Alberta tops list of people doing 'gig work' as main job: StatsCan

Story by Joel Dryden • 1d • CBC

They're the people who pick you up in an Uber or deliver groceries to your door — and about five per cent of Alberta's workers do so-called "gig work" in their primary job, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.

Gig work, as defined by the report, refers to employment that is characterized by short-term jobs or tasks, and which doesn't guarantee steady work and where the worker "must take specific actions to stay employed."

An estimated 116,700 working Albertans between the ages of 15 and 69 took on jobs that featured those characteristics consistent with the concept of gig work in the final three months of 2022, according to the latest data available.

Ontario saw 4.7 per cent of its workers taking on gig work in their main job, while British Columbia saw 3.6 per cent.

The data comes from Statistics Canada's Labour Force Surveys (LFS) in 2022 and 2023. All estimates are associated with a margin of error.

In Ontario and B.C., legislation has been introduced to respond to the growing share of the workforce who participate in such work.

In B.C., the provincial government introduced proposed new standards for gig workers in November 2023, which would see a minimum wage, tip protection and workers' compensation coverage introduced. However, some critics, including the B.C. Federation of Labour, have said those measures don't go far enough.

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The discussion has been going on even longer in Ontario.

Last month, dozens of ride-share and food-delivery drivers in Toronto staged a strike after a joint report from Ridefair Toronto and the Rideshare Drivers Association of Ontario suggested Toronto drivers could make as little as $6 an hour. Uber has disputed those numbers.

Despite the fact that Alberta appears to be near the top of the list of the Statistics Canada report, neither legislation nor job action has materialized in the province.

In a statement to CBC News, a spokesperson for Matt Jones, Alberta's minister of jobs, economy and trade, said app-based ride-hailing and food-delivery services provide flexible earning opportunities for Albertans and convenience for customers, while contributing to the province's economy.

"Alberta's government continues to review information on how labour laws may affect this sector and to monitor developments in other jurisdictions," the statement reads.

"Occupational health and safety laws already apply to this sector while other labour laws may apply in certain situations."


A spokesperson for Matt Jones, Alberta's minister of jobs, economy and trade, said the province is continuing to review information on how labour laws may affect gig work while monitoring developments in other jurisdictions. (Scott Neufeld/CBC)© Scott Neufeld/CBC

It's possible that what's been taking place demographically may be part of Alberta's position atop the StatsCan list, said Eric Myers, a professor of human resources and finance at Calgary's Mount Royal University.

"Migration numbers show that more people are coming to Alberta," Myers said.

Research around the gig economy and its implications for Alberta workers is a top priority for the anti-poverty group Vibrant Communities Calgary this year, said Meaghon Reid, the group's executive director.

She said that the group thinks that high growth in newcomers may be leading to higher numbers of those doing app-based gig work.

Statistics Canada's December 2023 Labour Force Survey stated that landed immigrants accounted for 57.5 per cent of the 365,000 people who worked for either delivery apps or ride sharing in the 12 months ending in December 2023 across the country.
Nearly 900K did gig work as main job across Canada

Proponents of gig work argue that app-based platforms like Uber and DoorDash provide flexibility, economic opportunities and crucial support systems for businesses, consumers and workers, and that regulation risks destroying what makes the system unique.

"[The answer] is not dismantling the system," wrote Diana Palmerin-Velasco, senior director, future of work, with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, in a recent editorial for the Globe and Mail.

"In adopting standards, we must be cognizant of the potential negative effects on individuals and businesses and find an answer that ensures fairness without compromising the value of gig work or the gig economy."

Across Canada, an average of 871,000 people aged 15 to 69 did gig work as part of their main job in the final three months of 2022, according to StatsCan. An additional 1.5 million people completed gig work at some point during the previous 12 months.

As the practice has become more widespread, more people have tried to work this way, according to Jim Stanford, economist and director of the Vancouver-based Centre for Future Work.


Jim Stanford economist and director of the Vancouver-based Centre for Future Work, says it's taken a while for governments to wrap their arms around the challenges posed by the platform business model. (Anita Lee Photography)© Provided by cbc.ca

But the number of people who are actually able to earn a living doing it is surprisingly small in most cases, he said.

"The amount of time you typically spend waiting, unpaid for the app to give you another job can eat up half or more of your total workday," Stanford said.

"Even if you seemed to make OK money when you had a passenger in the car or a meal to deliver, at the end of the day, especially after you've paid for your expenses, you can be left with just a few dollars."


Stanford said it would be possible to put in place normal minimum wages and other basic protections in platform work.

"The whole idea of rideshare or food delivery can certainly carry on with fairer circumstances. But our governments have been slow figuring out exactly how to do that," he said.

"Elsewhere in the world, it is happening, and we can learn from those experiences. And ultimately, we'll have to replicate those policies in Canada too."

The European Union initially announced draft legislation that would give gig workers employee rights in December 2021. Those regulations finally moved forward last week, and would impact an estimated 28 million workers.

Alberta again refuses to release results of its public pension plan consultations

Story by Matthew Black • EDMONTON JOURNAL

This flyer promoting a potential Alberta pension plan was mailed out by the government in the fall of 2023.© Provided by Edmonton Journal

For a second time in as many months, Alberta’s finance ministry has refused to release what the public has told it regarding a potential Alberta pension plan through responses to government surveys.

Last month, Postmedia filed a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP) seeking complete copies of the pension workbooks introduced by the government near the end of last year.

Last week, dozens of pages of pages of records were returned but with all answers redacted.

In withholding the information, FOIP officials cited section 24(1) of the of the FOIP Act that allows for exemptions or exclusions based on advice, proposals, recommendations, analyses or policy options.

It’s the same section of the act cited last month when Postmedia was denied access to the results of the government’s online survey regarding a possible Alberta pension plan.

Section 24(2) of the act states the exemption in section 24(1) doesn’t apply to statistical survey data.

Postmedia has filed a request for review with the office of the information and privacy commissioner (OIPC) regarding both requests.

‘No discretion to withhold’

There is also precedent to support the release of the information.

In 2008, an applicant successfully appealed to the information and privacy commissioner after being denied a request seeking the results of a public opinion survey on employmentstandards by Alberta Employment and Immigration which also cited section 24(1).

OIPC adjudicator Wade Riordan Raaflaub ruled in favour of the applicant, and specifically cited the policy advice clause in rejecting the department’s arguments that it could retain the records.

“Regardless of whether a statistical survey reveals advice or any other type of information enumerated in section 24(1), a public body has no discretion to withhold the information in reliance on section 24(1),” the ruling states.

He ruled the department had no discretion to withhold the information and ordered it to release the files to the applicant.

More recently, other government departments have not had difficulty providing responses to similar FOIP requests from Postmedia.

In January, the ministry of municipal affairs provided both summary data of multiple choice responses as well as hundreds of individual long-form answers to its survey on adding party affiliation to ballots in municipal elections .

Related
Alberta pension plan flyers being sent back to the premier's office: internal reports

'Pure magical thinking': Albertans filled premier's inbox with emails opposing provincial pension plan

Last April and again in September , the Preston Manning-led Public Health Emergencies Governance Review Panel returned several hundred pages worth of replies to its survey asking for feedback on how the government should approach future public health emergencies.

An unsigned email from communications staff stated, “the panel will be using the input gathered from the telephone town halls and the online survey and workbook to advise executive council. As such, the responses from the engagement activities are considered advice to the government and cabinet.”

It stated 676 workbooks have been received to date and did not address questions about section 24(2) or past survey results that have been returned.

Last August, privacy commissioner Diane McLeod launched what will be a year-long, government-wide investigation into the handling of FOIP requests.

‘Not surprised’

Opposition finance critic Shannon Phillips said the government has shown a pattern of ignoring the results of consultations it does not like.

“The government will go to any lengths to cover up what they’ve heard from Albertans. And, I am not surprised that they have denied this freedom of information request as they denied the previous one.”

There’s been little evidence to date indicating the concept of a provincial pension plan is gaining traction with the public as seen in responses in telephone town halls as well as opinion polling , the Opposition NDP’s town halls , emails to the premier’s office , and internal government reports indicating government flyers were being mailed back to the premier’s office .

Alberta has paused its live pension plan engagement sessions until the office of the chief actuary of Canada provides its estimate of Alberta’s potential asset withdrawal from the CPP, something Premier Danielle Smith has said she expects in the fall.

mblack@postmedia.com

The carbon tax has its critics — do any of them have better ideas?

Story by Aaron Wherry • CBC

What would Canada be doing to reduce its carbon emissions if Pierre Poilievre and the premiers had their way?

The Conservative leader has vowed loudly and often that he would repeal the federal carbon tax — though he has been evasive when asked whether he also would eliminate the federally mandated carbon price for industrial emitters. He is now joined by seven premiers who would like to see the carbon tax either frozen at its current rate or scrapped entirely.

Not to be outdone, Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie now says she wouldn't implement a provincial carbon tax, while New Brunswick Liberal Leader Susan Holt says she opposes increasing the federal tax. That at least suggests federal Liberals can't expect much support from those provinces if Crombie and Holt win power.


Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie says a government led by her would not introduce a carbon tax. (Patrick Morrell/CBC News)© Provided by cbc.ca

It's obviously telling that so many political leaders have calculated they're now better off taking a position against the carbon tax. The sheer extent of that opposition does not bode well for Justin Trudeau's Liberal government.

But opposing the federal carbon tax is also a relatively easy thing to do — particularly when you're not responsible for explaining how Canada will do its part to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

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The varying ambitions of the provinces

Canada currently is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by between 40 and 45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. If all planned policies are implemented, Canada could be in sight of reaching that target.

But that national target obscures significant disparities between provinces.

Important actions at the provincial level in years past — British Columbia's adoption of a carbon tax in 2008, Quebec's move to a cap-and-trade system in 2013, the phaseout of coal-fired electricity generation in Ontario and Alberta — have helped to stabilize emissions in Canada. But an analysis published by the Canadian Climate Institute last fall concluded that "if you add up [all of the provinces and territories'] formal emissions reduction targets, they amount to less than half the national target."

Several provinces — including British Columbia and Quebec — have targets that meet or exceed the federal goal. Five provinces have written their targets into law. But three provinces — Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which together account for 51 per cent of Canada's total emissions — don't have overall targets. After coming to office in 2018, the Ontario government weakened its target and is now aiming to reduce its emissions by just 30 per cent.

Such large differences complicate the argument that the federal government should defer to provincial governments on climate policy. But because climate policy is viewed largely as a federal issue in Canada, provincial politicians can point in Ottawa's direction whenever they want to assign blame or responsibility elsewhere.
The carbon tax in a vacuum

The Liberals may have undermined their own arguments for the carbon tax when they granted an exemption for home heating oil. And if the carbon tax eventually dies, the post-mortem inevitably will focus on whether the policy was fatally wounded by poor communication.

But the debate over the carbon tax continues to be conducted in a vacuum. If the carbon tax disappeared tomorrow, it's not clear what, if anything, would replace it. It's also not clear how that replacement might affect household budgets, the national economy and Canada's greenhouse gas emissions.

While the Liberals tend to focus on reporting by the parliamentary budget officer that indicated the vast majority of households receive more from the rebate than they pay in additional costs created by the carbon tax, the Conservatives prefer to focus on a PBO report that includes the larger economic costs of putting a price on carbon. When those costs are included, the carbon tax appears not to fare as well.


Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux: "Doing nothing would also have costs."

 (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)© Provided by cbc.ca

But the PBO's economic analysis is another casualty of the political vacuum in which the carbon tax is being debated. In addition to not considering the economic benefits of reducing emissions, the PBO does not measure the carbon tax against any other policy.

"The PBO compares costs relative to a world in which Canada simply ignores its emissions — and faces no consequences. Obviously, that world does not exist," the Climate Institute's Dale Beugin and Rick Smith wrote in 2023.

Even the parliamentary budget officer himself has lamented how his office's economic analysis has come to be used.

"Anything we do with respect to addressing or trying to curb climate change will have costs," Yves Giroux said last year. "Doing nothing would also have costs."
Doing something different, or doing less?

As recently as three years ago, Conservatives were running on a platform that said putting a price on emissions was the most cost-effective way to reduce emissions. But Poilievre has returned the party to its previous position of simply opposing the federal carbon tax — while also rejecting the government's clean fuel regulations.

As loudly as Poilievre has opposed the "carbon tax" — technically, a fuel levy that applies to consumers — he has not yet said whether he also would repeal the carbon price that is paid by industry. The Conservative leader has said simply that he would subsidize clean energy and emissions-reducing technology, while making it easier for such projects to get regulatory approval.

But it remains unclear exactly what a Conservative government would do — or not do — to combat climate change, or how it would differ from what the Liberal government is already doing (federal subsidies for carbon capture already exist, for instance).

As a result, it's not possible to know what a Conservative government's climate agenda would cost, or by how much it would reduce Canada's emissions. If Conservatives have a plan that would achieve the same level of emissions reduction at a lower cost, they haven't offered it up yet.

The only thing really standing in the way of a fuller debate on climate policy in Canada is political convenience — opposition parties like to withhold their own proposals until an election has been called.

In the meantime, it's entirely fair to question the merits and practicalities of the Liberal government's carbon-pricing policies. Every policy involves trade-offs and serious study of what the government has done might raise real questions about its implementation and design.

But it's equally fair to ask whether the carbon tax's critics are proposing to do something different to combat climate change — or something less.

Liberals to introduce legislation updating Elections Act, in keeping with NDP pact

OTTAWA — The Liberal government is poised to table legislation today that updates the federal Elections Act — part of its political pact with the NDP.

Details have not been released, but the agreement between the two parties calls for a three-day voting period rather than a single election day.

It also stipulates that people should be able to vote at any polling place within their riding, and calls for streamlining the process for mail-in voting.

Under the agreement, the New Democrats are supporting the minority Liberals on key House of Commons votes in exchange for progress on shared priorities.

The two-year anniversary of the deal, known as a confidence-and-supply agreement, is later this week.

Federal law requires that the next election be held no later than October 2025.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2024.

The Canadian Press

 A Leduc homeless and support centre which locals refer to as "the Hub" has announced plans to close.

© Global News

The timeline has been released for a phased closure of a facility that's been providing services to Leduc's homeless community for the past 15 years.

In a letter to the Leduc mayor and council Tuesday, officials with the Leduc Hub Association detailed plans for the closure of the homeless support centre called "the Hub."

The looming closure comes after the facility announced earlier this year its permit and lease were expiring, and it hadn't found a new location for the Hub. The current space no longer meets the Hub's needs and officials have been searching for a new location for months, but have been unsuccessful.

The Hub's executive director and acting board chair said in its letter to council that the closure comes after the facility was unable to secure a new location aligned with municipal development permit requirements, a condition to renew its grant funding with the province.

Video: City of Leduc passes motion to save ‘the Hub’ homeless shelter, but new home still needed

On March 28, the Hub will end all daytime programming. This means washrooms, showers, food, clothing, laundry services, medical and optometry services, addiction treatment services, phone and internet access, financial assistance services, AHS ID card services and outdoor survival supplies will no longer be offered.

On April 1, the Hub will be open for overnight shelter intake from 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. The doors will be locked at 10:30 p.m. Overnight shelter hours end at 8:30 a.m.

As of May 1, the Hub will be closed to public entirely.

Officials with the Hub say they remain committed to searching for a suitable location over the next few months in hopes of resuming shelter operations in time for the 2024-2025 winter season.

"The negative impact of shelter closure in our city cannot be overstated," read a joint letter from Leduc Hub Association executive director Susan Johnson and acting board chair Jill Mitchell.

"Leduc has a growing need for overnight shelter spaces, crisis diversion and community outreach services, access to transitional and supportive housing and affordable homes.

"The loss is especially regrettable considering city council’s commitment to ensuring uninterrupted shelter services, recent Hub funding from the city’s Family and Community Support Services grant, and conditional pre-approval by the government of Alberta for grant funding of $526,000 for full-year shelter operations."

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The Hub's current location on 47th Street has 10 emergency shelter beds.

Earlier this year, Leduc City Council passed a motion to support the Hub in its community, but details on what that support was remained unclear.

In a statement Wednesday, Leduc Mayor Bob Young acknowledged the gap the closure could create for the city's vulnerable citizens.

"Leduc is fortunate to have a network of dedicated community groups, in addition to Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) and a community navigator who work tirelessly to connect clients to the services they need," Young said.

The letter from Johnson and Mitchell said the Hub's board will continue to work with city council on a number of items to support year-round shelter operations, including facilitating a feasibility and cost study, implementing homelessness task force recommendations and informing the city's new housing strategy.

The Hub executives said city council can further support the Hub by reaching out to the provincial government for support for year-round emergency shelter services in Leduc. They're also asking council to reach out to the federal government to discuss the possibility of the sale or donation of publicly owned lands of facilities for the development of housing infrastructure.

"Collaboration is important in finding sustainable strategies to address the complex issue of houselessness," Young said.

"Leduc City Council is committed to working with the ministry of Seniors, Community and Social Services to find a response that best suits our community, while city administration investigates overnight shelter options for the winter months and in extreme weather, as well as crisis diversion and community outreach services."

Income assistance program for vulnerable Albertans lacks oversight, auditor general finds

Story by Janet French • cbc

Alberta's auditor general, Doug Wylie, flips through his latest report, which examines the performance of post-secondary institutions and the government's income support program.© Janet French/CBC

Alberta's auditor general says improved oversight is needed to monitor a program that provides financial assistance to thousands of people living in poverty.

Auditor General Doug Wylie says the province doesn't publicly report whether people receiving income support benefits are getting enough money to meet their basic needs. A report his office released on Tuesday also says the income support program isn't tracking how people are faring in the medium or long term.

"You're going to be hearing more from this office about accountability," Wylie said in an interview on Tuesday.

He said that without gathering and analyzing better information, such as how many participants stayed employed in the long term, or found child-care for their kids, the province will have no idea whether the program is meeting its goals.

Alberta taxpayers deserve to know if the programs they pay for are effective, and the vulnerable people who rely on the program need assistance that's working, Wylie said.

The report also examines two other areas: the financial operations of Alberta's post-secondary institutions, and challenges in meeting the needs of patients living with chronic disease.
Income Support program

Alberta's Income Support program provides financial help to people who can't meet their basic needs for food, clothing and shelter.

Clients fall into two categories: "Expected to work" includes those who are looking for work, or are working but not earning enough to meet basic needs. "Barriers to full employment" clients have difficulty working due to hurdles such as chronic health issues.

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A government spokesperson said as of February, there were 34,481 cases in the "expected to work" category, and 17,511 cases with barriers to full employment.

The program is administered by the department of Seniors, Community and Social Services, which paid out more than $580 million in Income Support payments in 2022-23.

The province has changed how it tracks client numbers over time. But the government is spending less on the benefits than it has in the past. In 2019-20, clients received nearly $807 million in support payments.

Last year, the province increased clients' monthly benefits to better keep pace with inflation. Monthly payments for individuals with barriers to full employment increased from $919 to $959, and from $790 to $824 for people who are expected to work.

The program supported an average of 46,536 cases per month in 2022-23, an increase of 7.3 per cent from the year before.

2019 issues

Wylie previously evaluated the Income Support program in a 2019 report that highlighted a series of case management issues and operational problems at the program.

Since then, the department introduced online applications, and substantially improved the turnaround time to vet those applications, the new report said.

Wylie said the department has promised to establish a new performance management framework for the program that would examine how the monthly payments compare to the cost of living in Alberta, and track how long people rely on the program.

But for now, Wylie said the department is providing no public evidence that the benefit amounts are enough for families to cover their basic expenses. And, it does not track whether people are staying employed in the long term, or returning to the program.

The government stopped reporting on how long clients were staying on income support in its 2021-22 annual report.

Susan Morrissey, executive director of the Edmonton Social Planning Council, says the experiences of people living in poverty suggest the benefit amounts are not enough for them to make ends meet. The problem was exacerbated in 2019 when the province stopped indexing the benefits to inflation, she said.

The government re-indexed the benefit last year, increasing payments by six per cent, but recipients can't catch up, she said.

As soon as a client hits an unexpected expense, such as a broken-down car or a rent hike, they begin to cut out medication and other essentials, she said.

"There's more and more people falling between the cracks," Morrissey said. "And it's pretty clear that the government is not able to keep up with these numbers. More people are struggling these days than ever before."

Failing to show evidence the benefit is enough for families to live on shows a lack of accountability, Morrissey said. She wonders how the department can improve the program if it isn't tracking its clients long term.

The press secretary for Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon did not directly answer questions about the auditor's renewed recommendation on Tuesday, but pointed to the program's success in improving intake and goal tracking.
Post-secondary schools

Wylie's audit also examined financial systems at post-secondary institutions across the province

Wylie issued "clean" audits for strong financial reporting for 19 of the 20 post-secondary institutions he examined, but said Olds College, located in the town about 60 kilometres southwest of Red Deer, has not completed its annual financial reporting.

Wylie also issued a new recommendation to the University of Calgary to ensure its former employees don't have access to its IT networks.

Financial risks associated with business ventures intended to bolster the budgets of Alberta's post-secondary schools has been an ongoing concern for Wylie. He first raised the issue in 2015 and called for improved oversight of these investments.

Ventures such as hotels, land trusts and bookstores pumped $481 million into campus coffers in 2022 but schools aren't properly managing the financial risks, Wylie found.

He pointed to his office's analysis of post-secondary institutions' annual reports. Although the government requires them to disclose the financial standing of their business ventures, 18 of 21 institutions didn't do that in their 2022 annual reports, the auditor found.

Wylie again called on the department of Advanced Education to ensure institutions follow provincial rules, and said post-secondary board members need training to properly oversee these ventures.

As small towns fight to survive, researchers assess Alberta's strategy to keep them alive, or let them fold

Story by Karina Zapata • 1d • 3 min read

As concerns grow over the viability of some of Alberta's small municipalities, a new University of Calgary School of Public Policy report suggests that the provincial government is taking the right approach to assessing whether a town or village can survive.

However, its authors say there are opportunities for the province to make improvements to get ahead of the problem, and to better support municipalities that absorb dissolved towns.

Unlike other provinces, the Alberta government conducts in-depth reviews into the viability of municipalities on a case-by-case basis; these can be requested by council, petitioned by citizens, or initiated by the Minister of Municipal Affairs.

The reviews eventually lead to a public vote on whether the municipality should make necessary changes to remain viable, or if it should dissolve and become part of a neighbouring municipality.

"Our feeling is that it's a good process because it puts the decision in the hands of the residents themselves," said co-author and research fellow Kevin McQuillan.

"The only question it raises, I think, is what if the problem continues to get worse? What happens further down the road? I think that's a question that both communities and probably the province will have to think about more in the future."




The Hamlet of Grande Cache in West-Central Alberta used to be a town — until it was dissolved in 2019. It is now part of the Municipal District of Greenview. (CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

McQuillan said most of Alberta's municipalities are in good financial shape. But some communities are struggling with rising costs as their populations age and decline.

Even though record numbers of people are moving to Alberta, they tend to go to larger cities, he said.

According to the report, the province has conducted 26 viability reviews since the process was introduced in 2012. Of those, 13 municipalities voted to dissolve.

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Meanwhile, three Alberta municipalities are currently undergoing reviews: the Village of Delia, Village of Bittern Lake and Summer Village of Ma-Me-O Beach.

It's an issue the Rural Municipalities of Alberta is paying close attention to.

President Paul McLauchlin, who's also a reeve of Ponoka County, said many of Alberta's small municipalities are struggling to address deteriorating infrastructure due to a lack of funding.

"Everyone's trying to make do with what they have," said McLauchlin. "In the long run, we're going to run into extreme viability problems right across the board, all throughout Alberta."

The organization recently completed a study on the impacts of dissolving municipalities — like the former Town of Granum and Village of Hythe — on the municipalities that absorbed them.


Ponoka County reeve and Rural Municipalities of Alberta president Paul McLauchlin. (Emilio Avalos/Radio-Canada)© Provided by cbc.ca

McLauchlin said a key concern is that absorbing communities take on the liabilities of the municipality that folded, which is expensive and can put strain on the receiving municipality.

He said, at the end of the day, it's an asset management conversation.

"More modern infrastructure and ensuring that they're managing their assets, that would be the first step that would move this whole entire file forward significantly, and probably make communities that are not viable now able to take on the demands in the future," he said.

The organization's report also recommends increased funding from the province for receiving communities to support the transition, and help with issues that arise post-dissolution.

McQuillan said he recognizes rural municipalities' worries that they can become responsible for a community and its challenges, even when they weren't involved in the voting process.

"It's why I feel one of the most important things for the future is for the province, for the communities, but also for the municipal districts or counties which will absorb any of the dissolved municipalities, to really get together and talk about how this process can work," he said.

The report says the extra costs faced by the receiving municipality must become a priority for the province to address.

The authors also recommend that the province pay closer attention to struggling municipalities that haven't requested a viability review, and to develop action plans should problems continue to accumulate after a dissolution.


McQuillan said viability reviews are a good process that communities shouldn't be afraid of.

"I think it can be a positive process," said McQuillan.

"But I don't think we can simply avoid some of these situations. I think when we have communities across the province where we see the population is declining and getting older, where we see their tax rates are creeping up because they're trying to respond to some of the local financial challenges — we should be ready to undergo these reviews."

Japan and Canada may join Pacific defense alliance - Politico

Story by Liliana Oleniak 

The UK, the United States, and Australia are rushing to expand their trilateral defense partnership, AUKUS, to other allies ahead of potentially tumultuous elections in all three countries over the next 14 months, Politico reports.

A senior diplomat involved in the negotiations told the agency that Japan and Canada intend to join the so-called second paragraph of the AUKUS agreement, according to which the participants will sign a broad cooperation in the field of military technology by the end of 2024 or early 2025.

This comes amid fears in Washington, London, and Canberra that Donald Trump could cancel the AUKUS agreement if he wins the US presidential election in November.

The AUKUS security agreement was first announced in September 2021. Its first part, paragraph 1, provides for US and UK assistance to Australia in the construction of nuclear submarines.

Paragraph 2 of the agreement allows the three countries to agree on agreements to develop advanced military technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence, hypersonic missiles, and quantum technologies.

It was always envisioned that paragraph 2 could be expanded to include other US allies, including Japan, Canada, New Zealand, and South Korea.

A second diplomat involved in the talks said that US President Joe Biden's administration is now pushing very hard to get some things done on AUKUS paragraph 2 now, before the US elections in November.

In March 2023, Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese of Australia and Rishi Sunak of the UK, as well as US President Joseph Biden, announced an agreement between the AUKUS alliance states to provide the Australian Navy with nuclear submarines.

Japanese media reported that the AUKUS countries are interested in using Japanese technology, including for the development of hypersonic weapons and enhanced electronic warfare capabilities.

Alberta NDP demands UCP restore standard hours of care for continuing care residents

Story by Lisa Johnson • Edmonton Journal

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley.© Darren Makowichuk

Alberta’s Opposition NDP is demanding the government restore and increase minimum hours of care for residents in continuing care facilities.

New regulations, passed through a cabinet order on Feb. 28 and set to take effect April 1 , no longer include any government direction for how much time residents must receive direct personal or nursing care.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley said at a news conference Tuesday residents don’t have any legal guarantee of minimum standard.

“The red tape that they’re trying to eliminate is actually the fundamental basic protection that Alberta families are looking for for their loved ones,” said Notley.

The previous regulations, which date back to 1985, included a requirement that each operator has “to provide an average of at least 1.9 paid hours of combined nursing and personal services per resident per resident day in (a) nursing home.” Twenty-two per cent of that care had to be provided by nurses.

Notley said the standard was already too low, and should be increased to at least match Ontario’s standard, which in 2023 increased required hours per day per patient to four. The Health Standards Organization has said residents should get at least four hours of direct care each day.

The United Nurses of Alberta also flagged the elimination of the requirements in a statement Tuesday.

“We are moving to zero hours of care. This is extremely dangerous,” said UNA president Heather Smith.

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, answering questions from NDP continuing care critic Lori Sigurdson during a budget estimates committee meeting Tuesday, said the province funds an average of 3.62 hours of care per day per resident.

“(It) is significantly improved upon from what was existing previously in the 1.9 hours in the nursing home operations regulation,” said LaGrange, who also pointed out the government has increased wages for health care aids by $2 per hour.

Taking more heat during question period, LaGrange said the previous regulations were outdated, and the government did “extensive” consultations before changing them.

“We heard that changes were needed to provide better flexibility and to allow the operators to develop staffing plans that really meet the needs of not just their facilities, but also their patients’ unique needs,” she said.

Notley suggested that flexibility will undermine Alberta’s health care system.

“After COVID, we learned that continuing care is in crisis and private operators regularly cut corners to make a profit. This government wants to actually increase the opportunity for that to happen at the same time that they’re introducing discretionary standards,” said Notley in the assembly.

“They’re going from law to discretion.”

Related
Alberta adding continuing-care spaces, teams to lessen pressure on hospital beds

Dismantling AHS: Continuing care a mounting concern as Albertans age

The government’s move comes after the UCP commissioned a 2021 report that recommended a boost to daily hours of care , which would mean hiring more staff.

At a news conference last week announcing the government’s efforts to create more continuing care spaces and lessen pressure on hospital beds, Feisal Keshavjee, chairman of the Alberta Continuing Care Association, said operators have increased hours of care.

“The workforce has to be there to deliver it, so we’re working in lockstep and the regulations will help solidify that, but we’ve got to make sure that as the legislation comes out, we actually have the workforce,” he said.

Although there is a shortage of staff in continuing care facilities, the government’s latest effort to attract workers to the province with incentives left out health care workers.

Sigurdson said there is a high rate of absenteeism and vacancies among health care aides who do low-paid work, and the government needs to better support those workers, including with full-time positions with full benefits.

lijohnson@postmedia.com
X: @reportrix

Alberta health minister says 'proper procedures' were followed for patient taken to hotel instead of care home

Story by Julia Wong • CBC

Alberta's minister of health is defending the province's health authority after a senior with high care needs who had been expecting to be moved to a care home was instead taken to a hotel.

Minister Adriana LaGrange said she was "very concerned" when asked about an exclusive CBC News story that detailed how Blair Canniff, 62, was taken to a hotel south of Edmonton after spending months in the Royal Alexandra Hospital, as he recovered from a stroke.

Canniff uses a wheelchair and is paralyzed on his left side.

In early March, he said he was told that he would be moving to a long-term care facility and was not given any other options. Then, he said, on March 4, he was put in a taxi that took him to a Travelodge in Leduc, roughly 35 kilometres south of Edmonton.

"My understanding is that AHS [Alberta Health Services] followed their proper procedures. They did discharge to a non-profit provider and you would have to ask the non-profit provider why they chose that site," LaGrange said on Monday.


Adriana LaGrange answers questions from CBC at the Alberta Legislature on Monday. (Kory Siegers/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

When pressed by CBC News on whether those guidelines were appropriate and the right thing to do, LaGrange reiterated that AHS followed its discharge guidelines, where a team of healthcare workers work with an individual to determine where is an appropriate place to send the patient.

Concern for patient

Canniff's family told CBC News last week that they had been worried about his his mobility issues and his ability to care for himself, and said he had been given fast food to eat.

After a week at the hotel, Canniff said he was sent back to the hospital on March 11 with no explanation; he has since been re-admitted.

Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services Jason Nixon said that his office is "most definitely" looking into the situation.

"We want to make sure everybody ends up in a safe space," he said on Monday.

Canniff said the organization in charge of the program at the hotel was Contentment Social Services, which can be found in the province's non-profit listings.

Before the story aired Friday and was published online Saturday, CBC News went to an address listed on Contentment Social Services's website but found it was a mailing address.

CBC News called two numbers associated with the non-profit multiple times, texted one of those numbers three times and sent several emails requesting an interview and comment for this story. As of Monday, CBC News has not heard back.


Jason Nixon answers questions from CBC News at the Alberta Legislature on Monday. (Kory Siegers/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

"My department doesn't provide any funding to that organization and I have instructed my department to make sure that's the case," Nixon said.
'Highway healthcare'

NDP Leader Rachel Notley called the situation a sad state of affairs.

"It's highway healthcare ending up at motel medicine," she said on Monday.

"It's a sign that the management of our healthcare is in great crisis and that we need more beds, publicly-run beds in Edmonton."

When told about the health minister's comments that AHS followed the guidelines, Notley said LaGrange should apologize.

"The guidelines are clearly ridiculous and need to be redone," Notley said.

Have any tips on this story? Contact reporter Julia Wong at julia.wong@cbc.ca.

CONTRACTING OUT I.T. IS A BOONDOOGLE

Former public servant linked to ArriveCan questioned by MPs about government contracts

Story by Darren Major • 

David Yeo, the founder and president of Dalian Enterprises, appears before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, March 19, 2024.© ParlVu

MPs grilled the head of an IT firm over his employment with the Department of National Defence (DND) during a House committee meeting on Tuesday.

David Yeo, founder and president of Dalian Enterprises — which was involved in the development of the federal government's controversial ArriveCan app — has been facing scrutiny since it was reported that he was a DND employee while his company held contracts with the federal government.

Dalian told CBC News earlier this month that Yeo had been hired by DND only this past September and that he took steps to address any conflict of interest concerns by agreeing to have no involvement with Dalian's DND projects and putting the company into a "blind trust."

Yeo repeated those assertions to MPs on the public accounts committee on Tuesday, saying that he had been "hands off" with the company when he became a DND employee. The government suspended Yeo's employment and he said he has since resigned from the department.

But MPs questioned how distant he was from the company while he was working for DND.

Bloc Québécois MP Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné pointed out that his signature appeared on government contracts that were signed after he was hired by DND. Yeo said he had "a signature available" for staff to use on contracts.

"I provided my signature to the staff so if there was something going on, that I would not even be aware of it," he said.

Dalian was one of the contractors that worked on the ArriveCan app. Yeo appeared before the government operations committee in October to discuss ArriveCan, but presented himself as Dalian's founder and president. He didn't tell MPs on that committee that he had been hired by DND.

"I am an executive on the board of directors for Dalian, and I maintain all of the governance as it relates to the [procurement strategy for Indigenous business] and make sure that the company is absolutely in line, in step, with everything that relates to procurement and government contracting within the federal government," he told the committee in October.

Conservative MP Larry Brock asked Yeo during Tuesday's committee hearing why he didn't disclose that he had been hired by DND during his October testimony.

Yeo replied that he had been invited to that committee as a Dalian representative and that his testimony had "zero to do with DND."

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis later asked if Yeo was still on Dalian's board of directors when he was before the committee in October.

"At that time, there was no divestiture because we were working on it," Yeo replied.

"We were in flux during that time period."

Later, under questioning from Conservative MP John Nater, Yeo said was having meetings with his lawyers about putting his Dalian shares in a blind trust as late as January. He said that in hindsight, he wished he had started the process earlier.

"I should have done all of that prior to even looking at the offer [of employment] from the government," he said.

"That one's on me, but at the end of the day, all of the information got where it needed to go."
Yeo disputes auditor general's numbers

Yeo also said he disagreed with Auditor General Karen Hogan's recent report, which states Dalian received $7.9 million for its work on ArriveCan. He suggested that Dalian received $4.9 million for the project.

GC Strategies, the main ArriveCan contractor, also has questioned Hogan's report.

Kristian Firth, a partner with GC Strategies, told a House committee last week that the government's poor bookkeeping led Hogan's report to include an inflated estimate of the amount his company received for the project.

Hogan noted in her report that the final cost of ArriveCan was "impossible to determine" due to poor financial record-keeping at the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

When asked by CBC News, Hogan's office stood by its $7.9 million estimate of the amount Dalian received for ArriveCan.

"As stated in our report, given the deficiencies in the CBSA's financial records, our auditors prepared an estimate using the CBSA's financial system, contractual documents, and other evidence," a spokesperson said.

"Based on this estimate, the cost associated with Dalian Enterprises Inc. was $7.9 million."