Canada's air quality is the worst in North America for the first time ever

by MTL Blog

Canada has achieved a dubious distinction: it's now the most polluted country in North America, according to the latest World Air Quality Report. The revelation puts the country at the forefront of a continental crisis in air quality, marking the first time Canada has topped the charts in the undesirable category.

Swiss air quality tech company IQAir sourced data from over 30,000 monitoring stations across 134 countries and found many regions fail to meet safe levels of fine particulate matter PM2.5. The tiny particles, less than 2.5 microns in diameter, can penetrate the lungs and bloodstream causing severe health issues.

Smoky horizons

Only seven countries globally meet the World Health Organization's air quality guidelines, according to the report. Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius, and New Zealand are clean-air champions. Europe shows a mixed bag, with Iceland having the cleanest air, followed closely by Estonia and Finland.

Related video: Record wildfires plunge Canada's air quality below the U.S. for first time (cbc.ca)

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While Sweden, Ireland, and Norway sit comfortably in the green zone, with air quality up to double the WHO's safe standard, Eastern European countries like Lithuania and Poland have yellow and orange pollution levels, signifying a much higher risk. In some positive news, Croatia has slashed its PM2.5 levels by over 40% from the previous year. The country's progress is attributed to increased renewable energy usage and ambitious policies to reduce coal dependency and methane emissions.

Meanwhile, South and Central Asia bear the brunt of worldwide air pollution, especially Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India.

Canada's burning issue

Canada, typically known for its clean air and natural beauty, is now experiencing increased pollution levels, making it the most polluted country in North America. The new report identifies Canada as having the top 13 most polluted cities on the continent.

Recent wildfires are a major cause of the pollution spike. Around 4% of Canada's forests burned last year, affecting areas from Yellowknife to the Pacific Northwest and even sending smoke as far as Florida. The most polluted Canadian cities in 2023 were Fort McMurray, Peace River, and Yellowknife.

From May to October, fires burned an area half the size of Germany. In Alberta, PM2.5 levels in the air were nine times higher than the previous year. Now, over 40% of Canadian cities have particulate levels twice the safe limit set by the WHO, and 35 cities (or 11%) face levels three times above the safety threshold. That's a major change from 2022 when only one Canadian city exceeded those pollution levels.

With the arrival of El Niño, expectations are set for even higher temperatures this year, which could lead to an increase in wildfires throughout the country. Scientists suggest the summer could see unprecedented levels of fire activity. The situation puts pressure on emergency services and air quality management, especially in regions like Quebec, which was enveloped in smoke last year.

Clearing the air

To help combat air pollution, IQAir recommends that governments incorporate WHO air quality guidelines into national standards, which could set a clearer benchmark for clean air. It suggests investment in renewable energy sources to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and expanding public transportation systems.

Incentives for the use of electric vehicles could also help reduce emissions. Governments are advised to enforce stricter emissions controls and adopt forest management practices that mitigate wildfire risks. Expanding and enhancing air quality monitoring can also provide valuable data to guide policy and public health responses.

For individuals, the report suggests limiting exposure during high pollution periods. Using air purifiers, choosing eco-friendly transport options, and supporting air quality improvement policies can make a difference. People can also lower their own pollution footprint by reducing energy use at home and reusing/recycling items instead of buying new.

Shifting lifestyle habits might be uncomfortable in the short term, but the report suggests they should become the new norm to safeguard public health and preserve the environment for future generations.

Videogame voice actors poised to strike as they battle AI for their jobs

Hollywood is bracing for another actors strike, this time against the videogame industry.

“We’re currently in bargaining with all the major game studios, and the major sticking point is AI,” SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said Thursday. “Actors at all levels are at risk of digital replication. We have strike authorization on that contract and it is, at this point — we could end up going on strike.”

Voice actor Sarah Elmaleh chairs the union’s interactive-media-agreement negotiating committee. “I’ve seen nothing like this in technology to impact our jobs,” she said. “A replicated voice cannot display a spectrum of emotions — yet. For now, it is technology based on averaging and best questions. It lacks nuance.”

The union, which navigated its way to a new film and TV contract after a 118-day strike against the Hollywood studios last year, is again focusing on regulating artificial intelligence and its impact on wages and jobs. “It will be a recurring issue with each successive contract” every three years, Crabtree-Ireland said.

Companies facing a possible strike are Microsoft Corp.’s Activision Publishing, Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices International Inc. Electronic Arts Inc. Epic Games Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Take 2 Productions, VoiceWorks Productions Inc. and Warner Bros. Games

“Actors and actresses should be very much afraid,” Chris Mattmann, an adjunct research professor at the University of Southern California’s Computer Science Department, said in an interview. “Within three seconds, gen AI can effectively clone a voice.”

Videogame studios pay professional actors to voice the aliens, detectives, elves and monsters that inhabit virtual worlds. But increasingly, some are employing realistic, AI-generated voices to save money. And that has cut into actors’ work.

It’s been more than a year since the Interactive Media Agreement, the guild’s videogame contract, was extended beyond its original expiration date. SAG-AFTRA’s last strike against the gaming companies, in 2016-17, lasted about six months.

In September, members overwhelmingly approved a strike authorization on the current contract. The national board has authority to call a strike at any time if negotiations fail.

A spokesperson representing the 10 videogame companies said they are optimistic that a resolution will be reached.

“We are continuing to negotiate in good faith and have made tremendous progress. We have reached tentative agreements on the vast majority of proposals and remain optimistic that we can reach a deal soon,” the spokesperson said in a statement to MarketWatch.

AI horror stories abound

When it comes to AI, Hollywood has been as fraught with tension as any industry — even tech, media or customer service.

A flashpoint came in 2014, when Baidu Inc.’s DeepSpeech technology first converted speech into text. Fast-forward to today, and dialect, inflection and connotation have been refined with voice clones.

“It was the No. 1 topic of discussion at a [voice-over] conference in Atlanta this month,” Joe Davis, a board member of World Voices Organization, the international trade association of voice actors, said in an interview. “Everybody is concerned about AI. It looks like the low end of the market is going away. Where are people going to start in the industry then? In the last six months, the majority of those jobs are going to AI.”

Also read: Tennessee becomes first state to protect musicians and other artists against AI

Marquee actors like Bradley Cooper — the voice of Rocket Raccoon in Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” — need not be worried, but many cartoon and videogame voice actors are looking at reductions in salary and in the number of jobs.

Most at risk are the thousands of working actors who earn anywhere from $100 a gig to tens of thousands of dollars a year on a project. Increasingly, many are either seeing their roles de-emphasized or are losing jobs altogether to digitally replicated voices similar to their own.

“It’s scary. We don’t know where things are going. Just in the last year, the progression has been insane,” said Rebecca Davis, a videogame voice actor who plays a time weaver in Oculus’s “Asgard’s Wrath 2” and member of SAG-AFTRA. “As far as I know, my voice has not been replicated, but things are popping up with videogames. We don’t really know sometimes, until someone notifies you. The company doesn’t tell you.”

Diana Birdsall, a nonunion voice actor of about 20 years, was abruptly replaced by AI on a phone-messaging service a year ago. The gig had paid $17,000 to $20,000 annually. Just as she was getting over the shock of losing that work, she learned last week that she may have lost a $25,000-a-year job making medical-explainer videos to another AI “voice.”

“There is no compensating for this” loss in revenue, Birdsall said in an interview. “I have to work my butt off more, and I’ve been told I have to sound more authentic. Are you kidding me?”

In 2021, Bev Standing, a nonunion voice actor, successfully sued TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd. for using her voice without her consent.

In her more than 20 years as an actor, including as a voice-over actor, Laurie Burke has done thousands of voice-overs for the likes of Facebook LinkedIn, Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. She started as the original voice of Google Voice and later played an AI voice in the movie “Jexi.”

“AI can’t replicate the emotion of a voice,” Burke said in an interview. “It’s kind of like the drum machine. Drums cannot be improvised.”

Sparks fly as non-confidence motion fails to bring down Liberal government over federal carbon tax

Story by Catherine Lévesque • 22h • 

Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman in the House of Commons on Thursday, March 21, 2024. She described the government’s rationale for a carbon tax as “Liberal math.” © Provided by National Post

OTTAWA — There were references to an online trend and a children’s fable in the House of Commons during the Conservatives’ attempt to force a federal election over the carbon tax on Thursday, but very little talk of the country’s environmental policies.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre triggered the debate when he introduced a “motion of non-confidence” in hopes of making the minority Liberal government fall to protest their planned increase on the price on pollution by $15 to $80 per tonne on April 1.

The motion was ultimately rejected late Thursday afternoon, given the supply-and-confidence agreement between the Liberals and the NDP, which forces New Democrats to vote with the governing party for all matters of confidence. The Bloc Québécois also voted against the motion.

“This year, groceries are going to cost $700 more than they did last year for the average family. And in the middle of all of this, what does the NDP, and this prime minister choose? To raise taxes on food and fuel, on heat and homes,” said Poilievre during the debate earlier in the day.

“We cannot in good conscience stand by while this prime minister imposes more misery and suffering on the Canadian people,” he added.

NDP MP Charlie Angus mocked Poilievre’s threat of bringing down the government over the carbon tax and noted that it was not the first time that the Conservative leader had made a promise to slow down the work of the Commons without exactly following through.

“I’m going to huff, I’m going to puff and then I’m going to go off and have a fundraiser… while the poor backbenchers dutifully follow through,” said Angus.

Last year, Poilievre said he would offer an hours-long speech to block the budget bill from passing. He also threatened to ruin Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Christmas with hundreds of votes, which resulted in a marathon vote that lasted 30 hours.

Poilievre had missed part of the marathon vote because he attended a fundraiser with the Montreal Jewish community. He is also expected to miss his party’s confidence vote on Thursday evening because he will be in Toronto for a Bay Street fundraiser.

“Will he show up tonight or will he be off fundraising with his lobbyist friends and leaving his poor schleps on the backbench to do the heavy lifting of bringing down the government and forcing an election?” asked Angus during Thursday’s debate.

Poilievre shot back: “Showing up for work means showing up for the people you work for. And I’ll just say I’ve been more in his riding in the last two years than he has.”

Later, Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman compared the government’s rationale for a carbon tax to “Liberal math” — a term inspired by the internet phenomenon of “girl math,” which is an invented set of rules to justify impulse buying.

“Liberal math,” explained Lantsman, is “like some bizarre fantasy telling Canadians that less is more, and they are somehow better off.”

“Canadians don’t live in Liberal land. They live in the real world. They look at their empty fridges at home. They look at the price of gas at the pumps. They don’t do Liberal math; they do real math. The real math is getting harder and harder every day,” she said.

Angus said he had to elbow his way through the Conservatives in the opposition lobby because they were too busy filming videos on their phones about their motion.

“They were going to huff, to puff and they might blow the House down tonight but ‘please send us money to our addresses as quick as you can’,” he ridiculed.

Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux accused the Conservatives of having abandoned its progressive heritage but set off Conservative MP Rick Perkins who claimed it was a “classless” comment to make while former prime minister Brian Mulroney is lying in state.

“I’ve been a member of his party since I was 17 years old. I knew Brian Mulroney. Brian Mulroney was a friend of mine. He’s lying-in state and repose. That was the most classless statement I’ve ever seen in this House,” said Perkins.

Eventually, Green Party co-leader Elizabeth May had had enough: “Could we ever have a serious discussion in this place about the actual climate crisis?” she asked.

May suggested convening a committee of the whole, once MPs get back from the Easter break, to hear from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other scientific experts to “raise a conversation that doesn’t involve rhyming slogans.”

Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen said he thought it was “an absolutely fabulous idea.”

GUNTER: Alberta UCP jacking up its disguised PST, the provincial fuel tax

Opinion by Lorne Gunter • 20h •  Edmonton Sun

The provincial fuel tax is jumping again to 13 cents per litre of gasoline or diesel on April 1, the very same day the Trudeau government is jacking up the federal carbon tax from just over 14 cents a litre to nearer 18 cents.

© Provided by Edmonton Sun

Who says Alberta doesn’t have a provincial sales tax (PST) — or at least a consumer tax that acts very much like a sales tax?

The provincial government’s fuel tax — a per-litre charge on gasoline and diesel — goes up when the province needs it to, and for the same purposes as a PST.

The provincial fuel tax, which was zero at the end of 2023, jumped up by nine cents a litre on Jan. 1. Now, as provincial Finance Minister Nate Horner announced on Thursday, it is jumping again to 13 cents per litre of gasoline or diesel on April 1, the very same day the Trudeau government is jacking up the federal carbon tax from just over 14 cents a litre to nearer 18 cents.

And here’s the irony of ironies, despite Premier Danielle Smith having been one of the premiers most critical of Ottawa’s added grab, her government’s gas tax is going up by 44 per cent on April 1. The federal Liberals’ tax is rising by “only” 23 per cent.

While Smith was one of the first premiers to request that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “pause” his carbon tax hike until the cost of living comes down in Canada, she seems unable to see that her government’s reimposition of its full fuel tax has the same inflationary effect.

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If adding nearly four federal cents per litre raises the cost of everything that moves (including the tractors that plant your food and the trucks that bring it to your neighbourhood grocery store), then Smith’s four provincial cents per litre does exactly the same thing.

Inflation recognizes no difference between federal and provincial taxes. If increasing one stunts the economy, so does raising the other.

Here’s another irony. While Prime Minister Trudeau is delusional when he insists his government’s quarterly carbon tax rebates make the federal carbon tax a financial “win” for middle-class families, at least Canadians get some of the federal carbon tax back.

Few Canadians get as much back in rebates as they pay in carbon tax, but Albertans get nothing back on the provincial fuel tax.

I’m guessing if most UCP MLAs were federal Conservative MPs instead, they’d be in Ottawa right now voting to have the Liberal government stall its April 1 carbon-tax increase. However, there hasn’t been one peep from any of them about their own government’s fuel tax rise.


If Smith is to have any credibility at all when attacking Trudeau’s 23-per-cent tax spike, she has to stop her own 44-per-cent increase.

But how does all this make Alberta’s fuel tax the equivalent of a PST?

During his announcement on Thursday, Horner explained the provincial fuel tax program “is designed to save Albertans money when oil prices are high and bring in needed government revenue when oil prices drop.”

That’s the first time I can recall the Smith government admitting its fuel tax is meant to supplement government revenues.

As oil prices fall (and take government revenues from royalties, leases and taxes down with them), the government admits “revenue from the provincial fuel tax helps fund the programs, services and infrastructure Albertans rely on every day.”

For decades, “progressives” in Alberta have been pushing for a PST to regularize the flow of government revenues and lessen our dependence on oil and gas. In other provinces, when general revenues fall, they increase the PST.

Here we don’t have a PST, so the provincial government appears to be using the fuel tax as an alternative.

With gasoline already at nearly $1.50 a litre and diesel at $1.65 or more, the last thing Alberta drivers and businesses need is yet another fuel tax increase — federal or provincial.

 

Alberta set to fully reinstate gas tax of 13 cents a litre after drop in oil prices


Alberta set to fully reinstate gas tax of 13 cents a litre after drop in oil prices© Provided by The Canadian Press

EDMONTON — Gas prices are set to rise in Alberta next month, with the provincial government fully reinstating its fuel tax following a drop in oil prices.

Finance Minister Nate Horner says the fuel tax for gas and diesel will be 13 cents per litre starting April 1, an increase of four cents.

Under the provincial Fuel Tax Relief Program, the tax can be paused or reinstated partially or in full, depending on oil prices.

Fuel tax rates are adjusted quarterly based on the average price per barrel of the benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil.

Horner says Albertans will continue to pay some of the lowest fuel prices in the country even after the increased rate takes effect.

He says the tax rate will drop back down if oil prices hit US$80 a barrel or higher.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 21, 2024.


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CANADA

Key recommendations from the government's review of the Cannabis Act

Story by The Canadian Press 

OrTTAWA — More than five years after cannabis was legalized in Canada, the government has released its final report of the legislative review of the Cannabis Act.

The report is the result of 18 months of work by a panel of industry experts to assess the progress of cannabis legalization and make recommendations to improve upon cannabis legislation.

Here are some of the key recommendations made by the report.

Public health

The report makes a number of public health recommendations concerning issues including product promotion, packaging and labelling, children and youth, and potency.

It calls on Health Canada to set and monitor targets for reducing youth and young adult cannabis use, to help implement school prevention programs, and to redouble efforts to inform Canadians about the risks of accidentally exposing children to cannabis.

It also expresses concern about the trend toward higher potencies of THC in cannabis products, recommending that the limit remain at 10 milligrams per package and that Health Canada establish a definition of higher-potency products and apply additional warnings to such products. THC is the psychoactive component of cannabis.

“If the current trend towards consuming higher-potency cannabis cannot be halted or reversed, then Health Canada should be ready to implement additional product regulations,” the report says.

The report also recommends the development of a “standard dose” for use on labelling, and makes several recommendations to improve and simplify the labelling on packaging.

First Nations, Inuit and Métis

The report has several recommendations regarding First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities, including that Health Canada should co-develop culturally appropriate materials and programs containing health information about cannabis.

It also calls on Health Canada to co-develop amendments to the Cannabis Act to better protect health and safety in Indigenous communities, authorizing nation-to-nation agreements to control commercial cannabis activities.

Industry recommendations

The report recommends amending regulations to allow cannabis cultivators to sell products directly to distributors, and also recommends consideration of a review of the excise tax model, as it was based on a much higher average price than today’s prices.

Reforms to the excise tax regime could include higher duties on cannabis products with higher concentrations of THC in order to discourage consumption of higher-risk products.

The report also makes several recommendations targeted at improving diversity in the cannabis industry, including collecting demographic data.

Medical access

The report recommends allowing pharmacies to distribute cannabis products to people with medical authorization.

It says Health Canada should prioritize moving past the distinct medical access program so cannabis can be part of conventional medical care by being considered within standard drug approval pathways. The report says this should start with the rapid advancement of a pathway for health products containing CBD, a non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis.

It also encourages more research on the therapeutic use of cannabis in Canada, and recommends the establishment of a knowledge hub focused on the use of cannabis for medical purposes.

The report also urges Health Canada to support the development of clinical guidance documents regarding medical use of cannabis to help increase the knowledge of health care professionals.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 21, 2024.

The Canadian Press

BlackRock, 'dismayed' by $8.5 billion Texas divestment, urges rethink


A climate change activist stands outside of BlackRock headquarters, ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), in San Francisco, California, U.S., October 29, 2021. 

REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo© Thomson Reuters

By Isla Binnie

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A senior BlackRock executive said on Thursday the world's largest asset manager was "dismayed" by a Texas state fund's move to pull $8.5 billion in assets, and urged the fund's administrators to reconsider.

Texas State Board of Education Chair Aaron Kinsey said on Tuesday the Texas Permanent School Fund (PSF) was terminating a contract with BlackRock, covering around 15% of its assets, to comply with a 2021 state law that curbed agencies' business with financial firms accused of boycotting energy companies.

It was the latest broadside in a tussle between Republican state and federal officials and Wall Street firms over using environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in investing.

BlackRock Vice Chairman Mark McCombe wrote to Kinsey on Thursday that the firm had generated $250 million for PSF since 2006 and repeated previous rejections of the allegation it discriminates against oil and gas firms.

"We urge you to reconsider your decision and prioritize Texas schools and families who have benefited from BlackRock's consistent, long-term investment out-performance," McCombe wrote in the letter.

Kinsey said he made the move to fulfil his duty to manage money for the energy-producing state.

BlackRock said state law did not require the divestment because the funds' outperformance showed "divestment would not be in the best interest of Texas PSF".

Letters sent by PSF to BlackRock, dated March 19 and seen by Reuters, requested termination of contracts to manage investments in international equities and one specific fund, without giving a reason.

BlackRock had $10 trillion of assets under management at the end of 2023. McCombe said it had $320 billion in energy investments globally, and $120 billion in Texas-based public energy companies.

Just last month, Chief Executive Larry Fink appeared with Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick at an event in Houston aimed at stoking investment in the state's power infrastructure.

(Reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by Franklin Paul and Daniel Wallis)

CalPERS says Exxon should drop lawsuit against climate-conscious investors

FILE PHOTO: ExxonMobil logo is seen in this illustration taken, October 6, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration//File Photo© Thomson Reuters

At Isla Binnie

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The largest U.S. public pension fund plans to ask Exxon Mobil to drop a lawsuit against investors that filed a shareholder resolution asking the U.S. oil major to curb greenhouse gas emissions faster.

California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), which according to its most recent disclosure holds a 0.2% stake in Exxon, disclosed at a meeting of its officials this week that it will raise the issue ahead of the energy company's annual shareholder meeting in May.

Exxon sued in January to block a proposal from two investors asking the company to speed up the pace of its emissions reductions from being put to a shareholder vote. The investors responded by dropping the proposal, but Exxon has refused to drop the legal action against them.

"We don't think it's particularly helpful for companies to be suing the people who provide their capital," CalPERS investment director Drew Hambly told a board meeting of the $444 billion pension fund on March 18.

"We will certainly voice that opinion with the company when we have that opportunity in our engagement," Hambly added.

Exxon did not respond to a request for comment. The company's Chief Executive Darren Woods defended its handling of the matter on Monday at the CERAWeek industry conference in Houston.

"These are not legitimate investors... That process has been hijacked to the detriment of our shareholders, and we're basically trying to correct the problem," Woods said

Exxon's lawsuit marked a departure from companies turning to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to exclude investor proposals from shareholder votes.

Exxon said in its lawsuit that activist investors want to constrain its business rather than increase shareholder value, and noted that such resolutions have burgeoned.

It is not the first time that CalPERS has emerged as a thorn in Exxon's side over environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues. In 2021, the pension fund backed a successful board challenge by an activist investor against Exxon in a push to better position it for the energy transition.

CalPERS administrative board president Theresa Taylor told the fund's meeting on Monday that Exxon's legal action against the activist shareholders was part of a broader effort to impede investors over ESG.

"We need a plan and that plan needs to include whether or not we keep those people in our portfolios," Taylor said, referring to Exxon.

A CalPERS spokesperson did not respond to a request for further comment on whether the pension fund was considering shedding Exxon from its investment portfolio.

(Reporting by Isla Binnie; Additional reporting by Sabrina Valle in Houston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

‘Absolutely disgusting:’ Unifor says Bell laid off hundreds of employees through virtual meetings


© Provided by MobileSyrup

Bell has reportedly laid off another round of employees.

According to Unifor, a union representing some workers of one of Canada’s three national telecom providers, the layoffs took place through virtual group meetings.

The layoffs happened Wednesday, a day after the union held a rally in Ottawa protesting the last round of job cuts that impacted nine percent of Bell’s workforce six weeks ago.

Employees the union represents have “been living in dread” of invites to the virtual meetings that announced their departure, Lana Payne, Unifor’s national president, said in a statement.

More than 400 employees were informed they were losing their jobs in a 10-minute virtual meeting, the union said in a press release. An HR and labour relations manager from Bell read the attendees a notice, who were not allowed to unmute themselves to ask questions.

These employees were declared “surplus,” with some eligible for a “retirement incentive.”

The method led the union to express “outrage” with the termination method, leading Bell to change its approach. Future meetings will include Unifor representatives, and attendees will be allowed to unmute themselves.

Unifor National Secretary-Treasurer Len Poirier called the terminations “absolutely disgusting.”

“Our dedicated, loyal, workers, who are predominately women, will have to explain to their families… that they are being let go from Bell for no good reason other than making sure that their shareholders and Board of Directors come first when getting paid.”

MobileSyrup has reached out to Bell for comment but did not hear back at the time of publication.

Source: Unifor

Industrial carbon price cuts three times the emissions of consumer levy: report



© Provided by The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Canada's carbon price could slash greenhouse-gas emissions by more than 100 million tonnes a year by 2030, but only about one-fifth of that will come from the consumer carbon price at the centre of Conservative attacks.

A new analysis published Thursday by the Canadian Climate Institute said the price applied to big industrial emitters plays a far greater role in cutting emissions than the consumer fuel levy.

But the consumer levy is still worth the political battle the Liberals are facing, said Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.

The analysis, he said, is clear that carbon pricing is the most effective way to cut emissions so Canada can meet its climate targets.

"Without it, I don't know how we could get there," Guilbeault said.

"You could make the case that if you don't do pricing you would have to invest billions of dollars of taxpayers money to get the same result."

He made the comments as the minority Liberal government faced the remote prospect of a confidence vote Thursday thanks to a Conservative motion over carbon pricing.

As expected, the motion — brought by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre — went down to defeat 204-116, with only Tory MPs voting in favour.

The climate institute concluded that together, all existing climate policies should prevent 226 million tonnes of emissions from being released in 2030, or one-third of the total emissions Canada produced in 2021.

Without any of those policies, emissions will be 40 per cent higher in 2030 than with all of them, said institute president Rick Smith.

But the carbon pricing system for big emitters is by far the biggest contributor.

The consumer fuel levy will prevent between 19 million and 22 million tonnes of emissions by 2030. The big industrial price will prevent between 53 million and 90 million tonnes.

"Industrial carbon pricing is the most important contributor to emission reductions," Smith said.

Smith said because most climate policies interact with each other, it is very hard to attribute one specific total to an individual policy, which is why there is a range in the report.

He also said the reason is simple math: big industry emits far more than households and small businesses do, so cutting its emissions delivers a bigger impact.

That is true even though the price big emitters pay is only applied to a portion of their emissions, while consumers pay it on all fuel purchases.

The report's findings somewhat counter some of the political rhetoric surrounding carbon pricing, including the disproportionate amount of attention heaped on the consumer carbon policy.

"This debate on the consumer carbon price has sucked way too much oxygen out of the room," Smith said.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is adamant that if he wins the next election, consumer carbon pricing is toast. He has been less clear about the big emitters system.

Canada's national pollution pricing program applies only in jurisdictions that do not have equivalent policies of their own.

Only Quebec, British Columbia and Northwest Territories have their own policies for both consumers and big industry.

Six provinces have introduced their own provincial systems for big emitters, all of them because of the federal requirement.

Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Yukon and Nunavut use both the federal consumer levy and Ottawa's big emitters program.

It is not clear if provinces would keep their own systems for major industry in place if the federal government did not demand it.

Most provinces have come out against raising the carbon price on April 1, following Poilievre's lead.

Guilbeault said Thursday he will keep fighting in favour of carbon pricing, including the consumer levy, because the climate and the planet cannot wait.

"It takes political courage," he said. "That's usually the case for difficult things and climate change is a difficult thing."

He has challenged Poilievre — who has not laid out what alternative plans he has for the climate — to show Canadians a policy that delivers as many emissions cuts as carbon pricing without costing them anything.

Guilbeault said he has worked in environmental policy for 30 years and there is simply no "low hanging fruit" that magically cuts emissions at no cost.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 21, 2024.

Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press

Ex-public servant linked to ArriveCan didn't disclose outside business until after suspension, official says

Story by Darren Major • 20h • 

An IT contractor and former public servant who worked on the ArriveCan app didn't file a conflict of interest report until after he was suspended from the Department of National Defence (DND), a government official says.

David Yeo, founder and president of Dalian Enterprises, was hired by DND in September after spending years accepting millions in government contracts.

Public servants are allowed to have other jobs but must provide the government with a report on their separate business dealings for a conflict of interest assessment within 60 days of being hired.

Bill Matthews, DND deputy minister, said Yeo didn't file a conflict of interest report until March 3. He was suspended in February.

"This report was received after he had been suspended from his position with the department and 165 days after he began working [for DND]," he told MPs on the House public accounts committee on Thursday.

Yeo appeared before the same committee on Tuesday and told MPs 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."

But Matthews said Thursday that the government has evidence he was still involved in Dalian after he was hired at DND.

Related video: ArriveCAN contractor says he was 'not involved' in app's development (Global News)  Duration 2:35   View on Watch

"Even if [Yeo's assertions] were true, it would not remove the requirement to disclose his business activities to his employer," he said.

"Whether his failure to report his other activities to his employer was due to his poor understanding of the rule, poor judgment or poor ethics, we have evidence that Mr. Yeo carried on in his role at Dalian after joining the public service."

MPs questioned how the department could be unaware of Yeo's business dealings given that Dalian had been a contractor for years.

Matthews said that Yeo's supervisors were aware that he was a contractor for Dalian but suggested they didn't know he was the head of the company.

"He was doing basically the same job as an employee that he was as a contractor," he said.

"They knew he was a contractor. They were unaware of his broader business dealings."

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.

Bloc Québécois MP Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné pressed Matthews on how the department didn't take notice of one of its employees appearing before a parliamentary committee as the head of a contracting firm.

Matthews indicated that Yeo was "very far down" in the department and suggested that's why no one picked up on his committee appearance.

Assistant Deputy Defence Minister Troy Crosby chimed in to say that he asked the same question when Yeo's position with the department came to light last month. He said that Yeo's supervisors weren't watching committee hearings at the time and Yeo attended committee outside of his working hours.


A person holds a smartphone set to the opening screen of the ArriveCan app in a photo illustration made in Toronto, Wednesday, June 29, 2022. (Giordano Ciampini/The Canadian Press)© Giordano Ciampini/The Canadian Press

Matthews said that DND started an investigation into Yeo and Dalian last month and offered to interview Yeo as part of the process. He said Yeo resigned from DND before the interview was conducted.

"We were heading down a process to, in all likelihood, terminate his employment," Matthews said.


"Obviously, before doing that we wanted to give the employee a chance to tell his side of the story. He elected to resign before that happened."

Dalian is one of the contractors facing increased scrutiny due to its work on the controversial ArriveCan app.

An auditor general report released last month found that the ballooning cost of the project was in part due to the government's over-reliance on government contractors.

While the report stated that it was "impossible to determine" the total cost of ArriveCan due to poor record keeping, the auditor general estimated it cost roughly $60 million. Of that figure, the report suggests Dalian received $7.9 million — although Yeo disputed that figure.

Yeo said Dalian's work on ArriveCan was completed before he took the job with DND.

The government has suspended all contracts with Dalian.