Stranded passengers call for more accountability for WestJet flight cancellations

Caitlin Yardley, The Canadian Press

Passengers are calling on airlines to do more for customers stranded due to the latest wave of flight cancellations to impact Canadian travellers.  

A system-wide outage at WestJet on Saturday led to the cancellation of over 200 WestJet, Swoop and Sunwing flights over the weekend. The airline later said the problem was caused by a "cooling issue" in its primary data centre.

WestJet said that it scheduled an additional 10 flights for waiting passengers on Monday.

However, for some, the damage has already been done.

WestJet customer Gemini Clarke was stuck in Calgary Monday, exhausted and wanting answers but still unsure whether she would be placed on a flight back to Kelowna today.

Clarke said at midday she had not received a response and could not reach a representative by phone or email as lines remain congested with customers in similar circumstances.

WestJet said in an emailed statement that it's asking passengers to refrain from contacting the airline until 72 hours before their upcoming flights to ensure staff are able to prioritize calls.

Air passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs said many of the affected passengers will be entitled to compensation.

“We are hearing about chaos but I think what we should really be hearing is the passenger's rights in this situation."

Lukacs said that cancellations due to a system-wide outage are within WestJet's control and that the airline is required to rebook passengers on new flights, even if they happen to be with another airline. 

Additionally, he noted WestJet will owe affected passengers compensation of up to $1,000 depending on the length of the delay under the federal Air Passenger Protection Regulations. 

Passenger Bradley Martens said that WestJet has not given advice on what options are available with other airlines or on what refund or compensation passengers are entitled to. 

"There's really no options," said Martens. "It's kind of like a wait-and-see, but really it's just wait." 

In an statement on Sunday, WestJet's chief operating officer said disruptions would continue this week.

"Further delays and cancellations in the coming days will be required, as we work diligently to recover our operations," Diederik Pen wrote.

The fact that the company apparently had a single point of failure is troubling, said Lukacs. 

He said that there are systems in place to provide backups in case system failures occur and that WestJet has not yet provided a satisfactory explanation for the situation. 

The Calgary-based airline said another 31 flights were cancelled Monday due to the effects of the system outage combined with winter weather affecting Alberta and parts of Western Canada.

Communication is the most important thing, Martens said.

"Provide detail of what you're prepared to do for your customers ... that is the biggest issue."

TransAlta reports Q3 profit, raises dividend and financial guidance

The Canadian Press 

Nov 8, 2022

sAlta Corp. (TA:CT)

12.67 0.05 (0.40%)

As of: 11/10/22 4:29:06 am
REAL-TIME QUOTE. Prices update every five seconds for TSX-listed stocks

Chart Type - 1year

See Full Stock Page »

TransAlta Corp. increased its dividend as it reported a third-quarter profit compared with a loss a year ago and raised its financial guidance for the year.

The power utility says it will now pay a quarterly dividend of 5.5 cents per share, up from five cents per share.

• Sign up to get breaking news email alerts sent directly to your inbox

The increased payment to shareholders came as TransAlta says it earned a profit attributable to common shareholders of $61 million or 23 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a loss of $456 million or $1.68 per diluted share a year ago.

Revenue for the quarter totalled $929 million, up from $850 million in the third quarter of 2021.

In its guidance, TransAlta says its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for its full year is now expected to be in a range from $1.38 billion to $1.46 billion compared with its original guidance for between $1.065  billion and $1.185 billion.

The company also says its free cash flow is now expected to be in a range of $725 million to $775 million compared with earlier guidance for between $455 million and $555 million.

Maple Leaf Foods still working to recover from outage caused by cyberattack

The Canadian Press 

Nov 8, 2022

Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is still working to restore operations after being hit by a cyberattack over the weekend, the company said Tuesday.

Chief executive Michael McCain said all facilities ran on Monday but problems remain as their business continuity teams figure out process-by-process manual workarounds, while both the team and the company's IT division work to recover the integrity of the system. 

"I don't think we ran optimally for sure. On day one, I can guarantee that. But we all walked away from our calls last night thinking how impressed we were with how much they got done in the matter of one day," said McCain on an earnings call. 

He didn't go into detail on what functions were hit worse than others, but said the disruption was "comprehensive," while noting they do have workarounds.

"This is not something that is unexpected in industry today, as much as it's a scourge of modern technology, but I feel very confident in the team of people that we have in place to ensure the continuity of the business."

Chief financial officer Geert Verellen said a full resolution of the outage will take some time and result in some operational service disruptions, and that the company will work through the issues with customers and vendors. 

He said the company had a third-quarter loss of $229.5 million as it took a one-time charge related to the value of its plant protein business.

The company said the loss amounted to $1.86 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $44.5 million or 36 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

Maple Leaf said its most recent quarter included a $190.9-million one-time non-cash impairment charge related to its plant protein group and a $31.5-million decrease in the fair value of biological assets.

On an adjusted basis, Maple Leaf said it lost a penny per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 38 cents per share in the same quarter last year as a result of weaker commercial performance due to inflation and labour challenges.

Sales in the quarter totalled $1.23 billion, up from $1.19 billion in the third quarter of 2021.

The company said the increase was driven by higher sales in its meat protein group, partially offset by lower sales in the plant protein group.

Empire tight-lipped as IT problems affect pharmacies at Sobeys and other stores

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press  

Nov 8, 2022

Empire Co. Ltd. remained tight-lipped Tuesday about computer system issues that are still impeding customers seeking prescriptions at some pharmacies it operates.

The Nova Scotia-based company issued a brief statement Monday confirming that an "IT systems issue” affecting certain pharmacies has caused “technical difficulties” in filling prescriptions.

Issues at Empire-operated pharmacies, including Sobeys pharmacies and Lawtons Drugs, were first reported over the weekend, and some locations in Halifax Tuesday had signs posted warning customers of the ongoing technical problem. "Unfortunately, at this time we are unable to access your records to fill a prescription," a sign at one pharmacy counter said.

Empire did not respond to questions Tuesday about the cause of the IT problem and has not said when it expects it to be resolved. In its Monday statement, the company said it remains “committed to the continuity of care for all its pharmacy patients.”

Anne Genge, the CEO of Alexio, an Ontario-based cybersecurity company that specializes in health care, said the situation is reminiscent of the cyberattack that targeted Newfoundland and Labrador’s health system last year.

“The issue here is probably the same as what we saw last year in Newfoundland: a ransomware attack,” she said in an interview Tuesday. A ransomware attack is when hackers steal or encrypt sensitive information and demand a payment to release it.

Genge said the scale of Empire's system outage and the lack of public communication from the company lead her to believe that this type of cyberattack may be behind the technical problems.

She said it would not be surprising for Empire to keep relatively quiet about the IT problems if the company were working on a plan to restore the system or negotiate with a possible cyber attacker. “They tend to not talk about things until they’ve got it sorted out,” she said of organizations facing ransomware attacks.

With about $30.5 billion in annual sales and 130,000 employees, Empire's stable of retail outlets include 1,598 stores under a number of different banners, including IGA, Safeway, Foodland, FreshCo, Needs, Thrifty Foods, Rachelle-Béry and Bonichoix.

"Our sole focus right now is on getting this problem rectified and we will provide further updates as relevant information becomes available,"  Pierre St-Laurent, Empire's chief operating officer, said in the Monday statement.

Tesla loses 2 years of gains amid Twitter saga, demand fears

Kit Rees and Jan-Patrick Barnert, Bloomberg News

Elon Musk’s latest sale of Tesla Inc. stocks, following repeated denials that he planned to offload more shares, is helping to wipe out the last vestiges of a rally in the electric carmaker over the past two years.

The stock dropped as much as 2.2 per cent in morning trading in New York on Wednesday. If the decline holds, the shares will be back at the level they traded at in November 2020. 

Tesla investors had remained suspicious that Musk would unload more shares in the carmaker, despite his denials. Those fears were confirmed Tuesday in a regulatory filing that disclosed the sale of shares worth US$3.95 billion, bringing his total proceeds over the past year to about US$36 billion. He still owns about 14 per cent, according to Bloomberg data.

“Musk selling stock again after saying he wouldn’t can only leave the door open to more going forward,” said Mark Taylor, a sales trader at Mirabaud Securities.

Still, investors in Tesla have had to contend with far more than just the CEO’s mercurial takeover of the social-media platform Twitter. The EV maker has struggled with supply-chain shortages and rising raw material costs along with the rest of the global automotive industry, with new concerns emerging about demand for its vehicles taking a hit as inflation-stung consumers tighten their purse strings.

The stock has also been swept up in the broader trend of investors exiting pricey growth stocks in favor of more stable companies as an economic recession looms large.  

Tesla’s share price has declined for three straight months and November is proving even worse, with the stock falling almost 17 per cent so far. Its Relative Strength Index is back in oversold territory, and the stock has lost over US$635 billion in market capitalization since peaking last November.

Tesla analysts warned that while the latest stake sale by Musk can bring some temporary relief for the EV maker’s investors, the company still has plenty of challenges that can hold back the shares.

While overhang from the share sale by Musk may be gone, the threat “from a rising wave of competition and plenty of good alternatives for equity investment” are still around, Roth Capital Partners analyst Craig Irwin said.

SOCIALISM FOR THE PETRO INDUSTRY

Enbridge CEO says federal incentives for clean tech will spur investment in Canada

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

Nov 4, 2022

The new incentives for clean energy development in the federal government's fall fiscal update will make a real difference in helping to attract investment capital to Canada, the chief executive of Enbridge Inc. said Friday.

On a conference call to discuss the pipeline giant's third quarter financial results, CEO Al Monaco said the Calgary-based company is encouraged by measures announced by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Thursday. 

"I think it's recognized, from what I read last night, that you've got to be competitive. And I think, as I said, this will try to close the gap so that we get our share in Canada of investment dollars," Monaco said.

"My read of this early on is it will be attractive for business here, both in terms of Canada attracting capital, but also for us specific to our business generally."

As part of an effort to encourage the growth of low-carbon energy alternatives, as well as to keep Canada competitive with the U.S. and its massive Inflation Reduction Act, Freeland said Thursday the federal government will create two new federal tax credits for clean technology and low-emitting hydrogen production. 

She also suggested more investments in clean energy will be outlined in the coming spring budget.

The news was welcomed by Canadian CEOs who have been vocal in warning that businesses in this country risk falling behind if Canada doesn't try to keep pace with the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed Congress and was signed into law by U.S. President Joe Biden in August.

The ambitious U.S. legislation provides expanded clean energy tax credits for wind, solar, nuclear, clean hydrogen, clean fuels, and carbon capture, including bonus credits for businesses that pay workers a prevailing wage and use registered apprenticeship programs.

Canada's energy sector, in particular, has announced a flurry of proposals in recent months aimed at helping to achieve this country's climate goals of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. 

Enbridge, for example — which moves about 30 per cent of the crude oil produced in North America and transports nearly 20 per cent of the natural gas consumed in the U.S. — also has a growing offshore wind portfolio, and has proposed low-carbon projects using new technologies such as hydrogen, renewable natural gas, and carbon capture and storage. 

The Pathways Alliance — a consortium comprised of Canada's six largest oilsands companies — is pursuing multiple approaches to meet its own net-zero ambitions, including a massive proposed carbon capture and transportation line in northern Alberta but also the possible use of other technologies such as small modular nuclear reactors.

“The Pathways Alliance is encouraged by the urgency expressed by Ottawa to advance major energy infrastructure projects and to stay globally competitive on clean technology investment in Canada," said Pathways Alliance president Kendall Dilling in a news release Friday.

Dilling added Pathways is also encouraged by the establishment of the $15-billion Canada Growth Fund, which was previously announced in April and will be launched by the end of the year. The goal of the fund is to help mitigate the risks private investors assume when they invest in new technologies.

"(The Canada Growth Fund) could offer added certainty for the major decarbonization investments we have planned and help close the gap with the United States, but we await details," Dilling said.

The Pathways Alliance declined to comment on another measure included in Thursday's fiscal update — a new two per cent tax on share buybacks that is intended to encourage companies to reinvest their profits in Canada and Canadian workers.

The oil and gas sector in particular has come under fire from critics in recent months who have said more of the windfall profits the industry has reaped in 2022 since Russia's invasion of Ukraine should be re-invested in local communities and green technologies, instead of share buybacks and dividends for shareholders.

Canada's newly announced share buyback tax imitates a similar new tax on share buybacks in the U.S., also part of that country's Inflation Reduction Act, and was praised by environmental groups Friday.

"In the last week, as oilsands companies have released their latest round of financial results, we have seen that 2022 continues to be a historic boom year for the sector – and that companies continue to use their windfall profits to reward shareholders at record levels," clean energy think-tank the Pembina Institute said in a release.

"In past booms, some of those profits would stay in the country and have been reinvested into their future operations. Oil demand is set to decline this decade, and to stay competitive in a low-carbon energy future, Canada’s oil and gas sector must make concrete plans to invest in the decarbonization projects that will future-proof their own operations."      

But Adam Legge, president of the Business Council of Alberta, said the government needs to ask itself why companies have been so quick to do share buybacks rather than invest in capital projects.

"It really boils down to competitiveness with respect to some of the investments in clean technology and emissions reduction, in which the United States is well ahead of us," Legge said. "We've made some progress, we've closed the gap with this most recent fiscal statement, but we're not quite there yet."

On Friday, Enbridge announced it earned $1.28 billion or 63 cents per share in its latest quarter, up from $682 million or 34 cents per share in the same quarter last year.

Operating revenue grew to $11.57 billion in the company's third quarter, compared with $11.47 billion in 2021. 

MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M

Public hearing begins on Rogers' $26B proposed takeover of Shaw

The Canadian Press

Nov 7, 2022


The Open Rogers-Shaw deal heads to tribunal

The Competition Tribunal's public hearing on Rogers Communications Inc.'s $26-billion proposed takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. begins today as the telecom companies look to take the deal across the finish line. BNN Bloomberg's Paul Bagnell reports.

The Competition Tribunal's public hearing on Rogers Communications Inc.'s $26-billion proposed takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. begins today as the telecom companies look to take the deal across the finish line.

The hearing will aim to resolve the impasse between the Commissioner of Competition and Rogers and Shaw, and comes after weeks of talks and a short mediation period in late October that reached a stalemate.Sign up to get breaking news email alerts sent directly to your inbox

The Competition Bureau is one of three regulatory agencies that must approve the deal before it can close, in addition to the CRTC and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.

Last week, the competition watchdog doubled down on its intention to fully block the deal.

It reiterated its position that the planned sale of Shaw-owned wireless carrier Freedom Mobile to Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron Ltd. is not enough to eliminate its concerns that the merger would lead to worse services and higher prices for consumers.

The hearing is expected to last four weeks with oral arguments scheduled for mid-December.

Chief Justice Paul Crampton will be heading the Competition Tribunal panel during the hearing.

Rogers is hoping to close the Shaw deal by the end of the year, with a possible further extension to Jan. 31, 2023.

7:37
It seems there is a common interest to settle the Rogers-Shaw dea...

3:05
Rogers-Shaw deal headed to tribunal hearing

3:14
Judge orders Rogers-Shaw parties to meet

BITCOIN’S HISTORY SHOWS ROOM FOR DROP TO $13,000

Akshay Chinchalkar, Bloomberg News 

 Nov. 10, 2022



A security cage protects the automated teller machine (ATM) of a cryptocurrency kiosk in Antwerp, Belgium, on Monday, June 6, 2022. Bitcoin has been trading around the $30,000 level for weeks now, defying predictions of a potential further decline but also struggling to gain upward momentum as the broader US market has also taken a beating. Photographer: Valeria Mongelli/Bloomberg , Bloomberg


(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin has further to fall before it finds a base to stage any recovery, if the depth of previous routs is any guide. While the crypto currency’s near 75% plunge from its 2021 high has already sent shock waves through markets, it would need to fall below $13,000 to begin matching the magnitude of previous drawbacks. How long it could take to get there is an open question: the current slump is longer than the average of past cases but still seven weeks shy of the tumble that ended in 2015.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Crypto market rout deepens as Binance seen balking at takeover

Vildana Hajric and Muyao Shen, Bloomberg News 

Nov. 9,2022

The week’s rout in cryptocurrencies deepened, with Bitcoin tumbling to the lowest levels in two years, as Binance is seen increasingly unlikely to follow through on its takeover of FTX.com.

Bitcoin, the largest token by market value, fell as much as 11 per cent to US$16,705 on Wednesday, the least since November 2020. That brings this week decline to about 20 per cent. It reached a record high of almost US$69,000 a year ago. Just about every digital coin was struggling: Ether, Solana, Polkadot and Avalanche all dropped.

FTT, the utility token of the FTX exchange, collapsed by more than 40 per cent, following a more-than-70 per cent tumble on Tuesday.

“The market is now in full fear mode,” said Ilan​ Solot, co‑head of digital assets at Marex Solutions. “Because Pandora’s box has been opened with this Binance-FTX deal and now everyone’s looking to see if there’s more dominoes and what else needs to be liquidated.”

At issue is Binance executives finding through due diligence that the gap between liabilities and assets at FTX is likely in the billions, and possibly more than US$6 billion, said a person familiar with the matter, who wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss the matter. Binance Chief Executive Officer Changpeng “CZ” Zhao had stunned the crypto world on Tuesday with an announcement that his firm was moving to take over FTX.com, which suffered a liquidity crunch after Zhao announced that he was selling a US$530 million holding of FTX’s native token. 

Investors are on edge about spreading contagion given the pivotal role FTX and its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried played in the industry.

“Since I entered the crypto industry in 2016, very few periods tested its market infrastructure and participants like the last 24 hours did,” said crypto hedge-fund manager Dan Liebau of Modular Asset Management.

Noelle Acheson, author of the “Crypto is Macro Now” newsletter, pointed out that Bitcoin, which typically holds up better than other tokens during times of stress, was seeing greater declines than some other altcoins. That potentially points to institutional investors bailing “as a result of the drama.”

“It’s a sign that this is a blow to confidence in the industry as a whole, from the investor’s point of view,” she said in an interview. “From the industry’s point of view, it’s also a pretty steep blow, much more so than what we saw with Three Arrows Capital and with the Terra implosion. This is sitting harder.”

The sense of dread that swept across clients of fallen crypto exchange FTX.com was so intense that they pulled out US$430 million worth of Bitcoin in the space of just four days. FTX had more than 20,000 Bitcoins going into Sunday, according to data from CryptoQuant. That fell to almost zero by Wednesday after fears about FTX.com’s financial health led customers to flee.

FTT, the utility token of the FTX exchange, has collapsed by more than 75 per cent in the past 24 hours and was trading around US$4.20, according to CoinGecko data. 

“The letter of intent is non-binding, which means that further issues could still arise if CZ/Binance decide to back out of the deal,” said David Moreno Darocas, research associate at CryptoCompare.

The letter of acquisition intent by Zhao’s Binance Holdings came after a bitter feud between with Bankman-Fried spilled into the open. Zhao actively undermined confidence in FTX’s finances, helping spark an exodus of users from the three-year-old FTX.com exchange. 

A day before reaching a deal, Bankman-Fried said on Twitter that assets on FTX were “fine.” 

Terms of the emergency buyout were scant, with Binance saying the agreement came after “a significant liquidity crunch” befell FTX and the firm asked for its help. 

The price of Sol, the native token of the Solana blockchain -- which is associated with both FTX and Bankman-Fried’s crypto trading house Alameda Research -- posted dramatic declines alongside other tokens of Solana-based projects. Sol was down as much as 36 per cent on Wednesday, taking losses this year to 90 per cent. 

“SBF and FTX were the biggest patrons of Solana,” Teng Yan, a researcher at digital-asset research firm Delphi Digital, said on Twitter. “This era is over. Binance has taken over, and they will heavily favor BNB chain over Solana. Alameda had ~US$1B in locked and unlocked US$SOL, which they’ll have to sell if insolvent. This puts a huge sell pressure on US$SOL.” 

The FTX-Binance ordeal gave some traders flashbacks to the issues suffered by Celsius -- the crypto lender that collapsed earlier this year -- as well as those seen by other firms that were engulfed in this year’s crash in digital assets.

Teong Hng, CEO at crypto investment firm Satori Research, said the “situation is still very fluid” while adding “I am confident these two crypto giants will do the right thing to protect investors and the industry.”

CANADIAN BITCOIN OWNERSHIP SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED DURING THE PANDEMIC: BOC SURVEY

Hilary Punchard, BNN Bloomberg
Oct 12, 2022

Bitcoin ownership significantly increased among Canadians last year, according to a survey released by the Bank of Canada.

In the central bank’s 2021 Bitcoin Omnibus Survey, it found ownership levels increased to 13 per cent in 2021.

The number of Canadians who owned Bitcoin sat at five per cent between 2018 and 2020.




“This increase occurred following widespread increases in the savings and wealth of Canadians during the pandemic,” the BoC report states.

“At the same time, some fintech companies began to offer cryptocurrencies alongside traditional investment products, providing consumers with a wider range of accessible and user-friendly platforms to buy Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin ownership increased the most among men (19 per cent) compared with women (seven per cent.)

The survey also found younger Canadians are more likely to be Bitcoin owners, with 26 per cent of Canadians 18 to 34 investing in the digital asset in 2021.


SMALLER STAKES


The majority of Bitcoin owners have a smaller stake in the digital asset.

“In 2021, the median amount of Bitcoin held was $500 worth, and 70 per cent of Bitcoin owners held the equivalent of $5,000 or less,” the report said.

“The value of Bitcoin holdings is higher for long-term owners than recent owners because long-term owners benefited from the significant run-up in prices that occurred during 2020.”


ONE-OUT-OF-FOUR REPORTED SIGNIFICANT LOSS


Many Canadian Bitcoin owners have suffered a significant investment loss at some point.

The report found 25 per cent of Bitcoin owners had lost a large amount in a price crash, which is up from 18 per cent in 2019.

Over the past three years, Bitcoin hit a high of US$67,734.04 on November 9, 2021.

Since then, the cryptocurrency has fallen more than 28 per cent to trade at $19,096.57 as of mid-day Wednesday.

Canadians also said that they’ve reported other issues with their crypto assets such as losing access to their wallet (11 per cent), transaction problems (nine per cent) or stolen funds (seven per cent.)

OSC files allegations of fraud in multimillion-dollar crypto offering

The Canadian Press
Oct 3, 2022

The Ontario Securities Commission says it has filed allegations against Troy Richard James Hogg related to a crypto token offering that raised US$51 million.

The statement of allegations says that between May 2017 and June 2019, Hogg, an Ontario resident, promoted and sold a crypto asset named Dignity token, previously called Unity Ingot, to investors around the world.

The regulator alleges that Hogg and his companies — Cryptobontix Inc., Arbitrade Exchange Inc. and Arbitrade Ltd. — defrauded investors with false and misleading statements in promotional materials, including that gold bullion supported the value of the tokens.

The OSC alleges that Hogg and his companies further defrauded investors by spending a significant amount of invested funds on things unrelated to crypto security tokens, including buying real estate and making payments to companies controlled by Hogg.

The regulator also alleges that Hogg did not file a prospectus for the token or obtain the necessary registration with the OSC to engage in trading activities.

The OSC says it was assisted in its investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which ran a parallel investigation and has levelled charges against Hogg and several U.S. residents.