1 Week, 7 Stories #16
Rising temperatures, falling water levels, and dashing hopes for an alien rescue
Every edition will feature 7 stories, from the past week. I’ll draw on my background in media, journalism, agriculture, biotech, and renewable energy to come up with an interesting selection and do my best to offer some context.
Sometimes built around a theme, sometimes random, but with a Canadian twist.
The pandemic brought the idea of flexible working hours to the forefront, but it is an idea that did not go away as the pandemic faded. It has moved beyond the office and onto the factory floor with the goal of retaining and attracting workers. The Wall Street Journal this week brought us the story of the Land O’Lakes plant in Minnesota where some jobs come with the option of choosing shifts and shift length. And the idea is working. In Canada a recent report indicated that we are going to see increased employee turnover in 2024 so staff retention will need some give on the part of employers. And one of the top 5 reasons for employees leaving? No flexible working arrangements. A study by the recruiting agency Robert Half found that 44% of women say one of the reasons they were staying in their job was because they did not want to lose their current level of flexibility. In 2023, 42% of women said they would forego a higher salary if they could work from home. There is a pattern here. What could ultimately be the underlying force behind the importance of flexible hours is the aging population. As the percentage of seniors rises so does the ‘sandwich generation’ – people who find themselves taking care of their own children and the needs of their parents. To make it work, these families need flexible working conditions, or they encounter another top factor that affects how they view their work and their workplace. You probably guessed it. Stress.
Those pesky seniors. There are more than 7.5 million of them in Canada. (our total population is just over 40 million). As the overall population grows and healthcare improves, the number of those seniors over 85 will rise even more sharply. In Ontario, they are expecting a spike in the over-65 and over-75 age groups which means more costs for the healthcare system and the need for substantially more personal support workers and home-care staff to deal with the demographic shift. This week’s labour market outlook released by the City of Calgary says our aging population is an important factor leading to an increasingly tight labour market. As retirements exceed the supply of replacements, the report goes on to say that replacing retirees will be “the primary driver of job openings in the long term”. There are many seniors who do not need assisted living, but rising inflation and housing shortages make affordable housing hard to find on a fixed income. The North Sydney Food Bank in Nova Scotia bought an old elementary school and is converting half of it into affordable rental units earmarked for seniors. Overall, we are heading into “uncharted territory” so brace yourself.
Nuclear power plants have been churning out electricity in Canada since the sixties. All of them are CANDU (Canadian Deuterium-Uranium) reactors. Nuclear power as an energy source lost some ground over justifiable concerns about how to manage radioactive waste and worries over potentially environmental damage from accidents at power plants. However, with the push to cut fossil fuel use, and the proven reliability and zero-carbon emissions of nuclear energy, it could signal a resurgence in interest. A Fall 2023 Ipsos poll found that 62% of Canadians see nuclear as one way to help meet climate targets and 58% considered it as a clean form of energy. Sensing a change in attitude, AtkinsRéalis (formerly SNC-Lavalin) has launched a Canadians for CANDU campaign to build support for its (still in development) model of the CANDU. The company is not alone in seeing the need for harnessing the potential of nuclear energy. At COP28 last year, 20 countries, including Canada, signed on to a declaration which called for a tripling of nuclear capacity by 2050 to help meet global climate targets. Reuters reported last week that new project approvals in Canada would be expedited and in Alberta “Prospects for nuclear power have just brightened” with a new partnership between Capital Power and Ontario Power Generation. Even with Premier Danielle Smith supporting Small Modular Reactors and Ontario prepared to go big on nuclear, don’t expect a radioactive rush anytime soon. SMRs are not a mature technology and it has been more than two decades since the last nuclear plant came online so you can keep that new HazMat suit safely tucked away.
February was the ninth consecutive month with global record breaking high temperatures. In Toronto February 2024 is in the record books, Montreal has been experiencing its second warmest winter, and across the Prairies "temperatures ranged from above average in Alberta, well above average in Saskatchewan and ridiculously above average in Manitoba" according to The Western Producer. Many of the agricultural regions of Canada were already suffering from drought conditions and a warm dry February has made conditions worse. Canadian Ag producers are not alone in feeling that mother nature is not on their side. Food production needs to increase by 50% by 2050 to meet global food demand. The Guardian will give you lots to think about:
We need to talk about water – and the fact that the world is running out of it
The University of Saskatchewan is equally blunt and suggests we forget the “old normal”. 99% of the water that reaches Saskatchewan comes from Alberta and poor snowpack means less snowmelt which means less water available for both provinces. And though we have spent the last week shovelling a lot of snow in and around Calgary there still has not been enough to provide any drought relief.
I have used the Windspeaker radio network as an advertising medium to get messages out with a couple of employers. The network was an excellent tool to reach the Indigenous community, but I found its Country & Western music vibe reached a broader rural audience as well. That reach just got a big boost when it powered up its tenth 100,000-watt transmitter recently. Windspeaker is run by the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta and has been in operation since 1983. When I was with CBC, we received the organization’s printed newspaper which was the only offering at the time. It has come a long way since then with its radio network and online site featuring a good range of Indigenous focused news, events, and announcements. Congratulations to them on the latest step!
This story didn’t get much attention but it’s impact on Canadian journalism has daily headlines and bylines. The federally funded Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) has been providing funding since 2019 for reporters covering underserved communities. The good news for media is that LJI funding for has been extended through to 2027. From Cabin Radio (2 reporters) in the Northwest Territories, to Le Devoir (1 reporter) in Quebec to the Cape Breton Post (1 reporter) in Nova Scotia, there are more than 400 LJI reporters helping Canadian media tell the stories that we all should hear:
Toxic waste kills 19 eagles at Prince Rupert dump (Seth Forward)
‘Plants have brightened the life I was headed into’ (Simona Rosenfield)
Census data provides unprecedented insight into Squamish Nation community (Mina Kerr-Lazenby)
Latest budget just the beginning for education spending (Lauren Phillips)
There are 300 or so media outlets hosting these reporters, so you are bound to see a story or 2 on your Canadian news sites such as the Community Media Portal featuring interviews by New Brunswick Media Co-op volunteers and LJI-funded staff:
Bad news if you were packed and ready for an alien visitor to whisk you away from Earth to some far-flung place free from inflation, politics gone mad, and M&M candies dressed as people. First off, a U.S. Defence Department review related to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena finds no evidence of alien visits or hidden spacecraft. The review was released this week and covered all official U.S investigations as far back as 1945. And if the alien you were waiting for was believed to have crashed into the Western Pacific in 2014, there will be no rescue mission. Johns Hopkins University has investigated the reports and concluded the sound waves thought by many to be an interstellar signal were “actually just a truck” rumbling by and the material found on the ocean floor in 2023 was not extra-terrestrial technology. So unpack your bags, and make the most of what we have here, because for better or worse ‘there is no Planet B”. Yet.
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I’m available for contract and freelance work with not-for-profits and charities. With 40 years of experience behind me and lots of time ahead of me, I’m here to help you make a difference in your media relations, public relations, and general communications needs.