Calgary·Opinion

If rural Alberta lacks support for agriculture's future, others will swoop in

Social Sharing

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Email
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

Better internet just one connection politicians must make 

to protect our communities

Mark Olson · for CBC Opinion · Posted: Mar 28, 2023 

A farmer drives a combine during wheat harvest near Cremona, Alta., the region in which writer Mark Olson lives. Few regions in the world are as well positioned as Western Canada to be a solution to future food demand growth, Olson writes. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

This column is an opinion by Mark Olson, a farmer and ag-tech company founder near Cremona, Alta. For more information about CBC's Alberta election 2023 opinion series, visit the My Priority home page.

When we took over the family farm 12 years ago, we realized the solutions to many of the world's critical challenges — food security, climate change and energy transition — all involve agriculture in temperate regions like Alberta. Agriculture in rural Alberta appeared, at the time, to provide unlimited opportunity.

My 19-year-old son is now deciding his life's path. While he loves his pickup truck and rural roots, it saddens me that my spouse and I cannot unconditionally advise him to remain here. 

Among our politicians, we see little willingness to address or even recognize the crossroad now facing rural Alberta.

One of the very few regions in the world that have significant capacity to add to the global food supply, Western Canada's geography, stability, and business capacity make it extremely attractive to foreign investment.

Agriculture can expand its already significant and sustainable contribution to Alberta's prosperity. But rural Alberta needs different resources and new attitudes if we are going to engage this opportunity and ensure it is exploited to the benefit of Alberta and, in particular, rural youth.

Alberta beefs

Mobile voice and data is unreliable at our home, and completely unusable five kilometres east of us. Our internet speed is one-tenth the minimal standard for broadband, and that is on the days it is not snowing, or windy, or when the necessary 15-metre mast has not been toppled by a moose running into a support wire. It's even worse if you're not living as close to Highway 2 as we are.

We have four different addresses; a rural mailbox, a municipal/911 address, a legal land location, and a premises identification for food safety. We avoid internet shopping because we have no way of knowing whether a package will end up on our doorstep, in our mailbox, at our post office or abandoned at a random depot several towns away.

We travel 30 minutes each way to access our family doctor; many rural residents cannot find a family physician. It's one hour to access any other form of health care.

Rural communities struggle to attract new Canadians, whose talents we desperately need, but who are understandably hesitant to choose communities that offer fewer amenities than the ones they left.

Twenty years ago, I dealt with one of the province's district agriculturalists 25 kilometres away in Olds, who was well aware of our local conditions and needs. Now, we have to phone overworked specialists in Edmonton. 

Mark Olson's teenage son, Maxwell, is contemplating his future on the family farm. But while they recognize the huge economic potential in agriculture, they're worried Alberta isn't setting up rural communities to embrace those opportunities. (Submitted)

Global capital is very aware of the profits Canada's strategic advantage in agriculture will deliver. If rural Alberta cannot access the resources and support necessary to exploit this opportunity, then investors in other parts of the world will come and seize it for themselves.

With the opportunities for rural youth often much better in urban areas, land is now often sold, rather than passed on to the next generation. 

And increasingly, the highest bidder for agricultural land is an out-of-province buyer, as was the case for the property next to us. 

• VIDEO
  Future of rural farmers threatened by rising prices, big companies

Rural Albertans are innovative, pragmatic and entrepreneurial. We are accustomed to rapidly implementing solutions to challenging and changing conditions. But this will not be sufficient for us to survive if we are abandoned to compete, unassisted, against billions of dollars in non-resident investment.

Similar opportunities and risks exist in rural tourism and energy transition.

Planting the seeds

Where should the conversation start? The provincial government's own "Realizing the Potential for AgTech in Alberta" last year identified solutions that could be rapidly implemented. Programs have been in place for years to deliver fast, universal, and Canadian-owned rural internet; they must be made a priority and resourced. Health care is already an election issue; exploring options in alternate care and telecare is overdue.

Asylum seekers who have risked everything are crossing into Eastern Canada. How do we attract them and other new Canadians to our communities, and give them enough amenities to want to stay? Alberta's farm support programs must focus less on minimizing risk, and more on innovation and securing more rural investment.

• Sask. farmers, researchers worry investor-bought land 'empties out the countryside'

Telling rural Albertans what many of us want to hear, that everything will remain as is, may win this election. Ignoring rural Albertans, and focusing on the issues relevant to the urban voters that make up the majority of the electorate, may win this election. 

But my family's votes, including my son's first one, will go to the candidate who demonstrates they understand the generational opportunity before Alberta — plus the risks of losing it to outsiders who have a better appreciation of Alberta's potential than ourselves — and secure a prosperous and self-determined future for rural Alberta.

---

My Priority

What's the one thing that means the most to you in terms of the provincial election and why is that? We recruited over a dozen residents from across Alberta to answer that question.

Read their opinion pieces as they're published at cbc.ca/opinionproject.

Keep in mind, these pieces should not be taken as endorsements of any particular political party by either the writers or the CBC. They are expressions of the writers' points of view, and a look at how those opinions came to be formed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Olson

Freelance contributor

Mark Olson lives and works near Cremona, in west-central Alberta, and founded Flokk, an ag-tech startup. His background includes livestock and crop production, and extensive experience in business, information systems, and project management.

Don’t be gaslighted by foes of electrification

 (Guest Opinion by Carole Resnick & Anshul Gupta)

Updated: Mar. 29, 2023

In this Jan. 11, 2006 file photo, a gas-lit flame burns on a natural gas stove in Stuttgart, Germany. (Thomas Kienzle | AP)AP

What’s the rapidly growing trend that Germany, Washington State, New York City, Ithaca, Montreal and now the city of Beacon have joined?

In all these places, new homes and small buildings will stop installing heating and hot water — and in most cases, cooking — appliances fueled by polluting methane gas by year-end, extending the practice to larger buildings within three years or less.

Energy, climate, and building experts from municipalities to states to nations are all reaching the same conclusion: The most cost-effective and energy-efficient way to tame the health- and climate-destroying pollution from burning fuels in buildings and vehicles is to power them with electricity. Electric vehicles and heat pumps use only a fraction of the energy of their fuel-based counterparts and will see their environmental footprint continue to decline further as the electric grid transitions to cleaner generation. Like most climate solutions, eliminating combustion also comes with tremendous public health benefits due to reduced pollution.

With the U.S. becoming the world’s largest exporter of liquified natural gas, we now see both gas and gasoline prices soar in response to geopolitical disturbances. EV sales are already booming because owners prefer their handling, fuel efficiency and low maintenance. Many builders and home buyers are choosing all-electric buildings that are superior in comfort, health, affordability and emissions.

None of these benefits have prevented the fossil-fuel industry and its allies from attempting to sow fear, uncertainty, and doubt about our clean energy future with culture wars over gas stoves and scaremongering over grid capacity and reliability.

Research highlighting the health risks from gas stoves has been accumulating for decades. American Medical Association, American Lung Association, New York State Public Health Association, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, and all state chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics deem gas stoves a health hazard, particularly as asthma triggers for children. A recent public statement by a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commissioner just served to bring a longstanding issue into limelight that some saw as an opportunity to help spark an anti-electrification backlash.

New York’s climate scoping plan recommends a prohibition on new gas stove installations starting in 2035. The provocateurs of the controversy seem to be missing the point that next decade, New Yorkers may want a gas stove as badly as they want lead paint or asbestos in their homes today. According to the Energy Information Administration, more than a quarter of U.S. homes are already all-electric and a majority of Americans do not cook on gas.

Our electric grid is stressed in the summer while the heat pumps add to the winter electricity demand. There are programs and incentives to help steer EV owners’ charging behavior towards off-peak hours. Cold-climate heat pumps and EVs would be just fine in Upstate New York; much-colder Montreal’s ban on fossil fuels in new construction starts next year, and 80% of new cars sold in Norway are now 100% electric. By the time the climate law’s mandates fully take effect in the middle of the next decade, these technologies will be much cheaper and more versatile, with advances in microgrids and vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to-vehicle charging..

Even fossil-fueled heating doesn’t work during power failures without expensive generators. Electrification of our homes and vehicles actually has the potential to improve safety. Just like we stock up on groceries before storms, we’ll be able to stock up on electrons. A fully charged Ford F-150 Lighting can power basic cooking and heating equipment for two to three days in an emergency. Anyway, the climate plan doesn’t prohibit backup generators or pellet stoves.

While power failures may not warrant delaying electrification, they indeed are a cause for serious concern. No amount of gas can help with electrically powered medical equipment, for instance. The frequency and duration of storm-related outages have been creeping up due to the worsening climate crisis and lackadaisical maintenance of our power distribution infrastructure. Inadequate winterization of substations caused widespread power outages in the Buffalo area during the historic Christmas blizzard. Our decrepit grid needs significant investments, regardless of our climate goals.

Similarly, electrification isn’t just about the climate; it’s also about doing more with less, more cleanly, more healthfully and more reliably. Instead of assailing this beautiful future with disinformation and divisiveness, let’s use beneficial electrification as a reason to unite for safer, healthier energy and demand a robust, world-class electric grid.


Carole Resnick, of Syracuse, is a member of Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE), which advocates for a timely and effective transition to renewable energy in New York state.

 Anshul Gupta, of Valhalla, is a research scientist and state steering committee member of the Climate Reality Project, an international not-for-profit organization founded and led by former Vice President Al Gore.

Climate Action 2.0 starts with certainty and access to capital green economy leaders

By Brandon Moffatt | Opinion | March 28th 2023

Refuelling a car with hydrogen at a fuel station. Production tax credits with a sustainable long-term time frame like those applied to green hydrogen through the American law will attract investment in Canada. Photo by Shutterstock

The stakes are getting higher and the time window is getting smaller for reaching our goal of net-zero carbon emissions and avoiding the worst effects of climate change.

Canada and much of the developed world could be regularly torn apart by wildfires, droughts, floods, sea rise, food insecurity and other climate catastrophes if we don’t drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Synthesis Report released March 20.

“Let’s hope we make the right choices because the ones we make now and in the next few years will reverberate around the world for hundreds, even thousands, of years,” said the panel’s chair.

One of the most important steps we must make right now is to deploy our innovation and energy sectors to support Climate Action 2.0 with the goal of reaching net-zero emissions in time to save our children from inheriting a future of climate chaos. In Canada, these sectors have the talent and technology to build a thriving green economy, but they need a network of financial tools, capital investment, infrastructure and certainty to succeed.

Climate Action 2.0 also means acknowledging Canada is now in a competition with other advanced nations that are building their own foundations to attract the top talent of the green economy. In the United States, the Biden administration opened the door to US$368 billion in green economy investment through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). When President Joe Biden addressed Parliament last week, he noted that we shouldn’t view the IRA as a threat. But greentech firms here are anxious to know how Ottawa intends to match the U.S. incentives.

Canada risks losing its best and brightest companies and researchers to the U.S. if we don’t have a made-in-Canada plan to support green entrepreneurs, according to the Canada Climate Institute (CCI).

“Investors will move quickly to where there is market certainty and to where expected returns are highest. The Inflation Reduction Act provides certainty for the U.S. market to be competitive in new global markets,” said economist and CCI expert panellist Don Drummond.

What people are reading

Young people are about to get screwed by the budget — again
By Max Fawcett | Opinion, Politics | March 28th 2023

Green hydrogen can be a game-changer as a cost-effective, accessible and closed-loop energy source. Using power from renewable energy like wind and solar, green hydrogen is formed by splitting water into two molecules — hydrogen and oxygen — through electrolysis. The oxygen can be released harmlessly into the air or repurposed for industrial processes, while the hydrogen can be burned, stored and transported as an energy source with no carbon emissions.

You may have also heard of blue or grey hydrogen as climate-friendly fuels. While it’s true they are the same end product, it is formed using natural gas, coal or other fossil fuel energy to process the hydrogen molecule, meaning producers emit carbon — a lot of it — that they may or may not store using carbon capture technology.

The IRA essentially made this a viable renewable energy fuel overnight by supporting its makers and researchers with a production tax credit that has a 12-year window.

Climate Action 2.0 also means acknowledging Canada is now in a competition with other advanced nations that are building their own foundations to attract the top talent of the green economy, writes @bcmoffatt #GreenHydrogen #NetZero #cdnpoli

This is sure to attract a rush of capital investment to further fuel the development and distribution of green hydrogen. But the U.S. is not the only country that is ambitiously supporting green hydrogen development. The United Arab Emirates and Japan are also investing directly in green hydrogen production with the goal of becoming global leaders in supplying this fuel.

Canada has done a credible job of ushering this country through the first phase of climate action to build the foundation of a green economy and jobs. But the IRA was passed in August 2022, which means green hydrogen researchers in Canada have been waiting seven months for a sign that we are serious about helping this fuel become a part of our Climate Action 2.0 response.

Until now, the federal government’s approach has been to direct grants and loans to firms such as electric vehicle battery factories and hybrid car manufacturing facilities, while handing generous tax credits for carbon capture projects favouring giant oil companies that will continue to produce fossil fuels.

The U.S. law levels the playing field because it is company-agnostic and brings high degrees of transparency to the process; it simply incentivizes projects that get commercialized no matter the company or size.

We are hoping this will change following the 2023 federal budget, in which Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has promised to support a broader and deeper transition to a green economy. To this end, green energy entrepreneurs need more certainty and access to capital. Production tax credits with a sustainable long-term time frame like those applied to green hydrogen through the American law will attract investment and incentivize firms to pursue real Climate Action 2.0 solutions.

Without this effort, it’s not just possible but probable that some of Canada’s most climate-forward entrepreneurs could see greener business pastures in the U.S. or the European Union, which has responded to the IRA with a robust assortment of incentives for Climate Action 2.0.

Brandon Moffatt
@bcmoffatt
Brandon Moffatt is co-founder at StormFisher Hydrogen with experience developing regulatory and industry policy in renewable energy. He has led the development, design and construction of several complex renewable gas production facilities across North America and has a detailed understanding of the commercial and operational aspects of power-to-hydrogen and power-to-gas projects. Brandon is also a board member of the Ontario Environment Industry Association, has an MBA from the Odette School of Business and holds a BASc in environmental engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Where are Clean Energy Technologies Manufactured?

March 28, 2023
By Selin Oğuz
Graphics/Design:
Sam Parker

VISUAL CAPITALIST


Visualizing Where Clean Energy Technologies Are Manufactured

When looking at where clean energy technologies and their components are made, one thing is very clear: China dominates the industry.

The country, along with the rest of the Asia Pacific region, accounts for approximately 75% of global manufacturing capacity across seven clean energy technologies.

Based on the IEA’s 2023 Energy Technology Perspectives report, the visualization above breaks down global manufacturing capacity by region for mass-manufactured clean energy technologies, including onshore and offshore wind, solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, electric vehicles (EVs), fuel cell trucks, heat pumps, and electrolyzers.

The State of Global Manufacturing Capacity

Manufacturing capacity refers to the maximum amount of goods or products a facility can produce within a specific period. It is determined by several factors, including:

The size of the manufacturing facility

The number of machines or production lines available
The skill level of the workforce
The availability of raw materials

According to the IEA, the global manufacturing capacity for clean energy technologies may periodically exceed short-term production needs. Currently this is true especially for EV batteries, fuel cell trucks, and electrolyzers. For example, while only 900 fuel cell trucks were sold globally in 2021, the aggregate self-reported capacity by manufacturers was 14,000 trucks.

With that said, there still needs to be a significant increase in manufacturing capacity in the coming decades if demand aligns with the IEA’s 2050 net-zero emissions scenario. Such developments require investments in new equipment and technology, developing the clean energy workforce, access to raw and refined materials, and optimizing production processes to improve efficiency.
What Gives China the Advantage?

Of the above clean energy technologies and their components, China averages 65% of global manufacturing capacity. For certain components, like solar PV wafers, this percentage is as high as 96%.

Here’s a breakdown of China’s manufacturing capacity per clean energy technology.

Technology China’s share of global manufacturing capacity, 2021Wind (Offshore) 70%
Wind (Onshore) 59%
Solar PV Systems 85%
Electric Vehicles 71%
Fuel Cell Trucks 47%
Heat Pumps 39%
Electrolyzers 41%

So, what gives China this advantage in the clean energy technology sector? According to the IEA report, the answer lies in a combination of factors:Low manufacturing costs
A dominance in clean energy metal processing, namely cobalt, lithium, and rare earth metals
Sustained policy support and investment

The mixture of these factors has allowed China to capture a significant share of the global market for clean technologies while driving down the cost of clean energy worldwide.

As the market for low-emission solutions expands, China’s dominance in the sector will likely continue in the coming years and have notable implications for the global energy and emission landscape.

Genome of Australian fly defeats killer bacteria by evolving to co-exist with it

by Professor Ary Hoffmann and Dr Perran Stott-Ross, University of Melbourne

When a second Wolbachia strain is present, females flies produce female 

offspring—making it a "male-killer." Credit: Tank Monsternova

The more we learn about the biological world, the more complex it becomes.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in recent discoveries about the ways in which microorganisms influence their hosts.

The composition of the microbiome—that is, the community of fungi, bacteria and viruses that usually exist in the gut—can affect the health of their host organisms. This includes their ability to fight disease, the level of nutrition they can extract from food and more.

The influence of the microbiome is particularly dramatic in the case of insects where microorganisms can exist not only in the gut of the host insect, but also inside the host's cells. These intracellular microorganisms include bacteria that are passed on from mothers to their offspring.

These types of bacteria are known as endosymbionts and can have a whole range of effects on their hosts.

These may include effects that help the host, like the provision of nutrition to cells and protecting the host cells against viruses. But they also have more dubious results—including killing the host's embryos and changing the sex ratio of offspring the host produces.

When the endosymbionts are detrimental to the host, the host genome might evolve to block these effects. This can lead to an evolutionary "arms race" between the host and its bacterial endosymbiont.

Our research team has now uncovered a remarkably complex example of processes like this in an endemic Australian fly known as Drosophila pseudotakahashii, which is common along the east coast of Australia.

Our work, published in the journal PLOS Biology, initially found that all members of this fly carry an endosymbiont bacteria known as Wolbachia, which is passed from the mother to their offspring.

When we use antibiotics to cure flies of this Wolbachia strain, the flies survive. However, in any mating that takes place between males that were infected by Wolbachia and females that no longer carry the infection—the offspring of these females die.

This results in an enormous advantage to the females that carry the infection because they are not sterilized by infected males.

This whole situation is made more complicated by the fact that a second Wolbachia strain exists that can infect flies alongside the first strain.

This arms race produced very rapid changes in a specific region of the fly’s genome. Credit: Tank Monsternova

When the second strain is present, female flies only produce female offspring—making it effectively a "male-killer."

In some cases, this might benefit the flies by reducing competition for resources and helping them to avoid inbreeding. But male-killers can mean a big cost for the fly, because flies cannot produce offspring without mating.

In the absence of males, the fly population would become extinct.

So, this sets up another arms race where the host must evolve a way of suppressing the male-killer bacteria.

In Drosophila pseudotakahashii, we saw this arms race in action, producing very rapid changes in a specific region of the fly's genome—which is the complete set of DNA (genetic material) in an organism.

And the genome began to win.

Over a few weeks, the fly populations with the male-killer bacteria were able to start producing males again, despite the presence of the second Wolbachia strain. And we were able to identify some genes that are likely to be involved in this "male-killer suppression."

Our local fly species can provide us with a lesson in the complex nature of interactions between hosts and microorganisms that shape many aspects of an organism's life. Moreover, it illustrates the ongoing evolutionary changes that can happen very quickly to alter these internal interactions.

But these specific lessons have broader implications as we look toward manipulating the microbiome of organisms to encourage beneficial effects.

For instance, Wolbachia strains living inside mosquitoes are being deliberately spread around the world because the bacteria can actually block the transmission of some mosquito-borne diseases like Dengue Fever.

But what if the host's genome evolves to stop these effects? Or what if bacteria that kill males could be released to suppress pest populations?

We are at the start of a journey when it comes to microorganisms and the more we learn, the more we need to expect the unexpected.

More information: Kelly M. Richardson et al, A male-killing Wolbachia endosymbiont is concealed by another endosymbiont and a nuclear suppressor, PLOS Biology (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001879

Journal information: PLoS Biology 

Provided by University of Melbourne Dengue-blocking mosquitoes here to stay

38 dead in Mexico fire after guards didn't let migrants out


Women place flowers in front of a gate that has been converted into a makeshift memorial, outside a Mexican immigration detention center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, March 28, 2023, where a fire in a dormitory left more than three dozen migrants dead. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)


Fabiola Sanchez And Morgan Lee
The Associated Press
Updated March 29, 2023

CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO -

When smoke began billowing out of a migrant detention center in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, Venezuelan migrant Viangly Infante Padron was terrified because she knew her husband was still inside.

The father of her three children had been picked up by immigration agents earlier in the day, part of a recent crackdown that netted 67 other migrants, many of whom were asking for handouts or washing car windows at stoplights in this city across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. 

In moments of shock and horror, Infante Padron recounted how she saw immigration agents rush out of the building after fire started late Monday. Later came the migrants' bodies carried out on stretchers, wrapped in foil blankets. The toll: 38 dead in all and 28 seriously injured, victims of a blaze apparently set in protest by the detainees themselves.

"I was desperate because I saw a dead body, a body, a body, and I didn't see him anywhere," Infante Padron said of her husband, Eduard Caraballo Lopez, who in the end survived with only light injuries, perhaps because he was scheduled for release and was near a door.

But what she saw in those first minutes has become the center of a question much of Mexico is asking itself: Why didn't authorities attempt to release the men -- almost all from Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela and El Salvador -- before smoke filled the room and killed so many?

"There was smoke everywhere. The ones they let out were the women, and those (employees) with immigration," Infante Padron said. "The men, they never took them out until the firefighters arrived."

"They alone had the key," Infante Padron said. "The responsibility was theirs to open the bar doors and save those lives, regardless of whether there were detainees, regardless of whether they would run away, regardless of everything that happened. They had to save those lives."

Immigration authorities said they released 15 women when the fire broke out, but have not explained why no men were let out.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Wednesday that both immigration agents and security guards from a private contractor were present at the facility. He said any misconduct would be punished.

Pope Francis on Wednesday offered prayers at the end of his general audience for the victims who died in the "tragic fire."

Surveillance video leaked Tuesday shows migrants, reportedly fearing they were about to be moved, placing foam mattresses against the bars of their detention cell and setting them on fire.

In the video, later confirmed by the government, two people dressed as guards rush into the camera frame, and at least one migrant appears by the metal gate on the other side. But the guards don't appear to make any effort to open the cell doors and instead hurry away as billowing clouds of smoke fill the structure within seconds.

"What humanity do we have in our lives? What humanity have we built? Death, death, death," thundered Bishop Mons. Jose Guadalupe Torres Campos at a Mass in memory of the migrants.

Mexico's National Immigration Institute, which ran the facility, said it was cooperating in the investigation. Guatemala has already said that many of the victims were its citizens, but full identification of the dead and injured remains incomplete.

U.S. authorities have offered to help treat some of the 28 victims in critical or serious condition, most apparently from smoke inhalation.

Advocacy groups blamed the tragedy on a long series of decisions made by leaders in places like Venezuela and Central America, and by immigration policymakers in Mexico and the United States, as well of residents in Ciudad Juarez complaining about the number of migrants asking for handouts on street corners.

"Mexico's immigration policy kills," more than 30 migrant shelters and other advocacy organizations said in statement Tuesday.

Those same advocacy organizations published an open letter March 9 that complained of a criminalization of migrants and asylum-seekers in Ciudad Juarez. It accused authorities of abusing migrants and using excessive force in rounding them up, including complaints that municipal police questioned people in the street about their immigration status without cause.

The Mexican president had said Tuesday that the fire was started by migrants in protest after learning they would be deported or moved. "They never imagined that this would cause this terrible misfortune," Lopez Obrador said.

Immigration activist Irineo Mujica said the migrants feared being sent back, not necessarily to their home countries, but to southern Mexico, where they would have to cross the country all over again.

"When people reach the north, it's like a ping-pong game -- they send them back down south," Mujica said.

"We had said that with the number of people they were sending, the sheer number of people was creating a ticking time bomb," Mujica said. "Today that time bomb exploded."

The migrants were stuck in Ciudad Jaurez because U.S. immigration policies don't allow them to cross the border to file asylum claims. But they were rounded up because Ciudad Juarez residents were tired of migrants blocking border crossings or asking for money.

The high level of frustration in Ciudad Juarez was evident earlier this month when hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants tried to force their way across one of the international bridges to El Paso, acting on false rumors that the United States would allow them to enter the country. U.S. authorities blocked their attempts.

After that, Ciudad Juarez Mayor Cruz Perez Cuellar started campaigning to inform migrants there was room in shelters and no need to beg in the streets. He urged residents not to give money to them, and said authorities removed migrants intersections where it was dangerous to beg and residents saw the activity as a nuisance.

For the migrants, the fire is another tragedy on a long trail of tears.

About 100 migrants gathered Tuesday outside the immigration facility's doors to demand information about relatives. In many cases, they asked the same question Mexico is asking itself.

Katiuska Marquez, a 23-year-old Venezuelan woman with her two children, ages 2 and 4, was seeking her half-brother, Orlando Maldonado, who had been traveling with her.

"We want to know if he is alive or if he's dead," she said. She wondered how all the guards who were inside made it out alive and only the migrants died. "How could they not get them out?"

------

Verza reported from Mexico City. Associated Press videojournalist Alicia Fernandez and writers Guadalupe Penuelas in Ciudad Juarez, Mark Stevenson in Mexico City, Sonia Perez D. in Guatemala City and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Flair customers say they're owed more after plane seizures, flight cancellations

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

Flair Airlines said this week that it has reimbursed almost all 1,900 passengers whose flights were cancelled after the seizure of four of the carrier's planes earlier this month, but some customers say they are owed more money — while others say no refunds have come through at all.

Bailiffs repossessed Boeing 737 jets on which the discount carrier had overdue payments at airports in Toronto, Edmonton and Waterloo, Ont., in the early morning hours of March 11.

The seizures meant multiple flights that day had to be cancelled, sending customers scrambling to rebook on other airlines, or to give up entirely.

Carrie Kennedy was at the gate with two friends for a Toronto-Halifax flight — all three had booked time off work for a March break getaway — when the cancellation was announced.

"It was supposed to be her first plane ride," the Barrie, Ont., resident said of her friend's six-year-old daughter. "She was bawling her eyes out. 'Why can't I go see grandma? I want to see grandma.'

"She was heartbroken," Kennedy added.

The group has tried and failed to receive any refunds for the cancelled trip, she said. The airline had rebooked them on a flight five days later than scheduled, with a return flight one day after that, which they declined.

“It was a friggin' nightmare," Kennedy said. "We don't have loads of money."

After The Canadian Press asked Flair about reimbursements Monday morning, the airline replied that evening that hundreds more refunds had been paid that day, with only eight remaining.

"We do not want any customer to feel frustrated and so our teams have been working hard to get the reimbursements paid," the airline said in a statement.

"In most cases, it required manual tabulation by our customer service team. Any remaining amounts outstanding to customers should be paid out within the next 48 hours."

No cash has landed in traveller Kelly Butt's account so far, however.

The Toronto-area resident was scheduled to take a Flair flight with her family from Toronto to Palm Springs, Calif., on Saturday afternoon, but arrived roughly 30 hours later than planned due to the cancellation.

"Seven days have come and gone. We haven’t seen a penny," she said, noting a pledge from the company on March 11 to reimburse all airfares within one week.

She and her husband, mother and two teenage kids took two different planes to Calgary late Saturday night. Butt touched down at 12:30 a.m., two hours after the others — followed by a noon flight to San Diego and a two-and-a-half hour drive in a rental car Sunday. 

After numerous emails to the company, Butt said it agreed to reimburse her for the fares, but not the cost of a lost Airbnb reservation and car rental, nor to fully compensate her for the last-minute cancellation.

Flair told her in an email she is "ineligible for any expenses associated with this flight change, including meals, hotel or the cost of transportation to a different city."

The Montreal Convention, a multilateral treaty applicable to international flights, states that airlines are generally liable for damages caused by a delay of passengers, save for rare exceptions, said Air Passenger Rights advocacy group president Gabor Lukacs.

Other customers say Flair hasn't compensated them enough, and take issue with the airline's communication throughout the ordeal.

In an initial notification to passengers alerting them to the cancelled flights, Flair characterized the disruption as the result of "unanticipated maintenance delays." That explanation falls under a regulatory loophole that relieves airlines of the requirement for compensation — distinct from reimbursement — if a delay or cancellation is prompted by a safety concern.

Flair said in a statement the email was a "miscommunication," and has told customers they are owed $125 in compensation for their cancelled flights.

"The majority of the compensation has been paid out," Flair said.

But Kyle Stevenson, who was slated to fly home to Toronto from Palm Springs on the day of the plane seizures, said he has been told over the phone and by email that the March 11 flight was cancelled "for safety purposes" and that no compensation is owed him.

He said Flair offered him a refund, but not reimbursement for the much pricier rebooking he made with United Airlines in order to get back home the following day — much earlier than the return trip Flair had booked for him a week later.

Stevenson and Butt believe they and their fellow travellers are owed more.

The Air Passenger Protection Regulations state that small carriers must compensate passengers with $125 for delays stretching between three and six hours, $250 for delays of six to nine hours and $500 for cancellations and delays of nine hours or more.

"Because we arrived a lot after nine hours to our destination ... that is $500," said Butt. "But now they're telling us no, no, it's only $125 that you're entitled to."

“To this day, nobody from Flair has called us. They've emailed us a bunch, but it's been in circles because it seems like nobody is actually reading the information that we have been giving them."

Other Flair customers have voiced similar concerns on a Facebook group, though some have also reiterated the airline plans to refund them for rebooked flights.

The passenger rights charter says travellers who receive a refund are entitled to less compensation. But Lukacs of Air Passenger Rights says that only applies when the customer rebooks with the same airline or declines to rebook. If they opt for travel with another carrier, the rule has no bearing, he said.

"Airlines like to play this game of pushing the refund on passengers instead of providing alternate transportation," he said.

Lukacs also stressed that compensation issues in Canadian aviation are not unique to Flair.

"It's a broader, systemic problem."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2023.

DUTY TO ACCOMODATE

Ramadan highlights how workplaces can better support Muslim employees

Tara Deschamps , The Canadian Press

Khadija Waseem loves tea and coffee, so when she told colleagues she was savouring her last cup ahead of the start of Ramadan's fasting period last week, they were quick to tease her.

"Everybody was joking, 'Please, you've been drinking this in every meeting and we've had back-to-back meetings,'" said the Toronto-based strategy consultant at Monitor Deloitte. 

But the moment turned "very magical" when a colleague, who Waseem said "did not fit the identity of what we think Muslims look like," excitedly shared that they were marking Ramadan too and had given up coffee more than a week ago.

The encounter was a reminder of the camaraderie that can develop in an inclusive office, but Waseem and others know that feeling and the supportive atmosphere enabling such conversations is still lacking in many workplaces.

Although Islam was Canada's second most practised religion in 2021 with 1.8 million Muslims in the country, many who practice the faith find they still face challenges in the workplace.

For some, there's a lack of accommodation, support and mindfulness during Ramadan, one of the holiest months in the Islamic calendar, when those fasting do not eat or drink anything between dawn and sunset.

Others face difficulties when stepping away for prayers five times a day, a cornerstone of the religion.

"Islamophobia, anti-Islamism and just sort of anti-Muslim sentiments generally just seem to be somewhat left out of the broader diversity, equity (and) inclusion conversation within many workplaces," said Sarah Saska, co-founder and chief executive of consultancy Feminuity.

She thinks companies are not making religious issues as much of a priority as gender because businesses and governments operate around Christian-centric calendars. That means staff have time off for Christmas and Easter, but not Ramadan or other religious holidays.

"Organizations tend to plan for something like Christmas six, five, four months in advance, but we've certainly noticed a number of organizations asking us just this week, 'What can we do (for Ramadan)?'" Saska said.

Ramadan and other holidays not on the Christian calendar aren't thought of as far in advance in part because of the lack of diversity within executive ranks.

"Even with the boards that I sit on, a lot of folks have never interacted with someone who wears a hijab, let alone someone who is going to be fasting for the whole month of Ramadan," said Waseem.

"If those voices are absent, then no one's going to remember to have that conversation until it's a few weeks or a week away."

The workplace accommodations Muslims need vary based on how individuals practice Islam and treat fasting, said Waqqas Shafique, director of financial sustainability and fundraising at the Muslim Association of Canada.

However, flexibility and understanding are key for most.

"The vast majority are usually a little tired in the morning because the nights are a little longer or they might use their lunch hour to find a quiet space to take some rest," he said.

However, remote and hybrid working arrangements spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic along with religious protections in the Canadian Human Rights Act have made it easier for Muslims and employers to "find the happy medium."

"We haven't heard many complaints," Shafique said.

He, Waseem and Saska agree that companies considering how to best support workers of every faith should begin by educating themselves on the demographics of their workforce and how they practice religion.

Saska encourages businesses to then take what they've learned and apply it to all their policies, so efforts to support their workforce go beyond a vague mission statement about diversity in general.

One "really quick and obvious" way companies can support workers is by offering more flexibility around team meetings, working hours and deadlines, she said.

Multi-faith rooms are also important, said Waseem.

"I can go down to my (employer's) prayer room, pray for about five, six minutes and then be able to return to my regularly programmed scheduling," she said.

Offering space for religious rituals was a priority when Intuit recently moved from a Mississauga, Ont. office with a "makeshift" prayer room that "wasn't terribly nice" in its former office, said David Marquis, vice-president and Canada country manager.

At its new downtown office in the sleek Well building, the financial software company's 19th floor prayer spaces are a focal point. In addition to sprawling views, there are washing stations, separate areas for men and women and a supply of prayer mats.

Members of the Intuit Muslim Awareness Network, one of 14 employee-led groups, were "so touched," when they first visited the space.

"One of them told me that they cried ... because it was just so clear the thoughtfulness that had gone into it," Marquis said.

Aside from prayer rooms, Intuit hosts a month of Ramadan-centric activities meant to teach workers about Islamic rituals and how to be mindful of practising colleagues.

The highlight is a global day of fasting, where staff of all faiths join Muslim colleagues in going without food or water.

Participating was "a real eye-opener" for Marquis, who encourages other businesses to engage with staff about how to accommodate all religions.

"If there's visible support from the top down and ... employees are engaged, leadership shows support, your culture benefits enormously."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 29, 2023. 

Federal budget 2023: Highest-earning 

Canadians face minimum tax rate increase

Craig Wong, The Canadian Press

The federal government is moving to raise the minimum tax rate paid by wealthy Canadians in the budget and narrowing its focus on the highest earners.

In its budget Tuesday, Ottawa is raising the alternative minimum tax rate and imposing new limits on many of the exemptions, deductions and credits that apply under the system starting in 2024.

“We’re making sure the very wealthy and our biggest corporations pay their fair share of taxes, so we can afford to keep taxes low for middle class families,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said in the prepared text of her remarks.

The alternative minimum tax (AMT) introduced in 1986 is a parallel income tax calculation that allows fewer deductions, exemptions and tax credits than the ordinary tax rules for the country’s highest earners. Wealthy Canadians pay the alternative minimum or regular tax, whichever is higher.

The government announced in the budget that it is increasing the alternative minimum rate to 20.5 per cent from 15 per cent starting in 2024.

To help ensure lower- and middle-income Canadians don’t get caught up in the increase, Ottawa is also proposing to increase the exemption to the start of the fourth federal tax bracket from $40,000. For 2024, it expects the exemption would be about $173,000 and be indexed annually to inflation. 

The government estimates that under the new rules about 32,000 Canadians will be covered by alternative minimum tax in 2024, compared with about 70,000 if it did not make the changes. 

However, the higher rate and revamping of the allowable deductions and credits mean Ottawa expects to take in an additional $150 million in 2023-24 and an additional $625 million in 2024-25.

Bruce Ball, vice-president for tax at CPA Canada, said there is a broader range of things that will go into the alternative minimum tax calculation, but the good news for most taxpayers is that the threshold will be much higher.

“That should exclude a lot of people even if they have more add-backs than they would have under the old system, so there’s some good news and bad news I guess, depending on your situation,” Ball said.

“If you’re higher income you may end up paying more; if you’re lower income you may not be subject to AMT.”

Brian Ernewein, senior advisor, tax, at KPMG in Canada, said the government isn’t just raising the rate, but also changing the rules for what is included when calculating a tax bill under the AMT rules, including changes for the treatment of capital gains. 

“I think this is a very big change,” he said. 

Ernewein added that there are also a broad range of changes regarding exemptions, deductions and credits.

"They're only allowing 50 per cent of a fairly large range of deductions and expenses, and 50 per cent of a lot of non refundable personal tax credits," he said.

While the richest Canadians face the possibility of higher taxes, the budget also includes a one-time payment for those who receive the goods and services tax credit to help offset the rising cost of living.

“We all know that our most vulnerable friends and neighbours are still feeling the bite of higher prices. And that is why our budget delivers targeted inflation relieve to those who need it most,” Freeland said.

Under the proposal, billed as a grocery rebate, Canadians who are eligible will receive an additional amount equal to twice the GST tax credit amount for January. For couples with two children the amount could be up to $467, while a single Canadian without children could receive up to an extra $234.

Student budgets will also see a boost from the budget as the government increases the Canada Student Grants compared with pre-pandemic levels and raises the interest-free Canada Student Loan limit.

The changes increase the total federal aid available to a full-time student based on financial need to $14,400 for 2023, up from $13,160 for 2022 and $10,140 in 2019 before the pandemic.

The government is also moving to cap the increase on alcohol excise duties to two per cent for one year. Ordinarily, the rates are indexed to the consumer price index and were previously set to rise by 6.3 per cent.

However, Canadians looking to take a flight next year will face an increase in the air travellers security charge paid by those flying in Canada starting on May 1, 2024. The charges, which are paid by passengers when they buy an airline ticket, help pay for the air travel security system and were last increased in 2010.

The charge for a domestic round trip will rise to $19.87, from its current rate of $14.96.  The charge for a transborder flight to the U.S. will rise to $16.89 from $12.71, while for departing international flights travellers will pay $34.42, up from $25.91.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2023.

Increased taxes on wealthy Canadians likely recoverable: Tax expert

Daniel Johnson , BNN Bloomberg

Following a proposed move by Canada’s federal government to increase the minimum tax rate on wealthy individuals, one tax expert said the minimum tax is often recoverable. 

The increase to the alternative minimum tax rate on wealthy Canadians was announced Tuesday as part of the 2023 federal budget. The increase is expected to take effect in 2024 and will bring the alternative minimum tax rate from 15 per cent to 20.5 per cent. 

“The good news, however, is that in almost every case, the minimum tax is really just a prepayment. It is recoverable, there is a seven-year carry forward to the extent that your ordinary tax exceeds minimum tax in a future year,” Jamie Golombek, the managing director of tax and estate planning at CIBC Private Wealth Management, said in a television interview Tuesday. 

In its current form, minimum tax places limits on potential tax advantages an individual can receive from incentives, according to Canada Revenue Agency. A minimum tax applies if it is higher than the federal tax an individual would pay when calculated in the typical way.

The proposed updates to the alternative minimum tax are expected to produce around $3 billion in additional government revenue over five years, according to Golombek. 

“The question I would pose to the government is, is this real revenue or is just a timing difference?” Golombek said. 

“Because if most people end up recovering their minimum tax over a seven-year period, are we just pushing the problem out seven years? Or is this a real permanent savings or a tax revenue grab for the government.” 

The increases to the tax regulations really only apply to “high-income Canadians,” Golombek said, adding that unless your income is more than $300,000, the changes are unlikely to have an impact. 

“The government budget documents specifically said that 99 per cent of the estimated billions of dollars of new revenue that this will bring in over the next five years, will be brought in by the people earning over $300,000 [annually] with 80 per cent of it earned by the people [with an income] over a million dollars,” Golombek said. 

The amendments to Canada’s tax regulations will not only apply to salaried individuals but will also apply to things like capital gains, according to Golombek.