| Curbside recycling
The City of Calgary is starting a curbside recycling program, which will collect recyclable material, including yard and kitchen waste, from 2,000 homes in the city.
City council approved the two-year pilot project on Monday but hasn’t decided yet which community the project will operate in.
If council decides the project is successful they could expand it throughout the entire city.
Alderman Craig Burrows said at Monday’s city council meeting that curbside recycling is long overdue.
"We’re far from being progressive," said Burrows. He pointed out that cities across Canada, including Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax, have had curbside recycling programs in place for years.
Cattle task force call
Alberta Liberal leader Ken Nicol says a federal task force is required to look into what can be done to sustain the provincial cattle industry now that two cases of mad cow have been found in North America.
Nicol says the task force should include international officials and should look at what food safety measures could be put into place to reassure Canada’s major trading partners that Alberta beef is safe.
Nicol says the task force should look at whether the practice of feeding rendered meat and bone to other animals such as pigs and chickens should be banned completely to eliminate the risk of cross-contamination.
Meanwhile the federal government announced this week Canada will increase the number of cows tested for the disease to at least 30,000 animals a year from about 5,500 currently.
Street home loses
A Calgary organization that helps street kids is disappointed that the city’s Development Appeal Board rejected an application for it to open an office downtown.
Wood’s Homes, which runs the EXIT Community Outreach program for street kids, was hoping to move into a building owned by the Calgary Firefighers Association on Sixth Avenue S.W.
However, the appeal board rejected the organization’s application because of community concerns about another social agency opening its doors in the area.
EXIT program manager Madelyn McDonald says the organization is currently operating out of the Inn From the Cold office and there isn’t enough space for all the services they would like to offer to youth, such as showers and laundry facilities. McDonald says it’s inappropriate for street youth to mix with the adult homeless population when they’re seeking services, which occurrs currently. |
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