MANITOBA 

ANOTHER CONSERVATIVE PROVINCE 

Canadian province will lift many restrictions a month before expected after hitting vaccination milestone

By Raja Razek and Christina Maxouris, CNN

Updated 9:49 PM EDT, Tue August 03, 2021

(CNN)With now at least 80% of eligible residents in Canada's Manitoba province having received at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose, local health leaders said Tuesday they will implement the least restrictive health orders since the pandemic's start -- a month earlier than they expected.

"Thanks to the remarkable efforts of Manitobans, we are now in a position to reopen more, sooner, as we have achieved our highest vaccination rates yet," Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister said in a statement.

About 75% of residents are expected to have received their second vaccine dose in the next week, according to a news release from the provincial government.

Canada fines two travelers nearly $20K over false Covid information

The announcement -- and what it will mean for Manitobans -- is in stark contrast with what's happening in the neighboring US, where lagging vaccination rates in many communities have fueled a dangerous surge that is showing no sign of slowing down. As a response, some local leaders have brought back restrictions and mask mandates in hopes of curbing the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

The new Manitoba orders, which will go into effect August 7, will allow gyms, libraries, personal services like nail salons, day camps and retail businesses to operate without any restrictions, the release said. Indoor and outdoor gatherings at homes will also have no restrictions.

Masks will no longer be required in indoor public places, but officials said in the news release they "strongly recommend" that anyone who is not fully immunized, including children under 12, should continue to wear masks indoors and social distance in those settings.

"We are slowly but surely approaching a post-pandemic Manitoba, but this does not mean COVID-19 will disappear. We need to remain cautious and vigilant in our efforts to stop the spread of this virus," Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief provincial public health officer, said in a statement.

At a news conference, Roussin said that some sectors -- including the most high-risk transmission environments -- would continue to see some restrictions.

Restaurants and bars will no longer have to restrict the size and space between tables and dining won't be restricted to members of the same household or vaccinated individuals. But people will need to avoid congregating between tables, the news release said.

Indoor and outdoor sports will reopen with spectator capacity limits, while casinos, professional sporting events and concert halls will be able to expand to 100% capacity but continue to be limited to vaccinated people.

Museums, galleries and movie theaters will remain limited to 50% capacity but will no longer be restricted to vaccinated individuals.

Roussin said that public health recommendations and guidance rather than restrictions will continue to play an increasing role in battling the pandemic.

"We have to learn how to live with Covid," Roussin said. "We need to take those public health recommendations to heart and ensure we're all reducing the risk to ourselves and to the people around us and to other Manitobans."

The new public health orders will expire on September 7 and will be reassessed at the time depending on vaccination rates and the Covid-19 situation in the province, officials said.

"We are very close to hitting that final milestone in our reopening path and reopening fully and completely," Pallister said. "We need everyone on 'Team Manitoba' for this final stretch. Get vaccinated -- not once, but twice -- and follow the public health orders and guidance designed to bend our COVID curve down, and keep it down."

GOOD TROUBLE

For Missouri congresswoman, eviction fight is personal

WASHINGTON (AP) — Roughly two decades before she was elected to Congress, Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri lived in a Ford Explorer with her then-husband and two young children after the family had been evicted from their rental home.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

So for Bush, a freshman Democrat from St. Louis, the debate over whether to revive the moratorium on evictions during the pandemic is deeply personal. To dramatize her point, she started to sleep outside the U.S. Capitol last Friday to call attention to the issue as part of the effort to pressure President Joe Biden and Congress to act.

On Tuesday, she won. After coming under intense pressure, the Biden administration issued a new eviction moratorium that will last until Oct. 3, temporarily halting evictions in counties with “substantial and high levels” of virus transmissions, which covers areas where 90% of the U.S. population lives.

Bush's experience sets her apart from the more conventional partisan sniping and grandstanding in the capital because of her direct connection to an urgent problem affecting millions of Americans.

“I know what it’s like to be evicted and have to live out of my car with my two babies,” Bush said in an interview Saturday. "As long as I am a sitting U.S. congressperson, I will not keep my mouth shut about it.”

Bush was a prominent part of a larger push among progressives to stop evictions. Her Capitol campout resonated: She was thrust into meetings with top congressional leaders and administration officials and sought after for interviews.

She met Monday with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and had a brief chat with Vice President Kamala Harris — attention that punctuates a political rise that took Bush from leading protests against police brutality in Ferguson, Missouri, to the halls of Congress in little more than five years.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday gave a salute to Bush "for her powerful action to keep people in their homes.”

Before reversing course, the Biden administration initially argued it didn't have legal authority to extend the moratorium again, pointing to a Supreme Court opinion in June that suggested Congress should pass legislation to do so.

A last-minute attempt to pass a bill through the House also came up short Friday. Then the chamber adjourned and lawmakers left town for an extended August recess — a response Bush says "failed to meet this moment."

On Tuesday, before the administration's announcement, Bush said: “Am I supposed to just go home? No, I’m an organizer. I am an activist. So I fell back into what I know how to do.”

It is activism borne of personal experience.

In 2001, Bush became ill while pregnant with her second child and had to quit her job at a preschool. The lost income led to their eviction.

For about three months the couple lived out of their Explorer with two playpens in the back. She said that, at the time, she was working in a low-wage job. Eventually, her family, already struggling themselves, was able to help her find a home.

“I don’t want anyone else to have to go through what I went through, ever,” Bush said while wiping away tears.

The couple later divorced and Bush went back to school, earning a nursing degree. She also became a pastor.

Her life changed in 2014 when a white police officer fatally shot Michael Brown, a Black and unarmed 18-year-old, in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri.

Bush joined the thousands of activists in the protests that followed the shooting and quickly became a leader of the movement that sought police and criminal justice reform in Ferguson and throughout the St. Louis region. She was back on the streets again three years later after a white St. Louis police officer was acquitted in the shooting death of a Black suspect.

Her activism fueled an interest in politics. She ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate in 2016, followed by another losing primary race for a St. Louis’ congressional seat in 2018, in which she was defeated by roughly 20 percentage points.

Two years later, her supporters sensed a change in the political landscape in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. With backing from the progressive group Justice Democrats, she sought a rematch against longtime Democratic Rep. William Lacy Clay — and won.

“They counted us out,” Bush said after her primary win. “They called me — I’m just the protester, I’m just the activist with no name, no title and no real money. That’s all they said that I was. But St. Louis showed up today.”

She won easily in heavily Democratic St. Louis in November.

The Rev. Darryl Gray, a political adviser to Bush, said her tenacity was apparent early in her failed 2016 bid for Senate, when she was willing to campaign in rural and very conservative corners of the state.

“She wasn’t afraid to show up and speak for justice in places where people would warn us about going, some of these ‘sunset towns,’” Gray said. “She knew she wouldn’t get support, but people respected the fact she showed up.”

Still, there are some who questioned the decision to pick a fight with congressional leadership and the president from her own party. Administration and congressional officials also noted that much of the money Congress had allocated to provide housing assistance has not been distributed by states.

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said he was "sensitive" to Bush's aim, but suggested she may be waging the wrong battle.

“It’s not the federal government that’s doing it,” Clyburn said. "If you’ve appropriated $46 billion for the country, and only $3 billion has been used, then that’s not Congress. ... It’s on whoever has got the money tied up.”

Tuesday evening, after the administration made its announcement, Bush tweeted out a photo of her and others sitting on the Capitol steps with a one-word caption: Grateful.

___

Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri. Associated Press writers Kevin Freking in Washington and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.

Brian Slodysko And Jim Salter, The Associated Press

GOOD NEWS
First flight of Afghan refugees who helped CAF arrives in Canada


A military plane sits on the tarmac at Pearson Airport on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021.

Ben Cousins

CTVNews.ca Writer

Published Wednesday, August 4, 2021 

OTTAWA -- The first “of a number of flights” carrying Afghan refugees who helped Canadian military personnel while deployed in Afghanistan has arrived in Canada.

In a statement on Wednesday evening, the federal government did not disclose how many refugees were on an evacuation flight that landed in Canada, but that more flights will be arriving in the coming days and weeks.

“We committed to do right by the Afghans who supported Canada’s mission in Afghanistan. With the arrival of the first resettled Afghan refugees in Canada, we are making good on that promise,” a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada wrote in a news release.

CTV News cameras at the Toronto Pearson International Airport spotted more than three dozen Afghan refugees leaving a military transport on Wednesday evening, including several children and seniors.

The government said that each of the refugees have met the “eligibility, admissibility and security screenings” required to enter Canada. They have all been tested for COVID-19 and will follow Canada’s quarantine requirements.

“To help the Afghans adjust to life in Canada, service provider organizations in communities across Canada are preparing to welcome them,” the statement read. “Settlement organizations will help them to find permanent housing, language training, a job and connections with established immigrants and Canadians and provide them with the information that they need about life in Canada.”

SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN ‘DIRE’

The Afghans arriving in Canada helped the Canadian military during a 10-year deployment in the country during the Afghanistan war, but are now in danger due to a resurgent Taliban threat.

“The government has been seized with the urgency on the ground and is working as quickly as possible to resettle Afghan nationals who put themselves at great risk to support Canada’s work in Afghanistan,” the IRCC statement read. “We have been working around the clock to identify individuals eligible to come to Canada under this special immigration program.”

The Taliban claims it controls about 80 per cent of Afghanistan after the U.S. began taking troops out of the country. U.S. President Joe Biden has set a goal of having all its troops out of Afghanistan by Aug. 31. The U.S. welcomed its first planeload of refugees into their country over the weekend.

“We are experiencing a dire situation,” Hassan Soroosh, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Canada, said in an interview with CTV News. “We are basically fighting an enemy who’s not committed to any rules of humanitarian law.”

“They continue using civilians as human shields.”

Ahmad, a former Afghan interpreter in Canada who’s identity is being protected for his family’s safety, said the situation has become so dire in his home country that his family has received a threatening letter from the Taliban.

“They're really scared because, for how long they can live there? And they can't even get out of the house,” Ahmad said.

Soroosh said reports have indicated the Taliban killed more than 5,000 civilian Afghans in the first six months of 2021, but he’s confident in his country’s ability to handle the situation in the long term.

"Our security and defense forces have shown both courage and dedication in terms of defending our country,” he said. “They’ve been able -- for instance -- to recapture some of the districts.”

"We are very much hopeful that the overall situation will get improved to the extent that no one will have to leave the country in the months to come."

GOVERNMENT FACED MOUNTING PRESSURE TO ACT

The Canadian government has faced mounting pressure over the past days and weeks for not resettling the refugees sooner.

The government said two weeks ago that it would expedite the process of bringing the interpreters to Canada, but the process has suffered several set backs, including in deciding who is eligible for the assistance.

Last week, the federal government announced that those wishing to come to Canada only had 72 hours to do apply, which Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan later said was a “mistake.”

Corey Shelson, a Canadian veteran from Kingston, Ont., who’s been pleading with the government to help out the Afghans, news of the first airlift is a relief, but concern remains for those who are still in Afghanistan.

"We have to ask ourselves: ‘Are the people who are relocated now the stranded interpreters that we have been advocating for, or is this a group of people who had to get out of dodge because the situation is getting so bad?’" he said.

Shelson said it’s believed most of the Afghans who arrived are embassy staff and their families, rather than the interpreters, cooks, drivers and other support staff who’ve been desperately pleading for help.

For security reasons, it’s not being disclosed where they are being transported for quarantine.

With files from CTV National News Senior Political Correspondent Glen McGregor, CTVNews.ca Producer Sarah Turnbull and The Canadian Press

ALBERTA

Rigs sit idle and jobs go unfilled in oilfields as workers walk away from volatile job market

One labour service firm is hosting a job fair for the first time in more than five years

Author of the article: Geoffrey Morgan
Publishing date:Aug 04, 2021 •

The labour shortage in the oilfield threatens to keep equipment sitting idle as oil and gas companies boost spending on drilling. 

PHOTO BY THE CANADIAN PRESS/AARON LYNETT


CALGARY — For the first time in six years, Canadian oilfield services companies are hiring swathes of workers again but struggling to find enough people to fill open positions despite Alberta’s high unemployment rate.

The labour shortage in the oilfield threatens to keep equipment sitting idle as oil and gas companies boost spending on drilling, fracking and oilfield construction to cash in on crude oil prices that have rebounded from all-time lows to benchmarks above US$70 per barrel and natural gas prices over US$3 per thousand cubic feet.

Industry groups and labour market experts say workers are reluctant to return to the oilfield services sector because it has been so volatile in the last five years and companies have laid off thousands of workers to grapple with ever-changing commodity prices and investment levels.

“They’re finding it even hard to have people apply for the jobs. It’s difficult to get enough resumes in the door, let alone bringing back trained and ticketed employees,” said Gurpreet Lail, president and CEO of the Petroleum Services Association of Canada, which represents a range of oilfield services companies including fracking companies.

Lail said PSAC member companies, which do much of the hands-on work for oil and gas companies, can’t hire from regular job banks because much of the work in the oilfield is specialized and requires ticketed trades and specialized skills.

PSAC updated its full-year drilling forecast last week as higher oil and gas prices have led to a surge in demand for oilfield services work and activity is now projected to reach pre-pandemic levels. The industry group now expects 2,330 wells will be drilled in Alberta this year and 1,290 wells in Saskatchewan, which represents an increase of 890 wells and 213 wells, respectively, in the two provinces from 2020 levels.

“It’s the first time in a long time that the industry has actually been optimistic. So our customers, the E&P companies, are starting to see the economic effects of higher commodity prices,” she said, adding that oilfield services companies want to see some of that “trickling down to our member companies.”

Alberta’s unemployment rate was stubbornly high at 9.3 per cent in June despite the province’s economy beginning to re-open, though that’s down from a peak of 15.8 per cent in June 2020.

In the oilfield services sector specifically, the unemployment rate is much lower, at 5.4 per cent in June, down from a peak of 23.5 per cent set last June, according to Energy Safety Canada’s Petroleum Labour Market Information (PetroLMI) division, which facilitates the development of skilled labour in the industry.

“The labour force has been shrinking,” said Carol Howes, vice-president of PetroLMI at Energy Safety Canada, attributing the decline in the sector’s unemployment rate to the uptick in oil and gas prices, federal funding for cleaning up old oil wells and a drop in the number of people interested in working in the sector.

Howes said PetroLMI is planning a job fair for the oilfield services industry in September — the first time it has hosted a job fair in over five years.

As companies struggle to find enough workers, some drilling rigs are “not going to work” and instead are left to sit idle, said Mark Scholz, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors.

Scholz said his member companies, which include the country’s largest drilling companies like Precision Drilling Corp. and Ensign Energy Services Ltd., are struggling to find skilled workers across Western Canada that are willing to come back to the oil and gas industry after a lengthy downturn.

“That certainly is something that has been challenging in the last six to seven years: we have not been able to provide a lot of job security for prospective workers,” he said.

Scholz described the current labour shortage as stressful for the industry, but noted it’s a “better stress” than the strain on the industry in recent years when oil and gas prices collapsed, investment in the oil patch dried up and companies were trying to survive.

At one point last summer, Scholz said there were just six rigs operating in Western Canada. CAODC data shows there are now 149 active drilling rigs.

• Email: gmorgan@nationalpost.com | Twitter: geoffreymorgan

GENERAL STRIKE!
Nurses union to protest salary rollbacks at hospitals across Alberta Aug. 11

Day of demonstration comes as 27 hospitals in Alberta report bed closures, service disruptions

Author of the article: Brittany Gervais
Publishing date: Aug 04, 2021 • 

About 100 nurses and supporters staged a protest rally outside the Sturgeon Community Hospital in St. Albert on Monday, July 26, 2021, to protest proposed wage rollbacks and other changes in a new collective agreement. 

PHOTO BY LARRY WONG /Postmedia

The union that represents Alberta nurses says its members will hold information pickets in at least 18 locations across the province to protest the Alberta government’s decision to roll back salaries and change health policies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The United Nurses of Alberta, which represents 30,000 members, has planned demonstrations for Aug. 11. Sites include four locations in Calgary, including the Peter Lougheed Centre, Foothills Medical Centre, Rockyview General Hospital and South Health Campus.



The demonstrations come as collective bargaining negotiations continue between the union and the province this week.

The province has proposed cutting nursing salaries by three per cent as a way to balance Alberta’s budgets, but the union argues it would actually amount to a five per cent reduction considering other rollbacks, such as the elimination of semi-annual lump sum payments and reduced shift and weekend premiums.

Cameron Westhead, second vice-president with the union, said after 18 months on the front lines of the pandemic, Alberta’s nurses are exhausted and demoralized.


“The rollbacks that have been proposed by the government are really an insult to us. The rollbacks aren’t going to help Alberta recruit and keep health-care workers, which is what we need to keep hospital beds open,” Westhead said. “We’ve seen temporary closures across the province as a result of short staffing.”

According to Alberta Health Services’ web page, 27 AHS facilities are experiencing temporary bed closures or service disruptions. In June, Health Minister Tyler Shandro blamed staff vacations for stresses in the health-care system, but later said “burnout” is playing a role here and in other jurisdictions.

Westhead said Shandro blaming shortages on nurses taking vacations added “another layer of demoralization.”

“(Nurses) have given everything they’ve had. They’re worried about their families and bringing the infection back home to their families, and nurses have been mandated to work overtime to deal with the short-staffing issue,” he said. “Even though they’re trying to take a day off . . . they aren’t given a choice. It’s either you come to work or you’re fired.”

During the height of the pandemic, nurses who weren’t trained to staff intensive-care units were called to help with care under supervision, Westhead said, which caused moral distress for those who were expected to take care of very sick patients without proper training.

Now that the province is planning to lift nearly all COVID-19 measures Aug. 16, Westhead said nurses and other health-care providers “are going to be the ones taking the brunt of this,” as it will be difficult to determine whether cases are going up without testing.

“That health-care system can be overwhelmed very quickly, and we won’t know about it until it’s too late.”

Other provinces have settled collective bargaining agreements with nurses’ unions in recognition that they need to focus on taking care of COVID-19 patients during the pandemic.

“When you have this uncertainty hanging over your head, like we do in Alberta, with the potential for wage rollbacks, that’s something that we don’t want to have to focus on right now. We would much rather conclude negotiations and get that out of the way.”

Kassandra Kitz, press secretary for Alberta’s finance minister, wrote in an email to Postmedia that “we respect the rights of Albertans to freely express their opinions,” but “we cannot lose sight of the fact that Alberta has a $17-billion deficit and has $93 billion in debt.”

“On average, Alberta nurses make 5.6 per cent more than in other comparator provinces. This costs Alberta approximately $141 million per year at a time when our finances are already stretched,” Kitz wrote.

“The need to bring wages in line with other large provinces does not diminish our deep respect for the exceptional work and dedication of public sector workers.”

Westhead said Alberta’s nurses are “paying the price” for Premier Jason Kenney’s “failed fiscal policies.”

“Jason Kenney likes to say he’s not going to raise taxes on people to pay for the COVID pandemic. But what he’s really doing is he’s asking nurses to pay a tax,” he said.

“Obviously, Alberta is in difficult financial circumstances. But it doesn’t make any sense to single out nurses to be the ones to pay for that.”

COVID-19: Alberta's active cases increase as doctors continue to air concerns over loosened measures

Author of the article: Lisa Johnson

Publishing date:\Aug 04, 2021 • 

Hundreds of people gather at the Alberta Legislature for the ProtectOurProvince rally to protest the recent provincial removal of all COVID-19 restrictions. Taken on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021 in Edmonton. 

Greg Southam-Postmedia PHOTO BY GREG SOUTHAM /Greg Southam

A group of Edmonton physicians is calling on the Alberta government to slow down its plan to abandon masking, testing, tracing, isolation measures for COVID-19 across the province.

Ten doctors representing the Edmonton Zone Medical Association’s pandemic committee penned a public letter to Premier Jason Kenney Wednesday urging the government to stick with its current public health measures until more evidence can be reviewed and shared with the public


“We are concerned with the rapid speed of these changes and that you have provided no scientific data to Albertans to justify these unprecedented actions,” the letter says.

The missive came before the province reported 206 new cases Wednesday. With 2,282 active cases, Alberta has the highest number of active cases in the country. Hospitalizations rose to 97, including 23 in intensive care, from a total of 90 as of Tuesday’s update.

More than 5.3 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the province, with 76.1 per cent of the eligible population vaccinated with one dose, and 66 per cent fully vaccinated.

The doctors’ letter echoes some of the same concerns expressed by the president of the Alberta Medical Association Paul Boucher in a public letter last week about the pace at which public health measures are ending, but it adds that Alberta’s measures run counter to the advice of the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Canada and the World Health Organization.

Premier Jason Kenney and Health Minister Tyler Shandro have said chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw proposed removing the measures and the government approved her plan.

In a column sent to media outlets Wednesday, Hinshaw apologized for causing “confusion, fear or anger” in the way the plan was communicated.

Hinshaw said she did not intend to convey that COVID-19 is over, but said the latest changes will support the overall health of Albertans.

“COVID-19 is a wicked problem; experts don’t always agree on the exact nature of the problem, much less the best approach. But it is not the only wicked problem we are facing together,” Hinshaw wrote, adding that public health resources need to be directed at other threats, like syphilis and opioid deaths.

While the group of doctors warn of the disabling symptoms of “long COVID-19,” and say the removal of the face masking mandate on public transit on Aug. 16, combined with the return to school in September without masking rules, will speed up the spread of the highly-contagious Delta COVID-19 variant, Hinshaw did not specifically address masking or long COVID.

The doctors recognize that vaccines are effective, but say the province’s pediatric intensive care units are already operating at 100 per cent capacity and could be overwhelmed by a large number of serious illnesses in children under the age of 12 who are ineligible for vaccines.

Meanwhile, Opposition NDP labour critic Christina Gray said Wednesday COVID-19 testing, tracing and isolation are the “bare minimum the provincial government can do,” saying without them workers who become ill will be at risk of losing federal sick pay, workers’ compensation and other supports.

Protests at the legislature in Edmonton over the province’s plan continued for the sixth day in a row Wednesday.

lijohnson@postmedia.com

twitter.com/reportrix

HINSHAW TAKES ONE FOR THE KENNEY TEAM

Hinshaw: We need to learn to live with COVID without extraordinary measures

SHE FAILS TO RECCOMEND WEARING MASKS DESPITE PROOF THEY REDUSED COLDS AND FLUES AS WELL AS COVID

IN A ONE PARTY STATE THIS IS A RECANTATION NOT AN EXPLANATION

Author of the article:Dr. Deena Hinshaw
Publishing date:Aug 04, 2021 •

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, speaks in Edmonton on Thursday, May 27, 2021. PHOTO BY CHRIS SCHWARZ/GOVERNMENT OF ALBERTA /Postmedia file

I am sorry that the way I communicated about the planned changes to our COVID-19 response has caused feelings of confusion, fear or anger for some people. I am hearing that the message people received from my words was that I think COVID is over, and that people are being left on their own to deal with it. That was not my intended message, so I want to share some of the rationale behind the changes and why I believe this course of action will support the whole health of Albertans.

Over the past year and a half we have faced an extraordinary threat together. COVID-19 has required extraordinary measures that have saved lives and prevented our health-care system from being overwhelmed. These extraordinary measures were necessary and effective, but they also came with unintended consequences that harmed the health of Albertans in other ways

I care deeply about the health of all Albertans. This means I have to constantly consider not just COVID-19 but all the other threats to people’s health. The majority of our public health resources have been directed at the COVID-19 response, as has been necessary. That has come at the cost of not fully working on other threats, like syphilis and opioid deaths. As vaccine coverage has changed the nature of the province-wide risk of COVID-19, it is time, in my opinion, to shift from province-wide extraordinary measures to more targeted and local measures. This allows us to start looking at other issues while still continuing COVID-19 protective measures in areas of high risk, and responding to local outbreaks where the health system is under threat.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, gives a COVID-19 pandemic update from the media room at the Alberta legislature in Edmonton, on Wednesday, July 28, 2021.

 PHOTO BY IAN KUCERAK /Postmedia

We will not eliminate COVID, which means we need to learn how to live with it. Testing every person with a runny nose or sore throat is an extraordinary measure that we cannot sustain, particularly through the respiratory virus season. Legally mandating everyone to stay home for 10 days if they have any symptoms is also an extraordinary measure. It was necessary before vaccines, but it is also incredibly disruptive; it could only be justified when the risk was unchecked by vaccine protection. I know the vast majority of Albertans do not want to knowingly inflict harm on others. I believe that for those who test positive for COVID-19, knowing that staying home is the way to protect others, and is the right thing to do, will be enough for them to take that action.

When it comes to children, I understand the anxiety about kids under 12 for whom vaccine is not yet available. I have two children of my own in that age group, so it is a personal as well as a professional concern. For children, it is important to think about the much smaller risk of severe outcomes and the consequences of the public health measures we have had in place. We know these have led to problems with kids’ mental health and impacts on learning and development. We navigate risks for our children every day, and looking at how COVID-19 risks for kids compare with other risks is important to help inform the way forward. For example, for kids 0 to 9, the risk of an ICU admission for seasonal influenza in the year before COVID was roughly equal to their risk of an ICU admission for COVID. In another example, kids aged 5 to 14 had a 140 times greater risk of an emergency department visit for a sports-related injury in 2019 than their risk of COVID-related hospital admission since March of 2020. This doesn’t mean we should ignore the risk to kids from any of these things, but I believe it means we should consider COVID risk in context of all other risks that we face.

COVID-19 is a wicked problem; experts don’t always agree on the exact nature of the problem, much less the best approach. But it is not the only wicked problem we are facing together. In addressing these complex issues, we are best served by trying to understand each other’s perspectives, engaging in respectful dialogue, and continuing to assess our approach. We will be doing just that with the upcoming shifts in our COVID-19 plans. We will be relying on a robust surveillance system including wastewater surveillance, clinical testing, sentinel surveillance in primary care, and outbreak testing to monitor trends and impacts. We will respond to local threats and continue to communicate with Albertans.

I cannot stress enough that vaccines are our most powerful tool in the fight against this virus. While the coverage we have in this province minimizes the threat of overwhelming the health-care system, the virus remains a significant risk. Now is the best time to choose to be protected, both for yourself and those around you.

I commit to you that I will continue to do my best every day to serve Albertans, as I have always done, by considering all aspects of the health of all those in Alberta.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw is the chief medical officer of health for Alberta.

STALINIST REALPOLITIK

Head of group for exiled Belarusians found hanged in Ukraine


KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Belarusian activist who ran a group in Ukraine helping Belarusians fleeing persecution was found dead in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, local police said Tuesday

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Vitaly Shishov, leader of the Kyiv-based Belarusian House in Ukraine, was found hanged in one of the city's parks not far from his home, police said in a statement.

A probe has been launched, with police investigating whether it was a suicide or a murder made to look like suicide, head of Ukraine's National Police Igor Klymenko told reporters on Tuesday.

The Belarusian House in Ukraine reported Monday that Shishov had gone missing during a morning run. The Belarusian human rights center Viasna cited Shishov's friends as saying that he has recently been followed by strangers during his runs.

The Belarusian House in Ukraine helps Belarusians fleeing persecution with their legal status in Ukraine, accommodation and employment.

In Belarus in recent weeks, authorities have ramped up the pressure against non-governmental organizations and independent media, conducting more than 200 raids of offices and apartments of activists and journalists in July alone, and detaining dozens of people.

Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has vowed to continue what he called a “mopping-up operation” against civil society activists whom he has denounced as “bandits and foreign agents.”

Lukashenko faced months of protests triggered by his being awarded a sixth term in an August 2020 vote that the opposition and the West saw as rigged. He responded to demonstrations with a massive crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police.

Belarus’ authoritarian government has at times gone to extremes in its crackdown on dissent, including recently diverting a plane to the capital of Minsk and arresting a dissident aboard.

The Belarusian House in Ukraine said in a statement Tuesday that Shishov was forced to move to Ukraine in the fall of 2020, when antigovernment protests and crackdown on demonstrators in Belarus were in full swing.

In Ukraine, he was under surveillance, and “both local sources and our people in Belarus" have alerted the group to the possibility of “various provocations, including kidnapping and liquidation.”

“There is no doubt that this was a planned operation by security operatives to liquidate a Belarusian, dangerous for the regime. We will continue to fight for the truth about Vitaly's death,” the group said.

Yury Shchuchko from the Belarusian House in Ukraine told The Associated Press that Shishov was found with marks of beating on his face. “Nothing was stolen, he was in regular clothes people put on to work out, and he only had his phone with him,” Shchuchko said.

He also said that Shishov has previously noticed surveillance during his runs and that strangers would approach him and try to start a conversation.

“We have been warned to be more careful, because a network of Belarus KGB agents is operating here and everything is possible,” Shchuchko said. “Vitaly asked me to take care of his loved ones, he had a weird feeling."

Klymenko of the National Police told reporters on Tuesday that there were indeed injuries discovered on Shishov's body — scratched skin on his nose, a cut on his lip and an injury on his left knee. He wouldn't say, however, whether these resulted from violence. Klymenko added that police haven't received any complaints about surveillance from Shishov.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenko's main challenger in the August 2020 election who left for Lithuania under pressure from the authorities, expressed condolences to Shishov's family on Tuesday.

“Belarusians can't be safe even abroad, as long as there are those who are trying to inflict revenge on them,” Tsikhnaouskaya said in an online statement.

“Vitaly Shishov was helping Belarusians and was found hanged ... It happened on another country's soil. Just like the hostage-taking took place on another country's plane. Just like the attempt to forcefully bring a disloyal athlete back to Belarus from another country's territory,” she said.

Earlier this week, Belarus Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya accused the country's officials of hustling her to the airport and trying to put her on a plane back to Belarus after she publicly criticized the management of her team at the Tokyo Games. Tsimanouskaya refused to board the plane and instead will seek refuge in Europe.

In an interview Tuesday, she told the AP she feared she wouldn't be safe in Belarus.

European officials on Tuesday urged Ukraine to conduct a thorough investigation into the death of the activist.

“We are deeply shocked by the news of the death of the Belarusian activist Vitaly Shishov," Austria’s Foreign Ministry said on Twitter. "Our thoughts are with his loved ones. Austria calls for a thorough and transparent investigation into the circumstances leading to his death.”

Marta Hurtado, a spokeswoman for the U.N. human rights office, told reporters in Geneva that the office hoped the authorities in Ukraine would conduct "a thorough, impartial and effective investigation on what happened and see if it was just a suicide, if it was a regular criminal murder, or if there is a relation with his activism.”

___

Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

Yuras Karmanau, The Associated Press

Election body targets Bolsonaro after he fails to show fraud

TRUMP MINI ME

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — After years of attacking Brazil's voting system as susceptible to fraud, President Jair Bolsonaro ignored a Monday deadline from the nation's electoral court to present proof of his claims. And the election authority, in turn, adopted its strongest measures yet aimed at preventing Bolsonaro from chipping away at faith in the nation's upcoming election.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

According to two of Bolsonaro's ministers, his administration considered turning over a compilation of videos and documents, most of which the far-right president already exhibited publicly on July 29 and the court that oversees and administers elections has debunked. His administration's order for the Federal Police to find evidence of election fraud from the past 25 years didn't identify any such examples, said the ministers, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity due to concern of retaliation from the president.

One of the ministers and the electoral court's press office confirmed that no evidence was sent.

Bolsonaro has alleged that Brazil's electronic voting system isn't reliable and makes it impossible to audit results. As such, he has backed a constitutional amendment that would make a printed receipt of each vote visible to the voter before being deposited in a sealed container for subsequent review, if necessary.

Analysts have expressed concern that Bolsonaro, trailing in opinion polls ahead of his 2022 reelection bid, will follow the example of former U.S. President Donald Trump, who goaded supporters to dispute his loss.

The electoral court has rebuffed his claims as baseless, saying the system is trustworthy and there are several means of checking results. The court's president, Luís Roberto Barroso, previously told AP that the proposed reform would be a risky solution to a nonexistent problem, creating opportunities for vote buying and fraud claims.

Late Monday, the court unanimously approved sending a request to the Supreme Court for Bolsonaro to be targeted as part of its probe into the dissemination of allegedly fake news. It also approved opening its own investigation of Bolsonaro for his claims, which the court wrote in its decision could characterize a variety of violations, including abuse of economic and political power; improper use of social media; corruption; fraud; or premature campaigning.

Bolsonaro last week promised he would present the proof of fraud that he has long claimed to possess.

Once live on state television and his social media channels, he showed internet videos that have been available for years and spreadsheets tracking the tabulation of the 2014 presidential vote, while the party that lost that election says it was fair.

Eventually, Bolsonaro conceded he lacked concrete evidence.

“There is no way to prove the elections were or weren't defrauded. There are indications. Crime is revealed with several indications,” he told his audience during the nearly three-hour presentation on July 29.

He used the opportunity to lambast his likely opponent in next year's election, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who several polls have shown leading Bolsonaro by double-digits in a runoff.

The electoral court fact-checked Bolsonaro live on its social media channels that evening and, on Monday it published a letter signed by 15 former presidents, plus the current president and its incoming chief, who denied any fraud since the electronic system’s implementation started in 1996.

The two ministers who spoke on condition of anonymity said that while there is no proof of election fraud, the president’s insistence has served to galvanize his base, as seen with street protests in at least 15 state capitals Sunday.

In Rio de Janeiro, thousands gathered beside Copacabana beach chanting and holding signs like “AUDITABLE VOTE NOW!” A plane flew low overhead with the same demand on a trailing banner.

“Our vote is checked by some judges, some members of the electoral court, in a secret room. We want it to be counted in every electoral section of Brazil,” said teacher Marquele de Souza.

The tallying is done automatically by each electronic ballot box, which transmits the results through an encrypted network.

Ricardo Penteado, a lawyer who focuses on electoral and political rights, said Brazil’s institutions took too long to react to Bolsonaro’s hard-charging stance, so are partly responsible for letting him commandeer the national conversation.

“It doesn’t matter how or what the arguments are. This is a fight of someone who isn’t right and that isn’t about perfecting the democratic system,” said Penteado, a member of the Sao Paulo state bar’s electoral rights commission. “Rather, it is to destabilize that system and discredit the justice system.”

On Monday, the leaders of the army, navy and air force clubs published a joint statement in support of printed vote receipts and criticizing the current system’s lack of transparency. The recreational clubs are formally independent of the armed forces, but are widely seen as voices for former service members.

To be sure, Christopher Garman, managing director for the Americas at the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, said he doesn't see any danger of Brazil's top generals backing Bolsonaro in challenging results, even if a leftist like da Silva triumphs.

“Centrist parties in congress will certainly bandwagon to whoever wins the election to gain access to government positions, and any effort to undermine the election result by Bolsonaro will only act to unite the rest of the political class to defend whoever is elected," Garman wrote in a research note Monday. "The latter is particularly true if there are acts of violence in the election process.”

On Monday, the Supreme Court's first session after weeks of recess opened with the chief justice delivering a fiery speech in defense of Barroso, who presides over the electoral court and has been a frequent target for Bolsonaro’s animus, and of democracy itself.

“Constantly vigilant of a country’s democracy and institutions, judges need to glimpse the right moment to raise their voices in the face of possible threats,” Chief Justice Luiz Fux said. ___ Associated Press videojournalist Lucas Dumphreys in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report.

Débora Álvares, The Associated Press

#METOO   GAMERGATE 2.0

The president of Blizzard is stepping down in light of the company’s explosive workplace revelations

Aidan O'Brien 1 day ago

J. Allen Brack, president of Blizzard, is stepping down from his leadership position after the company’s reputation was damaged by explosive revelations about the apparently toxic and demeaning workplace culture that had been allowed to fester there.

© Provided by GamePur

The company’s problems came to light after a lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing accused Blizzard of fostering a “frat boy” culture and turning a blind eye to sexual harassment and abuse. This would then lead to an employee walkout, a torrent of further revelations, and a tumbling share price that prompted Blizzard to make a post directly to their investor portal under the guise of being a message to employees.

“Starting today, J. Allen Brack will be stepping down as the leader of the studio, and Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra will co-lead Blizzard moving forward,” Blizzard said in an announcement that was posted to the official website.

Interestingly, both Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra are relatively new additions to Blizzard. Oneal joined in January of this year after the acquisition of Vicarious Visions, and Ybarra made the move from Xbox to Blizzard in 2019. The statement released by Blizzard takes steps to highlight this in a clear attempt to show that the new leadership will not have been in any way complicit in the development of the toxic workplace culture that the company is accused of having.

In the statement, the company promises to “ensure Blizzard is the safest, most welcoming workplace possible for women, and people of any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or background”.

The post The president of Blizzard is stepping down in light of the company’s explosive workplace revelations appeared first on Gamepur.

RACIST Saskatchewan Judge Refuses To Release Residential School Document

(ANN) – A judge in Saskatchewan is refusing to release a document outlining how the Catholic Church fulfilled Residential School reparations to First Nation people.

The alleged document details $25 million in “in-kind” services the Catholic Church provided as compensation for Residential school survivors — one of their obligations in the Residential School Settlement of 2006.

Court staff have confirmed the existence of the document and have said that it doesn’t appear to be sealed or under a publication ban.

However, the document has been in the custody of Justice Neil Gabrielson, the same judge who oversaw a 2015 case between Canada and the Catholic Church regarding the perceived existence of the Church’s compensation to First Nations.

The 2015 case was meant to force the Catholic Church to pay the full reparations, but ended up allowing the church to be released from its commitments instead.

The “in-kind” services document was a part of this case.

An unnamed court official has stated that the court has a supervisory role to court documents and that protocols are being followed before its release.

“The court will not change its procedures, hurry its processes or ignore fundamental responsibilities to meet your deadline,” said the court official.

An application must be submitted to the court and all parties involved in the 2015 case must be notified before the release.

Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Martel Popescul explained that the court documents are controlled by the presiding judge, saying, “Judicial independence is a fundamental tenet of our legal system.”

“You will have your answer in due course, and if you disagree, you may consider appealing to the Court of Appeal — the proper and usual process,” said Chief Justice Popescul.

The release of the 2015 document could take several months.

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN), which represents 74 First Nations within Saskatchewan, has called for the resignation of Chief Justice Popescul for his support of keeping the document hidden.

“We are calling for the immediate resignation of Chief Justice Popescul for his failure to respect, honour and uphold our survivors and their descendants,” said FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron.

“The judicial process he cites to protect these important documents is the same racist systems and laws that upheld and enforced genocide upon our people. The same racist institution that forced our babies into these horrific schools, that killed and buried these children with no regard and even jailed First Nations parents for trying to stop them from attending. Justice Popescul had the opportunity to do the right thing,” said FSIN Chief Cameron

“We have long heard and believe stories from our people who state there is systemic judicial racism when it comes to presiding judges and it becomes obvious when you research some of their decisions.”

It should be noted that Chief Justice Popescul is the same judge who acquitted Gerald Stanley, the 56-year-old farmer who got away with shooting 22-year-old Indigenous man, Colten Boushie, in the back of the head in 2016

Jacob Cardinal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News

Saskatoon sees bright future in solar energy


Saskatchewan's biggest city is harnessing the sun to meet its climate goals — and push a fossil fuel-heavy province toward renewable energy.

Over the last six months, Canada's National Observer has been looking into what's working and what's failing in cities across Canada as they rise to the challenge of fighting climate change. In a 13-part series, we will be taking you across the country, province by province, for a look at how cities are meeting the climate emergency with sustainable solutions.

By Julia Peterson | Part 9 of Sustainable Cities

August 3rd 2021


In Canada's sunniest province, Saskatoon is hoping to harness solar energy in its transition away from fossil fuels — by 2036, all new homes in the city will be required to maximize their solar panel coverage.

The average two-person household in Saskatchewan uses about 5,200 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, according to SaskPower. An average residential solar panel setup in Saskatoon could produce approximately 1,350 kWh per year.

Installing solar panels may be expensive, but it pays off: SaskPower's net-metering program allows Saskatoon residents with solar panels to sell power back to the utility and save on their electric bills.

In Saskatchewan, signs of the province's reliance on resource extraction dot the landscape, from oil derricks standing in flat southern Prairie fields to mines carved out of the forests in the north.

Now its biggest city is working to change the vista, at least within city limits. By 2036, all new homes in Saskatoon will be required to maximize their solar panel coverage. The hope is that someday in the not so distant future, the glint from blue solar panel covered rooftops will dominate the scenery along banks of the South Saskatchewan River.

In a province where more than 80 per cent of the province’s electricity is still produced from fossil fuels, Saskatoon is trying to shift as much electricity production to renewable energy as possible. The city's goals are laid out in its Climate Action Plan which aims to reduce CO2 emissions by more than 54 million tonnes by 2050, says Jeanna South, the city's sustainability director.

Jeanna South, sustainability director for the City of Saskatoon, says the city is helping homeowners pursue green options as part of its push to lower Saskatoon's carbon footprint. Photo submitted by Jeanna South

Saskatchewan is aiming to bring down greenhouse gas emissions by 16% from 2018 levels.

Provincewide, Saskatchewan is aiming to bring down greenhouse gas emissions by 16 per cent from 2018 levels. In particular, the province highlights efforts to reduce emissions associated with agriculture, drive down energy consumption in government-owned buildings and shift to renewable energy sources. There are huge challenges, however — 30 per cent of the province’s electricity still relies on coal. Sask Power hopes to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.

Saskatoon’s plans tie into the provincial renewable strategy. Solar generation capacity has already risen tenfold from 2014 to 2020, as solar panels are installed on residential, institutional, commercial and industrial buildings. And while there is a long wait before they become mandatory in new residential builds, South says the city is working hard to help homeowners pursue other green options in the meantime.

One recently passed measure is the Home Energy Loan program, which allows homeowners to access low-interest loans to install energy efficiency retrofits or make environmentally sustainable improvements.

By 2036, all new homes in Saskatoon will be required to maximize their solar panel coverage. Photo by Sarath SunilDutt / Pexels

The sunshine provinceSaskatoon receives an average of 2,389 hours of sunlight per year.

Saskatoon is uniquely well-positioned to harness solar power. Saskatchewan is the sunniest province in Canada, and Saskatoon receives an average of 2,389 hours of sunlight per year. According to South, the average residential solar panel setup in Saskatoon could produce approximately 1,350 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. As of 2016, according to SaskPower, the average residential energy consumption for a two-person household in Saskatchewan was just over 5,200 kilowatt-hours per year.

This advantageous geographic location was one factor that inspired Saskatoon homeowner Luc Bezaire to install solar panels on his roof nearly two years ago. Even though the initial cost was high, he knew eventually it would pay off in savings on his power bill while helping improve the environment.

Homeowner Luc Bezaire invested in solar panels nearly two years ago and has seen considerable savings on his power bill. Photo submitted by Luc Bezaire

There’s a shift in energy coming, and it’s not about throwing up your hands and acting like you can’t do anything. Every problem has a solution.

Luc Bezaire, Saskatoon homeowner

“We’re living in a world that’s looking at a transition — and that’s whether people want it or not,” he said. “There’s a shift in energy coming, and it’s not about throwing up your hands and acting like you can’t do anything. Every problem has a solution.”

A 2018 report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found fewer than 20 per cent of Saskatchewan residents supported an immediate transition away from fossil fuels. However, over 60 per cent of those surveyed wanted the government to invest in wind and solar energy. A mere 3.7 per cent actively opposed investing in solar.

Since installing solar panels, Bezaire says his yearly power bill has dropped from over $3,000 to less than $600. And he is looking forward to seeing more of his neighbours take similar steps.

“When you look down the road, it’s the way of the future,” he said. “I think it would go a long way towards offsetting future increases in power generation — if we can control the growth of coal-fired power plants or gas-fired power plants through solar production, that’s all to the good.”The high cost of solar panel installation, which is a daunting factor for many otherwise enthusiastic homeowners, has dropped significantly over the past decade.

Bezaire notes the high cost of solar panel installation, which is a daunting factor for many otherwise enthusiastic homeowners, has dropped significantly over the past decade. If this trend continues, he said, “future builders will be negligent in their planning if they don’t plan for solar.”

Shane Wiedman, CEO of the Saskatoon-based solar panel installation company Sundawg Solar, agrees.

Since he started it four years ago, it has become more efficient every year, he said. “The costs have come down; the efficiency of these things are just getting better and better all the time.”

Sundawg Solar CEO Shane Wiedman expects to see his business grow thanks to the City of Saskatoon's residential solar mandate. Photo submitted by Shane Wiedman


Once you invest in solar, realistically, your price will never increase after that. You have a locked-in price that you pay for.

Shane Wiedman, CEO of Sundawg Solar

Wiedman says solar energy is “one of the best investments you can make” to reduce power charges. He believes the pending residential solar mandate will be a boon to his business and put more money in the pockets of his neighbours.

“It’s the old question: if you could have locked in your gas prices at 45 cents per litre 20 years ago, knowing they would never increase, you would have done that?” he asked. “Once you invest in solar, realistically, your price will never increase after that. You have a locked-in price that you pay for.

“Then, once you pay that off, everybody else’s price of power is going to continue to rise while yours is just going to stay exactly where it was.”

In the long term, the financial advantages can be dramatic. SaskPower, the Crown corporation operating as the principal electric utility in Saskatchewan, offers a net-metering program for homes generating solar energy. Any excess power provided back onto the grid is priced at about 7.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, about half of the 14 cents residential customers pay for the same amount of power. Factoring in these credits and an initial average cost of $21,500 to install solar panels on a residential house, SaskPower estimates homeowners can recoup their initial investment in 15 to 17 years.

Saskatoon homeowners who live within the city’s 1952 boundaries, and are served by Saskatoon Light & Power instead of SaskPower, can benefit from one-to-one net metering for any solar energy they generate and recoup their investment that much faster.

Requiring solar panels on Saskatoon roofs is not the largest component of the city’s Climate Action Plan. But by 2050, the city estimates this measure will save just over five million tonnes of CO2.One critical benefit of solar panels becoming the norm in Saskatoon is increased energy literacy and acknowledgement of options beyond oil and gas.

According to Jason Praski, the principal of Saskatoon firm Exa Energy Consulting, it’s a decision with very little downside.

“Of course it will help with the target of reducing our community’s greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. “It’s free real estate on rooftops, which is something other organizations have understood and agree that it’s a really good place for things like solar panels to be placed.

“The local economy gets a benefit. There’s a lot of reputable solar designers, installers, electricians, contractors, et cetera who will hopefully gain business and pay local taxes.”

Praski also sees another critical benefit to solar panels becoming the norm in Saskatchewan’s biggest city: increased energy literacy and acknowledgement of options beyond oil and gas.

“In Saskatchewan, we don’t necessarily see a lot of leadership in explaining to us where our electricity comes from and why we should be doing things like this,” he said. “So when a homeowner embarks on this project, I think there’s a lot of learning that comes with it — about using the sun for energy production, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing your carbon footprint, the economic payoff and more.”


Keep reading


Protecting biodiversity in Montreal with Canada's largest city park
By Matthew Hague | News | July 12th 2021Sustainable Cities


Designing its way to a cleaner future, Halifax reaches for net zero
By Lindsay Jones | News | July 5th 2021Sustainable Cities


In Sackville, N.B., students demanded climate change solutions, and they got what they asked for
By Zack Metcalfe | News | June 28th 2021Sustainable Cities

Groundwork: How at risk is Edmonton's celebrated arts and culture economy?

And it’s not just the street performers, painters and improv comedians who are at risk, but the also the food vendors, hotels and other amenities that benefit from a thriving arts scene

Author of the article: Keith Gerein

Publishing date: Aug 03, 2021 • 

Elena Porter who is a part-time actor who is getting back to work on stage. 

PHOTO BY LARRY WONG /POSTMEDIA NETWORK

For Edmontonians involved in the arts and culture economy, performing may feed the soul, but it doesn’t always fill the stomach.

Take Elena Porter, who is an actor, receptionist in a chiropractic clinic and co-owner of a window-washing company — though not necessarily in that order.

The priority list seems to change on a month-to-month basis, depending on when plays, commercials and other acting work comes Porter’s way.

For her and many others in cultural industries, paid artistic opportunities are intermittent at the best of times, and nearly non-existent at the worst of times.

On that front, the past 16 months have been about as tough as it gets, and the next 16 offer no guarantee of being much better. The pandemic has crippled artistic budgets, shut down most live performances and pushed local audiences to Netflix.

Now, facing a recovery that is slower than other industries, many are wondering how much adversity the city’s beloved cultural scene can take.

“My last show I produced, I paid for it all myself. Or at least my Visa did. But that’s how stupidly and desperately I love to do what I do,” Porter said.

“Looking ahead … I guess it will be a mix of what companies can handle versus answering the calls of what the audience wants.”

That question of risk aversion is hard to understate, and it’s been a major theme of our Groundwork research.

When the pandemic came to Alberta last year, many artistic companies were deep into their seasons and faced a “disastrous” situation of having to honour contracts, said Sanjay Shahani, executive director of the Edmonton Arts Council (EAC).

Fortunately, a combination of factors kept the damage moderate. Shutting venues helped cut costs, community and corporate donors maintained much of their funding, EAC grants continued, and companies took advantage of federal wage subsidies to keep as many staff as possible.

Still, Shahani estimates artistic organizations have seen an average 40 to 50 per cent drop in revenue during the pandemic. There isn’t a similar figure available for artists, but evidence indicates they saw a significant hit in earnings, with many taking on other jobs or relying on the federal CERB program

.

Musician Josh Sahunta in his basement recording studio at his home in Edmonton on July 30, 2021. 

PHOTO BY LARRY WONG /POSTMEDIA NETWORK

In Josh Sahunta’s case, his pandemic experience also started miserably. The local R&B musician was ready for a second tour of England that would have represented a major step in his career. He was on the schedule for summer festivals and had booked seven weddings, which provide some of his best paycheques.

All of it got cancelled.

Thankfully, Sahunta had some experience in music production. Word of mouth advertising, an in-home studio and the use of Zoom allowed him to produce music for different artists around the world.

“It’s the busiest I’ve ever been. It’s ironic it happened during a pandemic,” he said. “But a lot of people I know, live performance was their only source of income, so when that stopped, their entire career fell off.”

Still, though producing is paying the bills, Sahunta is eager to get back playing his own music. He’s already booked a few outdoor gigs, but it’s unclear what opportunities will exist when cold weather returns.
Tracking audience attitudes

As to that future, the EAC has been part of a research project with Stone-Olafson to track audience attitudes in Alberta over the past year. The most recent survey results from June show Edmontonians feeling increasingly confident about risk as vaccinations rise, but still more hesitant than other Albertans.

In fact, two-thirds of respondents said they remain in a “wait and see” mode.

Asked what would increase their consideration of attending an event, strong safety measures, knowing others at the event were vaccinated and an easy cancellation policy were all ranked as important by more than half of respondents.

Such results should be of major interest to a provincial government that recently announced the end of most testing, tracing and public health restrictions.

Theatres, galleries, festivals, music venues and local sports teams should also be paying attention. Hard choices may be inevitable.

Can theatre companies take a risk on large productions with multiple actors, dancers and an orchestra? Will audiences pay similar prices? Can music venues survive by demanding audiences wear masks and allowing no more than 50 per cent capacity?

And if fewer paid opportunities exist for artists, what will happen to artists from marginalized communities?
‘One of the last sectors to recover’

So far, despite increasing optimism, arts organizations don’t expect a significant financial return for at least another 12-18 months, and are planning with consequent restraint, Shahani said.

“We’re going to be one of the last sectors to recover.”

Then, even once the pandemic is no longer in the spotlight, additional economic pressures loom just off stage in the form of a suffering oil industry, public sector job losses and reduced government spending.

All told, there are lots of factors threatening to make mediocre what has been a celebrated mainstay of the city’s identity. And it’s not just the street performers, painters and improv comedians who are at risk, but the also the food vendors, hotels and other amenities that benefit from a thriving arts scene.

Artists are known for their ability to adapt and speak truth in a variety of ways, and this gives them the power to help a city heal emotionally from a pandemic or economic downturn. But they also are likely to need more financial help to get through this period of uncertainty, Shahani said.

At the municipal level this means at least maintaining EAC grants and ensuring the continuation of funding for public art as part of municipal projects. More creative measures may also be needed. Simply leaving the industry to the mercy of market forces may have painful consequences for the economy as a whole, including hopes to attract more entrepreneurs and tech innovators.

“It will require future city councils to think of arts as more than a nice-to-have,” said Shahani. “We provide the kind of raison d’etre to exist as a community. That’s what makes a city what a city is.”

kgerein@postmedia.com

twitter.com/keithgerein

This article is part of Groundwork, an Edmonton Journal project in engagement journalism meant to ensure our reporting is focused on issues that matter most to our community, building trust and opening the work of journalism to new voices and insight.