P.E.I. community gardens say some people reaping what they didn't sow
CBC
People running community gardens in Stratford and Kensington say there has been a surge in the number of people complaining about their vegetables being stolen right out of their plots.
Stratford Community Gardens has issued a social media post reminding residents not to pick what they haven't grown themselves.
Kaylee Busniuk of the Stratford Area Watershed Improvement Group said there are always reports of theft, but the number of complaints has increased this week.
"There were some beets that were taken, tomatoes, a squash, and I think some lettuce and peas," she said.
"My best guess is someone walked through and thought it was the type of community garden where everybody grows produce for the community in general, rather than rented plots."
Stratford Community Gardens has more than 80 plots, all of which are rented out with fees ranging from $25 to $35 a season, or more for larger plots assigned to community groups.
The town said it has signs telling people not to pick what they haven't planted, but it plans to add more.
However, as a pilot project, one of the Stratford planters is being used to grow food free of cost for residents who find fresh produce hard to afford.
That makes Katie Sonier, environmental sustainability coordinator for the Town of Stratford, think it's all a misunderstanding.
"Hopefully it's just a miscommunication where they didn't know they weren't supposed to take the food [others are growing]. That's what we always hope, that people aren't doing it on purpose."
Gardeners in Stratford aren't the only ones seeing a rise in thefts. Jamie MacKay has been noticing them too.
He runs the community gardens at Ross' Place in Kensington. The 42 plots in the garden are free for anybody who wants to use them to get growing.
MacKay said the garden lacks signage, so people may be assuming they can just "come through and help themselves."
Some of the food grown in the Kensington garden is also produced with the intent to give it away, which has MacKay also wondering about misunderstandings being behind the missing vegetables.
Aggressive patients and lack of security are making nurses feel unsafe in a rural Western Manitoba emergency union, says the Manitoba Nurses Union.
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence:
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.