WestJet CEO apologizes for accessibility failures, defends airline's record

Christopher Reynolds , The Canadian Press

WestJet chief executive Alexis von Hoensbroech apologized for incidents where the airline failed to accommodate people living with disabilities, saying he hopes to improve travel accessibility.

“To our guests who didn’t have a good travel experience with us, we are sincerely sorry, and we are committed in doing better," von Honesbroech said during a House of Commons transport committee hearing on accessible transportation on Thursday.

More than 99.9 per cent of the carrier's 260,000-plus customers who required support last year — roughly 700 each day, the vast majority of whom used wheelchairs or mobility aids — had a good experience, he said.

"Every case that goes wrong is one too many," the CEO said.

The appearance followed a committee session last week that saw lawmakers take Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau to task over "shocking" failures around accessibility.

Rousseau acknowledged mistakes, and pointed to an expedited accessibility scheme announced in November along with new measures to improve the travel experience for hundreds of thousands of passengers living with a disability.

Several incidents have surfaced at Canadian airlines over the past year.

In August, a B.C. man with spastic cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off of an Air Canada plane in Las Vegas. Last fall, former Paralympian Sarah Morris-Probert hauled herself up WestJet aircraft stairs rather than being able to board using her wheelchair.

"Everyone’s always very sorry and very committed to doing better whenever these things happen, but these high-profile incidents continue to plague Canadian airlines," Conservative MP Mark Strahl told von Hoensbroech.

“Thoughts and prayers are no longer acceptable."

Von Hoensbroech highlighted steps WestJet is taking to boost accessibility. These include a process to confirm to customers that mobility aids were loaded into the cargo hold and procedures to properly store those devices on board across its whole network. Both measures are set for rollout "very soon," he said.

Advocates insist tougher rules and enforcement are needed to reduce accessibility barriers.

“As a blind passenger, I dread entering Canadian airspace, because I never know how good or bad will be my treatment," said David Lepofsky, a lawyer who chairs the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance, in a Wednesday news release that called for stricter regulations and a crackdown by regulators.

“Month after month, the media has reported on inexcusable and recurring incidents where an airline loses or destroys a passenger’s wheelchair, leaves a passenger with disabilities to crawl off an airplane, or strands a passenger with disabilities for hours in a Canadian airport without needed assistance.”

Current regulations codify important principles but fail to spell out financial consequences for breaches, said Gabor Lukacs, president of the Air Passenger Rights advocacy group.

"The culprit is the perennial problem of inadequate enforcement and inadequate legislation," he told the committee.

Penalties against large airlines over disabilities violations occasionally top $100,000. "However, when the media is not paying attention, the fines are insignificant," Lukacs said.

Last week, the Canadian Transportation Agency penalized Air Transat to the tune of $11,000 after it failed to quickly provide a suitable replacement for a passenger's mobility aid that had been lost on arrival in Venice. Airline owner Transat A.T. Inc. took in $3 billion in revenue last year.

The agency’s enforcement team tracks complaints to scan for a pattern of contraventions, and looks to impose fines when it sees a problem as “systemic,” said Tom Oommen, the agency’s director general of analysis and outreach, in an interview last month.

Lukacs also called for a government mandate to track and post statistics on disability-related complaints and mishandled mobility aids, as the U.S. Department of Transportation does.

WestJet received and investigated about 200 complaints related to accessibility last year, some involving damage to mobility aids — "quite small numbers relative to the very large amount of passengers with (disabilities) that we carry," said Todd Peterson, the airline's head of regulatory affairs.

NDP MP Taylor Bachrach cited WestJet incidents where mobility aids were left behind, a passenger was picked up, dropped and injured because staff weren't comfortable with the lift device, and the wheelchair rim of a four-year-old with spina bifida was damaged, rendering her immobile for more than a month.

“When the committee hears things like the number of accessibility complaints is a very small fraction of the total number of people with disabilities transported, I'll just say it: it sounds like minimizing the problem or trying to rationalize it," Bachrach said.

Von Hoensbroech took pains to stress the complex, integrated nature of air travel.

In the case of the ex-Paralympian, airport congestion in Los Cabos, Mexico, meant that the plane was forced to park on the tarmac rather than at the gate, leaving stairs as the only way to board. Crew members had offered to carry Morris-Probert on board in her wheelchair, but the ex-Paralympian considered that option dangerous, von Hoensbroech said.

“There's an approved process on how to do it," he said, but called her experience "humiliating" nonetheless. "I don’t like that either, but it was the next best option."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2024.

Cenovus reports second-highest quarterly production ever, driven by oilsands

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

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Cenovus Energy Inc. is the latest Canadian oilsands company to report surging production levels just in time for the anticipated startup of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

The Calgary-based company said Thursday it saw its second-highest quarterly production ever in the fourth quarter of 2023, with output of 808,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

That compares with 806,900 boe/d in the same period of last year and represents an increase of approximately 12,000 barrels per day from the third quarter of 2023.

The uptick in output was largely due to strong performance from Cenovus' oilsands assets, in particular its Foster Creek site in northern Alberta where new well pads added about 10,000 barrels per day of production relative the third quarter.

Cenovus is also bringing new well pads on at its Christina Lake oilsands site and anticipates continued production growth at its Sunrise oilsands facility as it brings on new well packages over the next two to three years.

In a conference call with analysts, CEO Jon McKenzie said investments in oilsands growth projects are beginning to bear fruit. 

While planned maintenance and turnaround projects will temper oilsands output over the summer, he said 2024 should exceed 2023 in terms of total production. 

"December was probably the second-highest production month that we've ever had as a company," McKenzie said.

"We expect Q4 to be even bigger next year than it was this year, particularly as we bring on more well pads right across the business."

Shares in Cenovus rose seven per cent on Thursday to close at $23.51. 

For the full year 2023, Cenovus' crude oil production from the oilsands averaged 593,400 barrels per day, including 186,300 barrels per day at Foster Creek and 237,400 barrels per day at Christina Lake.

The company's 2024 guidance calls for oilsands production to be in the range of 590,000 to 610,000 barrels per day.

Additional production growth is expected in 2025 and 2026 due to ongoing optimization work at both Foster Creek and Christina Lake.

Cenovus' higher production in its most recent quarter was offset by lower commodity prices, so that the company's fourth-quarter earnings fell to $743 million from $784 million a year earlier.

Revenue for the quarter also declined to $13.13 billion, down from $14.06 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022.

But the company's near-record-setting output is part of an overall industry trend as Canadian oilsands producers ramp up output in preparation for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which is in the final stages of construction and will provide the industry with a long-awaited additional 590,000 barrels per day of export capacity to the West Coast.

The additional pipeline capacity not only gives Canadian oil companies the ability to grow their production, it is also expected to reduce the price discount Canadian producers typically take on their oil in part due to a lack of export capacity.

Cenovus is a major contracted shipper on Trans Mountain, and McKenzie said the company continues to expect the startup of the expansion to take place by the middle of this year — in spite of the latest round of construction-related difficulties that have plagued the project.

Earlier this month, Imperial Oil Ltd. also announced its oilsands production surged in the fourth quarter, with its Kearl oilsands facility achieving all-time record output in the final three months of 2023.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2024.

WORKERS CAPITAL

CPP Investments earned 3.4% in latest quarter, net assets grew to $590.8 billion

BNN Bloomberg

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board says its fund earned a net return of 3.4 per cent in its latest quarter.

CPP Investments chief executive John Graham says strong performance of global equity and fixed income markets during the final months of calendar 2023 contributed to the fund's continued growth.

The fund ended the third quarter of its 2024 financial year with $590.8 billion in net assets, up from $576.1 billion at the end of the previous quarter.

It says strength in public equity, fixed income, credit, private equity, energy and infrastructure assets helped boost results.

The gains were offset in part by foreign exchange losses due to a stronger Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar.

The results for the fund resulted in a 10-year annualized net return of 9.3 per cent.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2024.

 

Aging population will widen labour gap in Canadian agriculture: report

The Canadian Press

A new report says by 2030, Canada's agriculture industry will have a domestic labour gap of more than 100,000 jobs. 

The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council says the forecast represents a 15 per cent increase compared with the number of jobs in 2023 that couldn't be filled by Canadian residents. 

The council says that this growing gap is due in part to Canada's aging population.

More than 30 per cent of the agriculture workforce is expected to retire over the same period. 

The report says temporary foreign workers will play an important role in narrowing the gap, with about four in five of those 100,000 jobs to be filled by a foreign worker. 

However, it says that even with a projected increase in temporary foreign workers by 2030, 22,000 positions will still remain vacant. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2024.

General Motors, Panasonic sign investment deals with Canadian graphite producer

Mathieu Dion, Bloomberg News

Feb 15, 2024

General Motors Co. and Panasonic Holdings Corp. have signed agreements to buy electric-vehicle battery materials from Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. and will invest in the Canadian miner to help it produce high-quality graphite in North America.

GM and Panasonic have each committed to purchase 18,000 metric tonnes of active anode material annually over a period of six to seven years, Nouveau Monde Graphite said in a statement Thursday.

The mining company has a project in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Quebec, about 100 miles north of Montreal, and plans to build a graphite concentrator nearby. A refining facility for the production of active anode material, which accounts for about half of an electric vehicle battery, will also be built in Becancour, Quebec, where GM and Ford Motor Co. are already constructing EV battery-component plants.

The cost to build the entire operation is estimated at about US$1.2 billion, and Nouveau Monde Graphite plans to raise $725 million in debt and $475 million in equity. GM and Panasonic are each injecting $25 million into the company now.

The two companies and potential co-investors may participate in future funding worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the statement.

“We needed players ready to commit over a 10-year period, so three years of construction and seven years of supply in large quantities,” Nouveau Monde Chief Executive Officer Eric Desaulniers said in an interview. “We will now be able to set up a financial structure, which could not have happened otherwise. It is really the most important milestone for us to continue our progress.”

Shares of Nouveau Monde rose as much as 36 per cent in early trading and were up 18 per cent at C$3.28 at 10:45 a.m. in Toronto.

The firm is also backed by the financial arm of the Quebec government, London-based private equity shop Pallinghurst Resources LLP and Japan’s Mitsui & Co.

Graphite is a key material used to make the anode, the negative electrode of EV batteries, while the cathode is the positive electrode which includes lithium. Almost no battery-grade graphite is produced in North America, and the battery supply chain relies heavily on China, which has at least 90 per cent of the global natural graphite anode capacity, according to BloombergNEF.

Canadian graphite miner NMG scores deals

 with GM, Panasonic

Cecilia Jamasmie | February 15, 2024 | 

Computer rendition of the Matawinie graphite mine, NMG’s flagship operation. (Image courtesy of Nouveau Monde Graphite.)

Nouveau Monde Graphite (TSX-V: NOU) (NYSE: NMG) inked on Thursday multi-year offtake agreements with General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Panasonic Holdings, with both companies also vowing to invest in the Canadian miner to help it produce high-quality graphite in North America.


GM and Panasonic have each committed to purchase 18,000 tonnes of natural graphite active anode material annually over a period of six to seven years, the Montreal-based miner said. They are also making equity investments of $25 million each in the company.

The two firms and potential co-investors could join future rounds of financing worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Nouveau Monde Graphite (NGM) said in a statement.

NGM aims to raise $1.2 billion to build the whole project, with $725 million coming from debt and $475 million from equity. The miner aims to become North America’s first fully integrated source of natural graphite active anode material, which accounts for about half of an electric vehicle (EV) battery.

To achieve this goal, it is is developing the Matawinie project in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Quebec, about 100 miles north of Montreal, where it also plans to build a graphite concentrator.

NMG will also install a refining facility for the production of active anode material in Becancour, Quebec. This is the same area where GM and Ford Motor Co. are already constructing EV battery-component facilities.

The Matawinie open pit mine is expected to produce 103,000 tonnes of graphite a year over the course of 25 years and is part of a larger strategy to turn Canada into a production centre for lithium ion batteries.

The miner said the investments and agreements are seen as a testament to the company’s bankability and are expected to boost the commercialization of a local and traceable value chain for the EV market in North America.

Map of NMG’s integrated extraction and advanced manufacturing routes to supply Panasonic Energy and GM. (Courtesy of Nouveau Monde Graphite.)

“We had been looking for top-tier EV and battery manufacturers to bolster our commercial vision [of becoming a leader in the market],” NMG’s founder, president and chief executive, Eric Desaulniers, said in a statement. “Thanks to visionary customers and investors, we are now moving toward establishing a fully local and traceable value chain.”

NMG is also backed by the Quebec government’s financial arm, London-based private equity shop Pallinghurst Resources LLP and Japan’s Mitsui & Co.

The West is looking for sources of graphite outside China, the world’s top producer and exporter, which also refines more than 90% of the world’s graphite into the material that is used in virtually all EV battery anodes.

The quest to bring graphite projects to fruition has become more urgent in the past months, as China announced in October it will require export permits for some graphite products.

NMG said its recent acquisition of the Uatnan project for its Phase-3 expansion also provides a supply opportunity for Western EV and battery manufacturers looking to secure and grow active anode material volumes as their production increases.

 

Immigration surge fuels male population boom in Canada

Randy Thanthong-Knight, Bloomberg News

An influx of new immigrants is shifting Canada’s gender ratio, as a higher share of male newcomers helps squeeze the female majority to its smallest margin in decades.

The population of adult men grew 3.4 per cent over the past year, while women rose 2.9 per cent, making the spread between the growth of the two groups the widest in nearly 50 years of records, according to an analysis by Doug Porter, chief economist at Bank of Montreal.

The gap is even larger in the 25-to-44 age group, in which men have seen a 4.8 per cent jump and women a 3.9 per cent increase. There are 141,000 more men than women in this age bracket as of January, compared with a long-run average difference of zero.

“What we’ve seen in the last 10 years is that the growth rate in the male population has steadily been rising faster than the female population in that age group. It seems to be something a little bit more permanent,” Porter said in an interview.

The figures highlight the country’s changing demographic trends due to its liberal immigration policy, which aims to rapidly expand the pool of workers to stave long-term economic decline from an aging populace.

Canada’s population growth accelerated to 3.2 per cent over a one-year period to Oct. 1, faster than any Group of Seven nation, China or India. Almost all of the increase was driven by a surge in international migration, especially among foreign students and temporary workers.

From the late 1970s to around the early 2010s, Canada’s population increasingly skewed female, but the trend has been reversing over the past decade as the male cohort grew faster. In 2022, the gap between men and women was at its narrowest in more than 30 years.

Globally, advanced economies with older populations tend to have more women because they generally live longer. Countries with a higher share of young people, on the other hand, tend to skew male, while government policies can amplify that disparity. Large migrant worker populations have also led to wide sex imbalances in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. 

“The issue is less economic in the short term than it is social and economic in the long term,” said Armine Yalnizyan, a labour economist and a research fellow at the Atkinson Foundation, an equality-focused charitable group.

“Because it means that we are putting the premium on dealing with labour shortages and economic needs and forgetting that we are humans who need to form families, who get sick, who get old.”

Canada's a 'very stable' market for auto investment: Champagne


Ben Cousins, BNN Bloomberg


Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says the world has begun to take notice that Canada has all the right factors when it comes to investment in the auto industry.

Champagne, speaking with BNN Bloomberg from the 2024 Canadian International AutoShow in Toronto, said global players have opened themselves to the opportunities that Canada can provide.

“The world has realized that we have the talent, we have the strong ecosystem, we have the critical minerals and proximity to the assembly line, the resources … and access the market,” Champagne said in the television interview on Friday.

“It makes Canada, in a world where you see a lot of turbulence, very stable, very predictable.”

The federal government has made a big push in recent years to attract investment from electric vehicle manufacturers, offering as much as $15 billion in production subsidies to Stellantis NV, $13 billion for Volkswagen AG and $4.6 billion for battery maker Northvolt AB.

Now, Honda is in talks to expand its footprint in Canada, with a bigger manufacturing facility in Ontario and potentially a new battery plant in Quebec, sources told Bloomberg News last week.

Champagne said these major investments were meant to keep up with the Inflation Reduction Act from the U.S., but are likely to be much smaller and different in the future as the act hits a “cliff” after 2023.

“Now, you're seeing others who want to complement the supply chain and I think what we're saying to the world now is that Canada is about the most complete supply chain,” he said.

Last week, Canada topped BloombergNEF’s Global Lithium-ion battery supply chain ranking, marking the first time China has not held the top spot. The report highlighted Canada’s “consistent manufacturing and production advances” for its spot as the new world leader in battery supply.

Champagne said his phone has been ringing about more investment opportunities since the ranking came out.

“People realize that Canada is the place to be, we own the podium,” he said. “It's a very good base to be able to attract future investment in the country.”

With files from Bloomberg News

House committee tells Loblaw and Walmart to sign grocery code or risk legislation

The Canadian Press

The House of Commons committee studying food prices is urging Loblaw and Walmart to sign on to the voluntary grocery code of conduct or risk having it legislated.

In a letter on Friday, the committee told the chief executives of Loblaw and Walmart Canada that they believe the immediate implementation of the code is an essential step to tackle the issues facing the food industry.

If one or both of the companies decides not to participate, "the Committee will not hesitate to recommend that the federal and provincial governments adopt legislation to make it mandatory," reads the letter signed by committee chair Kody Blois. 

The industry-created code seeks to create a set of rules for fair dealing in the negotiations between suppliers and grocers.

Both Walmart and Loblaw have said they will not sign the code as currently drafted, warning it could lead to higher prices for Canadians. 

Asked for comment on the letter, Loblaw spokeswoman Catherine Thomas said the grocer's goal is to ensure the code is "in the best interest of everyone, particularly consumers."

"We have been and remain committed to working with the industry on a code that is reciprocal, fair and based on good faith dealings across the supply chain," she said in an email.

Walmart did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

MPs on the committee have heard several times from the major grocers over the past year, grilling executives on their profits during inflation, their efforts to stabilize prices and their concerns about — or support for — the grocery code of conduct. 

Proponents of the code say it will help level the playing field for suppliers and smaller grocery companies. They say large grocers like Loblaw and Walmart currently have too much power in these negotiations.

If either one of the two retailers decides not to participate, the committee says in its letter that would undermine the code's powers. 

"We share the view of the overwhelming majority of stakeholders that the Code’s implementation will provide stability to suppliers and retailers, as the implementations of similar codes in Australia and the United Kingdom have demonstrated," the letter reads, adding that Competition Bureau officials have testified that they don't have concerns about the code's provisions. 

"I think we've come a long way, but if it's required to go the regulatory route to create a mandatory environment, so be it," said Michael Graydon, CEO of the Food, Health & Consumer Products of Canada association and chairman of the interim board that's overseeing the code. 

He said without Loblaw and Walmart, the code doesn't work. 

In December, Metro president and CEO Eric La Flèche told the committee that Metro is willing to sign the code but that it won't be effective without all companies on board. 

Though the code is meant to be voluntary, some have called for it to be legislated to ensure all industry players sign on.

Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay said in December that with the code at an impasse, the industry had "failed to meet the moment."

"To say this is disappointing would be an understatement," he said in an emailed statement.

"We’re actively examining all available federal options — that includes legislation," MacAulay said, noting that he and federal Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne had asked provincial and territorial counterparts to do the same. 

MacAulay did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Graydon said "all the value in the letter" resides in the committee's resolve to recommend legislation if the companies don't sign on. 

"We need government to step in ... We have tried very, very hard to get a voluntary program put in place," he said. 

Gary Sands, a member of the code's interim board and senior vice-president at the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, said he is pleased to see the committee take this step. 

If the committee has to recommend that the code be legislated instead of voluntary, Sands said many organizations including the CFIG would support it.

"We want an industry-designed and industry-led code, but if that does not materialize because of companies not supporting, then we'll be calling for governments to enact what industry has already developed." 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2024.

Air Canada warns of higher costs from new agreement with pilots

Mathieu Dion, Bloomberg News

\\ Air Canada shares tumbled after the airline warned it may face higher operating costs in 2024 as it works out a new labour agreement with its more than 5,000 pilots.

The adjusted cost per available seat mile — a key measure of airline expenses — may increase 2.5 per cent to 4.5 per cent in 2024, the Montreal-based carrier said in its earnings report Friday. Shares of Canada’s largest airline fell as much as 7.5 per cent in Toronto trading, the most in a year, and traded at $17.86 at 1:49 p.m.

Chief Financial Officer John Di Bert said on a conference call with analysts that the company is wrestling with cost headwinds from “lagging inflation” as well as regulatory changes and the pending deal with pilots.

“A new agreement with pilots will bring a change in wages and other cost-related items,” he said. “We have factored our best estimates into our guidance with a view of the Canadian market.” Regulatory changes in Canada over customer disruptions and higher airport fees and infrastructure costs might also boost operating costs, Air Canada said.

The Air Line Pilots Association, representing Air Canada’s aviators, is in a mediation process with Air Canada until June 1. The union has previously said it was looking to close the pay gap with large U.S. airlines, which have significantly increased their pilots’ pay in the past year. WestJet Airlines Ltd., Canada’s second-largest carrier, agreed to a contract in May that included a 24 per cent compensation bump over four years.

Pilots in the U.S. are paid 50 per cent to 300 per cent more than pilots in Canada, the union said in a statement responding to Air Canada’s earnings release. 

“Air Canada is one of the most profitable airlines in North America, but has yet to recognize the value of its pilots and compensate them accordingly,” Charlene Hudy, the union’s local head, said in the statement.

Air Canada reported an adjusted loss of 12 Canadian cents per share for the fourth quarter, trailing analysts’ average estimate of profit of 1 cent per share. Operating revenue jumped 11 per cent to $5.18 billion as operated capacity grew.

“Higher capital-expansion commitments this year should mean positive but lower free cash flow year-over-year,” Citigroup Inc. analyst Stephen Trent said in a note to clients. “Although the call included more focus on 2024’s ex-fuel seat-mile costs than we had anticipated, this year’s free cash flow generation still appears to be trending well above the carrier’s average pre-pandemic historical levels.”

 

CN, CPKC file requests for conciliation amid ongoing negotiations with union

The Canadian Press

CN and Canadian Pacific Kansas City both say they have filed requests for conciliation in ongoing collective agreement negotiations with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference. 

CPKC says in a press release that it's been negotiating since September but that it and the union "remain far apart on the issues." 

The Calgary-based company says the negotiations are for two collective agreements representing approximately 3,280 workers across Canada. 

It says the two agreements expired at the end of 2023 but will remain in effect until a new deal is reached. 

Meanwhile, Montreal-based CN says its negotiations are on behalf of about 6,000 workers across the country. 

It says in a release that CN is proposing a modernization of its compensation model to address recent regulatory changes that have challenged crew availability. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2024.