CLASS WAR IN ALBERTA

AUPE - Alberta Union of Provincial Employees

Happening now.

The UCP just tabled the 'Public Sector Wage Arbitration Deferral Act' which tries to use government muscle to delay the June 30 wage arbitration deadline for AUPE members working for AHS and GOA.

Members in Edmonton have gathered at the Legislature Rotunda to respond to the UCPs attempt to delay wage arbitration until NOVEMBER 2019!

🚨🚨Here's what you can do now🚨🚨
CONTACT ALBERTA'S LABOUR MINISTER and let him know a deal's a deal. Using legislation to break the terms of a negotiated collective agreement isn’t bargaining. It’s bullying.

📢By phone: Call Labour Minister Jason Copping at 780-638-9400 and call Finance Minister Travis Toews at 780-415-485.

📢By email: Email Labour Minister Jason Copping at labour.minister@gov.ab.ca and Finance Minister Travis Toews tbf.minister@gov.ab.ca.

📢On Twitter: Tweet Labour Minister Jason Copping @JasonCoppingMLA and the United Conservative Party @Alberta_UCP. Use hashtag #ableg

📢Talk to your coworkers: Ask them how they feel about this illegal attack you your rights, your wages and your jobs. Talk about what you’re prepared to do to take action. Show them how to join the fight.

➡️Stay tuned: We’ll be in touch as the situation develops with more news and more opportunities to have your voices heard!

Read more: https://bit.ly/2WBo0j4

CLASS WAR IN ALBERTA - UPDATED

Leaked letter reveals Alberta is eyeing legislation, if necessary, to override public sector wage talks | The Star

Alberta’s finance minister says the government will pass legislation if necessary to override collective bargaining agreements with unions and delay contractually mandated wage talks

CLASS WAR IN ALBERTA AUPE FIGHTS BACK
Have you ever thought bosses need even more power over workers? No? Well, our UCP government seems to think so. 🤔

They want to get rid of overtime banking for non-union workers, bring back scabs for public sector labour disputes, and more! 👎🏾 What do you think of the government's Better for Bosses Act?

ALL CLASS WAR IN ALBERTA STORIES

 TWOFER THURSDAY SANDERS CONWAY
Sarah Sanders leaving White House job https://apnews.com/4ef006278bc044cb88b60375e0129462

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, whose tenure was marked by a breakdown in regular press briefings and questions about the administration’s credibility, as well as her own, will leave her post at the end of the month, President Donald Trump announced Thursday.

WATCH: April Ryan drops the hammer on Sarah Sanders’ lies and propaganda in scorching rebuke

On Thursday’s edition of CNN’s “OutFront,” commentator and American Urban Radio Network bureau chief April Ryan tore into outgoing White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, laying bare her lies, failures, inadequacies, and outright misconduct in the role. “You said Sarah Sanders ...

CHAOS PANIC AND DISORDER MY WORK HERE IS DONE

HUBRIS
Kellyanne Conway should be removed from post, federal watchdog says

An agency said the White House counselor violated the Hatch Act by disparaging Democratic 2020 hopefuls while speaking in her official capacity.
By Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Lisa Rein and Josh Dawsey
Read the report



Federal watchdog agency recommends removal of Kellyanne Conway from federal office for violating the Hatch Act
The report found that Conway violated the Hatch Act by “disparaging Democratic Presidential candidates while speaking in her official capacity during television interviews and on social media.”

Toronto Raptors defeat the Warriors in Game 6 to win their first NBA Championship

A CANADIAN FIRST MAKING THE NBA TRULY A NORTH AMERICAN LEAGUE NO LONGER JUST A NATIONAL ONE





Update: Fuck hockey
TORONTO - Earlier reports indicate that the nation has collectively said ‘fuck it’ to hockey since basketball is now the official sport of Canada.



THEBEAVERTON.COM

'Mysterious' mass found on moon's dark side

Researchers discovered something underneath the far side of the moon and say it's absolutely massive.

2001: A Space Odyssey - Deliberately Buried

Dr. Heywood Floyd is told the Monolith is believed to have been deliberately buried.

2. 
   

   3:48

   2001: Space Odyssey Best Scenes - The Monolith At The Moon

   VideoSiesta

   • 4 years ago
   • 69,899 views

   The astronauts go to the moon to check on the monolith. I almost shit my pants the frist time I saw this. Eerie music.

WATCHED

Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd - full album hd 2018

Música en mí

• 10 months ago
• 1,396,427 views

Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd - full album hd 2018 link:https:/

Weird 'Anomaly' at the Moon's South Pole May Be a Metal Asteroid's ...

https://www.space.com/moon-south-pole-anomaly-metal-asteroid-impact.html

1200 × 675 - 3 days ago - Researchers may have found the dense remains of a massive asteroid buried under the surface of the moon.

An 'Anomaly' the Size of Hawaii Is Buried Beneath the Moon's Biggest ...

https://www.livescience.com › Space

660 × 371 - 3 days ago - Earth's moon is hiding an enormous secret on its storied dark side. Deep below the moon's South Pole-Aitken basin (the largest preserved ...

Canada’s failure to fight climate change ‘disturbing,’ environment watchdog says

Canada is not on track to hit its 2030 target

Environment Commissioner Julie Gelfand says Canada is not doing enough to combat climate change.

Gelfand delivered her final audits  before her five-year term expires, looking at fossil-fuel subsidies, invasive aquatic species and mining pollution

But her final conclusions as the country’s environmental watchdog say it is Canada’s slow action to deal with the warming planet that is most ”disturbing” to her.

“For decades, successive federal governments have failed to reach their targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, and the government is not ready to adapt to a changing climate,” she said in a statement Tuesday morning. “This must change.”

Gelfand’s rebuke came a day after Environment Canada scientists sounded an alarm that Canada is warming up twice as fast as the rest of the world, causing irreversible changes to our climate.
Gelfand said neither Liberal nor Conservative governments have hit their own targets to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Canada is not on track to hit its 2030 target, despite policies like the national price on carbon that took effect this week.

Gelfand’s audit says the Liberals are not keeping a promise to get rid of “inefficient” fossil-fuel subsidies, which are undermining efforts to combat climate change, encouraging wasteful consumption of fossil fuels and discouraging investments in cleaner energy sources.
Canada has pledged to eliminate inefficient subsidies by 2025 as part of both the G20 and G7 economic groups of nations, and the Liberals also campaigned on a promise to get rid of them.

Gelfand concludes that both Finance Canada and Environment Canada have defined “inefficient” so broadly they can’t decide what subsidies fall into that category.

Finance Canada’s work on the subsidies focused exclusively on fiscal and economic considerations without giving any attention to the social and environmental issues at play. For its part, Environment and Climate Change Canada only looked at 23 out of more than 200 federal organizations when it compiled an inventory of potential subsidies for the fossil-fuel industry, Gelfand found.

Last year Canada began a peer review with Argentina that sees each investigate and report on the other’s fossil-fuel subsidies. Last week Environment Minister Catherine McKenna started a public consultation on the subsidies to aid that peer review.

The draft regulations she released last week say her department has concluded that none of the federal non-tax subsidies for fossil fuels actually is “inefficient.”

The regulations identified just four subsidies at all, including support to help Indigenous communities keep electricity prices down; funding for electric and alternative-fuel vehicle infrastructure, such as charging stations; and funding for research on clean technologies for the oil-and-gas sector.

Philip Gass, a senior energy researcher for the International Institute for Sustainable Development, said Tuesday using the World Trade Organization definition of subsidies, his organization found several that could or should be phased out.

The IISD list shows more than $1.2 billion in fossil-fuel subsidies from the federal government, and an even greater amount from provincial governments. Gelfand’s audit looked only at federal subsidies.

Gass said the government’s report on fossil-fuel subsidies is a good step toward transparency but that the reasoning behind the conclusion there are no inefficient subsidies is still confusing.

“We need a more ambitious approach and (to) have a better plan,” he said.

Gelfand’s audit is the second attempt to audit Finance Canada’s fossil-fuel subsidy programs. In 2017, the auditor general made an attempt but was blocked when the department refused to cough up the needed documents. Eventually the department gave in, resulting in the audits released Tuesday.

Gelfand also looked at the current impact of invasive aquatic species, most of which are accidentally introduced to Canadian waters on the hulls of ships coming from international waters and many of which harm native marine life after arrival.
She found that although Canada has made commitments to prevent invasive species from taking hold in Canadian waters, neither Fisheries and Oceans Canada nor the Canada Border Services Agency did what they promised to do. She says a lack of understanding of whether provincial or federal authorities are responsible is interfering with efforts to prevent invasive species from getting established.

Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press

Bank of Canada identifies climate change as important economic weak spot

Climate-change risks include the consequences of extreme weather events, like flooding and severe droughts.

The Bank of Canada is highlighting its expanding concerns about climate change and, for the first time, is listing it among the top weak spots for the economy and the financial system.

The central bank’s financial system health report Thursday included climate change as an important vulnerability, elevating it to a category alongside its long-running worries about household debt and apprehension about the housing market.

The assessment is part of the Bank of Canada’s annual report card that explores key weaknesses and risks surrounding the stability of the financial system.

“Economic activity and the environment are intertwined,” said the bank, which, like its international peers, is starting to make climate-change factors part of its financial stability research.

“Most experts agree that the global climate is changing and that this has growing implications for the economy. But the range of possible outcomes is large.”

Climate-change risks include the consequences of extreme weather events, such as flooding, hurricanes and severe droughts.

In Canada, the bank said insured damage to property and infrastructure averaged about $1.7 billion per year between 2008 to 2017 — 8.5 times higher than the annual average of $200 million from 1983 to 1992.

Beyond the physical damage, the bank said the shift to a lower-carbon economy will be complicated and could be costly for some.

The transition will likely lead to complicated structural adjustments for carbon-intensive sectors, such as oil and gas, and could leave insurance companies, banks and asset managers more exposed, the report said. In some cases, the bank said fossil fuel reserves could be left in the ground, which could drain the value of important assets.

The bank said the transformation to a lower-carbon economy also will likely provide a boost to sectors like green technology and alternative energy.

“Both physical and transition risks are likely to have broad impacts on the economy,” the report said.

In addition to climate change, the report also underlined the emerging vulnerability of rising corporate debt levels in the non-financial sector — a growing concern seen in other advanced economies. Some of the borrowing is of lower quality and the situation needs to be monitored closely, the bank said.
Last year, non-financial corporate debt relative to income was at 315 per cent, which the bank said was “well above its historical average.”

The bank said vulnerabilities linked to high household debt and the once-hot housing market have “declined modestly but remain significant.”

Both have been persistent weak spots in recent years and the improvements are due to a slowdown in credit growth since 2017 that coincided with stricter mortgage-lending policies and past interest-rate hikes.
The share of Canadians falling behind their debt payments remains “low and relatively steady,” the bank said. It noted, however, that since 2015 — after the oil-price slump — it’s seen a “small but steady increase” in the number of households in Alberta and Saskatchewan that have fallen behind by 60 days or more on at least one loan payment.

Housing prices in key markets of Toronto and Vancouver have cooled in recent years, but imbalances in real-estate markets are still an important vulnerability, the bank said.

“New measures have curbed borrowing, reduced speculative behaviour in housing markets and made the financial system more resilient,” Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz said Thursday in a statement.

“While the fundamentals in the housing sector remain solid overall and the sector should return to growth later this year, we continue to monitor these vulnerabilities closely.”

Overall, the bank said Canada’s financial system is resilient, but the risk has edged up since its last report in June 2018, due in part to factors such as slower economic growth and uncertainty around global trade.

The most-important threats to the financial system are a severe Canada-wide recession, a big house-price correction and a sharp re-pricing of risk in markets, the bank said.



Andy Blatchford, The Canadian Press

‘Climate change in action:’ Scientist says fires in Alberta linked to climate change

Alberta Wildfire data shows that, as of Friday, there were 569 wildfires in the province

PREMIER JASON KENNEY IN DENIAL 


A helicopter battles a wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alta., on Wednesday May 4, 2016.

Jason Franson
THE CANADIAN PRESS
Jun. 9, 2019

In May 2016, a wildfire near Fort McMurray forced more than 80,000 people to flee the northern Alberta city, destroyed 2,400 buildings and burned nearly 6,000 square kilometres of forest.

A year later, the fire season in British Columbia broke records as 2,117 blazes consumed more than 12,000 square kilometres of bush.

Both have been connected to climate change in two separate research papers published earlier this year by scientists with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

As another extreme fire season starts with more people on the run, scientists say they are already seeing signs that climate change is playing a role again.

“We are seeing climate change in action,” says University of Alberta wildland fire Prof. Mike Flannigan.

“The Fort McMurray fire was 1 1/2 to six times more likely because of climate change. The 2017 record-breaking B.C. fire season was seven to 11 times more likely because of climate change.”

The largest community evacuated in Alberta so far this year has been High Level. The vast Chuckegg Creek fire still churns in the woods south of town. It grew to 2,660 square kilometres in the first few weeks and remains one of several blazes currently burning out-of-control in the province.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has repeatedly said the cause of the fires is complex.

“I accept the science on anthropogenic climate change,” he said at a news conference last month. “But, in this particular instance, I can tell you we are on the five-year average for forest fires in Alberta.

“The large one right now is happening in an area where there has not been a fire for 80 years and so, regardless of other factors, it was due eventually for a large wildfire.”

Kenney’s comments aren’t wrong, but fire scientists say they don’t tell the whole story.

“Northern Alberta is covered by the boreal forest,” says Flannigan. “The boreal forest burns. It survives and thrives in a regime of semi-regular stand-replacing, stand-renewing high-intensity fire.”

It takes time for scientists to research and connect individual events to climate change, but Flannigan says it has become a major factor in Canadian fire seasons.

“We burn about 2.5 million hectares a year on average — that’s using about a 10-year average,” he says. “It’s more than doubled since the late ’60s and early ’70s.

“Colleagues and I attribute this to human-caused climate change. I can’t be any more clear than that.”

Most fire experts use a 10-year average for comparisons but, even using a five-year model, the number of fires in Alberta so far this year is already closing in on that number.

Alberta Wildfire data shows that, as of Friday, there were 569 wildfires in the province. The five-year average is 616. But they have already burned nearly 6,692 square kilometres, much higher than the five-year average of 1,387 square kilometres.

“There’s been a lot of research that’s shown as we warm, we get more fire,” says Flannigan.

He says there are three reasons: longer fire seasons; drier fuels and more lightning, which research has shown is increasing by 10 to 12 per cent with every degree of warming.

“Increasing temperatures, like those observed across Canada, will lead to drier fuels, and thus increased fire potential, as well as longer fire seasons,” says a federal report that looked into the Fort McMurray fire.

“The study demonstrated that the extreme Alberta wildfire of 2016 occurred in a world where anthropogenic warming has increased fire risk, fire spread potential, and the length of fire seasons across parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan.”

A study by federal scientists into British Columbia’s 2017 wildfire season found the area burned was seven to 11 times larger than it would have been without human influences on the climate.

Extreme high temperatures combined with dry conditions increased the likelihood of wildfire ignition and spread, the report says.

There’s already one sign that climate change is playing a role on the Chuckegg Creek fire near High Level, says Flannigan.

“Getting May fires up there is really early for that part of the province,” he says, explaining the area would normally start seeing fires in July. “Same with the Fort McMurray fire — that fire started May 1.

“The 2017 fire season in British Columbia — their busiest month is August — it started July 7 and that was really, really early for extreme fire weather for them.”


Colette Derworiz, The Canadian Press

Canada may need higher carbon taxes to meet its Paris targets, PBO says

Under current projections, Canada will reduce its emissions to 592 megatonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Jun. 13, 2019 7:55 a.m.

Canada’s parliamentary budget watchdog says a higher price on carbon will be needed if Canada is to meet its Paris Agreement targets for greenhouse-gas emissions.

A Parliamentary Budget Office report today says an extra price on carbon will be needed past 2023 to meet Canada’s targets, starting at $6 a tonne and rising to $52 by 2030.

Combined with the current federal fuel charge, that would add up to $102 per tonne.

Under current projections, Canada will reduce its emissions to 592 megatonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030, but the target is 513 megatonnes — a gap of 79 megatonnes.

The PBO estimated an additional price on carbon after 2023 would cut emissions more and at a lower cost to the economy than the current fuel charge.

The office notes that the estimates were made based on existing policies, and Environment and Climate Change Canada has said the effects of some new clean technologies have not yet been modelled.

ALSO READ: ‘Climate change in action:’ Scientist says fires in Alberta linked to climate change

ALSO READ: Bank of Canada identifies climate change as important economic weak spot