A recent article by the Toronto Star refutes some of the warnings about Ontario's proposed increase in minimum wage, now rescinded by Premier Doug Ford. TD Bank predicted 50,000 to 150,000 jobs lost
Right now is the perfect time to share feedback with our federal government, especially when it comes to basic income. To identify poverty reduction strategies in Canada, they are calling on the public to submit ideas on how our various levels of government can address this issue. They are also encouraging Canadians to join the conversation by sharing personal experiences with social support programs.
Deborah Irvine, Vice President of the Vancouver Foundation, broke down some statistics last week for a student audience in Victoria, BC about the state of charities in Canada.
Charging for plastic bags at grocery and retail locations was predicted to be a huge drawback for businesses when it was implemented in some countries. The stats we have today show that not only is that not the case, and in fact most people readily either embraced re-useable bag use, or leaned to re-use older plastic ones. The reality is that it’s not only that some people want to save the environment, it’s that most people want to save their hard earned dollar.
October 5th, 2013
This presentation shows how by integrating five permaculture districts into the City of Guelph's official land use plan can lead to a sustainable food system, while at the same time, increasing the physical beauty of the city, and probably reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Imagine combining vegetable and herb gardens, roof gardens, patio & balcony gardens, greenhouses and SPIN farming (backyard bounty).
February 28th, 2013
Did you know that 97% of homes in Copenhagen have district heating? Listen to architect Bjarke Ingels talk about the design challenge, how to build units sustainability with architectural alchemy and public participation, create spontaneous social encounters, and a public service market place. How do we take the symbol of the problem and turn it into fun--a CO2 smoke ring? How does a power plant in Copenhagen include a park and a man-made mountain for skiing?
I am delighted to finally announce the launch of the vitality tool, Vt. It has taken almost a year and a half to develop this tool, and we deliberatively designed it to make you think about the meaning of vitality for your own community. You can also add to the six proxy indicators that we identified from our discussion papers that best typify.
We recently produced this video, a vision for 2015 for sustainable community development. I deliberatively chose 2015 because I believe we have enough information, enough science to act now to achieve this dream, what is needed is political will. Just imagine if we had a Federal Government that had the courage to implement a policy of virtually zero waste in the private and public sectors by 2015. How much innovation would that spark in our industrial leaders?