'Wrapping these buildings in a nice, warm sweater': Edmonton retrofit first of its kind
Liam Harrap 11 hrs ago

© Liam Harrap/CBC Edmonton 

The Sundance Housing Cooperative in Edmonton is an affordable housing community dating from the 1970s.

Bees buzz between tomato plants, rows of Swiss chard and flowering zucchinis. Defend Alberta Parks signs dapple the Sundance Cooperative Housing property, between porches with lines of pegged drying laundry. Scaffolding surrounds one faded colourful townhouse and construction workers compare measurements.

"I've been in construction for 50 years and this is my hardest project," according to Peter Amerongen, managing partner at Butterwick Projects Ltd.

The project in Edmonton's Riverdale neighbourhood is based on Energiesprong, a program from the Netherlands that retrofits buildings to net-zero standards with a minimum amount of construction waste.

© Liam Harrap/CBC Edmonton Peter Amerongen (left), managing partner at Butterwick Projects Ltd. said the retrofit is one of the hardest projects he has worked on during his 50 years in construction.

The co-op's 59 townhouse units will be encased with high-density foam and the existing structures covered with panels that have been pre-fabricated with new windows and doors. Insulation made from recycled newspapers is then blown into spaces between the new panels and the old building.

The homes will also be powered by solar power and other green energy.

"We're basically wrapping these buildings in a nice, warm sweater," Amerongen told CBC Edmonton's Radio Active in a recent interview.

Residents continue living in their homes throughout the construction, expected to be complete in 2022.

Amerongen said a similar project was done in Ontario in the last few years but Edmonton's is bigger and more ambitious.

Almost 30 per cent of global carbon emissions come from the energy used to heat, cool and light buildings, according to World Green Building Council. In addition, construction, renovation and demolition waste in Canada makes up about 12 per cent of the solid waste stream.

The housing complex, built in 1978, is a mixed-income affordable community that provides homes to 150 people.

According to the co-op's website and its residents, the deep energy retrofit made sense.

"If we don't reduce greenhouse gas emissions, there will not be a livable future," said Sandy Susut, who has lived in the building for over 40 years.

She hopes this project will become a blueprint for others.

"We can act collectively for future sustainability."

The federal government has committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

According to Amerongen, up to 80 per cent of buildings that will be in use in 2050 have already been built today. That means retrofits must become common across Canada to meet emission reduction targets.

"If we don't get started and take every opportunity to grow as fast as we can, how are we going to look our kids in the eye?"

He said there are more than 14 million dwellings in Canada that need similar retrofits.

"It's mind-boggling," said Amerongen.

"That's a massive new industry waiting to be had. We'll never have an employment problem again if we do this right."

Michael Singleton, executive director of Sustainable Buildings Canada, said while green construction projects are taking root in Canada, most of the focus is on new builds.

"But it's the existing buildings that are really affecting the energy use and greenhouse gases."

© Liam Harrap/CBC Edmonton One of the newly retrofitted Sundance Housing Cooperative buildings.

Singleton said Canadian buildings tend to be poorly insulated because utility costs are cheap, especially compared to Europe.

"The way to offset a single-pane window is to put a radiator below it and just have this heat barrier."

Electricity in Germany is more than twice as expensive as it is in Canada, according to market data company Statista.

The Sundance retrofit project is estimated to cost approximately $10 million, of which $2.5 million is covered by a federal government grant.

WHAT NO PROVINCIAL FUNDING FROM UCP

Australia to spend $813M to address Indigenous disadvantage

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s government on Thursday pledged 1.1 billion Australian dollars ($813 million) to address Indigenous disadvantage, including compensation to thousands of mixed-race children who were taken from their families over decades.

 Provided by The Canadian Press

The AU$378.6 million ($279.7 million) to be used to compensate the so-called Stolen Generations by 2026 is the most expensive component of the package aimed at boosting Indigenous living standards in Australia.

The compensation of up to AU$75,000 ($55,400) in a lump sum plus up to $AU7,000 ($5,200) for expenses such as psychological counselling will only be available to mixed-race children who had been under direct federal government control in the Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory and Jervis Bay Territory.

Most members of the Stolen Generations had been under state government control when they were separated from their Indigenous mothers under decades of assimilation policies that ended as recently as the 1970s.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the compensation was a recognition of the harm caused by forced removal of children from families.

“This is a long-called-for step recognizing the bond between healing, dignity, and the health and well-being of members of the Stolen Generations, their families and their communities,” Morrison told Parliament.

“To say formally not just that we’re deeply sorry for what happened, but that we will take responsibility for it,” Morrison added.

Pat Turner, the Northern Territory-based Indigenous chief executive officer of the National Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Organisation, welcomed the compensation, which was recommended in 1997 by a government inquiry into the Stolen Generations.

“Many of our people have passed, including my mother, so it’s a sad day for those who have passed, but it’s a good day for those who have survived,” Turner said. Turner’s mother Emma Turner had been taken from her own mother in the 1920s and they didn’t reunite until the 1970s.

“It will never replace growing up with family, you can never replace that,” she added. “I hope this will give some relief to the survivors of the Stolen Generations.”

Australian states have legislated their own compensation plans for Stolen Generations survivors between 2008 and last year.

But Queensland and Western Australia, states with some of the country’s largest proportions of Indigenous people within their populations, do not have specific Indigenous compensation plans. Anyone who experienced neglect or abuse while in a Queensland or Western Australia state institution is entitled to compensation.

Turner said it was time Queensland and Western Australia also acknowledged the Stolen Generations’ human rights.

“I’m quite happy to say to the W.A. government and the Queensland government: time’s up for redress of the Stolen Generations. You have to follow the other jurisdictions throughout Australia,” Turner said.

Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt, the first Indigenous person appointed to the job, said his own mother Mona Abdullah was separated from her siblings in Western Australia from infancy until they were in their 20s.

“You can’t undo the emotional impact that that has,” Wyatt said.

Among the Stolen Generations members who won’t receive federal compensation is Lorna Cubillo.

In 2000, Cubillo lost a landmark Federal Court case against the Australian government seeking compensation for the abuse and neglect she suffered in a home for Indigenous children in the Northern Territory city of Darwin. She died in Darwin last year at age 81.

Indigenous Australians account for 3% of the population and have poorer health, lower education levels and shorter life expectancies than other ethnic groups. Indigenous adults account for 2% of the Australian population and 27% of the prison population.

A center-left Labor Party government launched the ambitious Closing the Gap initiative in 2008 aimed at achieving equality for Indigenous Australians in health and life expectancy within a generation.

But Morrison’s conservative government last year scrapped the 12-year-old timetable, declaring the policy had failed.

Morrison said that among the most significant achievements of Australia’s pandemic response were the facts that COVID-19 had been kept out of Outback Indigenous communities and no Indigenous Australian had died from coronavirus.

Rod Mcguirk, The Associated Press

Special Report-How a little-known G7 task force unwittingly helps governments target critics
By Angus Berwick 

© Reuters/Eduardo Munoz FILE PHOTO: Ugandan President Kaguta Museveni waits to address the United Nations General Assembly in the Manhattan borough of New York

(Reuters) - In late 2020, when Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni faced a fresh challenge to his 35-year rule, a new tool helped to silence his critics: anti-money laundering legislation promoted by the G7.

The Financial Action Task Force, established by the G7 group of advanced economies to protect the global financial system, had written to Uganda's government eight years earlier telling it to do more to combat money laundering and terrorism financing or risk being placed on a "grey list" of deficient countries, according to a top Ugandan official who described the private letter to Reuters. Such a move could damage Uganda's ties to foreign banks and investors, which closely follow the FATF's updates.

Within a year, Uganda's parliament passed a new law to criminalize both offences and established an intelligence unit to enforce it.

But Uganda didn't deploy the law as the FATF intended.

Last December, as Museveni prepared for a January election, authorities used the law to temporarily freeze the bank accounts of three rights groups and arrest a prominent lawyer, 40-year-old Nicholas Opiyo, on money laundering charges related to the funding of an NGO he founded. Opiyo, who was later released on bail, called the charges "spurious." The government has denied using the law to target its critics. In January, amid accusations of voter fraud by Museveni's main rival, the electoral commission declared Museveni had won re-election.

Uganda isn't unique.

Reuters found that in at least four other countries – Serbia, India, Tanzania, and Nigeria – legislation passed to meet FATF standards was used by authorities to investigate journalists, NGO workers, and lawyers. Based on interviews with people targeted, government officials and financial crime experts, the reporting by Reuters provides the first account of the unintended consequences arising from the task force's mandate.

Through constant assessments of countries' measures, the FATF plays a little-known but key role in shaping financial crime legislation and in dictating governments' security priorities. Across the globe, it has strengthened laws to crack down on money laundering and terrorist financing. But by pressuring nations with weak democratic frameworks to adopt and bolster such laws, the FATF has unwittingly handed a new legal instrument to authoritarian governments, according to a dozen researchers at think tanks and human rights groups.

"Its standards are increasingly not just being misunderstood, but are being purposefully abused," said Tom Keatinge, director of the Centre for Financial Crime at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

In particular, a focus at the FATF from the early 2000s on tackling terrorist financing through non-profit organizations has allowed some governments to pursue legitimate civic groups under the cover of enforcing international standards, according to researchers. "Non-profit organizations can get caught in those crosshairs," said Tracey Durner, a director at the Global Center on Cooperative Security in New York.

The FATF, in emailed responses to Reuters' questions, said it was aware of reports its recommendations have been misused and was monitoring governments' oversight of nonprofits. It said this year it established a working group on the "unintended consequences of poorly implemented" measures and was identifying possible options to mitigate them.

"Any misapplication of the FATF Standards in a way that suppresses the legitimate activities of non-profit organisations or curtails the human rights of individuals is clearly a matter of grave concern and cannot be condoned in any way as part of the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing," it said.

Asked about the warning letter sent in 2012 to Uganda's then finance minister, Maria Kiwanuka, the FATF said it "does not comment on private correspondence with governments." Kiwanuka, who was replaced in 2015, told Reuters she received letters from many different parties and referred comment to the finance ministry, which did not respond to emails.

Uganda's top anti-money laundering official, Sydney Asubo, who reviewed the letter at the time, said Opiyo's arrest was a police matter and declined to comment on the merits of the case.

Asubo defended the government. "We are doing what is required by the FATF," he said.

Terrorist financing experts consulted by Reuters said the FATF has limited the funding of groups like al Qaeda by making banks more risk averse and giving authorities more powers to investigate an entity's finances. However, they faulted the task force's blanket approach to improving standards because it fails to take into account the political motivations of governments and the risk of misuse of the rules. Since last year, Turkey and Myanmar - countries where authorities have jailed journalists and democracy advocates - have introduced new legislation and procedures to meet FATF standards which enable authorities to seek more financial information from NGOs.

"THE DAMAGE IS DONE"

From its headquarters in Paris, the FATF has long nudged countries into compliance with Western security standards. Since the G7 established the task force in 1989, over 180 nations have committed to implementing its recommendations.

Countries deemed non-compliant with FATF standards are "grey-listed," or blacklisted, a tag currently held just by North Korea and Iran. In the case of Uganda, even after passing the 2013 law, it spent three years on the grey list. A stint on the list keeps a country under close monitoring, potentially unnerving its foreign investors and complicating its overseas banking relationships.

Civil groups for years have complained the FATF unfairly stigmatizes them as conduits for illegal funds. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, the FATF issued a recommendation warning that non-profit groups were "particularly vulnerable" to terrorist financing, citing the possibility that terrorist organizations could exploit the sector to raise and move funds. This recommendation required states to review their laws to ensure such groups "cannot be misused."

The recommendation complicated funding for various NGOs around the world as banks, nervous of falling foul of regulators, closed their accounts or blocked transfers. "It was arguably 'open season' on nonprofits," said Keatinge, of the Royal United Services Institute.

NGOs' vulnerability to terrorist financing has been challenged in studies by Keatinge and other researchers, including in a 2019 report by the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism. The report warned the FATF "lent a veneer of legitimacy" to states that used its provisions to regulate civil society.

In 2016, the FATF revised its recommendation to remove the phrase "particularly vulnerable." And advocates like Vanja Skoric, program director at the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law, say they welcome the FATF's new working group to examine abuses of its standards.

But, said Skoric, "the damage is done."

The FATF placed Serbia on the grey list in early 2018, saying its government needed to strengthen its laws so authorities could better trace individuals' financial information. After Serbia did so, the FATF de-listed it.

In July 2020, Serbia's financial intelligence unit sent a letter to local banks requesting private client data on some 50 NGOs and media outlets known for criticizing what they consider to be President Aleksandar Vučić's increasingly autocratic rule. The letter, reviewed by Reuters, sought data on their foreign currency inflows, under order of the amended law.

After news of the letter leaked, Finance Minister Siniša Mali told a local television channel the intelligence unit was "doing its job" and the data requests shouldn't be a problem for the targets "if nothing is hidden." No individuals have been charged so far.

Maja Stojanovic, director of Serbian nonprofit Civic Initiatives, which was named in the letter, told Reuters she believes the government is using the data for smear campaigns to undermine NGOs' work. She cited the example of a senior lawmaker from Vučić's party who in a speech this March attacked NGOs as foreign-funded coup-mongers and referenced transfer details which groups had not disclosed publicly.

When Stojanovic and other targeted NGOs consulted the banks about the requests, the banks said they couldn't disclose what information they shared with authorities, according to emails reviewed by Reuters. Spokespeople for three of the banks, Banca Intesa Beograd, OTP banka Srbija, and Erste Group Bank, declined to comment, citing banking secrecy laws. Serbia's Office of Media Relations did not respond to emailed questions.

Last year, it was India's turn to prepare for another FATF evaluation. The then junior home affairs minister tweeted the government would "disrupt the terror-financing networks" to meet FATF standards.

In October, the national counter-terrorism agency raided the offices of 10 NGOs in New Delhi and India-controlled Kashmir, where security forces are battling a decades-long insurgency. It said in a statement the organizations were using foreign funds for "secessionist and terrorist activities" in Kashmir. No arrests were made.

Several of the NGOs, including Delhi-based relief organization Charity Alliance, denied the agency's claims. They said they were either providing humanitarian aid or researching alleged rights abuses committed by security forces deployed in Kashmir – work which was supported by several UN special rapporteurs. One of the Kashmir-based NGOs told Reuters that during the raid officers seized documents and hard drives with sensitive information on victims of torture. They halted the research, fearing further reprisals.

Charity Alliance's chairman, Zafarul-Islam Khan, told Reuters it was a "blatant lie" that his charity funded terrorism in Kashmir. The counter-terrorism agency has not provided evidence of any alleged crime, he said, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government of trying "to throttle Muslim, Christian, leftist and human rights NGOs."

India's Ministry of Home Affairs declined to comment.

"SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS"

At the time of the FATF's 2012 warning to Uganda, financial crime there went effectively unchecked.

Its cash-based economy, porous borders, and weak laws meant the government had little ability or willingness to trace funding for armed rebel groups or investigate the huge sums of public money that officials embezzled, according to researchers and a report by the International Monetary Fund. "It definitely wasn't a priority," said Liat Shetret, a U.S. anti-money laundering expert who studies East Africa.

The FATF spurred the government into action. Asubo, a former top prosecutor who studied law at the University of Liverpool, was appointed to lead the new financial intelligence unit.

Nicholas Opiyo, the lawyer later arrested, was nervous about how authorities could use the unit, having represented individuals detained during a government crackdown on opposition members two years earlier. His human rights organization, Chapter Four, organized a conference to voice concerns, but few people attended.

Asubo set up his new unit within the finance ministry. He hired investigators from other state agencies and acquired software so they could collect data from banks and review transfers. He also brought on several foreign advisors to help conduct a national risk assessment, a key step required by the FATF. This assessment determined that nonprofits had a "medium/high" vulnerability to terrorist financing, the same as casinos and precious metal dealers, the report showed.

In 2017, the FATF removed Uganda from the grey list, highlighting its "significant progress."

But the law criminalizing money laundering and terrorist financing had been barely used. Only a handful of low-level cases had led to prosecutions, according to a review of Ugandan criminal cases and a dozen people familiar with authorities' efforts. A Ugandan prosecutor, speaking anonymously, said there still was no "political will" to target anyone with government connections.

Then came the 2020 run-up to the election.

Police briefly arrested opposition leader Bobi Wine in November, sparking protests which the military dispersed with live rounds. Opiyo and Chapter Four drew attention to alleged extrajudicial killings carried out by police. The government has said police used proportionate force to restore order during "violent riots" led by "criminal elements."

The financial intelligence unit ordered banks to freeze accounts belonging to several organizations monitoring the election campaign, according to several people familiar with the requests.

Asubo told Reuters this was for a routine check and the accounts were later unfrozen. His unit also provided police with information on Opiyo as part of an investigation into his finances, he said.

On December 22 of last year, Opiyo was having lunch with several colleagues when officers stormed the restaurant and took him away in a van. Two days later, a court charged him with money laundering for receiving, in the name of Chapter Four, $340,000 in undefined "proceeds of crime."

Opiyo told Reuters this was an annual grant from a long-standing donor, American Jewish World Service, a New York-based charity which funds human rights programs around the world. An AJWS spokesperson confirmed this and said the grants were in accordance with U.S. and Ugandan laws.

Opiyo said he believed his arrest was intended to disrupt his research on the election crackdown. "It sent a strong and chilling message to civil organisations: Nobody was safe."

For a week, Opiyo remained in a maximum security prison. He passed the time handing out legal advice to other inmates. After the United Nations called for his release, a court granted him bail and he is now awaiting trial whilst the investigation continues. In January, Museveni won a sixth term, which Wine denounced as a fraud.

(Reporting by Angus Berwick; Additional reporting by Krishna N. Das in New Delhi; Editing by Janet McBride and Tom Lasseter)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M 

Weightlifting faces uncertain Olympic future after Tokyo


TOKYO (AP) — Weightlifting had a rare moment in the Olympic spotlight at the Tokyo Games. It may not get another.

When Laurel Hubbard made history as the first transgender female weightlifter at the Olympics, the sport found itself at the forefront of social change.

After her competition ended with three failed lifts, Hubbard praised the “extraordinarily supportive” International Weightlifting Federation for its inclusivity.

Other events saw dramatic finishes, world records, a resurgence for the United States and celebrations for nations which rarely see a podium, like the Philippines and Turkmenistan. Cheering teams and a heavy metal soundtrack made for a party atmosphere.

Now the party is over and weightlifting is left alone with its old problems — doping, infighting and corruption. It doesn’t have a confirmed spot on the program for the next Olympics in Paris in 2024. The International Olympic Committee is waiting to see if the IWF can push through long-promised reforms.

“We’re just doing our best to show the sport is clean, trying to show the IOC that weightlifting has a future once we get ourselves sorted," Forrester Osei, one of two athlete representatives on the IWF board, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Osei said IOC President Thomas Bach told him he “doesn't want to kick us out of the Games” when they met in Tokyo.

"He just wants to see fair play within our sport and he wants to see the athletes being taken care of,” Osei said.

DOPING

Weightlifting's biggest problem is the same as the challenges faced by track and field or elite cycling — can spectators believe what they're seeing?

The competition in Tokyo ended with a bang Wednesday when Lasha Talakhadze broke three world records and lifted a total of 488 kilograms, more than anyone else in the sport's history.

The problem is that the bearded Georgian with the explosive lifts served a two-year ban from 2013 after testing positive for a banned steroid. The bronze medalist in the same event, Man Asaad of Syria, also has a ban in his past. Pan American Games champion Fernando Reis of Brazil was excluded after failing a doping test in June.

Still, weightlifters say progress is being made since the sport's darkest days — the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, when more than 30 medals were stripped from various lifters later judged to have doped.

When Maude Charron won gold last week, she paid tribute to Christine Girard, a fellow Canadian who only got gold from the 2012 London Olympics when lifters from Kazakhstan and Russia who placed ahead of her were both disqualified for the same substance, the steroid stanozolol. Charron said it was a mark of progress that she got her Tokyo podium moment.

“That’s (Girard's) medal, that’s her moment because she didn’t have it in real time,” Charron said. “For sure anti-doping made a great deal in just cleaning the sport ... There is a progression in this clean way.”

CORRUPTION AND CLASHES

The IWF’s problems grew during the 45-year reign of Tamas Ajan, who was IWF general secretary for 25 years and president for 20 until stepping down last year.

An investigation by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren published soon after found covered-up doping cases, fines paid in wads of cash and more than $10 million unaccounted for. Ajan denies wrongdoing. Vice president Nicu Vlad and board member Hasan Akkus were suspended in June, accused of interfering in doping cases.

“We have tested the IOC’s patience perhaps too much," USA Weightlifting CEO Phil Andrews told the AP.

Andrews was a prominent backer of interim president Ursula Papandrea, an American who was ousted in October and accused other board members of bullying and obstructing reform.

“Ultimately the IOC in particular has said: ‘You guys need new leadership. We don’t want to see the same people in charge,'" Andrews said.

NEXT STEPS

Weightlifting officials will reconvene in Qatar on Aug. 28 and 29 to pass a stalled new IWF constitution. After that comes elections that could bring some of the new faces that Andrews says the IOC wants to see.

The constitution was deadlocked at the last meeting in June amid disputes between reformers and a faction led by the Ajan-era old guard. A compromise document is likely to include some of the reformers' key demands, particularly in reinforcing athletes' rights to seats on the board.

Despite the sport's problems, weightlifters are convinced they still have a recipe for success. Superhuman feats of strength — preferably with all-natural muscles — and a unique competition structure, with every lift a chance for triumph or disaster.

“Everybody wants to see somebody lift up heavy weight. It’s the mind, the body, over an object,” Osei said. “And that’s what makes it fun, to see a gentle giant come onto the stage and pick up heavy equipment.”

___

More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2020-tokyo-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

James Ellingworth, The Associated Press

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE TURBULENT NINTIES IN THE EASTERN BLOC OF EUROPE BULGARIA DOMINATED WORLD AND OLYMPIC WRESTLING AS WELL AS THE STEROID MARKET IN EUROPE, AS A CRIMINAL ELITE OF BULKY BRUSER OLIGARCHS THEY DOMINATED THE POST SOVIET POLITICAL SCENE OF BULGARIA  FOR OVER A DECADE 

CRONY CAPITALI$M

DHS watchdog to blame data management for rocky PPE distribution: report

Jordan Williams 

The Hill 

A forthcoming report from the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) watchdog is expected to blame data management for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) rocky distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) early in the coronavirus pandemic.

The report is expected from DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, who was appointed by former President Trump, according to a draft obtained by NBC News.

In the report Cuffari says the "magnitude" of the pandemic "exposed weaknesses in FEMA's resource request system and allocation processes."

"Specifically, WebEOC - the system FEMA used to process PPE and ventilator resource requests - contained unreliable data to inform allocation decisions and ensure requests were accurately adjudicated," he wrote, according to NBC. "In addition, although FEMA developed a process to allocate the limited supply of ventilators, it did not have a similar process for PPE."

According to NBC, the report recommends that the agency develop "internal controls for WebEOC to prevent incomplete, inaccurate, and duplicate information from being entered into the system" and better train users.

It further advises that FEMA should document how decisions are made for allocating "critical lifesaving supplies and equipment."

The report further says FEMA should better define its role, and that of the Department of Health and Human Services, when both have to respond to a pandemic.

THE JARED PHENOM

NBC noted that officials with the White House coronavirus task force were charged with acquiring and distributing PPE resources, and often officials circumvented FEMA's decision-making to award contracts for PPE and other equipment to preferred states and companies.

While the report doesn't address political factors, it does mention troubles FEMA had in explaining decisions made by political appointees working in a "Unified Coordination Group," which could overturn the agency's recommendations.

The report also notes that states and private entities asking FEMA for help were left in the dark about decision making, and that the agency was unable to accurately track requests.

The repot covered by NBC did not include FEMA's responses to the findings.

The Hill has reached out to FEMA for comment

Report finds one-third of local employers facing labour shortage, predicts future job growth

A report predicts employment in Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo could grow by nearly 15,000 jobs by 2025. But for now, 33 per cent of employers surveyed for the report are reporting a shortage in skilled and non-skilled labour.

The report, which was commissioned for Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo Economic Development and Tourism (FMWBEDT), predicts there could be more than 93,000 jobs locally by 2025 from 78,808 today. The report’s worst-case scenario is a loss of 79 jobs for the region. A mid-level prediction is 6,000 new jobs in five years.

These predictions include the COVID-19 pandemic recovery, although the report’s authors acknowledge the next five years carry political, economic and social uncertainty that could impact the region.

“This really is a document that is a tool for everyone,” said Lisa Sweet, FMWBEDT director of business investment and attraction. “There might also be organizations that were not involved in this study that might want to take a lead in certain areas as well. But the first strategy under labour market information and maintaining current regional market information is something that our organization will be doing moving forward.”

The report was authored by Applications Management Consulting Ltd. in partnership with Willow Springs Solutions, and included FMWBEDT, the Athabasca Tribal Council and Fuse Social. Researchers surveyed 245 local employers, interviewed 20 stakeholders and held 10 virtual discussion groups. They also found 3,112 vacancies in the region.

The highest vacancies were found in the food service sector, with a 19.3 per cent of positions unfilled, followed by information and cultural sector with 13.1 per cent. Of the employers struggling to hire people, 31 per cent said they had recruitment plans.

The hardest jobs to fill include cooks, construction trades’ helpers and labourers, light duty cleaners, food counter and kitchen staff, and crane operators. The jobs with high rates of people quitting include petroleum, gas and chemical process operators; security guards; heavy equipment operators and truck drivers. The report states many of those same jobs will be in demand in 2025.

Video: Canadian employers offering incentives for workers amid labour shortage (Global News)

Even during an economic crisis, 28 per cent of employers reported people voluntarily leaving within the past 12 months. Employers argued they had trouble getting people to come to the region, particularly rural areas. Other factors include getting people who were on CERB to return to work, competition with larger employers, the loss of Northern Living Allowances in some fields, and a shortage of skilled child-care workers.

“We are working on a job fair for September,” said Dianna de Sousa, executive director for the Fort McMurray Chamber of Commerce, to address the gaps. “Based on requests from a number of our members we are going to be working with them on job descriptions. [The job fair] will be blended, both virtually and in-person.”

The authors recommended two strategies moving forward for the region; maintain a labour market committee and define shared goals among regional stakeholders.

“Understanding labour patterns and trends is essential to remaining competitive in an economy and labour market with changing demographics, training demands and technological advances,” said Kevin Weidlich, president and CEO of FMWBEDT, in a statement. “The labour market conditions identified are a reflection of this point in time, as market conditions evolve, the report’s strategies and priorities may shift.”

-with reporting from Vincent McDermott

smclean@postmedia.com

Scott McLean, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Fort McMurray Today

CAPITALI$M IS CRISIS

Millers, bakers fret as drought withers North America's spring wheat


By Rod Nickel and Karl Plume

© Reuters/KARL PLUME Spring wheat plants stunted by drought stress near Larimore, North Dakota

WINNIPEG, Manitoba/FARGO, N.D. (Reuters) - Millers and bakers are draining wheat reserves and paying more for spring wheat used in baking, as drought shrivels crops across the Canadian Prairies and northern U.S. Plains that produce more than half of the world's supply.

U.S. and Canadian farmers are bracing for a sharply smaller spring wheat harvest due to the driest conditions in decades, as severe weather damages crops across the hemisphere, from heat scorching cherries in the U.S. Pacific Northwest to frost chilling sugarcane in Brazil.

While overall global wheat stocks are large, the drought affects mainly the high-protein spring wheat crop that millers such as Archer Daniels Midland Co and bakers including Grupo Bimbo rely on to produce the texture and moistness in baked goods that consumers expect.

Importers from Britain to China must pay up for limited North American harvests or turn to other suppliers like Australia and Russia.

Minneapolis spring wheat futures are trading near nine-year highs, leaving Camas Country Mill in Eugene, Oregon braced to pay more, said owner Tom Hunton. He plans on passing his higher costs on to the mill's bakery customers.

Camas Country will rely on stockpiled wheat from last year to top up this year's supplies to produce flour. But Hunton worries about the drought carrying into next year.

"This isn't sustainable for anyone," he said.

In Canada, bread prices may rise as much as 6.5% by late this year, said Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

U.S. prices are more difficult to forecast, since flour prices dropped earlier this year as lockdowns eased and fewer people baked at home, he said.

STEEP DROPOFF

Canada's spring wheat crop is expected at between 16 and 20 million tonnes, well off last year's 25.8 million, said Bruce Burnett, director of markets and weather information at MarketsFarm. Just 16% of spring wheat in Saskatchewan and 21.6% in Alberta is in good or excellent condition, according to provincial governments.

The U.S. spring wheat harvest is expected to drop 41% from a year ago to the lowest production in 33 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The USDA on Monday estimated that just 10% of the country's spring wheat crop was in good or excellent condition, down from 73% a year ago and the lowest rating for this point of the season since the 1988 drought.

In Montana, where the USDA has deemed 42% of spring wheat in very poor condition and another 43% in poor shape, growers are buying out of sales contracts inked earlier in the season with elevators because they will not have wheat to deliver.

"I cancelled more contracts last week than I wrote. If they don't have a crop, they have no choice," said one commercial grain buyer who declined to be named as he is not authorized to speak to media.

IMPORTERS ADJUST

China, which normally buys modest amounts of North American spring wheat to make high-quality bread and baked goods, will likely buy more from other suppliers such as Australia, said a China-based trader with an international trading house.

Russia may make up some of North America's shortfall in the global market. Southern Russia, the country's main wheat-producing region, is producing wheat with higher protein than a year ago, Dmitry Rylko, head of the Moscow-based IKAR consultancy, said.

Spring wheat from Russia and Kazakhstan, however, does not have the same characteristics important for baking, such as gluten strength, as U.S. hard red spring wheat and Canadian Western Red Spring, said Mike Spier of U.S. Wheat Associates, a trade group that promotes U.S. wheat overseas.

The drought will force bakers to change how they work with flour, adding more water to compensate for dryness and making other adjustments to avoid producing crustier-than-usual buns, said Glenn Wilde, owner of Harvest Bakery in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

United Kingdom baker Warburtons buys half of its wheat from Canada, about 200,000 tonnes annually, grown by farmers to the company's specifications. The company will pay more this year to ensure it acquires enough Canadian spring wheat, said Adam Dyck, Warburtons' Canadian program manager, adding that many kernels may be too shrivelled to mill into flour.

Dyck said he is accustomed to seeing pockets of drought on the Prairies, but nothing this widespread.

"It's pretty unique for this generation," he said.

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Karl Plume in Fargo, North Dakota; additional reporting by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris, Polina Devitt in Moscow, Hallie Gu in Beijing, Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

This is how climate change can infect the global food supply


The availability of food and how crops will fare as a result of climate change has long been of interest to environmental researchers, but scientists are now finding other threats to food supplies that can severely impact global food security.

Climate change may pose an increased risk for crops to become infected with pests and pathogens, leaving the yields inedible and risking quantities of the world's food supply, according to a study published Thursday in Nature Climate Change.

© Fred Scheiber/AFP via Getty Images In this July 12, 2021, file photo, a farmer drives a tractor across a soy field in Peguilhan, France.

Researchers at the University of Exeter in England studied models for the production of four major commodity crops -- maize, wheat, soybean and rice -- as well as eight temperate and tropical crops, to predict how the crops would respond to future climate scenarios.MORE: Sustainable crop, timber production can reduce extinction of species by 40%: Study

The researchers found that, overall, the yield of the crops will increase at high latitudes, such as North America and parts of Europe and Asia. However, the findings also suggest that risk of infection from 80 fungal and oomycete, or fungal-like, pathogens will increase at high latitudes as temperatures increase, according to the paper.

© Marcelo Teixeira/Reuters, FILE In this April 1, 2018, file photo, a corn crop is seen at Cercado Grande farm, in Brazil.

As global temperatures warm, pest outbreaks are common, and pathogens can more easily attack crops, scientists said. Temperature is a "major determinant" of disease risk, and global distribution of plant pathogens have already shifted with the current warming, according to the study.

MORE: Sustainable crop, timber production can reduce extinction of species by 40%: Study

Climate change will not only affect the number of pathogens able to infect crops, but the composition of how the pathogens are assembled as well, the scientists said.

© Karl Plume/Reuters Crop scouts survey drought-stressed spring wheat near Grandin, N.D., July 29, 2021.

The higher temperatures also pose the possibility of major shifts in species composition within pathogen communities in some regions, such as the United States, Europe and China.MORE: How corn farmers are adapting to climate change

Food scarcity is a "continuous concern" as global populations expand, the amount of arable land decreases and the threat of climate change increases.

The researchers concluded that plant pathogens represent a "major threat" to crop production and food security, which reinforces the need for "careful crop management."

Line 3 pipeline opponents file suit on behalf of wild rice


OGEMA, Minn. (AP) — Opponents of Enbridge Energy's Line 3 oil pipeline replacement across northern Minnesota are taking a novel legal approach to try to halt construction — they are suing on behalf of wild rice.

Wild rice is the lead plaintiff in a complaint filed Wednesday in White Earth Nation Tribal Court. The lawsuit, which names the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources among the defendants, advances a legal theory that nature in itself has the right to exist and flourish, the Star Tribune reported.

The lawsuit is only the second “rights of nature” case to be filed in the U.S., said Frank Bibeau, a lawyer for the White Earth tribe.

The plaintiffs include manoomin, which means “good berry” in Ojibwe, several White Earth tribal members and Indian and non-Indian protesters who have demonstrated along the Line 3 construction route. They say the DNR is failing to protect the state’s fresh water by allowing Calgary-based Enbridge to pump up to 5 billion gallons of groundwater from construction trenches during a drought.

They also claim the DNR has violated the rights of manoomin, as well as multiple treaty rights for tribal members to hunt, fish and gather wild rice outside reservations.

The lawsuit seeks to stop the extreme water pumping, and to stop the arrests of demonstrators. To date, more than 700 people have been charged for demonstrations along the Line 3 construction route, Bibeau said.

DNR spokeswoman Gail Nosek said the agency is reviewing the lawsuit and had no further comment.

Enbridge spokeswoman Lorraine Little said the company has shown respect for tribal sovereignty and has routed the pipelines outside the Upper and Lower Rice Lake and its watershed because of tribal concerns.

“Line 3 construction permits include conditions that specifically protect wild rice waters,” Little said. “As a matter of fact, Enbridge pipelines have coexisted with Minnesota’s most sacred and productive wild rice stands for over seven decades.”

Line 3 starts in Alberta and clips a corner of North Dakota before crossing northern Minnesota en route to Enbridge’s terminal in Superior, Wisconsin. The 337-mile (542.35-kilometer) line in Minnesota is the last phase in replacing the deteriorating pipeline that was built in the 1960s.

The Associated Press

#FREEPALESTINE #BDS #BOYCOTTISRAEL

Palestinian dad expects no justice for son killed by Israel

THIS IS MSM NOT TAKING ISRAELS SIDE FOR ONCE

BEIT UMMAR, WEST BANK (AP) — A week after the death of his eldest son, Moayed al-Alami sat on the sofa on his ground floor patio, protectively hugging and kissing two of his remaining children

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Israeli military has opened an investigation into the killing of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Alami who was shot by Israeli soldiers as he rode in the family car. But that is no comfort to his father, who is devastated by his son's death and has little faith that he will see justice.

“I have no confidence in the investigation until I see the soldiers in court,” he said. The rear of Moayed's car is riddled with bullet holes and the back seats are still covered in bloodstains.

Mohammed was shot and killed by Israeli forces as he traveled with his father and two siblings in their hometown of Beit Ummar in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. His death sparked two days of violent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli troops, resulting in the death of one protester.

Recounting the events of last week, al-Alami said he had just picked up some snacks for the children, using his car, when Mohammed asked to return to the store.

"Mohammed told me, ‘father you have forgotten something.’ I asked if it was necessary, and he said it was very necessary. So, I told him that we will go back and buy it,’’ said al-Alami.

Al-Alami said he turned the car around. Moments later, his white Renault was struck by gunfire from the rear, including at least three bullets that he said hit Mohammed. The boy was rushed to hospital and operated on for four hours before he died.

The Israeli military has said soldiers in the area called on the van to stop, and that the forces fired warning shots and only aimed at the vehicle's tires. Al-Alami said he never heard any warnings. Over 10 bullet holes riddled the vehicle.

The army also said that al-Alami's car resembled a vehicle driven by a group of men who were seen burying what turned out to be a dead baby earlier that day.

Al-Alami's brother — who witnessed the entire event from the balcony -- said the two events were not related and that earlier, another family had been burying a stillborn baby in a cemetery.

“The three people who arrived earlier had come to bury a baby that had died in the womb,” Ashraf Al-Alami said.

After the three people had left, he said he began to worry when he saw soldiers arrive. He feared they would mistake the burial site as a crime scene and grow suspicious. That was when his brother's car approached.

The Israel human rights group B'Tselem this week released what it said was security-camera video of the shooting. In the video, al-Alami's van is seen approaching a dip in the road, with a group of Israeli soldiers standing further down a hill.

Al-Alami is seen doing a U-turn before being chased up the street by troops, who are heard shouting at him to stop, before opening fire. The actual shooting is not seen, but at least a dozen shots are heard. B'Tselem said the video shows the family posed no threat to the troops.

The army has said that senior commanders and military police — which investigate suspected wrongdoing by troops— are involved in the probe.

But Moayed said that he did not expect the investigation to lead to anything. He said the military helped transfer the boy to the hospital after the shooting, but that he has not heard from investigators.

And B'Tselem, a major human rights group, grew so frustrated with the military justice system that in 2016 it halted its longtime practice of assisting in investigations. It accuses the army of whitewashing wrongdoing and says soldiers are rarely punished.

In the first seven months of this year, Israeli fire has killed 11 Palestinian children in the West Bank, surpassing the total number of child killings in 2020, according to the advocacy group Defense for Children Palestine.

Israeli soldiers man a watchtower next to Beit Ummar in order to protect traffic going in and out of the nearby Israeli settlement of Karmei Zur.

Mohammed’s funeral the following day resulted in large clashes in which a 20-year-old Palestinian man was killed by Israeli army fire. His funeral was held on Friday, followed by more clashes.

The mayor of Beit Ummar – who is also a member of the extended al-Alami family — said that most of Beit Ummar’s 17,000 residents attended the boy's funeral.

‘‘The soldiers did not allow us to bury our child in dignity,’’ said Habis Al-Alami. ‘‘To kill a boy with just bread in his hand. It is a crime, we just want to be treated as human beings.’’

Jack Jeffery And Imad Isseid, The Associated Press

Opinion: Being Black in Canada means being at increased risk of mental health problems

Special to National Post 
By Dr. Kwame McKenzie

© Provided by National Post People walk by a mural of George Floyd in Graffiti Alley in downtown Toronto, on June 11, 2020. The well-known Toronto alleyway was painted with prominent Black figures and messages of solidarity against anti-Black racism.

COVID-19 has taught us a lot about ourselves as a country. It has shown us that we can be resilient when we work together. We have worked hard to protect each other and that has kept the rates of COVID low compared with many other countries.

It has also increased our understanding of mental health problems. On top of the physical health challenges posed by COVID-19 there have been many other concerns including people worrying about families, finances and housing. Canadians understand that these stresses increase the risk of mental health problems and are one explanation for the higher rates of anxiety, depression and substance use that have been reported in pandemic surveys .

But some groups may be at higher risk than others. The Canadian Medical Association has calculated that 85 per cent of our risk of any illness is based on such factors as poverty, unemployment, bad jobs, poor housing quality, lower levels of education, being victims of crime, pollution, discrimination, and poorer access to health and social care . Communities with greater exposure to the negative aspects of any of these social factors have a higher risk of mental health problems.

The Black population of Canada is exposed to many of these factors .

For instance, the Black population has one of the highest rates of poverty and food bank usage in Canada and things are getting worse. The general rule for immigrant populations in Canada is that each generation outperforms the next. It is hard to start but once you find your feet in this country, your children and then their children reap the benefits. Rates of poverty for your children are lower and for their children lower still. But in Ontario, the opposite is true: Black grandchildren are more likely to live in poverty than their grandparents.

Black children, particularly boys, do less well at school than their parents, especially if their parents came to Canada with a degree. This is not for want of trying; Black kids are more likely to want to get a degree than white kids according to Statistics Canada, but something goes wrong in the school system. Thwarted aspirations are linked to poorer mental health.

And even if people progress at school, Black people in Canada are paid less on average than other people with the same education, and are sometimes paid less for the same job. There are a huge number of scientific papers demonstrating increased rates of anxiety, depression and even psychosis in people who believe they are being unfairly treated by employers because of their race.

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I could add other factors such as precarious housing, increased rates of criminal prosecution and imprisonment (though there is little evidence of increased offending), and more recently, poorer public health responses to COVID-19, which have meant that the Black community in Toronto, which comprises eight per cent of the population, has accounted for 17 per cent of the people hospitalized .

The term anti-Black racism was coined in Canada to describe the sum total of the social inequalities that the Black population lives with day in and day out, and the fact that as a country, we are not doing enough to deal with them. The social inequalities lead to increased stress, but this stress is supercharged by the fact that the Black community sees that the inequalities seem to be linked to race and that action supposed to promote equality for them has not been effective and rarely goes beyond words.

It produces a toxic psychological environment for Black people in this country.

That environment is worsened by the history of slavery and the lack of an apology for slavery in Canada. It is not helped by increasing rates of hate crimes and everyday racism. It is not helped by seeing that Muslims in Canada can be murdered outside their mosques or just walking along the road.

Black people have worked hard over centuries to build Canada, but the Black population has been left behind when it comes to sharing in the economic benefits of their labour.

The Black population is resilient and there are those who have managed to use adversity to move themselves forward. But they are more likely to be the exception rather than the rule. Studies show a predictable increased risk of some mental health problems in Black people in Canada.

Decreasing the mental health problems linked to COVID-19 requires government policies that recognize the strain we are putting people under and the development of strategies to help those who predictably will struggle. Decreasing the mental health risks for the Black population requires us to recognize the impacts of anti-Black racism.

The recovery gives us an opportunity to start a new chapter in Canada. It could be a chapter where we give everyone an equal chance. To do that we have to decide whether we want to continue racial trauma in Canada or whether we think it is time for all of us to work together to build a better and fairer country.

National Post

Dr. Kwame McKenzie is CEO of the Wellesley Institute, a research and policy institute that works to improve health and health equity in the Greater Toronto Area.