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)
Australia deployed military ships and aircraft Wednesday to help communities ravaged by deadly wildfires that have sent thousands of residents and tourists ...
Thousands of tourists have been given less than 48 hours to evacuate fire-ravaged coastal communities as Australia braces for a heat wave expected to fan ...
SYDNEY — A third person was confirmed dead on Wednesday in devastating bushfires that engulfed Australia's southeast coast this week and a fourth was ...
Australia deployed military ships and aircraft Wednesday to help communities ravaged by apocalyptic wildfires that have left at least 17 people dead nationwide ...
At 3am on 1 January 2020, there are 112 fires burning across NSW. Several large & dangerous fires continue burning on the South Coast where 2 fires remain at emergency warning. A further 6 fires are at Watch and Act. Over 2500 firefighters continue working on these fires. #nswrfs https://t.co/5wgY6UnjOD
As blazes tear through Victoria and New South Wales, a magpie has been filmed mimicking the sound of emergency vehicles. In the video above captured in ...
A man jumped into a dam and trod water for an hour to survive the flames raging around him in New South Wales.Grant, who did not give another name, looked ...
Australian authorities on Wednesday confirmed a third person had died in devastating bushfires that engulfed the southeast coastal region this week and said a ...
AUSTRALIA'S out of control bushfires have become so severe the military has been sent in, as the death tolls climbs to 17. Military ships and aircrafts were ...
Authorities have less than 24 hours to move the thousands of people stranded on the NSW South Coast who face a humanitarian crisis amid looming horror fire ...
No imminent 'doomsday' threat of AI, robots replacing Canadian workers but report cites concerns
Challenges include rural towns, online streaming, as 11% of jobs could be automated over next 15-20 years
The Canadian Press ·
A robot called Pepper is positioned near an entrance to a Microsoft Store location in Boston in this March 21 photo. Canadian federal experts found the likelihood of a 'doomsday' scenario where automation eliminates half of Canadian jobs to be 'overstated,' according to documents. (The Associated Press)
Top federal government officials believe there is no imminent threat that artificial intelligence and robots will displace large segments of the Canadian workforce, newly released documents show.
In work done last year, federal experts found the likelihood of a "doomsday" scenario where automation eliminates half of Canadian jobs to be "overstated."
But officials warned there were early indications of challenges in parts of the economy that the government should do something about, such as the way online streaming services are reshaping music, television and movie production.
In a separate briefing, officials were told ahead of summer that 11 per cent of jobs in Canada could be automated over the next 15 to 20 years, and a further 29 per cent are "likely to change significantly."
The Canadian Press obtained a copy of the briefing summary, as well as May and June drafts of the report, through the Access to Information Act.
The report was to be used as the foundation for advice to the victor of the fall federal election on how to help workers at the dawn of a new decade.
The work was part of a series of exercises officials have run to see how well "social safety net" programs respond to the most dire of potential outcomes caused by technological shifts in the workforce.
It's unclear how well federal programs fared. Those details, like many others in the documents, have been blacked out or not released because they are considered advice for government.
Where and how fast remain guessing game
Federal officials have forecast where the impacts of automation are likely to be felt most, such as rural towns reliant on manufacturing, according to documents previously obtained by CP in March. Those documents also listed the towns most and least likely to feel the impacts in each province.
But exactly where effects are felt and how fast they arrive remain a guessing game.
For instance, the federal documents say some tasks, such as copy editing and data entry, could be outsourced overseas to low-cost workers through online platforms. Three-dimensional printing, on the other hand, could bring back manufacturing jobs.
Officials also wrote that other trends not measured in the report will shape the future of work, such as the transition to a low-carbon economy and increasing numbers of LGBTQ2 workers.
Officials advising Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough have heard many adults lack 'soft skills and basic digital skills' needed for success in the future. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Some policy responses will come into effect with the turn of the calendar to 2020, including the launch of a $250-a-year benefit for workers to be put towards training and a matching leave underwritten by employment insurance (EI). That work will be overseen by Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough, who has been given responsibility for skills training and the EI system.
Officials advising Qualtrough have heard many adults lack "soft skills and basic digital skills" needed for success in the future, according to a summary of a May presentation to deputy ministers — the top federal bureaucrats — by an official from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
A recent report by the Brookfield Institute came to a similar conclusion, and recommended governments create "a wide variety of accessible programming designed to teach Canadians general workforce digital skills … along with general soft skills."
Labour Minister Filomena Tassi is tasked with updating the federal labour code, including increasing the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour, and additional protections for workers such as Uber drivers. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press )
Labour rules need to change, 'move just as quickly'
Labour Minister Filomena Tassi is tasked with updating the federal labour code, including increasing the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour, and additional protections for "platform workers," such as Uber drivers.
Several of the details in Tassi's mandate letter reflect recommendations of a blue-ribbon panel of experts. The panel also recommended the government look at models of collective representation for non-unionized workers and rules to compensate workers who stay connected by email to the office after work hours.
Sunil Johal, chair of the panel, said a key message from the panel's report is that labour rules and regulations need to be frequently reviewed as more shifts are felt in the workforce.
He said there is also a need to make regulations more nimble. That might mean creating what Johal described as "outcomes-based regulations" to address shifts in the labour market to spell out what the government expects but allow businesses to determine the means to that end.
"If we take as a given that the world of work and the labour market is going to be shifting and adapting more quickly than ever as we move forward, then we absolutely need to move to regulatory legislative approaches that move just as quickly," Johal said.
"When there's a decades-long lag, that's where you're going to have huge issues that ... put labour standards at risk of falling just so far out of step that it's completely unacceptable."
In a statement accompanying the release of the panel's report in December, Tassi said the government would "consider the excellent work done by the panel" in making changes to federal labour rules.
Australia scrambles to reach fire victims as death toll rises
At least 15 people are now believed to have died, while scores remain missing
The Associated Press ·
Property damage shown Wednesday in Sarsfield, Australia. In the New South Wales town of Conjola Park, 89 properties were confirmed destroyed and cars were melted by Tuesday's fires. (Jason Edwards/AAP Image/News Corp Pool via Reuters)
Australia deployed military ships and aircraft Wednesday to help communities ravaged by deadly wildfires that have sent thousands of residents and tourists fleeing to the shoreline.
Navy ships and military aircraft were bringing water, food and fuel to towns where supplies were depleted and roads were cut off by the fires. Authorities confirmed three bodies were found Wednesday at Lake Conjola on the south coast of New South Wales, bringing the death toll in the state to at least 15.
More than 175 homes have been destroyed in the region
Some 4,000 people in the coastal town of Mallacoota fled to the shore as winds pushed a fire toward their homes under a sky darkened by smoke and turned blood-red by flames. Stranded residents and vacationers slept in their cars, and gas stations and surf clubs transformed into evacuation areas. Dozens of homes burned before winds changed direction late Tuesday, sparing the rest of the town.
"The fire just continued to grow and then the black started to descend. I couldn't see the hand in front in my face, and it then it started to glow red and we knew the fire was coming," local resident Mark Tregellas told Reuters.
"Ash started to fall from the air and then the embers started to come down. At that point, people started to bring their kids and families into the water. Thankfully, the wind changed and the fire moved away."
A helicopter tackles a wildfire in East Gippsland on Monday. Wildfires burning across Australia's two most-populous states are trapping residents, destroying properties and raising the country's death toll from the blazes. (State Government of Victoria)
Victoria Emergency Commissioner Andrew Crisp told reporters the Australian Defence Force was moving naval assets to Mallacoota on a supply mission that would last two weeks, and helicopters would also fly in more firefighters since roads were inaccessible.
"I think that was our biggest threat in terms of what are we doing with the children if we need to go in the water to protect ourselves given the fact that they are only 1, 3 and 5," tourist Kai Kirschbaum told ABC Australia.
"If you're a good swimmer, it doesn't really matter if you have to be in the water for a longer time. But doing that with three kids that would have been, I think, a nightmare."
'Dynamic' and 'dangerous' situation
Conditions cooled Wednesday, but the fire danger remained high across the state, where four people alone were reported missing.
"We have three months of hot weather to come. We do have a dynamic and a dangerous fire situation across the state," Crisp said.
In the New South Wales town of Conjola Park, 89 properties were confirmed destroyed and cars were melted by Tuesday's fires. More than 100 were still burning in the state Wednesday, though none at an emergency level.
Seven people have died this week, including a volunteer firefighter, a man found in a burnt car, and a father and son who died in their house
Cars drive in smog on the road to Cooma from Canberra in Bredbo, Australia, on Wednesday in this picture taken from a social media video. (Linsay Patterson via Reuters)
Firefighting crews took advantage of easing conditions on Wednesday to restore power to critical infrastructure and conduct some back burning, before conditions were expected to deteriorate Saturday as high temperatures and strong winds return.
"There is every potential that the conditions on Saturday will be as bad or worse than we saw yesterday," said Rob Rogers, deputy commissioner of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.
The early and devastating start to Australia's summer wildfires has led authorities to rate this season the worst on record, and reignited debate about whether Prime Minister Scott Morrison's conservative government has taken enough action on climate change. Australia is the world's largest exporter of coal and liquefied natural gas, but Morrison rejected calls last month to downsize the lucrative coal industry.
Morrison won a surprise third term in May. Among his government's pledges was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26 per cent by 2030 — a modest figure compared to the centre-left opposition Labor Party's pledge of 45 per cent.
The leader of the minor Australian Greens party, Richard Di Natale, demanded a royal commission, the nation's highest form of inquiry, on the wildfire crisis.
About five million hectares of land have burned nationwide over the past few months, with more than 1,000 homes destroyed.
Some communities cancelled New Year's fireworks celebrations, but Sydney's popular display over its iconic harbour controversially went ahead in front of more than a million revellers. The city was granted an exemption to a total fireworks ban in place there and elsewhere to prevent new wildfires.
Smoke from the wildfires meant Canberra, the nation's capital, on Wednesday had air quality more than 21 times the hazardous rating to be reportedly the worst in the world.
The smoke has also wafted across the Tasman Sea and into New Zealand.
