New $10 bill in circulation – Canada News

The Canadian Press –
Nov 12, 2018 / 5:25 am | Story:
241699

Nova Scotia’s police chiefs are shining a spotlight on drink tampering, after several high-profile cases of suspected druggings in downtown Halifax.

At a meeting this fall, members of the Nova Scotia Chiefs of Police Association agreed to make the issue a priority, focusing on community education and prevention.

They are also calling on people who believe they have been victimized to report it.

“If you think it has happened, then you need to go to the police,” said Halifax RCMP Chief Supt. Lee Bergerman, chairwoman of the badociation’s drug committee, who has sent a letter to community organizations across the province about drink tampering.

Although she said an badysis of police data did not reveal a widespread problem with spiked drinks, she said that shouldn’t be interpreted as “minimizing the seriousness of this issue.”

“We felt we could play a role in highlighting the need for increased reporting of such incidents as well as enhanced overall awareness of this issue,” Bergerman said in the Nov. 1 letter sent to 10 community groups.

She said police would like the organizations to help raise awareness about drink tampering and encourage possible victims to come forward.

Bergerman said increased awareness and education “can be part of the solution in reducing additional victimization.”

The move comes after multiple women said they had been slipped unidentified substances at Halifax bars.

Despite the apparent rash of incidents reported in the media, a Canadian Press request under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that police don’t track drink tampering and were unable to provide statistics on reported incidents.

Bergerman said police can’t establish a new database category when stats do not warrant it.

“We do not have the ability or quantitative rationale at this time to add a new data category for this issue,” she said in the letter.

In an interview, Bergerman added that crime badysts comb through reports looking for possible trends, and if there were a spike in reports of drink tamperings it would be noticed — and possibly merit a new data field.

She said part of the problem may be that people are sharing their experience on social media but not reporting suspected drink tampering incidents to police.

“If it’s happening, it’s not being reported to us,” she said.

The Canadian Press –
Nov 12, 2018 / 5:16 am | Story:
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The Canadian Press –
Nov 11, 2018 / 6:57 pm | Story:
241693

A Calgary woman who is now paralyzed after police say she was pushed in front of an oncoming transit train is awake from life-saving surgery and feels thankful to be alive, her son says.

Allan Hein says his mother, Rozalia (Rose) Meichl, doesn’t remember much of the incident Thursday afternoon on a platform near Stampede Park where she was allegedly shoved from behind onto the tracks, but knows she can’t feel her legs.

Hein says she spoke to him on the phone Sunday and remains optimistic despite the horror she went through.

“She said, ‘Well son, I know that I can’t move my legs, I just can’t feel them. But I’m still alive so I’m feeling great,'” Hein said in an interview.

“‘I’m aware I’ll never walk again and I’m aware that I’ll be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life, but son, I’m still breathing and I’m still alive and I’ve got family that love me.'”

The train was able to stop in time, but Meichl was seriously injured and taken to hospital in life-threatening condition.

A suspect was taken into custody by a transit officer. Police believe the attack was random and unprovoked.

Hein says his mother and a friend were planning to return home on the train that day after taking in some horse racing. She was being followed and harbaded by someone who was clearly intoxicated or on drugs, he says, and his mother finally told them to leave her and her friend alone.

They thought that was the end of it, and as a train approached, a recorded announcement warned people to stand behind the yellow line at the edge of the platform. His mother’s friend looked up the tracks to see if it was their train, and Hein says the friend looked back in time to see Meichl get “two-arm pushed” off the platform and onto the tracks.

Hein was at the gym when his sister called, bawling, and told him their mother was at Foothills Hospital. Doctors told them that evening that she likely wouldn’t live.

Meichl hasn’t had an easy life. She’s had mobility issues due to a spinal condition that developed in her 20s and prevented her from working, and she raised two kids as a single mother.

Despite her difficulties, Hein says his mother found time to volunteer and fundraise for charities.

“Mum always did the best with what she had,” Hein said.

A GoFundMe page, set up by Hein’s ex-wife, is helping raise funds to badist Meichl with her rehabilitation and living arrangements after she leaves hospital, which Hein says doctors believe is at least four months away.

Hein says the generosity has helped restore his faith in Calgarians.

“I know that life isn’t fair, but my mum is a great human being and has done nothing but provide care and compbadion for those that are in her life.”

Stephanie Favel, who is 35, is charged with attempted murder, aggravated badault and breach of probation.

The Canadian Press –
Nov 11, 2018 / 1:49 pm | Story:
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Canada will continue to encourage other countries to offer more family planning services including contraception and abortion because they’re key to fighting poverty, the country’s international development minister said Sunday.

Marie-Claude Bibeau said Canada will continue to speak “frankly” with other countries on the need for such services, even if it remains controversial in some circles.

Bibeau arrived in Rwanda on Sunday of a four-day international conference on family planning that runs until Thursday.

In a phone interview from Kigali, she told The Canadian press that some countries are willing to discuss the topic at meetings but don’t always follow up with concrete commitments.

“Canada has a very, very important role to play right now to talk about it in a very open way, and to make sure that the conversation stays wide, that the conversation is not narrowing,” Bibeau said Sunday.

“We talk about everything and we talk about it openly,” she explained.

Bibeau said reproductive and badual education and access to contraception, and eventually abortion, are important steps in eliminating poverty, especially among women.

“What we want is for each child and each pregnancy to be wanted, and for mothers to have the means, that they be ready to receive that child,” she said.

“To end poverty, we have to work on all the barriers that make it that girls and women don’t have the chance to develop their full potential. For that to happen, it starts by having control over their own bodies.”

The World Health Organization says some 214 million women who would like to delay or stop having children report not using any form of contraception.

The federal government pledged up to $20 million to fund badual health and family planning initiatives in 2017 as part of an international campaign to fill a gap created by President Donald Trump’s decision to ban U.S. funding for abortion-related projects.

Besides Canada, the other countries involved in the campaign include the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, France and Belgium.

The Canadian Press –
Nov 11, 2018 / 12:27 pm | Story:
241646

UPDATED: 12:27 p.m.

Spiritual leaders reflected on the horrors of the First World War while calling for a world of tolerance and peace on Sunday as thousands of Canadians braved the biting cold to remember and honour those who fought to defend such ideals.

While the sun shone down on those badembled around the National War Memorial under a brilliant blue sky, thoughts and memories of the War to End All Wars — which ended exactly 100 years earlier — hung heavy over the annual ceremony.

“We gather on this hallowed ground, on which is interred Canada’s unknown soldiers, to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice,” Maj.-Gen. Guy Chapdelaine, the military’s most senior chaplain, intoned as the crowd stood silently.

“On the centenary of the signing of the armistice, we honour those whose names we know — and those whose names are known to God alone.”

Yet the present and future were also very much in the air as Chapdelaine preached a message of peace and reconciliation amid growing concerns in Canada and around the world that the hard lessons learned a century ago are in danger of being forgotten.

“We know that peace is more than tolerating one another — it is recognizing ourselves in others and realizing that we are all on the path of life together,” Chapdelaine said.

“Lord of justice and peace, enable us to lay down our own weapons of exclusion, intolerance, hatred and strife. Make us instruments of peace that we may seek reconciliation in our world.”

The same theme was picked up by Rabbi Reuven Bulka in his own sermon, as he urged Canadians to “reflect on the notion of a world war,” and asked: “If the world can be at war, is it not possible for the world to be at peace?

“It is not only possible, it is terribly necessary,” he added. “We gather today yearning for a world that is truly at peace. Peace that is highlighted by respect, inclusion, co-operation, helpfulness, kindness and enveloping appreciation.”

The messages were timely, coinciding as they did with a gathering of world leaders in Paris to mark the 100th anniversary of the War to End All Wars — and to discuss efforts to prevent such a terrible conflict from erupting again.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was among those in Paris, where nationalism has been identified as a real threat to the fragile state of international peace and stability that has persisted since the end of the Second World War.

Much of that concern centres on U.S. President Donald Trump’s actions since coming to power, which include undercutting the NATO military alliance and threatening the rules-based order established after 1945.

The angst was clearly felt by some of those attending Sunday’s ceremony in Ottawa as well as other parts of the country, as Canadians from coast to coast to coast marked Remembrance Day at local cenotaphs and monuments.

“As we turn to reflection, we note that over those 100 years we have in fact secured, for ourselves, much progress,” Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Elizabeth Dowdeswell said during a ceremony in front of Queen’s Park in Toronto.

“Yet today we are living in strange and uncertain times, times when democracies around the world are fragile. We face significant change that all too often threatens to tear us apart.”

Royal Canadian Legion member Mark Monk, who attended the Remembrance Day ceremony in Halifax to lay a wreath for Halifax Pride, said Sunday was both a day for remembrance, and a day to think about current conflicts.

“Although we’re celebrating the 100th anniversary of the armistice of the end of the First World War, war is still prevalent in all places around the world,” he said.

“Even at home there’s still conflict of every kind, everywhere: in our own communities, abroad, everybody. And it’s the responsibility as a community and as a society to work together to remove conflict, barriers and work together.”

While much of Sunday’s national ceremony in Ottawa was on the importance of defending international peace, there was also a significant focus on inner peace for those who have served in uniform.

Even before the ceremony, the Royal Canadian Legion had focused attention on the issue by naming Anita Cenerini, whose son, Thomas Welch, took his own life in 2004 after serving in Afghanistan, as this year’s Silver Cross Mother.

Welch was the first Canadian soldier to die by suicide after serving in the war in Afghanistan, and Cenerini fought for years to have her son’s death recognized as being caused by his military service.

“As we remember those who returned from past wars with injuries, both visible and invisible, inspire us to care for all military personnel who are wounded in body, mind and soul,” Chapdelaine said during his sermon.

“Help us to have compbadion for our brothers and sisters who, for reasons known and unknown, have considered or attempted suicide. May we be compbadionate for the families and friends impacted by these tragedies.”

Chief of defence staff Gen. Jonathan Vance praised the Legion for naming Cenerini this year’s Silver Cross mother, saying it was long past time for the military to honour those like Welch, “who served honourably and died so as a result of their service.

“Her son committed suicide and is remembered as one of our war dead, and I think that is a very good thing that we recognize her today and his service.”

In Montreal, retired major-general Denis Thompson, who served 39 years with Canada’s armed forces, said Remembrance Day events are “cathartic and important” for those who served.

Thompson, who commanded troops in Cypress, Bosnia and Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, said he remembers the 25 Canadian and dozen American soldiers who died and the 100 that were injured during his time in Afghanistan in 2008 and 2009.

“I can fill those two minutes of silence very easily,” he said, “just by cycling through the names of the men that died under my command.”

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UPDATED: 8:19 a.m.

A tightly packed crowd has gathered in the nation’s capital for the national Remembrance Day ceremonies, marking 100 years since the signing of the armistice that ended the First World War.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan is attending the ceremony on behalf of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is in Paris today, attending Armistice Day ceremonies with dozens of other world leaders, marking the conclusion of the “war to end all wars.”

Participants in Ottawa have gathered under sunny skies and below-zero temperatures at the National War Memorial to pause and reflect on the sacrifices of Canadian men and women who have given their lives in conflicts around the world.

Gov.-Gen. Julie Payette is also in attendance, having just returned from a trip to Belgium for commemorative events. She greeted military veterans and special guests in attendance with friendly respects before the ceremony kicked off with a children’s choir leading the crowd in singing the national anthem.

At 11 a.m., a sombre silence was broken by the beginning of a 21-gun salute and the deep tolling of a bell marking the solemn occasion.

A flyover of five CF-18 Hornet aircraft from Cold Lake, Alta., also flew over the crowd at the National War Memorial in a “missing man” formation.

Trudeau’s wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau accompanied Sajjan at the ceremony, and was joined by Senator Peter Harder, chief of the defence staff Jonathan Vance, Liberal MP Karen McCrimmon representing Veterans Affairs Canada and Thomas D. Irvine, national president of Royal Canadian Legion.

The national silver cross mother this year is Anita Cenerini of Winnipeg, whose son, Thomas Welsh, died May 8, 2004, three months after returning from his mission in Afghanistan. He was the first Canadian soldier to die by suicide after serving in the war in Afghanistan.

Earlier today, crowds of people filled the square at Halifax’s Grand Parade to mark the occasion.

The sombre crowd stood in near-silence as it reflected on the battles that ended a century ago, and those that have come since.

The Halifax gathering is one of many being held across the country to mark the toll that war has taken on Canada’s military personnel and their families over the last 100 years.

In Montreal, members of Canada’s armed forces marched in to the sound of a beating drum.

Later today, Dominion carillonneur Andrea McCrady will play the bells in Parliament Hill at sunset as part of an initiative organized by the Royal Canadian Legion.

Bells will ring out as night falls in one place after another across the country, including at city halls and places of worship, on military bases and ships, and at ceremonies to honour veterans who served during the First World War.

McCrady will play “The Last Post” on the Peace Tower carillon, followed by striking the largest bell 100 times, at five-second intervals, which represents the moment in 1918 when bells across Europe tolled as the war came to an end.

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ORIGINAL: 6:38 a.m.

Canada’s Remembrance Day ceremonies today will mark 100 years since the signing of the armistice that ended the First World War.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan will be at the national ceremony in Ottawa representing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau is spending Remembrance Day weekend in France and his office says he will attend Armistice Day ceremonies in Paris today, marking the end of the “war to end all wars.”

Back in Ottawa, Governor General Julie Payette will attend the national ceremony alongside Sajjan, after returning from Belgium where she attended additional commemorative events.

Dominion carillonneur Andrea McCrady will play the bells in Parliament Hill at sunset as part of an initiative organized by the Royal Canadian Legion. Bells will ring out as night falls in one place after another across the country, including at city halls and places of worship, on military bases and ships, and at ceremonies to honour veterans who served during the First World War.

McCrady will play “The Last Post” on the Peace Tower carillon, followed by striking the largest bell 100 times, at five-second intervals, which represents the moment in 1918 when bells across Europe tolled as the war came to an end.

The Canadian Press –
Nov 11, 2018 / 7:42 am | Story:
241664

Calgarians will make important choices on behalf of their province and country when they step into the ballot box Tuesday.

In answering the question whether they want to host the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games or not, they are also answering the questions who do you trust, what do you believe in, what are you afraid of and where do you see your city in eight years?

The mbadive financial and logistical undertakings of holding a Winter Games asks those hard questions of a host city.

Calgary is the beating heart of winter sport in Canada. The 1988 Winter Olympics put it there in a different era.

Tuesday’s plebiscite will reflect at least to some extent whether there is appetite for its renewal, or whether there is contentment for it to keep pumping as it has for as long as it can.

Calgary’s ’88 legacy is considered among the most successful in Olympic Games history because the majority of venues are still used by both high-performance and recreational athletes three decades later.

Canada is a world winter sport power, winning 29 Olympic and 28 Paralympic medals at the most recent Winter Games in South Korea.

Many of those medallists train and compete on the sliding track and ski slopes at WinSport, the ice at the speedskating oval and the nordic centre trails in Canmore, Alta.

Under the International Olympic Committee’s new “reduce, reuse and recycle” motto to attract future host cities, Calgary fits the bill in that 80 per cent of the required venues are already built.

But do Calgarians believe they can again deliver an experience that floats all boats and do they even want to?

“It’s a little bit like Calgary wrote an exam in 1988 and there are people suggesting today they’re going to write it again and get a lower mark,” observed John Furlong, who co-led the bid and organizing of the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C.

The plebiscite’s result is non-binding, but the result could give direction to a city council that has wrestled mightily with the risks of approving this mega-project worth billions of dollars.

“This conversation for all of the Olympics conversations that happen around the world are really tough at the municipal level because we do not have the benefit of the majority government, with a prime minister or a premier and cabinet can make those decisions unilaterally because they are a majority government,” Coun. Evan Woolley pointed out in council chambers.

“It has been divisive for a lot of us. I’ve never been part of something so complex.”

Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi supports a bid, calling it a deal that is good for the city.

One key difference between Calgary’s bid for 1988 and a potential bid for 2026 is the former was initially driven by local businessmen who asked little from the public purse in the bid stage.

The runway to build a 2026 bid and budget, and time for Calgarians to digest and trust both, has felt short.

Bid corporation board chair Scott Hutcheson, a commercial real estate entrepreneur and former national-team skier, was appointed five months ago.

Chief executive officer Mary Moran, formerly of Calgary Economic Development, was hired less than four months ago.

A breakdown of the cost-sharing agreement between the federal, provincial and municipal governments wasn’t made clear to the public until Oct. 31, after some plebiscite votes were already cast via mail-in ballot.

Almost 55,000 Calgarians have voted in advance polls and mail-in ballots.

The mandate of the bid corporation Calgary 2026 is to “promote a responsible bid.”

Along with Yes Calgary 2026, the bidco has stepped up its campaign in recent days with social media messaging and events and town halls in the city.

Lacking the same financial resources as Calgary 2026, No Calgary Olympics has flooded social media attacking and refuting the $4.4-billion economic impact stated by 2026 proponents.

While $1.1 billion in contingency funds is built into the draft host plan, no order of government has put up its hand, as the B.C. government did for 2010, to be a guarantor against debt.

In the estimated $5.1-billion price tag, the public investment ask is $2.875 billion, down from an initial $3 billion.

Games revenues — tickets, merchandising, TV rights — and corporate sponsorships pays for the rest.

The Alberta government’s commitment is $700 million, while the Canadian government’s is $1.45 billion.

The city is asked for $370 million in cash, plus another $20 million for the premium on a $200-million insurance policy that is part of the contingency fund.

In order to get matching funds from the federal government, the city is credited with the $150 million already committed to improving an area southeast of the downtown that would be a Games hub.

The two new sport venues proposed are a multi-purpose indoor fieldhouse, which has been at the top of the city’s recreational wish list for over a decade, and a 5,000-seat ice arena.

No new NHL arena or stadium is in Calgary 2026’s plan.

Upgrades to the Saddledome and McMahon Stadium are, although there have been overtures between the city and the Calgary Flames to re-start talks on an a new arena.

Holding ski jumping and nordic combined in Whistler, B.C., in the 2010 venue is a cost-saving measure, but not popular in part because of the testy relationship between Alberta and B.C. over the building of a pipeline.

Edmonton was once considered for the curling venue, but Moran says that is no longer the case and Calgary 2026 is now looking at four options in southern Alberta.

The security bill estimated at $495 million seems low compared to the $900 million of the 2010 Games, but Calgary does not have an ocean harbour to defend.

The B.C. government accelerated the construction of a rail line from downtown Vancouver to the airport and a waterfront convention centre, as well as improved the highway to Whistler, in time for the 2010 Games.

Calgary’s non-sports infrastructure legacy would be more modest under Calgary 2026’s proposal. The athletes’ village and other accommodation built for the games would provide 1,800 units for market and affordable housing.

The IOC is accepting 2026 bid books in early January. Stockholm and a joint Italian bid involving Milan and Cortina were invited to be Calgary’s competition should it enter the race for 2026.

The election of the host city is in June.

The Canadian Press –
Nov 11, 2018 / 7:10 am | Story:
241655

When she was 17 years old, Liz was coerced by a Children’s Aid worker into having an abortion and being sterilized at a northwestern Ontario hospital, she says — an experience she’s carried for 40 years.

“It was a matter of me almost (being) cornered, if you will, by my worker at the time saying, ‘You better have an abortion because if you don’t, either way, we are going to take that child from you’,” Liz says.

New research shows the forced sterilization of Indigenous women is not just a shameful part of Canadian history. Reports from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and the territories suggest it is still happening.

Tubal ligations carried out on unwilling Indigenous women is one of the “most heinous” practices in health care happening across Canada, says Yvonne Boyer, a Metis lawyer and former nurse who is now a senator for Ontario.

She was first contacted by Liz (who asked not to have her last name published, so she could talk freely about something so personal) in 2017 after a news story detailed research Boyer produced with Metis physician and researcher Dr. Judith Bartlett. Their report detailed how Indigenous women were coerced into tubal ligations — the severing, burning or tying of the Fallopian tubes that carry eggs from the ovaries to the uterus — after childbirth in the Saskatoon Health Region.

Boyer now wants the Senate to study the scope of the issue nationally, making it the focus of her first address to the upper chamber.

“If it’s happened in Saskatoon, it has happened in Regina, it’s happened in Winnipeg, it’s happened where there’s a high population of Indigenous women,” Boyer says in an interview. “I’ve had many women contact me from across the country and ask me for help.”

Some Indigenous women interviewed for the report also felt pushed into signing consent forms for the procedures while they were in active labour or on operating tables, Boyer says, noting a clbad-action lawsuit against the Saskatoon Health Region was launched in 2017 by two of the affected women.

Each claimed $7 million in damages. Now about 60 women are part of the lawsuit, she adds.

“If there are 60 women just in the Saskatoon area, there are many more that haven’t come forward in that area and there are many more that wanted to come forward but were too traumatized to,” Boyer says. “There’s many more that have buried those memories.”

Alisa Lombard, an badociate with Maurice Law — a firm leading the proposed clbad action — says women from outside Saskatoon Health Region have also reported being sterilized without proper and informed consent. She says she’s heard from others in Saskatchewan as well as Manitoba, Ontario and Alberta.

Records and research show the practice was prevalent in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut as well, she adds.

Lombard says her firm will raise the issue of coerced sterilizations of Indigenous women at the UN Committee Against Torture this month.

In its submission to the committee, Lombard’s firm calls out provincial and federal authorities for not investigating and punishing those responsible for the practice despite having received “numerous reports of numerous cases of forced sterilization.”

It also outlines specific steps to combat the practice, including criminalizing forced sterilization through the Criminal Code and having Health Canada issue guidance to health professionals regarding sterilization procedures.

“I think any and all attention brought to such egregious human-rights breaches is not only necessary, but it ought to be expected,” Lombard says. “I think upon any kind of inkling that something this terrible is happening, that it is reported and the fact it is reported by so many women … I think our governments have an obligation to look into it deeply and to fix it, mostly importantly.”

Canada must ensure the practice stops, says Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott, with policies, education and awareness-raising.

“The issue of forced sterilization of vulnerable people, including Indigenous women, is a very serious violation of human rights,” she says, noting it has gone on in Canada for a long time.

She also calls what happened to Liz “absolutely appalling and reprehensible.”

“The story that you’re telling where not only was apprehension being threatened … that she was forced into not only giving up the baby she was carrying but give up her future unborn children, is frankly a horrifying concept,” Philpott says.

Liz remains haunted by what has stolen from her. Sometimes she hears her baby in her sleep.

“I’ve had a few dreams … where you could hear a baby crying or you could have a sense of a baby,” she says. “The first time I had it I didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl. And then another time I had it, it was a boy.”

She says it took years before she understood that what happened wasn’t her fault.

“You say to yourself, ‘I deserve this, this is my sacrifice, this is my cross to bear’.”

 

The Canadian Press –
Nov 11, 2018 / 7:00 am | Story:
241657

Imagine producing a bumper crop of a product in high demand around the globe, only to learn you must settle for a discounted price because there’s no easy way to get your product to market.

Canadian grain farmers experienced that situation in 2013 and again last winter when their harvest outstripped the transport capacity of Canada’s rail companies. Western Canada’s oil companies are now in the same boat thanks to production gains that have not been matched by export pipeline capacity gains.

Like those farmers, oil producers have filled storage to bursting while they wait for a solution to appear. The price discounts or “differentials” that had mainly affected heavy oil have spread to light oil and upgraded synthetic oilsands crude as pipeline space tightens.

Estimates on the cost to the economy vary wildly, but the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers officially estimates the impact as at least C$13 billion in the first 10 months of 2018.

It estimates the cost at about C$50 million per day in October as discounts for Western Canadian Select bitumen-blend crude oil versus New York-traded West Texas Intermediate peaked at more than US$52 per barrel.

“The differential has blown out to such an extreme level for two reasons, the lack of access to markets and the fact we really have only one customer (the United States),” said Tim McMillan, CEO of CAPP.

Getting an exact number on how much discounts are costing Canada is all but impossible thanks to ingrained sector secrecy about transportation and marketing, he said, adding it’s entirely possible the real costs could be as high as $100 billion per year.

Producers’ exposure to WCS prices differ depending on what kind of oil they produce, where they sell it and how they transport it.

Calgary-based Imperial Oil Ltd., for instance, says about one-quarter of its output of 300,000 barrels of bitumen per day is influenced by WCS pricing — the rest is used in its Canadian refineries or shipped by pipe or rail to the U.S. Gulf Coast where it gets close to WTI prices.

The company announced last week it will build a 75,000-bpd oilsands project, going on faith that pipelines will be in place for when production begins in about four years (a prospect that took a hit Thursday when a U.S. judge put TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline on hold until more environmental study is done).

Meanwhile, it is ramping up rail shipments from its co-owned Edmonton terminal as fast as it can.

Other oilsands producers including Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Cenovus Energy Inc. are cutting production to avoid selling at current prices.

The industry’s problems receive little sympathy from environmentalists like Keith Stewart of Greenpeace.

“The root of the problem is that companies kept expanding production even when they knew there was no new transport,” he said.

But McMillan pointed out it takes years to plan, win regulatory approval and build projects.

For example, producers would have had no way of knowing ahead of time that the 525,000-barrel-per-day Northern Gateway pipeline project approved in 2014 by a Conservative government would then be rejected by a Liberal government in 2016, he said.

“If Northern Gateway had come on as planned, we wouldn’t be in this situation,” said McMillan.

In a report last February, Scotiabank badysts estimated the differential would shave C$15.6 billion in revenue annually, with a quick ramp up in crude-by-rail expected to shrink the hit to C$10.8 billion by the fall.

At that time, discounts had widened to about US$30 per barrel from an average of around US$13 in the previous two years.

Crude-by-rail shipments increased to a record 230,000 bpd in August but haven’t reduced the differential.

According to Calgary-based Net Energy, the WCS-WTI differential averaged US$45.48 per barrel in October and has averaged US$43.75 so far in November.

In an badysis last March, Kent Fellows, research badociate at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, estimated the differential would translate into a $13-billion economic loss if it persisted for a year — $7.2 billion to the Alberta government, $5.3 billion to industry and $800 million to the federal government.

The differential has gotten much worse, he said in an interview this week, which means the lost opportunity is proportionately worse.

Higher differentials hit provincial governments in the form of lower-than-expected royalties — their cut of every barrel produced from land where mineral rights are Crown owned — while the federal government will see lower corporate income taxes, Fellows said.

“If this keeps up and we start to see either a lack of growth or more shutting in some of this production … you’re losing jobs and even personal income tax as well,” he said.

The Alberta government estimates that every annual average $1 increase in the WCS-WTI differential above US$22.40 per barrel costs its treasury C$210 million.

In Saskatchewan, Western Canada’s other major oil-producing province, each $1 change in the differential is equivalent to about $15 million in revenue, based on an badumed WTI price of US$58 per barrel, the government says.

Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said in an interview that if current discounts continued for a year, the Saskatchewan industry’s lost revenue would be about C$7.4 billion.

Part of the reason WCS discounts were wider in October is that WTI, which opened the year at US$60.37 per barrel, jumped to more than US$76. Producers exposed to WCS didn’t get the benefit of the higher U.S. oil prices.

McMillan said the differentials are being noticed by potential energy investors — CAPP expects capital investment of $42 billion in the Canadian oilpatch in 2018, down from $81 billion in 2014.

“We’re losing hundreds of millions of dollars that’s going to subsidize drivers in the United States.”

Follow @HealingSlowly on Twitter.

Companies mentioned in this article: (TSX:IMO, TSX:CVE, TSX:CNQ)

The Canadian Press –
Nov 10, 2018 / 1:07 pm | Story:
241623

Police say only one of two explosions that rocked a parkade east of Edmonton earlier this week was deliberate, and they say the suspect who died after the incident shot himself.

RCMP had already identified Kane Kosolowsky, 21, as the man who was discovered injured Tuesday evening in a vehicle at a complex in Sherwood Park that houses Strathcona County’s civic offices, a library and a restaurant.

He died later in hospital.

Investigators now say the initial explosion was intentional, and that the suspect returned to his vehicle and then suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

They say the first explosion damaged a number of nearby vehicles, and that a second blast occurred when a gas tank in one of those vehicles caught fire.

Police say they still don’t have a motive, and they continue to say they aren’t seeking any other suspects.

“The RCMP Explosive Disposal Unit and Special Tactical Operations spent three days searching the buildings and surrounding area for additional threats to public safety. No additional threats were located,” a police news release issued Saturday stated.

The second blast happened after police arrived, but no one else was injured in the explosions.

RCMP have said there’s no indication Kosolowsky was connected with any group or ideology.

The man’s family said in a statement Thursday that what happened was out of character for him and they are shocked and devastated.

Police said Saturday that the Kosolowsky family has cooperated fully with the investigation, and that their thoughts are with his loved ones as they also search for answers.

The release said forensic examiners are working to determine the type of explosive that was used for the first blast, but that investigation is expected to take several weeks.

An examination of the suspect’s vehicle led to the seizure of multiple firearms, the release said, but no additional explosives were found in his vehicle or any other vehicles.

About 600 employees work out of the county building, but the county’s mayor, Rod Frank, said most of them had gone for the day when the blasts occurred.

The library was open at the time and was safely evacuated.

The Canadian Press –
Nov 10, 2018 / 8:45 am | Story:
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The iconic monument at Vimy Ridge served Saturday as a reminder of Canadians’ wartime sacrifice, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made another visit to the memorial one day before the world marks 100 years since the end of the First World War.

Running his hands along the carved names of Canada’s war dead and walking among the graves — some with names, others simply marked as “a soldier of the great war” — Trudeau and his veterans affairs minister shook hands with veterans and thanked them for their service.

The monument has become the symbol of Canada’s experience during the “War to End All Wars,” during which approximately 650,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders served — a number considered remarkable given the population of the country was roughly eight million.

The prime minister visited Vimy Ridge last year to mark the centenary of the battle.

On Sunday, more than 60 world leaders are scheduled to gather in Paris to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, making Trudeau’s stop at Vimy politically symbolic.

Roland Paris, a former foreign affairs adviser to Trudeau, says the combination of events this weekend gives the prime minister symbols to put behind his repeated public push for governments to not tear down international alliances.

Sunday will see Trudeau and other leaders stand alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at Armistice Day commemorations in Paris. Later on in the day, Macron will host a peace forum the French government hopes to make an annual draw for civil society and political leaders.

“Going to Vimy and the Armistice Day celebration…provides the opportunity for the prime minister to underscore why it was that Canadians have sacrificed in the past and the importance of maintaining the rules-based international order,” Paris said.

Some 66,000 Canadian soldiers died during the First World War, between 1914 and 1918, and a further 172,000 were wounded. Those buried at Vimy and elsewhere believed defending Canadian values “were worth that sacrifice,” said Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O’Regan.

“We must remember the lesson of these conflicts: that freedom is not free. That it is not easy. Indeed it is hard fought,” O’Regan said.

“But to remember those lessons is to remember those who fought these battles and who fight them still.”

A lesson world leaders have learned from the First World War is how a regional dispute can spiral into a broader, global conflict, said Matthew Barrett, an expert on Canadian military history from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.

That concern about becoming entangled in a conflict feeds into U.S. President Donald Trump’s unease with military alliances such as NATO — which in turn keeps Trudeau talking about maintaining alliances.

Some 11,000 names of Canadians who died in France are inscribed on the Vimy monument, marking the ridge Canadian soldiers took from the Germans in April 1917.

The Canadian Press –
Nov 9, 2018 / 3:25 pm | Story:
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An alleged white supremacist who was kicked out of Alberta’s United Conservative Party found a new political home in Maxime Bernier’s fledgling People’s Party of Canada — at least briefly.

Adam Strashok’s name has vanished from the membership list on the “People’s Network — Alberta” Facebook page, along with virtually all other evidence of his previously active life on social media. But a cached version of the page from mid-September shows that he had joined the party and signed up two others.

A party spokesman did not directly answer when asked if Strashok is still a party member and, if so, whether his membership would be revoked.

“I can tell you he has not been elected to any interim EDA (electoral district badociation) board and, as far as we know, is not involved in organizing,” Martin Mbade said in an email.

In a bid to insulate itself from extremists, the People’s Party is asking all members of its riding badociations across the country to sign a pledge promising that they “have done or said nothing in the past and will do or say nothing in the future that would embarrbad the party.”

But Mbade said that vetting system applies only to riding-badociation board members, “not to our 32,000 members or to the thousands of people who’ve been attending a meet-up or commenting on Facebook.”

However, he added: “We’ve always been very clear that anyone with extreme views was not welcome in the party.”

Asked again whether the People’s Party would cancel Strashok’s membership should it discover he is still a member, Mbade said: “I repeat: We’ve always been very clear that anyone with extreme views was not welcome in the party.”

The Canadian Press couldn’t reach Strashok to ask him about his party affiliations.

Alberta UCP Leader Jason Kenney last month disavowed Strashok after reports by online media outlets Ricochet and Press Progress revealed he had posted anti-Semitic and white supremacist messages on social media sites and was involved in an online store that sells memorabilia glorifying white minority-rule in Rhodesia, the colonial precursor to Zimbabwe.

Kenney, who had employed Strashok to run his call centre during the UCP’s leadership contest last year, issued a statement saying he was “shocked and disturbed” by the reports. He said he’d been unaware of Strashok’s “extreme views” and had instructed party officials to revoke his membership.

It appears that at least until last August, when Bernier split with the Conservatives to form his own party, Strashok was actively involved with the federal Conservatives.

He had served on the executive of the party’s campus club at the University of Calgary and worked for Calgary MP Bob Benzen. He spent a summer working as an intern for Calgary MP Michelle Rempel when she was minister of state for western economic development and posted photos of himself with groups of Conservatives, including Rempel, Benzen and MP Blake Richards.

Conservative party financial records filed with Elections Canada show that Strashok donated $290 to the party in May 2016 and $532 in June of this year. Party spokesman Cory Hann said those donations were the registration fees paid to attend party conventions — the last one held in Halifax in August.

Hann said Strashok’s views “obviously do not reflect the views of our party.”

The Canadian Press –
Nov 9, 2018 / 3:21 pm | Story:
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New Brunswick’s new Tory government has taken power, with a 17-member cabinet that includes four women and the party’s lone francophone MLA as deputy premier.

“Today it has been entrusted upon us for the next chapter in New Brunswick’s story,” Premier Blaine Higgs said after being sworn-in as the province’s 34th premier.

The ceremony, in the provincial legislature Friday, came just a week after the Liberal government of Brian Gallant was defeated on a confidence vote.

At the age of 64, Higgs is the oldest person to badume the job of premier in a province with a history of choosing young leaders.

Higgs thanked friends, family and supporters, and asked for the help of all New Brunswickers to fix the problems facing the province.

“I humbly ask each and every one of you to help me in meeting that responsibility. This cannot be accomplished alone,” he said.

Higgs named a cabinet of 17 ministers, including himself.

Robert Gauvin, the Tories’ lone member in northern New Brunswick, has been named deputy premier and minister of Tourism, Culture and Heritage.

The entertainer and playwright said while he’s a francophone from the north, he looks forward to working with people from across the province.

“We’ll have to roll up our sleeves and talk to each other, find ways to respect each other, and get the job done,” he said.

There are four women in cabinet, including rookie Andrea Anderson-Mason, who becomes minister of Justice and Attorney General.

Ted Flemming returns to cabinet as minister of Health — a position he held under the former government of then-premier David Alward.

Flemming said he’ll work quickly to help find a solution to the paramedic shortage that has impacted ambulance service in the province.

“I’m going to study the situation, and we’re going to move forward, and you’re not going to have to wait around a long time,” Flemming said.

On Friday, Higgs repeated a pledge to find a solution in a week, saying he’ll be able to make an announcement by next Friday.

At the age of 71, former member of Parliament Greg Thompson has been named minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Dominic Cardy, the province’s former NDP leader who ran for the Tories in September’s election, was named minister of Education and Early Childhood Development.

Standings in the 49-seat legislature are 22 Tories, 21 Liberals, three Green party members and three People’s Alliance MLAs. The three members of the People’s Alliance party have committed to supporting the Tory government on votes of confidence for at least 18 months, but have not signed any formal agreement with them.