Will Our Legacy Be Balanced?

Much as I appreciate the contribution our public broadcaster, the CBC, makes to our understanding of our world, there are times, it seems, when they can’t resist the temptation to be sensational rather than informative. It seems CBC reporters succumbed to that temptation recently when they reported on the World Energy Outlook 2012, a report just released by the International Energy Agency. The story I heard on The National was that the US is facing a reversal of fortunes with respect to oil. We should anticipate a US oil boom by 2020 and that the US will become the world’s largest oil producer again soon after that.

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Designing Steinbach

The City of Steinbach is growing quickly. New subdivisions, changes in by-laws and addition of large retail businesses are all in response to strong demand from the public. A tension exists between those who want things to stay the same and those who want it to change. How can we maintain the self-sufficiency, the moral integrity and the smallness that makes each citizen accountable to every other person in town? At the same time what about that quality of Steinbach that also makes it unique: its industriousness and blooming potential? How can we direct the vitality of growth rather than ignoring it and watching it drain to Winnipeg?

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Garbage in - power out

A recent issue of The Marketplace magazine featured an amazing report about how two cousins, Dennis Dick and Roger Tiessen, are managing to turn garbage into heat, electricity and fertilizer in the Leamington, Ontario region through Seacliff Energy Ltd., a company they founded.

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Clean Energy Systems

In recent weeks we’ve had fire and snow in Manitoba, and ‘super-storm’ Sandy in eastern parts of North America and Canada which have knocked out power supplies to large populations in these areas. Emergency plans focus on restoring power quickly so that everything returns to ‘normal’, but I find myself wondering if there is another way.

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12-11-08 Curbside Compost Pickup

As I passed down Steinbach streets throughout much of October, I couldn’t help notice hundreds of bags of leaves piled on curbsides waiting for a trip to our landfill. I knew that in the landfill they would be covered up by other garbage where they would sit forever. Fortunately, this approach to the disposal of organic matter is rapidly coming to a close in Manitoba. For example, St. Pierre and the RM of De Salaberry began picking up organic material separately from regular garbage on June 26th of this year. This includes not only yard and garden “waste” but food “waste” as well. St. Pierre is working together with the Compo-stages Manitoba Services Coop which will allow them to use their recently acquired windrow turner to aerate the compost materials.

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