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Business Spotlight: How One Company Is Helping Decontaminate Calgary Post Covid-19

Published

5 years ago

13 minute read

 

There will be a stage of this crisis that begins to get the majority of our community back to work. In the meantime, we want to help out in the community, stay hopeful and make ourselves aware of new developments every single day. Now is a time where we can take a step back and realise that Calgarians are in this together, and we have been showing it through kind messages to each other, through texts, videos, social media and the actions we can take. 

 

Through the eyes of a business owner, what can you do to ensure the health and safety of your staff? Or unsure how to take action and get supplies into the hands of those who need it most? Read how one Calgary company, ProStar Cleaning and Restoration, is stepping up to the plate to support our community.

 

The local Calgary business was started in 2002 by founder Jodi Scarlett, who had just graduated from the University of Calgary in the MBA program and also received a Bachelors of Commerce. She is an active member of the Women Presidents Organization and Alberta Women Entrepreneurs. She holds 3 Master Restorer designations with The Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification. Also being a certified instructor for the Alberta Insurance Council, continues to offer seminars relating to water damage restoration and mold remediation. A truly inspiring entrepreneur that has a true passion for supporting the community. She has been an avid supporter of the knowledge and research done into countering the contamination of Covid-19 and has worked to ensure her staff are fully trained on the potential harm and the skills required to lower the risk of any contamination.

 

From humble beginnings, the story begins by painting the picture of a small cleaning company, rickety chairs, no filing system, a team of several maids and no computer in sight. It may not be the prettiest picture, however when Jodi bought the business back in the early 2000’s, providing the highest quality cleaning service has continued to be the heart of ProStar Cleaning and Restoration today. 

 

Now in 2020, the business has built up their skills and capabilities to offer a wide range of cleaning and restoration services. Traditionally their focus is on services for their customers so they can recover from unexpected events. Whether that be fire, wind, water or sewage damage, household or commercial cleaning, construction cleanup and mold or biohazard abatement, they can handle it all. This speaks lengths into how they have listened to their customers needs over the past 18 years. 

 

Their fight against Covid-19

How we can integrate back into the workplace and social gatherings with lowering the risk of a second uprise in contamination through peers? Now that we have found ourselves in a state of emergency with a global virus pandemic in our community, Jodi and her team at ProStar Cleaning and Restoration have found themselves going back to their roots, cleaning. 

 

Jodi and select members of her team spent a lot of time researching the novel Covid-19 virus. From their efforts they have created FAQ’s that relate to concerns about how they are taking measures to address the challenges involved. Having their staff trained on cleaning various disasters that came before the wake of the virus, their team was skilled to address the conditions required to disinfect any areas at risk of already being contaminated. Jodi mentions:

 

“We gathered all the information and wrote safety practices, we trained the team within 24 hours…they were ready, it didn’t take us very long because we were uniquely poised for this kind of work”

 

Field staff were trained on bloodborne pathogens and in house “clean and apply” methods. They can service any single facility up to 100,000 square feet and includes the application of approved disinfectant chemicals by professionals on their field staff. Staff are taking the necessary precautions to ensure they can deliver a successful decontamination of social housing, homes and businesses across Calgary and surrounding areas. You can learn more about their FAQ’s on their Facebook page where they are avidly responding to any queries or comments. 

The team at ProStar Cleaning and Restoration want to reiterate that with the conversations they are having regarding Covid-19 and their methodology, is that they will first screen the details of the risk involved. These efforts are more so focused on staying transparent to not sell a service to someone who simply does not need it. It is key to note whether there has been a high chance that someone or groups have been in contact with the area and whether there has been a history of testing positive for the virus. 

 

How are the management lowering the risk for their employees in office and in field staff?

 

As mentioned previously, the staff have been trained on safety practices and the potential ways the virus can attach itself to surfaces. From their usual hazard assessment policy that traditionally would be applied to their customer requests, they put those same skills to work on their own facility. To address specifically the health and welfare of all staff under Jodi’s leadership, she has implemented a few different ways to ensure the highest level of precaution is taken.

 

“every job site we go to is hazardous. So we do a hazard assessment and determine how to mitigate those hazards. So this COVID-19 is a new environmental factor for us”

 

The majority of her office staff have integrated a work from home environment during this time, assisting with customers’ questions and supporting the field staff. Within their 15,000 square foot facility, only three in-house staff continue to work at their location to ensure there is replenishment of gear ready for field staff. It is a priority for their facility employees to have zoned areas allowing for ample social distancing practices, key to ensuring that there is little to no crossover day to day from staff not working from home.

 

They built a decontamination stations at all entries and exits at their facility to have staff coming in and out to decontaminate themselves through handwashing stations, regular temperature readings to ensure they stay on top of any risk that may come into effect as conditions change and segmented their field staff into smaller groups to address specific job site conditions; to which also include decontamination stations. 

 

How has the communication been with your employees since the state of emergency was declared?

 

Jodi mentioned that she had arrived home from a personal trip just on the cusp of the declaration from the government, thus leading her to self isolate for 14 days and continues to work from home trusting the recommendations made by Alberta Health Services. The transition for the team has been greatly received moving to communicating using online conference calls and messaging apps like WhatsApp. Jodi has continued to create leadership videos and is a true believer in the use of humour to ensure there is a healthy work balance between her and her employees. 

 

How is ProStar Cleaning and Restoration helping the community during this time?

 

Jodi and her team have taken upon themselves spending time trying to educate the public and calm those concerns. It is important to remember that there is continuous research going into the ‘shelf life’ of the virus and ProStar Cleaning and Restoration will continue to inform the community through social media channels to ensure the most relevant information is reaching those concerned. ProStar’s team implemented a sustainable PPE(Personal Protective Equipment) initiative early on during this pandemic and are cognisant to not interrupt the supply chain channels for health care. They have adapted with the equipment they own to ensure they can reuse everything they possibly can, thus allowing essential PPE to be received by front line workers who need it most.

 

One initiative ProStar is happy to support is ConquerCovid19. It has gained a lot of attention for supporting our healthcare workers and women’s shelters at a time where there is a shortage of medical and personal supplies they deeply need replenishment of. This gained a major push from Olympian hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser and support from well known actor Ryan Reynolds. It has received support from companies across Canada such as Canadian Tire and Toys ‘R’ Us, ProStar is one of the Calgary companies that have offered to lend a hand.   

 

ProStar’s involvement will be boots on the ground and the use of their facility in Calgary where they will be hosting one of the first PPE supply drives at their location, details can be seen below. We commend ProStar for their support offered to the team at ConquerCovid19. Please visit their Facebook page to learn more about their work with ConquerCovid19 and how you can offer your own support for their PPE supply drive Saturday April 18th.

 

 

 

The team are happy to respond to questions through their contact information available on their website and through all their social media platforms. Working directly with the social housing sector on some large cleaning projects, providing maintenance services to ensure those who need these services have a safe and clean environment, with the additional support of assisted self isolation rooms. Working to support vulnerable individuals, they are proactively implementing preventative cleanings across their service areas. They also have been working with housing and apartment rentals such as Airbnb’s to have turnover cleaning to ensure the owners can safely offer a clean environment to stay. Jodi and her team are eager to witness the transition of our community back into their workplace and some normality for the future, and of course, are there for support.

 

If you have any questions and would like to learn more about ProStar Cleaning and Restoration and their work in the community, visit their website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

 

 

For more stories, visit Todayville Calgary

 

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Carbon Tax

The book the carbon taxers don’t want you to read

Published on April 5, 2025

By

By Franco Terrazzano

Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote a 500-page book praising carbon taxes.

Well, I just wrote a book smashing through the government’s carbon tax propaganda.

It tells the inside story of the fight against the carbon tax. And it’s THE book the carbon taxers don’t want you to read.

My book is called Axing the Tax: The Rise and Fall of Canada’s Carbon Tax.

 
Axing the Tax: The Rise and Fall of Canada’s Carbon Tax 

Every now and then, the underdog wins one.

And it looks like that’s happening in the fight against the carbon tax.

It’s not over yet, but support for the carbon tax is crumbling. Some politicians vow to scrap it. Others hide behind vague plans to repackage it. But virtually everyone recognizes support for the current carbon tax has collapsed.

It wasn’t always this way.

For about a decade now, powerful politicians, government bureaucrats, academics, media elites and even big business have been pushing carbon taxes on the people.

But most of the time, politicians never asked the people if they supported carbon taxes. In other words, carbon taxes, and the resulting higher gas prices and heating bills, were forced on us.

We were told it was good for us. We were told carbon taxes were inevitable. We were told politicians couldn’t win elections without carbon taxes, even though the politicians that imposed them didn’t openly run on them. We were told that we needed to pay carbon taxes if we wanted to leave a healthy environment for our kids and grandkids. We were told we needed to pay carbon taxes if we wanted to be respected in the international community.

In this decade-long fight, it would have been understandable if the people had given up and given in to these claims. It would have been easier to accept what the elites wanted and just pay the damn bill. But against all odds, ordinary Canadians didn’t give up.

Canadians knew you could care about the environment and oppose carbon taxes. Canadians saw what they were paying at the gas station and on their heating bills, and they knew they were worse off, regardless of how many politicians, bureaucrats, journalists and academics tried to convince them otherwise. Canadians didn’t need advanced degrees in economics, climate science or politics to understand they were being sold a false bill of goods.

Making it more expensive for a mom in Port Hope to get to work, or grandparents in Toronto to pay their heating bill, or a student in Coquitlam to afford food won’t reduce emissions in China, Russia, India or the United States. It just leaves these Canadians, and many like them, with less money to afford everything else.

Ordinary Canadians understood carbon taxes amount to little more than a way for governments to take more money from us and dictate how we should live our lives. Ordinary Canadians also saw through the unfairness of the carbon tax.

Many of the elites pushing the carbon tax—the media, politicians, taxpayer-funded professors, laptop activists and corporate lobbyists—were well off and wouldn’t feel the brunt of carbon taxes. After all, living in a downtown condo and clamouring for higher carbon taxes doesn’t require much gas, diesel or propane.

But running a business, working in a shop, getting kids to soccer and growing food on the farm does. These are the Canadians the political class forgot about when pushing carbon taxes. These are the Canadians who never gave up. These are the Canadians who took time out of their busy lives to sign petitions, organize and attend rallies, share posts on social media, email politicians and hand out bumper stickers.

Because of these Canadians, the carbon tax could soon be swept onto the ash heap of history. I wrote this book for two reasons.

The first is because these ordinary Canadians deserve it. They worked really hard for a really long time against the odds. When all the power brokers in government told them, “Do what we say—or pay,” they didn’t give up. They deserve to know the time and effort they spent fighting the carbon tax mattered. They deserve all the credit.

Thank you for everything you did.

The second reason I wrote this book is so people know the real story of the carbon tax. The carbon tax was bad from the start and we fought it from the start. By reading this book, you will get the real story about the carbon tax, a story you won’t find anywhere else.

This book is important because if the federal Liberals’ carbon tax is killed, the carbon taxers will try to lay blame for their defeat on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. They will try to say that carbon taxes are a good idea, but Trudeau bungled the policy or wasn’t a good enough salesman. They will try to revive the carbon tax and once again make you pay more for gas, groceries, and home heating.

Just like with any failed five-year plan, there is a lingering whiff among the laptop class and the taxpayer-funded desk rulers that this was all a communication problem, that the ideal carbon tax hasn’t been tried yet. I can smell it outside my office building in Ottawa, where I write these words. We can’t let those embers smoulder and start a fire again.

This book shows why the carbon tax is and always will be bad policy for ordinary Canadians.

Franco’s note: You can pre-order a copy of my new book, Axing the Tax: The Rise and Fall of Canada’s Carbon Tax, here: https://www.amazon.ca/Axing-Tax-Rise-Canadas-Carbon

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2025 Federal Election

Poilievre To Create ‘Canada First’ National Energy Corridor

Published on April 5, 2025

By

From Conservative Party Communications

Poilievre will create the ‘Canada First’ National Energy Corridor to rapidly approve & build the infrastructure we need to end our energy dependence on America so we can stand up to Trump from a position of strength.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced today he will create a ‘Canada First’ National Energy Corridor to fast-track approvals for transmission lines, railways, pipelines, and other critical infrastructure across Canada in a pre-approved transport corridor entirely within Canada, transporting our resources within Canada and to the world while bypassing the United States. It will bring billions of dollars of new investment into Canada’s economy, create powerful paycheques for Canadian workers, and restore our economic independence.

“After the Lost Liberal decade, Canada is poorer, weaker, and more dependent on the United States than ever before,” said Poilievre. “My ‘Canada First National Energy Corridor’ will enable us to quickly build the infrastructure we need to strengthen our country so we can stand on our own two feet and stand up to the Americans.”

In the corridor, all levels of government will provide legally binding commitments to approve projects. This means investors will no longer face the endless regulatory limbo that has made Canadians poorer.  First Nations will be involved from the outset, ensuring that economic benefits flow directly to them and that their approval is secured before any money is spent.

Between 2015 and 2020, Canada cancelled 16 major energy projects, resulting in a $176 billion hit to our economy. The Liberals killed the Energy East pipeline and passed Bill C-69, the “No-New-Pipelines” law, which makes it all but impossible to build the pipelines and energy infrastructure we need to strengthen the Canadian economy. And now, the PBO projects that the ‘Carney cap’ on Canadian energy will reduce oil and gas production by nearly 5%, slash GDP by $20.5 billion annually, and eliminate 54,400 full-time jobs by 2032. An average mine opening lead time is now nearly 18 years—23% longer than Australia and 38% longer than the US. As a result of the Lost Liberal Decade, Canada now ranks 23rd in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index for 2024, a seven-place drop since 2015.

“In 2024, Canada exported 98% of its crude oil to the United States. This leaves us too dependent on the Americans,” said Poilievre. “Our Canada First National Energy Corridor will get us out from under America’s thumb and enable us to build the infrastructure we need to sell our natural resources to new markets, bring home jobs and dollars, and make us sovereign and self-reliant to stand up to Trump from a position of strength.”

Mark Carney’s economic advice to Justin Trudeau made Canada weaker while he and his rich friends made out like bandits. While he advised Trudeau to cancel Canadian energy projects, his own company spent billions on pipelines in South America and the Middle East. And unlike our competitors Australia and America, which work with builders to get projects approved, Mark Carney and Steven Guilbeault’s radical “keep-it-in-the-ground” ideology has blocked development, killed jobs, and left Canada dependent on foreign imports.

“The choice is clear: a fourth Liberal term that will keep our resources in the ground and keep us weak and vulnerable to Trump’s threats, or a strong new Conservative government that will approve projects, build an economic fortress, bring jobs and dollars home, and put Canada First—For a Change.”

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