| Urban sprawl and the growing gap between rich and poor in Calgary are the two biggest challenges Calgary faces, according to a study by Sustainable Calgary.
The non-profit organization has just released its fourth State of Our City report, which evaluates how Calgary is faring in terms of environmental, social and economic sustainability. The report found that Calgary has made progress on improving the natural environment, but there’s been virtually no progress on addressing urban sprawl, high resource consumption and poverty.
Calgarians are producing more garbage (even though recycling has increased), transit usage has stalled and "energy consumption is among the highest in the world and growing," says the report. And despite the city’s strong economy, poverty is on the rise with increasing numbers of people using food banks, ending up homeless or struggling to survive on "social supports that don’t even come close to providing basic needs."
"Our indicators suggest that the economic restructuring of the past decades has left us with a social debt to the most vulnerable in our society…," states the report. "With a province and city economy that is bursting at the seams, growing inequities are a black eye on our community."
Noel Keough, co-ordinator of Sustainable Calgary, says poverty has remained an issue since 1996, when the group first started doing reports.
"Despite a booming economy, we continue to see growing inequity between the poorest and the richest," says Keough. "For us that’s the critical issue – addressing the social side of sustainability."
Keough says the city could be doing more to increase affordable housing and to make transportation and recreational activities more affordable for people living on low incomes. The province also has to take on much more responsibility, he adds.
"Given the wealth of the province and the city, there has to be a way to have more equitable treatment for people on the lower end of the scale," says Keough. "There’s no one on the planet better positioned to take up this issue."
Despite increased focus on urban sprawl since Sustainable Calgary’s last report, Keough says the city has yet to "put a dent" in the problem, and that leads directly to increased resource consumption because people have to drive long distances.
"The problem is we’ve designed our city so we have sprawl and it’s difficult not to have a car," he says.
Calgarians’ lifestyle choices are also leading to increased resource consumption. "We buy more, build bigger houses and fill them up with things and buy bigger vehicles," he adds.
Keough says a lot more money has to be pumped into public transit in order to provide better service for all Calgarians and to increase usership.
Sustainable Calgary also cited high asthma rates among children, an increased rate of obesity among children and high staff turnover rates at day cares as worrying trends.
On the positive side, Sustainable Calgary gave the City of Calgary credit for a new wetland conservation plan and a state of the art water treatment system. Other positive sustainability indicators were the city’s high volunteerism rate, the increased number of arts and cultural festivals, and the growing number of community gardens, farmers markets and organic food stores, which promote local food production.
Sustainable Calgary will be consulting with the public to create what they’re calling a citizen’s agenda on sustainability. Keough says the group will likely spend a year creating the agenda and will then present it to various "decision-makers." |
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