Yesterday I was having a chat with an employee at a Subway in Ottawa. I noticed the sign about vegies being unavailable because of weird weather. I commented on it, asking if this is a first. She said it had come up years ago, but she was surprised how long it had been up there.
Climate change? Maybe Subway shareholders should start donating to the Green Party of Canada so we can catch up on the rest of the world with real action on climate change.
Call it “risk mitigation”. Or job creation in a green economy.
And if Subway could instruct their employees to ask “Do you want a bag?” instead of “Is it to go?”, maybe they’d start saving on plastic.
Dans un communiqué de presse, Représentation équitable au Canada fait le lien entre la politique environnementale et la représentation équitable.
Pointing to a landmark study on voting systems and policy outcomes, Fair Vote Canada today said growing public anger with current and former federal governments’ inaction on environmental problems has its roots in Canada’s dysfunctional electoral system.
“A bad electoral system almost guarantees bad politics,” said Stephen Broscoe, President of Fair Vote Canada. “It’s time to connect the dots on how first-past-the-post affects the daily lives of our families, communities and our environment.” (more…)
Selon la loi provincale, la ville d’Ottawa peut exiger des entrepreneurs jusqu’à 85% du coût de la nouvelle infrastructure. Mais Ottawa exige moins de 50% et le reste est payé par les citoyens.
Ottawa elected a rookie “zero means zero” tax increase mayor in 2006, even though all the incumbent councilors (who ran for office again and got re-elected) knew better than to make such a promise. Now the mayor is imposing his agenda with an iron fist and the city is scrambling to find service cuts everywhere to fit his agenda.
I sent the following e-mail to my city councilor.
Bonjour Diane,Can you tell me if I got this calculation correctly?Page 333 of the 2007 capital budget.
The revenue from development charges continuities was 80,8M$.
If the rate is currently less than 50% the cost of the new infrastructure, than a max increase to 85% would bring in an extra 57M$ a year.
How much does the city need to cut in order to reach the Mr. O’Brien’s zero means nothing target?
À la prochaine,
Julien
It sounds too good to be true. 57M$. I have to be missing something.
Donna Dillman fait une grève de la faim afin d’obtenir un moratoire sur les activités minières pour l’uranium dans l’est de l’Ontario et j’écris au premier ministre pour indiquer mon support.
Premier Dalton McGuinty
Main Legislative Building, Room 281, Queens Park
Toronto, ON
M7A 1A1
Dear Mr. McGuinty,
I am writing to you to indicate my support of Donna Dillman’s hunger strike calling for a moratorium on uranium mining in Eastern Ontario.
This crisis represents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is the ever increasing world energy demand while preserving ecosystem integrity, bridging the conflict between settlers and First Nations and maintaining healthy communities. The opportunity is a sane energy policy, one focused on energy efficiency, renewable forms of energy and the capacity of taxpayers to sell back to the grid. May I refer you to an article in the May 31st 2007 edition of The Economist which reported a study by Vattenfall, a Swedish power utility. The study reviewed abatement costs of energy efficiency and production measures. It found that, at a macroeconomic level, energy efficiency measures would produce savings and economic growth whereas energy production measures would not. (more…)
Mike Nickerson, auteur de Life Money & Illusion, écrit au sujet de sa femme, Donna Dillman, membre du conseil fédéral du PVC, qui fait une grève de la faim pour un moratorium sur l’exploration & l’exploitation minière.
Greetings:
You may have heard that my wife, Donna Dillman, started a hunger strike outside the gate of the uranium mine proposed for up river from Ottawa. Donna stopped eating Thanksgiving morning, October 8, and aims to continue until there is a moratorium placed on uranium exploration and mining, at least for Eastern Ontario.
The Green Party of Canada released today its Vision Green. The policy document lays out the plan for the kind of Canada we want in 2020 and how we get to that point. It is a breath of fresh air and provides visionary leadership, not for the next four year, but for the next forty years. Here are some of the solutions addressing the various issues it covers: (more…)
The Canadian government is breaking its own environmental laws, and could get away with it if we don’t act within 24 hours. Last June, Parliament passed a law confirming our legal obligation to comply with the Kyoto Protocol, and gave a heel-dragging Harper government 60 days to show how they would do it. Harper’s plan is out, and meets Kyoto’s targets 13 years too late – it clearly breaks the law.Canadians are irate over this, but somehow everyone failed to notice the official public consultation period on the law, which ends tomorrow. The comments that Environment Canada receives in this period will be admissible in court, when the Harper government is brought before a judge on this. If there are no comments, the government will claim in court that the public supports its bogus plan. This argument has worked before, and we must not let it happen again. Please send a quick message to Environment Minister Baird, and tell everyone you know to act right away
Iain Levison a écrit en anglais un texte assez intéressant. J’assaie toujours d’éviter des dichotomies parce qu’elles font des divisions simplistes entre “nous et eux”. Mais ce texte est tellement bien écrit car il exprime le mouvement global qui pourrait être formé par ceux qui comprennent.