All posts by SpencerGallichan-Lowe

Fate of former illegal drug lab site unclear

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The fate of a former Langley, B.C. illegal drug lab is unclear as provincial government officials will not confirm whether or not the contaminated property has been cleaned up.

In April 2014 Langley RCMP raided a property at 20668 72nd avenue that was alleged to have contained an illegal drug manufacturing operation.  A 36-year-old Surrey B.C. resident was arrested in the process and his case is before the courts, says Cpl. Scotty Schumann of the RCMP.

The B.C. Ministry of the Environment did not answer requests for comment on this story. But according to ministry documents obtained through the province’s freedom of information laws, an investigation determined in July 2014 that the site posed a “high risk [of] contamination at both the source and neighbouring parcels due to solvent concentrations (toluene and dichloromethane) in soil and groundwater.”


Both toluene and dichloromethane are chemicals used to manufacture illegal drugs like methamphetamine, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The documents go on to say the province sent letters to the site’s registered owners demanding the property be cleaned up.  The owners did not respond and that “the lack of response to the Ministry’s letter of March 5, 2015 can be interpreted that the parties are unwilling or unable to carry out remediation or to comply with the requirements to remediate the site.”


This leaves it up to the provincial government to clean up the site and recover the costs associated with the remediation from the site’s owners, the documents state.


The province did issue a press release on May 5, 2015 saying the ministry had ordered the site be cleaned up as soon as possible.  The press release also states that the province would be seeking a contractor to clean up the site—however ministry officials have yet to confirm that the work was actually carried out.


Cleaning up a former drug lab – called site remediation – can be a costly and sometimes difficult process, says Kristen Hoedlmoser, a chemical and environmental engineer with the consulting firm Giffin Koerth, Inc.

“You can have these nasty chemicals that are harmful and addictive that are on surfaces throughout the structure and can be in the air,” she says.

That’s why a thorough evaluation of the structures and land must be completed before the remediation crews can begin the clean up, she says.

“You can get a whole host of things that would be bi-products of the [methamphetamine] cooking process,” she says.

Remediation firms can use a variety of methods to clean a contaminated structure, she says. This can include scrubbing the walls with special chemicals, cleaning porous surfaces like carpets to removing finishes like baseboards and panels.

“It depends on how responsive the building materials are to the cleaning activities,” she says. “Sometimes it can take a couple of rounds of cleaning and possibly adjusting the cleaning protocol as required to get the surfaces and the air quality to a level that is acceptable.”

The goal is to make the property habitable again, though sometimes it may be necessary to demolish a structure, she says.

“Anything can be remediated but it becomes a cost issue,” she says. “It often comes down to a dollar and sense conversation.”

 

 

 

What is the information?

The information contained in these ministry documents are about an “orphaned” site that was once a clandestine drug lab.

From which department did these pages come?

B.C. Ministry of the Environment

Why was this information helpful?

It contained information about a hazardous plot of land in Langley, B.C. and the government’s efforts to clean it up.

ATIP Requests below

Federal ATIP request for expenses filed by the chief executive officer of Defence Construction Canada. The is an email stating they have sent the request to the appropriate department.

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Municipal ATIP request for the City of Ottawa regarding Ottawa Fire Service records:

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Provincial ATIP request regarding expenses filed by the director of the Ontario Film Authority:

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Completed ATIP request from the federal department of Canadian Heritage – ministerial briefing book.

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Diagram describing how a basement can become flooded. Shows water entry points.

Ward six Etobicoke-Lakeshore had the most basement flooding calls in Toronto

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Toronto ward six, Etobicoke-Lakeshore,  had the most reports of basement flooding in the city, according to an analysis of data provided by the City of Toronto.

From January to June 30, 2015, residents reported 215 incidents of basement flooding. The eastern ward of Beaches-East York (ward 32) reported 209 calls and the western ward of York-South Weston (ward 11) had 199 reports.  The ward with the lowest number of basement flooding reports was ward 39 Scarborough-Agincourt with 23 calls.

The city defines basement flooding in data documents as “cases of water or sewage entering a basement due to a blocked drain, sewer backing up, or surface flooding from storm events.”

A staffer from ward six councillor Mark Grimes’ office says the councillor wasn’t available to comment on this issue at press time.  However, Randall Meier of Toronto Water says in an email “basement flooding is a complex issue,” and that residents should visit the city’s flooding site for more information.

There is a lot homeowners can do to prevent their basements from flooding even if they live in a flood-prone ward like Etobicoke-Lakeshore, says Dan Sandink of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.

He says if you have a downspout connected to the sanitary sewer system, contact the city for information on how to remove it because it is now illegal.


“Fifty years ago it was common for home builders when they built new subdivisions to connect downspouts and foundation drains into municipal sanitary sewer systems,” he says. “So when you have [a] major rain fall event this can cause the system to become overloaded and cause sewer backup.”

The city has a special program to help subsidize the cost of the removal of these drains, he says.

Homeowners should also examine the grading of their properties to make sure water can drain away properly from foundation walls, he says.

“[Also] consider installing a backwater valve on your sanitary connection,” he adds. “If the sanitary sewer backs up, the valve closes and reduces [the] risk of getting flooded.”

Sandink says a survey conducted by the City of Saskatoon concluded that these valves were effective 85 per cent of the time in preventing sewer waste from backing up into basements.


While older neighbourhoods like Etobicoke-Lakeshore may face a bigger challenge when it comes to basement flooding, newer developments are being built to new standards that can better handle extreme rain events, says Rehana Rajabali of the Toronto Region Conservation Authority.

She says the key is to plan housing developments that drain away water in a more natural fashion, rather than over-engineering a plot of land that tries to fight the natural flow of water in an area.

“The more we can try to mimic those [natural cycles] within our urban areas, the less strain [there will be] on our urban infrastructure,” she says.

Rajabali says encouraging “smart development” of new neighbourhoods has an impact system wide – from local sewers to rivers.

“Not only does it help address the quantity of water that’s coming through but it improves the quality of storm water by the time it enters our rivers,” she says.

Still, even with new building standards and homeowners doing basic things like removing downspouts, flooding will still occur during extreme rain fall events due to climate change, she says

“The signs are pointing to more frequent and more intense storms.  This is something we have to keep an eye on,” she says.  “It’s the number one risk on my radar.”

The long road to equal rights for LGBTQ people in Alberta

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When Alberta’s NDP government unveiled legislation last November prohibiting discrimination against transgendered people, Nancy Miller couldn’t have been happier.

“It was a fantastic day for me to stand at the legislature and see this progressive government do the right thing…to do things that should have been done years ago,” she says.

A long time activist in Calgary’s LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Queer) community, she says legislation like this is the culmination of years of hard work.

“That was the first time I had ever seen my government take a step forward without being dragged kicking and screaming through the courts to address issues of human rights,” she says.


The fight to include Alberta’s LGBTQ community under the province’s anti-discrimination laws has been a long one.  For years, in cities like Calgary, many members of the gay community were just surviving in the shadows, Miller says.  So to help bring the issues the community was facing into the light, Miller and a group of like-minded activists organized Calgary’s first gay pride parade.

Held on June 16, 1991, it attracted over 400 participants.

“[We] really felt people needed to be out there and visible and to make people aware that their brothers, sisters or parents might be LGBTQ,” she says.

Even on the day of the march, some people were afraid to show their identities she says.  To help make them feel better ‘Lone Ranger’ masks were handed out before the parade so some marchers could conceal their identities.

Pride 1991 CH Article
Calgary’s first gay pride parade ended in some arrests. Courtesy Calgary Gay History Project/PostMedia Networks.

“At that time you could lose your job, get kicked out of your rental apartment; you could lose custody of your children,” she says. “So school teachers, social workers would get Lone Ranger masks.”

Al Duerr, Calgary’s mayor from 1989 to 2001 was an early supporter of the LGBTQ community.

Duerr managed to get a “gay rights week” proclamation issued by the city the year of the first parade, despite opposition from some members of the city council.  He was accused by some of being part of the “gay agenda” he says.

“The only agenda was basic human rights and people wanting to live their lives to the fullest and enjoy what our country had to offer,” he says.

Kevin Allen, lead researcher at the Calgary Gay History Project says the early days of the gay rights movement in Alberta were rough times for the community.

“[In] the 1990s [it was] a culture war,” he says. “It was us versus them.”

He adds the parade helped draw attention to the cause of LGBTQ rights.

“I think the parade showcased queer visibility, which made everyone, gay and straight, more aware of the human rights issues,” he says.

Then-Calgary mayor Al Duerr managed to get a gay-rights week proclamation passed despite some opposition. Courtesy Calgary Gay History Project/ PostMedia Networks.
Then-Calgary mayor Al Duerr managed to get a gay rights week proclamation passed despite some opposition. Courtesy Calgary Gay History Project/ PostMedia Networks.

And while the tone of the parade may have changed over the years, it’s mainly due to Calgary’s changing social makeup, he says.

“[It has] become more of a celebratory event,” he says.  “[But the parade] has changed as society has changed, and it now attracts tens of thousands of people,” he says.

Looking back at all of what has changed for LGBTQ people in Alberta, Miller says the fight isn’t over.

“I never lose sight of the fact that there [are] people living in small towns in Alberta that are still forced to stay in the closet [and] fear for their lives,” she says. “People die for whom they love.  And even though we have come a long way, there’s still a ways to go.”

 

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The documentation

Gay rights parade poster

  • This is a poster advertising the march on June 16, 1991. Even though it says “second annual,” this was actually the first official parade on city streets organized by this group.
  • I obtained the poster from the Calgary Gay History Project
  • The documentation is useful because it gives a visual representation of an upcoming event.

Calgary Herald article by Mike Lamb

  • This is a Calgary Herald article by Mike Lamb detailing some of the drama that unfolded during the parade
  • I obtained the clipping from the Calgary Gay History Project.
  • The documentation is useful because it details the arrests made that day, as well the behaviour of some of the anti-gay protestors.

 

Calgary Herald article by David Climenhaga

  • This is a Calgary Herald clipping by David Climenhaga that talks about the opposition the mayor of Calgary had to deal with when he declared a gay rights week in the city.
  • I obtained the clipping from the Calgary Gay History Project.
  • The documentation is useful because it details how much resistance the mayor got from some members of the city council over the gay rights week proclamation.

Alberta bill-7 PDF

  • This is the bill the Alberta government introduced last fall banning discrimination against people who are transgendered.
  • I obtained the bill from the Alberta Government web site
  • This documentation is useful because it is a primary document and shows what changes are being made to the law in Alberta.
Exterior of a SuperStore owned and operated by Loblaw Companies Limited.

Loblaw earnings up but still faces stiff competition in the Canadian retail sector

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Loblaw Companies Ltd. is reporting third-quarter earnings of $164 million, up about 15 per cent when compared to the same quarter in 2014; however, some analysts are cautioning the company is still facing challenges in Canada’s competitive retail sector.

Loblaw’s recent purchase of Shopper’s Drug Mart appears to be helping the company’s bottom line, but strong competition from other players in the market will continue to dog the company says retail industry consultant Ed Strapagiel.

“Prior to the purchase they had some challenges, one of them being exposure to a very competitive food retailing industry,” he says.
He adds retailers like WalMart and Costco are planning major expansions in the next few years which pose a threat to Loblaw’s revenues. WalMart will be expanding their “SuperCentre” model with 15 new stores in Canada. Costco plans to build 25 more warehouses across the country.
“The thing about Costco is that they are really low profile. They don’t advertise, they aren’t public, they aren’t covered by the analysts yet they are the fourth largest retailer in Canada by revenue,” he says.


Another threat on the horizon is online retailer Amazon.ca. Strapagiel says they have made significant inroads into the Canadian market with strong holiday sales. He says WalMart views online companies like Amazon as a major threat and are ramping up their online presence.
“WalMart is very conscious of [Amazon] so they are battling Amazon…and you get a domino effect on companies like Loblaw,” he says.
This means Loblaw may find itself in a position where sales revenues might be impacted by this battle between the two online giants.
“There’s a lot of pushing and shoving going on there,” he adds.
Strapagiel says future growth for Loblaw lies in the continued integration of Shopper’s into Loblaw. He says it’s important that the company “doesn’t tinker” too much with the existing operations.

Retail analyst Ed Strapagiel says Loblaw faces stiff competition in the retail sector.
Retail analyst Ed Strapagiel says Loblaw faces stiff competition in the retail sector.

“If it ain’t, broke don’t fix it…but there’s always this temptation to play with things,” he says. “If they are wise about it they will be very careful about how they proceed.”

Despite the challenges, other analysts say the third quarter results point to a successful merger. Brynn Winegard, a professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ont. says despite the increased competition in Canada, Loblaw is in a good financial position. She says bringing Shopper’s into the Loblaw fold last year is achieving efficiencies company wide. This means the company is able to profit more.
“Year to date, their earnings are up nearly 350 per cent in net earnings. That’s huge. They’re doing wonderfully,” she says.

Winegard adds Loblaw appears to have paid-off all costs of the integration of Shopper’s. The 15 per cent increase in net profits proves that, she says.

“They’ve already accounted for the losses associated with the acquisition,” she says.

Ryerson professor Brynn Winegard says the integration of Shopper's Drug Mart has been a success for Loblaw.
Ryerson University professor Brynn Winegard says the integration of Shopper’s Drug Mart has been a success for Loblaw.

Another factor in Loblaw’s growth this past quarter is the Shopper’s chain itself, says Winegard. Drug sales are doing well with a 4.9 per cent increase in growth. The same quarter in 2014 only saw about a 2.5 per cent. It’s clear Shopper’s is also benefitting from the merger, says Winegard.

Attempts to get a comment from Loblaw about the third quarter results were unsuccessful, but Galen G. Weston, president and executive chairman noted in the report to investors that the grocery industry remains competitive. He added that the regulatory environment for healthcare continues to be challenging, but the company did achieve its goal of making Loblaw and Shopper’s efficient operations.

 

 

 

Loblaw Companies Limited: stock price.


Loblaw Co’s stock prices by spencergl on TradingView.com

Affordable housing an issue for some downtown residents

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Some residents in the Rideau-Vanier ward spend a significant amount of their income on housing costs. Photo by Spencer Gallichan-Lowe
Some residents in the Rideau-Vanier ward spend a significant amount of their income on housing costs. Photo by Spencer Gallichan-Lowe

In Rideau-Vanier some residents spend more of their household income on shelter costs than in any other ward, according to data from Statistics Canada.

The 2011 National Household Survey shows 6,305 respondents in the ward spend between 30 to less than 100 per cent of their total household income on rent or a mortgage. The Somerset ward to the west of Rideau-Vanier also recorded high numbers, coming in second with 5,540 respondents.  The lowest number was from the rural ward of Osgoode, with 995 respondents.

Experts say rent or a mortgage should not exceed more than 30 per cent of total household income otherwise people will be at risk of financial hardship.

“It’s an affordability issue,” says Laurie Campbell, chief executive officer of Credit Canada Debt Solutions, a non-profit credit counselling service. “If you put more than 30 per cent of your income towards housing costs, it really doesn’t free up a lot of money for other costs.”

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation which insures mortgages, recommends the slightly less conservative figure of 32 per cent for housing costs.

One such Ottawa resident having trouble sticking to that 32 per cent figure is Jocelyn Brock.  She says rent in the downtown ward of Somerset is very expensive and almost all her paycheque goes to basic living costs.

“I’m lucky enough to have paid off all my school debt, but it makes me anxious to live paycheque to paycheque,” she says. “Additional costs like internet, phone and food…it adds up and takes nearly all my paycheque.”

Brock has worked short-term contracts for the federal government since graduating from Algonquin College last year. She says the contracts don’t pay very well and offer no guarantee of future employment.  This makes it hard to plan for the future, which worries her, she says.

“There’s no forward plan, no forward thinking,” she says. “You can’t anticipate where you’ll be.”

There is an interactive map detailing how many residents per ward struggle to maintain a roof over their heads. Visit: http://arcg.is/1U5Fn0b to learn more.
To learn more, please visit our interactive map by clicking here.

Better jobs and better incomes, this is one solution to the city’s affordable housing problem says Mathieu Fleury, city councillor for Rideau-Vanier.

“Income. Overall income.  We need to make sure people make a better income and make more money and stay in the middle class…then they’ll be able to have adequate housing,” he says.

Together with the need for better jobs for the ward, Fleury adds Rideau-Vanier’s demographics are also a likely contributor to the ward’s affordable housing issues.

“It’s because historically there’s been a lot of Ottawa community housing units, the student population and because of the rental market overall in our area,” he says. “Those are all factors explaining why housing comes at a prime in the area and is costing a lot of money for our residents.”

Lorraine Bentley agrees with Fleury’s assessment. She is the executive director of Options Bytown, an agency which provides permanent housing for vulnerable people like the homeless and the mentally ill.

She says people tend to think of Ottawa as a stable and affluent government town. The truth is Ottawa does have a substantial population of people who are of low income, including the working poor and the homeless, she says.

She says one solution is a national housing strategy—a federally co-ordinated plan to get more affordable housing units built.

“Canada up until 1992 did have a national housing strategy and affordable housing was being built all across the country,” she says. “Now it’s more provincial.  Quebec has continued to build affordable housing.”

She says she doesn’t like to use the term ‘crisis’ to describe the current housing situation in Ottawa—instead, she asks: “if you didn’t have a home, wouldn’t you feel you [were] in crisis?”

Private parking lots rake in the tickets

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By Spencer Gallichan-Lowe

Private security and parking lot firms are issuing record numbers of parking tickets a recent analysis of City of Ottawa parking data reveals.

Data obtained from an access to information request shows that Security Response Canada, Inc. issued the most tickets, with over 21,000 in 2014 alone.

When reached for comment, a Security Response staff member said the owner is on holiday and won’t comment on this story.

Only authorized private parking lot companies and security firms can issue parking tickets according to a City of Ottawa bylaw passed in 2012.  This means parking lot companies and security firms can legally ticket a vehicle for parking past their allotted time or in the case of automated lots, parking without putting money in a meter.  Firms can also ticket for unauthorized parking, parking in an accessible parking spot or parking in a fire zone on private property.

“Part of the reason the bylaw was enacted was because companies were creating tickets in-house,” says Troy Leeson, deputy chief of bylaw and regulatory services for the city. “It was void of a legal process.”

Leeson says prior to the 2012 bylaw the rules weren’t very clear. Private parking lot users who were issued tickets were often confused about what to do.  The tickets include a fine but do not have the legal force City of Ottawa tickets do.  Often people would simply not pay them and forget about it, he says.

“We saw this bylaw as a consumer protection piece,” says Mr. Leeson.

Some companies would hire collection agencies or pursue offenders in small claims court.  However, it was often not economical to do so due to court and collection agency fees.

“If it costs $50 to pursue a $30 fine, it’s not a sustainable business model,” he says.

As for the fines themselves, Mr. Leeson says the city collects and retains 50 per cent of the revenues.  The remainder is reimbursed to the companies.

Mr. Leeson adds the fine collection rate is about 70 per cent, but says the city does not keep formal statistics.

As for Security Response’s high ticket rate, Mr. Leeson speculates it may be due to the number of properties the company patrols.

The tickets issued by the private companies are on the same blue and white paper tickets city bylaw officers use.  If the fines go unpaid, drivers may have trouble renewing their plates.

About ten agencies participate in the program, but one major parking provider opted out in 2012.  Impark, Inc. is one of the largest operators of surface and underground parking lots in Canada and the United States.  They issue non-city tickets to customers who either run out of time or don’t pay at all for parking.

“There’s a fundamental difference between what we’re doing and what a municipality does,” says Julian Jones, senior vice president of corporate development at Impark. “We have a commercial objective…to serve customers and to build a loyal customer base.”

Mr. Jones says customers who get a ticket have the option of contacting Impark’s call centre and asking for a reduction or even a full waiver.

“Clearly if someone has one notice and they didn’t understand the system or there was extenuating circumstances then we’re going to take a very lenient view on that and convert them into a customer,” he says.  “That’s absolutely our objective.”

Mr. Jones won’t reveal how many tickets they issue on their lots but says the enforcement system “…is purely a supporting system for the primary revenue collection process, which is of course the meters.”

Impark holds a unique legal position in the private-ticket world.  A 2011 Ontario court ruling sided with the company’s right to issue fines. This makes it the only parking lot company in Canada with the authority to do so.

Still, Mr. Jones says they’re more interested in keeping people coming back to their lots rather than chasing them away with threats of fines.

“Our preference would be to not enforce the system at all and have people pay at the meter,” he says.

 

Kitchener-Waterloo a hot spot for ID theft: Statistics Canada

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Kitchener-Waterloo in south-western Ontario may be home to technology firms like Blackberry Ltd., but it’s also become the centre for a particular brand of cyber crime: identity theft. Statistics Canada data indicates identity theft rates per 100,000 residents jumped between the years 2010-2013, with 2014 being the highest so far.

The Criminal Code defines identity theft “as obtaining and possessing identity information with the intent to use the information deceptively, dishonestly or fraudulently in the commission of a crime.” This could range from impersonating someone to open a bank account to using stolen credentials to purchase goods.

We leave a digital trail everywhere we go. From Facebook logins to the banking apps on our smart phones, criminals are always looking for a weak link in the security chain. Stories of hacking scandals, privacy breaches, and technology firms releasing security patches for their devices have become all too commonplace.

Margaret Gloade, a spokesperson for the Waterloo Regional Police Service, says a major investigation by the fraud division last year is the reason why the rate for 2014 seems higher than previous years. “It resulted in an arrest,” she says. “It’s also indicative of the large number of victims involved.”

Gloade says anytime a police service decides to dedicate more resources to a particular issue, it can result in an uptick in the statistics. “It’s reflective of police priorities sometimes,” she says. “The community’s willingness to report these crimes can also influence the numbers.”

Other identity theft trends in the Kitchener-Waterloo region also have police looking at the payday loan sector. “Our fraud investigators are also finding people are using compromised IDs to get online loans from companies like money-lending businesses,” she says. “It’s still quite easy to do this.”

But how do criminals get a hold of people’s identities? What’s the source?

Professor Tim Richardson of the University of Toronto says it’s sometimes simple carelessness. “Sometimes business will donate computers to a charity or similar organization, and they forget to properly wipe the hard drives,” he says. Those thousands of records can then be easily retrieved and sold to other criminals on the Internet. “They’ll go into chat rooms and trade the data,” he says.

Another way fraudsters steal people’s data is through retail stores. Compromised employees with access to customer data might try to sell the information on the Internet.

However, Richardson says it’s usually a time-consuming process so the criminals will work in groups of three or four. “A lot of the time it’s a borderless crime – it’s hard to determine where these guys are operating.”

While it may appear the Kitchener-Waterloo region is number one in Ontario for identity theft, further analysis of the national data shows Ontario is actually in the middle of the pack when it comes to these crimes. From 2010-2014, the province placed about eighth in Canada, with Quebec and Alberta placing first and second respectively. The province with the lowest rate was Newfoundland and Labrador.

Still, the problem of identity theft is big enough to warrant having it’s own government clearing-house. Daniel Williams of the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says identity theft “is usually beyond the everyday consumer’s control.”

“It’s the biggest type of fraud Canadians face,” he says. “Millions [of dollars] are lost every year.”

Williams says there is a lot Canadians can do to minimize the fallout should they become a victim. “Why make it easy for a criminal to go through your garbage?” he says. “ Shred important documents.” Williams also says it’s important to monitor the activity on credit and bank statements. You should also check your credit rating with Equifax and TransUnion – the two main credit agencies in Canada – at least once year. Any unusual activity should be reported immediately. “Should it happen, it’s important to get ahead of it as soon as possible,” he says. “Don’t put it off – deal with it right away.”

Williams adds consumers are not in charge of how institutions guard their systems. Nothing is ever 100 per cent secure. “Hackers have even gotten into the Pentagon,” referring to the incident this past summer when a group of alleged Russian hackers stole almost 4,000 documents from military computers.

The bottom line is that it’s important to remain vigilant about your personal data. “It’s easier for criminals to copy identities rather than create them,” he says. “It’s important to keep on top of these things everyday.”