Operational and funding costs are huge: $548M in 2019 (before COVID-19) and $597M in 2021
Investment managers and investors should often ask: If I didn’t already own this stock, would I buy it today? By any criteria, Via Rail, a federal Crown corporation, is not a good investment – even under unrealistically favourable assumptions. The federal government should rigorously examine this charitably-designated ‘enterprise,’ then aim it toward one of two…
This is a fun, lively car to drive. The shift mechanism, with its rifle-bolt precision, is a treat
The old saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” applies in spades to the Mazda MX-5, or Miata as many of us still call it. Yes, it’s changed over the years – it’s a little bulkier and more upscale than it used to be. But, more than three decades after its introduction, it remains…
Without the right tools, we can’t build a house. Without the right people, things will get broken
“You are fired!” John yelled at me as I was lying on the ground after falling off the roof of the house. John was mad because his sawhorses had been broken in half because of my stupidity. I was stunned and just wondering if I had broken anything in my body as a result of…
There’s actually a striking amount of broad-based consensus around energy
A new artificial-intelligence-powered social media tool is showing that Canadians aren’t as polarized about energy policy and transition as we might imagine. Developed by University of Alberta engineering professor Lianne Lefsrud and an interdisciplinary team of researchers, Ai4Buzz uses targeted keywords to harvest, aggregate and examine Twitter conversations about energy and energy policies. Organized by category into a series…
Approving new fossil fuel projects is moral and economic madness
After approving the Bay du Nord offshore oil project off Newfoundland and Labrador in April, the Canadian government has decided to take our climate risk-taking to a whole new level by issuing a Call for Bids for oil exploration for an area one third larger than the size of New Brunswick. Bids to drill for…
There’s nothing more significant than living with meaning
There’s nothing more significant than living with meaning. This is the concept pondered by the Jewish psychiatrist Viktor Frankl as he struggled to remain alive for three years in Nazi concentration camps. Frankl established the groundwork for his psychological theory on the importance of finding meaning in life before he was sent to Auschwitz. He…
Supply management pushed up to 190,000 Canadians into poverty
By Krystle Wittevrongel and Gabriel Giguère New Zealand had never launched a dispute under a free trade agreement until two weeks ago, on May 12, when it launched a trade dispute against Canada under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), accusing our government of breaking its promises on dairy imports. This was also the first dispute launched…
Consumers used to love to hate these machines. But things have changed
Self-checkouts have long been an unloved tool in the world of retail. In the beginning, nothing worked as it should, especially at the grocery store where an order for 20 items brought a new form of despair. But even if the mere presence of self-checkouts bothered many consumers, Canadians have apparently befriended them in some…
An overview of the extensive training that cloud providers offer to help information professionals
As more and more organizations move applications from their on-premises computing environment to their favourite cloud service provider, information system (IS) professionals need to build their cloud skills. Here’s an overview of the extensive training that the major cloud service providers offer to help IS professionals. It isn’t easy to choose among these excellent, in-depth…
Edmonton Protocol team reports treatment is safe and reliable for people with hard-to-control diabetes
After 20 years of perfecting their technique, the team behind the largest islet transplant program in the world reports the procedure is a safe, reliable and life-changing treatment for people with hard-to-control diabetes. In results published recently in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, the researchers report on patient survival, graft survival, insulin independence and protection from life-threatening low…
Investment managers and investors should often ask: If I didn’t already own this stock, would I buy it today? By any criteria, Via Rail, a federal Crown corporation, is not a good investment – even under unrealistically favourable assumptions. The federal government should rigorously examine this charitably-designated ‘enterprise,’ then aim it toward one of two…
