| A number of prominent Albertans have formed a volunteer committee to relay community concerns about June’s G8 Summit in Kananaskis to the G8 Management Office in Calgary.
Most of the concerns will be from communities within the Calgary-Banff corridor, where anxiety over G8 protests is highest, though the committee will deal with the concerns of all Albertans.
The committee is made up of corporate CEOs, politicians and aboriginal leaders, including former Calgary Mayor Al Duerr, former Liberal MLA Gary Dickson, Nexen Inc. CEO Charlie Fisher and former CEO of the Calgary Olympic Winter Games Organizing Committee Frank King.
No representative of local protest groups is named on the committee.
Most of Kananaskis Country will remain open during June’s G8 Summit, although the area will be crawling with security, and visitors may be forced to travel in a convoy with a government escort.
More than 95 per cent of the land base in Kananaskis will remain open to recreationalists throughout the Summit, but about half of the area’s group and backcountry campgrounds will be closed as part of the massive security measures surrounding the event.
According to a provincial government statement, travel on Highway 40, between the north park gate and the intersection with Highway #742 (Smith-Dorrien/ Spray Trail) will be conducted in a convoy fashion under escort during the period from June 23 to June 29.
There had been concerns that all of Kananaskis would be shut down to users during the G8. All security measures will be lifted on June 28.
Students at the University of Calgary have agreed to join their counterparts at SAIT in adopting the Universal Transit Pass (U-Pass).
Students voted 2,803 to 1,906 in favour of the transit pass in a referendum as part of the annual Students’ Union elections.
Students will pay a mandatory $50 fee per semester for the U-Pass, which will give them unlimited transit access throughout the city for the duration of the semester and help alleviate the parking crunch on campus. Students currently using transit pay $50 per month for a transit pass.
The U-Pass mandatory fee will rise to $56 in the 2003-04 academic year.
SAIT was the first institution to adopt the pass last year, and the program was considered successful enough to be extended to the U of C.
The new passes will be distributed at the start of the 2002 fall semester.
The Glenbow Museum is laying off staff and cutting back on costs to keep the books balanced in its next budget year.
After spending weeks negotiating with the union representing museum workers, on March 18 The Glenbow Museum announced its strategy to keep the museum from going into a budget deficit. Six employees will be laid off, four contract positions will be allowed to lapse, four more positions will remain vacant and one employee will take early retirement to meet the museum’s budgetary requirements.
Glenbow president and CEO Mike Robinson blamed the reduced budget on a slow economy, an "increasingly challenging fund-raising market" and the provincial government’s refusal to increase the museum’s funding.
Alberta teachers will take the provincial government to court and withdraw voluntary services in response to Bill 12, which imposes salary settlements on teachers and withdraws their right to strike until a review of public education is completed next year.
The Alberta Teachers’ Association will challenge the bill in court, and is urging individual teachers to protest the government decision by withdrawing voluntary services such as coaching and marking provincial exams. |
