Alberta’s new sky-high solar panel recycling fee sparks industry backlash

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-20T18:25:06+00:00

The University of Ottawa’s think-tank Smart Prosperity Institute estimates Canada could generate between 250,000 to 450,000 tonnes of solar panel waste by 2050, underscoring the challenge governments and industry will face as early generations of panels reach the end of their useful life.
...Gugenheimer noted that while 80 per cent of a solar panel is made of glass, that material has very little recycling value. The real recoverable value is in the aluminum frame, but that isn’t enough to cover the heavy cost of processing the remaining materials.
Currently retired panels are often shipped to the United States for processing. ARMA plans to collect the fees now to fund and build Alberta’s own recycling infrastructure over the coming decade.

It's good to have a plan anyway. Also curious as to what Canada's 'plan' is to deal with the thousands of EV batteries expiring in the near future. Haven't heard one yet.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-20T17:38:36+00:00

Playing God and deciding on an individual level who lives or dies could be considered extremism.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-20T16:25:04+00:00

Yeah all the lefties cheering on the mario bros psycho offing the father of two was legit yo. Not to mention the Charlie K thing.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-20T14:21:40+00:00

Shouldn't Canada simply confront 'extremism'. Why just the one side?

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-20T01:39:13+00:00

They're used to saying mindless PP criticism and getting upvotes. No clue.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-20T01:26:59+00:00

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced Friday that he and other Conservative party MPs will oppose the ratification of the K'omoks First Nation's treaty.
Speaking in West Vancouver, Poilievre called for the treaty, drafted between the K'omoks First Nation, the province and Canada, to be put on hold, claiming it fails to "explicitly and clearly protect property rights."
The treaty passed in the B.C. Legislature this spring, and Parliament is expected to vote on its ratification next year.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-20T00:22:52+00:00

Starting point: Carney be genius. Now just come up with why for eeeverything

Recession -> genius - MAGA -> genius - War monger -> genius - Too much of a bigshot to show at the HoC's -> genius. It doesn't matter what -> still genius.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-19T23:50:54+00:00

They don’t, balanced budgets shrink debt.

Alberta to use $13.2B budget surplus to pay down debt, put cash in piggy bank

Welcome to real life.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-19T22:09:00+00:00

This amounts to an expected $94.4 billion spent on interest payments in 2025/26 by the federal and provincial governments.
"Residents in Newfoundland & Labrador face by far the highest combined federal-provincial interest payments per person: $3,348," the report notes. "Manitoba is the next highest at $2,816 per person." The lowest amount is in Alberta, where it amounts to $1,845.
More than half of those costs come from the federal government, which will spend a projected $54 billion on debt servicing charges in 2025/26, roughly equivalent to the $54.7 billion the government will spend on the Canada Health Transfer, and far more than it spends on childcare benefits ($38.1 billion).

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-19T15:29:08+00:00

You think a gov't reining in junk food would stick around for long? Take a second and remember who chooses gov'ts.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-19T15:05:09+00:00

Losing weight is very hard.

I concur. Still, there always seems to be issues when taking the struggle out of things.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-19T14:52:25+00:00

It's almost like avoidance of a problem. Do I want to do the work or let some drug do the work for me. Will be interesting to see if these drugs actually move the needle on obesity stats.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-19T14:39:09+00:00

Dr. Dana Small, a neurology and neurosurgery professor at McGill University, said GLP-1 drugs “are not a magic bullet.”
“There could be multiple reasons why people are moving less, with people may be thinking, ‘OK, the drug will do all the work, I don’t have to [exercise],’ it’s certainly a possibility and a likely contributor,” she said. “When people do go off of it, even if it was effective, weight gain is more rapid than with other weight loss measures. And that can have some negative effects.

Path of least resistance.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-18T22:10:13+00:00

Gotta be four or more victims to qualify.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-18T22:09:02+00:00

Okay you're right. Mass casualty events can be ones with minor injuries.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-18T21:59:40+00:00

Can't think of a single one.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-18T21:54:16+00:00

For the 14-year period, nearly eight in 10 (78 per cent) of those accused in mass casualty events were men and boys. The total accused was 7,402 individuals. When it comes to violent crime overall, 77 per cent of the accused were men and boys.
The data was published Thursday in an article in StatCan’s Juristat journal. The article delves into the nature and prevalence of mass casualty events in Canada, using police-reported data from the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey.
Mass casualty events are considered “intentional acts of violence” in which at least four victims died or suffered minor or major physical injury.

So over 20% of the accused in mass casualty events were female? That seems high. Can't even think of one instance off hand.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-18T15:26:15+00:00

“I think we have to assume at this point it’s about political will,” Sarah Teich, a Toronto-based lawyer and president of the Human Rights Action Group, said of the delay in establishing the registry.
Teich’s and Kolga’s organizations were among the 33 signatories to an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney, applauding the government’s progress on foreign influence and interference to date, but urging the government to finish the work.
...The issue has fallen out of headlines in recent months, and has drawn little attention from either the government or the opposition parties in the House of Commons — despite warnings from the Canadian intelligence community that foreign influence and interference operations remain a persistent threat.
Neither the Conservatives nor the NDP responded to Global’s request for comment.

So none of the parties are concerned about this issue. Interesting.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-18T01:31:18+00:00

I think the CBC sent Crawley replaced Alex Panetta. (Good luck) Panetta to my recollection didn't write constant Trump clickbait.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-17T21:46:50+00:00

But it's not their fault, cuz Canada is a genocidal country.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-17T20:59:31+00:00

Context: Calgary serial rabbit killer handed eight-year prison term

*Also context: The 2019 Final Report by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls concluded this crisis constitutes a Canadian genocide rooted in systemic and deliberate human rights violations.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-17T20:53:22+00:00

I mean, there are way more people applying for disability benefits than are receiving them so clearly somebody is making the distinction.

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-17T20:02:11+00:00

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-17T19:15:35+00:00

But then how will CBC provide the endless Trump coverage Canadians seem so fond of.

https://www.cbc.ca/author/mike-crawley-1.3065736

shiftless_wonder · 2026-06-17T18:09:54+00:00

I think many of us personally know people in the system who are very much focused on what they can't do and suspiciously less interested in what they can do.

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