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Alberta

Nutrien announces strategic actions to cut costs amid economic headwinds

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SASKATOON — Nutrien Ltd. is indefinitely pausing its potash production ramp-up and suspending work on its Geismar clean ammonia project after a period of “unprecedented volatility” in fertilizer markets, said chief executive Ken Seitz on Thursday.

Persistent uncertainty in global crop input markets over the past 18 months have been a challenge, and helped lead to significantly lower net earnings for the company in the second quarter of 2023, but there are still positive signs ahead, he said on an analyst call.

“We are encouraged by the continued improvement in demand as the year has progressed. This is most evident in North America, where we had a strong spring season, relative fertilizer price stability and a significant reduction in channel inventories,” said Seitz.

However, he noted demand has been slower in certain offshore fertilizer markets.

The strategic action to pull back on infrastructure investments reflect the company’s commitment to disciplined capital allocation and enhancing free cash flow, Seitz said.  

Nutrien reported second-quarter net earnings of US$448 million, down from US$3.6 billion a year earlier, and revised its full-year guidance lower amid economic pressures including lower potash prices. 

Sales were US$11.7 billion, down from US$14.5 billion during the same quarter last year, the company said in a press release Wednesday. Diluted net earnings per share were 89 cents US, down from US$6.51.

The lower earnings are mainly due to lower selling prices, weaker offshore potash sales volumes, and lower retail gross margin for crop nutrients and crop protection products, Nutrien said. It added that net earnings were also hit by non-cash impairments of US$465 million and US$233 million.

Nutrien is undertaking other cost-cutting measures in addition to pausing its potash ramp-up and suspending work on the ammonia project. These include reducing expenditures in both operations and in smaller retail investment projects. 

The company has also taken targeted actions this year to reduce headcount amid wage inflation, said Jeff Tarsi, executive vice-president and president of global retail, on the conference call. 

“We’ve been very deliberate about controlling our controllables. And we’re taking out discretionary costs across our network,” Tarsi said. 

Canadian potash exports will likely be constrained in the third quarter by logistical challenges related to the B.C. ports strike, said Seitz, as well as an outage at Canpotex’s Portland terminal.

“It could take several more weeks until the backlog is cleared and the supply chain returns to normal,” he said, adding this resulted in a lower estimate for global potash shipments in 2023, to a range of 63 to 65 million tonnes. 

Nutrien lowered its full-year guidance due to weaker potash prices, lower projected potash exports, and other factors. 

It now expects full-year adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to be between US$5.5 and US$6.7 billion. Guidance last quarter was between US$6.5 and US$8.0 billion. 

Shares in the company closed down more than four per cent Thursday at $86.24.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published August 3, 2023.

Companies in this story: (TSX:NTR)

Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press


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Alberta

Alberta introduces bill banning sex reassignment surgery on minors

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith followed through on a promised bill banning so-called ‘top and bottom’ surgeries for minors.

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith made good on her promise to protect kids from extreme transgender ideology after introducing a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.

“It is so important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing,” Smith said in a press release.

“The changes we’re introducing are founded on compassion and science, both of which are vital for the development of youth throughout a time that can be difficult and confusing.”

Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 “reflects the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” the government says.

The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”

It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”

Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, the bill’s sponsor, said the province’s legislative priorities include “implementing policy changes to continue our refocusing work, position our health care system to respond to pressures and public health emergencies, and to preserve choice for minors. These amendments reflect our dedication to ensuring our health care system meets the needs of every Albertan.”

Earlier this year, the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government under Smith announced  she would introduce the strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.

With Smith’s UCP holding a majority in the provincial legislature, the passage of Bill 26 is almost certain.

While Smith has done far more than predecessor Jason Kenney to satisfy social conservatives, she has been mostly soft on social issues such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”

This weekend, thousands of UCP members will gather for the party’s annual general meeting, where Smith’s leadership will be voted on along with many other pro-freedom and family policy proposals from members. Smith is expected to pass her leadership review vote with a large majority.

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Alberta

Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.

An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.

On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.

“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.

Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.

“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”

After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.

Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.

He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.

In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”

“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.

Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.

Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.

The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.

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