Tag Archives: canada

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government Incompetence: Canadian taxpayers lose $810 million to Chrysler, Unions say it could threaten factories

Just like the U.S. government, the Canadian government has sold its shares of Chrysler stock to Fiat, at a loss.

Canada bailed out Chrysler’s operations in Canada, and it cost the Canadian taxpayers $810 million.

Canadian autoworkers union officials say their government should have held on to the stock a little longer, as a way of making sure Chrysler/Fiat doesn’t shut down the Canadian operations: “We’ve advocated all along for the Ontario and Canadian governments to retain those shares as leverage, to retain investment in Canada, but that decision wasn’t made and now we have to trust that Chrysler and Fiat will recognize the incredible contributions Canadian workers, and Canadian plants, have made in the turnaround of this company.”-Ken Lewenza, union rep

Business/Economics, Opinion, U.S.

U.S. Postal Service facing similar problems as Canada Post, why aren’t U.S. Postal Workers striking?

Canadian postal workers went on limited strike because Canada Post wanted to cut their retirement and wages.  The situation escalated when Canada Post locked out all urban postal workers, in effect laying off 48,000 employees.

Canada Post says they’ve been losing money and need to make drastic cuts in pay and benefits.

Here in the United States a similar situation is happening with the U.S. Postal Service.  The USPS does not make money off taxpayers, they are solely funded by the postage they charge.  The problem is that Congress controls the postage they are allowed to charge, and so far Congress has refused to allow postal rates to reflect the actual operating cost of the USPS.  The result is that the USPS is losing millions and billions of dollars every year. (it’s almost as if Congress wants to put the USPS out of business)

So far thousands of U.S. postal workers have been bought out of their contracts, and even laid off.  What can U.S. postal workers do?  Nothing, because their employment contracts say that if they try to do anything, like go on strike, they automatically lose their job  (no strike clause).   So much for “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.

Business/Economics, International

No more mail service in Canada, no more airline service either? Canadian government getting Police State on Worker’s Rights-Oh Canada you suck!

“They did it with no warning. They trapped the public’s mail. It’s unacceptable.”-Denis Lemelin, Canadian Union of Postal Workers

Canada Post shut down all urban mail service today, June 15, after more than a week of strikes by 15,000 postal workers.  Ironically Canada Post officials say the shut down is meant to keep them from losing more money: “The price tag was climbing. It was reaching $100 million. We need to do something to jump start the negotiations.”-Anick Losier, Canada Post spokeswoman

If you’re losing money because workers aren’t at work, how do you make that better by shutting down altogether?  On top of that Union officials say they reached an agreement with Canada Post bosses and were heading back to work, when they were ‘locked out’: “All postal workers were ready to distribute mail across the country.”-Denis Lemelin, Canadian Union of Postal Workers

So from 15,000 striking postal workers to now 48,000 unemployed postal workers because of Canada Post’s lock out.

Add to the postal workers strike the strike by employees of Air Canada.  Today, 3,800 workers walked off the job.  Many travelers are being forced to use other air lines.

What’s the main motivation behind the two huge strikes in Canada?   Retirement benefits: “We’re Canadians. We deserve our pensions. We’ve worked hard for them.”-Loretta Pasqualini, 30 year employee with Air Canada

Air Canada and Canada Post wants to drastically slash worker’s retirement benefits, as well as other things like pay.  Canada Post says they have to cut costs because they’ve been losing money.  They blame the internet (very similar to what’s going on with the U.S. Postal Service).

Air Canada strikers started to leave their picket lines when security/police started taking pictures of them.  Also, the Canadian government is meeting today to come up with a plan that will force workers back to work, and end collective bargaining!

 

Business/Economics, International

Don’t be fooled by news of Chrysler paying off its government debt

The U.S. media is talking about Chrysler’s announcement that it plans to pay off the U.S. and Canadian government loans.  It is not a sign of a good economy, because the loans are not being paid off with profits.

Chrysler’s pay off is coming as a result of more loans.  The Auto maker has decided that it does not want to keep paying the high interest rate of the government bailout loans, so it has refinanced through private banks.  In other words Chrysler is still in trouble.

Business/Economics, Idaho, International

Canadian oil company equipment stuck in Idaho, Montana suing

Canadian Imperial Oil (a subsidiary Exxon Mobil Corp) has massive equipment, called modules, stuck in Lewiston, Idaho.  They need to get it to their Kearl oil sands project in northern Alberta, Canada.

The problem is their size.  Idaho Transportation Department has yet to approve transportation of the equipment through Idaho, one of the problems is that the modules won’t fit under any overpasses in Idaho.  Oil company officials say they will have to cut them in half.

In Montana, there are lawsuits to stop the transportation through its territory. Montana officials say the size of the Imperial Oil equipment will require burial of overhead power lines, upgrading existing roads and building new turnouts (who’s gonna pay for that?).  Montana environmentalists say the company needs to do an environmental impact assessment.

Imperial Oil is complaining that their construction schedule is being compromised.  Maybe they should have worked this out before hand?

Imperial Oil does not have a good business track record, or a good safety track record.  Recently they’ve apologized for the release of a mile-long plume of sulfur dioxide, in Ontario, Canada.

Business/Economics, International

As oil prices go down, Canadian oil production hit by disaster after disaster

“The wildfire situation in Alberta remains extreme.”-Ed Stelmach, Premier of Alberta

The wildfires in Alberta, Canada, are not only destroying homes, and even towns, but oil fields as well.  The fires are adding to already damaged oil production in Canada.

This year, most oil producers in Canada are dealing with clean ups of major oil spills (ignored by main stream media) and explosions of sand oil fields (also ignored by main stream media).  On top of that, and the fires in Alberta, some oil fields are under water because of flooding in Manitoba.

Oil producer Penn West says their oil production is down by 40,000 barrels per day, and that’s before the fires shut down their operation in Alberta.

The Rainbow pipeline (run by Plains All American Pipeline LP) in Alberta, is closed because of a massive oil spill earlier this year, but clean up of the spill is halted because of the wildfires.  How long will the wildfires go once they hit the oil?

Reuters reported that at least half a dozen Canadian pipelines developed leaks this year.  This is either a case of shoddy maintenance by Canadian companies, or sabotage.

The result of the explosions, pipeline spills, flooding and now fires, is causing several Canadian refiners to shut down.  Operators of the Pelican Lake plant say they will have to shut down if they don’t get oil soon.  The Marten Mountain plant is already shut down.

 

International

Canadian Mounties lie about tasing a man to death

Four Royal Canadian Mounties are being charged with perjury, about the circumstances surrounding the death of a distraught Polish immigrant.

Reports say the Polish immigrant was tased five times by Canadian police, at the Vancouver International Airport in 2007.  The cops lied about the circumstances, and they would have gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for a witness who took video of the incident, and posted it on YouTube.

The man was obviously distraught, but cops simply rushed him without trying to reason with him.  In the video it’s clear the cops know he does not speak English, they think he is speaking Russian.  They’re several taser sounds, then at the end of the video someone calls “code red”.

According to some reports the immigrant was held for 10 hours at the airport customs office, before becoming distraught.  No clear explanation why he was held.

The man who took the video gave it to police, after they promised to give it back within 48 hours.  They lied.  He had to hire a lawyer to get the video back.

Some lies the cops told include that there were only three police involved, and that the immigrant was in an area crowded with people.  Watch the video, it’s obviously not what they say.

The British Columbia attorney general says the four Mounties will not be charged with the immigrant’s death, or with obstructing justice, because there is a low probability that they will be convicted.

The Polish government is not happy to say the least: “…does not diminish the fact that we find it disappointing that there are no recommendations for criminal charges in the incident.”

This is not the only case of Canadian cops being charged with perjury.  There are several cases going on this year, all across Canada.

Business/Economics, International, Opinion

Oil prices drop, suddenly there’s a new oil disaster, big pipeline leak in Canada

Ever since the supposed raid to kill bin Laden was announced, oil prices have been falling.  In fact, May 5, oil is about $99.00 per barrel for WTI.

Guess what, now there’s a huge leak in a big oil pipeline in Alberta, Canada.  How convenient.  Not only that, but officials who control the Plains Midstream pipeline claim the leak started on April 29!  So far, 4.5 million liters (1.2 million gallons) of oil has leaked out.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Chrysler paying back government loans, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul

Chrysler announced that it will pay back the U.S. and Canadian governments (taxpayers), but not because of increased profits.

Chrysler is trying to get money from private lenders, in order to pay back the government loans.  This is a sign that Chrysler doesn’t think it can pay back the taxpayers, based on its sales/profits.

Also, Chrysler is hoping the private loans will be at lower interest rates, than what it’s paying to the governments.  The interest rate for the U.S. loans are between 7%-14%, and the Canadians up to 20%.  Gee looks like they didn’t get a deal, like most corporations.  Is it because Chrysler is owned by a foreign company?