NEW BRUNSWICK

CUPE prepares to strike, rejoins bargaining next week with province

By Nathalie Sturgeon Global News
Posted August 27, 2021 

 Several of the union’s locals have been without a contract for up to five years and counting. Many of whom represent essential workers. Premier Blaine Higgs met with the group and its president says things are looking optimistic, but Higgs is on notice. Nathalie Sturgeon has more.

The president of CUPE said its members do not want to strike, but they are drawing a line in the sand for Premier Blaine Higgs as it attempts to negotiate a contract for several locals — many of whom are frontline workers in the province.

The union, which held a summit in Fredericton Friday, represents some 30,000 workers in the province. It has struggled to get contracts to finalize for many locals, some for up to five years.

CUPE President Steve Drost said the workers deserve better from the government, including fairer wages.

“These workers are tired. They’re depleted. They’re exhausted,” he said speaking to reporters on Friday. “They went above, and beyond the call of duty during this pandemic to keep this province going, and to not offer them reasonable wages is just simply wrong. It’s unjust, it’s unfair.”

Drost wouldn’t say what was on the bargaining table from the union’s side but did say it was a cost of living increase and “then some.”

Ten days are left in the 100 day-ultimatum the i\union gave to the government.

READ MORE: CUPE NB eyes September strike vote after little progress in negotiations

About half a dozen locals are in a deadlock position with the province. The locals in question represent workers from several sectors, among them provincial correctional officers, human service councillors, laundry workers, custodians, hospital support staff, education assistants, and school administrative assistants.

“These people make maybe $35-45,000 a year gross,” he said. “They haven’t had a raise in 10-15 years — a reasonable raise. We have members that have to work two-and-three jobs. No one would ever think that a public sector worker would have to go to a food bank. We have workers that don’t make enough money that they have to go to the food bank to feed their kids.”

A strike is on the horizon, according to Drost. As for what the province would like in the event of a strike happened in the next month, Drost was clear.

“The province will be shut down,” he said.

READ MORE: N.B. government wage-freeze pitch ‘a slap in the face’: unions

In an email statement, a spokesperson for the Premier’s office said the government is hopeful they can reach an agreement that is fair but respects the ongoing challenges.

“We want to strike the balance between fair wages and our obligation to be responsible with taxpayers’ money,” said spokesperson Jennifer Vienneau. “The premier attended some of yesterday’s discussions and indicated it was a positive and productive meeting.”

Both the union and the province confirm they are heading back to the bargaining table next week.

Mark Hancock, the national CUPE president, took part in the summit Friday to show solidarity for the efforts for fair compensation in New Brunswick.

“We’re here for two reasons, to thank all the heroes that help get our country through the last 18 months. While people like myself were retreating to our apartments or our homes, many of the workers kept going forward.”

 

Britain’s workforce is changing – now our unions must catch up

Eve Livingston

Sharon Graham’s election as head of Unite shows workers facing new forms of exploitation need strong, diverse unions

Sharon Graham, the new general secretary of Unite. Photograph: PA

Sat 28 Aug 2021 

That the election of Sharon Graham as Unite’s new general secretary this week took many by surprise says much about today’s union movement and its place in society. At the contest’s outset, many on Unite’s left threw their weight behind one of three white male candidates, accusing Graham of splitting the vote. Throughout the course of the race to replace Len McCluskey, few in the legacy media provided any analysis beyond the election’s implication for the Labour party and Keir Starmer’s leadership; the future of workers’ rights became a sideshow. And as the results trickled in, bemused commentators struggled to understand where the support had come from.

The answer they sought was in the union’s grassroots: ordinary Unite members in workplaces across the country who cared less about Labour party infighting and more about feeding their families, being treated with respect at work, and feeling as if their voices mattered. Labour party insiders, political commentators and opposition candidates might have been blindsided by the election of Unite’s first ever female general secretary on a manifesto of workplace organising, renewed democracy and grassroots power, but rank and file members were not. It’s a lesson Britain’s union movement as a whole must learn if it is to rebuild and thrive

This election mattered because Unite, with 1.4 million members, is one of the country’s biggest trade unions, and trade unions remain the best vehicle ordinary people have to exercise collective power and advance their economic interests. If talking about class struggle in such terms has come to seem divisive, it shouldn’t be: the business interests bankrolling the Tory party have no such qualms about looking out for their own, securing the policies that favour them and the contracts that enrich them. To counter this influence, redistribute power and ensure fairness in the workplace and society at large, we need unions that are strong, democratic and bold.

But too often in recent years, Britain’s labour movement has been defined by decline, infighting and irrelevance. Many have been quick to point out that while Graham’s win might feel like vindication for those overlooked, it still represents the will of only the 12% of members who turned out to vote. Such low turnout is reflective of a long-term decline in membership and participation which, while slowly improving, remains far below its 1970s heyday, with young workers, people of colour and migrants still underrepresented within the movement. The causes are manifold and not all attributable to unions themselves, which have operated for decades under increasingly draconian anti-union laws, a fractured labour market and ever more brazen government cronyism that sees bosses shape public life while their workers aren’t even at the table. But unions must also be prepared to evolve and adapt if they are to survive and be the collective voice Britain’s working class needs in the 21st century.

Perhaps most crucially, the union movement must recognise that the labour market it operates in today is profoundly different from the one upon which it was built. Britain has moved from a manufacturing superpower to a service economy as shipyards and coalmines have made way for retail, care and restaurant jobs. New workplaces have brought new forms of exploitation: the expansion of precarious and insecure contracts; the proliferation of apps that separate workers from each other and from their bosses; and the rise of surveillance technology that has transformed some workplaces into miniature panopticons.

But new challenges can mean new demographics in which to build worker power and enrich the union movement. Grassroots unions such as the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain have spearheaded nationwide strikes among Deliveroo riders and, alongside the GMB, successfully organised Uber drivers in a fight that culminated this year at the supreme court, where it was ruled they should be classed as workers and not contractors. In 2017, their sister union United Voices of the World successfully fought for the “insourcing” of migrant female cleaners at the London School of Economics in what, at the time, was the UK’s largest ever cleaners’ strike. And in 2018, the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) coordinated an unprecedented fast food strike encompassing McDonald’s, Wetherspoon’s and TGI Fridays workers, many of them first-time trade unionists. Actions such as these prove that taking the risk to focus energy in largely unorganised sectors will pay dividends – but it requires a leap of faith on the part of traditional unions.

In response to difficult political conditions and the shifting of the labour market, much of the union movement has adopted a service model, acting for existing members in something resembling a consumer transaction: join the union and get legal advice, a discounted laptop and individual support in a grievance. But it is organising – the building of power among and between workers so they might ultimately act for themselves – that creates new trade unionists and shifts the dial in society as a whole, not playing whack-a-mole in individual workplaces. The problem that brings a worker to their union should be the start of a transformative journey that sees the issue collectivised, placed within its wider political context, fought for and won, and an active and politically conscious new trade unionist created.

Also vital for the future of the movement will be the meaningful inclusion of previously marginalised workers, not just as figureheads or on siloed diversity committees, but at the heart of union organising. Unions and their democratic structures were built for white, male breadwinners to secure a family wage, a legacy that echoes around the movement today. To act for a new generation of workers will be to restructure union democracy from the bottom up, yielding power to lay members and embracing bold tactics so that the work of anti-racism, trans inclusion, migrant solidarity, disability rights and feminist organising can be union work.

Unions have the ability to transform the lives of individual members and the structure of society as a whole. They are imperfect, but they are what we have and they are ours to shape and strengthen. Unite’s members have recognised that the growth and sustainability of the union movement is in industrial strategy, not party politicking, and in organising workers over servicing members. If the wider movement can learn the lessons of this election, it can once again be a force to be reckoned with.

• Eve Livingston is a social affairs journalist and author of Make Bosses Pay: Why We Need Unions

New Unite boss vows to take on Amazon

Sharon Graham challenges Jeff Bezos on union rights and warns Labour ‘there will be no blank cheques’

‘Leverage’ tactics: Sharon Graham, the new general secretary of Unite.


Michael Savage
Sat 28 Aug 2021 

The new leader of one of Britain’s biggest unions has vowed to take on Amazon by plotting an international campaign to unionise its warehouses and improve conditions for its workers.

In an interview with the Observer, Sharon Graham, who became Unite’s general secretary last week after a shock victory, said she was in talks with unions in Germany and the US – Amazon’s other major markets – to effectively form a global union campaign that would “pincer” Amazon and force it to allow workers to organise themselves more freely.

Graham said she wanted to deploy “leverage” tactics deployed against difficult employers to convince Amazon to sign a “neutrality agreement”, a document guaranteeing that warehouse workers can form a union without fear of repercussions. The campaign would include lobbying governments in all three countries to use their power as major Amazon customers to pressure it into action.

“I’m talking to the German unions and the American unions because we’re their three biggest markets in both [web services] and e-commerce,” she said. “Let’s work together to get Amazon organised in those three countries. If we do that, we could actually pincer them simultaneously in their three biggest markets. Once we get a neutrality agreement, those workers will join the union. They won’t now because they’re too frightened – they think they’re going to be sacked.

“What I would say to [Amazon founder] Jeff Bezos is he should treat workers fairly, come to the table and sign the neutrality agreement. Eventually, it will have to happen. We’re not going to get bored. If this takes two years, it takes two years. Resources will be allocated. Because if we don’t do that, you ignore the beast who is pace-setting bad behaviour. He may as well come the quick way around. We’re in for the long haul. We could actually crack Amazon. And that would be an amazing thing.”

Amazon has repeatedly been accused of refusing to recognise unions. Last year, the TUC compiled a document in which it said workers had described gruelling conditions, unrealistic productivity targets, surveillance, bogus self-employment and a refusal to recognise or engage with unions unless forced. The company has disputed the claims.

Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. 

Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

“We respect our employees’ right to join, form or not to join a labour union or other lawful organisation of their own selection without fear of retaliation, intimidation or harassment,” said a spokesperson.

“Across Amazon we place enormous value on having daily conversations with associates, and work to make sure direct engagement with our employees is a strong part of our work culture. The fact is, we already offer excellent pay, excellent benefits and excellent opportunities for career growth, all while working in a safe, modern work environment. The unions know this.”

Graham, who used her leadership campaign to say she wanted to end the union’s heavy involvement in the running of the Labour party, said Keir Starmer’s office had already been in touch about holding a meeting with her following her victory. She said she would demand to know what action Labour was taking to end “fire and rehire” practices.


Amazon intensifies 'severe' effort to discourage first-ever US warehouse union

“I won’t be talking about the leadership of Labour. I won’t be talking about the internal wranglings of Labour. I’ll be talking about fire and rehire, and what is Labour going to do about that issue? When and how are they going to step up to the plate? The Labour party aren’t in power at the moment. A parliamentary Labour party is not going to stop job losses, they’re not going to stop suppression of pay, they’re not going to stop what’s happening to workers out there. So it is not my number one priority.”

She also said that while she would continue to pay the fees Unite hands Labour to be affiliated to the party, any future additional funds would be conditional on Labour being able to prove it was helping Unite’s industrial priorities.

“I will not just be handing over cheques in addition to our affiliation to the club without understanding how that progresses the lot of workers,” she said. “I’m going to be asking, ‘so what are you going to do?’ There won’t be anything additional unless, of course, I can show that it’s important for progressing workers’ issues. I hope Labour do that, because that is part of what they’re there for.”

Graham said she would reform the union into sector-by-sector “combines” – a move designed to increase the union’s power with the most powerful employers.

She said she was “very proud” of the leverage tactics she has deployed against hostile employers, which sees the union target a company’s commercial vulnerabilities such as potential contracts, shareholders or acquisitions, in order to further its goals. She said her “non-traditional” methods were required because persuasion and argument did not work with hostile employers.

“We do a very, very detailed research document looking at every aspect of the company – shareholders, clients, future clients, investments,” she said. “We get into the sinews of the money. We think, ‘OK, what’s more important to them than what they’re trying to do here?’ It’s accountability. Where an employer moves from what I would call normal, acceptable behaviour into very hostile terrain, like sacking workers and then re-employing them, I don’t think we can stand by and watch that happen.

“I will be very deliberate and serious about the plans that we put in place around public sector pay, for example, but also around the private sector. We need to make sure we protect jobs, terms and conditions. And I’ll do anything we need to do to do that.”

JEFF BEZOS SPACESHIP VIBRATOR

You Can Now Commemorate Jeff Bezos' Space Trip With a Miniature Phallic Rocket
Yours for $69 USD.

Design
Aug 27, 2021
TEXT BY Joyce Li

A new miniature model has surfaced and it is all about celebrating Jeff Bezos‘ grand day out to space.

A 1/66th working scale model of Blue Origin‘s New Shepard rocket is now available for collectors and fans alike. When Jeff Bezos made his trip to space, it was a spectacle not to have been forgotten. While many had their own preservations and some even considered it a colossal waste of time, billionaires like Bezos himself, see it as a feat to celebrate. When Bezos first announced his trip, many comedians were quick to poke fun at the phallic shape of the rocket. In July, Jon Stewart’s teaser trailer for his forthcoming Apple TV+ series showed that space billionaires like Bezos were the butt of the joke.

Estes Rockets are behind the miniature model, but it is important to note that Estes also sells various other rocket models that are also equipped with little ballistic packs that allow it to fire into the air. The Blue Origin rocket costs $69.99 USD on its own, but for $109.99 USD those interested can purchase a full starter set that includes a launch pad, controller and a pack of single-use engines.

The rocket launches on November 1 but are available for pre-order now. Check it out at Estes Rockets.

In case you missed it, Jeremy Scott has officially unveiled his limited release collaboration with Lovesac.

Mangoes: Their Environmental and Ethical Impact 

By Yasmina Achlim

ONE GREEN PLANET

Lead Image Source : Valerii__Dex/Shutterstock


It is mango season! But before we all go crazy buying every mango in sight, it’s important to talk about its sustainability. Similar to other tropical fruits like bananas and coconuts, mangoes’ climate-specific farming needs impose a few sustainable and ethical issues. This isn’t to see that you should feel guilty about enjoying a mango or two, it’s just important to keep in mind!

Sustainability

Mangoes aren’t inherently bad for the environment. Out of all the greenhouse gases the mango industry produces, 60 percent of them come from fertilizers and transportation. This is what’s included when talking about transportation emissions; fossil fuels and gas for transportation vehicles, electricity in packinghouse cooling rooms (fruit needs to be refrigerated after all), and fuel for heated hot water tanks needed to treat fruit fly larvae.

The lengths mangoes have to travel is by far the most unsustainable part about them. Mangoes, along with avocados, are some of the most air-freighted fruit.

Agrochemicals (fertilizers) are also responsible for a significant chunk of their carbon emissions. Obviously, anything that spikes the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions isn’t great, but the unsettling ethical issues surrounding these agrochemicals will be addressed in the next section.

Mangoes also require a lot of water to produce. A single kilo of fruit requires 1,000 liters of water. For perspective, a kilo of oranges only needs 560 liters of water. Obviously, mangoes aren’t as bad as beef, which requires 50,000 liters of water per kilo. So don’t worry too much, it’s still way better for the earth than any kind of animal agriculture.
Ethics

The pay workers receive in the mango industry is far too low. The wages are usually lower than, set at, or slightly more than minimum wage. But minimum wage and a living wage are two very different things, and even those making more than the required minimum will have a hard time supporting a family. In Brazil, R$3,960 (the equivalent of $741.11 USD) is what’s needed for an average household to get by. The average worker is making R$954 (the equivalent of $178.54 USD). That’s nearly a quarter of what they need and it’s absolutely unrealistic. Women also earn 5 percent less than their male counterparts, which may not sound like much, but when they’re already making a fraction of what they should, every penny counts.

It gets even worse for seasonal and temporary workers. The least the industry can do is provide workers with permanent jobs, right? Unfortunately, the mango industry has an incredibly high turnover rate. In 2017, 28 percent of workers had worked for less than six months in mango farms in Pernambuco and Bahia.

Many fruit farms require part-time workers for three to six months out of a year, but the workers’ wage is proportionally the same as a full-time worker. This would be okay if they had other work the other months out of the year, but they do not. Instead, they are forced to make due with a fraction of an annual salary for an entire year. They also have little protection with international labor laws and company codes. To make matters worse, many of these underpaid workers are women.


Exposure to fertilizers is also an issue. They can cause itching, leave marks, and even exposed wounds. Farmers and workers can finish their months on a mango farm covered in scars and markings from these agrochemicals.

Fairtrade Mango
Buying fairtrade mango is a great way to enjoy the fruit without bearing the ethical and environmental load of the industry. Fairtrade keeps workers safe, paid consistently and fairly, and helps them meet “the array of hygienic and aesthetic demands placed on their products.” Their products will have a “Certified Fair Trade” label or sticker on them – so keep a lookout for that. It’s a small gesture that makes a big difference!

Related Content:
The Human and Environmental Impact of Bananas
The Environmental and Public Health Impact of Commercial Fish Farming
Is Your Obsession With Coconuts Harming the Environment?

For more Animal, Earth, Life, Vegan Food, Health, and Recipe content published daily, subscribe to the One Green Planet Newsletter! Lastly, being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!

Agco: More green, and black, coming to prairies fields

By Mike Raine
WESTERN PRODUCER
Published: August 23, 2021
Machinery, News

Fendt was once a brand best known as a premium product line in Europe, but with addition of the Ideal combine and the new Momentum planter, along with the high-horsepower, fixed frame tractors, it is expanding in North America. | Fendt/Andreas Mohr photo

As chair of the board, chief executive officer and president, Eric Hansotia knows a few things about agricultural consolidation.

The new Agco head has worked in the machinery world for about 30 years, in that time spent a good deal of time in technology development and delivery.

He says Agco's approach to smart machines is a good match for his past and his company's future.


Hansotia grew up working on a Wisconsin dairy farm and says that background helps him remain connected with farmers.

Since taking the reins at the one of the world's largest farm equipment companies at the beginning of the year, he says he has been steering the company in one direction.


"We want to be the most farmer-focused in the industry," says Hansotia in an interview.

Producer demands for technology tools have been shaping the company's research and development for years, but in doing so the company hasn't given up any ground on the high-capacity side of the ledger, with big horsepower, high-throughput gear.

He adds the company is also examining what capacity looks like, and how it can make better use of inputs and improve animal-handling tools. As well, Agco wants to keep a focus on how to capture farm data and apply it to practical field and barn operations.

Sustainability can be a loaded term in agriculture. From a farmer's perspective, it can be financial or in the form of helping to deliver a more balanced lifestyle. From a government or larger society perspective, it can be based on carbon balance sheets or animal welfare.

"We recognize that. We have been working on precision agriculture for a number of years. Helping the farmer make better use of the inputs and optimize the yield or grow the yield based on the same input levels," he said.

"Carbon sequestration, it's a big term. What we are talking about is using photosynthesis to take that carbon up in the air and getting it trapped down in the soil. Improving soil health. With higher soil health, giving farmers better organic matter and a more stable soil that provides stability from year to year."

He said the field tools that the company has been building are based on adding sensors and data management that will let producers manage the way their machinery interacts with the soil and produces more opportunities to create the margins that make them sustainable.

"Measure, optimize and report," he said.

"We have a grain business (related to grain handling). But we also have a protein production business. And everything we are building for precision agriculture in the field, we taking to our protein business and helping protein producers," said Hansotia.

"As people show more and more care for animal welfare we want to provide solutions for farmers. Cage-free and those sorts of solutions. Maintain the productivity and the sustainability at the same time. Where those intersect, that is where we are building new tools," he said.

See and Spray herbicide application is an example of the company's smart machines. Green on brown and green on green solutions are a company focus for application technologies in the field.

Agco is working with Bosch's designs for high throughput recognition of weeds on bare soils, for burnoff or inter-row spraying, and merging it with BASF's plant recognition, identifying weeds among a growing crop, for post-emergent control. Finding an unwanted plant at speed in the field is one thing. Hitting it with a targeted application is another.

"Raven provides the pulse width modulation, high precision nozzles to reach the weed with the right application. At Agco we bring all that together with our user interface and Liquid Logic system and we build that whole machine that goes to the field and uses less chemical and is a smart farm machine," he says.

Once that sprayer reaches the market, it will join the other equipment Agco has deemed "smart machines" such as the self-adjusting Ideal combine, the Momentum planter and many of the company's tractors.

Those are Fendt-branded machines and Hansotia says that move inside the business will continue to grow and the new sprayer is part of that group.

Fendt was once a brand best known as a premium product line in Europe, but with addition of the Ideal combine and the new Momentum planter, along with the high-horsepower, fixed frame tractors — which also have flown the Challenger flag — it is expanding in North America.

He said different customer groups need to be served in various parts of the world.

"There are some very large farmers that are very demanding of their equipment and looking for the very best performance from their investments. And some smaller and mid-sized who use the latest in technology and see value. For them the Fendt (lineup) is what they are seeking," he said.

There are others, also sometimes very large, farmers who are looking for a little less, and smaller operators, but still they want the reliability of the brands they know, and for them the other brands, such as Massey, will still be there. We will be serving both farmers," said Hansotia about the growth of the Fendt brand globally.

Growth of the Fendt brand is also limited with the company's dealer network because not all Agco representatives have the right to represent Fendt.

"They have to be able to support their farmers to a level that meets the Fendt requirements for service to the farmer."

Supporting those dealers was part of the decision to dramatically expand the company's Prairies region's parts facility in Regina, Sask., so it could ensure rapid delivery in the area.

Agco has long made significant investments in engineering, relative the company's size, and that is supporting its current Fendt smart machinery plan.

"We had the biggest increase in our engineering budget in our history last year (2020). From US$350 million to $400 million. At the same time we have been acquiring some smaller companies, when we see they bring technologies and ideas that we can use to meet farmers' needs. Companies such as 151 Research in Winnipeg and a few years ago, Precision Planting," he says.

"Look for more smart tools from Agco. They are coming."

NDP Leader Singh vows to eliminate interest on student loans, forgive debt

Melissa Couto Zuber
The Canadian Press Staff
 Saturday, August 28, 2021 


NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh responds to a question surrounded by students, professors and candidates at the University of Sudbury, in Sudbury, Ont., Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021 THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson


SUDBURY, ONT. -- Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh pledged financial breaks for Canadian students on Saturday, vowing to do away with interest on federal student loans "immediately and permanently" as well as forgive student debt.

Singh unveiled his latest campaign promise outside of the University of Sudbury ahead of the Sept. 20 federal election.

Singh said students have been among the Canadians hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, adding forgiving their debt would give youth a necessary leg up

"Students are struggling when they graduate, so we want to go beyond just eliminating entirely interest," Singh said.

"We want to also forgive student debt to make sure that they're not being crushed under the weight of that debt."

Sudbury's troubled Laurentian University recently saw nearly 60 undergraduate programs and 11 graduate programs axed amid an insolvency restructuring plan, an action Singh said "could have been avoided" with help from the federal government under Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.

The University of Sudbury was affiliated with Laurentian until May, when Laurentian terminated its relationship with its three federated universities. Laurentian declared insolvency in February.

Singh called Laurentian vital to the North, labelling the recent cuts "a devastating blow" to Indigenous and Francophone communities in the area.

Singh's media appearance Saturday began with an introduction from Sudbury NDP candidate Nadia Verrelli, who said she was "full of emotions" by the cuts at Laurentian.

The NDP lost the Nickel Belt riding that includes Sudbury in the 2019 election, falling to the Liberals' Marc Serre by 3,354 votes.

The NDP won 24 seats in 2019, earning 15.9 per cent of the overall vote. The Liberals are in search of a majority government in this election, and would need 170 seats to reach that threshold. They won 157 seats in 2019.

The major political parties' campaigns this year are focused on Canada's post-pandemic recovery plan.

Singh called Saturday for a national vaccine passport, saying the federal government has a role to play in providing Canadians with proof of immunization that would make international and local travel easier.

Provinces including Quebec, British Columbia and Manitoba have already stated that proof of vaccination will soon be required for people to take part in certain non-essential services. And senior government sources in Ontario said Friday the province plans to follow suit by unveiling a vaccine certificate system of its own early next week.

The introduction of such a system would represent a significant reversal for Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has publicly rejected the idea and said it would create a "split society."

More than 75 per cent of eligible Canadians were fully vaccinated as of Friday, while nearly 84 per cent have received at least one dose.

Singh said a vaccination certificate system reflects the desires of the majority of Canadians.

"Doug Ford is finally seeing the light and making that decision," he said.

While Singh said provincial governments are "absolutely entitled to and in fact should" set up a vaccine requirement system, he added the federal government can implement a national document to streamline the process for travel.

"Why wouldn't we have an easy document provided at the federal level so we can travel within our own country?" Singh said. "And that's why we think, just to make life easier, just to make it simple, why not have a federal document? That's our plan."


The Liberals pledged funding for provinces to implement vaccine certificates on Friday while Trudeau took aim at Conservative leader Erin O'Toole for not requiring all Conservative candidates to be vaccinated.

The issue of a vaccine certificate has been contentious on the campaign trail. Trudeau's Friday stops in southern Ontario were met with raucous protesters and the Liberal leader cancelled his evening rally over a security threat.

Singh condemned the protesters, adding that a vaccine document is supported by "the vast majority" of Canadians.

"No one should have to cancel an event because they're worried about a danger to the safety of people coming out to a political event," he said. "That should not happen."


This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 28, 2021.

Liberals say they'll bring in a rent-to-own program. But what will it do for Toronto's housing crisis?

Similar program pitched at municipal level in 2018 by Toronto mayoral candidate


Farrah Merali · CBC News · Posted: Aug 27, 2021 

With rental housing prices once again on the rise, and the red-hot real estate market remaining strong, there are widespread calls to address affordability in the city of Toronto. (John Rieti/CBC)

On Tuesday, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau unveiled a multi-billion-dollar housing strategy to help Canadians buy a home at a time when the market is sky high. The plan includes measures to curb the practice of "flipping" homes, the banning of so-called "blind bidding" and a promise to double the first-time homebuyers tax credit.

Part of the plan is to introduce a government-funded rent-to-own program to help renters get on the path to home ownership. The party is promising $1 billion in loans and grants to develop rent-to-own projects with partners from the private, not-for-profit and co-op sectors.

If that sounds familiar to Torontonians — that's because it is.

In 2018, former mayoral candidate Jennifer Keesmaat proposed a similar program for the city.

While some are praising the proposal as a positive initiative that helps renters who are struggling with a down payment, others say it caters to a niche group of constituents, and that housing supply is what all parties need to focus on to make cities like Toronto more affordable.
How it works

"I was actually really pleased when I heard the [Liberals'] announcement," said Keesmaat, a former businesswoman and chief planner for the City of Toronto.

"Because I think what we're beginning to see in this campaign is housing solutions that actually respond to the magnitude of the challenge that we're faced with."
Have an election question for CBC News? Email ask@cbc.ca. Your input helps inform our coverage.

The magnitude of the challenge Keesmaat is speaking about is enormous. The average price for all home types combined in the Greater Toronto Area as of last month is $1,062,256 — up 12.6 per cent compared to July 2020, according to the latest report from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board.

At the centre of Keesmaat's 2018 campaign for mayor of Toronto was a municipally run rent-to-own program that involved the city dedicating a certain number of new units. The proposal would have allowed renters to apply to pay monthly instalments that would go toward their down payment on the property at a price set at the start of the agreement.

The funds to support the program would have been generated by a proposed tax on luxury homes.

Jennifer Keesmat is a former chief planner of the City of Toronto, who ran for mayor in 2018. At the centre of her mayoral campaign was a pledge to create a rent-to-own program. (Michael Cole/CBC)

"Part of why this policy matters is because it's about recognizing that we all have different housing needs and we also have different housing needs at different stages of our lives. And we need lots of options within that entire housing spectrum " said Keesmat.

Keesmat is now the founder of Markee developments — which designs, builds, and runs affordable rental housing — and says she would welcome the opportunity to work with the federal government on a rent-to-own program. But she acknowledges that plan alone won't help address the affordability crisis.

"It means nothing if it isn't tied to a really profound supply initiative that's about driving housing supply."
Real solutions

Other experts agree with Keesmaat that housing supply is what all federal parties should be focusing on when it comes to addressing affordability.

"Given that we have a housing crisis across Canada, we need to think millions of new homes at affordable prices. That would make a dent in bringing housing prices in line with people's incomes," said Murtaza Haider, professor of real estate management and data science at Toronto's Ryerson University.

Murtaza Haider, a professor of data science and real estate management at Ryerson University in Toronto, believes governments need to look at bigger initiatives to tackle the country's housing crisis. (James Dunne/CBC)

While Haider says ideas like rent-to-own programs do open up the market for a small group of people, he believes governments need to think bigger.

"It's much better to have some relief than not. But we have to take much bolder, much bigger, much larger programs to be able to have housing prices and rents much in step with people's incomes."

Others question whether that $1 billion would be better spent on measures to help lower-income individuals or families who can't even get access to affordable rental housing.

Some experts question whether the program's $1-billion price tag is worth it for a program that caters to a small group of constituents. (Graeme Roy/Canadian Press)

"It's really rental housing that's the big problem. That's where the government should focus its effort," said Frank Clayton, senior research fellow at the Centre for Urban Research and Land Development at Ryerson University.

Clayton said he worries initiatives like a federally run rent-to-own program might increase demand, which would drive up real estate prices if there's no parallel effort to build more housing.

"The focus should be on supply, not demand, because demand will just aggravate what's already happening. And that makes things worse."

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The plan laid out by the Liberal Party of Canada doesn't spell out whether the loans and grants under the proposed program would go to the landlord or to the tenant, or whether the majority of the $1 billion pledged would go to big cities like Toronto or Vancouver where housing prices have continued to soar.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau makes a campaign stop in Hamilton, Ont., on Tuesday, Aug 24, 2021. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

It also doesn't say how it would work with municipalities — who are responsible for the approval of development projects — to ensure rent-to-own projects would actually be built, or how it would encourage current landlords to take part in it.

In response to questions from CBC Toronto, the Liberal Party of Canada said: "There are a variety of existing rent-to-own models and the financial structure of each can vary, as will federal support."

The party added that it is "confident that by partnering with municipalities and providing substantial federal funding, we will be able to incentivize the building of new rent-to-own units across the country."
Where the other parties stand

So far, the Liberals are the only party formally pledging a rent-to-own program, but when it comes to supply they're pledging to "build, preserve or repair 1.4 million homes in the next four years" by giving cities tools to speed up construction. The party is also promising to create a $4-billion pool of cash that cities could tap if they help to create "middle-class homes."

Housing has become one of the the main issues in the 2021 federal election campaign, with leaders making various promises to address the affordability crisis. 

(Justin Tang/The Canadian Press, Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press, Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

The NDP is pledging to create at least 500,000 units of affordable housing in the next 10 years, while the Conservatives are pledging to build one million homes over three years, and convert at least 15 per cent of federal government property into housing — among other measures.

The Greens are calling for an expansion of the government's Rapid housing Initiative — which creates new affordable housing for vulnerable populations — and to build and acquire a minimum of 300,000 units of affordable housing.

Sweden Risks Blackouts as It Runs Out of Space to Store Nuclear Waste

Barsebäck Nuclear Power Station, Barsebäck, Sweden.
Alastair Philip Wiper—View Pictures/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

BY JESPER STARN / BLOOMBERG
AUGUST 25, 2021 


Sweden has less than a week to decide where to store its nuclear waste or risk having the lights go out.

The Scandinavian country is running out of space to store the waste produced by its six reactors, which supply about a third of the nation’s power. Without a decision before the end of the month, nuclear operators including Vattenfall AB say they will have to start halting plants in just three years.

That would trigger a national power crisis and put Sweden’s net-zero target at risk. As the government meets on Thursday, members of the ruling coalition formed by the Social Democrats and the Green Party are likely to address the issue, which has stalled for more than a year.

“There is no realistic way to replace the nuclear output with such a short notice,” said Torbjorn Wahlborg, head of generation at state-owned Vattenfall, which operates five of Sweden’s six reactors. “On the contrary, the remaining reactors are needed more than ever given the huge growth in demand for power Sweden will need to become carbon neutral.”

Sweden’s case highlights a contentious subject for the nuclear industry, with most countries yet to find a permanent solution to store their spent fuel. To make matters worse, Japan shocked the world earlier this year when it announced plans to dump more than 1 million cubic meters of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. That’s enough to fill 500 Olympic-size swimming pools.

European countries have taken different stances on nuclear power, with Germany opting to exit, while France and the U.K. are relying on reactors to reach their emissions goals. Sweden, which counts on renewables for a large part of its power production, will need nuclear as well as emission cuts from its heavy industry and transport to reach its net-zero goal by 2045.

Repository versus recycling

It’s been more than a decade since the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co. filed an application to build a repository. A method that involved putting spent fuel in copper canisters and burying them 500 meters under the ground in bentonite clay has already been approved by neighboring Finland, while Russia has opted for expensive recycling.

In October, the company responsible for disposing all of Sweden’s nuclear waste said it had already won approvals from all necessary courts, authorities and even from the municipality where it wants to build the site. But the government is yet to approve it.

“This is not about taking a stand for or against nuclear power, this is about there being a reliable solution and needing to move ahead with the process,” said Chief Executive Officer Johan Dasht.

Sweden needs to make a decision to avoid exceeding the permit for the interim storage currently being used by the industry. But with the recycling adopted by Russia yet to be cost-effective and Finland still to convince other nations that their methodology will withstand for at least 100,000 years without rusting or leaking, the Swedish government is in a tight spot.

A  decision of this magnitude needs to take all the the time that is necessary, said Environmental Minister Per Bolund. The government is instead proposing to decide on expanding the intermediate storage site and then consider the application to build the repository.

“By splitting up the different decisions the government wants to avoid putting Sweden in a situation that would jeopardize our supply of electricity,” Bolund said in an emailed statement. “There is a significant risk that the coming judicial process will not be completed before the intermediary storage site hits the ceiling of its existing permit.”

For the government—which counts on the anti-nuclear Green Party as a key part of its ruling coalition—the issue is extra delicate. Not only does the industry oppose a split of the application, but so does its own two key expert authorities on the issue. Both the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority and the Swedish Energy Agency opposes a split on the grounds that it poses an even greater risk of getting stuck in a lengthy legal process.

“I find it remarkable that this government is not capable of trusting their own expert authorities in their decision-making,” Dasht said.

—With assistance from Nicholas Larkin and Lars Paulsson.

SUDBURY, ONTARIO

What mining, oil and gas industries can learn from a city that went from major pollution to thriving environment

by Nadia Mykytczuk, The Conversation

For almost 100 years, Sudbury’s community and environment were blanketed in sulfur

 dioxide and metals released from the smelting of nickel ore. Credit: Shutterstock

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg in Montréal two years ago, he promised to plant two billion trees by 2030 to help Canada meet its net-zero emissions goal.

Planting trees, however, is hard work. It takes money and planning. But a re-greening roadmap exists.

Sudbury, the largest city in Northern Ontario, transformed itself after decades of environmental devastation, brought on by the mining industry. Other communities and industries, like oil and gas, can replicate the city's efforts to aid in global efforts to fight climate change.

A devastated landscape

For almost 100 years, Sudbury's community and environment were blanketed in sulfur dioxide and metals released from the smelting of nickel ore. The sulfur acidified the soils, rain and lakes. The pollution triggered the complete loss of vegetation, leaving barren rolling hills of blackened rock. It was a devastated landscape.

But 40 years ago, scientists, citizens, governments and mining companies in Sudbury set out with the goal that, no matter how damaged the environment was, it was worth trying to repair it. Since then, city- and industry-led programs have planted 12 million trees and revitalized over 3,400 hectares of land. People now swim and fish in the 330 lakes that fall within the city boundaries and were once highly acidic.

Today, Sudbury has some of the cleanest air in all of Ontario. That's hard to believe given the city once emitted 2.5 million tons of sulfur dioxide per year. In the 1980s, the "Sudbury" became known as a unit of pollution, against which other industrial cities were measured. It's now become known as a unit of restoration.

Sudbury offers proof that it is possible to leave a healthier environment than the one we inherited, and proof that we can change our climate for the better.

Contrast of barren land surround smelters in Sudbury in about 1970 (left) and 2015 (right). Credit: Vale Living with Lakes Centre

Capturing gases

Against the realities of climate change, industrial pollution and urban expansion, stories of environmental recovery and restoration are rare. But a healthy environment doesn't have to come at the expense of industrial activity.

While scientists developed solutions for restoring the land and water, industry re-engineered their processes to reduce and capture their emissions. Sudbury mining companies, Inco and Falconbridge (now Vale and Glencore) led the way in reducing sulfur dioxide release from their smelter. Nickel production continued to grow in spite of more stringent pollution limits.

The Sudbury situation was pivotal in negotiations between Canada and the United States that led to the signing of the 1991 U.S.-Canada Air Quality Agreement. The agreement, also known as the acid rain accord, helped solve the largest environmental issues at the time.

Without strong policy in North America and Europe, acid rain would have continued to threaten forests and fisheries in Canada and the U.S. Now, 30 years later, we can use the same approach with strong regulations on emissions, scientific evidence and solutions, and industrial re-alignment to capture carbon dioxide emissions and make the critical strides needed to meet climate change targets.

Meeting climate targets with mining

Sudbury hasn't solved all of its problems. It still carries a legacy of millions of tons of reactive mine waste materials, which can release acids and metals that can contaminate food webs and drinking water. These have to be managed by industry to avoid impacting the environment and surrounding communities.

Vale and Glencore are working with scientists again to develop new ways of treating, covering and restoring these vast tailings ponds. They are looking for ways to turn these barrens into areas for carbon capture, to grow biofuel crops or to use the land for renewable energy installations.

Acid rain can kill trees, like this woods in Jezera Mountains in the Czech Republic. Credit: Lovecz/Wikimedia

In some cases, these wastes still contain low levels of metals that could not be extracted in the smelter. But we now have the means to capture these metals through low-energy technologies or using bacteria to extract metals from minerals.

The global demand for critical metals like nickel, cobalt and copper is growing to support production of electric vehicles. In the next 25 years, the world will need as much copper as was mined in the past 500 years, according to Rio Tinto, one of the world's largest metals and mining companies. Some of that demand can be met using waste.

Lessons from Sudbury

We cannot meet climate change targets without transitioning away from fossil fuels, but we cannot produce renewable energy technologies like batteries and solar panels without mining the minerals used to make them. We can't let one set of environmental issues replace another.

But we don't have to, and the history of Sudbury shows the way. Community, government, academia and industry can work together to face a massive challenge like climate change.

We need to focus on scientific solutions and move away from the old ways of doing things because "that's how it's always been done." Net-zero and zero-waste mining is possible—and necessary. They are ultimately part of a sustainable energy future.

At the start of this UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the Sudbury model is an important recipe to apply to climate change. Where we once sacrificed the environment for the sake of industrial expansion, we now need to transition to smarter industrial processes to protect the environment, wean ourselves off fossil fuels and build a more resilient global community in the face of climate change.

How bacteria can recover precious metals from electric vehicle batteries

Provided by The Conversation 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.