City of Saint John sets up fund to help improve quality of life
CBC
Saint John council has established an $800,000 fund to improve the quality of life in the city this year.
The purpose of the community services reserve fund approved Monday night is to support quality-of-life initiatives and the city's community and social inclusion agenda.
The fund grew out of gaps identified during deliberations over the city's operating budget. The fund is separate from the community grants program.
"There were a few of us who felt like there wasn't quite enough there for some of the initiatives we want to look at," said Coun. Joanna Killen, chair of the city's growth committee who brought the fund to council. "Like the municipal housing entity and empowering community centres … those sorts of things."
Of the $800,000, no more than $250,000 will be allocated to one project, unless recommended by the growth committee.
Along with supporting third-party projects, the reserve will help fund city initiatives related to housing development, homelessness, and inclusion, according to the report provided to council.
Killen said that once in action, the fund could do things such as support a new community centre project aimed at helping seniors.
"It's hard when you have all these amazing people in your city trying to do wonderful things and they show up and you say, 'I can't do anything,'" Killen said.
"So this will allow us to be more flexible with folks who are out there looking to do amazing work."
The fund will provide a testing ground for new and one-time projects. It will be reviewed after 24 months.
Killen said she hopes to see it continue beyond that, "whether it's through bilateral funding, or just straight from the city's coffers. It'll all depend on what happens in the next 24 months. But I think that's a generous timeline to test and see."
Council also awarded community grants Monday night, drawing from a budget of $184,000.
That funding covered a little less than half the total dollar amount requested by various community groups, which was about $380,500.
Twenty-three organizations were awarded grants out of 33 applications.
The Alberta government has suspended a loan program at Picture Butte Feeder Cooperative, the province's largest cattle financing cooperative, after an inspection alleged a number of financial mismanagement and regulatory issues.
If you look up at the sky late, late Thursday in the Toronto area, there's a chance you'll be able to see a total lunar eclipse and what's called a blood moon.
When wintertime calls, go where it's warm.
Colby Leamon had lost a close family member, and was looking for a dog to provide emotional support.
The cost of a 24-pack of beer could increase $3 to $5 because of 25 per cent tariffs on aluminum exported to the United States, according to a craft brewery in northern Ontario.
Fire tore through a seafood processing plant in Cape John, N.S., on Wednesday night.
Another of New Brunswick's new municipal councils has become embroiled in drama and bitter conflict.
Tardiness is nothing new at Via Rail, but late arrivals are reaching historic levels in a key corridor since passenger trains have been forced to slow down at hundreds of rail crossings operated by CN Rail.
Walmart Canada will stop selling machetes — a type of weapon frequently used in violent crimes — in stores across the country, after Manitoba's government pressured the retailer to restrict online sales.
The parents of two 15-year-old girls at Evan Hardy Collegiate in Saskatoon say they went to police and the school multiple times between June and August 2024 with concerns about escalating online threats from the student now accused of setting one of the girls on fire in a school hallway.
After more than two years of developing an official plan, the City of Charlottetown is getting close to voting on adopting it. Some residents have concerns with higher density housing the plan could make way for, but others are welcoming it.
Premier Danielle Smith is once again headed to the U.S. later this month to continue her diplomatic approach to tariff talks amid a trade war with the United States.
Point Roberts, a U.S. community in Washington state, is so Canadian that it advertises its gas prices in litres as well as gallons.