Delays Continue to Plague BC Workers Struggling to Access Justice

Story by The Canadian Press • 21h ago

The B.C. agency tasked with protecting workers’ legal rights is failing to meet its own targets in 80 per cent of the complaints it handles, leaving thousands of workers waiting months or years to recoup unpaid wages.

The province’s Employment Standards Branch aims to resolve disputes between employers and workers within 180 days, but only managed to do so in 20 per cent of the more than 7,700 cases it handled last year.

Andreea Micu, a legal advocate with the Worker Solidarity Network, says workers are often waiting a year or more to get help from the branch, whose officers can compel employers to pay workers wages, severance and other money they might be owed under the Employment Standards Act.

The branch gives low-income workers a chance to get justice without needing to hire a lawyer and sue. But Micu said the long waits have discouraged some workers from applying.

“Instead of the employer being deterred from breaking the law, it actually deters employees from going after their rights,” Micu said.

The data illustrates how the branch has struggled to fulfil its mission after what advocates describe as decades of underfunding.

In 2018, the branch received 4,937 complaints and resolved roughly 90 per cent of all the complaints it received in the 2018-19 fiscal year.

Shortly after, the NDP government removed a “self-help” requirement introduced by the former BC Liberal government that denied workers access to the branch until they had attempted to resolve complaints with the employer on their own.

Labour advocates have argued that change was necessary because the kits were difficult to complete and suppressed claims from workers.

But the result was also a jump in complaints submitted to the branch, which meant a growing caseload.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic began, sparking a wave of layoffs that only increased the branch’s workload. An internal briefing notes obtained by The Tyee say the branch had a backlog of 4,548 cases as of January 2022, a 15-per-cent decrease from the same time period the previous year.


In a written statement, the Labour Ministry acknowledged the branch has seen a “dramatic” jump in demand for its services.

BC Liberal labour critic Greg Kyllo has argued government should have foreseen the spike in caseload and the resulting delays. In a previous interview with The Tyee, he said government should collect and release more data on where complaints were coming from.

Labour advocates, though, say it is indicative of a long-term funding problem at the branch, which lost a third of its 145 staff shortly after the BC Liberals came to power in 2001. In 2017, when the NDP were elected, the branch had the equivalent of just 96 full-time employees.

“It says to us that there’s not been enough money in the branch to make sure there are enough bodies there to do the work,” BC Federation of Labour president Sussanne Skidmore said in an interview last month.

Spending on the branch has roughly doubled since the NDP formed government and staffing has increased from 96 to 142 full-time equivalents.

Earlier this year, Labour Minister Harry Bains announced the branch would get a $3-million boost to its $14-million budget this year. The branch will also receive further funding boosts on top of in the two following fiscal years, which Bains said would support the hiring of the equivalent of 33 new full-time staff.

The branch is aiming to ensure 85 per cent of all cases are resolved within six months by the 2025-26 fiscal year.

Micu, though, says action is needed faster for workers facing delays.

She says branch staff are under pressure to resolve files quickly and some new officers seem unfamiliar with the province’s labour laws.

In one case, she said, a worker who contacted the network had been rebuffed by the branch, which wrongly said claims weren’t allowed based on constructive dismissal. (Constructive dismissal involves major changes to an employee’s job which are considered the equivalent of termination.)

In other cases, Micu said, workers were offered settlements that the workers’ network considered too low given what they were owed.

“In the interest of clearing this backlog, we have workers who are not being informed about the process they are in, who are being pressured into accepting settlements that are far below what they would receive,” she said.

In a written statement, the labour minister said it was “actively recruiting and rigorously training new staff for these highly skilled and complex positions.”

Micu, though, says many workers today still face long waits. Many workers who contact her organization for help, she said, live paycheque to paycheque and cannot afford to spend months waiting for a resolution.

Zak Vescera, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Tyee

Commons testimony on Kearl leak raises questions: ACFN Chief

Story by The Canadian Press • April 24,2023 

(ANNews) – First Nations chiefs in northwestern Alberta whose lands and waters were impacted by an Imperial Oil tailings pond spill that was concealed from them for months testified to a parliamentary committee on April 17, which was followed by testimony from Imperial Oil’s CEO.

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), the band located closest to the Kearl mine from which the leak occurred, says the hearings raised more questions than answers.

In a statement, ACFN Chief Allan Adam contrasted the “heart-wrenching testimony” of Indigenous leaders with the “vague promises from Imperial officials.”

“What we do know is that the tailings ponds continue to leak, and oil executives and government officials continue to spin tails,” Adam said.

Suggesting a lack of faith in the provincial government and industry, the ACFN is calling on the federal government to assume control over the “management and cleanup of the environmental disaster.”

There were two leaks from the Kearl mine. The first occurred in May 2022, with the discovery of discoloured water near the mine, which the surrounding First Nations weren’t informed of until February 2023.

By the time they were informed, there was a second release of 5.3 million litres of contaminated water.

On April 19, Imperial Oil CEO Brad Corson testified to the House of Commons environment and sustainability committee, where he admitted the company doesn’t know how much tailings-tainted water has leaked into the environment.

He failed to explain why the company didn’t immediately inform the surrounding Indigenous communities.

“We have never been trying to hide any information. We were negligent in not sharing information,” Corson said in response to questioning from Edmonton-Strathcona NDP MP Heather McPherson.

The following day, Environmental Defence Canada (EDC) and Keepers of the Water held a demonstration on Parliament Hill in support of the impact nations.

Keepers of the Water spokesperson Tori Cress called the rally “a necessary act of resistance and of solidarity.”

“Water is sacred. It’s our lifeblood. A lifeforce that is a sacred element in many Indigenous Peoples cultures around the globe,” said Cress, who is Anishinaabe from G’Chimnissing.

“When companies like Imperial Oil recklessly pollute the waterways of Indigenous nations with toxic waste, they are not just threatening the environment, but also the very existence of the downstream communities.”

Aliénor Rougeot, EDC’s climate and energy program manager, said Imperial Oil’s irresponsible management of its “toxic industrial waste” has placed Indigenous Peoples, “who are already subjected to constant industrial pollution, at further risk.”

​​”The federal government has been a passive bystander for too long. We demand they use their full powers to hold Imperial Oil accountable and to prevent any more toxins from tar sands mines from reaching the environment,” Rougeot added.

Jean LHommecourt, a Denesuline woman who lives just outside of Fort McKay, said she’s concerned her moose harvest from this past year, which she’s already shared with members of the community, is tainted.

“Do I need to feel guilty or afraid that I have fed a contaminated animal to Elders and to loved ones? Now I have this fear of the long-term health effects that we are going to face,” said LHommecourt, who is Keepers of the Water’s co-chair.

Indigenous leaders who testified at the committee earlier in the week, including Chief Adam, noted the Alberta Energy Regulator’s (AER) role in the coverup, The Canadian Press reported.

Daniel McKay, chief of the Fort McKay First Nation, said the regulator “has zero credibility outside Calgary’s echo chamber.”

“They actively dismiss and downplay impacts of oilsands on communities and their aboriginal and Treaty rights.”

Adam, who shed tears at the hearing explaining what it was like to tell his people their water could be contaminated, went as far as to call for the AER to be dismantled entirely, adding that the federal government is also responsible for the leak.

Melody Lepine of the Mikisew Cree First Nation said federal and provincial governments have long ignored the nations’ calls for a detailed health study of Fort Chipewyan residents.

The six Indigenous leaders who testified agreed that the issue goes far deeper than a mere communication breakdown.

“There’s a question around the neutrality of the regulator in Alberta,” said Russell Noseworthy of the Fort McMurray Metis.

Timothy Clark of Fort McMurray Metis, added that the AER appears “more concerned about protecting the image of the industry and the investment than it is about protecting the health and rights of the people who live in this area.”

Prior to the hearing, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault announced a new “notification and monitoring working group” to begin designing an enhanced reporting system for future leaks. It will be composed of representatives from federal and provincial governments, the Northwest Territories and Indigenous communities affected by the releases.

The ministry sent a letter to the nations in the area surrounding the Kearl mine to participate, although senior advisor Jennifer Lash noted that the working group’s scope goes beyond the one spill.

Alberta Environment and Parks spokesperson Miguel Racin insists the water in Lake Athabasca is safe for drinking, defending the government’s provincial communications regarding the leaks.

However, an independent sampling commissioned by the AER found that a small, fish-bearing lake, which feeds into a tributary of the Firebag River, contained toxins exceeding government guidelines.

AER CEO Laurie Pushor is set to testify at the committee on April 24.

Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News

Top federal ministers say they're watching Teck-Glencore saga 'very closely'

Story by Gabriel Friedman •  Financial Post

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne is among key ministers in government who are closely watching how the Glencore-Teck saga plays out.

Three top federal cabinet ministers — Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson — said they are watching “closely” as Switzerland’s Glencore PLC attempts a takeover of Teck Resources Ltd. , despite a flat rejection by the Vancouver-based company’s board of directors.

“We need companies like Teck here in Canada, companies with a strong commitment to Canada,” the ministers wrote in an April 24 letter to Bridgitte Anderson, chief executive of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, and obtained by the Financial Post.

Teck, the largest diversified miner in Canada, has refused two offers from Glencore, a dominant player in global commodities thanks to large mining and trading businesses, calling a deal with the Swiss giant a “non-starter.”

But Glencore continues to push, attracted by the prospect of adding Teck’s copper, zinc and metallurgical coal assets to its expansive portfolio. Chief executive Gary Nagle visited Toronto earlier this month to lobby investors to his side.

Champagne, as industry minister, would be the cabinet member responsible for reviewing foreign takeovers under the Investment Canada Act and deciding whether they advance the interests of the country.

The letter, dated April 24, marks Champagne’s most extensive comments on the subject to date. Although the letter did not signal that he would definitively block a Glencore transaction, the emphasis that companies’ ESG track record matters appears to echo part of the rationale put forward by Teck’s management for rejecting Glencore’s as a merger partner, citing its large thermal coal and oil trading businesses.

The minister’s missive came in reply to Anderson’s April 20 letter, also obtained by the Financial Post. Anderson urged “the federal government to take a proactive approach and scrutinize the (Glencore) proposed takeover bid closely.”

Anderson also wrote: “We are concerned that the potential acquisition of Teck Resources by Glencore could lead to the loss of a significant driver of Vancouver and Canada’s economy and deal a severe blow to local innovation and Canada’s drive towards net zero.” She described Teck as “integral to developing domestic and global value chains for the green and digital economies,” calling it a leader in “sustainability, ESG, and the energy transition as we collectively work to meet our emission reduction goals.”

None of the ministers provided comment, but a federal government official confirmed the authenticity of the correspondence.

On April 3, Glencore proposed a merger with Teck that would split the company’s combined assets on a 76-24 basis.

It came as Teck’s shareholders prepare to vote April 26 on whether to split off the company’s metallurgical coal — which is used to make steel — into a separate entity from its copper and other metal assets.

Copper is expected to see massive growth as the energy transition accelerates and Teck has said separating its copper assets from its coal assets would create value for shareholders.

Glencore produces about one per cent of the world’s thermal coal and said it expects to continue to produce coal until 2050. It also produces metallurgical coal and trades oil futures, but said it would split these assets into a separate company from its metals portfolio if it acquired Teck’s assets.

Teck’s management has said that it does not want to expose its shareholders to thermal coal production, which it said is incompatible with the energy transition.

That position is more in line with the federal government’s stance. At the 2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Canada helped found the Powering Past Coal Alliance dedicated to phasing out thermal coal.

Key shareholders, including Teck chairman emeritus Norman Keevil , whose family holding company controls the largest share of class A shares, which carry 100 votes apiece, have come out in support of that plan and against Glencore’s merger proposal.



The Teck exhibit during PDAC in March.© Christopher Katsarov Luna/Bloomberg

But two-thirds of both class A and class B shareholders must approve the plan, and Glencore’s chief executive Gary Nagle is aggressively courting class B shareholders, hence his trip to Toronto earlier this month.

In an open letter last week, Nagle threatened to take a new merger proposal directly to Teck’s class B shareholders and urged them to reject Teck’s separation plan.

As that matter intensified in the days before Teck shareholders vote, with both Teck and Glencore continuing to talk with Teck’s class B shareholders, a broader debate has emerged about Teck’s role in the economy.

Sean Boyd, executive chairman of Toronto-based Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., said in an interview last week that if Glencore were successful in persuading Teck to accept a merger offer, the federal government may still review the transaction — a process that could take months or years.

“No one’s really talking about this, but at some point, a transaction of this size, the Canadian government gets involved with foreign ownership,” said Boyd. “That’s going to take some considered thought from the government’s perspective and that’s going to take some time. So this is a thing that will play out over time.”

Of course, the ministers’ letter to Anderson acknowledged that “Canada welcomes and depends on international trade and investment,” and that the mining sector has several large multinational companies.

But they framed Teck’s assets as being of “central importance to our country” as the energy transition unfolds, noting that a shifting geopolitical landscape has accentuated the importance of Teck in Canada.

“The mining of critical minerals is key to the future and only companies that make serious commitments to ESG (environment, social licence and governance) and strong partnerships with Indigenous Peoples will succeed,” the ministers wrote.

Teck-Glencore saga has mining execs bemoaning foreign takeovers

B.C. premier David Eby concerned about Glencore’s bid for Teck

Teck versus Glencore: What you need to know

They closed the letter by noting that “the federal government is following this very closely.”

• Email: gfriedman@postmedia.com | Twitter: GabeFriedz

FIRST READING: Radio-Canada, the public broadcaster even Poilievre likes

Opinion by Tristin Hopper • National Post

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in a recent one-on-one interview with Radio-Canada, the French-language arm of CBC. Not only does Poilievre never do this with English CBC, but he's promised to defund them into oblivion.

TOP STORY

Canada’s weird week-long CBC social media controversy ended Friday with a whimper.

After CBC, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh all went to the barricades to defend the broadcaster against a “government-funded media” tag applied to it by Twitter, the social media giant quietly removed the label without explanation on Friday.

But the saga has arguably not redound to the benefit of Canada’s public broadcaster. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s actions of the last week further highlight a man hell-bent on crowbar-ing them from the public treasury.

“CBC officially exposed as ‘government-funded media.’ Now people know that it is Trudeau propaganda, not news,” said Poilievre on Sunday.

But even an inveterate CBC-hater like Poilievre has deftly avoid any criticism of Radio-Canada, its French-language arm. While “defund the CBC” has become a mantra of the Poilievre Conservatives, the Conservative leader has said he will leave Radio-Canada untouched. Poilievre even does interviews with Radio-Canada, something he strenuously avoids doing with the CBC.

The likely explanation is that people actually watch Radio-Canada. While CBC has hemorrhaged viewers (it now claims less than four per cent of the Canadian TV audience), Radio-Canada remains one of Quebec’s most ubiquitous cultural forces.

Every Sunday night, about one in every eight Quebecers is watching the Radio-Canada talk show Tous le monde en parle – and the show’s influence is such that it has been credited with swinging elections.

Bye-Bye, an annual sketch comedy revue that airs on New Year’s Eve, routinely breaks records as the most watched Quebec television program of all time. In 2021, it had 4.9 million viewers; more than half the 8.5 million people who live in Quebec.

Radio-Canada can also claim title to Stat, the province’s most-watched drama program, as well as a half dozen others with audiences of more than 1 million.

Over in English Canada, the top 30 highest-rated TV programs will often contain not a single CBC property.

This week’s Canadian Screen Awards, hosted by comic Samantha Bee, attracted just 3,000 views on YouTube. It was less than half the already-disastrously low 7,100 views that the awards show attracted in 2022.

According to one of the video’s top comments, “there’s a grainy 4 hour video of some guy just opening and closing a door over and over that has more views than this.”

As to why Radio-Canada triumphs where CBC fails, the principle reason is language. In English Canada, public broadcasting’s audience has been utterly decimated by new entrants, be it U.S. satellite TV channels or an ever-expanding array of podcasts.

But Radio-Canada exists in a media ecosystem that’s roughly equivalent to what the CBC faced in its 1960s heyday, with only one major rival, TVA.

Radio-Canada also happens to get a lot more money. Despite serving roughly eight million Francophones, the French-language arm gets 44 per cent of CBC’s annual $1.2 billion subsidy.

“In effect, this makes Radio-Canada one of the better-financed public broadcasters in the world and CBC one of the worst,” Richard Stursberg, the networks’ executive vice president from 2004 to 2010, wrote in a recent column for The Hub.

Like a lot of things in Quebec, production is also cheaper – which means the funding goes farther. Stursberg said that Radio-Canada can produce children’s content for about $200,000 an hour, while it costs $850,000 in English Canada.

One final reason Radio-Canada might be better entrenched in the zeitgeist – and one that has likely not escaped Poilievre’s notice – is that the broadcaster has remained comparatively insulated from a noticeable hard-left turn taken in recent years by its English cousin.

In a 2022 National Post op-ed, former CBC producer Tara Henley described the broadcaster being taken over by a “woke” worldview that was increasingly out of step with the Canadian mainstream. Working at the broadcaster, she wrote, “is to consent to the idea that a growing list of subjects are off the table, that dialogue itself can be harmful.”

Radio-Canada’s apparent disagreement with CBC on this new direction was highlighted by a 2020 incident in which the broadcaster was hit by a CRTC notice demanding a Radio-Canada apology for airing the “n-word” in a broadcast.

The notice was in reference to a French-language radio broadcast that mentioned the title of the 1968 Quebec nationalist book Nègres blancs d’Amérique, which translates to White N—-rs of America. 

THE FOUNDING DOCUMENT OF THE FLQ CAN'T GET MORE WOKE THAN THAT, EH
National Post
While Toronto brass didn’t really challenge the decision, it was met with widespread condemnation from throughout Radio-Canada as a direct attack on free speech and journalistic independence. A public letter signed by more than 50 Radio-Canada employees said the use of the n-word was presented in an entirely inoffensive context, and that to claim otherwise insulted “the intelligence of our institution and its employees.”

Right around the same time, meanwhile, employees at English CBC were openly petitioning their managers to drop the standard of “objectivity” from their reporting, arguing that it perpetuated “systemic racism.”

Keep us posted on how many femicides this prevented

Opinion by Tristin Hopper • National Post

This is a group of male MPs parading around a Parliament Hill conference room in pink high-heeled shoes to “spread awareness on violence against women,” according to Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, who put it online. 

The Hope in Heels event has been happening on Parliament Hill for some time, but this video in particular has gotten singled out for scorn. It rapidly became one of the most viewed things Alghabra has ever put on the internet, largely from people decrying it as a tad condescending. 

“Keep us posted on how many femicides this prevented,” commented Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.

© Twitter/Omar Alghabra

U$A

Maybe millennials didn't get screwed by the economy after all

Story by mturner@businessinsider.com (Matt Turner) • 


Student loan borrowers and advocates gather for the People's Rally To Cancel Student Debt During The Supreme Court Hearings On Student Debt Relief on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. Jemal Countess/Getty Images for People's Rally to Cancel Student Debt

There's a common perception that millennials have gotten screwed by the economy.

This idea rests on the generation getting whacked by rising housing costs, student debt, and graduating around the time of the great financial crisis.

But a recent article makes a convincing case for why the common idea of broke millennials is a myth.

Stop me if you've heard this before: Millennials got screwed by the economy.

It's a generation that took on huge loans to go to college in increasing numbers before graduating shortly before or around the time of the great financial crisis, entering a weak job market that set them back years. They put off having kids, gorged on avocado toast, and found it nearly impossible to get started on the housing ladder.

A record 39% of the US workforce freelanced in 2022.
Insider spoke with three millennial women who have found success as freelancers.
They shared their stories, as well as advice they have for people looking to follow in their footsteps.

As the New Year approaches, many Americans are going through performance reviews and taking stock of their job satisfaction. Some may consider ditching their 9-to-5 and joining the millions of Americans who have embraced freelancing in recent years.

39% of the US workforce freelanced full-time or part-time in 2022, per an Upwork survey of 3,000 US adults, equating to a record 60 million Americans. The younger generations led the way, with 43% of Gen Z workers and 46% of millennial workers saying they performed freelance work over the past year — compared to 35% of Gen Xers and 27% of Boomers who said the same.

While many freelancers enjoy the flexibility freelancing provides, the survey found earning extra income was a key reason 83% of freelancers decided to explore this alternative style of work.

If the US enters a recession or inflation remains elevated, even more workers might find themselves pursuing freelancing not because they want to, but because they need to.

Insider previously spoke with three millennials who have found success as freelancers. They shared their stories and offered advice about how others can find similar success.See More

It's a generation that's more likely to consider things out of reach because of their financial situation. There's even a series of self-help books titled "Broke Millennials."

It also happens to be my generation (I was born in 1984).

But a recent article from academic Jean M. Twenge in The Atlantic titled "The Myth of the Broke Millennial," along with a response from Substacker Noah Smith, makes a compelling case for why millennials are more like boomers and Gen Xers that they might like to let on.

"Millennials, as a group, are not broke — they are, in fact, thriving economically," Twenge writes. "That wasn't true a decade ago, and prosperity within the generation today is not evenly shared. But since the mid-2010s, Millennials on the whole have made a breathtaking financial comeback."

Both Twenge's article and Smith's response are worth reading in full. I'm going to focus on a handful of charts that show how this is playing out.



Jeremy Horpendahl© Jeremy Horpendahl

First, there's this chart from economy writer Jeremy Horpedahl. This data, from the third quarter of 2022, shows that — based on generational wealth per capita — millennials (green line) are building wealth at the same rate that Gen X (yellow) and boomers (orange) did. One other key thing to note is that this is adjusted for inflation, so it takes rising prices into account.

That's contrary to common perception, as these kinds of charts often focus on generational shares of wealth, which leads to headlines about the boomer generation having X times more wealth than millennials.

ION Gen Z and Boomers don't agree with millennials on 'work wife' excuse
2:03

Money Talks News 17 Things Being Eliminated by Millennials
2:33

But one should expect boomers to have a greater share of wealth: They've had decades to build their career and amass assets. And while many millennials did get off to a rocky start in the jobs market — especially those at the upper end of the generation who graduated before and into the great financial crisis — there's evidence of a significant bounce back since then.

You can see the strength of that rebound here in Twenge's chart on household income, which Smith has added to with an annotation.



Jean Twenge© Jean TwengeHere's Twenge: "By 2012, the median household income of 25-to-34-year-olds had dropped 13% from its peak in 2000. But the mid-2010s saw the beginnings of a turnaround that has continued ever since. By 2019, households headed by Millennials were making considerably more money than those headed by the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, and Generation X at the same age, after adjusting for inflation."

Per Twenge, by 2019 income for the median millennial household was about $9,000 higher than that of the media Gen X household at the same age, and $10,000 more than the median boomer household.

"Booms and recessions push incomes up and down, but although many media stories have tended to associate Millennials almost exclusively with the latter, they've now experienced both, and in a big way: Increases in income since 2014 have been steep," Twenge writes.

That brings me to real estate. There have been some meaningful changes to the housing market over the past several generations. In particular, earlier generations benefited from the explosion of the suburbs, a period where housing supply was especially strong. Today, there's a housing shortage.

Still, a recent report from Redfin showed that in 2022, 30% of 25-year olds owned their own home, higher than the rate for millennials (28%). But the millennial rate was actually very slightly higher than it had been for Gen Xers.



Redfin© Redfin

It remains the case that millennial homeownership lags begin the baby boomer generation. While 69% of baby boomers owned their own home at 40, the same is true for 62% of millennials, a seven-percentage-point gap. For comparison, 64% of Gen Xers owned a house when they were 40, closer to the millennial figure.

Still, it remains the case that 62% of millennials own their own home at 40. Clearly the majority of millennials are, in fact, getting on the housing ladder, contrary to the perception that it's not possible to do so.

That leaves total wealth, including assets like real estate. And once again there's a similar picture here. Per data from the St Louis Fed, the Millennial/Gen Z wealth is currently tracking with Gen X after initially getting off to a tough start.



St Louis Fed© St Louis Fed

"While trailing Gen Xers for the beginning of their adult lives, younger Americans have closed the gap over the past five years (as of the most recent data)," the report said.

There are lots of nuances to all of this data, with differences across ages, professions, geography, gender, and race. And there continue to be real challenges for many millennials.

But Twenge and Smith make convincing arguments for why, while the millennial generation did get off to a rough start, it has now caught up to previous generations in terms of household income, home ownership, and wealth.

And that acceleration isn't necessarily over yet, in part because of the passing of their parents. Here's Smith:

Where do you think the vast accumulated wealth of the Boomer generation will go in 10 or 20 years when the Boomers die? What will happen to all those nice expensive houses in the suburbs? Their children will inherit them. Their children are Millennials.

Prominent Bay Street economist disputes Bank of Canada's assertion that wages are stoking inflation

Story by Bianca Bharti 


Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem and senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers leave a news conference after announcing an interest rate decision in Ottawa, in April.© Provided by Financial Post

One of Bay Street’s most prominent economists questioned the Bank of Canada ‘s emphasis on wage growth as a driver of inflation , arguing that structural changes such as a proliferation of trade barriers and climate change have fundamentally altered price dynamics.

“We need to move away from the standard ways we talk about inflation,” Frances Donald , chief economist at Manulife Investment Management, told the Financial Post’s Larysa Harapyn. “The new inflation, and in my view, the inflation that is going to permeate the system in Canada and abroad for the next several years, and probably the next few decades, is a different type of inflation that’s going to be increasingly driven by global factors, supply-side factors, climate change, all of these issues are going to push inflation higher.”

Donald, the youngest chief economist at a major Canadian financial institution, added: “Focusing on these old arguments that there is wage growth , frankly wage growth is good for Canadians. Central bankers have been looking for wage growth for over a decade. That’s not where the focus needs to be. The focus needs to be on, what are the future drivers of inflation and why do we need to think about prices differently than we have over the past several decades.”

Average hourly wages have been growing at an annual rate of around four per cent to five per cent for the better part of a year. The Bank of Canada says that’s contributing to “excess demand,” because it’s calculations suggest wage growth of more than about three per cent encourages households to spend at a pace greater than the economy’s capacity to keep up with orders.

That mismatch between demand and supply inevitably puts upward pressure on prices.

“There’s so much more at play,” said Donald.

The Bank of Canada initially blamed the inflation surge on factors that were largely out of its control, such as supply disruptions caused by the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine. But as price pressures grew more intense, policymakers determined that homegrown factors such as labour shortages, low unemployment and government spending also were important factors. And more recently, as supply constraints have eased and energy prices have dropped, the central bank has highlighted wages and the “pricing behaviour” of corporations as indicators that will determine whether it resumes raising interest rates.

Donald questioned the premise for higher interest rates, noting much has changed since “our economics textbooks told us that if we trade openly with our trading partners, prices come down and that’s good for everyone.”

To be sure, since the 1930s, as globalization took root, open markets led to “a lot of great outcomes,” she said. However, “now, the big question is, are we actually going to see this paradigm shift where, the nature of globalization changes, we begin to see de-globalization types of tendencies?”



A CN Rail train is loaded at the Port of Vancouver in 2022.© Jason Payne/PNG

Donald said if that happens, it would be a “massive disruption” to how economies function, trade flows and goods and services prices are set. In that context, merely looking at demand and supply equations to determine interest rates is a dated exercise, she added.

The Bank of Canada’s interest rate hikes have so far been effective at bringing inflation down from 40-year highs. The consumer price index , which measures inflation, peaked at 8.1 per cent in June and the latest data showed growth slowed to 4.3 per cent year over year in March.

At 4.5 per cent, the central bank has taken a pause on hiking rates to monitor signs of economic cooling, but it raised rates at the fastest clip on record to tame inflation that was pushing above five per cent starting last year.



Canada's inflation cools to 4.3%

External factors, such as energy and food prices, have been major inflation drivers since 2021. As such, “a different type of inflation” will “permeate the system” in Canada and abroad over the next several years or decade, Donald said.

“We shouldn’t discount that a lot of food price inflation we’ve seen have come from a conflict in Eastern Europe, weather patterns that have led to substantial droughts, even things like avian flu — these are not interest-rate sensitive factors,” she said.

“We can hike interest rates all we want but it’s not going to make it rain in Brazil.”

Of course, the traditional drivers are still important and economists need to take those into consideration, she said.

“It’s time to widen our horizons,” Donald said.

NDP, Conservatives, raise concerns on Rogers hiring of former federal minister

The NDP says it’s concerned about a new role taken by former Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) minister Navdeep Bains.




Rogers hired Bains to serve as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer last week. He served as the innovation minister in the Liberal government, responsible for the telecom file, between 2015 and 2021.

“It certainly looks like the Liberals are in the pockets of telecom giants, getting gravy jobs as their executives, instead of defending Canadians who are already paying a fortune for cell and internet bills,” NDP innovation critic Brian Masse told the National Post.

Masse said the move raises questions given the federal government’s approval of Rogers’ $26-billion takeover of Shaw.

Bains was also the minister behind the government’s last telecom policy direction, which current Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne replaced in February.

Rogers says the new hire won’t be speaking with the federal government on behalf of the telecom giant under the Lobbying Act, which averts former members of the government from lobbying in the capital. However, his role does focus on governmental affairs, the company confirmed.

“Out of an abundance of caution, Navdeep proactively reached out to the ethics and lobbying commissioners and was provided clearance to join Rogers.”

Concerns have also come from the Conservatives. “In the entire time Navdeep Bains was Minister responsible for cell phone prices, he never did anything to improve affordability for Canadians’ cell phone bills. Now he is joining the carrier with the highest cell phone rates in the world,” Rick Perkins, the innovation critic for Canada’s Offical Opposition party, told the publication.

Source: National Post

CN Rail unveils new continental shipping service in bid to match rival's vast network

MONTREAL — Canadian National Railway Co. announced a new North American container shipping service Monday, upping its financial forecast for the year on the heels of record first-quarter revenues brought on by a bumper grain crop and higher oil prices.



Dubbed Falcon Premium, the intermodal service marks an agreement between CN, Union Pacific Railroad and GMXT, a Mexican railroad operator and metals miner. It connects CN's tracks, which stretch from Vancouver to Halifax, with the UPR line in Chicago and GMXT terminals several hundred kilometres north of Mexico City.

In a bid to match rival CP Rail's recent merger with Kansas City Southern, the deal also aims to nab customers south of the border from trucking companies with clients in auto parts, food, appliances and temperature-controlled products.

"How do we convert the Mexico business over from the road to intermodal?" asked chief marketing officer Doug MacDonald. "We need a consistent, quick transit time."

He said CN's new partners have shown they can persuade shippers to abandon trucks for railcars between Mexico and Chicago. "Now we're layering on top of that CN's network, where really there wasn't that product before. It's a brand new product coming into Eastern Canada, somewhat into Detroit and even into Western Canada.

"That's how we're going to take those trucks off the road, because they didn't have an alternative before," MacDonald said.

The agreement comes less than two weeks after the inauguration of Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd., which created the only railway stretching from Canada through to the U.S. and Mexico as North America's two smallest Class 1 railways merged.

CN maintained a sunny outlook Monday despite the CEO's expectation of a shrinking economy throughout much of the year, as volumes sag for shipping containers and some bulk cargo.

“Our current volumes reflect that we are in a mild recession. And we're uncertain about how deep or how long it will go on. But what we're modeling is negative North American industrial production for the full year," said chief executive Tracy Robinson on a conference call with analysts, warning of thinner margins for parts of 2023.

CN said it expected growth of adjusted diluted earnings per share in the mid-single digits this year compared to 2022, up from a low single-digit target set in January.

While grains, coal and metals were still moving healthily this month, weaker volumes for container shipments, lumber and chemicals and plastics pulled down overall haulage figures by six per cent in April as measured in revenue ton miles — a key industry metric gauging how much a company makes per volume of freight transported — said CN chief financial officer Ghislain Houle.

Retail and wholesale inventory levels have remained high across the country, reducing demand for CN container shipping — its highest grossing segment — with volumes dropping 13 per cent year over year last quarter.

"Lumber remains uncertain as commodity prices are still at low levels, and housing demand is still low due to elevated interest rates despite a significant shortage of homes on the market," said MacDonald said.

"Petroleum and chemicals production is directly tied to the economy, so we expect demand to be soft for most of the year."

However, fat grain yields and the soaring price of fertilizer amid Russia's ongoing invasion on Ukraine boosted CN's first-quarter revenue on the combined segment by 43 per cent year over year, returning it to the railway's No. 1 revenue earner among bulk products.

As overall volumes slip, the company plans to avoid cutting employees and focus on training locomotive engineers.

"We are not going to have a knee-jerk reaction and send people home while we have the mild recession," Houle said.

CN reported revenues of $4.31 billion for the quarter ended March 31, a 16 per cent boost from $3.71 billion a year earlier.

Net income jumped to $1.22 billion in its first quarter from $918 million in the same period last year.

On an adjusted basis, diluted earnings increased 38 per cent to $1.82 from $1.32 a year ago, beating analyst expectations of $1.72 per share, according to financial data firm Refinitiv.

On Monday, the company's board approved a second-quarter dividend of 79 cents per common share, to be paid after markets close on June 30.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2023

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

America's Oil Patch Loses Its Luster

Story by Jinjoo Lee • WSJ

The oil-field services sector is still humming along, but its clients are casting their gaze past America’s once-booming shale patch.


America's Oil Patch Loses Its Luster© ali haider/Shutterstock

Industry services giants SLB and Baker Hughes had healthy numbers to report last week. SLB said on Friday that its top line grew 30% in the first quarter from a year earlier, better than the 25% Wall Street expected. Net income grew 83%, handily exceeding expectations. Baker Hughes said on Wednesday that revenue and net income grew 18% and 14%, respectively—also both higher than analyst expectations. Halliburton, the third huge player in the business and the one most focused on North America, releases results this Tuesday.

While spending on short-cycle U.S. shale powered the growth of oil-field services companies last year, long-cycle international spending is expected to take center stage in 2023. SLB said on Friday that the North American land market could see a plateau in activity this year as low natural-gas prices make it uneconomic for some producers to drill for the commodity. U.S. benchmark natural-gas futures have been hovering just above $2 per million British thermal units recently, well below the $3.45 per million British thermal units that price producers say they need on average for drilling to be profitable, according to a first-quarter energy survey by the Kansas City Federal Reserve.

Domestic oil-drilling activity has also been weak. The U.S. oil rig count has dropped almost every week since early February, according to Baker Hughes data. This might reflect caution and price sensitivity from private drillers, which had been quick to add rigs last year but were also quick to drop them when oil prices declined in parts of this year. After some steep cost inflation last year, break-even prices have risen for producers, according to Kansas City Fed survey results. If U.S. benchmark crude oil prices fall to $70 a barrel, private operators could drop a few dozen more rigs; if they fall to $60 to $65 a barrel, up to 150 rigs could stop being employed, according to estimates from Scott Gruber, equity analyst at Citigroup. West Texas Intermediate crude fell below $70 a barrel during parts of March, though it recovered after some members of OPEC+ announced a production cut earlier this month.

Both SLB and Baker Hughes lowered their expectations for North American spending growth this year. Baker Hughes said it expects drilling and completion spending in the region to grow by a low double-digit percentage this year, down from the mid to high double-digit growth it telegraphed three months ago. By contrast, international spending is expected to increase in the mid double-digit range. Baker Hughes’ CEO Lorenzo Simonelli said on his company’s earnings call on Wednesday that pricing in North America is starting to level off across the industry.

Even though some OPEC+ members committed to an oil production cut last month, that hasn’t reduced oil-field services companies’ business prospects. SLB Chief Executive Olivier Le Peuch said on the earnings call on Friday that there have been no signs of slowdown in spending in those countries. The company expects to see its highest-ever revenue in the Middle East this year. Notably, both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have ambitious long-term capacity-expansion plans—both for oil and natural gas. Outside OPEC, SLB highlighted Brazil’s goal to expand its oil production to 4 million barrels a day from today’s 3.3 million barrels a day.

Additionally, major international oil companies that previously held back on expensive, long-cycle offshore drilling projects have again embraced it after generating prodigious cash flows last year. Investors have become more receptive to such projects after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlighted the importance of energy security, according to Michael Bradley, partner at Veriten, an energy-focused research and investment firm. SLB said it is seeing strong demand for exploration and appraisal services.

Weakness in North American short-cycle activity notwithstanding, oil-field services firms’ unwavering pipeline of long-cycle contracts signal that the world’s producers, whether major European oil companies or national oil companies, are still in the fossil-fuel business for the long haul.

Write to Jinjoo Lee at jinjoo.lee@wsj.com