TRUMP WANNABE

Breakenridge: As covid cases rise, Kenney's keep calm and carry on advice is not much of a public health strategy

In relatively short order, Alberta’s daily COVID-19 case counts have jumped from the 100s to the 200s to the 400s and now into the 500s. At this rate, we may even crack the 600 threshold sometime this week.

 

© Provided by Calgary Herald Premier Jason Kenney speaks at the daily COVID-19 update with Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, on March 13, 2020. If the premier wants to avoid a return to severe restrictions, then what's the alternative plan as covid cases rise? asks columnist Rob Breakenridge.

With this rate of doubling, Alberta could be well into quadruple digits before November is through. A prolonged trajectory of that sort of exponential growth would create a rather dire situation for our province.

For now, Premier Jason Kenney is urging Albertans, as he has done several times over the last seven months, to keep calm and carry on. But to follow the logic of the premier’s intended analogy, the resolute citizenry ought to then be able to trust that their elected government is dealing with the crisis.

Keeping calm and carrying on might be reasonable enough advice for folks, but it’s not much of a public health strategy. Rather than laying out a plan to deal with the sharp rise in cases, the premier and his spokespeople are more interested in articulating what they won’t do.

And that has meant a thorough thrashing indeed for the lockdown strawman over the last few weeks. No one is calling for a full lockdown and it’s not a binary choice between that and doing nothing. The premier’s reluctance to force businesses to close or even scale back is understandable, but that should be an incentive to find other solutions to our current predicament.

First of all, while it’s reasonable for the government to prioritize hospitalization numbers above the daily case count, one cannot totally separate the two. A certain percentage of active cases are going to be serious enough to require hospitalization and if the former is rising then the latter inevitably will, too. Greater community spread makes it that much more difficult to keep the virus away from individuals more prone to severe outcomes.

Furthermore, we shouldn’t be so naive as to think that it is only public health measures that negatively impact the economy. Rampant infection can create its own “lockdown” effect, and we’re doing no businesses any favours if we allow active cases to double every few weeks.

So if the premier believes there’s a path to avoiding a worsening of the situation that doesn’t involve any sort of temporary or partial business closures, now would be the time to act.

First and foremost, our test-trace-and-isolate system needs to be beefed up. We are not yet at the premier’s own stated target of 20,000 tests per day, which seems like an immediate and obvious priority. That gives us not only the flexibility to target testing where needed but can hopefully speed up the turnaround time on test results.

That, in turn, aids contact-tracing efforts. But with higher numbers of daily case counts, we’re going to need more boots on the ground when it comes to doing the actual contact-tracing work. One of the concerning trends in recent weeks has been the growing number of cases with unknown origin.

Those efforts would also be bolstered by Alberta finally switching over to the federal COVID Alert app. We were told in August that this transition would occur, but it’s now almost November and we are still waiting.

The 15-person limit on private gatherings announced Monday for Calgary and Edmonton makes sense. But the threshold for a region moving from “watch” to “enhanced” status should be clarified. It’s not clear, for example, why the voluntary restrictions implemented in Edmonton weren’t then applied in Calgary once cases started rising.

It would also go a long way for the premier himself to take the lead on this issue, rather than leaving it to the chief medical officer of health. It’s all well and good for Kenney to point to past successes on the COVID front or to share his thoughts on the impact of various lockdown measures, but none of that is actually helpful in the here and now.

“Afternoons with Rob Breakenridge” airs weekdays 12:30-3:30 p.m. on 770 CHQR rob.breakenridge@corusent.com Twitter: @RobBreakenridge

Advocates call for migrant care worker protections, document alleged pandemic abuses

TORONTO — Migrant care workers are increasingly being exploited during the pandemic, an advocacy group said Wednesday as it called on the federal government to bolster protections for the workers and grant them permanent resident status.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Migrant Rights Network said a growing number of the workers who come from abroad to care for children, the sick and the elderly in employers' homes have reported issues like underpayment of wages, longer work hours and even evictions.


The group -- which has issued a report after surveying more than 200 of the workers -- said some also reported being restricted from leaving their employers' homes over fears of COVID-19.

Migrant care workers -- who are in the country on permits -- have little legal protection when dealing with such issues and need support from Ottawa, the group said.

"Restrictive immigration laws have produced conditions for exploitation and abuse that care workers are facing now and have faced for decades," said Diana Da Silva, an organizer with Caregivers Action Centre, a member of Migrant Rights Network.

"These experiences are not new, but have been further exacerbated during COVID-19," she said.

Some workers have seen their hours of work cut, which prevents them from accumulating the employment hours and pay required to apply for permanent residency, the group said.

"Permanent resident status is the single most important change that would ensure migrant care workers can protect themselves against labour exploitation," the report said.

"(It) immediately gives workers the ability to leave a bad job and make a complaint without fear of reprisals."

Harpreet Kaur, a migrant care worker who came to Canada from India in 2016, said in her first job in Edmonton she worked long hours each day and was paid between $600 and $700 a month. After leaving that job, it took her over a year to find another position that fulfilled strict immigration requirements.

The pandemic has now added another layer of worry, she said, with employers limiting or not permitting trips to get groceries, exercise, or send money home to family.

"During COVID-19 everyone is having a hard time," she said. "Our employers don't want us to go outside because they are scared of COVID."

Karen Sivatra, a migrant worker from the Philippines, said she came to Canada in 2016 to build a better future for her family. She said the long hours she works providing child care have become even longer during the pandemic.

"When COVID-19 happened, the kids were home all the time," she said. "I was working even more, from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. ... but I was paid the same as before. I was exhausted. "

Sivatra said she recently lost her job when her employer decided to move out of the Greater Toronto Area.

If the government granted workers permanent immigration status and changed work permits that are now tied to one employer it would help workers, she said.

"How can we support our families?" she said. "If we only had permanent residency, we could find a job easily."

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada did not immediately provide comment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published October 28, 2020.

Shawn Jeffords, The Canadian Press

Alberta union leaders launch protest website against Kenney government

EDMONTON — Labour-union leaders are urging Albertans to sign up to protest Premier Jason Kenney’s government through rallies and demonstrations and, if necessary, provincewide general strikes.

Gil McGowan, head of the Alberta Federation of Labour, says Kenney’s United Conservative government is attacking the province's parks, workers, and the public health system.

“We have no choice but to fight Jason Kenney and we’re asking all Albertans to join us,” McGowan said Wednesday at a news conference at an Edmonton hotel.

McGowan was flanked by other union leaders as they launched a website called standuptokenney.ca

The site asks Albertans to promise to take part in protests.

“The premier wants to frame opposition to his government as a battle between the UCP and so-called union bosses and NDP surrogates. But the truth is the UCP has picked fights with an unprecedented number of Alberta groups and individual Albertans regardless of their political stripe.”

Hundreds of health support staff walked out on Monday over the government's plans to cut jobs and privatize some services at hospitals.

The workers returned to their jobs on Tuesday after the Alberta Labour Relations Board deemed their action illegal, but some surgeries had to be cancelled and rescheduled.

McGowan says the one-day protest showed that mass action can be effective.

Kenney’s government was expected to respond later Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2020.

The Canadian Press

NDP says Alberta government must ‘do more,’ like increasing non-restrictive COVID-19 measures

Alberta's Official Opposition said Tuesday that the provincial government must "do more" as COVID-19 cases continue to climb in Edmonton and Calgary.

© Credit: Alberta NDP NDP Leader Rachel Notley on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020.

There are currently 4,477 active cases in the province; of those, there are 1,549 in the Calgary zone and the Edmonton zone has 2,179.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley outlined six "non-restrictive" measures, including halting the layoffs of 11,000 health-care workers and increasing the number of contact tracers, that the Opposition believes the government should immediately implement to help control the situation in Alberta.

"These are six proactive steps that the government can take today," Notley said.

"They don't need to restrict the lives or livelihoods of Albertans in taking these steps. In fact, they reduce the chance of economic restrictions going further."

Measures the NDP pushed for also include having a faster turnaround time for test results, implementing the national COVID-19 tracing app, introducing a COVID-19 risk index for businesses and setting out a provincial staffing strategy for continuing care facilities.

"The provincial government must do more," Notley said. "We believe that [Premier] Jason Kenney is not living up to his own personal responsibility as premier."

The office of the premier declined to comment on the NDP's demands when asked by Global News Tuesday.

Read more: ‘Alberta, we have a challenge’: 7 deaths, 1,440 cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Alberta since Friday

Notley made the demands at a news conference Tuesday, saying she believes Kenney is "failing to take action that will help keep Alberta's economy open."

Notley said that the 11,000 layoffs planned by the government create "chaos in the hospitals where they work because he is prepping to cut their salaries, eliminate their pensions, and in many cases, fire them."

Those layoffs led to a mass of health-care workers marching across the province Monday, but they are now back to work after the Alberta Labour Relations Board ruled they acted illegally when walking off the job.

Read more: Labour board calls Alberta hospital staff walkout illegal, orders picketers back to work

With faster test results, the NDP wants the government to publicly report wait time estimates and increase the number of contract tracers available in the province.

On Monday, Alberta's chief medical officer of health said the province currently has 800 contract tracers but is working to increase that number.

"AHS is increasing their staffing as quickly as possible, and they are actively recruiting more people to meet these increasing demands," Dr. Deena Hinshaw said.

Read more: AHS actively recruiting more contact tracers as COVID-19 cases in Alberta climb

Notley said she believes contract tracing is key for slowing the spread of the virus.

"Albertans who have not been informed that they've been exposed to somebody with COVID are still walking around, potentially spreading the infection," Notley said.

The NDP said the provincial government also needs to step up and get Albertans access to the national tracing app, which is currently available in eight provinces.

The UCP had said in August the province would be switching over but it has still not launched.

Read more: Alberta will switch over to national coronavirus tracing app

"It is really unacceptable that almost three months have gone by since the Alberta government agreed to adopt this national tracing app... but just can't make it work when eight other provinces already can and already have," Notley said.

Another demand the NDP wants is a COVID-19 risk index to be launched that would tell businesses the level of risk they face while open amid the pandemic.

Notley also called for a provincial staffing strategy for continuing care facilities, saying that outbreaks at these spots could lead to a "collapse in staffing levels" as employees face the risk of getting sick.

Hinshaw said Monday it’s important to find the balance between introducing restrictions that slow the spread of COVID-19 and preventing Albertans from being negatively impacted in other ways.

Also Monday, the province announced it was restricting gathering sizes in Edmonton and Calgary to 15, except for weddings, funerals and structured gathering places like restaurants, theatres and places of worship.

--With files from The Canadian Press and Kirby Bourne, Global News

Alberta NDP asks province to hire 1,300 contact tracers, speed up testing to slow spread of COVID-19

Lauren Boothby 

© Provided by Edmonton Journal NDP Leader Rachel Notley speaks on suggested measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020.

Faster test results and hiring more than 1,300 contact tracers are two of six new measures the NDP wants to see the UCP government introduce to limit the spread of COVID-19, Leader Rachel Notley said Tuesday.

The NDP is also asking the provincial government to make the national COVID-19 contact-tracing app operational in Alberta, create a COVID-19 risk index for businesses to plan relaunch strategies, develop and publish a provincial staffing plan for continuing care facilities, cancel plans to cut 11,000 Alberta Health Services jobs , as well as report the COVID-19 test turnaround times publicly.

Following two consecutive days with more than 500 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend and new mandatory social gathering limits in Edmonton and Calgary, Notley said Alberta’s current trajectory could bring in a more “extreme, limiting scenario” if the government doesn’t act.

“We heard Dr. Hinshaw talk about entering the ‘danger zone’ and crossing what she refers to as the ‘tipping point.’ … We believe that Jason Kenney is not living up to his own personal responsibility as premier, which is to keep Albertans safe, and we worry that he is sleepwalking his way into this second wave of the pandemic,” she said at a Tuesday news conference.

As to whether a provincial mask-wearing mandate is a good idea, she said it’s not necessary yet, although masks are “critically important.”

She said she doesn’t want to see another lockdown and the way to avoid this is to take the pandemic seriously.

“We don’t want to see closures, we don’t want to see jobs impacted. I think that if we had more contact tracers, and if we were able to have faster turnaround on testing, we’d have a better idea of where to take targeted action,” she said.

During question period Tuesday, Notley asked Health Minister Tyler Shandro if he would implement the recommendations. He said, “I suppose their answer is to shout at me to do more of what I’m already doing.”

Shandro said Alberta has the “best testing program in Canada” and the turnaround time is two to four days.

“They called on more contact tracers to be hired. Pre-pandemic we had 50 contact tracers, and now there’s over 800, and we’re hiring more every day.”

As for the risk index for businesses, he said Alberta has the most transparent approach in Canada. He also did not back down from plans to cut 11,000 AHS jobs, the majority of which are non-clinical jobs, although changes will lead to 800 clinical jobs being lost through attrition.

On Monday , chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw introduced new temporary, mandatory measures for Edmonton and Calgary as cases continue to rise.

The measures, which will be re-evaluated in one month, limit social gatherings to a maximum of 15 people where people would be “mixing and mingling,” Hinshaw said. This includes events like parties and receptions. The same limits do not apply to structured events like eating in restaurants, worship services, wedding and funeral ceremonies, conferences and trade shows.

The mandatory rules follow recent voluntary measures including reducing the number of “cohorts” you interact with to three. Cohorts — also called “bubbles” or “circles” — are a small group of people you can interact with regularly without keeping two metres of distance.

The three cohorts include your immediate household, school, and one other social or sports group. People in these cohorts should limit close contact with people outside their cohorts.

There were 422 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Alberta on Tuesday.

LORD BLACK'S MOLL

Friends come and go, but Barbara Amiel can always count on her enemies

TORONTO — You're not really a "somebody" until you've made the titular list of Barbara Amiel's new autobiography "Friends and Enemies."

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Amiel's roundup of perceived allies and adversaries reads like a rollcall of some of the most influential figures across three countries for the past half century.

There are heads of state (U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, friend; former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, enemy); arts and culture heavyweights (Elton John, Oscar de la Renta and Margaret Atwood, friends; Canadian director Barry Avrich, enemy), business titans (Indigo Books chief executive Heather Reisman, friend; Fred Eaton of the Canadian department store dynasty, enemy), and all manner of media personalities (Republican pundit Rush Limbaugh, friend; Toronto Star columnist Rosie DiManno, enemy).

But what does friendship really mean in the rarefied realm that Amiel occupied as the conservative columnist wife of a newspaper baron, Lady to Lord Conrad Black, who in joining forces became a British-Canadian media power couple?

As it turns out, not much, according to Amiel. She learned that lesson the hard way as hangers-on scurried away from the fallout of the supernova-like explosion of her and Black's lavish lifestyle.

"'Friends' is something that fluctuates throughout your life," Amiel said in a recent phone interview. "You can only divide people really into enemies."

Soon to turn 80, Amiel rehashes her greatest hits of grudge-holding with vicious verve in her recently released memoir tracking her high-wire trajectory from polarizing political journalist, to couture-clad socialite, and finally, self-styled exile of the establishment she and her husband once commanded.

But despite the nearly 600-page tome's vindictive title, Amiel insists the impulse to write "Friends and Enemies" was less about settling scores than an exercise in self-understanding.

"I needed to know who I was," said Amiel. "If you've been through a life of some ups and downs, but haven't accomplished anything substantial, and yet, at the same time have evoked such incredible spite in some people, you realize that your view of yourself must be flawed."

"I think I'm as reliable as it's possible for a human being to be when confronted with what they consider to be the truth about themselves."

That truth, at least in Amiel's telling, is a study in contradictions.

Born into a Jewish family in Hertfordshire, England, Amiel said her adolescent uprooting to Hamilton, Ont., instilled in her a feeling of displacement that stuck with her.

In a sense, her and Black's spectacular ouster from polite society affirmed Amiel's subconscious conviction that she'd always be on the outside looking in at the glittering elite, even as her social calendar and designer wardrobe seemed to suggest she was staring directly into a mirror.

"Seeing oneself as an outsider may be a form of vanity, because everyone sees themselves in a way as an outsider," said Amiel. "You do go through life, not with a chip on your shoulder, but feeling you just don't somehow belong."

At every turn, however, Amiel sought to differentiate herself from the stuffed shirts who dominated Canada's media scene.

She burst into the headlines as a right-wing rebuttal to Gloria Steinem: a raven-haired bombshell, brash as she was bawdy, with an acerbic wit and aptitude for rattling established orthodoxies.

A longtime Maclean's writer and the first female editor to helm the Toronto Sun, Amiel railed against the creep of the feminist progress she seemed to stand for. A three-time divorcee, she has bemoaned growing LGBTQ acceptance as an affront to society's "traditional values." An immigrant to Canada, she has stoked fears that "Canadians — as we know ourselves — may be an endangered people in a few centuries."

Her appetite for the offensive has not dulled over the years. Her book is brimming with outwardly outre takes on issues ranging from the #MeToo movement to the "matriarchy" guiding the investigation into missing and murdered Indigenous women.

In an interview, Amiel asserted that the current "cancel culture" would prohibit such a "civilized exchange of views" without the threat of professional retribution.

But far from being shunned from the mainstream discourse, the release of Amiel's book this month was met with a media frenzy. The most salacious tidbits — bedroom intrigue, high-society badmouthing, her bloodthirsty proclamation that she wants to see her persecutors "guillotined" — have already been mined for tabloid fodder and journalistic lampoonery.

Amiel's media caricature as a status-hungry, man-eating social climber was cemented when she married Black in 1992. But privately, Amiel said she settled into the security of their "non-neurotic love."

"As long as I had Conrad at my side, I could handle the extraordinarily high ozone layer that he took me into, socially speaking," said Amiel. "I didn't think about what it would mean to tumble not into a lower socio-economic sphere, but into disgrace."

With their union came a new set of gilded obligations that Amiel said she felt ill-equipped to uphold — the duties of running a 26,000-square-foot estate, difficulty navigating the mannered milieu of the ladies-who-lunch but barely eat, the pressure to accumulate the requisite regalia to win the approval of the beau monde (a burden exacerbated by Amiel's own spendthrift shopping habits).

But in the end, Amiel said it wasn't her elite excesses that did her in, but the irresistible pull of a punchy turn of phrase.

When she told Vogue magazine in 2002 that her "extravagance knows no bounds," surrounded by closets full of high-priced fashions, Amiel said she was making a self-deprecating joke.

But she said her sense of humour was lost on what she characterizes as the cabal of rivals and lawyers dead-set on dethroning Black from his media company, Hollinger Inc., where he was chief executive and chairman.

"I was there to be mocked. Life was there to be mocked. And I suppose to be shocked, because I just found it funny. I always have, which obviously has not stood me in terribly good stead," said Amiel.

"Once I realized (Black) had done absolutely nothing wrong, I then ... looked to myself, and I thought, I'm the cause of this. It's my flamboyance. It's the way I irritate people."

Amiel doesn't begrudge her high-powered friends for keeping their distance after Black's 2007 convictions on obstruction of justice and fraud, for which he spent more than three years in a Florida federal prison, with Amiel as his dutiful visitor.

The convictions related to what prosecutors called Black's scheme to siphon off millions of dollars from the sale of newspapers owned by Hollinger. Black has always maintained his innocence.

Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump personally phoned Black to announce his full pardon for the conviction.

Amiel credits Trump for seeing through the "corporate governance fad" that she believes drove Black's prosecution, although she concedes Black's personal connection to Trump might have worked in her husband's favour.

But she rejects the notion that Black's glowing biography of the president might have influenced the decision. (Trump receives a special mention among the "supportive high office holders" on Amiel's list.)

"Friends and Enemies" ends on a note of triumphant defiance: "I'm going to try to enjoy the remaining time left to me. And bugger off to the whole lot of you," Amiel writes. "We're still here. You lost."

But if you think Amiel is quietly riding off into the sunset, you have another thing coming.

"Human rights and freedom of speech in Canada is in great peril. I don't think I'll ever be able to stop that fight. It's just I have to find the arena where I can fight it," Amiel said, floating the idea of starting her own online venture.

"Those are the kinds of things that one fights until the grave faces you. And hopefully, you have your lipstick on when the grave faces."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2020.

Adina Bresge, The Canadian Press

'Already struggling' Calgary downtown core will be hit hard by job cuts from Cenovus-Husky merger

EDMONTON — The merger of Cenovus Energy Inc. and Husky Energy Inc., announced Sunday, is going to have a spillover effect into the downtown core of Calgary, where high-rise office space has sat vacant for months and years as the economic downturn and the COVID-19 pandemic have battered the oil and gas industry, clearing out commuter traffic and having a devastating effect on business and culture in the city’s core.

© Provided by National Post

The two companies said Tuesday the merger would result in roughly 2,100 layoffs as Husky joins Cenovus, a $3.8-billion deal that will make Cenovus the third-largest energy company in Canada. It’s not clear what jobs, specifically, might be lost.

“The downtown of Calgary is the goose that lays the golden eggs in terms of the operation of our city and these job losses will hurt in a number of different ways,” said Coun. Evan Woolley, whose ward encompasses half of downtown Calgary.

Tuesday’s news is just the latest blow Calgary in general, and downtown Calgary in particular, has faced. Adam Legge, the president and CEO of the Business Council of Alberta, said the downtown vacancy rate is close to 30 per cent, and any further reduction will mean fewer downtown workers frequenting small businesses such as restaurants and dry cleaners in the city centre.

“Any time we see layoffs of that magnitude, there’s a concern for a whole host of things, including the livelihoods of those affected and what it means for a downtown that is already struggling,” Legge said.

Downtown Calgary, unlike many other large cities, is heavily commercial, with few residential properties. This means, simply, the businesses and organizations downtown rely, in large part, on commuter traffic to put bums in barstools and cash on counters.

“While we started from this incredible high level of downtown commercial activity, it means we had a long way to fall,” Mayor Naheed Nenshi said in an interview.

Oilpatch primed for more consolidation in wake of Cenovus-Husky deal

Cenovus, Husky confirm up to 25% headcount reduction as oilpatch layoffs continue

The vacancy’s effects are clear enough, even just looking around. The Plus 15s, the nearly 16 kilometres of pedestrian walkways with 83 bridges that connect buildings in downtown Calgary, are practically deserted.

“What were once bustling networks, particularly in the winter, are quiet,” said Woolley.

In Calgary’s specific case, much of that premiere downtown real estate is — or was — occupied by oil and gas giants.

“To suggest that the oil and gas industry will fill up that vacancy any time soon, or ever, is a faulty assumption. If this isn’t the wakeup call in the sense of the oil and gas industry is not going to save Calgary, then I don’t know what is,” said Dan Harmsen, partner and senior vice-president at Barclay Street Real Estate.

Harmsen said there’s an excess amount of office space in the city that will take years to absorb, but added the situation has led to an attractive rental market, where premium office space can be had for 20 per cent to 40 per cent cheaper than any other city in North America.

Commercial realtors in Calgary have seen some companies outside the oil and gas industry take advantage of lower costs and lease additional space in recent months.

Rachel Notley, the leader of the New Democrats, told the Post that this is a trend that isn’t going to stop, even with COVID recovery or as oil prices rebound.

“As it relates to the downtown of Calgary, just generally, what we need to be doing is looking at ways to diversify the economy and attract other businesses back to Alberta and of course to Calgary,” Notley said. “In terms of job creation, what we need to be understanding then is that we have to look for other eggs to put in our baskets — in fact, we need more baskets, is a better way to put it.”

The layoffs at Cenovus-Husky aren’t even the first in recent weeks.

TC Energy, the company behind the Coastal GasLink pipeline through northern British Columbia, announced an unspecified number of layoffs some weeks ago, followed by Suncor, which said it would shed 2,000 jobs over the next 18 months.

In total, the energy industry dropped 23,600 Canadian jobs in just three months this spring.

The downsizing of Calgary’s energy industry, while it has obviously affected thousands of Calgarians directly, has several other spillover effects; the city itself has lost hundreds of millions of dollars because of downtown vacancies affecting property tax returns. That tax revenue, in turn, needs to be made up elsewhere through, say, residential property taxes.

The lack of commuter traffic affects revenues from parking, or bus tickets and passes, for example. And, obviously, having fewer people in office spaces affects other businesses downtown, whether that’s cultural groups and non-profits or bars and restaurants. There has also been an increase in crime downtown, said Woolley

.

© Gavin Young/Postmedia The downtown vacancy rate in Calgary is close to 30 per cent, according to Adam Legge, president and CEO of the Business Council of Alberta.

What is trickier to sort out, though, is the effects more recent layoffs have had because it’s in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when most people are already working from home and not travelling downtown for work.

Karen Ball, the interim president and CEO of Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations, said there have been effects on volunteerism and the not-for-profit sector because fewer people downtown means that office-based volunteerism and donations — such as the United Way campaigns — are harder to maintain when workers aren’t in the office.

“It’s an unfortunate thing, because, the timing being such, the pandemic has affected everyone in Calgary and certainly in Alberta,” Ball said. “For non-profits it means there’s been an increase in the demands for their services.”

It’s especially acute for the cultural non-profits, most of which are based downtown, she said.

“Of course people working downtown creates a vibrancy 5 to 7 and 7 beyond for bars and restaurants and also live in-person events and so the arts sector is tied to, in some ways, the vitality of the downtown core.”

Still, in spite of the doom and gloom, there are bright spots: On Monday, Suncor announced it would be relocating employees at its branch offices in the Toronto area to Calgary, essentially bringing 700 positions to Calgary.

“Yesterday, Suncor’s leadership spoke with our Downstream employees and let them know that over the course of 2021, we’d be moving our Downstream head office from Mississauga and Oakville to Calgary,” Suncor spokesperson Sneh Seetal said in an email.

Nenshi said that Suncor moving people to the city is good news, evidence of the city’s appealing real-estate market, compared to overheated business markets such as Toronto, something he hopes will bring even more business to the city.

“That’s really the pitch that we’re making to a lot of firms,” said Nenshi.

Woolley, for his part, also remains optimistic: “There is hope, I am a hopeful, optimistic Calgarian, I believe in our city, but it really does speak to the importance of us taking a look at economic diversification,” said Woolley.

With files from Geoffrey Morgan

• Email: tdawson@postmedia.com | Twitter: tylerrdawson

Alberta health staff return to work, surgeries resume after one-day walkout

EDMONTON — Hospital and health-care workers who staged a one-day illegal walkout returned to work Tuesday while politicians swapped recriminations and accusations in the house over the dispute.

Alberta Health Services reported no service disruptions and a return to scheduled surgeries one day after hundreds of workers, including aides and support staff, walked off the job at about 30 sites throughout the province, including hospitals in Edmonton and Calgary.

Late Monday night, the Alberta Labour Relations Board ruled the job action illegal and the workers’ union, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, said it would urge staffers to return to work.

They had walked out to protest plans announced earlier this month by the United Conservative government to eliminate 11,000 jobs and privatize more lab and laundry services to save money. Health Minister Tyler Shandro had said nursing and other front-line clinical staff would not be affected.

The AUPE represents about 58,000 health care workers.

AHS estimated 157 non-emergency surgeries, most of them in Edmonton, had to be postponed as a result of the walkout. That is on top of the elective surgeries postponed in Edmonton last week due to strain on the system caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the legislature, the Opposition NDP critic Janis Irwin accused Shandro of shabbily treating critical front-line workers.

“These folks put their lives on the line to serve Albertans, and they deserve our respect and dignity, not your government’s constant attacks,” Irwin told the house during question period.

“What message do you have for these dedicated workers?”

Shandro replied, “This is pure hypocrisy from the NDP.

“We are doing what exactly the NDP did. They had 68 per cent of laundry jobs throughout the province contracted out in Calgary and Edmonton. BULLSHIT THAT WAS DONE BY THE PREVIOUS UCP GOVERNMENT WHEN IT WAS THE PC PARTY UNDER KLEIN

“The NDP are not fighting for patients. They’re not fighting for the workers either. They’re fighting for the six-figure salaries of their union bosses.”

NDP Leader Rachel Notley said her party did not initiate any privatization of those health services during its previous four years in government.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2020.

Alberta health-care workers could face sanctions for wildcat strike
Janet French CBC

© Scott Neufeld/CBC Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews said Alberta Health Services will investigate workers who participated in a wildcat strike on Monday.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) is considering "disciplinary options" for unionized health-care workers who walked off the job earlier this week.

Nursing and support workers who participated in Monday's wildcat strike could be fined, suspended or even fired from their jobs, Finance Minister Travis Toews told reporters at the legislature on Tuesday. 

"They're looking at individual employee actions, individual employees who took part in the illegal walkout," Toews said

Next steps could include reporting any regulated workers to disciplinary bodies for professional sanctions, he said.

Working conditions and the Alberta government's move to outsource up to 11,000 jobs prompted the job action.

On Monday night, the Alberta Labour Relations Board declared the workers' walkout to be an illegal strike.

Although the board cited no wrongdoing by their union, the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), Toews said AHS will ask the board to investigate whether union leaders were involved in organizing the strike.

"Just from information in the public realm, it would appear that union leaders were instrumental, or certainly there was a high degree of possibility that union leaders were instrumental in the activities," Toews said.

Although he wouldn't point to specific evidence, Toews said social media posts, news reports and information received by his office suggest leaders were involved in organizing the walkout.

AUPE issued a short statement Tuesday, saying leaders can't comment on AHS's labour board complaint. Moves to investigate individual employees may prompt the union to file grievances against the employer, the statement said.

On Monday, AUPE President Guy Smith said the walkout was led by workers, not union officials.

"We know that your employer's going to react very strongly to what you're up to today," Smith said over a megaphone Monday to workers rallying outside Edmonton's Royal Alexandra Hospital. "They're going to try and bully you and intimidate you to not be out here. If you stick together and stay strong, nothing can overcome the power of workers standing together — remember that."
Opposition calls move a 'witch hunt'

AHS said the organization is reviewing Monday's events and considering next steps including possible disciplinary options and consequences.

"That process could take some time to ensure we complete a thorough review and investigation," spokesperson Kerry Williamson said in an email.

He did not say how many workers AHS was investigating or how long it would take.

© Scott Neufeld/CBC Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley said the government should be trying to reach a truce with health-care workers rather than investigating them for potential wrongdoing.

Opposition NDP leader Rachel Notley said the move is a continuation of the UCP government's attack on health-care workers.

"If the finance minister insists upon engaging in a witch hunt against regular, hard-working frontline workers in the middle of a pandemic it will show us that they have learned nothing from yesterday," Notley said on Tuesday. "What they must absolutely do is declare a truce."

The government has said outsourcing up to 11,000 health-care jobs such as cleaners, laundry and food service workers, porters and others could save up to $600 million a year. Two-thirds of health-care centre laundry across the province is already handled by private contractors.

The NDP disputes the estimated cost savings of outsourcing. Notley said the government expects low-wage health-care workers, many of whom are women of colour, to cheerfully report to high-risk jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic while waiting for pink slips.

"On what planet does this look even a little bit like basic common sense and humanity?" Notley said.

AHS workers' wildcat strike declared illegal by Alberta Labour Relations Board

Ashley Joannou , Anna Junker EDMONTON JOURNAL

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Waving to passing motorists, health-care workers walked off the the job outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital joining others at various health care locations across Alberta on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020.

The Alberta Labour Relations Board has ruled that health-care workers who walked off the job Monday were engaged in an illegal strike.

In the decision released Monday night, the board said the workers must return to work at their scheduled shifts.

The orders from the board will be filed with the Court of Queen’s Bench, meaning anyone who breaks them could face civil or criminal penalties.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), which represents the workers, said healthcare workers would return to work on Tuesday.

“AUPE members won support from across Alberta for their heroic stand, and proved once and for all that healthcare staff is more than doctors and nurses,” the union said in a statement late Monday.

In a statement issued following the decision, Finance Minister Travis Toews said he was pleased by the decision.

“Albertans should be able to rely on their health-care system with services delivered uninterrupted — no matter the circumstance,” he said.

“Going forward we expect that all unions respect the bargaining process and stop putting Albertans’ safety at risk. We will not tolerate illegal strike activity.”

General support health-care workers, licensed practical nurses and health-care aides across Alberta went on a wildcat strike Monday morning to call on the government to hire more staff and reverse the decision announced by Health Minister Tyler Shandro earlier this month to cut 11,000 jobs, including laundry services and lab work, mostly through outsourcing to third-party companies.

A wildcat strike is action taken by unionized workers without authorization from union leadership.

In a morning statement, Alberta Health Services (AHS) called the job action illegal. At a 4 p.m. emergency hearing, AHS formally asked the ALRB to direct employees back to work.

Arguments at the hearing centred around how big the walkout actually was and whether the AUPE was involved as an organization and could be held accountable.

AHS lawyers argued that the union was “reckless” for engaging in this type of behaviour during a pandemic and asked that the action be declared unlawful, the union and its members be ordered to cease and desist and the union make “every reasonable effort” to bring the strike to a close.

For AUPE’s part, the lawyer representing the union argued that while some members were not at work when they should have been, there was limited evidence that AUPE as an entity was involved and weak evidence around exactly how many employees were scheduled to work and were instead picketing.

In the final decision, the cease and desist order was made against the employees without mentioning the union.

Health-care workers have walked off the job this morning. A sizeable group is outside the Royal Alex and getting lots of honks of support from passing vehicles #yeg #ableg #abhealtb #abpoli pic.twitter.com/aADq08jdMi— Anna Junker 🔮 (@JunkerAnna) October 26, 2020
‘We’re not going to stand for being ripped apart and discarded, like Kleenex’

Speaking outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital on Monday morning, AUPE president Guy Smith said the strike was grassroots and spontaneous.

“The anger and the frustration that’s been building up for over a year was really set to light by that (job cuts announcement) two weeks ago,” said Smith.

The AUPE represents about 58,000 health-care workers, although it was not known exactly how many walked off the job or picketed.

Workers went on strike at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, the University of Alberta Hospital, Glenrose Hospital and Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, Foothills Hospital, South Health Campus and Peter Lougheed Centre in Calgary, Red Deer Regional Hospital, and in Athabasca, Westlock, Lethbridge, Whitecourt, Cold Lake, Peace River, Leduc, Westview and Fort Saskatchewan.

By Monday afternoon, the crowd outside the Royal Alexandra had swelled to a few hundred, including representatives of other health-care and non-health-care unions.

The Health Sciences Association of Alberta, which represents 27,000 health-care professionals, and the United Nurses of Alberta had said in separate statements that their members wouldn’t do the work of other union members. The Alberta Federation of Labour and its affiliated unions said they would join picket lines to show support.

Heather Smith, president of the UNA, said there has been “extreme unhappiness” within the health-care system for a long time.

“You can’t continue to beat people and expect that they’re just going to take it,” she said.

“It’s time this government recognize that we are a family of providers, and we don’t like being ripped apart, we’re not going to stand for being ripped apart and discarded, like Kleenex, we are not disposable as a workforce.”

Colleen Buzikevich, an environmental service worker who does housekeeping at the Royal Alexandra and was picketing outside the hospital Monday morning, said hearing about the job cuts was devastating.

“It was it was like a hot knife right through the heart,” Buzikevich said. “We’re fighting for our livelihood. We have families to support, we have spouses, people have kids. It’s that’s how you pay for food on your table and that’s being taken away from us. It feels like the rug is being pulled out from under us.”

By 8:30 p.m., just before the decision was released, picketers had left the Royal Alexandra and U of A hospitals.

© Ed Kaiser An ambulance on a call passes health-care workers who have walked off the the job outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital joining others at various health care locations across Alberta on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. Ed Kaiser/Postmedia

Non-emergency surgeries postponed across the province

Earlier in the day, AHS said it was taking steps to address interruptions to patient care, including redeploying non-union staff wherever possible.

As a result of the job action, AHS spokesperson Kerry Williamson said non-emergency surgeries had been postponed across the province. The procedures were halted in the Edmonton Zone last week due to capacity issues because of COVID-19

.

© Ed Kaiser Health-care workers walked off the the job outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital joining others at various health care locations across Alberta on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020.

NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley called the strike action “deeply concerning” and said the province’s plan to privatize jobs will result in poorer health care.

“The UCP must stop this deliberate attack on public health care and get back to the table with frontline health-care heroes,” Notley said in a statement.

Smith said he’s had working relationships with previous premiers, but with Premier Jason Kenney there is “no relationship.”

“The fact that we haven’t been able to have that, build that relationship with this government, means that it could be harder to get to those discussion points,” Smith said. “We know we’re going to be at loggerheads, but we’re at a crisis point right now and we’re willing to help resolve that if the government is.”

With files from Lisa Johnson and The Canadian Press

© Anna Junker AUPE health-care workers walk off the job and picket outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020

.

© Anna Junker AUPE president Guy Smith addresses media after AUPE health-care workers walk off the job and picket outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020.

© Anna Junker AUPE health-care workers walk off the job and picket outside the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020.

Culture to become latest front in military's fight against sexual misconduct

IT WOULD BE MORE PRODUCTIVE TO VIEW THE MILITARY AS A UNIT OF SOCIAL ECOLOGY, A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO AUTHORITARIAN HEIRARCHICAL PATRIARCHY

OTTAWA — The Canadian Armed Forces is preparing to take a close look at its culture as part of its latest plan to eliminate the "wicked problem" of sexual misconduct in the ranks

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The new plan launched Wednesday says the military's efforts to stop inappropriate and illegal sexual behaviour over the past five-plus years has had mixed results — and that changes are needed.

That includes moving from simply supporting victims and punishing perpetrators to changing the parts of the military’s culture that are “contributing to a permissive environment that allowed incidents of sexual misconduct to occur.”

The first step: identifying the various aspects of the Canadian Armed Forces culture, including those parts that need changing to help prevent such behaviour.

“The military ethos of the CAF is founded on respect for dignity of all persons, a principle that is embodied in CAF culture,” reads the new plan, called The Path to Dignity and Respect.

“While the majority of men and women in the CAF perform their duty with honour, the prevalence of sexual misconduct in the CAF clearly indicates that there is a disconnection between the desired CAF culture, and the reality experienced by many members in their day-to-day work.”

That disconnect has been highlighted in a number of reports compiled and released since the military first found itself under fire in 2014 over its handling of sexual assault complaints and other inappropriate behaviour.

A Statistics Canada report released last year found minimal progress in eradicating sexual misconduct in the ranks. The auditor general released a scathing assessment in 2018 that the military was failing to support victims properly and resolve cases quickly.

Reflecting on those and other criticisms, the plan says: “It was clear that the CAF’s previous attempts to address sexual misconduct had not achieved the desired effect, and a more comprehensive and sustained approach to addressing sexual misconduct was required.”

At the same time, the plan describes sexual misconduct as a “wicked problem,” which it defines as one that is extremely complex and with no easy answers.

The military is promising to step up previous efforts to support victims and hold perpetrators to account.

Lt.-Gen. Mike Rouleau, who as vice-chief of the defence staff is second in command of the Armed Forces, says more is needed to ensure real change in the military.

“There's a lot that's been done since 2015,” Rouleau said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “But it was mostly reactive work. It was getting after the immediate, urgent things in the face of this really big problem that we had to deal with.

“Over the course of that time, we kind of got a handle on some of these foundational issues. We got some of the research done. We consulted external experts, and today, releasing The Path, which is this strategy that aligns us culturally, signals a shift from the reactive to the proactive.”

Hence the focus on culture, which Rouleau said includes hammering home the point that there is “zero contradiction” between being “the ultimate soldier” and treating people well.

“They're not mutually exclusive,” he said. “And so this is the message, this is the crux of the issue. There is no machismo and conflict-oriented culture that renders it permissible to treat people inappropriately.

“Anybody who still lives in that arcane space, needs to leave.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2020.

Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press

Report raises 'serious concerns' about progress on prison isolation units: minister


OTTAWA — Public Safety Minister Bill Blair acknowledges that an independent report raises "serious concerns" about progress on implementing new units for isolating federal prisoners from the general jail population

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

In response to criticisms of solitary confinement, the government ushered in “structured intervention units” for inmates requiring isolation to allow better access to programming and mental-health care.

Prisoners transferred to the units are supposed to be allowed out of their cells for four hours each day, with two of those hours engaged in "meaningful human contact."

A preliminary report prepared for the Liberal government by criminologists Anthony Doob and Jane Sprott says these requirements were seldom met in the first nine months of the new system.

Only 21 per cent of prisoners spent four hours outside their cells on half or more of their days in the units, the report says. In 46 per cent of the stays, the prisoner had the two hours of meaningful contact on at least half of the days.

The figures point strongly to a need for continued monitoring and oversight of what is happening in the Correctional Service of Canada's structured intervention units, the report says.

"The failure to achieve the four hours out of the cell and two hours of meaningful human contact are, obviously, a special cause for concern," the authors write.

"At the same time, the variation that exists — across institutions and regions — suggests that, if CSC wishes to learn from its (relative) successes, it has the opportunity to do so."

Blair said in a statement Wednesday the report "raises serious concerns with our progress in implementing the (intervention units). We take the findings of this report very seriously, and we won’t hesitate to address them."

"There is more work that needs to be done to address systemic racism and barriers within our justice system, and the federal correctional system is no exception. By working to eliminate these barriers, we can ensure better equitable reintegration outcomes for Indigenous, Black and other racialized inmates."

Rights organizations have criticized introduction of the units as a mere rebranding of long-standing and harmful isolation practices in federal prisons.

The government wants to ensure federal correctional institutions are safe for staff and inmates, support the rehabilitation of offenders and reduce the risk of reoffending, Blair said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2020.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

Corrections watchdog urges moratorium on doctor-assisted deaths in Canadian prisons


OTTAWA — Canada's prison ombudsman is calling for a moratorium on allowing medically assisted deaths inside federal correctional institutions, part of a sweeping annual report that also took a closer look at the prevalence of sexual violence behind bars.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

There are three known cases of doctor-assisted death in federal corrections — including two carried out in the community — and each one raises questions around consent, choice and dignity, federal correctional investigator Ivan Singer said in his 2019-20 annual report tabled in Parliament Tuesday.

The report said his office found a series of errors and delays and the misapplication of law and policy in the two cases it reviewed.

That included one case involving an individual Zinger described as "a non-violent recidivist" serving a two-year sentence, which is the minimum for a federal sentence.

Zinger said he has "no doubt" the procedure itself was carried out professionally and according to the law. His review focused on whether there were "more humane alternatives" for managing the inmate's terminal illness after he was denied parole.

"The decisions to deny parole and then provide (medical assistance in dying) in a prison setting seem out of step with the gravity, nature and length of this man’s sentence," Zinger wrote.

"With no other alternative available, the decision to deny full and day parole was almost certainly a factor in shaping his decision to seek (medical assistance in dying)."

He said the government should set up an expert committee to consider the ethical and practical concerns in providing medically assisted death in prisons and suggest policy and law changes.

Correctional Service of Canada Commissioner Anne Kelly said in a statement Tuesday the report provides an opportunity to review and act on important issues within the federal correctional system.

She said the agency is committed to reviewing and considering all recommendations from external and internal partners to improve training and education for those in federal correctional facilities.

The report also looked at sexual violence in federal prisons and concluded that it is a pervasive but under-reported problem.

"I was disturbed to find considerable gaps in the Correctional Service of Canada’s approach to detecting, investigating and preventing sexual coercion and violence behind bars," Zinger said.

He said the correctional service should have an open and honest conversation about the scope of sexual assault in prisons.

"Victims do not report their experiences of abuse," Zinger said. "Many are afraid to report, fearing retaliation, retribution or re-victimization by the perpetrators."

Kelly said officers are trained to recognize and deal with all types of criminal behaviour between inmates, including sexual coercion and violence.

"I want to assure you that we take this issue very seriously," she wrote in her statement.

Emilie Coyle, executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, said the advocacy organization applauds Zinger for taking a systemic look at the issue of sexual violence.

“This investigation is further evidence that prisons are not — and never will be — safe places," Coyle wrote.

"The persistent and inescapable danger of sexual violence and coercion in federal prisons, emphasized by the (correctional investigator's) report, is appalling. Now that this report reveals what happens behind prison walls, we anticipate public outrage.”

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said the investigator's report raises important issues and recommendations regarding education, training and safety in federal correctional institutions.

Zinger called on Ottawa to adopt a law that would require Correctional Service of Canada to publicly report and respond to incidents of sexual violence that take place in prisons, similar to the Prison Rape and Elimination Act introduced in the United States nearly 20 years ago.

Blair said Public Safety Canada will carry out research to inform a strategy to respond to sexual coercion and violence in correctional institutions, adding that an interim report is set to be developed by next spring.

The report from Zinger also examined whether inmates are able to study while in prison.

"There is virtually no opportunity to pursue post-secondary education behind bars," he said. "Apprenticeships are rare, and most prison shops run on obsolete technological platforms."

Work opportunities for prisoners are also limited, Zinger said.

"Inmates describe prison work that is mundane and meaningless, jobs that simply provide an escape from being locked up all day," he said.

Zinger said he is "deeply disappointed" by the responses from the government and the agency, given the issues and investigations predate the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Most recommendations are met with vague and future commitments to review, reassess, or even, in the case of sexual violence in prisons, redo the work that my office has already completed," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2020

——

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press