A Leduc homeless and support centre which locals refer to as "the Hub" has announced plans to close.

© Global News

The timeline has been released for a phased closure of a facility that's been providing services to Leduc's homeless community for the past 15 years.

In a letter to the Leduc mayor and council Tuesday, officials with the Leduc Hub Association detailed plans for the closure of the homeless support centre called "the Hub."

The looming closure comes after the facility announced earlier this year its permit and lease were expiring, and it hadn't found a new location for the Hub. The current space no longer meets the Hub's needs and officials have been searching for a new location for months, but have been unsuccessful.

The Hub's executive director and acting board chair said in its letter to council that the closure comes after the facility was unable to secure a new location aligned with municipal development permit requirements, a condition to renew its grant funding with the province.

Video: City of Leduc passes motion to save ‘the Hub’ homeless shelter, but new home still needed

On March 28, the Hub will end all daytime programming. This means washrooms, showers, food, clothing, laundry services, medical and optometry services, addiction treatment services, phone and internet access, financial assistance services, AHS ID card services and outdoor survival supplies will no longer be offered.

On April 1, the Hub will be open for overnight shelter intake from 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. The doors will be locked at 10:30 p.m. Overnight shelter hours end at 8:30 a.m.

As of May 1, the Hub will be closed to public entirely.

Officials with the Hub say they remain committed to searching for a suitable location over the next few months in hopes of resuming shelter operations in time for the 2024-2025 winter season.

"The negative impact of shelter closure in our city cannot be overstated," read a joint letter from Leduc Hub Association executive director Susan Johnson and acting board chair Jill Mitchell.

"Leduc has a growing need for overnight shelter spaces, crisis diversion and community outreach services, access to transitional and supportive housing and affordable homes.

"The loss is especially regrettable considering city council’s commitment to ensuring uninterrupted shelter services, recent Hub funding from the city’s Family and Community Support Services grant, and conditional pre-approval by the government of Alberta for grant funding of $526,000 for full-year shelter operations."

Global News

Petition started to save Leduc Hub Association Duration 2:03  View on Watch

The Hub's current location on 47th Street has 10 emergency shelter beds.

Earlier this year, Leduc City Council passed a motion to support the Hub in its community, but details on what that support was remained unclear.

In a statement Wednesday, Leduc Mayor Bob Young acknowledged the gap the closure could create for the city's vulnerable citizens.

"Leduc is fortunate to have a network of dedicated community groups, in addition to Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) and a community navigator who work tirelessly to connect clients to the services they need," Young said.

The letter from Johnson and Mitchell said the Hub's board will continue to work with city council on a number of items to support year-round shelter operations, including facilitating a feasibility and cost study, implementing homelessness task force recommendations and informing the city's new housing strategy.

The Hub executives said city council can further support the Hub by reaching out to the provincial government for support for year-round emergency shelter services in Leduc. They're also asking council to reach out to the federal government to discuss the possibility of the sale or donation of publicly owned lands of facilities for the development of housing infrastructure.

"Collaboration is important in finding sustainable strategies to address the complex issue of houselessness," Young said.

"Leduc City Council is committed to working with the ministry of Seniors, Community and Social Services to find a response that best suits our community, while city administration investigates overnight shelter options for the winter months and in extreme weather, as well as crisis diversion and community outreach services."

Income assistance program for vulnerable Albertans lacks oversight, auditor general finds

Story by Janet French • cbc

Alberta's auditor general, Doug Wylie, flips through his latest report, which examines the performance of post-secondary institutions and the government's income support program.© Janet French/CBC

Alberta's auditor general says improved oversight is needed to monitor a program that provides financial assistance to thousands of people living in poverty.

Auditor General Doug Wylie says the province doesn't publicly report whether people receiving income support benefits are getting enough money to meet their basic needs. A report his office released on Tuesday also says the income support program isn't tracking how people are faring in the medium or long term.

"You're going to be hearing more from this office about accountability," Wylie said in an interview on Tuesday.

He said that without gathering and analyzing better information, such as how many participants stayed employed in the long term, or found child-care for their kids, the province will have no idea whether the program is meeting its goals.

Alberta taxpayers deserve to know if the programs they pay for are effective, and the vulnerable people who rely on the program need assistance that's working, Wylie said.

The report also examines two other areas: the financial operations of Alberta's post-secondary institutions, and challenges in meeting the needs of patients living with chronic disease.
Income Support program

Alberta's Income Support program provides financial help to people who can't meet their basic needs for food, clothing and shelter.

Clients fall into two categories: "Expected to work" includes those who are looking for work, or are working but not earning enough to meet basic needs. "Barriers to full employment" clients have difficulty working due to hurdles such as chronic health issues.

Related video: Alberta budget 2024: Tax cut delayed, EV levy added (Global News)

Duration 1:38  View on Watch

A government spokesperson said as of February, there were 34,481 cases in the "expected to work" category, and 17,511 cases with barriers to full employment.

The program is administered by the department of Seniors, Community and Social Services, which paid out more than $580 million in Income Support payments in 2022-23.

The province has changed how it tracks client numbers over time. But the government is spending less on the benefits than it has in the past. In 2019-20, clients received nearly $807 million in support payments.

Last year, the province increased clients' monthly benefits to better keep pace with inflation. Monthly payments for individuals with barriers to full employment increased from $919 to $959, and from $790 to $824 for people who are expected to work.

The program supported an average of 46,536 cases per month in 2022-23, an increase of 7.3 per cent from the year before.

2019 issues

Wylie previously evaluated the Income Support program in a 2019 report that highlighted a series of case management issues and operational problems at the program.

Since then, the department introduced online applications, and substantially improved the turnaround time to vet those applications, the new report said.

Wylie said the department has promised to establish a new performance management framework for the program that would examine how the monthly payments compare to the cost of living in Alberta, and track how long people rely on the program.

But for now, Wylie said the department is providing no public evidence that the benefit amounts are enough for families to cover their basic expenses. And, it does not track whether people are staying employed in the long term, or returning to the program.

The government stopped reporting on how long clients were staying on income support in its 2021-22 annual report.

Susan Morrissey, executive director of the Edmonton Social Planning Council, says the experiences of people living in poverty suggest the benefit amounts are not enough for them to make ends meet. The problem was exacerbated in 2019 when the province stopped indexing the benefits to inflation, she said.

The government re-indexed the benefit last year, increasing payments by six per cent, but recipients can't catch up, she said.

As soon as a client hits an unexpected expense, such as a broken-down car or a rent hike, they begin to cut out medication and other essentials, she said.

"There's more and more people falling between the cracks," Morrissey said. "And it's pretty clear that the government is not able to keep up with these numbers. More people are struggling these days than ever before."

Failing to show evidence the benefit is enough for families to live on shows a lack of accountability, Morrissey said. She wonders how the department can improve the program if it isn't tracking its clients long term.

The press secretary for Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon did not directly answer questions about the auditor's renewed recommendation on Tuesday, but pointed to the program's success in improving intake and goal tracking.
Post-secondary schools

Wylie's audit also examined financial systems at post-secondary institutions across the province

Wylie issued "clean" audits for strong financial reporting for 19 of the 20 post-secondary institutions he examined, but said Olds College, located in the town about 60 kilometres southwest of Red Deer, has not completed its annual financial reporting.

Wylie also issued a new recommendation to the University of Calgary to ensure its former employees don't have access to its IT networks.

Financial risks associated with business ventures intended to bolster the budgets of Alberta's post-secondary schools has been an ongoing concern for Wylie. He first raised the issue in 2015 and called for improved oversight of these investments.

Ventures such as hotels, land trusts and bookstores pumped $481 million into campus coffers in 2022 but schools aren't properly managing the financial risks, Wylie found.

He pointed to his office's analysis of post-secondary institutions' annual reports. Although the government requires them to disclose the financial standing of their business ventures, 18 of 21 institutions didn't do that in their 2022 annual reports, the auditor found.

Wylie again called on the department of Advanced Education to ensure institutions follow provincial rules, and said post-secondary board members need training to properly oversee these ventures.

As small towns fight to survive, researchers assess Alberta's strategy to keep them alive, or let them fold

Story by Karina Zapata • 1d • 3 min read

As concerns grow over the viability of some of Alberta's small municipalities, a new University of Calgary School of Public Policy report suggests that the provincial government is taking the right approach to assessing whether a town or village can survive.

However, its authors say there are opportunities for the province to make improvements to get ahead of the problem, and to better support municipalities that absorb dissolved towns.

Unlike other provinces, the Alberta government conducts in-depth reviews into the viability of municipalities on a case-by-case basis; these can be requested by council, petitioned by citizens, or initiated by the Minister of Municipal Affairs.

The reviews eventually lead to a public vote on whether the municipality should make necessary changes to remain viable, or if it should dissolve and become part of a neighbouring municipality.

"Our feeling is that it's a good process because it puts the decision in the hands of the residents themselves," said co-author and research fellow Kevin McQuillan.

"The only question it raises, I think, is what if the problem continues to get worse? What happens further down the road? I think that's a question that both communities and probably the province will have to think about more in the future."




The Hamlet of Grande Cache in West-Central Alberta used to be a town — until it was dissolved in 2019. It is now part of the Municipal District of Greenview. (CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

McQuillan said most of Alberta's municipalities are in good financial shape. But some communities are struggling with rising costs as their populations age and decline.

Even though record numbers of people are moving to Alberta, they tend to go to larger cities, he said.

According to the report, the province has conducted 26 viability reviews since the process was introduced in 2012. Of those, 13 municipalities voted to dissolve.

Related video: Alberta attempts to poach skilled trades workers (CityNews)

Duration 2:10//View on Watch

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Meanwhile, three Alberta municipalities are currently undergoing reviews: the Village of Delia, Village of Bittern Lake and Summer Village of Ma-Me-O Beach.

It's an issue the Rural Municipalities of Alberta is paying close attention to.

President Paul McLauchlin, who's also a reeve of Ponoka County, said many of Alberta's small municipalities are struggling to address deteriorating infrastructure due to a lack of funding.

"Everyone's trying to make do with what they have," said McLauchlin. "In the long run, we're going to run into extreme viability problems right across the board, all throughout Alberta."

The organization recently completed a study on the impacts of dissolving municipalities — like the former Town of Granum and Village of Hythe — on the municipalities that absorbed them.


Ponoka County reeve and Rural Municipalities of Alberta president Paul McLauchlin. (Emilio Avalos/Radio-Canada)© Provided by cbc.ca

McLauchlin said a key concern is that absorbing communities take on the liabilities of the municipality that folded, which is expensive and can put strain on the receiving municipality.

He said, at the end of the day, it's an asset management conversation.

"More modern infrastructure and ensuring that they're managing their assets, that would be the first step that would move this whole entire file forward significantly, and probably make communities that are not viable now able to take on the demands in the future," he said.

The organization's report also recommends increased funding from the province for receiving communities to support the transition, and help with issues that arise post-dissolution.

McQuillan said he recognizes rural municipalities' worries that they can become responsible for a community and its challenges, even when they weren't involved in the voting process.

"It's why I feel one of the most important things for the future is for the province, for the communities, but also for the municipal districts or counties which will absorb any of the dissolved municipalities, to really get together and talk about how this process can work," he said.

The report says the extra costs faced by the receiving municipality must become a priority for the province to address.

The authors also recommend that the province pay closer attention to struggling municipalities that haven't requested a viability review, and to develop action plans should problems continue to accumulate after a dissolution.


McQuillan said viability reviews are a good process that communities shouldn't be afraid of.

"I think it can be a positive process," said McQuillan.

"But I don't think we can simply avoid some of these situations. I think when we have communities across the province where we see the population is declining and getting older, where we see their tax rates are creeping up because they're trying to respond to some of the local financial challenges — we should be ready to undergo these reviews."

Japan and Canada may join Pacific defense alliance - Politico

Story by Liliana Oleniak 

The UK, the United States, and Australia are rushing to expand their trilateral defense partnership, AUKUS, to other allies ahead of potentially tumultuous elections in all three countries over the next 14 months, Politico reports.

A senior diplomat involved in the negotiations told the agency that Japan and Canada intend to join the so-called second paragraph of the AUKUS agreement, according to which the participants will sign a broad cooperation in the field of military technology by the end of 2024 or early 2025.

This comes amid fears in Washington, London, and Canberra that Donald Trump could cancel the AUKUS agreement if he wins the US presidential election in November.

The AUKUS security agreement was first announced in September 2021. Its first part, paragraph 1, provides for US and UK assistance to Australia in the construction of nuclear submarines.

Paragraph 2 of the agreement allows the three countries to agree on agreements to develop advanced military technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence, hypersonic missiles, and quantum technologies.

It was always envisioned that paragraph 2 could be expanded to include other US allies, including Japan, Canada, New Zealand, and South Korea.

A second diplomat involved in the talks said that US President Joe Biden's administration is now pushing very hard to get some things done on AUKUS paragraph 2 now, before the US elections in November.

In March 2023, Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese of Australia and Rishi Sunak of the UK, as well as US President Joseph Biden, announced an agreement between the AUKUS alliance states to provide the Australian Navy with nuclear submarines.

Japanese media reported that the AUKUS countries are interested in using Japanese technology, including for the development of hypersonic weapons and enhanced electronic warfare capabilities.

Alberta NDP demands UCP restore standard hours of care for continuing care residents

Story by Lisa Johnson • Edmonton Journal

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley.© Darren Makowichuk

Alberta’s Opposition NDP is demanding the government restore and increase minimum hours of care for residents in continuing care facilities.

New regulations, passed through a cabinet order on Feb. 28 and set to take effect April 1 , no longer include any government direction for how much time residents must receive direct personal or nursing care.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley said at a news conference Tuesday residents don’t have any legal guarantee of minimum standard.

“The red tape that they’re trying to eliminate is actually the fundamental basic protection that Alberta families are looking for for their loved ones,” said Notley.

The previous regulations, which date back to 1985, included a requirement that each operator has “to provide an average of at least 1.9 paid hours of combined nursing and personal services per resident per resident day in (a) nursing home.” Twenty-two per cent of that care had to be provided by nurses.

Notley said the standard was already too low, and should be increased to at least match Ontario’s standard, which in 2023 increased required hours per day per patient to four. The Health Standards Organization has said residents should get at least four hours of direct care each day.

The United Nurses of Alberta also flagged the elimination of the requirements in a statement Tuesday.

“We are moving to zero hours of care. This is extremely dangerous,” said UNA president Heather Smith.

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, answering questions from NDP continuing care critic Lori Sigurdson during a budget estimates committee meeting Tuesday, said the province funds an average of 3.62 hours of care per day per resident.

“(It) is significantly improved upon from what was existing previously in the 1.9 hours in the nursing home operations regulation,” said LaGrange, who also pointed out the government has increased wages for health care aids by $2 per hour.

Taking more heat during question period, LaGrange said the previous regulations were outdated, and the government did “extensive” consultations before changing them.

“We heard that changes were needed to provide better flexibility and to allow the operators to develop staffing plans that really meet the needs of not just their facilities, but also their patients’ unique needs,” she said.

Notley suggested that flexibility will undermine Alberta’s health care system.

“After COVID, we learned that continuing care is in crisis and private operators regularly cut corners to make a profit. This government wants to actually increase the opportunity for that to happen at the same time that they’re introducing discretionary standards,” said Notley in the assembly.

“They’re going from law to discretion.”

Related
Alberta adding continuing-care spaces, teams to lessen pressure on hospital beds

Dismantling AHS: Continuing care a mounting concern as Albertans age

The government’s move comes after the UCP commissioned a 2021 report that recommended a boost to daily hours of care , which would mean hiring more staff.

At a news conference last week announcing the government’s efforts to create more continuing care spaces and lessen pressure on hospital beds, Feisal Keshavjee, chairman of the Alberta Continuing Care Association, said operators have increased hours of care.

“The workforce has to be there to deliver it, so we’re working in lockstep and the regulations will help solidify that, but we’ve got to make sure that as the legislation comes out, we actually have the workforce,” he said.

Although there is a shortage of staff in continuing care facilities, the government’s latest effort to attract workers to the province with incentives left out health care workers.

Sigurdson said there is a high rate of absenteeism and vacancies among health care aides who do low-paid work, and the government needs to better support those workers, including with full-time positions with full benefits.

lijohnson@postmedia.com
X: @reportrix

Alberta health minister says 'proper procedures' were followed for patient taken to hotel instead of care home

Story by Julia Wong • CBC

Alberta's minister of health is defending the province's health authority after a senior with high care needs who had been expecting to be moved to a care home was instead taken to a hotel.

Minister Adriana LaGrange said she was "very concerned" when asked about an exclusive CBC News story that detailed how Blair Canniff, 62, was taken to a hotel south of Edmonton after spending months in the Royal Alexandra Hospital, as he recovered from a stroke.

Canniff uses a wheelchair and is paralyzed on his left side.

In early March, he said he was told that he would be moving to a long-term care facility and was not given any other options. Then, he said, on March 4, he was put in a taxi that took him to a Travelodge in Leduc, roughly 35 kilometres south of Edmonton.

"My understanding is that AHS [Alberta Health Services] followed their proper procedures. They did discharge to a non-profit provider and you would have to ask the non-profit provider why they chose that site," LaGrange said on Monday.


Adriana LaGrange answers questions from CBC at the Alberta Legislature on Monday. (Kory Siegers/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

When pressed by CBC News on whether those guidelines were appropriate and the right thing to do, LaGrange reiterated that AHS followed its discharge guidelines, where a team of healthcare workers work with an individual to determine where is an appropriate place to send the patient.

Concern for patient

Canniff's family told CBC News last week that they had been worried about his his mobility issues and his ability to care for himself, and said he had been given fast food to eat.

After a week at the hotel, Canniff said he was sent back to the hospital on March 11 with no explanation; he has since been re-admitted.

Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services Jason Nixon said that his office is "most definitely" looking into the situation.

"We want to make sure everybody ends up in a safe space," he said on Monday.

Canniff said the organization in charge of the program at the hotel was Contentment Social Services, which can be found in the province's non-profit listings.

Before the story aired Friday and was published online Saturday, CBC News went to an address listed on Contentment Social Services's website but found it was a mailing address.

CBC News called two numbers associated with the non-profit multiple times, texted one of those numbers three times and sent several emails requesting an interview and comment for this story. As of Monday, CBC News has not heard back.


Jason Nixon answers questions from CBC News at the Alberta Legislature on Monday. (Kory Siegers/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

"My department doesn't provide any funding to that organization and I have instructed my department to make sure that's the case," Nixon said.
'Highway healthcare'

NDP Leader Rachel Notley called the situation a sad state of affairs.

"It's highway healthcare ending up at motel medicine," she said on Monday.

"It's a sign that the management of our healthcare is in great crisis and that we need more beds, publicly-run beds in Edmonton."

When told about the health minister's comments that AHS followed the guidelines, Notley said LaGrange should apologize.

"The guidelines are clearly ridiculous and need to be redone," Notley said.

Have any tips on this story? Contact reporter Julia Wong at julia.wong@cbc.ca.

CONTRACTING OUT I.T. IS A BOONDOOGLE

Former public servant linked to ArriveCan questioned by MPs about government contracts

Story by Darren Major • 

David Yeo, the founder and president of Dalian Enterprises, appears before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, March 19, 2024.© ParlVu

MPs grilled the head of an IT firm over his employment with the Department of National Defence (DND) during a House committee meeting on Tuesday.

David Yeo, founder and president of Dalian Enterprises — which was involved in the development of the federal government's controversial ArriveCan app — has been facing scrutiny since it was reported that he was a DND employee while his company held contracts with the federal government.

Dalian told CBC News earlier this month that Yeo had been hired by DND only this past September and that he took steps to address any conflict of interest concerns by agreeing to have no involvement with Dalian's DND projects and putting the company into a "blind trust."

Yeo repeated those assertions to MPs on the public accounts committee on Tuesday, saying that he had been "hands off" with the company when he became a DND employee. The government suspended Yeo's employment and he said he has since resigned from the department.

But MPs questioned how distant he was from the company while he was working for DND.

Bloc Québécois MP Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné pointed out that his signature appeared on government contracts that were signed after he was hired by DND. Yeo said he had "a signature available" for staff to use on contracts.

"I provided my signature to the staff so if there was something going on, that I would not even be aware of it," he said.

Dalian was one of the contractors that worked on the ArriveCan app. Yeo appeared before the government operations committee in October to discuss ArriveCan, but presented himself as Dalian's founder and president. He didn't tell MPs on that committee that he had been hired by DND.

"I am an executive on the board of directors for Dalian, and I maintain all of the governance as it relates to the [procurement strategy for Indigenous business] and make sure that the company is absolutely in line, in step, with everything that relates to procurement and government contracting within the federal government," he told the committee in October.

Conservative MP Larry Brock asked Yeo during Tuesday's committee hearing why he didn't disclose that he had been hired by DND during his October testimony.

Yeo replied that he had been invited to that committee as a Dalian representative and that his testimony had "zero to do with DND."

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis later asked if Yeo was still on Dalian's board of directors when he was before the committee in October.

"At that time, there was no divestiture because we were working on it," Yeo replied.

"We were in flux during that time period."

Later, under questioning from Conservative MP John Nater, Yeo said was having meetings with his lawyers about putting his Dalian shares in a blind trust as late as January. He said that in hindsight, he wished he had started the process earlier.

"I should have done all of that prior to even looking at the offer [of employment] from the government," he said.

"That one's on me, but at the end of the day, all of the information got where it needed to go."
Yeo disputes auditor general's numbers

Yeo also said he disagreed with Auditor General Karen Hogan's recent report, which states Dalian received $7.9 million for its work on ArriveCan. He suggested that Dalian received $4.9 million for the project.

GC Strategies, the main ArriveCan contractor, also has questioned Hogan's report.

Kristian Firth, a partner with GC Strategies, told a House committee last week that the government's poor bookkeeping led Hogan's report to include an inflated estimate of the amount his company received for the project.

Hogan noted in her report that the final cost of ArriveCan was "impossible to determine" due to poor financial record-keeping at the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

When asked by CBC News, Hogan's office stood by its $7.9 million estimate of the amount Dalian received for ArriveCan.

"As stated in our report, given the deficiencies in the CBSA's financial records, our auditors prepared an estimate using the CBSA's financial system, contractual documents, and other evidence," a spokesperson said.

"Based on this estimate, the cost associated with Dalian Enterprises Inc. was $7.9 million."

International nurses told 'leave the N.W.T. then come back'

Story by The Canadian Press

 • 

Sarah, not her real name, moved to Yellowknife to pursue a career in nursing in 2021. She is what Canada terms an “internationally educated nurse,” or IEN, meaning she received her training in another country – in this case, India.

Internationally educated nurses wishing to resume their work in Canada have to follow each province or territory’s process to become a fully licensed registered nurse.

In the N.W.T., Sarah says, the process has felt almost impossible – at a time when the territory is finding it hard to recruit nurses and spending millions of dollars a year on agency nurses to fill gaps.

The College and Association of Nurses of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, known as CANNN and previously named RNANTNU, is the two territories' regulatory body for nurses.

According to CANNN’s policy, internationally educated nurses who want to work in those territories must gain practice hours – the hours needed to acquire or maintain a registered nurse’s licence – in another Canadian jurisdiction, for a minimum of 1,125 hours, prior to being able to register in the North..

Sarah already has registered nurses’ licences from two provinces, Ottawa and Alberta, and 4,000 practicum hours of training from India. To her, the requirement that she head south for another 1,125 hours before she can work in the N.W.T. feels unnecessary and unusual. In her experience, southern provinces often try to make it easier for nurses like her to gain a licence rather than sending them elsewhere.

Unlike other jurisdictions, Sarah said, the territory has neither a bridging program for IENs nor any means to acquire supervised hours locally.

When Sarah approached CANNN to inquire about alternatives besides temporarily leaving the territory, she was told there were none. She said she even asked to work without pay under an experienced nurse in Yellowknife until she gained the required hours, but was told no.

"You can't say, 'Leave the territory and come back after eight months.' Why will I come back after eight months? Why will I come back from Alberta if I work there to get my hours and get the same pay as here?” Sarah said. 

“Living in the N.W.T. is expensive – the rent, the groceries. There are no reasons to come back."

Sarah says she knows of at least one other nurse in a similar position who flew to Ottawa and stayed there. Meanwhile, Sarah can’t help but notice “open until filled” positions racking up on the GNWT’s website. “But I can’t apply because I don’t have a licence here,” she said.

“They need the nurses here. There’s a chronic shortage of nurses.”

Scott Robertson, a registered nurse and healthcare consultant in Yellowknife, says Sarah is not the first person to find this exasperating. 

"Previously, I have spoken to nurses who have gone through this process, had to go to Alberta first and go through all the steps there before they can apply to work in the Northwest Territories," Robertson said.

"It can be a very complicated, frustrating and inconsistent process."

Trista Haugland, a spokesperson for health minister Lesa Semmler, told Cabin Radio Semmler “is eager to streamline the registration process for internationally educated nurses” in the N.W.T., but the minister isn’t the one in charge. 

CANNN manages registration, Haugland said, adding that CANNN “may lack capacity due to complexities of the process,” which may explain why nurses end up being sent elsewhere.

Although the Nursing Profession Act does not speak specifically to internationally educated nurses, the N.W.T.'s health authority says the legislation gives CANNN "broad bylaw-making powers" to set out how registration for international nurses should be handled.

A health authority spokesperson said CANNN decides which education programs are accepted, what kind of English proficiency is needed, and what other requirements may be necessary “to protect the public and the profession.”

Denise Bowen, executive director of the College and Association of Nurses of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, declined to comment.

In an email seen by Cabin Radio from November last year, CANNN's former executive director Colleen Bytheway told one prospective nurse: "While I cannot promise anything at this point, I know the board is currently giving serious thought to waiving the 1,125 hours required of IEN RNs to practise here."

"If they do that, we still do not have the capacity here to review IENs' requirements. This means you would still have to go through that process elsewhere, but once you were licensed in another jurisdiction, it may be just a matter of registering here and paying your fee," Bytheway's email continued.

Sarah recently cleared the NCLEX-RN, which she described as a "really, really difficult" assessment exam for nurses. To prepare for the test, she took a year away from full-time work. She said her partner supported her financially during that time.

"We have flown to Edmonton twice to write that exam, because we don't have a centre here," said her partner, who also asked for anonymity to discuss Sarah’s sensitive employment situation.

"All in all, she has spent resources like money, time, and working hard to get the licensing done, and now she cannot work. So it’s about almost three years of trying to navigate the system to see where she can get her licence. 

"There should be something for internationally educated nurses. Any other provinces have reduced the requirements to get nurses on board so they can fill the gaps to provide the best services to Canadians. But here, that hasn't been the case for years." 

Change has been taking place elsewhere in Canada.

For example, Alberta's regulatory body for nurses made changes last year to its application process for internationally educated nurses. The College of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CRNA) says that decision stemmed from "recognizing that the system had too many barriers."

"We made changes to the process in order to provide applicants with a fair and predictable application process, regardless of their origins," a CRNA spokesperson told Cabin Radio.

Subsequently, the body says, it noticed a 10.6 per cent year-on-year increase in permit renewals in the 2023-24 year. CRNA said changes to the application process did not alter its 10 requirements of all applicants who seek a practice permit.

"Now, they have greater flexibility in how they can provide evidence of meeting some of them," CRNA noted of those requirements, adding that the goal was to make it easier for IENs "to be recognized for their skills and experience in an equitable manner."

Creating a facility for IENs to gain practise hours while living in the North would mean investing in specialized senior nurses who are skilled to assess IENs' competency, Robertson said. 

For large jurisdictions like Alberta, he said, that works. In the territory, however, he feels investing in a full-time position to make those assessments may not be a viable option.

"In larger jurisdictions, where we have 100 applicants every year, we can have full-time people doing that job. If we have four or five or even 10 a year here, that might be enough to keep somebody employed," he said.

"Also, because the North is small, if we hire someone to do it and they leave for another job, you can't hire another person to do that job off the street the next day. It's very challenging to do that sort of specialized work when you don't have backup to do it."

Robertson said experienced nurses within hospitals are often asked to act as mentors for newer staff, which can act as another drain on resources if not managed properly.

"Often, a nurse is asked to do that for free, or that's expected to be part of the job. It's a lot of work to do that,” he said.

"We need to make sure they have the right supports in place so that we're also supporting the nurses that are here, allowing new nurses to become successful without burning out the nurses that we always ask, over and over again, 'Hey, can you orient this new person? Help train this new person?'"

Ultimately, Robertson said, the N.W.T. needs to work on keeping its experienced nurses as much as it needs to recruit new ones.

"Fundamentally, we need to ask: Why are nurses not coming from around Canada to come and work here? Why aren't they coming to live here? It's expensive. The wages are not as competitive as they used to be," he said of recruitment and retention challenges the territory faces.

"Anyone that's looking for a job will go where it's best for them. From a morale standpoint, we need to make sure that we're investing in keeping nurses that we have here. Experienced nurses are so, so, so valuable to us.”

Aastha Sethi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Cabin Radio

Israel no longer 'liberal democracy' for first time in 50 years, research institute says

Story by ELIAV BREUER • JERSUALEM POST

AT A demonstration in Tel Aviv, earlier this month, against the government’s plan for judicial change, signs read ‘The student protest’ and ‘Without democracy, there is no academia.’

© (photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)

For the first time in 50 years, Israel no longer enjoys the status of a "liberal democracy" due to "substantial declines in the indicators measuring the transparency and predictability of the law, and government attacks on the judiciary," according to the V-Dem Institute's 2024 Democracy Report.

V-Dem, short for Varieties of Democracy, is a research institute based in Sweden that measures the levels of democracy worldwide based on a variety of what it defines as high-level principles of democracy. The institute publishes a yearly democracy report that splits the world's countries into four categories: Liberal democracies, electoral democracies, electoral autocracies, and closed autocracies.

Electoral democracies, according to V-Dem, include "multiparty elections for the executive are free and fair; satisfactory degrees of suffrage, freedom of expression, freedom of association."

Liberal democracies include the above, as well as "judicial and legislative constraints on the executive along with the protection of civil liberties and equality before the law." Israel was a liberal democracy since the 1970s, but in 2023 became an electoral democracy, the report said.

Looking into the report

According to the report, indicators that lowered Israel's rating included a 2023 Knesset bill "stripping the Supreme Court of the power to invalidate laws, thus undermining checks on executive power."


BANNING PUBLIC transportation on Shabbat: The state’s Jewish character versus its democratic nature. (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/FLASH90)© Provided by The Jerusalem Post

A bill severely limiting the Supreme Court's ability to strike down regular laws and completely removing its power to invalidate Basic Laws, indeed passed its first readings in the Knesset, but did not pass into law.

The report added regarding Israel that "indicators that are in substantive decline also include freedom from torture," but did not expand.

Yair Golan, former IDF deputy chief of staff, Meretz MK and current candidate for leadership of the Labor party, said in response to the report, "A full year of messianic dreams, incessant threats against the judicial system, oppressive legislation, threats on the freedom of the press, harming fundamental rights of demonstration, and appointing ministers who are criminals, led us to lose our ranking as a liberal democracy."

Amid Canada's 'arms embargo': Here are the Israeli weapons still in use in Ottawa

Story by UDI EZION

 • Jerusalem Post 

© (photo credit: IAI)

Canada's foreign minister's announcement on Tuesday of an arms embargo on Israel comes at a time when Israeli weapons systems are now protecting Canadian pilots, fighters, and naval combatants around the world.

They are deployed to protect Canada's borders and NATO countries bordering Russia, similar to when Canadian troops were stationed in Afghanistan in the war against the Taliban.

For some reason, the minister's announcement forgot that in the last decade, the Canadian Defense Ministry purchased Israeli weapon systems worth more than a billion dollars after examining their performance, prices, and delivery times compared to those of other Western companies.

In those years, Israel purchased components and subsystems worth only tens of millions of dollars from the Canadians, numbers that indicate the Israeli defense industries' central position in the global arms market and their dependence on exports to customers abroad.


MMR Radar, made by IAI subsidiary ELTA. 

(credit: ISRAEL AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES)© Provided by The Jerusalem Post

Only in December 2023, two months after the outbreak of Operation Swords of Iron, Canada announced the purchase of LR 2 Spike missiles from Rafael, worth $32 million, with delivery the following summer. Canada needs the advanced anti-tank missiles in case of a Russian invasion of Latvia, where a division of the Canadian army is stationed. This was not the first time that the Canadians purchased an Israeli missile: in 2018, they purchased Spike missiles of an older model for their special forces.

Canada used Rafael to achieve one of its largest defense export deals: the sale of dozens of armored personnel carriers made by General Dynamics Canada to the Colombian military for $418 million last year. Their choice was helped because they are equipped with remote-controlled 30 mm cannon turrets manufactured by Rafael, which can be operated from the weapon's interior without exposing the operator to enemy fire.

The Canadians' largest deal with the Israeli defense industry was signed in 2015 when they purchased 10 Iron Dome radars—these are MMR radars produced by the Elta Systems of the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The Canadians purchased radars to detect air threats to their forces, including planes, helicopters, submarines, and rockets. The value of the deal was estimated to be $190 million.

Since then, the Canadians have purchased from Elta naval radars for patrol planes, long-range radars for their naval ships, and mobile radars to protect their infantry soldiers. These transactions have an additional and cumulative value of hundreds of millions of dollars.


Not the first Canadian embargo

The Canadian embargo is not the first of its kind. In 1956, when Israel was struggling to find sources for the purchase of a jet fighter following Egypt's growing strength, it agreed with the Canadian government to purchase 24 American F-86 Cyber fighter jets, which were then manufactured in the country under license for the local air force.

The Canadians agreed, and the first planes had already come off the production line, with Israel's Air Force's Star of David affixed to them. But the Canadians caved into British pressure and canceled the deal.

This did not prevent the Canadians from purchasing military aircraft from Israel 50 years later. In 2008, they leased Heron UAVs from IAI to patrol and protect their ground forces stationed in Afghanistan against the Taliban. These were operated from the Kandahar base.

Since then, the Canadians have purchased Small Skylark UAVs mini-submarines from Elbit System, the export version of the IDF's "Sky Rider," which is also used in Israel's current war in Gaza and is operated by ground brigades to identify enemies in the vicinity.


The Canadians, who purchased command and control and satellite communication systems from Elbit, equipped their refueling planes with the DIRCM anti-missile laser system.

Even the Canadian Transportation Department operates Elbit UAVs. It leased a large Hermes 900 Starliner, one of the few unmanned vehicles in the world that can fly on civilian flight paths without fear of colliding with commercial planes around them.

Poilievre wants to topple the Liberal government with a non-confidence motion on the carbon tax

Story by John Paul Tasker

 • CBC

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will introduce a non-confidence motion Wednesday designed to topple the government and trigger a federal election — a parliamentary manoeuvre that's likely to fail.

Poilievre and his party are ramping up the pressure on the Liberal government to drop a plan to increase the federal carbon tax.

The levy is set to rise by about 23 per cent on April 1, which means consumers can expect to pay about three cents more for a litre of gas than they do now.

"If Trudeau does not declare today an end to his forthcoming tax increases on food, gas and heat, we'll introduce a motion of non-confidence," Poilievre said at Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill.

"Canadians cannot afford to eat, heat and house themselves," he said to a standing ovation from his MPs and senators. "I call for the House to be dissolved so Canadians can vote in a carbon tax election."

The non-confidence motion is likely dead on arrival because the NDP has agreed to prop up the government through 2025.

The government's supply-and-confidence agreement with the fourth party gives it enough support in the Commons to vote down such a motion.

The government has a plan to gradually raise the tax to $170 a tonne by 2030, an increase that eventually will add nearly 40 cents a litre to the price of gas. The levy also will increase the price of other fuels like natural gas and propane.

Poilievre has been on a cross-country "spike the tax" tour to stir up opposition to the federal climate change measure. Hundreds of supporters turned out in Halifax on St. Patrick's Day

The party also has tabled another opposition day motion in the House of Commons to force a vote on the increase itself. That vote will come later Wednesday.

The Conservatives also requested a separate "emergency" debate on the subject, a request that was denied Monday by Speaker Greg Fergus.

Related video: Poilievre plans a non-confidence motion on carbon tax (cbc.ca)

Duration 0:45 View on Watch

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The carbon tax is a central plank in the Liberals' climate policybook and they have strenuously opposed a years-long, Conservative-led attempt to overturn it.

The levy is designed to increase the cost of fossil fuels to encourage consumers and businesses to pursue cleaner, greener alternatives.

The government has said all of the money collected from the tax is returned to people through the Canada carbon rebate, a quarterly payment made based on family size.


Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault makes a funding announcement at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden in Ottawa on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024. (Patrick Doyle/Canadian Press)© Provided by cbc

"Eight out of 10 Canadians, low-income to middle-income Canadians, get more money back than they're paying for carbon pricing. That is a reality, that is a fact. And as carbon pricing goes up, so does the carbon rebate," said Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.

"That is one thing you'll never hear Pierre Poilievre talk about. The other thing you'll never hear Pierre Poilievre talk about is the impacts of climate change and how much it's costing Canadians."

But the government also levies HST on the carbon tax — income that goes into federal coffers.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) has said Ottawa stands to gain about $600 million in the next fiscal year from this tax on a tax — funds that are not explicitly earmarked for climate initiatives.

The federal carbon tax was initially designed as a "backstop" measure that would only apply in provinces and territories that don't have carbon prices of their own in place.

Now, after a number of provincial governments dismantled their pricing programs, the federal tax is applied in eight provinces. B.C. has its own carbon tax while Quebec has a cap-and-trade program.