Vienna – As of May 1, the 9,200 employees in the stone and ceramics industry will receive a collectively agreed increase of 9.8 percent or 9.7 percent on actual wages. A minimum starting wage of 2,300 euros will apply to around 90 percent of employees in the stone and ceramics industry. This corresponds to an increase of up to 26 percent.
For her two older children, 6 and 8 years old today, Koko Athoumane has always had the reflex Maternal Infant Protection (PMI), hotlines set up almost everywhere in town by the Departmental Council and which ensure the health monitoring of infants and of their mothers. Monitoring of the weight curve, vaccinations, but also advice on breastfeeding… the missions are multiple and essential, particularly with the most precarious populations. Koko is employed in a crèche. Her husband employed in a security company. But the PMI has always reassured her. His boys had been followed by that of Bonneveine (8th). After moving to the Cité des Bourrely (15th) and pregnant with her third child, she had already planned to go to the
Apple’s new offer for classic fans is starting today. Anyone who wants to try out the Apple Music offshoot can now download it from the App Store.
Apple Music Classical: 5 million tracks
Apple Music Classical has been a long time coming. Ever since the company bought the streaming startup Primephonic last year, it was clear that something was being worked on. However, there were delays in between: the app was originally supposed to be launched at the end of 2022.
Unlike other Apple services, like Apple Music, Apple Music Classical is not automatically preinstalled on iOS devices. Instead, you can find the app in the App Store. The new music streaming service offers over five million classical tracks that you can play back at up to 192kHz / 24-bit – as long as you have the right audio equipment, such as D/A converters and amplifiers.
Content will also be in Apple’s proprietary 3D audio format, Spatial Audio. With the Apple HomePod, Apple has its own speaker on offer that you can use to try out the room-filling sound for yourself, and the AirPods Pro also support spatial audio. The topic is currently on everyone’s lips: With the Era 300, Sonos has recently launched a WLAN speaker with 3D audio.
Of course, the service is compatible with Apple AirPlay 2 and can therefore be used with all AirPlay speakers:
In addition to just the songs, Apple Music Classical will give you extensive metadata and additional information regarding the music. This also includes biographies of composers and descriptions of important works.
Apple Music Classical: Use for free with an Apple Music subscription
If you already have an account with Apple Music, you can be happy: Use of the Classical app is then virtually free of charge. Your Apple device must have at least the iOS 15.4 operating system. An app for Android is to be submitted later.
What might put some users off is that Apple Music Classical doesn’t offer any downloads, at least for now. So you have to be online to listen to your music. If you are still interested, you can make the offer try here.
Ottawa awarded contracts totaling $75 million, some of which without competitive bidding, to a private investigation firm to deal with refugees and asylum seekers, mainly arriving via Roxham Road.
In the past six months alone, Xpera Risk Mitigation & Investigation has landed $56 million in contracts to house migrants in Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes.
In total, the company has received more than half of the contracts awarded by the federal government since March 2020 for their temporary accommodation, according to data from Immigration Canada.
The reception of thousands of vulnerable asylum seekers contrasts with Xpera’s usual activities, such as investigations, monitoring and risk assessment.
Little known in Quebec even if the majority of migrants arrive here, the company has only a few employees in a modest office in Laval (see other text).
This did not prevent it from being the only bidder for a $37.5 million contract awarded last October to find hotels and caterers for 3,000 asylum seekers in Quebec and 1,000 in Ontario.
An emergency
Immigration Canada has also entered into three over-the-counter agreements with the company totaling $23.8 million, claiming the urgency of the migration crisis.
“IRCC was confident that the company would be able to book hotel rooms and engage vendors […] to tight deadlines,” wrote a ministry spokeswoman.
“It gives the impression that the state of emergency has been used in all sauces to conclude contracts by mutual agreement”, reacts Nicolas Lachance, director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation for Quebec.
Although Roxham Road has been closed since Saturday, another $14.3 million contract was awarded to Xpera in December to handle migrants in Quebec starting in July.
Government data initially put it at $28.7 million, until Immigration Canada advanced “an error” and revised the amount following numerous questions from the Journal.
Past contracts
But how did a firm specializing in investigations come to manage so much of the response to a humanitarian crisis on our borders?
Immigration Canada justifies its choice by citing contracts made with Xpera during the evacuation of Afghan refugees following the Taliban took power, as well as during the forest fires in northern Ontario in 2021.
Remember that nearly 40,000 people crossed the border irregularly last year and that the majority had to be temporarily housed by the federal government.
The president of Xpera declined our interview request.
From private to humanitarian assistance
Photo Nora T. Lamontagne
The Xpera offices in Laval, which were deserted in mid-March, except for one employee.
Nora T. Lamontagne
The Journal of Montreal
Xpera may get one Immigration Canada contract following another, but it has only recently appeared in the humanitarian reception landscape.
The Immigration Department’s first contracts with the private investigation firm date back only to mid-2021, according to government records.
However, Ottawa has been renting hotels for asylum seekers and refugees in Quebec and Ontario since at least 2015, documents from Immigration Canada show.
In the past, the federal government used to sign piecemeal contracts with third-party companies or directly with the hotelier, which very rarely exceeded $3 million. Instead, Xpera struck deals worth $75 million.
Other experiences
An employee not authorized to speak to the media told us that the government used the company’s services in 2021 to relocate a few hundred Indigenous people during the wildfires in northern Ontario, as well as Afghan refugees .
“Between that and our current contracts with Immigration Canada, you can draw your conclusions,” he said in English.
The company has at least one branch specializing in security services, and is owned by SCM Insurance Services, an insurance service provider.
Discreet in Quebec
On its website, Xpera bills itself as “Canada’s largest risk management and investigation firm,” with 400 employees in 24 locations across the country.
In Laval, an employee greeted us in deserted offices – the only ones in Quebec – filled with cardboard boxes.
“There were two regional directors for Quebec, but they have retired. They haven’t hired anyone else since then,” she told us.
Yet it is in our province that were housed the majority of the 39,000 asylum seekers who entered via Roxham Road last year, and for whom Xpera now manages the reception.
– With Nicolas Brasseur, Agence QMI
MILLIONS FOR XPERA FOR 2 YEARS
February 2023 | 4,5 M$ | Without tender
December 2022 | 14,38 M$ | 3 bidders
October/December 2022 | 37,5 M$ | sole bidder
December 2021 | 15 M$* | Without tender
August 2021 | 4,3 M$ | Without tender
Total 75,7 M$
Source : Immigration Canada, SPAC