| Smoking bylaw
City council corrected a self-admitted mistake by deciding to include restaurants and bars in new regulations banning smoking in most public spaces.
Council voted unanimously to reconsider last week’s motion that banned children from entering designated smoking areas in public places beginning January 1, except in restaurants. That move upset anti-smoking activists and many members of council whose original target was restaurants and bars.
Those complications were ironed out, however, and council’s reconsideration means the new rules will apply to restaurants and bars also on January 1.
"I think that’s what many Calgarians wanted done and somehow we muffed it up the last time," said Ald. Joe Ceci.
Go-Plan update
City council is pushing ahead with a quick report card on the state of the Calgary Transportation Plan to help deal with traffic congestion, only one week after voting against a similar study into a traffic corridor through the Weaslehead natural area.
The report card is scheduled to be completed by April of 2002 – more than a year before a more extensive report was expected – and will include information about how the 25-year plan is being implemented, and what steps should be taken to deal with Calgary’s traffic woes.
The update will also include an estimate on the cost of a study investigation options for crossing the Weaselhead – a controversial proposal aimed at creating a new north-south corridor that has environmentalists fuming.
Tax motion lost
After spending his first month on city council listening to complaints about funding cutbacks and the need for huge amounts of cash to address Calgary’s transportation woes, rookie Ald. Ric McIvor’s bid to cut taxes was soundly rejected this week.
The former board member of the conservative lobby group Progressive Group for Independent Business (PGIB) was left all alone after proposing a one per cent tax decrease for 2002.
In fact, council didn’t even vote on the idea because he couldn’t find one member of council to second his motion. Without a seconder, the motion died.
Talisman sued
A class-action lawsuit against Talisman was launched in New York last week on behalf of Sudanese citizens who have allegedly suffered because of oil development in the country.
The lawsuit could reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and may continue even if the company pulls out of the Sudan.
Talisman has been criticized by many anti-slavery and human rights groups who say their stake in the Sudanese oil project is exacerbating the country’s civil war and hurting its citizens.
Talisman, however, has long denied such allegations, stating the company is helping Sudan by building schools and providing clean drinking water to impoverished citizens.
The company narrowly averted another American legal headache recently when a bill that would have de-listed the company from the New York Stock Exchange as a result of its involvement in the Sudan was shelved in the wake of September 11.
Waterton coalition
A coalition of environmental groups has asked the federal government to force a proposed residential development adjacent to Waterton Lakes National Park to be subject to a formal environmental assessment. The groups fear that a development at the entrance to the park will threaten the area’s ecosystem, which is home to a wide array of wildlife, and spoil the scenic vistas for which the park is renowned.
Cardston Country approved the proposal over objections by local residents, the park’s administrators, provincial government agencies and conservation groups. On behalf of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and Southern Alberta Environmental Groups, Sierra Legal Defence Fund lawyer Jerry DeMarco sent a letter to federal Environment Minister David Anderson making the request – under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the minister has the power to refer any project that may cause significant adverse environmental effects on federal lands, which include national parks, to an environmental assessment.
Waterton Lakes National Park and its surroundings have earned three international designations: International Peace Park (1932), International Biosphere Reserve (1979) and World Heritage Site (1995).
Shooting stars
The Calgary Science Centre is urging people to stay up past their bedtime this weekend for a chance to see what may be the best meteor shower of their lives. If predictions prove correct, skywatchers in Western Canada could see up to several hundred meteors an hour darting across the heavens – the peak is expected sometime between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Sunday, November 18.
The annual Leonid meteor shower, which got its name because all the meteors appear to shoot out of the constellation of Leo the Lion, is usually a a sparse display of 20 to 40 meteors an hour, but for several years in a row every 33 years, there is an above-average display.
The Leonids provided good shows in 1998, 1999 and 2000, but most were best seen from elsewhere in the world. This year, if predictions are accurate, that show is coming to North America. The centre recommends watching the meteor showers from a site as far from city lights as possible – no equipment is needed.
For more information, visit www.leonidstorm.com, or www.skypub.com/news/special/leonids2001.html. |
