Cleantech startup Carbonova Corp. has completed a $6-million funding round aimed at expanding its capacity to produce high-value carbon nanofibres from waste CO2 and methane at commercial scale.Calgary-based Carbonova said the financing was led by South Korean conglomerate Kolon Industries, which is interested in its technology to produce the unusually strong and lightweight material. It said Kolon sees the potential for its use in batteries, plastics and other products within Asia.NGIF Capital, a venture capital fund focused on technology to improve the environmental performance of the gas...…Cleantech startup Carbonova Corp. has completed a $6-million funding round aimed at expanding its capacity to produce high-value carbon nanofibres from waste CO2 and methane at commercial scale.Calgary-based Carbonova said the financing was led by South Korean conglomerate Kolon Industries, which is interested in its technology to produce the unusually strong and lightweight material. It said Kolon sees the potential for its use in batteries, plastics and other products within Asia.NGIF Capital, a venture capital fund focused on technology to improve the environmental performance of the gas...WW…

Campus groups are pushing their peers to make it to the polls for British Columbia's May 9 election, warning that typically low turnout among young voters could make it easier for politicians to ignore them and the issues affecting their lives.Voters younger than 35 tend to have the lowest turnout in Canadian elections and B.C.'s last election was no exception. Fewer than half of registered voters aged 18 to 24 participated in 2013, while fewer than 40 per cent of those aged 25 to 34 voted. And those numbers were worse than the two previous elections.To address these low numbers, the...…Campus groups are pushing their peers to make it to the polls for British Columbia's May 9 election, warning that typically low turnout among young voters could make it easier for politicians to ignore them and the issues affecting their lives.Voters younger than 35 tend to have the lowest turnout in Canadian elections and B.C.'s last election was no exception. Fewer than half of registered voters aged 18 to 24 participated in 2013, while fewer than 40 per cent of those aged 25 to 34 voted. And those numbers were worse than the two previous elections.To address these low numbers, the...WW…

Skip to main contentErica AliniKids these days need good credit scores – and fast.The urgency has little to do with acquiring the ability to borrow at attractive rates. It’s really about the ability to find housing. Canada’s rental shortage means competition among prospective tenants is fierce: Those without a credit history or a good score often don’t make the cut.Landlords want to see credit scores in the “700-plus” range, Toronto real estate agent Sundeep Bahl told me recently. For context, a score of 660 and up is generally considered to be good, according to Equifax Canada.It’s not...…Skip to main contentErica AliniKids these days need good credit scores – and fast.The urgency has little to do with acquiring the ability to borrow at attractive rates. It’s really about the ability to find housing. Canada’s rental shortage means competition among prospective tenants is fierce: Those without a credit history or a good score often don’t make the cut.Landlords want to see credit scores in the “700-plus” range, Toronto real estate agent Sundeep Bahl told me recently. For context, a score of 660 and up is generally considered to be good, according to Equifax Canada.It’s not...WW…

Skip to main contentWhy on Earth do we need provincial driving laws? Why can't we have one license and one set of laws for all the provinces? You travel to another province on vacation and you end up with a nasty surprise because the laws are different. It makes one wonder if the law is about safety or just another government cash cow! - reader commentWhy can't we have nice things, like consistent traffic rules from Victoria to St. John's?"The [Constitution Act of 1867] assigned that matter to provincial authority," said Benjamin Berger, law professor and associate dean of students at...…Skip to main contentWhy on Earth do we need provincial driving laws? Why can't we have one license and one set of laws for all the provinces? You travel to another province on vacation and you end up with a nasty surprise because the laws are different. It makes one wonder if the law is about safety or just another government cash cow! - reader commentWhy can't we have nice things, like consistent traffic rules from Victoria to St. John's?"The [Constitution Act of 1867] assigned that matter to provincial authority," said Benjamin Berger, law professor and associate dean of students at...WW…

WashingtonIf one Tyrannosaurus rex - the school bus-sized meat-eating dinosaur that stalked the Cretaceous Period landscape - seems impressive, how about 2.5 billion of them?Researchers on Thursday unveiled the first calculation of the total T. rex population during the estimated 2.4 million years that this fearsome species inhabited western North America during the twilight of the age of dinosaurs.They considered factors including the size of its geographic range, its body mass, growth pattern, age at sexual maturity, life expectancy, duration of a single generation and the total time that...…WashingtonIf one Tyrannosaurus rex - the school bus-sized meat-eating dinosaur that stalked the Cretaceous Period landscape - seems impressive, how about 2.5 billion of them?Researchers on Thursday unveiled the first calculation of the total T. rex population during the estimated 2.4 million years that this fearsome species inhabited western North America during the twilight of the age of dinosaurs.They considered factors including the size of its geographic range, its body mass, growth pattern, age at sexual maturity, life expectancy, duration of a single generation and the total time that...WW…

Kyiv and ottawaA senior Ukrainian security official says he believes Iran intentionally shot down an airliner full of passengers early last year, possibly with the intent of ending a cycle of military escalation with the United States.All 167 and nine crew, including 55 Canadian citizens, 30 permanent residents and 53 others who were travelling to Canada via Kyiv, were killed when Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot out of the sky on Jan. 8, 2020.Oleksiy Danilov, who as secretary of the National Defence and Security Council oversaw the early stages of Ukraine’s own...…Kyiv and ottawaA senior Ukrainian security official says he believes Iran intentionally shot down an airliner full of passengers early last year, possibly with the intent of ending a cycle of military escalation with the United States.All 167 and nine crew, including 55 Canadian citizens, 30 permanent residents and 53 others who were travelling to Canada via Kyiv, were killed when Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot out of the sky on Jan. 8, 2020.Oleksiy Danilov, who as secretary of the National Defence and Security Council oversaw the early stages of Ukraine’s own...WW…

U.S. President Joe Biden has high approval ratings, high hopes, high-spending plans – and his high-risk policies are approaching a set of High Noon political confrontations.Congress is back from its Easter break this week and confronts a passel of Biden proposals costing many trillions of dollars. But though the Democrats control both houses on Capitol Hill, the President’s eye-popping initiatives face opposition from Republicans and dangerous skepticism among some Democrats in the Senate, where Mr. Biden cannot afford to lose a single vote in a 50-50 chamber with Vice-President Kamala...…U.S. President Joe Biden has high approval ratings, high hopes, high-spending plans – and his high-risk policies are approaching a set of High Noon political confrontations.Congress is back from its Easter break this week and confronts a passel of Biden proposals costing many trillions of dollars. But though the Democrats control both houses on Capitol Hill, the President’s eye-popping initiatives face opposition from Republicans and dangerous skepticism among some Democrats in the Senate, where Mr. Biden cannot afford to lose a single vote in a 50-50 chamber with Vice-President Kamala...WW…

WashingtonU.S. President Joe Biden’s interim regulators are wasting no time unraveling Wall Street-friendly measures introduced under former Republican president Donald Trump, using quick-fix legal tactics.They have spiked or stalled more than a dozen contentious Trump-era measures that critics said eroded consumer protections, weakened enforcement, and curbed investors’ ability to push for environmental, social and governance (ESG) changes.Rather than embarking on the lengthy process of rewriting the rules, the agencies have in many instances used speedy legal tools, according to lawyers,...…WashingtonU.S. President Joe Biden’s interim regulators are wasting no time unraveling Wall Street-friendly measures introduced under former Republican president Donald Trump, using quick-fix legal tactics.They have spiked or stalled more than a dozen contentious Trump-era measures that critics said eroded consumer protections, weakened enforcement, and curbed investors’ ability to push for environmental, social and governance (ESG) changes.Rather than embarking on the lengthy process of rewriting the rules, the agencies have in many instances used speedy legal tools, according to lawyers,...WW…

Newfoundland and Labrador’s New Democratic Party has filed a legal challenge to last month’s provincial election, alleging widespread irregularities with mail-in balloting and asking a judge to toss out the results.The constitutional challenge comes after the pandemic-delayed vote saw one of the lowest turnouts ever in a Canadian provincial election. A COVID-19 outbreak forced the last-minute cancellation of all in-person voting, and just 48 per cent of eligible voters ended up casting a ballot.In an application filed with the Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court in St. John’s on Monday...…Newfoundland and Labrador’s New Democratic Party has filed a legal challenge to last month’s provincial election, alleging widespread irregularities with mail-in balloting and asking a judge to toss out the results.The constitutional challenge comes after the pandemic-delayed vote saw one of the lowest turnouts ever in a Canadian provincial election. A COVID-19 outbreak forced the last-minute cancellation of all in-person voting, and just 48 per cent of eligible voters ended up casting a ballot.In an application filed with the Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court in St. John’s on Monday...WW…

A semi-trailer is idling just outside Enmax Corp.’s Shepard gas-fired power plant on Calgary’s eastern outskirts, and it is loaded with a grey granular substance that’s become Apoorv Sinha’s life’s work.Mr. Sinha’s startup, Carbon Upcycling Technologies, has invited business partners and government officials to have a look at the reaction vessel that yielded the powder from the plant’s waste carbon dioxide, and then watch the 40-tonne load trundle away to a concrete batch plant in Edmonton.His team manufactured the additive from the greenhouse gas that otherwise would have been emitted into...…A semi-trailer is idling just outside Enmax Corp.’s Shepard gas-fired power plant on Calgary’s eastern outskirts, and it is loaded with a grey granular substance that’s become Apoorv Sinha’s life’s work.Mr. Sinha’s startup, Carbon Upcycling Technologies, has invited business partners and government officials to have a look at the reaction vessel that yielded the powder from the plant’s waste carbon dioxide, and then watch the 40-tonne load trundle away to a concrete batch plant in Edmonton.His team manufactured the additive from the greenhouse gas that otherwise would have been emitted into...WW…