| A teach-in being held this weekend is intended to offer everyday Albertans a different perspective on the Mazankowski report on health care than they’ll get from the provincial government.
Organized by the Friends of Medicare, the teach-in is being promoted as a de-bunking of the Mazankowski report and a way of generating progressive ideas about the health care system.
Friends of Medicare is opposed to the changes recommended in the report, which they say was designed to rationalize Premier Ralph Klein’s plans to open up the health care system to private interests.
The teach-in takes place at the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Centre at 1 p.m. on April 13, and is open to the public at no charge.
An independent urban design panel may be set up in an attempt to remove the city from a perceived conflict of interest in its East Village redevelopment project.
City council directed administration to look into creating an objective panel made up of architects, engineers and planners to advise the city through the development approval process of the East Village project.
Ald. Druh Farrell, who initiated the suggestion, says the city acts as both developer and approving authority in the East Village, which creates the perception of a conflict of interest. She says without such a panel, the city would have to sell off its stake in the project to remove the perceived bias.
Details of the panel will be worked out in the coming weeks.
The executive director of Calgary’s international hostel is pushing the city and its East Village Development Corporation to allow the facility to move ahead with its renovation plans.
Executive director Jim Zackowski says necessary renovations to the facility have been in the works for more than four years, but the project keeps getting delayed by city hall.
The facility sits in the East Village, which is in the early stages of a massive redevelopment project. The city has maintained it will accommodate the hostel in some way through the redevelopment, but no specifics have been put forward.
Now, Zackowski says, the city’s continuing delays put the future of the hostel at risk – and he is demanding the city deal with the hostel’s concerns.
Hostelling International wants to invest about $2-million to upgrade and renovate the deteriorating facility.
City council is lobbying the federal government to give tax breaks to companies that provide transit passes to their employees.
A similar lobby emerged in the late 1990s, but was never implemented by the federal finance minister. The city is taking up the mantle once again, and is urging other cities, through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, to appeal to the federal government.
The tax exemption would provide an incentive to employers to encourage their workers to take public transit to work, which would help reduce traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions. |
