adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

Business

CN Rail laying off about 450 workers after shutting down Eastern Canada network – CTV News

Published

4 years ago

 on


MONTREAL —
CN Rail is laying off about 450 workers in its operations in Eastern Canada after cancelling more than 400 trains in the past week over a rail blockade protesting an LNG pipeline in British Columbia.

The layoffs will affect operational staff, including employees working at Autoport in Eastern Passage, Moncton, Charny and Montreal.

The Montreal-based railway says the situation is “regrettable” because the impact on the economy and its employees from the protests is unrelated to CN’s activities and beyond its control.

300x250x1

CN said the shutdown is “progressive and methodical” to ensure it can be restarted when the blockades end completely.

Coastal GasLink signed agreements with 20 elected band councils along the pipeline route, including the Wet’suwet’en First Nation’s council.

But some of Wet’suwet’en’s hereditary chiefs are opposed to the project and say the council does not have authority over the relevant land.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 18, 2020.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Business

Google fires 28 employees who protested $1.2B contract with Israeli – National Post

Published

54 mins ago

 on

April 18, 2024

By


Google has fired 28 employees after a number of staffers protested the company’s cloud contract with the Israeli government.

The workers were terminated after staging protests inside Google’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, per CNN.

Article content

300x250x1

In a statement, Google’s parent company Alphabet said that “physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior.”

Recommended from Editorial

  1. The document by a York University Department of Politics committee makes it clear that the principles of “academic freedom” and “free speech” should not apply to anybody supportive of Israel or having any peripheral connection to Israel whatsoever.

    York University faculty group recommends defining support of Israel as ‘racism’

  2. On October 7, Hamas terrorists threw a live grenade into the couple's safe room. Netta Epstein jumped onto it to save Irene Shavit.

    A Canadian-Israeli planned to marry this month. He died saving his fiancée from Hamas

The protests were organized by the No Tech For Apartheid campaign and protesters held signs that read “No More Genocide For Profit” and “We Stand with Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Googlers.”

The company said it would continue to investigate and take action as needed, reports The Guardian.

The protesters say that Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract granted to Google and Amazon.com in 2021, provides cloud services to the Israeli government and aids in the creation of military applications.

A form letter on the campaign’s website demands that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian “end all ties with Israeli apartheid and cut the Project Nimbus contract.”

Article content

Google says the Nimbus contract “is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.” It added that Google Cloud “supports numerous governments around the world, including the Israeli government.”

“We have been very clear that the Nimbus contract is for workloads running on our commercial cloud by Israeli government ministries, who agree to comply with our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy.”

The No Tech for Apartheid campaign called the firings a “flagrant act of retaliation” and a “clear indication that Google values its $1.2 billion contract with the genocidal Israeli government and military more than its own workers.”

The campaign added that some of the individuals fired did not directly participate in the protests.

Despite what its critics allege, Israel has attempted to warn and shield civilians as the IDF hunts the Hamas terrorists who hid themselves among Gaza’s civilian population and infrastructure after the group’s October 7 attack. As well, critics who call Israel an apartheid state ignore the freedoms enjoyed by the democratic country’s Arab citizens, who play major roles in business, the judiciary and even the Knesset.

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here.

Share this article in your social network

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Business

GTA gas prices to jump 14 cents a litre – Toronto Sun

Published

21 hours ago

 on

April 17, 2024

By


Gas prices have not been this high since August 2022

Published Apr 17, 2024  •  Last updated 3 hours ago  •  1 minute read

300x250x1
HST is applied to the cumulative amount at the pump, including the actual gasoline price, the provincial gasoline tax, the federal excise tax and the carbon tax.
HST is applied to the cumulative amount at the pump, including the actual gasoline price, the provincial gasoline tax, the federal excise tax and the carbon tax. Photo by Postmedia Network /file photo

There’s a price shocker coming at the pumps.

Advertisement 2

Article content

Gas in Ontario, including the GTA, will go up 14 cents a litre overnight for customers filling up on Thursday, says Dan McTeague, the president of Canadians for Affordable Energy.

Article content

“So going from $1.65.9 (per litre) going to $1.79.9,” said McTeague adding the increase will affect the entire province except for northwestern Ontario, which gets its prices from the prairies market.

“That’s the highest level since August, 2022, almost two years ago,” he added.

Recommended from Editorial

  1. Customers at the Pioneer station on Gerrard St. East and Main St. near the Toronto Beach area like Dawn Barbieri (pictured) weren't happy with having to pay an 3.3 cents per litre more in carbon tax but said what can you do it is a necessary evil when you have to fill up your vehicle. on Monday April 1, 2024. Jack Boland/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

    Motorists grudgingly come to terms with carbon tax hike

  2. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to reporters following his meeting with Quebec Premier Francois Legault on Friday March 15, 2024.

    LILLEY: Trudeau in full defensive mode to save his carbon tax hike

McTeague said the reason for the price hike is that stations are switching over to summer-blend gasoline.

“Around this time of year prices go up to reflect the new blend of gasoline, which is more expensive to make,” he explained. “Butane is used in the winter, for gasoline, whereas in the summer it’s alkyaltes. Alkyaltes are extremely expensive.”

Advertisement 3

Article content

“In the winter you want your ignition to start quickly in cold temperatures, you uses volatile butane. You take that out in the summer. That’s a big difference. This is going to be around for awhile and it could get higher,” McTeague said.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

McTeague also blamed the rise in gas prices in Canada on the carbon tax increase, the rising price of oil, and the weak Canadian dollar.

“It just makes a bad situation worse,” he said. “It’s just another brick in the wall, another load on the camel’s bank. The cost of denying our resources, blocking pipelines, is one of the most significant reasons why the Canadian dollar is so weak.”

Article content

Comments

Join the Conversation

This Week in Flyers

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Business

Wildfire sparked by TC Energy pipeline rupture under control – Yahoo Canada Finance

Published

22 hours ago

 on

April 17, 2024

By


CALGARY — A wildfire in west-central Alberta that was sparked by a natural gas pipeline rupture is under control, but an investigation into what caused the pipeline to break could take months or even years.

As of Wednesday morning, there was very little fire activity left in Yellowhead County, where a 10-hectare fire burned on Tuesday about 40 kilometres northwest of Edson.

“But for it to be considered extinguished, we’re going to have to hot spot,” said Caroline Charbonneau, area information co-ordinator with Alberta Forestry and Parks.

300x250x1

“That means we’ll have to dig into the ground, look and feel for hot spots, and then douse it with water. And that could take several days.”

ADVERTISEMENT

The fire on Tuesday, which occurred as much of Alberta is dealing with extremely dry early spring conditions, was sparked when a natural gas pipeline owned by TC Energy Corp. ruptured.

There were no injuries, and the fire was never a threat to any surrounding communities. The affected pipeline segment was isolated and shut in and there is no more gas leaking from the pipeline.

The Canada Energy Regulator had inspectors on site Wednesday to monitor the company’s response and the Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.

According to CER, there have been 12 natural gas pipeline ruptures in Canada since 2008, and Tuesday’s incident near Edson was the first rupture on that particular pipeline within that time period.

The 36-inch diameter pipe that ruptured is part of TC Energy’s NGTL pipeline system, which transports natural gas from Alberta and northeast B.C. to domestic and export markets. The system spans 24,631 kilometres and connects with TC Energy’s Canadian Mainline system, Foothills system and other third-party pipelines.

The NGTL pipeline system is like a web made up of different lines that have been developed in stages.

In 2022, there was a rupture on a separate part of the system that resulted in an explosion and fire near Fox Creek, Alta. There were no injuries.

A TSB investigation into that incident took more than 14 months, and concluded that the pipeline ruptured due to reduced pipe wall strength caused by external corrosion.

While the primary risk of a crude oil pipeline leak is an oil spill that harms the local ecosystem, natural gas pipeline ruptures can and do result in fires or explosions, said Bill Caram, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a U.S.-based non-profit organization.

“The chances are extremely high that a molecule of natural gas that enters a pipeline will go through that pipeline without a failure. Pipelines are quite safe, and when you look at incident rates compared to other modes of transportation like rail or truck, they are much less likely to have a failure,” Caram said.

“But what you don’t get a sense of by looking at the risks of pipelines in that way is how catastrophic a failure can be when it does happen.”

According to the TSB, there were 19 recorded incidences of fires related to pipelines in Canada between 2012 and 2022.

The TSB’s most recent report on pipeline transportation safety in Canada states that in 2022 there were 100 companies transporting either oil or gas or both in the federally regulated pipeline system, which includes approximately 19,950 km of oil pipelines and approximately 48,700 km of natural gas pipelines.

That year, there were 67 pipeline transportation accidents and incidents on federally regulated pipeline systems, according to the report.

That number was well below the 10-year average of 112 occurrences, and was also the lowest number of occurrences since 2019, when 52 pipeline accidents or incidents were recorded by the TSB.

The TSB defines a pipeline “accident” as an incident that results in a person being injured or killed, a fire or explosion, or significant damage to the pipeline affecting its operation.

Less severe pipeline events that involve the uncontrolled release of a commodity or a precautionary or emergency shutdown are classified by the TSB as “incidents.”

There have been no fatal accidents directly resulting from the operation of a federally regulated pipeline system since the inception of the TSB in 1990.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:TRP)

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending