N.W.T. snake assessed as 'species of concern'

CBC
Sat, May 11, 2024 

The red-sided garter snake lives is now a species of concern after the 2023 wildfires burned much of its habitat around Fort Smith. (Submitted by the Department of Environment and Climate Change - image credit)

The only known reptile in the Northwest Territories could soon be added to the territory's list of species of risk.

The red-sided garter snake lives around Fort Smith, but after last summer's wildfires burned much of their habitat in the South Slave, the territory's species at risk committee is reporting that the snake's population is under threat.

Johanna Stewart, a researcher studying the red-sided garter snake population in Fort Smith, says she's been visiting areas where there are typically hundreds of snakes but so far hasn't seen anywhere close to those numbers.

"It's possible that snakes are still yet to emerge, we may still see more coming out," she said. "It's also possible that these snakes have moved to different areas, or that their population numbers have changed."

The N.W.T. species at risk committee announced that it assessed the snake as a "species of concern" earlier this month. This came after a meeting in Fort Smith to assess the species in late April.

That means that the species is at risk of becoming threatened or endangered in the territory. It's the first time the committee assessed the red-sided garter snake.

The committee will report its assessment to a group called the Conference of Management Authorities (CMA) in May. The CMA will then meet with N.W.T. communities and decide whether the red-sided garter snake should be added to the territory's list of species at risk. If added, it would still be considered a species of special concern.

Stewart says there are a few possible explanations for why they're not seeing the usual large populations. One is that the snakes have changed their habitat use and are hanging out in areas where they're not normally seen.

"But it's also possible that there were losses in the fire," she said.

Johanna Stewart

Johanna Stewart is a researcher studying the red-sided garter snake population in Fort Smith. She hopes her work will inform government decisions in how to protect the snake and how to manage land impacted by wildfires. (Submitted by Department of Environment and Climate Change)

Anecdotally Stewart said that she's seen snakes that seem to have burn marks or scars from the fire.

She said it also could be that burned forest has left the snakes more exposed to predators and that could also be contributing to a smaller population.

Stewart has been trained to safely capture the snakes and will spend the summer weighing, measuring and tagging them for a report to inform government on how best to protect the species and to manage land in a way that allows wildlife to recover from major climate events like wildfires.

She says she expects to have some preliminary results before the winter but will be back in the field next summer and have more information that she hopes to share with the community and territorial governments.

A report from the species at risk committee says that the extent of the 2023 wildfire season has created "urgent need" for more information on the snake, its habitat and the factors that threaten it.

That report suggests creating a working group where members of the public can meet to collect and share information on the snakes. It also suggests promoting public education initiatives to conserve red-sided garter snakes.

B.C. ends jade mining in northwest, all mines to close in 5 years

CBC
Sat, May 11, 2024 

An aerial viewpoint shows the winding Dease River along Highway 37, north of the community of Dease Lake, about 1,750 kilometres northwest of Vancouver. The province has ordered jade mining operations in the region to stop. (TranBC/Flickr - image credit)

British Columbia isn't allowing any new jade mines to open in the northwest, and has set a five-year wind-down period for existing operations.

A statement from the Ministry of Energy and Mines says officials have been working closely with First Nations to address concerns about the effects of jade mining on sensitive alpine environments in the area near Dease Lake, about 1,750 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.

An order under the Environment and Land Use Act was necessary to protect the area from further harm and disturbance, it said.


Mining activities on new tenures must stop immediately, while existing tenure holders may continue operating for five years with "enhanced regulatory requirements," allowing them "adequate time to wind down."

A merchant examines a jade stone displayed at the Myanmar Gem Emporium in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Monday, March 11, 2019. The annual emporium began Monday and will last until March 20.

A merchant examines a jade stone displayed at the Myanmar Gem Emporium in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (Aung Shine Oo/The Associated Press)

"The ministry has been working closely with local First Nations, with input from industry, to address concerns regarding the environmental impacts to sensitive alpine environments from jade mining in the Turnagain region of northwestern B.C.," the statement reads. "The order is needed to protect these areas from further harm and disturbance."

In addition to environmental harms, the ministry said jade mining has posed significant challenges when it comes to permitting, compliance and enforcement in northwestern B.C., where many sites are only accessible by helicopter.

The province said the order is limited to jade mining in that region, and it does not affect other kinds of mining or jade tenures elsewhere in B.C.

Jade is the provincial stone, and in 2016, under the then-B.C. Liberal government, energy and mines minister Bill Bennett declared May 28 as Jade Day, to promote awareness of its "economic benefits."

However, there has been significant contention over jade mining in the past several years. In 2020, the province, under the B.C. NDP government, implemented a temporary ban on jade placer mining in the northern half of B.C.

CBC News reached out to the Tahltan Central government, which has publicly objected to jade mining on its territories, but no one was immediately available to comment.

In a 2021 statement, the nation demanded an end to a reality TV show Jade Fever, which followed a jade mining operation on Tahltan territory. It also criticized the province's ban on placer mining, saying it didn't go far enough.

About two months later, in July 2021, the province updated its ban on jade mining to include a ban on hard rock jade mining.

Companies say they were not consulted

In response to the province's bans, two companies, Cassiar Jade Contracting Inc. and Glenpark Enterprises Ltd. filed a lawsuit against the B.C. government in March 2024 seeking financial compensation for the monetary damages caused by the bans.

In April, the province filed a response in court, stating the companies "could never have had a reasonable expectation of unconditional rights in relation to their mining claims." The lawsuit remains before the courts as of publication.

Kristin Rosequist, left, and Tony Ritter, right, are the heads of jade mining firms that are suing the B.C. government. The companies, Glenpark Enterprises and Cassiar Jade, say that the B.C. government halting jade mining operations is causing monetary damage.

Glenpark Enterprises president Kristin Rosequist and Cassiar Jade president Tony Ritter are against the ban on jade mining and their companies have filed a lawsuit against the B.C. government. (CBC)

Glenpark president Kristin Rosequist said she thought the government was going to announce a reform of the province's jade mining industry in the northwest — not a total shutdown.

"I hope that the people can recognize that the government is being so heavy-handed," she told CBC News. "In lieu of enforcing their own regulations, they find it more suitable to shut down an entire industry."

Tony Ritter, the president of Cassiar Jade, said mining companies were not appropriately consulted before the latest announcement, and that the government has only just reached out to set up a working group to discuss the incoming regulations.

"There's a lot of I have — a lot of questions that are unanswered," he said.

Ritter said companies like his are being punished despite an excellent environmental record, due to other companies' disregard of the regulations.

Trump praises fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter during rally speech


Ex-president calls Hopkins’ cannibalistic Lecter ‘late, great’ while condemning ‘people who are being released into our country’


Edward Helmore

Sun 12 May 2024 

THE GUARDIAN

Donald Trump on Saturday praised fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter “as a wonderful man” before segueing into comments disparaging people who have immigrated into the US without permission.

The former president’s remarks to political rally-goers in Wildwood, New Jersey, as he challenges Joe Biden’s re-election in November were a not-so-subtle rhetorical bridge exalting Anthony Hopkins’ cannibalistic Lecter in Silence of the Lambs as “late [and] great” while simultaneously condemning “people who are being released into our country that we don’t want”.

Trump delivered his address to an estimated crowd of about 80,000 supporters under the shadow of the Great White roller coaster in a 1950s-kitsch seaside resort 90 miles (144.8km) south of Philadelphia.

The occasion served for Trump to renew his stated admiration for Lecter, as he’s done before, after the actor Mads Mikkelsen – who previously portrayed Lecter in a television series – once described Trump as “a fresh wind for some people”.


Among other comments, Trump on Sunday also repeated exaggerations about having “been indicted more than the great Alphonse Capone”, the violent Prohibition-era Chicago mob boss.

Trump since the spring of 2023 has grappled with four indictments attributing more than 80 criminal charges to him for attempts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election he lost to Biden, retaining classified materials after his presidency and hush-money payments to an adult film actor which prosecutors maintain were illicitly covered up.

The trial over the hush money is set to enter its fourth week Monday.

Yet Capone was indicted at least six times before his famous 1931 tax evasion conviction.

Trump nonetheless used the occasion to call the charges against him “bullshit”, with spectators then chanting the word back at him.

The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that the former president’s supporters had poured into Wildwood in “pickup trucks decked out in Trump flags” from up and down the east coast.

According to the outlet, hundreds of people set up camp overnight on the boardwalk to get into the event.

“The country is headed in the wrong direction,” Kelly Carter-Currier, a 62-year-old retired teacher from New Hampshire, told the Inquirer. “So, hopefully, people will get their shit together and vote the right person in. And if they don’t, I don’t know. World War III?”

On the other hand, New Jersey Democrats dismissed the significance of the event.

Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill said many of the Trump supporters expected would be from out of state. “Jersey is not going to be a welcoming place for Trump,” Sherrill said.

Sherrill’s fellow New Jersey Democrat Andy Kim, a congressman running for the US Senate, said that generalized apathy toward government helped Trump’s support.

“I hope people recognize that he is not somebody that has an agenda that’s going to lead to a better type of politics,” Kim said.

Trump Says He’d Deport ‘Anti-American’ Protesters in Bizarre Rally Speech

TO WHERE?!!

Jeremy Childs

ROLING STONE
Sat, May 11, 2024 


Much like the college administrators who called the cops on student protesters, Donald Trump’s solution to quash any political uprising appears to be using the force of the state.

While speaking about Israel’s war in Gaza during a campaign rally in Wildwood, New Jersey on Saturday, Trump criticized the pro-Palestine protests on American college campuses, saying, “When I’m president, we will not allow colleges to be taken over by violent radicals.”

“If you come here from another country and try to bring jihadism, or anti-Americanism, or antisemitism to our campuses we will immediately deport you, you’ll be out of that school,” Trump continued.


Trump also alleged the campus protesters are being funded by President Joe Biden’s political donors, echoing a Politico story that Rolling Stone debunked. He has previously compared the campus protesters at Columbia University to the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, although he distinguishes the former as destructive and damaging and the latter group as “unbelievable patriots.”

Trump also criticized Biden’s decision to withhold a shipment of bombs to Israel due to its planned invasion of Rafah.

“Crooked Joe’s action is one of the worst betrayals of an American ally in the history of our country,” Trump said. “I support Israel’s right to win its war on terror, is that OK?”

Tens of thousands of people were in attendance for the rally held in the coastal city on the tip of the South Jersey Shore, with the Trump campaign claiming up to 80,000 people showed up to hear the presumptive GOP presidential nominee speak.

In addition to criticizing Biden’s response to the conflict in Gaza, Trump also spent much of his speech lambasting the Biden administration’s environmental policy, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s new guidelines to increase the number of electric vehicles on the roads, calling it Biden’s “insane electric vehicle mandate.” The oil and gas industry is reportedly writing executive orders to roll back Biden’s environmental policies in a second Trump administration.

Trump also took a moment to praise the villain of the 1991 horror film The Silence of the Lambs in one of the more bizarre tangents of the evening. Trump had been discussing Biden’s “open border,” alleging that criminals and “people from insane asylums and mental institutions” were coming into the U.S., a popular topic in his rally speeches.

“”Has anybody ever seen The Silence of the Lambs? The late, great Hannibal Lecter. He’s a wonderful man,” Trump said. “He oftentimes would have a friend for dinner.”

The moment is not the first time Trump has mentioned Lecter during a campaign stop, having referenced him in an apparent mix-up with the actor who portrayed the character, Anthony Hopkins, during a speech in Iowa last October. Trump wrapped up the tangent by saying, “Congratulations, the late, great Hannibal Lecter.”



The rally comes after the fourth week of Trump’s hush money trial, where the former president is charged on suspicion of 34 counts of falsifying business records stemming from payments made to former porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Daniels took the witness stand herself this week, recapping her encounter with Trump and undergoing cross-examination by his legal team.

GRIFTER IN CHIEF

New York Times: Trump could owe more than $100 million in taxes as a result of IRS inquiry

Eric Bradner, CNN
Sat, May 11, 2024 

Qian Jun/MB Media/Getty Images


Former President Donald Trump could owe more than $100 million in taxes as a result of a yearslong Internal Revenue Service inquiry into claims of huge losses on his Chicago skyscraper, The New York Times and ProPublica reported Saturday.

The news organizations reported Trump claimed massive financial losses twice — first on his 2008 tax return, when he said the building, then mired in debt, was “worthless,” and again after 2010, when he had shifted its ownership into a new partnership also controlled by Trump.

The 2008 claim resulted in Trump reporting losses as high as $651 million for the year, and there is no indication it drew an IRS challenge, the outlets reported. Then, Trump’s lawyers enabled further claims of losses in 2010 by shifting the Chicago tower into another partnership, “DJT Holdings LLC,” The Times and ProPublica reported.

In the years that followed, other Trump businesses, including golf courses, would be shifted into that same partnership — which his lawyers used as the basis to claim more tax-reducing losses from the Chicago tower. That move sparked the IRS inquiry. Those losses added up to $168 million over the next decade, the report said.

The outlets calculated the revision sought by the IRS could result in a tax bill of more than $100 million.

The only public mention of the IRS audit into Trump’s Chicago tower loss claims came in a December 2022 congressional report that The Times and ProPublica reported made an unexplained reference to the section of tax law at issue in the case. That mention, the outlets reported, confirmed the audit was still underway.

“This matter was settled years ago, only to be brought back to life once my father ran for office. We are confident in our position, which is supported by opinion letters from various tax experts, including the former general counsel of the IRS,” Trump’s son Eric Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, told The Times and ProPublica in a statement.

Biden calls Trump ‘unhinged’ and says ‘something snapped’ in former president after he lost 2020 election

Samantha Waldenberg, CNN
Sat, May 11, 2024



President Joe Biden on Saturday called Donald Trump “clearly unhinged” and claimed that “something snapped” in the former president after he lost the 2020 election.

“It’s clear that … when he lost in 2020, something snapped in him,” Biden told supporters in Seattle at a private fundraiser Saturday, according to reporters in the room. “He’s not only obsessed with losing in 2020, he’s clearly unhinged. Just listen to what he’s telling people.”

Even though Biden thinks the presumptive GOP presidential nominee is “unhinged,” he said he believes the November election will be “close.”


“We feel good about the state of the race, but we know the race is close,” Biden said, pointing to recent polls.

Trump continues to hold an advantage over Biden, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS last month. Trump’s support in the poll among registered voters held steady at 49% in a head-to-head matchup against Biden, the same as in CNN’s last national poll on the race in January, while Biden’s stood at 43%, not significantly different from January’s 45%.

As Trump has spent much of recent weeks in a Manhattan courtroom amid his hush money trial, Biden has kept a robust schedule of policy speeches and campaign events, finding plenty of ways to needle the former president.

“By the way, remember when he was trying to deal with Covid, he said just inject a little bleach in your veins?” Biden told a crowd of builders last month. “He missed. It all went to his hair.”

Saturday’s Washington state fundraiser was held at the home of former Microsoft executive Jon Shirley, who introduced the president.

As Biden was concluding his remarks, he told donors, “I’ll try my best not to disappoint you.”

CNN’s Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.



Joe Biden wants to remind 2024 voters of a record and an agenda. Often it's Donald Trump's

DARLENE SUPERVILLE and COLLEEN LONG
Updated Sat, May 11, 2024 



SEATTLE (AP) — President Joe Biden is running for reelection on a record and an agenda -- often Donald Trump’s.

In a hotel ballroom in Seattle, at fancy homes in California and at stops in Illinois and Wisconsin over the past week, Biden has been betting that reminding voters about Trump's presidency and highlighting his Republican opponent's latest campaign statements will work to the Democrat's advantage.

At a Seattle fundraiser Friday night, Biden brought up Trump's recent interview with Time magazine in which Trump said states should be left to determine whether to prosecute women for abortions or to monitor their pregnancies.

“I really urge you to read it,” Biden said.

Biden, who headlined another Seattle fundraiser Saturday before returning to the East Coast, has plenty of other Trump material to draw from, too.

The president highlights how Trump has promised, if elected, to be “a dictator on Day 1”, how he has suggested the United States would not necessarily defend allies from aggression and how he has pledged to “totally obliterate the deep state” in the federal bureaucracy, which he blames for blocking his first-term agenda.

“And he said a whole lot more,” Biden said during a Chicago appearance. “But the bad news is he means what he says. He means what he says. Unless you think I’m kidding, just think back to the 6th of January. This guy means what he says,” referring to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Biden wants the 2024 election to be a referendum on Trump's record and plans, but he also wants voters to look favorably on his own policies and actions.

Biden and his allies think the country needs reminding about Trump's tenure and his outlandish and often concerning statements, particularly because the Republican is no longer ubiquitous on X, formerly Twitter, nor is he in front of television cameras as often as he once was.

“Chaos is nothing new for Trump,” Biden said in Chicago. “His presidency was chaos. Trump is trying to make the -- the country forget about the dark and unsettling things that he did when he was president. Well, we’re going to not let them forget.”

Biden frequently highlights Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and how he stood by when supporters violently stormed the Capitol as Congress met to certify his loss to Biden. He also points to Trump separating children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border, tax cuts the Republican pushed through that benefited corporations and the wealthy and his repeated efforts to overturn the Affordable Care Act.

Biden's barbs have been getting sharper of late.

He opened his Seattle fundraiser on Friday night by telling donors, “Thank you for the warm welcome. Please keep it down, because Donald Trump is sleeping. Sleepy Don.” That was a riff off of news reports that the former president has dozed off during his criminal trial in a New York courtroom. Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges in a hush money scheme to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election.

Biden also talks about Trump’s admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his self-described “love letters” with Kim Jong Un, the authoritarian leader of North Korea.

Biden frequently jabs at Trump for wondering aloud during the COVID-19 pandemic whether disinfectants could be injected or ingested to fight the virus. “That bleach he didn’t inject in his body; he just put it in his hair,” Biden says to laughter every time. “But, look, he’s got more hair than I do.”

Trump's campaign said in a statement that “their records speak for themselves. President Trump created the most secure border in history and peace in the world. President Trump was the first president in modern history not to enter the U.S. in any new wars. Joe Biden’s weakness has led to wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, an immigrant invasion of our border, anti-Semitic protests on our college campuses, and crime and chaos in every American city.”

Trump doesn't hesitate to criticize Biden and his policies. Trump is spending much of his time lately sitting in court. But before and after the proceedings, he often stands in front of cameras outside the courtroom and goes after Biden.

At a recent Wisconsin rally, Trump mentioned Biden within the first 2½ minutes of his speech and referenced the president or his administration more than 60 times during his remarks.

Trump's criticism often takes a dark turn. Last weekend, he told donors at his Florida resort that Biden was running a “Gestapo administration."

The Gestapo was the secret police force of the Third Reich that squelched political opposition generally and, specifically, targeted Jewish people for arrest during the Holocaust. Trump’s unfounded comparison to Nazi-era tactics is part of his effort to deny and deflect the charges against him, most notably his effort to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory.

Biden's strategy is a gamble. Voters are divided in their views of both men's presidencies.

An April poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that nearly half thought Trump’s presidency hurt the country on voting rights and election security, relations with foreign countries, abortion laws and climate change. But more than half of U.S. adults thought Biden’s presidency hurt the country on cost of living and immigration.

For all his criticism of Trump, Biden does get around to talking about his agenda and accomplishments. He tells supporters about his work to boost the economy and to bring the country out of the pandemic. He discusses his support for abortion rights even as he highlights how Trump has taken credit for the overturning of Roe v. Wade in part because of his Supreme Court nominations.

“Folks, the choice is clear,” Biden told supporters recently in the nation's capital. “Donald Trump’s vision of America is one of revenge and retribution.”

“I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s chances,” he went on. “Not because I’m president, because of the state of the moment. The world needs us.”

___

Long reported from Washington. AP White House Correspondent Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

Police announce arrest of fourth suspect in B.C. Sikh activist Nijjar's death
The Canadian Press
Sat, May 11, 2024 

SURREY, B.C. — A fourth Indian national living in Canada has been charged in last year's killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside of a temple in British Columbia.

The province's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said in a release Saturday that 22-year-old Amandeep Singh was already in the custody of Peel Regional Police in Ontario for unrelated firearms charges.

"IHIT pursued the evidence and gained sufficient information for the BC Prosecution Service to charge Amandeep Singh with first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder," the police statement said.

Police also confirmed that Singh is an Indian national splitting his time in Canada in Brampton, Ont., Surrey, B.C., and Abbotsford, B.C.

Investigators say no further details of the arrest can be released due to ongoing investigations and court processes.

Earlier this month, police arrested three Indian nationals — Karan Brar, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh — in Edmonton and charged them with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Nijjar, who was gunned down in the parking lot of the Surrey, B.C., Sikh temple where he was president.

A spokesman for the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Protesters from the temple rallied outside the provincial courthouse in Surrey last Tuesday when the three men charged in the case appeared via video link.

Nijjar's death has sparked tensions between Canada and India, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying credible intelligence linked the killing to India's government, while Indian officials denied involvement.

The arrests have also heightened scrutiny on Canada's permitting process for international students after revelations that a video posted online in 2019 by an India-based immigration consultancy showed Brar saying his "study visa has arrived" while a photo showed him holding up what appeared to be a study permit.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada had said it cannot comment on active investigations or individual cases when asked about the suspects' immigration status.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press

Northvolt should turn Quebec into a major EV player. So why are people so unhappy?

The Canadian Press
Sun, May 12, 2024 


MONTREAL — In late September, Quebec Premier François Legault announced his government had attracted the largest private manufacturing investment in the province's history, which he said would transform Quebec into a global player in the electric vehicle supply chain.

He lauded it as the "greenest electric battery factory in the world," but since then, the $7-billion project has managed to anger many across the province — particularly environmentalists.

"Satisfying everyone is an impossibility, but satisfying nobody seems like a pretty mean feat to pull off," said Moshe Lander, a senior lecturer in economics at Montreal's Concordia University.

In the rush to attract Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt's factory, the Legault government committed $2.9 billion while Ottawa chipped in $4.4 billion. And the province quietly changed environmental regulations that resulted in the project avoiding Quebec's public consultations bureau, known as the BAPE.


The reaction was swift. An environmental group sued; Quebecers complained that the price tag was too high at a time when Legault was crying poverty during salary negotiations with teachers and nurses; and vandals sabotaged the work site east of Montreal by driving metal bars into trees, hoping to damage clear-cutting machinery. Then, last week, bottles filled with flammable liquid attached to detonators were found under equipment at the site.

Marc Bishai, a lawyer with the group that is suing Quebec — the Centre québécois du droit de l'environnement, or CQDE — said the widespread opposition is explained by "the way the government allowed the project to go ahead without respecting the laws that we as a society put in place."

His group sought a court injunction to protect wetlands and stop clear-cutting on the 171-hectare site, which straddles two communities about 30 kilometres east of Montreal. It lost that application but continues its legal fight to invalidate the environment minister's approval of preparatory work at the site.

Asked whether it was paradoxical that an environmental group is fighting an electric battery factory, Bishai said the CQDE "has never criticized the Northvolt project." Rather, his group is against the way the government pushed the factory forward "under conditions that are not democratic and sufficiently respectful of biodiversity and the population."

The CQDE is in court, he said, in part because the province failed to submit the project to public hearings, a process he said could have been completed in four months.

But Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette has said a full BAPE review would in fact have taken 18 months and led the Swedish company to look elsewhere. Before the project was announced, the government increased the threshold of battery production needed to trigger a review, raising it to 60,000 tonnes a year from 50,000. At a planned output of 56,000 tonnes a year, Northvolt is now exempt, but Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon has said the environmental regulations were not tailored to benefit the company.

In February, Legault told reporters it made him "sad" to hear people criticize Northvolt, saying that "with this attitude" Quebec would have been unable to build its major hydroelectric projects. "If we listened to these people, nothing would change," he said. "We would do nothing. So we really need to change this attitude in Quebec."

For Lander, the factory, which is supposed to begin manufacturing electric battery cells and producing cathode active material by 2026, is controversial because it reflects a lack of consistency with the Legault government's nationalist approach to governing.

In defence of Quebec's autonomy, language and culture, Legault has limited immigration — against the wishes of the business sector. He has introduced a language reform that manufacturing companies say will force some of them from the Quebec market. And Legault has increased out-of-province university tuition as a way to reduce the number of English-speakers in downtown Montreal, despite the protests of Montreal's mayor.

But this "Quebec first" approach hasn't extended to the Northvolt project, for which a foreign company is taking over Quebec land and using its hydroelectricity without being submitted to public consultations, Lander said in a recent interview.

"It's always been Quebec first at the expense of everything else, including the economy ... to dump this (project) on Quebecers' laps and say 'fix yourselves,' I think he needs to look in the mirror first," he said.

Laurence Bherer, a political science professor at Université de Montréal, agrees there is a disconnect in Legault's messaging, but she said Quebecers are far more concerned about his lack of consistency on the environment.

She said the BAPE "is an institution that really has a lot of legitimacy in Quebec." Sidestepping the bureau creates mistrust, which extends to the government's ecological vision, she added.

The government is championing the Northvolt project as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and electrify the transportation network, but at the same time Legault is reviving a major highway project in the Quebec City region known as the third link.

"It's as if the government's environmental policy is based on technological innovation," Bherer said. "Many people mistrust that. They think it's a form of greenwashing: we invest in this factory but we relaunch the third link."

Back at the Northvolt site, the explosives left under equipment were "rudimentary" and did not detonate, Paolo Cerruti, co-founder of the Swedish company, told reporters last week.

"We are more determined than ever to go forward," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2024.

Giuseppe Valiante, The Canadian Press

Balancing act: Canadian North’s first Inuk CEO juggles Arctic airline challenges

The Canadian Press
Sun, May 12, 2024 



In a colonnaded limestone building across from Parliament Hill, Shelly De Caria addressed a House of Commons committee on Wednesday as a chief executive for the first time in her 11-year airline career.

“I understand more than many what it means to struggle because of lack of access to affordable food as a child,” De Caria, who grew up in Nunavik in northern Quebec, told lawmakers.

“I remember the hardship and strain it caused, and most of all I remember going to bed hungry.”

De Caria has taken those memories with her to the top spot at Canadian North, where she stepped into the role in December.

She says her main focus will be doubling down on core services — scheduled flights that carry people, food and other essential goods to about 30 villages and cities, the vast majority of them accessible only by plane for much of the year — as the CEO looks to extend a lifeline to northern residents in need of air travel for health, education, business and tourism.


“This obviously can't be done overnight,” she said in an interview.

De Caria faces a raft of challenges. A pilot shortage and dearth of federal funding are two big obstacles, while weather and infrastructure difficulties particular to the North pose further problems.

With carriers’ flight volumes above the 60th parallel hovering below pre-pandemic levels, Canadian North’s first Inuk CEO now bears the task of balancing those financial and logistical challenges with the needs of communities for which she feels a deep affinity.

Born and raised in Kuujjuaq, Que., in the 1980s, De Caria experienced first-hand the limits on transport familiar to many Inuit communities, most of which rely on planes as their sole connection to the rest of the country for much of the year.

She joined First Air — later to merge with Canadian North — as a sales manager in 2013 partly because it allowed frequent travel back home to Nunavik from its headquarters in Ottawa. At that carrier, she helped develop community investment programs that targeted education, nutrition and mental health.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic wound down, old impediments have resurfaced with a vengeance, including labour shortages, government funding, snowstorms and gravel runways.

“We need to operate to the smallest communities, and not having pilots has been a big challenge,” said De Caria, noting that the shortage is not unique to Canadian North.

Some took off for WestJet last year after it signed a new collective agreement with pilots that featured big pay gains, she said.

The company has also struggled to make up for an end to the funding it drew from federal coffers during COVID-19, when its routes to 21 isolated communities were temporarily deemed an essential service and granted federal subsidies.

“We are the lifeline to the medical patients. The only way down to Ottawa — or Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton — is by plane,” De Caria said. She said she hopes to see more federal investment in northern airport upgrades that would allow for more efficient airline operations.

Infrastructure remains a big issue, with short, unpaved runways limiting the type of aircraft that can touch down.

“I can’t land a jet into, say, Cambridge Bay, because the gravel would go into the engine,” she noted. That means the airline has to fly smaller planes more frequently into some communities, at a cost to efficiency.

“Our margins continue to shrink,” De Caria told the Commons committee, saying a one per cent profit on cargo shipments is typical.

Meanwhile, repair and maintenance for the 36-plane fleetoften lie out of reach thousands of kilometres away.

“If you need a filter change and you’re in Iqaluit, there aren’t a lot of spare parts hanging around. You have to fly that spare part into that community,” said John Gradek, who teaches at McGill University's aviation management program.

He pointed to the cautionary tale of First Air, which joined forces with Canadian North in 2019.

“First Air spent a lot of money building up a lot of inventory across their network to support scheduled services,” he said. “And that overhead is why First Air didn't make it.”

The lower-tech instrumentation of most northern airports and turboprop planes also means aircraft cannot land in low visibility — a problem in snow-laden regions prone to a low cloud ceiling and long nights at certain times of the year.

“The volumes are low, the distances are long and the weather is unpredictable,” said Gradek, summing up the tough business case.

Balancing business priorities and social prerogatives amount to a daunting tightrope walk, but one De Caria is apt to take on, said Natan Obed.

The Inuit leader recalled De Caria’s commitment to her community during her three years at Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national advocacy organization Obed heads. She served as its youth coordinator from 2007 to 2010, handling files that ranged from mental health and suicide prevention to education, language and culture.

“Her being an Inuk in this role, for all of the people that know that she is there defending her community and also pushing for the success of Canadian North, is really empowering to a lot of Inuit,” Obed said.

The potential for friction remains, however, including over prices and a lack of competition.

Since it merged with First Air, Canadian North has flown far fewer scheduled flights than the two did collectively before 2019. Its flight volume last year sat at less than half of the carriers’ combined levels from 2018, according to figures from aviation data firm Cirium. The tally is much closer if charter flights are included, according to Canadian North.

“There are ongoing tensions, because airlines that service Inuit Nunangat communities have very high prices in relation to similar distances in the south,” Obed said.

Fares for a two-way Iqaluit-Ottawa trip often top $2,000, he noted, though Canadian North tickets can also be found for under $1,000.

“Canadian North largely serves Inuit and Inuit communities, and it's not in its best interest to alienate its paying customers,” said Obed.

“There are just these systemic challenges, and what we see as the output is uncomfortable in many ways, which in the end makes Shelly’s job very difficult — to manage all the expectations while also doing her best to manage the institution of Canadian North.”

De Caria said she initially “downplayed” her achievement as the first Inuk CEO of the Inuit-owned airline, but has since embraced it.

“I recently flew to Iqaluit and I saw how important it was for not only Inuit, but women as well,” she said.

She highlighted Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, who is also from Kuujjuaq, as a source of guidance who blazed a trail for younger generations.

“I feel like she's inspired me, but now I can inspire others to dream big,” De Caria said.

“My husband’s a pilot, and my daughter often sees how big a pilot is to everyone who we speak to. But more recently, she's like, ‘No, my dad’s a pilot, but my mom’s president and CEO.’”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2024.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

Pembina Pipeline says potential Trans Mountain purchase not a priority


The Canadian Press
Fri, May 10, 2024 


CALGARY — Exploring a potential purchase of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline is not a major priority right now for Pembina Pipeline Corp., the Calgary-based company said.

On a conference call with analysts to discuss first-quarter financial results, Pembina's chief financial officer Cameron Goldade acknowledged the recent completion of the $34 billion Trans Mountain expansion, which marked its official opening last week.

But he reiterated Pembina's previously stated stance that there are still too many questions surrounding the pipeline to support pursuing a purchase at this point.

"From our perspective, there still exists a tremendous amount of uncertainty around that asset. And so you know, frankly, nothing has changed from our prior messaging in terms of that as an investment opportunity," Goldade said on Friday.


"It's not something we're spending a great deal of time on right now."

Pembina formed a partnership in 2021 with Western Indigenous Pipeline Group for the purpose of pursuing an Indigenous-led equity stake in Trans Mountain.

The pipeline is currently owned by the federal government, which bought it in 2018 to get the expansion project over the finish line.

But the government has said it does not wish to be the long-term owner and has already launched the first of what is expected to be a two-phase divestment process.

Pembina is not eligible to participate in this first phase, which involves talks with more than 120 Indigenous nations located along the Trans Mountain route to see if any of them are interested in an equity stake.

The second phase, for which the timing is unclear, will involve the consideration of commercial offers.

Some analysts have suggested Pembina would be the most logical buyer for the 890,000-barrel-per-day pipeline, which opens up new global export markets for Canadian oil companies.

But during the course of the four years it took to construct the mega-project, the pipeline expansion ran into multiple regulatory snags, delays and budget overruns.

And even though the project is complete, the Crown corporation that built it is still locked in a dispute with oil companies over the tolls it wishes to charge to use the pipeline.

Tolls are the way a pipeline earns revenue, so the final tolling structure for Trans Mountain will directly impact the pipeline's value as well as the price a prospective buyer is willing to pay.

Trans Mountain is looking to charge higher tolls to offset some of the project's budget overruns, but oil companies don't want to be held responsible for construction-related challenges.

The Canada Energy Regulator has approved Trans Mountain's proposed higher tolls on an interim basis to ensure a tolling structure was in place for the start-up of the pipeline, but it has yet to make a final decision.

Pembina's comments on Trans Mountain came one day after the company announced it earned $439 million in the first quarter, up from $369 million a year earlier.

Pembina said its revenue for the quarter ended March 31 was $1.54 billion, down from $1.62 billion during the same quarter last year.

Diluted earnings per common share were 73 cents, up from 61 cents.

During the quarter, Pembina entered into long-term agreements with Dow Chemical to supply and transport up to 50,000 barrels per day of ethane to support the recently announced construction of Dow's new integrated ethylene cracker and derivatives facility in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta.

Pembina and its project partner, the Haisla Nation of B.C., also announced recently that they have achieved a number of positive milestones on Cedar LNG, a proposed floating liquefied natural gas facility to be built near Kitimat.

Pembina said a final investment decision on Cedar LNG will be made by June 2024.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:PPL)

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

China EV Maker Zeekr Shares Climb 35% After Expanded US IPO

Amy Or and Michael Hytha
Fri, May 10, 2024 


China EV Maker Zeekr Shares Climb 35% After Expanded US IPO


(Bloomberg) -- Shares of Zeekr Intelligent Technology Holding Ltd., the high-end electric car brand under Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., rose 35% after an expanded initial public offering that’s the biggest US listing by a China-based company since 2021.

Zeekr’s American depositary shares closed at $28.26 apiece on Friday in New York, giving the company a value of about $6.9 billion. The company on Thursday raised $441 million from the sale of 21 million ADS priced at the top of a marketed range of $18 to $21.

Underwriters have an option to purchase as many as 3.15 million more ADSs in an over-allotment option, which if exercised in full will lift the offering to 24.15 million ADSs, representing about 9.1% of Zeekr’s issued share capital, according to an earlier statement.

Geely Auto, Mobileye Global Inc. and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. were interested in subscribing for as much as $349 million worth of shares in the offering, Zeekr had said in its filings.

Zeekr’s offering adds to a US IPO market rebound that is steadily overtaking the lackluster volumes of the past two years. The roughly $17 billion raised via listings on US exchanges since Jan. 1 compares with less than $10 billion at this point last year, with close to half of 2023’s volume coming from a single blockbuster, Johnson & Johnson’s spinoff Kenvue Inc., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Biggest Since Didi

The listing by Zeekr is the biggest by a China-based firm in the US since Didi Global Inc.’s $4.4 billion IPO almost three years ago. Days after the ride-hailing firm went public, it became the subject of investigation by Chinese regulators and delisted from the New York Stock Exchange less than a year later. The crackdown that ensued after Didi’s IPO, which spread to wide swaths of the country’s tech sector, crushed both share prices and US IPO activity.

Since then, listings on New York exchanges by China-based companies have been small and rare.

Zeekr’s valuation suffered in the aftermath, too. The company said in February 2023 that it had been valued at $13 billion in a funding.

Overcapacity in its domestic market also afflicts Zeekr and others such as BYD Co., leaving them eager to boost sales overseas. Zeekr warned investors in its prospectus that the Chinese government could intervene in its business to further its own regulatory, political and societal goals.

Zeekr founder and Chairman Li Shufu will control about 75% of the shareholder voting power in the company after the IPO, according to the filings. He now presides over an empire that includes two other EV makers that are publicly traded in the US, as well as Volvo Car AB in Stockholm.

Lotus, Polestar

In February, Geely took automaker Lotus Technology Inc. public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. That followed Geely’s Polestar Automotive Holding going public in a SPAC deal in 2022, and the listing of Volvo Car the previous year.

Last year, Zeekr had a net loss of $1.16 billion on about $7.3 billion in revenue, with the latter increasing more than 60% from 2022, according to its filings.

Read More: Chinese Tycoon With Mercedes, Volvo Stakes Struggles Against BYD

The Zeekr lineup includes the 001, a five-seat crossover and the X, a compact sport utility vehicle. The brand has also launched the 007, a premium sedan.

The IPO was led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp. and China International Capital Corp. The company’s shares are trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ZK.

(Updates in first and second paragraphs with closing price.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

Tesla’s Autopilot caused a fiery crash into a tree, killing a Colorado man, lawsuit says


Fri, May 10, 2024



DENVER (AP) — The widow of a man who died after his Tesla veered off the road and crashed into a tree while he was using its partially automated driving system is suing the carmaker, claiming its marketing of the technology is dangerously misleading.

The Autopilot system prevented Hans Von Ohain from being able to keep his Model 3 Tesla on a Colorado road in 2022, according to the lawsuit filed by Nora Bass in state court on May 3. Von Ohain died after the car hit a tree and burst into flames, but a passenger was able to escape, the suit says.

Von Ohain was intoxicated at the time of the crash, according to a Colorado State Patrol report.

The Associated Press sent an email to Tesla's communications department seeking comment Friday.


Tesla offers two partially automated systems, Autopilot and a more sophisticated “Full Self Driving,” but the company says neither can drive itself, despite their names.

The lawsuit, which was also filed on behalf of the only child of Von Ohain and Bass, alleges that Tesla, facing financial pressures, released its Autopilot system before it was ready to be used in the real world. It also claims the company has had a “reckless disregard for consumer safety and truth," citing a 2016 promotional video.

“By showcasing a Tesla vehicle navigating traffic without any hands on the steering wheel, Tesla irresponsibly misled consumers into believing that their vehicles possessed capabilities far beyond reality,” it said of the video.

Last month, Tesla paid an undisclosed amount of money to settle a separate lawsuit that made similar claims, brought by the family of a Silicon Valley engineer who died in a 2018 crash while using Autopilot. Walter Huang's Model X veered out of its lane and began to accelerate before barreling into a concrete barrier located at an intersection on a busy highway in Mountain View, California.

Evidence indicated that Huang was playing a video game on his iPhone when he crashed into the barrier on March 23, 2018. But his family claimed Autopilot was promoted in a way that caused vehicle owners to believe they didn’t have to remain vigilant while they were behind the wheel.

U.S. auto safety regulators pressured Tesla into recalling more than 2 million vehicles in December to fix a defective system that’s supposed to make sure drivers pay attention when using Autopilot.

In a letter to Tesla posted on the agency’s website this week, U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigators wrote that they could not find any difference in the warning software issued after the recall and the software that existed before it. The agency says Tesla has reported 20 more crashes involving Autopilot since the recall.

Colleen Slevin, The Associated Press