Idaho city’s only hospital blames anti-abortion laws as it ends obstetrical services

BY OLAFIMIHAN OSHIN 

- 03/22/23 

Sarah A. Miller/Idaho Statesman via AP, File
An attendee at Planned Parenthood’s Bans Off Our Bodies rally for abortion rights holds a sign reading “Idaho the women as property state” outside of the Idaho Statehouse in downtown Boise, Idaho, on May 14, 2022.


The only hospital in Sandpoint, Idaho, has announced it will no longer provide obstetrical services, blaming stringent restrictions on reproductive care enacted by the state’s government.

“Without pediatrician coverage to manage neonatal resuscitations and perinatal care, it is unsafe and unethical to offer routine labor and delivery services,” Bonner General Health said in a statement.

The hospital said that the decision to remove obstetrical services was an “emotional and difficult” one, citing the loss of pediatrician coverage, changing demographics and the state’s recent laws surrounding abortion.

According to the Idaho Capital Sun, which first reported the change at Bonner General, Idaho has one of the most severe bans on abortion in the U.S., with state physicians facing felony charges and revocation of their licenses if they violate the law.

“Highly respected, talented physicians are leaving. Recruiting replacements will be extraordinarily difficult,” the hospital said in its news release. “In addition, the Idaho Legislature continues to introduce and pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care. Consequences for Idaho Physicians providing the standard of care may include civil litigation and criminal prosecution, leading to jail time or fines.”

The hospital noted that it plans to continue providing women’s health services and to coordinate care for “OB patients scheduled to deliver in May and after.”

Sandpoint has a reported population of more than 9,000 people.

“Lastly, thank you all for the decades of partnership and for entrusting your care with our outstanding Obstetricians and Labor & Delivery staff on our team,” the hospital said in its news release. “The closure of obstetrics will not be an easy transition for our Bonner General Health teams or our community and surrounding area.”

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“We have made every effort to avoid eliminating these services,” Ford Elsaesser, the president of Bonner General’s board said in its statement. “We hoped to be the exception, but our challenges are impossible to overcome now.”

Bonner General delivered 265 babies in 2022, according to the Idaho Capital Sun.

Editor’s note: This story was updated March 22 to include a link and attribution to the Capitol Sun. The Sun’s story was also published by the Idaho Statesman.

Idaho hospital to stop delivering babies as doctors flee over abortion ban

Near-total ban on abortions is driving doctors away, hospital says, leading to lack of nearby labor and delivery care for thousands

Gloria Oladipo
@gaoladipo

Mon 20 Mar 2023 

An Idaho hospital has planned to stop delivering babies, with the medical center’s managers citing increasing criminalization of physicians and the inability to retain pediatricians as major reasons.

Bonner General Health, the only hospital in Sandpoint, in the north-west of the state, announced on Friday it would no longer provide labor, delivery and a host of other obstetrical services.

The more than 9,000 residents of Sandpoint will now forced to drive 46 miles for the nearest labor and delivery care, the Idaho Capital Sun reported.

In a statement, the hospital said the decision to eliminate the obstetrics unit stemmed from the “political climate” in Idaho.

“Highly respected, talented physicians are leaving. Recruiting replacements will be extraordinarily difficult,” officials said in a press release.

“We have made every effort to avoid eliminating these services,” the hospital’s board president, Ford Elsaesser, added in the statement.

“We hoped to be the exception, but our challenges are impossible to overcome now.”

The hospital’s statement also said that the closure comes as the number of deliveries at Bonner continues to decline, with only 265 babies delivered last year and fewer than 10 pediatric patients admitted.

The hospital also lacks enough pediatricians to manage its neonatal resuscitations and perinatal care, finding no permanent solution after contacting to active and retired physicians to fill vacancies.

Hospital officials are hoping to keep obstetrics services available until 19 May, but said it largely depends on staffing.

New patients are no longer being seen at the hospital, effective immediately, while current patients are being offered alternative referrals.

Since the supreme court in June eliminated the nationwide abortion rights that Roe v Wade established, states with total abortion bans have passed laws with the threat of prison time for doctors who perform abortions in violation of state law.

The supreme court decision legalized an Idaho state ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The state is the first to pass a copy of Texas’s controversial bill. Idaho is also one of six that prosecutes doctors for providing abortion, CBS News reported.

In August, the justice department filed a lawsuit against Idaho for its near-total ban on abortions, with doctors in the state writing in a court brief that physicians were often forced to choose between violating the state ban or federal healthcare law, the Associated Press reported.

The implications of the ban is driving doctors out of the state, the Bonner hospital’s press release said.

“The Idaho legislature continues to introduce and pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care,” the hospital’s statement said.

“Consequences for Idaho physicians providing the standard of care may include civil litigation and criminal prosecution, leading to jail time or fines.”

Dr Amelia Huntsberger, a Bonner General Health obstetrician-gynecologist, wrote in an email to the Capital Sun that she would be leaving the hospital and the state because of its restrictive abortion laws, and because the Idaho legislature was terminating its maternal mortality review committee.

“What a sad, sad state of affairs for our community,” Huntsberger wrote.

B.C. metal-recycler fights provincial order to stop polluting

Richmond Steel’s Mitchell Island facility handles everything from vehicles and appliances to industrial metals and demolition scrap.

Author of the article:Gordon Hoekstra
Published Mar 21, 2023 • 

Richmond Steel Recycling Ltd. PHOTO BY NICK PROCAYLO /00100114A

A Richmond metal-recycling company is fighting the B.C. government over whether it was discharging too much heavy metals and PCBs into the Fraser River.


Richmond Steel Recycling Ltd., owned by U.S. steel-producing giant Nucor Corp. and Australia-based environmental services conglomerate Sims Ltd., has appealed an April 2022 provincial order to stop all effluent discharges from its Mitchell Island site to the environment.

A two-week hearing has been set with B.C.’s Environmental Appeal Board starting at the end of May.

“None of the information presented in that (appeal board) proceeding shows that the discharge covered by the pollution abatement order caused any harm to the Fraser River,” Richmond Steel environmental health-and-safety regional manager Steven Kynoch said in a written response to Postmedia News questions.

Richmond Steel’s Mitchell Island facility handles everything from vehicles and appliances to industrial metals and demolition scrap. The company says it has B.C.’s only auto/materials shredder and it can recycle 80 per cent of a vehicle.

The province’s pollution stoppage order was issued after testing from the company’s own records and the Environment Ministry showed that over a more than two-year period heavy metals such as copper and zinc and PCBs discharged to the environment had exceeded B.C. water quality guidelines. The province noted the company had no authorization to discharge pollutants to the environment, which is required under B.C. law.

Periodic water run-off from the company’s recycling site was directed to a bioswale, a catchment area covered with vegetation meant to filter pollutants, and into a 150-metre-long ditch that empties into the north arm of the Fraser River.

According to testing results of discharge in the ditch and at the ditch outflow at the Fraser River, which were summarized in the province’s order, some levels of metals were at least 100 times the province’s water quality guidelines and some PCB levels exceeded the guidelines by 10,000 times.

“The usefulness of the environment has been substantially altered or impaired due to the presence of significantly high concentrations of contaminants, including but not limited to, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), metals and total suspended solids,” said the province’s pollution stoppage order, signed by Daniel Bings, a senior official in the Environment Ministry’s compliance and enforcement section.

Just weeks after the order was issued, Richmond Steel appealed, arguing the order was unreasonable and not based on current information. The company also argues the province wrongly concluded the discharge didn’t meet water quality guidelines or would continue to fail the guidelines after remedial work.

According to its appeal, the company said it made improvements, and by February 2022, had started using a treatment facility to reduce metal and PCB levels. It was discharging effluent directly to the river because consultants the company hired discovered the bioswale and ditch had become contaminated by the historical accumulation of sediments from the recycling site and those sediments could be carried by stormwater into the Fraser River.

Metals and PCBs can be harmful to humans, animals and fish, and are deemed a probable human carcinogen, according to Environment Canada.

PCBs are a group of manufactured chemicals that were used mainly as coolants and lubricants in transformers, capacitors and other electrical equipment. PCBs have been banned in Canada since 1977, although some equipment that contains PCBs remain in use.

Photo by Environment Ministry staff on Oct. 28, 2022, 

at Richmond Steel Recycling was included in the MoE’s 

March 7, 2023, inspection report. jpg

A B.C. Environment Ministry inspection report from Oct. 28, 2022 — published this month on the province’s environmental compliance and enforcement database — showed testing of the treatment facility effluent being discharged from a pipe to the Fraser River exceeded water quality guidelines, including for PCBs.

A fine is being considered because of the inspection results, says the province.

In November 2022 the company secured a permit from Metro Vancouver to discharge the treated effluent into the sewer system.

Kynoch said the company is applying for a long-term permit from the Environment Ministry to allow it to discharge to the Fraser River.

“In the meantime, we are only discharging to the Metro Vancouver sanitary sewer system … ,” said Kynoch.

Metro officials say reporting from Richmond Steel’s own testing show no exceedances to its permit limit. Pollutant levels are the same as the province for PCBs, but Metro allows higher heavy metals levels to be discharged to the sewer system.

In response to Postmedia questions, B.C. Environment Ministry officials noted the effluent directed to the sewer represents the majority of the discharge from the facility, which limits the province’s direct oversight of the effluent.

“Ministry staff have shared their concerns and information with Metro Vancouver and are working to determine if additional compliance actions are required,” David Karn, an Environment Ministry public affairs officer, said in a written response.

Richmond Steel is also appealing the rejection in July last year of its application to the province for a temporary discharge permit. That Environmental Appeal Board hearing is through written submission only, which closes on April 17.

Appeal documents show the company has a plan to remediate the bioswale and ditch by removing and disposing of the accumulated contaminated sediments. The company says it will be costly, about $3 million.

In its appeal, Richmond Steel also noted that removing an estimated 40,000 cubic metres of stormwater from the facility — equivalent to the volume in 16 Olympic-size swimming pools — would cost more than $10 million a year.

Initially, Richmond Steel came to the attention of federal officials in December 2019 after stormwater run-off was seen flowing directly from the facility into the Fraser River, bypassing the company’s drainage and treatment works. Testing by federal officials of the effluent showed levels above B.C. water quality guidelines, which resulted in a warning.

Dead waterfowl found in Brampton tests positive for Avian Influenza

Posted Mar 21, 2023

The City of Brampton says waterfowl found dead in areas of Professor’s Lake and Duncan Valley Foster South have tested positive for Avian Influenza, known as bird flu.

Samples were sent to the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative for testing, where Avian Influenza was confirmed as the cause of death.

The City of Brampton’s Animal Services team is monitoring the situation.

Health officials say the risk of Avian Influenza spreading to humans is extremely rare, and there is no danger to the public at this time.

“Most cases of human avian flu have been traced to handling infected poultry or their droppings. Residents are asked to follow the recommended guidance to limit the spread of avian flu and protect the health and safety of residents and pets,” says Dr. Nicholas Brandon, Acting Medical Officer of Health in Peel Region.

Pet owners are being advised to take the following precautions:

• Keep animals away from any waterfowl or fecal matter
• Don’t feed or interact with waterfowl
• Keep cats indoors
• Keep dogs on a leash (as required under the municipal by-law)
• Do not feed pets (e.g., dogs or cats) any raw meat from game birds or poultry
• Pet birds, if not normally kept indoors, should be restricted to the indoors
• Bird feeders should be removed or washed with soap and water frequently to reduce the chance of bacterial or viral contamination

Officials say public spaces where the dead birds were found remain open but signs will be in place to “make the general public aware that waterfowl in the area could be infected with Avian Influenza.”

Brampton residents are being asked to call 311 if they spot dead waterfowl.

This latest positive case come as public health officials from across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area investigate the recent sudden deaths of hundreds of birds, with carcasses being tested for possible Avian Influenza.

A highly pathogenic type of H5N1 avian flu has been tearing through Canadian flocks since early 2022, killing millions of birds and infecting a record number of avian species.

A recently confirmed case of bird flu at a chicken farm in the Niagara Region prompted the Toronto Zoo to take steps to protect its birds. The zoo said the positive case was “within 200 kilometres” of the wildlife park.

The zoo said its aviaries would be closed or significantly modified, and behind-the-scenes tours of the areas will be suspended. Zoo animals will not be fed poultry in the meantime.

With files from Lucas Casaletto and The Canadian Press

 WATCH: Tornado-like solar plasma on Sun captured by NASA

The eruption of solar plasma can be seen in this picture that was captured on March 17. — Twitter/AJamesMcCarthy

The eruption of solar plasma from the sun was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) on March 17, in which a swirling tornado-like movement can be seen rising.

A user shared a short video on Twitter which shows the plasma and wrote: "The tallest dust devil in the solar and system, and maybe the largest tornado ever recorded in human history. A height of around 120,000 km! Composed entirely of solar plasma, heat and magnetism. Captured today by Nasa satellite SDO aia171."

Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy on his Twitter account told people about this amazing occurrence which would have been otherwise missed.

He wrote: "There's a "tornado" on the surface of the sun right now. Will be spending the rest of the day watching it to see what happens."

As the post surfaced, people started to speculate about possible effects it could have on Earth but McCarthy told there is nothing to be concerned about.

The plasma of hot gas mainly hydrogen and helium can be seen swirling in the video.

It appears as if a tornado is travelling vertically away from its point of origin.

"In case it needs to be said: No, this isn't going to wipe out life on Earth," he said. "This is a solar prominence and is a regular occurrence on the sun. If I saw something that was going to kill us all I'd let you know [after I was done soiling myself]."

McCarthy shared, as he came across the plasma eruption, an update the following day to note spent hours with his solar telescope observing the sight to witness the event.

NASA Sun and Space, on its Twitter also shared videos that showed several minor eruptions on the Sun. 

As described by NASA, solar prominence is a "large, bright feature extending outward from the Sun's surface". Scientists do not currently know how these prominence forms but estimate that it takes a day to form.

As said by Labrosse, an astronomer at the University of Glasgow, 'the plasma mostly moves horizontally along magnetic field lines'. He added that as the line of vision is compressed, it appears like a tornado. 

Massive Solar Eruption Blasts NASA Probe Head-On Before Impacting Earth

By NASA MARCH 21, 2023

A powerful solar eruption is likely to have hit NASA’s Parker Solar Probe head-on. This artist’s animation shows the spacecraft as it officially touched the Sun. Launched in 2018 to study the Sun’s biggest mysteries, the spacecraft has close-up observations of our star. This is allowing us to see the Sun as never before, and helping scientists answer fundamental questions about the Sun. Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Brian Monroe

A massive eruption of solar material, known as a coronal mass ejection or CME, was detected escaping from the Sun at 11:36 p.m. EDT on March 12, 2023.

The CME erupted from the side of the Sun opposite Earth. While resarchers are still gathering data to determine the source of the eruption, it is currently believed that the CME came from former active region AR3234. This active region was on the Earth-facing side of the Sun from late February through early March, when it unleashed fifteen moderately intense M-class flares and one powerful X-class flare.

Solar flares are classified based on their X-ray energy output, measured in watts per square meter (W/m²) at the Earth’s orbit. There are three categories: C-class flares are the weakest, M-class flares are of medium strength, and X-class flares are the most powerful. Each category is ten times stronger than the previous one, meaning an M-class flare is ten times more powerful than a C-class flare, and an X-class flare is ten times more powerful than an M-class flare.

A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a massive burst of plasma and magnetic fields that is released from the Sun’s corona. These explosive events can send billions of tons of charged particles racing towards Earth, and if they collide with our planet’s magnetic field, they can cause a geomagnetic storm. These storms can interfere with satellite and radio communication systems, disrupt power grids, and cause stunning displays of the Northern and Southern Lights.

Based on an analysis by NASA’s Moon to Mars Space Weather Office, the CME was clocked in traveling at an unusually fast 2,127 kilometers (1,321 miles) per second or 7,657,000 km/h (4,758,000 mph), earning it a speed-based classification of a R (rare) type CME.

A simulation of the CME below shows the blast erupting from the Sun (located at the middle of the central white dot) and passing over Mercury (orange dot). Earth is a yellow circle located at the 3 o’clock position.

A simulation of the CME shows the blast erupting from the Sun (located at the middle of the central white dot) and passing over Mercury (orange dot). Earth is a yellow circle located at the 3 o’clock position. Credit: NASA’s M2M Space Weather Office

The eruption is likely to have hit NASA’s Parker Solar Probe head-on. The spacecraft is currently nearing its 15^th closest approach of the Sun (or perihelion), flying within 5.3 million miles (8.5 million kilometers) of the Sun on March 17. On March 13, the spacecraft sent a green beacon tone showing the spacecraft is in its nominal operational mode. The scientists and engineers are awaiting the next data download from the spacecraft, which will occur after the close approach, to learn more about this CME event and any potential impacts.

The eruption is known as a halo CME because it appears to spread out evenly from the Sun in a halo, or ring, around the Sun. Halo CMEs depend on the observer’s position, occurring when the solar eruption is aligned either directly toward Earth, or as in this case, directly away from Earth. This expanding ring is apparent in the view from NASA/ESA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, spacecraft shown below. SOHO observes the Sun from a location about 1 million miles closer to the Sun along the Sun-Earth line. In SOHO’s view, the Sun’s bright surface is blocked to reveal the much fainter solar atmosphere and erupting solar material around it. The bright dot on the lower right side of the image is Mercury.

View of the CME from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Credit: NASA/ESA/SOH

Even though the CME erupted from the opposite side of the Sun, its impacts were felt at Earth. As CMEs blast through space, they create a shockwave that can accelerate particles along the CME’s path to incredible speeds, much the way surfers are pushed along by an incoming ocean wave. Known as solar energetic particles, or SEPs, these speedy particles can make the 93-million-mile journey from the Sun to Earth in around 30 minutes.

Though SEPs are commonly observed after Earth-facing solar eruptions, they are less common for eruptions on the far side of the Sun. Nonetheless, spacecraft orbiting Earth detected SEPs from the eruption starting at midnight on March 12, meaning the CME was powerful enough to set off a broad cascade of collisions that managed to reach our side of the Sun. NASA’s space weather scientists are still analyzing the event to learn more about how it achieved this impressive and far-reaching effect.

This massive 'solar twister' spun near the Sun's north pole for over three days!

NASA spotted a massive magnetic tornado swirling on the Sun

Scott Sutherland Meteorologist/Science Writer
Published on Mar. 21, 2023

We've seen some very interesting activity near the Sun's north pole lately.

First there was the immense polar vortex that fascinated solar and space weather scientists in early February. Now, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spied a massive solar tornado, over 10 times taller than the Earth!

This image was captured by SDO's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) telescope at 18:46 UTC on March 15, 2023. The main image shows a zoomed in look at an immense filament of solar plasma, twisted up into a tornado swirling above the 'surface'. The inset, lower left, shows a full-disk view of the Sun at the same time, with a small circle noting the location of the 'twister'. A reference image of Earth is included for scale. 

Credit: NASA/SDO/Scott Sutherland

From the views captured by NASA SDO, this tornado spun up late in the day on March 14 and persisted until early on March 18.

Solar 'prominences' like this form due to powerful magnetic field lines that extend out from the surface of the Sun. Electrically charged solar plasma, which is made up of superheated hydrogen and helium gas, is pulled upwards away from the surface by the magnetic field, where it swirls around the field lines in this tornado-like way. We often see these in the form of "coronal loops"

Watch : See a closeup view of this massive solar tornado

While the prominence does appear very much like a twister we'd see during severe weather on Earth, it is very likely a full arch of material, streaming out from the surface along a magnetic field loop and joining back up with the surface somewhere else. The reason it looks like a lone spinning vortex may be due to a trick of perspective, as we could be looking at the arch edge-on.

How the Solar Dynamics Observatory takes images of the Sun could also factor in.

Every 12 seconds, SDO takes a snapshot of the Sun, while rotating through a set of filters. Each filter captures a specific wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light, which also corresponds to a specific temperature of solar material. The set of filters was carefully chosen for SDO so that each singles out a region of the Sun (its surface or a part of its atmosphere) and a particular phenomena (such as solar flares or prominences).

For example, according to NASA, the 171 Angstrom filter, used to capture the images above, is especially good at showing coronal loops — the arcs extending off of the Sun where plasma moves along magnetic field lines. The brightest spots in these images are where the magnetic fields near the surface are exceptionally strong. The characteristic temperature of these images is 1 million degrees Kelvin.

This composite image shows a sampling of how NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory sees the Sun through its different filters. 

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

However, if you have a prominence that extends far away from the surface, like this one does, the temperature of the material could change as it flows along the magnetic field line. If so, by looking at just one filtered view, only parts of the prominence would show up, while other parts would disappear or show up in a different filtered view.

So, simply due to a difference in temperature, or perhaps due to the contrast between the hot material and the cold, dark space beyond, the top of the loop may be completely invisible.

According to spaceweather.com, when the solar tornado finally gave out, it produced a coronal mass ejection, or CME, that expanded harmlessly out into space.

"This twister finally overtorqued itself," they wrote on their site. "On March 18th it spun out and hurled a cloud of magnetized gas into space. The unraveling debris is flying up from the sun's North Pole and will not hit Earth."

Watch : Solar activity observed in early February was something rarely if ever witnessed on our star's surface

Millennials dominate insolvencies as credit card, student loan, CERB tax debts add up

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press

Insolvency trustee Doug Hoyes encounters a lot of Canadians with money troubles, but he's become particularly sympathetic to the plight of young people who find themselves financially underwater. 

For more than a decade, his Ontario-based firm Hoyes Michalos has been crunching bankruptcy and insolvency numbers for its annual "Joe Debtor" analysis, with its latest results released last month ahead of tax season. 

He's concluded that millennial Canadians have been dealt a generational losing hand as they face student loans layered with bad debts from credit cards, high-interest loans, and post-pandemic tax debt from collecting CERB.

"I think there's a whole bunch of whammies that have hit millennials." Hoyes said. "The CERB was the final straw that broke the camel's back."

The 2022 Joe Debtor study examined 2,700 personal insolvencies filed in Ontario. Hoyes Michalos says 49 per cent were filed by millennials aged 26 to 41, even though they make up 27 per cent of adult Canadians.

The study found that on a per-population basis, millennials were 1.4 times more likely to file for insolvency than people in generation X aged 42 to 56, and 1.7 times more likely than baby boomers aged 57 to 76. 

Insolvent millennials were on average 33 years old and owed an average of $47,283 in unsecured debt.

Hoyes said many people collected CERB and other pandemic-relief funds without fully appreciating the tax liabilities those programs generated, finding themselves insolvent and unable to pay down their credit cards, student loans, high-interest loans, and lastly their tax debts.

More than 100,000 Canadians of all ages filed for bankruptcy or insolvency in 2022.

But older generations, Hoyes said, have enjoyed many advantages.

Housing prices were more in step with wages. Tuition fees didn't necessitate student loans, allowing graduates to enter the workforce and start saving and investing out of the gate, rather than having to service large debts for years after completing their education. 

Hoyes said those circumstances represented a "safety valve" that young people now can't rely on. 

"Anything goes wrong like a pandemic, or you lose your job or you get sick or you get divorced and boom, there is no safety valve there," he said. 

Filing for bankruptcy, he said, is an option to eliminate debts, but most people end up filing consumer proposals with the help of insolvency trustees like him to pay them down over time in manageable portions. 

"It becomes an affordable way to eliminate the debt, and that's why we're seeing more and more millennials resorting to consumer proposals," he said. "They really have no other choice."

Sandra Fry, a Winnipeg-based credit counsellor with the non-profit Credit Counselling Society, said many young people who seek alternatives to insolvency and bankruptcy are dealing with the shock of rising interest rates.

"Unfortunately, a lot of people out there are living on the edge of their affordability," Fry said.

Fry said the Credit Counselling Society sees all types of people struggling financially with rising costs that are "really squeezing Canadians in general from all sides."

The society helps people struggling with debt, negotiating with creditors to eliminate interest on loans, but also refers people in some situations to bankruptcy and insolvency trustees. 

Millennial clients she's dealt with lately have often had variable interest rate mortgages, and rate hikes "caused huge strain on their budget because their payments just went up like crazy."

Dave Locke, 31, lives with his wife in Coquitlam, B.C., east of Vancouver, and the couple sought Fry's help when their mortgage payments jumped dramatically in the middle of a costly renovation. 

Locke, who works for a real estate brokerage, got into the housing market at a young age having worked in the oil and gas industry after high school.

He ended up buying a home in Coquitlam with his wife Tara, who works in labour relations, and the Bank of Canada's rate hikes eventually saw their monthly mortgage payments jump 40 per cent. 

The couple had a construction loan with their bank to fund the renovations, and as interest rates climbed and the price of construction materials ballooned, Locke realized something had to give, even with their relatively high combined incomes. 

Insolvency or bankruptcy weren't options for the couple because they wanted to keep their assets, but the Credit Counselling Society was able to work out a deal with their bank to eliminate interest on the renovation loan. 

"I'm still paying the full balance," Locke said. "I'm just not paying any additional interest."

Locke said the stress and stigma of debt is embarrassing, "but it's just the way it goes."

"You have to kind of swallow your pride," he said. 

Grant Bazian, a licensed insolvency trustee and president of MNP Ltd. in Vancouver, said he's seen many clients "keeping up with the Joneses," but living beyond their means and getting stuck in a cycle of high interest debt from payday loans and credit cards, layered on top of "ridiculous" housing costs.

Bazian said there's likely no "one magic bullet" to alleviate the debt woes of young people, many of whom are coming to see him racked with anxiety and other mental health issues. 

For accountant Hoyes back in Ontario, putting out the firm's Joe Debtor study every year is a way of letting people know they're not alone and to remind them of legal options to start anew financially. 

Hoyes said it would be a mistake to automatically blame millennials for their money trouble because "you cannot be blaming an entire generation for how the deck is stacked against them."

"You don't have to keep working two jobs for the next 20 years," he said. "There are legal ways to eliminate a chunk of your debt, and yeah, it hurts your credit temporarily and it's not something you want to do, but sometimes surgery is the answer."  

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2023.

HIP CAPITALI$M

SNDL to purchase four Dutch Love cannabis stores in $7.8M deal

The Canadian Press

Calgary-based pot retailer SNDL Inc. says it is buying four Dutch Love cannabis stores from Lightbox Enterprises Ltd.

SNDL says it is paying $7.8 million for three stores in B.C., one in Ontario and the right to use some of Dutch Love's intellectual property.

Around $1.5 million of the price will be paid in cash, $3 million will come in the form of cancelled debt owed by Lightbox to SNDL and $3.3 million will be paid in common shares of SNDL.

The stores SNDL will acquire generated a combined annual revenue of $11.5 million in 2022, with an average gross margin of 36.5 per cent.

The deal is anticipated to close by the end of May, and is the result of a sale and investment solicitation process undertaken by Lightbox as part of its proceedings under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. 

The expected close will be concurrent with the proposed restructuring of Nova Cannabis Inc. and SNDL. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2023.

Shoppers Drug Mart moves away from

medical cannabis, will send patients to

Avicanna

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. is moving away from its medical cannabis distribution business and preparing to transfer patients to a platform run by biopharmaceutical company Avicanna Inc.

The pharmacy chain owned by Loblaw Companies Ltd. announced the shift Tuesday, but did not say what prompted the change or how much money Toronto-based Avicanna is paying for Shoppers to refer patients to its MyMedi.ca platform.

“We are grateful for the trust placed in us by our medical cannabis patients over the past few years, and are confident we’ve found the right partner in Avicanna to continue to support them,” said Jeff Leger, Shoppers' president, in a statement.

His company will start to send customers to Avicanna's platform in early May, with all of the patients set to be off-loaded from Shoppers' medical pot service by the end of July. Customers will be able to place orders on Shoppers' website through the transition period.

Avicanna said it will offer a similar range of products including various formats, brands and "competitive pricing." Like Shoppers, its online medical portal will strive to educate customers around harm reduction and provide specialty services for distinct patient groups like veterans.

Shoppers first launched its medical cannabis business in Ontario in January 2019, months after recreational pot was legalized in Canada (medical pot was legalized in Canada in 2001) at a time when many predicted the weed sector would be booming in the coming years.

The sector has instead struggled with profitability and as high numbers of recreational cannabis shops cluster in several cities, many retailers and licensed producers have had to drop their prices to stay competitive.

However, Shoppers said it racked up tens of thousands of patients in its four years of existence, providing them with access to cannabis from more than 30 brands including Aphria Inc., Hexo Corp.'s Redecan and the Green Organic Dutchman.

Shoppers' medical cannabis patients were required to obtain a prescription from a licensed health care provider such as a doctor to begin ordering pot from the company, which shipped orders to their homes.

But the company was unhappy with how medical pot regulations limited its model. Shoppers claimed Tuesday that medical cannabis remains the only medication that is not dispensed in pharmacies.

“As we move away from medical cannabis distribution, we remain firm in our belief that this medication should be dispensed in pharmacies like all others and will continue our advocacy to that end," said Leger.

Avicanna's statement did not outline its feelings on the matters, but its chief executive said it was "motivated" to "put our full efforts toward advancing medical cannabis and its incorporation into the standard of care.”

“We are thankful to be selected as the partner for this transition and look forward to introducing MyMedi.ca, supporting patients and providing them with continuity of care,” said Avicanna chief executive Aras Azadian in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2023.

South Bruce Forum offers insight into proposed nuclear waste storage facility

By Janice MacKayMarch 21, 2023 

An upcoming forum in South Bruce will explore the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s (NWMO) proposed Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) Project.

The South Bruce Nuclear Exploration Team Community Engagement Officer Steve Travale said the forum takes place in early April.

“So on April 4 and 5, at the Teeswater Culross Community Centre, we’re bringing together Canadian and international experts for a two day conference,” said Travale. “And that’s for residents of South Bruce, and the neighbouring municipalities and communities to learn more about the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s project.”

South Bruce is under consideration to host the storage site for used nuclear fuel. The other community being looked at is Ignace in Northern Ontario. A variety of experts will be part of the event.

“Such as geoscience, water, some of the different engineering components. We’ll also have exhibitors from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the Impact Assessment Agency. So they’ll be able to speak to the regulatory process and what happens in the community after a site is chosen. They’ll be panels on agricultural experiences in a nuclear host community,” explained Travale.

South Bruce Mayor Mark Goetz expects the forum will help further educate South Bruce and its neighbours on the proposed DGR.

“I look forward to taking in the presentations and panels, which will help inform South Bruce residents when it comes time to decide whether or not the community wants to host a deep geologic repository and the associated facilities,” Goetz said.

Panelists and presenters will include:
• Tom Isaacs – Former Lead Advisor to the U.S. Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future and current advisor to the NWMO.
• Tiina Jalonen – Senior Vice President of Development at Posiva Oy, the Finnish counterpart to Canada’s NWMO. Finland’s DGR is well underway.
• Jacob Spangenberg – Former Mayor of Östhammar, Sweden, the host community of Sweden’s future DGR.

Registration for the full event remains open until March 24. For more information, or to register, visit www.southbruce.ca/Forum.

While most of the free-to-attend event does require registration, there is an open house scheduled from 4-6:30 p.m. on April 4 which is open to all. The deadline to register is March 24th.