Large group of harp seals spotted near Kamouraska, Que., as ice floes become scarce


CBC
Fri, January 5, 2024 

Seals typically spend time in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but can venture further west when there is good ice. (Tourisme Rivière-du-Loup/Facebook - image credit)

Eric Leclerc could not believe his eyes when he saw around 10 chubby harp seals slowly drift down the St. Lawrence River on an ice floe near the town of Rivière-Ouelle, Que., where he was staying for the holidays.

"They were all lying down, taking in the sun … enjoying the nice weather," said Leclerc.

Though he's from the area, this was his first time seeing a seal.

Harp seals migrate from the Canadian Arctic and Greenland to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the fall, attracted by the ice that forms there. They rest on the ice and build up fat before pupping season begins in March, said Mike Hammill, a research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO.)

Usually they hang around the Rimouski and Tadoussac areas, he said, though they can venture further west in search of good ice — which has been harder to come by in recent years.

"Looks like this year the only ice available is closer to the Kamouraska area," he said.

The seals will make their way back to the gulf in a couple of months to give birth.

Harp seals were spotted along the Saint-Denis-de La Bouteillerie, Que., in the Kamouraska area. (Marc Lamarre)

Hammill says the DFO is researching how the formation of less ice year after year on the St. Lawrence might affect the harp seals. He suspects that in 30 or 50 years, when there's no more ice in the gulf, the seals will probably continue to visit the Estuary of St. Lawrence to feed but will carry out their pupping season along the northeast coast of Newfoundland.

In the meantime, he says the population is "very abundant" and there are no conservation concerns. People can enjoy observing the animals but shouldn't approach them as they can leave a "nasty bite."

The owner of the cottage Leclerc was renting told him the seals might be a sign of good things to come.

"He told us [the sighting] would probably bring joy in the year 2024," said Leclerc. He's holding onto that thought with optimism.

ONTARIO
How the tiny western chorus frog could stop Doug Ford's Highway 413

CBC
Fri, January 5, 2024 

The western chorus frog is listed as a threatened species in Quebec, as well as eastern and southern Ontario.

 (Canadian Wildlife Federation - image credit)

The western chorus frog is about as small as your thumb, but it could prove to be a large obstacle to Premier Doug Ford's plans for building Highway 413.

The chorus frog – so named because of the sound males make during mating season – is listed as threatened on Canada's official registry of species at risk.

Consultants working for Ontario's Ministry of Transportation have identified the frog along the 59-kilometre preferred route of the proposed Highway 413, across the northwestern fringes of the Greater Toronto Area. And while the frogs' presence along the route may not necessarily stop the project altogether, it could force the province to change the proposed highway's route to preserve habitat.

Building Highway 413 was one of Ford's central promises in his 2022 re-election campaign. The PCs won every seat in Peel and York, the two regions the highway would connect.

"We're going to make sure that we follow environmental protections that we have very vigorously put in place, but it's our priority to build the 413," Ontario's Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said during a news conference in early December.

Ontario's Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria, right, during a news conference with Attorney General Doug Downey at Queen's Park.

 (Mike Crawley/CBC)

The western chorus frog typically breeds in what are known as vernal pools: temporary ponds that form in early spring and dry up three to four months later, says David Seburn, a wildlife biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Federation.

"The reason that chorus frogs prefer these temporary ponds is they want to avoid ponds where there are fish that can eat their eggs and their tadpoles," said Seburn in an interview.

"These ponds might be only five or 10 metres across, maybe only half a metre deep," he said. "Typically there's a number of ponds within close proximity to each other, and the chorus frogs might not be successful in all of those ponds in all years because some ponds may dry up too quickly."

Habitat loss a big factor in population decline: biologist

Seburn says habitat loss is a big factor in the the decline of western chorus frog populations in Ontario.

"Many of these temporary ponds are not highly valued or thought of as being important habitats, so they're often the first kind of habitat that gets drained and developed," he said.

Ryan Norris, a professor in the department of integrative biology at the University of Guelph, says threatened species are typically composed of small populations found in locations that are geographically separated from each other.

The Ontario government's proposed route for Highway 413 would run through parts of the Greenbelt between the existing 400 and 401 highways in the northern and western parts of the Greater Toronto Area.

The Ontario government's proposed route for Highway 413 would cross the northern and western parts of the Greater Toronto Area, creating a new link between the 400 and the 401. (Hailley Furkalo/CBC)

"As those species have smaller populations and fewer populations, we increase the risk of extinction," Norris said in an interview.

"In this case, we increase the risk that they disappear altogether from Ontario," Norris said. "The more species we lose, the more our natural food webs here that we have in southern Ontario fall apart."

The presence of the frog's breeding grounds in Montreal's south shore suburbs halted a housing development there in 2016 and more recently, forced changes to a road construction project.

Who controls environmental assessment could be key

A key factor in the fate of the Highway 413 project may be whether it's the federal or provincial government that controls the environmental assessment on the project.

The environment minister in the Trudeau government, Stephen Guilbeault, has ordered the project undergo a federal impact assessment. However, the Supreme Court of Canada issued a ruling in October that the legislation behind that order exceeds the bounds of federal jurisdiction.

The Trudeau government has since indicated it will rewrite the legislation and intends to continue with its impact assessment of Highway 413. Ontario recently launched a court case to try to get the federal assessment quashed.

"We want to get shovels in the ground and I think Minister Guilbeault should respect that and the prime minister should also respect provincial jurisdiction on this matter," Sarkaria said.

29 at-risk specifies identified along proposed route

Norris led a study commissioned by the activist group Environmental Defence that identified 29 federally listed at-risk species along the highway's proposed route. Those species included the western chorus frog and other amphibians, as well as birds, reptiles, fish, insects and trees.

He says construction of the highway would result in water runoff, changes in water chemistry and sedimentation in streams that could affect the peripheral wetlands where the western chorus frog lives.
The rapids clubtail is a dragonfly that is listed as endangered in Canada and in Ontario. One of its few remaining habitats in the province is in the path of the proposed Highway 413. 

(Environment and Climate Change Canada)

"Western chorus frogs are particularly sensitive to changes in the quality of their environments," he said. "It's got the potential to be very susceptible across a quite a wide geographic range around the highway."

Another species that Norris says could face an even greater threat from Highway 413 than the western chorus frog is an endangered dragonfly called the rapids clubtail.

The insect has been seen in only five locations across southern Ontario over the past 25 years, one of which is the upper reaches of the Humber River between Bolton and Kleinburg, directly in the proposed path of the highway.

WTF?!

Russian antiwar activist could lose Canadian citizenship bid over conviction abroad


CBC
Fri, January 5, 2024 


Maria Kartasheva, a Russian activist who lives in Ottawa, has had her application for Canadian citizenship held up due to a conviction under a Russian law that has been used against critics of the Ukraine invasion. (Matthew Kupfer/CBC - image credit)

A critic of the Kremlin could be barred from obtaining Canadian citizenship because she has to prove to immigration officials here that it isn't a crime in Canada to criticize the Russian army.

Maria Kartasheva, who has lived in Ottawa since 2019, has been convicted under a Russian law passed shortly after the invasion of Ukraine which bars "public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation."

Kartasheva says she was surprised Russian prosecutors pursued her over two blog posts she wrote while living in Ontario.

But what was most jawdropping for the 30-year-old was when a Canadian officiant motioned for her to step aside in the middle of her citizenship ceremony last spring, just moments before she was supposed to swear her allegiance to the Crown.

"I felt betrayed because I was hoping I was safe here in Canada," said Kartasheva, who's a tech worker in the national capital.

Under Canadian immigration rules, if an applicant is charged with a crime in another country that could be indictable under Canada's Criminal Code, their application can be revoked or refused.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada offices in Montreal. The department told Kartasheva in a letter the crime 'would equate to false information under subsection 372(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada.' (Ivanoh Demers/CBC)

According to a December letter from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the crime she committed in Russia "would equate to false information under subsection 372(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada."

Originally enacted in 1985, the Canadian law makes it illegal for individuals to intentionally injure another person or convey false information through telecommunication means.

Historically, it's been invoked to address cases such as a person spreading untrue rumours or evidence about a cheating spouse. It carries a maximum sentence of two years behind bars.

"Based on the information currently available to me, it appears that you may be subject to prohibitions under the Citizenship Act," read the IRCC letter, which was signed by a citizenship officer in Montreal.

The official gave Kartasheva 30 days to explain her case.

Kartasheva said it's bewildering that anyone would interpret her eight-year imprisonment sentence in Russia as having any moral or legal match here.

"This is a normal country," she said of Canada. "[You would think] no one would consider me a criminal for being against the war — but I guess they would. For me, it just doesn't make sense."

Jacqueline Bonisteel, an Ottawa-based immigration lawyer, said the IRCC process is meant to filter out applicants who are ineligible due to their criminal past, but in this case she felt the principle was misapplied.

"It looks relatively straightforward that this isn't a provision that has an equivalent in Canadian criminal law," said Bonisteel, a lawyer with Corporate Immigration Law Firm.

Blog posts led to conviction

Kartasheva's convictions stem from two blog entries from March 2022, when she posted photos and wrote in Russian expressing horror at the Bucha massacre.

"Tell me that before the Russian troops came there, all these people were alive, riding their own damn bicycles. I don't know why it was so ingrained in my memory that there were bicycles everywhere, and the dead people who were riding them, apparently, they were going somewhere," a translation of one of the posts reads.

Russia's foreign minister has rejected allegations of atrocities in Bucha.

Kartasheva said her arrest in absentia was approved by Russian judge Elena Lenskaya, then tried in the Basmanny District Court of Moscow — both of which are still subject to Canadian sanctions for human rights violations.

She said her Russian lawyer wasn't able to file a defence, and in November of this year she was sentenced to eight years in a Russian prison.

Kartasheva heard of the charges in late 2022 and learned of her arrest in April 2023. She was in the midst of applying through the regular citizenship stream in Canada, but decided to notify the IRCC of the foreign charges right away.

BUCHA, UKRAINE - APRIL 06: People walk through debris and destroyed Russian military vehicles on a street on April 06, 2022 in Bucha, Ukraine. The Ukrainian government has accused Russian forces of committing a "deliberate massacre" as they occupied and eventually retreated from Bucha, 25km northwest of Kyiv. Hundreds of bodies have been found in the days since Ukrainian forces regained control of the town.

 (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

A few days later in May, she received an invitation to her citizenship ceremony, so she assumed the Canadian government had understood her situation. However, just as she was about to take the oath of citizenship, the officiant asked the room a routine question about whether anyone had criminal charges.

Kartasheva raised her hand, and she was told to step aside.

She never made her oath.

"I know Canada doesn't support the war. I know that they agree Russia silences people who are against the war. I thought that this is such a clear situation that all of this just shouldn't be happening," Kartasheva said.

Kartasheva has participated in other activism against the war besides her blog, including protesting at the Russian Embassy in Ottawa and co-founding a group called the Russian Canadian Democratic Alliance.

"The worst-case scenario is that I will be deported back to Russia," she said.

Matthew Light, an associate professor of criminology and European studies at the University of Toronto, said the Russian false information law has been covered in western media for its impact on high-profile opposition politicians and journalists.

"It's also used on a much larger scale against less well-known members of Russian society who've uttered criticisms of the war, often in contexts that aren't highly political," Light said.

In those cases, the penalty may be a fine, but Light said Kartasheva's eight-year sentence suggests the Russian government is taking her case seriously or could be part of a larger trend of trying to tighten its grip on Russians abroad.

"They seem to wish to make her a lesson for others. I assume they don't expect that she will be returned to Russian custody, but they may well mean to intimidate others," Light said.

Light said if Kartasheva does have to return to Russia, she could face additional prison sentences, harsher conditions as a political prisoner and continued surveillance upon her release.

"We can assume that as long as the Putin regime is in power, it would not be possible for [her] to have a normal life in Russia," Light said.

"This is an appalling error, and I hope it is resolved in [her] favour promptly."

The IRCC says successful refugee applications have ramped up again in recent months but the pandemic still has a lingering effect on processing numbers. When Kartasheva told immigration officials at her citizenship ceremony that she was facing charges, she wasn't allowed to take the oath.

 (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Exemptions for political dissidents

Bonisteel said IRCC regularly bypasses the criminal equivalency requirement to help applicants flee political persecution in their home countries.

"This comes up often with refugee cases and political dissidents," Bonisteel said.

"So long as they can establish this is a trumped up, politicized charge that has no equivalency in Canada, then they're going to be able to get their status here."

Bonisteel said she hasn't seen this kind of issue come up in the regular citizenship stream. She said it's part of the process for the onus to be on the applicant to explain the context of any legal issues, but IRCC could develop some policy that flags obvious cases.

In a statement to CBC News, IRCC said "foreign convictions are carefully examined to see whether the act committed would have been an offence under Canadians laws if it had occurred in Canada."

It said people who are investigated for potential foreign criminal activity are given the chance to explain their situation.

The department said it will review the documents Kartasheva has sent to make her case to determine the outcome of her citizenship application.

The Russian Embassy in Ottawa did not respond to CBC's inquiries.

Federal workforce in the Ottawa area continues to grow


CBC
Fri, January 5, 2024 

Part of the Place du Portage federal government complex in Gatineau, Que., a major hub for federal workers in the National Capital Region. (Christian Patry/Radio-Canada - image credit)

The National Capital Region's public service ranks grew by 8,360 people over the most recent fiscal year to sit at 130,611 workers as of the end of March 2023, according to an annual report.

Government employees make up nearly half of the workforce in the capital region, which has a population of about 1.5 million and covers Ottawa-Gatineau and other nearby communities such as Almonte, Chelsea, Pakenham and Val-des-Monts.

They're 47.6 per cent of the region's 274,219 workers — including students and both casual and long-term staff — covered by the Public Service Employment Act. That share of Ottawa-area workers has edged up four of the last five years.

Overall, the national civil servant workforce grew by more than 16,600 people in the 2022-23 fiscal year, according to the Public Service Commission of Canada's report.

If you just look at hires, 71,200 people were brought in from outside the public service in 2022-23, up about 10 per cent or 6,400 hires from the year prior.

The report notes Indigenous people and people with disabilities were underrepresented in its applicant pool. This was before changes in July 2023 that try to create "a more inclusive and diverse public service" by removing barriers in the hiring process.

A few days before the end of the 2022-23 fiscal year, the federal budget included cutting $15.4 billion in spending over five years through "targeted reductions."

Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre has long been telling voters he'll run a smaller, more limited government.

THE HARPER CONSERVATIVES INCREASED THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE AS WELL

NB

Researcher corrects Premier Higgs's 'misinterpretation' of gender-affirming care data

ITS CALLED MISINFORMATION

LGBTQ RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

CBC
Fri, January 5, 2024 

Premier Blaine Higgs quoted from a presentation by Dr. James Cantor, a Toronto psychologist, who testifies in favour of gender-affirming care bans in the United States. (Radio-Canada - image credit)

A researcher says New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs is sharing "misinterpretations" of the gender-affirming care data she's been collecting and analyzing for years.

In a year-end interview with Radio-Canada, Higgs shared his concerns about how easy it is for children to get gender-affirming care.

"In Canada it's about over 60 per cent, after one visit, can be put on the puberty blockers," Higgs said. He was also quoted by The Canadian Press saying 60 per cent of kids "are given automatic affirmation and put on some sort of hormone therapy" at a first appointment.

Researcher Greta Bauer said her study, published in 2021, specifies that 60 per cent of young patients were prescribed medication at their first hormone-specialist appointment.

To get that appointment, youth had to see an average of 2.7 other health-care professionals, and the average wait time for that first appointment was 269 days from the date of referral. Before any prescriptions were written, kids needed a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, she said.

"It just really makes me sad when people deliberately or non-deliberately misinterpret the results of our research, and I'm increasingly concerned about deliberate misinterpretation," Bauer said in an interview.

Researcher Dr. Greta Bauer says her research shows that even after waiting an average of nine months for an appointment with a hormone specialist, 40 per cent of young people don't go ahead with perscriptions on that first appointment.

Dr. Greta Bauer says her research shows that even after waiting an average of nine months for an appointment with a hormone specialist, 40 per cent of young people don't go ahead with prescriptions on that first appointment. (CBC)

Bauer is a family medicine professor at the University of Minnesota medical school and previously worked at Ontario's Western University for 17 years, where she held a sex and gender research chair position.

She said her research has been misconstrued in the past to make a false conclusion about how easy it is to get hormone therapy.

"The politicization has meant that increasingly our work has been taken out of context and has been, you know, tweeted around the world or shared in ways that are problematic," she said. "It's disturbing to me."





Higgs invites psychologist who testifies for U.S. trans-care bans

Higgs declined an interview request. Instead, a spokesperson confirmed that Higgs invited Dr. James Cantor to make a presentation to government in late November. The spokesperson wouldn't confirm who was invited to attend. A slide in the presentation said youth are "quickly/unquestionably affirmed," and treatment is "solely based" on self-identification.

Cantor, a Toronto-based psychologist, has testified in 25 cases in support of gender-affirming care bans or bathroom restrictions in the United States, CBC previously reported.

The slide he presented includes a reference to how 62 per cent of youth received a prescription at their first appointment in a gender clinic. The slide does not include the wait times or requirements for gender-dysphoria diagnosis. The government did not provide the full presentation when CBC News requested it Thursday

Since 2021, Toronto psychologist James Cantor has testified in more than 20 cases in the U.S. involving transgender issues. (Craig Chivers/CBC)

In an interview with Radio-Canada, Cantor declined to confirm that he made a presentation to MLAs and the premier, but confirmed that the statistic Higgs was sharing was accurate, and said children were given a prescription after "very minimal assessment."

Bauer said her study shows young people in Canada wait an average of 13.5 months to receive gender-affirming care from the time they start seeking it. She said standard protocol also requires that adolescent patients be assessed for other possible mental health and physical issues before they start treatment.

In 2022, under cross-examination in Alabama, Cantor testified that he had never provided care to a transgender minor under the age of 16, had never diagnosed a child or adolescent with gender dysphoria and had no personal experience monitoring patients' medical transition.

On Thursday, the premier's office set up a media availability with Dr. Erica Anderson, a U.S. clinical psychologist who studies sexuality and gender identity and advocates for caution and sometimes delays in medical transitioning.

In the media availability, Anderson said she was also invited by Higgs to "educate decision-makers" about changes to gender-affirming care in Europe.

Recently, Sweden and the United Kingdom conducted systemic analyses of all evidence regarding gender-affirming care for minors and found it lacking, she said. She said that should make the medical community approach the issue with "more caution."

When asked if she had any evidence that doctors in Canada are not cautious enough, she said the premier told her that 60 per cent of kids get hormones on the first appointment, though she did not know about the path to that appointment and the wait times.

When asked if she has any other evidence that the medical community in Canada is not being cautious enough when it comes to gender-affirming care for minors, she said "no."

Cantor wasn't on the media call Thursday but the government says it plans to hold another availability with him on the topic next week.

In the year-end interview, Higgs said what's happening in Europe is "most compelling."

"Gender dysphoria is real," Higgs said. "It's the science of what we're doing with our children that is changing."

The changes to gender-affirming care recommendations in some countries in Europe have been cited by several states in their effort to ban or outlaw gender-affirming care for minors. However, none of the countries in Europe have actually banned care.

Sweden recommended that doctors exercise caution and make sure the patient is actually experiencing gender dysphoria before prescribing hormones or puberty blockers.

England previously had one clinic that specialized gender-affirming care for children. A review recommended that the system be restructured so that gender-affirming care is provided in more places across the country as part of the national health service.

"The new regional centres should have an appropriate multi-professional workforce to enable them to manage the holistic needs of this population, as well as the ability to provide essential related services," the recommendation report said.

Getting gender-affirming care a long process, experts say

Bauer said her 2021 study surveyed 174 patients and their parents from 2017 to 2019 at their first appointment with a hormone specialist and follows them over the following years. She said none of the patients were in New Brunswick because the province doesn't have a children's hospital with an endocrinology clinic or a specialized gender clinic.

Bauer said her study shows even though the patients waited an average of nine months to get to the first specialist appointment, about 40 per cent of them still did not go ahead with the treatment right away.

"It shows what looks like a very logical process of decision-making on the part of adolescents, their parents and physicians," she said.

She said some of the patients who didn't get prescriptions at that appointment were turned down because the doctor needed them to get further psychological testing. Others decided hormones were not right for them, Bauer said.

Some parents also needed more time or needed to discuss things with the other parent, she said.

Dr. Marc Nicholson, a New Brunswick pediatrician who sees transgender kids, previously told CBC that before a child or teenager gets a consultation with his office, they will first have to see a psychologist.

The medical standards of practice followed by Canadian providers requires young people to have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria before receiving hormones, Bauer and Nicholson said.

Gender dysphoria is a state of distress caused when a person's gender identity doesn't match their biological sex. In order to give that diagnosis, a health-care professional has to be convinced that the gender distress has been persistent and consistent over time, Nicholson has said.

P.E.I. wind turbines at 'high risk of imminent failure,' consultant warned province in 2022


CBC
Fri, January 5, 2024

Two blades broke off turbine T-09 at P.E.I.'s Hermanville wind farm during high winds in December. A year and a half earlier, a consultant had warned that some of the turbines were at 'high risk of imminent failure' and could pose a safety hazard. (Shane Hennessey/CBC - image credit)

A consultant hired in 2022 to assess production problems at a wind farm owned by the P.E.I. government found severe damage, with turbine units possibly constituting a safety hazard and turbine blades at "high risk of imminent failure."

Last month, high winds ripped two 56-metre blades off one of the turbines at the facility in Hermanville, near the northeastern tip of Prince Edward Island. For comparison, the province's tallest building is only 39 metres tall; it's the 10-storey Holman Grand Hotel in Charlottetown.

A provincial spokesperson said the turbine was not operational at the time, and was scheduled for repairs in April 2024. The province also said it expected insurance would pay for the broken blades.

It was just the latest setback at a wind farm that has seen a steep decline in energy production and is now losing the P.E.I. government money.

The wind farm began operation in 2014, built at a taxpayer cost of $60 million.

Electricity generation had fallen to 10 per cent of design capacity by July 2023, with only four of 10 turbines operational and some of those running at reduced capacity because officials were concerned about damage.

Images from two of the damage reports DNV filed regarding blades on turbine T-09 at the Hermanville, P.E.I. wind farm. On the left is an image showing holes where blade stud bolts should be. On the right is evidence of a lightning strike. The company identified problems with the lightning protection system in that turbine model.

Images from two of the damage reports DNV filed regarding blades on turbine T-09 at the Hermanville, P.E.I. wind farm. On the left is an image showing holes where blade stud bolts should be. On the right is evidence of a lightning strike. The company identified problems with the lightning protection system in that turbine model. (DNV/P.E.I. Energy Corporation)

In August, Energy Minister Steven Myers said the province would pay for repairs expected to cost $10 million, though it was planning to try to recoup those costs from Nordex, the company with the contract to maintain the turbines.

CBC News has obtained two consulting reports on Hermanville after filing an access to information request with the P.E.I. Energy Corporation, a provincial Crown agency.

READ THE REPORTS: Both documents are embedded at the bottom of this story.

A report delivered to the corporation in June 2022 from Montreal-based DNV Canada cited turbine blades with a "severe degree of damage or defect such that there is a high risk of imminent failure."

DNV also concluded some of the turbines themselves had failed or missing components, representing "a critical impact to the operation of the turbine and/or a safety hazard."

Another view of T-09 with one of its broken blades still dangling from the turbine, at right of the shaft. Each blade measures almost 60 metres — more than half the length of a CFL football field.

Another image of T-09 with one of its broken blades still dangling from the turbine tower. Each blade measures more than 56 metres in length — more than half the length of a CFL football field. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)

The consultant wrote that those turbines or components would have to be "taken out of service to prevent further damage. Immediate action to repair or replace is required before returning the component back to service."

DNV catalogued multiple problems with the turbines, including cracked blades and bearings and damage to the systems meant to protect the turbines from lightning strikes.

Broken studs could lead to 'catastrophic failure'

The company also observed broken blade studs, used to hold turbine blades in position, and warned that "in a worst-case scenario, should multiple blade studs fail nearly simultaneously, stud failures may progress and separation of the blade from the turbine could occur."

DNV said there had been more than 200 blade stud failures reported at Hermanville as of June 2022.

During its inspection in April 2022, the company noted broken blade studs on three turbines at Hermanville, including T-09, the turbine that lost two blades in December 2023.

DNV said the number of broken blade bolts should normally be "near-zero," and any breaks discovered should be replaced as soon as possible. "Otherwise the loads are transferred to adjacent bolts which can then in turn fail. A cascading effect of many broken bolts could lead to a catastrophic failure of the blade."

The company suggested the province conduct ultrasonic testing to search for blades at risk of failure.

'Potential root cause' of damage

The province told CBC News that broken blade bolts were not responsible for the two blades severed in December, however.

In a statement, the province said T-09 was taken out of operation in August 2022 after a pitch ram failed. That's the mechanism that allows the blade to be angled on its axis to adjust the amount of wind it catches.

"Early indications point to this as a potential root cause for the damage in December 2023, but further analysis will be required. A full root-cause analysis will be completed on T-09 in the coming weeks," the province said in its statement.

PEI Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Steven Myers

P.E.I. Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Steven Myers, shown in the provincial legislature, has said the government will pay for $10 million in repairs at Hermanville and try to recoup that money from the company contracted to maintain the turbines. (Legislative Assembly of P.E.I.)

"Once structural integrity has been determined, Nordex/Acciona will be providing options for how to proceed with this turbine."

The province also noted that in the spring of 2022, damage to T-09 was ranked at a severity level of three out of four, which according to DNV "presents a potential impact to the operation of the turbine and/or safety" and requires that the damage be monitored until repairs can be scheduled "in [the] short term."

Damage to other turbines had been flagged as more urgent, though, so those turbines were scheduled for earlier repairs, the province said.

No one from the P.E.I. Energy Corporation was made available in response to CBC's request for an interview.

Technical issues with turbine model

When Hermanville opened in 2014, the province said it was the first commercial deployment in North America of the Acciona AW 116/3000 model of wind turbine.

In its report from 2022, DNV noted that a number of technical issues had surfaced with that turbine design, particularly with earlier models, including broken blade studs, cracked blade bearings, and a shearing of the laminate covering from the turbine blade.

DNV said it does not consider the turbine to be a proven model in the North American region, though it said the design has "a significant track record." At the time of its report, the consultant said the P.E.I. turbines should achieve the industry-standard operating life of 20 years.

CBC reached out to Nordex, the company that merged with Acciona in 2016, but did not receive a response.

Company expected province to pay for fixes

Another consultant hired by the province in 2023 described a plan to retrofit all the non-operational turbines at Hermanville that summer. The project seems to have been put on hold "when it became clear that [Nordex] was prepared to carry out these repairs at the expense of the [P.E.I. Energy] Corporation."

The consultant, Frontier Power Systems, highlighted the urgency of the repairs required, also attributing many of the problems to "manufacturing flaws" and "major deficiencies" in the design and construction of the turbines themselves.

The tower for each turbine stands 92 metres tall. Each blade is just over 56 metres long.

The tower for each turbine stands 92 metres tall. Each blade is just over 56 metres long. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)

Dated February 28 of last year, Frontier's report suggested necessary repairs could be completed over the summer, with the wind farm "largely renewed by the fall of 2023."

But that timeline has now been pushed back by at least a year.

In the meantime, the P.E.I. Energy Corporation has seen its revenues drop to their lowest level since Hermanville came online in 2014, with annual electricity production at the site dropping to a third of what it was then. For the first time, the Hermanville wind farm operated at a financial loss in fiscal year 2022-23.

Warning of 'legal quagmire' over costs

Nordex is under contract to maintain the turbines until 2029, and that contract includes a stipulation that the company pay P.E.I. when production from the turbines drops.

But there are caps on those payments, which have almost been reached.

The Frontier report hinted at a legal battle between the provincial Crown corporation and Nordex over the cost of repairs that "will likely end in a legal quagmire that we cannot afford to have fully resolved before we take steps to return the non-operating turbines to service."

The Frontier report also emphasized the importance of Hermanville, built to produce 30 megawatts of clean energy, as P.E.I. continues to electrify and pursue the most aggressive decarbonization timeline in Canada.

"The reliable operation of this wind plant is a critical part of the province's electricity supply," the report states. "With current generation limitations, ensuring this facility remains productive may be more important than simple financial optimization."

Foreman cleared of criminal negligence in Dartmouth construction site death 
BLAMING THE VICTIM; USING DRUGS

CBC
Fri, January 5, 2024 

A Kent Building Supplies location was under construction at 680 Cutler Ave. in Dartmouth, N.S., at the time Brandon Alcorn was fatally injured in 2018. (Marina von Stackelberg/CBC - image credit)

A Nova Scotia judge has found a foreman who was charged with criminal negligence related to the death of a 22-year-old labourer at a Dartmouth, N.S., construction site not guilty.

Jeff Gooch was a supervisor and foreman for Insulated Panel Structures. He was working at the Dartmouth Crossing construction site in March 2018 when Brandon Alcorn fell from the Kent Building Supplies store that was under construction. Alcorn died from his injuries and Gooch was charged in December 2019.

In his ruling released on Thursday, Jan. 4, Justice D. Timothy Gabriel said Alcorn was likely intoxicated when he fell more than five metres to the ground. Alcorn was wearing a harness but it was not anchored to the roof, Crown prosecutor Alex Keaveny said.

At trial, toxicologist Jennifer Swatek testified both delta-carboxy THC and delta-9 THC — the latter she described as a psychoactive material deposited in the body after the ingestion of cannabis — were found in the samples of Alcorn's blood taken before his death.

"At page 2 of the report, she describes it as the active ingredient found in marijuana. She describes the drug as a 'DEA schedule one hallucinogen. Pharmacologically, it has depressant and reality distorting effects," Gabriel noted in his ruling.

Dr. Neal Sutton, who Gabriel described as a medical consultant to a number of large employers, told court that in his view, there is no acceptable level of delta-9 THC in a worker's blood when performing tasks like working from heights.

Delta-9 THC found in blood

Gabriel noted Sutton said the drug has impairing effects that can "negatively impact the user's balance, field of vision, and awareness of their surroundings."

"I accept Dr. Sutton's conclusion that it is more likely than not that Mr. Alcorn was intoxicated when he arrived for work on the morning of March 13, 2018," Gabriel said in his ruling.

"Even if I had concluded that failing to ensure that each member of the IPS crew was tied off while performing their job tasks on that date was 'an act or omission that was the accused's legal duty to do,' I would have been left in significant doubt that such was the cause of Mr. Alcorn's unfortunate and tragic death."

One of Alcorn's favourite hobbies was working out at the gym.

Brandon Alcorn, 22, died on March 13, 2018, after he fell while working at the construction site for the Kent Building Supplies store in Dartmouth Crossing. (Janice Way)

Gabriel goes on to say that the fact Alcorn showed up to work intoxicated "appears to have been an intervening event."

"I conclude that it is likely that his intoxication caused him to depart significantly from the route which his actual work duties ought to have required, a route to which he appeared to have no difficulty adhering the day prior," Gabriel wrote.

"Mr. Alcorn's conduct was so grossly inappropriate as to have been virtually unforeseeable on the accused's (or anyone else's) part. It would have had the effect of severing the cause of the death from Mr. Gooch's act or omission (if I had concluded that there was one)."

What happened leading up to the fall

Alcorn fell off the roof 10 minutes after arriving at work. He had been measuring and cutting lengths of blueskin — a weatherproofing membrane — for the structure for his two co-workers, including Gooch. Gabriel said Alcorn was rolling out another length of blueskin while walking backward and "ultimately walked backward off of the far right edge of the canopy."

Dana Munroe, who was also part of the crew, testified that Alcorn had been doing exactly the same job the day before and never noticed him walking back any further than was necessary.

Scott Andrews, the site's superintendent, testified he had not observed any safety infractions committed by the IPS crew. Andrews works for Maxim Construction and part of his job entailed ensuring the company's safety requirements were being followed.

Warning lines

"Moreover, he did not identify any unsafe work procedures or job hazard analyses submitted by Mr. Gooch on behalf of IPS, to that point, that were inconsistent with safe practices in the industry," Gabriel noted.

The issue of fall protection came up in Gabriel's ruling. Barry Oxner, who runs Total Fall Protection in Dartmouth and consults on worksite safety, offered an opinion on the evidence in this case. He said the implementation of fall protection measures and the use of fall-protection equipment is a legislative requirement when working at a site over three metres in height. Alcorn had been on a canopy about five metres above the ground.

In the ruling, Gabriel noted Oxner suggested bump lines or warning lines could be helpful. They're intended to prevent workers from getting too close to the edge, but Oxner said in court that bump warning lines are not permitted in Nova Scotia.

Instead, Nova Scotia's Occupational Health and Safety Act says guardrails must be installed on each working level of a project as work progresses, if there is a risk of falling at a doorway or the opening of a building floor, roof, walls or shaft.

While Alcorn was provided with a harness, a shock-absorbing lanyard and an anchor for fall protection, Oxner questioned whether some of the equipment had been used in a previous fall because it was damaged. Under cross examination, Oxner said the harness could have been damaged when Alcorn fell.

But Gabriel "did not place a great deal of weight on [Oxner's] evidence," calling him "argumentative and evasive," and noted "he really had no idea whether or not the equipment was satisfactory at the time Mr. Alcorn put it on."

Keaveny said the Crown is reviewing the judge's decision carefully and hasn't yet decided if it will appeal.

Numerous OHS charges

Gooch and his employer, Insulated Panel Structures, are still facing numerous Occupational Health and Safety Act charges, which were on hold pending the conclusion of the criminal charge.

IPS is charged with failing to ensure an employee had valid fall protection training, failing to establish a written fall-protection safe-work procedure and four counts of failing to ensure appropriate fall protection was used where there was a risk of falling from a work area.

Gooch is charged with four counts of failing to take reasonable precaution to protect health and safety in the workplace, failing to ensure he, as foreman, had up-to-date fall protection training and knowingly furnishing an officer with false information.

The case is scheduled in Dartmouth provincial court on Feb. 5.

The first legal Vancouver pot shops opened 5 years ago. Some owners say business isn't booming


CBC
Thu, January 4, 2024 

Cannabis products are pictured at Sunrise Cannabis store in Vancouver, B.C., on Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (Justine Boulin/CBC - image credit)

When Mike Babins opened his legal cannabis shop on Jan. 5, 2019, he had a vision of where he'd be in five years — even if it was admittedly pie in the sky.

"I kind of thought I'd be on my private island in the Caribbean with people feeding me grapes, but that was a bit of a pipe dream," he told CBC News from his Evergreen Cannabis shop in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood.

Evergreen Cannabis was one of Vancouver's first two legal pot shops to open that day. There was a lineup around the block and no shortage of enthusiasm from customers.

"It was the first time we had to get a velvet rope to hold the crowd back, and I felt the significance of the velvet rope as a big deal to me," he recalled.

But times have changed. Many cannabis shops in B.C. have come and gone throughout the course of the first five years of legalization. Owners like Babins say competition is fierce, with many shops fighting over market share.

Many private retailers complain they're being undercut by government-operated B.C. Cannabis Stores (BCCS), which offer razor-thin, unsustainable margins.

A 15-per-cent wholesale markup on cannabis products charged to retailers by B.C.'s Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch (LCRB) continues to eat away at profit margins.

"Five years is tough to do that in any business — especially this one," said Babins. "It's been ups and downs, ups and downs, lots and lots of work, and lots of people gunning for us competition-wise.

"But we keep on going on."

Mike Babins says competition has been fierce in the Kitsilano neighbourhood, where he owns and operates Evergreen Cannabis. 

(Gian-Paolo Mendoza/CBC)

Mounting markups

Babins says the days when he was one of the only shows in town are long gone. There are 83 licensed cannabis shops in Vancouver, and about a dozen in the Kitsilano area.

"There are more private stores, and there are ones closer to us, and they all happen to be chains with deep pockets and deals with their producers to have really good pricing, and we don't make deals like that," he said. "So we just have to do the best we can. So we keep our prices low, but it also means our markup is low."

Babins says what's helped his store stand out is the customer experience. He says he focuses on offering products from craft producers.

He often order products through the province's farm-gate program, which allows retail stores to receive deliveries directly from licensed small-scale farms rather than the province's wholesale warehouse. He says it ensures fresher cannabis.

He says even though products are delivered directly from the farm, he still has to pay the 15 per cent markup to LCRB, which significantly cuts into profits.

"They aren't even involved yet we still have to pay them," Babins said.

He says he'd like to see markups removed, or even reduced, for direct deliveries.

Ehren Richardson opened Sunrise Cannabis in 2021, not far from a B.C. Cannabis Store. (Gian-Paolo Mendoza/CBC)

Ehren Richardson, co-owner of Sunrise Cannabis, agrees.

"It's been largely a failed policy because there's been no financial incentive to take it on," said Richardson. "We pay the same ... even though we're not using their warehouse, their trucks, their personnel, their admin."

Competition with provincial retailers

Richardson opened his shop on Kingsway in Vancouver in 2021. Shortly after, a B.C. Cannabis Store opened up the road, and he said he instantly began to lose business.

"They've got about four times the square footage. They're able to display a lot more product, and their prices, when they opened, undercut basically every independent retailer in the area," he said.

"They had prices that were just not sustainable. Obviously it was a strategy to capture market share, and since then they've had to increase prices because they weren't making money."

In a statement, the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General said provincial cannabis stores are often required to price down products that have experienced poor sales "to avoid them becoming aged and to mitigate the financial risk of not selling through stock."

The ministry also said it's currently exploring potential adjustments to its direct delivery program, including possible changes to the 15 per cent charge on direct delivered cannabis products.

Interior of BC Cannabis Shop after legalization, products and menu on display. 

(Chris Corday/CBC)

Municipalities waiting for tax share

Questions also remain over the federal excise tax on cannabis.

As of 2024, the province said it has received about $250 million in federal excise duty payments.

Despite federal expectations for the tax revenue to be shared with local governments, municipalities have yet to receive a dime from the province.

The Union of B.C. Municipalities previously called for a 50-50 split, estimating that the legalization of cannabis and the opening of dispensaries would cost local governments $11.5 million per year in incremental costs.

Vancouver City Councillor Pete Frey says municipalities are growing frustrated by the lack of excise tax revenue sharing from the province.
. (Gian-Paolo Mendoza/CBC)

A Vancouver city councillor says municipalities are still waiting on a plan from the province, but points to other jurisdictions like Colorado — where excise tax is used to fund public schools — as a potential model.

"Vancouver's a very cannabis-friendly town, it has been for years," Coun. Pete Fry said. "So it stands to reason there's probably a lot of money that's been left on the table that we're obliged to."

The ministry said while the province does not directly share excise tax revenue with local governments, the dollars have gone into B.C.'s Consolidated Revenue Fund that helps finance public services like health care, education and child care.

The ministry said the fund paid out $2.7 billion in 2023 to local governments, compared to $1.1 billion in 2018 — the year cannabis was legalized.

Provincial survey finds apartments have become pricier, scarcer in rural Alberta

NDP Calls for rent controls

CBC
Fri, January 5, 2024 

Westlock's vacancy rate for apartment units decreased more than any other rural community surveyed by the Alberta government last year. (Submitted by Carrie Meikle - image credit)

John Wilde thought finding an apartment in Westlock would be easy.

The population of the small town about 90 kilometres north of Edmonton has been decreasing for years, so Wilde, who was looking to move there from Leduc, south of Edmonton, in September for a job, figured there would be lots of affordable options.

But he struggled to find somewhere to live, even after visiting all the apartment buildings in town.

"I needed something small, but there was a big gap between big, expensive places and finding a reasonable, small place," he said.

After living on a ranch for a few months, Wilde eventually found a basement suite to rent through a friend of a friend last month.

His struggles represent a changing rental landscape across the province.

Apartment rentals in rural Alberta have become more expensive and less plentiful, according to a provincial government survey that included hundreds of rental buildings in dozens of small communities.

The survey, which is conducted annually, found the overall vacancy rate decreased from 11.5 per cent in 2022 to 5.4 per cent last year.

Westlock's vacancy rate decreased the most, moving from 23.6 per cent in 2022 to 4 per cent in 2023.

The survey doesn't capture all rural rental units but the government describes it as the only official and unbiased rental housing cost and vacancy information source for rural Alberta.

Only non-subsidized rental buildings with four or more units are included in the survey, meaning basement suites and other types of rentals are not captured.

Surveyed buildings are in communities with populations between 1,000 and 10,000 and at least 30 rental units. The communities must also not already be included in the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's annual rental market survey.

The survey looked at rentals in the towns of Banff and Jasper, but didn't include them in average rental costs and vacancy rate calculations because they are atypical tourist towns.

No vacancy in 22 towns

According to the survey, which was conducted in the summer, the average price of a bachelor apartment in 2023 was $746 — an increase of nearly 15 per cent since the previous year.

Average rental rates for one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units also increased.

Vacancy rates decreased in 46 communities, increased in seven and remained the same in 10.

The number of communities with no vacancy at all doubled from 11 to 22.

The report shows that average rural rentals are more affordable than in cities, where rents have also soared.

Province-wide, rent cost nearly 10 per cent more in October 2023, compared to October 2022, according to data from Statistics Canada.

Westlock eyes development incentives

Chief administrative officer Simone Wiley said Westlock's shortage of rental units has been frustrating local businesses, whose employees need accommodation.

She attributed Westlock's declining vacancy rate to the surge of people moving to Alberta.

Last year, the town signed on to a provincial immigration program that tries to help small towns recruit newcomers.

"That has been very successful in our community in the last six months and obviously is contributing to the lower amount of rental units available," she said.

The town of Westlock may introduce development incentives this year to increase its housing supply.

The town of Westlock may introduce development incentives this year to increase its housing supply. (Submitted by Carrie Meikle)

Wiley said the town has applied to the federal government's Housing Accelerator Fund, which is intended to support the development of affordable housing.

The town is also considering per-unit cash incentives for new developments.

"We can't attract people to our community if there's nowhere for them to live," Wiley said.

Calls for rent control

Kabir Shahani, capital funding manager at the non-profit Rural Development Network, said the Alberta government's survey results are consistent with what he has been hearing from residents in rural Alberta.

He said more housing supply is needed, but it's not enough.

"There should be some kind of provincial oversight on rent increases," he said.

The NDP Opposition has proposed a four-year cap on rent increases, but UCP cabinet ministers have criticized rent control, saying it could increase demand and stifle the creation of new housing.

Report says Nova Scotians spend one-third of grocery money on local food


CBC
Fri, January 5, 2024 

In surveys done last year, Nova Scotians say they spent from 27 per cent to 34 per cent of their grocery money on local food. (Matthew Howard/CBC - image credit)

Research commissioned by the province says Nova Scotians are spending about one-third of their grocery budgets on food that is produced locally.

Dalhousie University professor Sylvain Charlebois led the study with a goal of setting a baseline figure for local food consumption.

"Nobody really knew and nobody had any data. So … we had to develop a methodology to assess exactly how localized the Nova Scotian diet actually is," Charlebois said in an interview.

Charlebois and his fellow researchers surveyed over 500 Nova Scotians, asking how much of their food spending was local, excluding restaurant and takeout food.

The Pugwash Farmers’ Market has over 40 farmers, artisans, and bakers who gather weekly and is part of the Farmers Markets of Nova Scotia cooperative. Researchers say consumer demand is the main driver of local food capacity. 

(Pugwash Farmers' Market)

The survey was done three times last year, in January, April and October, with results ranging from 27 per cent to 34 per cent.

The survey done in April was included in a research paper published in a peer-reviewed journal called Foods.

Consumers overestimate local consumption

In that paper, Charlebois notes that the findings "predominantly portray the consumer's perspective as opposed to reflecting actual consumption patterns.

"

Food distribution and policy expert Sylvain Charlebois says Canadians' nutritional decisions are affected by the food guide. Food distribution and policy expert Sylvain Charlebois led the study into local food consumption in Nova Scotia. He says it could take decades to push local food consumption to a 'desirable place.'

 (David Laughlin/CBC)

In an interview, Charlebois said bias in consumer perspectives was a big challenge. He said not everyone defines local the same way, and people tend to overestimate how much local food they consume because of fallible memories and the social desirability of local products, Charlebois said.

He said he selected the most conservative estimate in his analysis of the data because of those factors.

Nova Scotia Agriculture Minister Greg Morrow said he was pleased with the results, which surpass a previous government goal of reaching 20 per cent local food consumption by 2030.

"We want Nova Scotians to choose local when they're buying their food. It benefits the economy, it benefits our agricultural community and benefits the environment as well," he said in an interview.

Greg Morrow is Nova Scotia's agriculture minister. He says he's encouraged by results of a survey that reported Nova Scotians spend about 30 per cent of their grocery budgets on local food. (Robert Short/CBC)

Morrow said he wants to encourage Nova Scotians to buy more locally, but he did not have a specific target.

"We're always looking at ways to extend seasons, enhance local food production. So I think it's just to continue the good work that we've done over the last two and a half years and to see how high we can get that number," he said.

Could take decades to reach ideal

Charlebois said it would be ideal for Nova Scotia to reach 50 per cent local food consumption. He said consumer demand is the main driver, and if people ask for more local products from retailers, the agriculture industry's capacity will grow to accommodate demand.

But he cautioned that change will not happen quickly.

"I think we have a long way to go before we get to a desirable place as a province. And when I say a long way to go, I mean decades."

Charlebois said he was keen on the province's idea of a loyalty program for local products, called Nova Scotia Loyal, which Tim Houston's government proposed during the 2021 election campaign. That program is still in development.