Welcome to the latest issue of our newsletter! Once a month we compile the most timely and interesting articles on issues and trends shaping our communities.
Brought to you by the indefatigable staff at the Columbia Institute.
In this Issue
The Happy City
Seattle Proposes Extensive Plastics Ban
Langley School Trustees Open to Advice
Poll: Municipal Governments are Under-Funded
Avoiding Red Meat Saves More GHG Emissions than Eating Local
Ground-Breaking Study Follows BC Welfare Recipients for 2 Years
Recent Legislation Affecting Local Governments
Pilot Program Encourages Kids to Walk or Cycle to School
The Happy City
Recent research on what makes us happy indicates that our brains release neurotransmitters when we co-operate with one another, making us more trustful of others and therefore more content. How can city planners and councillors use this research to make cities happier? This article shows how the cities of Paris and Bogota are redesigning streets in their cities to discourage car use and increase the use of public transit, cycling, and walking. Getting out of our cars forces us to interact with fellow citizens, cooperate on the roads, and increases our overall happiness levels. Click here for an article based on UBC professor John Helliwell's ongoing research about what makes Canadian cities happy.
Seattle Proposes Extensive Plastics Ban
The City of Seattle is considering introducing a set of environmental measures that would see the use of disposable bags drop dramatically and non-recyclable plastic containers banned. The city is proposing a 20-cent fee on all paper and plastic bags given out in grocery, convenience, and drug stores that would go into effect on January 1. Banning polystrene (styrofoam) food containers by January 1 and all other non-recyclable plastic food containers and utensils by 2010 is also on the table. The proposals are expected to raise $10 million per year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 4,000 tonnes per year. Read more about the environmental measures.
Langley School Trustees Open to Advice
An article in the Langley Advance reports that the Langley
School District Board is in the process of forming a special education advisory committee in response to the Langley Special
Education Inquiry report. The committee will sit down on a regular basis with groups and individuals concerned about special education. The school board will consult with individuals, labour groups, post-secondary institutions, and experts in creating the committee.
Poll: Municipal Governments are Under-Funded
A poll commissioned by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has found that there is consensus across Canada that municipal governments are under-funded. Our Centre for Civic Governance conducted a similar poll
in BC and Ontario on municipal and school board issues in 2007. The results showed that most people believe senior levels of governments should provide municipalities with greater funding, that they were
prepared to give up services or accept higher taxes for local government action
on climate change, and that locally elected officials are the most trusted
politicians. To see those findings click here.
The FCM poll showed that 90% of people believe that the federal government should provide financial support to assist municipal governments with infrastructure issues and did not see property taxes or spending cuts as reasonable sources of revenue for municipalities. Additionally, 68% of those polled supported the idea of the GST being raised to 6% if the extra funds raised were transferred to municipalities. Read the full polling results here.
Avoiding Red Meat Saves More GHG Emissions than Eating Local
A new analysis of the environmental toll of food production shows that transportation of food actually comprises a very small portion of the food's greenhouse gas emissions. The analysis by Carnegie Mellon University researchers looked at transporting and producing fertilizer for crops, methane gas emitted by livestock, and food's journey to market, concluding that transportation makes up just 4% of food's overall greenhouse gas emissions. The big exception was red meat, which was found to involve a great deal more travel than other meats and vegetables. The researchers found that switching to an entirely local diet would reduce GHG emissions by the equivalent of driving 1600km fewer per year, whereas switching from eating red meat to vegetables just one day of the week would save the equivalent of 1860km.
Ground-Breaking Study Follows BC Welfare Recipients for 2 Years
The CCPA and the Raise the Rates Coalition
released a new study on the experiences of long-term welfare recipients in BC.
The study followed 62 people in Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna
for two years and focused on people officially categorized as
‘employable’. Among the study’s
important findings, researchers were able to establish an important link
between welfare rules and homelessness. Click here for more information about the report.
A similar report released in 2008 by the Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction (CARMHA) and SFU shows that homelessness among adults with severe addictions and/or mental health illnesses is prevalent in both urban and rural settings and that providing adequate housing and support for these individuals would result in a net cost avoidance of $33 million/year for the province. Read the full report here.
Recent Legislation Affecting Local Governments
Two bills affecting local governments were recently put before the legislature. The first was Bill 10, Housing Statutes Amendment Act, which amends the Local Government Act, Community Charter, Vancouver Charter, Architects Act and Engineers and Geoscientists Act. It was passed on March 13.
Of specific interest to locally elected officials, the Act allows local governments to make building bylaws to conserve energy and water, reduce GHG emissions, and improve building accessibility for persons with disabilities. Formerly, local governments were only allowed to enact bylaws in relation to buildings "for the health, safety or protection of persons or property." (Community Charter, 2 section 53).
The other piece of legislation is Bill 28, Local Government (Green Communities) Statutes Amendments Act. This Bill is making news specifically because it will require local governments to set GHG reduction targets in their Official Community Plans and Regional Growth Strategies. Click here to read an article about the Bill or read the backgrounder to the Bill.
Pilot Program Encourages Kids to Walk or Cycle to School
Three tri-cities schools have been chosen to participate in a pilot project called the School Travel Plan, designed to encourage more kids to walk or cycle to school. The project, which is being facilitated by Arthur Orsini (a speaker at the Columbia Institute's January climate change symposium for education leaders), adapts a model from New Zealand in order to create a template to be used across Canada. There are a number of components to the project, including making school neighborhoods more pedestrian-friendly through infrastructure improvements, enforcing traffic laws, and educating parents and students about safety issues. Read an article about the project.