Advancing Municipal Infrastructure Innovation

A unique project team assembled by Communities of Tomorrow in 2010 was tasked with finding an innovative solution to the challenges associated with the repair and replacement of municipal water service connections. The project team consisited of public works and engineering staff members from seven Saskatchewan cities. They were joined by researchers and representatives from the National Research Council, University of Regina, SIAST, TR Labs, business experts and members of Communities of Tomorrow.

MINING IN ALBERTA -- there may be more going on than you realize

In Alberta, it goes without saying that energy is king. It’s so prevalent, in fact, that it even dominates other industries, like mining. Eleven of the province’s 15 major mining operations are focused on digging up either coal or oil sands products that will be used for energy. The other four are quarries filled with massive volumes of sand and gravel with an annual yield worth approximately $300 million to the provincial economy.
But while coal, oil sands, sand and gravel are the Alberta mining industry’s big four commodities, there are more than 40 minerals of commercial potential known to occur within the province’s boundaries. Here are a few of the more viable ones.
- Duncan Kinney

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PATRICK MOORE, CO-FOUNDER OF GREENPEACE SUPPORTS CANADIAN OILSANDS

Green Grouch Reality TV

Have you ever wondered who the two greenest Mayors in all of Canada are? From where we sit, we'd have to say Mayor Bill Given of Grande Prairie and Mayor Given of Red Deer. Both of these fantastic Mayors have been huge supporters of The GREEN GROUCH challenge. When we came up with the idea of converting the GREEN GROUCH concept into a Reality Television series, both of these Mayors generously agreed to let the GREEN GROUCH team interview them in a bid to help us use the video to try and convince television producers that it's a marketable idea. We simply can't thank these two fantastic Mayors enough. To hear their generous endorsement of our concept, click the link to the right.

Transfer of Development Credits

Transfer of Development Credit (TDC) programs are similar to Transfer of Development Rights  (TDR) programs widely used throughout the United States. TDCs allow municipalities to direct development away from areas which are threatened by development, and toward more suitable areas, using a municipal planning framework that allows development potential to be bought and sold on the open market, and perpetually extinguished on the valued landscapes. Landowners in designated 'sending areas' are able to sever and sell their development potential to landowner/developers in a designated 'receiving area', who in turn are able to increase development density beyond the base amount allowed by zoning. Sending area parcels receive long-term protection through a deed-restricting mechanism which limits certain activities.
There are several municipalities in Alberta exploring this opportunity, including Red Deer County and the MD of Bighorn.  Thanks to the Miistakis Institute for the Rockies for the supporting background information and documentation

Ellen Dunham-Jones: Retrofitting suburbia

I have one question: Is this the greatest idea we've seen of late. . . or is she already too late?  What do you think?

HARVEST TIME IN RED DEER - OCT 2011

Perhaps, it's the fact that I grew up on a farm; for whatever reason, harvest still excites me.  There is nothing I love more than the smell of grain dust in the air; clouds of it billowing out from under combines in every direction; a big orange moon casting a glow over the earth; the taste of a homecooked meal delivered to the field.  It's a lot of hard work but it's the kind of work that soothes the soul.  How fortunate we are that a couple of very talented people decided to share their world and how especially fortunate for me that the director is part of a family  that has always been a part of the fabric that makes up my world.  Well done, my friends. . . well done!

Kohler Sustainable Design - Built Green - Hillside Home

She's Alive... Beautiful... Finite... Hurting... Worth Dying for.

If this doesn't say it all. . . . nothing does.