappointed in the project's demise, but made no mention of Biden.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate energy committee, was more direct: “President Biden killed the Keystone XL Pipeline and with it, thousands of good-paying American jobs.”
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on TC Energy's announcement. In his Jan. 20 cancellation order, Biden said allowing the line to proceed "would not be consistent with my administration’s economic and climate imperatives.”
TC Energy said in canceling the pipeline that the company is focused on meeting “evolving energy demands” as the world transitions to different power sources. It said it has $7 billion in other projects under development.
Keystone XL’s price tag had ballooned as the project languished, increasing from $5.4 billion to $9 billion. Meanwhile, oil prices fell significantly — from more than $100 a barrel in 2008 to under $70 in recent months — slowing development of Canada’s oil sands and threatening to eat into any profits from moving the fuel to refineries.
A second TC Energy pipeline network, known simply as Keystone, has been delivering crude from Canada's oil sands region since 2010. The company says on its website that Keystone has moved more than 3 billion barrels of crude from Alberta and an oil loading site in Cushing, Oklahoma.
___
Follow Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP
Matthew Brown, The Associated Press
July 2008: TC Energy Corp. — then called TransCanada Corp. — and ConocoPhillips, joint owners of the Keystone Pipeline, propose a major extension to the network. The expansion, dubbed Keystone XL, would carry hundreds of thousands of barrels of oilsands bitumen from Alberta to Texas.
2009: As the U.S. State Department wades through comments based on an environmental assessment of the project, TransCanada starts visiting landowners potentially affected by the pipeline. Opposition emerges in Nebraska.
June 2009: TransCanada announces it will buy ConocoPhillips's stake in Keystone.
March 2010: The National Energy Board approves TransCanada’s application for Keystone XL, though the OK comes with 22 conditions regarding safety, environmental protection and landowner rights.
April 2010: The U.S. State Department releases a draft environmental impact statement saying Keystone XL would have a limited effect on the environment.
June-July 2010: Opposition to Keystone XL begins mounting in the United States. Legislators write to then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton calling for greater environmental oversight; scientists begin speaking out against the project; and the Environmental Protection Agency questions the need for the pipeline extension.
July 2010: The State Department extends its review of Keystone, saying federal agencies need more time to weigh in before a final environmental impact assessment can be released.
March 2011: The State Department announces a further delay in its environmental assessment.
Aug. 26, 2011: The State Department releases its final environmental assessment, which reiterates that the pipeline would have a limited environmental impact.
August-September 2011: Protesters stage a two-week campaign of civil disobedience at the White House to speak out against Keystone XL. Police arrest approximately 1,000 people, including actors Margot Kidder and Daryl Hannah as well as Canadian activist Naomi Klein.
Sept. 26, 2011: At a demonstration on Parliament Hill, police arrest 117 of 400 protesters.
Nov. 10, 2011: The State Department says TransCanada must reroute Keystone XL to avoid an ecologically sensitive region of Nebraska.
Nov. 14, 2011: TransCanada agrees to reroute the line.
December 2011: U.S. legislators pass a bill with a provision saying President Barack Obama must make a decision on the pipeline’s future in the next 60 days.
Jan. 18, 2012: Obama rejects Keystone, saying the timeline imposed by the December bill did not leave enough time to review the new route. Obama said TransCanada was free to submit another application.
Feb. 27, 2012: TransCanada says it will build the southern leg of Keystone XL, from Cushing, Okla., to the Gulf Coast, as a separate project with a price tag of $2.3 billion. This is not subject to presidential permission, since it did not cross an international border.
April 18, 2012: TransCanada submits a new route to officials in Nebraska for approval.
May 4, 2012: TransCanada files a new application with the State Department for the northern part of Keystone XL.
Jan. 22, 2013: Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman approves TransCanada’s proposed new route for Keystone XL, sending the project back to the State Department for review.
January 2013: Pipeline opponents file a lawsuit against the Nebraska government claiming the state law used to review the new route is unconstitutional.
Jan. 31, 2014: The State Department says in a report that Keystone XL would produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than transporting oil to the Gulf of Mexico by rail.
Feb. 19, 2014: A Nebraska judge rules that the law that allowed the governor to approve Keystone XL over the objections of landowners was unconstitutional. Nebraska said it would appeal.
April 18, 2014: The State Department suspends the regulatory process indefinitely, citing uncertainty about the court case in Nebraska.
Nov. 4, 2014: TransCanada says the costs of Keystone XL have grown to US$8 billion from US$5.4 billion.
November-December 2014: Midterm elections turn control of the U.S. Congress over to Republicans, who say they’ll make acceptance of Keystone XL a top priority. But Obama adopts an increasingly negative tone.
Jan. 9, 2015: At the Nebraska Supreme Court, by the narrowest of margins, a panel of seven judges strikes down the lower-court decision.
Jan. 29, 2015: The U.S. Senate approves a bill to build Keystone XL, but the White House says Obama would veto it.
Feb. 24, 2015: Obama vetoes the bill.
June 30, 2015: TransCanada writes to then-secretary of state John Kerry and other U.S. officials saying the State Department should include recent climate change policy announcements by the Alberta and federal governments in its review of Keystone XL.
Nov. 2, 2015: TransCanada asks the U.S. government to temporarily suspend its application.
Nov. 4, 2015: The U.S. government rejects that request.
Nov. 6, 2015: The Obama administration rejects TransCanada’s application to build the Keystone XL pipeline. TransCanada CEO Russ Girling says he is disappointed, but continues to believe the project is in the best interests of both Canada and the U.S.
Jan. 6, 2016: TransCanada files notice to launch a claim under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement, alleging the U.S. government breached its legal commitments under NAFTA. The company also files a lawsuit in U.S. Federal Court in Texas arguing that Obama exceeded his powers by denying construction of the project.
May 26, 2016: Republican presidential contender Donald Trump says he would approve Keystone XL if elected, a pledge he repeats several times during the campaign.
Nov. 8, 2016: Trump is elected president.
Jan. 24, 2017: Trump signs an executive order that he says approves Keystone XL, but suggests the United States intends to renegotiate the terms of the project. He also signs an order requiring American pipelines to be built with U.S. steel.
Nov. 9, 2018: A U.S. federal judge blocks the pipeline's construction to allow more time to study the potential environmental impact.
March 29, 2019: Trump issues a new presidential permit in an effort to speed up development of the pipeline
May 3, 2019: TransCanada changes its name to TC Energy.
March 31, 2020: Alberta agrees to invest $1.5 billion in Keystone XL, followed by a $6 billion loan guarantee in 2021.
April 7, 2020: Construction begins, despite calls from Indigenous groups and environmentalists to pause their efforts.
May 18, 2020: Joe Biden, then the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, vows to scrap Keystone XL if elected, but doesn't set out a timeline for doing so.
Nov. 3, 2020: Biden is elected president.
Jan. 17, 2021: TC Energy announces a plan for Keystone XL to achieve net-zero emissions.
Jan. 20, 2021: Biden revokes Keystone XL's presidential permit on his first day in office, hours after TC Energy said it would halt work on the project.
May 7, 2021: In reporting quarterly earnings results, TC Energy says it is taking a $2.2-billion writedown on the cancelled project. Shippers including Cenovus Energy Inc., Suncor Energy Inc. and Imperial Oil Ltd. had previously reported non-cash writedowns on earnings related to their commitments to Keystone XL.
June 9, 2021: TC Energy announces termination of the project.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2021.
Companies in this story: (TSX: TRP)
The Canadian Press
NDP calls on Ottawa to recognize residential schools as genocide
OTTAWA — New Democrats are calling on the federal government to recognize the residential schools policy pursued by Canada for over a century as genocide against Indigenous Peoples.
OTTAWA — New Democrats are calling on the federal government to recognize the residential schools policy pursued by Canada for over a century as genocide against Indigenous Peoples.
Provided by The Canadian Press
In a motion to be tabled in the House of Commons on Thursday, NDP MP Leah Gazan is asking fellow lawmakers to unanimously acknowledge the institutions' history as the deliberate, systematic destruction of a cultural group.
“There is no reconciliation without truth. And what happened in residential school was clearly an act of genocide, with impacts that reverberate (in) our families’ community today," said Gazan, MP for Winnipeg Centre and a member of the Wood Mountain Lakota Nation in Saskatchewan.
"In honour of all the children who never returned home, in honour of all the mothers and fathers and families that were left to suffer in grief, we must end the debate."
Gazan's demand comes in response to last month's news that ground-penetrating radar detected what are believed to be the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
The government-sponsored, church-run institutions operated in Canada for more than 110 years and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission ruled in 2015 they constituted a "cultural genocide."
Gazan questioned the sufficiency of the commission's determination, laid out in a report that followed seven years of hearings and testimony from thousands of witnesses.
“There is no legal definition in international law for cultural genocide. What happened at the residential schools was genocide, full stop," she said, citing the United Nations convention against genocide.
Genocide comprises any one of the criteria laid out in the 1948 convention's definition, and Gazan said Canada's residential schools policy meets all five: killing members of a group, causing them serious physical or mental harm, placing them under conditions to destroy them, imposing measures to prevent births or forcibly transferring children to another group.
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett said Liberals "will look at the wording of the motion."
Video: What is Ottawa doing about the legacy of residential schools? (cbc.ca)
She noted that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week he accepts the conclusion of the 2019 inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women that "what happened amounts to genocide."
At a news conference with Gazan on Wednesday morning, Grand Chief Arlen Dumas of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said denying an act of genocide would “belittle the history and the reality” of survivors of schools that continued to open into the 1970s.
"Residential school is not a historic thing that happened hundreds of years ago. It happened just yesterday," he said. "My younger siblings attended residential school."
Christian churches and the federal government launched the boarding schools in the 1880s and kept them going for more than a century, seeking to convert and assimilate Indigenous children, who suffered widespread physical and sexual abuse at the institutions. Thousands died in them.
The last one closed in Punnichy, Sask., in 1996.
A third-generation survivor, Dumas said churches also need to atone for their role. "I am very disappointed with the stance of the church for their silence."
On Sunday in Rome, the Pope expressed his pain over the recent discovery by the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation of the unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. But many Indigenous leaders have stated their disappointment and frustration over Pope Francis's remarks, saying they fall short of an apology for the Catholic Church's key part in the policy.
“Old wounds opened up. Our nation woke up," said Gerry Shingoose, an elder and survivor who attended the Muscowequan Residential School in Saskatchewan for a decade starting in the early 1960s.
“I ask that each one of you bring that love forward to the survivors and their families, because when we were in school we never received that love. We received hate," she said. "And no child should ever experience that.”
A vote on Gazan's motion, which requires unanimous consent to pass, is expected Thursday.
The Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program has a hotline to help residential school survivors and their relatives suffering with trauma invoked by the recall of past abuse. The number is 1-866-925-4419.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2021.
Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
In a motion to be tabled in the House of Commons on Thursday, NDP MP Leah Gazan is asking fellow lawmakers to unanimously acknowledge the institutions' history as the deliberate, systematic destruction of a cultural group.
“There is no reconciliation without truth. And what happened in residential school was clearly an act of genocide, with impacts that reverberate (in) our families’ community today," said Gazan, MP for Winnipeg Centre and a member of the Wood Mountain Lakota Nation in Saskatchewan.
"In honour of all the children who never returned home, in honour of all the mothers and fathers and families that were left to suffer in grief, we must end the debate."
Gazan's demand comes in response to last month's news that ground-penetrating radar detected what are believed to be the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
The government-sponsored, church-run institutions operated in Canada for more than 110 years and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission ruled in 2015 they constituted a "cultural genocide."
Gazan questioned the sufficiency of the commission's determination, laid out in a report that followed seven years of hearings and testimony from thousands of witnesses.
“There is no legal definition in international law for cultural genocide. What happened at the residential schools was genocide, full stop," she said, citing the United Nations convention against genocide.
Genocide comprises any one of the criteria laid out in the 1948 convention's definition, and Gazan said Canada's residential schools policy meets all five: killing members of a group, causing them serious physical or mental harm, placing them under conditions to destroy them, imposing measures to prevent births or forcibly transferring children to another group.
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett said Liberals "will look at the wording of the motion."
Video: What is Ottawa doing about the legacy of residential schools? (cbc.ca)
She noted that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week he accepts the conclusion of the 2019 inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women that "what happened amounts to genocide."
At a news conference with Gazan on Wednesday morning, Grand Chief Arlen Dumas of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said denying an act of genocide would “belittle the history and the reality” of survivors of schools that continued to open into the 1970s.
"Residential school is not a historic thing that happened hundreds of years ago. It happened just yesterday," he said. "My younger siblings attended residential school."
Christian churches and the federal government launched the boarding schools in the 1880s and kept them going for more than a century, seeking to convert and assimilate Indigenous children, who suffered widespread physical and sexual abuse at the institutions. Thousands died in them.
The last one closed in Punnichy, Sask., in 1996.
A third-generation survivor, Dumas said churches also need to atone for their role. "I am very disappointed with the stance of the church for their silence."
On Sunday in Rome, the Pope expressed his pain over the recent discovery by the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation of the unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. But many Indigenous leaders have stated their disappointment and frustration over Pope Francis's remarks, saying they fall short of an apology for the Catholic Church's key part in the policy.
“Old wounds opened up. Our nation woke up," said Gerry Shingoose, an elder and survivor who attended the Muscowequan Residential School in Saskatchewan for a decade starting in the early 1960s.
“I ask that each one of you bring that love forward to the survivors and their families, because when we were in school we never received that love. We received hate," she said. "And no child should ever experience that.”
A vote on Gazan's motion, which requires unanimous consent to pass, is expected Thursday.
The Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program has a hotline to help residential school survivors and their relatives suffering with trauma invoked by the recall of past abuse. The number is 1-866-925-4419.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2021.
Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
Representative for 17,000 Sears Canada retirees says insolvency laws are unjust
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2021.
David Paddon, The Canadian Press
Provided by The Canadian Press
A court-appointed representative for Sears Canada retirees said Tuesday that Canada's bankruptcy laws should be changed to avoid future financial hardship for members of other underfunded pension plans.
Kenneth Eady, a former Sears Canada management employee who now represents 17,000 other pensioners, told MPs that he doesn't believe it's fair that Canada's two bankruptcy laws give banks more protection than pensioners.
Parliament should pass a Bloc Québécois bill to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, Eady told a Commons committee that's reviewing the proposed legislation.
"You're the ones who can make a difference here, folks," Eady said. "The MPs on this committee can vote in favour of this bill, and help protect seniors. I suggest you do."
Under questioning, Eady said that Sears Canada retirees would have been helped if the proposed amendments to the two laws were in place when Sears Canada filed its initial request for court protection in June 2017.
But he said Sears Canada retirees probably wouldn't have been helped much if they were ranked ahead of other creditors and still behind banks, which have "super priority" status.
"It's a different type of debt that you have with the pension plan. It's a long term outstanding debt. And so, they have to be treated as super creditors to be to make it meaningful to pensioners," Eady said.
In the Sears Canada bankruptcy process, which hasn't yet been completed, there wasn't enough money to fund pension shortfalls after debts to banks and active employees were repaid ahead of other classes of creditors.
Eady is one of several witnesses who have spoken for or against a private member's bill that proposes to give underfunded pension plans and banks similar priority in bankruptcy courts.
Representatives from the Canadian Bankers Association and the Insolvency Institute of Canada warned the same committee last week that the bill's proposed changes would create worse problems than they solve.
Charles Docherty, assistant general counsel for the Canadian Bankers Association, said on Thursday that "a very careful balance has been achieved over several decades in the order of priority and bankruptcy."
"Ultimately, changes to the order of priority in bankruptcy threatens to seriously undermine the delicate balance with ripple effects across the economy," Docherty said.
Eady said in an interview Tuesday, after his virtual presentation to the committee, that the high profile nature of the Sears Canada bankruptcy serves as an example of what's wrong with the current laws.
"MPs are people with family who shopped at Sears. Maybe they worked there as a kid. I know several that have," he said. "Hopefully the fact that Sears is familiar to so many people, helps ... bring this issue clarity."
Laura Tamblyn Watts, a lawyer and seniors advocate who also addressed the committee Tuesday, said she doesn't think the banks' position is supported by evidence in other countries.
"Compared to other jurisdictions Canada significantly lags in its protection of pensioners," said Tamblyn Watts, chief executive of CanAge, a non-partisan national advocacy group for seniors.
A court-appointed representative for Sears Canada retirees said Tuesday that Canada's bankruptcy laws should be changed to avoid future financial hardship for members of other underfunded pension plans.
Kenneth Eady, a former Sears Canada management employee who now represents 17,000 other pensioners, told MPs that he doesn't believe it's fair that Canada's two bankruptcy laws give banks more protection than pensioners.
Parliament should pass a Bloc Québécois bill to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, Eady told a Commons committee that's reviewing the proposed legislation.
"You're the ones who can make a difference here, folks," Eady said. "The MPs on this committee can vote in favour of this bill, and help protect seniors. I suggest you do."
Under questioning, Eady said that Sears Canada retirees would have been helped if the proposed amendments to the two laws were in place when Sears Canada filed its initial request for court protection in June 2017.
But he said Sears Canada retirees probably wouldn't have been helped much if they were ranked ahead of other creditors and still behind banks, which have "super priority" status.
"It's a different type of debt that you have with the pension plan. It's a long term outstanding debt. And so, they have to be treated as super creditors to be to make it meaningful to pensioners," Eady said.
In the Sears Canada bankruptcy process, which hasn't yet been completed, there wasn't enough money to fund pension shortfalls after debts to banks and active employees were repaid ahead of other classes of creditors.
Eady is one of several witnesses who have spoken for or against a private member's bill that proposes to give underfunded pension plans and banks similar priority in bankruptcy courts.
Representatives from the Canadian Bankers Association and the Insolvency Institute of Canada warned the same committee last week that the bill's proposed changes would create worse problems than they solve.
Charles Docherty, assistant general counsel for the Canadian Bankers Association, said on Thursday that "a very careful balance has been achieved over several decades in the order of priority and bankruptcy."
"Ultimately, changes to the order of priority in bankruptcy threatens to seriously undermine the delicate balance with ripple effects across the economy," Docherty said.
Eady said in an interview Tuesday, after his virtual presentation to the committee, that the high profile nature of the Sears Canada bankruptcy serves as an example of what's wrong with the current laws.
"MPs are people with family who shopped at Sears. Maybe they worked there as a kid. I know several that have," he said. "Hopefully the fact that Sears is familiar to so many people, helps ... bring this issue clarity."
Laura Tamblyn Watts, a lawyer and seniors advocate who also addressed the committee Tuesday, said she doesn't think the banks' position is supported by evidence in other countries.
"Compared to other jurisdictions Canada significantly lags in its protection of pensioners," said Tamblyn Watts, chief executive of CanAge, a non-partisan national advocacy group for seniors.
In an interview after her virtual appearance before the committee, she said "everyday Canadians" may not understand the technical terms in the law but they understand the Sears Canada story."For instance," Tamblyn Watts said, "if you tell somebody that the pensioners at Sears in the U.S. didn't lose any money or any benefits — but they lost 20 per cent (of their pension payments) in Canada and really all of their benefits — people are shocked to understand that the U.S. has better protection."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2021.
David Paddon, The Canadian Press
The head of the statue of Egerton Ryerson now on a spike at Land Back Lane in Caledonia, Ont.
© Evan Mitsui/CBC Demonstrators attempt to remove the head from a toppled statue of Egerton Ryerson, one of the architects of the residential school system, on Sunday. The head is now at 1492 Land Back Lane in Caledonia, Ont.
Last seen decapitated from a statue on the Ryerson University campus in Toronto, the head of Egerton Ryerson has made its way to 1492 Land Back Lane in Caledonia, Ont.
The area is the subject of an ongoing land battle between the Six Nations of the Grand River and local developers, who are attempting to build residential housing on land that the Six Nations say was never ceded by the Haudenosaunee.
The statue head is now resting on a "pike" overseeing the land, according to Skyler Williams, a Six Nations of the Grand River member who has been acting as spokesperson for 1492 Land Back Lane. The area is about 20 kilometres south of Hamilton near the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve.
Williams said he doesn't know how it got to the site, but they'll keep it unless someone else "is wanting to take it on tour."
Ryerson was one of the architects of Canada's residential school system, which separated 150,000 Indigenous children from their families until the last one closed in 1996.
"It'll stay in its spot on the hill for the foreseeable future," he said about the statue head.
A post from a Twitter account associated with 1492 Land Back Lane showed it overlooking the land nearby.
The statue was toppled and beheaded on Sunday by demonstrators on the Ryerson University campus after the remains of an estimated 215 Indigenous children were detected on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
Ryerson was the chief superintendent of education in Upper Canada (now modern-day Ontario). In 2010, Ryerson University's Aboriginal Education Council found "although [Ryerson] did not implement or oversee the launch of the schools, he contributed to the blueprint of them."
Williams said that, for him, statues of colonial figures like Ryerson are "iconic symbols about the genocide of our people" and "akin to having a statue of Hitler in the middle of Times Square."
Williams said three white pine saplings have been planted on the site of 1492 Land Back Lane as a way to memorialize the children.
"I don't think that anybody was surprised in the Indigenous community," he said of the remains buried at the former B.C., residential school. "We've been saying this now for 50 years, at least, that there are thousands of kids who never came home from those schools."
Williams told the CBC that he sees a direct link between their struggle to win back the land and the legacy of residential schools.
"There is a very direct tie between the land-back movement and the residential schools," said Williams, along with the Sixties Scoop, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and what he calls the Millennium Scoop — the disproportionate levels Indigenous children are separated from their parents by Canada's child welfare systems.
"When we're talking about land back, we're also talking about being able to invite those people home, those people who have suffered enough and need to have an opportunity to grow back into their communities, back into their communities."
Haudenosaunee-led demonstrators say land south of Caledonia planned for residential housing developments by two companies — Foxgate Developments and Wildwood Developments — was never surrendered to the Crown.
Demonstrators began occupying McKenzie Meadows on July 19, 2020, saying it's unceded territory. They call the area 1492 Land Back Lane.
Last seen decapitated from a statue on the Ryerson University campus in Toronto, the head of Egerton Ryerson has made its way to 1492 Land Back Lane in Caledonia, Ont.
The area is the subject of an ongoing land battle between the Six Nations of the Grand River and local developers, who are attempting to build residential housing on land that the Six Nations say was never ceded by the Haudenosaunee.
The statue head is now resting on a "pike" overseeing the land, according to Skyler Williams, a Six Nations of the Grand River member who has been acting as spokesperson for 1492 Land Back Lane. The area is about 20 kilometres south of Hamilton near the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve.
Williams said he doesn't know how it got to the site, but they'll keep it unless someone else "is wanting to take it on tour."
Ryerson was one of the architects of Canada's residential school system, which separated 150,000 Indigenous children from their families until the last one closed in 1996.
"It'll stay in its spot on the hill for the foreseeable future," he said about the statue head.
A post from a Twitter account associated with 1492 Land Back Lane showed it overlooking the land nearby.
The statue was toppled and beheaded on Sunday by demonstrators on the Ryerson University campus after the remains of an estimated 215 Indigenous children were detected on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
Ryerson was the chief superintendent of education in Upper Canada (now modern-day Ontario). In 2010, Ryerson University's Aboriginal Education Council found "although [Ryerson] did not implement or oversee the launch of the schools, he contributed to the blueprint of them."
Williams said that, for him, statues of colonial figures like Ryerson are "iconic symbols about the genocide of our people" and "akin to having a statue of Hitler in the middle of Times Square."
Williams said three white pine saplings have been planted on the site of 1492 Land Back Lane as a way to memorialize the children.
"I don't think that anybody was surprised in the Indigenous community," he said of the remains buried at the former B.C., residential school. "We've been saying this now for 50 years, at least, that there are thousands of kids who never came home from those schools."
Williams told the CBC that he sees a direct link between their struggle to win back the land and the legacy of residential schools.
"There is a very direct tie between the land-back movement and the residential schools," said Williams, along with the Sixties Scoop, missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and what he calls the Millennium Scoop — the disproportionate levels Indigenous children are separated from their parents by Canada's child welfare systems.
"When we're talking about land back, we're also talking about being able to invite those people home, those people who have suffered enough and need to have an opportunity to grow back into their communities, back into their communities."
Haudenosaunee-led demonstrators say land south of Caledonia planned for residential housing developments by two companies — Foxgate Developments and Wildwood Developments — was never surrendered to the Crown.
Demonstrators began occupying McKenzie Meadows on July 19, 2020, saying it's unceded territory. They call the area 1492 Land Back Lane.
Dan Taekema/CBC An Ontario Provincial Police officer guides a car past the blockade on Argyle Street, south of Caledonia, last summer. The area is the subject of an ongoing land battle between the Six Nations of the Grand River and local developers.
The demonstrators have stayed on the land for more than 300 days. There have since been blockades across roads in the area, court injunctions to remove the people staying there and dozens of arrests.
Williams turned himself in to police on May 19 after he was charged with two counts each of mischief and disobeying a court order, as well as intimidation and failing to comply with an undertaking.
"When the cops came here on the very first day and asked us how long we plan on being here, there were a bunch of us there who said, that day, that our people have been here for 10,000 years, and we plan on being here for the next 10,000 more," said Williams. "We aren't going anywhere.
"You're going to continue to see people doing exactly what we've done here if there isn't some radical change within government, and the way we are policing, and the way we are continuing to discriminate against Indigenous people making a stand for lands that are rightfully theirs."
More than 1,000 people took part in an afternoon protest on Sunday to topple the Ryerson statue outside the university.
After it had fallen, Ryerson University president Mohamed Lachemi said in a statement it "will not be restored or replaced."
Following the Kamloops discovery, Indigenous students at the university also called on students, faculty and alumni to stop using the name Ryerson in their email signatures, correspondence, and on their resumés, urging them instead to call the school X University.
Two publications associated with Ryerson's journalism school — the Ryersonian newspaper and the Ryerson Review of Journalism magazine — also say they will change their names.
The demonstrators have stayed on the land for more than 300 days. There have since been blockades across roads in the area, court injunctions to remove the people staying there and dozens of arrests.
Williams turned himself in to police on May 19 after he was charged with two counts each of mischief and disobeying a court order, as well as intimidation and failing to comply with an undertaking.
"When the cops came here on the very first day and asked us how long we plan on being here, there were a bunch of us there who said, that day, that our people have been here for 10,000 years, and we plan on being here for the next 10,000 more," said Williams. "We aren't going anywhere.
"You're going to continue to see people doing exactly what we've done here if there isn't some radical change within government, and the way we are policing, and the way we are continuing to discriminate against Indigenous people making a stand for lands that are rightfully theirs."
More than 1,000 people took part in an afternoon protest on Sunday to topple the Ryerson statue outside the university.
After it had fallen, Ryerson University president Mohamed Lachemi said in a statement it "will not be restored or replaced."
Following the Kamloops discovery, Indigenous students at the university also called on students, faculty and alumni to stop using the name Ryerson in their email signatures, correspondence, and on their resumés, urging them instead to call the school X University.
Two publications associated with Ryerson's journalism school — the Ryersonian newspaper and the Ryerson Review of Journalism magazine — also say they will change their names.
CANADA
Consumer debt driven by new mortgages, but credit card debt at six-year low
MORTGAGE=DEBT
CREDIT CARD=DEFICIT
Equifax says the debt profile of Canadians has changed throughout the pandemic, with mortgages accounting for a larger portion of people's debt.
Equifax says the debt profile of Canadians has changed throughout the pandemic, with mortgages accounting for a larger portion of people's debt.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
The company said Tuesday consumer debt stood at $2.08 trillion for the first quarter of 2021, up 0.62 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2020 and up 4.78 per cent from a year earlier.
It said the rise was largely driven by mortgages, with the number of new mortgages up 41.2 per cent from a year ago when the country experienced the start of the pandemic.
However Rebecca Oakes, assistant vice-president of advanced analytics at Equifax, said the rate of new mortgages in the latest quarter dropped when compared with the final quarter of 2020.
"There is a bit of potential that first-time homebuyers are starting to get priced out of the market, particularly in some of those hot markets like British Columbia and Ontario," she said.
Oakes said the largest increases in consumer debt were in British Columbia and Ontario, a direct result of the high home prices in those provinces.
At the same time, the credit reporting agency said consumer credit card debt was at a six-year low, as reduced spending led to healthier habits around daily spending.
"Across the board in all age groups, we’re starting to see people pay more than they actually spend on a credit card, which is a real positive behaviour change in terms of consumers," said Oakes, who said consumers paid $11 for ever $10 they spent in January 2021.
"We know that’s heavily impacted by some of the lockdowns and the ability for consumers to spend in the same way they once were."
Meanwhile, other big-ticket credit items like lines of credit have also accounted for a the general rise in Canadian debt.
Oakes said there was a 60 per cent increase in home equity lines of credit, which are secured against the value of a borrower's home.
"We are seeing people take on additional levels of home equity lines of credit, and where that starts to become a concern is if interest rates go up," since those kinds of loans are often at a variable interest rate, Oakes said.
Equifax also noted a rise in car leasing as opposed to car financing, which Oakes said could be related to higher costs for cars that are being seen in the U.S. market.
She said delinquencies were still happening at a much lower rate than pre-pandemic, as consumers continue to benefit from government financial support during the pandemic.
The company said Tuesday consumer debt stood at $2.08 trillion for the first quarter of 2021, up 0.62 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2020 and up 4.78 per cent from a year earlier.
It said the rise was largely driven by mortgages, with the number of new mortgages up 41.2 per cent from a year ago when the country experienced the start of the pandemic.
However Rebecca Oakes, assistant vice-president of advanced analytics at Equifax, said the rate of new mortgages in the latest quarter dropped when compared with the final quarter of 2020.
"There is a bit of potential that first-time homebuyers are starting to get priced out of the market, particularly in some of those hot markets like British Columbia and Ontario," she said.
Oakes said the largest increases in consumer debt were in British Columbia and Ontario, a direct result of the high home prices in those provinces.
At the same time, the credit reporting agency said consumer credit card debt was at a six-year low, as reduced spending led to healthier habits around daily spending.
"Across the board in all age groups, we’re starting to see people pay more than they actually spend on a credit card, which is a real positive behaviour change in terms of consumers," said Oakes, who said consumers paid $11 for ever $10 they spent in January 2021.
"We know that’s heavily impacted by some of the lockdowns and the ability for consumers to spend in the same way they once were."
Meanwhile, other big-ticket credit items like lines of credit have also accounted for a the general rise in Canadian debt.
Oakes said there was a 60 per cent increase in home equity lines of credit, which are secured against the value of a borrower's home.
"We are seeing people take on additional levels of home equity lines of credit, and where that starts to become a concern is if interest rates go up," since those kinds of loans are often at a variable interest rate, Oakes said.
Equifax also noted a rise in car leasing as opposed to car financing, which Oakes said could be related to higher costs for cars that are being seen in the U.S. market.
She said delinquencies were still happening at a much lower rate than pre-pandemic, as consumers continue to benefit from government financial support during the pandemic.
But Oakes warned people need to prepare for those supports to subside to ensure their financial health.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2021
The Canadian Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2021
The Canadian Press
EPA to expand clean water protections to smaller U.S. waterways, reversing Trump policy
The move would reverse a Trump administration rule limiting the waterways that can receive federal protection.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the Trump policy had led to "significant environmental degradation."
The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army want to increase the waterways in the U.S. that receive federal protection.
The move would reverse a Trump administration rule limiting the waterways that can receive federal protection.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the Trump policy had led to "significant environmental degradation."
Provided by CNBC In an aerial view, low water levels are visible at Lake Oroville on June 01, 2021 in Oroville, California.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army on Wednesday announced their intent to expand the number of waterways that receive protection under the Clean Water Act.
The move would reverse a rule adopted last year by the Trump administration, which limited the bodies of water that could receive federal protection. The Biden administration wants to expand protections to smaller waterways like streams, ditches and wetlands that feed into bigger bodies of water.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement that the Trump administration policy had led to "significant environmental degradation."
The EPA and the Army said they discovered that the Trump rule significantly reduced clean water protections, a major issue as the U.S. West grapples with a severe drought and water supply shortages.
In New Mexico and Arizona, the agencies found that almost all of more than 1,500 streams assessed were non-jurisdictional and thus unable to receive protection from the federal government.
Jaime Pinkham, acting assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, said the Trump rule led to a 25% reduction in "determinations of waters that would otherwise be afforded protection."
The ruled adopted under Trump, known as the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, reversed a previous attempt by the Obama administration to provide a more expansive definition of "waters of the United States" under the Clean Water Act.
The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers will consider the latest science and impact of climate change on U.S. waters during the new rulemaking process, according to a press release.
"We are committed to establishing a durable definition of 'waters of the United States' based on Supreme Court precedent and drawing from the lessons learned from the current and previous regulations," Regan said.
The Department of Justice is now filing a motion requesting remand of the rule, according to the release.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army on Wednesday announced their intent to expand the number of waterways that receive protection under the Clean Water Act.
The move would reverse a rule adopted last year by the Trump administration, which limited the bodies of water that could receive federal protection. The Biden administration wants to expand protections to smaller waterways like streams, ditches and wetlands that feed into bigger bodies of water.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement that the Trump administration policy had led to "significant environmental degradation."
The EPA and the Army said they discovered that the Trump rule significantly reduced clean water protections, a major issue as the U.S. West grapples with a severe drought and water supply shortages.
In New Mexico and Arizona, the agencies found that almost all of more than 1,500 streams assessed were non-jurisdictional and thus unable to receive protection from the federal government.
Jaime Pinkham, acting assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, said the Trump rule led to a 25% reduction in "determinations of waters that would otherwise be afforded protection."
The ruled adopted under Trump, known as the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, reversed a previous attempt by the Obama administration to provide a more expansive definition of "waters of the United States" under the Clean Water Act.
The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers will consider the latest science and impact of climate change on U.S. waters during the new rulemaking process, according to a press release.
"We are committed to establishing a durable definition of 'waters of the United States' based on Supreme Court precedent and drawing from the lessons learned from the current and previous regulations," Regan said.
The Department of Justice is now filing a motion requesting remand of the rule, according to the release.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration began legal action Wednesday to repeal a Trump-era rule that ended federal protections for hundreds of thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways, leaving them more vulnerable to pollution from development, industry and farms.
The rule — sometimes referred to as “waters of the United States” or WOTUS — narrowed the types of waterways that qualify for federal protection under the Clean Water Act. It was one of hundreds of rollbacks of environmental and public health regulations under President Donald Trump, who said the rules imposed unnecessary burdens on business.
The Trump-era rule, finalized last year, was long sought by builders, oil and gas developers, farmers and others who complained about federal overreach that they said stretched into gullies, creeks and ravines on farmland and other private property.
Environmental groups and public health advocates said the rollback approved under Trump has allowed businesses to dump pollutants into unprotected waterways and fill in some wetlands, threatening public water supplies downstream and harming wildlife and habitat. The Trump-era rule resulted in a 25% reduction in the number of streams and wetlands that are afforded federal protection, said Jaime Pinkham, acting assistant Army secretary for civil works.
The water rule has been a point of contention for decades. The Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Michael Regan, has pledged to issue a new rule that protects water quality while not overly burdening small farmers.
President Joe Biden ordered a review of the Trump rule as part of a broader executive action on climate change during his first week in office. Wednesday's legal filing by the Justice Department begins that process as the EPA and Department of the Army formally request repeal of the Trump-era rule.
“Today's action reflects the agencies’ intent to initiate a new rulemaking process that restores the protections in place prior to the 2015 WOTUS implementation, and anticipates developing a new rule'' that defines what waters are considered to be under federal jurisdiction, the EPA said in a statement.
“We are committed to establishing a durable definition of ‘waters of the United States’ based on Supreme Court precedent and drawing from current and previous regulations ... so we can better protect our nation’s waters, foster economic growth and support thriving communities,'' Regan said.
The Army and EPA “will develop a rule that is informed by our technical expertise, is straightforward to implement by our agencies ... and is shaped by the lived experience of local communities,” Pinkham said.
A review conducted by the Biden administration determined that the Trump rule is significantly reducing clean water protections, particularly in arid states such as New Mexico and Arizona, where a large number of streams now lack federal jurisdiction. At least 333 projects that would have required Clean Water Act permits no longer need federal approval, the agencies said.
The Trump-era rule removed protections from several public lakes, including Lake Keowee in South Carolina, a reservoir that provides drinking water for nearly 400,000 people, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center, an advocacy group. The rule also removed Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction from about 400 acres of wetlands where a titanium mine is planned near Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the group said.
The law center and other environmental groups hailed the EPA action and urged officials to move quickly to restore long-standing protections for critical drinking water sources.
"Every day this harmful (Trump-era) rule is in effect, it endangers the waterways our communities depend on. That is unacceptable and must stop now,'' said Madeleine Foote, deputy legislative director for the League of Conservation Voters.
North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer, a Republican who hosted Regan during a visit to his state last week, said it was “a shame the Biden administration wants to undo the good work of the Trump administration'' in developing “a workable policy that falls within the confines of the law.''
North Dakota is likely to challenge the Biden rule in court “in the event of overreach,” Cramer said.
Kevin Minoli, a former career lawyer at EPA, said the Biden team faces a similar dilemma to the Obama and Trump administrations. “Now, the question becomes, ‘Can they write a definition that will last beyond their time in office?’ ” he said.
Matthew Daly, The Associated Press
CAPITALI$M 101
Lordstown Motors extends decline to 33% as the electric-vehicle maker warns it may go out of business
insider@insider.com (Carla Mozée)
Lordstown Motors shares extended their decline to 33% after the electric vehicle maker warned late Tuesday that it's low on cash and faces shutting its doors.
Lordstown outlined its warnings to investors with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company is still targeting limited production of its Endurance pickup truck in September.
Shares of Lordstown Motors slumped Wednesday, deepening losses from the previous session after the electric-vehicle maker said it doesn't have enough cash to start producing its Endurance truck and warned that it may have to shut down altogether.
Lordstown outlined its warnings in a regulatory filing shortly before trading closed on Tuesday.
"The Company believes that our current level of cash and cash equivalents are not sufficient to fund commercial scale production and the launch of sale of such vehicles," it said in an amendment with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Lordstown is still aiming to begin limited production in late September of its Endurance pickup truck which carries a base price tag of $52,500.
Video: Lordstown Motors shares fall after company says it needs more capital (CNBC)
Investors quickly dragged the company's shares sharply lower on Tuesday, leaving them down by 16.3%. The shares continued on Wednesday, losing 17% as they traded at $9.33 in mid-afternoon action.
Lordstown also said it may go out of business in the next 12 months as it's been struggling with cost increases stemming from supply chain issues and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"These conditions raise substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least one year from the date of issuance of the consolidated financial statements included in this report," it said. "If we are not able to continue as a going concern, or if there is continued doubt about our ability to do so, the value of your investment would be materially and adversely affected."
The company in its quarterly filing said it had about $587 million in cash and cash equivalents and an accumulated deficit of $259.7 million.
The start-up has previously said it's been facing significantly higher-than-expected expenditures for parts and equipment and said in its Tuesday's filing it may seek to raise more funds including through issuing equity or debt securities or obtaining credit from government or financial institutions.
Lordstown Motors extends decline to 33% as the electric-vehicle maker warns it may go out of business
insider@insider.com (Carla Mozée)
© Lordstown Motors The Endurance pickup truck. Lordstown Motors
Lordstown Motors shares extended their decline to 33% after the electric vehicle maker warned late Tuesday that it's low on cash and faces shutting its doors.
Lordstown outlined its warnings to investors with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company is still targeting limited production of its Endurance pickup truck in September.
Shares of Lordstown Motors slumped Wednesday, deepening losses from the previous session after the electric-vehicle maker said it doesn't have enough cash to start producing its Endurance truck and warned that it may have to shut down altogether.
Lordstown outlined its warnings in a regulatory filing shortly before trading closed on Tuesday.
"The Company believes that our current level of cash and cash equivalents are not sufficient to fund commercial scale production and the launch of sale of such vehicles," it said in an amendment with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Lordstown is still aiming to begin limited production in late September of its Endurance pickup truck which carries a base price tag of $52,500.
Video: Lordstown Motors shares fall after company says it needs more capital (CNBC)
Investors quickly dragged the company's shares sharply lower on Tuesday, leaving them down by 16.3%. The shares continued on Wednesday, losing 17% as they traded at $9.33 in mid-afternoon action.
Lordstown also said it may go out of business in the next 12 months as it's been struggling with cost increases stemming from supply chain issues and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"These conditions raise substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least one year from the date of issuance of the consolidated financial statements included in this report," it said. "If we are not able to continue as a going concern, or if there is continued doubt about our ability to do so, the value of your investment would be materially and adversely affected."
The company in its quarterly filing said it had about $587 million in cash and cash equivalents and an accumulated deficit of $259.7 million.
The start-up has previously said it's been facing significantly higher-than-expected expenditures for parts and equipment and said in its Tuesday's filing it may seek to raise more funds including through issuing equity or debt securities or obtaining credit from government or financial institutions.
GREEN CRYPTO-CAPITALI$M
The president of El Salvador says the country is exploring using geothermal energy from volcanoes to mine bitcoin following its decision to make the cryptocurrency legal tender
wdaniel@businessinsider.com (Will Daniel)
El Salvador's president Nayim Bukele announced his country is exploring using volcanic energy to mine bitcoin.
The move comes after El Salvador made bitcoin legal tender via a supermajority decision.
Bitcoin's price jumped roughly 10% on Wednesday to trade around $36,000.
El Salvador's president Nayim Bukele took to Twitter on Wednesday for yet another big bitcoin announcement.
This time, Bukele said that he has instructed the president of the country's state-owned geothermal electric company, LaGeo SA de CV, to "put up a plan to offer facilities for #Bitcoin mining with very cheap, 100% clean, 100% renewable, 0 emissions energy from our volcanos."
The move comes after the country passed a law to make bitcoin legal tender on Wednesday via a supermajority (62 votes out of 84 possible).
Bitcoin's price rose roughly 10% on Wednesday to trade around $36,000 per coin after the bullish news broke.
Bitcoin mining's energy-intensive nature has led critics to question its environmental impact over the past few years.
According to data from Cambridge, the bitcoin network's total energy consumption represents about 0.53% of total global energy consumption, and more than 85% of the energy consumed is used in the mining process.
Critics have argued bitcoin mining could exacerbate climate change, while others, including Cathie Wood of ARK Invest, have said that bitcoin's power use will only help boost the adoption of renewable mining and solar power.
In other crypto news, Coindesk reported Chinese consumers are currently unable to search for popular cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance, OKEx, and Huobi on popular Chinese search engines in a sign of potential censorship.
China has been cracking down on cryptocurrency mining for some time, even going so far as to block the social media accounts of prominent crypto influencers over the weekend.
Last month, crypto miners were forced to halt operations in China after the country implemented tighter regulations. Chinese government officials have previously stated they would target the crypto industry to try to reach net-zero emissions by 2060.
Read the original article on Business Insider
The president of El Salvador says the country is exploring using geothermal energy from volcanoes to mine bitcoin following its decision to make the cryptocurrency legal tender
wdaniel@businessinsider.com (Will Daniel)
© Camilo Freedman/SOPA Images/Getty Images A bitcoin sign in El Salvador. Camilo Freedman/SOPA Images/Getty Images
El Salvador's president Nayim Bukele announced his country is exploring using volcanic energy to mine bitcoin.
The move comes after El Salvador made bitcoin legal tender via a supermajority decision.
Bitcoin's price jumped roughly 10% on Wednesday to trade around $36,000.
El Salvador's president Nayim Bukele took to Twitter on Wednesday for yet another big bitcoin announcement.
This time, Bukele said that he has instructed the president of the country's state-owned geothermal electric company, LaGeo SA de CV, to "put up a plan to offer facilities for #Bitcoin mining with very cheap, 100% clean, 100% renewable, 0 emissions energy from our volcanos."
The move comes after the country passed a law to make bitcoin legal tender on Wednesday via a supermajority (62 votes out of 84 possible).
Bitcoin's price rose roughly 10% on Wednesday to trade around $36,000 per coin after the bullish news broke.
Bitcoin mining's energy-intensive nature has led critics to question its environmental impact over the past few years.
According to data from Cambridge, the bitcoin network's total energy consumption represents about 0.53% of total global energy consumption, and more than 85% of the energy consumed is used in the mining process.
Critics have argued bitcoin mining could exacerbate climate change, while others, including Cathie Wood of ARK Invest, have said that bitcoin's power use will only help boost the adoption of renewable mining and solar power.
In other crypto news, Coindesk reported Chinese consumers are currently unable to search for popular cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance, OKEx, and Huobi on popular Chinese search engines in a sign of potential censorship.
China has been cracking down on cryptocurrency mining for some time, even going so far as to block the social media accounts of prominent crypto influencers over the weekend.
Last month, crypto miners were forced to halt operations in China after the country implemented tighter regulations. Chinese government officials have previously stated they would target the crypto industry to try to reach net-zero emissions by 2060.
Read the original article on Business Insider
Edmonton Journal
Wednesday's letters: Goal of privatizing public services is profit
Why does the city again choose one of the lowest-paid groups of employees to privatize and present this decision as if this will improve efficiencies, save us money and then scare us with otherwise having to raise property taxes. This is hokum and we are tired of it. The most current similar rationale was the aides in long-term care facilities and we still are dealing with that disastrous management decision.
© Provided by Edmonton Journal Harjas Grewal with Bee-Clean sanitizes the high touch surfaces in a Calgary Transit bus. The City of Edmonton is also looking at options to privatize bus cleaning which could lead to layoffs of more than 100 employees.
Bus cleaners and elder-care aides need secure jobs with benefits just like everyone else and working for government or city is a promise of that. We all know privatizing means profit is the primary goal, that owners and investors get a good return by downgrading working conditions and cutting pay and benefits to workers is the way they do it.
We need some journalist to focus on investigating and exposing this practice and what it means to our society going forward.
Connie Kenney, Edmonton
Contracting out costs more in the end
Let us not save a few dollars by contracting out city bus-cleaning jobs. These city positions provide a low but decent wage, benefits and job safety to people with disabilities and new Canadians. Since cleaning will still have to be done, how much will we save by giving worse pay and benefits to the employees at the bottom of the pay chain. Then, will we pay for social services to support them when their income will not pay even the lowest bills?
How is that moving us towards the city we say we want, fewer people homeless? How is that a good idea?
Wendy Edey, Edmonton
Wednesday's letters: Goal of privatizing public services is profit
Why does the city again choose one of the lowest-paid groups of employees to privatize and present this decision as if this will improve efficiencies, save us money and then scare us with otherwise having to raise property taxes. This is hokum and we are tired of it. The most current similar rationale was the aides in long-term care facilities and we still are dealing with that disastrous management decision.
© Provided by Edmonton Journal Harjas Grewal with Bee-Clean sanitizes the high touch surfaces in a Calgary Transit bus. The City of Edmonton is also looking at options to privatize bus cleaning which could lead to layoffs of more than 100 employees.Bus cleaners and elder-care aides need secure jobs with benefits just like everyone else and working for government or city is a promise of that. We all know privatizing means profit is the primary goal, that owners and investors get a good return by downgrading working conditions and cutting pay and benefits to workers is the way they do it.
We need some journalist to focus on investigating and exposing this practice and what it means to our society going forward.
Connie Kenney, Edmonton
Contracting out costs more in the end
Let us not save a few dollars by contracting out city bus-cleaning jobs. These city positions provide a low but decent wage, benefits and job safety to people with disabilities and new Canadians. Since cleaning will still have to be done, how much will we save by giving worse pay and benefits to the employees at the bottom of the pay chain. Then, will we pay for social services to support them when their income will not pay even the lowest bills?
How is that moving us towards the city we say we want, fewer people homeless? How is that a good idea?
Wendy Edey, Edmonton
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