Alberta’s recent energy grid woes have renewed concerns about how prepared Canada’s critical infrastructure systems are to weather the effects of climate change and extreme weather — and the potential security implications if they fail.
On Monday, the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) issued renewed calls for people in the province to limit their energy use after severe cold weather and “several” power facility outages had threatened rolling blackouts.
It was the fourth such alert issued by the organization since Friday, and urged Albertans to limit their power consumption during peak periods.
Cold weather in Western Canada is nothing new, but neither are concerns that Canada’s critical infrastructure systems – power grids, telecommunications systems, and finance and transportation networks, to name a few – are not prepared for more extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change.
The federal government has taken what’s known as an “all hazards” approach to critical infrastructure risks – essentially that all risks, from climate change to terrorist attacks to nation-state hacking, have to be considered when thinking about systems like power grids or telecommunications networks.
“The first sign of World War Three is that your lights are going to go off,” Aaron Shull, the managing director of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, said in an interview with Global News Wednesday.
“That’s the world that we live in. So ‘all hazards,’ but a preference for the fact that we’re in this world where hostile or adversarial states are now seeking advantage on the back of our critical infrastructure.”
2:05 BC Hydro sets new record for electricity demand
Managing critical infrastructure is a shared responsibility between Canada’s three levels of government, as well as public and private sector groups that operate those systems. That can make addressing problems with critical infrastructure – or even knowing a problem exists – a complex undertaking.
“The risks are increasingly complex and frequent. They include natural, intentional and accidental hazards,” a joint federal-provincial report on critical infrastructure noted in 2009.
“As the rate and severity of national disasters increases, so does the possibility that disruptions of critical infrastructure could result in prolonged loss of essential services.”
The report noted that the risks of failure are heightened by how different types of critical infrastructure depend on each other – for instance, the financial sector and the telecommunications sector – “which can lead to cascading effects expanding across borders and sectors.”
The federal government’s 2022 critical infrastructure plan added threats that weren’t top-of-mind in in 2009, including the threat of foreign interference, cyber security threats and the impact of major public health crises on supply chains.
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But Shull noted that there is an acknowledgement within the federal government that Canada is “trailing” on addressing threats and risks to critical infrastructure even as the challenges get more pronounced.
A 2023 internal document from a senior officials meeting on national security issues suggested “international partners … have updated, or are in the process of updating, their approaches to critical infrastructure (CI) security and resilience.”
“New and rapidly evolving threats pose a greater risk of harm to Canadians and their cyber, economic, and national security,” the document read.
Cyber threats, in particular, have been an increasing concern for critical infrastructure operators in recent years. The experience of the Colonial Pipeline shutdown – allegedly at the hands of a Russian-backed cyber criminal group – cost the company $4.3 million and disrupted business, although the money was eventually recouped by U.S. authorities.
Closer to home, “ransomware” attacks – where organizations are locked out of their systems until they pay the criminal group – have caused serious issues for hospitals and health authorities, such as a 2021 attack in Newfoundland and Labrador that caused thousands of medical appointments to be cancelled in that province.
It all comes as the world faces increasingly volatile climate changes, with severe weather swings ranging from extreme heat to brutal cold, as well as a record wildfire season, growing drought fears in many regions, and damaging floods all causing major damage globally over the past year.
And the year to come will likely be no easier.
Canada is already on track for a 2024 marked by above-normal temperatures and a below-normal snowpack, which climate experts say is “a reason for concern as we’re looking ahead to the 2024 wildfire season.”
Tim Weis, an industrial professor with the faculty of engineering at the University of Alberta, said in an interview with Global News Calgary earlier this week that the situation raises important questions that need to be considered for future energy security.
“I think we need to wrestle with that and realize that we are moving into a world where there’s going to be more electrical demands on the system,” he said.
— with files from Saba Aziz, Nathaniel Dove and Carolyn Kury de Castillo
HALIFAX – Ottawa is negotiating a $500-million bailout for Nova Scotia’s privately owned electric utility, saying the money will be used to prevent a big spike in electricity rates.
Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson made the announcement today in Halifax, saying Nova Scotia Power Inc. needs the money to cover higher costs resulting from the delayed delivery of electricity from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric plant in Labrador.
Wilkinson says that without the money, the subsidiary of Emera Inc. would have had to increase rates by 19 per cent over “the short term.”
Nova Scotia Power CEO Peter Gregg says the deal, once approved by the province’s energy regulator, will keep rate increases limited “to be around the rate of inflation,” as costs are spread over a number of years.
The utility helped pay for construction of an underwater transmission link between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, but the Muskrat Falls project has not been consistent in delivering electricity over the past five years.
Those delays forced Nova Scotia Power to spend more on generating its own electricity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
