It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Crop receipts rebounded from 2021 drought: StatCan
Ben Cousins, BNN Bloomberg
A 70-year-old drainage ditch that runs through a canola field near Grenfell, Sask., Friday, July 7, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Bell
Crop receipts for the first three quarters of 2023 are up 12.1 per cent compared to a year ago, as the Canadian agriculture sector rebounds from severe drought.
Statistics Canada reported on Tuesday that crop receipts from January to September reached $41.4 billion as marketings for Canada’s top three crops – canola, wheat and durum wheat – each climbed by more than 30 per cent.
Marketings is a term referring to everything needed to bring a product from the farm to the consumer.
“The increase in marketings was due to a return to normal production levels in the 2022 crop year, following the severe drought in Western Canada in 2021,” the report states.
Prices of the three crops sharply declined as well, as canola prices dipped 15.5 per cent, while durum wheat saw a 17.9-per-cent price drop.
Receipts in the livestock sector climbed 8.9 per cent to $27.2 billion, as cattle receipts accounted for more than 80 per cent of the increase, StatCan said.
“These price increases were caused by strong demand in Canadian and U.S. markets and higher input costs for producers,” the report said.
Thursday, October 26, 2023
Saskatchewan throne speech outlines plans for province's future
When Justice Minister Bronwyn Eyre talked last week about Saskatchewan’s need to “right the imbalance,” she couldn’t have been more right … although perhaps not in the way she intended.
Imbalance , as articulated by the justice minister, is dog-whistle nonsense — a bone to the extreme right in this province to quietly inform them that this government was all about family values pushed by the modern-day U.S. Republicans and their ultra-conservative religious base.
It might have been dressed up in the more palatable catchphrase of “parental rights,” but make no mistake that this was a blatant attempt to curry favour with voters thinking of bolting to the Saskatchewan United Party, which has had Premier Scott Moe’s government spooked since the Aug. 10 Lumsden-Morse byelection.
Things didn’t exactly go according to plan.
In that special emergency sitting to pass amendments to the Education Act to include the “parental right” to be informed when under-16 children’s preferred name or pronoun use changes at school, the Sask. Party government was absolutely lambasted by the courts, lawyers, teachers, child psychologists, the children’s advocate and the Human Rights Commission.
It was a three-blown-tire car wreck. Something more than a tire “rebalancing” was required. The government needed to find smoother road. Enter this week’s throne speech, which — perhaps surprisingly — didn’t even so much as mention parental rights. Not in the press release. Not in the 19 pages read by Lt.-Gov. Russ Mirasty.
Moe’s explanation for this was something less than clear — almost as strange as his explanation of why the government has suddenly dropped its defence of its pronoun case in court after hiring private legal counsel to defend it. (The premier essentially said pronouns are now old news … although that hardly explains why they weren’t mentioned, given that “old news” might very well have been the theme of a throne speech that largely harped on past accomplishments like adding 180,000 people since 2007.)
The nature of Wedensday’s throne speech only heightens suspicion that the pronoun bill and emergency sitting was truly a spur-of-the-moment thing, decided after Justice Michael Megaw ruled the policy would cause “irreparable harm”.
So the better strategy was to curtail the politics and move back toward a more relatable agenda, which Wednesday’s throne speech largely did.
Sure, there were the usual shots at the federal Liberal government — specifically the need to apply last year’s Saskatchewan First Act to the federal Clean Electricity Regulations. But now, we’re pretty much numb to the gore of jousting with Ottawa.
There is pending legislation guarding people’s right to wear a poppy in the workplace on Nov. 11. (Again, Moe was less than specific when it came to which workplaces prohibited poppy wearing.)
Similarly bizarre is the announcement of sending a substantial Saskatchewan delegation to the United Arab Emirates for the COP28 Conference, which sounds like more questionable ministerial travel.
But most of the throne speech clearly fit with “building and protecting,” like the new provincial sales tax rebate for new homeowners, retroactive to last April.
There was nothing for renters, but the government claims its Secondary Suite Program to more easily build rental accommodation in single-family dwellings will alleviate shortages.
Other issues to address needs included presumptive cancer coverage for firefighters, hiking the smoking and vaping age to 19 years from 18, the new Saskatchewan Employment Incentive program to bolster low-income working families with dependent children, 500 new addiction treatment spaces under the Action Plan for Mental Health and Addictions and 30 new complex needs emergency shelter spaces in Regina and Saskatoon.
Add in new or previously announced health facility projects in Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert, Weyburn, La Ronge and Grenfell and new schools in Regina, Saskatoon, Lanigan, Moose Jaw and La Loche.
There was actually little new in this housekeeping throne speech — perhaps surprising giv en that an election i s just a year away.
But less surprising is the government’s desire to see things simmer down a bit. That’s pretty much what this throne speech tries to do. Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
More focus needed on climate and social impact of dull buildings – top designer
By Rebecca Speare-Cole, PA Sustainability Reporter
The world-renowned designer behind London’s new buses and the 2012 Olympic cauldron has called for a national conversation to confront the public health and climate issues caused by boring buildings.
Thomas Heatherwick, founder of the award-winning British design firm Heatherwick Studio, said the public need to demand better from designers and the wider building industry for change to happen.
It comes as he launches a 10-year global campaign to tackle the growing number of buildings that lack visual complexity, which coincides with the publication of his book Humanise.
Mr Heatherwick warned that the UK is demolishing more than 50,000 buildings a year while many buildings around the world are being pulled down within years of construction.
Speaking to the PA news agency, the designer said: “What do you think they knocked down?
“In general, they’re knocking down the buildings that society doesn’t care about and nobody loves, instead of adjusting and repairing and extending and adapting.
“There’s this sense of: ‘There’s a climate crisis. There’s an inequality crisis. There’s a health crisis. There’s a housing crisis – all these crises’ yet this is a problem for later.
“But in reality, it’s a problem for immediately now.”
Mr Heatherwick said the public needs to “fearlessly demand interestingness” to help put these issues higher on the agenda.
“Who are the people who are going to say: ‘Don’t knock something down?’” he said.
“It isn’t the designers. It isn’t really even the planners and it isn’t the property developers. Actually it’s us – the public. The public are the defenders.”
The designer added that global discourse around decarbonising the built environment, which accounts for 39% of annual emissions, pales in comparison to those around the aviation sector, which accounts for around 2%.
Mr Heatherwick is also calling for the social impact of boring buildings to be recognised.
A recent Think Insights poll of more than 2,000 British adults found that 76% of the UK public said boring buildings impact their mental health and that 67% feel powerless to get involved in how those in their area look.
Meanwhile, recent studies by those such as Canadian neuroscientist Colin Ellard suggest that buildings with a lack of visual complexity can spike cortisol levels and increase loneliness.
Mr Heatherwick also spoke about Grenfell Tower as an example of the poorest in society living in the worst buildings and research finding how rows of tower block buildings in Syria physically separated faiths, potentially contributing to divisions that led to conflict.
On why there are so many boring buildings, he argued that designers have been stuck under the influence of the post-Second World War fascination with mind over emotion as well as the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, who advocated for extreme functionality.
Mr Heatherwick also believes the industry has become an “echo chamber” that is “utterly disconnected” from the opinions of the wider public and is therefore failing to engage or bring joy to the millions of people who might walk past their buildings.
“What is now clear is that emotion is a function,” he said.
“When you are building the backdrop to public life, in effect your job is to some extent a public service and you need to make buildings that give something to public life.”
He said it is the current design mindset “coupled with chasing short-term profit” that has led to the current global landscape of unsustainable boring buildings.
Asked about higher costs associated with good design, Mr Heatherwick said: “Buildings are cheaper than they’ve ever been in history.
“While we do have immense challenges, we need to get perspective and look at the longer term and look at real value.”
He added that the industry openly acknowledges that there is a “green premium” where making a really sustainable, environmentally high building that strives to be net zero will cost a little bit more.
“But boardrooms, the investors, the companies who are going to use those office buildings or create them, they know that the investors, the big pension funds and the kinds of people who fund buildings – there is really now a moral compass,” Mr Heatherwick said.
“We’re still missing an ingredient though, which is the human premium.
“I think there’s a chance as mental health is starting to be discussed in different aspects of the world around us for it to be understood that there is not a disconnection between mental health and sustainability.
“They go together. Without things nourishing our mind, the environmental impact will be that we destroy things.”
Asked if he could face pushback against the campaign, Mr Heatherwick said he expects it from within the industry as he is taking “one of the most controversial approaches”.
“This is challenging the current way that teaching is done and practice is run,” he said.
Saturday, September 30, 2023
UK
FCA changes rules for insurers of leasehold buildings after Grenfell August Graham, PA Business Reporter Fri, 29 September 2023
Insurers will be forced to act in the best interests of people who own flats in apartment blocks and other leaseholders under new rules from the City watchdog.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that from the start of the new year, insurance firms will have to treat leaseholders as customers when designing products.
They will also be banned from recommending insurance policies based on the level of commission or remuneration they can get.
It comes after a letter from the watchdog in January 2022 which told companies to take leaseholders into consideration, and said that it had seen significant shortcoming from some brokers.
Typical commissions ranged from 30% to 49%, the FCA said, with some as high as 62%.
Later that year a report from the FCA found that insurance premiums had risen significantly for leasehold buildings after the Grenfell fire, which left 72 people dead. The rises were particularly large for high and mid-rise buildings.
The new rules mean that insurers will have to make sure they are providing fair value to leaseholders and give them important information and their policy and its pricing. This should include the details of any commission paid, the FCA said.
“Insurance firms must now act in leaseholders’ best interests and ensure that their policies provide fair value,” said Sheldon Mills, executive director of consumers and competition.
“Our reforms will help to strengthen the insurance market by providing new protections for leaseholders. We will not hesitate to take action if firms breach these rules.”
The FCA has previously said that there are many issues highlighted by the Grenfell fire which are outside its remit.
It cannot take into account issues driven by construction issues or involving companies it does not regulate.
Sunday, August 27, 2023
Art on the go: A Corner Brook professor tows a printing press around western Newfoundland
CBC Sat, August 26, 2023
Art Professor Andrew Testa next to his travelling printing press. Testa takes the press to rural areas and encourages the public to try print making.
(Colleen Connors/CBC - image credit)
Andrew Testa bends down and grabs two handles on a device that resembles a wheelbarrow and drags it around his house to his backyard in Corner Brook.
The contraption has a large bike wheel on one side and a turning crank on the other. In the middle is a small printing press.
Testa, an assistant professor of printmaking at Memorial University's Grenfell campus, is spending his summer dragging his portable printing press to rural areas like hiking trails and beaches all over Newfoundland's west coast.
The project, Printshop in Tow, is taking art-making out of the studio and into the outdoors.
Testa took his printing press to many locations this summer, showing children how to use it. (Andrew Testa )
"It's about getting people really excited about making and whatever comes out of that making and showing that anyone can make," said Andrew Testa.
The project has attracted about 100 participants, ranging in age from seven to 70.
Laine Skinner, Testa's research assistant, brought the printing press on wheels to Gros Morne National Park. They were walking the printing press down the street when a bus filled with tourists drove by.
"A lot of people were eyeing what we were doing and skirting around it and were not really sure what to make of it," they said.
The art-making device certainly stands out, Testa said, but it is surprisingly easy to use.
Testa mostly works with mono prints; the artist draws a picture on using water-soluble crayons, then Testa places a damp sheet of cotton rag paper over the picture and turns the crank wheel to press the inked surface on the damp paper, squishing them together to create a print. Prints are made by creating an image using water soluble crayons and then presses it on to wet rag paper. (Colleen Connors/CBC )
"Printmaking is really intimidating," said Testa, since presses are generally large, and in studio spaces. "So usually there is a fear that people have when making a print for the first time, whereas one of the things I wanted to show with this press is how fun and easy it is to do."
While the summer workshop series may be almost over, Testa says he isn't done with his travelling printing press.
He plans to take it to outdoor areas with other artists this fall where they can talk and create art.
In the fall of 2024, many of the pieces created with the printing press will go on display at the Tina Dolter Gallery at the Rotary Arts Centre in Corner Brook.
"It is just something that's really exciting … to continue to push the boundaries of what that is and how that works and being able to take a press on a hiking trail or to take it anywhere that I want to go," said Testa.
Saturday, August 19, 2023
UK
Bibby Stockholm: Legionella is not the only health threat on the asylum barge
Just days after being moved in, people seeking asylum were removed from the Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge due to legionella bacteria on board. Dorset council, where the barge is located, has raised concerns that delays in removing people increased their risk of exposure to the potentially fatal bacteria.
Even before this development, the use of the barge to house people seeking asylum was controversial. This is both because of the impact on the local community, and conditions for the people living on board. The barge has been used in the past to house workers, including military personnel. But when being used for asylum seekers, the cabins on the barge—originally designed for one person and only "slightly larger" than a prison cell—will be used to house at least two.
People seeking asylum will be expected to share their small accommodation with a stranger. This is a situation that few would find desirable. It does not meet the government's own bedroom standard, which is itself not overly generous.
These diseases include diarrhea and gastroenteritis. We often hear stories of norovirus, a common cause of gastroenteritis, spreading through other high-density spaces such as cruise ships and resorts. However, these are usually much less densely populated than the Bibby Stockholm is expected to be.
The effect of crowding on health is notable. A review of evidence found that around one-fifth of hospital admissions due to infectious disease in New Zealand were attributable to crowded conditions in the home.
Links between crowding and mental health problems have been established among the general population, but risks are likely higher for those that have recently fled their home country due to the trauma that they have already experienced.
Life in lockdown
Another important difference between the experience of asylum seekers on the barge compared to others that have lived onboard is the restricted movement and high security they will experience. Residents will be unable to freely leave the barge or the nearby containment area.
Like most asylum seekers in the UK, they are prohibited from working, and the very low levels of financial support they receive would severely limit any activities they could take part in. They will probably spend much of their time onboard in their small, cramped rooms (with disconnected TVs) or the limited space onboard.
The lockdowns of the COVID pandemic demonstrated the importance of safe, secure and suitable housing for protecting our health and well-being as well as the challenges of restricted movement. People seeking asylum and housed on the Bibby Stockholm will experience lockdown-like conditions, and evidence suggests that lockdown had greater negative effect on those in smaller homes and without outside space.
The facilities on the Bibby Stockholm are not just bleak, but dangerous. The Fire Brigades Union has raised concerns about fire safety on board the vessel, a worry familiar to those that spent lockdown in homes covered in flammable cladding identified after the Grenfell Tower fire.
Further, there are concerns about a lack of life jackets. This worry is likely to be particularly severe for people who may not be able to swim. And for those who may have arrived via a dangerous sea-crossing journey, simply being housed on the water could be traumatic.
Savings, at what cost?
The government has argued that the Bibby Stockholm is needed to save money on housing asylum seekers as it works through the backlog of applications. But there is little evidence for this—and the potential health costs of housing people on the barge could easily wipe out any savings.
Among the general population, the health effects of poor housing in England are thought to cost the NHS £1.4 billion a year. Overcrowding is the third highest contributor to this figure.
While conditions on the barge are particularly likely to harm the health of people living there, many of the issues will also apply to other asylum seeker "containment sites." The Bibby Stockholm is the latest in a long history of housing asylum seekers in the poorest conditions, including more recent trends of using "quasi-detention" sites, which are isolated, have high security and reduce people's access to privacy, freedom and legal advice.
Government ministers have said that the use of hotels as temporary housing is a "pull factor" for asylum seekers, attracting them to Britain. Housing is a basic, essential need and shouldn't be used punitively—as a deterrent or punishment. In fact, any deterrent is unlikely to work, so long as the push factors forcing people to seek asylum in the first place remain.