New propellers with looped blades could help make the oceans quiet again, sparing both marine life and the climate

Story by mmcfalljohnsen@insider.com (Morgan McFall-Johnsen) • Today

Sharrow Marine makes a propeller based on loops that's designed to reduce noise and increase efficiency. Sharrow Marine© Sharrow Marine

The propellers of the world's ships and boats create a constant drone that disrupts ocean life.
New propeller designs based on loops could one day quiet that drone and be more fuel efficient.
Sharrow Marine sells them for small boats but would need to scale up to reach the shipping industry.
This article is part of "Gains in Green Tech," a series showcasing some of the most transformative solutions to the climate crisis. For more climate-action news, visit Insider's One Planet hub.

Imagine you're a whale. You spend your entire life in the open water. You can see well enough, but you mostly listen.

Songs of other whales help you communicate and travel with your pod. Rhythmic waves crashing on distant shores orient you on migrations that span thousands of miles each year.


A sperm whale swimming off the coast of Mirissa, in southern Sri Lanka. 

 Joshua Barton/Reuters

But a distant drone, like white noise, is starting to obscure the sounds you rely on.

It's the constant hum of all the cargo, cruise, and charter ships crisscrossing the ocean and trailing the coasts. Their noise is growing more thunderous each year as their propellers blare into the ocean void.

"A ship traveling from Tokyo to Shanghai is going to have direct sound impacts in that area but could potentially send noise all the way across the ocean to Los Angeles," Ben Halpern, a marine ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told Insider.

At any given moment, thousands of commercial ships are traveling over the oceans.



A container ship in Hong Kong's harbor, one of thousands traveling the ocean at any moment. Kevin Phillips/Getty Images© Kevin Phillips/Getty Images

"You can get quite a substantial hum of all those propellers that can potentially cover up that natural noise," Halpern said.

It's not just whales that suffer. Many marine creatures rely on sound to communicate, navigate, find food, or avoid predators.

Research indicates that the overpowering hum of ships can kill off sea-slug larvae, make humpback whales stop singing, and cause schools of bluefin tuna to change direction and become "uncoordinated." Other studies have found that the temporary disappearance of shipping traffic during COVID-19 lockdowns brought a resurgence in endangered pink dolphins near Hong Kong and, after 9/11, reduced stress among North Atlantic right whales.

Much of this underwater noise comes from ships' propellers. But it's not from the mechanics of the propeller motors — it's the physics at the tips of the propeller blades.

A traditional ship propeller that has blades in a screw-like form. Christian Charisius/Reuters© Christian Charisius/Reuters

That's why engineers like Tommy Sebastian, a senior staffer at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, are tinkering with unconventional propeller shapes. New loop-based models are designed to not only reduce noise pollution and help protect marine life but also increase energy efficiency — a win-win-win for the oceans, the climate, and the shipping industry.

Propellers that close the loop cut out some of the noise


A traditional blade propeller, left, and MIT's toroidal propeller. MIT Lincoln Laboratory

When a blade propeller spins in the air (like the one on the left in the above image), it generates regions of high and low pressure that meet at the blade's tip to create a vortex.

It's these so-called tip vortices that make a lot of noise, both in the air and underwater.

When you replace the blade with a loop, there's no tip. The high- and low-pressure regions meet along the edge of the loop, distributing the vortices more widely so that they dissipate faster and therefore more quietly.

That's what Sebastian realized when he put loop propellers on a drone.

Hear how much of a difference it makes:

"I think this gives people another dimension to explore in propeller design," Sebastian said.

Bringing the closed loop to water

Greg Sharrow was trying to make quieter drones to film live classical music when he realized that his loopy design, which aimed to limit tip vortices, had an advantage in the water too.


Sharrow Marine is working to adapt its closed-loop propellers for different types of boats and ships. Sharrow Marine© Sharrow Marine

As a boat propeller spins, it creates similar high- and low-pressure regions in water as a drone propeller does in air. These pressure changes create cavities of air that form bubbles.

This process, called cavitation, is very loud — Kathy Metcalf, the president and CEO of the trade association Chamber of Shipping of America, said it accounts for most of a boat propeller's noise.

Sharrow said his loop-based boat propellers are about 20 decibels softer than traditional propellers because both tip vortices and cavitation are "eliminated or significantly reduced."

But to determine the noise reduction for ocean life, Halpern said that it's crucial to measure the frequencies, in hertz, of the propeller noise. Marine animals can hear a much wider range of frequencies than humans can.

Sharrow began selling propellers to recreational boaters in 2020 through a company he founded called Sharrow Marine.

Sharrow plans to run third-party tests to better assess the extent of his propellers' underwater noise reduction. He said he aims to publish the results in the next year.

Loops could be more energy efficient, too

Metcalf described cavitation as lost energy.

Testing led by the company BoatTEST found that the Sharrow Propeller was up to 30% more efficient than a standard blade propeller.

Efficiency doesn't just save money — it can also help ships use less fuel and emit less heat-trapping gasses into the atmosphere.



A man cleaning up engine fuel from a refrigerator ship that ran aground near Algeciras, in southern Spain. 

Anton Meres/Reuters

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has said that about 90% of traded goods are transported by ocean shipping, which represents 2.9% of global greenhouse-gas emissions.

Sharrow hopes to expand into the shipping industry as his company scales up manufacturing.

"We have been actively designing propellers of 10 meters in diameter for many years and working collaboratively with shipping-container companies around the world to apply the technology for container ships," Sharrow said.

He said that Sharrow Marine produces up to 1,300 propellers a month at its facilities in Detroit and that the company had months' worth of back orders to catch up on through a supply collaboration with Yamaha. His plan is to scale up to make hundreds of thousands of propellers each year.

The future of shipping could be much cleaner and quieter

Though loop propellers aren't widely used for commercial shipping vessels — the main culprits of underwater noise from propellers — they could one day replace those ships' noisy screw propellers or traditional blade propellers.


Ever Forward, a container ship owned by Evergreen Marine Corp., sits grounded in the Chesapeake Bay off the shore of Maryland. 

Julio Cesar Chavez/Reuters

Quieter propellers are just one part of an impending reckoning for the shipping industry.

To reduce emissions, cargo ships have to switch to low-emission fuel sources like green methanol. That would involve redesigning new ships, retrofitting old ones, and building the coastal infrastructure to refuel them.

Nobody's requiring shipping companies to do that, so they aren't rushing to do it. But Metcalf said there's "a very quiet push" to turn sustainability guidelines from the UN's International Maritime Organization into a mandatory code or market instrument to kick-start the fuel transition.

Reducing underwater noise could go hand in hand with that transformation.

"There's a synergy there," Metcalf said. "You can improve your energy efficiency and reduce your underwater noise with the same kind of things."

Strategies with such synergy include reshaping bows and hulls, maintaining a clean hull and undamaged propellers, and adding extra structures to decrease cavitation around the propeller. Some of those options are operational, and some involve retrofitting the ship. All can help save energy, reduce noise, and make greener shipping.

"Propellers are a big piece of the solution, but they're not the only piece," Metcalf said.

April 19, 2023: This story has been updated to clarify the findings of the study on stress among North Atlantic right whales.

Population policies can erode reproductive, human rights, warns United Nations agency

Story by Lisa Xing • Today - CBC

Anew report from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) warns that government policies aimed at raising, lowering or maintaining fertility rates can erode reproductive and human rights and says the goal should be to advance gender equality and the quality of life.

"There is a serious danger that rights will be undermined," Natalia Kanem, the UNFPA's executive director, told reporters last week in New York during a press briefing on the report, which was released on Wednesday. "That is already happening in some places."

As the world's population hits eight billion, the 2023 UNFPA State of World Population report says human reproduction is neither the problem nor the solution to many of today's big problems — including climate change, the pandemic, conflicts and economic uncertainty — that fuel concerns about overpopulation and underpopulation.

Instead, it calls for public investments to ensure "equitable access to quality education, employment, health coverage and social protection," so that the bodies of women and girls are not treated as "instruments to enact population ideals."

The report's authors found that only 56 per cent of women are able to make their own decisions over their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Population anxiety

The UNFPA's report includes data showing there is substantial anxiety in the general public about population after surveying 7,797 people across eight countries (Brazil, Egypt, France, Hungary, India, Japan, Nigeria and the United States).

The most common view was that the world's population was too large and the fertility rate too high. It also found that the more exposure people had to the media and conversations about population, the more likely they were concerned about population numbers, the fertility rate and immigration.


Natalia Kanem is executive director of the United Nations Population Fund. She says women in less-developed countries are often blamed for having too many children, while women in developed countries are blamed for having too few.© Dylan Jones/CBC

"The question isn't whether the human population is too large or too small," Kanem said. "The question is: Can everyone exercise their fundamental human right to choose the number and spacing of their children?

"Sadly, the answer is a resounding no."

Overpopulation and underpopulation policies

The report cites cases of where population targets set by governments are pushing people toward reproductive choices they may not otherwise make.

In Uzbekistan, for example, doctors have spoken to the international media about pressure to use sterilization to reduce the population rate, with the government arguing that poorer patients can't afford more children.

In Russia, "mother heroines" who have 10 or more children are paid one million rubles, or about $16,300 Cdn. Romania and the United States have seen restrictions in access to abortion.

In India, some states proposed a two-child policy in 2021, including incentives for sterilization and penalties for those who exceeded target family size.

Related video: WHO Calls for Improved Global Access to Fertility Care (COVER News India) Duration 1:30  View on Watch

South Korea, which has the world's lowest birth rate, is now offering families payments and other benefits to anyone who gives birth to a child.

United Nations experts say these policies generally don't work in the long term.

"Such measures will not help in any meaningful way to reverse fertility trends," said Michael Herrmann, senior adviser of economics and demography to the UNFPA.

Herrmann told the press briefing that demographic changes might cause some of the challenges the world faces, but "manipulating population numbers" isn't the solution, as these measures often only serve to incentivize people to have children earlier, not more of them.

Fertility rates distract from solutions

Kanem said women in less-developed countries are often blamed for having too many children, while women in developed countries are blamed for having too few.

"This fallacy holds the wrong people to account," she said.

"The countries with the highest fertility contribute the least to global warming and suffer most from its impacts."

According to Kanem, focusing only on fertility rates distracts from solutions such as reducing carbon emissions and consumption in wealthy countries.

The report also said most experts today agree that "population changes are normal, and population sizes are neither good nor bad; what is needed are resilient systems that can respond to the needs of a population, no matter what its size."

That includes advancing gender equality overall. In high-fertility countries, the report said, "empowerment through education and family planning" will lead to economic growth.

Conversely, in aging, low-fertility countries that are concerned about labour shortages, gender parity in the workforce is considered the most effective way to improve productivity and income growth.

Responsibility of taking care of children

In Canada, where the fertility rate is low, some experts say the solutions that best tackle economic concerns are through supportive government policies.

"Some of the responsibility of taking care of children needs to be taken off women's shoulders," said Marina Adshade, an economics professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Adshade said policies that require or encourage more men to take parental leave; more flexibility for both women and men at work; and affordable child care would all make a big difference.

"It's just simply not going to work if you're just repeatedly telling women that they have to make sacrifices for the greater good," she said.

For a generation of young people, the choice to not have children is rooted in a lack of policies that support a future generation.

In 2019, Emma Lim, a fourth-year student at McGill University in Montreal, launched a movement called #NoFutureNoChildren — a pledge to not have children until the Canadian government took serious steps to fight climate change.

So far, she's sticking by it, saying her reluctance isn't limited to climate-change policies.


When she was a university student in 2019, Emma Lim launched a movement called #NoFutureNoChildren, pledging to not have children until Canada took real action to fight climate change.© Isaac Olson/CBC

"We have a cost-of-housing crisis. We don't have a very strong financial future. When you add climate change ... it just doesn't look like a promising world," Lim said.

This echoes the UNFPA report, which states that family planning without "improving the low status of women and girls around the world will likely have only a limited impact on broader economic and social development."

Google ordered to pay $500,000 to Montrealer over links to post calling him pedophile

Story by The Canadian Press •  TODAY

MONTREAL — A Quebec Superior Court judge has ordered Google to pay $500,000 to a Montreal man after the tech company restored a link to an online post falsely accusing him of being a pedophile

.

Google ordered to pay $500,000 to Montrealer over links to post calling him pedophile© Provided by The Canadian Press

The man, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, first found the defamatory post in 2006 when he used Google to search his name.

While the man was able to have the link removed from search results that appear on Google's Canadian site, the company later restored a link.

The man, who is described as a prominent businessman in court documents, argued the defamatory post damaged his career and personal relationships.

Google, which is headquartered in California, argued that Quebec defamation law didn't apply to the case and that under U.S. law it had no obligation to remove the link.

Justice Azimuddin Hussain ruled late last month that Quebec law does apply and that while Google is not required to monitor what its search engine links to, it must act when it is informed that it is facilitating access to illicit content.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2023. 

The Canadian Press

CANADA

Tech companies shouldn't be labelling media companies in ad hoc way: academics

Story by The Canadian Press • 7h ago


TORONTO — Allowing tech companies to apply brazen labels to the social media accounts of credible publications can harm the reputations of news outlets and mislead the public, academics say.


Tech companies shouldn't be labelling media companies in ad hoc way: academics© Provided by The Canadian Press

They are concerned that Twitter chief executive Elon Musk's recent move to label social media accounts, including CBC's, as "government-funded" could exact damage because it was done on a whim and is seemingly not rooted in the truth.

"When the platform itself comes along and slaps a label on their official accounts or profiles saying this is a government-funded organization, for a journalistic enterprise, that's a major blow to their reputation," said Brett Caraway, a professor of media economics at the University of Toronto.

"The worst thing that a journalistic enterprise can be accused of is being a government propaganda outlet."

Twitter labelled CBC “government-funded" on Sunday. On Monday evening, Musk later had the label changed to “70% government-funded” and then “69% government-funded."

CBC has since paused its use of Twitter, saying the label is unfair and incorrect because the broadcaster receives public funding through a parliamentary appropriation that is voted upon by all MPs, and its editorial independence is protected in law in the Broadcasting Act.

Musk's succession of labels is "not a serious response," CBC media relations director Leon Mar said in an email Tuesday.

"Journalistic independence is not a game."

Twitter responded to multiple requests for comment about why the label was applied and whether it would be removed or changed with an auto-generated email bearing a poop emoji.

However, its website defines "government-funded media" as "outlets where the government provides some or all of the outlet’s funding and may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content." Twitter's policy links to a Wikipedia page listing "publicly funded broadcasters" it said it may use in determining when this label should be applied.

Caraway characterized the label as a form of libel because it conjures up a notion that because a media company receives government or public funding, it must also cede to political demands, which is untrue in the case of public broadcasters such as CBC, NPR and BBC.

Last week, NPR announced it would quit Twitter over the social media company labelling it “state-affiliated media,” a term often associated with outlets controlled by authoritarian regimes.

Twitter later changed it to “government-funded media” and began applying the same label to other publishers including the BBC, which had previously been named as an exception to the "state-affiliated media" label. The BBC's label was later changed to "publicly-funded media."

"It's laudable to try and provide additional context to content for readers on social media, but I feel like the emphasis on institutions like the BBC and CBC and NPR and all of these, it is misguided," Caraway said.

"This isn't where the emphasis actually needs to be."

Instead, he feels more attention should be paid to "the lone wolf content creators that you don't know anything about."

"Like your crazy uncle that's sharing conspiracy theories from some weird website like Freedomeagle.net or something like that, that's where the additional context would be beneficial," Caraway said.

Sara Grimes, the director of the University of Toronto’s Knowledge Media Design Institute, saw the labelling of CBC's account as the latest in a series of "bad and puzzling" decisions Musk has made over the past few months.

She said it's "terrible" to have tech companies applying these labels in an "ad hoc and reactionary way" with no consistency, transparency or apparent rationale.

"Labels like these can be read as factual and accurate, especially when they're coming from a giant tech company heavily engaged in distributing news to millions of people around the world," she said.

"Inaccurate or overly simplified labels, devoid of key contextual information, are at best ambiguous and at worst are themselves a form of misinformation."

Grimes says labels should instead be applied after a factual and transparent evaluation that uses clear and consistent definitions. The labelling process must have the involvement of people with actual knowledge of how media companies operate or Grimes said the usefulness of labels is questionable at best.

She and Caraway agreed pausing the use of Twitter is a good strategy for media companies targeted by Musk's incorrect labels and the departures of advertisers and users turned off by his actions.

Grimes said, "Twitter isn't what it used to be and its ability to share and highlight newsworthy events has crumbled significantly."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2023.

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

Time to abolish the Canadian law that allows adults to spank and hit children

Story by Tracie O. Afifi, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Childhood Adversity and Resilience, University of Manitoba 

and Andrea Gonzalez, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University

 • Yesterday 

THE CONVERSATION

Corporal punishment (e.g., spanking) is allowed in Canada according to Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada. Some Canadians are not aware of this and are surprised to learn that such a law exists, whereas others want to hold onto this archaic act.


Strategies that may help reduce support for corporal punishment — as well as reduce its use and intentions to use it — include individual and group-based programs to develop positive parenting skills.

© (Shutterstock)

A growing number of Canadians, however, are aware of the law and understand the need to have Section 43 abolished. The real question is why hasn’t our country already removed permission to hit children from the Criminal Code of Canada?

Globally, efforts to end violence against children, including corporal punishment, have been underway for half a century. To date, 65 countries and states worldwide have banned corporal punishment. Unfortunately, Canada is not one of them.

Currently, Bill S-251, which would ban corporal punishment in Canada, is being debated in the Senate. Now is the time to provide evidence to Canadians to inform the debate.

Why corporal punishment should never be used

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child defines corporal punishment (also referred to as physical punishment) as punishment that uses physical force that is intended to cause pain or discomfort even if it is very mild or light. Corporal punishment can include hitting, spanking, smacking, slapping, kicking, shaking, scratching, pinching or biting, among other physical acts.

Some studies have shown that providing research summaries about harms related to corporal punishment and information about children’s rights can help parents to decide to stop spanking.© (Shutterstock)

Canadian estimates within the last 10 years suggest that between 18 per cent and 43 per cent of families use spanking to discipline children

Evidence collected over the past two decades and published in hundreds of peer-reviewed studies, has demonstrated that corporal punishment is harmful to children and has no known benefits.

This research has consistently shown corporal punishment to be a significant risk factor for injury, poor parent-child relationships and poor outcomes in children and youth. These include aggression, antisocial behaviour, slower cognitive development, emotional disorders including anxiety and depression, physical health problems, substance use, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and violence in intimate relationships later in life.

Because of serious concerns about the significant negative outcomes associated with corporal punishment, the American Academy of Pediatrics published a statement in 2018 clearly recommending against any physical punishment, including spanking, hitting and slapping. A similar statement was published in 2019 by the Canadian Paediatric Society:

“At no time should parents use physical punishment — spanking, slapping, hitting — or behaviour that shames children.”

Barriers to repealing Section 43

Extensive evidence highlights the harms of spanking, and no studies have found any benefits of spanking for the child. Sixty-five other countries or states worldwide have already instituted spanking bans. The question remains: Why hasn’t Canada already repealed Section 43 of the Criminal Code?

A common argument for spanking is, “I was spanked, and I turned out OK.” While that may be true for some people, it often isn’t the case.

Many children, youth and adults experience numerous poor outcomes across their lifespan related to being spanked in childhood. Physical punishment in childhood is associated with a higher likelihood of experiencing physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect and/or exposure to intimate partner violence.

It’s clear that spanking is a parenting strategy that comes with significant and unnecessary risks.



Research from several countries indicates that the most effective method of reducing public support for the use of corporal punishment may be legislation prohibiting it.

© (Shutterstock)

A common misconception related to the repeal of Section 43 is that laws banning corporal punishment will mean criminalization and incarceration of parents. This is simply not true and not the purpose of a ban.

In 1979, Sweden became the first country to ban corporal punishment in all settings; the aim was to educate the public — not prosecute parents. Prosecution rates of parents remained unchanged after the ban was in place.

The overall purpose of such bans is to reduce the use of corporal punishment, increase early identification of at-risk children and youth and to support families through preventive interventions.

Evidence of changing public attitudes

Several strategies have shown promise in reducing support for corporal punishment, as well as in reducing the intention to use, and the actual act of using it. These include individual and group-based programs to develop positive parenting skills, home visitation programs and media-based interventions.

Some studies have also demonstrated that providing research summaries about harms related to corporal punishment and information about children’s rights can help parents to decide to stop spanking.

Importantly, research from several countries indicates that legislation prohibiting corporal punishment may be the most effective method of reducing public support for the use of corporal punishment. Bans alone may not be sufficient; they should be enacted in combination with public awareness and education campaigns.

It is essential that Canada complies with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that prohibits spanking. It is our duty to protect our children from unnecessary harm and give them the best chance to live happy and healthy lives that are free from violence. This starts with the Repeal of Section 43.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:

Evidence shows children who are smacked are more likely to be involved in partner violence in adulthood

Why parents should never spank children

Tracie O. Afifi receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canada Research Chairs, and the Public Health Agency of Canada for work related to her program of research.

Andrea Gonzalez receives funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Canada Research Chairs fund.

CANADA

Feds aim to lock in equalization formula until 2029 as part of omnibus budget motion

Story by The Canadian Press • 


OTTAWA — The federal government is aiming to lock in the equalization formula for payments to provinces until 2029, as part of an omnibus motion in Parliament that seeks to implement budget measures.

FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE HARPER CONSERVATIVE GOVT.



Some provincial politicians blasted the Liberals in 2018 after they used a budget implementation bill to bury plans to extend the current formula until 2024.

The latest promise of another five-year extension comes nearly 200 pages into a 400-plus page "ways and means" motion tabled in the House of Commons this week.

The government makes annual equalization payments to provinces based on their ability to raise revenues, meaning that the contributions are necessarily unequal across the board — unlike payments such as health transfers that are paid out on a per-capita basis.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has proposed changing the equalization formula to be paid out on a per-capita basis, but the idea has gained little traction federally since he first proposed it in 2018.

In a statement, Saskatchewan Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said the province raised concerns about equalization during a meeting between federal, provincial and territorial finance ministers earlier this year.

"A number of provinces wished to be further consulted, and it is disappointing that the federal government would move forward with these changes without further consultation," the statement said.

Harpauer said the province proposed a number of improvements to the way equalization payments are calculated, but none of the suggestions were addressed.

"It appears that these fundamental issues were not addressed, which again, is highly disappointing."

Quebec received $14 billion in equalization payments in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, followed by Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Ontario in amounts received from equalization payments in 2023-2024


The Alberta government is currently producing a policy paper on equalization following a 2021 referendum in which nearly 62 per cent of voters in the province agreed that Canada should remove equalization from the Constitution. THAT 62% WAS OF ONLY

30% OF ELIGBLE VOTERS

A statement from Premier Danielle Smith's office said details regarding the report on equalization "will be released in the near future."

Trevor Tombe, a professor of economics at the University of Calgary, says the equalization program is a focal point for concerns people have in Alberta.

"Many in Alberta, the government included, think about equalization as symbolic of other challenges in the federation," he said.

"It's fair to say the current premier would equate issues like pipelines and energy policy with equalization."

Smith took aim at equalization in a November address to the province, telling Albertans the federal government is funneling billions of tax dollars "into a black hole of federal bureaucracy and vote buying arrangements" in other parts of the country.

"These continual federal attacks on our economy and provincial rights cannot be allowed to continue," she said at the time.

Tombe said the case for significant reforms to equalization is getting stronger because economic pressures in different regions are growing more unequal, in part due to aging populations.

"We currently don't really have any fiscal arrangements that think hard about how to support regions that are aging much more than others," he said, pointing to the Atlantic provinces as an area where shifting demographics are creating challenges.

"The fiscal capacity of older regions might have some challenges keeping up and so we need to think about ways of supporting them and equalization is a natural place to do that."

Like many other federal funding envelopes, equalization payments have traditionally been decided over five-year cycles going back to the 1940s. The most recent significant change was following the 2008 financial crisis, when Ontario started qualifying for payments.

Since then, it has undergone minor, technical changes but no significant reforms.

If the current formula stays in place until 2029, it would be one of the longest periods of time the formula has gone without major changes.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2023.

David Fraser, The Canadian Press

CANADA

PSAC strike could have domino effect for unionized workers: labour experts

TORONTO — If the current strike by thousands of public sector workers is successful, it could have a domino effect for unionized workers in other industries, labour experts said.



“Strikes in the federal public service are extremely rare. So the fact that PSAC followed through with job action is really significant," said Larry Savage, a professor in the labour studies department at Brock University.

Thousands of public-service workers began their strike Wednesday morning after the federal government and the Public Service Alliance of Canada, representing some 155,000 federal workers up for bargaining, couldn’t reach a deal in negotiations that began almost two years ago.

Almost a third of all federal public servants are involved in the strike, and the union and government alike have warned of disruptions to tax season, border operations, Employment Insurance, immigration and passport applications.

Union militancy, which includes labour disputes, strike votes and strikes, has been more common amid persistently high inflation, said Savage. And it can be contagious, especially if a strike manages to deliver higher wages and better working conditions.

“A successful strike by PSAC members can have a domino effect,” he said.

He said the striking workers have been without a contract for around two years, meaning as inflation climbed they saw zero increases in their wages.

“I think this clearly signals that they're fed up, and now they're turning up the heat.”

Jock Climie, a management-side labour and employment lawyer with Emond Harnden, agreed that inflation is lending itself to higher militancy in unionized sectors, and that PSAC's strike could have far-reaching effects beyond its own members.

“The reality is that when the largest ... federal public service union goes on strike and gets what it's asking for, say they do, it's going to have a profound impact on every bargaining table that comes after it, not just in the public sector," he said.

Wage increases are one of the biggest sticking points in this dispute, with PSAC pushing for 4.5 per cent raises annually over the next three years to keep pace with inflation. The Treasury Board has said it offered a nine per cent raise over three years on Sunday, per the recommendation of the third-party Public Interest Commission.

Related video: 'Enough is enough:' PSAC president speaks to members on first day of strike (cbc.ca)

Duration 1:59 View on Watch

The two parties began negotiating in June 2021, and the union declared an impasse the following May. Mediated negotiations began in early April of this year.

Normally bargaining works on a relatively consistent cycle, said Climie. In times of fiscal restraint and slow growth, workers make fewer gains, and in times of growth and higher inflation, unions can bargain for more.

“What we've got here (are) cycles moving in different directions colliding with each other,” he said.

For years, Savage said unions have been “treading water” on wage gains, managing to get increases that keep pace with inflation.

“As long as they kept pace with inflation, we did not see significant work stoppages,” he said. “But high inflation is driving workers to use their right to strike. And there's no question the uptick in militancy is being driven by inflation.”

Statistics Canada data shows that while there were fewer individual work stoppages in 2022 compared with 2021, the average length of those stoppages more than doubled.

Inflation has been outpacing wage gains for most of its reign, but in February, average hourly wages began rising faster than inflation.

Inflation in March was 4.2 per cent, down from last summer’s highs but still above the Bank of Canada’s target of two per cent. Meanwhile, in March average hourly wages rose 5.3 per cent.

As inflation comes down, it will be easier for unions to match it with wage gains — but they have a lot of catching up to do if they want to actually make up for the purchasing power their workers have lost, said Savage.

But a lower inflation rate could have a psychological effect that makes workers less militant, he said.

However, unions will be fighting for higher wage gains over the next couple of years as contracts expire, even if that militancy wanes, said Savage.

In the private sector, too, workers are asking for more and getting it, such as in the Ontario construction sector last year, said Savage.

“I think people are rediscovering the right to strike,” he said.

Climie thinks the increase in union militancy will continue throughout 2023, with higher wage demands on the table as high inflation and its effects linger. Eventually, however, bargaining will return to its cycle, he said.

“I think there's no question that as inflation drops, if it continues to drop, you will see less aggressive positions being taken at the bargaining table as far as wages are concerned.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2023.

Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press

No deal at union deadline; federal workers hit the picket lines as talks continue

Story by The Canadian Press • Today

OTTAWA — Negotiations are expected to continue despite thousands of members with Canada's largest federal public-service union walking off the job this morning at 12:01 a.m. ET.

No deal at union deadline; federal workers hit the picket lines as talks continue© Provided by The Canadian Press

A late Tuesday news release from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat says the government and the Public Service Alliance of Canada are still at odds when it comes to key contract issues for both sides. The bargaining groups involve some 155,000 federal public servants, including 35,000 Canada Revenue Agency workers.

With picket lines expected to be set up this morning at some 250 plus locations, the union is calling the strike action one of the largest in Canadian history. National President Chris Aylward said during a brief news conference in Ottawa on Tuesday night that despite the move, union officials are still hopeful and the goal is to get a tentative agreement.

A handful of federal ministers, including Mona Fortier, president of the Treasury Board, are expected to address the media later today and provide an update on how the bargaining is going.

Wage increases have been top of mind at the table, with the union pushing for annual raises of 4.5 per cent over the next three years. It says the increases are necessary to keep pace with inflation and the cost of living. The Treasury Board says it offered the union a nine per cent raise over three years on Sunday, on the recommendation of the third-party Public Interest Commission.

Since the strike involves nearly one-third of all federal public servants, both the union and the government have warned of disruptions, including what could amount to a complete halt of the tax season. Other concerns include slowdowns at the border and disruptions to EI, immigration and passport applications.

Initial negotiations began in June 2021, with the union looking for a new contract. The union declared an impasse in May 2022 and both parties filed labour complaints. Mediated contract negotiations began in early April of this year and continued through the weekend in what the union described as the government's last chance to reach a deal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2023.

Government employees want pay hikes. Here's what other unionized workers got recently

Story by Graeme Bruce • Yesterday 

As the tense wage-centred labour battle between the federal government and Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) continues, federal data sheds light on which industries in both the public and private sector are driving wage increases.

People attend a Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) rally in Ottawa March 31, 2023.

© Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press

Data collected and published by Employment and Social Development Canada suggests unonized workers in public administration and manufacturing have recently received higher wage increases compared to other industries.

In 2022, unionized workers in public administration negotiated an average 3.8 per cent annual pay bump, the highest amount except for those in manufacturing, which saw an average 4.2 per cent hike.

Many PSAC workers in negotiations with the federal government fall under public administration, however others represent a range of industries.

Related video: Federal workers to strike after bargaining deal not reached: PSAC (Global News)

But when looking at these figures, Adam King, post-doctoral fellow at York University, cautioned that annual data is based on just a small number of contracts. In the case of manufacturing, there were just four contracts signed in 2022, all in Quebec, where union coverage is generally higher. There were three public administration contracts in 2022, in Alberta and B.C.

"Over time, union coverage has declined significantly," he said.

This data also concentrates on wage changes among just unionized workers. Labour Force Survey data from Statistics Canada shows hourly wages among union workers have increased nine per cent between 2019 and 2022, while non-unionized workers saw a 14 per cent hike, unadjusted for inflation.

"This is due to workers not having cost of living adjustments in their agreements and being hurt by the unexpectedly high inflation," said Jesse Hajer, assistant professor in the University of Manitoba's department of economics and labour studies program.

PSAC said on Monday that more than 120,000 workers were ready to strike beginning Wednesday if a deal isn't reached with the government.

PSAC is demanding a 4.5 per cent raise over three years for Treasury Board workers. As of Monday morning, the government offered the Treasury Board unit 1.5 per cent in 2021, 4.5 per cent for 2022 and three per cent for 2023.

Singh vows NDP won't back any Liberal back-to-work laws over public sector strikes 

NOR WILL BQ

Story by Christopher Nardi • Yesterday

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh holds a press conference at the University of Saskatchewan.© Provided by National Post

OTTAWA — NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says he will not support any potential back-to-work legislation tabled by the government if 155,000 federal public servants go on strike Wednesday, potentially forcing the Liberals to look to the Conservatives for support.

Singh, whose party is supporting the minority Liberal government with a supply and confidence agreement, said Tuesday that the possibility of back-to-work legislation to respond to a possible strike by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) came up during a discussion with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He told Trudeau that he would vote against any such bill, even if it was a confidence vote.

“We envision that there might be a scenario where the government would bring it back-to-work legislation. They’ve done it in the past and I said really clearly to them that … we will never support that,” Singh said.

“I looked directly at the prime minister and said, ‘We’re a workers’ party, we’re not going to support back-to-work legislation. Never consider that as an option for us, because we’re not going to do that’,” he added.

Federal public service workers to strike on Wednesday if no deal reached, union says

Members of largest federal public sector union vote for strike mandate

Earlier this week, PSAC leadership gave the government an ultimatum to have a deal by 9 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, or 120,000 core public service members and over 35,000 Canada Revenue Agency workers will launch the biggest federal public strike since 1991. The union announced last week that its members had voted to support a strike, after two years of contract negotiations with the government have failed to find agreement.

A deal is still possible as the parties fight largely over wages — PSAC wants 13.5 per cent for three years and the government last offered nine per cent over the same period — and return-to-office policies after public servants working from home during the pandemic. But over the weekend, PSAC began laying the groundwork for a strike, setting up trailers and portable toilets conspicuously around Parliament Hill and a website to help members find the closest picket line.

During the last major PSAC strike in 1991 , the government tabled back-to-work legislation just weeks after the work stoppage began, sending bureaucrats back to the office feeling bitter towards both their union and their employer.

But Brian Mulroney’s majority Progressive Conservative government had control of the House of Commons at the time, making the passing of such legislation relatively straightforward.

The Trudeau Liberals currently head a minority government that has to-date leaned heavily on the Singh’s NDP’s support to stay in power and pass key legislation through Parliament. The Opposition Conservatives have voted against most Liberal bills, and to a lesser extent, so has the Bloc Québécois.

But if PSAC launches its strike and the Liberals are compelled to turn to back-to-work legislation to end the work stoppage, the Liberals will have to turn to either the Bloc Québécois or the Conservatives to push the bill through. Historically, the Bloc Québécois positions itself as a working-class party with a strong blue collar base.

The last time such a bill was tabled in Parliament was by the Trudeau Liberals in 2021, to end a strike at the Port of Montreal. At the time, both the NDP and the Bloc Québécois called on the government to keep negotiating with strikers and voted against the bill.

Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives supported the Liberals, arguing that a prolonged strike could seriously hurt the country’s economy all the while blaming Liberal incompetence for allowing the situation to fester to the point of a strike.

As of Tuesday, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has remained conspicuously quiet on the battle between the Liberals and PSAC and his office declined to respond to questions about possible back-to-work legislation.

But Monday, Conservative treasury board critic Stephanie Kusie argued that Canadians’ access to government services should not be hampered by the Liberals’ inability to reach a deal on time with PSAC.

The only reason we find ourselves in the situation we are in is because of Justin Trudeau’s incompetence,” Kusie said, taking a swipe at the Liberals’ increased reliance on consulting firms.

“One thing is clear: Canadians’ access to basic and essential services should not be compromised by Justin Trudeau’s inability to do his job,” she added.

But politics can make for strange bedfellows, and both Trudeau and Poilievre might align in a desire to compel bureaucrats to return to work, despite turbulent contract negotiations.

GREENWASHING

Samsung and FSC Canada are teaming up protect and preserve Canadian forests

Story by MobileSyrup • 

With April marking Earth Month, Samsung has partnered with Forest Stewardship Council Canada for a new fundraising campaign with the goal of protecting healthy and resilient forests in the country.

 Samsung tech brand leterring logo in Harrods shopping mall.

Throughout the month, Samsung Canada will donate $1 to FSC Canada for every purchase made in-store and online at Samsung’s website, up to $10,000.

Additionally, Samsung will donate $10 to FSC Canada, up to a maximum of $6,000, for every review left on the company’s website through June 2023.

The money raised will go towards FSC Canada’s mission of supporting zero deforestation and safeguarding ancient, endangered forests.

Samsung is also committed to making and distributing products with more eco-conscious resources. Since 2009, over 220,000 tonnes of recycled plastic have been used in Samsung products globally, with the company looking to double that number by 2023.

Doubling down on its commitment to being more ecologically wise, the South Korean tech giant has also made a global commitment to achieve zero waste in landfills as well as reducing its e-waste by 2025. By 2050, the company is planning on achieving net zero direct and indirect carbon emissions.

These announcements come as a part of the company’s new environmental strategy that was revealed last year.

More information about Samsungs collaboration with FSC Canada can be found on the company’s website.

Why doesn't Canada make its own baby formula when we have the raw ingredients?

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 3:56 p.m.



OTTAWA — If infant formula has become akin to liquid gold for parents stressed about empty store shelves this year, Canada may be sitting on a potential treasure trove — if only it could process the raw elements.



There is a surplus of the main ingredient for infant formula, but without processing capacity, dairy producers say a lot of it is either going to waste or being sold on the cheap as animal feed.

The material, called solids non-fat, is basically what is left over from raw cows' milk once it has been processed and the fat removed for use in other products such as butter.

"There's relatively more demand for butter fat than solids non-fat," said Mathieu Frigon, the president of the Dairy Processors Association Of Canada.

"You cannot tell a cow, 'Only produce butter fat, but no solids non-fat.'"

As a result, about 19 per cent of what is produced in Canada is considered surplus. It is either thrown away, sold to "low-value" markets as animal feed, or donated to food banks, the Canadian Dairy Commission said in a statement.

That problem has only become worse over the last five or six years, Frigon said, as demand for butter fat has gone up and demand for the leftovers has not.

Canada has so much of it that in the 2023 federal budget, the government set aside $333 million to help the dairy industry figure out what to do with it all.

Solids non-fat has traditionally been used to make skim milk, Greek yogurts, some cheeses and things like protein powder. It's also the main ingredient in infant formula, which has been in scarce supply in Canada for more than a year.

That shortage started when a manufacturing plant in the United States that made a large portion of Canada’s baby formula supply closed for several months after a product recall in February 2022.

It reopened four months later but still isn’t up to full capacity.

There used to be plants in Canada, but over time they moved across the border. Now the country relies entirely on imports to feed babies that aren't breastfed.

Health Canada says while there is enough supply of regular formula in Canada, not all brands are available. Lower-cost brands are particularly short.


To turn the extra solids non-fat into baby formula, it needs to be specially processed to make it easy for tiny stomachs to digest.

Manufacturers are interested in making baby formula in Canada again, but the Food, Health and Consumer Products of Canada says the rules here are so strict it makes it difficult to justify the investment.

"We do have the ingredients that we could use, but … it's really prohibitive for a manufacturer to invest in Canada," said Michi Furuya Chang, vice-president of public policy and regulatory affairs for the industry group.

She said it takes Health Canada a long time to approve formulas for distribution in Canada compared to the United States — in some cases, it's taken more than four times as long.

"We're calling for an efficient, but of course risk-based, modernized regulatory system here in Canada to incentivize the investment in manufacturing again, bring it back domestically and then help that industry grow, innovate and compete using the ingredients that we have an abundance here in Canada," she said, adding that discussions with the government have been very positive.

Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says processing infant formula is an important goal to shore up Canada's supply, but it won't happen soon.

"To set up the factory that is safe and sound takes a lot of time, so we can't wait that much time for infant formula to be accessible in Canada," Duclos said in an interview last week.

Canada Royal Milk has set up a factory to produce infant formula in Kingston, Ont. The company was established by Feihe International, the largest producer of formula for infants and young children in China.

The company applied to Health Canada for approval in Summer 2022, and is still waiting for an answer. The company has plans to export its products, but will focus on Canadian distribution first.

In the meantime, Health Canada is temporarily importing 70 different formula products from countries with high quality and manufacturing standards similar to Canada.

For its part, the Canadian Dairy Commission said the industry is sparing no effort to make sure none of the milk products in Canada go to waste.

Canada had been shipping some solids non-fat to Mexico, said Tyler McCann, the managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. That changed when the new Canada-United States-Mexico trade agreement was signed.

"That market in Mexico that the Canadian exporters found is a market that (was) being filled by the Americans, and the Americans did not like that we were taking that market away," he said.

Similar caps also apply to bulk exports of baby formula, said Frigon, creating another impediment to domestic manufacturing.

He said the simple solution is to build processing plants to make things like infant formula, but there's also an opportunity to develop new products altogether.

"There's also this new space, especially when you get into health products, where you can take those proteins and those protein isolates and produce new, more innovative value-added products," he said.

The $333-million fund set aside by the Liberals in the budget will be used to research what else could be made with the leftover dairy materials over the next 10 years, help develop processing capacity, and market the products.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2023.

— With files from Camille Bains in Vancouver.

Laura Osman, The Canadian Press