The Canada Green Building Council has just published a Sustainable Communities Toolkit that focuses on the following areas:
The kit is free to all Municipal Government Employees
Click here to find out more.
A study produced by B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and St. Paul’s Hospital and published by the medical journal The Lancet, has shown that Vancouver’s safe injection site, Insite, has contributed to a 35% reduction in overdose deaths in the area near the site, compared with a 9% drop elsewhere in the city. The study looked at fatal overdoses during the 2 year period after the site opened. Despite the incredible success of Insite the Harper Government is trying to shut the site down. Read story in the Globe and Mail.
Click here to read the study.
The governing NDP in Manitoba is promising a 1% transfer of the PST to municipalities. This stable source of funding will provide municipalities an extra $33 million in next year’s budget. Some say it’s not enough. Read more at the CBC.
According to a recent study by the CCPA, Canada’s corporate taxes have lead to a $50% increase in profits for corporations, but sadly, created very few new jobs. Corporate taxes in 2009 were 20% lower than in 2000 and have lead to an annual loss of $12 billion to Canada’s general revenue.
Read study here.
Ontario’s Local Food Champions report recognizes Markham Ontario as being the first municipality in Ontario to develop a local food policy. Highlights of the policy include:
• Cutting edge food service model bringing more Ontario food into a municipally run cafeteria
• In 2008 Markham committed to procuring no less than 10 per cent Local Food Plus (LFP) certified Ontario food in the municipal cafeteria, with a target of five per cent yearly increases
• By 2010 over 30 per cent of food procurement was LFP certified, Canada’s only local sustainable food certification
• Based on Markham’s success other municipalities, such as Halton Region, are implementing similar food procurement policies
Read more here.
In the US, government investment in energy efficiency and retrofitting programs has helped stimulate economic activity, create jobs in the green building sector, and reduce carbon emissions. Portland has been particularly successful with such programs, and non-profits, government agencies, and energy providers have partnered together to provide retrofit financing to homeowners. The Pembina Institute looks at the feasibility of such programs in Canada in this article in The Tyee.
Kelowna resident Dave Straley has pitched the idea of a minimalistic magnetized monorail to city council, claiming it will help ease commuter congestion. The proposed monorail builds upon existing magnetic levitation technology already used in high-speed trains. City council has said it wants to see how prototype tests go in San Francisco in 2013 prior to making a decision. Read the full story in CBC News.
As East Vancouverites Laura Lee Schultz and Jacqueline Gullion found out, most people don’t know how inefficient their home are, and know less about what to do about it. Mayor Gregor Robertson recently announced a pilot program that will allow homeowners to pay for energy retrofits through on-bill financing. Clean energy specialists say this approach will eliminate many of the challenges associated with home energy retrofitting, and look to the success of a similar program in Portland. Read the full story in The Tyee.
Increases in the number of special needs students and decreases in the number of special education teachers leave unions and parent groups worried that these students aren’t getting the qualified instruction they need. They point the finger at the BC government’s passing of Bill 28 in 2002, which removed funding for special needs services, and 2011/12 budget shortfalls for school districts across the province. The Vancouver School Board and Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid are not convinced there is a problem. Read the full story in The Tyee.
Port Coquitlam city councillors will consider limitations on the use of cosmetic pesticides on private property later this month. PoCo Mayor Greg Moore believes that provincial legislation would be the most effective way in curbing cosmetic pesticide use, however inaction in Victoria is forcing the municipality to come up with its own bylaws. Read the full story in BC Local News.
The growing nuclear crisis in Japan is raising concerns regarding the safety of Canada’s nuclear reactors, particularly as Ontario considers an expansion of its current fleet. Nuclear safety reps claim that Canadian plants are seismically stable and designed to withstand an earthquake that could be expected every 1000 years, however government officials and anti-nuclear activists from Greenpeace are pushing for tougher standards. Read the full story in The Globe and Mail.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan established new bike lanes as part of PlaNYC, NYC’s blueprint for a sustainable city. A lawsuit recently filed against the city of New York over one particular bike lane in Brooklyn could put PlaNYC at jeopardy. As the proclaimed ‘world’s greatest city’, NYC’s management of transportation planning will be seen as the global template, and if cycling is pushed off the future of sustainable transport will be bleak. Read the full story in The Guardian.