Health
Vancouver and Toronto Launch Programs to Encourage Newcomers to Ride Bikes
Police Credit More Services for Mentally Ill and Addicted for Vancouver's plummeting Crime Rate
An increase in shelter beds, and improved services for those with mental illness and addictions is helping to reduce Vancouver's crime rate. Read Globe and Mail story here.
Toronto to Launch Borrow a Bike Program Next Year
Toronto is set to become the second city in Canada to have a borrow-a-bike program. Currently, Montreal has the program up and running and other Canadian cities, including Vancouver are considering adopting the program. Based on Paris' successful Vélib program, Toronto will make 5,000 bikes available to commuters and recreational users at a small cost. A swipe of the credit card and the bike is yours for the day.
Campbell cuts surgeries for British Columbians, offers them to Saskatchewan
People from Saskatchewan may soon be coming to British Columbia for surgery, if negotiations between the two provincial governments are successful.
B.C.'s health minister, Kevin Falcon, said selling surgeries will bring money into B.C.'s system and help British Columbians get care sooner. But New Democratic Party health critic, Adrian Dix, said the plan makes no sense when health authorities are already cancelling surgeries for British Columbians.
Halt For-Profit Clinics: UBCM Resolution
BC municipalities to ponder denouncing 'private, for-profit surgical and MRI/CT facilities.'
Approval of modified corn worries activists, farmers
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has quietly approved a new genetically engineered corn with eight different insect- and weed-fighting traits, but farmer and environmental groups in Canada say the approval was rushed and environmental risks ignored.Developed through a research agreement between Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences, SmartStax corn is unique in that it "stacks" eight genetically engineered traits that will allow corn to tolerate certain weed- and insect-killing products made by the two companies.
B.C. falling behind Ontario in toxins reduction
If toxic substances harmful to your health were being released into your community's environment, shouldn't you have the right to know?The province of Ontario is moving forward to provide that right to its residents and B.C.-based Toxic Free Canada wants to see similar protections established in this province.
Campbell turns back on kids
TIMES COLONIST JUNE 27, 2009 What is Premier Gordon Campbell thinking? The province, according to Statistics Canada, has had the highest rate of child poverty in Canada for the past six years. The problems are increasing as more people lose their jobs.
Population Health: the New Agenda
What determines your health? Genetics? Doctors? Drugs? But what about the neighborhood you live in? Your job? The amount of money you earn? These are called the social determinants of health, and they can expose more than you think.
View video here
Economics of Poverty Workshop: A Half-Day Primer on the Economics and Statistics of Poverty
Krishna Pendakur, SFU Professor of Economics, is offering an exciting half-day, free workshop on the economics and statistics of poverty:
