Wednesday, October 06, 2021

Toronto Parking Authority workers, city headed for possible strike or lockout

Legal strike or lockout can happen after 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 16

CBC News · 
As of 12:01 a.m., Oct. 16, the city and Toronto Parking Authority Workers will be in a legal strike or lockout position. (Evan Mitsui)

Toronto Parking Authority workers and the city have 12 days to come to an agreement before a possible work disruption. 

As of 12:01 a.m., Oct. 16, both parties will be in a legal strike or lockout position. 

According to CUPE Local 416, which represents the workers, the city has not responded to the union's latest proposal, despite "ample time" to do so and is putting its ability to generate parking revenue at risk. 

The union called the delays "unnecessary" and said Toronto Parking Authority (TPA) workers took a 20 per cent pay cut and experienced mass layoffs during the pandemic to help mitigate the city's loss of parking revenue. 

"The short-term revenue shortfalls caused by the pandemic shouldn't be permanently downloaded onto loyal workers," wrote CUPE Local 416 president Eddie Mariconda in a Monday news release.  

"Members are looking for fairness and respect," said Mariconda, calling the union's proposals modest, reasonable and in line with previous contract negotiations between the city and the union.  

The TPA operates the city's on-street metered parking and off-street parking facilities, along with Bike Share Toronto. 

Scott Collier, president of the TPA, said negotiations continue and the authority is committed to securing a new collective agreement with the union that is fair to both staff and the City of Toronto. 

Prior to the pandemic, workers generated approximately $85 million in revenue annually, wrote Mariconda. Of the revenue generated by parking, 55 cents on the dollar goes back into city services like parks, recreation and capital expansion, he said.  

The union said punishing workers at the bargaining table will significantly hinder the city's ability to recoup revenues lost due of the pandemic.  

"We need parking now more than ever to support local businesses, visit loved ones, and to keep our city moving forward," Mariconda wrote. 


Strike/lockout deadline nears as Toronto
Parking Authority workers call on city to
 return to table



Chris Fox, CP24 Web Content Writer
Published Monday, October 4, 2021 
Toronto Parking Authority workers remain without a new contact and there is now less than two weeks to go until a possible work stoppage.

CUPE Local 416, which represents the workers, said in a news release on Monday that the union has made a “reasonable” offer to the city but has not yet received a response despite giving them “ample time” do so.

It says that the “unnecessary delays” are particularly concerning given the fact that the workers will be in a legal strike position and the city a legal lockout position as of 12:10 a.m. on Oct. 16, following the issuing of a “no board report” by the Ministry of Labour.

“Members are looking for fairness and respect—our proposals at the bargaining table are modest, reasonable, and in line with previous contracts negotiated between the local and the city,” CUPE Local 416 President Eddie Mariconda said in the release.

CUPE Local 416 claims that Toronto Parking Authority workers “took a 20 per cent pay cut and experienced mass layoffs during the pandemic to help mitigate parking revenue loss.”

It says that the “short-term revenue shortfalls caused by the pandemic shouldn’t be permanently downloaded onto loyal workers” and that the city should instead “utilize parking services more effectively to maximize revenues.”

City staff, however, say that the Toronto Parking Authority is expected to face a $7.3 million shortfall by the end of the year “due to unfavourable revenue driven by decreased transaction volume trends in off-street and on-street parking resulting from COVID-19.”

This comes on the heels of revenue coming in tens of millions of dollars lower than expected in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Back in July CUPE Local 416 members voted in favour of strike action if necessary.
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Hollywood production workers vote to authorize 1st-ever strike
By Lindsey Bahr The Associated Press
Posted October 5, 2021
A poster advocating union solidarity hangs from a Costume Designers Guild office building, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021, in Burbank, Calif. 
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Film and television production in North America is in jeopardy of coming to a standstill after its behind-the-scenes workers overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike for the first time in its 128-year history.


The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees said Monday that nearly 99 per cent of registered members who participated, or 52,706 people, voted in support of a strike over the weekend.

At issue is a contract standstill over requests for more reasonable conditions for the craftspeople, technicians and labourers working for streaming companies like Netflix, Apple and Amazon, including better pay, reasonable rest periods, safer hours and guaranteed meal breaks.

“I hope that the studios will see and understand the resolve of our members,” the alliance’s president, Matthew Loeb, said in a statement. “The ball is in their court. If they want to avoid a strike, they will return to the bargaining table and make us a reasonable offer.”

The most recent three-year contract expired in July, leading to four months of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the group that represents studios and streamers in negotiations. But on Sept. 20, the day after streaming shows like The Crown, Ted Lasso and The Queen’s Gambit swept the Emmy Awards, conversations came to a halt.

Loeb has said his goal is to reach an agreement, not to “have a dispute,” but noted the vote was about the “quality of life as well as the health and safety of those who work in the film and television industry.”

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has said it is “incomprehensible that the AMPTP, an ensemble that includes media mega-corporations collectively worth trillions of dollars, claims it cannot provide behind-the-scenes crews with basic human necessities like adequate sleep, meal breaks, and living wages.”

The union added its members worked through the coronavirus pandemic to ensure their business emerged intact. “Now, we cannot and will not accept a deal that leaves us with an unsustainable outcome.”

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said in a statement it remains committed to reaching an agreement that will keep the industry working, particularly since it’s still recovering from the economic fallout of the pandemic.

“A deal can be made at the bargaining table, but it will require both parties working together in good faith with a willingness to compromise and to explore new solutions to resolve the open issues,” it said.

While unions like the Writers Guild of America have more frequently found themselves on the brink of a strike, and in 2007-08 did indeed go on strike for 100 days, Hollywood crews and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees do not have a significant strike history. The only other previous dispute was when set decorators walked out for six months in 1945, resulting in a riot at the Warner Bros. studio gates that became known as “Bloody Friday.” Should the stalemate this time result in a strike, it would be the first nationwide movement in the theatrical stage worker group’s history.

Many prominent names in Hollywood have voiced public support for the crews demands, including actor and producer Octavia Spencer, who tweeted her support Monday.

“I hope #AMPTP does the right thing and sits down again,” Spencer wrote. “They’re not asking for anything unreasonable.”
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CONCERNED CONSERVATIVE
Breakenridge:
 What madness is this Free Alberta Strategy?

Author of the article:Rob Breakenridge • for the Calgary Herald
Publishing date:Oct 05, 2021 •

Angela Pitt, MLA for Airdrie-East and deputy Speaker in the Alberta legislature, is one of several UCP supporters of the Free Alberta Strategy. 
PHOTO BY SUPPLIED
Article content

Good news feels hard to come by in Alberta these days, but for those with an interest in pipeline construction (most Albertans, I suspect) there is some news to celebrate.

Last Friday, the Line 3 pipeline replacement project officially went into service and will be fully operational by month’s end. Work on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, meanwhile, continues apace.

Both of these pipeline projects cross provincial boundaries: Line 3 runs through Saskatchewan and Manitoba before entering the U.S., while TMX, of course, crosses B.C. to the west coast. The decision to approve these projects, though, was Ottawa’s alone.

Saskatchewan and Manitoba didn’t seem too bothered by the Line 3 project, but B.C. was very much against TMX. B.C.’s premier vowed to use “every tool in the toolbox” to stop the pipeline, including a law that would give the province control over any bitumen being transported across the province.

In 2019, B.C. lost its case in the B.C. Court of Appeal and then suffered a thorough rejection from the Supreme Court of Canada. Federal jurisdiction in this realm is quite clear, as B.C. has learned.

These decisions were hailed by the Alberta government, from the premier on down to his caucus. Airdrie-East MLA Angela Pitt, for example, called it a “big win for Alberta,” and noted her pleasure at seeing the Supreme Court dismiss B.C.’s “attempt to regulate the heavy oil content.”

The rule of law prevailed and B.C. was forced to accept its defeat. Imagine the chaos, though, if B.C. had simply declared that federal jurisdiction and Supreme Court rulings were null and void in the province. Surely folks like Angela Pitt would have been outraged — and rightly so.

Yet the very same Angela Pitt is now arguing that Alberta should embrace precisely that strategy, that we should be the ones sowing chaos and spitting in the face of the very constitutional order that was being celebrated in these rulings.

The hypocrisy and the short-sightedness are staggering.

Pitt and fellow UCP MLA Jason Stephan (Red Deer-South) have signed onto something called the Free Alberta Strategy, launched by the Alberta Institute. Nathan Cooper, UCP MLA and Speaker of the house, was also on hand for the strategy’s unveiling, although he claims only as an interested observer.

The idea of the Free Alberta Strategy is to make Alberta a sovereign jurisdiction within Canada. This involves some reasonable proposals like a provincial pension plan and police force, but it also involves some ideas bordering on the insane.

For example, it calls on Alberta to introduce the Alberta Sovereignty Act, which would somehow create the authority to decide which federal laws apply in Alberta and which areas of federal jurisdiction we can usurp.

It also calls on Alberta to set up a revenue collection agency to collect not just provincial tax revenues, but federal revenues too. We would then apparently just withhold federal revenues as we see fit. And when Alberta inevitably suffers resounding and humiliating court defeats over all of this, we’ll just disregard those rulings somehow.

Never mind the message that this sends about Alberta’s commitment to political and legal stability — something I suspect major corporations are concerned about — if any of this were to somehow succeed, then the very legal and constitutional principles that led to the aforementioned progress on pipelines would be flushed away.

If we didn’t already know the actors behind this document, one might suspect that this was an attempt to discredit all of the Alberta government’s “Fair Deal” strategy, including the upcoming equalization referendum.

Alberta has some legitimate complaints about this current federal government and, more broadly, Confederation itself. There will be zero audience for any of that if we embrace the madness of the Free Alberta Strategy.

The premier probably needn’t concern himself with a rambling manifesto authored by private citizens. But if these ideas are spreading within his caucus, then we might have a problem on our hands.

“Afternoons with Rob Breakenridge” airs weekdays 12:30-3 p.m. on 770 CHQR rob.breakenridge@corusent.com Twitter: @RobBreakenridge
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NDP denies running Edmonton city council 'slate,' defends endorsements
RACHEL NOTLEY NDP LEADER 

Sean Amato
CTV News Edmonton
Follow | Contact
Published Oct. 5, 2021 

EDMONTON -

Alberta’s NDP leader is defending her MLAs endorsements of city council candidates - and denying a suggestion that they are trying to get a “slate” of like-minded people elected to City Hall.

Cori Longo, a candidate in the new Metis ward, has received personal endorsements from three current MLAs - including Janis Irwin.

“With the UCP in the Legislature, progressive voters in Ward Métis desperately need to unite behind someone who shares our values, to ensure that we don’t elect a conservative who will hurt our city and the services families rely on,” Irwin wrote in an endorsement posted to Longo’s website.

Why aren't there political parties on the ballot in Edmonton's upcoming election?

“What I tell folks is it shows an indication of values, and doesn’t show influence,” Longo explained in an interview with CTV News Edmonton.

“People are really trying to determine where people’s values are, and it’s just because there’s so many candidates out there.”

But not everyone on the ballot is happy about the trend, including mayoral candidate Kim Krushell.

She was once a board member with the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, but said she will not be endorsing anyone because she thinks it can amount to political pressure for councillors to vote along party lines.

“The issue here is we’ve got slates running, or an attempt at it, on both sides. Party politics in our city means we’re not going to get things done at a time when we are in tough, and we need leadership and we need accountability and we need transparency,” Krushell argued.

Provincial connections bleeding into council races is not new - but NDP MLAs tweeting messages of support and videos with candidates - was rarely seen, if ever, before 2021.

Conservative support for candidates has been less blatant, but not invisible.

Current UCP Press Secretary Tricia Velthuizen is running in Dene with tory blue signs, for example.

A former Alberta Party president is on the ballot in Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi.

In addition to sign colours, website statements, and door-knocking help, endorsements have gone robotic as well.

O’day-min candidate Gino Akbari’s campaign manager worked with the NDP in the past and sent text messages to voters touting Akbari’s “NDP values.”

“The first step to conversation and consensus building is me being transparent with you,” Akbari said, defending the practice.


CITY COUNCIL RACES 'NOT A PRIORITY': NOTLEY

“There is no slate, and it’s not a priority for us. We want to have a good working relationship with all levels of government,” Notley said when questioned by reporters Tuesday.

Notley acknowledged several of her MLAs were endorsing candidates around Alberta, but she said her focus was on the COVID-19 crisis and not on council races.

The New Democratic Party is not officially endorsing candidates, but individual MLAs are free to, Notley said.

“When you're a strong constituency MLA you develop relationships with people who are activists in your community on issues that often overlap between municipal and provincial and federal and so it’s not uncommon.”

But for one retiring city councillor, the endorsement issue is being overblown.

“‘Don’t tell me how to vote’ is, I think, the attitude of Edmontonians. So that endorsement may be a blessing or a curse,” outgoing Ward 6 councillor Scott McKeen said.

The Edmonton municipal election is Monday, Oct. 18.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson

ALL THIS IS BS CREATED BY A WET BEHIND THE EARS EDM JOURNAL CITY AFFAIRS REPORTER WHO FAILED TO DO HIS HOMEWORK OR HE WOULD HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THE LEFT WING VOTERS COALITION CALLED THE EDMONTON VOTERS ASSOCIATION EVA WHICH GOT THE BUS DRIVER
BRIAN MASON, ELECTED AS A COUNCILLOR LATER TO BECOME AN MLA AND LEADER OF THE PROVINCIAL NDP

EVA ENDORSED CANDIDATES AS WELL AS RUNNING LABOUR LEFT CANDIDATES FOR ELECTION TO CITY HALL AND SCHOOL BOARDS. 
IT FADED OUT IN THE EARLY 2000'S

SEE MY HISTOY OF LABOUR ACTIVISM AND EDMONTON CITY COUNCIL
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'Ill-advised and even dangerous': Think tank criticizes Alberta government's post-secondary strategy

Author of the article: Hamdi Issawi
Publishing date:Oct 05, 2021 •
Students walk through a canopy of fall colour at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, on Monday, Sept. 27, 2021. 
Photo by Ian Kucerak PHOTO BY IAN KUCERAK /Postmedia
Article content

The Alberta government’s plan to transform post-secondary education is “ill-advised and even dangerous,” a new think tank report warns.

On Tuesday, the Parkland Institute, a non-partisan research centre housed at the University of Alberta, released a report criticizing Alberta 2030: Building Skills for Jobs, the province’s 10-year plan to focus higher learning on job skills and training.

University of Lethbridge sociology professor Trevor Harrison, who is also a former director of the Parkland Institute, coauthored the report and said that the strategy proposes significant changes and cuts that will have a “radical and negative” effect on the province’s post-secondary education system.

“Alberta 2030 means reducing education to immediate jobs training and not preparing students for the labour market of the future, or for preparation for the kind of economy that we want in this province,” he said.

Part of the problem with the strategy, he added, is that it cites misleading statistics from Alberta’s 2019 MacKinnon report.

According to the MacKinnon report, University of Lethbridge economics professor Richard Mueller said, Alberta spends between $5,000 to $15,000 more per full-time student compared to Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.

But those findings, he added, which aggregate all post-secondary institutions, including community colleges and vocational schools, are misleading.

“For many reasons, these community colleges and vocational schools were put in small, rural areas, and they’re very expensive to operate,” he said. But once those schools are separated from the results, “the numbers are totally different” from degree-granting institutions, he added.

“The numbers show that Alberta has higher costs in the college system, and not so much in the university system,” Mueller explained.

Rafat Alam, president of the faculty association at MacEwan University in Edmonton, agreed that the data from Alberta 2030 compares ”apples to oranges” in terms of per capita expenditure, and took issue with the plan’s mention of a performance-based funding model for institutions.

“It has been shown by academic literature too many times that performance-based funding does not offer any efficiency gain,” he said. “It is simply not effective.”

Alam was also concerned about the kind of graduates the Alberta 2030 strategy would produce in a post-COVID world needing economic recovery. Citing the Conference Board of Canada, a not-for-profit think thank that analyzes economic trends, Alam said the future of Alberta lies in a knowledge-based economy that depends on education, not training.

“What the university system is providing is education, which is more appropriate for a future diversified knowledge base,” he said.

Harrison added that Alberta’s economy has changed over the past 20 to 30 years, and that the oil and gas industry is not going to be a reliable economic driver in the future, given the unstable price of oil and the adoption of automation in the industry.

While the Alberta 2030 strategy focuses on developing specific skills and training for an economy that is rapidly changing, Harrison said, university and college education can provide the kind of “deep learning” and critical thinking skills that will be important in the future.

“If Alberta wants to get ahead of that curve, and prepare our students for that future economy, we need to have a kind of fulsome education — the kind of thing that post-secondary universities and colleges particularly have been really good at over the years.”

THERE ARE NO UCP MLA CABINET MINISTERS AROUND TO ANSWER QUESTIONS
In a statement to Postmedia, Laurie Chandler, press secretary to Alberta Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, said the government engaged representatives from post-secondary institutes across Alberta, to create an affordable and accessible system designed to meet future economic demands.

She also cited findings from the Conference Board of Canada, which reported that economic changes have created a need to focus on lifelong learning where workers regularly update their skills, and that employers are working with post-secondary institutes to develop shorter programs to do so.

“There is also a need to remove unnecessary duplication,” the statement said, “and stronger pathways are needed to improve movement and transfer of students throughout the system, without having to repeat courses.”

New report calls Alberta job skills strategy ‘ill-advised’

By Erik Bay Global News
Posted October 5, 2021 

WATCH ABOVE: A new report from the Parkland Institute looks into the provincial government’s plan for post-secondary education. As Erik Bay explains, the report suggests the plan will do more harm than good.

A new report from the Parkland Institute calls the provincial government’s Alberta 2030: Building Skills for Jobs plan “ill-advised.”

The research organization says the plan will reduce the quality and affordability of post-secondary education in Alberta.

Report co-author Trevor Harrison said the plan’s narrow skills focus and budget cuts are built for an economy from the past, not the future.


READ MORE: NDP wants Alberta government to make changes to post-secondary budget

“The Alberta economy is changing rapidly though automation and other forces, so what we need is a really highly-skilled workforce that is able to adapt to the changes in the labour market,” he said.

“Alberta 2030 doesn’t do that. A more fulsome education… the skills that are going to provide students with really good jobs in the future and build the economy, these are not the kind of narrow skills training that Alberta 2030 seems to rely on.”

In 2020-21 and 2021-22, Lethbridge College saw its operating grant reduced by a total of 13.3 per cent, resulting in 11 budget-related layoffs.

In the past three academic years since 2019, the University of Lethbridge’s operating grant has been reduced by $15.8 million, with another $5.1-million cut expected in 2022-23, totalling more than 21 per cent of the school’s operating budget.

READ MORE: Province announces flexible learning options for Albertans looking to add skills

U of L faculty association president Dan O’Donnell said he fears the cuts will lead to students looking outside the province for their education.

“If students can get a better education elsewhere, they’re not going to come somewhere like Lethbridge. They’re going to go to UBC (the University of British Columbia) or the University of Toronto,” he said.


“I think we really feel it, not just as staff and faculty, but as parents.”

With the shift to a skills-based economy, where re-skilling and up-skilling are the norm, there is a need to focus on lifelong learning,” Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said in a statement to Global News.

“We will co-create a post-secondary system that is affordable, accessible and reflective of our economy’s future demands.”

READ MORE: Alberta budget 2021: Alberta universities eyeing tuition hikes, campus changes as funding model evolves

The Parkland Institute report makes four recommendations:

Reinvesting in post-secondary funding

Strengthening the role of faculty, staff and students on general faculties councils in decision-making
free tuition for up to the first two years of full-time undergraduate education

Increased government transparency and accountability

Harrison said free tuition would lower the province’s revenues from post-secondary education by roughly 25 per cent, but that money would be made up for through taxes as it projects the move would see more people gain an education that leads to higher incomes.

“We know that a well-educated population is a high-earning population and is a vehicle for an improved economy,” Harrison said.

The Alberta 2030 strategy was announced by the province earlier this year.


University of Lethbridge professors criticize Alberta's post-secondary plan in new report
The report written by two Lethbridge professors claims the provincial plan is "ill-advised and the planned changes, if implemented, will have a radical and perhaps even dangerous impact on Alberta’s post-secondary system."

Austin Lee
CTV News Lethbridge Video Journalist
Published Oct. 5, 2021 6:32 p.m. MDT


CALGARY -

The province is looking to shake up the post-secondary system in Alberta over the next 10 years with its 'Alberta 2030: Building Skills For Jobs' plan.

According to Alberta's Minister for Advanced Education, Demetrios Nicolaides, a strategic plan for the sector hadn't been completed in at least 15 years.

"Where are the pain points? Where are the areas that we need to focus on to create a stronger system? In a nut shell, that is what the Alberta 2030 plan is about," he said.

The province's plan aims to:

· Improve access and student experience by "Ensuring all Albertans have access to high quality post-secondary opportunities and that the student experience is coordinated and integrated,"

· Develop skills for jobs by "Ensuring every student has the skills, knowledge and competencies to enjoy fulfilling lives and careers and that they have greater transparency around labour market outcomes,"

· Support innovation and commercialization by "Contributing to Alberta’s innovation capacity by supporting post-secondary research and strengthening its commercialization potential to create new knowledge, develop future skills and diversify the economy,"

· Strengthen internationalization by "Becoming a leading destination for top talent to drive the growth of skills, ideas and innovations locally and globally,"

· Improve sustainability and affordability by "Providing institutions greater flexibility to generate own-source revenue and strengthen student aid,"

· Strengthen system governance by "Modernizing governance of the system to increase collaboration and drive outcomes,"  HOW ABOUT ELECTED BOARDS OF GOVENORS FROM STUDENTS, FACULTY, STAKEHOLDERS RATHER THAN GOVT. APPT.

CRITICIZED BY PROFESSORS

But that plan is now coming being criticized by two university of Lethbridge professors who have come together to create a new Parkland Institute report.

According to Alberta's Minister for Advanced Education, Demetrios Nicolaides, a strategic plan for the sector hadn't been completed in at least 15 years.

Professor of sociology at the University of Lethbridge and former Director of the Parkland Institute, Dr. Trevor Harrison, and economics professor Dr. Richard Mueller, are challenging the province's data that led to budget cuts, layoffs, low student enrolment and an increase of corporate control.

Their report claims the provincial plan is "ill-advised and the planned changes, if implemented, will have a radical and perhaps even dangerous impact on Alberta’s post-secondary system."

Notes from the report include:

· There is no plan to add the projected 40,000 new student spaces the system will require by 2028 nor plans to increase access for Alberta students from the lowest participation rate to the national average.

· Post-secondary institutions will be subjected to increased corporate control over which programs will be offered and what research will be funded.

· The $430 million total project cut to the post-secondary education budget will result in much higher costs for students to attend post-secondary.

· Government cuts to Alberta’s institutions has resulted in massive layoffs for staff and faculty and will have a significant impact on the quality of post-secondary education in the future.

It also calls on the province to increase public funding, rehire staff, and provide free tuition for the first two years of post-secondary education.

"We know that a well-educated population is a higher-earning population is a higher-earning population and is a vehicle for an improved economy," said Dr. Harrison.

"Albertans need to challenge the government to invest in our post-secondary education system so that we can support more students to get a high-quality education and help diversify and strengthen the economy."

Harrison claims the $430-million cut in the last provincial budget will mean even higher tuition rates for students, something the University of Lethbridge Students Union (ULSU) is worried will push students away from the province.

"The average debt load of students is increasing and you know, they're being hit on all fronts in terms of the cost of education," said ULSU V.P. External Ryan Lindblad.

"Not only is that bad for students who are currently enrolled in post-secondary education, but it's a terrifying prospect for those who are in high school and middle school and want to pursue that in the future."

However, Nicolaides said the province's Alberta 2030 plan wasn't created in a vacuum and included a long consultation period with numerous stakeholders.

"We developed it with incredible consultation. Over 150 one-on-one interviews, round tables, surveys, town halls, and we developed it in true collaboration and consultation,"

"There are students associations endorsing the plan, university presidents endorsing the plan and other critical stakeholders."

Nicolaides added the Parkland Institute chose not to participate in those consultations, and is only now weighing in with its criticism.
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56% dissatisfied with Saskatchewan government’s handling of COVID-19: poll

By Thomas Piller Global News
Posted October 5, 2021 
A recent poll says 56 per cent of Manitoba and Saskatchewan people are dissatisfied with their provincial government's handling of the COVID-19. 
Getty Images

A Leger survey suggests Saskatchewan residents are split over the province’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.


Forty-two per cent of Manitoba and Saskatchewan people surveyed expressed total satisfaction with the measures put in place by their provincial government to fight the virus, while 56 per cent were dissatisfied.

By contrast, 56 per cent of respondents indicated they were satisfied with the federal government, and municipal governments in the two provinces received 65 per cent. Across Canada, 55 per cent were satisfied and 40 per cent were not.


READ MORE: Advocates say tech a barrier in obtaining proof of COVID-19 vaccination for some

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe was polling at 74 per cent dissatisfaction and 24 per cent satisfaction when it comes to public health measures put in place. Among premiers, Alberta’s Jason Kenney had the highest dissatisfaction at 80 per cent, with 17 per cent satisfied.

The Atlantic and Quebec premiers saw the highest percentages for satisfaction, with 75 and 74 per cent, respectively.

Seventy-one per cent of respondents from Saskatchewan and Manitoba indicated governments should not lift all restrictions related to COVID-19 at the time. This was the second-lowest percentage behind Quebec at 69 per cent and 74 per cent of Canadian respondents agreeing.

The Canadian-owned polling firm released its survey on Oct 2. The online poll was conducted from Sept. 24 to Sept. 26 with 1,537 Canadians 18 years of age or older. Leger said a margin of error cannot be associated with a non-probability sample in a panel survey.

READ MORE: ‘Fatally flawed’ legal challenge to Saskatchewan proof-of-vaccine mandate struck down in court

On Tuesday, Saskatchewan’s dashboard showed 340 COVID-19 patients in hospital, 4,385 active cases and the overall death toll rose by 10 to 726. The province’s seven-day average of new daily infections is 427.

A total of 1,576,702 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Saskatchewan, the dashboard showed. Of Tuesday’s 242 new cases, the provincial government said 194 were unvaccinated, which included 40 children under the age of 12.

Premier denies Saskatoon mayor's request for gathering size limits to fight COVID-19


Josh Lynn
Digital News Editor CTV News Saskatoon
Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Mayor Charlie Clark will ask the premier and health minister to limit gathering sizes to fight COVID-19.

SASKATOON -- The Saskatchewan government says it will not introduce limits on gathering sizes in the province's COVID-19 hotspot as requested by Saskatoon's mayor and city council.

Following a unanimous vote during a special meeting of city council last week, Mayor Charlie Clark sent a letter to Premier Scott Moe on Friday requesting additional public health measures, mainly limits on gathering sizes.

As of Tuesday, Saskatoon had 1,063 reported active cases, marking 20 consecutive days the city has had more than 1,000 active cases.

The meeting was called after city administration asked Clark to write a letter on behalf of council to ask for a limit of 15 people at private gatherings in Saskatoon, including household gatherings.

Administration also recommended a limit of 150 people at locations such as bingo halls, event centres, theatres and casinos or one-third of current capacity, whichever is less.

In an emailed statement sent to CTV News on Tuesday, the Saskatchewan government said it "will not be making an order to limit gathering sizes."

"The vast majority of new cases and hospitalizations are unvaccinated residents and those who are not vaccinated should get vaccinated," the statement said.

While answering councillor's questions during last week's meeting, Saskatchewan Health Authority medical health officer Dr. Jasmine Hasselback said households in particular are a "huge transmission location" and that similar measures helped slow the growth in news cases earlier in the pandemic.

The statement also pointed to "recommendations" for the upcoming Thanksgiving long weekend issued by the province on Tuesday.

The suggestions include visiting outdoors as much as possible, being aware of the vaccination status of guests and a recommendation that unvaccinated people should not gather with family and friends.

SHA respirologist and pandemic chief of staff Dr. Mark Fenton also spoke during the virtual council meeting.

He said a clear framework is needed to control the spread of COVID-19.

"Our population has proven we need rules and not encouragements to control the spread of COVID-19," Fenton said.

A localized approach to public health measures is not without precedent in Saskatchewan, with the province moving to ban private gatherings in Regina earlier this year as the city battled its variant-fuelled COVID-19 surge.

“The City’s request to limit gathering sizes was informed by the advice of our EMO, MHO, and that we were at level orange in our municipal COVID framework. We remain very concerned about the dire situation of our health system and know that many residents are increasingly worried about hospital services available due to the large numbers of Covid patients,” Clark said in a statement to CTV News.

“This concern continues as we go into Thanksgiving weekend and we strongly ask that people take extra care and do what they can to be safe. This means asking for the vaccination status of your guests, keeping your gatherings small and taking the visiting outside.”

Saskatchewan·Opinion

Sask.'s political leaders are responsible for unnecessary suffering and death

We are experiencing the tragic consequences of our

 leaders’ inaction

Nazeem Muhajarine and Kathryn Green · For CBC Opinion · 
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe lifted all COVID-19-related health restrictions on July 11. (Matt Duguid/CBC)

This Opinion piece was written by Nazeem Muhajarine, a professor of community health and epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan's college of medicine, and Kathryn Green, a former associate professor of community health and epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan.

After 19 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have learned much about how to control the spread of the virus to minimize suffering and death. Sadly for the people of Saskatchewan, our government is ignoring these important lessons and we are experiencing the tragic consequences of our leaders' inaction.

September was a record-setting month for Saskatchewan. These aren't the kinds of records you want to break.

The number of active COVID cases, new daily cases, COVID patients in hospital and ICU patients all reached new highs. Almost one-fifth of all the cases recorded since the pandemic began came in the past month. Low testing rates mean this is surely an underestimate.

While vaccinations have kept the death rate lower than last winter, Saskatchewan lost 88 of its residents to COVID in September. The health-care system is strained to the point where surgeries for anything not immediately life-threatening have been cancelled, organ transplants are on hold and adults are being treated in the province's only pediatric ICU.

We need to be clear that this suffering, loss of life, stress on health-care workers and disruption of health services could have been prevented.

Other leaders in Canada and elsewhere have learned that the key to controlling the pandemic is to "go early, go hard." Our government must understand that a combination of strategies is required, rather than relying on vaccination alone.

Manitoba much more vigilant

We have only to look to Manitoba, a neighbouring Prairie province also governed by a conservative party, to see how much better off we could have been and to point the way forward. 

Manitoba has a slightly larger population than Saskatchewan (1.37 million versus 1.17 million) but in the second half of September, our province recorded 5.4 times as many COVID cases and nine times as many deaths. What accounts for this huge difference?

First, more Manitobans have been vaccinated. While some regions have low vaccination rates, overall about 83 per cent of eligible Manitobans are fully vaccinated, compared to just 71 per cent in Saskatchewan.

Unlike Saskatchewan's government, Manitoba did not simply rely on asking its residents to do the right thing. Early in June, Manitoba launched a vaccine lottery. In late August, it announced that government workers — including health-care workers, teachers, and prison guards — must be fully vaccinated by the end of October or undergo regular testing. It implemented a vaccine mandate on Sept. 3, a month ahead of Saskatchewan. 

Manitoba brought in a proof-of-vaccination policy a month ahead of Saskatchewan. (Luke Dray/Getty Images/File)

The higher vaccination rate is not the only difference. While Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe rushed to lift all public health restrictions early in the summer, Manitoba was more cautious.

Manitoba's indoor masking requirement was not lifted until Aug. 7 and was reinstated just two weeks later, as the delta-driven fourth wave started to appear in other provinces. Manitoba also continued to restrict the size of public gatherings throughout the summer, while Saskatchewan to this day has no restrictions at all. 

Manitoba continues to be forward thinking. In response to increasing case numbers and ICU admissions, the government announced new restrictions effective Oct. 5. Gatherings that include unvaccinated people will be limited in size, as will retail capacity in regions with lower vaccination rates.

Manitoba's public health officials explicitly stated that having learned from the second and third waves of the pandemic, they are not waiting for the situation to worsen before acting. This proactive approach stands in sharp contrast to Saskatchewan's.

On Sept. 29, at his first news conference in more than a month, Health Minister Paul Merriman did not apologize for delaying the implementation of measures to increase vaccination rates.

"There's no looking forward into the future with a crystal ball," he said.

Minister Merriman, like Premier Moe, seems incapable of either hindsight or foresight. Our leaders have the same information and expertise available as provinces like Manitoba. Unfortunately, our leaders appear to believe they are better equipped to make life-and-death decisions than public health and medical professionals.

Reducing further calamity

As winter approaches, no crystal ball is needed to predict what lies ahead if Premier Moe fails to strengthen our province's defences against COVID. To reduce further calamity, we need our government to take leadership and extend the proof-of-vaccination policy to all work settings, especially schools.

Effective strategies such as restricting the size of gatherings, comprehensive contact tracing, and clear expectations around isolation must be brought back, while rapid testing must be scaled up. Transparency and better communication are essential to keep everyone informed and rebuild trust. 

Premier Moe has missed the chance to go early, but he can still go hard. By doing so, he could prevent further suffering and unnecessary loss of life in Saskatchewan.


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Gen X leaves baby boomers in the dust with 50% wealth jump during pandemic

People aged 41 to 56 saw robust gains in equities and pension entitlements, while their share of nation's consumer debt declined

Author of the article
Bloomberg News
Alex Tanzi
Publishing date:Oct 05, 2021 

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The COVID-19 crisis — and the housing crunch it generated — hit when many Gen Xers already owned a home, enabling them to capitalize on the boom.
 PHOTO BY MELISSA PHILLIP/HOUSTON CHRONICLE VIA AP FILES

Generation X, the oft-overlooked demographic group squeezed between the baby boomers and millennials, has experienced a wealth boom in the U.S. since COVID-19 was declared a national emergency.

During the pandemic, household wealth distribution has shifted from older generations to those who are reaching their peak earnings years, according to data from the Federal Reserve.

Gen Xers, who are age 41 to 56, saw robust gains in equities and pension entitlements, while their share of the nation’s consumer debt declined, the data show.

The COVID-19 crisis marks a rebound of sorts for the cohort that was worst-hit by the 2008 financial crisis. Millions of Gen Xers, who were in their 30s and early 40s at the time, lost jobs and housing wealth.

Their careers have since stabilized and those who could save money have invested in the stock market and 401Ks retirement accounts.

As of June this year, Generation X held 28.6 per cent of the nation’s wealth, up 3.9 percentage points from the first quarter of 2020, according to Fed data. In dollar value, that translates into a 50 per cent gain in their aggregate net worth — the difference between a household’s assets and debts.

The shares held by the so-called Silent Generation, born before 1946, and the boomers, the largest demographic group by far, declined in the same period.

Another way to grasp the Gen X wealth boom: The cohort of about 34.6 million households added US$13 trillion in assets over 15 months. That’s more than the US$12.8 trillion added by Boomers, a group that includes 7.7 million more households.

The COVID-19 crisis — and the housing crunch it generated — hit when many Gen Xers already owned a home, enabling them to capitalize on the boom. The younger millennial generation, who are age 25 to 40, were less likely to be homeowners.

Gen Xers also benefited more than the older boomers from a rise in pension assets. The youngest boomers are 57 and many have retired — meaning they are drawing down on their pensions.

In five quarters, equity assets owned by Gen X households more than doubled to $10.5 trillion, according to the Fed data. That amount is now more than 10 times the stock holdings of millennials — yet only about half boomers’ equity holdings.

In term of deployable cash, too, Gen X households are still dwarfed by their elders, on aggregate. Baby Boomers have accumulated more than US$1.6 trillion in excess savings in the past two years, Fed data show, more than twice as much as Gen Xers did.

That means that over the coming decades, there will be an outsized transfer of wealth from baby boomers to younger generations.

BILLY IDOL FORMALLY OF GEN X
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 Opinion

Canadian government's proposed online harms legislation threatens our human rights

No other liberal democracy in the world has been willing to

 accept these restrictions, writes Ilan Kogan


Ilan Kogan · for CBC Opinion · 
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes part in a moment of silence in the House of Commons in recognition of four people killed in a truck attack in London, Ont. In the wake of the incident, which police say was a targeted attack on a Muslim family, Ottawa promised better regulation for online hate speech, but the new rules create more problems than they solve, writes Ilan Kogan. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

This column is an opinion from Ilan Kogan, a Canadian JD/MBA student at Yale Law School and Harvard Business School. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.

The Canadian government is considering new rules to regulate how social media platforms moderate potentially harmful user-generated content. Already, the proposed legislation has been criticized by internet scholars — across the political spectrum — as some of the worst in the world.

Oddly, the proposed legislation reads like a list of the most widely condemned policy ideas globally. Elsewhere, these ideas have been vigorously protested by human rights organizations and struck down as unconstitutional. No doubt, the federal government's proposed legislation presents a serious threat to human rights in Canada.

The government's intentions are noble. The purpose of the legislation is to reduce five types of harmful content online: child sexual exploitation content, terrorist content, content that incites violence, hate speech, and non-consensual sharing of intimate images.

Even though this content is already largely illegal, further reducing its proliferation is a worthy goal. Governments around the world, and particularly in Europe, have introduced legislation to combat these harms. The problem is not the government's intention. The problem is the government's solution.

Serious privacy issues

The legislation is simple. First, online platforms would be required to proactively monitor all user speech and evaluate its potential for harm. Online communication service providers would need to take "all reasonable measures," including the use of automated systems, to identify harmful content and restrict its visibility. 

Second, any individual would be able to flag content as harmful. The social media platform would then have 24 hours from initial flagging to evaluate whether the content was in fact harmful. Failure to remove harmful content within this period could trigger a stiff penalty: up to three per cent of the service provider's gross global revenue or $10 million, whichever is higher. For Facebook, that would be a penalty of $2.6 billion per post.

Proactive monitoring of user speech presents serious privacy issues. Without restrictions on proactive monitoring, national governments would be able to significantly increase their surveillance powers. 

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects all Canadians from unreasonable searches. But under the proposed legislation, a reasonable suspicion of illegal activity would not be necessary for a service provider, acting on the government's behalf, to conduct a search. All content posted online would be searched. Potentially harmful content would be stored by the service provider and transmitted — in secret — to the government for criminal prosecution.

Under the proposed legislation, many innocent Canadians will be referred for criminal prosecution, writes Ilan Kogan. (Trevor Brine/CBC)

Canadians who have nothing to hide still have something to fear. Social media platforms process billions of pieces of content every day. Proactive monitoring is only possible with an automated system. Yet automated systems are notoriously inaccurate. Even Facebook's manual content moderation accuracy has been reported to be below 90 per cent.

Social media companies are not like newspapers; accurately reviewing every piece of content is operationally impossible. The outcome is uncomfortable: Many innocent Canadians will be referred for criminal prosecution under the proposed legislation.

But it gets worse. If an online communication service provider determined that your content was not harmful within the tight 24-hour review period, and the government later decided otherwise, the provider could lose up to three per cent of their gross global revenue. Accordingly, any rational platform would censor far more content than the strictly illegal. Human rights scholars call this troubling phenomenon "collateral censorship."

Identifying illegal content is difficult, and therefore the risk of collateral censorship is high. Hate speech restrictions may best illustrate the problem. The proposal expects platforms to apply the Supreme Court of Canada's hate speech jurisprudence. Identifying hate speech is difficult for courts, let alone algorithms or low-paid content moderators who must make decisions in mere seconds. Although speech that merely offends is not hate speech, platforms are likely to remove anything that has even the slightest potential to upset. Ironically, the very minority groups the legislation seeks to protect are some of the most likely to be harmed. That's why so many Canadian anti-racism groups have opposed the legislation.

We must demand better

So, what to do about online harms? One step in the right direction is to recognize that not all harmful content is the same. For instance, it is far easier to identify child pornography than hate speech. Accordingly, the timelines for removing the former should be shorter than for the latter. 

And although revenge pornography might be appropriate to remove solely upon a victim's request, offensive speech might need input from the poster and an independent agency or court before removal is required by law. Other jurisdictions draw distinctions. Canada should too.

Regulating online harms is a serious issue that the Canadian government, like all others, must tackle to protect its citizens. Child pornography, terrorist content, incitement, hate speech, and revenge pornography have no place in Canada. More can be done to limit their prevalence online. 

But the proposed legislation creates far more problems than it solves. It reads as a collection of the worst policy ideas introduced around the world in the past decade. No other liberal democracy has been willing to accept these restrictions. 

The threats to privacy and freedom of expression are obvious. Canadians must demand better.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ilan Kogan

Ilan Kogan is a Canadian JD/MBA student at Yale Law School and Harvard Business School. Previously, he worked at the Facebook Oversight Board and the Executive Office of the Secretary General at the United Nations.

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