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Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…
Tourism operators face heavy debt, even as business roars back
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Canada is ready to help in the aftermath of a disastrous earthquake that hit Turkiye and Syria, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday, as authorities in those countries reported that more than 3,400 people had died and thousands more were injured.
Rescue workers and residents searched the rubble of toppled buildings for survivors and officials feared the death toll would keep climbing.
Residents immediately rushed outside in rain and snow to escape falling debris, while those who were trapped cried for help. Throughout the day, major aftershocks hit. At night, workers were still pulling out bodies as desperate families waited for news on trapped loved ones.
Trudeau said the reports and images from Turkiye and Syria were “devastating.”
“Canada stands ready to provide assistance,” he said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with everyone affected by these major earthquakes, and our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones.”
Trudeau told question period that the government is trying to determine “how it can best help in the short-term, knowing there will also be need for support in the long-term as communities rebuild from this terrible event.”
Ibrahim Cinaroglu, a member of the Turkish-Canadian Society, said four of his friends and their family members were among those killed in Turkiye.
“We couldn’t reach them unfortunately through the phone or any other means, but we heard that they (have) died,” he said.
Cinaroglu said it’s mentally crushing.
“How can that happen to you or your beloved ones?” he said. “It is terrible right now.”
Cinaroglu called on the Canadian government and people to help.
Global Affairs Canada said in a statement that it is monitoring the situation and is in close contact with its humanitarian partners.
“We are assessing needs on the ground and stand ready to provide assistance.”
It said it has not yet received any requests for help from Canadians related to the earthquakes but noted there are 7,513 who are registered as being abroad in Turkiye and 1,394 in Syria.
The federal Conservatives would support “any effort by Canadians and the Canadian government to provide assistance,” foreign affairs critic MP Michael Chong said in a tweet.
NDP foreign affairs critic MP Heather McPherson urged the federal Liberal government to send immediate humanitarian support.
The quake, which was centred on Turkiye’s southeastern province of Kahramanmaras, piled more misery on a region shaped on both sides of the border by more than a decade of civil war in Syria.
Thousands of buildings were reported collapsed in a wide area extending from Syria’s cities of Aleppo and Hama to Turkiye’s Diyarbakir, more than 330 kilometres to the northeast.
More than a dozen Canadian aid agencies working together as the Humanitarian Coalition said they are raising funds to rush assistance to people in need.
Moutaz Adham, the Syria country director for Oxfam Canada, said the number of people killed and injured was shifting rapidly.
“We are seeing families are looking for their missing loved ones who (are) left under the debris of collapsed buildings. We know that people, even those that their buildings haven’t collapsed, don’t feel safe to go back,” he said in a phone interview from Damascus.
“The earthquake is coming on top of a very dire humanitarian situation in Syria.”
The United Nations estimates that some 6.9 million people are internally displaced inside Syria due to the war.
Majd Khalaf, a Montreal-based co-ordinator with the White Helmets, a Syrian civil-defence organization, said many buildings that collapsed had been damaged during the war, making them more vulnerable to the quake.
“Our teams are now responding … they are digging in the rubble to save lives,” he said. “It’s really a huge disaster.”
Vast areas in northwest Syria have lost power and internet connections, he added.
Khaled Abdulwahed, a Toronto-based manager with Molham Volunteering Team, a non-profit organization that provides aid to displaced people in Syria, said his organization has also started a fundraising campaign to support those who lost their homes.
He said there’s a high demand for essentials, including food, infant formula, heaters and blankets, for people who are sheltering in schools, sport centres and mosques.
“Our teams are also supporting hospitals and medical centres with medical supplies,” he said.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured Monday’s quake at 7.8, with a depth of 18 kilometres. Hours later, a 7.5 magnitude quake struck more than 100 kilometres away. The second jolt was considered an aftershock because it took place on the same fault line as the first, according to a USGS seismologist.
The region in Turkiye hit by the earthquake sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. Some 18,000 people were killed in similarly powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkiye in 1999.
Offers of help, from search-and-rescue teams to medical supplies and money, have poured in from dozens of countries, as well as the European Union and NATO. The vast majority were for Turkiye, with Russian and Israeli promises of help to the Syrian government, but it was not clear if any would go to the devastated rebel-held pocket in the northwest.
With files from Jordan Omstead, Dylan Robertson and The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 6, 2023.
Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today…
Tourism operators face heavy debt, even as business roars back
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Canadian tourism operators says the tourism sector hasn’t returned to what it was pre-COVID.
Many businesses report carrying a heavy debt load, with Vancouver-based ecotourism company Maple Leaf Adventures saying it’s carrying it’s heaviest debt load in 38 years.
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Co-owner Maureen Gordon says while she and her competitors are recovering, higher interest rates are putting a damper on the post-COVID rebound.
Tourism Industry Association of Canada C-E-O Beth Potter says while the sector brought in 109-billion dollars in revenue last year, the federal government must help out by bringing in a new low interest loan program.
Tourism Minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada has said tourism operators have been affected by the warmest winter on record, but will be helped by the federal carbon rebate.
Here’s what else we’re watching …
Trudeau to make announcement in Saskatoon today
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be in Saskatoon today, where he will make an announcement highlighting measures focused on youth, education, and health that were contained in last week’s budget.
Joining Trudeau at the announcement in Saskatchewan’s largest city are minister for northern affairs Dan Vandal and Women and Gender Equality and Youth Minister Marci Ien.
Trudeau has faced conflict with the Saskatchewan Party government, whose leader, Premier Scott Moe, has been a vocal and long-standing opponent of the federal carbon levy.
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Moe is one of several premiers who have asked Trudeau to host a meeting to discuss alternatives to the consumer carbon price.
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‘Perfect storm’: Quebec farmer protests continue
Quebec farmers are continuing a series of protests that have brought slow rolling tractors to communities across the province’s agricultural regions.
The president of Quebec’s farmers union Martin Caron says producers are struggling with higher interest rates, growing paperwork and fees on plastic products, like containers of seeds, fertilizer and pesticides.
His organization is asking the current Coalition Avenir Quebec government to ensure farmers can get loans with interest rates of three per cent.
A spokesperson for Quebec’s agriculture minister says farmers can get emergency financial aid through a new program and that the government is consulting with the farmers union about reducing paperwork.
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Study shows caribou growth at wolves’ expense
New research suggests western Canada’s caribou population is growing.
But the same study also shows the biggest reason for the rebound is the slaughter of hundreds of wolves, a policy which will likely need to continue.
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Thirty-four researchers compared notes on herds in Alberta and British Columbia based on a study in Ecological Applications and found between 1991 and 2023, the caribou population dropped by half.
However, over the last few years the numbers have begun to slowly rise, as it’s estimated there are now more than 1500 caribou than there were had not restoration effort been made.
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Second World War hangar in Edmonton burns in fire
An aircraft hangar built during the Second World War at Edmonton’s former municipal airport has been destroyed by fire.
A spokesman for the City of Edmonton says in an email firefighters were called to Hangar 11 just before 7 p.m. Monday.
The city’s email says 11 fire crews were dispatched to the scene to deal with the heavy smoke and flames and the wooden building later collapsed.
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How a Newfoundland town shaped creepy ‘King Tide’
A new movie shot in Newfoundland showcases a community heavily reliant on a magical child.
“The King Tide” is about an isolated villagers having their lives forever changed after a mysterious infant washes up on their shores, the sole survivor of a devastating boat wreck.
They name the baby Isla, raise and learn she has healing powers promising immunity from injury and illness.
As the years pass, they become reliant on Isla’s abilities, but when her powers start to fade, a panic sets in as the community begins to fracture.
The movie was shot by Newfoundlander Christian Sparkes in Keels, Newfoundland, a former bustling fishing community which he says he’s been looking to film in for years, but couldn’t until recently due to the cost.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2024.
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Canada’s plastic bag ban has had an unintended consequence: a proliferation of reusable bags piling up in basements, closets and, eventually, landfills.
“They’re everywhere,” said environmental researcher Tony Walker. “We’re drowning in them, and we shouldn’t be.”
To combat the problem, several of Canada’s big grocers have introduced solutions. Last week, Walmart launched a free national recycling pilot program for the retailer’s reusable blue bags. Competitors Sobeys and chains owned by Loblaw Companies Ltd. use recyclable paper bags for grocery delivery.
But some environmental experts argue that paper bags are also problematic and that the best solutions are those that help customers actually reuse their reusable bags.
“We just can’t keep giving [them] out,” said Walker, a professor at Dalhousie University’s School for Resource and Environmental Studies in Halifax. “We’re only meant to have a few of them, and we’re meant to use them until they fall apart.”
In late 2022, the federal government rolled out a ban on the manufacture, import and sale of several single-use plastics, including checkout bags. The regulations are being contested in court, but in the meantime, they remain in effect.
The regulations have made single-use shopping bags scarce in Canada, but they’ve also led to the proliferation of reusable bags, especially for grocery delivery.
“It just creates more waste, which is what we’re trying to avoid in the first place,” Walmart customer Udi Sela said in a CBC News interview in late 2022.
At the time, Sela, who lives in Maple, Ont., estimated his family had acquired about 300 reusable Walmart bags via grocery delivery.
“We can’t return them, we can’t do much with them.”
Now, a little more than a year later, Walmart has launched a pilot project to address the problem.
It allows customers to pack up their unwanted reusable Walmart blue bags and ship them — at no charge — to a facility where they’ll get a second life.
According to Walmart, bags in good condition will be laundered and donated to charity, primarily Food Banks Canada. Damaged bags will get recycled into other materials. Reusable bags typically can’t go in blue bins because they’re costly and difficult to recycle.
Customers must sign up for Walmart’s program, and enrolment is limited.
Jennifer Barbazza, Walmart’s senior manager of sustainability, said the retailer will fine-tune the details as the program progresses.
“[We] know that some customers have more reusable bags than maybe they need,” she said. “One of the things that we’re really excited to learn about from the pilot is customer acceptance and customer feedback.”
Udi Sela has already signed up.
“I definitely think it’s a step in the right direction,” he said in an interview on Friday. “It’s something that needed to be done a while ago. God knows we’ve got a ton of bags kind of piled up.”
He said he’s concerned that some customers may find mailing the bags a hurdle. However, it’s not deterring Sela, who soon plans to ship hundreds.
Not everyone is keen on Walmart’s project. Emily Alfred, a waste campaigner with Toronto Environmental Alliance, said donating the bags to the food bank is just passing on the problem.
“We need to remove waste from the system entirely, and just sending these somewhere else for someone else to deal with is not really a solution,” she said.
Alfred said a better option is a program Walmart piloted in Guelph, Ont., in 2022. For a fee, customers could check out reusable bags from an in-store kiosk and later return them to be cleaned and reused.
“That’s a real circular reuse system,” she said.
Walmart’s Barbazza said the retailer is continuing to explore different reusable bag programs, including ones placed in stores.
She also said she’s confident Canada’s food banks will make good use of the bags.
“There’s definitely a need for sturdy items to distribute materials to the food bank clients.”
Among Canada’s major grocers, only Walmart offers a reusable bag program for all customers.
Loblaw recently switched from reusable to recyclable paper bags for grocery delivery. Sobeys did not respond to requests for comment, but according to its website, the grocer also uses paper bags and “reusable options” for home delivery.
Several environmental experts say paper bags aren’t a good solution, because their production leaves a sizable carbon footprint.
“Paper bags are a problem,” Alfred said. “It takes a lot of energy to recycle paper, takes a lot of trees and energy to make new paper.”
Loblaw said it continues to explore a variety of more sustainable solutions. “It’s a challenge we’re committed to addressing,” spokesperson Dave Bauer said in an email.
Both Walker and Alfred applaud Metro for its grocery delivery program, because the grocer, which operates in Ontario and Quebec, reuses delivery materials.
Metro said customers can get their goods delivered in a cardboard box or reusable bags, which can be returned and used for another delivery. Or customers can opt for a plastic bin and remove their groceries from it upon arrival.
Metro does not offer similar programs for in-store shoppers.
Alfred said the federal government should introduce regulations that mandate retailers adopt effective reusable bag programs for all customers.
“It’s up to our governments and people to demand that these companies do better,” she said.
But Walker suggested that the regulations would be hard to enforce and that incentives could be a better tactic.
For example, if retailers increased the price of reusable bags, shoppers might be less likely to forget them when they head to the store, he said.
“When the cost is a disincentive to do an activity, people change their behaviour.”
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