Winnipeg plant gets $100M in federal financing to pull protein from peas (PULSE), canola (GMO)

ALL CAPITALISM IS STATE CAPITALISM

The Canadian Press June 22, 2020

OTTAWA — The federal government is helping finance an innovative, new agricultural production plant in Winnipeg that turns peas and canola into protein powders for the food industry.

Merit Functional Foods Corp. plans to have its new 94,000-square-foot production plant at Winnipeg's Centreport running by the end of the year.

There it will extract protein from peas and canola seeds for use in everything from pre-packaged protein shakes and meat-alternative foods to non-dairy creamers and energy bars.

The company intends to use only Canadian-grown peas and canola and claims to be the first in the world that will produce canola protein for the food industry.

Ottawa is contributing a total of $100 million, including a previously announced $9.2 million from the Protein Industries Supercluster.Loans of $25 million and $55 million are coming from Farm Credit Canada and Export Development Canada, while the AgriInnovate Program is contributing a $10-million repayable grant.

"This facility will be a world leader in plant-based proteins and will create good jobs in a fast-growing field," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday. "And by using 100 per cent Canadian inputs, it will also support farmers who produce the canola and yellow peas used in Merit's products."

Demand for plant-based proteins is soaring as people around the world seek to find meat alternatives in a bid to improve their health and that of the planet. Merit is seeking to make protein additives from peas and canola that taste better and have improved textures.

Merit signed a development agreement with Nestle in January to use Merit's pea and canola protein products in Nestle's food offerings.

The plant is expected to create 80 new jobs.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 22, 2020.

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Funk-infused political statement. Afrobeat. Artist: Fela and Afrika '70 Album: Zombie Label: Coconut Year: 1976

TRUMP BLAMES

 CHINESE SABOTUERS 

& NORTH KOREAN HACKERS

FOR USING KUNG FU 

THAT REDUCED THE ATTENDANCE 

AT HIS TULSA RALLY 

                           

Q ANON NO MORE

Signs people will choose work over CERB in jobs data, Qualtrough says

'SIGNS ARE NOT MEANINGS' SEMIOTICS
The Canadian Press June 22, 2020



OTTAWA — Canada's employment minister says the country's most recent job figures suggest that low-wage workers will go back to a job if one is available instead of remaining on federal aid.

Carla Qualtrough says the growth in jobs from May gives her confidence that workers will choose to work when they get an offer and are able to do so.

Statistics Canada's labour force survey for May showed that lower-wage jobs rebounded at a faster rate than the national rate as restrictions meant to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus started to ease.

Speaking at the Senate's finance committee today, Qualtrough says the finding means people chose to work rather than keep receiving the $2,000-a-month Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

Still, she says the government is doing everything possible to retool pandemic-related aid programs like the CERB to help get workers and companies back on the job.

Qualtrough also says the government does not know exactly what the country's labour market will look like in the coming weeks and months, but is certain that some people won't have jobs to return to.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 22, 2020.

The Canadian Press

CANADA
Grocery executives called to testify over pandemic pay cuts

Alicja Siekierska Yahoo Finance CanadaJune 19, 2020

Crisis Management: Pandemic pay gets cancelled

Senior executives at Canada’s largest grocery stores will be summoned to a House of Commons committee to explain why pandemic pay raises were cancelled last week.

Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith introduced a motion at the House of Commons industry committee on Thursday calling on executives from Loblaw, Metro and Empire, the parent company of Sobeys, “to explain their decisions to cancel, on the same day, the modest increase in wages for front-line grocery workers during the pandemic, including how those decisions are consistent with competition laws.”

The motion was passed unanimously, with 11 committee members from all four parties voting in support of it. Other witnesses, including union leaders representing grocery store workers, may also be summoned.

Loblaw (L.TO), Metro (MRU.TO) and Empire (EMP) ended the temporary $2 per hour pandemic pay raise provided to frontline workers through the coronavirus pandemic on the same day, June 13. Walmart Canada has also introduced a pandemic pay raise, and confirmed it had returned wages to normal levels earlier.

Unions representing grocery store workers said they support the decision to bring grocery store executives before the committee.

“These workers have always been essential. The pandemic did not create that,” Unifor said in a statement.

“The added pay brought in during the pandemic was a good start in addressing historic inequities in the sector, but more needs to be done. Now is not the time to go backward.”

Canadians working from home permanently should expect salary changes: experts

AND NOT FOR THE BETTER EITHER  The Canadian Press June 21, 2020



TORONTO — When Mark Zuckerberg hosted a townhall in late May with Facebook's 48,000 employees, some were tuning in from new cities they had scrambled to move to as the pandemic hit.

Zuckerberg had a clear message for them: if you plan to stay, expect a change to your pay.

"That means if you live in a location where the cost of living is dramatically lower, or the cost of labour is lower, then salaries do tend to be somewhat lower in those places," he said on the video conference, where he announced more employees would be allowed to work remotely permanently.

Zuckerberg gave Canadian and American workers until Jan. 1, 2021 to inform the company about their location, so it can properly complete taxes and accounting and use virtual private network checks to confirm staff are where they claim.

The demand is part of a new reality Canadian workers are being confronted with as employers try to quell the spread of COVID-19 and increasingly consider making remote work permanent.

The shift means many companies are having to rethink salaries and compensation, while grappling with the logistics of a new work model.

Only one-third of Canadians working remotely expect to resume working from the office as consistently as they did pre-pandemic, while one-in-five say they will remain primarily at home, according to a June study from the Angus Reid Institute.

Like Facebook, Canadian technology companies Shopify Inc. and Open Text Corp. have already announced more employees will soon have the option to permanently work remotely.

Both declined interviews with The Canadian Press, but Richard Leblanc, a professor of governance, law and ethics at York University, said he wouldn't be surprised if their staff that relocate will see their pay change.

"It's inevitable because the cost and expense structure of work has changed," he said.

"If you, for example decide, that you could do the majority of your work from well outside the Greater Toronto Area...and you want to buy a home in Guelph or in Hamilton, should we expect the base salary for those individuals might change? Yes, because your cost of living has changed and your expenses have changed."

If companies calculate salaries properly, neither the business nor workers should feel their salary adjustments are unfair, Leblanc said.

However, figuring out what to pay staff transitioning to permanent remote work is tough, especially with a pandemic raging on and forcing some businesses to lay off workers or keep companies closed.

Owners have to consider what salaries will help them retain talent, but also how their costs will change if workers are at home.

Companies, for example, may be able to slash real estate costs because they don't need as much — or any — office space, but may now have to cover higher taxes, pay for their workers to buy desks or supplies for their homes or offer a budget for them to use on renting spaces to meet clients.

"(Businesses) are looking at every line item on their on their income statement....because they want to make sure they can survive and thrive over the long-term," said Jean McClellan, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP's Canadian consulting practice.

Companies like GitLab, an all-remote company in San Francisco focused on tools for software developers, may offer some clues about how Canadian companies opting for permanent remote work can tackle salaries.

When GitLab started offering permanent remote work years ago it built a compensation calculator combining a worker's role and seniority with a rent index that correlates local market salaries with rent prices in the area.

THESE ARE AVERAGE SALARIES FOR REMOTE WORK IN FACT THEY ARE LESS THAN GAS PLANT WORKERS EARN IN FORT MAC OR TRADESMEN MAKE THERE 

Anyone can visit GitLab's site and plug in a role, experience level and location to find a salary.

GitLab's junior data engineers, for example, make between $50,936 and $68,913 if they live in Whitehorse, Yellowknife or Iqaluit, where the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation said the average rents for a two-bedroom home last October were $1,695, $1,100 and $2,678 respectively.

That salary shoots up to anywhere from $74,359 to $100,603 for those living in Toronto, Vancouver or Victoria, where CMHC reported the average rents for a two-bedroom home last October were $1,562, $1,748 and $1,448 respectively.

Leblanc warned that varying remote work salaries can create "a global competition for talent in an online world."

People who apply for permanent remote jobs, he said, may find their fighting for the role against far more people than ever before because companies will be able to source talent living anywhere in the world.

The companies that don't offer remote work at all could also find themselves at a disadvantage, if their industry starts to value flexibility and look less favourably at companies that don't offer it.

GitLab settled on its model and calculator because the company said they offer transparency and eliminate biases around race, gender or disabilities.

Its co-founder Sid Sijbrandij wrote in a blog that the calculator was dreamed up because every time he hired someone, there was a conversation around reasonable compensation.

The negotiation would usually revolve around what the person made beforehand, which was dependent on what city they were in. Gitlab scrapped that model in favour of the calculator and also started letting workers know if they move their salary could change.

However, GitLab acknowledges that many people see paying someone less for the same work in the same role regardless of where they live as "harsh." The company disagrees.

"We can't remain consistent if we make exceptions to the policy and allow someone to make greater than local competitive rate for the same work others in that region are doing (or will be hired to do)," it says.

"We realize we might lose a few good people over this pay policy, but being fair to all team members is not negotiable."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 21, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX: SHOP, TSX:OTEX)

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

Anchorage wants to buy 4 properties to relieve homelessness
The Canadian Press June 22, 2020

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Anchorage municipal officials said they are considering spending up to $22.5 million to buy property that would be converted to shelters and service sites.

The proposed ordinance for the purchases would use federal coronavirus relief funding designated for the municipality.

The properties under consideration include the Bean’s Cafe food service and shelter and a former Alaska Club building for use as engagement centres for homeless residents.

The city is also considering buying a Best Western/Golden Lion Inn for a treatment facility and an Americas Best Value Inn & Suites for housing and for resource distribution.

Mayor Ethan Berkowitz said Friday that the public would be involved throughout the process to address longstanding community problems.

“There are hard choices in front of us,” Berkowitz said. "One of the choices we can make is doing nothing. But doing nothing at this point is a deliberative choice.”

Berkowitz's chief of staff, Jason Bockenstedt, said the Americas Best Value property in Spenard has 100 rooms that could accommodate unsheltered residents and provide office space for social service agency workers.

The property would provide what Bockenstedt called “bridge housing."

Bridge housing offers temporary accommodations while tenants search for permanent homes and address other life issues, often with the help of case managers.

The former Alaska Club building near the Old Seward Highway could accommodate up to 125 people in an overnight shelter in addition to serving as a daytime engagement centre , said Chris Schutte, Anchorage economic and community development director.

The coronavirus health emergency initially shifted the city’s homeless shelter system away from the Brother Francis Shelter and Bean’s Cafe.

The city opened two sporting arenas as mass shelters to allow social distancing between cots. The Ben Boeke Ice Arena has since ended shelter services while the adjacent Sullivan Arena continues to accommodate up to 377 people.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death. The vast majority of people recover.

The Associated Press

High art: Banksy and Warhol works to adorn Toronto pot shop

Jeff Lagerquist Yahoo Finance Canada June 15, 2020

The Tokyo Smoke store at 21 Bloor St. E. 

A downtown Toronto cannabis store is featuring works by famed British street artist Banksy and American pop art icon Andy Warhol.

The Tokyo Smoke location at 21 Bloor St. E is owned by Toronto-based filmmaker Rob Heydon.

The art from Heydon’s private collection will include “never-before-seen in Canada” pieces by Banksy, as wells some of the artist’s most celebrated works. The store will also feature pieces from other “disruptive artists,” including Andy Warhol, as part of a permanent exhibit.

“In these strange times, it felt fitting to allow customers to browse, shop and learn about cannabis while enjoying some art, while waiting patiently as we practise social distancing,” Heydon stated in a news release on Monday.

Tokyo Smoke, a brand owned by cannabis giant Canopy Growth (WEED.TO)(CGC), currently has five stores open throughout the city.

This new location is steps from one of Toronto’s poshest shopping districts, dubbed the “Mink Mile” for its concentration of luxury brands like Hermes and Prada. Cannabis retailer Fire & Flower (FAF.TO) has been renting pricy retail space on the same stretch of Bloor Street for a store that has yet to open due to regulatory delays.

The Funkees - Now i'm a man (full album) 1976
Zayo Rom
01 - Now i'm a man 00:00
02 - Korfisa 06:58
03 - Dance with me 12:20
04 - Mimbo 16:24
05 - Patience 21:52
06 - Salam 26:33
07 - Time 32:05
08 - 303 35:58
09 - Too lay 40:19
10 - Cool it down 44:50
11 - Dancing time 48:15