| ST. MARY’S MAY FALL
The Calgary Catholic School Board says it will not abandon its decision to tear down the 93-year old St. Mary’s Girls School and build a replica in its place, despite the 11th-hour pitches to save it.
Calgary Catholic School Board chair Linda Blasetti released a statement last week saying it is "presumptuous" of city council to "second-guess" the decision to demolish the school.
Following appeals from area residents and school alumni not to let the historic building be torn down, a city council committee recommended stepping in and examining the possibility of saving it.
The school board, however, says it will still move forward with its plans to erect a replica in its place, as agreed upon by the school board and the provincial government.
Blasetti says the school board says it is too cash-strapped to save the school, and its mandate is to educate students, not preserve buildings. She adds that the new school will house a much-needed education program for special needs students.
The Society for the Preservation and Restoration of St. Mary’s School, however, says the school board is overestimating the cost of preserving the historically significant portion of the school. They vow to keep up efforts to save it
SCHOOL UNDERFUNDING
The Alberta Liberals claim parents are having to pay too much in school fees to compensate for chronic underfunding by the provincial government.
The official opposition released a report earlier this week that it says indicates Alberta parents paying millions of dollars in school fees every year to cover costs that aren’t being funded by the provincial government.
The study came as a show of support for striking Alberta teachers, who have held rallies demanding increased government funding for education.
The provincial government denies Alberta schools are underfunded. Premier Ralph Klein has stated that teachers should "get it through their heads" that there is no more money available to help end the strike.
BIGHORN CAMPAIGN
An Alberta environmental group is stepping up its campaign asking people to tell the provincial government they don’t want industrial development in a large natural region near Rocky Mountain House.
The Alberta Wilderness Association is urging Albertans to participate in a government-organized review of the management of the Bighorn Wildland Recreation Area by writing letters to the government asking it to renew its protection of the area.
The Bighorn has been under protection from industrial use since the 1980s, but an advisory group set up by the provincial Tories is looking into how the area should be managed in light of increased recreational use and pressure from oil and gas developers.
The area is a draw for outdoor recreationalists and is important wildlife habitat.
PLEIADES RELOCATING
Pleiades Theatre plans to move from its longtime home in the Calgary Science Centre to a new venue in the Tower Centre mall by September 2003.
Pleiades has launched an aggressive $7.8 million fund-raising campaign to pay for the new space, which was formerly home to the Palliser Square cinemas and is currently occupied by Jubilee Christian Centre.
The organization plans to use one of the existing theatres as its main performance space. With 350 seats it will offer more flexibility than their current theatre. Further possibilities will be explored for the second theatre, which could be used as a rehearsal space, or rented out to other performing arts organizations for their productions.
GOING TO THE MOVIES
Statistics show Canadians set a 40-year record for movie attendance in 1999-2000, even though theatre profits plummeted and a financial crisis gripped major theatre chains.
The Statistics Canada report says 1999-2000 was the eighth consecutive year annual attendance at the movies rose in Canada, hitting a 40-year high of nearly 120 million visits.
However, profits in the industry faced a decline of 39 per cent.
Much of the discrepancy is a result of huge new multiplex cinemas – although they accounted for most of the attendance increase, their exorbitant costs were blamed for pushing Famous Players into bankruptcy protection and threatening other major chains in the United States.
That growth in attendance also seems to be coming at the hands of older theatres. The report says attendance at older multiplexes fell five per cent, and at older medium- and large-size theatres, attendance fell about 20 per cent. |
