When people talk about a circular economy in which materials get reused and less waste ends up in landfills, they’re really talking about entrepreneurs such as Meaghan McDonald.
The 31-year-old Victoria woman has launched a new venture that aims to make money and protect the environment at the same time.
article continues below
Trending Stories
Her brand, Salt Legacy, plans to give new life to discarded or “dead” sails from sailboats by using the durable, water- and sun-resistant materials to make backpacks, surfboard bags and other outdoor gear rather than burying all that nylon and polyester underground.
“I’ve always been really eco-conscious and always wanted to create something that would kind of help within the circular economy,” McDonald said.
She has a background in biology rather than business, so she got help from an eight-month incubator program run by Victoria’s Project Zero — a partnership between the non-profit Synergy Foundation and Vancity that assists start-up businesses looking to operate in a circular economy.
Project Zero envisions a Vancouver Island where, by 2040, “our waste will be our greatest resource” and hundreds of people will be working for small independent businesses that, like McDonald, will be “upcycling” materials into new products.
Municipal politicians are getting on board.
Victoria Coun. Jeremy Loveday describes the circular economy as an immense opportunity “to create good green jobs and live on this planet in a way that will actually be sustainable.”
That’s why he got Victoria council to endorse a resolution to the Union of B.C. Municipalities, calling on the provincial government to develop a circular-economy strategy.
Loveday said such a strategy would allow the province to encourage and mandate that governments, businesses and residents adopt circular-economy practices.
“And, I think, local governments are at the heart of it because cities are where the population, carbon emissions, waste and innovation are all occurring.”
His motion, which emerged from the Climate Caucus, a non-partisan network of more than 300 elected officials across Canada, received final approval from Victoria council on Thursday.
In a related move, council also backed Loveday’s resolution to the UBCM asking the province to adopt right-to-repair legislation, which would ensure citizens have access to the parts and information they need to fix items, rather than being discouraged by companies that claim ownership over the intellectual property of their products.
“The idea, essentially, is that it’s time for the era of planned obsolescence to be over, and that consumers should have the right to receive information about their products, have access to spare parts, and that we should be able to repair the things that we purchase, rather than having a product that is designed to have an end of life,” Loveday said.
Nanaimo Coun. Ben Geselbracht won approval from his council for similar motions last week, as well as a third resolution calling for a provincial strategy to deal with demolition and construction waste.
Geselbracht said that the more municipal councils sign on to the resolutions, the stronger the case for them receiving serious consideration at the next UBCM convention.
“Then, hopefully, when it gets passed to the minister, there’s a pretty clear mandate that this is an important issue and we really demand action on it.”
As for McDonald, she’s forging ahead with her business plans and collecting old sails from marinas and sailing clubs that are only too happy to donate materials destined for the landfill.
She has the prototype for her backpack complete, work is underway on a fanny pack and a surfboard bag is in the design stage.
McDonald is also gathering the history of each discarded sail, so that she can attach stories of adventure and world travel to her new products.
“Then the new consumer can kind of have a bit of that history and that connection piece to the backpack they just bought,” she said.
In that way, her products will keep stories circulating as well as the economy.
OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.
Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.
Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.
Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.
Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.
Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.
According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.
That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.
People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.
That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.
Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.
That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
