Podcasts about provincially

The latest Child Poverty Report Card for Nova Scotia show's the steepest increase in child poverty rates in a generation: Provincially, nearly 24% of children live in poverty.Locally, that number can soar from over 30% to a staggering 66%.Lesley Frank, the Tier II Canada Research Chair in Food, Health, and Social Justice at Acadia University, reflects on this perennial problem for Nova Scotia..

NDP politicians from coast to coast to coast have abandoned the Jewish community in Canada. This is a hard about-face for a party that historically has had Jewish leadership. In Hamilton, MP Matthew Green is posting content anyone would consider to be pro-Hamas. Provincially, MPP Sarah Jama was kicked out of the NDP caucus for supporting Hamas. Is this spelling the end of the NDP as we know it in Canada? Michael Diamond is the founder of the Upstream group - he joins Stephen LeDrew for Three Minutes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The show: The full interview with bonus material: Farmers rarely get a break. Operating a farm is a 24/7/365 job. Besides running their operation, the men and women who provide us with our food daily also spend time lobbying politicians at all levels of government. In this interview, Northumberland Federation of Agriculture President Allan Carruthers […] The post Local farmers facing many challenges locally, provincially, and federally in 2024, NFA president says appeared first on Consider This. Related posts: Northumberland Federation of Agriculture president critiques provincial farm to fork plan Film festival hosted by farmers in Campbellford takes on issues and challenges facing agriculture Drought hits crops hard, but food supply secure says Northumberland farmers

From Israel v Hamas to policing here at home, more on how parole boards are failing citizens .. and what POLLING says both Provincially and Federally! ROB SHAW on Provincial Government on AIR BNB + POLICING LEGISLATION - tax dollars and RABBI DAN MOSKOVITZ, Senior Rabbi Temple Sholom says it IS Time to "Pick a Side”. BOSLEY'S by PetValue HALLOWEEN Edition. Karima Jivraj gives us fantastic tips and much more!

The federal and provincial governments just announced 222 new public housing units for Nova Scotia. But critics worry some of the affordable units already built and being rented in Halifax, could soon disappear. CBC investigative reporter Shaina Luck looks into this. 

Hello and welcome to the Real Deals Show! Meet Rébecca and Mathieu, a husband and wife team who joined our Action Family™ in September 2022 in order to start their real estate investing journey.

In this episode, Robert Kavcic, a senior economist from the BMO Economics team and, Jordan Sugar, BMO's provincial bond trader, join me to discuss the Provincial landscape. We cover the fundamental backdrop following the fall fiscal updates, and how the provincial bond market has been trading. Robert reveals his favourite provinces, and Jordan provides his top trade ideas with the early December index extension and coupon payments on deck. As always, all feedback welcome.

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast: Jean Charest took on absentee candidates in the final Conservative leadership debate, declaring that showing up for such events is a show of respect for the party members who will choose the new leader. The former Quebec premier did not directly name Pierre Poilievre, seen as a front-runner, or Leslyn Lewis who were, respectively, in Regina and Prince Edward Island. Both had said they would not participate in the debate over concerns about its format and that they preferred to engage with members. The other two candidates – Ontario MP Scott Aitchison and Roman Baber, a former Progressive Conservative member of the Ontario legislature – avoided the issue of the missing candidates. GUEST:  Wayne Petrozzi, Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Toronto Metropolitan University - Why has Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit angered China? GUEST: Elliot Tepper, Emeritus Professor of Political Science with Carleton University -  Premier Doug Ford is once again calling on the federal government for financial support in the face of a growing hospital staffing crisis that has seen some Ontario hospitals close their doors in recent weeks. But, what is he doing provincially? GUEST: Alan Hale, Reporter for Queen's Park Today

POINT OF ORDER MR. SPEAKER! We are back with another roundtable on issues, Municipally, Provincially, and Federally. This Weeks Topics: 1) Brief Editorial Note By Sarah Biggs 2) Travel Mandates Rescinded 3) Trouble Brewing in Alberta NDP Land *************************************************** Follow the Cross Border Interview Podcast: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crossborder... Twitter: https://twitter.com/CrossBorderPod Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/CrossBorderI... Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI2i... Website: https://www.crossborderinterviews.ca/ Back the Show: https://www.patreon.com/CrossBoderInt... The Cross Border Interview Podcast was Produced and Edited by Miranda, Brown & Associates Inc © 2022

POINT OF ORDER MR. SPEAKER! We are back with another roundtable on issues, Municipally, Provincially, and Federally. Today we talk: Membership Sales and the Federal Conservative Party UCP Leadership heats Up The Conservative Movement, Where is it going? *************************************************** Follow the Cross Border Interview Podcast: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crossborderpodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CrossBorderPod Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/CrossBorderInterviews Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI2i25ZVKTO84oUsLyO4jig Website: https://www.crossborderinterviews.ca/ Back the Show: https://www.patreon.com/CrossBoderInterviewPodcast The Cross Border Interview Podcast was Produced and Edited by Miranda, Brown & Associates Inc © 2022

 Christy Clark, former Premier of BC discusses what we learnt from the Ontario election.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tune in to the CGE Weekly podcast. (CWP) Hosted by J. Richard Jones, CWP provides public sector executives with the latest insights and information on leadership, management, and technology. Each week, J. Richard Jones and Deputy Editor, Lori Turnbull discuss news, opinion as well as topics designed to help public sector executives to do their jobs better. In addition, special industry guests and so much more! In this episode, Lori Turnbull and J. Richard Jones discuss: The Prime Ministers emergency meeting Challenges of the office Communication & the convoy protest A shift in the conservative party Contenders for the leadership race Provincially speaking To submit topics and ideas, write to us at: editorialteam@promotivemedia.ca For advertising inquiries contact: Mr. David Blondeau: david@promotivemedia.ca Follow us on:  LinkedIn and Twitter

Jennifer Bell, M.HKR, CAT(C)  CONNECTIONS MATTER MOSTJennifer has been a Certified Athletic Therapist for the past 16 years and also sits on several committees both Provincially and Nationally.She is the Head Athletic Therapist and Director of Rehabilitative Services at The Hill Academy in Caledon, ON. Prior to starting at The Hill Academy, Jennifer was the Head Athletic Therapist at Humber College for 14 years. She has also had the honour of working with our National U-19 Lacrosse programs, including winning the World Championship in 2015, and our National Artistic Swimming program. Away from work, Jennifer is a busy Mom to three young children who enjoy participating in sports and activities themselves.We Grow. Together. 

Ashley and Emma talk with Oshawa MPP Jennifer French and dive into a few timely issues including lockdowns affecting local businesses and residents, and what her party is advocating for locally.

On this April 06th edition of the London Live Podcast: Mike is joined by Queen's Park bureau chief Travis Dhanraj to get an idea of what's happening provincially ahead of Ford's announcements. Afterwards Chef Mike Moore of the Western Fair District helps us with the Habit Change Challenge. Finally, Glen Pearson wraps up the Spring Food Drive. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Morning News Podcast for Monday, January 4th. We begin with a look at the news that many politicians – both Provincially and Federally – travelled outside the country during the Christmas break. We get the latest from David Akin – Global News Chief Political Correspondent. Next we get an update South of the border – both on the rising death count from COVID-19 – and the political firestorm caused by a leak phone call between President Donald Trump and the Georgia's Secretary of State. We catch up with Reggie Cecchini – Washington Reporter for Global News. Could contact tracing create a more effective vaccine rollout in our nation? We get the thoughts of an Infectious Disease Specialist from Queen's University. And finally….Foodies Unite! We take a look ahead to what tasty culinary trends we can expect to see in 2021. We speak with “Globe & Mail” Food Critic, Dan Clapson.

Welcome to The Morning News Podcast for Thursday, November 19th. We begin with a discussion about the race to find a COVID-19 vaccine. With promising news this week by two pharmaceutical companies – we focus on the logistics of the distribution of an approved vaccine – that will require millions of doses in our country. We speak with a Virologist from the University of Ottawa. Next we share some ‘good news' business stories, locally and Provincially. We hear the success story of Calgary's ‘Stream Dental HR' – which has garnered international attention for their unique approach to human resources in the field of dentistry. Then we look at the potential for Alberta to be a major player in the development and distribution of hydrogen energy. We speak with Dan Wicklum of “Transition Accelerator”. And finally – It's a true example of “strength in numbers”. We learn all about the self-launched collective of 24 food-based businesses getting their products directly to consumers. We meet the creator of “Best of Calgary Foods”.

Welcome to fall in Sudbury. This week we have David Kurt AND Tristan Ritchie on the mic to chat about the week in today's episode of Selling the Rock! The leaves are changing, school is in full swing (for now), and the furnace is officially turned on. I’m sitting here writing this cozied up to a warm fire with a piping hot americano (pretending its Pumpkin Spiced). Provincially, we are now down to gatherings of 5 people max, and the rumour is that today's PD day for educators has a focus on what would a shift to online schooling online look like as a transition. It was an interesting week with the US debate in full swing. The consensus after the first debate is the biggest loser is the viewers at home. Apparently, it had the search “Move to Canada’ spike to all-time highs on Google. Locally, we saw a nasty side of some keyboard-warriors who were threatening to deface the newest Mural painted by the BLM Sudbury chapter; 2020 has us living in a strange world I feel like. From a real estate market perspective, we are seeing the biggest one week shift away from the crazy seller's market. We had 20 more new listings than sales this week! Comparing to the averages, multiple offers and conditional deals were pretty consistent. My 5 takeaways this week are: The shift is real; we saw only 50 sales this week with 70 new listings. That's the biggest spread of new listings we have seen in all of 2020 so far. Good news for buyers who have been frustrated waiting for listings! Why can’t listing agents list a house at the right price??? This has been a dragging frustration for a lot of buyers in the marketplace and we saw it again a few different instances this week. The worst example was a vintage 1970’s bungalow listed in New Sud’s for 199k; I pulled up single-family homes under 250k in New Sudbury in the last 3 months and there is only one sale (244k) and that was rough! Clearly, this home should have been listed at least at 250k. What happened in the end? 25 total offers with 24 frustrated buyers, and almost 100k above asking price with no conditions. Reviewing the sales from this week, I took a look at the prices and almost 40 of the 50 sales were under 400k and 56 of the 70 new listings are also under 400k. Looking at ‘Luxury Sales’ (sales higher than 600k); there were only 5 this week (4 of which were in the South End). The highest one was just over the 900k mark for a flat lot waterfront home on Long Lake that also has a pool (for those who can’t stand the chilly Lake Water). Looking at the numbers this week, it really feels like the slowdown is coming. It is funny these listings are coming up now with only a few months until our winter market is here and some of the buyers icing their home search until the spring thaw. This combined with the mortgage deferrals ending for the 20% of Canadians who opted to put their mortgages on hold; there are lots of factors that could point to the shift in listings continuing. In the last few weeks, I had relaxed my prediction that the market would slow down and shift away from the seller's market we have been in. There are clearly leading indicators that could amount to a shifting market though; the biggest being that those mortgage payments for the 20% of Canadians that haven’t made a payment in 6 months will be due this week. That combined with snow in the forecast this week, may be a reason for us to transition into a winter market without really having a fall market at all. I know on tap for me this week will be braving the cold water to get the floating dock and the boat out of the lake, I’ll make sure the sauna is stoked before taking that dip! Best of luck and we’ll chat next week!

There are three new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Vancouver Island, bringing the total to 47 cases in the health region. Provincially 42 new cases have been reported, adding up to 659 cases in BC. Dr. Bonnie Henry says one more person who was at the Lynn Valley Long Term Care Centre has died.The provincial government is offering help to renters with a new supplement, an order halting evictions and by freezing rent increases. Renters who qualify can receive up to $500 dollars a month to supplement their rent payments for the next four months. People who already receive rental subsidies will see those subsidies increased. Evictions have now been banned and so have rent increases. Premier John Horgan says the details on how to apply are being finalized. He admits the subsidies will not be available before April the 1st.Social Service agencies in Greater Nanaimo are doing their best to keep some programs going, but services are limited. The Haven Society has cancelled all group programs and is asking people to call unless it is an emergency, in which case are welcome to come to the centre.The Nanaimo Area Resource Services for Families is no longer taking new additions to its youth withdrawal and supportive residential programs. Harris House is allowing individual drops for harm reduction until Friday. It has suspended all testing and showers at the facility.Nanaimo's regional transit system has started its summer level of service. Eight routes are no longer operating due to the coronavirus outbreak. You can find out more at RDNNextRide.ca or call 250-390-4531.BC Ferry riders will pay 60 cents less per round trip instead of paying 60 cents more. That's because the ferry corporation has decided not to implement higher fees on April the 1st, and it is offering a fuel rebate for the foreseeable future. BC Ferries says its travel volumes have fallen by 40 percent over the past week and there will be fewer sailings as a result. You can find out more on the BC Ferries website.The Nanaimo Beacon, a satirical on-line magazine is hoping to help lessen the boredom of self-isolation by offering a locally produced colouring book. "No One is An Island" includes colouring panels of Mayor Leonard Krog and nurses at NRGH. It's a free download on its website, the Nanaimo Beacon.Written and reported by Lisa Cordasco. Senior Reporter and News Director for CHLY 101.7FM.Have a tip? Email: news@chly.caTwitter: @lisacordasco / @chly1017FMFunded in by the Local Journalism Initiative of the Government of Canada through Heritage Canada in partnership with the Community Radio Fund of Canada.

As I wrap up my series at Skills Ontario 2018 Provincial Competition I am bringing you a special double header episode. First is Plumber and Plumbing Instructor Tim Wilkinson. Tim really breaks down the idea of you get what you pay for when hiring and considering hiring a plumber. On the second half of the episode we get to sit with Skills Ontario Alumni Association Board Member Dalton Bird. Dalton shares his journey through his Skills Competitions both Provincially and Nationally and what the Alumni Association is up to. I hope these longer episodes are more your flavour as I move forward in the podcast I will be spending more time deconstructing my guests on a larger scope to bring you more about how they got where they are, the challenges they have faced and what they hope for the future.

With the topic of Electoral Reform becoming more and more relevant both Provincially in British Columbia and Nationally across Canada, the Labournauts thought the timing was right to sit down with Alex Hemingway, Public Finance Policy Analyst from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Alex and Carlos do their best to unpack and explain what a change to our voting system could look like, the potential challenges policy changes like this one could create and some of the recent history this topic has in British Columbia. 

Can Killing Moose help Caribou? A recent study conducted by researchers in British Columbia's Columbia Mountain range is raising eyebrows for its novel approach to trying to help struggling caribou populations in several endangered herds throughout several areas. Over the past few years, programs focused on killing wolves in many areas concentrated on reducing predation of already declining herds of caribou in Alberta and British Columbia. These herds have been in decline for a long time. Much of that decline has been the result of previous interventions that created the current situation. Caribou are animals of deep snowpacks and dense old-growth forests. Their traditional ranges were not an area where heavy wolf predation took place. The deep snows were a disadvantage to the wolves who rarely trekked into the caribou's home range. Unfortunately for the Caribou, decades of extensive logging of old-growth forests, along with the roads that come with them, followed by snowmobile and atv adoption of these same roads, provided easy access into their home ranges. At the same time, moose thrive on clearcuts where the new growth is just what they need to survive. Moose moved into the area in ever increasing numbers. The moose were aided in their population boom by the simple fact that wolves had bounties on their heads from 1906-1962 throughout British Columbia. Without a strong predator presence, the moose population exploded to many times their historic levels. With tonnes of moose, and an end to predator control, the wolf population moved in and began to prey heavily on moose. All of these developments created a situation where logging opened an area to moose, followed by wolves being attracted by those moose, and in turn giving the wolves access to another tasty prey; caribou. This is a story that is repeated in almost every caribou herd in the mountain west. As a result, almost every caribou herd in the mountain regions of Alberta and British Columbia is in serious decline with some on the verge of disappearing. When a classic predator prey interaction, like moose and wolves, ensnares a third party, we refer to that as incidental competition. Essentially, if the moose weren't there, the caribou would not likely be bothered by the wolves simply because they don't occur in dense enough populations to support wolf packs. They also live in areas that are difficult for the wolves to access. Wolf culls are a controversial practice, but are being used in Alberta and British Columbia to try to help struggling caribou herds. The mantra has been kill the wolves and the caribou can survive. This mantra has been repeated over and over by politicians convinced that it is the only way to keep caribou herds in the wild. We have to remember, that without the developments that provided access for wolves to get to the caribou, the problem may not have occurred in the first place. Alberta in particular, is still allowing more oil and gas exploration in critical caribou habitat, putting in more roads to allow wolves into caribou territory. Any plan that focuses only on killing predators but doesn't prioritize habitat protection and restoration is not likely to succeed. In this particular study, scientists wanted to take a different approach to caribou conservation. Step one is to either reduce or halt logging in caribou home ranges to reduce the opportunities for white-tail deer and moose to move in and drag their canine predators with them. Caribou do not benefit from logging. They rely on the hanging, stringy lichens that dangle from the foliage of old growth trees and these are not found in clearcuts. At this point, just stopping logging will not help the caribou on the short-term. It will take decades for today's clearcuts to regrow into dense forests more amenable to caribou instead of moose and deer. Biologists decided to try something else. Since moose were not traditionally present in their currently dense populations in the study areas in B.C.'s Columbia Mountains, it was proposed that increasing the availability of moose hunting licenses might be a better approach to reducing wolf populations. Because moose are the wolves primary prey, a significant reduction in their food supply would also stimulate a drop in wolf population as a natural response. Predator-prey relationships are always interdependent. If the prey is plentiful, the wolves will produce more young and fewer wolves will disperse to new territories. One fear was that by reducing elk, the wolves may be forced to hunt more heavily on caribou as moose became less available. In order to test this, they designated two study areas in the Columbia and Caribou Mountains. One area of 6,500 km2 was designated as the treatment zone, where moose hunting permits would be increased 10-fold. The second area, covering 11,500 km2 did not have any increase in moose quotas during the hunting season. The goal was to compare moose, wolf and caribou populations in the two areas to see if reducing the numbers of moose would indeed have a positive impact on caribou populations by reducing the number of wolves in the area. The two areas were separated by the Monashee Mountains which helped to provide a geographic boundary between the two study areas. There were three caribou populations in the treatment area, the Columbia North, Columbia South and Frisby-Queest. Only the Columbia North population exceeded 50 animals with a population around 150. With the increase in hunting pressure, the moose population in the treatment area was reduced by 71% or a drop from approximately 1,650 moose down to 466. Wolf populations soon began to reflect the reduction in prey. Of 34 wolves in the treatment area, 8 wolves, or 23.5% of the population dispersed out of the study area, and 12 wolves died of a variety of causes. Four wolves were found to have starved and an additional one was killed by other wolves. So how did the caribou fare during all of this? Well, it's a bit of a good-news bad news story. The two smaller populations continued to decline during the study, however the larger Caribou North herd showed a slight increase in population. There may be other reasons that the smaller populations did not benefit from the reduction in wolf numbers. It may take longer for the reduction in wolf populations to have an impact on the caribou numbers. Moose were reduced substantially, but even 466 moose is still higher than the historic abundance of around 300 moose prior to logging and predator control. In fact, prior to the 1940s, moose may not have been present at all in much of central and southern B.C. The wolf population in the winter dropped to 13 wolves/1,000 km2 which is still higher than the desired density of just 6.5 wolves in the same area. So where do researchers go from here? One option would be to do some limited wolf control, in addition to the increased moose harvest each year during the hunting season. Any wolf cull would not need to be nearly as extensive as the unpopular one in Alberta and would not likely need to be continuous. In the long-term, caribou habitats need to be restored if they have any hope of surviving in a landscape of high intensity logging and outdoor recreation. Restoration and protection of old growth forests will eventually limit the habitat for moose and deer and their numbers will naturally diminish - with the wolf populations following suit. There are no winners in this research. Humans have changed the habitat so that it now favours animals other than the native caribou. For them to survive, the first priority must be habitat based. Returning the landscape to one that favours the caribou and not the invasive moose and white-tail deer. Without these food species, the wolf population will also diminish naturally over time. Any program of culling, must be seen as a temporary program to stem the population decline while other efforts at habitat restoration can take root. No amount of culling with replace the need for a good landscape to call home. We can just look at Alberta's abject failures to protect their native caribou herds to see what happens when you simply slaughter animals but do nothing towards habitat restoration. Let's hope that B.C. will continue to focus on prioritizing habitat while at the same time working to reduce the downward population trends in its caribou herds. Burgess Wonders Lying just within Yoho National Park are several rock outcroppings collectively known as the Burgess Shales. So unique and vital were the discoveries at this site that it was designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1980. Discovered by Charles Walcott in 1909, it's one of very few sites in the world where soft bodied animals left almost perfect fossils. This may not seem important until you realize that most of the study of early life is the study of hard parts--trying to learn something about an animal from a cast of its shell. This tells us little about what lived inside the shell. This quarry uniquely preserved a huge variety of soft bodied creatures along with their shells. For the first time we could see the whole picture. How did this level of preservation occur? Scientists believe that a mud slide came down into a shallow bay and then washed the animals caught in its flow down into the oxygen poor depths far below. Since oxygen is a major factor in decay, this allowed the soft bodied animals to remain for a long time before disappearing - long enough to leave their remains fossilized. The other unique characteristic of this rock formation lies in the timing of this tragic slide. It occurred in middle Cambrian times, basically around 508 million years ago. This puts it right in the middle of the greatest explosion of life in the history of the planet. The Cambrian was the first period in which multicellular life exploded and within a geologic blink of the eye, the world was populated with a diversity never before (or since) experienced. Few other fossil sites across the globe can match the high level of preservation of this site along with such excellent timing. There are a few other important Cambrian sites in other parts of the world, but they are much more recent and as a result don't show nearly the diversity found in this site. As Walcott began to grapple the significance of this fossil bed, he ravenously collected tens of thousands of specimens which he brought back to the Smisthsonian. At the time, he was one of the most powerful scientists in the U.S. and this would be his greatest discovery. Over the next 18 years he published small preliminary works on the fossils but he never found the time to truly study them and unravel their real significance. In the small amount of actual study of the fossils that he completed, he tried to force them to fit into the same groupings of animals present on the planet today, and although this may seem a natural conclusion, it would become his greatest error. Many of the animals present in the Burgess Shales, could not properly be categorized as part of any group of animals present on the planet today. Harry Whittington, one of Walcott's successors slowly unraveled the true mysteries of the Burgess by careful and thorough examination of the multitude of fossils left behind. One of the techniques used by Whittington to rebuild the creatures of the Burgess Shales was to slowly dissect the actual fossils. Like living beings, even though crushed flat, the fossils retained most of their original structure and by carefully removing micro-thin layers, one by one, Whittington was able to make much more detailed examinations of each specimen. Whittington began in 1971 with a creature called Marella. This animal was clearly an Arthropod (the group of animals containing all the insects, spiders and crustaceans as well as the extinct trilobites) but he found that it didn't fit into any of the major grouping of Arthropods known to exist today. His next specimen, Yohoia, led him to a similar conclusion; it was an arthropod but of no known group. Moving onto Opabina, the biggest surprise to date would arise. Not only was this not even an arthropod, it didn't fit into any known Phylum. After Kingdom, Phylum is the next largest category of living things on the planet. Arthropods are one phylum and all living creatures fit into at least one of 25 or 30 known phyla. Further examination of many of the other fossils led to similar conclusions – animals that could not be classified based on today’s system of phyla. Never before, at any other fossil site in the world, had fossils been found that could not be classified. This would have far reaching consequences Most standard discussions of evolution show a single primitive ancestor giving rise to a wide variety of future species. As a result we expected there to be less diversity early in the history of life; not more. In actual fact what we have found is that there were many more basic structural plans at the beginning of life than today and this doesn't work well according to standard discussions. Survival of the fittest may be invoked to say that these early animals were merely inferior and failed to survive. However, survival of the fittest should be predictable and scientists could not find anything that would indicate inferiority in these unclassifiable animals. This led to Stephen Jay Gould, the author of the book Wonderful Life that details much of the science of the shales to come up with a new aspect of natural selection - luck. Perhaps some extinctions were based on some environmental of otherwise unpredictable fluke and as a result, animals not inferior in any way ended up perishing. The long term results become very interesting indeed. If chance plays a major role in the extinction of species, than perhaps if we were to turn the clock back in time an entirely different outcome could arise. This could in turn change the entire sequence of events following this particular occurrence - and could have had a dramatic impact on the evolution of humans. Found in this fossil bed is the oldest ancestor of all the animals with backbones. What if it had have been the unlucky one? This brings a whole new view to evolution. This chance factor is known as contingency and is being widely accepted as one possible component of evolution today - all because of a tiny quarry in Yoho National Park. There has been a lot of recent news relating to the Burgess Shales over the past few years, including several new exposures of rich fossil bearing rocks in nearby Kootenay National Park. Most recently, a frightening new worm has been described from the Burgess Shales. It is a predatory worm called Capinatator praetermissus. It was a flat worm, some 10 cm long with a series of 25 grasping spines on either side of its mouth. While 10 cm may seem small today, in its day it was one of the largest predators in the ocean. This Capinatator is a member of a group of worms that still exist today called Arrow Worms, but this particular species was much larger and had many more grasping spines than any species alive today. Arrow worms are extremely efficient predators. The clasping spines quickly reach out and close around potential prey, locking them in their interlocking grasp. Today, they only grow to a few milimetres in length, but Capinatator would have been a frightening prospect to many aquatic residents of the early oceans. To add to their frightening character, they are translucent which gives them an air of invisibility. A few quick flaps from their flat tail fin and the spines open and this near invisible creature has another meal. Today, there are still some 120 species of arrow worms globally. The fossil record though is very sparse simply because they lack the hard body parts found in some animals and so are rarely fossilized. If anything survives, it's just the clasping spines. Despite this rarity, the Burgess Shales have provide some 50 fossils of varying levels of condition. Even though the species has only recently been described, the first fossils were collected way back in 1983. In order to get enough information to do a formal description, scientists needed many different specimens with each helping to reveal a different component of the worms physiology. It's just one more example of the ongoing and amazing science being done at the various exposures of the Burgess Shales. If you'd like to visit one of the quarries, you'll need to book an official tour since they are all designated as archaeological sites and closed to the general public. Parks Canada and the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation offer guided tours to several of the sites. I'll leave a link to their booking pages in the show notes for this episode at www.mountainnaturepodcast.com/ep043 . You can book your Parks Canada hike to one of three Burgess Shale exposures, the classic Walcott Quarry, the Mount Stephen site or the Stanley Glacier site in Kootenay National Park at the following link: https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/bc/yoho/activ/burgess/burgess-visit/reserv.aspx. Alternatively the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation leads walks to the Walcott and Mount Stephen sites. Bookings can me made at: https://www.burgess-shale.bc.ca/guided-hikes. Next up - local fires provide hope for endangered pines Fire Updates First up, a few updates on the fire situation in western Canada. Perhaps one of the most surprising updates comes from Fort McMurray. After 15 months, the Horse River fire that devastated Fort McMurray in May of 2016 has just been officially deemed to have been extinguished. Fires can linger for long periods underground, and this fire, christened the 'beast', burned some 6,000 km2 last year and leveled 2,400 buildings. Fire managers had to wait until advanced heat detectors from helicopters could find no more lingering hot spots before finally declaring the fire out on Aug 2, 2017. This story comes as our skies are still full of smoke from fires burning across British Columbia. Closer to home, Calgary is set to surpass its record for the smokiest summer on record. The current record was set in 1969 and saw 269 hours of smoke clouding the skies above Calgary. As of Sept 3, 2017 Calgary had seen 255 hours. This record is toast. The season is far from over and the skies around Canmore are continually smoky with much of that drifting eastward towards Calgary. Unless we see some dramatic changes in weather over the next few weeks, Calgary will likely set a record that will be difficult to top. Unfortunately though, with warming climates, all bets are off when it comes of fires in our western forests. To put this into perspective, the average number of smoke filled hours in a year in Calgary is slightly less than 17 for the entire year. Calgary has bettered that on single days numerous times this year. Aug 17 saw 24 hours of smoke, Aug 31 saw 23. July 12 had 19 hours. In 1969 the last smoke measurement was on Dec 22. We still have 4 months of potentially smoke-filled skies before we bid this record breaking year good bye for hopefully clearer skies in 2018. [caption id="attachment_609" align="alignleft" width="501"] Wilderness closure in the Rocky Mountain Forest District in British Columbia[/caption] This week also saw the complete closure of all wilderness in southeastern British Columbia due to the extreme fire situation. The closure affects the entire Rocky Mountain Forest District following the Continental Divide from Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park and areas south of Glacier National Park, all the way south to the U.S. Border. I'll include a map of the closure area in the show notes to this episode at www.mountainnaturepodcast.com/ep043.  As fire hazards continue to escalate and wildfires appear with little warning, the provincial government wants to make sure that nobody gets stranded in the wilderness should another fire break out. At the same time, provincial resources are already stretched to the limit dealing with currently imminent situations and simply don't have the manpower to make sure fire bans are respected and wilderness regulations followed. According to the closure bulletin posted. The government states: "When deciding to implement a restriction multiple factors are considered, such as current and forecasted weather conditions, anticipated fire behaviour, access routes, the number of active fires and the current extreme fire danger rating. Given, the extreme wildfire activity within the Rocky Mountain Resource District and forecasted high temperatures and winds, it has, in the interests of public safety, become necessary to restrict access to the backcountry in the Rocky Mountain Resource District." The closure doesn't affect anybody's home. People are free to travel to their residences, but as of noon on Sept 2, they cannot head into the wilderness to retrieve boats or camper trailers. I'll leave a link to the government announcement in the show notes if you would like to get additional information as this story unfolds. Looking closer to home, the Verdant Creek fire is still burning, but it is being looked at as an opportunity to help restore some of Kootenay National Park's endangered whitebark pine. As of this week, the fire has burned 15,500 ha within Kootenay National Park and Mount Assiniboine Provincial Parks. As it burned, it also burned some of these endangered trees. While some trees have been lost, the whitebark, like it's close relative the lodgepole pine, is a fire adapted species. It thrives in open sunlight like the landscape left behind by wildfires. Fire suppression has been one thing that has limited the reproduction of whitebark pine trees in the recent past. Without fire, nice open habitats are not available for the pine to grow. According to a story in the Rocky Mountain Outlook, Parks Canada fire and vegetation specialist Jed Cochrane was quoted as saying: “What fire does is it removes the competition, which is typically Engelmann spruce and sub-alpine fir,” Cochrane said. “Fire removes that competition and whitebark pine comes in and has time to grow without competition and get a foothold. “Without fire, what we have seen is that spruce and fir species outcompete whitebark pine and there is a loss of overall regeneration and habitat for whitebark pine.” Whitebark pine has more to contend with than just lack of habitat though. It is also very susceptible to white pine blister rust. This fungal infection has had dramatic impacts on populations of western white pine, limber pine and whitebark pine. In a 2002 study in British Columbia (http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/x02-049), a 3 year survey of more than 24,000 whitebark pine trees found that 19% were dead and an additional 31% showed signs of active infection. Provincially, infections are more common in the eastern portion of the province and slightly lower in the west. Parks Canada biologists have been looking to breed more blister rust-resistant whitebark pine seedlings and outside Cranbrook, B.C. 2,500 seedlings have been grown. This month, park staff will be planting 1,500 of those seedlings in the area burned by the Verdant Creek fire. As the fire burned over areas already burned in 2001, 2003 and 2012, it will help to create a mozaic of different forest age classes. While the seedlings can help to restore some pine lost to the fire back to the landscape, they won't begin producing seeds for 40 years or more. Once they do produce cones, the Clark's nutcracker will collect the seeds for food, and at the same time, help disperse them to new habitats. Fire is an important ecological process in the mountain west. Unfortunately, fire suppression for the past 100 years has left us with much denser forest canopies then would have existed prior. This leaves fewer potential sites for sun-loving trees like the whitebark pine to take root. Please remember that Ward Cameron Enterprises is your source for hiking, step-on and corporate guides across the mountain west. We work with a team of expert naturalists and guides that can help make sure that your mountain experience is one full of memories and discovery. If you'd like to connect with me on social media, you can leave a comment on this page, or hit me up on twitter @wardcameron. You can also visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wardcameronenterprises.

Ontario apartment owners are facing a slew of changes from recent federal, provincial and municipal initiatives. At the federal level, CMHC has changed a number of their policies. Provincially we’ve been introduced to Ontario’s Fair Housing Plan. Toronto is examining a landlord licensing system. Are they positive or negative for apartment investors and builders? We asked Jim Murphy of the Federation of Rental-Housing... The post Ontario’s Fair Housing Plan with Jim Murphy of FRPO appeared first on Commercial Real Estate Podcast.