Algoma Steel board greenlights electric arc furnace construction

When operational in 2024, transformative technology will cut Sault steelmaker's greenhouse emissions by 70 per cent

Nov 11, 2021 10:00 AM By: Northern Ontario Business Staff

(ArcelorMittal electric arc furnace)

Algoma Steel's board of directors have given the go-ahead to begin construction of two electric-arc furnaces.

This is a $700-million investment and will transform the way the Sault Ste. Marie steel producer makes its plate and sheet in eventually shifting from burning coal through its existing blast furnace and basic oxygen operations to electric furnace production.

It will cut the 120-year-old company's carbon emissons by 70-per cent, the company said in a news release, placing this project among Canada's highest impact investments in terms of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Algoma anticipates a 30-month construction phase.

The furnaces come online in 2024.
Once the furnaces are commissioned it will give Algoma an annual raw steel production of 3.7 million tons, enough to match its downstream finishing capacity.

The company said these improvements also include a new vacuum degassing capacity. This is a treatment used to reduce the dissolve gas content - like hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen - of the steel to enhance its capacities. Algoma said this will expand itss offering of steel plate grades.

“We believe that today’s strategic decision to transition Algoma to electric arc steelmaking represents a win for all of our stakeholders," said Algoma CEO Michael McQuade in a statement.

"It is designed to transform Algoma into a more agile and profitable company, positioned for long-term growth as an economic driver and employer of choice in our community."

“The board’s decision recognizes that Algoma’s sustainability and Canada’s path to net zero carbon emissions are aligned. You cannot get to net zero without steel, and in becoming a leading provider of green steel in North America, Algoma intends to be part of the solution.”

Andrew Harshaw, Algoma's board chair called the decision the result of two years' worth of "hard work and decisive actions."

“As a board, we have a duty to carefully evaluate investments that may benefit long-term growth and create value. We believe that we have done so and are confident about the significant benefits that this transformation is expected to bring for the Company and its stakeholders. I congratulate Mike and the whole Algoma team for arriving at this exciting milestone.”

The steelmaker said it is engaging with employees, community leaders, suppliers, and union representatives, while also partnering with regional academia to provide new skills training to Algoma’s current employees and to build new careers for local youth in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and the trades for future advanced manufacturing jobs.

Algoma Steel investment in electric arc steelmaking proves company healthy again: Romano

No provincial commitment has been made toward the project, but Romano told SooToday announcements are coming.

 By: Kenneth Armstrong

Sault MPP and minister of Government and Consumer Services Ross Romano is joined by Ontario Energy Minister Todd Smith at a press conference held Friday at Algoma Steel Inc

Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday

The provincial government is trumpeting the recent announcement by Algoma Steel's board of directors to officially go ahead with a $700-million investment in electric arc steelmaking and Sault Ste. Marie’s MPP says that decision could lead to a return of economic prosperity for Northern Ontario.

On Thursday, Algoma Steel announced its board had approved a plan to replace the existing blast furnace with two new state-of-the-art electric-arc-furnaces (EAFs) at an expected cost of $700 million.

On Friday, four provincial cabinet ministers held a press conference at Algoma Energy, the former Lake Superior Power Plant.

Sault Ste. Marie MPP Ross Romano recounted the ‘good times’ at the steel plant before its first bankruptcy and restructuring. His father, grandfather and two uncles were among the 12,000 people working at the plant in those days.

“If you lived in or around Sault Ste. Marie at that time you either worked at Algoma Steel, you were related to somebody who worked at Algoma Steel, at a minimum you knew someone who worked at Algoma Steel. Back then things were very good for Algoma Steel and very good for Sault Ste. Marie, too,” said Romano.

By the time he turned 12 fortunes had turned for the company.

“By the time I started my first year of high school in 1993, Algoma Steel was going through its first bankruptcy restructuring proceedings,” said Romano. “That would be the first of three such proceedings in as many decades. Things in Sault Ste. Marie and all of Northern Ontario had taken a serious decline.”

Romano said the announcement that the company will move ahead with the $700 million investment is good news for the city and for Northern Ontario.

“This demonstrates that Algoma Steel, which has been our largest employer for several generations and supported thousands of workers and their families throughout this time, can continue to be here for several generations more,” said Romano. “This demonstrates that Algoma is healthy again, this demonstrates that our economy can become healthy again and as our economy in Sault Ste. Marie and across all of Northern Ontario becomes healthy again, so to can our communities have a chance at becoming healthy again.”

He said other contributions by the provincial government, like securing the pensions of almost 9,000 steelworkers and a $60 million investment in 2019, led to the conditions that made this newest project possible.

Michael McQuade , CEO of Algoma Steel, said the $700 investment in electric arc steelmaking will be transformational for the company.

“To be in a position to unlock electric arc steelmaking means we will be able to sustain advanced manufacturing in our community, offering a bright future with high-quality jobs for generations to come,” said McQuade.

The company has already begun working with local academic institutions to train current and future generations of steelworkers, like the recently announced Bachelor of Engineering – Mechatronics degree program at Sault College in partnership with Humber College.

McQuade said future generations will look back at the $700-million investment in electric arc technology as a pivotal moment for the company.

“This is a massive win. It’s a win for Algoma Steel, a win for our employees and for our community, for Ontario and for Canada,” said McQuade.

Ontario’s Minister of Energy Todd Smith joined Romano in person at the press conference on Friday, while ministers Greg Rickford and Vic Fedeli appeared by video conference.

In July, the federal government announced a $420 million investment in the project. No provincial commitment has yet been made toward the project, but Romano told SooToday more announcements are coming.

Smith told SooToday the provincial government was waiting until the company made a final decision on the project to make sure it was going ahead.

“The federal government made their $420 million investment earlier this year, but there hadn’t been a decision made by the company to go ahead with this project,” said Smith. “There were a number of different things that were brought to our cabinet table at Queens Park that we had to deal with just to make sure there was the certainty here and in Ontario to make this kind of investment.”

Smith said the plant’s conversion to electric arc technology will reduce CO2 emissions by 3 million tons, having an equivalent effect to taking one million cars off the road.

“It’s enormous. When you think of the heavy lifting Algoma is going to be doing as a result of this investment in the arc furnace when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions for the province — one move like that gets us 16 per cent closer to achieving the targets we set out for Ontario in the Paris Accord for 2030 to meet those targets,” he said.

9 Red-Hot Facts to Know About Steel, the World's Hidden Mega-Polluter

Steel is one of the defining materials of the modern world. But we'll have to learn how to make it anew.

By Brian Kahn

START SLIDESHOW
9 Red-Hot Facts About Steel and Climate Change (gizmodo.com)


Photo: Kevin Frayer (Getty Images)

Steel undergirds much of modern society. Buildings, cars, medical supplies, you name it, steel is there. But it also represents one of humanity’s greatest threats.

Owing to an incredibly energy-intensive manufacturing process, steel is a massive source of carbon pollution that rivals the emissions of some countries.

Figuring out how to build out a future that’s at once durable and carbon-free will be one of the greatest challenges of the decarbonization era. To understand how to do that, you have to understand how steel is made. It’s an incredible process, one that involves shiny suits, blast furnaces, and molten iron

Daphne Bramham: Canada’s phase out of coal still decades away

Opinion: Nothing produces the superheated temperatures required in steel mills for the wind turbines, electric vehicles and high-speed trains of tomorrow more cheaply or reliably than our metallurgical coal

Author of the article: Daphne Bramham
Publishing date: Nov 12, 2021 

 

Roberts Bank port, with Westshore Terminals coal terminal — North America’s busiest coal port — in the foreground, circa 2007. PHOTO BY GOVERNMENT OF CANADA HANDOUT /PNG files

From the heat dome that killed 595 British Columbians this summer to wildfires that burned Lytton to the ground, destroyed homes in other communities and ravaged thousands of hectares of forest, it’s hard to deny climate change is real

But for everyone celebrating Canada’s commitment to end the use of thermal coal, the single biggest contributor to climate change, and Canadian exports of it by 2030, here’s a reality check.

Canada is still in the coal business.

Most of what is produced and exported isn’t thermal coal. A small amount of mostly U.S.-produced thermal coal does get shipped through Roberts Bank port south of Vancouver, but the railways are already planning to phase out shipping of it before the 2030 deadline.

Canada mines, sells and exports metallurgical coal for steel making and demand for steel is forecast by the International Energy Agency to increase by more than a third by 2050.

Demand for steel is driven by the transition to zero-carbon. Things like wind turbines, electric vehicles and high-speed trains need steel.

And for now, nothing produces the superheated temperatures required in steel mills more cheaply or reliably than coal.

Vancouver-based Teck Resources — the world’s second largest seaborne exporter of metallurgical or met coal — forecasts demand to continue growing until at least 2030 and possibly 2040. Yet even if demand starts to decline after 2030, the amount needed will still be more than in 2020.

“For the coal industry, the met coal demand boom has been a lifeline,” Greenpeace noted in a 2017 report on the future of Australia’s coal industry.

But it doesn’t mean that it’s good for the environment

.

Bruce Ralston, the province’s minister of energy, mines and low carbon innovation

. PHOTO BY DON CRAIG /Government of B.C.

Metallurgical coal generates the same amount of carbon dioxide as thermal coal, according to Australian government data. Both produce an average 2.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide for every tonne burned.

Bruce Ralston, B.C.’s minister of energy, mines and low carbon innovation, acknowledged both the emissions problem as well as the economic benefits that British Columbia and Canada gets from coal mining, not least of which are thousands of well-paid jobs.

Canada is the world’s third largest exporter. British Columbia, along with Alberta, accounts for 90 per cent of Canada’s production with coal accounting for 45 per cent of B.C.’s total mining revenue.

North America’s busiest coal port, Westshore Terminals, handles more than 33 million tonnes annually from its docks at Roberts Banks, although it has already begun its transition to other commodities including potash.

Meantime, Teck Resources, one of the world’s largest producers, reported in October that its third-quarter profit was $816 million.

Part of that was due to metallurgical coal hitting US$237 a tonne, up from US$102 during the same quarter last year.

Although it will eventually transition out of coal mining, Teck has proposed a sixth mine at Castle Mountain in southeastern B.C. It would be the largest mine in British Columbia and one of the largest in Canada.

The environmental concerns raised haven’t centred on emissions. Instead, they’re focused on impacts on Indigenous rights, endangered species, loss of fish habitat and increased selenium leaching into downstream watersheds.

Teck’s carbon use in coal extraction and shipping is among the lowest in the world as it uses carbon capture and storage technology. Its goal is a further 30-per-cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 with big and small measures.

Last week, for example, it contracted with the German company Oldendorff Carriers to use energy-efficient carriers for its shipments of steelmaking coal from Vancouver. That’s expected to yield a 30 to 40 per cent reduction in emissions or the equivalent of taking nearly 10,000 cars off the road.
While “realistically” it will be decades before coal is phased out entirely, Ralston said that B.C. has real opportunities for becoming a leader in hydrogen energy production, which has been described as “essential” to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

“Given our proximity to export markets, we could capture a significant portion of the global hydrogen market estimated to be greater than $305 billion by 2050,” according to B.C.’s hydrogen strategy released in July.

Canada is already one of the world’s top 10 hydrogen producers with close to three million tonnes produced each year using natural gas.

Its hydrogen strategy , released at the end of 2020, said Canada has the potential to expand exports create as many as 350,000 “good, clean jobs over the next three decades all while dramatically reducing our greenhouse gas emissions” and direct revenues of over $50 billion a year by 2050.

Of course, history has shown that transitions aren’t always smooth.

Before anthropological climate change was recorded back in 1981, Canada, British Columbia and two mining companies invested $2.6 billion in the world’s largest coal mine at Tumbler Ridge.

The investment included the cost of a townsite planned for 10,000 people and $500 million for a rail line to get the coal 1,130 kilometres to port and ship 100 million tons of coal over 15 years to Japanese buyers.

The work had barely begun before coal prices tanked, followed by layoffs and eventually the mine’s final closure in 2015.

Today, Tumbler Ridge’s population is 1,987.

Its hopes for a revival now rests on dinosaur tourism following the discovery of their tracks and bones 20 years ago.

When will steel go green? How B.C. coal fuels one of the highest emitting industries in the world

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Steel production is responsible for about 7% of global

 greenhouse gas emissions, research group says

CBC News · Posted: Nov 12, 2021 

Smoke and steam rise from a coal processing plant in Hejin in China's Shanxi province in this Nov. 28, 2019 file photo. B.C. exports most of its coal to developing countries such as China and India, where it's used to produce the carbon to make steel. (Olivia Zhang/The Associated Press

The calls from COP26 have been clear: the world must stop burning coal if it hopes to avoid catastrophic global temperature rise. 

So why then does British Columbia continue to be the Canadian leader in coal extraction and export? The answer: worldwide demand for steel continues to soar.

Niney-five per cent of B.C. coal is metallurgical as opposed to thermal. Thermal coal is used to make steam that produces electricity. Metallurgical coal, or coking coal, is mined to produce the carbon used in steel-making and is shipped mostly to Asian countries for that purpose. 

In developing countries such as China and India, where infrastructure like railways, roads, bridges and buildings is being built en masse, steel is crucial to continued growth. 

• Several countries pledge to phase out heavily polluting coal — but U.S and China aren't among them

• UN climate talks draft deal asks for tougher emissions pledges by next year

But just because B.C. doesn't produce and export thermal coal — which is nearly universally maligned for its high emissions — it doesn't mean the province is not contributing to a massive amount of carbon emissions.

According to research organization Net Zero Steel, it's estimated that seven per cent of all global greenhouse gas emissions come from manufacturing steel.

A truck hauls a load at Teck Resources's Coal Mountain operation near Sparwood, B.C. Despite a push to lower emissions, Teck says it thinks the market for metallurgical coal, used to make steel, will be strong through 2050. (Teck Resources handout/The Canadian Press)

How is B.C. coal used?

To make steel, oxygen must be removed from iron oxide. In order to do that, a fuel called coke is required, and that's made by heating metallurgical coal in a blast furnace. Iron ore reduction and the subsequent smelting process are by far the most carbon intensive aspects of steel-making.

• Have questions about COP26 or climate science, policy or politics? Email us: ask@cbc.ca. Your input helps inform our coverage.

According to the province's 2020 overview of the coal industry, production volumes were expected to be 25.1 million tonnes in 2020, down from 30 million tonnes in 2019.

Coal is easily B.C.'s most valuable mined product, with sales close to $4 billion.

In 2019, B.C. coal represented 48 per cent of all Canadian production. The provincial government says coal production employs thousands of people, mostly in the Elk Valley in southeastern B.C. and in the northeastern region of the province near Tumbler Ridge. 

A coal mining operation in Sparwood, B.C., in a file photo from November 2016. B.C.'s metallurgical coal industry powers the production of steel. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

Steel production can be cleaner

Experts say there are a number of ways to lower emissions from steel-making, but perhaps the most promising possibility is the idea of removing metallurgical coal from the process altogether.

Clean hydrogen can be used instead to strip the oxygen from the iron ore.

"It's quite feasible that starting, say, five years from now, all new steel plants are using some version of this technology," said Chris Bataille, adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University and a lead author for the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

"It's not even a matter of how much coal is there.… Eventually, if we're serious about decarbonizing the steel industry, there won't be any demand for coal."

The green steel-making industry is furthest ahead in Sweden, where two facilities, Hybrit and H2 Green Steel, say they're only a few years away from commercial production. 

SFU adjunct professor and IPCC lead author Chris Bataille has been studying how to lower emissions in heavy industries for the past five years. (YouTube)

Bataille, who has been studying how to eliminate emissions from heavy industries for the past five years, thinks metallurgical coal has a maximum of another 30 years of usefulness in steel production.

But not everyone agrees. 

The case for more coal

If the swing toward green steel production was to happen quickly, it would undoubtedly render B.C.'s coal industry obsolete. But the transition is going to take time. 

Mining giant Teck Resources, which runs the four coal mines in southeast B.C., says three of them have reserves that could last more than 28 years — with the Greenhills operation containing enough to support 47 more years of mining.

Teck says it made 35 per cent of its nearly $4 billion in 2020 revenue from coal mining.

"Steel and steel-making coal are needed to build the infrastructure required for the transition to a low-carbon economy, including renewable power systems," the company wrote in a statement.

"Our analysis suggests that across multiple climate scenarios … demand for seaborne steel-making coal will remain robust through 2050."

• Canada is weaning itself off thermal coal but keeps shipping it elsewhere

Clean hydrogen shortage

While it might seem obvious that the industry powers are looking to continue building profits from coal, there are other obstacles in the way of green steel, too.

There's the issue of a clean hydrogen shortage. Bataille says that's because broad demand isn't there just yet and that manufacturers will eventually produce their own.

But John Steen, an associate professor and distinguished scholar in global mining futures at UBC, argues that clean hydrogen is much more expensive than hydrogen produced using natural gas. He's worried production simply won't keep up with the sheer scale of the need for renewable power.

"Hydrogen isn't a magic bullet, so we're caught in a real catch-22," said Steen, who has collaborated on research with mining companies like Teck and Rio Tinto.

He thinks the idea of coal-free steel production on a massive scale is still decades away based on the demand for steel, slow adoption of green practices and those hydrogen supply shortages.

John Steen, an associate professor at UBC and the director of the Bradshaw Research Initiative in Minerals and Mining, worries the demand for clean power will outpace the supply. (Jeremy Allingham/CBC)

"The simple response is, 'Let's ban all coal.' And what would you replace it with? Where are these billions of tonnes of steel going to come from?" he said.

Steen points out that even infrastructure required to lower emissions, like wind turbines, solar panels and electric cars, all require steel. And if low-lying cities fall victim to rising sea levels, he says we'll need even more steel to either defend those cities or relocate them.

• Wide-ranging analysis of coal mining in the Rockies finds overall negative impacts

And so we're left with the same conundrum we face in almost every debate about natural resources and climate solutions.

In clean hydrogen-powered steel production, there is a technology available to move away from high-emitting practices. But, as always, the big hurdle is the transition and how aggressively it's pursued. 

---

LISTEN | Reporter Jeremy Allingham talks about the challenges B.C. faces moving away from coal:

9:38B.C.'s coal industry

Even with the worldwide push to put an end to coal, BC continues to make billions off of the extraction and sale of the product. Jeremy Allingham explains what B.C.'s coal is used for and the nuanced debate about how much longer that coal will be needed. 9:38

EXPLAINER: Why quitting coal is so hard

By KARL RITTER

Smoke rises from a coal-powered steel plant at Hehal village near Ranchi, in eastern state of Jharkhand, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021. No country will see energy needs grow faster in coming decades than India, and even under the most optimistic projections part of that demand will have to be met with dirty coal power — a key source of heat-trapping carbon emissions. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — In the run-up to the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, host Britain announced one of its goals of the conference was to consign coal to history.

That turned out to be easier said that done. Even saying it — in writing — became quite a challenge.

Government negotiators in Glasgow wrote and rewrote a paragraph that spells out that fighting climate change requires the world to end coal power, along with fossil fuel subsidies. The wording on coal was weakened one last time just before the gavel came down after coal-dependent India insisted on replacing the words “phase out” with “phase down.”

Here’s a look at the role coal plays in climate change and the energy system, and why it’s been so hard to move away from:

WHY THE FOCUS ON COAL?

Of the three fossil fuels — coal, oil and natural gas — coal is the biggest climate villain. It’s responsible for about 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions. It’s also a fuel that is relatively easy to replace: Renewable alternatives to coal-fired power have been available for decades. The burning of coal also has other environmental impacts, including air pollution contributing to smog, acid rain and respiratory illnesses.

WHO IS BURNING THE MOST COAL?

China, the world’s most populous country and a manufacturing giant, is by far the world’s biggest coal consumer, followed by India and the United States. In 2019 China produced 4,876 TWh of electricity from coal, almost as much as the rest of the world combined, according to the International Energy Agency. But adjusted for population size the situation is different: Australia has the highest per capita coal emissions among the Group of 20 biggest economies, followed by South Korea, South Africa, the United States and China, according to an analysis by Ember, a climate and energy think tank.

WHY ARE COUNTRIES STILL BURNING COAL?

The short answer is coal is cheap and plentiful. But even as renewables become more competitive on price, coal isn’t that easy to get rid of. Electricity needs are soaring as the world’s population and prosperity increase, and renewables simply aren’t enough to satisfy that growth in demand. The IEA projects that India will need to add a power system the size of the European Union’s to meet expected growth in electricity demand in the next 20 years. Coal’s role in the power sector has remained relatively stable in the past five decades. IEA statistics show that in 1973 coal’s share of global electricity generation was 38%; in 2019 it was 37%.

WHAT WAS AGREED ON COAL IN GLASGOW?

Many vulnerable countries, including island nations who fear they will be lost to rising seas, were hoping governments would for the first time in a U.N. climate deal call for the phase-out of coal. But the wording was watered down during the talks because of resistance led by India and in the end the agreement just calls for countries to escalate efforts to “phase down unabated coal power” without setting a timeline.

WHAT IS NEXT FOR COAL?

Coal’s future looks bleak in the long term despite the vague decision in Glasgow. It’s not just driven by climate concerns: In the U.S., natural gas has been replacing coal for years for economic reasons, though coal has rebounded this year due to a surge in natural gas prices. Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, many countries have set net zero emissions targets, which often require phaseouts of unabated coal, meaning coal-fired plants that aren’t fitted with expensive technology that captures emissions. Austria, Belgium and Sweden have already closed their last coal plants. Britain plans to end coal power by 2024. Announcements made in the run-up to and during the Glasgow conference mean some 370 more coal plants around the world were given a close-by date, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. The U.S. has not made such a pledge yet.

'Whole meeting is doomed': David Suzuki on COP26

Brooklyn Neustaeter

CTVNews.ca Writer
Published Friday, November 12, 2021 


TORONTO -- Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki says promises made at COP26 don't carry much weight in the fight against climate change as he believes the pledges don't go far enough in protecting the Earth's atmosphere.

World leaders have pledged a variety of climate measures at this year's summit, including working to curb deforestation and methane emissions. Many of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's pledges at the UN climate talks in Glasgow reflected promises he made during the federal election campaign earlier this year, such as a global carbon tax and a cap on Canadian oil and gas emissions.

The latest draft proposals from COP26, released Friday, call on countries to accelerate "the phaseout of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels." Suzuki told CTV's Your Morning on Friday that this is the first instance that all of the attending countries have agreed to use the term "fossil fuels" in the documentation.

"I hear this morning they're celebrating because for the first time in 26 meetings they've got fossil fuels actually in their documents that they're going to end with. I mean, is this progress?" Suzuki said.
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Suzuki was invited to this year's summit, but says he "didn't see really the point of going" given the lack of progress that is made at the talks.

"The whole meeting is doomed because it doesn't start out from the basic premise that all human beings on the planet belong to a single species," he said.

"So can we not start with the fundamental fact that we get this gift from nature, which is clean air, and we have a responsibility to care for it? Not use it as a garbage can for everything we burn and dump into the air," he said.

If countries don't build their climate promises with this premise in mind, Suzuki says they will continue to prioritize national interests and the economy over the health of their citizens.

"Nobody's focused on the fundamental fact that we have an emergency. Human beings have changed the chemistry of the atmosphere," he said.

Scientists say 1.5 C -- the aspirational goal set down in the 2015 Paris Agreement -- is the most the Earth’s temperature can afford to rise to avoid a "catastrophic" increase in intense heatwaves, droughts, storms, floods and crop failures that parts of the world are already experiencing.

To meet this goal, the United Nations wants to achieve "net zero," where no more greenhouse gases are emitted than can simultaneously be absorbed, by 2050.

However, it says that will be impossible unless emissions, mostly of carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil and gas, are cut by 45 per cent from 2010 levels by 2030.

According to Climate Action Tracker research group, the national pledges submitted so far to cut greenhouse gases by 2030 would allow the Earth's temperature to rise 2.4 C from pre-industrial levels by 2100.

"Civilization simply will not be able to survive that," Suzuki said.

He added that countries will be in "total climate chaos" if the Earth's temperature reaches 2.4 C, and says leaders aren't dealing with that at these meetings.

Canada's oil and gas sector accounts for approximately 26 per cent of the country's total emissions, and Canada is also one of the world's top public financiers of fossil fuels averaging more than $13 billion per year, according to the Climate Action Network.

While Canada has promised to reduce these numbers, Suzuki says he has little faith that these pledges will be met given the country's history with climate pledges. He noted that the federal government has promised to reduce emissions before, and did not meet those goals.

"I don't have any hope that we're going to try to meet it because it's all done within a political context," Suzuki said, adding that leaders don't care enough about how global warming will impact humans and are more concerned about the costs associated with lowering emissions.

In the fight against climate change, Suzuki said Canada needs to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and declare an emergency, as it did with the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The question is, are we committed to deal with this the way we did against COVID? And we're not out of the COVID crisis yet, but COVID is nothing compared to what climate is going to do to us if we don't take it as an emergency," Suzuki said.

With files from The Associated Press

Royal Canadian Legion responds to 'unacceptable' pandemic protests in B.C. on Remembrance Day

VANCOUVER -

The Royal Canadian Legion has responded to the "unacceptable" protests that shifted some of the focus away from B.C. veterans and their families on Remembrance Day.

Anti-vaccination activists organized public events to spread their views on vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 safety measures at cenotaphs in both Kelowna and Kamloops on Thursday, upsetting some who had come out to observe the sombre national holiday.

The B.C./Yukon Command of the Royal Canadian Legion issued a statement Friday noting that the protests took place as many official services were kept small or held virtually as a result of the pandemic.

'It's just so perverse': Vaccine opponents seize on Remembrance Day to spread message in several B.C. cities

"It is unfortunate that some took this as an opportunity to distract others from grief, remembrance, and their intention to honour our veterans," the statement said.

In Kelowna, protesters set up a microphone to address people gathered at the cenotaph to pay their respects, with one speaker telling the crowd, "If they have asked you for your papers, they have already forgotten."

Sean Smith, a veteran who was at the cenotaph with his father, told CTV News the outrageous display caused him to lose his temper.

"I've been going to Remembrance Day ceremonies for 45 years and I've never gotten to a point where I had to get angry about anything, but I lost my cool," he said.

Kelowna RCMP called the disruption “a step too far” and said criminal charges could be laid under S. 176 of the Criminal Code.

“There was a group of people gathering for a social, moral or benevolent purpose and they were interrupted,” said Insp. Adam MacIntosh of the Kelowna RCMP.

“If criminal charges are appropriate, I will do everything I can to push it forward to Crown.”

Mounties asked anyone with video from the Kelowna incident to share it with them in the hopes of gathering more evidence. Recordings can be submitted to the RCMP via email.

In Kamloops, a public event was organized at the Riverside Park Cenotaph – where the official ceremony normally takes place – that involved remarks against vaccine mandates and a few expletives, according to witnesses who felt duped into attending.

"It's just so perverse," said Jay Michi, a lawyer who took his two young daughters to the park expecting a regular ceremony.

The graffiti that defaced a wall of honour in Cranbrook on Thursday was also unacceptable, the Royal Canadian Legion said. The message read: "The real heroes are the vaccinated."

"We are saddened that anyone would feel it necessary to distract from the sacrifice of our veterans and their families with political agendas – especially on Remembrance Day," said Val MacGregor, president of the B.C./Yukon Command, in a statement.

An image also circulated on social media Thursday showing one man holding a sign criticizing vaccine passport requirements at the official Remembrance Day ceremony in North Vancouver.

North Vancouver RCMP told CTV News the man, who is known to carry signs like that in the city, attended alone and did not disrupt the service.

New Brunswick students boycott online learning in solidarity with CUPE strikers

Alyson Samson
CTV News Atlantic Video Journalist
Updated Nov. 12, 2021

As the second week of the CUPE strike continues in New Brunswick, some students were boycotting online learning on Friday.

FREDERICTON -

As the second week of the CUPE strike continues in New Brunswick, some students were boycotting online learning on Friday.

"It's all things that we already know, we don't learn anything, it's not amusing, we kind of just waste our time," said Grade 6 student Renata Solano.

Ecole Sainte-Anne students came out to support local CUPE members.

RELATED STORIES
CUPE NB's challenge to back-to-work order for health-care workers will be heard in court Monday

"It really was important to show our support. This has been going on for two weeks, the strike has been going on and it's really time to say enough is enough,” said Eliot Burgeron, a Grade 12 student.

"It's really been used more as a tool, not to better our education, but a tool to avoid the negotiations with the CUPE workers and really what we want here is better conditions, better salaries, everything that CUPE is asking for we want for them to give and then we'll be ready to go back to school. But as long as the strike is on, the school is off.”

Students have been learning online, from home since Nov. 1.

"Online learning takes such a toll on our mental health and our motivation to learn and it's such a slap in the face that we're doing online school when we have the resources to be in person. We don't have COVID stopping us from being in person,” said Josh Dukuze, who is in Grade 12.

The call to boycott school on Friday in support of CUPE members was circulated online earlier this week.

"We shouldn't be used as an excuse so that (Premier Blaine) Higgs can get away without bargaining and just putting if off by saying our curriculums are advancing. We really want to show our support here to CUPE and that we respect them and we hope that they get what they deserve,” said Hayden Mills, a Grade 12 student at Ecole Sainte-Anne.

Opposition leaders, much like the students say they hope to see a resolution to the strike soon.

"That's no way to learn. The online system in a crisis situation. When you have a lockdown that's one thing, when there's no alternative. But the alternative is, to open schools. We've got the teachers, we've got the education assistants who are designated as essential,” said David Coon, Leader of New Brunswick Green Party.

Negotiations continued on Friday.

"The parents are struggling to make the decision of what to do, do they stay home or go to work? And that's why we've been very, very, very aggressive in pushing the premier to get back to the negotiating table,” said Roger Melanson, Leader of New Brunswick Liberal Party.

For now only time will tell if students will be back in the classroom Monday morning.

 New Brunswick

Province, CUPE set to discuss new offer

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Announcement follows talks between union, government that began Thursday

Miriam Lafontaine · CBC News · Posted: Nov 13, 2021

CUPE workers picketing in Fredericton on Saturday. (Gary Moore)

The Canadian Union of Public Employees says the provincial government will offer a new contract Saturday to seven of the 10 locals currently on strike. 

"Today the negotiation process is continuing," the union's bargaining team said in a short statement. "Employer representatives will be meeting and presenting an offer to each of the CUPE locals in Parts 1, 2, and 3."

They include locals 1190, 1251, 1252, 1253, 1418, 1840 and 2745. 

Thousands of public servants, including school bus drivers, educational support staff and workers in transportation, corrections and the community college system, have been on strike for more than two weeks.

Talks resumed on Thursday.

CUPE spokesperson Simon Ouellette said discussions with the province went until around 1 a.m. Saturday.

While he couldn't elaborate, he did say that since the announcement that's he's feeling much "more optimistic than yesterday."

The discussions between both parties have centred on pensions for two of the CUPE locals. Locals 1253 and 2745 represent about 3,000 school custodians, maintenance workers, bus drivers, school library assistants and administrative support, as well as educational assistants.

• CUPE, province head back to the table as strike enters third week

"Government made its final offer and is requesting it be presented to the membership for a vote," Erika Jutras, a spokesperson for the Finance and Treasury Board, said in a release Saturday. 

"It is government's sincere hope that workers will be back on the job Monday and schools will be open early next week."

Local representing N.B. Liquor employees still bargaining 

Talks also continue between CUPE Local 963, which represents workers at N.B. Liquor. 

President Jamie Agnew said there will be talks Saturday afternoon. 

• N.B. Liquor employees poised to strike a week from now if deal not reached

Employees could strike as soon as Tuesday if there is no agreement. 

Soaring Inflation Means Tougher Wage Talks, Canadian Unions Warn

Theophilos Argitis and Shelly Hagan
Fri., November 12, 2021

(Bloomberg) -- Canada’s largest private sector union has a message for the country’s employers: Prepare to share the burden of higher inflation.

Jerry Dias, who runs the 315,000-member-strong Unifor trade union, says the era of sub-2% wage gains that’s prevailed in collective agreements for much of the past decade will no longer do in the face of a sharp increase in consumer prices that is swelling the cost of living.

Workers “expect that their wages are at least going to pick up with the rate of inflation,” Dias said this week in a phone interview. “Things are changing. No question about it.”

It’s the sort of big talk expected from a labor leader, but the threat is beginning to ring increasingly true.

Pay is inching higher with average annual wage gains in collective agreements breaking the 2% threshold in the third quarter for only the second time since 2012, according to government data. Wage increases have averaged 1.6% over the past decade.

Recent deals suggest gains are only accelerating. Casino workers in Belleville, Ontario -- a small city between Montreal and Toronto -- just negotiated a 13% pay increase over three years.

Increasing strike activity, meanwhile, indicates organized labor is emboldened at a time when staff shortages are a preoccupation for business. There were 44 work stoppages underway in September, the most in one month since 2018. Only this week, thousands of workers at a Cargill Inc. plant in the western province of Alberta threatened to go on strike just as the price of red meat touches records.

With annual inflation seen hitting 5% in coming months -- a three-decade high -- any escalation of wage expectations in collective bargaining will be closely monitored by policy makers. Canada has a relatively high unionization rate, at about 30% of employed workers, versus about 10% in the U.S.

As workers seek to make up for lost purchasing power, the fear is the inflation shock will lead to higher salary demands that become entrenched through automatic cost-of-living adjustments, starting a wage-price spiral that will be difficult to tame. It’s a long-term risk that officials at the Bank of Canada are already clambering to mitigate by assuring Canadians they are serious about inflation.

“We are going to keep inflation under control,” Governor Tiff Macklem said in an interview with CTV News last week.

With the central bank projecting consumer price gains will average 3.4% over the next two years, workers are facing one of the biggest drops in real incomes since the high inflation years of the 1970s. By 2023, officials are projecting inflation will be at a more comfortable 2.3%. But that would still be above Macklem’s 2% target.

Curiously enough, high unionization rates may turn out to be a big help for policy makers in the short-term, acting as a buffer in the fight against price pressures. Collective bargaining is, after all, a slow ship to turn.

Most workers are bound to three-to-five year contracts, meaning they have no immediate recourse to offset higher prices. After decades of quiet on the inflation front made it a non-issue for unions, few of the existing agreements have cost-of-living adjustments.

Bargaining teams also have little recent experience with how to handle -- or even understand -- surging inflation. Often, they are willing to give up some pay gains in return for non-wage benefits.

Workers in the public sector, meanwhile, are negotiating with governments wary of spending more after running record deficits during the pandemic.

All these factors suggest there’s little prospect the current wave of wage agreements will fully compensate workers for any transitory inflation.

Non-union workers are doing better. Their average wages have grown at almost double the pace of unionized workers, posting increases of 9% over the past two years, according to data from Statistics Canada’s monthly labor force survey.

Labor leaders are taking notice.

They say their members are ratcheting up the pressure, bargaining committees across the country are starting to express a renewed interest in negotiating cost-of-living expenses, and union officials are busy coming up with research and strategies.

“Unions are aware we have fallen behind based on the inflation numbers, so we are mindful and our members remind us of it,” said Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, an umbrella group of unions. “Even though they’ve had wage increase they aren’t keeping up with the hydro bill and grocery bill, and that’s a frequent discussion when it comes to making proposals with employers.”

None of this is lost on the Bank of Canada.

Macklem has been on a public-relations offensive to tamp down inflationary expectations, including hints he’s prepared to start raising borrowing costs early next year. But if labor leaders lose confidence in the central bank’s promises, the support unions are currently providing on the inflation front could turn into an albatross.

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