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End to slaughterhouses would benefit workers, consumers — but it's unlikely even COVID-19 will force change – CBC.ca

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Better prices for farmers. Higher-quality meat for consumers. Improved conditions for workers on the production line.

Those are some of the benefits farmers and experts say could come from rethinking Canada’s reliance on a few massive slaughterhouses and opening smaller meat-processing facilities across the country — a suggestion that’s arisen as coronavirus forced the shutdown of some plants in North America.

Building local capacity for processing meat isn’t an easy task, especially in Manitoba, where most beef farmers rely on plants in Ontario or Alberta that slaughter thousands of animals a day, said Clair Scott, who runs a beef farm with his family near Boissevain, in southwestern Manitoba.

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“I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, but it’s pretty tough,” Scott said.

As in many industries, the COVID-19 pandemic has left its mark on meat processing in Canada, raising questions about whether there’s a way to do things differently.

Meat-packing facilities across North America, where employees work at breakneck speeds in close quarters, became hot spots for the illness caused by the new coronavirus. When the virus made its way to their production lines, many of those plants had to close temporarily, leading to bottlenecks in slaughter capacity and uncertainty across the industry.

“When things go wrong, when we have big players, they go wrong in a big way,” Scott said. “When things go wrong in a big way, it’s hard to fix.”

Farmers losing money

For Scott, that meant cutting the size of his operation out of fear he may not be able to sell his animals in the fall. He brought around 1,500 cattle into his feedlot this spring — less than one-third of his usual 5,000. The animals were each about $200 cheaper than usual, but that bargain still wasn’t enough for him to take the risk of buying more.

“We weren’t going to take a chance on them, that’s for damn sure,” he said.

Bill Campbell, another Manitoba beef farmer, said he also felt the pandemic’s squeeze on the industry as prices for his animals dropped by 30 per cent. He said in the last few weeks, he sold 45 yearlings, steers and heifers and lost about $400 on each of them, making nearly $20,000 less than he was expecting.

“It’s a fair bit. You know, it’s a good Christmas.”

Bill Campbell is the president of Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers. He also farms south of Brandon, Man. (Riley Laychuk/CBC)

Campbell, who is also the president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, said he’s cutting costs where he can and is waiting anxiously to see how things turn out this fall. 

“Now, we see some of the risk with kind of putting all our eggs in one basket,” he said. 

Campbell said the pandemic has made him wonder about what a way forward with more local capacity for processing meat might look like in Manitoba.

For one thing, farmers would save money on freight costs by not having to ship animals to another province. 

Right now, it costs about 10 cents per pound — around $150 for a typical 1,500-pound animal — to ship cattle from Manitoba to Alberta, he said. 

Campbell said opening smaller local facilities to process meat could create more competition, giving farmers like him better prices for their animals. He said it could also help producers keep a closer eye on the quality of their meat. 

“I always cringe when people tell me that they had a bad eating experience with beef. And so [I wonder] what happened to that product along the way that jeopardized that quality,” he said. “If we have more quality control of locally produced beef, then maybe we can reduce those incidences.”

Hurdles to making changes

Food policy expert Sarah Berger Richardson said smaller facilities would also have fewer employees and slower production lines, which could improve safety conditions for workers.

“[In a smaller facility], workers might not have to work at the same fast pace as they do at a facility that processes 4,000 animals a day,” said Berger Richardson, an assistant professor in the University of Ottawa law faculty’s civil law section.  

“Workers have more time to react and respond if they see something’s not right. They’re not racing against the clock or a production line that’s whizzing by them.”

One major hurdle to creating more local facilities is government regulations.

Those include tags required to identify each animal, specifications for things like wall heights and cooling capacity, and a requirement to remove body parts like nerves and spinal cords to eliminate the risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (or mad cow disease).

Slaughterhouses in Canada have to follow government regulations, including a requirement to remove body parts like nerves and spinal cords to eliminate the risk of mad cow disease. Food policy expert Sarah Berger Richardson said some of those regulations make it harder for smaller processors to survive. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

The rules are crucial to make sure meat processed in Canada is safe to eat, but they can be difficult for smaller facilities to follow and may not all be equally necessary in slaughterhouses of all sizes, said Berger Richardson.

For smaller facilities to really have a chance at survival, the government would likely also need to pitch in some money, she said.

“It really requires a lot of different people to come together and think about this collectively and not kind of in the usual government silos.”

She said making these changes would likely result in more expensive meat, which may push people to introduce more plant-based proteins into their diet.

But for the companies running Canada’s major slaughterhouses, the question is a purely economic one, said Ryan Cardwell, an associate professor in the University of Manitoba’s department of agricultural economics. Despite the risk of COVID-19, it’s still cheaper to process large numbers of animals in one big facility than it would be to kill the same number in smaller sites across the country, he said.

“So unless that cost calculation changes, processing firms aren’t going to decide to do that,” Cardwell said. “They’re going to stick with large processing plants unless the risks of the virus contaminating people within a large plant can’t be addressed.”

Despite the risk of COVID-19, it’s still cheaper to process large numbers of animals in one big facility than it would be to kill the same number in smaller sites across the country, said agricultural economics professor Ryan Cardwell. (Bryan Eneas/CBC)

Cardwell said while COVID-19 has caused industry disruptions worldwide, Canada’s food system has held up well — so unless the pandemic drags on, he doesn’t expect or recommend major changes.

“If, two years out, we don’t have a vaccine or we don’t have herd immunity or we’re still seeing these waves of big infection cycles, then maybe firms would be incentivized to do things differently,” he said.

“In terms of knee-jerk reaction to the current pandemic, I would caution against that.”

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Calgary breaks all-time record in housing starts but increasing demand keeps inventory low – CBC.ca

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Soaring housing demands in Calgary led to an all-time record for new residential builds last year, but inventory levels of completed and unsold units remained low due to demand outpacing supply.

According to the latest report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), total housing starts increased by 13 per cent in Calgary, reaching a total of 19,579 units with growth across all dwelling types in the city.

That compares to a decline of 0.5 per cent overall for housing starts in the six major Canadian cities surveyed by CMHC.

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Calgary also had the highest housing starts by population.

“Part of the reason why we think that might have happened is that developers are responding to low vacancies in the rental market,” said Adebola Omosola, a housing economics specialist with CMHC.

“The population of Calgary is still growing, a record number of people moved here last year, and we still expect that to remain at least in the short term.”

Earlier this year, the Calgary Real Estate Board also predicted that demand, especially for rental apartments, wouldn’t let up any time soon. 

Industry can cope with demand, expert says

According to numbers from the report, average construction times were higher in 2023 for all dwelling types except for apartments.

The agency’s report suggests the increase in the number of under-construction residential projects might mean builders are operating at or near full capacity.

However, there’s optimism the construction industry can match the increasing need.

Brian Hahn, CEO of BILD Calgary Region, said despite concerns around about construction costs, project timelines and labour shortages, the industry has kept up with the demand for new builds.

Demand is expected to remain robust, but the construction industry can keep up, according to BILD Calgary region CEO Brian Hahn.
Demand is expected to remain robust, but the construction industry can keep up, according to BILD Calgary Region chief executive officer Brian Hahn. (Shaun Best/Reuters)

“I’ve heard that kind of conversation at the end of 2022 and I heard it in 2023,” Hahn said.

“Yet here we are early in 2024, and January and February were record numbers again.”

Hahn added he believes the current pace of construction will continue for at least the next six months and that the industry is looking at initiatives to attract more people to the trades.

Increase in row house and apartment construction

Construction growth was largely driven by new apartment projects, making up almost half of the housing starts in Calgary in 2023.

The federal housing agency says 9,034 apartment units were started that year, an increase of 17 per cent from the previous year. Of those, about 54 per cent were purpose-built rentals.

Apartments made up around two-thirds of all units under construction, CMHC said, with the total number of units under construction reaching 23,473.

Growth, however, was seen across all dwelling types. Row homes increased by 34 per cent from the previous year while groundbreaking on single-detached homes grew by two per cent.

“Notwithstanding challenges, our members and the industry counterparts that support them managed to produce a record amount of starts and completions,” Hahn said.

“I have little doubt that the industry will do their very best to keep pace at those levels.”

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Ottawa real estate: House starts down, apartments up in 2023 – CTV News Ottawa

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Rental housing dominated construction in Ottawa last year, according to a new report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

Residential construction declined significantly in 2023, with housing starts dropping to 9,245 units, a 19.5 per cent decline from the record high observed in 2022. But while single-detached and row housing starts fell compared to 2022, new construction for rental units and condominiums rose.

“There’s been a shift toward rental construction over the past two years. Rental housing starts made up nearly one third of total starts in 2023, close to double the average of the previous five years,” the report stated.

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Apartment starts reached their highest level since the 1970s.

“The trend toward rental and condominium apartment construction follows increased demand in these market segments due to population growth, households looking for affordable options, and some seniors downsizing to smaller units,” the CMHC said.

Demand from international migration and students, the high cost of home ownership, and people moving to Ottawa from other parts of Ontario were the main drivers for rental housing starts in 2023. The CMHC says rental and condominium apartment starts made up 63 per cent of total starts in 2023, compared to the average of 37 per cent for the period 2018-2022.

There was a modest increase in rental housing starts in 2023 over the record-high seen the year prior and a jump in new condominiums. The report shows 5,846 new apartments were built in Ottawa last year, up 2.1 per cent compared to 2022.

Housing starts in Ottawa by year. (CMHC)

Big demand for condos

The CMHC said condo starts reached a new high in 2023, increasing 3 per cent from 2022 numbers.

“As of the end of 2023, there were only 13 completed and unsold condominium units, highlighting continued demand for new units,” the CMHC said.

Condominum starts increased in areas such as Chinatown, Hintonburg, Vanier and Alta Vista, as well as some suburban areas like Kanata, Stittsville, and western Orléans. Condo apartment construction declined in denser parts of the city like downtown, Lowertown and Centretown, the report says.

Taller buildings are also becoming more common, as the cranes dotting the skyline can attest. The CMHC notes that buildings with more than 20 storeys accounted for nearly 10 per cent of apartment structure starts in 2022 and 2023, compared to an average of 2 per cent over the 2017-2021 period. The number of units per building also rose 7 per cent compared to 2022.

Apartment building heights in Ottawa by year. (CMHC)

Single-detached home construction down significantly

The number of new single-detached homes built in Ottawa last year was the lowest level seen in the city since the mid 1990s, CMHC said.

“The Ottawa area experienced a slowdown in residential construction in 2023, driven by a significant decline in single-detached and row housing starts,” the CMHC said.

Single-detached housing starts were down 45 per cent compared to 2022. Row house starts dropped by 38 per cent compared to 2022, marking a third year of declines in a row.

“Demand for single-detached and row houses also declined in 2023. Higher mortgage rates and home prices have led to a shift in demand toward more affordable rental and condominium units,” the report said.

There were 1,535 single-detached housing starts in Ottawa last year, 208 new semi-detached homes and 1,678 new row houses.

The majority of single-detached and row housing starts were built in suburban communities such as Barrhaven, Stittsville, Kanata, Orléans and rural parts of the city.

“Increased construction costs resulting from higher financing rates and inflation that occurred in 2022 and 2023 contributed to the decline in construction in the region,” the CMHC said. 

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Trump’s media company ticker leads to fleeting windfall for some investors

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A man looks at a screen that displays trading information about shares of Truth Social and Trump Media & Technology Group, outside the Nasdaq Market site in New York City, U.S., March 26.Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Possible confusion over the new stock symbol for former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social (DJT-Q) saw some investor brokerage balances briefly jump by hundreds of thousands of dollars on Tuesday, the first day Trump’s “DJT” ticker traded.

Several people complained on social media about briefly seeing the value of their DJT stock holdings on Charles Schwab platforms inflated to figures more in line with what they would be worth if the shares traded at the level of the Dow Jones Transportation Average.

Some users said they faced a similar issue in pre-market hours on Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade trading platform.

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group opened Tuesday at $70.90, while the Dow Jones Transportation Average started the session at 15,937.73 points.

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For one trader, the Schwab brokerage balance jumped by more than $1 million due to the error, according to a screen grab shared on social media platform X. Reuters was unable to contact the trader or independently verify the brokerage balance.

“It sure was nice seeing millions in the account, even if it wasn’t real,” another person, going by the username @DanielBenjamin8, who faced the issue in his E*Trade account, posted on X.

Two X users and one on Reddit surmised that the inflated balances were due to the ticker symbol for the company being nearly identical to the index.

A spokeswoman for Charles Schwab said that certain users on some of Schwab’s trading platforms saw their brokerage balances briefly inflated due to a technical issue.

The issue has been resolved and investors are able to trade equities and options on Schwab platforms, she said. Schwab declined to describe the exact cause of the issue.

E*Trade did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of regular business hours.

Trump Media & Technology Group and S&P Dow Jones Indices, which maintains the Dow Jones Transportation Average Index, did not immediately comment on the issue.

While social media users said the issue appeared to have been resolved, many rued not being able to cash out their supposed gains from the error.

“I better go tell my boss that I’m actually not retiring,” the trader whose account balance had briefly jump by more than $1 million, wrote on X.

Trump Media & Technology Group shares surged more than 36% on Tuesday in their debut on the Nasdaq that comes more than two years since its merger with a blank-check firm was announced.

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