REMAKING A FORESTRY TOWN: THE MULTIFACETED CHALLENGES OF TRANSITION IN PORT ALBERNI, BC

Since the early 1980s, British Columbia’s forestry sector i has undergone widespread restructuring in the face of increasing international competition, resulting in the loss of thousands of relatively low-skilled but high-waged jobs in the province’s logging and milling operations. For the dozens of communities throughout the province which have historically been heavily dependent on the forestry industry, this restructuring has been an extremely difficult process, resulting in high rates of unemployment, increased poverty, and an array of social problems, which are complicated by significant cultural dimensions of economic dislocation, such as the loss of identity and changing \ familial roles. The problems with this transition have tended to be compounded by existing characteristics of forestry-dependent communities, including low levels of educational attainment and the lack of local economic diversity. This thesis aims to explore the difficult transition beyond forestry dependence in Port Albemi, British Columbia, and argues that in order to understand the contemporary challenge of community re-development, it is important to appreciate the place-specific character of the profound social and cultural changes stemming from economic decline and transition. Given the concern with the social and cultural dimensions of transition, the research focussed on in-depth qualitative research with key informants who have extensive experience in social and employment services and education. Ultimately, through an assessment of these insights and interpretations, the thesis seeks to provide a critical examination of the process of community transition and to interpret the key constraints, current failures, and future opportunities which are laden in it

The Canadian Northern Corridor Roundtable Program: Results and Lessons Learned

Key Messsages: Canada needs a long-term strategic and integrated infrastructure vision for mid- and northern Canada that focuses on long-term policy priorities of communities. Infrastructure policy development for mid- and northern Canada must focus on collaborative approaches that foster cooperation and coordination rather than competition between community rights- and stakeholders. Streamlining of regulatory frameworks is required to improve efficiency, integration and coordination in the planning and approval of hard and soft infrastructure development. Decision-makers are encouraged to adopt a holistic infrastructure approach which includes not only physical infrastructure assets but also digital and soft infrastructure supporting social goals and outcomes, such as education and healthcare. A focus on local community capacity-building should be incorporated into any type of northern infrastructure development strategy to help support communities to address their own challenges and to foster cooperation between both public and private rights- and stakeholders. While federal support is important, any national infrastructure vision for mid- and northern Canada must incorporate the priorities of local Indigenous and municipal rights- and stakeholders. This approach avoids a top-down infrastructure approach and recognizes the role these communities have in in addressing the challenges related to climate change and supply chain constraints that we are facing today. A majority of communities in mid- and northern Canada consist of Indigenous populations, including First Nations, Métis and Inuit. A connective infrastructure approach can be a tool of reconciliation but only if it supports Indigenous self-governance, participation, inclusion and facilitates Indigenous-owned initiatives. While infrastructure needs vary across mid- and northern Canada, the digital divide across Canada is a common challenge. To sustain prosperity and mitigating challenges, communities need reliable and affordable high-speed internet access. Recent disruptions in global and Canadian supply chains underlines the need for strategic and targeted infrastructure optionality, ensuring reliable transportation and access to goods and services. Infrastructure development, focused on transportation and access to services such as healthcare, is essential to safeguard the high living standards we are enjoying today for future generations. For all Canadians to benefit, infrastructure development must adhere to the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility

The Canadian Northern Corridor Community Engagement Program: Results and Lessons Learned

The Canadian Northern Corridor (CNC) Research Program is an investigation of the feasibility, desirability, and acceptability of infrastructure corridors in advancing integrated, long-term infrastructure planning and development in Canada. The Corridor Concept involves a series of multi-modal rights-of-way across mid- and northern Canada — connecting all three coasts and linked to existing corridors in southern Canada — for the efficient, timely and integrated development of trade, transportation, and communications infrastructure. Corridors are expected to make public and private infrastructure investments more attractive by reducing the uncertainty associated with project approval processes; sharing the costs associated with establishing and administering rights-of-way; decreasing negative environmental impacts; and moving to a more strategic, integrated and long-term approach to national infrastructure planning and development. A key outcome of corridor development is decreasing the existing infrastructure gap that persists between northern and southern Canadian regions and communities. The causes of this gap are complex and will require a diverse set of tools and solutions to resolve; the CNC is a useful conceptual tool to initiate discussions on northern infrastructure and to identify feasible and lasting solutions to address Canada’s infrastructure gap

The Canadian Northern Corridor Community Engagement Program: Results and Lessons Learned

The Canadian Northern Corridor (CNC) Research Program is an investigation of the feasibility, desirability, and acceptability of infrastructure corridors in advancing integrated, long-term infrastructure planning and development in Canada. The Corridor Concept involves a series of multi-modal rights-of-way across mid- and northern Canada — connecting all three coasts and linked to existing corridors in southern Canada — for the efficient, timely and integrated development of trade, transportation, and communications infrastructure. Corridors are expected to make public and private infrastructure investments more attractive by reducing the uncertainty associated with project approval processes; sharing the costs associated with establishing and administering rights-of-way; decreasing negative environmental impacts; and moving to a more strategic, integrated and long-term approach to national infrastructure planning and development. A key outcome of corridor development is decreasing the existing infrastructure gap that persists between northern and southern Canadian regions and communities. The causes of this gap are complex and will require a diverse set of tools and solutions to resolve; the CNC is a useful conceptual tool to initiate discussions on northern infrastructure and to identify feasible and lasting solutions to address Canada’s infrastructure gap

An immune dysfunction score for stratification of patients with acute infection based on whole-blood gene expression

Dysregulated host responses to infection can lead to organ dysfunction and sepsis, causing millions of global deaths each year. To alleviate this burden, improved prognostication and biomarkers of response are urgently needed. We investigated the use of whole-blood transcriptomics for stratification of patients with severe infection by integrating data from 3149 samples from patients with sepsis due to community-acquired pneumonia or fecal peritonitis admitted to intensive care and healthy individuals into a gene expression reference map. We used this map to derive a quantitative sepsis response signature (SRSq) score reflective of immune dysfunction and predictive of clinical outcomes, which can be estimated using a 7- or 12-gene signature. Last, we built a machine learning framework, SepstratifieR, to deploy SRSq in adult and pediatric bacterial and viral sepsis, H1N1 influenza, and COVID-19, demonstrating clinically relevant stratification across diseases and revealing some of the physiological alterations linking immune dysregulation to mortality. Our method enables early identification of individuals with dysfunctional immune profiles, bringing us closer to precision medicine in infection.peer-reviewe

A MULTIPLE ACCOUNT BENEFIT-COST ANALYSIS OF COAL MINING IN ALBERTA

We examine the positive and negative effects of coal mining in Alberta from a social perspective — that of the province of Alberta rather than the project proponent — using benefit-cost analysis. We provide estimates of the economic, social and environmental impacts (benefits and costs associated with the development, construction, operation and reclamation) of an illustrative coal mine in the Eastern Foothills of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains. Our analysis is meant to inform the public on the potential trade-offs associated with additional coal development, and support and inform Alberta’s current coal policy review. Our analytical framework relies on the method of multiple account benefit-cost analysis. We find small economic benefits in the form of incremental tax revenues ($671 million, nominal dollars) and employment earnings by mineworkers ($35 million, nominal dollars). Given any individual mine’s small size relative to Alberta’s overall economy, there is unlikely to be any material increase in economic activity relative to the absence of mine development. In contrast, costs to Alberta are likely to be significant. These costs come from displacing other economic activity (primarily ranching and tourism); significant and adverse environmental impacts on water, wildlife, vegetation and air; a non-zero probability the province will be responsible for reclamation liabilities; negative social impacts on nearby communities; and interference with Indigenous Peoples’ interests and rights. Overall, we conclude that coal mine development is not likely to be a net benefit to Alberta, and the costs are likely to outweigh the benefits

Unleash Britain’s Potential (To Go Negative): Campaign Negativity in the 2017 and 2019 UK General Elections on Facebook

Negative campaigning has long concerned scholars because of the potential effects on the electorate and on democracy. Most scholarship has focused on single-election studies in the United States, whereas less is known about how campaigns go on the attack in the UK, and few compare two elections. Drawing from a dataset of Facebook posts by parties and leaders in Great Britain during the five weeks of campaigning in the 2017 and 2019 General Elections (N = 3560), we use supervised machine learning to categorise posts as negative campaigning and distinguish between attacks focused on issues and attacks on candidates’ images. Our findings show that the 2019 election was more negative than in 2017, and that larger parties were more inclined to adopt attacks as a campaign strategy. Moreover, we found that party accounts posted more attack messages than leader accounts and were more focused on attacking based on issues, rather than personal character or image. Finally, we found that attack messages elicit stronger engagement from audiences, with attack messages receiving more attention, particularly attacks on image. </jats:p

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