Wärtsilä Propulsion Package to Power Largest Methanol Cement Carrier Vessel

Wärtsilä will supply a complete propulsion package for a 38,000 DWT methanol-ready cement carrier vessel owned by NovaAlgoma

Published Dec 20, 2024 8:00 AM by The Maritime Executive

 

[By: Wärtsilä]

Technology group Wärtsilä’s focus on supporting the marine industry’s efforts to decarbonise operations continues to drive concrete steps forward. The latest order is to supply a complete propulsion package for a 38,000 DWT methanol-ready cement carrier vessel. When built, this will be the world’s largest vessel of its type, and the first with a methanol-ready notation. The order has been placed by NovaAlgoma, a joint venture between the Italian Swiss-based, Nova Marine Group and the Canadian Algoma Central Corporation. The ship is being built at the Zhejiang Xinle Shipbuilding Co.,Ltd, and is expected to be launched in late 2026. The order was booked by Wärtsilä in Q4 2024.

“This highly valuable new entry demonstrates the Group’s fleet development strategy and aims to address the significant increase in cement demand,” says Vincenzo Romeo, CEO of Nova Marine Group. “This will be the largest and most eco-friendly cement carrier ever built and is a tangible sign of our strong efforts towards a green fleet. Having Wärtsilä as the technology and solution provider supports our fleet’s effective transition towards decarbonisation.”

The Wärtsilä scope of supply includes two Wärtsilä 32 engines, one Wärtsilä 25 auxiliary engine, two gearboxes, two controllable pitch propellers, one tunnel thruster, three selective catalytic reduction (SCR) exhaust after-treatment systems, the propulsion control system, two shaft generators (PTO/PTI) and engine accessory items. The equipment is scheduled for delivery commencing in November 2025.

"Nova and Wärtsilä share a joint commitment to decarbonise shipping operations within the maritime industry,” comments Roger Holm, President of Wärtsilä Marine & Executive Vice President at Wärtsilä Corporation. “With this integrated package we are taking a holistic approach to the operation of this innovative vessel. This will allow us to support Nova with its sustainability goals around minimising emissions and ensuring the most efficient energy utilisation during operations.”

The Wärtsilä 32 engine is the result of the company’s long-established expertise. It is designed for efficient and easy maintenance in combination with long maintenance-free operating periods. It’s excellent fuel flexibility means it can easily be upgraded to operate with methanol. The Wärtsilä 25 engine’s modularity then offers maximised flexibility, while the engine’s efficiency and fuel economy deliver minimised emissions. In addition, Wärtsilä’s propulsion solutions deliver high efficiency, helping vessels to achieve their compliance targets. This is achieved in combination with a gearbox that reduces propeller speed meaning that a larger propeller diameter is utilised to maximise propulsive efficiency.

The products and services herein described in this press release are not endorsed by The Maritime Executive

 

Adm. Schultz: Coast Guard Sexual Assault Report Was Withheld From Congress

File image courtesy USCGA

Published Dec 19, 2024 5:48 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

 

The House Oversight Committee has released its interim findings on an 18-month review of Operation Fouled Anchor, a sweeping investigation into sexual assault at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy which was buried by the service's leadership. During Operation Fouled Anchor, the Coast Guard Investigative Service found that dozens of allegations of criminal misconduct from the late 1980s through 2006 were given de minimis treatment by Academy administrators: only five cases were ever referred to law enforcement, allowing almost all of the alleged perpetrators to quietly exit the school or to continue their careers. The top-line finding of the report was that CGA had a "disturbing pattern of conducting internal administrative investigations and/or initiating disenrollment for sexual misconduct instead of referring the matter for criminal investigation."  

By the time Operation Fouled Anchor's six-year-long investigation concluded, 70 CGIS personnel had spent 20,000 hours examining these allegations and compiling a report. The existence of the investigation and the final report were deliberately hidden from Congressional oversight, former commandant Adm. Karl Schultz (ret'd) confirmed to the committee in a transcribed interview. 

"That was a decision by me to not make a notification [to Congress]. I own that exclusively," Adm. Schultz told the committee. "I think every commandant that served from that period of time, through and including me, has some, some stink on them on this issue, you know."

In a conversation last week with CNN's Melanie Hicken and Blake Ellis - who first broke the OFA story in 2023 - Adm. Schultz said that he withheld the existence of Operation Fouled Anchor from Congress because he did not trust Congress to protect victims' identities. "I knew [Congress] would see it as, ‘Here’s the scandal and that they would blow it up,'" Schultz said - thereby leading to the disclosure of individual victims' personal information. 

Survivors reacted to this explanation with anger, according to Denise Rucker Krepp, a former Coast Guard officer and former chief counsel at MARAD. "'Another big lie.' 'What a joke.' 'Is he serious?' All comments shared with me by survivors in the minutes after the CNN article was published," said Krepp. "After decades of no accountability, survivors did not believe Schultz’s grandiose pronouncements."

Other factors

Documents from Adm. Schultz's tenure at the Coast Guard show that other factors - including reputational risk - were considered internally before he decided to conceal the report.

In October 2018, top government-relations officials at Coast Guard headquarters held an extended discussion on whether or not to brief Congress on OFA. Meeting minutes showed that at the time, these officials were concerned about the poor "optics" of the investigation's memorable name, "Operation Fouled Anchor." They documented internal concerns that briefing Congress would lead to "comprehensive Congressional investigations, hearings, and media interest" and could prompt uncomfortable questions about why "the rates of sexual assault reporting have not appreciably changed" at the Coast Guard Academy since Operation Fouled Anchor began (reporting rates had in fact doubled from 2009-17). 

The meeting minutes include a handwritten list of "pros and cons" for informing Congress, allegedly compiled by Vice Commandant Adm. Charles Ray. "Pros" included "rip the band aid off" and "cultural guilt purged." "Cons" included "investigations without end," "no bright line 2006" - the final year of OFA's scope - and "no victims coming forward now." Concerns about revictimizing survivors appeared as the final item on the list. 

Continued obstruction

The House Committee on Oversight alleges that the Coast Guard is still withholding information under Adm. Schultz's successor, Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan. Though the USCG has identified about 1.8 million pages of documentation that is potentially relevant to the committee's work, it has so far produced just 12,000 pages, and has refused to provide a timeline for the rest. The committee's members accused Coast Guard leadership of a long-term pattern of prioritizing institutional preservation over accountability. 

"The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and USCG consistently demonstrated recalcitrance in providing all the requested documents to the Committee. DHS claimed sensitivity concerns to justify withholding thousands of pages, offering limited in camera reviews for certain materials relating to the decision to withhold OFA from Congress," the committee wrote. "Withholding critical information has not only hindered the investigation, but also suggests a broader and continued effort to avoid accountability, putting service members at risk.
   

 

Sweeping Legislative Approach Proposed to Revitalize U.S. Merchant Marine

The legislation reports to be the first comprehensive approach to the U.S. merchant marine and shipbuilding industry

Published Dec 19, 2024 4:23 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

 

A new legislative initiative launched by two U.S. Senators and two U.S. members of the House of Representatives and broadly supported within the maritime industry seeks to provide a comprehensive approach to revitalize the U.S. maritime industry and all its related parts. Calling it the first wide-ranging approach to the problems of the industry, the legislation seeks to address the shortage of shipbuilding capacity and capabilities, the lack of U.S. flagged ships, and support mariners with improved training and credentialing programs overseen by a White House-level position, the Maritime Security Advisor.

According to the sponsors of the SHIPS for America Act (Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security), it entails the first all-encompassing strategic approach looking at all the challenges and providing a framework toward restoring the American merchant marine. They said it would create jobs in shipbuilding and at sea as well as rebuild the merchant marine and support national security. 

“We’ve always been a maritime nation, but the truth is we’ve lost ground to China, who now dominates international shipping and can build merchant and military ships much more quickly than we can,” said Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, a U.S. Navy veteran and the first U.S Merchant Marine Academy graduate to serve in Congress. “The SHIPS for America Act is the answer to this challenge. By supporting shipbuilding, shipping, and workforce development, it will strengthen supply chains, reduce our reliance on foreign vessels, put Americans to work in good-paying jobs, and support the Navy and Coast Guard’s shipbuilding needs.”

The comprehensive bill is 344 pages and contains many familiar elements proposed before, such as a requirement for U.S. exports of LNG to be transported on U.S. vessels, but it also creates a new infrastructure for oversight and accountability, overhauls the finance and incentive methods of the shipbuilding and the industry, uses cargo preference requirements and sealift capacity to spur shipbuilding, addresses the lack of seafarers with training and credentialing overhauls, and seeks to reform regulation to support the maritime industry. (Senator Kelly's office created at 17-page synopsis.)

A few other rider issues have already been proposed including legislation to increase the general limit of maritime liability to not exceed 10 times the value of a vessel and its cargo for the owner of a foreign vessel. U.S. shipowners would have liability up to the value of the vessel and its freight. It also reintroduces a bill for a maritime fuel tax parity.

Senator Todd Young of Indiana, another of the sponsors, said, “The bottom line now is America needs more ships. Shipbuilding is a national security priority and a stopgap against foreign threats and coercion.”

The legislation sets a goal of expanding the number of U.S.-flagged vessels in international commerce to 250 ships in 10 years. They contend that currently there are just 80 U.S.-flagged vessels in international commerce. The target is within the creation of the Strategic Commercial Fleet Program driven by cargo preference requirements including increasing to 75 percent (from 50 percent) the requirement for the U.S. government to transport cargo on U.S.-flagged commercial ships. They also propose a further requirement that 25 percent of agricultural cargo would have to travel on U.S.-flagged vessels. This would include specialty crops and food products exported by the Department of Agriculture under international aid programs. There is also a provision to require 10 percent of U.S. imports from China to travel of U.S.-flagged ships.

Financial programs include establishing a 25 percent investment tax credit for shipyard investments. The legislation would also overhaul the MARAD financing programs to create a revolving fund for financing construction and vessel repair. Training would be enhanced with investments in the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and the state schools, along with a recruiting program and overhauls to the credential programs of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Coordinating this comprehensive all-government approach would fall to the position of Maritime Security Advisor within the White House. This new position would lead an inter-agency Maritime Security Board tasked with making whole-of-government strategic decisions for how to implement a National Maritime Strategy.

“Today, less than 200 oceangoing ships fly the American flag, the SHIPS for America Act will empower our shipyards and marine merchants to uphold our country’s status as a leader in the maritime industry,” said Representative John Garamendi of California who with Representative Trent Kelly of Mississippi introduced the legislation into the U.S. House.

“The American Maritime Partnership applauds the sponsors of the SHIPS for America Act for their focus on the maritime needs of our nation,” said Jennifer Carpenter President of the partnership. “We appreciate that the legislation builds on the strong foundation of the Jones Act to further strengthen and revitalize the U.S. maritime industry.”

AMP is one of the more than 80 organizations supporting the legislation. The unions and trade associations, shipowners, shipbuilders, and suppliers to the industry have all endorsed the initiative. 

 

Hanwha Completes $100 Million Acquisition of Philly Shipyard

Hanwha completed the acquisition of Philly Shipyard setting its sights on U.S. navy defense contracting (Aker Philly Shipyard)

Published Dec 19, 2024 7:53 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

 

South Korea’s Hanwha Group completed the acquisition of Philly Shipyard on December 19 in a deal valued at approximately $100 million. The company emphasized its plans for the growth of the yard’s operations and has openly spoken of its goal to use the yard to expand into U.S. naval defense contracting.

Hanwha reported it received approval from the Committee on Foreign Invest in the United States in September 2024 as the clearance for it to acquire the yard from Philly Shipyard ASA, a publicly traded Norwegian company that was majority-owned by Aker ASA. The transaction was jointly conducted by Hanwha Systems, the group’s defense electronics operation, and Hanwha Ocean its shipbuilding operation formed after the acquisition of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in 2023.

Earlier this week, Hanwha Systems reported it was conducting a rights offering valued at approximately $63 million for a special purpose U.S. corporation for the acquisition. It used approximately $59 million to fund the acquisition of the U.S. shipyard while it retained nearly $4 million for operating expenses.

The shipyard was founded in 1997 at the site of the former U.S. Navy Philadelphia Shipyard. It is being renamed Hanwha Philly Shipyard and David Kim was named CEO of the shipyard. Kim previously served as executive vice president of Hanwha Defense USA.

"Hanwha Philly Shipyard begins an exciting new chapter today," said Kim. "We plan to grow and build on a long tradition of success, by expanding production using advanced technologies and supporting the national revitalization of U.S. shipyards. Together, we begin working toward our vision for Hanwha Philly Shipyard to be a trusted U.S. shipbuilder, challenging and redefining sustainable maritime solutions for commercial and government clients. We intend to do that by pushing the boundaries of shipbuilding by combining people with technology to build best-in-class vessels."

The company said it plans to expand the yard’s capabilities and scale into new markets while building on the current operations. They pointed to its experience of operating one of the world’s largest shipyards on Goeje Island, Korea while saying the plan is to expand Philly into more commercial shipbuilding and defense. Recently the Korean shipyard has received its first two maintenance assignments from the U.S. Navy. 

They also highlighted Hanwha Systems’ role as a leading supplier of naval systems. Previously discussing the strategy for growth in the U.S. market, Hanwha cited the opportunities to build components for the U.S. newbuild programs as a first step in its strategy. 

Hanwha has been working to expand its relationship with the U.S. Navy including earlier this year hosting U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro at the Korean shipyard. This fall, they also provided a tour of the South Korean shipyard to Admiral Steve Koehler, Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and a tour of its R&D facilities for U.S. Navy NAVSEA (Naval Sea Systems Command) Rear Admiral Thomas Anderson and Rear Admiral William Green.

Philly Shipyard reports it has built 50 percent of the large, ocean-going Jones Act vessels in the U.S. since 2000. This includes containerships for Matson and oil tankers. Currently, it is building the MARAD training ships for the U.S. state maritime schools and a rock installation vessel for the offshore wind sector. Work recently began on the first of a series of new orders from Matson for LNG-fueled containerships.

The agreement to acquire Philly Shipyard from the Norwegian companies was reached in June 2024. Talks had been rumored in October 2023, but Philly was also being courted by HD Hyundai which announced a partnership in April 2024 with the yard. Philly had worked with the Koreans in the past, including design and engineering work with DSEC, which was part of DSME, and DSEC also built components for Philly including those incorporated into the MARAD vessels.

 

Failed Rudder Indicator Fooled Pilot Into Running Aground

Courtesy ATSB

Published Dec 19, 2024 8:31 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

 

On April 9, 2022, the bulker Hagen Oldendorff turned to port and ran aground in the narrow entrance channel at Port Hedland, Australia. The rudder angle indicator on the bridge had short-circuited, and the pilot had run the ship aground in response to a "rudder failure" that did not in fact exist, according to the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau (ATSB).

At about 0045 on the morning of April 9, the Hagen Oldendorff departed the pier at Port Hedland with a load of iron ore in her holds. 45 minutes later, she was outbound in the dredged outer channel, making seven knots. In the tight confines of the channel, the casualty sequence unfolded in less than three minutes. 

At 0137:49, the pilot and bridge team heard "clicking sounds" from an electrical compartment on the bridge, and the rudder angle indicators went dark. At that moment, the ship was swinging to starboard at a rate of about four degrees per minute. To counteract the swing, the pilot gave a rudder order of port 20 degrees and ordered the aft escort tug to pull the stern to starboard. He ordered the helmsman to use non-follow-up steering to execute the helm order. 

At 0138:10, the pilot told the aft tug's master that a "rudder failure" had occurred. This was inaccurate, and at that moment, the ship's swing to starboard had largely been checked, according to ATSB. However, the rudder remained over at 20 degrees to port, and the ship began swinging to port. As the helmsman continued to apply non-follow-up steering commands, the rudder angle continued to increase, reaching 27 degrees to port. 

The pilot responded as though the rudder had failed, and ordered tug maneuvers to counteract the port swing, which was increasing. He ordered "stop engines" at 0139:24, and the swing peaked and began falling. The rudder was still over to port and stayed there until the ship's master questioned the pilot's helm commands, at which point the pilot ordered "hard to starboard" and ordered the engine astern. 

Even with all assist tugs pulling, reverse thrust and rudder hard to starboard, it was too late to prevent a grounding. At 0140:34, the Oldendorff's hull contacted the slope of the channel edge at a speed of about six knots, dragged along the bottom for 1,500 feet, and breached the number one and two port side ballast tanks.

Hagen Oldendorff aground (ATSB)

Five minutes after grounding, the ship's master correctly diagnosed that the rudder angle indicator was not working, and he informed the pilot. The local steering controls in the engine room were engaged, additional assist tugs arrived, and the Hagen Oldendorff transited out to an anchorage for inspection. 

Flooding in the number one and two ballast tanks was discovered later that morning, and the bulker began to develop a trim by the head. A dive inspection found that the hull had been breached in two locations, with the first hole measuring about two feet by three feet and the second hole about one foot square. There was extensive damage to hull plating and structural members over a 150-foot-long section where the ship had made contact with the channel's edge. Temporary repairs were carried out by the 18th, and the ship departed for China for a drydocking. 

A post-accident inspection determined that a motor had shorted out in one of the six rudder angle indicators on the bridge, tripping a breaker. That single breaker powered all of the rudder angle indicators, so all went dark at once. For the bridge team, this was evidence of a steering failure, and "the possibility of a rudder angle indicator failure was probably not considered," ATSB concluded. 

ATSB found that Hagen Oldendorff’s bridge equipment was fully compliant with all existing SOLAS and class requirements for safety. None of the existing rules require measures to protect the ship's rudder angle indication systems against a single point of failure - like a tripped breaker - nor do they require any alarms to notify the bridge team of a power failure affecting the indicators. The agency recommended that the class society, flag state and port state work with IACS on ways to address this rare but serious problem. 

Industry Pushes Back on Biden Administration's LNG Export Study

File image courtesy Lake Charles LNG

Published Dec 19, 2024 10:02 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

 

In a newly-released study, the U.S. Department of Energy predicted that natural gas prices for U.S. households will rise because of demand from buyers in Europe and Asia, who will be able to purchase more American gas as new LNG plants come online. The LNG and petroleum industries quickly pushed back on the report, and many energy-industry commentators have suggested that DOE's analysis is flawed or motivated by election-year politics.

American LNG export capacity is on track to double by 2028, from about 14 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) to 28 bcf/d, and DOE anticipates that it could double again to 56 bcf/d by midcentury. The study predicts that if not controlled, this expansion would raise Henry Hub gas wholesale prices by 30 percent and U.S. household electricity prices by four percent. 

"DOE analysis exposes a triple-cost increase to U.S. consumers from increasing LNG exports – the increasing domestic price of the natural gas itself, increases in electricity prices (natural gas being a key input in many U.S. power markets), and the increased costs for consumers from the pass-through of higher costs to U.S. manufacturers," said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. "Any sound and durable approach for considering additional [LNG plant] authorizations should consider where those LNG exports are headed, and whether targeted guardrails may be utilized to protect the public interest."

The department cautioned that unlimited exports of low-cost American LNG would benefit China, America's primary strategic competitor and the world's largest consumer of liquefied natural gas. Chinese buyers have signed offtake agreements with more than half a dozen American LNG plants, including Calcasieu Pass, Corpus Christi Stage III, Calcasieu Pass 2, Plaquemines LNG, Rio Grande LNG, Sabine Pass, and Mexico Pacific Limited.

Many industry experts were skeptical that increased LNG exports would impact American gas pricing. Jack Weixel, senior director at East Daley Analytics, told Hart Energy that more LNG export capacity would just absorb the existing, unrealized gas output from fields near the Gulf Coast. In the Permian Basin, natural gas has been priced below $0 for much of this year, and this underused volume is simply waiting for a new source of demand - like an LNG plant, Weixel suggested.

Dan Byers, VP of Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Energy Institute, noted that predictions of extra-high gas prices had been made before and had not come to pass - because American gas producers have room to increase supply. "Just last week DOE itself published an analysis showing that U.S. natural gas prices reached all-time lows in November. This is thanks to America’s enormous natural gas resource base, wherein upstream producers anticipate future demand and respond with additional production," Byers said in a statement.

Byers noted a parallel Chamber of Commerce-backed study produced by S&P Global, which predicts a domestic gas price increase of 0.7 percent by 2040 if LNG exports grow without restrictions. 

 

Russian Police Arrest Captains of Two Lost Russian Tankers

Courtesy Anapa City Hall

Published Dec 19, 2024 11:30 PM by The Maritime Executive

The masters of the two aging river-sea tankers that broke up and spilled fuel in the Kerch Strait last weekend have been arrested and criminally charged, according to authorities in Russian-occupied Crimea. 

Both vessels were more than 50 years old, and the head of Russia's maritime trade union told state outlet TASS that they were never designed for the rough conditions of the Kerch Strait in a winter storm. "The problem with the Volgoneft type vessels has been known for a long time. These vessels are declared as 'river-sea' class, but in fact in Soviet times they were used for river shipping, at most with an exit to the bay at the river mouth. They were not intended for full-fledged sea shipping," said Yuri Kurnakov, chairman of Russia's Marine Trade Union. "This is far from the first such incident."

One of the two captains, Leonid Volegov, was reportedly hospitalized for ingestion of fuel oil after abandoning ship; he was taken directly from the hospital for police questioning, according to independent Russian news channel Baza. The channel reports that before the casualty, he had been asking the shipowner to get his vessel into port and unloaded because its boilers were failing and could not keep the cargo of mazut (heavy fuel oil) heated.  

In a statement Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he had been informed that there were "mistakes by the captains" of the two ships. 

"This is an environmental disaster. Law enforcement agencies are assessing what happened," Putin said. "I was told that, in their opinion, the ship captains violated the rules and did not take shelter."

The pollution has spread along the Russian coastline of the Black Sea from Anapa to Kuban, a distance of about 25 nautical miles. An estimated 2,000-10,000 seabirds have been affected by oiling, and the tourism season for the area's popular beaches could be disrupted. Cleanup operations are under way with assistance from about 4,000 local volunteers; the long-term outcome is uncertain, as some components of heavy fuel oil tend to settle on the bottom and stay for years. 

Alberta's Smith disappointed federal pension plan report offers no estimate of share

By Lisa Johnson, 

The Canadian Press

December 20, 2024 

EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the province has heard back from Canada’s chief actuary on its bid to leave the Canada Pension Plan but says there’s no estimate on how much the province should get.

The province has been waiting for months for the review and a figure.

Smith said Thursday her government will follow up to get clarity on the next steps following an expected federal cabinet shuffle.
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“We’re a bit disappointed, because we were under the impression that the chief actuary was hiring three different analysts to look at the legislation, to be able to get three very precise ways of looking at this issue, so that we had a precise number,” Smith said at an unrelated news conference in Calgary.

“Once things stabilize a bit in Ottawa, I’ll be asking my finance minister to follow up.”


Earlier Thursday, Justin Brattinga, press secretary to Finance Minister Nate Horner, said the report from the chief actuary included an interpretation of the legislation, but no number or even formula for calculating a number.

“We are still analyzing the report and will have more to say at a later date. We would not consider moving forward with a referendum on the issue until after we have a firm number to provide Albertans,” said Brattinga.

The federal Finance Department, in a statement, said that in November all provinces and territories were sent the report detailing the chief actuary’s “interpretation of the asset transfer provisions in the CPP legislation if a province were to exit the plan.”

The department did not address the estimate issue, but said, “Discussions will take place between the Government of Canada and provinces and territories over the coming weeks regarding the report and possible next steps.”

The pension plan issue took off in Alberta after Smith’s United Conservative Party government won the 2023 provincial election.

Her government estimates Albertans deserve $334 billion — more than half the national retirement plan, while the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has pegged it closer to $100 billion.

Smith has said she wants to see what the federal estimate is, then put it to Albertans to see if there’s appetite for a referendum.

The premier told The Canadian Press in a year-end interview earlier this month that getting a firm number “does matter.”

“If it is an amount that doesn’t allow for us to significantly reduce premiums or give a rebate to existing pensioners, then Albertans might decide it isn’t worth it,” Smith said.

“If it allows for us to do both — increase the amount that pensioners can get as well as reduce contributions significantly — they might decide otherwise.”


Smith has argued Albertans are getting a raw deal under the national plan by putting in far more than they receive.

But she’s been swimming against the stream of public opinion.

Last year, her government put public consultations into leaving the CPP on hold amid demands they revolve around an agreed-upon number.

The government’s own Fair Deal panel found in 2020 that only 42 per cent of those polled thought an Alberta pension plan could improve the province’s place in the federation.

Nevertheless, it has remained on the wish list of many of Smith’s grassroots party members, who continued to push the premier this summer to take swift action.

Some of the Alberta government’s public survey data on the issue remains tightly guarded.

The Edmonton Journal reported this week that Alberta’s privacy commissioner has opened up two investigations after the newspaper’s efforts to obtain the public’s responses through freedom of information requests were stymied.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 19, 2024.

VW, Union Agree to Cut Capacity and Keep German Plants Open

By Monica Raymunt

December 20, 2024

The Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany. Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images (Sean Gallup/Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty )

(Bloomberg) -- Volkswagen AG reached an agreement with labor leaders to cut capacity at its namesake brand while avoiding factory closures, capping three months of tense negotiations and preventing further union walkouts.

VW agreed to keep the brand’s 10 German factories operational and reinstate job security agreements until 2030, the works council said Friday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg report. In exchange, workers agreed to forego some bonuses, reduce the number of trainees who get permanent employment and cut capacity at five sites by several hundred thousand units.

The measures, hammered out in five rounds of negotiations, are a far cry from the drastic savings that VW originally proposed. Labor leaders pushed back hard against plans to lay off thousands of workers, cut monthly wages and close three German factories to make the VW brand more competitive.

Still, the deal hands Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume a fresh start to turn around Europe’s biggest carmaker as it confronts dwindling market share in China and slowing demand for electric vehicles in Europe and the US. Both sides had aimed to strike an agreement by Christmas.

VW shares rose 1.7% earlier Friday in anticipation of an agreement, though they’re down roughly 21% this year.


As part of the agreement, management convinced labor leaders to shift production of the Golf hatchback from Germany’s Wolfsburg factory to Mexico, and to reduce capacity at its EV plant in Zwickau by moving production of the ID.3 hatchback, ID.4 sport utility vehicle and Cupra Born to the Wolfsburg and Emden facilities.

Zwickau will continue to produce the Audi Q4 e-tron and become the site of a car recycling project. Wolfsburg is poised to make VW’s electric Golf that will be underpinned by a new platform developed with Rivian Automotive Inc. That model is expected to be ready in 2028.

“It’s a wholly important signal for Germany,” union IG Metall negotiator Thorsten Gröger said at a press conference. The deal is a “signal of the ability to find a solution for major problems.”

(Updates with additional details throughout.)

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

Singh says NDP will bring forward a non-confidence motion to bring government down

By Nojoud Al Mallees, 

The Canadian Press

December 20, 2024 

OTTAWA — The New Democrats will bring forward a non-confidence motion to bring down the Liberals in the next sitting of the House of Commons, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Friday.

In the latest blow to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s struggling Liberal government, Singh wrote a letter address to Canadians in which he doubled down on his call for Trudeau to resign but also said the NDP will vote to bring down the government, regardless of who is at its helm.

“The Liberals don’t deserve another chance,” Singh wrote. “No matter who is leading the Liberal party, this government’s time is up. We will put forward a clear motion of non-confidence in the next sitting of the House of Commons.”

That opportunity can’t happen until at least the end of January as the House rose Tuesday and isn’t currently scheduled to sit again until Jan. 27.

The NDP’s pledge to try to bring down the government adds more uncertainty to the prime minister’s future as he faces mounting pressure to resign follow Chrystia Freeland’s resignation on Monday.

The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois have both been calling on New Democrats to vote non-confidence in the government but the NDP have supported the Liberals on three confidence votes since September.

If such a vote passes, it would trigger an election.

Trudeau has yet to address Freeland’s departure publicly but told Liberal MPs earlier this week that he will reflect on the situation and what he was hearing from them.

Trudeau is shuffling his cabinet on Friday but his public itinerary doesn’t include a media availability.

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

Trudeau’s Shocking Call With Freeland Sparked Canada’s Political Crisis

By Brian Platt,

 Bloomberg News

December 20, 2024

(Bloomberg) -- Justin Trudeau’s political future has been shaky for months. But the events that threaten to finish him as Canada’s prime minister snowballed into a crisis in a matter of days.

Everything seemed in hand on Dec. 8 when Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland, his finance minister and longtime deputy, dined at Harrington Lake, the prime minister’s country residence in the hills just north of Ottawa. They chatted about the details of a financial update Freeland was due to release the following week and forged an agreement on the major points, according to people familiar with the discussions.

So when Trudeau informed Freeland five days later that she would soon be out as finance minister, she was deeply upset. Mark Carney, the former Bank of Canada governor and a darling of global markets, was taking over, Trudeau told her. But he had another important job in mind for her: a cabinet role managing Canada’s suddenly fraught relations with the US and President-elect Donald Trump. It did not, however, come with running a government department.

At this point, Trudeau believed he had a firm commitment from Carney to join the cabinet, said a government official with knowledge of the matter. The prime minister would not have made the call otherwise, the person emphasized.

Freeland was having none of it. To her, this was a major demotion — one delivered over a Zoom call, no less. She spent the weekend agonizing over how to respond, according to people familiar with the course of events — stewing with the same frustration she had experienced in the summer, when reports emerged that Trudeau was courting Carney as her possible replacement.

This was the final insult.

Freeland gave Trudeau little time to get ready for what was to come. She called the prime minister on Monday morning and told him she was quitting the cabinet altogether. Shortly after, at 9:07 a.m., she posted a stinging resignation letter on social media site X.

“Our country today faces a grave challenge,” she wrote of Trump’s threat to upend the Canada-US trade relationship. The government needs to take that seriously and store up financial reserves, Freeland went on. “That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment.”

The words were searing. The timing was humiliating. The phrase “political gimmicks” reverberated through the Canadian capital. And Trudeau was left scrambling to answer the question of who would deliver the financial plan to the House of Commons if there was no finance minister.

On Monday, after Freeland’s resignation later came out, Carney spoke directly with Trudeau and said he would not be joining the government, according to a government official. Carney had started to express second thoughts over the weekend, the person said.

Now, without Freeland, arguably his closest ally, and without Carney, who may have helped turned around his poll numbers, Trudeau is fighting to keep his long-fragile government from collapsing.

His troubles got worse on Friday when Jagmeet Singh, leader of the opposition New Democratic Party, said his lawmakers will vote against the government in the new year. Without NDP support, the government is likely to fall.

Bloomberg spoke with multiple officials who have knowledge of the discussion and the events of the past few weeks. All of them spoke on condition of anonymity.

A cabinet shuffle scheduled for Friday offered Trudeau a last chance to shake up his inner circle, and the holiday break may temporarily relieve some pressure. Still, many inside the Liberal Party believe he can’t survive the broadside launched by Freeland, who had been one of his most important and loyal ministers during his nine years in power.

Even before the rupture, dozens of elected lawmakers from his Liberal Party wanted him gone — worried that if he stays, he’ll lead the party to a massive defeat in the next election. Now that camp of dissenters is growing, and their voices are getting louder.

“He’s delusional if he thinks he can continue on this trajectory. The country wants him to step down,” Wayne Long, a Liberal member of parliament from New Brunswick, said in an interview.


There are conflicting views among senior Liberals about what was behind the blow-up, and what comes next.

Some Liberals are still stunned by Freeland’s scorched-earth tactics, resigning on the very day of her scheduled fiscal speech with a letter that implied the prime minister was not taking the Trump threat seriously enough. It had a political ruthlessness that has them wondering if it was a maneuver to force him out so she can run for the job.

People close to Freeland, 56, say her hand was forced by how Trudeau has dealt with her since the summer months, when stories were published in The Globe and Mail newspaper that questioned her communication skills. Freeland was stung by Trudeau’s reticence to strongly defend her in public, these people say.

That controversy eventually faded. Trudeau, 52, stared down a mini-revolt from within his caucus in October. Then came Trump’s triumph.

Trump shook Trudeau’s government with a social media post on Nov. 25, warning he would place 25% tariffs on all goods from Mexico and Canada if those countries failed to make changes to improve border security. That created urgency for Freeland: She believed the government had to focus on preparing for a trade war and hold back other spending demands.

One point of disagreement appears to be the prime minister’s announcement that the government planned to send C$250 rebate checks to millions of Canadians, at a cost of about C$4.7 billion ($3.3 billion). It was the kind of short-term move she had warned about. Trudeau also implemented a temporary sales-tax holiday on some items, though government officials say Freeland was more supportive of this plan.

It’s clear Trudeau has been desperately looking for solutions to his party’s standing with voters. Liberal Party support is in the low 20% range, according to some polls. If an election were held today, surveys suggest the Conservative Party, led by Pierre Poilievre, would win a huge majority, with representation all across Canada, and a large number of elected Liberal members would lose their seats.

Bringing in Carney, 59, may have helped Trudeau change the story, which is why Trudeau made repeated attempts to bring in the ex-central banker, who’s currently the chair of Brookfield Asset Management and Bloomberg Inc., among other roles. In addition to becoming a minister, Carney would have joined Freeland as a key member of an economic “Team Canada” that would be charged with responding to the Trump administration, according to those familiar with the discussions.

But Freeland took the plan as a crushing rebuke — particularly since her new role didn’t come with running any government department. Before becoming finance minister, she had been trade minister and foreign affairs minister, and she took the lead for Canada in the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement during the first Trump administration.

She refused, resigned, and Trudeau has been reeling ever since.

An election is due by October, but it can happen sooner. The House is scheduled to return in late January. Soon after, the government is likely to face a confidence vote.

If Trudeau can’t find the votes to win it, Canada would be plunged into an election campaign during Trump’s first weeks in office. Another option for the prime minister is to step down and let Liberals choose a new leader who would also become the prime minister, at least for a short period of time.

“The government is in a state of chaos,” John Manley, a former Liberal finance minister, said on BNN Bloomberg Television.

(Updates with information on NDP’s plan to vote against the government in the 12th paragraph.)

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