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"How do you Save 4 Million Canadians From Hunger?"
https://thewalrus.ca/food-insecurity-is-our-new-national-crisis/

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I t's 9 a.m. and the coffee's on at the Bayers Westwood Family Resource Centre. The narrow, two-storey building is nestled in the middle of a public housing project in the west end of Halifax. The front door opens into a crowded sitting room.

A number of single parents have come for the cooking classes and are dropping off their kids at the free child-minding service. Other people are here for company. But a larger group is looking for something they struggle to find on their own: a bite to eat. One of the centre's main draws is a small counter where coffee, tea, and a plate of day-old muffins and bagels are served-regular donations from the charity Feed Nova Scotia. Across the hall is the Trading Post, a small room stocked with packaged foods clients have received from their local food bank but that they can't, or don't, use: cans of Campbell's soup, Aylmer diced tomatoes, Heinz baked beans, and Zoodles line the floor-to-ceiling shelves.

Not all of it is nutritious. Everyone understands that. But it's something. And when you have a community to feed, you do what you can. The predicament weighs on the centre's hands-on, energetic executive director, Donna Sutton. "People come in the morning for a bagel and coffee," Sutton says. "They come back in the afternoon for a muffin. That's breakfast and lunch. Then they just have to worry about dinner." With meager earnings and no access to credit, many of Sutton's clients are facing cold truths. Some weeks, stopping off at Sobeys means there might not be enough left to buy medication or pay rent or put gas in the car to get to work. Because groceries are often the only flexible item in a tight budget, they are what families tend to sacrifice first. Families that have to make these kinds of trade-offs are called food insecure.

Food insecurity is largely about the struggle to afford food. Insufficient social assistance, increases in the number of low-wage, part-time, or contract jobs, and a lack of affordable housing have created financial constraints that make it more and more difficult to eat. Proof, a food-insecurity research group at the University of Toronto, breaks down the problem a few ways. Worrying that you'll run out of provisions before you manage to buy more is "marginally food insecure." According to Proof's analysis of the most recent nationwide data from Statistics Canada, about 580,000 households fell into that category in 2012. If you compromise on the quality or quantity of your portions, you're "moderately food insecure." That category includes 786,100 households. Another 336,700 are severely food insecure-that means they skip meals or spend days without eating. All this adds up to 1.7 million households, which translates to nearly 4 million Canadians. That's a conservative estimate, because some provinces and territories can, and have, opted out of more recent StatsCan surveys. The surveys also miss the most at risk: incarcerated people, remote rural residents, people living on-reserve, the homeless.

It also seems to be getting worse. Comprehensive data has only been available since 2007, when national monitoring began, but even in that short period, the overall proportion of households that are moderately or severely food insecure increased from 7.7 percent in 2007 to 8.3 percent in 2012. Hunger may be linked in the popular imagination with images of destitution, but the food insecure can include restaurant staff, delivery drivers, cashiers, and janitors. They are our coworkers, our neighbours, our relatives.

Lower-income populations are affected more than others: recent immigrants, people of colour, single mothers. Children are especially vulnerable-one in six live in food-insecure households. The problem of hunger is also urgent on postsecondary campuses. Meal Exchange, a non-profit aimed at tackling food insecurity at Canadian universities, published the results of a study in 2016 that showed half of all students "had to sacrifice buying healthy food" in order to pay for books, tuition, or rent. Affected groups will likely have a tougher time in 2019. Canada's Food Price Report, produced annually by Dalhousie University and the University of Guelph, predicts grocery bills this year could spike by 3.5 percent-with the price of vegetables jumping as much as 6 percent. For a Canadian family of four that spends $223 a week on groceries, the higher cost will mean coming up with an extra $33 a month to keep eating the same way. The price increase will likely put the new, healthier recommendations from the updated Canada's Food Guide (more plants, less sugar, less saturated fat) further out of reach as household diets are forced to shift even more dramatically toward cheaper, shelf-stable, processed options-foods with little or no real flavour or nutritional value.

Everyone in Canada will end up paying a price, whether they live in a food-insecure household or not. A 2018 study estimated that the economic burden of Canadians failing to meet healthy eating recommendations is roughly $13.8 billion per year-$5.1 billion of which is directly related to health care spending, and the rest is linked to factors that include lost productivity. The food insecure are at greater risk of chronic, diet-related conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. Health care costs are also between 23 and 121 percent higher in households that struggle to access nutritious food, with costs climbing alongside the extent of the deprivation experienced. Food insecurity is a drain on mental-health resources as well. A 2018 Canadian study showed that the proportion of severely food-insecure adults receiving treatment over the past year for conditions that included anxiety, depression, mood disorders, and suicidal thoughts was more than double that of adults who had enough to eat.

Programs like welfare, family allowance, and employment insurance were introduced, in part, to help alleviate the consequences of being food insecure. But social assistance is no longer up to the task. During the 1970s in Toronto, one in ten people lived in poverty. Today, it's one in five. Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks, a collective focused on tracking food security in the city, calculated last year that if the average rent for Vancouver low-income housing ($687 per month) is subtracted from the monthly welfare rate for a single adult ($710), only $23 remains. In other words, a person on income assistance has less than a dollar per day to spend on food. It's not hard to imagine that, as economic trends continue to chip away at stable, long-term employment, food insecurity will soon overwhelm existing social assistance programs. What Canadians need is a food policy that can ensure an adequate standard of living to offset the biggest effect of those economic disruptions: hunger.

Food-security and antipoverty advocates have been working with the federal government to develop such a policy-one that recognizes adequate food as a human right, much like water or clean air. But lack of political will means little progress has been made. The country has ratified numerous international agreements affirming the right to food, and an Action Plan for Food Security was proposed in 1998. But hardly anything from it has been executed. The inaction underscores that Canada has never really strategically addressed hunger as a national issue and has never appreciated food insecurity as a reality within its borders. Instead, we have off-loaded the job of feeding our citizens to food banks, soup kitchens, and charitable efforts such as the Bayers Westwood Family Resource Centre.

W ith nearly 20 percent of its population affected, Halifax has the highest rate of food insecurity among Canadian cities. Some contributing factors are unique to the area: high student numbers, an influx of job seekers from Cape Breton, and nearby rural areas gutted by the shift from small-scale farming to agribusiness and by the decline of industries like coal and steel. But the city is also a bellwether for many changes taking hold across the country, such as the advent of so-called precarious work, which has increased in Canada by 50 percent in the past two decades, and rising housing costs. The jobs Halifax offers are mostly service-sector gigs-often short-term or contract work without benefits or security. About one in three Haligonians lives in rented housing, with 43 percent putting a third or more of their earnings toward rent. All this influences what residents eat or whether they can eat at all.

"I can't afford breakfast," says John Hemr, who lives in the Bayers Westwood housing project. He is sixty-six, and with his red shirt, hazel eyes, belly, and greying beard, looks a bit like a hard-luck Santa. Before receiving old-age pension last year, he lived on a $600 monthly disability cheque from an accident on the job thirty years ago, when he worked as a TV repairman. His arms were elbow deep in the back of a set he was fixing when his colleague plugged in the wrong cord, and Hemr was blown back, electrocuted. It took him months to recover, and ever since, his legs go numb if he does too much activity or lifts even a few pounds.

As a single man without children, Hemr doesn't qualify for extra help, like a child tax benefit. One brother gives him a few bucks now and then. Even with his subsidized rent of $175, Hemr's monthly income disappears quickly. He spends $70 on electricity, $70 on a phone plan, and $100 on high-blood-pressure medication. Last year, Hemr spent $100 a month on cigarettes. He smokes to help himself relax but mostly to curb his appetite. "I tried quitting cold turkey," he explains. "But my grocery bills were too high, and I gained thirty pounds."

His budget left about $20 a week for groceries, depending on the season. "People look at me and think, 'You're a big guy. You're healthy,'" says Hemr. "No. I'm unhealthy. To be healthy, I have to eat three meals a day. I get one meal a day." Usually, that's pasta, white rice, or potatoes, sometimes with a can of soup or a side of packaged breakfast sausages.

Food insecurity can be a hidden problem. "You don't have to look hungry to be hungry," says Catherine L. Mah, a researcher with Proof who teaches at Dalhousie University. Nor is it restricted to the unemployed. According to the data, over 60 percent of the food insecure across Canada actually earn wages. It's just that the money isn't enough to pay for food. Luckily, there's usually some way to get by: a sale on pasta at the local grocery store, a meal at a soup kitchen, a food hamper, a school breakfast program, or a relative's kitchen. But it's "the getting by" that's exhausting. "Food insecurity wears you down because you must constantly cope and manage," says Mah. How people cope and manage-what the individual compromises look like week to week-may vary, but the struggle remains the same whether you're in Halifax, Montreal, or Saskatoon.

Margaret* is a cashier in Toronto for one of the country's biggest grocery chains. She makes minimum wage and works part time. She wants to move to full-time employment, which would automatically qualify her for benefits, but she can never manage to get enough hours. (One of her colleagues suspects the company intentionally hires more people than it needs and hands out part-time schedules to avoid paying for benefits). Margaret is one of more than 850,000 Canadians who are "involuntary part timers"-a group that has become a distressingly prominent fixture in an economy that keeps shedding full-time positions. Margaret also belongs to the hidden hungry-the working poor whose refrigerators are often empty. Because she tries to prioritize eating well, she subsists on strictly rationed portions of fruit, vegetables, and milk. She consumes a cup of soup twice a day. A salad is a single leaf. "My lettuce is four dollars a head," says Margaret. "I have to make it last." She'll snack on an apple for hours or peck at 500 grams of cheddar for two weeks. "I feel hungry all the time," she says. "And I always wonder how I will make it to the next paycheque."

Famished while surrounded by abundant food, Margaret's predicament highlights how proximity to fresh vegetables and fruit won't change anything for someone with little means to procure them. When the University of Winnipeg's Institute of Urban Studies mapped the socioeconomic conditions around seventy-three supermarkets in the city in 2016, it found that, for 60,000 inner-city Winnipeggers, healthy food was within easy reach but was unattainable financially. Low-income residents, in other words, weren't necessarily living in food deserts, defined as communities underserved by affordable grocery stores within walking distance. Nor was it a problem of food swamps, which are areas dominated by fast-food outlets.

What the study identified were food mirages-a relatively new classification that food-insecurity researchers believe can provide a fuller picture of the crisis. Partly a side effect of gentrification, food mirages give the illusion of access to affordable nutritional options. This entrenches a two-tier food system-one for the middle and upper classes and another for the rest. It also reinforces the misconception that eating poorly is a matter of choice or a result of bad habits. But, "as it turns out," wrote Jino Distasio, who worked on the University of Winnipeg study, "far too many live close enough to see through the windows of grocery stores but are forced to walk by en route to the nearest food bank."

"O ur hopes and dreams are that this place didn't have to exist," says Kimberly McPherson, a coordinator at Cape Breton's Glace Bay Food Bank, which she says has many repeat customers, including some whose parents, and even grandparents, used to come. At the time we spoke, McPherson and her mother-in-law, Sandra (who has since retired), split a $23,000 provincial grant as their salary and occasionally ate at the soup kitchen themselves. "You want to help the poor in the community," says McPherson. "But when you're all poor, it's really hard."

Once a thriving blue-collar town, Glace Bay was hollowed out as the economy shifted in the 1980s-three mines and a steel plant closed-and fish stocks dwindled. It lost its town status in 1995 and combined with Sydney and five other towns. The community now has a population of 17,500. Today, the unemployment rate for all of Cape Breton is 15 percent-up 1 percent from last year and more than twice that of the provincial average. The food bank's kitchen serves 1,200 meals per month. On any given day, nearly ninety people show up. Some bring a meal home to a family member. "The younger generations go out west to work," says McPherson. "The elderly and the poor stay behind. The food bank keeps getting busier. If it weren't here, people would be stealing food."

Mary Makiuk is a regular. A forty-seven-year-old Inuk woman from Kuujjuaq, Quebec, she settled in Glace Bay seven years ago with her husband, who has a disability, and four of her children, aged twelve to twenty-one. Makiuk tells me she gets $1,500 a month in social assistance, including a child benefit for her two children who are still under eighteen. She has no car and takes a thirty-minute bus ride to Sydney to go grocery shopping. Food costs leave her with $300 at the end of the month. Mark Leblanc would drop by the soup kitchen as well. The father of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy, he usually eats one meal a day. Leblanc says the experience of spending time in prison several years ago for petty theft forced him to adapt his eating habits. "I don't feel that I'm restricting my calorie intake, but I am." On occasion, he spends most of his grocery budget on food for his son.

The Glace Bay Food Bank works with local farmers and grocery stores to secure donations, which are a tax break for the businesses. But the food bank is also an example of how some charities have adapted to the scale of the problem by become more ambitious and innovative. Along with serving meals, McPherson helps provide a basic breakfast of cereal, milk, and fresh fruit to many Cape Breton schools-part of a provincial program that feeds 12,500 students. It's a much-needed program in the city, where the child poverty rate hovers around 35 percent. Five years ago, McPherson decided to take matters into her own hands and teach her clients-many of whom are second-generation welfare recipients-to garden. "What's happened in Cape Breton is we don't garden anymore," McPherson says. "We always had gardens. We weren't well off, but we were always well fed." She found someone willing to donate plants and seeds, and she organized pickling sessions, showing clients how to make chow chow, a local relish made with green tomatoes. Jars of it lined the shelves of the food bank's basement pantry last November, set to be packed in Christmas hampers.

Community gardens have grown in popularity as a way to alleviate food insecurity. To date, Toronto has about 238 of them, Vancouver over 110, and Ottawa at least 100. Alvero Wiggins, born and raised in Halifax, spent years working two jobs and raising his son. He often ate one meal a day, usually an egg sandwich, at his job in a café. The other option was cheap takeout-a pizza slice for dinner, for example. "Healthy food seemed like a privilege I didn't have time to think about or a right to eat," he says. His low income and busy schedule made it difficult to buy and cook balanced meals. In 2012, he became a coordinator of an urban gardening program for high-needs youth, called Hope Blooms, which today oversees seventy-two gardens that it converted from vacant lots donated by the city eleven years ago. Each month, Hope Blooms uses its own produce to prepare and distribute hundreds of free meals to families in the area. The fresh herbs are also used to make a variety of salad dressings sold through local vendors; profits are rolled back into the program and into scholarships. Wiggins today works at a violence-prevention and harm-reduction program, but it was his time at Hope Blooms that transformed his diet, encouraged him to start his own garden plot, and helped him appreciate the difference between "food you can grow and food you can buy in a grocery store."

Other solutions to hunger can be as simple as starting a cooking club. Back at Bayers Westwood, Hemr and his friend Janice, a single mother thirty years his junior, have formed an extended family along with their neighbour Rudaina, a single mother from Lebanon. "They trade off on meals," says Donna Sutton, "which has benefited them. They have more variety."

Such initiatives shouldn't be over romanticized. No doubt they bring people together and build community, but the food insecure, almost by definition, are often too busy trying to survive-working or looking for work, paying down tuition, taking care of their families, dealing with health issues-to garden, secure a land donation, or launch a salad-dressing business. A cooking club is a good idea, if you can find like-minded people. What if your neighbours are unsociable or don't cook? Most solutions to food insecurity depend, to varying degrees, on the charity of others. If charity isn't the solution, what is?

K atsumi* is the mother of three small children. By 2015, she and her husband, Joseph*, had moved their family to Toronto from Kyoto, Japan, after he was hired at the Canadian branch of a UK-based engineering firm. He loved his job but had an abusive boss. Katsumi worried for her husband's mental health as she watched Joseph come home increasingly dejected. He couldn't transfer to another branch because he and Katsumi had just bought a home- a three-bedroom, $320,000 townhouse. They decided Joseph would quit and look for work at a new company.

He assumed the job hunt would be easy. It wasn't. There was no shortage of openings-in twelve months, he got ten interviews but no offer. Meanwhile, bills piled up: mortgage, cable, phone and internet, gas, car insurance. Life became a struggle. Their eldest daughter missed a school field trip because the family couldn't afford it. And everything cut into their grocery money.

Katsumi eventually got a job at a downtown catering-and-event hall. She commuted each way by public transit to serve hors d'oeuvres to VIPs, while she could barely afford to put food on the table for her family. Soon, Katsumi and Joseph had nothing but pasta in the cupboard. Rather than get rid of their internet or phones, which were essential for finding-and keeping-work, they began using food banks. Katsumi tears up as she recalls the first time she set foot in one. "I was crying in the waiting room because I was thinking about my kids. I felt ashamed."

Most food banks allow households one or two visits per month and give out two to three days' worth of food per person. Katsumi found one bank that allowed a hamper every week; Joseph found another that gave out hampers every two weeks. It wasn't enough. When I met with Katsumi on a chilly Sunday last November, her home wasn't much warmer than outside. She and Joseph had lost their cable, their cell phones, and their internet and hadn't turned on their heat or their lights. Katsumi was relying on a colleague to call her land line with her work schedule.
It's the "getting by" that's exhausting. "Food insecurity wears you down because you must constantly cope and manage."
Valerie Tarasuk is a professor of nutritional science at the University of Toronto and leads Proof, the food-insecurity research program. She calls food insecurity "a very sensitive measure of material deprivation." By the time someone is struggling to put food on the table, "they are struggling to meet all kinds of needs-not just those related to food," she says. That's why, Tarasuk argues, charity can't be allowed to become the default answer to the food crisis. Moisson Montréal, the largest food bank in Canada, is now using digital technology to redirect food intended for the landfill to community organizations fighting hunger. Salt Spring Island Community Services converted a six-metre-long shipping container into a giant fridge in order to rescue soon-to-expire food items from grocery stores and farmers and deliver them directly to low-income families. Vancouver Coastal Health has developed an online map that helps people access low-cost or free meals as well as free or subsidized grocery items. While these initiatives might keep people alive, they are, Tarasuk claims, "a symbolic gesture." Funnelling more and more corporate food waste toward impoverished people does nothing to address the root causes of the crisis.

Graham Riches, who has been studying the efficacy of food charities since the mid-1980s, agrees. "Our perception now," argues Riches, former director of the School of Social Work at the University of British Columbia, "is that, because we have this edifice of food banks, the problem is being solved. But it hasn't been solved. It has merely institutionalized this approach." Eliminating food insecurity requires an appetite for difficult reforms: people need to be paid properly, they need access to good jobs, and they need affordable housing.

In November 2018, Zsofia Mendly-Zambo and Dennis Raphael, two health-policy researchers at York University, co-authored an article they called "Competing Discourses of Household Food Insecurity in Canada." The researchers contend that the public has, for decades, been conditioned to believe that charitable efforts are the common-sense response to hunger across the country. The attempt to position hunger as a matter for charity can be traced back to the 1960s, when American antipoverty activists first debated how to frame the discussion around feeding the poor. Is it about a lack of income or lack of food? Activists chose the latter, reasoning that communities would feel a moral obligation to support charities for the hungry rather than to vote to raise taxes for social assistance. That's what prompted the emergence of food banks, in which church-run donation programs paired with food manufacturers that had a surplus. It was only during the 1980s, when Canada's welfare system struggled to cope with a very difficult recession, that our charitable organizations decided to adopt the US model.

Almost forty years later, more than 500 food banks are dotted across the country. According to Food Banks Canada, on average, 850,000 Canadians are fed through food banks each month-nearly 100,000 in British Columbia alone. The widespread legitimacy food banks enjoy, argue Mendly-Zambo and Raphael, has ended up "depoliticizing" food insecurity, making its solution more difficult. That's because the least-debated fix-government policies that mend our failing social safety nets-is the most effective way of improving access to food.

"Food insecurity is about income," says Paul M. Taylor, the executive director of Foodshare Toronto, a non-profit that operates more than forty-five travelling food markets-basically retrofitted buses stocked with fresh lettuce, okra, onions, berries, and broccoli. Targeting disadvantaged communities in the Greater Toronto Area, it delivered over 2 million pounds of low-cost, high-quality produce in 2017 alone. But Foodshare could distribute three times that and it still wouldn't bring single-parent families and seniors any closer to affording the nutritious food they need. Since May 2010, according to the City of Toronto, the cost of a basic, healthy diet in the municipality jumped 18.4 percent; over the same period, the minimum wage rose only 13 percent. "Folks concerned about hunger," says Taylor, who often sees customers scrounging for small change when paying for fruit and vegetables, "need to be talking about things like universal basic income and increases to the minimum wage."

Those conversations seem increasingly hard to have in politics. Since being elected last June, Ontario premier Doug Ford halved a proposed increase to social assistance rates from 3 percent to 1.5 percent, delayed an increase to the minimum wage that would have brought it from $14 to $15 an hour, and deep-sixed the universal basic income pilot project, which was gathering data from three pilot sites in Ontario to understand whether a basic income could improve the standard of living for low-income people. With the pilot scrapped midway, there's no reliable data for researchers. But we already know that relatively modest increases in income have been found to reduce food insecurity. In Newfoundland and Labrador, between 2007 to 2012, the rate of food insecurity among households living on social assistance was cut nearly in half from 60 percent after the government increased benefit levels, indexing them to inflation.

But if food-security advocates believe tax-based solutions, like better social assistance or a universal basic income, should be part of a coordinated strategy to help Canadians put healthy food on the table, the question of how we will afford them remains. Given the drain that hunger has on health care, mental health, and productivity, says Tarasuk, "We're already paying for it."
*Name has been changed to protect the source's privacy.

Raizel Robin is a journalist based in Toronto. Her recent projects include two cover stories for Toronto Life.

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How Do You Save Four Million Canadians from Hunger? | The Walrus

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I t's 9 a.m. and the coffee's on at the Bayers Westwood Family Resource Centre. The narrow, two-storey building is nestled in the middle of a public housing project in the west end of Halifax. The front door opens into a crowded sitting room.

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"Canada is struggling to meet its own biodiversity targets"

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/canada-failing-to-meet-biodiversity-targets-1.6610259

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It was the spring of 2014, and practically everyone and their grandma was dancing to Pharrell Williams's catchy upbeat tune Happy, so perhaps then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper could be forgiven for feeling overly optimistic.

His hopeful promise, announced at a May news conference in New Maryland, N.B., was that by 2020 Canada would protect 17 per cent of its land and inland waters, and 10 per cent of marine and coastal areas. At the time, 10.5 per cent of land and only one per cent of marine area was protected.

Fast forward to 2022, federal governments have changed and those pre-pandemic days may feel like a distant memory, but one thing that remains constant is that Canada continues to struggle to meet its own biodiversity goals.

Biodiversity refers to the variety of different kinds of life that exists in a habitat - all the plants and animals that rely on one other in the delicate balance of an ecosystem.

It's declining at unprecedented rates globally, which threatens not only wildlife and natural spaces, but also human food security and genetic resources necessary for medicine and science.

When it comes to protecting the land and water that house those natural assets, the latest data show Canada is coming up short.

This past week, submitted by the nonpartisan Office of the Auditor General of Canada called out the federal government's lack of progress.

Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development Jerry DeMarco scrutinized Ottawa's track record and "failure to take sufficient steps to address the loss of biological diversity" in his remarks.

"I would say that Canada has always been a leader - on paper - in terms of biodiversity," DeMarco said.

"But in terms of results, they have been sorely lacking."

COP15: A turning point for the world and Canada?

Despite strides forward, Canada failed to meet its 2020 national Aichi targets set by Harper under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

That's not to say that the country hasn't made some progress. By the end of 2021, 13.5 percent of land and freshwater and 13.9 per cent of marine territory was protected - certainly an improvement since 2014, especially in terms of marine conservation.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vows his government will be able to surpass those targets to conserve 25 per cent of lands and oceans by 2025, and 30 per cent by 2030.

Momentum is gaining, according to a senior official with the office of Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault. In a conversation with CBC news, they said that hitting the 2025 goal is still doable - though ambitious - and requires the collaboration of provinces, territories and Indigenous partners.

That footnote is key: it's no small feat to negotiate conservation measures for species who are entitled to federal protection, but live on land belonging to provincial, territorial or Indigenous governments.

This December, international delegates will gather in Montreal to negotiate the successor to the UN Aichi targets to protect nature for the next decade. One of the key global targets will be conserving at least 30 per cent of land and oceans by 2030.

As the country prepares to host the fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity in just a couple of months, the pressure is on for Canada to lead with results and not just rhetoric.

More flora and fauna in peril than ever

Since 1978 species in Canada considered at risk - flora and fauna - have steadily increased.

A total of 841 species are designated at risk by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. The list ranges from the timber rattlesnakes, no longer found in the wild in Canada, to the endangered beluga whales of the St. Lawrence Estuary.

"It's not all Canada's fault, obviously," DeMarco said.

"Most of our species are shared with the United States and other countries ... but it's a global crisis and Canada needs to do its part."

Instead, progress has stalled,according to DeMarco's analysis.

One of the reports published by his office highlights that, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada's own performance indicators, the number of at-risk species on the road to recovery hasn't improved since 2014 - hovering at 42 per cent.

That means Canada is on track to miss yet another biodiversity goal - achieving progress toward the recovery of 60 per cent of species at risk by 2025.

The glass half full argument is that at least species recovery isn't getting worse.

But if Canada is serious about addressing the decline in biodiversity and meeting its 25 per cent by 2025 goal, it needs to find a way to move the needle - especially in terms of the amount of land that is protected.

A powerful, little-used tool that could change the game

It's not that the federal government doesn't acknowledge there's more work to do.

"Perhaps it was slower in the earlier years, but now we have those budgets that are actually required to set outside giant swaths of land," Oliver Anderson, Minister Guilbeault's director of communications, told CBC News.

Anderson said federal investment, including $2.3 billion promised over five years in the 2021 budget, helped get the ball rolling.

As for why, during the Liberal's hold on power since 2015, the recovery of at risk species has not improved?

"I think you're seeing increased urgency on it," he answered.

"It does require funding. It does require territorial and provincial will. It does require an [environment] minister who is prepared to actually use [The Species at Risk Act]."

That legislation has several tools in it - rarely used weapons in the country's arsenal of species protection powers.

The act, known as SARA, allows Ottawa to step in and intervene if it deems a province is not doing enough to protect a species at risk, or if a species faces an imminent threat to survival.

"You see a reluctance on the part of the federal government ... to step in and essentially lift up its elbows and make sure that biodiversity is being taken care of," DeMarco said.

"It's been a very hands-off approach and a very bureaucratic approach to what should be legislation that could accomplish its lofty goal of protecting and recovering species at risk."

Environmental groups have even tried to challenge the federal government in court, arguing it violated the Species at Risk Act when it approved the Trans Mountain pipeline by increasing the risk of extinction for the severely endangered southern resident orcas. The Supreme Court dismissed the case.

Canada's activist-turned-environment minister has signalled more of a willingness to use the legislation than his predecessors.

In 2021 Guilbault issued an emergency order to stop a development in Longueuil, Que. from encroaching on the habitat of a threatened frog. Then this spring, he threatened to use the act to protect woodland caribou, before backing off when the Quebec government agreed to collaborate.

Ottawa may soon be forced to use SARA more aggressively if it wants to protect endangered species from further decline and provinces refuse to act. But wading into a federal-provincial jurisdictional battle risks opening a whole can of worms that could cause even further delays.

The lesson of the passenger pigeon

Observers hope the attention surrounding COP15 will be what's needed to make the world - and Canada - buckle down on preserving biodiversity

DeMarco hopes the country will act before more species go the way of the now-extinct passenger pigeon, once abundant across much of southeastern Canada, driven to the brink by hunting and habitat destruction caused by European settlers.

"People were in denial ... They thought [the birds] must have gone somewhere else," DeMarco said.

"But they weren't somewhere else. They were disappearing."

The last passenger pigeon was named Martha. She died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914.

The bird is just one of 19 Canadian species known to be extinct - 17 animals including the Great auk, Dawson caribou, the Ungava grizzly bear, and the Labrador duck - as well as a type of mollusc, and a moss.

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ANALYSIS | Canada, host of the UN biodiversity summit, is struggling to meet its own targets | CBC News

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An independent report is calling out Canada's track record on protecting vulnerable species just two months before the country is set to host a UN summit on biodiversity. Canada, like most of the world, is failing to do enough to protect nature. Will COP15 be a turning point?

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"Black market demand ... has led to the animals being illegally targeted by poachers across Canada."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/black-bear-killed-poachers-suspected-west-vancouver-1.5699011

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Bear found slaughtered with organs removed in West Vancouver | CBC News

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The bear’s body had been sliced open and its organs removed.

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Liz: Students still don't have the tech they need, 2 weeks into school year (2020)

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Liz: Students still don't have the tech they need, 2 weeks into school year (2020)

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/blended-learning-new-brunswick-back-to-school-1.5730528

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It's been two weeks since school started and some high-school students still don't have the technology they need to learn on the days they're asked to stay home.

As part of the COVID-19 back-to-school plan, high school students in most areas attend class physically every other day. The other days they're supposed to learn at home, remotely.

The province rolled out a specification sheet for the technology they need to make this happen, including a laptop or tablet with specific capabilities. The parents who can't afford this were told to call the province and apply for assistance. Some of those students received their laptops last week, some this week.

But Anglophone South Superintendent Zoë Watson said six of the 14 high schools in her region still have students waiting for technology as of Friday afternoon.

"We're going to be the month of September working through that," she said. "This has never happened in our province before. So it will take some time."

She said not all of these students are waiting on the province. Some of them are waiting for the technology to be delivered from other distributors.

She said those students are being sent home with homework from teachers. Some are using their phones or have another way to connect to the internet.

"But the the province did outline that it would be a laptop or a tablet, and there were certain specifications that needed to be matched," Watson said. "So teachers are adjusting until everybody does get their laptop."

Minister of Education Dominic Cardy cancelled a planned interview Friday about lessons learned from the last two weeks. He did not provide an explanation.

It feels like she's getting half as much education as she did other years. - Allison Butcher, mother.

Allison Butcher's 15-year-old daughter does have the technology, but because not everyone is equipped, her class is stalled.

"I don't think that is the fault of teachers and administrators. I'm thinking more at the higher level where they were making these plans," she said from her home in Sackville. "Parents didn't know what was going on. Educators, teachers didn't know what was going on until late August."

She said her daughter is still trying to regulate her sleep schedule and get into a routine.

"She's still struggling with just a lack of continuity, and she's a pretty laid back kid," she said.

Butcher said not all of her daughter's classmates have their technology ready, so it's difficult for teachers to make a standardized learning plan.

But she said the alternative would be to leave the kids without laptops behind, which is not what she wants for her community.

"You can't very well, you know, prescribe a whole bunch of work to be done when a large part of your student population doesn't have access to the technology yet," she said. "Really right now, it feels like she's getting half as much education as she did other years."

Butcher hopes when everyone gets their technology in order, her daughter will get more out of the remote learning days.

Other age groups faring better

Fredericton's Mohammad Bakhash said his eight-year-old daughter remembered her mask on her own this week. To him, this was a sign she's getting used to the new routine: Pack your lunch box, grab your books, put on your mask and use your hand sanitizer.

"It's going well, but it's not normal again," he said.

Butcher said her middle-school child has gotten used to the routine more quickly.

"My 12 year old is starting to feel some continuity and things are beginning to feel normal for her," she said.

Masks, supplies available

Watson said things are going as smoothly as possible given the circumstances. She said students are wearing masks diligently, but the district is concerned about whether they keep up the habit when they leave campus for lunch.

She said supplies have been available, including disinfectants and masks for students who forget to bring one.

In response to an interview request, Anglophone West Superintendent David McTimoney sent an emailed statement. He said he's pleased with the way the school year has started, but the biggest challenges have been with transportation and technology for high-school students.

"The bumps are being sorted out and we are really pleased to be interacting with students on a personal level again," he said.

It seems every week some new things come up and we have to work through those and remain calm. - Zoë Watson, superintendent.

Meredith Caissie, spokesperson for Anglophone North, also sent a statement as a response for an interview. She said the district has only had one week of school, and taking a "soft launch approach." She said things are going well so far.

"I'm sure we will have more observations to share by the end of the month," she wrote.

Transportation problems

Transportation has been a problem with traffic jams resulting from more parents driving their kids instead of sending them on the school bus. Bus routes have also been changed to ensure physical distancing is maintained on buses.

In an emailed statement, Department of Education spokesperson Tara Chislette said the province is aware of the transportation difficulties and are working with the districts to resolve the traffic issues, but did not say how.

Watson said there is a lot to deal with in working through all the problems in the system as students get used to the new way school is conducted.

"It seems every week some new things come up and we have to work through those and remain calm," she said.

"We certainly thank parents for their patience as we work through it because we know it's been a very different school start up for our families as well."

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Students still don't have tech they need, 2 weeks into school year | CBC News

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It's been two weeks since school started and some high-school students still don't have the technology they need to learn on the days they're asked to stay home. As part of the COVID-19 back-to-school plan, high school students in most areas attend class physically every other day.

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Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Oct. 12
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/coronavirus-covid19-canada-world-1.6207641

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The latest:
Have a coronavirus question or news tip for CBC News? Email: COVID@cbc.ca.
WATCH | Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issues executive order to prohibit COVID-19 vaccine mandates on workers:

The United Nations chief says the pandemic has forced more than 100 million people into poverty and left over four billion people with little or no social support, health care or income protection.

Secretary General Antonio Guterres told an International Monetary Fund panel Monday that global solidarity "is missing in action" and people living in conflict-affected and poor countries are suffering most of all.

In Guterres's words, "Vaccine inequality is a moral outrage that is condemning the world to millions more deaths and prolonging an economic slowdown that could cost trillions of dollars, hitting the poorest countries hardest of all."

Guterres says indications the world is in a substantial economic recovery mask the huge divergence between the situations in rich countries and in the least-developed nations.

What's happening across Canada
WATCH | Getting a flu shot this year may be even more important than usual:

What's happening around the world

As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 238.5 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus-tracking tool. The reported global death toll stood at more than 4.8 million.

In Asia, Pakistani authorities on Tuesday reported less than 700 coronavirus cases for the first time since June amid a steady decline in infections due to coronavirus. The development comes weeks after Pakistan said unvaccinated people won't be allowed to work in offices, enter shopping malls or attend schools. It forced many people to get vaccinated to avoid punitive measures. The country is offering free shots to teens and adults.

India is recommending emergency use of Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 shot in children under 12 years of age, making the vaccine maker the first in the country to get such an approval after a review of its trial data for the 2-18 age group. The decision comes as India shifts its focus to vaccinating children, having already rolled out more than 950 million doses to adults among its population of nearly 1.4 billion.

In Oceania, Sydney's COVID-19 cases fell to the lowest in two months on Tuesday. Meanwhile, New Zealand expects
to administer a record 100,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses in a single day during a mass immunization drive on Oct. 16.

In Europe, Russia reported 973 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday, its highest single-day toll since the start of the pandemic, and the government voiced concern at the pace and intensity of new infections.

Romania also reported its highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths since the start of the pandemic. Nearly 17,000 COVID-19 infections were confirmed Tuesday along with 442 deaths, the first time the European Union country of 19 million has surpassed 400 virus deaths in a single day.

In Africa, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa are being considered as potential locations for Moderna's planned vaccine factory in Africa, the U.S. drugmaker's co-founder and chairman said as it steps up its search for a site on the continent.
WATCH | Russian health authorities confirm more than 28,000 new COVID-19 cases:

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Pandemic has forced 100 million into poverty as global solidarity 'missing in action': UN chief | CBC News

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The latest: Have a coronavirus question or news tip for CBC News? Email: COVID@cbc.ca . WATCH | Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issues executive order to prohibit COVID-19 vaccine mandates on workers: The United Nations chief says the pandemic has forced more than 100 million people into poverty and left over four billion people with little or no social support, health care or income protection.

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"The Coquitlam Glacier's disappearing act is a symptom of the stress climate change is putting on our sources of fresh water."
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2086827587859

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Metro Vancouver's last glacier is melting away

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The Coquitlam Glacier's disappearing act is a symptom of the stress climate change is putting on our sources of fresh water.

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How can we decrees/help homelessness?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/thames-park-homeless-encampment-in-london-is-coming-down-1.6636786

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Thames Park encampment for people experiencing homelessness in London is coming down | CBC News

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City of London bylaw enforcement workers are taking down an encampment in Thames Park for people experiencing homelessness, as one outreach worker says the number of encampments citywide has doubled since last year.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-education-cupe-strike-notice-1.6634686

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CBC News · Posted: Oct 30, 2022 10:37 AM ET | Last Updated: October 31

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Ontario’s government will use legislation to stop education workers from striking | CBC News

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The Ontario government tabled legislation Monday to prevent a strike by education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

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Title: Concerns in B.C. community linger over water source disturbed by Site C dam construction

Social Sharing

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Concerns over water quality linger in B.C. community | CBC News

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The community of Hudson’s Hope says it has been struggling ever since the Site C dam disturbed its reliable source of clean and abundant drinking water from the Peace River.

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"Thames Park encampment for people experiencing homelessness in London is coming down"
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/thames-park-homeless-encampment-in-london-is-coming-down-1.6636786

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Thames Park encampment for people experiencing homelessness in London is coming down | CBC News

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City of London bylaw enforcement workers are taking down an encampment in Thames Park for people experiencing homelessness, as one outreach worker says the number of encampments citywide has doubled since last year.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-salmon-scorched-drought-climate-1.6121558

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What was once a steady stream of cool, clear water had become a patch of shallow, muddy puddles.

Inside these remaining pools not far from the town of Squamish, B.C., three-month-old salmon the size of small french fries were struggling to survive. Its name - Swift Creek - belies its current state, with large sections having dried up due to drought.

Luckily, two members of the conservation group Squamish Streamkeepers Society came to the rescue.

At one end of a puddle only a few centimetres deep, Jack Cooley deployed a fine mesh net about two metres across. Another volunteer, Patrick MacNamara, started at the other, splashing the water to scare the fry into the net.

Saving tiny salmon fry

"There's some wee tiny ones," MacNamara said, as the coho salmon darted out of his way.

Soon they were scooped up and placed into a bucket with clean water, complete with a battery-powered pump to keep it aerated.

Within a couple of weeks, and no rain expected, he said, this area would be completely dry.

"I think it's crucial, I do, otherwise they would just die," Cooley said of the effort to capture the fish and move them somewhere safer.

Cooley used to be an avid recreational salmon fisher, but he now spends his time trying to keep wild fish alive in streams like this one.

"We got 1,000 today and 1,000 yesterday. We'll probably get 5,000 fish before we're finished."

The lack of rain since mid-June in the Vancouver region is breaking records and has led to steadily decreasing water levels in many parts of the province.

Spawning salmon are also at risk because warm water, coupled with low stream flows, can stress out the fish, leading to high mortality at a time when low numbers of salmon are expected to return to B.C.'s rivers.

The province's largest salmon river, the Fraser, is warmer than usual and has 27 per cent less water than normal, according to the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Dust flies on farms

On the other side of the province, in the West Kootenay region, the dust is flying at Matthew Carr's normally lush organic farm. It, too, is in a Level 4 drought, the second-highest danger level on B.C.'s drought scale.

"Our soil has become hydrophobic; it's very dusty, airy and light. It's very difficult to walk or pull carts through the field," he said.

Carr grows a mix of vegetables and small fruits in Krestova, in B.C.'s southeast. Even with irrigation, some crops have been scorched and discarded.

"It would be 15 to 20 per cent crop loss so far this year, especially in our lettuce - like we're up to one-third of our lettuce crop we've lost, and it's a big part of our income and cash flow."

Carr said other, heat-loving crops have been doing better, such as melons.

It's not unusual to have hot summers, he said, but this year has been unique because of the early start of the dry spell.

"We typically would see temperatures and conditions like this in August, but to see them in late June all the way through July was really unexpected. And I know a lot of other farmers had to go into triage mode just like we did."

Worldwide weather chaos

Interviewed in an unusually dry Vancouver bog that's home to a diverse range of rare plants, Hans Schreier, a professor emeritus of land and water systems at the University of British Columbia, said the drought is just one of many unusual weather patterns around the world being driven by climate change.

"It's getting precarious, no question about it."

Schreier rattled off a recent list of climate disasters, including fires in western North America, floods in China and Europe, and water shortages in Iran that have sparked riots.

He said it's becoming increasingly difficult to predict weather because old, reliable patterns are breaking down.

"That's going to be the norm, and the thing is it's not going to be continuously increasing, it's going to be continuous variability - and it's those extremes which are really worrying."

Schreier said governments around the world have been very slow to adapt and prepare for those extremes.

Releasing the salmon

Back in the woods near Squamish, streamkeeper Patrick MacNamara worked at completing the rescue of the salmon fry. They've been safely transported in a bucket to a new location on the Cheakamus River just a few minutes away, but with much deeper water and shade.

"There's food, it's clean water and lots of places to hide," MacNamara said as he waded into the water, where he slowly dumped out the bucket holding the fish.

"Here they come!" he exclaimed, before wishing them "bon voyage" as the fish darted out into their new home, safe for now from the ongoing drought.

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Extreme drought in southern B.C. taking devastating toll on life in water and on land | CBC News

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What was once a steady stream of cool, clear water had become a patch of shallow, muddy puddles. Inside these remaining pools not far from the town of Squamish, B.C., three-month-old salmon the size of small french fries were struggling to survive.

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Jane Walwyn: COVID-19 causes record job losses ( 3 years ago)

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Jane Walwyn: COVID-19 causes record job losses ( 3 years ago)

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https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1723134531812

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COVID-19 causes record job losses | Business Panel

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Our weekend business panel discusses the record-breaking unemployment numbers released by Statistics Canada this week and the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on the global economy.

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"local police spotted a boat hauling crab traps under the cover of darkness"

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-island-fisherman-crab-poaching-conviction-1.5068353

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A crab poaching case that stretched from the watery depths of Vancouver Harbour to a Vancouver Island courthouse has finally concluded with penalties being levied against a Cape Mudge fisherman.

Earlier this month, Arthur Michael Nelson was convicted in Campbell River Provincial Court of violating the Fisheries Act.

The First Nations man was banned from fishing for 10 years, unless it involves aboriginal rights.

He also received a suspended sentence, probation, a period of time doing community service and counselling. The boat he was using was confiscated.

Boat full of crabs

The conviction stemmed from an incident in February of last year when fisheries officers and local police spotted a boat hauling crab traps under the cover of darkness in a stretch of Vancouver Harbour that's closed to fishing.

Nelson was arrested as he docked in North Vancouver with a boat load of live crabs.

Federal prosecutor Servane Phillips said the case was unusual for a few reasons, including where the incident took place.

The stretch of Vancouver Harbour between the Lions Gate and Ironworkers Memorial bridges is off limits to fishing because of navigational safety concerns, and for that reason, the Harbour seabed is in effect a conservation area, with plenty of crabs that can grow to full size.

Unusual case

Phillips says the case also stands out because of who was involved.

Nelson had been hired to poach the crabs by three other men, who, the court was told, were known offenders under the Fisheries Act.

The Crown prosecutor said it was unusual for fisheries offences to be so well organized.

After the arrest, an estimated 200 full-sized live crabs found on Nelson's boat were tossed back into Vancouver Harbour.

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Vancouver Island fisherman convicted in crab poaching case | CBC News

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A crab poaching case that stretched from the watery depths of Vancouver Harbour to a Vancouver Island courthouse has finally concluded with penalties being levied against a Cape Mudge fisherman. Earlier this month, Arthur Michael Nelson was convicted in Campbell River Provincial Court of violating the Fisheries Act.

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"Forces of Nature: This startup is planting trees withh drones to fight climate change"

https://www.cbc.ca/bmwforcesofnature/flashforest.php

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Over 15 billion trees are lost each year to deforestation, disease, and climate change. In the last year, Canada alone lost six billion. Wildfires rage across the world, turning forests to black landscapes and charred soil. Traditional reforestation simply can't keep up with the rate at which forests are lost. The technology surrounding tree planting hasn't gone far beyond the hand shovel. And whereas deforestation removes large carbon sinks from the environment, traditional tree planting methods can also leave a carbon-heavy footprint.

Planting seeds by drone is safer, cheaper, and more energy-conservative than traditional tree-planting methods

Growing up in rural British Columbia, Bryce Jones was an eye-witness to the destruction of wildfires, which has since only worsened. Wanting to harness his training as an engineer to fill a gap he saw traditional tree planting methods simply couldn't fill, he founded FlashForest, which today is Canada's first and largest drone reforestation company. Focused on post-wildfire landscapes, FlashForest is helping to restore some of the most severely burned ecosystems across North America, in an effort to address the gap in the reforestation market and help curb climate change.

Using electric unstaffed aerial vehicles (UAVs), state-of-the-art mapping technology, and plant science, FlashForest's drone planting technology provides a scientifically proven ability to automate and accelerate the rate of tree planting, unlocking an innovative, untapped solution to up-scaling reforestation to the level demanded by climate change. Planting seeds by drone is safer, cheaper, and more energy-conservative than traditional tree-planting methods. Using FlashForest's specially designed seed pods, all the essential nutrients are planted alongside the seeds, helping germination and growth during the trees' critical first few months of life.

"We need to act sustainably. That's the only way we have a future as a species."

Since 2019, FlashForest has planted hundreds of thousands of trees at high severity post-wildfire sites across British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario. The success of these projects has meant interest has flooded in from across the globe, and FlashForest aims to plant 1 billion trees by 2028.

Critically, when compared to conventional tree planting, FlashForest's rapid drone reforestation technology is ten times more efficient while being almost twenty times less carbon-intensive. Reducing the carbon output of the forestry industry is vital if replanting is to make the desired difference. Like FlashForest, BMW knows the importance of reducing one's carbon imprint. BMW is committed to reducing CO2 emissions, and aims to reduce emissions at its global facilities by 80 percent. Big ideas backed by science underpin the work at both FlashForest and BMW. As electric vehicles-like FlashForest's drones-continue to find use in industry, their impact on the environment will be amplified, not only preventing the release of carbon, but helping in the battle to reforest the world.

With FlashForest, Jones wants to create something "that will last." That's why BMW is giving FlashForest a donation of $10,000 to further their innovation, and support their growth as part of the series Forces of Nature, which is available to stream now. It's a sign that the brand supports the people who are risking it all to contribute to a better future, and coming up with solutions that can impact us today. BMW is committed to telling their stories as part of this breakthrough series.

"If we want to survive," he says, "we need to act sustainably. That's the only way we have a future as a species."

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Forces of Nature: This startup is planting trees with drones to fight climate change

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Over 15 billion trees are lost each year to deforestation, disease, and climate change. In the last year, Canada alone lost six billion. Wildfires rage across the world, turning forests to black landscapes and charred soil. Traditional reforestation simply can't keep up with the rate at which forests are lost.

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Against a backdrop of shocking declines in the health of the world's ecosystems and species, a new report from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) says the federal government must commit to much more ambitious targets to protect the country's land and water if it's to have a chance of staving off a "nature emergency."

The report says biodiversity is declining faster than at any other time in human history - over one million species worldwide are facing extinction, according to a recent, groundbreaking study. It argues Canada must adopt aggressive measures beyond current targets by promising to protect and restore 30 per cent of all the country's land and inland waters by 2030 - about 330 million hectares.

That proposed goal would almost triple the amount of land currently protected through measures by federal, provincial and Indigenous governments. As of 2019, 11.8 per cent of Canada's land mass had been set aside for conservation.

But the advocacy group says Canada shouldn't stop at 30 per cent - that it should commit to protecting half the country's landmass from development (including extractive industries like logging and oil and gas) at some point over the next century.

Beyond committing to such a move at home, CPAWS - the only nationwide charity dedicated solely to protecting public land and water - says Canada also should secure commitments from other countries to preserve 30 per cent of inland territory at talks in China next year. Countries are sending representatives to a conference in Beijing in 2020 to decide on new preservation targets as part of the United Nation Convention on Biological Diversity.

"We need global goals and targets for the next decade that are on a scale that will actually tackle the nature emergency that we face," Alison Woodley, an executive with CPAWS, said in an interview with CBC News.

"This is needed to reverse the decline that we're seeing in nature, which is critical not only for wildlife but also for people, because nature provides all the basic necessities that we rely on, like water, food and oxygen."

The federal Liberal government already has committed $1.3 billion over five years to nature conservation. CPAWS said that sum has given Canada a fighting chance of reaching its goal of protecting at least 17 per cent of land and freshwater by 2020.

Those government funds have helped already to buy new lands for preservation and conservation right across the country under the " Quick Start" initiative - through acquiring new protected spaces in Ontario's Thousand Islands National Park, adding 30,000 hectares to Alberta's Kitaskino Nuwenëné Wildland Provincial Park and expanding Quebec's Parc des falaises and Halifax's 927-acre Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Park, among dozens of other projects.

Another recent announcement committed federal money to buying at least 200,000 hectares of private land and fresh water in southern Canada, where experts agree nature and wildlife face the greatest pressures.

But even with that financial commitment and a promise to reach the 2020 goal, CPAWS maintains the 17 per cent target is still "woefully below what results of most scientific studies show are necessary to meet widespread conservation goals, such as maintaining viable populations of native species."

"There needs to be a much greater recognition of the magnitude of the problem. The evidence is showing we really need to think on a much bigger scale and make sure we are focused on protecting and restoring enough space for nature to thrive," Woodley said.

"We know what's needed. We really just have to scale up those initiatives and that requires finances, political will and leadership."

There's an urgent need to act now, the group said, because since 1970, half of all monitored species in Canada have declined. Of those, half declined on average by more than 80 per cent.

The advocacy group maintains bolstering protected areas will benefit nature and improve air quality, soil quality, pollination and seed dispersal, continued access to food and medicines, protection against extreme weather (coral reefs and mangrove swamps protect against cyclones and tsunamis) and help with general health and well-being.

"As species decline, the capacity for ecosystems to provide clean air, water, food, climate stabilization and other essential services declines as well. It is in all our best interests, and in the best interests of future generations, for Canada to take swift action," CPAWS said in its report.

Beyond protecting wildlife, the group said further investment in land protection also would help with Canada's fight against the other pressing environmental 'emergency' - climate change. CPAWS said more "natural solutions" to climate change should be championed by government.

The report said Canada has the potential to be a "conservation superpower" through more aggressive measures because Canada already is the custodian of 20 per cent of the Earth's wild forests, 24 per cent of its wetlands and almost one third of its land-stored carbon.

In 2015, the forestry sector was an important "carbon sink," pulling some 34 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions out of the air, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Canada already has identified increased investment in the forestry sector as an important driver of emissions reductions and a key part of the country's plan to reach its Paris climate accord target. Under that agreement, Canada committed to lowering emissions by some 30 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.

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Canada needs to triple the amount of protected land and water to tackle 'nature emergency': report | CBC News

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Amid shocking declines in the health of the world's ecosystems and species, a new report from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) says the federal government must now commit to much more ambitious targets to protect the country's land and water to have any chance of staving off what they call a 'nature emergency.'

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https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-aug-22-2022-1.6558261/closing-the-gender-wage-gap-has-been-glacial-in-some-provinces-says-researcher-1.6558784

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CBC Radio · Posted: Aug 23, 2022 2:15 PM ET | Last Updated: August 23

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Closing the gender wage gap has been ‘glacial’ in some provinces, says researcher | CBC Radio

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Newfoundland and Labrador is promising it will soon create legislation to reduce the gender wage gap in the province, despite five years with little movement on it. But Katherine Scott says Canada still has work to do in creating a more equitable society.

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"Twenty-nine year old Sara Eftekhar of Vancouver was part of a small group of young leaders invited to sit down for a series of three-minute meetings with senior ministers from 21 countries to talk about the gender equality challenges they face."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/justin-trudeau-women-deliver-vancouver-1.5160006

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‘Gender equality is under attack’: Justin Trudeau opens Women Deliver conference in Vancouver | CBC News

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Vancouver Monday afternoon to help kick off the official opening of the Women Deliver 2019 global conference.

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Kristin: After 3 years with no settlement, Fort McMurray woman wants Insurance Act to change 

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Kristin: After 3 years with no settlement, Fort McMurray woman wants Insurance Act to change 

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fort-mcmurray-insurance-problems-1.5130983

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After struggling for three years to get a settlement, a Fort McMurray woman wants to see changes to the Insurance Act.

Jamie Harpe lost her home in the May 2016 wildfire that destroyed 15 per cent of the buildings in Alberta's oilsands city.

"Three years into it, we are still paying a mortgage on a pile of ashes, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight," she said.

After the fire, Harpe said, she was able to settle a claim for the cost of her home's contents with her insurance company, Aviva.

But the house claim remains unsettled.

Aviva declined to comment on the case, but Harpe said she will opt for a formal dispute resolution process.

The most recent estimate for the cost of the rebuild is from two years ago; Two different companies assessed the cost at between $3.1 million and $4.3 million, said Harpe, the president of an oilfield servicing company she owns with her husband.

She estimates the house was about 7,000 square feet. Her lawyer requested a quote for the cost of heating and hoarding - which includes a fence around the construction site to prevent unauthorized access and tarpaulins to cover the site and keep heat contained, allowing construction in winter - and that estimate came in at between $200,000 and $400,000.

The two parties almost came to an agreement recently, she said, except for one unresolved matter: who would pay the heating and hoarding costs.

Harpe said she doesn't think her family should have to shoulder that cost.

She has been paying lawyers to help her with the claim, which she said has cost her about $70,000 over the last two years.

In the meantime, she bought property two doors down from her old house and put a prefabricated home there.

She says the money for living expenses from the insurance company ran out, and her family has been paying additional expenses out of pocket.

Now they're paying for a second mortgage on top of almost $5,000 a month for the first mortgage.

The insurance industry is going to be here until the very last claim is closed in Fort McMurray. - Rob de Pruis, Insurance Bureau of Canada

She would like to see the Insurance Act changed so that companies have to pay additional living expenses for lengthy cases such as hers.

"The Insurance Act seems to work for the insurance company, and when it comes to the consumer there are so many loopholes that the insurance companies can, in a sense, bully the hardworking Canadians."

At this point, she said, her payout should be higher than the cost of the rebuild, because of the additional money they've spent.

The provincial and federal governments should make changes to insurance regulations that benefit consumers, she said

Harpe said the claim has taken a toll on her mental health.

"You still have to work. And you still have to live your day-to-day life. And in the meantime ... you're always worried about what's happening with the rebuild."

Less than 1% of claims unresolved

The Fort McMurray wildfire was the most expensive insured disaster in Canadian history.

Rob de Pruis, director of consumer and industry relations for the western arm of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, said more than 60,000 insurance claims were opened after the fire.

He said less than one per cent of those files remain open, and those are typically the complicated files, or ones where the company and homeowner couldn't come to an agreement.

De Pruis said in most cases when the claim is drawn out, it's because of misunderstandings or poor communication between the company and the homeowner.

There are options for the homeowner to pursue if an agreement can't be reached: the company's internal ombudsman or an independent company called the General Insurance Organization.

They can facilitate conversations between the two parties.

There is also a formal dispute resolution process, which is the route Harpe is taking. This is a facilitated discussion with representatives and specific timelines.

As a last resort, De Pruis said, the claim could go to court.

"The insurance industry is going to be here until the very last claim is closed in Fort McMurray," he said.

De Pruis said the IBC is available to help anyone who is struggling with an insurance claim.

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After 3 years with no settlement, Fort McMurray woman wants Insurance Act changed | CBC News

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After struggling for three years to get a settlement, a Fort McMurray woman wants to see changes to the Insurance Act. Jamie Harpe lost her home in the May 2016 wildfire that destroyed 15 per cent of the buildings in Alberta's oilsands city.

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"Poverty and Homelessness Action Week kicks off in the Yukon"
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/poverty-homelessness-action-week-1.6619540

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After more than 40 years of experiencing homelessness in the North, one of the people behind the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition says it's time for the territory to start listening.

On Monday, as the coalition launched its Poverty and Homelessness Action Week campaign, Jack Bogaard shared his experiences being homeless in the Yukon.

"The people on the street, they all have a story," Bogaard said in an interview. "They just want to be heard. But a lot of us, I see, would walk right by - we don't look. And it's hard."

Bogaard is one of the driving forces behind Voices Influencing Change - a project by the coalition that allows people who experienced homelessness to share their stories and to find support. This week's campaign introduced a series of awareness activities running until Oct. 21 in Whitehorse.

Charlotte Hrenchuk, one of the coalition's co-chairpersons, said at a Monday news conference that this year's theme, dubbed "healing hearts, building relationships," comes from a need to focus on healing.

"We are trying to focus on the importance of healing and thinking about the relationship that we've built across the years and those that we'd like to further in working together as a community to end homelessness and poverty," Hrenchuk said.

Recent data from non-profit organization Safe at Home showed that in Whitehorse alone, there are more than 200 people experiencing homelessness, including over 60 children.

Bogaard spoke about his disappointment in what he sees as a lack of interest from officials.

"It shames me to not see more people here on this day, the ones that are leaders of our community, the mayor, the teachers, people from all over the place of Whitehorse," he said during the news conference.

"How are we gonna build a relationship without those people around us?"

Choosing a better path

Bogaard's testimony about his own experience and healing also echoed this year's theme. He said he had to choose a better path for himself after a near-death experience while being without a home.

"In 2012, I froze here on 2nd Avenue, and it was life changing," Bogaard said. "I lived wintertime out there - 40 below. I ate out of the dumpsters. I had to choose whether to carry on and die or choose to carry on and live."

Working together as a community, he added, becomes crucial when speaking about healing.

"We cannot be separating anything anymore," Bogaard said.

"Healing begins with that balance ... We don't leave anyone behind. If we want this to end and put roofs on people's heads, then we too, have to do our part."

Leila Sarangi, the national director of Campaign 2000 - a coalition of groups working to end child and family poverty across the country - is joining this year's campaign in the Yukon. She said she will be spending the week in Whitehorse to meet with community leaders and learn about the challenges.

"There are some unique challenges that comes along with the kind of geography you find here in Whitehorse and the Yukon," Sarangi said in an interview on Monday.

"If ... you don't have a car, how do you get around? How do you access the things you need, how you get your community support? How do you get your basic needs meet? In this kind of weather, it's actually quite heartbreaking."

On Tuesday, Whitehorse Connects offered music, a feast, free haircuts and access to clothing donations to community members at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre.

Several panel discussions are also taking place throughout the week, including a talk on child poverty in the Yukon.

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Poverty and Homelessness Action Week kicks off in the Yukon | CBC News

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After more than 40 years of experiencing homelessness in the North, one of the people behind the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition says it's time for the territory to start listening. On Monday, as the coalition launched its Poverty and Homelessness Action Week campaign, Jack Bogaard shared his experiences being homeless in the Yukon.

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Canada on board for ending subsidies that promote overfishing at WTO meeting | CBC News

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The World Trade Organization announced Wednesday it would extend the meeting by one day — to Thursday — to try to reach an agreement on fishing subsidies and other items.

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https://www.cbc.ca/radio/nowornever/get-up-go-outside-and-experience-life-on-the-land-1.5126540

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Studies have shown that there are benefits to connecting, meaningfully, with the land - people tend to feel happier when they're surrounded by nature.

Nearly three-quarters of Canadians feel it's just easier to spend time indoors

Studies have shown that there are benefits to connecting, meaningfully, with the land. People tend to feel happier when they're surrounded by nature.

But the majority of people in Canada feel it's easier to just spend time indoors.

So on this Now or Never we're strapping on snowshoes, digging in the dirt, and fighting for vanishing wilderness with people who are determined to connect with the land.

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Get up, go outside and experience life on the land | CBC Radio

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Studies have shown that there are benefits to connecting, meaningfully, with the land - people tend to feel happier when they're surrounded by nature. Studies have shown that there are benefits to connecting, meaningfully, with the land. People tend to feel happier when they're surrounded by nature.

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"Crews prepare to raise sunken fishing vessel leaking oil into Salish Sea"
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/oil-spill-vessel-lift-1.6559195

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The U.S. Coast Guard says it is making progress dealing with an oil spill in the Salish Sea near Canadian waters and it hopes to begin raising the sunken fishing vessel later this week.

A barge and crane are being shipped from Seattle to San Juan Island to help with the removal of the Aleutian Isle, which had nearly 9,840 litres of oil and diesel on board when it sank west of San Juan Island in Washington state on Aug. 13.

The spill is in U.S. waters, but marine responders say there is the potential for the oil to move into Canadian waters near Vancouver Island. Both the Canadian and U.S. coast guards have responded.

In a statement, the U.S. Coast Guard said the oil sheen on the water "remains minimal" and it has now laid more than 1,300 metres of absorbent boom to protect environmentally sensitive areas.

Peter Ross, a senior scientist for the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, said the spill happened in the middle of a "critical habitat" for southern resident killer whales, of which there are only 74 remaining.

The U.S. Coast Guard said Monday that cross-border training with Canada's Marine Mammal Unit is scheduled for Thursday. The team will deter marine wildlife from entering the spill area should the need arise.

The Washington Department of Ecology has created an incident-specific webpage.

Due to the sunken ship's depth, the U.S. Coast Guard says specialized gas mixtures are being produced for the divers who will be involved in efforts to raise the vessel.

"Once mixed, the gas must settle and be tested for proportionality and then shipped to the San Juan Island team" according to a news release.

The special gas mixtures, crane and barge are estimated to arrive later in the week, at which time crews will begin removing the vessel.

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Crews prepare to raise sunken fishing vessel leaking oil off southern Vancouver Island | CBC News

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The U.S. Coast Guard says it is making progress dealing with an oil spill in the Salish Sea near Canadian waters and it hopes to begin raising the sunken fishing vessel later this week.

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"These plants soak up nutrients from manure. They may make feedlot water clean enough to drink"
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/olds-college-clean-water-manure-cows-1.6596939

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On a feedlot in central Alberta, nearly 100 kilometres northeast of Calgary, researchers gathered to watch as floating islands were launched onto a pond created by runoff water.

To people driving past on a nearby dirt road, it might not look like much.

But the islands are the result of years of research and testing that could help the feedlot business recycle wastewater to the point where it could be used on crops or for cattle.

And it could go beyond just that.

"This, I think, is really an important movement for us in the future," said Steven Tannas, owner of Alberta-based Tannas Conservation Studies and a partner with the project.

"We're creating natural systems instead of [using] a big facility where you have a big building treating water ... we can create natural systems that look good, and are good for the environment, while also treating."

The floating islands project

The islands are part of a project born from an idea Ruth Elvestad had six years ago. The water and environment technician was thinking about water conservation when her mind wandered into thoughts of space exploration.

"An example that popped into my head as to recycling water was astronauts, and their water supply when they go to the moon," said the Olds College research technician.

"If that water can be recycled, why could we not do it with farm feedlot water?"

That led to the floating islands project. The goal? To determine if native wetland plants can soak up the nutrients in runoff water that are mudded with manure.

Select plant species are deployed on two catch basins, or floating islands, at commercial feedlots, while two other catch basins without the floating islands are monitored as a base case.

The floating island's frames are coated in polyvinyl chloride. They're made of metal and have a foam core which allows them to float. The base is covered in a geotextile fabric which prevents soil loss, and the plant's roots can also grow through it.

They're designed by Tannas, the owner of Tannas Conservation Studies.

His company specializes in plant identification and management of native ecosystems and it is part of the Olds College study.

"We've been testing [the plants] to find out what contaminants they pull out of the water," Tannas said. "We're focused on nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium as our main ones."

They also look for some sulphites and heavy metals, he added.

Far beyond agriculture

Researchers will be studying the results to see if the floating islands and the plants they house can improve water quality to the point where it can be used for irrigation or livestock drinking water standards.

Last month, the third phase of the project was in full swing when scientists, researchers, and agriculture companies came together on a feedlot in Linden, Alta., to watch as the islands and plants were deployed onto a pond.

"It's pretty cool, it's innovative, and sustainability is a big thing with farming nowadays, so anything green and floating is going to look good," said Kevin Klassen of Klassen Agriventures.

A pond on his feedlot was used for the test launch. He's hopeful that with the plants, there will be significantly less runoff water maintenance involved.

The project is being funded by the United Farmers of Alberta, the Alberta Real Estate Foundation and Results Driven Agriculture Research, a collaborative research program that works at arms-length from the Alberta provincial government.

If it's successful, the project will provide feedlot operators with a tool for cleaning water but also for retrieving potentially valuable nutrients.

But Elvested thinks that the potential goes far beyond agriculture.

"I'm interested, and will always be interested in, wanting to see the results, and see how it's going to help not only feedlot owners, but farmers, or anybody else that needs to recycle water," she said.

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These plants soak up nutrients from manure. They may make feedlot water clean enough to drink | CBC News

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On a feedlot in central Alberta, nearly 100 kilometres northeast of Calgary, researchers gathered to watch as floating islands were launched onto a pond created by runoff water. To people driving past on a nearby dirt road, it might not look like much.

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Jane Walwyn: Canadian health - care systems facing difficult six months ( 16 days ago)

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Jane Walwyn: Canadian health - care systems facing difficult six months ( 16 days ago)

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https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2085484099931

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Canadian health-care systems facing difficult six months, expert says

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With an increase in COVID-19 cases, the possibility of new variants emerging and the upcoming flu season, the next six months could be challenging for health-care systems across the country, says cardiologist Dr. Christopher Labos.

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" there were takeaways that were beneficial and "absolutely stuff we can use.""

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/hypermiling-ecodriving-fuel-efficiency-1.6390279

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Nearly 10 years ago, Lorraine Sommerfeld drove across Canada with a couple of hypermilers from Australia.

"Hypermilers have their own little cult and club. and it's how they can get from here to there and use no fuel," the auto columnist for Driving.ca said.

Using driving techniques, it took the team just 4.5 tanks of gas to go from Halifax to Vancouver in 2012.

Sommerfeld admits some of these strategies - such as driving super slow - are "dangerous and stupid," and she would never recommend them to others.

However, she said, there were takeaways that were beneficial and "absolutely stuff we can use."

One of the biggest for Sommerfeld was reducing speed.

"The difference between going 120 on the highway and 100 is about 20 per cent in fuel economy. It's huge," she said.

"Set your cruise control, get in the right lane, and just stick to 100. Noticeably you'll start saving immediately."

Sommerfeld added that avoiding left-hand turns also helps prevent vehicles from using extra fuel by idling.

"If you have a list of chores to do, think about it. Can you do it all in a loop that is basically maintaining right turns instead of left?"

As the price of a litre of gasoline continues to climb to extremes, drivers are looking for alternatives.

If leaving the vehicle at home is not an option, there are driving tips and techniques that could help keep costs down on the road to fuel efficiency. This strategy is called hypermiling - also known as ecomodding or eco-driving.

Most newer vehicles have readouts on a screen to show how many litres per 100 kilometres are being consumed.

Adjust driving behaviour

"Ecomodding is sort of the 2.0 on [hypermiling]," said Julie Beun with CAA North and East Ontario.

"We're seeing reports that gas is going to go up to $2 a litre by this summer, and if that's the case, then we do need to adjust our driving behaviour," she added.

CAA has a Driving Cost Calculator to keep track of vehicle expenses, including gas costs.

Beun said to begin with the weight in or on the vehicle, since heavier vehicles will consume more gas.

"Roof racks, bicycle racks, if they're easy to take off - that's a really great starting point," she said.

"If you're going to be going on a longer trip, or if you anticipate being out for the day and you don't need [the roof racks] then go ahead and take them off because that is going to cost."

Beun explained that accelerating a vehicle slowly out of a stopped position will save on fuel.

Imagine you have an open coffee cup full on your dashboard when you are accelerating, and you have to accelerate gently and slowly so you don't knock over the coffee cup. - Julie Buen, CAA North and East Ontario

"It takes five seconds to accelerate your vehicle up to 20 kilometres an hour from a stop. If you are accelerating really quickly, you are going to be using more fuel to get that going," she said.

"Imagine you have an open coffee cup full on your dashboard when you are accelerating, and you have to accelerate gently and slowly so you don't knock over the coffee cup."

"It's a million little things that you can do [to be more fuel efficient],"

CAA does not recommend extreme or dangerous forms of hypermiling.

"Always make sure that you are following the rules of the road, but yes, there are ways to save on fuel, 100 per cent," Beun said.

Tips from NRCAN

Given the high cost of gas across Canada, Thierry Spiess of Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN) is not surprised their website providing advice on fuel efficiency is gaining attention.

"Generally speaking throughout the year, we average just over 1,000 independent views on that web link per week. In the last week of February and now March, we are seeing over 6,000 weekly views - so a six-fold increase," said Spiess, senior manager of the Advanced Vehicle Unit at NRCAN.

He said NRCAN prefers the term eco-driving, feeling that hypermiling is the more extreme form. Just like CAA, NRCAN does not recommend illegal forms of hypermiling, calling the extreme versions dangerous and reckless.

NRCAN has five main tips it lists on its website for fuel-efficient driving:

1. Accelerate gently.

2. Maintain a steady speed.

3. Anticipate traffic.

4. Avoid high speeds.

5. Coast to decelerate.

"If people do follow those tips, they could lower their vehicle's fuel consumption and emissions by as much as 25 per cent," Spiess said.

Safety comes 1st

Sommerfeld started applying what she learned on her road trip almost immediately when she returned home to the Greater Toronto Area.

"The price of gas makes me slow down definitely."

She admits she doesn't drive a lot anymore, "but I know the difference in how much it'll cost me to get up north, like a three-hour drive."

When it comes to hypermiling, safety should always come first before saving a few bucks on gas, she stressed.

"You have to find what fits with your lifestyle, and also what gives you the most back in terms of fuel economy, but safety is first - it has to be first."

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As gas prices soar, hypermiling - or eco-driving - could be an answer to saving on fuel | CBC News

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With gas prices inching closer and closer to $2 a litre, drivers are looking for alternatives. Hypermiling - also called eco-driving - could help save some dollars. Using the approach, here are some driving techniques and tips to use fuel more efficiently.

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"On Tuesday, the province opened up vaccinations to children older than six months and younger than five years old."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-starts-vaccinating-children-under-5-1.6539335

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Infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers in B.C. can now get immunized against COVID-19.

On Tuesday, the province opened up vaccinations to children older than six months and younger than five years old.

For parent Megan Santiago Klassen, it was an opportunity she didn't hesitate to take advantage of for her kids - the same day it was announced.

"We got here as fast as we could," she told CBC News outside a Fraser Health vaccine clinic in Abbotsford, B.C., after her two young children Mina and Enez got immunized Tuesday. "It's felt like an important part of keeping our communities safe."

Her kids are just two of the more than 200,000 children now eligible for their first of two shots.

Only the Spikevax mRNA vaccine, produced by the pharmaceutical firm Moderna, has been approved by Health Canada for children under five.

The dosage allowed for this age group is a quarter of what people over 12 receive, and it is the first of two jabs that experts recommend, four weeks apart.

B.C.'s provincial health officer said the vaccine has been proven safe for children, and that her team has followed their safety data closely before deciding to open immunizations to younger ages.

"These vaccines have been extensively tested now," Dr. Bonnie Henry told reporters at an immunization clinic Tuesday. "We know they work and we know they're safe."

Health Canada's decision two weeks ago came "after a thorough and independent scientific review of the evidence," the federal ministry said in a July 14 statement. "The benefits of this vaccine for children between six months and five years of age outweigh the potential risks."

Experts say while COVID-19 is known to give children mild symptoms, there are exceptions, and they say it's important to offer them protection - even if they already contracted the coronavirus during the pandemic.

Doing so not only protects them, but also others who are vulnerable to the virus, explained Marie Tarrant, a University of British Columbia nursing professor and expert in infant and maternal health, including vaccinations.

"It is a mild disease in most children, but not all children," she said. "And there are a lot of children who end up in the hospital with COVID."

But reactions among parents appear to have been mixed.

A vaccine dose half of what adults get was approved for children between five and 11 last November.

Since then, 46 per cent of B.C.'s children in those ages have had both recommended doses - the lowest immunization rate among all age groups in the province, according to B.C. data.

Dr. Brian Conway, medical director of the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Centre, said the newly approved age group has been carefully studied without significant side effects.

But while the risk of severe COVID-19 illness is low for infants, it's "not zero," he said.

"In most cases they do not get very sick," he told CBC's On the Coast on Tuesday. "The risk of long COVID is probably the thing I'm most concerned about.

"So if you're two or three years old, it would be a long process and we would want to avoid that."

Conway said the next few weeks are particularly important for children of all ages, since many return to daycare or school early next month.

For those who choose to vaccinate their younger children, parents and guardians can register and book online, the province said. The government's G et Vaccinated website also offers information and frequently asked questions.

"As a parent or guardian, you want what's best for your child," the government said in a Facebook post Tuesday. "If you need more specific or detailed information or have questions, consult a health-care provider."

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B.C. opens up immunizations to children 4 and under in next phase of COVID-19 fight | CBC News

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Infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers in B.C. can now get immunized against COVID-19. On Tuesday, the province opened up vaccinations to children older than six months and younger than five years old. For parent Megan Santiago Klassen, it was an opportunity she didn't hesitate to take advantage of for her kids - the same day it was announced.

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The P.E.I. Advisory Council on the Status of Women released its equality report card Thursday, awarding the province a B+ for its work toward gender equality between 2019 to 2021.

The three-year assessment looked at topics including violence prevention, workforce development and women's health in relation to gender equality on the Island.

It involved more than 30 community and focus groups, more than 65 different surveys and responses from every department of government on its current and new initiatives on gender and diversity, as well as its COVID-19 response.

The report is the first in four years and it gave the government its highest grade since the council's first pilot report in 2008.

Council chair Cathy Rose said the province has done good work in applying a diversity and gender lens to everything it did but there are still improvements to be made, especially in poverty reduction.

"We're certainly way behind as far as poverty reduction assistance for the general public, and in particular for women," she said.

"Because of inflation, because of the price of housing, I hear it again and again. We hear it again and again - that people are between paying their rent and their gas, they have no money left for food."

The report also indicates racism and other types of discrimination further affect time, energy and money for those in excluded groups.

In addition, women have higher rates of poverty than men because many lead single-parent households, and are caregivers for children and their families, the council said.

Initiatives like the province's poverty reduction action plan and its poverty reduction advisory council are some of the highlights of the government's sustained progress in the report.

But executive director Jane Ledwell said the next step for the province would be to look at the existing issues that need to change to improve the work that's already been done.

"Having to constantly go for charity, to ask for help outside the systems that are in place for social assistance means people are in a state of a lack of dignity," she said.

Ledwell suggests an investment in social assistance rates that meet people's basic needs.

She also wants the government to look at expanding eligibility for those supports to make it easier for those who need them to apply, which includes reducing the stigma surrounding them and monitoring applicants less.

One of the best ways to work toward eliminating poverty, the council said, would be to establish a basic income guarantee.

It's something a special committee at the legislature provided costs for and was supported by all parties, but nothing has come out of that work so far.

With notable progress already in many areas, the council's hope is to be able to put more focus now on issues like poverty that will require more effort to overcome.

"Just because there is a B-plus grade worth of progress ... it doesn't mean we're at the graduation date yet," said Ledwell.

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Province earns B+ on gender equality report card | CBC News

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The P.E.I. Advisory Council on the Status of Women released its equality report card Thursday, awarding the province a B+ for its work toward gender equality between 2019 to 2021. The three-year assessment looked at topics including violence prevention, workforce development and women's health in relation to gender equality on the Island.

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Monarch butterflies listed as endangered, a step closer to extinction

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Monarch butterflies have been added to the international endangered list. Conservation biologist Karen Oberhauser says habitat loss and extreme weather are driving the decline in their population.

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Restoring treasured black ash trees at hear of P.E.I. project

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Restoring treasured black ash trees at heart of P.E.I. project | CBC News

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C.J. Cleal has gone for some interesting walks in the woods this summer in search of black ash trees - part of an P.E.I.-wide project to preserve the species, which is culturally significant for the Mi'kmaq. As part of the project, individual black ash trees are being surveyed and mapped using GPS, and will be regularly inspected for seed production.

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"Climate change has broad effects on health-care systems, medical journal says"

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/climate-change-health-lancet-1.6630043

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When you have to shut down a hospital operating room (OR) because there's so much wildfire smoke your instruments can't be kept sterile, you know climate change is affecting health care.

"That actually happened in my OR," said Dr. Alika Lafontaine, president of the Canadian Medical Association.

Lafontaine recalled phoning facilities to find out whether or not their filtration was set to the right level, and trying to tell if the smell of smoke was a predicator of danger.

"These things are out of the norm, so you don't think about them - until they happen."

Lafontaine echoed a warning in research released Tuesday from one of the world's top medical journals.

The Lancet concludes that, worldwide, extreme heat is already emphasizing the effects of heart and lung diseases, worsening pregnancy outcomes, disrupting sleep, increasing injury-related death and limiting people's capacity to work and exercise.

Infectious diseases such as malaria have a longer season to spread.

Heat-related deaths increased by 68 per cent between 2017-2021, compared to 2000-2004. Almost two-thirds of countries globally saw more days of very high or extremely high fire danger from 2001-2004 to 2018-2021.

Canada is not immune. Studies suggest the 2021 heat dome in British Columbia that resulted in 619 deaths would have been nearly impossible without the effects of climate change.
WATCH | Anesthesiologist was unsure of surgery safety due to wildfire smoke:

Dr. Alika Lafontaine recalls wildfire smoke disrupting his ORs

Lafontaine said the health-care system has to change to adapt to the coming challenges. The system needs backup capability. Health professionals need more transferable accreditation, so nurses from Saskatchewan could help out in B.C. Doctors need to be more aware of growing climate-related diseases such as Lyme disease.

"It changes the mix of diseases that are out there," Lafontaine said.

But most of all, he said, health care's response to climate change needs national co-ordination.

"One of the major gaps in the response to the climate crisis, when it comes to health care, is establishing a national secretariat," he said.

Lafontaine suggested a rethink of how Canadians support places here and around the world, given those suffering the changes aren't necessarily major cities with investments.

For instance, ice roads are vital in the North to get health services and supplies.

"Climate change has really impacted the reliability of these locations," Lafontaine said in an interview with CBC News. "That has an enormous impact on health, that has an enormous impact on local economies and sustainability of living, and that will extend to other places in the country as our highways are affected."

Health facilities on flood plains vulnerable

Somebody, he said, should be gathering information on what happens to the system during extreme events - like when a wildfire cancels surgeries. Otherwise, every emergency is another one-off.

Ian Culbert of the Canadian Public Health Association agrees. Common licencing standards is a big one, he said.

"That way, nurses from Ontario could be deployed to flood assistance in Nova Scotia."

But that's just the start.
WATCH | Respirologist on how climate change harms health:

Climate change has 'massive' impact on health, expert says

Canada has too many health facilities built on flood plains or susceptible to melting permafrost, he said.

Programs such as wellness checks to ensure vulnerable people are OK should be standard during floods or heat waves. Cooling stations should be part of every city's plan.

Culbert points to municipalities in Ontario that have included public health experts in their planning process advocating for measures such as green canopies and walkable neighbourhoods with nearby services.

"The public health people were at the table, empowered to make decisions," he said. "Too often, health hasn't been a consideration."

The broader fight against climate change also has public health benefits, Culbert said. In Ontario, respiratory health improved after the province phased out its coal-fired generating plants.

Lafontaine said even medical conditions that have nothing to do with climate change are affected by it, as resources are diverted to meet new threats.

"As that acuity starts to entrench itself, you then have to add additional capacity, which takes capacity from other places."

Culbert said the Lancet study shows that Canada has to start thinking much more broadly about how climate change affects health and how the system can respond to it.

"The hospital isn't your first line of defence," he said. "It's your last."

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Health problems from climate change getting worse, medical journal says | CBC News

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When you have to shut down a hospital operating room (OR) because there's so much wildfire smoke your instruments can't be kept sterile, you know climate change is affecting health care. "That actually happened in my OR," said Dr. Alika Lafontaine, president of the Canadian Medical Association.

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https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-sept-6-2021-1.6163980/prescribing-nature-research-suggests-the-outdoors-are-good-for-your-mental-health-1.6163985

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Originally published on Sept. 6, 2021.
For many teenagers, a driver's licence can mean freedom to visit the mall - but for Jon Cadang, it offered him a reprieve from the depression that consumed him for years.

One of his first stops? A creek near his home in Mississauga, Ont., abundant in fish that he was determined to catch.

It would take Cadang two weeks before he landed one, but it taught the forager and painter that nature could be a powerful treatment to what ails him.

"I realized that whole time, I stopped ruminating about my situation - all the bad things that were happening," said Cadang, now 25. "I realized that maybe being out here and putting myself towards a goal, even if that's just to catch fish, maybe that could help," he told Back to the Land host Duncan McCue.

"I liked what I saw. I felt at peace."

A growing body of research suggests that being outdoors can benefit mental health and boost memory, improve cardiovascular health and help us live longer. Additional studies find that nature lowers cortisol, the body's stress hormone.

With that research in hand, doctors in parts of Canada have signed on to provide what are known as "nature prescriptions" for those living with mental illnesses and physical health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.

Last November, PaRx, an organization led by Dr. Melissa Lem, partnered with the B.C. Parks Foundation and health-care providers across British Columbia to offer patients nature prescriptions. Programs have also recently launched in Ontario and Saskatchewan.

"We leverage what we know about their health status, where they live, what they're interested in to kind of create a customized nature prescription that they can fill," Lem said. A standard prescription, she adds, is two hours of nature per week, at 20 minute or longer intervals.

Patients work one-on-one with a licensed health-care professional - a doctor, nurse or psychologist - to find the best solution for them. Nature prescriptions are often used in tandem with more traditional approaches to health care, and PaRx recommends that people first consult with a health-care provider if they have medical concerns.

Lem says her patients have responded positively to the idea. "I find that when I bring it up in the context of other lifestyle interventions - like healthy diet, like exercise and good-quality, adequate sleep - that they nod their heads like it's intuitive to them.

Outdoors offered peace, but challenges continued

Cadang says that while he now has a good relationship with his parents, it was their expectations that compounded his depression.

"They wanted me to excel at school, so I couldn't really go outside. I couldn't really go anywhere aside from school," he said.

The pressure wore on him, and his mind spiralled. He spent most of his time alone in his bedroom, ruminating about his situation.

At the height of his depression, Cadang says, he would spend 18 to 20 hours a day sleeping. At one point, he experienced suicidal thoughts. In 2018, Cadang was diagnosed with major depressive disorder.

"It seemed that no matter what I tried to do, I could never get anything right. I think the worst part was feeling that I really had no place in this world, and it felt like there was no escaping that," he said.

Casting a line and tackle brought Cadang solace that had a healing effect. But as a college student, he still struggled with his mental health - and eventually faced a crisis, requiring medication and therapy.

Still, his counsellor at the time encouraged him to continue using nature as a medicine.

"It was affirming to hear that being outside, going on these walks, incorporating that into my treatment plan felt like I was walking the right steps," Cadang said.

WATCH | How daily walks help this B.C. woman take the pandemic in stride:

Stressed in the city

Lem has been advocating nature prescriptions for more than a decade. The family physician has a practice based in Vancouver, but she worked in rural British Columbia earlier in her career.

After that, she made a move to Toronto - a change that proved to her the benefits of the outdoors.

Her job in Toronto, working as an outpatient physician, was less stressful than her time in rural B.C., where she had to deal with emergencies and middle-of-the-night births. But in Toronto, she says she still struggled with the weight of her job.

"I was sitting in my apartment looking out at a tiny little square of sky with the CN Tower in the distance, hearing the streetcars rumble by and feeling incredibly stressed," she told McCue.

"I thought, why am I so stressed out? And then I realized it was probably because I didn't have as much access to nature."

Living among green spaces can also lead to a healthier life, according to Becca Lovell, a researcher at the University of Exeter medical school, based at its campus in Truro, England.

"The greener your living environment, probably the better it is for your health, in terms that it can ameliorate a number of environmental stresses - so noise, poor air quality, heat-island effect and so on," she said.

"What we're starting to do now is think [of] the so-what question - so how do we make environments healthier?" That could mean adding green spaces to certain areas, or encouraging better use of what's already there.

And while more research into the topic is needed, Lovell argues that what is known points toward generally positive outcomes.

Along with PaRx, Lem's work goes beyond jotting prescriptions on a notepad. She is also an advocate for improved access to high-quality green space as part of urban planning.

"A really important part of the work that we do is getting governments to realize that nature is an essential health service and to get them to enshrine policy into city building and city planning that makes sure that green spaces are accessible to everyone," she said.

Nature offers 'a lot of meaning'

Cadang continues to work on his mental health. He says he's also looking for ways to turn his love of the outdoors into a career, after transitioning from an interior design program to study fish and wildlife technology.

He's recently found success foraging for and selling wild mushrooms.

And after making peace with his parents, it's a hobby they now enjoy as a family.

"We've made it a tradition that we go foraging for fiddleheads every spring. Now we go to the same spot and we end up having a really nice meal afterwards," Cadang said.

"They're very accepting of what I do now because they see that it brings me a lot of meaning and joy in my life - and they certainly don't mind having a lot of food on the table when I come home."
Written by Jason Vermes. Produced by Zoe Tennant.

If you're experiencing suicidal thoughts or having a mental health crisis, help is available. For an emergency or crisis situation, call 911. You can also text CONNECT to 686868 and get immediate support from a crisis responder through the Crisis Text Line, powered by Kids Help Phone.
If you are thinking of suicide or know someone who is, help is available nationwide by calling the Canada Suicide Prevention Service toll-free at 1-833-456-4566, 24 hours a day, or texting 45645. (The text service is available from 4 p.m. to midnight Eastern time).

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Prescribing nature: Research suggests the outdoors are good for your mental health | CBC Radio

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Jon Cadang says he's experienced the benefits nature can have on mental health first-hand. The 25-year-old says exploring the outdoors has been key to treating his depression - and a growing body of research and experts say many more could benefit.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/caribou-population-at-risk-1.6004413

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The endangered woodland caribou of Western Canada will be lost forever if direct action isn't taken soon, according to a new study funded in part by B.C., Alberta, and the federal government.

The study shows that caribou have lost twice as much habitat as they've gained over the past 12 years. Research shows that logging, road building, forest fires and climate change are the main factors driving the increased rate of habitat loss.

"The issue with caribou is that they really don't do well around things like logging or oil and gas development and road building," Jesse Zeman, director of fish and wildlife restoration with the B.C. Wildlife Federation said on CBC's Daybreak South.

"What this paper tells us is that ... caribou over the long run is [getting] closer and closer to extinction as we move forward."

The B.C. Wildlife Federation has been advocating for the government to take steps in preventing habitat loss for caribou. Zeman says the government has known since the '70s that habitat loss is the biggest reason why caribou are headed for extinction, but not enough has been done to prevent it.

"Both governments need to come out and either say, we want caribou on these landscapes and we're going to protect more habitat ... or we're going to give up. I think they need to be clearer to the public what their intent is."

'Not enough' habitat protection policies

Zeman said the study's data shows that the government's approach has been failing and caribou will go extinct if legislation, policies and plans aren't put in place to help slow habitat loss.

"We've got probably four decades of provincial and federal governments doing a lot of talking, and in this case what the data shows and what the science shows is that the talking is unsupported by action," he said.

Factors for habitat loss vary but Zeman says there things we can do to mitigate the loss and help increase the number of caribou.

"Climate change will play a role, a wildfire will play a role, but we have control over these other mechanisms," he said. "And we know that if we stop logging or manage it more sustainably, things will get better for caribou."

Zeman suggests the government release annual reports showing how much habitat they have saved or protected, which will allow Canadians to understand the objective, see the outcome, and know what's going on with the caribou population in B.C.

"If the approach is only Band-Aids and continued resource extraction in these areas, we will lose caribou," Zeman said.

Caribou a 'critical piece of culture'

Hunting caribou was once an important part of the culture of the West Moberly First Nations.

"We used to hunt caribou, moose and elk and buffalo," West Moberly First Nations Chief Roland Wilson said. "And you would hunt them all at different times [because] they all mate at different times. During those times of importance, you would leave them alone. They were a pretty critical piece of our culture."

Because of the Species at Risk Act, he said members of the community have not been allowed to hunt or harvest caribou, which has put pressure on the other animals.

"We've become more dependent on moose and elk," Wilson said. "When you look at conservation measures, you don't hunt an animal to the brink of extinction. You hunt them when you need them and then you let them recover."

Wilson said the community noticed a decrease in caribou in the late 1960s when BC Hydro's flooding of the Williston Reservoir blocked the caribou's migration route and fragmented the population.

He says in order to stop caribou from disappearing forever, habitats need to be restored and development needs to be curtailed.

The Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations did not respond to a request for comment before publication.

Subscribe to CBC Daybreak South on CBC Listen, and connect with CBC Kelowna on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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New research shows continued habitat loss will drive caribou to extinction in B.C. | CBC News

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The endangered woodland caribou of Western Canada will be lost forever if direct action isn't taken soon, according to a new study funded in part by B.C., Alberta, and the federal government.

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https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2097684035734

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Shipping industry feeling increased pressure to reduce carbon emissions

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The UN climate summit COP27 begins next week in Egypt with an expected focus on the shipping industry, which produces three per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

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"Climate change has reached a tipping point — and now is the perfect time to act"
https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/the-nature-of-things/climate-change-has-reached-a-tipping-point-and-now-is-the-perfect-time-to-act-1.5775004

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The climate change crisis has reached a tipping point, and if we don't act quickly, we face an uncertain and tumultuous future. For decades, George Monbiot, a British investigative journalist, author and activist, has been decrying environmental exploitation, a message that often falls on deaf ears. "We've lost 30 years or more ... during which we could affect a gradual transition out of the destructive, extractive economy into a far more benign one," said Monbiot. "But now, we find ourselves at the cliff edge."

As we see in , a documentary from The Nature of Things, scenes of mass protest from recent climate strikes, like the ones led by Extinction Rebellion, show that people are listening. They are angry and demanding change. And as Monbiot pointed out, "coming out of the pandemic gives us an unprecedented opportunity to do so."

We've lost 30 years or more ... during which we could affect a gradual transition out of the destructive, extractive economy into a far more benign one ...but now, we find ourselves at the cliff edge.

Even as individuals we still have power

As individuals fighting against climate change, we may often feel we have little power to make a real difference. "There are clear limits to individual action," said Monbiot. "We're facing structural pressures, and we need structural change in response to those pressures. We need system change."

But that doesn't mean we should sit back and expect politicians to handle things, he said. Given the modern distractions at our disposal, it's easier than ever to switch off. "We can push everything away. We can just forget about the waste; we can forget about the resources required; we can forget about the energy required [and] just buy," said Monbiot. "Buy stuff; fly for that lovely holiday; buy this completely useless gizmo; buy this vast gas-guzzling motor because you're worth it, you deserve it."

We can't be either passive citizens or passive consumers, just allowing whatever comes our way to guide the direction that we take ... we have to strike our own direction.

These are the forces we have to fight, according to Monbiot. "That endless tide of advertising, of marketing, of celebrity ... the ones telling us to consume," he said. "We have to resist all that and we have to find our pleasures elsewhere - in nature, in community, in our families. We have to find meaning and purpose where meaning and purpose should lie."

We have to take action in our own lives but also on a grander scale, Monbiot stressed. "We can't be either passive citizens or passive consumers, just allowing whatever comes our way to guide the direction that we take," he said. "We have to strike our own direction."

A global pandemic has paralyzed progress

Just as the climate change movement was picking up momentum, it was hit hard by the global pandemic.

As society locked down, protest organizers had to alter their plans. "The pandemic arises from our appalling mistreatment of the living world," Monbiot said. "But what we also see is that the failures of government to prepare for and prevent pandemics of this nature are very similar to the failures of government to prepare for and prevent climate breakdown and ecological breakdown."

Instead, he said, "We see commercial interests dominating, we see corporate lobbying dominating, rather than the interests and needs of humanity and the living planet as a whole."

He said our planet should be top of mind, "because we are in the middle of a climate emergency, not just a public health emergency, ... and we have very little time to turn things around."

A generation of activists

As a member of Extinction Rebellion, Monbiot sees the recent climate strikes as different than in previous decades. And in 2020, environmental activists have been hitting the streets to protest against systemic racism too.

"I think we're seeing a great awakening, a great reckoning, taking place at the moment," he said. "There's a massive issue of intergenerational justice in all three of these issues - the pandemic, the climate crisis and the institutional racism which has led to so many murders by the police."

And it's often the same individuals screaming for change. "We're seeing young people coming forward, rebelling against the old order in all three cases," Monbiot said. "We've seen the total failure of governments to protect us during the pandemic; we've seen the total failure of governments to vanquish institutional racism; and we've seen the total failure of governments to protect us and future generations from the breakdown of life on earth."

While our planet may be on the brink of ecological disaster, Monbiot also sees it as on the edge of something else. "There's a sense here of a moment, a really crucial moment in history, which I think will be essential ... to many of the other aims of the campaigners for a better world," he said.

We have an opportunity like no other

If the global shutdown of economies has shown us anything, said Monbiot, it's that we actually can adapt quickly and live with dramatic change. "When the pandemic turned up, governments asked people to do something very, very big indeed - to stay at home, not to go to the shops at all, not to travel at all," he said. "And suddenly we thought ... yes, it can be done."

"It was entirely to do with political will," Monbiot said. "And if we can make these massive changes to our lives in response to the pandemic, surely we can make the smaller changes to our lives required to respond to an even greater crisis."

The pandemic has given us the opportunity to build a new world, said Monbiot, "an economy which respects the lives of future generations and doesn't sacrifice those lives for the wealth of current generations; an economy that can be sustained without trashing our life support systems."

And it's time we seize the moment. He said, "As we come out of this pandemic, we can build on that mutual aid to create the better societies that we need."

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Climate change has reached a tipping point - and now is the perfect time to act | CBC Documentaries

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The climate change crisis has reached a tipping point, and if we don't act quickly, we face an uncertain and tumultuous future. For decades, George Monbiot, a British investigative journalist, author and activist, has been decrying environmental exploitation, a message that often falls on deaf ears. "We've lost 30 years or more ...

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Bella: Encouraging city dwellers to become Butterfly Rangers (March 5 2020)

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Bella: Encouraging city dwellers to become Butterfly Rangers (March 5 2020)

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https://davidsuzuki.org/take-action/act-locally/butterflyway/national/

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Want your neighbourhood to be butterfly-filled? Become a Butterflyway Ranger.

About the Butterflyway Rangers

The Butterflyway Project is a volunteer-led movement growing highways of habitat for bees and butterflies across Canada.

Since 2017, each year we have recruited awesome people from communities throughout Canada to become Butterflyway Rangers. They are community builders, nature lovers, re-wilders, schemers, and dreamers. Dedicated people with talents and skills to share with others in their communities. They are people who care. People with the courage to lead. People ready to shine.

Butterflyway Rangers help make their communities greener and healthier, one fun planting project and community event at a time. They create opportunities, connect people and champion ideas.

Rangers are the public face of the Butterflyway Project in their communities. They get online leadership training and learn skills to influence and bring people together. They learn about the wonders of bees, butterflies and wildflowers. And they meet a ton of awesome people through the national Butterflyway Rangers network.

The goal of the Butterflyway Project is to establish habitat for local bees and butterflies in communities throughout the country. Each Ranger is tasked with organizing a small local team to help them plant at least a dozen pollinator patches. To find out if there is a Ranger in your community, please email ccirillo@davidsuzuki.org.

Being a Ranger

Rangers are part of an inspiring national network of pollinator advocates, educators and habitat creators, and land stewards. They receive online training from David Suzuki Foundation staff and national experts via monthly webinars and online resources, and connect with one another through on-line meet-ups, social media, and in-person gatherings.

Expectations

Rangers are volunteers. DSF asks them to attend training webinars and networking sessions, and to take action locally to protect and restore pollinator populations. Rangers and their projects vary greatly, however a focus should be the creation of a Butterflyway, which is 12 or more habitat gardens in close proximity. Other activities include hosting and participating in on-line and in-person events, including seed and plant sales and swaps and seasonal and educational fairs.

Selection process and timeline

DSF recruits new Rangers early in the year, typically February. If you are interested in applying to become a Ranger, please David Suzuki Foundation e-newsletter or follow DSF on social media. If you would like to connect with a Ranger in your community, please email ccirillo@davidsuzuki.org.

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Butterflyway Ranger program - David Suzuki Foundation

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Want your neighbourhood to be butterfly-filled? Become a Butterflyway Ranger. About the Butterflyway Rangers The Butterflyway Project is a volunteer-led movement growing highways of habitat for bees and butterflies across Canada. Since 2017, each year we have recruited awesome people from communities throughout Canada to become Butterflyway Rangers.

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Jane Walwyn: Canada's economy will experience a "slowdown". ( 10 days ago)

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Jane Walwyn: Canada's economy will experience a "slowdown". ( 10 days ago)

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https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2088583747505

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Canada's economy will experience a 'slowdown', IMF chief economist warns

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Rosemary Barton Live speaks with IMF Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas about Canada's economy and the global economic forecast. Gourinchas says inflation rates may come down but will still be high, and that global growth will slow down. 'Elevated inflation, low growth is not a combination that feels good,' he says.

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Conne River salmon stocks near ectinction, says DFO

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/conne-river-salmon-stocks-near-exinction-1.5949786

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The latest salmon numbers from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans come with a stark warning to the south coast of Newfoundland, as the stock there is near extinction.

Nick Kelly, a DFO stock assessment biologist, says the salmon population in Conne River has dropped dramatically since monitoring began in the late 1980s, from about 10,000 salmon then to fewer than 200 last year.

"It's on this pretty sharp downward trajectory," Kelly told CBC Radio's The Broadcast on Friday. The stock has particularly nosedived since 2016, when 1,200 fish returned.

Kelly said the population at nearby Little River has also dropped to near zero, with fewer than 10 salmon returning to the river in 2020. He said several factors could be at play in the decrease, including sub-optimal sea surface temperatures, physical conditions and the availability of prey.

"The marine ecosystem is quite complex in itself. It could be a variety of issues," he said.

Kelly said aquaculture on the south coast could also have a potential effect on salmon population, but there isn't enough data to prove it has had a large impact.

"We know from other regions ... there are potential issues of aquaculture on wild salmon stocks such as disease or sea lice as well."

Helping the stock rebuild could be difficult, he said, as there is no DFO stocking policy in place for Atlantic salmon. Stocking the river with new species could also present a challenge, as salmon living in the river have adapted to the specific conditions.

Everything goes through cycles.... Hopefully this is another. - Mi'sel Joe

Mi'sel Joe, chief of the Miawpukek First Nation in Conne River, said the community has been working to help the salmon population of Little River for years, and will now focus efforts on Conne River.

"It's been a part of our life, a part of our culture, part of our food source for years and years, before [the] Indian Act or before government.... You go back as far as you want, you'll find that this was one of the best rivers on the south coast of Newfoundland."

But all that use has taken its toll, he said. Several other factors could be in play, he said, noting the community has seen seals come into the mouth of the river for the first time in his life.

Joe said the community is developing a salmon-saving plan, which could include introducing new species into the river to help grow the population. He said local fish farmers have agreed in principle to helping the effort, and he's hopeful the river will recover.

"Everything goes through cycles.... Hopefully this is another," he said. "Maybe we can help Mother Nature in some way by helping out in restocking or whatever we got to do. But I'm sure with help from DFO and our own people, we can start to do something about that."

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Conne River salmon stocks near extinction, says DFO | CBC News

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The latest salmon numbers from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans come with a stark warning to the south coast of Newfoundland, as the stock there is near extinction. Nick Kelly, a DFO stock assessment biologist, says the salmon population in Conne River has dropped dramatically since monitoring began in the late 1980s, from about 10,000 salmon then to fewer than 200 last year.

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"Scientists say noise pollution is harming sea life, needs to be prioritized"

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/marine-sea-life-underwater-noise-1.5901259

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Far beneath the ocean surface, a cacophony of industrial noise is disrupting marine animals' ability to mate, feed and even evade predators, scientists warn.

With rumbling ships, hammering oil drills and booming seismic survey blasts, humans have drastically altered the underwater soundscape - in some cases deafening or disorienting whales, dolphins and other marine mammals that rely on sound to navigate, researchers report in a metastudy to be published Friday by the journal Science that examines more than 500 research papers.

Even the cracking of glaciers calving into polar oceans and the rattle of rain falling on the water's surface can be heard deep under the sea, said lead author Carlos Duarte, a marine scientist at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.

"It's a chronic problem that certainly weakens the animals all the way from individuals to populations," said Duarte in an interview. "This is a growing problem, one that is global in scope."

These noises and their impacts need more attention from scientists and policymakers, particularly the effects on sea turtles and other reptiles, seabirds, seals, walruses and plant-eating mammals such as manatees, the study says.

University of Victoria marine biologist Francis Juanes, one of the study's co-authors, said that while much of the work on the effect of noise had been done on marine mammals, the researchers are seeing consistently negative effects that are pervasive among ocean-dwelling animals.

"It's not just whales," said Juanes, adding that invertebrates and fish are also feeling the effects of noise pollution. "We've assumed that the ocean is silent for the most part. But it turns out that it isn't, and the reason it isn't is because sound travels very far under water."

As such, the international team of researchers called for a global regulatory framework for measuring and managing ocean noise.

Much of the human-caused noise should be easy to reduce, said Duarte. For example, measures such as building quieter ship propellers and hulls and using drilling techniques that do not cause bubbles and water vibrations could cut noise pollution in half, he said.

Having the world use more renewable energy would lessen the need to drill for oil and gas.

Duarte said the benefits to marine life could be dramatic, noting a resurgence in marine activity during April 2020 when shipping noise, typically loudest near coastlines, died down as countries went into lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But humans have not only added noise to the ocean; they have also eliminated natural sounds, the study found.

Whaling in the 1900s, for example, removed millions of whales from the world's oceans - along with much of their whale song. And the chirp and chatter around coral reefs is growing quieter as more corals die from ocean warming, acidification and pollution.

Climate change has also changed the soundscape in parts of the ocean that are warming by altering the mix of animals living there, along with the noises they make.

Oceanographer Kate Stafford at the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory praised the timing of the metastudy, as the United Nations calls on governments to set aside 30 per cent of the world's land and sea areas for conservation.

"The review makes it clear that, to actually reduce anthrophony (human noise) and aim for a well-managed future ... we will need global cooperation among governments," said Stafford.

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Scientists say noise pollution is harming sea life, needs to be prioritized | CBC News

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Far beneath the ocean surface, a cacophony of industrial noise is disrupting marine animals' ability to mate, feed and even evade predators, scientists warn.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/emperor-penguins-threatened-climate-change-1.6629076

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Antarctica's emperor penguin is at risk of extinction due to rising global temperatures and sea ice loss, the U.S. government said Tuesday as it finalized protections for the animal under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said emperor penguins should be protected as a threatened species under the law since the birds build colonies and raise their young on the Antarctic ice threatened by climate change.

The "threatened" status will promote international co-operation for conservation strategies, increase funding for conservation programs and require federal agencies in the United States to act to reduce threats.

The birds' listing would be accompanied by a ban on them being imported to, exported from or sold within the U.S., with exceptions for zoos, museums and some other public institutions.

The 1973 Endangered Species Act is credited with bringing several animals back from the brink of extinction, including grizzly bears, bald eagles, grey whales and others. The law has frustrated some drilling and mining industries among others, which can be stopped from developing areas deemed necessary for species survival.

The wildlife agency's review followed a 2011 petition by the U.S. environmental group Center for Biological Diversity to list the bird under the Endangered Species Act.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said a thorough review of evidence, including satellite data from 40 years, showed the penguins aren't currently in danger of extinction, but rising temperatures signal that is likely.

Newborn chicks drowning

Climate change has caused colonies to experience breeding failures, according to the government. The Halley Bay colony in the Weddell Sea, the second-largest emperor penguin colony in the world, experienced several years of poor sea ice conditions, leading to the drowning of all newborn chicks beginning in 2016, the government said.

Tuesday's designation was described as a warning that emperor penguins need "urgent climate action" in order to survive by Shaye Wolf, the climate science director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

"The penguin's very existence depends on whether our government takes strong action now to cut climate-heating fossil fuels and prevent irreversible damage to life on Earth," Wolf said.

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Emperor penguins now a threatened species due to climate change, U.S. says | CBC News

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Antarctica's emperor penguin is at risk of extinction due to rising global temperatures and sea ice loss, the U.S. government said Tuesday as it finalized protections for the animal under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The U.S.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sea-glider-gulf-alaska-ocean-acidification-co2-1.6466825

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Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of Our Changing Planet, a CBC News initiative to show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it.
In the cold, choppy waters of Alaska's Resurrection Bay, all eyes were on the grey water, looking for one thing only.

It wasn't a spout from humpback whales that power through this scenic fjord, or a sea otter lazing on its back, munching a king crab.

Instead, everyone aboard the Nanuq, a University of Alaska Fairbanks research vessel, was looking where a 1.5-metre long, bright pink underwater sea glider surfaced.

The glider - believed to be the first configured with a large sensor to measure carbon dioxide levels in the ocean - had just completed its first overnight mission.

Designed to dive 1,000 metres and roam remote parts of the ocean, the autonomous vehicle was deployed in the Gulf of Alaska this spring to provide a deeper understanding of the ocean's chemistry in the era of climate change.

The research could be a major step forward in ocean greenhouse gas monitoring because, until now, measuring CO2 concentrations - a quantifier of ocean acidification - was mostly done from ships, buoys and moorings tethered to the ocean floor.

Oceans have done humans a huge favour by taking in some of the carbon dioxide emitted by the burning of fossil fuels. Otherwise, there would be much more in the atmosphere, trapping the sun's heat and warming the Earth.

"But the problem is now that the ocean is changing its chemistry because of this uptake,'' said Claudine Hauri, an oceanographer with the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The enormous amount of data collected is being used to study ocean acidification that can harm and kill certain marine life.

Rising acidity of the oceans is affecting some marine organisms that build shells. This process could kill or make an organism more susceptible to predators.

Lab in a tube, on a glider, under the sea

Over several weeks this spring, Hauri and her husband Andrew McDonnell, an oceanographer with the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the university, worked with engineers from Cyprus Subsea Consulting and Services, which provided the underwater glider, and 4H-Jena, a German company that provided the sensor inserted into the drone.

Most days, researchers took the glider farther and farther into Resurrection Bay from the coastal community of Seward to conduct tests.

After each mission, the crew aboard the Nanuq - the Inupiat word for "polar bear" - pull the 60-kilogram glider back on board. The sensor is then removed from the drone and rushed to the ship's cabin to upload its data.

The sensor, which measures around 30 centimetres by 15 centimetres is a sort of laboratory in a tube, with pumps, valves and membranes moving to separate carbon dixoide from seawater. It analyzes CO2 and logs and stores the data inside a temperature-controlled system.

"I think [Hauri] is one of the first persons to actually utilize [gliders] to measure CO2 directly, so that's very, very exciting,'' said Richard Feely, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's senior scientist at the agency's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle.

The challenge, Feely said, is to make the measurements on a glider with the same degree of accuracy and precision as tests on board ships.

"We need to get confidence in our measurements and confidence in our models if we are going to make important scientific statements about how the oceans are changing over time and how it's going to impact our important economic systems that are dependent on the food from the sea,'' he said, noting that acidification impacts are already seen further down the West Coast on oysters, Dungeness crabs and other species.

Researchers in Canada had previously attached a smaller, prototype CO2 sensor to an underwater drone in the Labrador Sea but found it did not yet meet the targets for ocean acidification observations.

"The tests showed that the glider sensor worked in a remote-harsh environment but needed more development,'' Nicolai von Oppeln-Bronikowski, glider program manager with the Ocean Frontier Institute at Memorial University of Newfoundland, said in an email.

The two teams are "using two different types of sensors to solve the same issue, and it's always good to have two different options," Hauri said.

Wealth of data

There is no GPS unit inside the underwater autonomous drone. Instead, after being programmed, it heads out on its own to cruise the ocean according to the navigation directions - knowing how far to go down in the water column, when to sample, and when to surface and send a locator signal so it can be retrieved.

As the drone tests were underway, the U.S. research vessel Sikuliaq, owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, conducted its own two-week mission in the gulf to take carbon and pH samples as part of ongoing work each spring, summer and fall.

Those methods are limited to collecting samples from a fixed point, while the glider will be able to roam all over the ocean and provide researchers with a wealth of data on the ocean's chemical makeup.

The vision is to one day have a fleet of robotic gliders operating in oceans across the globe, providing a real-time glimpse of current conditions and a way to better predict the future.

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Scientists send glider drone into Gulf of Alaska to learn more about ocean's CO2 levels | CBC News

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Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of Our Changing Planet, a CBC News initiative to show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it. In the cold, choppy waters of Alaska's Resurrection Bay, all eyes were on the grey water, looking for one thing only.

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"The major Canadian bank was sued by former investment advisor James MacDonald in 2006 after he discovered undisclosed fees being charged on foreign transactions, affecting approximately 135,000 BMO customers."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/how-a-one-of-a-kind-windsor-law-clinic-was-awarded-millions-from-a-class-action-suit-1.6637145

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A unique legal clinic in Windsor that helps people navigate class action lawsuits says it will have funding to operate for years to come after an unexpected windfall from a case it had no involvement with.

The Class Action Clinic at the University of Windsor's Faculty of Law has been awarded $3.1 million from a $100-million lawsuit against BMO Trust.

The major Canadian bank was sued by former investment advisor James MacDonald in 2006 after he discovered undisclosed fees being charged on foreign transactions, affecting approximately 135,000 BMO customers. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice approved the settlement in 2021.

Following the settlement payout to class members, a remaining $6.2 million was left unaccounted for. As part of the settlement agreement, a provision stated that any remaining funds would go to a nonprofit charity. The Class Action Clinic was ultimately selected as the recipient of half of the funds.

"We were excited then, and even more excited when we discovered the [amount]," said Jasminka Kalajdzic, director and creator of the clinic.

"In this case, one of the plaintiffs, Mr. MacDonald, learned about the clinic through a friend of his who was an alumnus at the university. And he was just really pleased. He thought it was a service that could really help class members. Ultimately, the judge approved of the distribution to the clinic."

The Windsor law clinic does not represent clients or pursue class action lawsuits itself. Instead, it offers a free service to anyone involved in a class-action lawsuit across Canada, helping with various complexities that arise in the process.

"The irony is, one of the main things we do is help people make claims in complicated settlement processes, in order to ensure that there isn't a lot of leftover money. That's the point, there shouldn't be a lot of leftover money," said Kalajdzic.

Andrew Eckart, a staff lawyer at the clinic, said the service is needed. Eckart also oversees the work of employed summer law students, a program the clinic will now be able to maintain for the foreseeable future.

"Students really are the face of the clinic in terms of the interactions with clients. They're the ones making the calls, coordinating things with clients, drafting up letters, filings and applications. It's a really important clinic in terms of legal education."

Khawla Khalifa is a single mom of three and a third-year law student who worked for the clinic last summer. She says the experience is one she wouldn't trade for the world.

"It's been an invaluable experience. From writing legal opinions, to the claims applications to the legal research, to learning time management skills and working as a team...those are things you just can't get in your courses."

Kalajdzic said the program is the first of its kind that she has come across in her research:

"I'm in touch with a lot of lawyers and professors in the United States, where they have tons of class-action activity, and they don't know of a clinic like ours," she said.

Kalajdzic says her awareness of the power of a class-action to affect widespread change was her main inspiration for starting the clinic, and she is grateful it can now run for many years to come.

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'One-of-a-kind' law clinic in Windsor awarded $3.1 million | CBC News

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A unique legal clinic in Windsor that helps people navigate class action lawsuits says it will have funding to operate for years to come after an unexpected windfall from a case it had no involvement with. The Class Action Clinic at the University of Windsor's Faculty of Law has been awarded $3.1 million from a $100-million lawsuit against BMO Trust.

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"We're here to recognize that we need to start the repairing process from within the community and outside the community."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/peaceful-youth-rally-1.5611238

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Peaceful youth rally held downtown Toronto for ‘solutions to racial inequality’ | CBC News

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A peaceful youth rally was underway downtown in what organizers are calling an attempt to raise awareness for issues plaguing the Black community and to find “solutions to racial inequality.”

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"The longer people hit by the pandemic are out of work, he said, the harder it will be for them to find new jobs and the more likely they are to give up looking for work."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/economic-recovery-tiff-macklem-1.5785034

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An economic rebound that leaves behind parts of the Canadian labour force in the short term could end up jeopardizing the recovery from COVID-19 in the long run, Canada's top central banker says.

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said the pandemic has widened divides in the country that could worsen further without the right response.

The longer people hit by the pandemic are out of work, he said, the harder it will be for them to find new jobs and the more likely they are to give up looking for work.

The combined effects on workers and businesses could weigh down the economy, harming even those who are doing comparatively well.

It's why Macklem has been talking recently about inequality - and why he thinks the central bank should be making the argument.

"Our mandate is to support the economic and financial well-being of Canadians. It doesn't say some Canadians, it's all Canadians," he said over a recent video conference from his office.

"What we see right now, as a result of this pandemic, are growing divides."

Some workers, sectors still lagging

Low-wage workers are still about 20 per cent below their pre-pandemic levels of employment, Macklem noted, whereas other workers with higher incomes have recouped job losses from the spring.

"High-touch" sectors like restaurants and accommodations are lagging behind as restrictions limit customers and consumers stay home.

The way back isn't a sprint but a long slog, Macklem told The Canadian Press hours after the bank said it's expecting to take until 2022 for the economy to get back to pre-pandemic levels, with some scarring from closed businesses and unemployed workers taking even longer to heal.

"It's not going to be possible to fully recover the economy until we have a vaccine, but we want to try to reduce the negative effects," he said.

"Once there is a vaccine, we want to make sure we get back to our full potential."
WATCH | Economy unlikely to rebound until 2023, impact of U.S. election:

Second-in-command during last economic crisis

Macklem took over the central bank's top job in June. He had been the bank's second-in-command during the last economic crisis a decade ago.

One of the bank's key functions is to keep inflation at a moderate level, which it does by controlling a key interest rate. The lower the interest rate, the more appealing it is to borrow, invest and spend.

Macklem inherited a key policy rate slashed to 0.25 per cent, which he has said is as low as it will go and where it will stay, likely until 2023, to keep interest rates low so households feel comfortable spending.

He has overseen the bank's foray into "quantitative easing," which is a way for central banks to pump money into the economy, and mass buying of federal debt to effectively lower borrowing costs for the government.

I don't want to pretend that there aren't some difficult decisions to take. - Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem

It has put him in a political hot seat, with Conservatives on Parliament Hill warning the bank about appearing too cosy with the governing Liberals and wanting Canadians to take on debt to finance a recovery.

Macklem said the bank's actions are independent of whatever the government might want and have to do with its mandate of keeping inflation at two per cent a year. Inflation is close to zero because of the pandemic.

"We have a lot of unemployed Canadians. That's putting downward pressure on inflation. So we need to put a lot of monetary stimulus into the system to achieve our objective," he said.

"I don't want to pretend that there aren't some difficult decisions to take, but our objective is clear."

Much uncertainty facing Canadian households

Near, the end of the interview, Macklem took a breath to think over a question that he repeats out loud: "How am I coping?"

He spoke slowly about getting fresh air, eating right and getting enough sleep. He said he misses talking to colleagues in person, and there's worry the bank could lose some creativity in its thinking without people in the same room, sharing thoughts and ideas.

"We've got to guard against that," Macklem said.

He pivoted to the uncertainty facing Canadian households: parents whose children might be at school one day, home another, or others with elderly parents who need help getting essentials from the store.

Every Canadian is dealing with extraordinary demands, he said, and no one knows how this pandemic is going to play out. That leads to anxiety.

"I gained a lot of experience particularly in the '08-'09 financial crisis. This crisis is very different. But you know, that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach is not that different," Macklem said.

"Some of the lessons from that crisis and also some of the things that we did that were not as effective, I think, are very valuable in dealing with this pandemic."

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Economic recovery threatened if some workers, households left behind, Macklem says | CBC News

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An economic rebound that leaves behind parts of the Canadian labour force in the short term could end up jeopardizing the recovery from COVID-19 in the long run, Canada's top central banker says. Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said the pandemic has widened divides in the country that could worsen further without the right response.