'They don't care': Inmate complaints paint troubling portrait of Sask. jails during pandemic


Mon., July 5, 2021

The Saskatoon Provincial Correctional Centre. (CBC News - image credit)

Many jailed and working inside Saskatchewan's correctional centres feel the provincial government has failed those on the front-lines of the system during the pandemic, but those responsible for the provincial facilities say the government did everything humanly possible to keep people safe.

More than 600 inmates and 200 correctional staff have been infected with COVID-19.

CBC reviewed more than 100 pages of complaints filed by inmates during the pandemic. They show that many in provincial care felt let down as COVID-19 spread.

The dozens of complaints, handwritten by inmates and obtained through Freedom of Information Legislation, detail the conditions and the stress they felt as the limited programming they had access to slowly dwindled away.

Robin Ledoux, an inmate at the Saskatoon Provincial Correctional Centre, lived through the pandemic inside. He claims he spent 27 consecutive days under strict COVID-19 protocols, during which time he alleges he was mistreated, having to ask to use the bathroom and sometimes being denied.

Ledoux said those denials resulted in him having to use his waste pail as a toilet numerous times. He said the treatment is cruel and unusual.

"It's rank," he said in an interview from the jail earlier this year.

Ledoux said he was regularly isolated for 48 hours at a time, only being let out of his cell for requested bathroom breaks and for a shower that often felt cut short. He said staff often denied him things like medication thats helps him stay off meth, cleaning supplies and proper clothes.

"Honestly, they don't care," he said.

Complaints paint grim portrait

Ledoux's concerns are echoed by many inmates.

One complaint from an inmate at Pine Grove Correctional Centre in Prince Albert says her mental health suffered greatly from the facility's library being closed.

"It would be something for us to do," wrote the inmate, whose name has not been released for privacy reasons. "To take our minds off of the crazy that is our lives. When people dwell on the bad, bad things can happen.

"If I don't have something to read, I think about the different ways to off myself in jail."

CBC

The complaints range from inmates who work as cleaners in the jails complaining about poor payment, to healthy inmates being housed among those with COVID-19.

An inmate from Saskatoon Correctional wrote that he is afraid for his health and asked those overseeing him to get him medical care. The province says inmates have regular access to doctors and nurses.

Another complaint listed multiple concerns ranging from deteriorating mental health to people's rights being violated. It was written by one inmate and signed by several others.

"WHY AM I STILL HOUSED WITH INFECTED INMATES??!!" Another inmate wrote in all caps. "CORRECTIONS IS PUTTING MY HEALTH IN SERIOUS JEOPARDY AND CONTINUES NOT TO DO A DAMN THING ABOUT IT. I HAVE A WIFE … OUT THERE TO GO TO HOME TO."

Ministry did everything humanly possible: Christine Tell

The complaints have put the provincial Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety under the spotlight, with some members of the public and the Opposition NDP calling for Minister Christine Tell to resign.

In an interview with CBC, Tell said she will not resign and that the government did everything it could to keep inmates safe.

She said the government put restrictions and protocols in place across the board in the early stages of the pandemic to slow the spread of the virus.

"There is nothing more that could have been done," she said. "I don't know of anything that's humanly possible."

Tell said the trends in the province's jails reflected those in the community.

She also said there are untold success stories in the system — including dedicated substance abuse treatment and reintegration units — and that staff on the front lines have played a critical role.

CBC

Tell said calls for her resignation were rooted in a lack of understanding. In response to calls for inmates to be released en masse, she said up to 95 per cent are in there for serious crimes and that releasing them would interfere with judicial decisions and be unfair to the victims.

"COVID is not a get out of jail free card," she said. "Public safety is paramount."

Before his death, prisoner advocate and poet Cory Cardinal told CBC he wanted a meeting with Tell to discuss what inmates are going through. When asked about that request, Tell said there are channels in place for inmates to file complaints and concerns, and that it's important those channels are used.

She said the ministry has been gathering data throughout the pandemic and will analyze it to prepare a better response moving forward. She said precautions have been adaptive from the start.

Tell said other provinces are already looking at how Saskatchewan handled COVID-19 in its jails.

Pandemic added pressures for those outside

The pandemic has been extremely hard for those with family inside.

Leonard Daniels has a daughter in Pine Grove Correctional Centre and said all he does is worry about the 20-year-old.

"More than I ever did in my life," he said.

While Pine Grove has had few COVID-19 cases, his daughter is living with pre-existing medical conditions. He said he wonders whether she will get the support she needs if she contracts the virus.

"It's not a very good environment," he said.

Daniels would like to see vulnerable people like his daughter released from provincial jails.

"Somebody is making a grave mistake."

Advocates working with inmates have been continuously critical of the province's response to the pandemic. Pierre Hawkins, the public legal counsel with the John Howard Society, said jails are failing inmates.

He said rehabilitation is not possible if inmates leave feeling resentful and that the COVID-19 pandemic has made chances of a productive sentence even less likely.

CBC News

"As they're structured now, our correctional facilities are not built for rehabilitation. They are built for warehousing," said Hawkins.

He said demand for programming in jails far outpaces supply and that a significant investment is needed.

"The near-universal experience right now is people go in, their mental health gets worse, they wind up in a setting that is very tense, quite violent and quite traumatic, and then they're released far worse off than when they went in."

Tell said that while the pandemic has reduced the government's ability to provide programming, the province has been taking steps to overcoming the challenges. She said it has brought on more space in the form of trailers that are separated from the institution.

She also pointed to the province allocating roughly $52 million for a new remand centre in Saskatoon, saying the additional space and funding will help ensure inmates receive the support they need.

"We want them to be productive citizens," she said.

SGEU says cases in jails, youth facilities avoidable

Union leaders say workers in jails were victims of a government that ignored its own medical advice by not immediately prioritizing correctional workers and inmates for vaccination.

"Essential workers should have been made a priority and the government chose not to make that happen," said Barry Nowoselsky, chair of the Public-Service Government Employment bargaining committee. "There's people right now who are in the hospital, in ICU, and it was all avoidable."

Nowoselsky said he's heard from many members who feel frustrated and betrayed.

"To be treated the way they have been by the government, it's unacceptable."

Some progress made during pandemic

Kayleigh Lafontaine has seen two sides of the system. She worked for more than a decade in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan as a corrections officer and is now advocating for inmates as the executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society Saskatchewan.

She said she's seen firsthand how these facilities can let inmates down.

"I know that the government feels like they're doing the best that they can with the circumstances, and sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't," she said.

Submitted by Kayleigh Lafontaine

Before the pandemic, representatives from Elizabeth Fry would visit Pine Grove twice a month to offer support and assess conditions, but Lafontaine said they haven't had access for more than a year.

She pointed to a recent call she had with leaders at Pine Grove as an example of the work being done by advocates.

In the call, they discussed ways to let inmates inside know about the services offered by Elizabeth Fry, expand programming for remand inmates and launch a pilot project where those leaving the facility will have access to basic necessities.

She said Elizabeth Fry and Pine Grove leadership have reaffirmed a partnership that will support inmates virtually for now and in-person as soon as possible.

"They seem to be really hopeful about sort of the changes and the trajectory we can go on together, so I'm hopeful too," she said.

'Old wounds': Descendants of families who lost Indian status launch Charter challenge

Mon., July 5, 2021

Kathryn Fournier wants her three children to be able to reclaim their status.

 (Toni Choueiri/CBC - image credit)

In 1944, Nadia Salmaniw's great-grandfather Wilfred Laurier Bennett faced a choice: send his children to residential school or renounce his Indigenous heritage.

Knowing first-hand the cruelties of the mandatory boarding school system, Bennett chose to give up his First Nation status.

Now, Salmaniw is trying to reclaim her status — which was stripped from Bennett, her great-grandmother and all of their descendants.

"He made, I believe, a forced decision to protect his children because he himself had been forced into residential school and knew of the atrocities and horrors that his children would have endured if they had gone," Salmaniw said.

Salmaniw is one of 16 plaintiffs from three families who filed a constitutional challenge last month in the Supreme Court of British Columbia to end the discrimination based on gender and the process of "enfranchisement" that families continue to endure under the registration provisions of the Indian Act.

Enfranchisement was a process through which First Nations people could obtain Canadian citizenship. By renouncing their Indian status and treaty rights, they obtained the right to vote, own property and keep their children out of residential schools.

The act was considered voluntary by the federal government. The plaintiffs argue their families were coerced into enfranchisement.

'Ultimate act of colonization'

The enfranchisement policy was adopted in 1857 under the Gradual Civilization Act in the Province of Canada and continued after Confederation under the Indian Act of 1876.

Enfranchisement remained in place until amendments were made to the Indian Act in 1985 to bring it in line with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Michael McArthur/CBC

The plaintiffs argue that the consequences of that defunct policy violate their rights to liberty and security under the charter.

Even though Salmaniw has Haida citizenship under the laws of the Haida Nation and is a citizen of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska, she continues to be denied Indian status because of the Indian Act's registration provisions.

"To receive a rejection letter saying that you're not Indigenous when you know that's part of who you are is deeply, deeply impactful," Salmaniw said.

"I believe that just opened up the old wounds and continued to reinforce the harm that was inflicted on my great-grandfather at the time of residential school ... What an ultimate act of colonization."

'Plain as day' sex-based discrimination

The court challenge is also taking aim at what the plaintiffs say is a lingering element of sexual discrimination in status law. Under the old Indian Act, when a status Indian woman married, she lost the right to decide what happened to her status.

If she married a non-status man, she automatically lost her status. If she married a status Indian man and her husband was enfranchised, she and any unmarried children were automatically stripped of their Indian status as well.

Ottawa gradually allowed women and their descendants to regain status lost by marriage through a series of legislative changes — the latest coming in 2017 with Bill S-3, An Act to amend the Indian Act in response to the Superior Court of Quebec decision in Descheneaux c. Canada.

But the descendants of women who lost status because their status Indian husbands were enfranchised are still barred from reclaiming status.

"It's plain as day that that's sex-based discrimination," said Vancouver-based lawyer Ryan Beaton from the firm Juristes Power.

"It's being imposed on descendants today in the same way it was imposed on the other category of descendants. It's hard to understand why Canada has not yet decided to address this issue."

Mike McArthur/CBC

The federal government has not yet filed a response to the constitutional challenge in court.

But in a media statement, the office of Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller wrote that it was working with First Nations partners, including the Native Women's Association of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations, on further legislative changes.

"We are aware of the challenge and recognize that residual impacts from years of sex-based inequities continue to be felt in the registration context today, despite the elimination of sex-based inequities in the registration provisions," the statement said.

"Additionally, we are committed to continue to work with First Nations to address the non sex-based inequities that still remain in the Indian Act today."

Indigenous Services Canada is also implementing a 2020 decision by the Superior Court of Quebec, which found a woman could not be voluntarily enfranchised under the 1952 Indian Act.

Ottawa claims it eliminated all known sex-based inequities in the Indian Act's registration, but Beaton insists that several thousand family members could be affected by this case.

Reclaiming Indigenous heritage

As someone who grew up knowing she was Indigenous and that her grandfather had been enfranchised, Kathryn Fournier said she felt like she'd been stranded "between two worlds."

Fournier's grandparents were residential school survivors from Manitoba. That's not why her grandfather Maurice Sanderson applied for enfranchisement in 1922, however; Fournier said he wanted the right to vote and own property, which was forbidden under the Indian Act.

"He made a very difficult choice that shouldn't have been imposed on him in the first place," she said. "I don't in any way judge him for that."

When the law changed in 1985, Fournier and her mom were able to regain status, but her three children could not because of existing registration provisions.

The Indian Act contains different levels of status. Since her mother came from enfranchised parents, her status could only be passed onto her children, not her grandchildren.

David Kawai/The Canadian Press

"One of the things that I'd always hoped for is that my own children would be able to also claim their Indigenous identity and their Indigenous heritage in a formal, recognized way," Fournier said.

Fournier worked at the department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada for more than 20 years.

"It was a challenge working there knowing that the enfranchisement that my family had gone through was one of the perhaps more egregious things that the Indian Act had done and that there was no recognition of that within the department," Fournier said.

"But I think, as most of the Indigenous public servants who worked there, we tried to focus on what could be changed."

The plaintiffs are not seeking damages. They say their preference is to negotiate ways to resolve the issue instead of having it litigated.

"We are going back to becoming what the government tried to make us not be anymore," Fournier said

"I think that's the important part, and that sense of belonging and being able to say officially and quite formally, 'This is who I am.'"

Quebec woman dead 2 days after lying on Gatineau hospital floor awaiting treatment

Mon., July 5, 2021,

Anne Pommainville had to lie on the floor of the Hull Hospital's emergency department while waiting to be seen by hospital staff because there were no beds available, her family told Radio-Canada. (Supplied by family - image credit)

A Gatineau woman has died after spending several hours in pain, lying on the floor of the Hull Hospital emergency department, leaving her family distraught and demanding change.

Anne Pommainville, 58, went to the hospital in Gatineau, Que., on the evening of June 27, but was unable to sit on a waiting room chair due to extreme stomach pain.

Hospital staff told Pommainville and her husband, Jacques Richard, that her only option was to create a makeshift bed on the floor using blankets.

I will remember that night all my life. I will never forget her. - Jacques Richard, husband of Anne Pommainville

"She did not deserve that," said Richard in an interview with Radio-Canada.

"I will remember that night all my life. I will never forget her."

After she waited for hours on the floor, Richard decided to take Pommainville to wait in the car. He then went back and forth between the parking lot and the emergency department to ensure he heard her name called to see a doctor.

Eventually, she did see a doctor and was later transferred to the Gatineau Hospital for surgery.

However, her family said they didn't know she had been transferred until June 29 — almost 48 hours later — when hospital staff called Richard to tell him his wife's heart stopped and staff could not revive her.

'Ridiculous conditions'

Veronique Richard said her family doesn't blame the hospital workers for how her aunt was treated, but rather the continued staffing shortages at hospitals in Gatineau.

"To see that we have people lying on the floor in a waiting room in intense pain because there is no stretcher, because there is no room, because they are overwhelmed," she said.

"The goal is not to throw stones at employees, nurses, attendants, administrative officers, doctors. ... They work under ridiculous conditions."

Patient advocate Paul Brunet said Pommainville was not treated with dignity.

"I've been a spokesperson for almost 25 years. I've rarely seen that in a hospital in the west, in Canada, in Quebec, that we haven't been able to find a single stretcher and a single bed," said Brunet.

Michel Aspirot/Radio-Canada

Health unit launches investigation

The local health unit, Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de l'Outaouais (CISSSO), said it has launched an internal investigation.

"Our thoughts are first with the family and loved ones of this lady," the local health unit wrote in a statement that said they were "concerned about this situation."

"We are doing everything we can to understand what happened and to prevent this kind of situation from happening again."

More than a billion seashore animals may have cooked to death in B.C. heat wave, says UBC researcher

Mon., July 5, 2021


Dead mussels are seen along the shoreline of Third Beach in Vancouver on June 27, in the middle of B.C.'s record-breaking heat wave. (Chris Harley/University of British Columbia - image credit)

Chris Harley walked on to Vancouver's Kitsilano Beach in late June and smelled death.

Carpeting the sea rocks were tens of thousands of mussels, clams, sea stars and snails, emitting a putrid odour that hung thick in the heat.

"I was pretty stunned," he recalled.

Harley, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia, now estimates that last week's record-breaking heat wave in B.C. may have killed more than one billion seashore animals living along the Salish Sea coastline.

The findings shine on a light on the seismic effects of the heat wave, which has already has been linked to hundreds of human deaths and whose ecological toll continues to be unravelled.

As temperatures cracked 40 C in Vancouver, and several degrees higher in B.C.'s Interior, infrared cameras used by Harley's team recorded temperatures above 50 C on rocky shoreline habitats.

Chris Harley/University of British Columbia

Intertidal animals like mussels, which inhabit the area where land and sea meet, can endure temperatures in the high 30s for short periods of time, Harley said.

But the scorching heat, combined with low tides in the middle of the afternoon, created a dangerous combination for more than six hours at a time.

"A mussel on the shore in some ways is like a toddler left in a car on a hot day," Harley said.

"They are stuck there until the parent comes back, or in this case, the tide comes back in and there's very little they can do. They're at the mercy of the environment. And on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, during the heat wave, it just got so hot that the mussels, there was nothing they could do."

Water quality will be impacted

Tipped off by the smell on the Sunday morning of the heat wave, Harley and a team of student researchers began to canvas multiple coastlines, including those in West Vancouver and on the Sunshine Coast.

They discovered endless rows of mussels with dead meat attached inside the shell, along with other dead creatures like sea stars and barnacles.

Harley calculated the number of dead animals found in small areas and multiplied it by the habitat size in the Salish Sea, which spans from Campbell River, B.C., to Olympia, Wash.

"You can fit about 2,000 mussels in an area the size of your stovetop," he said.

"Imagine how many stovetops you could fit into Stanley Park, and then how many Stanley Parks fit into the Salish Sea. So if you're losing a few hundred or a few thousand mussels for every major shoreline, that quickly scales up to a very, very large number."

Chris Harley/University of British Columbia

The wipe-out will temporarily affect water quality, as mussels and clams help filter the sea, Harley said.

While the mussel bed will likely recover in a year or two, Harley noted that heat waves will happen more frequently and with greater severity due to climate change.

"Eventually, we just won't be able to sustain these populations of filter feeders on the shoreline to be anywhere near the extent that we're used to," he said.

Harley said similar discoveries of dead shellfish have already been made in the Strait of Georgia and Washington state. He plans to visit the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island to confirm seashore deaths in those areas, with the aim of publishing a peer-reviewed paper as early as next year.

The deaths, he said, are a reminder that the environment is suffering severe consequences from extreme weather events.

"If we don't like it, then we need to work harder to reduce emissions and take other measures to reduce the effects of climate change."

$$$ IN IRVING'S POCKET

Higgs government boosts payments to pulp and paper mills under energy buy-back program


Mon., July 5, 2021

Province has increased subsidies to major pulp and paper mills owned by J.D. Irving Ltd., Twin Rivers Paper Co. Ltd. and the AV Group. (Roger Cosman/CBC - image credit)

The Higgs government has quietly increased subsidies to major pulp and paper mills in the province through a renewable energy buy-back program with NB Power.

The Progressive Conservative cabinet increased the price that the public utility must pay to mills by 12.5 per cent, retroactive to April 1.

That would hand the companies more than $5 million in discounts based on their electricity sales in 2019-20.

The Large Industrial Renewable Energy Purchases Program, put in place by the Alward government a decade ago, requires NB Power buy renewable electricity generated by plants at a set price.

It then sells the electricity back to those same plants at a lower price, effectively subsidizing electricity costs for the pulp and paper mills owned by J.D. Irving Ltd., Twin Rivers Paper Co. Ltd. and the AV Group.

Now the price the utility pays is jumping from $95 per megawatt hour, an amount that has been in place since the program began, to $106.91.

That 12.5 per cent increase was part of a regulatory amendment approved by the Higgs cabinet on May 27 without any public announcement.

The amendment also requires the price to now increase every year in tandem with the consumer price index starting in 2022.

"The program rate had not changed since it was introduced in 2012," said government spokesperson Erin Illsley.

"The addition of an annual escalator based on the percent change in CPI is similar to what other renewable contracts receive."

The $11.91-per-megawatt-hour increase would mean $5.7 million in additional expenses for NB Power based on the 479,000 megawatt-hours the utility paid for under the program in 2019-20, the last year for which figures are available. That could fluctuate year to year.

Logan Perley/CBC file

Illsley did not say why the price needs to increase, given the program is designed to buy and sell enough electricity to reach an overall threshold percentage reduction on power bills.

"It's surprising to me," said Green Party Leader David Coon.

"I don't understand why they're doing this for the pulp and paper industry. We subsidize them already in so many ways. … It would be a great deal to get, if the rest of us could get it."

This year, the Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development has set 14 per cent as the discount that the mills should get on their power bills, based on average industrial rates across Canada.

In 2015, NB Power executive Neil Larlee told the Energy and Utilities Board that he utility buys enough power under the program to get the mills a discount at that pre-set percentage.

"We purchase energy from the participants and that volume is based on the ability for them to achieve the target reduction amount that is in the regulation," he said. "So that volume can vary depending on whether or not they have that generation available.

"They would sell at $95 up until the equivalent credit they got was such that it gave them the posted discount, and that discount, it is adjusted every year."

NB Power spokesperson Marc Belliveau says the utility has four agreements under the program — with Twin Rivers, AV Group's Nackawic mill, AV Group's Atholville mill, and J.D. Irving Ltd.

The Irving agreement involves the company's Irving Pulp and Paper and Irving Paper mills in Saint John and its St. George Power LP hydroelectric dam and Lake Utopia paper mill.

Eligibility 'hasn't changed'

Belliveau referred further questions to the Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development, as did J.D. Irving Ltd. vice-president Anne McInerney.

"Our eligibility to participate hasn't changed," she said.

She did not respond to a question about whether JDI had asked for the change.

Illsley said the department, which drafted the regulation change, "has discussed the rate with those companies involved in the program and felt indexing the rate was warranted."

No one from Twin Rivers or the AV Group responded to requests for comment. The industry lobby group Forest NB had no one available to comment on Friday. Natural Resources and Energy Development Minister Mike Holland was not available for an interview.

U.S. singled out subsidy

At the 2015 rate hearings, New Brunswick ratepayer Greg Hickey argued that if NB Power could afford to spend millions subsidizing large industrial plants, it should not be allowed to raise rates for residential customers.

In 2016, the U.S. Commerce Department identified the Large Industrial Renewable Energy Purchases Program as a potential subsidy to J.D. Irving Ltd. during a trade investigation of Canadian softwood exports to the United States.

Both Irving and the New Brunswick government argued against that position in the case.

Larlee told the EUB that on top of the program giving large mills more competitive power costs, the program also lets NB Power count the electricity generated by the mills toward its own renewable energy targets.

Halifax company building its first commercial Fundy tidal power unit

Mon., July 5, 2021

Jamie MacNeil of BigMoon Power and Joe Hines of East Coast Metal Fabrication look over a steel beam that will be used to build BigMoon's first commercial tidal power unit. (Tom Ayers/CBC - image credit)

A Halifax-based company is building its first commercial tidal power generator in Cape Breton and it expects to begin selling electricity soon after it installs its technology in the Bay of Fundy later this year.

Jamie MacNeil, executive vice-president of BigMoon Power, said the first of 18 units is being assembled at East Coast Metal Fabrication in the Sydport Industrial Park.

Each unit has a large wheel suspended between the pontoons of a 30-metre barge anchored to the ocean floor. The barge can swivel to remain facing the current.

"It's a 21st-century adaptation of very old technology in a Roman paddlewheel," MacNeil said.

The equipment has to be robust to withstand the harsh conditions of a saltwater environment with some of the highest tides in the world, and it has to be protected from debris while minimizing the impact on fish and marine mammals, he said.

The barge-and-wheel system can do all of that and still produce electricity that is affordable, because BigMoon has spent about $20 million on research and development over the last six years, MacNeil said.

Tom Ayers/CBC

BigMoon has been in operation since 2015, testing its theories and prototypes in the Bay of Fundy, and now has a contract to supply electricity to Nova Scotia Power.

The company will receive subsidized rates for its energy, but only at the beginning, MacNeil said. After that, the project will be competitive with other forms of renewable energy.

He said he thinks they can compete.

"We know that we can and we have taken a big step forward in the contracts that we already have in being able to demonstrate that the price of tidal is coming down dramatically."

Over the next three to four years, the company plans to build a total of 18 units, each generating about half a megawatt of electricity, or enough to power about 500 homes.

The infrastructure to get power to shore through a subsea cable already exists, through the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy, which was set up by the federal and provincial governments to encourage tidal power production.

Several companies have tried and some have failed to produce electricity from the Bay of Fundy.

Tom Ayers/CBC

Earlier this year, a company called Sustainable Marine Energy began testing floating turbines in the area and last year, BigMoon won a contract to remove a failed turbine installed by another company.

MacNeil is confident that BigMoon's engineers have come up with a solution to the difficult operating environment.

"There have been some successes," he said.

"There have been some setbacks, but all of those who now remain in the energy business here in Nova Scotia are all on the precipice of doing something very exciting and that is to actually start producing electrons for the people of Nova Scotia."

Tom Ayers/CBC

Joe Hines, chief operating officer at East Coast Metal Fabrication, said assembling the first unit will create up to 20 full-time jobs for up to six months.

Putting together the other 17 units will add more jobs over time, he said.

"We have hired some already as we've been staffing up for other jobs and we'll be transitioning some of the experienced people over to this project, as well as adding some new to it."

MacNeil said tidal power will be an additional renewable energy source alongside solar and wind power, but its benefit is that it's predictable.

Looking across Canada

He said tidal power will add enough electricity to the grid to allow the province to export energy and will allow the company to build its platforms and place them elsewhere.

"It's not our intention to build nine megawatts and pat ourselves on the back and call it a day," MacNeil said.

"We want to take advantage of the energy that's in the water here in Nova Scotia, but also in other areas like Newfoundland, like in Quebec, like in British Columbia."

Financial troubles hit company involved in proposed Sydney container terminal


Mon., July 5, 2021

Albert Barbusci says shipping lines should find the project more attractive, now that it has a location and funding in place. (Tom Ayers/CBC - image credit)

A venture capital company behind the proposed container terminal in Sydney, N.S., is in financial trouble, but proponents say that will not affect their investments or the project's future.

In addition to raising questions about the proposed development, the issue has provided the first real insight into the port project's financing, suggesting the estimated financial value of NovaPorte LP, the company that is trying to put together a consortium to finance and build a container terminal.

In January 2020, Bridging Finance of Toronto loaned Membertou First Nation $6.8 million to give the band a 12.5 per cent stake in NovaPorte, a limited partnership launched by Sydney Harbour Investment Partners, also known as SHIP.

The financial firm also gained a small interest in the port project, but earlier this year the Ontario Securities Commission found financial irregularities at Bridging Finance and forced it into receivership at the end of April.

Red flag

George Karaphillis, dean of Cape Breton University's Shannon School of Business, said the company's involvement in NovaPorte should now raise a red flag.

"It is obviously a concern that the venture capital firm that's backing the project is in financial difficulties and it's in receivership," he said.

Cape Breton University

It's difficult to know how it will play out, Karaphillis said, but it's possible that the receiver might need to sell the company's stake in NovaPorte or call its loan to Membertou in order to gain liquidity.

On the other hand, depending on what the receiver finds, that might not happen, he said.

The container terminal development has been talked about for a decade or more, but there has never been any public evidence that it is closer to becoming a reality.

Cape Breton Regional Municipality has set aside a piece of land for the proposed terminal across the harbour from Sydney.

The promoter says he has financing, a builder and a shipping line for a customer, but he also recently secured from CBRM a three-year extension on an exclusive contract to get the project going in earnest.

'A billion-dollar deal'

Membertou Chief Terry Paul declined an interview request, but in an email, he revealed the amount of the loan from Bridging Finance and the share that represents in NovaPorte.

"The investment we made in the project remains unaffected by the recent news of Bridging Finance's receivership," he said. "Bridging Finance was a Membertou financing partner, and not one of SHIP.

"Since the announcement of its receivership, Membertou has been working with the receiver, and our investment remains secure."

The project has been touted as a billion-dollar deal, but financial details have been murky since 2015, when SHIP first secured an exclusive contract to market CBRM's land in Sydney harbour.

CBC

SHIP principals Albert Barbusci and Barry Sheehy have said their company is private and that their information needs to remain private to avoid tipping off possible competitors.

CBRM's mayor, councillors and staff also had to sign non-disclosure agreements that they say prevented them from providing any details.

NovaPorte LP is registered in Quebec and lists four shareholders including SHIP, a numbered company solely owned by Barbusci, a numbered company registered to Membertou, and Bridging Finance.

Asked about the venture capital company and how its financial difficulties might affect the port project, Barbusci also declined interview requests.

But in an email, he said Bridging Finance was "not party to any contractual agreement with SHIP. They provided debt financing to Membertou and not to SHIP.

"Therefore, we have no exposure and zero risk to the NovaPorte development and no effect on our ability to advance the project together with our Indigenous partners."

However, when it was pointed out that Bridging Finance is also listed as a shareholder in NovaPorte, Barbusci responded with another email, saying the company's stake "is minimal."

Bridging Finance received a 2.5 per cent share through its agreement with Membertou, he said.

"It has been a passive investment since Membertou became an equity partner in NovaPorte LP," Barbusci said.

Tom Ayers/CBC

Barbusci said last fall he has the financing to build the proposed terminal, has found a builder and has a customer lined up to bring in shipping containers.

But he said Cape Breton's crumbling rail line needs to be revitalized before the container terminal deal can be finalized.

SHIP has launched an effort to press the Nova Scotia government for investment in the railway, but the province has repeatedly said private investors would have to fund the more than $100 million needed to rebuild the rail bridges and tracks.

Membertou's 12.5 per cent stake in NovaPorte at $6.8 million dollars places the value of the company at $54.4 million.

At that rate, Bridging Finance's stake is worth $1.36 million.

Karaphillis said that valuation is about right for what could be a billion-dollar container terminal.

"Big projects of that size, it is reasonable that [about] five per cent of the final project is spent in trying to get the project organized initially, in trying to get it off the ground," he said.

"Yeah, $55 million looks like it's a reasonable amount to be able to get the project to the point where it actually can get started."

Business-savvy investor

With a one-eighth stake in NovaPorte, Membertou is considered to be a major investor.

"It's not the majority investor," Karaphillis said. "I don't know who the majority investor is, but it is a major investment.

"Twelve per cent is significant. It's double digit."

Membertou is known for being a business-savvy investor, he said, but without seeing NovaPorte's financial statements or its agreements with potential partners in the container terminal project, it's impossible to know whether Membertou's investment is a good one.

"That I do not know, because none of us here have the whole picture, the whole information," Karaphillis said.

"We wouldn't know if there is a customer or any of that, but obviously for Membertou to make that investment ... they're aware of some information that gives them comfort in the fact that the project will come to fruition."

CBRM council met privately with Barbusci twice this spring and recently agreed to a three-year extension of SHIP's contract to market the port project.

Warren Gordon photo

Mayor Amanda McDougall said she did not have any concrete information on the container terminal's viability, but voted in favour of the extension because Membertou signed on as a partner and recently led a billion-dollar purchase of Nova Scotia's largest seafood company.

"We've seen what Membertou is capable of doing, in terms of the Clearwater [Seafoods] agreement," she said.

"That's billions of dollars into our fishing industry. That is the only thing that is giving me any confidence that this project is going to move forward, quite frankly."

Bat population in Nova Scotia showing signs of recovery

Mon., July 5, 2021, 

A bat is shown hanging from a twig. Larger bat colonies are being discovered in Nova Scotia, pointing to population growth, after white nose syndrome killed more than 90 per cent of the province's bats from 2011 to 2013. (Rick Whitman/Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute - image credit)

Researchers are optimistic Nova Scotia's native bat population is recovering from a fungus that nearly wiped out the winged mammals a decade ago.

A non-profit conservation group in southwest Nova Scotia is discovering larger bat colonies that point to population growth. Bats are ecologically important animals that have seen their numbers plummet in the last decade.

Lori Phinney, a wildlife biologist with the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute, said researchers were pleasantly surprised to find the province's largest known colony has grown to about 600 bats.

In 2018, there were about 380.

"Our researchers have been closely monitoring these bat colonies since 2016 and each year we see what the peak number is," she said. "I don't know what's going on this year, but we are definitely seeing more."

Lori Phinney/Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute

At another site, researchers found 157 bats, up from 58 last year.

Phinney said she's hopeful this is evidence of recovery, but acknowledges it could instead be more bats gathering at fewer sites.

"We are excited, but we don't want to get too excited in case it's a bunch of bats travelling from other areas choosing these sites to raise their pups," she said.

White-nose syndrome killed more than 90 per cent of Nova Scotia's bats between 2011 and 2013. It has killed millions across North America.

The fungus causes the mammals to wake up during hibernation, and with no bugs for them to feed on during the winter, they ultimately die.

"They are in this really sleepy, depressed state where their body temperature is lowered, and they are super vulnerable to anything attacking them," she said. "It's horrible because they basically starve to death trying to fight off this disease."

Jordi Segers/Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute

There are three main species of bats in Nova Scotia that hibernate, which are the main bats the research institute is monitoring: the little brown bat, the northern myotis and the tri-coloured bat.

There are also four different species of migratory bats that spend their summers in the province.

Phinney encourages Nova Scotians to contribute to monitoring efforts by sharing sightings of bats.

"With the help of the public reporting bat sightings, we can hopefully figure this out over the next few years," she said. "What we really want is where you saw the bat, the date and the time, and maybe what the bat was doing."

Phinney says bats are fascinating and can eat 1,000 bugs an hour, which can make them extremely valuable to the agriculture industry.

"It's definitely been called one of the worst wildlife population crashes in modern history," she said. "Not only the numbers, but how quickly they dropped off is pretty scary."

Noting fewer narwhal, North Baffin hunters ask Baffinland not to break ice


Mon., July 5, 2021

Hunters from Pond Inlet are asking Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. not to do any icebreaking this year near the northern tip of Baffin Island, saying that mounting evidence shows that icebreaking is harmful to the health of narwhal.

The number of narwhal in Eclipse Sound — a body of water near the port that Baffinland uses for shipping iron ore — is affected by the company’s operations and was nearly cut in half between 2019 and 2020, dropping to 5,019 from 9,931, according to the findings of Golder Associates Ltd., Baffinland’s third-party experts on marine life.

Eric Ootoovak, chairperson of the Mittimatalik Hunters and Trappers Organization, said the decrease is due to the Mary River mine operations. Baffinland ships six million tonnes of iron ore a year from its operations there.

“Science is finally catching up with Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit [traditional knowledge] by recognizing the disturbance to narwhal,” Ootoovak stated in a June 25 news release.

“It’s time for Baffinland to take serious action to stop this disturbance, including cancelling its planned icebreaking.”

The hunters’ group also cited a study that found the stress level in narwhals is increasing and affecting their health, which many Inuit groups say is making the narwhals skinnier and less nourishing.

The Mittimatalik Hunters and Trappers Organization is opposed to Baffinland’s expansion proposal to double its annual ore shipments and build a railway and dock at Milne Inlet.

The proposal is currently before the Nunavut Impact Review Board, which had to suspend its hearing on the project when there was a COVID-19 outbreak in Iqaluit in mid-April.

Baffinland spokesperson Heather Smiles said the company agrees that there are fewer narwhal, but this could be due to factors other than the mine’s operations, such as an increase in killer whales and underwater pile driving in Pond Inlet.

“These factors may have acted independently or cumulatively,” she said. “All of these factors were either unique in 2020 or more prominent than in 2019.”

The company hasn’t decided whether it will send icebreakers this year, Smiles said. But she said a “precautionary approach” will be taken because of the low number of narwhal last year.

Baffinland has adopted “conservative” measures that are a product of feedback from Inuit groups, Smiles said.

She pointed to the company’s marine wildlife management plan, which includes two adaptive management measures that could be used: changing the ships’ schedule to avoid times when contact with narwhal is more likely to happen, and find alternative routes.

But Ootoovak said in a June 25 letter to Baffinland and the review board that the mitigation measures are unclear.

Baffinland can begin icebreaking around July 15, depending on ice conditions, and end around Oct. 15, Smiles said.

David Venn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News

ALMOST NATIONALIZED

Alberta takes 50 per cent equity stake in Sturgeon Refiner


Mon., July 5, 2021

The Sturgeon Refinery is located 45 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

 (CBC - image credit)

The Alberta government is buying a 50 per cent stake in the troubled Sturgeon Refinery and extending the current 30-year processing agreement by another decade.

The province will share ownership of the refinery, located 45 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, with Canadian Natural Resources Limited.

The government said in a news release Monday the partnership will save $2 billion over the life of the project. Debt refinancing will free up to $1 billion in cash flow over five years due to better interest rates.

Energy Minister Sonya Savage said the government made this deal to make the best of a bad agreement that had iron-clad provisions that were impossible to escape.

"Under the previous deal, we had all the risk, we took all the risk...and we had no ability to control or mitigate that risk to control costs or to have any say in how the refinery was operated," Savage said in an interview with CBC News.

"With this deal, we save $2 billion and we have a seat at the table."

Under the original agreement reached in 2012, North West Redwater Partnership, which was owned equally by North West Refining Inc. and a subsidiary of Canadian Natural Resources, owned and operated the refinery.

The deal announced Monday has North West Refining transferring its ownership stake to the government of Alberta, which gives the province an equal vote in the operations. Officials say taxpayers wouldn't incur additional costs.

The North West Redwater Partnership is paying $425 million to North West Refining and $400 million to CNRL. Under the original agreement, Alberta government had to pay processing fees and profits each month.

Paying this money upfront means the government will no longer have to make these monthly payments, and will save money over the term of the agreement.

Savage compared it to the savings of paying off a credit card balance today instead of incurring interest costs by paying instalments over a longer period of time.

"The owners of the refinery were guaranteed a rate of return by the Alberta government under the previous deal for many, many years," Savage said.

"By paying that out now, it saved a lot of money for the Alberta government. If we didn't pay it out now, we'd be paying it out month-by-month, year-by-year over decades and it would be a lot more."

The Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission (APMC) had responsibility for supplying 75 per cent of the feedstock for the refinery, which would process raw bitumen into diesel and other products.

The government estimates the refinery will lose $2.5 billion over the life of the project. The province will pay $26 billion to refine the bitumen which it intends to sell for a profit.

Nova Scotia to spend $5.4M to encourage sustainable forestry practices

Mon., July 5, 2021, 

Nova Scotia is trying to create a more environmentally sustainable forestry in the province. (Robert Short/CBC - image credit)

Premier Iain Rankin continued a string of funding announcements Monday, pledging $5.4 million to encourage more environmentally sustainable forestry in the province.

He made the announcement in New Ross.

Most of the money will be used to extend existing silviculture programs that promote ecological management with measures like thinning stands, tree planting or selective harvesting.

"If you do selection harvests, you can now get funding for doing that. It allows for more opportunities," Rankin said in an interview.

"The alternative is to clear cut. Now with more funding provided, landowners have more options to be able to use the ecological model."

Woodlot owner Debbie Reeves said the government money is needed to promote more sustainable forest management.

"The economics plays a part. There's only so much money to put back into the land. So if we don't have some government funding to support this we aren't going to be able to do as good a job as we can, especially with the ecological forestry element that's now coming to the forefront," Reeves said.

Jean Laroche/CBC

The province is also providing $1 million for training to implement ecological forestry practices outlined in an independent review of Nova Scotia forestry sector by William Lahey.

The government is extending a program for logging roads. It has set aside $1 million for private woodlots.

Owners of small woodlots are eligible for up to $5,000, or 75 per cent of the cost of roads on their property. Those are defined as woodlots from 20 to 2,000 hectares.

The program started last year and had five times as many people apply as there was money available. Unsuccessful applicants were put on a list and next in line will be contacted as more money becomes available.

Small woodlot owners to benefit

Jeff Bishop of the industry group Forest Nova Scotia said 125 to 150 small woodlot owners will benefit this year.

"It's a great investment because those landowners will hire people, they'll buy the supplies to do the work to get those roads done. So there's an immediate impact, but it's also looking forward to allowing landowners to manage their land by having the proper access that they need," he said.

Rankin was accused of caving into the forest industry when he diluted elements in his signature piece of legislation since becoming premier earlier this year.

The Biodiversity Act was billed as a way to protect the environment, but was assailed as government overreach on private land in a campaign organized by the sector.

Those fears were dismissed by environmentalists, but Rankin stripped provisions on penalties from the legislation.

'We need to evolve our practices'

On Monday, Rankin again defended the act and said the province is moving toward a more sustainable model of forestry called for by Lahey in 2018.

"I believe that we can grow traditional sectors and at the same time modernize and keep them competitive. And for forestry, we need to evolve our practices. I'm happy that we have industry collaborating now with environmental non-profits and we're moving forward with the report. We've accomplished many of the recommendations that we're going to continue," he said.

The province will spend $2 million for silviculture and $1 million for roads on private woodlots.

It will spend $1 million for silviculture and $400,000 for roads on Crown land.

The Association for Sustainable Forestry will receive $330,000 for training in pre-treatment assessment.

The Canadian Woodlands Forum will get $670,000 to train contractors in new methods and prescriptions associated with ecological forestry.

Wildlife, air quality at risk as Great Salt Lake nears low


Mon., July 5, 2021,



SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The silvery blue waters of the Great Salt Lake sprawl across the Utah desert, having covered an area nearly the size of Delaware for much of history. For years, though, the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River has been shrinking. And a drought gripping the American West could make this year the worst yet.

The receding water is already affecting the nesting spot of pelicans that are among the millions of birds dependent on the lake. Sailboats have been hoisted out of the water to keep them from getting stuck in the mud. More dry lakebed getting exposed could send arsenic-laced dust into the air that millions breathe.

“A lot us have been talking about the lake as flatlining,” said Lynn de Freitas, executive director of Friends of the Great Salt Lake.

The lake's levels are expected to hit a 170-year low this year. It comes as the drought has the U.S. West bracing for a brutal wildfire season and coping with already low reservoirs. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, has begged people to cut back on lawn watering and “pray for rain.”

For the Great Salt Lake, though, it is only the latest challenge. People for years have been diverting water from rivers that flow into the lake to water crops and supply homes. Because the lake is shallow — about 35 feet (11 meters) at its deepest point — less water quickly translates to receding shorelines.

The water that remains stretches across a chunk of northern Utah, with highways on one end and remote land on the other. A resort — long since closed — once drew sunbathers who would float like corks in the extra salty waters. Picnic tables once a quick stroll from the shore are now a 10-minute walk away.

Robert Atkinson, 91, remembers that resort and the feeling of weightlessness in the water. When he returned this year to fly over the lake in a motorized paraglider, he found it changed.

“It's much shallower than I would have expected it to be,” he said.

The waves have been replaced by dry, gravelly lakebed that's grown to 750 square miles (1,942 square kilometers). Winds can whip up dust from the dry lakebed that is laced with naturally occurring arsenic, said Kevin Perry, a University of Utah atmospheric scientist.

It blows through a region that already has some of the dirtiest wintertime air in the country because of seasonal geographic conditions that trap pollution between the mountains.

Perry warns of what happened at California's Owens Lake, which was pumped dry to feed thirsty Los Angeles and created a dust bowl that cost millions of dollars to tamp down. The Great Salt Lake is much larger and closer to a populated area, Perry said.

Luckily, much of the bed of Utah's giant lake has a crust that makes it tougher for dust to blow. Perry is researching how long the protective crust will last and how dangerous the soil's arsenic might be to people.

This year is primed to be especially bleak. Utah is one of the driest states in the country, and most of its water comes from snowfall. The snowpack was below normal last winter and the soil was dry, meaning much of the melted snow that flowed down the mountains soaked into the ground.

Most years, the Great Salt Lake gains up to 2 feet (half a meter) from spring runoff. This year, it was just 6 inches (15 centimeters), Perry said.

“We’ve never had an April lake level that was as low as it was this year,” he said.

More exposed lakebed also means more people have ventured onto the crust, including off-road vehicles that damage it, Great Salt Lake coordinator Laura Vernon said.

“The more continued drought we have, the more of the salt crust will be weathered and more dust will become airborne because there’s less of that protective crust layer,” she said.

The swirling dust also could speed the melting of Utah’s snow, according to research by McKenzie Skiles, a snow hydrologist at the University of Utah. Her study showed that dust from one storm made the snow so much darker that it melted a week earlier than expected. While much of that dust came from other sources, an expansion of dry lakebed raises concerns about changes to the state's billon-dollar ski industry.

“No one wants to ski dirty snow,” she said.

While the lake's vast waters are too salty for most creatures except brine shrimp, for sailors like Marilyn Ross, 65, it’s a tranquil paradise with panoramas of distant peaks.

“You get out on this lake and it’s better than going to a psychiatrist, it’s really very calming,” she said.

But this year, the little red boat named Promiscuous that she and her husband have sailed for more than 20 years was hoisted out of the water with a massive crane just as the season got underway. Record-low lake levels were expected to leave the boats stuck in the mud rather than skimming the waves. Low water has kept the other main marina closed for years.

“Some people don’t think that we’re ever going to be able to get back in," Ross said.

Brine shrimp support a $57 million fish food industry in Utah but in the coming years, less water could make the salinity too great for even those tiny creatures to survive.

“We’re really coming to a critical time for the Great Salt Lake,” said Jaimi Butler, coordinator for Great Salt Lake Institute at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. She studies the American white pelican, one of the largest birds in North America.

They flock to Gunnison Island, a remote outpost in the lake where up to 20% of the bird’s population nests, with male and female birds cooperating to have one watch the eggs at all times.

“Mom goes fishing and dad stays at the nest,” Butler said.

But the falling lake levels have exposed a land bridge to the island, allowing foxes and coyotes to come across and hunt for rodents and other food. The activity frightens the shy birds accustomed to a quiet place to raise their young, so they flee the nests, leaving the eggs and baby birds to be eaten by gulls.

Pelicans aren’t the only birds dependent on the lake. It’s a stopover for many species to feed on their journey south.

A study from Utah State University says that to maintain lake levels, diverting water from rivers that flow into it would have to decrease by 30%. But for the state with the nation's fastest-growing population, addressing the problem will require a major shift in how water is allocated and perceptions of the lake, which has a strong odor in some places caused treated wastewater and is home to billions of brine flies.

“There’s a lot of people who believe that every drop that goes into the Great Salt Lake is wasted,” Perry said. “That’s the perspective I’m trying to change. The lake has needs, too. And they’re not being met.”

Lindsay Whitehurst, The Associated Press

Mexico: Lightning storm ignited gas leak in Gulf


Mon., July 5, 2021, 

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s state-owned oil company said Monday that a bizarre chain of events, including a lightning storm and a simultaneous gas pipeline leak, set off a strange subaquatic fireball seen last week in the Gulf of Mexico.

Petroleos Mexicanos said an intense storm of rain and lightning on July 2 forced the company to shut off pumping stations serving the offshore rig near where the fire occurred.

Simultaneously, the leak in an underwater pipeline allowed natural gas to build up on the ocean floor and once it rose to the surface, it was probably ignited by a lightning bolt, the company said.

Pemex sent fire control boats to pump more water over the flames and no one was injured in the incident in the offshore Ku-Maloob-Zaap field. It said no crude oil was spilled. Pemex said it was repairing the pumps and investigating the cause of the gas leak.

The accident unleashed a subaquatic fireball that appeared to boil the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and drew a hail of criticism from environmentalists.

Greenpeace Mexico said the fire, which took five hours to extinguish, “demonstrates the serious risks that Mexico’s fossil fuel model poses for the environment and people’s safety.”

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has bet heavily on drilling more wells and buying or building oil refineries. He touts oil as “the best business in the world.”

Climate activist Greta Thunberg reposted a video clip of the fireball on her Twitter account.

“Meanwhile the people in power call themselves ‘climate leaders’ as they open up new oilfields, pipelines and coal power plants — granting new oil licenses exploring future oil drilling sites,” Thunberg wrote. “This is the world they are leaving for us.”

The Associated Press

Tribe becomes key water player with drought aid to Arizona


Mon., July 5, 2021



FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — For thousands of years, an Arizona tribe relied on the Colorado River's natural flooding patterns to farm. Later, it hand-dug ditches and canals to route water to fields.

Now, gravity sends the river water from the north end of the Colorado River Indian Tribes reservation through 19th century canals to sustain alfalfa, cotton, wheat, onions and potatoes, mainly by flooding the fields.

Some of those fields haven't been producing lately as the tribe contributes water to prop up Lake Mead to help weather a historic drought in the American West. The reservoir serves as a barometer for how much water Arizona and other states will get under plans to protect the river serving 40 million people.

The Colorado River Indian Tribes and another tribe in Arizona played an outsized role in the drought contingency plans that had the state voluntarily give up water. As Arizona faces mandatory cuts next year in its Colorado River supply, the tribes see themselves as major players in the future of water.

“We were always told more or less what to do, and so now it’s taking shape where tribes have been involved and invited to the table to do negotiations, to have input into the issues about the river,” first-term Colorado River Indian Tribes Chairwoman Amelia Flores said.

Lake Mead on the Nevada-Arizona border has fallen to its lowest point since it was filled in the 1930s. Water experts say the situation would be worse had the tribe not agreed to store 150,000 acre-feet in the lake over three years. A single acre-foot is enough to serve one to two households per year. The Gila River Indian Community also contributed water.

The Colorado River Indian Tribes received $38 million in return, including $30 million from the state. Environmentalists, foundations and corporations fulfilled a pledge last month to chip in the rest.

Kevin Moran of the Environmental Defense Fund said the agreement signaled a new approach to combating drought, climate change and the demand from the river.

“The way we look at it, the Colorado River basin is ground zero for water-related impacts of climate change,” he said. “And we have to plan for the river and the watersheds that climate scientists tell us we’re probably going to have, not the one we might wish for.”

Tribal officials say the $38 million is more than what they would have made leasing the land. The Colorado River Indian Tribes stopped farming more than 15 square miles (39 square kilometers) to make water available, tribal attorney Margaret Vick said.

“There's an economic tradeoff as well as a conservation tradeoff,” she said.

While some fields are dry on the reservation, the tribe plans to use the money to invest in its water infrastructure. It has the oldest irrigation system built by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, dating to 1867, serving nearly 125 square miles (323 square kilometers) of tribal land.

The age of the irrigation system means it's in constant need of improvements. Flores, the tribal chairwoman, said some parts of the 232-mile (373-kilometer) concrete and earthen canal are lined and others aren't, so water is lost through seepage or cracks.

A 2016 study conducted by the tribe put the price tag to fix deficiencies at more than $75 million. It's leveraging grants, funding from previous conservation efforts and other money to put a dent in the repairs, Flores said.

“If we had all the dollars in the world to line all the canals that run through our reservation, that would be a great project to complete,” Flores said. “I don’t think that’s going to happen in our lifetime.”

The tribe is made up of four distinct groups of Native Americans — Chemehuevi, Mohave, Hopi and Navajo. The reservation includes more than 110 miles (177 kilometers) of Colorado River shoreline with some of the oldest and most secure rights to the river in both Arizona and California.

While much of the water goes to farming, it also sustains wildlife preserves and the tribe's culture.

“We can't forget about the spiritual, the cultural aspect to the tribes on the Colorado River,” Flores said. “Our songs, clan songs, river and other traditional rites that happen at the river.”

The tribe can't take full advantage of its right to divert 662,000 acre-feet per year from the Colorado River on the Arizona side because it lacks the infrastructure. It also has water rights in California.

An additional 46 square miles (121 square kilometers) of land could be developed for agriculture if the tribe had the infrastructure, according to a 2018 study on water use and development among tribes in the Colorado River basin.

“One day,” Flores said. “That’s the goal of our leaders who have come behind me, to use all of our water allocation and develop our lands that right now are not developed.”

___

Fonseca is a member of The Associated Press’ race and ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/FonsecaAP.

Berta Cáceres: Ex-dam company boss guilty of planning Honduran activist's murder



Mon., July 5, 2021, 

Berta Cáceres had rallied indigenous Lenca people against the dam

A court in Honduras has found a former energy executive guilty of helping plan the murder of a high-profile environmental activist in 2016.

Berta Cáceres led protests against the Agua Zarca hydro-electric dam project before being shot dead in her home.

The court ruled that Roberto David Castillo, whose company had been awarded the contract, had planned the murder and hired the gunmen.

Castillo has denied any wrongdoing. He will be sentenced in August.

Seven men had already been convicted for their role in Ms Cáceres's killing and were sentenced to lengthy jail terms.

Ms Cáceres had faced years of threats over her opposition to the dam project being run by Mr Castillo's company, Desa.

The dam would have flooded large areas of land and cut off the supply of water, food and medicine for hundreds of the indigenous Lenca people.

As well as filing official complaints, Ms Cáceres organised a road block that prevented construction workers from reaching the site.

The Chinese state-owned company Sinohydro, which was jointly developing the project, eventually pulled out citing community resistance.

In 2015 Ms Cáceres was awarded the prestigious Goldman Prize for her role in stopping the building of the dam.

The indigenous rights organisation Ms Cáceres co-founded called the verdict a "victory" for the people of Honduras.

It is one of the world's most dangerous countries for environmental activists, according to advocacy group Global Witness.

In a blog post earlier this year, the group said "at least 40 land and environmental defenders" had been killed in the country since Ms Cáceres's death.

Covid-19: Pfizer vaccine efficacy declines by one third in Israel, says health ministry

Government data suggests Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine continues to provide strong shield against severe Covid-19

A teenage girl receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine

 in Holon, near Tel Aviv, on 21 June (AFP/File photo)

By MEE and agencies
Published date: 5 July 2021 

The efficacy of one of the world's leading Covid-19 vaccines has declined by nearly a third in Israel due to the spread of the delta variant, the country's health ministry has said.

Ran Balicer, chairman of Israel's national expert panel on the coronavirus, said the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had a 64 percent protection rate from early June until early July - a significant decrease from the 94 percent efficacy researchers had documented a month earlier.

Covid-19: Israel reintroduces mask requirements as cases spikeRead More »

The findings come as Israel reverses some Covid-19 restrictions that had been lifted out of concern for the uptick in delta variant cases.

The health ministry said on Monday that the Pfizer vaccine continued to provide strong protection against severe symptoms of the virus, with people avoiding hospitalisations by a rate of 93 percent from 6 June to 3 July, compared to a 98 percent rate in the previous period.

Nevertheless, Balicer warned that the rise in cases offers a "preliminary signal" that the vaccine may be less effective at preventing mild symptoms from the delta variant.
Delta, Israel's 'dominant strain'

While it remains "too early to precisely assess vaccine effectiveness against the variant", Balicer told AFP that "some decrease in vaccine effectiveness against mild illness - but not severe illness - is likely".

Later on Twitter, Balicer underlined the difficulty in compiling data about the delta variant from local outbreaks, describing the work as "very population-segment-specific, complex, & sensitive to significant bias".

The Covid-19 delta variant was first identified in India in October and has since spread to nearly 100 countries worldwide. It is more than twice as contagious as the original Covid-19 virus and has forced a number of governments, including the UK, to delay or rethink lifting pandemic restrictions.

The delta variant's emergence as the "dominant strain" in Israel has led to a "massive shift in the transmission dynamic", said Balicer.

On Monday, Israel reported the highest rate of new infections in three months, with the ministry recording 343 new cases over the past 24 hours. After a peak of over 10,000 new cases in one day in January, new daily cases had fallen to the single digits in June.

In the past fortnight 90 percent of new cases in Israel have been caused by the delta variant, AFP reported. About half of new cases have been detected in fully vaccinated patients, and about half in children, with a handful of returning travellers testing positive.

'It is encouraging'

Experts "remain hopeful that the vaccine effectiveness against serious illness will remain as high as it was for the Alpha strain", Balicer said.

The number of fully vaccinated Israelis experiencing severe symptoms after contracting the virus had increased from roughly one every other day up to five per day, Balicer estimated while also noting a lack of fatalities.

"It is encouraging that we still maintain zero deaths for the last twelve days," he said.

After recently reimposing an indoor mask rule for public spaces, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was scheduled to meet Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz on Monday to discuss the latest outbreak and whether to advise a third booster shot for certain demographics.

'Dumping ground': Israel blasted for bid to swap expiring Covid-19 vaccines with PARead More »

Israel may also consider limiting the size of permitted gatherings and reintroducing the “Green Pass” system that limited access to certain spaces to vaccinated people, Bennett said on Sunday.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has said people will "likely" need a third dose of a Covid-19 vaccine within 12 months of getting fully vaccinated.

A Pfizer spokesperson declined to comment on the data from Israel but told Bloomberg that other research suggested the vaccine provided ongoing protection against new mutations. Available evidence suggests the vaccine "will continue to protect against these variants", she said.

Israel originally lifted mask requirements on 15 June, reinstating them two weeks later.

Some 5.2 million people have received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in Israel.

But Israel, which has vaccinated some 85 percent of its adult population, has faced criticism for not sharing its vaccines with the 4.5 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Under international law, occupying powers are responsible for the health care of the population they control.


Israel Sees Pfizer Vaccine Efficacy Decrease Against Delta Variant, Still Very Effective Against Severe COVID-19

By Dr Alfredo Carpineti05 JUL 2021

Israeli news site Ynet has reported that based on the number of cases of COVID-19 breakthrough infection reported by the Israeli Health Ministry, the efficacy of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against mild cases caused by the Delta variant appears to have decreased. Fortunately, the vaccine appears to still be highly effective against the most serious cases.

The reported numbers suggested that between May 2 and June 5, the efficacy against the disease was around 94 percent. Since June 6, the efficacy appears to have decreased to 64 percent. When it comes to hospitalizations, the efficacy seems to drop only marginally from 98.2 percent to 93 percent.

While the drop in efficacy is concerning, it is important to state that there could be several factors at play here, and we should wait for more data to begin to build a complete picture. One possibility, also seen in other countries, it’s that the infections happened before a strong immune response might have developed. Fully vaccinated people are counted from the moment they get the second jab of the two-dose vaccines, but strong immunity doesn’t really kick in until at least two weeks later.

The Israeli government is considering reintroducing social distancing measures. These were lifted mid-June, but things like masks in closed spaces came back on June 25. They are also considering a booster vaccination campaign, although the percentage of vaccinated people, while high, remains below the threshold for herd immunity.

Breakthrough infections are to be expected simply because vaccines are not 100 percent effective. The danger lies in infections being allowed to propagate through a population uncurbed. A new variant of the disease could emerge, against which the vaccines are ineffective. Fortunately, this has not happened yet.

[h/t: Ynet/Bloomberg]

UBS Advises 'Stay Clear' of Cryptocurrencies — Warns 'Regulators Will Crack Down on Crypto'


Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, has advised investors to “stay clear” of cryptocurrencies and “build their portfolio around less risky assets.” The UBS analysts warned that “Regulators have demonstrated they can and will crack down on crypto.”

UBS’ Crypto Advice and Warning

The global wealth management team at UBS warned in a note published last week that regulators worldwide, particularly the U.S. and the U.K., will impose tougher cryptocurrency regulations. Citing that “China’s latest crackdown — extending to miners, banks, e-payment networks, and social media — hurt crypto prices and operators,” the UBS analysts wrote:

Regulators have demonstrated they can and will crack down on crypto … So we suggest investors stay clear, and build their portfolio around less risky assets.

“We’ve long warned that shifting investor sentiment or regulatory crackdowns could pop bubble-like crypto markets,” the analysts added. “We think investors should avoid crypto speculation, and consider risk-adjusted returns before buying alternative assets.”

The bank pointed out that a number of regulators worldwide have begun tightening their oversight of the crypto market. Recently, China has been cracking down on bitcoin mining and payments. Canada’s regulator has sent notices to crypto exchanges and the regulators in Japan, the U.K., Cayman Islands, and Thailand have targeted global crypto exchange Binance.

The U.K. has imposed tight registration requirements on crypto exchanges, causing 64 firms to withdraw their applications to register. In South Korea, most small exchanges are at risk of having to shut down operations due to strict regulatory and banking requirements.

The UBS analysts further described: “Crypto trading practices, such as extending 50x or 100x leverage, appear fundamentally at odds with mainstream finance regulation.” They warned:

While we can’t rule out future price gains in cryptos, we see this as a speculative market that poses significant risks to professional investors.

The bank, however, reportedly recognizes that some clients want exposure to cryptocurrency, particularly bitcoin, and is rumored to be considering offering crypto services to wealthy clients. A growing number of investment banks are already doing so, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Standard Chartered, and DBS.

Motion seeks to allow evidence of past violence at Kyle Rittenhouse trial

Friday, July 2, 2021 




Kyle Rittenhouse, an Illinois teenager charged with shooting three people, two fatally, in Kenosha, Wis. makes his first in-person court appearance.


KENOSAH, Wis. -- Prosecutors in Wisconsin want a judge to allow evidence at Kyle Rittenhouse's trial that shows he had a previous violent encounter in Kenosha before he fatally shot two men and injured another during a police brutality protest last year.

The state's motion filed Thursday in Kenosha County Circuit Court also seeks to show Rittenhouse was associated with the far-right Proud Boys, a group linked to political violence.


Rittenhouse, 18, is charged with killing Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounding Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, on Aug. 25 during protests in Kenosha over the police shooting two days earlier of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was left paralyzed when he was shot by a white police officer.

Prosecutors want to introduce a video from July 1, 2020, which they say shows Rittenhouse striking a teenage girl in the back at Kenosha's lakefront.

"In both the July 1, 2020 incident and the August 25, 2020 incident, the defendant, an Illinois resident, willingly and intentionally put himself in violent situations in Wisconsin that do not involve him in order to commit further acts of violence," the motion states.

Prosecutors also said Rittenhouse's association with the Proud Boys should be considered at the trial because it shows that he takes pride in violence.

Photos taken in January show Rittenhouse drinking inside a Mount Pleasant bar and gesturing with what appeared to be a white power symbol. The motion states that prosecutors have since learned that the people with Rittenhouse at the bar included the leader of the Wisconsin Proud Boys chapter and several of its highest-ranking members.


Prosecutors allege Rittenhouse, who is white, left his home in Antioch, Illinois, and traveled to Kenosha to answer a call for paramilitary groups to protect businesses during the protest.

Rittenhouse faces multiple charges, including two homicide counts. He has argued he fired in self-defense after protesters attacked him.

Black Lives Matter supporters have painted him as a trigger-happy white supremacist, but some conservatives see him as a symbol for gun rights and have rallied around him, generating $2 million for his bail in November.

Rittenhouse's defense attorney did not immediately respond to a message and email seeking comment on prosecutors' latest motion.

Rittenhouse's trial is scheduled to start Nov. 1.