Labour / Migration

Mackenzie pipeline project faces further setback
By Bruce Nichols, Reuters
February 11, 2009

HOUSTON - Regulatory delays have worsened the odds that the $16.2 billion Mackenzie gas pipeline in Canada's far north will ever be built despite a promise of help from Ottawa, TransCanada Corp's chief executive said Wednesday.

TransCanada CEO Hal Kvisle said he is frustrated that the pipeline, which would carry gas to Canadian and U.S. markets from the Mackenzie Delta on the Beaufort Sea, still does not have clearance to go ahead after years of planning and rising costs.

TransCanada CEO downbeat about Mackenzie line
Wed Feb 11, 2009 8:48pm GMT

By Bruce Nichols

HOUSTON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Regulatory delays have worsened the odds that the C$16.2 billion ($13 billion) Mackenzie gas pipeline in Canada's far north will ever be built despite a promise of help from Ottawa, TransCanada Corp's (TRP.TO) chief executive said on Wednesday.

Temporary foreign workers first to suffer layoffs

Updated Sun. Feb. 8 2009 11:02 AM ET
The Canadian Press
CTV.ca

CALGARY -- Since the economy began unravelling last fall, Thomas has
been getting fewer shifts at the manufacturing company where he works.

The plant was shut down all of last week, and now Thomas and some of his
co-workers are worried they may soon have no job at all.

"We used to send money back home to our families and now we don't even
have money to support ourselves here," he said in Spanish through a
translator.

Human trafficking set to increase for 2010 Games
Tue Feb. 10 2009
ctvbc.ca

One year from now, people from around the world will gather in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

But as the final plans for Thursday's countdown celebrations are
ironed out -- some fear Vancouver will be welcoming more than just
athletes and fans. There is a concern that human trafficking is set to
increase. And one group is taking action.

Major Brian Venables of the Salvation Army opens the door to room 712 of its latest safe house.

February 9, 2009
Q&A: Energy Independence, Obama and Canada’s Oil Sands
By John Lorinc

“There are two perspectives on the oil sands,” the author Andrew
Nikiforuk says. “You have companies that want to make it the next
Saudi Arabia. The other is that it’s a transitional resource to a low-
carbon economy.”

Andrew Nikiforuk, a journalist based in Calgary, has closely followed
the development of northern Alberta’s massive deposits of bitumen — a
heavy black oil impregnating the sand and soil over hundreds of square
miles northeast of Edmonton.

VANCOUVER 2010: 'IT'S NOT A GAME'
Poverty Olympics spotlight Downtown Eastside
February 9, 2009

VANCOUVER -- They have their own Olympic mascots - Itchy the Bedbug, Creepy the Cockroach and Chewy the Rat - their own torch, made from a toilet plunger, and a catchy marketing phrase: "End poverty. It's not a game."

But what the Poverty Olympics doesn't have is money - and that was the main point being underscored yesterday by a celebration/protest march through the Downtown Eastside.

Imperial backs oil sands

$3.88B profit helps drive Kearl project

By Claudia Cattaneo, Calgary Bureau Chief, Financial Post
January 30, 2009

In the thick of the global economic downturn, Imperial Oil Ltd., Canada's largest oil company, posted another record annual profit and said it's increasing spending by 60% this year as it moves forward with the Kearl oil sands project.

UTS Energy Rejects Total’s Offer as ‘Inadequate’
By Jim Polson

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- UTS Energy Corp.’s board said Total SA’s C$617 million ($506 million) offer for the Canadian oil- sands explorer is “inadequate” and recommended shareholders reject the bid by Europe’s third-largest petroleum company.

The board formed a special committee to “pursue various initiatives with the objective of maximizing value for all shareholders,” Calgary-based UTS said today in a statement.

Foreign workers sacked from Olympics site

* Published: 02 February 2009 09:18

The police have arrested 136 illegal workers on the Olympic Park
site in Stratford, East London, in the nine months from April to
December 2008.

Of the 136 people arrested on suspicion of working in the UK without
permission 16 have been prosecuted, of which 11 were removed from the UK.

A further 19 workers have been granted leave to remain in the UK based
on new applications to the Home Office.

The remainder either have applications awaiting decisions or are

Petrocan CEO is on the hot seat
Andrew Willis,
February 2, 2009

Welcome to the hot seat, Ron Brenneman.

Petro-Canada's CEO faces a full-scale shareholder revolt in coming weeks, as the much-watched Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan leads a campaign for better performance from the former Crown corporation.

Mr. Brenneman must defend a strategy that's seen Petrocan build a diverse collection of assets, a number of which are yielding relatively low returns, at a time when rivals for focusing their operations.