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Calgary Company Gets Provincial Boost To Revolutionize Pipeline Safety

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Hifi Engineering Building New Leak Detection Technology in Calgary.

Huge Potential Implications for Alberta and Canada.

Those who oppose using pipelines to move oil and gas products typically point to the risk of leakage.   A Calgary-based start up called Hifi Engineering has set out to revolutionize pipeline safety detection by finding the problems before a leak occurs.

Hifi is hoping to give a big boost to the pipeline industry and now the Province of Alberta has decided to boost Hifi in its efforts.  Support through the Alberta Small Business Innovation and Research Initiative (ASBIRI) at Alberta Innovates will help Hifi double its workforce over the next three years.

Alberta Small Business Initiative

Minister Deron Bilous and Steven Koles, President and CEO of HiFi Engineering

Hifi plans to develop the new leak detection technology in Alberta and export their product to monitor thousands of kilometers of pipeline worldwide.

Through the ASBIRI program, they are beginning that expansion at TransCanada Corp., Enbridge Inc. and GE Canada, and anticipate a significant increase in future work on new and retrofitted pipelines.

Alberta’s Economic Development Minister says Hifi’s technology will create jobs.

“We’re proud to help homegrown HiFi Engineering bring their new leak-detection technology to some of the biggest players in the oil-and-gas industry. Together, we are growing our economy, creating new jobs and ensuring Alberta continues to be the energy and environmental leader the world needs for the 21st century.” 

Deron Bilous, Minister of Economic Development and Trade

Hifi’s patented High Fidelity Dynamic Sensing (HDS™) technology will be used to detect various events and leaks with dramatically higher sensitivity than existing leak detection systems can provide – saving oil-and-gas companies money and protecting the environment.

Testing locations include both ends of the Keystone pipeline, which will run from Hardisty, Alberta to Houston, Texas, as well as Enbridge’s new Norlite pipeline, which went into service this year.

“We are very pleased to be part of the ASBIRI program and collaborating with Enbridge and TransCanada. Hifi is ready to showcase our HDS technology performance on these projects to prove our technology is indeed world class, outperforms other alternatives, and is ready to assist the industry in path to improved safety.”

Steven Koles, President and Chief Executive Officer of HiFi Engineering

Alberta Innovates invested $2.4 million into the project. The investment from industry partners totals $7.3 million, with a specific requirement for industry to contribute approximately 25 per cent from the design stage onward.

“We are looking forward to seeing Hifi’s technology perform on our Norlite pipeline. We understand this will be one of the longest installations of Hifi technology to-date, and we are looking forward to a successful collaboration with Hifi as they optimize and refine their system for real-world monitoring of pipelines. We are hopeful this technology can provide Enbridge with enhanced leak detection capability and complement performance of our current systems and multi-layered approach to pipeline safety.”

Barry Callele, Director of Pipeline Control Systems and Leak Detection at Enbridge

“This is another important step in our ongoing partnership with Enbridge and the Government of Alberta to rigorously test new technology and implement it on our pipelines when it can add another layer to our comprehensive pipeline safety and leak detection program. We look forward to seeing how Hifi’s unique sensing technology performs in real time as we continue to evaluate how it can be deployed most effectively on our pipeline systems in the future.”  

Erik Tatarchuk, Vice President of Liquid Pipeline Operations, Transcanada

Click play on the video below to learn more about this ground breaking “Alberta” technology.

For more information about Hifi click here to visit their website.

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Largest fraud in US history? Independent Journalist visits numerous daycare centres with no children, revealing massive scam

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A young journalist has uncovered perhaps the largest fraud scheme in US history. 

He certainly isn’t a polished reporter with many years of experience, but 23 year old independent journalist Nick Shirley seems to be getting the job done. Shirley has released an incredible video which appears to outline fraud after fraud after fraud in what appears to be a massive taxpayer funded scheme involving up to $9 Billion Dollars.

In one day of traveling around Minneapolis-St. Paul, Shirley appears to uncover over $100 million in fraudulent operations.

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“Magnitude cannot be overstated”: Minnesota aid scam may reach $9 billion

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Federal prosecutors say Minnesota’s exploding social-services fraud scandal may now rival nearly the entire economy of Somalia, with as much as $9 billion allegedly stolen from taxpayer-funded programs in what authorities describe as industrial-scale abuse that unfolded largely under the watch of Democrat Gov. Tim Walz. The staggering new estimate is almost nine times higher than the roughly $1 billion figure previously suspected and amounts to about half of the $18 billion in federal funds routed through Minnesota-run social-services programs since 2018, according to prosecutors. “The magnitude cannot be overstated,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said Thursday, stressing that investigators are still uncovering massive schemes. “This is not a handful of bad actors. It’s staggering, industrial-scale fraud. Every day we look under a rock and find another $50 million fraud operation.”

Authorities say the alleged theft went far beyond routine overbilling. Dozens of defendants — the vast majority tied to Minnesota’s Somali community — are accused of creating sham businesses and nonprofits that claimed to provide housing assistance, food aid, or health-care services that never existed, then billing state programs backed by federal dollars. Thompson said the opportunity became so lucrative it attracted what he called “fraud tourism,” with out-of-state operators traveling to Minnesota to cash in. Charges announced Thursday against six more people bring the total number of defendants to 92.

Among the newly charged are Anthony Waddell Jefferson, 37, and Lester Brown, 53, who prosecutors say traveled from Philadelphia to Minnesota after spotting what they believed was easy money in the state’s housing assistance system. The pair allegedly embedded themselves in shelters and affordable-housing networks to pose as legitimate providers, then recruited relatives and associates to fabricate client notes. Prosecutors say they submitted about $3.5 million in false claims to the state’s Housing Stability Services Program for roughly 230 supposed clients.

Other cases show how deeply the alleged fraud penetrated Minnesota’s health-care programs. Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf, 27, is accused of setting up a bogus autism therapy nonprofit that paid parents to enroll children regardless of diagnosis, then billed the state for services never delivered, netting roughly $6 million. Another defendant, Asha Farhan Hassan, 28, allegedly participated in a separate autism scheme that generated $14 million in fraudulent reimbursements, while also pocketing nearly $500,000 through the notorious Feeding Our Future food-aid scandal. “Roughly two dozen Feeding Our Future defendants were getting money from autism clinics,” Thompson said. “That’s how we learned about the autism fraud.”

The broader scandal began to unravel in 2022 when Feeding Our Future collapsed under federal investigation, but prosecutors say only in recent months has the true scope of the alleged theft come into focus. Investigators allege large sums were wired overseas or spent on luxury vehicles and other high-end purchases. The revelations have fueled political fallout in Minnesota and prompted renewed federal scrutiny of immigration-linked fraud as well as criticism of state oversight failures. Walz, who is seeking re-election in 2026 after serving as Kamala Harris’ running mate in 2024, defended his administration Thursday, saying, “We will not tolerate fraud, and we will continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught.” Prosecutors, however, made clear the investigation is far from finished — and warned the final tally could climb even higher.

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