Latest news with #Calgarians'
Calgary Herald
22-05-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Residents' trust, optimism have rebounded after turbulent 2024 according to city survey
Article content Calgarians' trust in city hall has gone up considerably since last year, according to the latest citizen satisfaction survey. Article content Article content The city released its annual spring survey results Thursday, showing an upward trend in Calgarians' quality of life, their optimism about the future and their satisfaction with municipal services. Article content The yearly questionnaire was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs from Feb. 27 to March 24, polling 2,500 Calgarians via telephone. Article content Article content At a news conference to present the results, Mayor Jyoti Gondek said a promising finding was a rebound in public trust in the city, which went up 14 points to 52 per cent, from a record low of 38 per cent a year ago. Article content Article content After a turbulent 2024 that saw Calgarians weather a summer-long water crisis following the rupture of the Bearspaw south feeder main, as well as other challenges, Gondek said the poll results are encouraging. Article content 'In a year of uncertainty — with a ruptured water feeder main, unaffordable housing, inflation and global instability — that rise in trust says something powerful,' she said. 'It tells me that Calgarians believed that we had a plan, it tells me that leadership matters and it tells me that people have seen the results.' Article content Other areas of improvement over last year's spring and fall polls include respondents' perception of their quality of life. According to the survey, 74 per cent of Calgarians rated their quality of life as 'good,' compared with 71 per cent last spring and 66 per cent in the fall. Article content Article content As well, 72 per cent of Calgarians said the city is a great place to make a life, up three points from the spring of 2024. Article content On public safety, 70 per cent of respondents believed the city is doing a 'good job' of addressing safety-related issues in Calgary. Article content The survey found that 61 per cent of respondents rate Calgary's economy as good — up 11 points from last fall — while satisfaction with how the city is being run rose to 63 per cent, up from 59 per cent last spring and 53 per cent in the fall. Article content 'With so many national and international concerns facing Calgarians, it's encouraging to see key indicators about local government improve,' the city's chief administrative officer, David Duckworth, said in a statement. 'The results indicate that the city is aligned and accountable to Calgarians on many of our priorities and investments. We will continue to listen and deliver the things that are important to the people in our city.'
Calgary Herald
22-05-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Residents' trust in city, optimism have rebounded after turbulent 2024
Article content Calgarians' trust in city hall has gone up considerably since last year, according to the city's latest citizen satisfaction survey. Article content Article content The city released its annual spring survey results Thursday, showing an upward trend in Calgarians' quality of life, their optimism about the future and their satisfaction with municipal services. Article content The yearly count was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs from Feb. 27 to March 24, polling 2,500 Calgarians via telephone. Article content Article content At a news conference to present the results, Mayor Jyoti Gondek said a promising finding was a rebound in public trust in the city, which went up 14 points from a record low of 38 per cent a year ago to 52 per cent now. Article content Article content After a turbulent 2024 that saw Calgarians weather a summerlong water crisis following the rupture of the Bearspaw south feeder main, as well as other challenges, Gondek said the city's latest poll results are mostly encouraging. Article content 'In a year of uncertainty with a ruptured water feeder main, unaffordable housing, inflation and global instability, that rise in trust says something powerful,' she said. 'It tells me that Calgarians believed that we had a plan, it tells me that leadership matters, and it tells me that people have seen the results.' Article content Other areas of improvement over last year's spring and fall polls include respondents' perception of their quality of life. According to the survey, 74 per cent of Calgarians rated their quality of life as 'good,' compared to 71 per cent last spring and 66 per cent last fall. Article content Article content Relatedly, 72 per cent of Calgarians said the city is a great place to make a life, which is up three points from the spring of 2024. Article content Asked about public safety, 70 per cent of respondents believed the city is doing a 'good job' of addressing safety-related issues in Calgary. Article content The survey found that 61 per cent of respondents rate Calgary's economy as good – an 11-point uptick from last fall – while satisfaction with how the city is being run rose to 63 per cent, up from 59 per cent last spring and 53 per cent last fall. Article content 'With so many national and international concerns facing Calgarians, it's encouraging to see key indicators about local government improve,' said the city's chief administrative officer, David Duckworth, in a statement. 'The results indicate that the city is aligned and accountable to Calgarians on many of our priorities and investments. We will continue to listen and deliver the things that are important to the people in our city.'
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Councillors considering charging Calgarians less in monthly waste and recycling
Calgarians could see a drop in their monthly recycling fees, as Alberta looks to put the onus on companies rather than consumers. On Thursday, city council's community development committee will discuss transitioning to Alberta's new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program. The program, which will be fully implemented in April, is intended to shift the physical and financial responsibility of recycling products to the companies behind those products in a bid to producers to recycle more materials and create less packaging waste. In turn, the committee will discuss cutting Calgarians' monthly Blue Cart Program charge down from $9.34 this year to $2.17. The result would save each Calgarian who pays that fee more than $86 per year. Ward 14 Coun. Peter Demong has been researching and advocating for EPR for nearly eight years. In 2019, he pushed council to vote to support a province-wide study of the issue and worked with other municipalities around Alberta to bring that research to the provincial government, touting its environmental and financial benefits. Demong said that if someone told him when he was first elected to council in 2010 that he was going to be so passionate about recycling, he'd have laughed. But he said reading reports about hundreds of thousands tonnes of waste being buried moved him to act. "You know it can go to a better, higher purpose, that you can save your constituents money, that you can improve the environment and the economy at the same time," Demong said. "It just suddenly becomes a no-brainer that somebody needs to champion this and get it across the finish line." He added that city councillors are often hearing about how every user fee residents pay is too high and bringing the blue bin fee down is one way council can respond. "It's going to benefit Calgarians mostly by their pocketbook," Demong said. "Studies have [also] shown significantly higher recycling rates, higher volunteerism rates to actually do the recycling, it's better for the environment, less goes into the landfill, [and] it encourages the producers to change their product mix so that paper packaging products are more easily recyclable and more easily identifiable as recyclable." EPR hands the responsibility and cost of recycling to producers for packaging and paper products, and hazardous and special products like batteries, pesticides, and products that are flammable, corrosive or toxic. Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott, the chair of the community development committee, says the motion is likely to pass. The initiative is all about ensuring the right person pays for the responsibility of recycling, he told reporters on Tuesday. "[In] most of Alberta, most of the country, the cost of doing business like this gets slowly filtered down to the taxpayer," Walcott said. "This is one of the programs that actually makes sure whoever's doing the pollution, in this case with plastic packaging and recyclable packaging, is the one who's paying for it or reducing it. Both of those are good for citizens." The EPR program will also create a consistent list of materials that can be recycled across Alberta in an attempt to make the system more straightforward. The new program also means recycling regulation and oversight will move from city council to the province. After being discussed by committee on Thursday, transitioning to EPR will go to a city council meeting later in February to prepare for the province's implementation in April.
CBC
05-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Councillors considering charging Calgarians less in monthly waste and recycling
Social Sharing Calgarians could see a drop in their monthly recycling fees, as Alberta looks to put the onus on companies rather than consumers. On Thursday, city council's community development committee will discuss transitioning to Alberta's new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program. The program, which will be fully implemented in April, is intended to shift the physical and financial responsibility of recycling products to the companies behind those products in a bid to producers to recycle more materials and create less packaging waste. In turn, the committee will discuss cutting Calgarians' monthly Blue Cart Program charge down from $9.34 this year to $2.17. The result would save each Calgarian who pays that fee more than $86 per year. Ward 14 Coun. Peter Demong has been researching and advocating for EPR for nearly eight years. In 2019, he pushed council to vote to support a province-wide study of the issue and worked with other municipalities around Alberta to bring that research to the provincial government, touting its environmental and financial benefits. Demong said that if someone told him when he was first elected to council in 2010 that he was going to be so passionate about recycling, he'd have laughed. But he said reading reports about hundreds of thousands tonnes of waste being buried moved him to act. "You know it can go to a better, higher purpose, that you can save your constituents money, that you can improve the environment and the economy at the same time," Demong said. "It just suddenly becomes a no-brainer that somebody needs to champion this and get it across the finish line." He added that city councillors are often hearing about how every user fee residents pay is too high and bringing the blue bin fee down is one way council can respond. "It's going to benefit Calgarians mostly by their pocketbook," Demong said. "Studies have [also] shown significantly higher recycling rates, higher volunteerism rates to actually do the recycling, it's better for the environment, less goes into the landfill, [and] it encourages the producers to change their product mix so that paper packaging products are more easily recyclable and more easily identifiable as recyclable." EPR hands the responsibility and cost of recycling to producers for packaging and paper products, and hazardous and special products like batteries, pesticides, and products that are flammable, corrosive or toxic. Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott, the chair of the community development committee, says the motion is likely to pass. The initiative is all about ensuring the right person pays for the responsibility of recycling, he told reporters on Tuesday. "[In] most of Alberta, most of the country, the cost of doing business like this gets slowly filtered down to the taxpayer," Walcott said. "This is one of the programs that actually makes sure whoever's doing the pollution, in this case with plastic packaging and recyclable packaging, is the one who's paying for it or reducing it. Both of those are good for citizens." The EPR program will also create a consistent list of materials that can be recycled across Alberta in an attempt to make the system more straightforward. The new program also means recycling regulation and oversight will move from city council to the province. After being discussed by committee on Thursday, transitioning to EPR will go to a city council meeting later in February to prepare for the province's implementation in April.
CBC
31-01-2025
- General
- CBC
What's that smell? Skunk mating season has begun in Calgary
The smell of romance is in the air — skunk mating season has begun in Calgary. It's possible Calgarians' noses have already informed them of that news. The black and white animals are starting to crawl out of their dens more often, in search of partners to make babies with. That means male skunks are spraying their competition, while female skunks are spraying the males they aren't interested in. That's according to James McGowan, an urban pest and wildlife specialist who owns Lavellan Pest Solutions. He said it's a matter of time until he starts seeing his biannual spike in calls — with birthing season over the spring and early summer following behind. "Typically in Calgary we're going to see mating season start around what we call our January summer, which we're experiencing right now," said McGowan. While some may fear getting sprayed during this heightened season of activity, McGowan said skunks generally don't like to spray. Other than spraying each other during mating season, he said the critters spray humans and other animals only as a last resort when they feel threatened. If you come across one, McGowan recommends making enough noise so it's aware of your presence — and slowly back away. Skunks will usually spin in circles, lift their tails and stamp their feet as warning signs before spraying. Otherwise, McGowan said, he's advocating for people to leave them be, even if they've denned on your property. Relocating them can put their lives at risk and there are so many in the city that it's impossible to get rid of them, he said. "The second you take an animal out of its territory and put it somewhere new, it doesn't know where to find food, doesn't know where to find shelter. It's constantly stressed.… It's not going to survive the way people think it is," said McGowan. "An urban skunk is set for an urban environment. They're meant to be here. That's all they know." For Erik Johnson, owner of Grove Eco-Friendly Pest Control, prevention is key. He recommends cleaning up all potential food sources, like fallen apples and berries, and ensuring trash bins are secured. Blocking off potential denning sites also helps, he said. "If the skunks are already living there, we can install a one-way door that'll allow the skunk to leave but not go back in. Then it's a really great permanent solution so you're not having to deal with that issue again in the future," said Johnson. Beki Hunt, executive director at the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society, said most of the skunks they take in are kits who are left behind when their mothers are trapped and relocated. "Sharing your space with a skunk — it's really only beneficial," said Hunt, noting they prey on rodents and insects. She added they typically have multiple denning spots and don't stay in one place full-time. She urges Calgarians to keep their dogs leashed to decrease their chances of lunging at or cornering skunks and getting sprayed.
