It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, May 20, 2022
Alberta Birds of Prey Centre to open with precautions amid avian flu
The facility serves as a working conservation centre that helps injured and orphaned birds return to the wild.
Visitors can interact with trained owls, view flying demonstrations and observe a variety of native bird species in display aviaries.
According to Colin Weir, the organization's managing director, some biosecurity measures are being put in place to protect the animals this year as it prepares to open on Saturday.
"The only thing that will be significantly different -- a bit of a disappointment to the children -- is we're not going to have our flock of pet ducks out for kids to feed," he explained.
"That's just out of an abundance of caution because of the avian influenza that's been found around southern Alberta," Weir said.
Normally, there are 50 to 100 of the ducks on site. They're currently being kept at an acreage away from the centre.
Another change is the inability to accept injured birds at the facility.
"If someone has an injured bird, the best thing to do is to give us a call and we can have someone meet you out front in our parking lot and then we'll deal with it at another location."
H5N1 strain considered the worst avian flu to hit Saskatchewan since 2015
After struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions it brought in 2020 and 2021, Weir said the avian flu is another obstacle the centre will just have to navigate.
Weir explained it mainly affects ducks and geese but can also impact species like hawks, falcons and even foxes.
"We're still going to be open (and) see how it goes with each passing week.
"There's nothing we can do to stop it, but hopefully it's something that might be peaking now because of the spring migrations."
Alberta Birds of Prey Centre will be open every day from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. starting May 21 through to Labour Day.
NFL creates new youth flag football program for Canada
The NFL logo on the field before the game between the New Orleans Saints and the Carolina Panthers at the Caesars Superdome.
The NFL on Thursday announced it is expanding into Canada.
Well, expanding its youth flag football program into Canada.
The flag football arm of the four-down league has launched a new initiative north of the border, called NFL FLAG Canada — for boys and girls ages four to 17.
Regional 2022 tournaments across Canada will be held over the next two months, although age ranges are limited this year. The NFL is inviting established flag football leagues across Canada to enter.
The NFL’s goal within three years, it said in a news release, is to inaugurate 250 new flag football leagues across Canada, eventually accommodating more than 100,000 youths.
“Flag football is one of the fastest growing sports in the United States, with regular participation of more than three million youth and adults each year,” Izell Reese, executive director of NFL FLAG, said in a statement. “We’re excited to bring NFL FLAG to Canada’s loyal fan base, and provide opportunities for young fans to learn the fundamentals of the game and experience the excitement of flag football.”
To help drive fan growth and participation in Canada, the NFL’s flag football arm will “work closely” with clubs granted international home marketing areas in Canada last fall — namely, the Seattle Seahawks and Minnesota Vikings.
Four 2022 regional NFL FLAG Canada tournaments are set for: Vancouver (June 5 at Notre Dame High School, with May 27 registration deadline); Regina (June 18 at University of Regina, with May 30 registration deadline); Toronto (July 10 at Esther Shiner Civic Stadium, with June 27 registration deadline); Halifax (June 25 at Saint Mary’s University, with June 6 registration deadline).
Winning teams will qualify for the NFL FLAG Championships held next February at the Pro Bowl, the NFL’s annual all-star game.
For more information, and to find a league near you in Canada, go to nflflag.com/canada .
Flag football debuts as a sport at the World Games this summer in Birmingham, Ala.
Damani Leech, the NFL’s chief operating officer of international initiatives, in a statement said the creation of NFL FLAG Canada and the introduction of flag football at the 2022 World Games “demonstrate the growing global interest” in North American football, generally, and also underscore “ongoing efforts across the global football community to include flag football in the 2028 Olympic Games.”
John Kryk now writes a weekly newsletter on NFL matters. Content is exclusive to that platform. You can have it automatically dropped into your email inbox on Wednesdays simply by signing up — for free — at https://torontosun.com/newsletters/
COACHING IS ABUSE Athletes call for sport culture overhaul in Canada amid allegations of abuse
The Canadian Press
Scales should be banned from children's gyms. Parents should be permitted to watch. Rules of acceptable behaviour should be posted on gym walls with a toll-free line to report violations.
They may sound like basic safety precautions around children in sport, but they don't exist on a blanket scale in Canada. Amid what Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge has called a safe sport "crisis," many current and former athletes say the country is long overdue for a sport culture overhaul.
More than a 1,000 athletes from gymnastics, boxing and bobsled/skeleton have called for independent investigations into their sports in recent weeks, and last week former gymnast Amelia Cline filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Gymnastics Canada and six provincial federations.
The proposed class of plaintiffs allege abuse dating back to 1978, and claim the organizations created a culture and environment where the abuse could occur and failed to protect the athletes, most of them minors, in their care.
One of the class members told The Canadian Press she'd like the posting of proper behaviour, with a call-in number, made mandatory in gyms.
"A lot of these rules sound like common sense, (but) it's frightening the extent to which common sense doesn't seem to permeate the gymnastics culture," said the retired gymnast, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal.
St-Onge has said in her first five months as sport minister, she's received complaints about abuse, maltreatment or misappropriation of funds levelled against at least eight national teams, including rugby and rowing.
The outpouring of heartbreaking stories has prompted much conversation, around shared experiences and suggestions for fixes.
Ciara McCormack, the soccer player who first publicly accused Canada's under-20 women's coach Bob Birarda of inappropriate behaviour, said parents "have to have access to their children's training environments."
Few gymnastics facilities permit parents to watch.
McCormack also believes non-disclosure agreements involving misconduct should be eliminated, and education made mandatory for athletes and parents about what abuse looks like and how to report infractions. She also suggested an athlete-led organization with a hotline and disciplinary procedures -- similar to that of teachers or medical practitioners -- where cases of misconduct are recorded and accessible.
"(National sport organizations) have taken advantage of having all the power and all the resources with the result being an immense amount of harm, and I think its crucial that athletes are given power, resources and a voice in the system from children as rec athletes all the way up to national team athletes," McCormack told The Canadian Press. "It's long overdue."
Birarda, meanwhile, pleaded guilty in B.C. Provincial Court in February to four sexual offences involving four different people.
Kim Shore, a former gymnast and mom of a former gymnast, said she'd like to see bathroom scales banned from gyms. Gymnasts have said the public weigh-ins have left them with serious emotional scars years later around body image.
She also suggested an offenders registry. Several national sport organizations, including Skate Canada and Athletics Canada, have suspended coaches and athletes listed on their websites.
But there's plenty of holes in lists, including the inability to track coaches at the grassroots or even the provincial level. Coaches who are suspended, or permitted to leave quietly, from a club, a province or a national team, can often simply move to another. Or even another sport.
Shore said an international database would seem like a pipe dream to many in the sport world, but added that even a provincial and national database would be a "massive step forward."
She suggested parents do Google searches on prospective coaches, because there's often chatter about questionable behaviour on websites like Reddit.
"You're tapping into what I think is really our biggest problem in Canada, and that is that we take no action against enablers and institutions who are complicit to enabling further abuse," said Shore, a former member of Gymnastics Canada's board of directors.
"Sport has failed athletes because it tries to operate above the law, and sometimes even with their own laws. So there’s very little oversight and accountability," she added.
In her 32-page proposed class-action lawsuit, Cline alleges that she suffered numerous injuries during training, including back and neck injuries, and fractures in her wrist, hand, fingers and toes. She alleged her coach, Vladimir Lashin, overstretched her hamstring to the point it tore away from her pelvis, resulting in an avulsion fracture.
Cline told The Canadian Press that she was a frequent visitor to B.C. Children's Hospital to the point that staff knew her by name.
"It's kind of telling when they say, 'Oh, it's you again, you're back,'" said Cline, who's now 32.
Cline quit the sport at age 14, and she and her parents filed a complaint with Gymnastics BC. According to the claim, a harassment officer from Sport B.C. was appointed to investigate, but the Clines were never allowed to see the report.
Instead of receiving punishment, Lashin, who hasn't responded to a request for comment, was named head coach of Canada's national team for the 2004 Athens Olympics. Gymnastics Canada appointed him national coach and high-performance director of the women's artistic program in 2009. He resigned in 2010.
Mike Kwiatkowski, a former multi-sport athlete and a graduate of the International Olympic Academy's Masters program, said parents should view lack of transparency as a red flag.
"What's' the reason for the actions of an organization to provide barriers?" he said. "Child safeguarding is not just about checking the boxes, it's a responsibility. If there is no transparency or openness, there is a massive problem."
Sport Canada announced this week that its new Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC) will be operational as of June 20. The office will receive and address individual complaints of violations of the University Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2022.
Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press
New deal offers Canadian Football League players a seat at the table
CFL logo on an official Canadian CFL league ball during warm-ups before the Saskatchewan Roughriders CFL game against the Toronto Argonauts on July 11, 2013 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The list of collectively bargained items includes the boilerplate, the essential and the ground-breaking.
Package them up, there are about 20, and there is little doubt the Canadian Football League Players Association occupies a markedly different space than it did before a four-day strike provoked a new collective bargaining agreement with the league.
For starters, the PA now occupies a seat on the CFL Ventures board of directors. If the CFL’s business grows, and goodness knows that simply has to happen or there is no future for any of the stakeholders, the newly formed commercial arm of the league will hold the keys and the CFLPA’s board representative will be able to provide decision-making input in real time. Though one seat doesn’t make them a full business partner, the PA will literally be in the room, and that stands as a ground-breaking development.
But the real jaw-dropper was the league’s about-face on revenue sharing. As Wednesday’s marathon bargaining session began, the league was still loath to include Grey Cup revenue in the formula, the players were adamant, the issue looming as a deal-breaker. Sources suggest the PA was in fact getting ready to fly its members home on the weekend, such was their resolve on the financial issue.
The league eventually changed its stance to include Grey Cup revenue and audit rights for the PA, and so tumbled the final pillar on which the player strike was founded. The formula’s baseline will be set as all revenue from 2022, a year in which the league is still emerging from a pandemic, and just figuring out the benefits of its partnership with Genius Sports, the company promising to unlock earning potential from betting and other digital and data opportunities. The revenue sharing deal will offer the players up to a 30% share of revenue growth above that threshold, to be added to the salary cap. The cap itself is to raise a minimum of $100,000 per season, not including the potential growth.
The other crucial items — the Canadian ratio, medical coverage, term and expiry date — had all been hashed out to the satisfaction of both sides, and a memorandum of agreement was at hand.
The tentative deal must still be ratified by the CFL’s board of directors and the CFLPA membership. That seems a good bet, because we can only assume the CFL’s negotiators had the blessing of all nine franchises to offer as much as they did to get a deal done, end the strike and ensure a full, 18-game season is played for the first time since 2019. And there is absolutely no chance players will reject this package once it is laid out for them by CFLPA leadership during meetings at all nine training camp sites. Here then, are some of the other new developments in the CBA:
* Long-term medical coverage for players increases from three years to four years in 2022 and five years in 2023 and for the remainder of the deal.
* The CFLPA can reopen the CBA after five years, once the TSN broadcast deal expires. The term expires 30 days prior to the opening of training camp, rather than on the eve of camp.
* The changes to the ratio are complex, but the deal preserves seven Canadian starters and 21 Canadians on the roster. Three of the four designated imports can sub in for a starting Canadian, but only to a maximum of 49% of playing time to preserve the Canadian starters’ playing time bonuses, and only if the DIs meet the requirements for a nationalized American. The league’s teams gain the flexibility of using a DI such as a kick returner in a wide receiver role, for example.
* A veteran who has played out the term of his first contract and re-signs with that same club can be guaranteed up to 50% of his base salary in the final year of his next deal, be it a two-, three- or four-year contract.
* The financial plight of Canadian veterans returning to the CFL from the NFL has been addressed. A year of service down south counts as a year on the grid. If you do three years in the NFL you come to the CFL as a free agent and can negotiate a deal as such. If you do two years down south, you live under the terms of the rookie cap for a season. The change was inspired by the T. J. Jones situation. He and the Toronto Argonauts negotiated a salary well above the rookie cap, but it was nixed.
* Global players will receive a raise to the league minimum, which is $65,000 this year, $70,000 next year and rises to $75,000 through the term of the deal.
* The grievance and arbitration system has changed to allow the CFLPA to speak directly to team GMs and/or presidents to try to resolve issues, rather than first having to go through the league office. Arbitrators have also been added to the roster.
* The league and CFLPA also agreed on the terms of a COVID travel policy, the return of the NFL window, a player housing allowance tied to the average of national rents, mental health and addiction programming, a player and fan code of conduct, administrative language regarding work permits, and national certification of all equipment and medical personnel who interact with players.
Asparagus grower John Jaques isn’t sure why, but changes to the federal government’s migrant worker program have left him six men short this season.
It’s a situation the Thamesville area farmer found himself unable to cope with, so he’s started mowing down 20 acres of his 60-acre crop.
He’s considering converting the 20-acre parcel to corn and soybeans.
“It’s sad,” the owner of Sunshine Farms said in a recent interview with The Chatham Voice. “It’s expensive and very labour intensive to get an asparagus crop into production.
“Growing soybeans and corn makes it a whole lot easier.”
At age 70, the veteran farmer – once Ontario’s largest asparagus producer – said the situation has knocked the fight out of him and he’s scaling back.
“We can only do so much as a family,” Jaques added.
For some 40 years, Jaques has participated in the Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker program, mainly drawing workers from Mexico.
At Jaques’ request, many of the same workers have been returning for years and have become like family.
But the vegetable grower said 2022 is different.
He put in his orders for workers – who fly in each week on a staggered schedule – to begin the asparagus harvest that normally peaks the first two weeks of May.
In the first week when 12 workers were scheduled to arrive, only 10 made it, Jaques said. On week two, when 13 were set to arrive, there were only nine; and on the final week when five were supposed to come, only four made it.
Consequently, Jaques said, that even though the asparagus crop was late, the understaffed crew at Sunshine Farms couldn’t keep up.
“When we have a full crew, we work lots of hours,” he explained. “From daylight until dark. But being six workers short, we were unable to harvest and pack all of the crop.”
Besides selling asparagus at the farm gate, Sunshine Farms also sells an array of canned and pickled products to grocery stores across the province.
Until now, Jaques said the migrant worker program has worked well for him.
He blames changes made at the federal level for the shortages.
In the past, Jaques said extra workers would normally wait at airports on standby, ready to take the place of workers who couldn’t make it.
That’s no longer happening, Jaques said, noting that process had worked well in the past.
“They’re no longer doing that,” Jaques said.
He said he’s also heard there are COVID-19 related government slowdowns in Mexico, and worker applications were not being processed on time.
Jaques has heard the Canadian migrant worker shortage is due to COVID-19 but he’s not buying it.
As for hiring workers closer to home, Jaques said he doesn’t even bother because it’s so hard to find good workers.
“Many people are expecting a cheque for nothing,” he added. “Canada, in my opinion, has turned into a welfare state.”
Jaques said he’s received plenty of comments on social media encouraging him to donate the asparagus crop.
Many people have also asked him to let people come and pick their own, but Jaques can’t allow that due to liability issues.
“Even if it (the asparagus) was donated, we’d still have to pick it,” he explained.
Farm labour shortages in Chatham-Kent are widespread. As of Friday, there were 61 positions relating to farm labour on the chathamkentjob.com employment website.
Calls to Chatham-Kent–Leamington MP Dave Epp, who represents agriculture in the Conservative shadow cabinet, were not answered as of press time. Pam Wright, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Chatham Voice
Community to meet to discuss proposed feedlot near fragile Alberta recreational lake
The Canadian Press
Cottage owners and farmers who say a proposed feedlot threatens the water quality of a popular lake are to gather this weekend to discuss how they can keep making their case to the regulatory body that will rule on the project.
"We've had a lot of interest, not just from the lake community, but also the farm community," said Jeannette Hall, who is organizing the meeting in Westerose, Alta., near Pigeon Lake, where a feedlot owner has applied to expand his operation by 4,000 head of cattle.
Pigeon Lake is unusual in that it's fed by run-off, not streams or rivers, and is drained by a single creek. That makes the lake highly vulnerable to algal blooms fed by nutrients washing into its waters.
The lake's roughly 5,000 inhabitants have spent millions upgrading wastewater systems to improve the lake's water quality. They fear the feedlot proposed by G&S Cattle Ltd. would undo that work.
The feedlot would be within a few kilometres of the shore on land that slopes down into it.
Pigeon Lake is already "supercharged" with nutrients from decades of residential growth as well as the region's natural geology, said Jay White, a consulting biologist who's studied the lake for years. Those nutrients don't go away, he said.
"Once it gets in your lake there's no place for it to go."
While White said there are ways to keep manure from contaminating lake water, he doesn't see enough of them in the proposal now before the Natural Resources Conservation Board.
"This application is treating this site like any other feedlot site in Alberta," he said. "We're not seeing anything over and above the guidelines."
Greg Thalen, owner of G&S Cattle, has declined interview requests on his plans.
Many have concerns about public consultation, said Opposition New Democrat environment critic Marlin Schmidt, who was door-knocking in Pigeon Lake this week. "Everybody found out about the project indirectly," he said.
Notice was posted in a small rural weekly newspaper that few saw, with a public feedback period of less than a month. More than 300 statements of concern were registered, including from three First Nations. The County of Wetaskiwin asked for an environmental impact assessment.
Environment Minister Jason Nixon has said the public consultation has been adequate.
But Schmidt said many he spoke with fear their concerns won't be taken seriously.
"People were not feeling hopeful that their statements of concern would be considered, (that) if the government wants this to go forward there's not much people can do to stop it."
Schmidt said his party wants to look at changing legislation governing industrial agriculture. He said public consultation could be both lengthened and include more people, with better standards for locating developments.
"People are really upset about this proposal," he said.
Hall said the meeting will share information on the environmental risks of the proposal and how the regulatory process works. She said the concerns aren't only from cottage owners.
"So many people feel this is an attack on farming. That's not what it is at all."
The community meeting is set for Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Lakedell Ag Centre in Westerose.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2022.
— Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960
Bob Weber, The Canadian Press
Opinion: European-style health care may not work in Alberta
In the battle for hearts and minds on health care, invoking “American-style health care” is kryptonite. When NDP Leader Rachel Notley accused Jason Kenney of seeking a U.S.-style, privatized system, the premier shot back that he had no intention of adopting the “deeply flawed” American model which lacks universal insurance. His preference is for aligning our system with countries in western Europe where the private sector plays a role.
Health care workers transport a patient at the Royal London Hospital, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in London, Britain, January 19, 2021.
Kenney is paying heed to decades-old advice Ernst and Young (which recently advised the Alberta government on health-care reform) gave to clients interested in opening the “biggest unopened oyster” in the Canadian economy — health care. Aware that American health care is our worst nightmare, the consulting company counselled these companies to stress European models in their quest to gain a foothold in this potentially lucrative field. So, what are these European models, and could they provide a solution to what ails us or is the premier using them as a red herring to distract Albertans?
There are lessons to be learned from Europe but there are also reasons why these models may not travel unscathed across the Atlantic.
Firstly, in addition to cross-national comparisons being problematic, each system sits within a unique basket of social programs and policies which reinforce each other. However, there is a western European consensus grounded in the principle of social solidarity. In essence, it is the long-held belief that everyone is part of the same community in which the young subsidize the old, the healthy subsidize the sick and the rich subsidize the poor. Citizens understand that their taxes pay for much-appreciated social supports and acknowledge that the state has a legitimate role to play. The strong social safety net in European countries includes not just health care but also dental care, pharmacare and other benefits including free tuition at universities in some countries.
The two broad approaches to funding health care are the Bismarckian system with payroll deductions and the Beveridge system funded through general taxation. Germany is an example of the former which requires mandatory health insurance with deductions from wages. Germans pay over seven per cent of their wages for health care, a figure that is matched by their employers. Germans also pay almost two per cent towards long-term care insurance. Britain and Canada exemplify the Beveridge model i.e. paid for through general taxation.
In Britain, patients do not pay at the point of service. However, people can purchase private insurance that gives them faster access to elective surgery. This two-tier arrangement does not reduce wait times for the rest of the population. The Guardian newspaper reported that there were 6.4 million patients in England who were on waiting lists in March 2022. These figures are only partly due to disruption of the system caused by the pandemic.
The French have been moving closer to the Beveridge model, with less reliance on payroll deductions. The employee deduction for health care is now less than one per cent while employers’ share is approximately 6.8 per cent of income. There is another deduction of over nine per cent from an employee’s wages, most of which goes to health care.
In Europe, public and private hospitals co-exist and both private insurers and non-profit insurance companies provide coverage for the population. There is a robust non-profit sector in many European countries, a legacy of benevolent societies which provided a form of social insurance to their members. Private providers in most countries are paid either by national health insurance systems or by tightly regulated social health insurance schemes. In fact, the extent of regulation is so great that the German case has been described as “manacled competition.”
European models are more comprehensive and have many admirable features which we envy. However, if they are transplanted to Alberta, the soil might not be suitable for them to thrive. In a clash with the mindset of medical entrepreneurs who see health care as an unopened oyster to be exploited for profit, European models would likely wither and die.
The benefits Europeans enjoy are not trivial nor is the price they pay for them. If Alberta employers had to match employee contributions to health care, it is doubtful they would welcome such a move. However, the most salient question is: would a government that is committed to cutting red tape, monitor and regulate for-profit providers as stringently as governments do in Europe?
Doreen Barrie is an adjunct assistant professor in the political science department at the University of Calgary.
Canadian mining companies continue to target developing countries in dispute settlements
Canadian mining companies continue to sue developing countries for environmental policies that affect their profitability and often win huge payouts from these poorer countries, a new report states.
“This is just further evidence to add to Canada's already poor reputation as a source of mining companies that go dig up and often abuse poor countries,” said Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, who authored the report for Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). Canada is home to almost half of the world’s publicly listed mining and mineral exploration companies, which Mertins-Kirkwood says is partly a function of “egregiously slanted” trade agreements that offer companies very strong protections.
Nearly all Canada’s international investment agreements allow foreign companies to sue governments if they are treated unfairly. However, the report finds that instead of being a last resort, these investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS) are being used by multinational corporations to extract payment from poor countries or strong-arm them into abandoning environmental policies.
Since 1998, Canadian investors have brought 56 dispute settlements against countries outside North America. Of those, 70 per cent were initiated by companies in the mining and oil and gas industries.
The report also found a vast majority of dispute settlements target developing countries. The way free trade agreements are worded means “almost anything” can trigger a dispute, said Mertins-Kirkwood.
“If a corporation feels like it has unfairly lost the value of its investment, it'll bring one of these cases forward,” he explained.
Energy policy and resource management decisions — like revoking a project permit — and environmental policies are the most common causes of these claims, the report notes.
The payout for wealthy Canadian investors has been huge.
According to the report, the largest payout involving a Canadian investor occurred in 2019, when a tribunal ruled Pakistan must pay investors US$5.84 billion because if Pakistan had not denied the mining lease, the project would have gone forward and become operational and profitable. This was despite the company having only invested US$220 million into feasibility studies for the prospective copper and gold mine. Pakistan disputed the decision but reached a settlement in early 2022 that allowed the project to proceed.
The average award or settlement is US$929 million, nearly four times the rolling average of all known international ISDS cases in 2020, according to the report.
These payouts have an outsized impact on poorer countries, said Mertins-Kirkwood.
Related video: Calls for more accountability for Canadian companies who violate human rights, environmental protections (Global News)
For example, the report found that in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and Venezuela, the damages incurred from Canadian ISDS lawsuits amount to more than two per cent of each of those countries’ GDP.
These high price tags, combined with the long, drawn-out settlement process and legal fees, means the mere threat of an ISDS claim can cause governments to back down on environmental regulations, the report says.
In a recent report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change noted numerous scholars warn ISDS can be used by “fossil fuel companies to block national legislation aimed at phasing out the use of their assets.”
Despite Canada’s wealth, Mertins-Kirkwood says the country could find itself on the flip side of this equation if the government moves to phase out fossil fuels.
“We have a lot of foreign-owned oil and gas companies who could launch ISDS claims against Canada if we started to go after the oil and gas sector, which we kind of have to,” he explained. “If we can't deal with this ISDS system abroad, it's also going to limit our ability to pass environmental regulation at home without being challenged at every turn by powerful corporate interests.”
Canada is currently being sued by U.S. coal company Westmoreland over Alberta’s commitment to phase out all coal-powered electricity by 2030 because it reduced the lifespan of the company’s mines. Westmoreland is claiming at least C$470 million in damages from the federal government. The case was initiated in 2019 and has yet to be resolved.
While Canada can afford to pay Westmoreland and continue the coal phaseout, this isn’t easy for developing countries and can hinder their ability to move away from fossil fuels, the report says.
Trade agreements can be a “serious barrier to climate action” because they influence what policy is permitted and generally do not make exceptions for climate policy, Mertins-Kirkwood adds.
The most obvious solution is for Canada to stop negotiating ISDS into new trade and investment agreements and remove the ISDS mechanism from existing treaties, the report says.
“Allowing mining companies (to) run roughshod over environmental policy in other countries … sets a terrible precedent for our own efforts to protect the environment and act on climate change,” said Mertins-Kirkwood.
Canada’s National Observer reached out to the Mining Association of Canada Wednesday afternoon but did not hear back before publication. The association later responded that it is unable to comment because it doesn't work closely on ISDS.
Canada’s National Observer also reached out to Global Affairs for comment but did not receive a response before deadline.
Natasha Bulowski / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer
Natasha Bulowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer
Canada to ban Huawei from country's 5G, 4G networks, in line with Five Eyes allies
Christopher Nardi , Anja Karadeglija - Yesterday National Post
OTTAWA — The Canadian government will ban equipment from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE from both the country’s 5G and 4G wireless networks, following a review that took three years to complete.
“Telecommunication companies in Canada will not be permitted to include in their networks products or services that put our national security at risk,” Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters Thursday.
“Providers who already have this equipment installed will be required to cease its use and remove it.”
With the move, Canada falls in line with its allies in the Five Eyes intelligence network — the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. — who have all already banned or restricted Huawei equipment from their 5G networks.
The Liberals have been promising a decision on a Huawei ban for three years. Asked about why it took so long, Champagne said “this has never been a race. This is about making the right decision.”
Over that time, Canada’s large telecoms have been moving on building stand-alone 5G networks using equipment from other vendors, meaning the Huawei and ZTE ban is largely irrelevant to those networks. So-called non-standalone 5G networks are integrated with older 4G networks.
Both Bell and Telus will have to remove existing Huawei equipment from those older networks. Telus warned the government back in 2019 that “a full ban on Huawei for 5G will force operators to replace their existing 4G Huawei equipment — an expensive and complex proposition over an elongated timeframe.”
Innovation Canada said in a policy statement that telecom companies will have to remove 5G equipment and managed services from Huawei and ZTE by June 28, 2024, and “any existing 4G equipment and managed services must be removed or terminated by December 31, 2027.”
Canada bans Huawei from its 5G network
Champagne said Thursday the government would not be financially compensating telecoms. The National Post previously reported both Bell and Telus approached the government about the possibility of being compensated by taxpayers for the cost of removing equipment.
On top of older, previously-sold equipment, Huawei has sold slightly more than $700 million worth of equipment to telecom operators in Canada since 2018, mostly to Bell and Telus.
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a China expert and senior fellow with the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, said that two and five years to remove all the Huawei equipment is just too long.
Though she said she is “fully in favour” of the Liberals’ announcement Thursday, she said she’d hoped the government would go as far as the U.S. and outright ban all of the company’s products, such as consumer items like cellphones.
“There are other elements of what the company provides that can also be a problem,” she said.
The Huawei and ZTE ban stems from the fear that having Huawei equipment in Canada’s next-generation wireless networks is a security risk, especially considering China’s laws that state companies must cooperate with its intelligence services.
Innovation Canada said in its policy statement that the Canadian government is seriously concerned the two companies “could be compelled to comply with extrajudicial directions from foreign governments in ways that would conflict with Canadian laws or would be detrimental to Canadian interests.”
Asked what threat Huawei poses to Canada, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said the “examination that was conducted over the last period of time, it was thorough, it was meticulous, it was on the strength of the advice that we get from our national security partners.”
The government will also soon introduce legislative framework for protecting critical infrastructure in the finance, energy, telecom and transport sectors, Mendicino said. Critical infrastructure has become more vulnerable to cyber-attacks over the past decade as it’s been increasingly connected to the internet.
“The Liberal government’s lack of action on this decision has been an international embarrassment,” Conservative MP Raquel Dancho said. “In the years of delay, Canadian telecommunications companies purchased hundreds of millions of dollars of Huawei equipment which will now need to be removed from their networks at enormous expense.”
The NDP’s Brian Masse said the decision was “long overdue” and ultimately may have hurt Canada’s reputation in its intelligence allies’ eyes.
“It has taken the Liberal government three years to make this decision while the other Five Eyes countries made their positions known much sooner. This delay only worked to raise serious questions at home and among our allies about the Liberal government’s national security commitments and hampered the domestic telecommunications market.
U.S. State Department cheers Canada's long-awaited ban on 5G gear from China's Huawei
The Canadian Press
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department says it welcomes Canada's decision to ban China's Huawei Technologies and ZTE from its next-generation mobile networks.
Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne revealed the long-awaited decision Thursday, a move critics say was long overdue.
In a statement, the U.S. says it supports efforts around the world to ensure consumers and customers can trust their wireless networks and providers.
It says it will continue to collaborate with Canada and other allies to ensure shared security in the 5G era.
The U.S. first began restricting domestic firms from doing business with Huawei back in 2019, and has been waiting for Canada to follow suit ever since.
During his confirmation hearing in September, U.S. ambassador to Canada David Cohen suggested Washington was growing impatient with the delay.
"We welcome Canada's decision," the State Department said in writing Friday in response to a query from The Canadian Press.
"The United States supports efforts to ensure countries, companies, and citizens can trust their wireless networks and their operators. We continue to collaborate with allies like Canada to ensure our shared security in a 5G future and beyond."
That anodyne comment stands in contrast to what Cohen told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last year before he was confirmed as President Joe Biden's envoy to Canada.
"We are all waiting for Canada to release its framework for its overall China policy," Cohen said, describing the autocratic regime's ambitions as an "existential threat'' to the U.S.
He also promised to take part in discussions to "make sure that Canada's policies reflect its words in terms of the treatment of China."
At the time, Canada was walking a tightrope with China, having arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition warrant while working to free two Canadian citizens detained in retaliation by the regime.
Just days later, however, Wanzhou was released after the U.S. Department of Justice announced a deferred prosecution agreement in her case. The two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, were freed by China hours later.
Earlier this week, Ottawa also announced the end of another irritant that was believed to be a symptom of the Huawei tensions: a three-year Chinese ban on imports of Canadian canola.
In March 2019, a few months after Wanzhou's arrest, China blocked canola from two Canadian companies, ostensibly after pests were detected in shipments from Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2022.
CALGARY — The stakes are high as Canadian farmers take to the fields to plant 2022's crop, which some are saying could find a place in the record books as "the most expensive ever."
On her family's farm northeast of Calgary near Acme, Alta., where she farms with her husband Matt, Tara Sawyer already knows she's going to need a better-than-average crop this year just to break even.
All of her input costs have surged since last year due to inflationary pressures, spiking energy costs, and the war in Ukraine. The price of fertilizer is more than double what it was last year, and the diesel used to power her farm equipment also costs nearly twice what it did last year at this time.
But getting that above average crop could be a challenge. Last year, Sawyer's farm was hit hard by the widespread drought that reduced crop yields across Western Canada and there are fears already that this could be another dry year.
"Most farmers, including us, saw a 30 per cent reduction in our yields, so we need to be able to have really good yields come out this year in order to pay for that," she said. "But in our region, we're already horribly dry, so we're concerned."
But it's not all bad news. While the cost of everything from seed to herbicides to tractor tires has increased in 2022, so too have crop prices. Sawyer, for example, grows wheat, barley and canola — all of which are hot commodities right now due to supply pressures created by the Russia-Ukraine war and the aftermath of last year's drought.
“There’s a number of crops that are sitting at all-time highs, or near all-time highs," said Jon Driedger, of Manitoba-based LeftField Commodity Research. "If you go back two years, the price of canola has doubled, almost tripled. Wheat's higher than it's been in 20 years, corn's pushing up against a record high. It's really across the board."
In fact, Driedger said crop prices are high enough that any farmer able to produce a "normal-sized" yield should still be able to earn a sizable profit. But in addition to the dry conditions in Alberta, many farmers in Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan have the opposite problem and haven't even been able to get onto the land yet due to flooding and excess moisture.
The acres seeded by Canadian farmers this spring will not only be the most expensive in history, but in some ways, the riskiest as well, Driedger said.
“For those farms that are fortunate enough to harvest a normal crop or even better, it could be a great year. But there’ll be a lot of farms for whom that’s looking awfully precarious right now.”
Cornie Thiessen — general manager of ADAMA Canada, a Winnipeg-based company that sells crop protection products like fungicides, herbicides and insecticides — said some of these inputs have become significantly more expensive and harder to find due to supply-side factors like COVID-driven disruptions at manufacturing plants and shipping delays. But he added the war in Ukraine is also increasing demand for these products, as farmers get the message that this year, their work is more vital than ever.
“Very high crop prices change the economics for farmers of how much they invest to protect the crop," Thiessen said. "With really high prices like we're seeing right now, it sends a message to farmers that the world really needs your crop so you need to make it as big as possible. You need to spend more on fertilizer and herbicides to maximize those yields."
Thiessen said 2022 will likely be the most expensive crop ever planted in Canada, and there's a lot riding on it.
"For the individual farmer, certainly there is an opportunity to take advantage of these high prices, but it's a bigger investment than before," he said. "If the weather works against them and they have a poor crop, that's where the downside risk comes in."
"And for the world, to help alleviate concerns about food security, we really do need Canada to produce a great crop this year," Thiessen added. "If Canada's crop isn't as strong as possible this year, it will further exacerbate concerns about food security."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2022. Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press
Weather conditions continue to affect agriculture industry in Saskatchewan
From rain to snow to nothing at all, Saskatchewan weather is leaving many farmers wondering if they will be able to seed at all this season.
Many fields in the eastern half of the province are still too wet to allow producers to seed, however some areas are desperate for rain, which brings mixed emotions from farmers across the province.
It truly is a tale of two worlds. East Saskatchewan has too much moisture in its soil while the west is hoping to get even one rainy day. It's a challenge farmer Clinton Monchuk understands firsthand having farmland near the Lanigan area.
"We've probably had a little over three inches of rain since the beginning of May," Monchuk said. "So it is a little bit wetter and we're just having a little bit more of a tough time getting seeding done."
It's a reality faced by farmers across the province. On average, more than half of the seeding process is complete by this time. But, this year it's a different story.
Ian Boxall, president of the Agriculture Producers Association of Saskatchewan. has farmland near Tisdale.
"It's raining here today and it snowed this morning," Boxall said. "We're way far behind. Normally we would start seeding on May 1 and now I haven't started and it's the 19th of May so we are behind.
"I am not panicking yet but if it doesn't straighten up soon, I am going to start to panic."
According to Boxall, the seeding deadline is June 20. He says for producers in the west of the province with no moisture to be found on their land, it's a deadline they may not meet.
"Once it warms up we'll have a good crop started and out of the ground," said Boxall. "But those guys in the west, they really need rain to get that germinated and get that crop going over there so my concern is with them."
But seeding is not farmers' only concern. For Monchuk, it's the cost to farm. With inflation continuing to rise it's becoming more and more expensive to get their products out to the public.
"We know as we move forward food inflation is going to get higher," said Monchuk. "We are seeing some of those shortages so this is some of the reasons, some of the extra cost that we have now. It does filter down and will result in higher prices of food as we move forward."
Canada’s largest railroad is bracing for a surge in grain shipments across the country this year — a sign of hope that this year’s harvest will be better than the last one, when extreme drought devastated crops across the Prairies.
“Every kernel that’s harvested this year is going to want to move,” Canadian National Railway Co.’s new CEO Tracy Robinson told the Bank of America’s transportation conference on May 17. “We need to be ready for that.”
After a tough year in Canadian agriculture, CN believes things are starting to look up, judging from soil moisture levels this spring that suggest a more normal grain crop is coming.
“It would be a good thing for the world, wouldn’t it?” Robinson said. “A lot has to happen right from here. But I think we’re starting out in a positive way.”
The shot of optimism comes as the world faces a food crisis driven in large part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The conflict has destabilized one of the most important regions in the world for grain exports, causing major spikes in commodity prices that have contributed to a troubling burst of inflation. Prices are likely to stay high for months due to global supply issues, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization warned last week.
And no matter how good Canada’s crop turns out to be, it won’t be enough to alleviate those issues on its own. The country’s agricultural output — even with a bumper crop — isn’t large enough to make a major impact on global supply, according to Ted Bilyea, a former executive at Maple Leaf Foods Inc. who is now a distinguished fellow at the Canadian Agri-food Policy Institute.
“I don’t think I see it moving the needle much,” Bilyea said. “We need a good crop just to keep things going where they are. … We’ve got to hope that the rest of the world has a good crop.”
Richard Grey, an agricultural economist at the University of Saskatchewan who helps his son run a family farm in Indian Head, Sask., was checking prices for canola on May 18. He could lock in a contract at about $24 a bushel, to be harvested and delivered to a shipper in November.
“That’s double what it was last year,” Grey said, adding that higher gasoline prices are driving up demand for ethanol and biofuel, which in turn drives up prices for grain and oilseeds, such as canola. “This is all to do with the international situation.”
Statistics Canada reported May 18 that food inflation is accelerating at a pace not seen since 1981. The consumer price index found grocery bills in April shot up 9.7 per cent compared to last year, with bread up 12.2 per cent, cereal up 15 per cent, pasta up 19.6 per cent, and cooking oil up 28.6 per cent.
“High inflation is here to stay in 2022,” Bank of Nova Scotia analyst Patricia Baker wrote in a note to investors. “Supply constraints and geopolitical conflict are expected to impact the energy, agriculture, and commodity markets.”
While Canada’s crop is expected to be better than last year, it’s not guaranteed to be good. In the middle of the spring planting season, farmers in Manitoba and southeastern Saskatchewan are facing fields so wet that they’re struggling to get seed in the ground. In southern Alberta, however, it’s too dry.
“Those that are saying we’re poised to have at least an average crop wouldn’t be out of line,” said Tom Steve, general manager with the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions. “To say that it’s going to be what we call a bumper crop, that’s pretty early to be saying that.”
CN’s chief executive agreed. “Now listen, I come from a farm in Saskatchewan,” she told the Bank of America conference. “And my father likes to say to me, `You’d like to get really excited about the grain crop, but so far we’ve never harvested one before we’ve seeded it.'”
Still, CN is preparing for an “inevitable surge” in grain shipments in the latter part of the year, investing in high-capacity hopper cars that can carry 10 per cent more grain, Robinson said. The railway confirmed it has added 3,000 hopper cars since 2019, with another 1,250 expected between 2023 and 2024.
“Getting this running is not just about the railroad getting ready,” Robinson said. “We need our partners, the terminals, and we need our customer facilities to be (ready) … We’re optimistic, for all of our sake, that this happens.”
The grain industry has been at odds with the railways this year, with grain companies complaining that CN and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. haven’t been able to meet demand for railcars despite a 30-per-cent drop in crop yields due to last summer’s drought. The railroads counter that they have been facing challenges since late last year, when massive floods in British Columbia washed out rail lines and then extreme cold forced trains to slow down.
“Their performance has been absolutely abysmal this past crop year,” said Steve at the Alberta Wheat and Barley Commissions. “It was just horrible. They couldn’t move the crop that we had. So they’re telling their investors and shareholders that they’re going to do better? We’ll believe it when we see it.”
