Archives for September 26, 2019

The international research firm Opensignal reports that rural parts of Canada get much slower wireless services than in cities — but they’re still faster than rural parts of the United States and many other countries.

The Opensignal report comes as Canada’s wireless industry comes under fire from politicians and consumer groups that allege the country has among the developed world’s highest prices for mobile services.

The carriers often counter that their investments have put Canada’s wireless services ahead of almost all other developed countries, according to independent research done by various international research firms.

Opensignal confirmed in a report issued Wednesday that it ranked Canada’s overall wireless speeds as third-fastest in the world based on data collected in the spring, behind only South Korea and Norway.

But Opensignal added that it took a closer look during the summer and found that Canada would rank 12th fastest if only rural areas were counted and urban areas were excluded.

On the other hand, Opensignal says rural Canada had much faster wireless download speeds than rural areas of the United States or Germany.

In addition, 4G download speeds in rural Canada ranked higher than the combined experience of urban and rural wireless users in Sweden, New Zealand, France, and 73 of the other countries.

A global movement aimed at pressuring governments into action over climate change is calling on Canadians to join a mass strike planned for Friday and “disrupt business as usual.”

But many retailers in Canada seem to be ignoring that call, with only three chains planning to shutter operations to help raise awareness about Swedish activist Greta Thunberg’s movement.

“Sustainability is really part of our DNA,” said Phil Arrata, CEO of Vancouver-based MEC.

The company will close its 22 stores in Canada on Friday until 5 p.m. local time to allow staff the opportunity to participate in protests.

Organizers plan climate strikes on Friday in more than 150 countries, including Canada. Vancouver is one of several Canadian cities with planned actions, according to the Global Climate Strike website.

The movement started with Greta, an activist who protested outside of her country’s parliament for several weeks in August 2018.

When her action caught the attention of social media, she expanded the movement to encourage kids to skip school every Friday to pressure global leaders to act. The young activist and her Fridays for Future school strike followers are now calling on everyone to walk out of their commitments Friday in a collective strike.

“We can all take part, whatever our circumstances, by refusing to accept the status quo,” reads the strike’s website.

Arrata said MEC staff wanted to participate.

The company knew it may be short staffed that day as a result, he said, and didn’t want to skimp on customer service or overwhelm the employees who choose to come in.

The company emailed its members to inform them about the closures and explain why they made the decision.

“The current rate of emissions causing climate change, if continued, puts the earth on a path to seeing 3-4 degrees of warming by mid-century. This will cause significant impacts to where we live, work and play,” the note reads.

Another Vancouver-based company, Lush Cosmetics North America, made a similar decision.

The toiletry maker said it will shut down its 50 shops, manufacturing facilities and online shopping in Canada on Friday in an effort to encourage its 2,216 staff and customers to participate in local actions. It closed some 200 shops in the U.S. last Friday, when the strike took place in that country.

“We have really come to understand the impact that climate crisis is having on our staff, as well as the rest of the world,”said Carleen Pickard, the company’s ethical campaigns specialist.

Vancouver-based Lululemon Athletica Inc. intends to keep its shops open, a spokesperson said, but would accommodate staff scheduled to work who wish to attend the strikes instead.

An Indigo Books & Music Inc. spokesperson said the retailer’s home office teams in Toronto and Montreal would have the opportunity to participate.

Melius Energy says it has successfully tested a new technology that allows oilsands bitumen to be shipped as a semi-solid product in six-metre-long shipping containers.

The Calgary-based company says it moved 130 barrels of bitumen treated with the BitCrude process from Edmonton to Prince Rupert by intermodal rail.

President Nicole Zhang says the alternative to pipeline or rail tanker cars delivers value for Canadian producers while satisfying international demand for the heavy, sticky oil.

The company is working to line up Asian refinery customers who can use Canadian bitumen for products such as asphalt and diesel, while also signing producers of bitumen to long-term supply agreements.

The BitCrude process developed by Cal Broder uses an electrically powered diluent recovery unit to remove lighter petrochemicals, thus producing a product that’s non-flammable for transportation purposes, floats in both fresh and saltwater in custom containers and is non-toxic to marine life.

Melius says the product meets regulatory requirements of the recently passed federal oil tanker ban in northern B.C. and can be exported from Prince Rupert.

“We have now proven that we can ship bitumen to international markets safely and efficiently,” said Broder in a news release.

A delayed grain crop is causing headaches for railways, elevator operators and farmers following a dry spring and wet summer.

Grain carloads at the two major Canadian rail companies are down 11 per cent so far in the quarter ending Sept. 30.

John Brooks, head of marketing at Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. — where grain revenues make up nearly one-third of annual revenues — told an investor conference that harvests are up to 30 per cent below the average this time of year but that he remains “bullish” on pushing the product to market over the next few months.

Wade Sobkowich, head of the Western Grain Elevator Association, says the wet Prairie weather will likely produce a crop with more mildew, sprout damage and frost, which will make it “challenging” to mill the grain and boost profit margins, despite an expected one per cent rise in overall harvest volume.

Sobkowich says farmers are under a lot of stress to get grain off the fields, a feat that will require more co-operative weather.

CP Rail framed the harvest woes as a “timing issue,” though persistent rain could dampen the quality of the output as well as export volumes.