EPA may ease regulation of chemical plastic recycling, and environmentalists worry

The Environmental Protection Agency is reconsidering whether facilities that recycle plastic chemically should be held to the same strict air pollution standards as incinerators.

The possible change is alarming environmental advocates who say it would lead to more dangerous pollution spewing into communities, with fewer or no checks at the federal level. The plastics industry disputes that, saying it would clear up confusion while still controlling emissions.

The world is pumping millions of tons of plastic pollution into the environment every year. While dozens of countries and many environmental groups have urged caps on production, industry and several big oil-producing countries have resisted, arguing instead for improvements in reuse and recycling.

Chemical recycling uses heat or chemicals to break down plastics. The main method, a process known as pyrolysis, has long been regulated as incineration by the Clean Air Act. The EPA limits emissions from incinerators of nine air pollutants, including toxic particulates, heavy metals and dioxins.

‘Just staggering’: city’s homelessness crisis worsening, new data reveals

Winnipeg’s homelessness crisis is accelerating, not easing, as new data released Monday shows more people are falling into homelessness than are finding a way out.

Not consulted on Clear Lake motorboating: Chief

The chief of Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation says he did not consent to the return of motorboats at Clear Lake.

Liberals set to debate age restrictions for social media

MONTREAL - Liberal party members will soon grapple with the question of whether children and young teens should be barred from accessing social media accounts for platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and YouTube.

The policy resolution is expected to hit the floor at the Liberal party policy convention in Montreal for debate and a vote on Saturday.

Jonathan Nuss, the head of the Outremont Liberal riding association, is one of the main proponents of a resolution calling on the party to ensure social media platforms limit user accounts to Canadians aged 16 and older.

The Montreal lawyer and father of two young children said he wants this resolution to kick-start a national debate on addictive technologies and the harmful effects social media can have on young children — a debate that's already happening among parents across the country.

Food is food regardless of where it comes from

In the recent budget, the government of Manitoba announced it will remove provincial sales tax from prepared meals sold in grocery stores, while continuing to apply it to the very same meals sold in restaurants.

This change is presented as an affordability measure. However, if the goal is to make food more affordable, then tax policy should reflect a simple principle: food is food.

Food is not a luxury, it is a necessity.

With just one per cent of restaurants classified as high-end or luxury dining, the reality is that the vast majority operate in the mid-market — serving as an essential part of Manitobans’ daily routines and busy lives. In fact, low-income Canadians spend a greater proportion of their income on restaurants than those with a higher income, so a tax on restaurant food disproportionately affects them.

Karoline Leavitt puts the ‘pro’ in propaganda

It’s not often a press secretary is so rabidly enthusiastic about their mission that they develop their own following, but then Karoline Leavitt is exceptional.

Rent control killing jobs: landlords

Companies are laying off staff and pausing major investments ahead of changes to Manitoba’s rental market.

One Manitoba company that works primarily on apartment buildings has had four projects put on hold and had to lay off roughly a dozen staff.

“That’s been a common theme with my peers… They’re all having to do the same,” said Con-Restor Technologies owner Stephane Phaneuf.

The Manitoba government plans to change how rental property managers can apply for above-guideline increases this spring. If implemented, landlords won’t recoup renovation costs through rent as quickly.

Tale of flight stuck on ‘freezing Canadian island’ gets warm laughs in Newfoundland

ST. JOHN'S - Newfoundlanders were having a chuckle on Monday over international media reports saying passengers on a British Airways flight diverted to St. John's last week were stranded on a frozen island somewhere in Canada.

Headlines describing Newfoundland as a "freezing island" had people cracking jokes and sharing weather statistics on social media. A spoof video on Reddit collected upvotes for its David Attenborough-style tale of marooned passengers scrounging for food and Wi-Fi signals in the capital city of more than 200,000 people.

It certainly wasn't easy for many of the 255 passengers who were grounded for two nights in Newfoundland and Labrador's capital city, Heather McKinnon, general manager at the Delta Hotel in St. John's, said Monday. They had no access to their luggage when a storm blew in and some spoke of missing funerals and weddings, she said in an interview.

But McKinnon said she hopes most know that Newfoundland is not a frozen wasteland, as the headlines appeared to suggest.

AP says it will offer buyouts as part of pivot away from newspaper-focused history

The Associated Press, one of the world's oldest and most influential news organizations, said Monday it is offering buyouts to an unspecified number of its U.S.-based journalists as part of an acceleration away from the focus on newspapers and their print journalism that sustained the company since the mid-1800s.

The News Media Guild, the union that represents AP journalists, said more than 120 of the staff members it represents received buyout offers on Monday.

The news organization is becoming more focused on visual journalism and developing new revenue sources, particularly through companies investing in artificial intelligence, to cope with the economic collapse of many legacy news outlets. Once the lion’s share of AP’s revenue, big newspaper companies now account for 10% of its income.

“We’re not a newspaper company and we haven’t been for quite some time,” Julie Pace, executive editor and senior vice president of the AP, said in an interview.