Food & Energy

FEATURED EXCLUSIVE: Hudson’s Bay utility corridor agreement reached among Prairie provinces By Shaun Polczer 20 hrs ago 32

By Iron Will / June 14, 2023 /

It’s an old idea whose time may have come.

After years of fits and starts, a memorandum of understanding between the Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba governments has been reached to explore the feasibility of building a deep water harbour at Port Nelson on the Hudson Bay to export natural resources such as potash and liquified natural gas.

Premier Danielle Smith confirmed the agreement in Calgary on Monday, which had reportedly been reached with Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen and his cohorts in Saskatchewan and Manitoba prior to the election, which is awaiting final approval.

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U.S. heat wave Evictions up as rents rise Celebrating Juneteenth 1st U.S. Arctic deep water port What to stream this weekend Search https://apnews.com/article/canada-australia-new-zealand-drug-meth-maple-syrup-canola-oil-2280832cea1b2687b79a78b9ac0b5a8e C

By Iron Will / June 14, 2023 /

A drug syndicate that tried to smuggle tons of methamphetamine from Canada to Australia and New Zealand by hiding it in shipments of maple syrup and canola oil has had its ruse busted, authorities said Thursday.

Authorities from the three nations say they worked together for more than five months to unravel the elaborate scheme that was worth billions of dollars.

Authorities in New Zealand and Australia say they’ve made a dozen arrests and expect more to come, while Canadian authorities said they are still investigating the case and aren’t yet providing all the details.

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Seniors’ Incomes Doing Well

By Iron Will / June 13, 2023 /

Eighty percent of Old Age Security pensioners earn more than $60,000 a year, new data show. Payouts include pensions to retirees with six-figure incomes, according to figures tabled in Parliament.

“The retirement of the baby boomers reaching age 65 over the next few decades is projected to increase the expenditures of the Old Age Security program,” Canada’s Chief Actuary Assia Billig earlier wrote in an Actuarial Report On The Old Age Security Program. Costs of Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement are projected to reach $123 billion a year by 2034.

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Port of Vancouver ranks second last in world efficiency scale as strike looms

By Iron Will / June 13, 2023 /

Companies and consumers alike have been complaining about supply chain issues for everything from clothes to electronics and home goods — anything that comes off a ship and has to be loaded onto a truck or a train.

It turns out it’s true, according to a report from the World Bank and S&P Global that ranks the Port of Vancouver second-last, or 347th, on global rankings of 348 world ports in terms of efficiency. It was also the second-lowest in North America.

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FEATURED Alberta, Saskatchewan to put up common front against Ottawa over energy and emissions

By Iron Will / June 13, 2023 /

Battle lines are being drawn over energy, resources and emissions after the premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan staked out defensive lines and marshalled support for what is shaping up to be an epic jurisdictional battle with Ottawa over resources.

The venue, appropriately enough, was the Global Energy Show in Calgary where Danielle Smith and Scott Moe each laid out their bottom line positions with respect to federal “overreach” into each province’s respective energy and resource sectors.

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UK Announces 4.3 Million Pound Investment in Space-Based Solar Power

By Iron Will / June 13, 2023 /

The UK government is planning to invest 4.3 million pounds in the space-based solar power industry that has “huge potential to boost the UK’s energy security.”

Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps announced the multimillion-pound government funding on June 13, saying he wants “the UK to boldly go where no country has gone before—boosting our energy security by getting our power directly from space.”

Space-based solar power systems collect energy from the sun using panels on satellites. The power is then distributed to Earth wirelessly in the form of microwaves to dedicated receiver stations.

Four universities and four companies will receive funding from the government’s Space Based Solar Power Innovation Competition (pdf).

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Saturn Oil & Gas movin’ on up to the TSX main board Jun 13, 2023

By Iron Will / June 13, 2023 /

Saturn is one of Saskatchewan’s fastest growing oil companies
CALGARY –The Jeffersons (remember them?) may have been movin’ on up, to a deluxe apartment in the sky, but Saturn Oil & Gas just pulled off a similar move of its own.

One of Saskatchewan’s fastest growing oil companies in recent years, Saturn Oil & Gas Inc. has increased its land holdings and production tremendously in southeast Saskatchewan. And now it has received approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) to graduate the listing of its common shares to the main board of the TSX.

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FACT CHECK: Trudeau and legacy media’s wildfire fear mongering not grounded in evidence

By Shawna / June 13, 2023 /

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly claimed that the wildfires raging across the country are caused by climate change. “We’re seeing more and more of these fires because of climate change. We’ll keep working – here at home and with partners around the world – to tackle climate change and address its impacts,” tweeted Trudeau on June 7. Coalition partner and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has also made the misleading claim that Canada has “never seen wildfires” like those currently raging and linking them to climate change. In reality, Canada has experienced several years where the area burned by forest fires was much larger including in 1989, 1994 and 1995. “The period from 28 May until 7 July (1995) saw the largest mobilization of resources on record. Over 1000 fire management personnel had moved, including 520 personnel from the United States,” writes the Global Fire Monitoring Centre.

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ENERGY TRANSITION What is energy intensity and why is it vital to our net-zero goals?

By Iron Will / June 13, 2023 /

OUR IMPACT
What’s the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on Energy Transition?

The world has embarked on a decarbonization journey that must run alongside population growth, economic growth, and the near-doubling of our global GDP between now and 2050.
A key challenge is how we help economies to continue to grow, while simultaneously reducing our emissions.
Here’s why we need to understand the vital role that energy intensity plays in our global decarbonization and economic growth goals, and how we can reduce it.

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Analysis of Changes in Median Employment Income in Canada’s Census Metropolitan Areas, 2008–2019

By Iron Will / June 13, 2023 /

This bulletin compares Canada’s 41 Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAS) in terms of growth in median employment income from 2008-2019.
From 2008-19, median employment income growth across the 41 CMAs averaged 5.4 per cent.
Many of the worst growth performers for this indicator were found in Ontario. Of the 6 CMAs that saw a decline in median employment income, 5 are in Ontario. The 6th is Calgary.
An examination of the time-series shows that Ontario’s poor results are due to a severe shock during the 2008/09 recession and then a tepid recovery in subsequent years.
The performance of the CMAs in resource-intensive regions and particularly those with large oil and gas industries is sensitive to the base year chosen.
For example, over the 2008-19 period, median employment income growth in Alberta and Saskatchewan’s CMAs are clustered towards the bottom of the pack, but the growth rate was still above zero. An analysis focused on a more recent period, starting at the time of the 2015 decline in oil prices, for instance, would show much worse results in those CMAs.
Authors:

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