Risk of dementia linked to air pollution exposure, new study says

Nathan Howes
Tue, January 10, 2023 

Risk of dementia linked to air pollution exposure, new study says


The health risks associated with air pollution are well-documented, and now, researchers may have found another possible consequence to exposure: Dementia.

Meta-analysis done by Western University researchers has indiciated that higher exposure to a specific type of traffic-related air pollution, called particulate matter, may be tied to an elevated risk of dementia, according to the study recently published in Neurology.

The rate of air pollution exposure for those with and without dementia were compared. Researchers found people who did not develop it had a lower average of daily exposure to fine particulate matter than those who have it.

The risk of dementia increased by three per cent for every one microgram per cubic-metre rise of fine particulate matter exposure.

Researchers examined 17 studies involving more than 91 million people over the age of 40 worldwide. Of those, 5.5 million people, or six per cent, developed dementia.

Cheryl Santa Maria graphic

Researchers at Western University have uncovered a connection between exposure to air pollutants and a greater risk of dementia. (Cheryl Santa Maria/The Weather Network)

"We don't know exactly why there is this relationship between fine particulate matter and dementia," said Janet Martin, professor at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, in a recent interview with The Weather Network.
The connection between dementia and pollutants

Martin, working alongside Western graduate student Ehasan Abolhasani, gathered data from any country that reported on the relationship between pollutants and dementia, combined it with information from previously published studies and then reviewed each pollutant that could be isolated.

Afterwards, they were able to draw a link between pollutants and the rate of dementia.

"There are a lot of unknowns as to what really is the main mechanism or related mechanisms that lead to the development of dementia," said Martin.

She said the particulate matter fragments are so small they can actually travel down into the smallest parts of your airways and into your alveoli.

"Because they are so small, they can actually enter the bloodstream and evade some of your immune system. We think that is the reason why they are so risky...because they do have a direct entry into the bloodstream. [This] may then have ultimate impacts in terms of the risk of dementia," said Martin.

Traffic/(Aleksandr Popov/Unsplash)

But the problem of fine particulate matter can't be completely attributed to fuels, Martin said, noting it is something that is emitted through combustion and chemical processes. Other major sources include wood or crop burning and wildfires.

"In Canada, we have exposure to fine particulate matter that is several folds lower than in some other countries where there is the concentration of population, but also reliance on combustion of other types of fuel or wood burning, or crop burning," said Martin.
How to limit exposure

There is good news when it comes to particulate matter in Canada. Exposure to it has been decreasing over the last decade because regulations have prompted a reduction in emissions from the transport industry and the industrial sector, Martin said. There has also been a drop in crop and wood burning, as well as fuel in our homes.

"Different countries around the world have named different thresholds based on what's feasible to achieve," said Martin. "In Canada, our standards have been on the lower side to be safer than what some [other] countries have named as their maximum exposure."

In terms of deterrence, Martin said the "main message" is that fine particulate matter is emitted through combustion and chemical processes, so you can avoid most of the preventable exposure by having a "very safe" indoor environment where you're not burning items.

car traffic beijing 

And if you are burning objects, ensure you have a well-ventilated space.

"If the ambient exposure outdoors is high...then it does really become an important factor where those who live in areas of concentrated exposure have safe indoor spaces, which are then protected from the fine particulate matter from the outdoors," said Martin.

She does note, however, that many people don't have a choice on where they live and they lack a "full control over their own exposures."

So, this is where governments and "each of us as contributors" of air pollutants take responsibility for adhering to standards -- by incorporating a local and global mindset of minimizing our emissions, Martin added.

"It's a very serious reduction in the quality of and length of life. Dementia [has an] increasing incidence. It's sort of like that thief in the night that is coming upon our population as we age," said Martin. "It's one of the most important things that we learn to address and prevent, so that we don't have this huge burden of disease as our population ages."

WATCH: The link between worsening mental health and air pollution

Click here to view the video

What are the next steps?

In a press release, Martin said the Western team plans to further evaluate global dementia trends to see if there is a relationship between policies to reduce air pollutants and downward trends in new cases of dementia.

"We need to now do research on interventions to reduce that fine particulate matter exposure, and to evaluate which interventions actually worked to reduce incidence of dementia into the future," said Martin. "That's one of the most interesting parts of research like this."

"Every intervention comes with potential benefits and maybe some risks and costs. It is the cost and the effort, and the amount of reduction in subsequent dementia, that we would be interested in evaluating."

Thumbnail courtesy of buzbuzzer/ E+/ Getty Images.

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Anti-racism group claims Quebec told Longueuil police to ignore court order on racial profiling

Tue, January 10, 2023

Joel DeBellefeuille, head of the Red Coalition, says he has proof that the province's Public Security Ministry intervened on the court order. 

(Simon Nakonechny/CBC - image credit)

An anti-racism group on Montreal's South Shore says the Quebec government told the head of police in Longueuil, Que., to ignore a court order to crack down on racial profiling.

In a 2020 ruling, Human Rights Tribunal Judge Christian Brunelle said the city must adopt a policy on profiling that includes training officers while collecting and evaluating race-based data on people who are stopped by police.

That race-based data will be the "perceived or presumed race of persons subject to police stops" and be published starting in 2021, the court ruled.

But that never happened, and the Red Coalition now says that it has uncovered evidence proving the province's Ministry of Public Security is to blame.

The organization says it obtained letters dating back to mid-2021. The letters were exchanged between the former head of the Longueuil police service, Fady Dagher, and the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse (CDPDJ), a civil and youth rights organization.

The Red Coalition has since shared those letters.

Letter exchanges shared with public

In the letter dated Sept. 29, 2021, Dagher writes to the commission inquiring about the Longueuil police service's obligations under the 2020 tribunal ruling.

In the letter, he says the Ministry of Public Security (MSP) informed him that it was working on a province-wide process for police forces to collect race-based data.

He says the ministry asked the Longueuil police "to wait for the implementation of this solution, which, according to our information and according to what was mentioned by the MSP during the meeting of Sept. 23, should be ready by the end of 2021."

In a follow-up letter dated Dec. 30, Dagher adds: "Based on the latest exchanges we have had with the MSP, we believe that the solution allowing all police forces in the province to collect data concerning the perceived or presumed racial affiliation of people who are the subject of a police arrest could be deployed during the first quarter of 2022."

The Red Coalition says that passage is proof that the province told the Longueuil police service (SPAL) to not follow the court order.

"The Red Coalition applauds the efforts to implement a plan and strategy to combat the very real phenomenon of racial profiling," says Joel DeBellefeuille, head of the Red Coalition, in a news release.

However, he says, it is "inconceivable" that the MSP "instructed Dagher to purposely defy a court order and break the law."

DeBellefeuille's complaint against the police service is what led to the court ruling in the first place. It stemmed from an incident in 2012 where DeBellefeuille, who is Black, was stopped while dropping his son off at daycare.

He says Longueuil police still haven't complied with the resulting court order and his organization is planning to head back to court to make that happen.

Police, ministry deny claims

Longueuil police Insp. Simon Crépeau said in an email that the MSP has not in any way instructed the SPAL or the City of Longueuil to defy the court order or disobey the law.

MSP spokesperson Louise Quintin said the ministry would never instruct a police force to defy the decision of a court, whatever it may be.

"The MSP is working on several fronts to fight against racism and racial and social profiling," Quintin said in an email.

When it comes to collecting data on police stops and police training, Quintin said, the MSP has been working for more than a year to implement a framework and a mechanism for collecting data on police questioning.

"To do this, the MSP offered financial support to the police forces that needed it so that they could adjust their computer system to document the police stops made," she said.

"This data collection should gradually be extended over the next few months to all police forces in Quebec."

Dalia Alachi, spokesperson for the CDPDJ, said in an email to CBC News that the commission is "very involved" in developing a training program to counter racism and racial and social profiling for police organizations.

This is in collaboration with the MSP, Quebec's police school and the police ethics commissioner, Alachi says. However, implementing a race-based data collection system is up to the ministry and the Longueuil police service, not the commission, she says.

Opponents of Fredericton jail proposal pack council chamber to hear public comments

Tue, January 10, 2023

About 100 people filled the gallery of the Fredericton council chamber Monday night when the public got a chance to react to proposed rezoning that would allow a new jail. (Aidan Cox/CBC - image credit)

The gallery in Fredericton city hall's council chamber was packed Monday night as councillors heard concerns from residents about a proposal to build a new jail in the east end.

About 100 people filled the third-floor viewing gallery that overlooks councillors, as members of the public spoke largely in opposition to a proposed zoning amendment that would allow construction of a $32 million jail in the Vanier Industrial Park.

Councillors heard from 10 people, including former New Brunswick ombudsman Charles Murray, addictions rehab specialist Dr. Sara Davidson, public safety deputy minister Mike Comeau, and several residents of the Lincoln Heights neighbourhood.

"I have rarely felt unsafe in my community, but this proposal has forced me to think about what my life might be should this be approved," said Erin Mattinson, a 17-year resident of Lincoln Heights.

"Council members, I urge you to reject this proposal. I urge you to be the change. Let's make Fredericton a safer place to be by rejecting this rezoning proposal and changing the conversation."

The New Brunswick government announced in fall 2021 that it planned to build a new jail in the Fredericton area to relieve overcapacity at its four existing jails.

The province's desired location for the jail came out last November when Fredericton councillors were required to vote on whether to sell to the province a 25-hectare plot of land where the 100-bed jail would go.

Councillors voted 6-4 in favour of the sale, valued at $1,075,000, but it still hinged on councillors voting in favour of the land being rezoned to allow a jail.

Last December, the city's planning advisory committee recommended councillors deny the application to rezone the property.

City of Fredericton

On Monday, the motion to amend the zoning for the property went before councillors for first and second reading, which also gave members of the public the opportunity to raise any concerns.

Councillors voted 7-4 in favour of the motion, with councillors Steven Hicks, Jason Lejeune, Eric Megarity, Bruce Grandy, Jocelyn Pike, Greg Ericson, and Henri Mallet giving their approval.

Councillors Margo Sheppard, Kevin Darrah, who's ward covers the proposed site of the jail, Ruth Breen, and Cassandra LeBlanc, voted against the motion.

The motion still needs to be voted on following a third and final reading, which will take place during the Jan. 23 council meeting.

Concerns brought forward by speakers included fears that a jail could hurt the property values of nearby homes, while some said they would no longer feel safe with a jail located a few kilometres from where they and their children live.

Other speakers weren't against the proposed location, but were against the use of jails in general as a means to rehabilitate criminal offenders.

Murray, who served as New Brunswick's ombudsman for eight years, was the only person to address council, aside from Comeau, who spoke in favour of the rezoning proposal.

Aidan Cox/CBC

He said the nearest option now for jailing criminal offenders from Fredericton is about an hour away.

The effect is that inmates are taken away from their families and the community supports that would help with their rehabilitation and transition back into society once released.

"That's why I'd ask you to not stigmatize offenders and not see them as a danger," Murray said.

"They're our fellow citizens who will come back to our community no matter where they serve their jail time. … Do we want them to come back, having had the support and rehabilitation here, or do you want to exile them somewhere, cut them off from their family and their supports, and make their transition back that much harder? That's the real choice."

Davidson, meanwhile, spoke about her experience running River Stone Recovery Centre, a drug treatment clinic in downtown Fredericton.

She told councillors more housing and addiction supports are needed, rather than a new jail.

"Putting people with mental health issues and substance use disorder behind bars will not make our communities feel safer when the people you're incarcerating have no housing, no social programming or no social safety net to return to," Davidson said.

"It will perpetuate an endless expensive cycle that just continues to get worse."

Speaking later, Comeau said it's not an "either/or" situation between jails and drug rehabilitation, adding that the province was investing about $170 million this fiscal year in addiction and mental health supports.

Regarding the land proposed for the jail, Comeau said it would have been chosen by the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure based on a points system.

He said the selected site benefited from being at least 22 acres and accessible by road from multiple angles.

Conflict of interest accusation

Valerya Edelman, a social worker, also spoke in opposition to the proposed zoning amendment and accused Hicks and Grandy of being in a conflict of interest on the matter.

Hicks works as a probation officer with the Department of Public Safety, and Grandy is a director within the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.

The two didn't declare a conflict of interest before the motion was read and ultimately voted on it.

The two declined interviews about the accusation, and city spokesperson Wayne Knorr forwarded the council code of conduct, outlining rules about conflict of interest.

Saint John wants owners to pay when they let buildings sit empty


Tue, January 10, 2023

Vacant buildings in Saint John's north end in 2016. The city reached a peak of about 220 vacant building cases in its files in 2018. (Julia Wright/CBC - image credit)

Saint John city staff want to persuade the province to give the city more tools to discourage owners from letting their buildings stand vacant.

It was part of a plan presented to city council Monday night designed to repair more older buildings in priority neighbourhoods, one that was passed unanimously.

Coun. David Hickey applauded the report and said it correctly points out flaws in the enforcement process.

"Countless members of our community and experts as well [say] that the process is too clunky, it's too slow and it's ensuring that properties remain vacant and remain unfixed," Hickey said.

Too late by time of tax sale

Hickey said that once a property reaches the stage of being forced into a tax sale, it has usually deteriorated to the point where it can't be repaired.

City staff want the city to lobby the province for the introduction of a vacancy tax placed on vacant buildings.

Municipalities in British Columbia and Ontario have used the tax idea to some success, but New Brunswick municipalities don't have the power to tax vacant buildings at a higher rate.

CBC

The report also suggests the vacancy tax likely wouldn't be based on assessed property values, because many derelict buildings have such a low assessment.

Instead, it recommends a flat rate.

The other proposed option is a vacant building permit.

Other cities have tried the system, which would "require property owners to apply annually for a permit to register their vacant building with the City," the report reads.

The owner must meet certain standards before the permit is issued.

Submitted by Joseph Comeau

In some cities, the permit fees increase each year the building remains vacant, according to the report.

It recommends a fee of between $1,000 and $1,500 for the permit.

But the report is careful to point out "that approximately 10 per cent of vacant building owners do not pay their taxes or water bills and in those cases this fee would likely go unpaid as well."

Council also approved the pursuit of a better tax sale system, one that works more quickly to deal with abandoned buildings.

Right now, the province will not hold a tax sale until there has been a minimum of four years of unpaid taxes.

A survey of demolished buildings in Saint John suggested it often took longer.

Up to 10 years worth of unpaid taxes

"In each case, it is estimated that there were anywhere from 5 to 10 years of outstanding taxes on each property prior to demolition moving forward," the report reads.

"Had these properties been sold at a tax sale earlier, it is possible that demolition could have been avoided."

The tax sale itself can add even more time, if the property does not receive a market value bid.

The province takes ownership of the property, and it can take as long as three years for it to eventually sell.

The city says there are currently 40 vacant lots that once contained buildings the city paid to demolish.

It expects it will take between seven to 10 years for the province to dispose of them.

Julia Wright/CBC

There is good news in the report.

In 2018, the city was monitoring about 220 vacant buildings. That number is now about 145, and the city is processing about 60 cases a year.

About two-thirds of those buildings are repaired and reoccupied. The rest are demolished.

Lane Harrison/CBC

Hickey did take time to refer to the demolition of 111 King St. E, a heritage home owned by J.D. Irving that was demolished on Monday, just hours before the council meeting.

Council reluctantly approved demolition of the house known as the Brown House, after several years of trying to get the company to repair it.

"The more that we can make sure that we are avoiding the 111 King St. East — dare I say it — the more we are avoiding those decisions by this table, the better, because we shouldn't be [making those decisions]," Hickey said.

"We should be ensuring we have processes that are protecting our… buildings."

PEI
Given choice, landlords likely to bypass government program and increase rents, says association


Tue, January 10, 2023 

Landlords are making an economic choice, says Chris LeClair of the Residential Rental Association of P.E.I. (CBC - image credit)

Not allowing landlords to receive both a government compensation program and rent increases beyond the allowable standard will undermine the government program, says a provincial landlords group.

Last week the P.E.I. government announced a program of property tax rebates for landlords. The program is designed as compensation for government intervention last month that froze rents for 2023.

But the government move left open the option of applying to the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission for a rent increase, and Chris LeClair, acting executive director with the Residential Rental Association of P.E.I., said given that choice landlords are likely to apply for rent increases.

"To make it a one or the other option is to really undermine the impact of compensation," said LeClair.

"That makes the tenant the one that will end up paying more because the tax rebate is not addressing the economic losses that the landlord would have faced."

IRAC has told CBC News it is very busy with applications to increase rents. Some of those increases are said to be in double digits.

The new Residential Tenancy Act caps extraordinary increases at three per cent, but the legislation is not yet in effect and is not expected to be until the spring.

Landlords are simply making an economic choice, said LeClair, and rent increases would be lower if they could qualify for both extraordinary increases and government compensation.

"I don't see that as having your cake and eating it too," he said.

"I see it as a matter of landlords trying to piece together a financial scenario that allows them to have the best possible chance to remain viable."

LeClair estimates the property tax rebate will only make up for about 30 per cent of what landlords could make through rental increases.

Newly restored house in Pompeii offers glimpse of elite life


Tue, January 10, 2023 



POMPEII, Italy (AP) — The newly restored remains of an opulent house in Pompeii that likely belonged to two former slaves who became rich through the wine trade offer visitors an exceptional peek at details of domestic life in the doomed Roman city.

On Tuesday, the House of Vettii, Domus Vettiorum in Latin, was being formally unveiled after 20 years of restoration. Given fresh life were frescoes from the latest fashion in Pompeii wall decoration before the flourishing city was buried under the volcanic ash furiously spewing from Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

The unveiling of the restored home is yet another sign of the rebirth of Pompeii, which followed decades of modern bureaucratic neglect, flooding and pillaging by thieves in search of artifacts to sell.

That is delighting tourists and rewarding experts with tantalizing fresh insights into the everyday life of what is one of the most celebrated remnants of the ancient world.

“The House of the Vetti is like the history of Pompeii and actually of Roman society within one house,” Pompeii’s director, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, gushed as he showed off an area of the domus known as the Cupid Rooms last month.

“We’re seeing here the last phase of the Pompeian wall painting with incredible details, so you can stand before these images for hours and still discover new details,” the archaeological park’s energetic director told The Associated Press ahead of the public inauguration.

“So, you have this mixture: nature, architecture, art. But it is also a story about the social life of the Pompeiian society and actually the Roman world in this phase of history," Zuchtriegel added.

Previous restoration work, which involved repeated application of paraffin over the frescoed walls in hopes of preserving them, “resulted in them becoming very blurred over time, because very thick and opaque layers formed, making it difficult to ‘read’ the fresco," said Stefania Giudice, director of fresco restoration.

But the wax did serve to preserve them remarkably.

Zuchtriegel ventured that the fresh “readings” of the revived fresco painting “reflect the dreams and imagination and anxieties of the owners because they lived between these images,’’ which include Greek mythological figures.

And who were these owners? The Vettis were two men — Aulus Vettius Conviva and Aulus Vettius Restitutus. In addition to having part of their names in common, they shared a common past — not as descendants of noble Roman families accustomed to opulence, but rather, Pompeii experts say, almost certainly, as once enslaved men who were later freed.

It is believed that they became wealthy through the wine trade. While some have hypothesized the two were brothers, there is no certainty about that.

In the living room, known as the Hall of Pentheus, a fresco depicts Hercules as a child, crushing two snakes, in an illustration of an episode from the Greek hero’s life. According to mythology, Hera, the goddess wife of Zeus, sent snakes to kill Hercules because she was furious that he was born from the union of Zeus with a mortal woman, Alcmena.

Might Aulus Vettius Conviva and Aulus Vettius Restitutus have recognized their own life story in some way in the figure of Hercules who overcame challenge after challenge in his life?

That's a question that intrigues Zuchtriegel.

After years in slavery, the men “then had an incredible career after that and reached the highest ranks of local society, at least economically,’’ judging by their upscale domus and garden, Zuchtriegel said. “They evidently tried to show their new status also through culture and through Greek mythological paintings, and it’s all about saying, ‘We’ve made it and so we are part of this elite’” of the Roman world.

Pompeii’s architect director of restoration work, Arianna Spinosa, called the restored home “one of the iconic houses of Pompeii. The residence "represents the Pompeiian domus par excellence, not only because of the frescoes of exceptional importance, but also because of its layout and architecture.”

Ornamental marble baths and tables surround the garden.

First unearthed during archaeological excavations in the late 19th century, the domus was closed in 2002 for urgent restoration work, including shoring up roofing. After a partial reopening in 2016, it was closed again in 2020 for the final phase of the work, which included restoration of the frescoes and of the floor and colonnades.

Francesco Sportelli, The Associated Press

Remains of wooden ship appear, then disappear on beach in North Rustico, P.E.I.

Tue, January 10, 2023 

Photos of the wooden shape started to appear on social media after Christmas, including a debate over what the pieces were — a shipwreck or part of an old wharf? (Jody Doucette/Facebook - image credit)

What appears to have been the bow of a wooden schooner has attracted attention on a beach in North Rustico, P.E.I., a decade after local residents say it was last seen in the same spot.

Brendon Peters lives not far from the beach, and remembers the last time the sands drifted away, revealing the wooden structure below.

"My brother Norman Peters, a.k.a. the Bearded Skipper, took quite an interest in it. He did some research, and he got some people to look at it," Peters said.

"They came back with the finding that it was an old schooner that went aground here in 1879. It was the Carrie F. Butler, with 300 barrels of mackerel on board."

Jody Doucette/Facebook

When the shipwreck reappeared shortly after Christmas, Brendon Peters headed to the internet to find out more about the schooner, and found some reports in The Charlottetown Examiner about a ship from Gloucester, Mass.

"About a week or two later, the captain or the owner of the vessel auctioned everything off. They had an auction right here on the beach, anything that was left on board," Peters said.

"They sold all the rigging and everything. It was just left with bare bones sitting here. So the rest is history."

What is it?

Photos of the wooden shape started to appear on social media after Christmas, including a debate over what the pieces were — a shipwreck or part of an old wharf?

"I started putting my little two cents worth in, and some people said 'No, it's part of an old wharf,'" Peters said.

"I would say, 'I have never ever seen a wharf in the shape of a bow.' Maybe they did build them like that, I don't know. But I still say it is the Carrie F. Butler."

Shane Hennessey/CBC

On his most recent visit to the beach, Peters said the wooden remains are disappearing back into the sand, similar to what happened 10 years ago.

"I came down Saturday and there was people buzzing around, and they were saying, 'Where is it?' I said, 'Well, it's buried most of it, but you can see it right here, part of it,'" Peters said.

"You can see the outline of the bow, but if you would've been here December 26, you would have seen the whole thing."

Brendon Peters/Facebook

Buried history

The P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation's education and programming co-ordinator, Jason MacNeil, said people in maritime regions have a special relationship with the ocean and shipwrecks.

He has his own story of a P.E.I. shipwreck, from 2007, when a ship destroyed in the Yankee Gale, appeared on a beach near French River, P.E.I.

Shane Hennessey/CBC

"We went to see it, and it was sitting up on top of the sand all nicely. And then whenever we went out to get it, it was buried, so we had to spend three weeks digging it up out of the sand," MacNeil said.

"We had some of the pieces looked at, and they were made out of white oak, which was the same material that was used by the Americans in the Yankee Gale."

Shane Hennessey/CBC

MacNeil said the fact that the shipwrecks appear and disappear adds to their mystique.

"It makes it more essential to see it when it's there," he said.

"That's what the sea and the sand do, right? They expose things temporarily, and then before you know it, it's all shifted and everything is gone again."

Jody Doucette/Facebook

Remaining staff to be terminated as receivership approved for Caribou mine

Tue, January 10, 2023 

The Caribou mine site southwest of Bathurst. (François Lejeune/Radio-Canada - image credit)

A British Columbia judge approved an order Monday to place Trevali Mining (New Brunswick) Ltd. in receivership later this month, resulting in the termination of remaining Caribou mine employees.

Supreme Court Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick granted the order after a hearing in Vancouver on Monday. The company will be placed in receivership at 11:59 p.m. PT on Jan. 24.

Receivership allows secured creditors to recover what they're owed when a company defaults on its payments.

The mine, about 50 kilometres southwest of Bathurst, produced zinc, lead and silver until its parent company, Trevali Mining Corp., filed for creditor protection in August.

Mining was halted at Caribou, which was placed into a care-and-maintenance mode.

Trevali

Court filings indicate Trevali had 121 workers and employed 165 contractors in August before 100 employees were laid off.

Dawid Cieloszczyk, a lawyer representing mine workers in United Steelworkers Local 1306, told the judge on Monday there were five remaining unionized employees. It wasn't clear how many non-unionized workers remain.

Cieloszczyk said all remaining staff would be laid off when the receivership process begins later this month.

Glencore Canada Corp., Trevali's largest shareholder, and Bank of Nova Scotia sought the receivership order.

Court filings from last week show the New Brunswick government feared a "chaotic" bankruptcy or receivership taking place this week, leaving no one to secure the mine and its tailings ponds.

A Jan. 3 affidavit says that without on-site security, there's a risk thieves could interrupt the power supply and halt treatment of acidic water at the mine. Filings noted a tailings pond is nearly full.

Documents indicate the province is working with a contractor that could secure the site, take over its maintenance, and prepare a remediation plan for the mine.

Michel Nogue/Radio-Canada

But the documents say it's unclear when the contractor can deploy to the mine site.

The province asked Fitzpatrick to extend creditor protection by two weeks to give it time to get the contractor in place.

Fitzpatrick approved that in a second order on Monday. The order will see the province paying $198,000 US to rent the mine site equipment until mid-March.

"At which time, hopefully a clearer path forward will be in place between the parties," Fitzpatrick said.

Court filings indicate the time will allow the province to inspect the equipment, formulate an initial site reclamation plan, and negotiate purchase of the equipment that could be used for mine site cleanup.

Department won't comment

The Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development wouldn't answer questions about the province's environmental liability at the mine.

René Legacy, the Liberal MLA for Bathurst West-Beresford, said what's unfolding isn't a surprise given Trevali's financial issues last year.

"I do see it as a positive sign that the government wants to keep the mine dry and unflooded," Legacy said in an interview Monday.

"If there is a new operator that's going to come in, it would make it easier for them to to become productive as quickly as possible."

Last fall, as part of the creditor protection process, a buyer was sought for the mine. However, no interest had been shown by mid-October.

New Brunswick Green Party Leader David Coon said he would like to know what the province might do to help employees losing their jobs.

Coon was also concerned that the province said in a court filing it wasn't monitoring the mine site for environmental compliance recently.

The documents filed last week show the province has instead relied on Trevali staff who remain on-site.

Indigenous prof says UBC's silence on Turpel-Lafond controversy casts 'shadow' on institution

Tue, January 10, 2023 

From 2018 until 2022, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond was the director of UBC's Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. (bccla.org - image credit)

Daniel Justice says he was met with silence by the University of British Columbia (UBC) for more than two months, despite his best efforts to raise concerns about how the institution was handling the controversy around former UBC professor Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond.

On Oct. 12, a CBC investigation found that genealogical evidence indicated Turpel-Lafond was of entirely European ancestry, despite the fact she had claimed for decades to be a treaty Indian of Cree ancestry. The investigation also raised concerns about false claims she had made regarding her academic achievements.

She no longer works for the university, as of Dec. 16, but UBC won't say why.

In a statement to other media outlets, Turpel-Lafond indicated that she retired to focus "on my health, family and spiritual journey."

Justice said he's not happy with how UBC handled this from the outset.

"The university comes out very strongly in defence of her at the very beginning," recalled Justice, an Indigenous UBC professor. "All of the concern — the public concern — was protecting Mary Ellen."

Grad.ubc.ca

In a statement to the Globe and Mail the day the story was published, UBC praised Turpel-Lafond's work as the head of UBC's Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. It declined to comment on her Indigenous ancestry claims, noting that they played no role in the decision to hire her.

Justice said that approach stands in stark contrast to how the university treated him and other Indigenous professors who expressed concern.

"There was not any public acknowledgement that there were other people who were hurt by this and other relationships that were hurt by this," said Justice.

"It's hard not to look at all of that and not feel a little bit abandoned by the institution."

Candis Callison, the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous journalism, media and public discourse at UBC, said the institution's response has cast an "unnecessary shadow" over UBC.

She said UBC went silent after its initial defence of Turpel-Lafond, rather than publicly acknowledging the seriousness of the concerns raised and committing to look into them.

"UBC looks like a very closed-door place for people to want to express concerns about something that affects us all," she said. "It doesn't appear that the university took into consideration many of the concerns that were expressed privately and directly."

Fnis.arts.ubc.ca

Silence 'a terrible idea'

An internal UBC email leaked to CBC provides some insight into the decision making process as the university found itself in the midst of what Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason has called a "full-on scandal."

The email was sent on Jan. 2 by UBC provost Gage Averill to a group of non-Indigenous professors who raised concerns about the growing controversy. CBC asked UBC questions about the email but it declined to respond, indicating it "represents an internal discussion around a very complex topic."

Arts.ubc.ca

CBC's story broke on Oct. 12. Averill said that day was a time of transition for the institution, noting it "was published by the CBC on the evening before our acting president, Deborah Buszard, took office." After six years as president, Santa Ono had left UBC for the University of Michigan.

Averill said the university received some questions about the story from the Globe and Mail.

"Although our comms team released a quick statement at the beginning of this issue, that was only a terse (and maybe not perfect, from my POV) response to some specific questions from a reporter," Averill wrote.

He indicated that going forward, the university had decided that silence was the preferred approach.

"The university has not issued a broader communication, as our concerns are foremost for our community," he wrote. "I have just wanted to avoid any hint of the institution doing 'damage control' or responding in an knee-jerk way."

Jean Teillet, a Métis lawyer and expert in Indigenous rights law, said that statement is amusing.

"I love that line," she said. "That's just like admitting the obvious. You are doing damage control and everybody knows it, and the fact that you're hiding just contributes to that."

Teillet, who investigated Carrie Bourassa and her false claims to Indigenous ancestry for the University of Saskatchewan, said she learned from that experience that everyone's observing and taking note.

"UBC's got their head in the sand, it seems to me, if they don't think that the rest of academia is carefully watching what they do," she said. "So this idea that they don't have to face the music in any public way at all, I think it's a terrible idea."

Ed Henderson

In the internal email, UBC's provost Averill said to the faculty that "anytime there is a credible charge of misrepresentation, the University would have to undertake some kind investigation."

But he said due to privacy law, he couldn't say what, if anything, the university did in the Turpel-Lafond's case.

"No matter how much anyone would like to know about such things, I am not permitted by law to say anything about any particular individual," Averill wrote.

Callison is puzzled by that claim. She noted that in 2021, when the University of Saskatchewan faced a similar situation with professor Carrie Bourassa, it announced it was investigating the matter.

"Even just to say 'we are investigating' would have been a huge leap forward at some point during the last two almost three months," she said.

Callison said she wrote private emails to university administrators and was part of a group of Indigenous academics that wrote a letter raising concerns as well. She also made her views known publicly in a podcast about the Turpel-Lafond situation.

Despite all of that, the university has still failed to reach out to her directly, she said.

"It seems like UBC is just hoping it will blow over, but that won't happen," she said.

UBC plans to connect with Indigenous faculty and staff

The internal email said that immediately after the story broke, the provost and the new acting president sought counsel from advisors.

"There was an early consideration of a meeting with all Indigenous faculty and staff," Averill wrote. "But it was suggested that the issue was at the time too raw, and that it may not be appropriate to have conflictual and emotional discussions among Indigenous community members in front of university administrators at that time."

Stephen Petrina, vice-president of the faculty association at UBC, said the idea that such a conversation is "too raw" is insulting.

This wasn't the first time UBC administration had urged restraint in the face of the Turpel-Lafond revelations. Ngia Pindell, the dean of UBC's law school, wrote an email to students shortly after the story broke.

"While it is natural that you might wish to discuss the story with colleagues, classmates and friends, please be mindful of the potential that what you say may exacerbate a difficult situation for someone you are engaging with."

Petrina said universities exist to have hard conversations about delicate and important topics, and they do that all of the time. Instead, he said, the university decided "that an issue of false identity claims and false credential claims would be too raw, too sensitive for our faculty or staff or students to countenance and that the best approach was, again, silence."

Experts.news.ubc.ca

Averill said in his email that instead of that broader conversation, administrators decided to meet with the president's advisory committee on Indigenous affairs as a first step.

That meeting took place on Dec. 12, two full months after the story broke.

Teillet said that may seem like a long time to wait for such a meeting, but that she has learned through dealing with universities that they operate on different time tables than the rest of society.

"I thought I knew bureaucracies, because I've been dealing with the federal government for most of my career, and you know, that's massive bureaucracy," she said. "It's nothing compared to the knots the university ties itself up in."

New policy in the works

Averill said in his email that until that time, UBC had relied on self-identification to determine Indigenous ancestry when offering Indigenous-specific jobs or scholarships.

He said that because the university had hired B.C.-based academics in many cases, "this system was buttressed by the familiarity that many of our Indigenous colleagues have with either the individual applicants or their home communities — thus, self-reporting was enhanced with community knowledge."

But, he acknowledged, "this did not work in the case of Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, who came to UBC from decades of highly lauded work for the province, as a former advisor to the National Chief of the [Assembly of First Nations], and with a reputation of an advocate."

He said this situation has convinced the university that it needs to develop a new policy and that the university would begin consulting with Indigenous faculty, staff and others in the new year.

"This will not be a quick process, but we want to do it right, to be intentional and respectful, and to have it Indigenous led, but with strong support from the administration," Averill wrote.

He said so far, the president and provost have been told by advisors to look for B.C. Indigenous perspectives and "not to adopt made-in-other-province solutions such as the Queen's University or U [of] Saskatchewan approaches."

This is baffling to Teillet. She said last year, in the wake of the Carrie Bourassa controversy, First Nations University in Regina held a national conference on identity fraud.

"The whole idea was to learn from each other and to not have to reinvent the wheel, as everybody gains more experience in drafting policies to go through this," she said.

Teillet is the author of an almost 100-page report for the University of Saskatchewan on Indigenous identity fraud. It is the result of her months long investigation of the Carrie Bourassa situation.

"So the idea that an academic institution is closed off to learning from how others have dealt with the same issue seems to me to be bizarre," she said.

Justice said he's glad the university is looking forward by planning to develop a new policy, but hopes the university will also examine what went wrong.

"It's one thing to say 'It didn't work.' It's another thing entirely to talk about why it didn't work," he said. "And the 'why' matters here."

He said he believes that the university is being careful out of a "sincere concern to not make things worse," but that it can't ignore the past.

"There are actually concerns about the integrity of the process with that particular hire," Justice told CBC. "I guess my concern is if we don't do some looking back, how are we going to know what went wrong so that we don't replicate it again?"

Funding electric public transit can reduce emissions and address economic inequality

THE CONVERSATION
Tue, January 10, 2023 

An electric bus charging on the side of a street in Montréal. Funding public transit is a good way to reduce greenhouse emissions while ensuring economic equality in moving to clean transportation. (Shutterstock)

Electric vehicles have the potential to address climate change by producing significantly less greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other air pollutants than conventional gasoline-powered vehicles.

To promote their use, the Canadian government incentivized the purchase of electric vehicles in 2019, making it easier for Canadians to buy zero-emission vehicles.

Yet, high prices continue to be a major barrier. Electric vehicles of all types, even after a decade of being on the market, remain too expensive for most Canadians — even after government incentives.

Prices for electric vehicles are increasing despite declining battery costs. The Tesla Model 3 is a classic example. Announced as an affordable car for the everyday person, it’s starting price exceeds $60,000.

So, while high-income consumers can purchase expensive electric vehicles and acquire virtue-signalling advantages for saving the planet, lower-income consumers are stuck with conventional vehicles that pollute more — if they can afford them at all.

Electric vehicles are unaffordable

The average electric vehicle buyer in the United States is a middle-aged man with an income exceeding $100,000. This suggests that electric vehicle incentives, totalling about $2.2 billion in Canada, primarily go to the top 16 per cent income bracket — an already privileged group.

A Tesla Model 3 sedan sits on display outside a Tesla showroom in Littleton, Colo. in 2018. (AP Photo/David Zalubowsi)

In order for lower-income people to benefit, electric vehicle prices need to decline. How can affordability be best addressed? MBA students at the University of Manitoba’s I.H. Asper School of Business recently considered this question and reached an unexpected conclusion.

Rather than promoting individual electric vehicles for lower-income consumers, the answer appears to lie with having better public transit instead. We carried out a series of cost-benefit analysis calculations to arrive at this conclusion.

Electric vehicle incentives

Based on statistical trends from Employment and Social Development Canada reports from 2016 and 2021, we calculated that lower-income consumers make up about 10 percent of the population — about 3.8 million Canadians, or 1.5 million households.

The first option for addressing electric vehicle affordability requires the federal government to provide enhanced incentives to low-income electric vehicle consumers. Such incentives would need to bridge the total cost of ownership gap — the purchase cost of the vehicle, plus operating and fuel costs — between modest new electric cars and modest new conventional cars.

The funds to balance the total cost of ownership would be provided by government, hence the economic program cost, with two main benefits: GHG reductions and air quality improvement.

By switching from gasoline to electric, GHG reductions average about 4.2 tonnes per vehicle annually across the country. We used the federal government’s social cost of carbon, which reflects future damage costs from releases today. It’s important to note that the social cost of carbon is different than current federal fuel charges, which merely provide a price-signal to consumers. We calculate that these reductions would result in a benefit of about $210 annually per vehicle.

The reduction of other air pollutants would also improve air quality. This would have positive benefits on human health.

We estimate this option would cost the government about $30 billion. After including benefits, the overall net cost would be about $20 billion. While this approach could overcome excessive electric vehicle prices, it would be a costly policy, especially considering there are other, more affordable options available.

Pay as you save programs

The second option is similar to an idea already available for home energy efficiency improvements, except applied to electric vehicles. This involves interest-free, pay-as-you-save loans from the federal government for lower-income households. Such a program was proposed in Manitoba in 2017.

Loans would cover the entire cost of modest electric vehicles over lifetime, but require consumers to make principal payments and pay for operating costs. Our calculations for this option, however, show an even higher overall net cost of about $35 billion, hence a poor policy choice.

The benefits would be the same, but no actual net annual savings would be achieved because of high electric vehicle prices. Lower-income consumers would be left paying more than they can afford.

Funding new public transport

The last two options involve fully funding additional new transit buses to meet the transportation needs of lower-income households. We estimate that about 30,000 buses are needed nationally. This would triple the number across the country, although in-depth investigation is needed to clarify requirements.

Funding new transit buses wouldn’t just provide GHG reductions and air quality improvements, but also relieve traffic congestion. It would provide economic savings to households too, because people would not have to pay for cars or gasoline.

A second-generation New Flyer electric transit bus in Winnipeg in February 2017. (Robert Parsons), Author provided

There are two options for the type of buses the government could fund. The first option involves funding 30,000 new diesel buses across Canada. Based on earlier research, we estimate this option would cost about $20 billion. This would result in an overall net benefit of about $30 billion and would include significant GHG reductions because less cars would be driven.

Alternatively, the government could fund 30,000 additional electric and hydrogen fuel cell buses, instead of diesel buses. We calculate this would cost the government about $38 billion with a smaller positive overall net benefit of about $17 billion. Emission reductions would be larger than that for diesel buses, yet our calculations show relatively consistent GHG reduction costs.

A transitional approach would be feasible — the government could start by adding some additional diesel buses now and working to add more zero-emission buses gradually. Net emission reductions and positive economic benefits are achieved across this spectrum.

How do we move forward?

No matter which approach is chosen, the way forward will come with many difficult challenges — often unexpected. One interesting example is Winnipeg Transit, which discovered they are initially limited to only 100 zero-emission buses due to electrical capacity constraints, beyond which implementation becomes much trickier.

We also know public transit was hit especially hard by COVID-19 and is still suffering badly today. Growing public safety concerns are also a severe issue.

Public transit needs more governmental assistance to fully recover from the pandemic, but little further direct operational aid has appeared from the federal government.

Our results, while preliminary, suggest that public transit is a good way to simultaneously reduce GHG emissions while ensuring economic equality as we move toward clean transportation. Public transit warrants much more attention to help Canada’s transportation industry fully recover.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Robert Parsons, University of Manitoba; Chueh-Ching (Janet) Chen, University of Manitoba, and Rohan Shanker, University of Manitoba. 

Read more:


There aren’t enough batteries to electrify all cars — focus on trucks and buses instead


How to get more electric vehicles on the road

Robert Parsons, Sessional Instructor, I.H. Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba, Rohan Shanker, MBA Student, I.H. Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba, and Chueh-Ching (Janet) Chen, MBA Student, I.H. Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba

Robert Parsons was part of a team, as co-applicant, receiving funding in 2021 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for a Knowledge Synthesis Grant (KSG) – Mobility and Public Transit (2021-2022), entitled, “Public Transit and Active Transportation: Activity, Structural and Energy Efficiency Effects on Mobility and the Environment.”

Chueh-Ching (Janet) Chen is a member of IIBA (International Institue of Business Analysis)

Rohan Shanker is a Canadian Marketing Association and Canadian Public Relations Society member.