Sunday, January 21, 2018

Canada believes that Trump may pull out of NAFTA and negotiations

(January 10)Chrystia Freeland, Canada's Foreign Minister told reporters today that the United States must be taken seriously when it warns that it might walk away from NAFTA.
Two Canadian government sources said on Wednesday that Canada is convinced Trump will soon announce that the U.S. intends to pull out of NAFTA. The comments may have resulted in lower values for Canadian and Mexican currencies as well as driving down stock prices.
Canadian complaints to WTO may be the last straw for Trump
Trump has often described NAFTA as a terrible deal for the U.S. even though it gives favorable access to Canada's natural resources and to cheap Mexican labor. However, Trump's populist America First policy would try to reformulate the agreement to meet what he thinks are the interests of the U.S. rather than of U.S.-based global corporations. Many of these policies are not acceptable to Mexico or Canada.
As a recent, Digital Journal article reports, Canada is filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization(WTO) against the U.S. claiming its imposition of duties and other penalties against exporting nations constitute violations of international trade law.
U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer said: “Canada’s claims are unfounded and could only lower U.S. confidence that Canada is committed to mutually beneficial trade.”
This move may make the next round of negotiations on NAFTA even more difficult assuming Trump does not announce he is pulling out before they happen.
Factfile on NAFTA. US President Donald Trump has denounced NAFTA as a "disaster" and the w...
Factfile on NAFTA. US President Donald Trump has denounced NAFTA as a "disaster" and the worst agreement ever signed by the United States, blaming it for a $64 billion trade gap with Mexico and loss of countless jobs
John SAEKI, AFP
Upcoming negotiations on NAFTA in Montreal
The sixth round of talks are to run from Jan. 23-28 in Montreal and there is only one more round to take place after that.
Freeland claims that Canada had come up with some creative ideas to deal with some of the challenges facing negotiators but did not say what these were. Freeland also said it was “absolutely possible to have a positive outcome” at the Montreal talks if all three sides showed good will. Translated that means if they all agree to meet the main demands of global corporations.
Even if Trump were to give the required six months notice to withdraw from NAFTA he is not required to act on the notice. He could very well face strong opposition in the US Congress where both Republicans and Democrats will be under pressure from U.S.-based global corporations who want a trade deal in their interests.
An announcement to withdraw could be both a negotiating tactic and a sop to Trump's populist base that could help boost his slumping popularity ratings.
The NAFTA proportionality clause
Reports about the negotiations in the press rarely mention this provision and the government has not shown that it has the least intention of changing it. However, it is unique among trade deals in that it prevents the Canadian government from considering the needs of Canadians before those of the other two partners. We cannot put the energy needs of Canadians to access our energy resources before those of the US or Mexico. In practice, this means mostly the U.S.
Proportional sharing requires NAFTA members to make available the current share of energy exports to other member countries even when facing energy shortages at home.
Richard Heinberg, a California energy expert said that proportionality is unique in all of the world's trade treaties. Heinberg said: "Canada has every reason to repudiate the proportionality clause, and to do so unilaterally and immediately."
This is just one of the reasons why Canada should be walking away from the talks. However the Liberal government represents the interests of global corporations at the talks and is not about to abandon them if it sees any way for a successful completion of negotiations.


Published previously in Digital Journal

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Canada failed in attempt to introduce yaks into the far north

Back in the fifties and sixties of the last century, Canada had plans to ship yaks into northern Quebec where they would serve to help the Inuit survive the decline of the caribou herd upon which they had depended.
 

The origin and rationale of the plan
The plan outlined in a paper by David Meren of the University of Montreal was intended to introduce the yaks to the Inuit people of Ungava Bay in the northern part of the province of Quebec.
Meren thinks the plan originated in 1953 with Grant Carman an animal husbandry expert at the Ottawa Experimental Farm. In turn he was considering an idea of Marjorie Findlay a McGill university PhD student who thought that sheep farming could be introduced into the far north as a means by which the Inuit could cope with the rapid decline of the caribou herds upon which they depended.
In her thesis, Findlay compared the Inuit of Ungava Bay to indigenous Greenland residents among whom she had studied. Her plan was to ease the Inuit slowly into mainstream Canadian society as their traditional ways were threatened by the decline of the caribou herds.
Carman thought that yaks would be a better fit for the purpose than sheep. Yaks are able to stand very cold climates.
The connection with India
The Canadian government also sought to use the plan to develop a special relationship with newly-independent India. Then Minister of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources, Jean Lesage even asked Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent to raise the issue with Jawaharial Nehru who was then his Indian counterpart.
In a letter to St. Laurent, Lesage wrote: “There might be some appeal to Mr. Nehru and to the people of India in the idea that it would be possible for them to reciprocate in some measure the assistance that Canada has been providing." However, in the end St. Laurent never got the chance to ask India for some yaks.
Canadians have a history of trying to raise yaks
Diane Latona , a historian with the International Yak Association points out that prior to the plan Canadians had been trying to breed yaks, but with mostly poor results, for about half a century.
As early as 1907 the Canadian governor general Earl Grey wrote to the Secretary of State for the British Colonies noting a plan to import Tibetan yaks into Canada. In 1908 there was a record of a shipment of yaks in November.
For some time, scientists at a facility in Wainwright Alberta tried interbreeding yaks with bison and cows. The interbreeding works but the males are uniformly sterile and the hybrids did not thrive. While yaks can survive cold climes older ones require a great deal of food and shelter to stay warm and survive.
The International Yak Association
Latona runs her own yak farm in the state of Washington. The International Yak Association has its own website.
There are quite a number of yak ranches in the US in states such as Colorado, Michigan, Washington, Minnesota and others. Yaks can stand cold weather and are adapted for mountainous regions but they need lots to eat in the form of grass or hay and shelter to survive.
The Association estimates there are about 7,500 yaks in North America.
Yaks can be raised successfully in Canada
Phil Marsh who farms near McBride BC had a herd of 250 yaks that he put up for sale in the Western Producer in 2014 in order to concentrate on a second business interest he had.
Marsh bought his first yaks in 2006 and slowly expanded his herd. He sold yak meat to a Vancouver wholesale company that resold top cuts to high end Vancouver restaurants. Marsh said it was a good business.
Marsh said that the yaks required minimum maintenance, were easy calvers and did not require special feed nor special fences. They also will not chase you out of the pasture.
Marsh estimated that there are less than a thousand yaks in Canada mostly just four or five animals to a farm.
Canadian government continues to plan to raise yaks
A new plan to send yaks to northern Quebec never came to fruition as the Department of Agriculture citing a fear of hoof and mouth disease vetoed an idea of bringing a herd in from India. However, in 1956 the Canadian government got three yaks from the Catskill Game Farm in New York.
However one turned out not to be fertile and had to be replaced. The idea was to build a herd at the Ottawa Experimental Farm. It was decided that building up a big herd could take decades. Female Yaks have only one calf often every other year. They can live up to twenty years.
Six yaks two males and four females were shipped off by the Canadian government to Al Oeming's Game Farm just outside of Edmonton Alberta. Todd, Oeming's son says that they now have a herd of more than 40 yaks.
It is just as well that the yaks never got to Ungava, where large amounts of hay or other feed would have had to be shipped there somehow to keep the yaks alive over winter, at a huge cost. However, they could serve as a source of meat.


Previously published in the Digital Journal

Friday, January 5, 2018

How birds suvive harsh Canadian winters

As the temperatures in the area in which I live in southern Manitoba dips towards minus 40 Centigrade I often wonder how birds survive the winter here.

Migration
Some birds, just as some Manitobans, simply travel south for the winter. Humans who do this are often called "snow birds" and they often travel to areas such as Texas, Arizona, Florida, or even parts of Mexico. The premier of Manitoba has a property in Costa Rica.
Hummingbirds are among the first to leave in the fall and the last to come back in the spring. Often they come before the last frost or do not leave before the first frost. In both cases they can die from the cold. Hummingbird feeders should be brought in before the first frosts so that hummingbirds will not linger when they should be on their way south.
Geese and ducks also avoid the winter by migrating south and then returning in the spring.
Robins, warblers, gulls, red-winged blackbirds and many other birds also simply avoid the winter by migrating to warmer climes.
Juncos come from the north and stay around in the fall until there is quite a bit of snow or its gets quite cool and then travel further south.
Some birds consider southern Manitoba the south
While crows migrate south, ravens migrate from the north to spend the winters here. Unlike the crows here in the summer they do not come to eat the cat food I put out for stray cats. I see them in fields in the country side.
Arctic red polls also come south for the winter. I saw a number of red polls at my feeder the last few days. They are quite fat, and that is needed to keep them warm. It is possible that they are common red polls as I am no expert in identifying them.
Many birds simply stay all winter
Magpies come to my feeder all winter, but to eat cat food not seeds, even though their relatives the crows go south. Chickadees also visit the feeder all winter. The common house sparrow also is here all year and often visits the feeder. Nuthatches also stay all winter as do several woodpeckers. Jays also are common throughout the winter.
I have appended a video showing birds that stay over winter in Saskatchewan the next province to the west of Manitoba.
Many birds come back in the spring but simply travel on further north to nest, such as many geese, and juncos.
How birds survive the cold temperatures
Naturalist Brian Keating described for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) how some birds manage to cope with temperatures far below freezing.
Chickadees
Chickadees eat as many fatty foods as they can such as sunflower seeds. I use sunflower seeds in my feeder and that seems to attract them. Keating says that they will huddle together in a winter roost for the night, keeping each other warm.
Keating said: "On the coldest nights when it gets really frosty they enter a nightly hypothermia. Their body core temperature drops and they tolerate it by allowing themselves to chill down."
Keating said that on very cold nights with temperatures in the minus thirties, some birds will even shelter underneath the snow.
Chickadees apparently are better able to recall where they stash foods when it gets colder and also better at tracking down hibernating grubs.
Myrna Pearman , a naturalist from Red Deer Alberta notes that the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory and spatial organization expands by 30 percent each fall.
Waterfowl
Often geese and ducks migrate too late to avoid freezing conditions. They have a built-in feature to keep their feet from freezing to ice as they land on frozen lakes and ponds.
Keating said: "Hot arterial blood wraps the venous (returning) blood with smaller, branched capillaries just like a glove, allowing for that valuable heat to efficiently warm the incoming blood from the legs and feet. That way they can save that valuable heat energy and keep their core warm."
Arctic Redpoll
The Arctic redpoll is partially migratory in that it tends to move south in November and travel back north again in March and April.
The Arctic redpolls can survive up to 20 hours without access to food even if temperatures drop as low as minus 54 Celsius according to Keating.
The birds have specially designed esophageal pouches that enable the birds to hold on to seeds, while slowly digesting them and enabling them to keep their body temperatures at about 40 degrees C. Keating said: "Their internal temperature can be 73 degrees warmer than the surrounding air, with the two extremes being separated by less than a half a centimetre layer of feathers."
Humans survive by hibernating inside their warm dwellings and when going outside making sure to dress for the cold. Fortunately, modern vehicles usually have heaters that keep us toasty when we have to travel through the cold.
For many, winter is a time for enjoying the outdoors with skiing, skating, snow-shoeing, and snowmobiling. There are absolutely no pesky mosquitoes or other annoying insects to bother you.


 Previously published in Digital Journal

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Better than expected financial results boost Blackberry shares

(December 21) The Canadian-based technology company BlackBerry Ltd shares had one of their best days in months following better than expected financial results.
BlackBerry shares rise
On Wednesday, BlackBerry shares spiked 11.6 percent or $1.62 to close at $15.59
The company announced an unexpected net profit and also revenue above the estimate of analysts.
John Chen, executive chairman, claimed that the company was making good progress towards being a key software supplier for autonomous vehicles an area that he sees as a key growth opportunity for the company.
The company once was known primarily for its smartphones which were very secure. The company is named after the BlackBerry phones. Originally the company with headquarters in Waterloo Ontario was known as Research in Motion (RIM).
Blackberry is changing its product mix
The company is trying to reposition itself as a cybersecurity, software, and intellectual property supplier. It is working with many automotive industry's major chip makers and parts suppliers.
Blackberry phones are now manufactured, designed and marketed by TCL Communication (Blackberry Mobile) for the global market. BB Merah Putin serves the Indonesian market and Optiemus the Indian market.
The announcement that the company was no longer to produce its own BlackBerry phones was discussed in a September Digital Journal article.
BlackBerry famous for its mobile phones
BlackBerry was formerly a key player in the smartphone market. It was well known for its security features. At its peak in September of 2013, BlackBerry had 85 million subscribers globally. However, BlackBerry was unable to keep pace with Android and Apple phones.
By March 2016 subscriptions fell to 23 million. In the fourth quarter of 2016 only 207,900 BlackBerry phones were sold..
The financial results
BlackBerry has been experiencing financial difficulties for some time now. In the most recent quarter it lost $275 million. This includes a payout of $149 million after it lost an arbitration with Nokia.
On a positive note, excluding the Nokia payout and other items the company had a profit of $16 million or three cents a share. This result was better than analysts had predicted. They thought that the adjusted earnings would break even.
Revenue was higher than predicted as well on the quarter at $226 compared to an expected $214.6 million.
Revenue from handheld devices continued to decline as the company change its emphasis. The revenue from this source dropped to just $9 million from $62 million. Revenue from system access fees also dropped to $27 million from $67 million.
However, the revenue from software, services, and licensing rose to $190 million a record and up from $160 million last year.
New developments at BlackBerry
CEO Chen said about the company's work with many auto chip manufacturers and parts suppliers: "They have engaged us to provide them a BlackBerry operating system for the car that is high on safety and security." He noted that a modern car has more lines of code than an airplane.
BlackBerry has developed about 12 different software modules beyond infotainment systems.
As an example, the company has modules that guide lane changes with advanced driver assistance. It also has modules that connect the vehicle to wireless networks. It also shows how the various systems are functioning through virtual cockpit displays.
Over time, the company's revenues should increase. Chen said: "Some of the design wins we had last year will turn into revenue in 2019 and the wins that we are having right now are going to turn into (revenue) in 2020.".
Just last week, he company has announced a partnership with Denso Corp a Japanese-based company that is one of Toyota's technology suppliers. The two will develop an integrated platform for co-ordinating human-machine interfaces.
The company now has 1,200 software sales people out in the field and a number of government agencies are renewing contracts for their software assuring the company of a revenue stream.
CEO John Chen said: “We really do have a lot of people that want to do business with us,"


Previously published in Digital Journal