Monday, December 16, 2019

UNDER KENNEY AND UCP ALBERTA UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS GETS WORSE Calgary 

'It just feels pretty dire': What it's like for young Alberta men facing a 20% unemployment rate

Some 33,000 young men in this province are struggling to find work. These are 3 of their stories






Robson Fletcher · CBC News · 




Jobs aren't particularly easy to come by in Alberta these days, but it's particularly hard for young men who are looking for work. (CBC file images, Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)

At 24 years old, Joshua Leonard is getting used to being unemployed.
He lives in Edmonton with his parents. He graduated with a diploma in IT more than three years ago but hasn't been able to find work in the field, despite applying to more than 100 positions. He's worked restaurant jobs on and off to keep afloat, but currently isn't working.
"Honestly, it's not as bad as it used to be, because I've just kind of gotten over it," he said. "It's been so hard to find work all this time, I'm going to have to think of different routes to take in my life."








Leonard is one of an estimated 33,000 young men in Alberta looking for work but not finding it. That number has doubled in the span of seven months, according to Statistics Canada, putting the unemployment rate for males under the age of 25 in the province at nearly 20 per cent, roughly twice the rate among women the same age.
Alberta hasn't seen these levels of joblessness among young men since 1983, when the province was in the grips of a deep recession. Today, the economy isn't great, but by most indicators, it's better than it's been in recent years, which makes this sudden spike in unemployment — the sharpest the province has seen, outside of a recession — harder to explain.
That doesn't make it any less real.
For the tens of thousands of young men who are struggling to make ends meet, support a family, or forge an identity as they enter adulthood, it's a reality they face every day.

'Every man in my family ... was some kind of tradesman'

Sean Schell is from Fort McMurray. He's 24 and has always dreamed of becoming an electrician.
"Every man in my family, going back to my great-grandfather, was some kind of tradesman, so that was only natural," he said.








After graduating from high school in 2013, he entered into an apprenticeship. The following year, he was laid off, along with half of his company's workforce.
His apprenticeship was put on hold and he spent the next five years taking work wherever he could find it. The job hunt brought him west to B.C., where he did steel framing, and east to Saskatchewan, where he installed security systems.
"I just went all over the place, trying to find whatever opportunity I could. And the reality was those jobs were mostly contracts, and they almost never lasted long enough to receive benefits."
Today, he's back in Alberta but still struggling to find a steady job. On a good week, he says he'll get 35 hours of work, but he's earning about $3 per hour less than a living wage. He's putting off having children because he can't "in good conscience" make that decision until he has a more stable income.
On top of it all, he's troubled by an accusation that is sometimes is lobbed toward young men in his position — that they're entitled authors of their own destiny.
There's a stereotype of the unemployed Alberta man as a high school dropout who took a job in the oilpatch, spent recklessly during the boom times, had no plan for the inevitable bust and is now unwilling to work the jobs that are available to him at a fraction of the salary he used to earn.
But that's not the situation Schell sees — in his own life or those of his peers.
"I don't understand how we can be looked at as asking for too much when we can't afford to have a house," he said. "It doesn't make sense to me."

'There's a lot of guys like me'

Tyler Palma is from Warner, Alta., a small village southwest of Lethbridge.
He's a 24-year-old apprentice carpenter and a father of two. After being laid off in January, he struggled for months to find work, until eventually landing a job in Calgary, a three-hour drive away.
"So I was paying my mortgage in Warner, as well as paying rent in Calgary, just trying to make money to survive."
He recently found work closer to home, but says finances are still a struggle.
It's really hard. I'm trying to raise two girls and I just try to make money to make ends meet.- Tyler Palma
"It's really hard. I'm trying to raise two girls and I just try to make money to make ends meet."
He, too, has heard the stereotypes about the entitled Albertan who expects great pay for little work and feels they're unfair.
"I expected nothing, and I worked my butt off, and I got nothing," he said.
Still, if he has one regret, it's not finishing university. He now sees the consequences of that decision both in his own life and those of people around him.
"There's a lot of guys like me," he said. "Our schooling, I don't think it prepares us, even if we do finish high school. Because I did, and I was not prepared for university whatsoever. I dropped out because I couldn't handle it. I was not prepared for the workload."

'No simple solution'

Richard Bucher, a Calgary-based career coach, doesn't want to sugarcoat the situation facing many young men in Alberta today, or offer the same advice they've likely already heard over and over.
"I'm sure everybody in this population has heard from almost everyone in their life: 'Hey, why don't you look at the trades?'" he said. "Like it's the magic pill to solve all our problems."
The reality, for many, is more complicated than that. Retraining is a good option, of course, but hard to afford if you're already struggling to make ends meet.
But Bucher said there are numerous programs at various colleges in Alberta that are publicly funded and aimed at retraining people in fields looking for workers.
In addition, he said, there are ways to earn an income at the same time.
"Often those kinds of jobs have support roles that may not require as much training," he said. "I'd be talking to companies that employ those kinds of people to see if there are more junior positions I could potentially compete for with the experience I already have.
"There is hope," he added. "But this is going to be work. It's not easy. There's no simple solution to this problem."

'It just feels pretty dire'

For Leonard, the plan of building a career in IT seems more and more like a pipe dream. He, too, looks back on his education and feels it didn't prepare him for the realities of adulthood.
"I wish, growing up, in high school or even junior high school, maybe we could have had a much more comprehensive look at this sort of stuff."
He's considering a return to post-secondary education, but wonders if it will be worth the time and expense. The alternative of working in a job he hates but that pays the bills doesn't feel particularly appealing to him either. As he looks to the future, he doesn't see any obvious path toward the type of life he hopes to build.
"It just feels pretty dire," Leonard said.
But he's not giving up.
"Where I go from here is, honestly, I'm just going to try to keep improving my skills … just, you know, keep working on myself, keep trying to improve myself day by day, until I can at least find a sort of life that works for me."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR





Robson Fletcher
Reporter / Editor
Robson Fletcher joined the CBC Calgary digital team in 2015 after spending the previous decade working as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba.


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Calgary

Federal funding shortfall leaves school with 99% Indigenous population facing possible closure

School is mostly made up of students from Stoney Nakoda First Nation

Joel Dryden · CBC News · 

Exshaw School is located west of Calgary, and serves approximately 200 students, most of them Indigenous. (Brian Burnett/CBC)


A school with a student population that is 99 per cent Indigenous may be forced to close its doors due to a budget shortfall, school officials said Sunday.
Exshaw School is a kindergarten to Grade 8 school located in the hamlet of Exshaw, west of Calgary. Of the approximately 200 students who attend Exshaw School, only two are not Indigenous.
The school has been funded by federal dollars since 1973. Under the current agreement, the Canadian Rockies Public Schools authority educates Stoney Nakota First Nation children outside of that community based on requests from parents.
Michelle Wesley said she decided to move her girls to Exshaw School after they had faced bullying at a previous school.
"The Exshaw staff and teachers have been absolutely wonderful and supportive and helped my girls catch up to their grade level criteria and there has been no complaints from my girls about any type of bullying," Wesley said in an email. "If I have any concerns the teachers and staff make sure it's dealt [with] as soon as possible."
But in late August, CRPS received word from the federal government the agreement would be terminated and a new agreement would need to be negotiated with the Stoney Education Authority and the government.

$1.6M shortfall

"All of this is fine, but in the interim we received an email of possible funding levels that we would receive," said Christopher MacPhee, superintendent with Canadian Rockies Public Schools. "And it was significantly different from the total operation of a school facility, as opposed to just funding per student."
According to MacPhee, calculating numbers based on students from last year left an approximately $1.6-million shortfall in the school's upcoming budget.
That cut funding would mean closing or re-purposing the school, MacPhee said.
"Either way, that means that we would not be able to provide services for our federally-funded students who are with us, which we would loathe to do," he said. "The results we're getting with those students has been fantastic to date."

Staff found this piece of graffiti inside a washroom at Exshaw School, located west of Calgary. (Submitted)
Exshaw School is currently seeing attendance rates around 86 per cent, MacPhee said.
"That's very high. And I've worked in a number of Indigenous schools across this country," he said. "I think the rates are high due to the resources we are able to put into place that the federal government has granted in the agreement that was in place for some amount of years."

One-year extension

According to MacPhee, communication with the federal government has been difficult — but after months of trying to secure a meeting, the school division was offered a one-year extension to keep the school open.
"Just recently, we've got a communication that they have permission to extend the agreement for one more year. While on the face of it it sounds wonderful, but it absolutely isn't," he said. "I have a large number of staff who are, for lack of better words, in turmoil at this point because they're wondering if they're going to have a career."
MacPhee said the school division told Indigenous Services the offer was "not optimal" due to the added pressure and stress it would cause on the system.
"We said, it's November, and we haven't even had a sit down at a table to negotiate. But you gave us the letter at the end of August," he said. "Why, with six months left in the school year, are we not sitting down, in January, and getting to an agreement that best supports these children and utilize the funding levels that they've done in other parts of the province?"
The Indigenous Services ministry was not able to provide a statement as of press time.
MacPhee said CRPS has provided three potential dates for meetings with the federal government.
"For me, it's disappointing that the [government], which made Truth and Reconciliation a mandate … that their actions are not matching their words, especially when it comes to a situation like this," MacPhee said. "If you're going to talk the talk, then walk it."

Concern from parents

While Exshaw School's future remains uncertain, some parents say those being most affected are the kids — who Isabella Goodstoney, a parent and educational assistant, said "are not being heard."
"I feel like that these kids need to have a voice. This is their future," she said. 
Upon hearing Exshaw's future was uncertain, Goodstoney wrote a letter regarding her concern for her daughter's future.
"That's why I chose to transfer my child to Exshaw School from Nakota Elementary School as I know the experience and educational value Exshaw School provides," the letter reads. "I know this as a fact because I've attended both schools as a child myself, and have had the opportunity to work at both schools as an adult.
"What will happen if we take this away from them? Are we setting them up for failure? I want my child to grow, learning that her education is the key to success."

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When Robert Munsch first dreamed up The Paper Bag Princess, he had no idea what was coming.

In 1973, long before Robert Munsch was a world-renowned children's author, he and his wife, Ann Beeler, worked at a daycare in Coos Bay, Ore. At naptime, he often told the children stories about dragons.

But in his stories, Beeler pointed out, the prince always rescued the princess.
Robert Munsch with his wife, Ann, in their Guelph, Ont., home. (Alisa Siegel/CBC)

"[She told me], 'You may not have noticed, but in this town, princes are in very short supply. Most of the women in the daycare centre are single parents because their princes turned out to be bums,'" Munsch told The Sunday Edition.

On her suggestion, Munsch switched the story around.

It was to become The Paper Bag Princess — the book that launched Munsch's career, changed the face of children's literature in Canada, and inspired generations of young readers to think differently about independence and happy endings.

The book is about a princess named Elizabeth, who is supposed to marry a prince named Ronald. A dragon kidnaps him and burns down her whole castle — including her clothes. So dressed in nothing but a paper bag, Elizabeth bravely sets out to rescue Ronald.

But after she saves him, Ronald criticizes her appearance. Elizabeth is having none of it. "You look like a real prince, but you are a bum," she replies.




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No cannabis edibles for Christmas in 3 provinces because of delays

3 of Canada's largest provinces won't have new products available until January

Amanda Pfeffer · CBC News · 
Edmonton-based Aurora Cannabis is awaiting Health Canada approval to launch its line of edible products, which include cannabis-infused chocolates. (Marcus Oleniuk/ Aurora Cannabis)
If you're hoping to buy a next-generation cannabis product — like infused beer or gummy bears — as a gift for the holiday season, you may be out of luck.
It will be legal to buy derivative cannabis products — often referred to in the industry as "cannabis 2.0" — on Tuesday, but three of Canada's largest provinces won't have a single one available until January.
That's because the long-awaited expansion of sales for cannabis derivatives have gone through a gauntlet of regulatory checkpoints and cumbersome logistics, dashing hopes of last-minute gift purchases with its late arrival.
"Frankly, we would have preferred to have it [up and running] six weeks ago," said Harrison Stoker, a vice-president with Donnelly Group, the parent company of retailer Hobo Recreational Cannabis.
Stoker says staff at Hobo, which owns stores in Ontario and B.C., still need time to understand the new products.
"We would have preferred to position it for the holidays with a little more time," he said. 
Harrison Stoker, vice-president of the parent company for Hobo Recreational Cannabis, says it would have been nice to have been able to sell cannabis derivatives during the 2019 holiday season. (Brady Strachan/CBC)

Delays, stricter regulations

Ontario, Quebec and Alberta run their own distribution systems, rather than allowing producers to ship directly to retailers, and regulators in all three provinces have said no derivative products will be available before mid-to-late January. 
The first retailers in Ontario are scheduled to receive the new products on Jan. 6, after they are tested for quality, according to a spokesperson for the Ontario Cannabis Store, the province's only legal wholesaler. 
In Quebec, the issue is more complicated, since the province approved stricter regulations in late November which, for example, banned some kinds of candies and chocolate that are legal elsewhere in the country. 
"We just want to give the industry time to adapt these new regulations," said Fabrice Giguère with provincial retailer Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC). "It's possible that we won't have any products on Jan. 1."
Alberta is similarly aiming for a mid-January launch, according to a spokesperson with the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.

'We've been handcuffed'

The industry has been counting on this next phase of legalization to bring in customers who might be reluctant to smoke pot.
"I think it's going to bring a whole new demographic out of the woodwork," said Stoker, adding it's been hard to compete with the online black market and illegal stores, both of which offer a big selection of cannabis derivatives.
"I think that bringing on these new formats gives the legal format a fighting chance … we've been handcuffed this year."

Cannabis edibles on the way, despite delay in some provinces

  • 2 days ago
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  • 0:52
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Rade Kovacevic, president of Canopy Growth, says the company's cannabis-infused chocolates will be sent to distributors around Canada starting this month — but they won't be sold in Ontario until January.  0:52
One major pot producer, Quebec-based Hexo Corp., downgraded its 2020 sales forecast, with CEO Sebastien St-Louis blaming the slow rollout in part on "regulatory uncertainty … and jurisdictional decisions" limiting the availability of cannabis derivatives. 
But the head of another producer, Canopy Growth Corp. of Smith Falls, Ont., is putting a positive spin on the regulatory delays.
President Rade Kovacevic said the slow rollout helped with buy-in for legalization and "allowed Canadians as a society to say that legalization was a good idea. We're going to stick with it."
The company hopes that in provinces that have direct producer-to-retail sales, such as Saskatchewan, the products can start rolling out before Christmas.  
Another large producer, Alberta-based Aurora Cannabis, says it's pulling out all the stops to make sure that happens.
"Our teams are having sleepover parties at the office to be ready to receive and process orders for shipment when they start to come in at 12:01," on Monday, when middlemen can place orders, said spokesperson Laura Gallant.
"[It's a] nice way to have some fun with this industry milestone, given that we are ready to go right out of the gate," she said, adding that "availability across provinces will vary."
Stoker said Hobo's stores in British Columbia have been told by some licensed producers they have worked out a distribution system fast enough to arrive on store shelves before Christmas Day.
"Obviously having it in time for all the last minute Christmas shoppers is pretty great," he said.
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A very pernicious system': After decades of inaction, could psychotherapy finally be regulated in B.C.?

Health minister says counsellors and therapists are 'next in line' for a professional college



Bethany Lindsay · CBC News · 

Bernadine Fox, shown here at left in 2001, was abused for years by her therapist Pamela Sleeth, at right. (Submitted by Bernadine Fox)


Bernadine Fox and Pamela Sleeth wore commitment rings. They bought a house together. They spent holidays as a family and shared a bed.
On the surface, it sounds like a typical long-term relationship between two consenting adults, but there was one major difference — Sleeth was also Fox's therapist, a professional she'd trusted to help her work through lasting trauma from her childhood.
"I allowed myself to be convinced by her that this was OK, that we were healthy enough and strong enough and aware enough. Other people might not be able to do this, but we could do this," Fox remembered in a recent interview with CBC News.
"But we couldn't tell anybody because people wouldn't understand and they would frown upon it."
When Fox started to realize she had been groomed and abused by someone in a position of power, she began searching for a way to hold Sleeth accountable.
She discovered that mental health counsellors and psychotherapists aren't regulated in B.C.— literally anyone can call themselves a therapist, and they don't have to follow defined standards of practice or face discipline for misconduct.
"When I tell people this, people are horrified," Fox said.

This photo submitted by Fox, right, shows her and Sleeth in front of the house they bought together in 1998. (Christian Amundson/CBC)
For more than 20 years, therapists and their patients have been pleading for some sort of regulation in B.C., but they've had no success.
There could soon be progress on that front, though. Last month, the province announced a list of proposals for reforming B.C.'s system for regulating health professionals.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said the changes should make it easier for counsellors and therapists to be regulated.
"It takes too long for a new [regulatory] college to be created," Dix told CBC News in an interview last week. "The counselling therapists ... are next in line."

Dangers of 'incompetent therapy'

Glen Grigg, a Vancouver-based clinical counsellor and chair of the Federation of Associations for Counselling Therapists in B.C. (FactBC), said he's cautiously optimistic about the prospects for regulation under the proposed system.
Until now, he said, "the message from government has been, 'Gee, that sounds like a good idea but we're busy right now. We'll get back to you when we're not.'"
Grigg points out that therapists deal with people when they are at their most vulnerable, including patients struggling with potentially fatal conditions like eating disorders and suicidal thoughts.
"Those things can be made substantially worse by incompetent therapy," Grigg said.

B.C.'s Crime Victim Assistance Program found that Fox was a victim of sexual assault by her therapist, Sleeth. (Bernadine Fox)
Regulating the profession would mean ensuring that everyone who offers psychotherapy has appropriate training, an understanding of ethics, a standardized code of conduct and accountability for their actions. Patients would have a way to report misconduct, and that misconduct could be made public after an investigation.
Beginning Jan. 1, psychotherapy will be regulated in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Alberta will follow suit with a new college of counselling therapy within the next year.

Loopholes in voluntary regulation

Without a legal mandate for regulation in B.C., some professional groups have stepped in to fill the gap, registering members and regulating on an entirely voluntary basis.
That includes the B.C. Association of Clinical Counsellors, which offers designation as a registered clinical counsellor for those who have the appropriate education and commit themselves to following a code of conduct and standards of practice.
The group has the power to investigate complaints against its members, and generally deals with any wrongdoing through an agreement stipulating how the therapist involved will improve their practice.
But the BCACC can't make those agreements public, and it has no power over someone who quits the group.
"We have a very pernicious system happening here," Grigg said. "The people who are most in need of oversight and professional guidance are the people who are systematically moved further and further from standards and guidance."

'You have no voice'

Fox discovered this loophole when she filed a complaint against Sleeth in 2007. The BCACC opened an investigation, but it was dropped when Sleeth resigned her membership in the group in 2009.
"It was the same as being a kid," Fox said. "You have no voice. And so I went silent."
Sleeth died in 2014. Fox's allegations have not been tested in court, but her evidence of Sleeth's abuse was thorough enough for the provincial government's Crime Victim Assistance Program to fund 48 counselling sessions to help in her recovery from the trauma.
In a 2018 decision, an evaluator wrote that "there is sufficient evidence to determine, on a balance of probabilities, that Ms. Fox is a victim of sexual assault by the accused."

Fox hosts a weekly radio show about mental health. (Christian Amundson/CBC)
Meanwhile, she's written a book about her experience, and hosts a weekly show about mental health on Vancouver Co-op Radio, where one of her goals is to keep the public informed about appropriate relationships between therapists and their clients.
Fox said she's trying to stay optimistic that the profession could soon be regulated.
"Every unethical therapist in Canada right now knows that the best place to continue their practice is to come to B.C., because there's no regulation, there's nobody looking, there's nobody saying, 'Well, are you qualified?'" Fox said.
Until things change, she recommends that others who've been abused reach out to the Therapy Exploitation Link Line, which offers resources and peer support.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Bethany Lindsay
Journalist
Bethany Lindsay has more than a decade of experience in B.C. journalism, with a focus on the courts, health and social justice issues. She has also reported on human rights and crimes against humanity in Cambodia. Questions or news tips? Get in touch at bethany.lindsay@cbc.ca or on Twitter through @bethanylindsay.

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    Ancient 'coal dragon' is now the oldest parareptile ever found

    Carbonodraco lundi, which lived more than 306 million years ago, unseats fossil found by P.E.I. boy

    Emily Chung · CBC News · 

    The new species, Carbonodraco lundi, was a lizard-like predator that scampered about an ancient swamps, snatching and stabbing insects and other prey. Its name means 'coal dragon.' (Henry Sharpe/Carleton University)

    A unique fossil that is "literally a black piece of coal" found in the dump of an 18th-century coal mine is revealing new insights about life before the rise of dinosaurs. It has also unseated a fossil found by a P.E.I. boy as the oldest known species of an ancient group called the "parareptiles."
    The new species, Carbonodraco lundi, was a small, lizard-like predator that scampered about an ancient swamps, snatching and stabbing insects and other prey with a sharp pair of fangs.
    The animal, which was about 25 centimetres long from nose to tail, lived more than 306 million years ago during the Carboniferous Period in what is now Linton, Ohio, according to a new study by researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa published recently in the journal Royal Society Open Science.






    The first part of its name, given by Emily McDaniel, an undergraduate student and co-author of the paper, means "coal dragon," because of the fossil's unique form and its prominent fangs.
    Unlike most fossils, which are typically embedded in rocks like shale, limestone or sandstone, this one was "literally a black piece of coal," said Arjan Mann, a PhD candidate at Carleton University and lead author of the report. He said that type of fossil is "very unique."
    It was found in the dump of a coal mine operated by the Ohio Diamond Coal Mine Co. by paleontologist Richard Lund of the Carnegie Museum, for whom the species is also named.

    What Carbonodraco's world was like

    The coal deposits at the mine, which opened in the 1800s, are the remains of a steamy, mangrove-like swamp that covered the region around 310 million to 306 million years ago, Mann said.
    The swamp was fed by a river running through a forest of giant club mosses, and it was home to giant insects, crabs and shrimp, fish, salamander-like amphibians, mammal-like reptiles called synapsids, and many creatures that would have resembled blends of fish and amphibians or amphibians and reptiles.
    Many of them were fossilized into an impure coal called cannel coal, which miners had to dig through and discard in order to reach the commercially valuable coal underneath.






    Lund did regular collecting in the dump, picking up blocks of coal and splitting them open to look for fossils in the 1970s. Most of the time they were empty, Mann said.
    But one of the first blocks Lund split open in 1972 contained a skull and the front part of an animal's body.
    "It's a pretty rare find," Mann said.



    The fossil of Carbonodraco, top, is a piece of coal containing pieces of the skull and the front half of the animal's body. The drawing below shows the reconstructed skull (upper left) and outlines the position of different elements of the fossil. The photo has been flipped horizontally, as the drawing is of a cast of the fossil. (Amy Henrici/Carnegie Museum of Natural History; Emily McColville)
    Mann came upon the museum specimen while cataloguing reptiles found at a coal mine at Mazon Creek, Ill., which formed from the delta at the mouth of the river that flowed through Linton, Ohio, during the Carboniferous. One of them was identified as Cephalerpeton ventriarmatum — the same identification originally given to the fossil from Linton — so he decided to compare them. 
    His comparison found that they weren't related at all. 
    Cephalerpeton is a eureptile — related to all lizards, snakes and crocodile relatives alive today.

    Now the oldest parareptile — but what were they?

    The Linton fossil, now identified as Carbonodraco, was a parareptile — a diverse group that thrived during the Permian Period, after the Carboniferous but before the Age of Dinosaurs. 
    There is some debate about whether modern turtles are parareptiles, but the group may also be completely extinct, Mann said.
    Hillary Madden, Mann's supervisor and a Carleton University paleontology professor, said the discovery adds to evidence that the creatures that lived during the Carboniferous were much more diverse and specialized than previously thought.
    "I think you've got a pretty new, exciting picture of what was happening over 300 million years ago," Madden said.
    The new identification makes Carbonodraco the oldest known parareptile, unseating the previous record holder, Erpetonyx arsenaultorum. That species was found by a nine-year-old boy in P.E.I. in 1995 and named after him in 2015. It lived about 300 million years ago, making Carbonodraco at least six million years older. 
    The first known reptile, which was also the first vertebrate fully adapted to land, lived about 315 million years ago, only five million to nine million years before Carbonodraco.
    Over the course of this study, Mann actually worked with some of the researchers at the Royal Ontario Museum who described Erpetonyx and joked about it. "It's like, 'We got the older, older one,'" Mann said with a laugh.
    He acknowledged that paleontologists are often competing for the oldest new discovery.
    "They never last, I think. There's always going to be something older."
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