Latest news with #HeatherJohnson
Calgary Herald
30-05-2025
- Sport
- Calgary Herald
'Significant milestone': New $28-million indoor soccer dome officially opens
Calgary's soccer community is celebrating the opening of a much-needed indoor facility, which officials hope will alleviate a growing field deficit during the winter months. Article content Article content With both youth and adult teams practicing in the background, officials from the city and local soccer organizations scored their first goals Friday at the Calgary Soccer Centre's new air-supported dome. Rather than cut a ceremonial ribbon, dignitaries kicked soccer balls into an empty net to officially mark the facility's opening. Article content Article content The $28-million dome in Foothills Industrial Park, which includes a full-size artificial turf soccer pitch, will be open for public bookings starting Saturday. Article content Article content The project also included parking lot upgrades in the northwest corner of the property, which the city said will reduce water pooling. Additional parking lot renovations will be completed this summer, adding more than 100 parking spaces. Article content The new soccer 'bubble' is the sixth field house in Calgary, according to Heather Johnson, the city's director of recreation and social programs. She said the venue represents 'much-needed' growth in the city's inventory of indoor sport facilities. Article content Article content 'We know (soccer) is one of the largest sports in the city and is rapidly growing. We also know Calgary is a winter city and we need indoor places to practise and play in the winter season.' Article content Johnson noted the bubble replaces what was previously an underutilized grass pitch, and said the new field is expected to generate three times as many bookable hours. Article content Article content It's the first field house to open since city council's approval in February of GamePLAN, a 25-year, $250-million-a-year strategy to more adequately fund recreational services and sport facilities until 2050. Article content The long-term plan sets a service standard of having 13 indoor field houses by 2050. That would satisfy GamePLAN's target of increasing bookable hours at indoor fields by 2.5 times and meeting a standard of having one indoor field house for every 150,000 residents.
Business Wire
15-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Ingenium and Veolia North America Forge Partnership to Secure Hazardous Waste Treatment Capacity For Industrial Growth
BOSTON & ESCONDIDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ingenium and Veolia North America announced a strategic partnership providing guaranteed access to Veolia's new high-temperature treatment facility in Gum Springs, Arkansas. Opening in 2025, this state-of-the-art facility will address the growing industry demand for waste treatment capacity. The agreement also ensures Ingenium access to guaranteed capacity at Veolia's existing thermal, landfill and fuel blending facilities in the US. Share The agreement also ensures Ingenium access to guaranteed capacity at Veolia's existing thermal, landfill and fuel blending facilities in the US. Veolia's facility at Gum Springs will set a new industry standard for the safe, efficient and reliable treatment of waste materials, and the agreement with Ingenium – which comes months before the facility opens – will help both companies meet the needs of the market. The agreement takes effect immediately. As part of Veolia's Green Up strategy, and in alignment with both companies' sustainability goals, Veolia's new facility will employ advanced operational and power generation technology, including waste heat recovery and on-site solar power generation to reduce environmental impact. 'This strategic partnership with Veolia North America is a significant step forward for Ingenium and our commitment to providing sustainable waste management solutions. Securing guaranteed access to Veolia's state-of-the-art facilities, particularly the new Gum Springs location, ensures we can meet the demand for hazardous waste treatment while upholding our dedication to innovation and integrity,' said Heather Johnson, Chief Executive Officer, Ingenium. 'This partnership between Veolia North America and Ingenium is yet another example of environmental leaders collaborating to maximize the limited thermal treatment capacity in the US for the benefit of our nation's growing industrial base. Ingenium's strong presence in the western US makes them a key strategic partner and we look forward to working together,' said Bob Cappadona, President and Chief Executive Officer of Veolia North America's Environmental Solutions and Services business. 'This collaboration is also fully aligned with Veolia's GreenUp strategic plan, in which the management of hazardous waste is seen as a critical enabler of U.S. reindustrialization—by providing essential infrastructure to support sustainable industrial growth while advancing environmental stewardship.' ABOUT VEOLIA NORTH AMERICA A subsidiary of Veolia group, Veolia North America (VNA) is the top-ranked environmental company in the United States for three consecutive years, and the country's largest private water operator and technology provider as well as hazardous waste and pollution treatment leader. It offers a full spectrum of water, waste, and energy management services, including water and wastewater treatment, commercial and hazardous waste collection and disposal, energy consulting and resource recovery. VNA helps commercial, industrial, healthcare, higher education, and municipality customers throughout North America. Headquartered in Boston, Mass., Veolia North America has more than 10,000 employees working at more than 350 locations across the continent. ABOUT VEOLIA GROUP Veolia group aims to become the benchmark company for ecological transformation. Present on five continents with 215,000 employees, the Group designs and deploys useful, practical solutions for the management of water, waste and energy that are contributing to a radical turnaround of the current situation. Through its three complementary activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, to preserve available resources and to renew them. In 2024, the Veolia group provided 111 million inhabitants with drinking water and 98 million with sanitation, produced 42 million megawatt hours of energy and treated 65 million tonnes of waste. Veolia Environnement (Paris Euronext: VIE) achieved consolidated revenue of 44.7 billion euros in 2024. ABOUT INGENIUM Founded in 2006 and based in Escondido, California, Ingenium is the leading provider of sustainable waste management solutions and is known for its innovation, accountability and uncompromising integrity. We provide a broad range of waste management services specializing in packaging, transportation, recycling and disposal of hazardous, non-hazardous, biological, universal and radioactive waste. Our management established Ingenium with the dual goal of offering sustainable recycling methods to an otherwise traditional hazardous waste environment along with a commitment to be a trusted partner to our clients.
CBC
26-02-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Calgary council approves recreation facility strategy that could cost up to $6B over 25 years
Calgary city council approved a recreation facility strategy on Tuesday that could cost the city between $200 million and $250 million a year — or up to $6 billion over 25 years. City administration will now develop an implementation plan that includes a funding strategy to ensure the cost burden doesn't solely rely on municipal taxes. Recommendations for the city's "Gameplan" were unanimously approved by Calgary's community development committee earlier this month. In a news release Tuesday, the city called the approval a "significant step forward in reimagining Calgary's public recreation system." The city says Gameplan addresses widespread underinvestment in public recreation, Calgary's aging recreation facilities, rising operational costs and the city's growing population. Most of Calgary's public recreation facilities are more than 35 years old. Over the past five years, several city facilities have either closed or operated at or near capacity, the city says. Many were built before the 1990s and are nearing the end of their life cycles. "Today's decision by council is a commitment to improving quality of life for all Calgarians," Ward 3 Coun. Jasmine Mian said in a city news release. "We will not only catch up from years of underinvestment, but we will also ensure our public recreation system remains sustainable, inclusive and effective for the next 25 years and beyond." Heather Johnson, director of recreation and social programs for the City of Calgary, said in a release the approval of Gameplan sets the service level standard for public recreation in the city. "It's a service standard that says, 'We want every child to learn how to swim, we want every kid to play the sport they love, we want newcomers to have spaces to join in community and we want seniors to feel connected,'" she said. Under Gameplan, the city will increase the availability of swimming lessons by 40 per cent (per capita), bookable hours at ice sheets by 25 per cent, more than double bookable hours at indoor fields, and ensure that 86 per cent of Calgarians live within five kilometres of an aquatic facility. The plan includes consistent funding for 67 outdoor and indoor ice rinks, 13 field houses, 89 athletic park fields and 26 aquatic facilities — including 296 swim lanes and 25 leisure pools.
CBC
07-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
City committee approves recreation recommendations that could cost up to $6B over 25 years
The City of Calgary's community development committee unanimously approved recommendations for reimagining Calgary's recreational facilities, to meet the needs of the city's growing population. "Gameplan" is a blueprint for the next 25 years that calls for constructing new city-owned recreational facilities and revitalizing existing ones. If approved, the strategy could cost the city between $200 million and $250 million per year — or up to $6 billion over 25 years. According to committee documents, Calgarians are already experiencing the impacts of underinvestment in public recreation, which Gameplan aims to overcome. Over the past five years, several city facilities have either closed, or operated at or near capacity. Many were built before the 1990s and are nearing the end of their life cycles. The committee is recommending that city council approve consistent funding for 67 outdoor and indoor ice rinks, 13 fieldhouses, 89 athletic park fields and 26 aquatic facilities — including 296 swim lanes and 25 leisure pools. Under this plan, facility distribution would be equitable across the city, swim lessons would increase by 40 per cent per capita and bookable hours at fieldhouses and athletic parks would more than double. The committee heard broad support Thursday for Gameplan from several community sports groups and facility operators. Calgary owns and operates 50 facilities and owns an additional 200 facilities and amenities operated by its partners, Johnson said. She says the recommended funding strategy was developed using feedback from Calgarians. "Certain areas of the city report significantly lower participation rates than other areas of the city. Thousands expressed the hope that in the future the public recreation system can better meet their needs," said Heather Johnson, the city's director of recreation and social programs. "These findings, among others, were used to develop all the components of Gameplan." Ward 11 Coun. Kourtney Penner says the committee recommending Gameplan shows Calgarians the city is committed to funding sport and recreation. "At the fundamental level, are we creating a city where community can gather around sport and around recreation, build memories, build skills, [and] build friendships?" she said. Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott, chair of the community development committee, says the price tag associated with the funding strategy may be costly, but the city would be investing it in the right way if Gameplan is approved. "The outcomes that you receive from a robust recreation landscape go far beyond simply just swim lessons. It's mental health. It's about access," Walcott said. "If you have accessible facilities across the city in an equitable fashion, that is proven to actually be a crime reduction strategy, getting community involved… You spend this money, how much do you save elsewhere?" If Gameplan is approved by city council later this month, it will ultimately fall to the next council to come up with a funding plan in 2026 for the strategy in the next four-year budget.
