| 0Group wants province to fund city’s low-income transit pass
Vibrant Communities Calgary (VCC), a non-profit organization aimed at reducing poverty in the city, says it’s concerned about the fate of the city’s new low-income transit pass.
The pass came into effect in January and has funding for a year. However, Ramona Johnston, manager of VCC, says the city hasn’t committed to funding after that date.
"We’re very concerned. That’s why we’re highly motivated to try to bring the province to the table around this issue," says Johnston.
VCC is asking the province to commit funding to the transit pass so it can continue beyond one year.
"We don’t think the city should be footing the entire bill for this," says Johnston. "We see this as being a low-income issue and a social issue and therefore it falls under the province’s mandate."
Johnston says in the last three months her organization has heard "fabulous stories" from people who have found it easier to find employment or go back to school because of the low-income pass.
"It’s making a huge difference in people’s lives," says Johnston.
To be eligible for the low-income bus pass, which costs $35 per month, residents have to be 18 and able to prove that their total family income is less than 75 per cent of Statistics Canada’s low-income cutoff – a single individual has to make less than $15,253 per year, a three-person family has to make less than $23,345 per year, and a six-person family has to make less than $36,256.
New Calgary office for Parkland Institute
The Parkland Institute, a left-leaning Alberta think tank based in Edmonton, has opened a new Calgary office at Parkdale United Church.
"I think the advantage is it puts us more on the ground in Calgary," says executive director Ricardo Acuna. "It also makes us a much more integral part of Calgary’s activist community."
On March 16 from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Calgarians are invited to check out the new office located at 2919-8th Avenue N.W.
Some Calgary businesses showing commitment to recycling
Blaine Armstrong, who runs a private recycling company called P.E.L. Recycling, says he’s impressed by the commitment some Calgary businesses are making to recycle.
He says the Hyatt hotel chain has just committed to a full recycling program in the city. Meanwhile, small restaurants such as Diner Deluxe and Mango Shiva are paying him to come in and take away their recyclables, as well as their compost.
"Diner Deluxe and Mango Shiva – they’re tiny little restaurants and they just find space to compost, find space to do their cans and their plastics," says Armstrong.
He says The River Café and Teatro are also committed to a full recycling and composting program, including recycling their cooking oil.
"This is an incurred cost. They’re really under no obligation," says Armstrong. "There’s no law that says you have to recycle this stuff."
Shannon Yuen, manager of Diner Deluxe, says, "If every single business does a little bit then how much more stuff is not going into landfills or creating toxins we’re all breathing in."
She says her business recycles everything it can in order to do its part to "take care of the environment." She adds even though she’s paying for someone to come in and take away her recycling and compost, she’s saving money on landfill fees because she’s throwing out less.
Armstrong says the City of Calgary is "far behind" other cities that have much better recycling rates, but businesses should be commended for doing their part.
"They don’t have to do it, but they want to," he says. "They’re purely businesses of conscience that are doing this."
He says some chefs he’s working with have come from other places in the world and are shocked by the amount of waste generated in restaurants.
Armstrong says the city should be increasing its landfill rates faster so that individuals and businesses have a higher incentive to recycle.
Peace vigil for war in Iraq
Calgarians opposed to the war in Iraq are holding a peace vigil on March 18 to commemorate the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion.
The vigil will start at 1 p.m. outside the U.S. consulate at the corner of Macleod Trail and Seventh Avenue S.E.
"I think every day the world is not a peaceful world is wrong," says Gord Christie, who is organizing the event. "The fact remains the U.S. led an illegal invasion in Iraq. They are still illegally occupying a sovereign nation and that’s wrong."
Christie says Canada can’t claim that it isn’t at all involved in the war in Iraq. He says the fact that Canadian troops are fighting in Afghanistan "frees up U.S. troops to go to Iraq," and adds that Canadian defence companies sell arms to the U.S. |
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