Maple Express | November 15, 2026 — Canada's climate credibility questioned as COP31 opens

1. Canada faces a 'credibility problem' as COP31 opens, critics say

Global leaders are gathering in Antalya, Türkiye this week for COP31, and critics of Canada's climate policies say the country has a credibility problem going in. Pratishtha Singh, international diplomacy manager at Climate Action Network Canada, pointed to recent policy rollbacks, deregulation and continued investment in fossil fuel infrastructure, saying Canada cannot claim climate leadership internationally while doing all of this.

Singh noted the 2026 federal budget includes a $50-billion boost to electrification, but said more is needed. Beyond the size of the investment, she said, the electricity has to be renewable-powered, affordable and accessible, must directly displace fossil fuels, and workers and communities need a say in shaping the transition.

Before leaving for COP31, federal Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin would not say definitively whether the investment offsets fossil fuel expansion, telling CTV's Power Play with Vassy Kapelos that the government is putting the building blocks in place for a net-zero electrified economy. Catherine McKenna, a former environment minister who now heads Climate and Nature Solutions, said she would like to see more Canadian leadership, and criticized subsidizing the richest oil and gas companies with Canadian tax dollars.

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2. Pfizer pulls Premarin from Canada, leaving one vaginal cream not covered in Ontario

Pfizer announced Thursday that it is discontinuing the sale of its hormone replacement therapy Premarin vaginal cream in Canada following an internal review. Pfizer Canada said the cream has been in shortage in the country since June and no further batches will be supplied.

Dr. Amanda Selk, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Mount Sinai Hospital, said the cream is generally used by menopausal women to restore moisture and estrogen, and that some data suggests it can also help with bladder infections. Different drugs work well for different people, she said, and patients have now lost an option. "I don't think one is necessarily way better than the other, but I think that patients, it's always better for us to have multiple options for people, both for cost, but for how it feels, how it works."

The Canadian Pharmacists Association published a list of alternatives during the hormone therapy shortage. With Premarin gone, only one other vaginal cream is available in Canada, and in Ontario it is not covered by the Ontario Drug Program. A spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Health said three vaginal estrogen products listed by the Canadian Menopause Society as alternatives are covered under ODP: the Estring vaginal ring, Vagifem 10 vaginal tablets and Imvexxy vaginal inserts. Selk said those with private insurance may have coverage, but many people do not. Pfizer said existing inventories of Premarin tablets are expected to last midway through 2027, and in Ontario the extended-release tablets are covered only through the Exceptional Access Program.

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3. Inside a Canada Post carrier's last day of door-to-door delivery in Rexdale

Anita McCulloch, 60, worked her final day of door-to-door delivery in Rexdale, her northwest Toronto neighbourhood, on Friday. For the past two and a half years she has moved from house to house with flyers and letters under her arm, and the neighbourhood dogs know her bright green vest — they perch on windowsills, tails wagging, and meet her at the front door before their owners know she is there.

Hundreds of homes and businesses in the area had their last day of door-to-door delivery as Canada Post phases in community mailboxes for roughly four million addresses over several years, a key pillar of the Crown corporation's plan to overhaul its business model amid declining letter mail and heavy losses. The neighbourhood is among the earliest conversions, starting Monday. Other GTA neighbourhoods set to lose door-to-door delivery in 2027 include parts of Pickering, Ajax, Mississauga and Brampton.

Resident Steve Kay said McCulloch has been almost part of the family and always looked out for the couple and their neighbours. When 85-year-old Gail Buntin's leaf collection machine jammed, McCulloch got down on the cold grass and fixed it before the two shared a hug goodbye. Zach Avdelopoulos, president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers' Toronto local, said the change will be difficult for carriers and that the union has been advocating to keep home delivery, especially for residents with a disability or accommodation needs.

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4. Alberta's oilsands doubling goal: industry got what it wanted, but will it build?

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has set a goal of doubling oilsands output over the next decade, and industry players say bringing new projects forward is becoming easier to stomach after a raft of federal and provincial policy changes. R.J. Johnston of the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy put it this way at an Alberta Securities Commission conference last month: "It's almost like the dog that got the car. We got what we wanted as an industry. Now the pressure's on to invest."

Ottawa has reversed a host of Trudeau-era environmental policies and made more investments eligible for immediate tax deductions permanently. Alberta announced a new royalty program on Friday, and both governments are shouldering the bulk of the investment in the proposed Pacific Link pipeline to southern B.C. Experts caution, however, that any big-ticket upstream spending must compete for capital with the dividend growth and share buybacks investors have come to expect, and avoid the staggering cost overruns of the past.

Imperial Oil chief executive John Whelan said the company could double gross operated upstream production with three steam-driven oilsands developments — Aspen, Clarke Creek and Corner — and that a final decision on a 150,000-barrel-per-day Aspen project, once eyed for the end of the decade, may come sooner. Suncor chief executive Rich Kruger said the company had been looking at half a dozen in-situ projects over the next decade: "That is the base case. But we're asking ourselves ... what if we wanted to do more?" Cenovus, meanwhile, aims to buy Athabasca Oil for $5.7 billion and grow production from that company's oilsands assets to 115,000 barrels per day by 2032 from about 40,000 boe/d now.

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5. The Toronto biomedical engineer building a portable NICU

Toronto biomedical engineer Salim Kandedi believes premature babies should get the same standard of neonatal intensive care regardless of where they are born, whether in a fully staffed Toronto hospital or a resource-strapped community far to the north. In 2024 he founded Corvita Biomedical to develop the ARK incubator, a portable NICU.

About 32,000 babies are born prematurely in Canada each year. Their brains, hearts and lungs are still developing, leaving them vulnerable to respiratory disorders and neonatal encephalopathy, and acute care can involve roughly 30 machines plus four types of specialists. The equipment is expensive, unwieldy and space-hungry, and hospitals without it must transfer infants elsewhere. The ARK consolidates temperature control, respiratory support including CPAP and ventilators, EEG, ECG, blood pressure, bilirubin and cerebral oxygen monitoring into a single module — roughly 30 machines worth about $300,000.

The ARK also includes artificial intelligence. Kandedi said the team built a hybrid deterministic and probabilistic model that follows a standardized American Association of Pediatrics diagnostic process rather than guessing the next step. The tool recently diagnosed a disease as well as a doctor using data only, and is currently running at about 80 per cent accuracy. Kandedi himself was born at 23 weeks in Gabon in 2002; he credits his mother with pushing him toward the work: "If someone has to do something about those babies, it's you, because you've been there, and without those machines, you wouldn't have survived."

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6. Scheifele sets Jets points record as Winnipeg rallies from 4-0 down

The Winnipeg Jets rallied from a four-goal deficit to beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-4 in a shootout on Saturday for their sixth straight win. Mark Scheifele had a goal and three assists, and Kyle Connor scored in regulation before netting the deciding shootout goal.

Scheifele's 15-foot shot with 3:55 left in the second period made it 4-1 and gave him 933 career points, making him the Jets' all-time points leader. He set up Connor's 700th career point 1:56 later, and Cole Perfetti's power-play goal in the first minute of the third period pulled Winnipeg within one. Gabriel Vilardi tied it 4-4 from the right slot with 1:13 remaining, with goalie Nico Daws pulled for an extra attacker.

Winnipeg starter Stuart Skinner was pulled after allowing three goals on eight shots in the first period, and Daws made 12 saves in relief and stopped Roman Kantserov in the shootout. It was the Jets' second comeback from four goals down this season, after a 5-4 overtime win over the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 3. Tyler Bertuzzi, Anton Frondell and Connor Bedard scored for Chicago, and Frank Nazar tipped in a goal with 5:16 left in the second.

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7. Toronto-born artist Lotus L. Kang wins $100,000 Sobey Art Award

Toronto-born artist Lotus L. Kang, known for combining photography, sculpture and installation work, has won the 2026 Sobey Art Award and its $100,000 grand prize. The award was presented at a ceremony at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

The jury praised her decade-long commitment to her craft and the growing international recognition of her work, which often incorporates photographic film, found objects and everyday materials. The five other shortlisted artists — Melaw Nakehk'o, Samuel Roy-Bois, Audie Murray, Caroline Monnet and Shane Perley-Dutcher — each receive $25,000, and another 24 longlisted artists receive $10,000 apiece, bringing the award's total value to $465,000.

Now in its 23rd year, the award recognizes Canadian contemporary artists at pivotal stages in their careers. Works by all six finalists are on display at the National Gallery until Jan. 3, 2027.

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8. Oak Ridge Boys bass singer Richard Sterban dies at 83

Richard Sterban, the bass vocalist of the Grammy-winning country and gospel quartet The Oak Ridge Boys and a Country Music Hall of Famer, died Saturday at 83. His family and the band said in a statement that he died in Hendersonville, Tennessee, of complications from bronchitis and pneumonia after a long battle with cancer.

Sterban joined the group in 1972 after working as a backup singer for Elvis Presley, and toured regularly with the band until 2025, when his health deteriorated. The Oak Ridge Boys won five Grammy Awards and were nominated 23 times, performed for presidents, on American Bandstand, at the Grammy Awards and at the Grand Ole Opry, toured with Johnny Cash and sang backup on Paul Simon's "Slip Slidin' Away." Their 1981 hit "Elvira" reached No. 1 on the country chart and No. 5 on Billboard's all-genre Hot 100.

Sterban and the band's three other members were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2015. Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame, said Sterban "used his unmistakable bass voice to connect commercial country music to its deep gospel roots" and helped the group achieve 17 No. 1 hits. He is survived by his wife, Donna; daughters Lauren and Tori; sons Rich, Doug and Chris; and 11 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

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9. Pope Leo XIV crosses Peru, focusing on Indigenous communities and the Amazon

Pope Leo XIV travelled across Peru on Sunday, visiting communities high in the Andes and deep in the rainforest on the penultimate day of his trip to his adopted homeland. He was due to visit Cusco, the former capital of the Inca empire, before flying to the Amazonian city of Pucallpa, where the plight of Indigenous peoples and protection of the Amazon take centre stage.

In Cusco, 3,400 metres above sea level, the schedule begins at the Sacsayhuamán fortress and includes a message on local religious devotion, the presentation of a shroud from the Holy See for the image of the Lord of Earthquakes in the Plaza de Armas and a message to the sick. The altitude will test the stamina of the pope, who is recovering from lung cancer surgery. In Pucallpa, a city of 434,000, he is expected to listen to the Shipibo, Asháninka and Kukama communities beside Lake Yarinacocha and lead a symbolic planting of a shihuahuaco, a native tree that can live more than 1,000 years.

Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto said the church in Peru sees the visit as continuity in accompanying Indigenous peoples in defence of life and care for territory threatened by deforestation and illegal mining. Raphael Hoetmer, Western Amazon program director at Amazon Watch, said record gold prices have made illegal mining increasingly lucrative, with miners using mercury to extract gold and causing pollution, health problems and environmental degradation. Police reported three operations against illegal mining in Madre de Dios on Saturday, destroying equipment valued at $4.1 million.

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10. Lutnick under fire after Huang's resignation from Nvidia

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang resigned on Thursday after revelations that he had extramarital affairs with two women, one of whom may be connected to China, putting Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick under intense scrutiny. Administration officials privately say the Commerce Department failed to tighten chip export controls and did not blacklist Megaspeed, an Nvidia customer suspected of funnelling chips to China; some accuse Lutnick of bucking internal consensus and Trump's own directives.

Some of Trump's advisers, reeling from the fallout of Huang's resignation, have begun discussing whether Lutnick should be dismissed, according to people familiar with the conversations. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on CNBC Friday that a wide swath of the administration — including Treasury, State, the Pentagon and the U.S. Trade Representative — favoured placing Megaspeed on an export blacklist, and that it was Commerce that failed to follow through. "Commerce ... has the pen ... and you will have to ask them about their internal process," he said.

Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are demanding answers about what Lutnick knew and when. Senate Democrats directed him to preserve documents and records related to Nvidia's advanced chip exports. Sen. Chris Van Hollen told ABC News on Sunday, "I think he should be fired," while Sen. Jim Banks, a Trump ally, said on Fox News Thursday that the news is "as concerning as it gets." The White House said Thursday that Trump "maintains complete confidence" in the secretary. The report also notes Trump is set to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week in Shenzhen.

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