PROVES WE NEED UBI*

Internal government analysis shows depth of reliance on now-defunct recovery benefit

OTTAWA — The majority of Canadian residents who received the federal Canada Recovery Benefit were continuous or repeat recipients of the now-ended aid program, An internal government analysis reveals. © Provided by The Canadian Press

The assessment from Employment and Social Development Canada found that by early June, 1.5 million, or about 75 per cent of the 1.8 million unique recipients of the benefit, were continuous or repeat beneficiaries.

Among them were some 627,000 recipients who applied and received the benefit for months at a time, never once taking a break.

The Canadian Press obtained a copy of the briefing note to the top official at the department under the access to information law.

Experts who reviewed the document suggested the analysis hints at the level of need for the income-support program, which came to an end over the weekend.

As of Oct. 10, the CRB had paid out just over $27 billion to nearly 2.2 million applicants since launching in late September 2020, but had seen a steady decline in demand from its peak of 1.22 million recipients in January.

By the end, there were about 800,000 people reliant on the payments who only had 48 hours to adjust their finances when the Liberals announced a change in the benefit package on Thursday.

"Workers need the Canada Recovery Benefits to pay rent and not lose their housing. Many workers can only find part-time work & are not getting enough shifts to make ends meet. The pandemic is not over," Deena Ladd, executive director of the Toronto-based Workers Action Centre, wrote in a tweet Sunday asking the Liberals to reinstate the benefit.

The government said the CRB was no longer needed because the Canadian economy was faring better than a few months ago, including a labour market that had recovered the three million jobs lost at the onset of the pandemic last year.

Similarly, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said, the wage subsidy was no longer required as she proposed a broadened credit for companies that hire new workers.

Jennifer Robson, an associate professor of political management from Carleton University in Ottawa, said the Liberals' announcement didn't signal anything about the need for retraining or job-search services to help unemployed workers.

"The hiring credit might, in theory, help some kinds of employers hire more staff, but there's nothing here that would suggest this will do much in the short-term to help CRB users," Robson wrote in an email.

In their analysis, federal officials noted the number of first-time applicants for the CRB decreased starting in mid-January. The document also said more than 600,000 recipients who were paid in the first four months of the CRB's life were off the benefit by the start of June.

A similar trend was noticed among employment insurance claimants, "which indicates that Canadians have been steadily returning to work," officials wrote, adding that EI claims for sales and service jobs "have yet to recover as quickly as other occupations."

CIBC chief economist Avery Shenfeld wrote in an end-of-week analysis that there is now a risk that workers supported by the wage subsidy or CRB "will be added to the ranks of the job hunters" and affect progress on bringing down the national unemployment rate.

In place of the CRB, the Liberals introduced a rejigged $300-a-week benefit that would only go to workers who lose their jobs or income because of a government-ordered lockdown.

In a television interview aired Sunday, Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough told CTV's Question Period that the benefit would only go to those affected by a full lockdown and not tightened restrictions that limited capacity at restaurants, for instance.

"I'm not sure if there are any lockdowns presently in motion, in which case that is an effective shutdown to the CRB with no additional benefits," said David Macdonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2021.

Jordan Press, The Canadian Press

*UBI Works - A Canada Where Everyone Can Pursue Their Potential

Exxon calls for carbon price, working on CCS projects across Asia

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp is pursuing carbon capture storage (CCS) hubs across Asia and has started talks with some countries with potential storage options for carbon dioxide, the company's head of low carbon solutions said on Monday.

One of Exxon's key projects is to build CCS hubs in Southeast Asia, similar to one being built in Houston, Texas, ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions President Joe Blommaert told Reuters.

CCS traps emissions and buries them underground but is not yet at the commercialisation stage.

CCS advocates, including oil majors and the International Energy Agency, see the technology as being essential to help meet net zero emissions and key to unlocking large-scale economic hydrogen production, although critics say CCS will extend the life of dirty fossil fuels.

Melbourne-based Global CCS Institute said in October that global plans to build CCS projects https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/global-carbon-capture-projects-surge-50-9-months-research-2021-10-12 surged 50% over the last nine months.

For CCS to take off, a transparent carbon price and cross-border pricing adjustment systems will be necessary to enable CO2 to be captured in one country and stored elsewhere, Blommaert said in an interview ahead of the Singapore International Energy Week.

"That's why a transparent value of carbon is so important, that it is a durable mechanism, that it is agnostic to what kind of technology that goes ... and that it works across borders because emissions do not know any borders," Blommaert said, adding he expects discussions of carbon border tax similar to that in Europe https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/eu-proposes-worlds-first-carbon-border-tax-some-imports-2021-07-14 to occur in Southeast Asia.

"Because much of the world doesn't have carbon pricing, there's a risk that some operators will move to countries that don’t yet price emissions," he told the conference.

Last month, the U.S. energy major said 11 companies have agreed to begin discussing plans that could lead to capturing and storing up to 50 million tonnes per year (tpy) of CO2 in the Gulf of Mexico by 2030 https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/exxon-proposes-massive-carbon-capture-storage-project-houston-2021-04-19.

"Unlike in Houston, the storage capacity here is not close to the areas with the highest emissions," Blommaert said.

"That's why we've been studying the concept of placing CO2 capture hubs in some of Asia's heavy industrial areas such as here in Singapore and then connecting them to CO2 storage locations elsewhere in the region," he said, adding that CO2 could be transported via pipelines or ships.

Southeast Asia's industrial CO2 emissions exceeded 4 billion tpy, Blommaert said, citing 2019 data from the International Energy Agency.

ExxonMobil has listed Singapore, home to the major's largest refining-petrochemical centre globally, as one of its CCS projects. However, Singapore does not have suitable CO2 storage sites, a recent CCS study commissioned by Singapore government showed.

LOCATIONS

Another study by the Singapore Energy Centre, partly founded by ExxonMobil, estimated nearly 300 billion tonnes of CO2 storage capacity in depleted oil and gas fields and saline formations in Southeast Asia, Blommaert said.

Countries in the region with potential storage sites include Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia where ExxonMobil has oil and gas production facilities. The U.S. major also operates a joint refining-petrochemical complex in eastern China Fujian with Sinopec and Saudi Aramco.

"We continue to evaluate all options around the world, and that includes some of those locations," Blommaert said, without naming countries.

"If you have a very high concentration of carbon dioxide stream that will represent, possibly a lower cost (for CCS)," Blommaert said.

"The market for CO2 is rather limited when you put it into that scale, and therefore storage of CO2 long term is essential."

(Reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore; additional reporting by Christina Bernadette in Jakarta, Sonali Paul in Australia, Sabrina Valle and Gary McWilliams in Houston; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

Carbon needs to cost at least $100/tonne now to reach net zero by 2050 : Reuters poll

By Prerana Bhat 

© Reuters/Ernest Scheyder FILE PHOTO: Equipment used to capture carbon dioxide emissions at a coal-fired power plant 

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Setting the global average price of carbon per tonne significantly higher at $100 or more is necessary right away to incentivise net zero emissions by 2050, according to a Reuters poll of climate economists.

Carbon pricing has come to the forefront of policy measures seen as ways to reduce emissions to a level consistent with the Paris Agreement target of less than 1.5-2 degrees Celsius of warming.

The G20 group of large economies recognized carbon pricing for the first time as a possible tool at a meeting in Venice in Italy this year.

A higher price for carbon is seen as essential to fund the transition to net zero emissions by 2050, which is estimated to cost $44 trillion or 2%-3% of annual global GDP.

The International Monetary Fund has recommended a global average carbon price of $75 per tonne by the end of the decade.

But that figure should be at least $100, and right away, to reach net zero emissions by 2050, according to the median view of about 30 climate economists from around the world polled from Sept. 16 to Oct. 20 ahead of the COP26 summit in Glasgow.

That is significantly higher than where most countries who set the price currently have it, including among high carbon emitters.

Nearly 70% of respondents - 19 of 28 - said the cost of carbon per tonne should be above $75, of whom 17 suggested $100 or above. While six respondents agreed with the IMF recommendation, only three believed it should be lower than $75. Recommendations ranged from $50 to $250.

"Current carbon prices in G20 economies are between $3-$60 per tonne of carbon emissions, but many large emerging economies like Brazil, India, Indonesia still have no carbon prices," said Patrick Saner, head of macro strategy at Swiss Re.

"We also need to recognize that carbon pricing in itself is no silver bullet."

The top three largest emitters - China, the United States and India - account for approximately half of global carbon emissions today.

According to the International Energy Agency, current carbon pledges by governments are insufficient to reach targets, and closing the gap would need the global average price of carbon to be much higher than what the IMF recommends.

Indeed, Julien Holtz, strategist at Pictet Wealth Management, argues the global average carbon price per tonne is really only around $2 given only about 20% of global emissions are currently covered by actual carbon pricing schemes.

While China, the biggest carbon emitter, kicked off its emission trading system on July 16, with an opening price of 48 yuan ($7.51) per tonne, the U.S. and India still do not have a national carbon pricing market mechanism.

Even the European Union, at the forefront of reducing carbon emissions, has set the carbon price at a little more than half the poll's recommendation. Benchmark carbon prices in the EU Emission Trading System, the first such system, were last trading at 57.78 euros ($67.26) as of Oct. 20.

The EU price is expected to average around 55.88 euros ($65.07) and 69.87 euros ($81.36) per tonne this year and next, according to a separate Reuters poll.

Wide economic disparities pose a major challenge to all countries agreeing to a uniformly high global carbon price, which partly explains the wide range of recommendations provided by climate economists to reach net zero by 2050.

With most emerging and some developed countries' continued reliance on fossil fuel-based energy sources to meet their energy demands, a high carbon price will be hard to sustain.

"It should start modestly but (be) sufficient to push out coal in the electricity merit order, at least partially," said Charles Kolstad, professor of economics at Stanford University.

Despite being crucial to fight climate change, experts say carbon pricing alone is not enough.

"While carbon prices in the major world economies are necessary, they are not by themselves sufficient to deliver net zero economies by 2050," said Jon Stenning, associate director and head of environment at Cambridge Econometrics.

"The key issue is the need for supporting fiscal and regulatory policy, in addition to carbon pricing to ensure that economies can decarbonise at the pace required."

(For a story on the global economic cost of climate change:)

(For an EXPLAINER on the economic stakes of climate change:)

($1 = 6.3925 Chinese yuan renminbi, 0.8590 euros)

(Additional reporting by Swathi Nair; Polling by Swathi Nair, Prerana Bhat, Hari Kishan and Mumal Rathore; Editing by Ross Finley and Hugh Lawson)

HE LIES
Chrétien says he never heard of abuse at residential schools during time as minister

HE SCOOPED A FIRST NATIONS CHILD TO BE HIS FOSTER SON

MONTREAL — Former prime minister Jean Chrétien says the abuse of Indigenous children that took place in Canadian residential schools while he was minister of Indian affairs was never brought to his attention at the time.

© Provided by The Canadian Press Powered by Microsoft News

"This problem was never mentioned to me when I was minister," Chrétien told the popular Quebec TV talk show "Tout le monde en parle,' Sunday night. "Never."

Chrétien, who was minister of Indian affairs from 1968 to 1974, said he knew residential schools existed and how difficult the experience was, drawing a comparison with his own time in conventional boarding schools.

"I was a boarding student, from age six to 21," he said. "I had my share of baked beans and oatmeal. For sure, life in boarding school was difficult, extremely difficult."

Chrétien's comments drew immediate criticism.

The discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at residential school sites across Canada over the summer revived conversations around the discriminatory system designed to assimilate Indigenous children. The 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report documented the physical and sexual abuse and malnutrition suffered by children in the schools.

At a news conference in Ottawa along with residential schools survivors, New Democrat MP Charlie Angus said he simply doesn't believe Chrétien.

"It is outrageous for Jean Chrétien today to try and whitewash his role at St. Anne's residential school, because he knew," Angus said, referring to a facility in Fort Albany, Ont. "People reached out to him and begged him to do the right thing, and he ignored them."

Angus shared on Twitter a handwritten letter that was sent to Chrétien by a teacher in 1968, denouncing the conditions at St. Anne's and referring to the school's "sterile, rigid, unloving atmosphere."

"Jean Chrétien never responded," Angus said. "Imagine if he had read that letter and thought, 'I should do something.' How many children could have been saved, because some of the worst crimes were being committed at that time?"

The 87-year-old former politician was invited on the show to talk about his new book, published in English as "My Stories, My Times Vol. 2." He was asked about a passage in which he says he advised the Queen against apologizing to the Maori people of New Zealand for what was done to them by the British colonial administration.

"Your Majesty, if you start, I will have to bring you to Canada and, since we have several hundred Indigenous communities, you will be on your knees for at least two years," he recalled telling the Queen in the book.

On Sunday, Chrétien defended his words by saying excuses are good, but offering a future to Indigenous Peoples is better. "We cannot rewrite history," Chrétien said.

"Terrible things have happened, not only in Canada. In the United States, it's the army that destroyed the Indigenous Peoples. Here, we had missionaries that were sent, it was less dangerous."

National Chief RoseAnne Archibald of the Assembly of First Nations raised doubts Monday about the sincerity of Chrétien's comments.

"Chrétien says the Queen’s apology would keep her kneeling for two years, but he heard nothing about institutes of assimilation and genocide?" she wrote on Twitter. "Let’s remember that he promoted the 1969 White Paper on assimilation and genocide that launched First Nations activism."

Innu author Michel Jean, another guest on the talk show, criticized Chrétien's comparison of residential schools to his own boarding school experience.

"Mr. Chrétien, with all respect, doesn't exactly realize what a residential school was," Jean said. "And he's not alone." Jean explained that most people tend to wrongly associate these institutions with schools, where you "teach people how to write."

While Chrétien said he never heard of nor experienced abuse while he was in boarding school, insinuating he "mustn't have been a pretty boy at that time," Jean recalled completely different stories from his family.

"Someone in my family, who went to a residential school in Fort George, told me they were sexually assaulted every day, for eight years by a nun," Jean said.

Chrétien repeated throughout Sunday's interview that he deeply cared about Indigenous issues while he was in power. He pointed to the adoption by him and his wife Aline of an 18-month-old Indigenous boy as evidence of his devotion to the cause.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Oct. 25, 2021.

— With files from Lina Dib in Ottawa

Virginie Ann, The Canadian Press

Major League Baseball work stoppage almost certain on Dec. 2


HOUSTON (AP) — Baseball’s ninth work stoppage and first in 26 years appears almost certain to start Dec. 2, freezing the free-agent market and threatening the start of spring training in February.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Negotiations have been taking place since last spring, and each side thinks the other has not made proposals that will lead toward an agreement replacing the five-year contract that expires at 11:59 p.m. EST on Dec. 1.

The luxury tax system that started with the 2003 season sunsets with the expiration of the labor contract, with the exception of completing accounting and payments for the 2021 tax year. Uncertainty over the 2022 season probably will cause high-spending clubs to delay reaching pricier player agreements.

Free agents can start signing with any team on the sixth day following the World Series, and this year’s group includes Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, Freddie Freeman, Trevor Story, Max Scherzer, Marcus Semien, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Michael Conforto and Kevin Gausman.

MLB may attempt a signing freeze with the start of a lockout, or the marketplace might grind to a halt on its own, even more pronounced than the slowdowns of the 2017-18 and 2018-19 offseasons.

New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman doesn’t know the parameters of what he has to spend.

“I have yet to have the conversation yet with what potentials, acknowledging that we have budget commitments already in play and depending on how the new collective bargaining agreement works out over the course of time, hopefully sooner than later,” he said.

Agents say they have received no guidance from the players’ association. Some have braced for a two-week scramble to sign next March or later, whenever a lockout ends.

This lack of pace in negotiations is similar to what occurred in 1989-90, when the agreement expired Dec. 31 and owners announced on Jan. 9 that a lockout would begin Feb. 15 absent an agreement. A deal was reached March 1 and opening day was delayed a week until April 9, causing 78 games to be postponed and rescheduled.

Teams have proposed eliminating salary arbitration and allowing players to become free agents in the offseason after they turn 29 1/2 rather than the six seasons of major league service in place since 1976. They have proposed a lower luxury threshold along with a payroll floor. Players have refused for decades to consider a payroll floor, feeling it would lead to a salary cap.

Concerned with “tanking” by rebuilding teams and a slide in spending on major league payrolls, players want changes in the current deal, which calls for payrolls to be taxed above $210 million (using average annual values plus benefits) and includes surtaxes that went into place for 2017. Management’s proposal called for the threshold to be dropped to $180 million, another factor that may gridlock many free agent negotiations.

The average major league salary dropped from $4,097,122 in 2017 to $3,881,021 in 2020, before accounting for prorated pay caused by the pandemic, according to the players’ association. Based on this year’s opening-day payrolls, the final figure for 2021 is projected to be about $3.7 million.

Baseball was interrupted by eight work stoppages from 1972-95, the last a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95 that wiped out the World Series for the first time in 90 years. The closest the sport has come to another stoppage was in 2002, when an agreement was reached on Aug. 30 about 3 1/2 hours before players had been set to strike. That marked the first agreement without a stoppage since 1969.

Agreements were reached before the expiration on Oct. 24 in 2006, on Nov. 22 in 2011 and on Nov. 30 in 2016.

As bargaining sputtered this year, the union began a grievance hearing before arbitrator Martin F. Scheinman on Sept. 27 on its claim that the 60-game schedule in the 2020 pandemic-affected season was too short. Jeffrey L. Kessler, the Winston & Strawn co-executive chairman, gave a four-hour opening argument on behalf of the union, a person familiar with the hearing said, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the sides have not commented on the session.

Kessler declined to comment.

___

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Ronald Blum, The Associated Press

Ontario university sports are overwhelmingly white, report finds


University athletics in Ontario are overwhelmingly white, from student athletes to coaches to administrators, according to a new report that found rampant systemic racism in varsity sports.

 

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The organization that co-ordinates athletic competitions at the university level in Ontario said in the OUA Anti-Racism Project report released Monday that more than three-quarters of the province's coaches and administrators are white, as are more than two-thirds of student athletes, based on a survey that saw 45 per cent of its membership respond.

The Ontario University Athletics report, led by Janelle Joseph, an assistant professor with the University of Toronto's Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, found racialized coaches are more likely to be volunteers, or get paid on seasonal salaries or stipends. Racialized administrators were also more likely to be in assistant, part-time or entry-level positions, "meaning they earn the lowest salaries of OUA members."

"This finding echoes extensive research on universities in Canada that show low rates of recruiting, hiring, retention, and promotion of racialized student, staff, and faculty, despite large pools of candidates to draw from," the report reads.

In interviews with coaching and administrative staff, the OUA found an inequitable hiring process may have contributed to that gap.

"For white-identified OUA members the path to obtain a position as a head coach or leader within administration appeared smooth," the report reads. "Most were either offered a position without a formal interview or were explicitly encouraged to apply."

Racialized staffers had a notably different experience.

"All racialized coaches were former players who had volunteered, worked part-time, completed education and/or assisted for many years with few ever ascending to the role of head coach," the report said.

The racialized coaches who were able to jump through those hoops and get hired found the differences didn't stop there, according to the report.

"Unlike their white colleagues, they live in excessive scrutiny and fear of reprimand for their coaching decisions, worry about being alienated or ostracized for speaking up against injustice, and are exhausted from navigating racist communities on and off campus," the report reads.

The overwhelming whiteness of those in charge may have also had a trickle-down effect on student athletes, the report found. Many administrators and coaches told researchers that they didn't see colour, were naïve about the presence of racism, or didn't know where to look for it.

"Those in positions of power within the OUA, who often have no personal experience handling or witnessing instances of racism, are those who make decisions regarding anti-racist practice and policy," the report reads.

Discriminatory practices may also have led to a lack of diversity among student athletes, the report found.

While the Canadian University Survey Consortium's 2021 survey of graduating students found 47 per cent of graduating undergrads identified as visible minorities or Indigenous, more than 71 per cent of student athletes who responded to the OUA survey identified themselves as white.

"The funnelling system into university for most sports relies heavily on private schools, clubs, and pay-to-play systems," the report reads. "Each of these methods overwhelmingly select athletes from middle- to upper-class families with many opportunities and resources available to succeed in sport and university."

The report recommends mandatory and continuous anti-racism training, and a shift in how athletes and coaches are recruited.

Rather than looking for student athletes only at private schools and pay-for-play clubs, teams should hold open tryouts, the report recommends.

"Recruiting racialized athletes will require some coaches to break well-established patterns of recruitment and spark new relationships with coaches, parents, and athletes," the report reads.

The report also recommends publicly celebrating the achievements of racialized athletes so potential recruits know they wouldn't be alone on a team.

It said the OUA and university athletic departments should establish an anti-racism policy that is specific about what is not tolerated, has a step-by-step reporting process and consequences for racist behaviours.

"Participants noted that policy affects practice and advocated for a 'zero tolerance' anti-racism policy, which would mean they would not need to fear being ostracized by their teammates or penalized by their coach for speaking up," it reads.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2021.

WTF
Basketball trailblazer denied Canadian permanent residency, must return to U.S.

Kate Dubinski 

© Haute Hijab Sport Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir and her husband moved to London, Ont., three years ago. Abdul-Qaadir coached at the London Islamic School.

Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, the trailblazing basketball player who set up an academy for girls and coached multiple sports at an Islamic school in London, Ont., has been denied permanent residency in Canada and will have to go back to the United States.

"We've been here for two years, my son is Canadian, and we would love to be part of this country, but we finally got the message from immigration that we were denied permanent residency. It's very unexpected," said Abdul Qaadir from her London home. "I'm at a loss for words. I've single-handedly brought sports to an underserviced community. It's heartbreaking."

Abdul-Qaadir and her husband, A.W. Massey, moved to London from Tennessee three years ago.

She said she hasn't been able to work in Canada since August, when her work permit expired and wasn't renewed by a Canadian border official.

"We're still trying to figure out what we're going to do. We aren't sure. We're angry and we're tired. We put our heart and soul into this application. We felt like we checked all the boxes."

Abdul-Qaadir led a four-year battle against the International Basketball Federation, which banned religious head coverings on the court. She won, but sacrificed her basketball career to do so.

She had been the leading high school point scorer for both boys and girls in Massachusetts, and went on to play for the University of Memphis in Tennessee, where she was the first woman to play in a hijab in NCAA Division 1.

Alongside her motivational speaking gigs, she teaches at the London Islamic School and has opened a basketball academy in London, but all that is now up in the air.

On Thursday, Abdul-Qaadir got a letter from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) that said she doesn't "meet the requirements for immigration to Canada."

She applied for permanent residency as an athletic director at the London Muslim Mosque, but her duties — including developing, managing and supervising the school's physical education and athletic programs, as well as being the head coach for the basketball, volleyball and cross-country teams — are "inconsistent with the actions" of an athletic director.

"I am not satisfied that your stated duties is sufficient to indicate that your role involves plan, organize, direct, control and evaluate the operations of comprehensive fitness programs at this organization. I am also not satisfied that you performed a substantial number of the main duties for this [job classification]," IRCC wrote in her letter.

Abdul-Qaadir said she doesn't know if she and her husband will fight the refusal.

 

© Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photographer Abdul-Qaadir set the state record for the highest all-time high school scorer for men and women in Massachusetts.

Alberta legislature resumes: Government focuses on economy, Opposition on COVID-19


EDMONTON — The first day of the Alberta legislature's fall sitting signalled the government's intention to focus on the economy and the Opposition determined to hold the United Conservatives to account for mismanaging COVID-19.© Provided by The Canadian Press

NDP Leader Rachel Notley accused Premier Jason Kenney and his cabinet of negligently downplaying the fourth wave of COVID-19, then disappearing in the summer as cases soared, resulting in hundreds of deaths and pushing hospital capacity to the breaking point.

“The premier went on vacation. He left Alberta without leadership,” Notley said in question period Monday as she pointed across the aisle at Kenney and his cabinet.

“Where was your health minister? Your deputy premier? Your finance minister? A single solitary adult over there? Where were they?”

Kenney responded that every jurisdiction has had COVID-19 hard times and the NDP’s criticism is not helpful to solving the crisis.

“They (the NDP) have always craved an Australian-style hard and brutal lockdown, the consequences of which would require turning this province into a virtual police state,” said Kenney.  CHEAP SHOT RED BAITING EXCEPT AUSTRALIA IS A NEO LIBERAL TORY REGIME LIKE UCP

The premier has said he didn’t react with renewed rules to address the soaring summer case numbers until Sept. 3, because he didn’t believe a COVID-19-weary population would follow them.  NOT ALBERTANS BUT HIS WEARY ANTI MASK ANTI VAX UCP BASE

The numbers have been dropping slowly in recent weeks, but there are still 182 people infected with the virus receiving intensive care.

The health system has had to double its normal amount of ICU beds, forcing the cancellation of thousands of non-urgent surgeries, and call in the military to handle the surge.

Kenney said there will be a review eventually of how his government handled the COVID-19 pandemic. He rejected the NDP’s call for an all-party committee with subpoena powers to get to the bottom of what happened over the summer.

Now is not the time to pull medical staff away from their duties, he said.

The legislature is to sit for five of the next six weeks through to the beginning of December. There's to be a one-week break around Remembrance Day.

Government house leader Jason Nixon said there will be 18 to 20 bills focused on creating jobs and diversifying the economy.

“I will be putting forward a very robust legislative agenda inside the legislature. And we will be going very quickly around the clock — morning, noon and night — to be able to fulfil that agenda for Albertans,” Nixon said.

Kenney introduced the first bill Monday to streamline how professional requirements are processed for those from out of province.

“Occupations are regulated inconsistently across Canada, creating a patchwork of credential recognition that holds back skilled and certified workers,” Kenney told a news conference.

The bill would affect more than 100 regulated professions, including nurses, accountants, real estate agents, firefighters, paramedics, engineers, insurance adjusters and horse jockeys.

Professional bodies would have to make a decision on an application within a month of receiving it and establish timely appeals for those rejected.

They would also have to make available online a breakdown of what documents are required to apply and the fees involved.

Kenney said the legislation, coupled with low taxes, high oil prices and COVID-19 receding, would help Alberta’s bottom line rebound.

“We are moving, I believe, probably into a strong and sustained cycle of economic growth,” said Kenney. “(But) we are hearing about labour shortages, not just in Alberta, but across the economy in North America, (so) this is going to become an emerging challenge.”

Infrastructure Minister Prasad Panda introduced legislation to codify how capital projects are given a green light and a 20-year strategy for capital planning.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2021.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

'Never going to be ashamed:' Métis, two-spirit NDP MP wants to rebrand Alberta

EDMONTON — Blake Desjarlais says he represents what Alberta is truly about and it's not what the rest of Canada might think.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Believed to bethe first two-spirit member of Parliament, the 27-year-old says his ancestry and Métis identity tell a juxtaposed story about the Prairies.

"We have this terrible reputation across the country for being this redneck, Texas-like state," Desjarlais says in a recent interview while sitting in a hotel lobby in central Edmonton'sBoyle Street neighbourhood.

"(Alberta Premier) Jason Kenney has done an incredible job damaging our credibility across the world ... my family founded this province. We fought for it. We shed blood. We know first and foremost what this province is."

Desjarlais worked for Metis Settlements Alberta and chaired Alberta’s Indigenous climate leadership summits before he jumped into federal politics for the first time this year as an NDP candidate. In the September election, he unseateda Conservative in the Edmonton Griesbach riding.

Desjarlais says his roots stretch back centuries in the region, including the North-West Rebellion in 1885. His ancestors fought alongside Metis leader Louis Riel because they felt that Canada was not protecting their distinct culture.

Born in Edmonton, he says obstacles he faced as a child forced him to grow up fast and prepared him for politics.

"My courageous biological mother, Brenda, was a victim of the '60s Scoop and made the difficult decision to ask her sister, Grace, who she barely knew, to raise her son, as she faced her own traumas," Desjarlais says.

"I grew up hating this idea of being ... abandoned. But I quickly realized that it was the opposite of what actually happened."

While his mother struggled with substance abuse and tried to survive as a sex worker, Desjarlais grew up with his aunt and seven other children on the Fishing Lake Métis Settlement northeast of Edmonton.

Indigenous communities have had kinship families for centuries, he says.

"That's why Albertans are some of the hardest working people, who can teach the world a lot about community building and unity."

His riding office is located on 118Avenue, a well-known strip north of the downtown where his mother worked in the sex trade.

"(It's) really like the Indigenous street where new Canadians and people of colour feel at home, and that's where my mother felt at home," he says, adding he still bumps into elders in the area who worked with his mother, who fell ill and died about a decade ago.

The elders tell him stories about how they took care of one another, never knowing what their real names were.

"They had all these nicknames and ways of surviving in this community, and I'm part of it," Desjarlais says.

"I'm never going to be ashamed of that."

Since his election win, Desjarlais says he has also been thinking about his father, who was called Chully.

Chully worked as a carpenter and put smiles on people's faces when he handed them keys to new affordable housing units in Alberta. He died when Desjarlais was 12.

It's why Desjarlais wants to continue building.

"There's three kinds of building I want to do," Desjarlais says.

He wants to build infrastructure to help Alberta grow and create jobs. He wants to build intellectual power by investing in new technology to prevent brain drain in the region.

Lastly, Desjarlais says he wants tobuild a better brand for Alberta.

He wants it to be a province that embraces the history of its diverse groups, including some of its first immigrants from Lebanon, he says.

"People of colour ... their contributions continuously just get washed away. That's what I mean by rebranding ... how do we truly represent who we are as a province? By being honest with ourselves."

He says he also wants Alberta rebranded as environmentally friendly.

"There's only a finite amount of resources, so we have to diversify."

Desjarlais says he's excited for what the future holds.

Although he still has a lot to learn, he says he may consider running for prime minister one day — if enough people ask him to.

"I'm not terribly ambitious," he says with a laugh.

"I'm more of an 'oskapewo.' It's the Cree word for ... someone who helps medicine people with healing.

"I go where I'm told to."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2021.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press

Harvard professors warn that war-torn countries will miss global vaccine goals in 2022

Some 50 million people live under armed, non-state groups, with another 100 million living in volatile areas, according to the Red Cross.

WHO's global vaccine initiative COVAX aims to provide free Covid shots to struggling nations that will cover at least 20% of their population.

The program, however, faces logistical difficulties of administering multiple vaccine doses in conflict zones.

© Provided by CNBC Taliban members gather and make speeches in front of Herat governorate after the completion of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, in Herat, Afghanistan on August 31, 2021.

War-torn countries will miss the World Health Organization's goal of vaccinating 70% of their populations against Covid-19 by the middle of next year, health leaders from Harvard said at a conference hosted by the university on Monday.

Health-care systems and public infrastructure have been devastated in nations of conflict over the course of the pandemic, said Claude Bruderlein, a lecturer at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Some 50 million people live under armed, non-state groups, with another 100 million living in volatile areas, according to the Red Cross.

"We're talking about 70% for mid-2022," Bruderlein said of the WHO's target. "There is simply no way that the countries in conflict will reach any of these goals."

Bruderlein called on the international medical community to reevaluate COVAX, a WHO initiative that aims to improve the production and distribution of Covid vaccines in the developing world. COVAX aims to provide Covid shots for at least 20% of countries' populations, but Bruderlein said the program was unsustainable due to the logistical difficulties of administering multiple vaccine doses in conflict zones and the lack of long-term outbreak protection offered by just 20% vaccination coverage.

Instead, Bruderlein called for health authorities to assess the nations most vulnerable to evolving Covid variants and invest in vaccine rollouts in hopes of immunizing up to 60% of their populations against the virus. COVAX is also running low on vaccines, further impeding the fight to control the virus in conflict zones, Harvard School of Public Health visiting scientist Madeline Drexler said.

"Really the biggest hurdle is this vaccine shortage," Drexler said. "The COVAX facility, which is distributing vaccines to low-income countries all around the world, is desperately short of doses. So really there's a global equity problem right now."

WHO officials have for weeks called on high-income nations to transfer their surplus Covid vaccines to poorer countries to help alleviate the strain of global immunization disparities. The organization set a target to vaccinate 40% of every country's population by the end of the year and 10% of their populations by the end of September, but 56 nations missed the September goal.

Misinformation, political lies and the global spread of the anti-vaccine movement have increased the difficulty of administering vaccines in conflict zones, Drexler said. And the destruction of war makes it even more challenging to fight the pandemic, said Esperanza Martinez, head of the Covid-19 crisis team at the Red Cross.

"The protracted nature of conflict generally weakens health systems, and key parts of the health system that are needed for vaccination are rendered dysfunctional," Martinez said.

"Additional elements to the health system – for example, infrastructure, roads, bridges, water and electricity to run the cold chain – is often not there," she added.