Uganda confirms death of patient admitted as suspected Ebola case after new outbreak declared

Daniel Stewart - 

Ugandan authorities on Wednesday confirmed the death of a patient who was being monitored as a suspected Ebola case following Tuesday's outbreak, bringing to two the number of deaths from the virus.


Colored scanning electron micrograph of Ebola virus particles (green) budding and adhering to the surface of cells. - 

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEA© Provided by News 360

The spokesman of the Ugandan Ministry of Health, Emmanuel Ainebyoona, has detailed that the deceased is a child and added that the authorities "are waiting" for the results of the laboratory test to confirm that the cause of death is Ebola.

"At the moment it is a suspicious death," he said, before adding that the child was part of a group of fourteen people admitted to a hospital in Mubende with symptoms compatible with Ebola, as reported by the Ugandan newspaper 'New Vision'.

The director of the Mubende Regional Hospital, Rosemary Byabashaija, has indicated that fourteen identified contacts of the first deceased patient are in the hospital. "Since we registered the first case, we have sent a monitoring team to sensitize the population," she explained.

For their part, the Rwandan authorities have raised the health alert level in response to the Ebola outbreak in Uganda. The director general of the Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC), Claude Mambo Muvunyi, said that the authorities are "closely monitoring" the epidemiological situation in Uganda and in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where a case was reported last month in the province of North Kivu (east).

"We believe that the outbreak in Uganda will be contained, as it is a family," he said, before detailing that the strain is also not the same as the one detected in DRC, as reported by the Rwandan newspaper 'The New Times'. "We are well prepared. We have equipment to handle Ebola cases, but we have asked for more," he said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday that the confirmation of the first case followed an investigation by the national rapid response team after six "suspicious deaths" in the district over the past month.

"This is the first time in more than a decade that Uganda has recorded a case of the Sudanese strain of Ebola. We are working closely with national health authorities to investigate the source of this outbreak while supporting efforts to put effective control measures in place," said WHO Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti.

"Uganda is no stranger to effective Ebola control. Thanks to its experience, measures have been put in place to detect the virus quickly and we can depend on this knowledge to stop the spread of infections," she concluded. Uganda reported its last case of this strain in 2012, while in 2019 it declared an outbreak by the Zaire strain, imported from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Rashida Tlaib: You can't hold progressive values, back Israel's apartheid gov't

By ZVIKA KLEIN -



Palestinian-American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib attends a pro-Palestinian protest in Dearborn, Michigan, US, May 16, 2021.© (photo credit: REUTERS/REBECCA COOK)

“I want you all to know that among progressives, it has become clear that you cannot claim to hold progressive values, yet back Israel’s apartheid government,” said Rashida Tlaib, US representative for Michigan’s 13th congressional district, during an online advocacy seminar held on Tuesday by Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action), and co-sponsored by American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).

“We will continue to push back and not accept this idea that you are progressive, except for ‘Philistine,’ any longer.”

She spoke of “victories” that the anti-Israel movement has achieved “due to the work of all of you, and so many others that continue to speak truth to power. When we center our beliefs and our actions on the truth that all human life is precious, that every person deserves to live free of fear and have the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

“The need to oppose Israel’s government’s apartheid rule is obvious. The path to freedom for Palestine is long and daunting, we must see through to its end. We owe it to not only Palestinians, [but] oppressed people all over the world who understand that our struggles are linked to one another.”

"The path to freedom for Palestine is long and daunting, we must see through to its end."Rashida Tlaib

European spyware investigators criticize Israel and Poland


WARSAW, Poland (AP) — European Parliament members investigating the use of surveillance spyware by European Union governments sharply criticized Israel on Wednesday for a lack of transparency in allowing the sale of powerful Israeli spyware to European governments that have used it against critics.

The European lawmakers also condemned the Polish government for refusing to meet with them during a fact-finding visit to Warsaw that ended Wednesday.

“It is regrettable and we condemn the fact that the Polish authorities did not want to cooperate with our investigation committee,” Jeroen Lenaers, the head of the delegation, said at a news conference in Warsaw.

“We think it also is a telling sign of the complete lack of importance this government attaches to checks and balances, to democratic scrutiny and to dialog with elected representatives.”

The committee is investigating the use by governments of Israel's Pegasus spyware and other invasive surveillance tools, viewing such technology as a threat to democracy in the 27-nation bloc.

Pegasus was developed by Israel's NSO Group and is designed to breach mobile phones and extract vast amounts of information from them, including text messages, passwords, locations and microphone and camera recordings. The company markets the technology as a tool to target criminals but many cases have been discovered worldwide of governments using it against dissidents, journalists and political opponents.

In Europe, cybersleuths have found traces of Pegasus or other spyware in Poland, Hungary, Spain and Greece.

Sophie in ’t Veld, the raporteur of the inquiry, said the committee has learned that the NSO group has sold spyware to 14 EU governments, using export licenses issued by the Israeli government. It learned that NSO stopped selling to two of those, but won't say which ones. They are widely believed to be Poland and Hungary due to their democratic backsliding.

“Why can we not say with certainty that Poland was one of the two countries of which the contract has been terminated?" she said. "Why is it that NSO is allowed to operate in the European Union, conduct its finances through Luxembourg, sell its products to now 12 member states, products that have been used to violate the rights of European citizens and to attack democracy of the European Union?”

Israel, an ally, should “cooperate with us in the protection of our citizens,” she said.

In 't Veld also she would expect most EU countries to use spyware in rare cases, and with oversight, but that others including Poland have used it "against citizens,” making it “a tool for an authoritarian political agenda.”

Greece has been rocked by revelations that Nikos Androulakis, a European Parliament member and head of Greece’s third-largest political party, was put under surveillance last year with Predator spyware when he was running for his PASOK party’s leadership. A financial journalist also was under surveillance.

That follows revelations of spyware use against government critics in Poland and Hungary and against Catalan separatists in Spain.

During their visit, which began Monday, the 10-member delegation met with Poles targeted by the spyware, including a prosecutor and a senator, and other officials including members in the opposition-controlled Senate investigating Pegasus use.

They will publish a report on their findings and recommendations on Nov. 8.

Vanessa Gera, The Associated Press

Tech sector says more job cuts to come as Elevate conference gets underway

TORONTO — The Elevate technology conference made its return to Toronto this week with a buzzy spectacle — shutting down several blocks of the Esplanade neighbourhood for a block party with performances from artists like rapper Haviah Mighty and scheduling more than 350 speakers, including tennis star Venus Williams, to grace its three venues by the time it wraps Thursday evening.

But the annual festival's reappearance after a two-year, pandemic hiatus is coming at a less than grand time for the industry. A slew of startups and tech giants as prominent as Netflix, Shopify and Wealthsimple have slashed their workforces as the sector grapples with fading investor exuberance and a potential recession.

That meant how to navigate the economic headwinds — and predictions about how long they will last — were hot topics on the Elevate stages.

“I don’t think we’ve hit close to the bottom yet,” said “Dragons’ Den” star Michele Romanow in a Wednesday mainstage session called “leading through uncertainty."

“Tech has seen the first kind of bump in this road and it could get a whole lot worse.”

Her e-commerce investing company Clearco has not been immune to the industry’s troubles. It laid off 60 employees last month as it handed off its international business, a month after cutting 25 per cent of its workforce.

The company anticipated a lot of international growth that no longer made sense in the current economy and it eventually cut “experimental” projects, which Romanow said was “devastating."

She’s since been outlining a new business plan for employees and reminding them that she cannot promise it will go perfectly according to that plan.

“Being an entrepreneur is an extremely hard job. It is largely masochistic, even when the sun is shining and so when it starts raining, and we go into cloudier economic conditions, this is a very difficult thing,” she said.

Abdullah Snobar, executive director of the DMZ tech hub in Toronto, agreed more cuts from more companies lie ahead.

“This is just the beginning,” he said, as Elevate kicked off on Tuesday. “Not to create this over the top scare … narrative, but I think for sure they're going to see a lot more layoffs.”

Labour data aggregator Layoffs.fyi counts 630 startups worldwide which have let go of 80,902 employees this year alone. About 1,193 startups have laid off 176,874 workers since the pandemic began.

Workers watching these cuts unfold and being affected by them are now getting acquainted with the fact that “the world won't be the way it was,” when companies were hiring “ridiculous” numbers of staff members in a short period of time, Snobar said.

But these workers are still needed.

A 2019 report from the Information and Communications Technology Council, a not-for-profit organization offering labour policy advice, predicted demand for digitally-skilled talent in Canada would reach 193,000 by 2022 and more than 305,000 by 2023.

A 2020 addendum accounting for COVID-19 forecast that demand would be reduced by nearly 24 per cent and said under new baseline scenarios, the digital economy is expected to experience demand for 147,000 workers by 2022, with total employment reaching nearly two million.

Banks, insurance companies and even retailers are embarking on hiring sprees as they delve deeper into artificial intelligence, apps and other software to advance their operations and cope with labour shortages.

“I don't think you'll be looking at a Gotham story, like the clouds have come in and we have got to be very careful and everybody's hiding for a bit,” said Snobar. “We're going to get over this thing.”

Lisa Zarzeczny, Elevate’s chief executive and co-founder, agrees. It’s part of why she was intentional about booking speakers who were willing to talk about the harsh realities facing tech and share tips on how to move forward.

“We don't want to gloss over it,” she said. “We think there's an opportunity to learn, and so across all of our stages, we're asking some hard questions.”

On top of Romanow’s session, Elevate had scheduled Wealthsimple founder Michael Katchen and Properly CEO Anshul Ruparell to explore how to grow a business amid headwinds and Rangle.io CEO Nick Van Weerdenburg leading a talk called “Hedgehogging and outfoxing: The psychology of leveraging uncertainty.”

Thirteen per cent of the workforce at financial services company Wealthsimple were laid off in June.

"There's no question that this year has been way more challenging of an environment than the last several and in tech, we know this because you feel it in valuations, you feel it in fundraising," Katchen said.

Wealthsimple has an even more on-the-ground view of the environment because its clients are investors, and they are hurting when the markets are down, he added.

But Katchen sees the current downturn as a natural part of doing business.

"There's the old adage that the best companies get built in environments like this and if you try and want to build a company of consequence, you're going to face many moments like this in the story of your business."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2022.

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

U of A pilot project uses artificial intelligence to identify distracted drivers in Edmonton

Artificial intelligence could soon help catch distracted drivers in Edmonton.


U of A pilot project that tracks distracted drivers through its technology 

seen along Argyll Road in Edmonton, Alta. on September 13, 2022.

Lisa MacGregor - Sept 13 - Global News 

The University of Alberta is testing a new system that's similar to photo radar, but catches drivers on their phone.

The large device looks like a power generator or light tower used on a construction site. It was switched on Tuesday and will track data along Argyll Road in south Edmonton and in two other locations for the next three weeks.

'It uses sensors to capture high-resolution images through windshields," said Karim El-Basyouny, the urban traffic safety research chair at the University of Alberta.

"The artificial intelligence is trained to detect phone use from large datasets, allowing the system to pick up on multiple cues that may indicate distracted driving."

He said the pilot project is for testing only and won't result in traffic enforcement for now.

“What we're trying to do here is see if there is a better understanding on how big of an issue it is," El-Basyouny said.

“The work is going to help us better understand what policies need to be in place in the future.

"Enforcement can potentially be one of the tools that we can use.”

The University of Alberta teamed up with Edmonton Police Service to bring the automated technology, created by Acusensus, to Canada through a grant.

Tony Parrino, the general manager of Acusensus in North America, said it's a radar-based system that will not put your privacy or personal information at risk and the images are reviewed in the final step by trained humans, to avoid any false positives.

“We're looking at four different distinct angles down into the windscreen windshield of the vehicle behind the dash. We've got a shallow camera that looks at the phone-to-ear event and then we have a colour context camera and then a plate camera to identify those vehicles," Parrino said.

Even driver Jack Shultz is on board — and he actually hates photo radar so much he created a Facebook group called Edmonton Cash Cows.

Video: Alberta photo radar review finds it’s a cash cow

“I'm against photo or automated traffic enforcement but I am in agreeance with trying to curb the situation and get a roads back to being safe," Shultz said.

“It makes me think about 2017, when me and my family were T-boned by a gentleman using a cell phone — we were T-boned and hospitalized. My common-law wife had to have reconstructive surgery.”

That's a fate this project hopes others will avoid, thanks to technology.

The U of A also states the findings from this project will also inform future decisions on the use of such technology in improving safety and contributing to the city’s goal of ‘Vision Zero’ – which is to have zero traffic-related serious injuries and fatalities

Analysis- A quadrillion reasons the Bank of Japan should fret about Fed

By Kevin Buckland and Vidya Ranganathan - 11h ago

Illustration picture of Japanese yen and U.S. dollar banknotes

© Reuters/FLORENCE LO

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A quadrillion yen is lying idle with Japanese households, ready to be shipped overseas when yields abroad turn more attractive, and that moment could arrive as soon as this week.

Later on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will be raising rates again and by as much as a full percentage point. The following day, the Bank of Japan is certain to cement its standing as the lone global dove in developed markets by sticking to its negative rates.

The difference in yields between the two markets will hit 300 basis points (bps): an inflection point that analysts say will prompt Mrs Watanabe, a moniker for the famed Japanese retail trader, to ditch the yen and move money out.

"In terms of pure FX carry, the dollar will soon provide 3%, yen is still 0%, so that's a big difference," says Shusuke Yamada, chief forex and rates strategist at Bank of America in Tokyo. Those kind of yields are incentive for both institutional and retail investors to buy U.S. dollars and hold them, he says.


 People buy their lunches from street vendors in front of the headquarters

 of Bank of Japan in Tokyo

© Reuters/KIM KYUNG-HOON

"Japanese households have a thousand trillion in yen deposits. I don't think it's going to move 1% a year, but even 0.1% is already one trillion, so even a small portion could have a meaningful impact. There is that potential," says Yamada.

The blow to the already battered yen, that's down 20 percent versus the dollar this year, should be cause for concern for the Bank of Japan.

Yield-seeking Japanese households have been notable absentees from global currency markets during the pandemic years as central banks pushed rates towards zero, squishing spreads between currencies and killing the pervasive yen-funded "carry" trade.

But household savings have been building up in the world's largest creditor nation. As of June, households had 1,102 trillion yen ($7.7 trillion) in cash and deposits, while private non-financial companies had 325 trillion yen.

"There is a risk of what I call capital flight by Japanese households," said Tohru Sasaki, head of Japan markets research at J.P. Morgan Securities in Tokyo.

"We have been talking about that for a long time - actually more than a decade - but it never happened. But I think the current situation is really different.

Related video: Japan's central bank likely to maintain yield-curve-control policy: Research institute

Duration 2:26  View on Watch

"The generation is shifting, technology is improving, and Japan's situation is getting worse, so the possibility is getting higher of seeing a kind of capital flight."

"GETTING SCARY"

Citi's quant strategist Alex Saunders says carry trades in major currencies hadn't worked since 2008 as all rates converged to zero, and while they had revived this year, he hadn't seen much of that happening in the yen.

That could be changing. Sasaki points to the more rooted feeling among Japanese that they have been gradually losing purchasing power with such a weak currency, but also to how easy it has become even for the elderly to buy foreign currencies with a smartphone.

He also highlighted recent developments such as the swift oil-driven widening in Japan's trade balance to a record deficit, and the yen's unprecedented weakness in real terms.

"And now yields start widening, and people start shifting their money abroad gradually. Basically whatever the level, there is a feeling that we need to hold some foreign currency, or that we need to hold dollars, to avoid the risk of a weak yen," said Sasaki.

"That's why I'm getting a little bit scared watching this. This time could be different ... so it's dangerous."

At 300 bps, the "carry" on dollars funded by yen approaches levels last seen in the 2005-2007 bout of frenzied overseas investment by Japanese retail traders, and before that in 1996-1998. Anything less wouldn't compensate for the risks, although a weakening yen is a bonus.

In January 2006, when spreads between U.S. and Japan were at their widest at roughly 440 bps, Japanese households had 1,631 trillion yen of assets. By June, that had shrunk by 22.5 trillion yen.

"Even if the FX rate doesn’t change, if you have this kind of yield spread, you’re going to reap a benefit," said Takuya Kanda, head of the research department at Gaitame.com Research Institute, which serves mainly retail investors.

"So this week particularly, when the BOJ looks set to keep interest rates at extremely low levels, and really it’s only Japan now that still has negative interest rates, that is a very conducive environment for money to flow overseas.”

In a survey of Gaitame.com clients on Aug. 23, about 60% said dollar-yen will continue to climb, and many forecast a rise to 145, he said. On Wednesday, it was just off 144.

Bart Wakabayashi, branch manager at State Street in Tokyo, says typical retail Japanese traders like to roll over yen-funded foreign currency holdings every day to earn interest but also sometimes play for FX gains, making them far more willing to take on risks that institutions can't.

That makes it imperative the BOJ tries to stamp out speculation the yen is a one-way downhill bet, which it has with statements and monitoring of yen levels.

“The Bank of Japan is trying to change the conversation. People are saying 145 is the line in the sand. I don’t believe that," said Wakabayashi.

"I think 150 is the line. I think 145 is the trigger that we go from stage 2, which is the official comments, to stage 3, which is the severe warnings.”

(Editing by Kim Coghill)

Quadrillion Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quadrillion

The meaning of QUADRILLION is a number equal to 1 followed by 15 zeros; also,

 British : a number equal to 1 followed by 24 zeros.

Five years into Canada-Europe trade deal, full ratification not guaranteed

A dispute over how corporations can sue governments remains unresolved

OTTAWA — Canada’s trade deal with the European Union has been operating in draft mode for five years as of Wednesday, raising doubts it will ever be formally implemented.



A dispute over how corporations can sue governments remains unresolved. Yet Canadian trade experts say the deal remains a major win in an era of supply-chain shocks and pushback against globalization.

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, known as CETA, came into force provisionally on Sept. 21, 2017, with the signatures of the European Commission and the Canadian government.

Since then, Canada-EU trade has risen 33 per cent, amounting to $100 billion in goods and services last year.

It’s meant more exports of everything from seafood to automotive parts to Europe, which has boosted its pharmaceutical and meat exports to Canada.

Yet the deal isn’t legally in place until all 27 members of the bloc individually ratify the deal.

Lawrence Herman, a Toronto trade lawyer, said key parts of the deal around tariffs, digital commerce and public procurement are in place.

“It is in effect in every real way,” Herman said in an interview Tuesday from France.

“I don't think CETA will ever be officially ratified.”

The most contentious issue surrounds which mechanisms countries can use to seek compensation and rectify disagreements with national, state and provincial governments, known as investor-state dispute settlements.

The idea is for a neutral mechanism to hear out complaints beyond courts, which could be influenced by national governments.

Labour and environmental activists have argued this gives up sovereignty of everything from consumer protection to worker safety.

A German senior court in February rejected arguments that this provision undermines the country’s constitution, but the clause remains controversial in Germany, which is among the 12 countries that haven’t ratified CETA.

Herman said in many of those countries, opposition is only getting stronger. “I just don't see it ever coming into force definitively,” he said.

Jason Langrish, head of the Canada Europe Roundtable for Business, agrees.

“There's a good chance it just sort of sits in this limbo,” said Langrish, who worked on CETA’s precursor as part of Canada’s delegation to the European Union, and helped represent industry groups in the CETA negotiations.

“The investor-state (tribunal) has been blown out of proportion,” he argued.

Trade Minister Mary Ng was unavailable for an interview Tuesday as she was travelling abroad.

But her office pointed out that Canada and EU countries will appoint members of the proposed tribunal, who will be "subject to rigorous ethical commitments, as well as a robust appellate mechanism."

"This agreement is giving Canadian farmers, producers, processors and exporters preferential access to more than half-a-billion consumers across the EU," said spokesman Chris Zhou.

Langrish said CETA’s main success has been to formalize rules around the large amount of trade the two parties were already doing, making Canada less reliant on the United States.

“As (U.S. President Donald) Trump came and went and protectionism became the order of the day, and we had all these difficulties with China, it was nice to have that relationship with Europe as a bit of a hedge,” he said.

“It sent a signal to the business communities in Canada and the EU, that they were both committed to each other and wanted to make this work as a long-term partnership.”

Langrish said trends in offshoring, immigration and automation have made it harder for politicians to sell trade deals, which themselves are becoming more complex.

That's because countries have already inked deals on getting goods across borders with lower taxes. That has meant modern trade negotiations involve more complex topics, such as technology regulations, labour qualifications and competition rules.

“The big-bang era of trade deals is over,” said Langrish.

CETA has been in the works since 2004, with the Harper government signing the initial agreement in 2014.

In 2016, ratification talks collapsed during a regional dispute in Belgium.

At that time, former trade minister Chrystia Freeland walked out of negotiations, giving an emotional interview in which she held back tears. The interview got attention across the continent, and talks went back on track within days.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is headed to Canada this month. Her visit was postponed after the death of Queen Elizabeth delayed various international meetings.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2022.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

Canadian oil exports to avoid pipeline bottlenecks for 10 years: report

Jeff Lagerquist - 

Canadian oil producers may avoid major export pipeline bottlenecks over the next decade as upcoming projects ease a longstanding challenge for the industry, according to a new analysis. However, S&P Global Commodity Insights warns that "Western Canada may not be entirely out of the woods."


S&P projects that by the late 2020's overall oil pipeline system

 utilization could top 90 per cent on an annualized basis. 

REUTERS/Todd Korol

Alberta's oil sands are the fourth-largest reserves in the world, and the most significant source outside of the OPEC bloc. For years, lack of export pipeline capacity has fuelled large price discounts for Canadian barrels versus the global market. At the same time, regulatory delays and environmental opposition to pipeline projects have worn down investor confidence in Western Canada's upstream sector.

S&P Global Commodity Insights now estimates the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion, plus capacity expansions of existing lines, will add 900,000 barrels per day (b/d) of pipeline capacity this decade, on top of the recently completed Line 3 Expansion project. Meanwhile, supply is expected to increase by 715,000 b/d by 2030.

This outlook assumes no further delays to the 590,000 b/d TMX project, which is expected to be completed towards the end of 2023.

"At first glance, it appears that Canadian crude exports may avoid any major bottlenecks and transportation-driven price discounts over the next decade," Aaron Brady, vice-president of energy oil market services at S&P Global Commodity Insights, stated on Tuesday in a news release.

"Western Canada may not be entirely out of the woods," he added. "The system appears it may run quite full later this decade, raising the risk of future regional price instability should upsets occur in the transportation system through to end-refineries."

S&P projects that by the late 2020s, overall pipeline system utilization could top 90 per cent on an annualized basis, leaving little cushion to adjust to any system upsets.

Kevin Birn, S&P's chief Canadian oil markets analyst, warns that straightforward comparisons of export supply and pipeline capacity mask a more complex reality.

For example, S&P's analysis notes a pipeline's "nameplate" capacity is not the same as its effective capacity, owing to seasonal trends and maintenance. On top of that, capacity can decline over time. It also warns of energy transition risk, given Canada's reliance on selling to refineries in the United States.

"A prudent outlook should consider the real-life constraints and challenges that occur in a pipeline system as complex as that of Western Canada, through which currently nearly four million barrels of crude oil, from ultra-light to extra-heavy, are shipped often thousands of miles each day to dispersed refineries across the continent," Birn added.

Jeff Lagerquist is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jefflagerquist.

Wages up across some sectors in N.S., but still lag behind inflation, experts say

Danielle Edwards - CBC-8h ago

New data from Statistics Canada shows that wages in the Atlantic provinces grew at almost double the national rate between April and June of this year due to wage increases in key sectors across the region.


Lars Osberg, a Dalhousie economist, says the buying power

 of wages in Nova Scotia has been trending downward.© CBC

But despite the growth, some experts say the buying power of wages is still falling because of inflation.

"Wages haven't kept up with inflation, so real wages have been trending down," said Dalhousie University economist Lars Osberg.

In its most recent report on GDP, income and expenditure for the period between April to June this year, the federal agency detailed an increase in employee compensation across Canada, led largely by wages in mining, oil and gas extraction, and professional and personal services.

Nova Scotia saw the third-highest wage growth among the provinces and territories at 3.9 per cent, behind New Brunswick at 4.1 percent and Newfoundland and Labrador at four per cent.

Some sectors in N.S. see wage boost

The professional and personal services industry was instrumental in pushing up wages across the Atlantic region and in Nova Scotia specifically. Wage increases in health and social services, finance, real estate and company management were recorded, as well.

Canada's inflation rate slows to 7%

Jobs in the professional, scientific and technical services include those in legal services, architecture and engineering, computer systems, scientific research, advertising and public relations, said Statistics Canada spokesperson Maryse Carrière.

Inflation, however, has climbed much more quickly than wages in the province. Data from Statistics Canada show the consumer price index — which tracks how much the average Canadian household spends on a fixed selection of goods and services — rose about 8.7 per cent in Nova Scotia from July 2021 to July 2022.

According to Osberg, the difference between inflation and the wage increase is the decline in the real value of wages, which in Nova Scotia's case would be about 4.8 per cent.

Buying power slides

Casey Warman, a fellow economics professor at Dalhousie, echoed the sentiment and said Nova Scotians are in a worse position financially than they were before the pandemic, due largely to the spike in inflation.

"Inflation is seven, eight per cent, so it's a major issue. If inflation is two per cent a year, it takes prices 35 years to double. If inflation is around seven per cent a year it takes prices 10 years to double," Warman said, though he added the inflation rate is not expected to stay at this level over the next decade.

"If [Nova Scotians] wages don't keep up, they're going to lose purchasing power," Warman added. "If we can't get inflation down quick enough then all of a sudden, everyone starts asking for higher wages, it gets even harder to combat."

Osberg said inflation is affecting all of North America and some parts of Europe. The Canadian and Nova Scotian market, specifically, also has to deal with "the pressures on the housing stock that come from population growth, a surge in rent, in rentals and the decline in vacancy," he said.

Some good news

It isn't all bad news, though. Both Osberg and Warman said that nationally and provincially, the number of jobs has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.

"The labour market has definitely recovered from COVID-19," Warman said. "If we look at the average between 2015 and 2019, we're right around that level for the employment rate and, actually, below it for unemployment," in Canada, he added.

COMPASSIONATE CAPITALI$M

Better governance, oversight give reasons to remain optimistic about the future of ESG investing

Special to Financial Post - 8h ago

Hydrocarbon giant Exxon Mobil Corp. is included in the 

S&P 500 ESG Index.© Provided by Financial Post

Over the past two decades, environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) investing has enjoyed a rapid rise in popularity with more and more investors deploying their capital in pursuit of not only better returns, but a better world.

ESG investing has grown into a US$35-trillion practice globally, but market volatility, buffeted by rising interest rates, geopolitical uncertainty in Europe, global supply chain challenges and fears of an impending economic recession, have not spared ESG funds.

After years of net new deposits, investors withdrew US$3.5 billion from ESG mutual funds in the United States in May 2022, marking the first quarter of outflows in more than five years. In Canada, the iShares ESG Advanced MSCI Canada Index ETF — an ESG index by BlackRock Inc. — is underperforming the S&P/TSX composite by seven per cent year to date.

Of course, market conditions have not been kind to most equities and sectors, but bad returns have also been compounded by mounting allegations of industry malpractice and inaccurate labeling of ESG funds. This difficult year for ESG investing has served as a wake-up call, with concerted efforts now being made to better inform investors on what sustainability practices are being applied.

Thankfully, this has also sparked meaningful action across market regulators and investors, giving reason to remain optimistic about the future of the ESG movement. The industry will need time and improved governing structures to address its issues, but reform from both governments and institutional investors alike is a great cause for optimism.

For example, new European Union regulations are forcing funds that want to use the ESG label to disclose how their strategies address environmental, social or governance issues. No such regulation exists in North America, but the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Canadian Service Administrators are lobbying for enhanced reporting on ESG measures.

Knowledge and access are key to ESG investing. A common critique of ESG funds is whether managers screen for ESG metrics or if they only consider ESG principles on a high level.

For example, many investors are surprised to learn that there are ESG exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that hold oil and gas companies. This is a result of the “best-in-class approach,” which is the process of selecting companies from various sectors, such as oil and gas, that obtain a higher ESG rating than their competitors.

A particularly shocking example of this practice was when Tesla Inc., a pioneer in the adoption of electric cars, was removed from the S&P 500 ESG Index, while hydrocarbon giant Exxon Mobil Corp. remained on the index.

Another common example of greenwashing in the industry is “screening,” which occurs when fund providers omit so-called sin stocks, such as tobacco and weapons, as a strategy to justify an ESG tag on their funds.

Increased government intervention and regulations will provide greater transparency in relation to the methodologies and reporting standards that funds are using, and will ultimately help investors understand whether a fund’s underlying investments correspond with its ESG label.

Along with the ongoing regulatory campaigns pushing for enhanced disclosures on ESG measures, investors are also demanding more action from companies. A notable example was the 2021 campaign by Engine No. 1 LP, a U.S. hedge fund that only held a 0.02-per-cent stake in Exxon Mobil yet successfully ousted three members of the company’s board of directors in favour of replacements who were more committed to combating climate change.

This David and Goliath story exemplifies a growing wave of active engagement from investors. Instead of simply withdrawing money from one place to invest in another, investors are engaging directly with corporate leadership to strategically wield the power of shareholder voting to effect change.

We can expect to see this trend continue. In Canada, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board has announced plans for the $242-billion fund to buy more controlling stakes in companies so that it can keep a closer eye on ESG performance.

As an investment adviser, I serve clients by listening to their needs, goals and values, while ensuring that our industry is well versed in the constant changes that define ESG investing. That is why it is important to speak to an investment adviser who will provide you with a holistic approach to ESG investing based on your unique needs and situation.

Before making any investment decision, determine what goal or cause is important to you. Think of your long-term convictions and which of them would be a powerful way to feel less uneasy about market volatility.

The issues ESG investing faces are the growing pains of an evolutionary process, not a feature. There is so much more to be written in the history of ESG investing and I believe that the next chapters will be filled with opportunities for the engaged investor.

Andrew Feindel is a portfolio manager at Richardson Wealth and author of Kickstart Your Corporation: The Incorporated Professional’s Financial Planning Coach.