“Gnats on Confederation.”
“The Calgary School is not producing ‘maverick thinkers’ who keep happening to fall into politics & happening to govern badly. It is producing a specific intellectual product with a specific political shape, & the badness is a feature of the design.”

RM of Sherwood council approves Bell Canada AI data centre near Regina | CBC News The seven-member council for a rural municipality near Regina — only three of whom were elected to their positions — has approved a development agreement for Bell Canada's planned 300-megawatt AI data...

R.M. of Sherwood (close to Regina):
- was evaluating large data centre proposal
- concerned residents; process issues
- 4 out of 7 council members abruptly resign in March
- has all 4 replaced by appointment by SK government
- none of the 4 reside in the R.M.
- Data centre approved yesterday
#SKPoli

Arched concrete bridge over a prairie river with city skyline beyond

#GoodMorningFromSaskatoon where I’m seeing the first mirror view since last year 😊

Apollo v Artemis: How the Earth changed in 58 years After the Apollo 8 crew captured the iconic Earthrise photo in 1968, Artemis astronauts have recreated the image, revealing changes to our fragile blue planet.

Two photos of earth from the moon, taken “58 years apart…help reveal how the Earth has changed….
‘Since Earthrise, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have risen by about a third & global temperatures have warmed rapidly, by at least 1C….the Aral Sea…has shrunk to less than 10% of its 1960s size.’"

And guess what happens once the Chinese have made enough electric freight trucks for themselves, paying off the cost of the factories? They will export them to the rest of the world at the cost of variable inputs
(materials, energy, labour), i.e., super cheap.

Also wander through the beautiful Japanese garden a short walk from the MoA.

19th century power in order to power a 21st century data centre.

Last summer, 22 volunteers, with no help from the Saskatchewan government &, for a time, no contact with the outside world,were able to save their northern community from wildfire.
It cost them $39,000 - money they now ask the the provincial government to reimburse.

This solar farm is located at a the same latitude as Dundurn, SK. It produces ⚡️equal to about 8% of Saskatchewan’s annual ⚡️ use.

“Prairie Harm Reduction gave so much more than it ever cost. It gave life. Community. And respect. Again and again. That, at the very least, deserves our grief, our anger, and our demand for a province that does better than this.”

Carry on 🇨🇦:
35% drop in Canadian visits to US since beginning 2025.
“‘In my 37 years in the travel industry, I have never seen anything like what the Canadians have pulled off’” - US analyst.
It has been entirely grass-roots - no govt action.

Crisis in the Core Seeing the Humans in the Harm

A thoughtful post from someone who sees first-hand the impact of the closing of Prairie Harm Reduction. (He works next door).
ryanmeili.substack.com/p/crisis-in-...

City overdose alert tied to loss of drug checking machine The closure of Prairie Harm Reduction means its drug-testing technology is not able to be used at this time, leaving organizations unable to identify what might be contaminating the drug supply.

By April 14 Saskatoon Fire Department had responded to 195 overdose calls for the month, compared to 165 calls in the whole month of March.
~30% of calls were within 5 blocks of the now closed Prairie Harm Reduction.

Meanwhile, despite Saskatchewan’s announcement of a new vaccine eligibility season for COVID opening April 1, only one clinic has been listed by SHA for the entire province - in Beauval.
We have been unable to find a pharmacy in Saskatoon #yxe with vaccine. Those contacted don’t expect to get any.

COVID-19 drove recent leap in preventable respiratory hospitalizations, report says Hospital admission rates for such diseases more than doubled in 2024-2025 compared with prepandemic levels

Average stay / COVID pt, including ICU: 23 days.
Average cost / COVID pt: ~$28,500
So: close to $30M cost in total for COVID admissions in SK in the year.
And COVID was “over” 2 years previously.

Saskatchewan’s rate of hospitalization for vaccine-preventable respiratory diseases such as COVID, RSV, and flu was 199 per hundred thousand people in 2024-25. This was highest among Canadian provinces. Saskatchewan’s population is 1.2 million people.

Saskatchewan’s rate of hospitalization rates for vaccine-preventable respiratory diseases in 2024-25 was the highest among 🇨🇦’s provinces.
~2400 hospitalizations could have been prevented with immunization.
>40% of these admissions were for COVID. 1/

Oh, and by the way, Norway also taxes oil and profits at 78 per cent. 78 per cent!

From PwC:

A 🧵 that is an example of (mostly) respectful, thoughtful, and informative debate.
(This is why I’m on Blue Sky.)

Mark Carney just cut gas taxes. He should be raising these taxes instead As temporary measures go, a windfall tax is a better idea.

...In contrast, taxing the oil and gas companies’ windfall profits means we can deploy some of those revenues directly helping lower and modest-income households, while using some of the funds to expedite our transition off these deadly fuels.

Here's my piece:
www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

To understand where BC is today, read this: the history that we’ve never heard, still echoing 125 years later. 2/2

How Joseph Trutch Set the Stage for BC’s Indigenous Policies | The Tyee The ugly history of land dispossession continues to emerge in political decisions today.

At confederation, BC’s leaders made a deliberate choice on Indigenous land rights. Now, “Every generation, a new set of political leaders faces the same Indigenous land question, reaches the same conclusions about cost & timing & legal uncertainty & finds a way to leave the question closed.” 1/2

“Worried about wildfires sending claims soaring this year, 🇨🇦’s…insurers are…urging the government to take climate issues more seriously despite economic turmoil….as claims surge & ‌in turn push up home-insurance premiums, which rose about 6% last year in Canada.”

Past head of Alberta Medical Association pulls no punches on Alberta govt plan to allow direct access to diagnostics & specialists without a referral, if you pay.
If this goes ahead, Saskatchewan could well be next.

Run the dishwasher, plug in the car: how Great Britain plans to use record wind and solar power With a summer glut on cards, customers are being urged to use more energy when renewables are abundant

“Great Britain is on the brink of a record-breaking summer for renewable energy, which could lead to the first periods of zero-carbon electricity in the history of the power system.”

So far this government has:

- removed EV mandates (and moreover paused rebates to stall the market)
- removed carbon tax
- removed low carbon electricity policy
- removed gasoline tax
- removed oil and gas cap

when does the Canadian Federal government do climate policy?

a doctor says hey what do i know while holding a tablet ALT: a doctor says hey what do i know while holding a tablet

#cdnpoli alt take:

Or… we could let the oil situation accelerate electrification and use the $billions saved by not cutting gas taxes to support families hurt by fuel inflation thru a boost in the CCB and GST credits.

Less facetiously, Canada is in a dangerous place right now. We're scared of the US, but we're also tearing apart our climate policies & leaning into petrostate reflexes, and this recent rush of oil revenue will bolster this. By far the best & most feasible thing we could do right is pull a Norway...

Saskatoon’s plan to densify along new major corridors for bus rapid transit continues to progress. Property owners within several blocks of corridors now offered free, opt-in re-zoning applications.
#yxe’s transformation to a larger, modern city continues as it grows well past 300K pop.

This creates an income stream for private business to do low value (in terms of improving health) testing, while draining the public system of staff. Referrals exist for a reason: to screen diagnostic & specialist care for those who really need it.

Keep up the great work!