Ontario expanding private delivery of public health-care services in 3-step plan


Mon, January 16, 2023

TORONTO — Ontario is expanding the private delivery of public health care, by funding procedures such as more cataract surgeries and MRI and CT scans.

Making the announcement today, Premier Doug Ford lamented "endless debates" about who should deliver health care, but all he cares about is getting people the care they need quickly and safely.

Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones say the procedures will continue to be paid for by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan, though critics worry what the plan will do to hospital staffing and say patients are sometimes pushed to pay out of pocket for add-ons at the private clinics.

Jones says the first stage of the new plan is to add 14,000 cataract surgeries through "new partnerships" at centres in Windsor, Kitchener-Waterloo and Ottawa.

As well, she says the province is putting $18 million in existing centres across the province for MRI and CT scans, cataract surgeries, other ophthalmic surgeries, certain gynecological surgeries and plastic surgeries.

Subsequent steps in the plan are set to include expanding the scope of private surgical and diagnostic centres, including more colonoscopy and endoscopy procedures, and in 2024, expanding surgeries at clinics for hip and knee replacements.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 16, 2023.

The Canadian Press

NATIONALIZE IT UNDER WORKERS CONTROL

Puerto Rico to privatize power generation amid outages


Sun, January 15, 2023 



SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico announced Sunday that it plans to privatize electricity generation, a first for a U.S. territory facing chronic power outages as it struggles to rebuild a crumbling electric grid.

The move marks the beginning of the end for Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority, a behemoth long accused of corruption, mismanagement and inefficiency that holds some $9 billion in public debt — the largest of any government agency.

Many Puerto Ricans already irate and fatigued by power outages were wary of the announcement, given that serious complaints about the length of outages, costly power bills and other issues arose after the island’s government privatized the transmission and distribution of power in June 2021.

Fermín Fontanés, executive director of Puerto Rico’s Public-Private Partnerships Authority, said the board of directors unanimously approved the privatization of generation, including the members who represent the public’s interest.

It was not immediately known which company they selected to take over power generation. A spokeswoman with the authority said the contract was not yet public, in accordance with local laws.

Fontanés said the contract would be sent to the governing board of Puerto Rico’s power company and then to the territory's governor for his signature. The contract is expected to be approved despite opposition to the privatization.

Carmen Maldonado, vice president of the main opposition Popular Democratic Party, said she and others would fight the plan.

José Luis Dalmau, a party member and president of Puerto Rico’s Senate, said lawmakers would scrutinize the process and demand that workers at the state power company be protected and that the grid is stabilized and number of outages reduced, among other things.

He noted that Puerto Ricans are dismayed with the current situation and demand a more reliable and economic electrical system: “The necessary transformation of our … system is a priority.”

It was not immediately clear what effect, if any, the privatization would have on unsuccessful efforts so far to restructure the power company’s debt, with the government and some creditors going to court after several rounds of failed mediation talks.

The push to privatize generation comes as the presidents of Puerto Rico’s House and Senate fight a contract extension recently awarded to Luma, a consortium made up of Calgary, Alberta-based Atco and Quanta Services Inc. of Houston that operates the transmission and distribution of power across the island.

The presidents went to court last week against Puerto Rico’s governor, who supports the contract extension, and are demanding that a judge terminate the contract amid complaints against Luma.

Puerto Rico’s power grid was razed by Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm that hit in September 2017, but it was already weak given a serious lack of investment and maintenance in equipment for decades. Its generation units are on average 45 years old, twice those of the U.S. mainland.

Efforts to rebuild the grid began only recently, with only emergency repairs made in the years following Maria.

Danica Coto, The Associated Press

This B.C. rescue wants to dispel East Asian stereotypes during the Year of the Rabbit


CBC
Sun, January 15, 2023 

A rabbit is pictured in Richmond, B.C. A local charity is hoping to celebrate the animals, as well as the East Asian community, during the Year of the Rabbit. 

(Akshay Kulkarni/CBC - image credit)

A Richmond, B.C.-based rabbit rescue group says they're hoping to give back to the East Asian community during the upcoming Year of the Rabbit.

Rabbitats was formed during the last Year of the Rabbit in 2011. Run by volunteers, it has a sanctuary in South Surrey, and also helps run the popular Bunny Cafe on Vancouver's Commercial Drive.

But their founder, Sorelle Saidman, says the group is most active in Richmond, where she estimates up to 2,000 rabbits roam the streets. Rabbitats started out by trapping hundreds of rabbits in Richmond Auto Mall.

Saidman says she hopes the upcoming Year of the Rabbit will be a platform for the charity to honour the community, many of whose members volunteer, donate, and adopt bunnies from Rabbitats.

Ben Nelms/CBC

She also hopes to push back against racist stereotypes surrounding rabbits and Asian people.

"One problem that our volunteers have had on occasion is people misconstruing why they're trapping the rabbits," she told CBC News.

"Coming up to our volunteers and accuse them of potentially trapping these rabbits to take them ... to a Chinese restaurant or something.

"[It] has been a longstanding and very hurtful cultural stereotype, and it's just so totally wrong," she said.

One of the ways they want to thank the community is by applying for a grant from the Richmond Community Foundation, she says, to fund a project focused on cultural awareness and dispelling stereotypes, for which they're currently looking for advisors to ensure the project is culturally sensitive.

Akshay Kulkarni/CBC

Still, the rescue has big plans for the Lunar New Year: they are set to host a 10-day long "rabbit education" table at Richmond's Aberdeen Centre from Jan. 13 to 22.

They are also anchoring the Year of the Rabbit celebration at Chinatown's International Village Mall from Jan. 21 to 22.

"We're going to have, I'd say, 50 rabbits on hand," Saidman said.

"People will be able to come into a Bunny Hut that we're building in the rotunda there, and … learn all about bunnies.

"We're celebrating the Year of the Rabbit and we're celebrating the rabbits themselves."

Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

The Chinese calendar follows a 12-year cycle that is repeated over and over again. Each of the 12 years is represented by an animal.

Sherman Tai, a fortune teller and astrologer based in Richmond, says this year will likely be a good year for change in B.C.

"This is not superstition and this is nothing relating with the religious," he told Stephen Quinn, host of CBC's The Early Edition.

"This is only the statistics … which we used for thousands of years, based on yin and yang."

WATCH | A tour through Richmond's Aberdeen Mall during the festival:

Rabbits not good in urban areas

Saidman says feral and wild rabbits in the Lower Mainland do not thrive in urban areas, despite what people may think.

"The reality is they just breed faster than they're killed," she said. "It is a dangerous place for them and they really don't have great survival skills."

Rabbitats says they have seen a spike in unwanted and abandoned animals over the past few months, as well as signs that bunnies were making inroads in municipalities across the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.

The organization is currently raising funds to move into a farm in Langley that would allow them to house more than 500 rabbits.

CANADA HAS NO DEATH PENALTY
Court to decide whether to release Sask. Saulteaux sisters during wrongful conviction review of murder case

Sun, January 15, 2023 

Nerissa Quewezance, left and her sister Odelia Quewezance, right, outside of the Court of King's Bench in Yorkton where a judge considered a publication ban as requested by the Crown. The two will reappear at the courthouse Tuesday for a interim judicial review hearing as their conviction is evaluated as a potential miscarriage of justice.

 (Dayne Patterson/CBC - image credit)

Warning: This story contains distressing details

A pair of Saulteaux sisters who have been in the prison system for almost 30 years for a murder they say they didn't commit will have their opportunity to argue for a conditional release this week.

Odelia Quewezance, 50, and her sister, Nerissa Quewezance, 48, have been incarcerated since they were 21 and 18 after being convicted of the second-degree murder of Kamsack, Sask., farmer Anthony Dolff in February 1993.

Court heard during their trial that Dolff took the two sisters, who are from Keeseekoose First Nation, and a cousin of theirs to Dolff's home near Kamsack, Sask., about 230 kilometres northeast of Regina.

Dolff allegedly propositioned the women, and at some point the trio robbed him, leading to a confrontation where he was stabbed multiple times, strangled with a telephone cord and had a television thrown on his head.

The sisters' cousin has admitted numerous times to killing the older man, including during the ensuing trial, and to an APTN investigation.

Odelia and Nerissa Quewezance have vehemently maintained their innocence for decades. Advocates have pointed to court documents, specifically those outlining how the sisters' cousin confessed to the murder, as evidence of their innocence.

A two-day hearing will begin Tuesday to determine if the sisters will be released, and under what conditions, as their conviction undergoes a ministerial review to determine if there has been a miscarriage of justice.

"This is their first opportunity for bail since their arrest on Feb. 25, 1993, and they are very much looking forward to it," said James Lockyer, one of their defence attorneys and co-founder of Innocence Canada, which works to exonerate the wrongfully convicted.

While the hearing on Tuesday is similar to a bail hearing pending appeal, it's a special judicial invention to allow people conditional freedoms while they await the results of a judicial review.

In late November, at a hearing where the court considered whether the conditional release hearing would be subject to a publication ban, Odelia said, "the truth is coming out, we're finally going to get justice."

Dayne Patterson/CBC

A welcome back to the community

Chief Lee Ketchemonia of Keeseekoose First Nation said the community will provide support to the sisters if they are released and choose to return, though he's unsure if there will be an available home for them given the community's lack of housing.

"This is a wrongful case and if they were wrongfully convicted of course we're going to try and give them as much support as [we] can," said Ketchemonia, who grew up with Odelia and compared her to a big sister.

Ketchemonia said band council members want to see the sisters reintegrated into the First Nation.

In the three decades the sisters have been incarcerated, a lot of the people the sisters grew up with, like their grandparents, have died, Ketchemonia said.

Dayne Patterson/CBC

Ketchemonia attended the publication ban hearing in November to provide support. The Crown had requested the ban. The defence, CBC and APTN all opposed it. The judge decided against the ban.

"I just hope that the truth really comes out," Ketchemonia said.

Quewezances' conditional release hearing

Both sisters have a criminal history spanning into their youth, according to parole documents, including assault charges and being unlawfully-at-large during their parole after their conviction.

Documents also outline the sisters' traumatic childhood experiences, including physical and sexual abuse, enrolment in residential schools and a family history of substance abuse, mental health issues and criminal involvement.

Kent Roach, a University of Toronto law professor and expert in wrongful convictions, said that while the Crown may point to the these past events as risk factors, they "also need to be contextualized within the experience of … Indigenous women in jail but also the experience of someone who honestly believes they were wrongfully convicted."

"We forget that David Milgaard, perhaps Canada's most celebrated wrongfully convicted person and something of a national icon, escaped from prison," Roach said. "I would hope that if [Milgaard's] case was coming up today we wouldn't say we're not going to grant bail because you once escaped from prison."

LISTEN | The Current's Matt Galloway speaks with Odelia Quewezance and defence lawyer James Lockyer in June 2022

According to Roach, the sisters will have to prove their release is in the public interest, potentially pointing to the facts of the case, though the judge can decide how deep they want to delve into those facts' merits.

If the sisters are released, the court will set conditions. Roach referenced the case of Glen Assoun, who spent 17 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. Assoun was under strict release conditions, including electronic monitoring he paid for and being required to report any meetings he had with women.

Roach said he's aware of eight cases that had a bail hearing pending a ministerial decision and all except one ended with conditional release.

Advocates continue to call for exoneration

The sisters' cousin, who was 14 at the time, confessed to Dolff's murder during the trial, according to court transcripts, admitting that he had lied about several aspects about how Dolff's death unfolded. The cousin confessed that it was him that said "let's kill him," not Nerissa, as he had previously said.

The cousin was convicted of second-degree murder and served four years in custody as a minor.

The ministerial review of the sisters' conviction — which is the last chance at freedom after all avenues of appeal have been exhausted — could lead to a new trial, a new appeal, a question of law referred to the provincial or territorial court of appeal, or a dismissal of the application.

Richard Agecoutay/CBC

The decision could take years, though federal justice department said in-custody applicants take priority.

Ultimately, it could lead to Odelia and Nerissa's exoneration, an outcome advocates like Ontario Senator Kim Pate have endorsed.

She said that despite the sisters' history, like the crimes outlined in parole documents, she doesn't believe their release will increase a risk to public safety.

"What is publicly available, with respect to Nerissa and Odelia, is the most negative interpretation of everything they've ever done, I would argue, since they were in residential school and the child welfare system and the prison system," Pate said.

"That is not necessarily the person or the people that I know, or that their families know."

Pate has co-authored reports on human rights in prisons and, in May 2022, a report on the "Injustices and Miscarriages of Justice Experienced by 12 Indigenous Women" including the Quewezance sisters.

Since 2003, all of the 20 exonerated people were men and only two weren't white, according to the report.

"If [Odelia and Nerissa] are successful in terms of the hearing for judicial interim release, it shows that, in fact, Indigenous women may have some hope that the system is trying to change to address the discriminatory components," Pate said, pointing to the high incarceration rates of Indigenous women.

A 2021 senate report found that 66 per cent of the women in federal custody in the Prairies were Indigenous.

Decades after her death, Margaret Oldenburg's plant collection could hold answers on Arctic biodiversity

CBC
Sun, January 15, 2023

An article from Oct. 31, 1944, published by the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, describes Margaret Oldenburg as a botanist who used plants as an excuse for travelling. She documented thousands of plants during her decades in the North, and her collection is now being studied as a snapshot of Arctic biodiversity. (Submitted by Paul Sokoloff - image credit)

Landing unexpectedly on a lake in the Arctic wild was, apparently, a day like any other for botanist Margaret Oldenburg.

Maybe the pilot that day forgot to check the fuel gauges. Whatever happened, as the story goes, Oldenburg and the pilot had to wait until someone came to find them. When they did, Oldenburg was apparently found by the side of the water, where she'd been collecting plants the whole time.

"She was just going about her day, doing her botany, unshaken," said Paul Sokoloff, a botanist with the Canadian Museum of Nature who has recently learned more than he ever expected to about the intrepid adventurer who died a half century ago.

Sokoloff recently made a trip to the Bell Museum in Minnesota. There's a large collection of pressed and dried plants at the museum — "essentially a library of plant biodiversity through the ages," Sokoloff said.

Thousands of those specimens were collected by Oldenburg.

"Some of our core research programs are on Arctic plant biodiversity ... so this kind of became a priority for us, like, 'Let's get these plants into the collection so we can use them,'" Sokoloff explained.

"In doing so, we learned a lot about this really interesting woman."

Giacomo Panico/CBC

Oldenburg, a self-taught botanist who died in 1972, documented those plants over the course of decades spent roaming the Arctic, often aided by famed bush pilot Ernie Boffa.

A full chapter of Boffa's biography is devoted to his adventures with Oldenburg. Author Florence Whyard described her as "a maiden lady of uncertain age but definite ideas" — a cigarette-smoking "spinster librarian" who hopped on the SS Nascopie one day and disembarked at Churchill, Man. She eventually came to spend much of her time in Aklavik.

In one memorable paragraph, Whyard wrote that on one particularly busy day, "despite her huge bags of collected specimens, Margaret Oldenburg just ran her strong brown hands through her short-cropped hair, lit another cigarette, and said, 'Me? I just go along for the ride.'"

As fascinating as Oldenburg's life was, it's what she left behind that has Sokoloff's full attention: the plant collection that offers insight into years of biodiversity in the Arctic.

Submitted by Paul Sokoloff

"By having this, it's essentially this data point that tells us, OK, well, we know these plants were here — maybe we can use that to help us tell, are they moving in the future? Are they contracting in the future? Is their range contracting?" Sokoloff explained.

"All of this data helps us build a more complete picture of Arctic biodiversity through space and through time."

The collection even includes the first plant Oldenburg ever collected: a lousewort from Hebron in Labrador

Sokoloff said they plan to build a database with all the information they've collected. From there, they'll be collaborating with the Bell Museum to write a paper about Oldenburg and her botanical legacy.

"I think that'll be a really fitting tribute to all of those years that she spent making these really important collections," he said.

An average 1,600 tech workers have been laid off every day of 2023 so far

Huileng Tan
Mon, January 16, 2023 

Laid-off employeeGetty images/ skaman306

On an average, at least 1,600 tech sector workers have been laid off every day of 2023 so far, per Layoffs.fyi.


That's as 91 tech companies globally have axed 24,151 jobs, just 15 days into 2023.


1,023 tech companies laid off 154,256 workers in 2022, per data aggregated by Layoffs.fyi.

Layoffs in the tech sector show no signs of abating — on an average, about 1,600 workers have gotten the pink slip every day in 2023 so far, according to tracking site Layoffs.fyi.

That's as 91 tech companies globally have already laid off 24,151 workers just 15 days into 2023, according to data aggregated by Layoffs.ai. This is already about 15% of the 154,256 workers who were laid off by over a thousand tech companies in 2022.

Amazon, Meta, and Salesforce top Layoffs.fyi's list with about 18,000, 11,000, and 8,000 staffers laid-off, respectively, between November 2022 and January 2023.

The layoffs at Amazon primarily affected those in corporate roles, including those in the company's Devices and Books businesses and human resource department, Insider's Samantha Delouya reported on January 5. Meta cut positions across the company, including its Reality Labs division overseeing metaverse initiatives, while Salesforce's headcount reduction hit the Slack and MuleSoft business units.

The rash of layoffs — which started last year — came after tech companies hired and expanded aggressively during the pandemic. But they started conducting widespread layoffs in late 2022, as earnings weakened across the board amid fears of an impending recession. This also spilled over into 2023.

Amazon and Salesforce announced in the first week of the year they were collectively cutting over 25,000 jobs. Other tech companies that have slashed headcount include media company Vimeo and supply chain software firm Flexport.

And it's not just the tech sector that's laying off staff either.

Last week, banking giant Goldman Sachs started laying off 3,000 employees globally as dealmaking slows. BlackRock, the world's largest asset management firm, is also slashing up to 500 roles for the first time in four years.

Marc Benioff, Salesforce's CEO, attempted to explain his company's rationale for the downsizing in his memo to staff, saying: "as our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we're now facing, and I take responsibility for that."

Tesla under fire in Germany over union concerns on working hours, contracts


FILE PHOTO: A general view shows the Tesla logo on the Gigafactory in Gruenheide

Mon, January 16, 2023 

BERLIN (Reuters) - Tesla has come under fire from German union IG Metall and politicians over allegations by workers of unreasonable working hours and fears over speaking out at its Brandenburg plant, with some calling for inquiries into the carmaker.

At its annual news conference, IG Metall, which has an office near the plant and says it is in regular contact with workers, said a growing number reported longer working hours with little free time.

Workers were also increasingly fearful about discussing their working conditions openly because of non-disclosure agreements they were told to sign along with their work contracts, IG Metall said.

A new role advertised on Tesla's career website for a "Security Intelligence Investigator", who will partner with legal and human resources departments to carry out "collection of on-the-ground information both within and beyond Tesla walls in order to protect the company from threats", exacerbated these concerns.

"Workers started at Tesla with great enthusiasm for the project. Over time we are observing that this enthusiasm is withering," Irene Schulz of IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Sachsen said in a statement.

"Tesla is not doing enough to improve working conditions and is leaving too little time for leisure, family and recovery."

Tesla was not immediately available for comment.

Tesla China has also asked some staff to sign non-disclosure agreements, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter. Reuters found several people on LinkedIn with the title of "Security Intelligence Investigator" working for Tesla in Austin, San Francisco and Shanghai.

German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Monday that local politicians from the centre-left SPD to the centre-right CDU expressed concern about the allegations, calling for inquiries both by Tesla and the local government.

"The state government of Brandenburg must enforce occupational safety through close controls at Tesla," Christian Baeumler of the Christian Democrats (CDU) said to Handelsblatt.

The Brandenburg government was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, additional reporting by Zhang Yan; editing by Jason Neely)

Davos 2023: Climate activists protest over big oil hijacking debate






Climate activists protest ahead of the World Economic Forum 2023

Sun, January 15, 2023 
By Maha El Dahan

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Climate activists protested in Davos on Sunday against the role of big oil firms at this week's World Economic Forum (WEF), saying they were hijacking the climate debate.

Major energy firms including BP, Chevron and Saudi Aramco are among the 1,500 business leaders gathering for the annual meeting in the Swiss resort, where global threats including climate change are on the agenda.

"We are demanding concrete and real climate action," said Nicolas Siegrist, the 26-year old organiser of the protest who also heads the Young Socialists party in Switzerland.-

The annual meeting of global business and political leaders officially opens in Davos on Monday.

"They will be in the same room with state leaders and they will push for their interests," Siegrist said of the involvement of energy companies at the WEF meeting.

The oil and gas industry has said that it needs to be part of the energy transition as fossil fuels will continue to play a major role in the world's energy mix as countries shift to low carbon economies.

More than a hundred protesters gathered in a snowy Davos square chanted, "change your diet for the climate, eat the rich", while some booed oil firms cited during a speech.

"I know some of the companies are involved in alternatives but I think governments with their subsidies, have to skew the field in favour of alternative energy," Heather Smith, a member of the 99% organisation.

Smith was holding a sign saying "Stop Rosebank", a North Sea oil and gas field she is campaigning to halt plans for.

Rising interest rates have made it harder for renewable energy developments to attract financing, giving traditional players with deep pockets a competitive advantage.

"There is still too much money to be made from fossil fuel investments," she added.

(Editing by Alexander Smith)

Business trusted most in a more polarized world, report says


Sun, January 15, 2023 

LONDON (AP) —

People worldwide are more gloomy about their economic prospects than ever before and trust business far more than other institutions like governments, nonprofits and the media in an increasingly divided world, according to a survey from public relations firm Edelman.

Released late Sunday to coincide with the World Economic Forum's gathering of business elites and government leaders this week in Davos, Switzerland, the online survey conducted in 28 countries shows that fewer people believe their family will be better off in five years.

Those who believe they'll be better off dropped to 40% from 50% last year and hit all-time lows in 24 nations. That is because 89% fear losing their job, 74% worry about inflation, 76% are concerned about climate change and 72% worry about nuclear war.

The Edelman Trust Barometer also says 62% of respondents see business as both competent and ethical, compared with 59% for nongovernmental agencies, 51% for governments and 50% for the media. That was attributed to how companies treated workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and return to offices as well as many businesses vowing to exit Russia after it invaded Ukraine.

People still said they distrusted CEOs as well as government leaders and journalists, while trusting their own corporate executives, co-workers and neighbors. Scientists were trusted the most — by 76% of respondents.

“The increased level of trust in business brings with it higher-than-ever expectations of CEOs to be a leading voice on societal issues,” said Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman. “By a six-to-one margin, respondents want more societal involvement by business on issues such as climate change, economic inequality and workforce reskilling."

But companies face stirring contention by jumping into those topics, with 52% saying businesses can't avoid politicization when they tackle divisive social issues, he said.

Despite the uncertainty, people want companies to stand up for them: 63% say they buy or advocate for brands based on their beliefs and values.

Most respondents say business should do more, not less, to deal with climate change, economic inequality and other issues.

This comes as social divisions have become entrenched, creating a polarized world that has left people feeling like they can't overcome their differences or even willing to help others who don't share their beliefs, the survey says.

Less than one-third of respondents said they would help, live with or work with someone who strongly disagrees with their viewpoints. Six countries — Argentina, Colombia, the U.S., South Africa, Spain and Sweden — were listed as severely polarized, driven by distrust in government and a lack of shared identity.

If divisions are not addressed, people fear the result will be worsening prejudice and discrimination, slower economic development and violence in the streets, the report said.

More than 40% in the survey believe governments and companies must work together to solve social issues, with the onus on the most trusted institution — business — to bring people together.

Most respondents — 64% — said companies supporting politicians and media outlets that build consensus would help increase civility and strengthen society.

In its 23rd year, the Edelman Trust Barometer surveyed more than 32,000 people online in 28 countries from Argentina to Saudi Arabia to the U.S. from Nov. 1 to Nov. 28.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the World Economic Forum meeting at https://apnews.com/hub/world-economic-forum

As Davos opens, Oxfam urges windfall tax on food companies


Sun, January 15, 2023 

LONDON (AP) — 

Food companies making big profits as inflation has surged should face windfall taxes to help cut global inequality, anti-poverty group Oxfam said Monday as the World Economic Forum's annual meeting gets underway.

That's one of the ideas in a report by Oxfam International, which has sought for a decade to highlight inequality at the conclave of political and business elites in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

The report, which aims to provoke discussions on panels featuring corporate and government leaders this week, said the world has been beset with simultaneous crises, including climate change, the surging cost of living, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the world’s richest have gotten richer and corporate profits are surging.

Over the past two years, the world’s super-rich 1% have gained nearly twice as much wealth as the remaining 99% combined, Oxfam said. Meanwhile, at least 1.7 billion workers live in countries where inflation is outpacing their wage growth, even as billionaire fortunes are rising by $2.7 billion a day.

To combat these problems, Oxfam urged higher taxes on the rich, through a combination of measures including one-time “solidarity” taxes and raising minimum rates for the wealthiest. The group noted that billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk's true tax rate from 2014 to 2018 was just over 3%.

Some governments have turned to taxing fossil fuel companies' windfall profits as Russia's war in Ukraine sent oil and natural gas prices soaring last year, squeezing household finances around the world.

Oxfam wants the idea to go further to include big food corporations, as a way to narrow the widening gap between the rich and poor.

“The number of billionaires is growing, and they’re getting richer, and also very large food and energy companies are making excessive profits,” said Gabriela Bucher, Oxfam International's executive director.

“What we’re calling for is windfall taxes, not only on energy companies but also on food companies to end this crisis profiteering," Bucher told The Associated Press in an interview.

Oxfam's report said wealthy corporations are using the war as an excuse to pass on even bigger price hikes. Food and energy are among the industries dominated by a small number of players that have effective oligopolies, and the lack of competition allows them to keep prices high, the group said.

At least one country has already acted. Portugal introduced a windfall tax on both energy companies and major food retailers, including supermarket and hypermarket chains. It took effect at the start of January and will be in force for all of 2023.

The 33% tax is applied to profits that are at least 20% higher than the average of the previous four years. Revenue raised goes to welfare programs and to help small food retailers.

Oxfam said its analysis of 95 companies that made excess, or windfall profits, found that 84% of those profits were paid to shareholders while higher prices were passed on to consumers.
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AP reporter Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.

Oxfam calls for 'billionaire-busting' policies, says the world's top 1% has been getting richer much faster than everyone else

Huileng Tan
Sun, January 15, 2023

A protest ahead of the World Economic Forum 2023 in Davos, Switzerland on January 15, 2023.Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

The top 1% has garnered two-thirds of the $42 trillion new wealth created since 2020, per UK non-profit Oxfam.


But at least 1.7 billion workers live in countries where inflation outpaces wages.


Oxfam's calling on governments to impose much higher taxes on the super-rich to redistribute wealth.

Governments around the world need to reduce the number of ultra-wealthy people by adopting "billionaire-busting policies," Oxfam said in a Monday report.

The UK-based group of non-profits said in the report the richest people have grabbed nearly two-thirds of $42 trillion in new wealth created since 2020 — when the COVID-19 pandemic started. That's twice as much as what the rest of the 99% managed to amass in new wealth, Oxfam said citing Credit Suisse data.

As a reflection of this growing wealth disparity, at least 1.7 billion workers are living in countries where inflation is outpacing wages, according to Oxfam's analysis of data from Eurostat, Trading Economics and consultancy Korn Ferry.

Oxfam is now advocating to halve the wealth and number of billionaires between now and 2030 through taxation and other moves in order to get to a "fairer, more rational distribution of the world's wealth."

It's also seeking a permanent increase in the taxes of the richest to at least 60% of their income — in particular, Oxfam is calling on governments to raise taxes on capital gain.

"We need to do this for innovation. For stronger public services. For happier and healthier societies. And to tackle the climate crisis, by investing in the solutions that counter the insane emissions of the very richest," Gabriela Bucher, the executive director of Oxfam International, said in the report.

Just four cents of every tax dollar come from wealth taxes, according to Oxfam's analysis based on data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Most of the income of wealthy people are also "unearned" and are derived from returns on their assets — but it's taxed at an average of 18% — just over half of the average top tax range on wages and salaries, according to Oxfam's study.

"Taxing the super-rich is the strategic precondition to reducing inequality and resuscitating democracy," Bucher said in the report.

Oxfam published its report just as the World Economic Forum commences on Monday in Davos, Switzerland.

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