Canadian delegation in Rome for Pope Francis's funeral
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Vancouver Sun
an hour ago
- Vancouver Sun
Opinion: Ireland provides a blueprint to boost Canadian productivity
In June, a delegation of 27 Canadian business, labour and post-secondary leaders travelled to Ireland to study how the nation secured its position as the European Union's leader in workforce development and skills training. Ireland's success in establishing co-ordinated, industry-driven training programs has delivered substantial economic benefits for workers and the broader economy. With 5.5 million residents — similar to B.C.'s population — this dynamic country provides important insights for Canada as Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to establish Canada as the G7's fastest-growing economy. Ireland's extraordinary productivity achievements — ranking first in the OECD while Canada is 18th — stand in sharp contrast to our stagnant and marginally declining wealth creation per worker. A daily roundup of Opinion pieces from the Sun and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Informed Opinion will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Ireland has emerged as a global productivity leader, securing substantial foreign investment and maintaining full employment. The nation has successfully diversified its economy, establishing itself as a major exporter of technology services while building a sophisticated biopharmaceutical industry. Currently, it is applying these strategies to construction, addressing housing affordability challenges similar to Canada's. These accomplishments result from deliberate strategic investments in worker up-skilling and re-skilling, led by organizations such as Skillnet Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. Canada has long lamented its relatively poor labour productivity performance among developed nations, at US$71.90 PPP (purchasing power parity) compared to Ireland's US$162.50 PPP in 2022). We cannot continue accepting this underperformance. Our productivity challenges stem largely from Canada's long-standing practice of disconnecting training from industry and actual workplaces, including small- and medium-sized enterprises — the foundation of Canada's economy and employment. Canada's skills training faces frequent criticism for being fragmented and overly jurisdictional, with provincial barriers that struggle to recognize equivalent domestic credentials and inadequate systems for evaluating the international qualifications of newcomers. Despite some recent improvements, we must adopt smarter and more ambitious approaches to achieve substantial, rapid progress in wealth generation through strategic 'nation building' investments from both public and private sectors. Skillnet Ireland demonstrates how public-private collaboration can create responsive, industry-led training systems. The Irish approach ensures workers develop skills that employers actually require, promoting both individual career advancement and national economic competitiveness. While Canada provides young people with solid foundations in literacy, numeracy, and interpersonal skills through high school, the country often fails to align post-secondary and skills training systems with labour market demands. This disconnect has been especially pronounced in sectors like construction, where skilled trades shortages threaten our capacity to complete major transportation, energy, and institutional infrastructure projects while hampering efforts to build affordable housing quickly. British Columbia's construction industry, trade unions, and post-secondary institutions should adopt Ireland's collaborative training model. Their tripartite system receives government support while maintaining greater industry-led decision making and independence through direct, sustainable funding through national payroll contributions. If Canadians collaborated more effectively to recruit, train and up-skill workers in high-demand trades, we could finally address the persistent labour shortages we have discussed for years. This would enable Canada's major employers and governments to deliver large-scale infrastructure projects more reliably and cost-effectively. Canada has failed to adequately replace retiring construction workers, with insufficient numbers entering relatively rigid, traditional trades training programs. Meanwhile, Ireland's government, industry associations, and unions are embracing technologies associated with modern methods of construction through substantial capacity-building investments. Canada's recent throne speech committed our manufacturing sector to producing new building technologies, including scaled production of modular building components. Strategic investments in lifelong learning, targeted re-skilling, and industry-education partnerships could dramatically improve our labour productivity. Ireland, known as the 'night course capital of Europe,' has cultivated a culture of continuous, industry-supported learning, proving that sustained workforce investment yields significant returns. This represents Canada's most pressing challenge — better preparing young people and current workers for future demands while facing potential major tariff barriers from our primary trading partner. Ireland's dedication to workforce development and skills training offers valuable lessons. Rather than resisting more direct industry-led approaches, we should embrace training that meets actual needs while positioning people for well-paid and fulfilling careers. To achieve G7 leadership in economic growth, workforce productivity must become central to our national strategy. Ireland's example is unmistakable: a skilled, adaptable workforce committed to continuous learning and up-skilling represents more than an economic advantage — it is the cornerstone of enhanced prosperity. Chris Atchison is president of the B.C. Construction Association. Rob Fleming is former B.C. minister of transportation and infrastructure. Matt Pitcairn is president of the B.C. Roadbuilders and Heavy Construction Association. Chris Wasilenchuk is president of the Construction, Maintenance and Allied Workers of Canada. Colin Ewart is former president of B.C. Colleges.
Canada Standard
an hour ago
- Canada Standard
Cancellations at Canadian film festivals raise questions about accountability
Film festivals are unique cultural institutions, spaces to see diverse films by local and global filmmakers and an important market for distributors. These films are often difficult to see, or even know about, outside of festival circuits. Festivals are also answerable to funders and to different stakeholders' interests. Cancellations of planned films raise questions about festivals' roles and accountability to community groups who find certain films objectionable, the wider public, politicians, festival sponsors, audiences, filmmakers and the films themselves. In September 2024, The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) faced a backlash from pro-Ukrainian groups - and former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland, who is of Ukrainian descent - when the documentary Russians at War was included in the program. Read more: 'Russians at War' documentary: From the Crimean to the Iraq War, soldier images pose questions about propaganda The Ukrainian Canadian Congress and other advocates called on TIFF to cancel the film, directed by Russian Canadian Anastasia Trofimova, which they accused of being Russian propaganda. TIFF did cancel festival screenings after it was "made aware of significant threats to festival operations and public safety," but once the festival was over, showed Russians at the TIFF Lightbox Theatre. In November, the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) cancelled the Canadian premiere of Rule of Stone , directed by Israeli Canadian director Danae Elon. As a film and media professor, I supervised Elon's research for the film while she pursued a master's degree at Queen's University. RIDM acknowledged Elon's "personal commitment to criticizing and questioning the state of Israel" through her story about the stone that, by Israeli law, has to be used on the exterior of every new building in Jerusalem. In the film, Elon examines how, in post-1967 Jerusalem, "architecture and stone are the main weapons in a silent, but extraordinarily effective colonization and dispossession process" of Palestinians. As a documentarist and a researcher in Israeli and Palestinian media representations of fighters, I have analyzed both films and followed the controversies. Each focuses on contemporary political issues relevant to our understanding of current affairs. While the reasons for the cancellations are different, in both cases the festivals responded to pressures from community groups, placing the public right to a robust debate at the festival and beyond as secondary. Director Anastasia Trifamova embedded herself in a Russian supply unit, and later a medical team, eventually making her way to the front lines in occupied Ukraine. Trifamova comes across as a naive filmmaker, using an observational, non-judgmental form of filmmaking common in 21st-century war documentaries, as seen in films like Armadillo and Restrepo (respectively following Danish and U.S. troops in Afghanistan). As noted by TIFF, Russians was "an official Canada-France co-production with funding from several Canadian agencies," and Trifamova said she did not seek or receive official permission from the Russian army to film. The film documents the machination of war, where soldiers are both perpetrators of violence and its victims. It humanizes the soldiers, which understandably can be upsetting to Ukrainian and pro-Ukrainian publics. But should emotions of one group, outraged and incensed as they may be, prevent the public from having the difficult conversations promoted by the film? Early in the film, Trifamova confronts the soldiers about why they are fighting and they respond with Russian propaganda (fighting Nazism, defending the borders). Later, soldiers approach Trifamova - on camera - to express doubts about the justification of the war and their presence in Ukraine. The film provides an unflattering view of Russia's attack on Ukraine, emphasizing the futility of the war and the incredible toll on soldiers and civilians (including some Ukrainian civilians). Russian troops appear untrained and poorly equipped to fight in chaotically managed battles. Like Armadillo and Restrepo , Russians at War represents the soldiers without judgment and contributes to necessary conversations about war. In my analysis, while Trifamova refrains - in her sporadic voice-over - from condemning the war outright, it is difficult to read the film as Russian propaganda. While TIFF cited security concerns as the reason for cancellation, security was in place for another film that attracted controversy, Bliss . A cancellation from such an established festival likely has an effect on how a film is able to circulate. For example, TVO, one of the funders of Russians at War , cancelled its scheduled broadcast days after the TIFF cancellation. Rule of Stone , as noted by RDIM, "critically examines the colonialist project of East Jerusalem following its conquest by Israeli forces in 1967." The title references a colonial bylaw to clad building with stone, first introduced by the British, which still exists today. The film, which examines architecture's role in creating modern Jerusalem, is led by Elon's voice-over. It mixes her memories of growing up in 1970s Jerusalem and her reckoning with the "frenzy of building," which included projects by architect Moshe Safdie, a citizen of Israel, Canada and the United States. Elon recounts that her father, journalist and author Amos Elon, was a close friend of Safdie, as well as legendary Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kolek. Safdie is among the Israeli architects, architectural historians and planners who Elon interviews. The expansion of Jewish neighbourhoods is contrasted with the restrictions on and disposession of Palestinians in Jerusalem. Multiple scenes show the demolition of Palestinian homes or the aftermath. In intervwoven segments, Izzat Ziadah, a Palestinian stonemason who lives in a stone quarry, gives a tour of what is left of his destroyed home. Viewers hear how the planning, expansion and building of Jewish neighbourhoods, post-1967, were designed to evoke biblical times. As architectural historian Zvi Efrat notes, the new neighbourhoods look like, or attempt to look like, they were there forever. As reported by La Presse , the RIDM cancellation came after the festival received information about the documentary's partial Israeli financing, something that "embarrassed" them with some of the festival's partners. Funding for the development of the film came from the Makor Foundation for Israeli Films, which receives support from Israel's Ministry of Culture and Sport. Two organizations, the Palestinian Film Institute and Regards Palestiniens, opposed the film's showing on the basis of their commitment to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). In the organizations' logic, Israel state funding means a film should be subject to boycott as "PACBI specifically targets Israeli institutional funding in the arts which serves to culturally whitewash and legitimize the Israeli state." In my view, this position differs from the PACBI guidelines, which state: "As a general overriding rule, Israeli cultural institutions, unless proven otherwise, are complicit in maintaining the Israeli occupation and denial of basic Palestinian rights, whether through their silence or actual involvement in justifying, whitewashing or otherwise deliberately diverting attention from Israel's violations of international law and human rights." Makor should be exempted since it regularly funds films that draw attention to Israel's violations of Palestinian human rights. In 2024 alone, the list includes The Governor , The Village League and Death in Um al hiran . RIDM's website does not disclose support for a boycott. In the end, RIDM announced that Elon withdrew her film. She stated: "Screening my film at RIDM does not serve the long-term purpose of the festival, nor is it possible now to address the nuances in our common fight for justice for Palestine. I am deeply saddened and distressed by [what] has brought it to this point." To date, the film has not found a cinema in Montreal willing to screen it. The two festivals' mission statements promise high-quality films that transform or renew audiences' relationships to the world. It is clear why programmers chose both films, since they're cinematically innovative and provoke important conversations. However, both festivals silenced these films and signalled to other filmmakers that these festivals are not brave spaces to have difficult and necessary conversations.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Manitoba paid $3.4M for U.S. booze currently in storage
The Manitoba government is sitting on millions of dollars worth of American booze it paid for then refused to sell after the U.S. threatened to launch a trade war on Canada. Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corp. said the price it paid for the U.S. booze, the 'duty paid landed cost,' is $3.4 million. It couldn't provide its retail value but pointed to the MLLC 2023-24 annual report that noted the gross profit margin for liquor products was 52 per cent that fiscal year. Premier Wab Kinew announced Feb. 2 that Manitoba Liquor Marts would pull U.S. products from store shelves after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose crippling tariffs on Canadian imports. FREE PRESS FILES The Manitoba government is sitting on millions of dollars worth of American booze it paid for then refused to sell after the U.S. threatened to launch a trade war on Canada. FREE PRESS FILES Manitoba's Crown liquor retailer also halted orders of American products, which Kinew said would take an $80-million bite annually out of the U.S. economy. The ban on products made in the U.S. included 409 spirits, 341 wines as well as beers and other tipples bought and paid for by the publicly owned corporation. 'The retail value of that $3.4 million must be several times that if you include the massive markups that the government adds to it plus the taxes,' said Markus Buchart, a former provincial economist who filed freedom of information requests in March. 'Its retail value is probably $10 million or more.' Liquor and Lotteries estimated the costs associated with the removal of American products from Liquor Mart shelves during February and March — overtime costs, additional labour costs and lost revenue from marketing programs — are estimated at $70,099.12. It said it is utilizing existing warehouse space to store the affected products. Stopping the purchase of U.S. products would have an effect on American producers, but storing products that were already paid for hurts the Crown corporation through lost sales and the province through lost tax revenue, Buchart said. 'Its retail value is probably $10 million or more.'–Markus Buchart 'That got me wondering, how much existing stock is there? What if this trade war goes on for years, which it could. What are they going to do with it? It must use a lot of space and some of it will spoil, probably, or be broken,' said the former economist who worked for Manitoba Finance in the 1980s and '90s. The ongoing costs associated with the removal of U.S. liquor products will depend on the length of time these products remain unavailable for sale, the Crown corporation said in response to the freedom of information request. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday regarding how long it expects to store the U.S. booze. 'These products have a very long shelf life,' a Liquor Marts spokesperson said in an April 3 email to the Free Press. 'The situation with the U.S. is changing on a daily basis, and we remain very active in business planning with regards to these products in the event the trade dispute continues long term.' The minister responsible for Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corp., Glen Simard, was not available for an interview Tuesday but issued a statement. 'The Trump administration has threatened jobs at the Selkirk steel mill and ag producers in Brandon with tariffs. As a government, we are standing up by taking $80 million out of the American economy by taking their liquor off the shelves. There are plenty of great Manitoban breweries and distilleries to support instead,' the MLA for Brandon East said in an email. Wednesdays Sent weekly from the heart of Turtle Island, an exploration of Indigenous voices, perspectives and experiences. Buchart said ordering Liquor Marts to stop selling U.S. booze reminded him of the 1980s boycott on the apartheid regime of South Africa. The Manitoba government, under premier Howard Pawley, banned the sale of South African wine and spirits. In 1986, it decided to sell off its remaining stock of South African booze, and donated the proceeds to the Manitoba Coalition of Organizations Against Apartheid. 'They didn't store it; they got rid of it,' Buchart said. — with files from Kelly Taylor Carol SandersLegislature reporter Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol. Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
