Never has a situation cried out more for a car bra.

Photo: CBC's John Archer

A man claiming to be a Calgary firefighter says he has seen thousands of liters of toxic waste disposed of at the Tsuu T'ina landfill. The landfill is the site of a fire that burned over at least a two-day period earlier this month. He was one of roughly 150 members of the public who attended a town hall meeting in the S.W. community of Woodlands called by Alderman Diane Colley-Urqhart to discuss the impacts of the fire.

Stressing that he was not speaking as a Calgary Fire Department representative and asking that he not be identified, he said that he was at the Tsuu T'ina reserve landfill in 1995, when he saw a vacuum truck pull up to the dump and empty its contents of what he is certain was hazardous material.

"This vacu-truck pulls up … Read More

Natural gas company SemCAMS ULC has been charged under Alberta's Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act for allegedly leaking waste water and hydrocarbons into a creek near the town of Fox Creek, roughly 240 km NW of Edmonton.

A government press release states a "pipeline failure" in August 2010 led to the release of 850,000 liters of saline and hydrocarbons into the creek. One km of the creek was contaminated, reportedly destroying aquatic life and killing a "substantial" number of fish.

Four charges have been laid under the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act. The company has also been charged by Environment Canada under the federal Fisheries Act.

SemCAMS was also charged in 2009 for failing to … Read More

Alberta EMS Senior Vice President Sue Conroy spoke with Fast Forward for this week’s article about EMS concerns. Though she was not able to speak before the story went to print, a transcript of the interview is available here:

Reporter: I’m looking for some response from the government and AHS the survey and what is going to happen now.

Sue Conroy: Alberta Health Services actually has responsibility for operations for EMS in the province. I just want to be sure you’re aware of that, I’m not speaking on behalf of government. Very good. So you’re aware of the survey, and again just to reiterate, so, the survey was done by HSAA and in, of the staff in the Edmonton Metro area.

So I guess I want to begin by saying that I certainly do take the feedback … Read More

The Calgary Food Committee commenced its Food System Assessment and Action Plan today. The assessment will research Calgary’s food system, studying how and where Calgary’s food is produced, processed, shipped, eaten and ultimately thrown away.

City of Calgary sustainability consultant Rebecca Newlove says the report will contribute to the city’s Food Action Plan; an initiative intended to help Calgarians "access and afford more local, healthy, nutritious food."

"What we don’t have currently is information on how many Calgarians have access to healthy food," Newlove said at a Jan. 12 press conference.

The Food Committee consists of farmers, local businesses and chefs, city staff and representatives from Alberta … Read More

Darren Sandbeck

Executive Director of Calgary and Central Zone EMS, Alberta Health Services

January 3, 2012

 
First of all, do you know about this survey report?

 I have knowledge of it. It is Edmonton-focused, so I don’t really have a lot to contribute from, you know, my perspective here in Calgary.

Do you know why they would have done it in Edmonton and not more province-wide?

I don’t, no, I don’t know.

I wish they would tell me. Now, is the HSAA independent of the Alberta Health Services?

That’s correct. HSAA is the union.

So they’re completely independent of each other?

Correct.

 Alright. Now I’m not sure if you would know that, if you know this, but I would like to know if staff turnover is fairly high in this field as a rule, because it’s a fairly stressful … Read More

Alberta has passed its contentious impaired driving bill, imposing stricter penalties on drivers who are impaired or refuse to submit to an on-the-spot Breathalyzer test.

Calgary lawyer Bob Sawer contends the new law violates basic judicial principles. "Seeing as you’re being punished and losing your license for up to a year or two pending the outcome of your trial, I would say that’s a breach of the presumption of innocence," Sawer says. "How would you like it if you run into some police officer who says you refused to provide a breath sample because you wanted to speak to your lawyer, you get charged, you’re completely innocent of anything and you’re found to be innocent, but meanwhile you lose your license and your means to … Read More

A Calgary woman contends someone sprayed bear or pepper spray on Occupy Calgary’s library and information tent. Though Occupy members were cleaning the area and warning people off when Mary March arrived with her three children yesterday, some of the noxious  substance affected her 11-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter.

"One of my children walked into the tent and we all yelled at him, ‘get out! get out!’ but he still had got residual spray on his mouth. And my daughter who just walked by the tent got it on her face as well," says March.

March and her family were at Olympic Plaza for a day of skating when they dropped by the Occupy camp for its "meet and greet."

While most Occupy Calgary protestors are at court today to fight a city … Read More

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