State of the used car market after the pandemic and during tariff threats
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Global News
26 minutes ago
- Global News
Why is Air Canada cancelling flights before a strike actually happens?
Talks between Air Canada and the union representing its flight attendants are continuing ahead of an imminent strike or lockout. But the carrier is preemptively cancelling flights even before a strike begins. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Air Canada says it has served the company with a 72-hour strike notice, while advising members the airline has issued its own plan to lock out employees early Saturday morning. The carrier said it will begin cancelling flights as early as Thursday because 'sudden or unmanaged work stoppages produce a significantly worse disruption to travel than a planned suspension of flying.' The airline is planning to pause all flight operations by Saturday. 3:13 Union crash Air Canada news conference 'This approach will help limit the strike's impact by allowing as many customers as possible to complete their journeys. But importantly, they will also help facilitate an orderly restart which under the best circumstances will take a full week to complete,' Air Canada COO Mark Nasr said at a press conference on Thursday. Story continues below advertisement 'By the end of the day Thursday we'll (have) several dozen cancellations, and by the end of the day Friday, around about 500 cancellations (based) on the current plan,' he added. Why cancel is talks are still on? Experts say this puts control in the hands of the airline. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'A preemptive cancelation is one which happens before a strike actually begins. It may happen as a response to a strike notice or other business decisions, but ultimately, it is something within the carrier's control,' said Gabor Lukacs, president of the advocacy group Air Passenger Rights. Lukacs said an airline may even have 'business considerations like the cost of parking an aircraft somewhere or the cost of hotels for employees who may be stranded if they were to operate the flight.' Some experts argue that it helps an airline prevent 'chaos' from ensuing. Story continues below advertisement 'Airlines may preemptively cancel or suspend flights to prevent chaos, manage operational capacity, and reduce safety risks,' said Peter Follows, CEO of Toronto-based consulting firm Carpedia International, which works with clients in several industries including transportation. 'A planned stop makes it easier to coordinate resources, inform staff, and implement contingency plans, minimizing the ripple effect of backlog and delays.' 3:48 Flights cancelled ahead of looming Air Canada strike Air Canada said its systems cannot come to a grinding halt, which is why they plan in anticipation of disruptions. 'Air Canada is a very complex system. It covers over 40,000 employees, (and) over 250 aircraft operating to 200 destinations in over 65 countries. It's simply not the kind of system that we can start or stall at the push of a button,' Nasr said. 'In order to have a safe and orderly wind down, we need to begin now.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "In order to have a safe and orderly wind down, we need to begin now." Story continues below advertisement The wind-down of Air Canada operations started Thursday with long-haul international flights, Nasr added. By Friday, Air Canada will have cancelled flights that affect around 100,000 passengers. A complete halt will affect 130,000 passengers a day, Nasr said. A gradual, preemptive shutdown saves passengers last-minute stress, Follows said. 4:44 Air Canada winds down operations ahead of possible job action 'For passengers, this approach can mean fewer last-minute surprises, though it may ultimately result in more cancellations,' he added. Air Canada said it will work with both Canadian and foreign airlines to arrange alternative travel for its passengers and also offer them refunds. However, passengers are not obligated to accept the refund. 'From Air Canada's perspective, the best outcome in the case of a strike is give you a refund for a flight they cancel and wash their hands from your alternate transportation. Don't fall for that,' Lukacs said. Story continues below advertisement 'If you voluntarily accept a refund, then Air Canada (can) possibly argue, 'A passenger chose a refund (and) we no longer owe them alternate transportation.' But if you say, 'No, I won't accept the refund, give me alternate transportation,' and they fail to do so (or) refuse to do so, they owe you compensation for your alternate transportation costs,' he said.
CTV News
26 minutes ago
- CTV News
Air Canada executive calls flight attendants invading press conference ‘deeply unfortunate'
Watch Air Canada Executive VP and Chief Operations Officer Mark Nasr on the gradual suspensions of flights as strike action looms.
CBC
27 minutes ago
- CBC
Are EVs really greener than gas-powered cars?
Welcome to our weekly newsletter where we highlight environmental trends and solutions that are moving us to a more sustainable world. Are EVs really greener than gas-powered cars? Ottawa's Carolyn Inch and her partner recently bought a used Tesla Model 3, but quickly started hearing from family, friends and neighbours that their choice was actually bad for the planet. "There's just been a series of question marks raised about the environmental wisdom of our choice," Inch told CBC's climate solutions podcast What On Earth. But she's not alone. Rachel Doran, the executive director of Clean Energy Canada, says that as EVs have become more popular — 17 per cent of all new cars sold in Canada in 2024 were EVs, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) — so too has the misinformation about them. "I think there's various sources for this," she said, "and maybe the best place to start is not assuming people have bad intentions, but rather just they're looking for information and facts and it's hard to know these days as you sift through things." The IEA says EVs are key to decarbonizing road transportation, which is a significant source of harmful greenhouse gas emissions. But one of the things Inch was told is that her EV produced more emissions in manufacturing than what it would ultimately reduce. That's not the case, says Doran. "Overall, EVs have been shown to emit as much as 71 per cent less carbon pollution than gas cars, including pollution from mining, manufacturing and driving," she said. That's comparing the projected emissions produced over their respective lifecycles, based on medium-sized vehicles that were manufactured in 2023 and driven for at least 250,000 kilometres, according to Bloomberg. She says it's true mining the materials for electric vehicle batteries, including lithium and other critical minerals, and manufacturing them does create more emissions than combustion engine vehicle production. "But, what is useful to measure is how many kilometres do you have to drive until you come out even and you start driving on emissions savings for an electric vehicle," she said. That point at which you start to break even depends on the type of electric vehicle and other factors like where it was manufactured and whether your electricity comes from coal, gas or renewable energy. The International Council on Clean Transportation says that an EV charged on an average European power grid, where almost half of electricity is generated using renewable sources, would take about 18,000 km of driving to start paying back its emissions debt, which is about one or two years of driving. In the U.S., it'd be closer to 20,000 km But let's take a Tesla Model 3, for example, which is what Inch and her partner own. A 2021 analysis by Reuters News Agency found you would have to drive a new Tesla Model 3 nearly 22,000 kilometres using a U.S. mix of electricity sources for the emissions reduction to start balancing out what was produced in manufacturing. But Inch bought her Tesla used with about 49,000 kilometres on it, so she may already be coming out ahead of the game. Doran says she thinks EV production will continue to improve and that the emissions associated with manufacturing will drop once more countries that use cleaner energy sources ramp up electric vehicle battery production. Right now, China is the world leader in EV battery production, but produces most of its electricity using coal. Doran points out that while there is room for improvement on the initial emissions produced by EVs, it's the battery that makes EVs more energy efficient overall compared to combustion engine vehicles. "As you're burning gas in a traditional fossil fuel-powered car, you're losing a lot of the useful energy through that combustion trying to move," she said. "Because electric vehicles kind of can make that connection more directly, they convert about 77 to 91 per cent of the energy stored in their batteries into power for movement, whereas gasoline cars convert about 17 to 21 per cent." While batteries make electric vehicles more efficient, they are also what makes them heavier. One other claim that Inch has faced since buying hers is that it weighs too much and that EVs are causing more damage to the roads. Not so, says Doran. She explains that studies have shown that damage to roads is overwhelmingly caused by large vehicles, like buses and transport trucks, but road wear from cars, including EVs, is quite low. Doran says the benefits of electric vehicles are only increasing. But if you're "EV-curious" and have some trouble navigating conversations about your decision to drive an electric vehicle, she has some simple advice: "Don't hesitate to try to talk to a friend or neighbor or somebody sitting charging an electric car at a car station because lots of EV drivers are keen to talk about some of their experience and some of the research they did before they made the choice." Check out our podcast and radio show. In one of our newest episode s: Polar bears, bowhead whales, melting sea ice – the students on these ships see it all. We hear from two students sailing across the Davis Strait from Nunavut to Greenland about what life is like onboard the Students On Ice ships. We also hear from a former student about how her trip sparked her career in climate solutions, and from the founder of the program about how the polar regions have changed since he started the expeditions 25 years ago. What On Earth drops new podcast episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. You can find them on your favourite podcast app or on demand at CBC Listen. The radio show airs Sundays at 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador. Check the CBC News Climate Dashboard for live updates on wildfire smoke and active fires across the country. Set your location for information on air quality and to find out how today's temperatures compare to historical trends. Reader Feedback Last week, we had a story about a project in Nova Scotia exploring the potential of charred wood to help farmers and store carbon. Heather Zwicke r responded: "Just popping you a note towards a weird rabbit hole as to say that a source of carbon I wish to contribute to Nova Scotia's flora will be my cremains.… Also … aquamation has a tiny environmental impact and creates the same end result as cremation when it comes to bodies." Unfortunately, pyrolysis of human bodies to produce biochar isn't currently available. Unlike pyrolysis, cremation removes all carbon content from a body, and the heat to burn the body comes from burning natural gas, producing lots of carbon emissions in the process. Aquamation, also known as alkaline hydrolysis or flameless cremation, does have a smaller environmental impact. In both cases, the "cremains" are generally too salty and acidic to be added directly to soil, although there are techniques to add them to plantings. The Big Picture: How Seville beats the heat Street shades are strung up throughout downtown Seville to protect pedestrians from the sun. The Spanish city, nicknamed the "frying pan of Spain" for its extreme summer temperatures, was recently named a winner of the 2025 edition of Haciendo misión, a competition between Spanish cities on the climate transition. The shades are among many adaptations aimed at cooling the city that contributed to that honour. Others include qanat, an ancient Persian technique based on a system of underground water canals that store "coolness" at night and bioclimactic air conditioning in schools. You can read more about these solutions here. — Emily Chung Hot and bothered: Provocative ideas from around the web "Balkonkraftwerke" is having a moment. The German term for balcony solar panels that plug in to an outlet may be the next big thing to supplement your electricity. But as The New York Times and The Washington Post explore, even this simple tool to save you dozens of dollars comes with big hurdles. It turns out we're not that good at understanding which of our climate decisions have a big impact, and which ones don't, according to a new study. Researchers found most people ranked personal choices that do have a big impact — like owning a pet dog or avoiding flights — as much less important than interventions with a smaller impact. Walmart Chile's Quilicura distribution centre has been producing green hydrogen from the country's abundant renewable energy for two years to power a couple hundred forklifts. In September, it'll start testing a hydrogen-powered fuel cell truck to make deliveries in the Santiago area. As the climate warms, some airplanes may need to carry fewer passengers or less cargo. That means you could get bumped from a flight during heat waves, Yale Climate Connections explains. Scientists say the world needs to eat less meat to meet its climate targets. To counter that, the meat industry has recruited environmental groups such as the Nature Conservancy and WWF to make beef seem more eco-friendly, DeSmog reports. Could cable cars help fix traffic problems in Canada? What if your daily commute didn't mean enduring bumper-to-bumper traffic but soaring above it instead? It sounds like wishful thinking, but in parts of the world, cable cars or gondolas — typically seen at ski resorts or tourist spots — are actually used as public transit, helping people get around in their day-to-day lives. For example, Bogotá, Colombia, relies on the TransMiCable to transport people daily. In Oregon, the Portland Aerial Tram averages 9,000 rides each weekday, while Mi Teléferico in La Paz, Bolivia, has a capacity of as many as 34,000 passengers per hour in each direction. As Canadian cities grapple with "brutal" congestion and spotty transit service, some transportation planners believe cable cars could offer this country an affordable and efficient fix. "It's not very expensive to operate," Reece Martin, a Toronto-based independent transportation planner, told Day 6 host Brent Bambury. "And frankly, they're not very expensive to build, either." "You install some poles, you string some cable and then it's good to go," Martin said. "It's a lot faster to build than some of the transit projects we might be familiar with." Jonathan English, a transportation policy consultant with the Toronto Region Board of Trade, agrees. He says cable cars are "in theory ... potentially significantly cheaper than building an elevated train." For commuters, says Martin, it means no stoplights, no traffic jams. Just climb in, glide over the bustle and arrive calm and stress-free. Proposed cable car lines in B.C., Ontario In Burnaby, B.C., a gondola commute is on the brink of becoming reality. Councillor Daniel Tetrault, vice-chair of the city's transportation committee, says the Burnaby Mountain Gondola is "ready to go." The new aerial link would hook up a SkyTrain station with the top of Burnaby Mountain, home to Simon Fraser University's main campus and a growing community of roughly 7,000 residents. The ride would support about 25,000 trips every weekday. "I'm a former SFU student," Tetrault said. "I remember anytime it's snowing or the weather's iffy, the bus service was unreliable … [a gondola is] an important opportunity that really could connect the university and the rest of Burnaby and the region." Beyond convenience, the environmental impact is huge, says Tetrault. According to TransLink, Metro Vancouver's public transit authority and a proponent of the project, a gondola runs on electricity and a single trip would emit just five grams of carbon dioxide per passenger — a sharp contrast to the roughly 400 grams produced by a diesel bus. Environmental assessments, community consultations, infrastructure design and route selection are complete but Tetrault says the project is currently at a standstill, awaiting funding from the provincial and federal governments. For it to move forward, he adds, it must be recognized as a priority and included in an investment plan approved by the TransLink board and the Mayors' Council on Regional Transportation. TransLink confirmed in a statement to the CBC that the Burnaby Mountain Gondola is part of its Ten-Year Access for Everyone plan but remains unfunded. "The next step for the project is to complete the business case and acquire funding through a future Investment Plan update," the statement said. While gondolas are ideal for steep terrain like Burnaby Mountain, English says they could also "potentially" help untangle congestion in busy city centres. He sees gondolas as a potential solution in parts of Toronto that have rapid residential growth but "slow, crowded or unreliable" transit access. Just east of Toronto, in Oshawa, Ont., a proposed Aerial Cable Car Transit line would run along Simcoe Street. Following a review, regional staff recommended the cable car over traditional buses, citing advantages such as greater speed and reliability. As well, Simcoe Street's narrow roadway and densely packed buildings make expanding traditional bus service challenging. Adding a new bus route could mean reducing parking spaces, eliminating traffic lanes and expropriating private property. English is realistic, saying there's no "silver bullet" to fix congestion. He says gondolas work well in some situations but not everywhere. Still, he calls them "one tool in the toolbox" and says having more options is always better. Martin believes the biggest barrier to adopting gondolas as public transit is people's perception of them. "It's really an issue of just kind of getting one built," said Martin. "So that you have an example to point to and say, 'Hey, they did it over there and it's very successful and it was a good investment.'" — Catherine Zhu
