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City council nixes latest downtown location for permanent shelter and sets a date to launch another round of public engagement

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Photo submitted by Red Deer Revitalization Society

News Release from The City of Red Deer

Development of public engagement plan on permanent shelter approved

A broader community strategy to share information and craft solutions in the areas The City has influence on with the permanent shelter will be developed in the coming month. Today, during their special meeting, Council gave administration direction to build on the engagement done so far with downtown property owners, businesses, associations, and service providers.“Council is in a position that we will have to make a generational decision about the location and overarching design guidelines of the permanent shelter in Red Deer, and this is a decision we do not take lightly,” said Mayor Ken Johnston. “When the time comes, we need to make sure we not only have all the information about the services and site needed to make the right decision, but also that people who are impacted by the decision have had the opportunity to be involved in the decision-making process through further engagement. The permanent shelter is a provincially-led and owned project with long-term impacts on our community, and we want to make sure our community is heard, and The City is doing everything possible in the areas we can influence.”

During their meeting Council received a presentation about the seven targeted meetings administration and a third-party engagement specialist hosted to develop an understanding as to what downtown property owners, businesses, associations, and service providers think about how the process has gone so far, and how they want to continue to be involved in conversations moving forward. These conversations helped lead administration to put forward the recommendation of further public engagement prior to putting forward any Land Use Bylaw recommendations for Council consideration.

“Coming out of those meetings, we know there is support for a shelter in our community, it is needed. We heard we need to keep momentum and close information differentials. We also heard that our community wants to help and come together to develop solutions. We are committing to continuing to build on this common ground to engage to rebuild trust and move forward together to find the right solution for a permanent shelter in our community alongside the province,” said Interim City Manager Tara Lodewyk. “We will bring back the full plan for public participation before April 15, 2022. I do know that our approach will be purposeful, collaborative and transparent. At the end of the day, we want people to know that when they’re contributing, they help to influence a decision and truly believe that.”

Administration will put together a full engagement strategy to present for Council’s consideration in early April. If approved, the plan will be implemented immediately after.

“We are looking forward to the community engagement plan. We recognize this level of engagement isn’t something we can do with every project in our community, but a permanent shelter that has such wide community impact, is one that we can get behind,” said Mayor Johnston. “Council is committed to all aspects of community revitalization, and supporting our vulnerable population is a piece of that. When the final touches go on the permanent shelter, we want to look back and know that we did everything in our power to influence the areas we have control over, and that our community was part of the decision-making process.”

For more information on shelter services in Red Deer, please visit www.reddeer.ca/shelter.

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You Are Not Eating Ze Bugs…

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Cricket Farm Axes Jobs

I remember back a few years ago, making my way down to the midway of the Calgary Stampede to check out all of the new flavorful wares.

The Midway hasn’t really offered much by way of new rides since I was a kid, not entirely sure I’d be interested in riding them, even if they did…

The Budweiser beer grounds get old, when a cold beer sets you back over $10.

Mini donuts have lost their luster…

But every year, there are new menu items that had given a reason to at least make the cost of admission worth giving this another shot.

Walking through the grounds, the wife and I noticed that one of the new Stampede Delicacies was pizza with bugs on it…

Scorpion pizza : r/WTF

And I remember commenting to the wife that commercially made pizza has always had bugs in it…just nothing that they’d admit too for fear of being closed down by health regulations.

I mean…what’s next – boasting about mouse droppings in your soup?

But this bug thing has seemingly still managed to take off for reasons I cannot fathom. Are cow farts really impacting the planet that much?

It’d be hard to believe and harder to prove, even if this were true.

But then to read about some massive cricket farm in Eastern Canada, where cricket proteins were to be used in the mass production food items – chips, crackers, protein and energy bars and even flour – were soon to become a thing made me even more leery of processed foods.

Acheta Powder, by listing in ingredients…because this is the soft way to slip something onto the “may contain”, listings…which seems more innocuous than bugs or crickets…

But because my consumption of processed food items is low, were never much of a consideration and hunting for this on items I had no intention on purchasing anyways, seemed an awful waste of time.

The Eastern Canadian Cricket farm was built by Aspire Foods, for the tune of about $90 Million Bucks…$8.5 million provided by yup – you guessed it, Your Taxes, through federal grants.

Which, while is nothing in relation to the $40 Billion that has been extorted by the governments, out of your hard earned paycheque, to subsidize EV Batteries, with a 20 year ROI of ZERO…is still as big of a loss because…apparently, like the failure in trying to force people into expensive and unpractical EVs or turning plants into meat looking substitutes…

Is this really what people think vegans want to eat? : r/shittyfoodporn

Mmmmmmmmmmmm…

Is also a Huge Failure.

Not enough people are eating Ze Bugs…which has turned out to shutter 2/3rds of the staffing in the workforce, in London, Ontario at the Aspire Cricket Farm.

Massive cricket-processing facility comes online in London, Ont. | CBC News

Now…I’m all for innovation.

It’s what has created the device I’ve used to create this post and share it with all of you. I love some of the items that have leant to making my life easier and reduced efforts for tasks that offer little by way of satisfaction or payoff…

But with this being said…the market will always be the decider on what will or will not take off…and even with the bombardment of fear mongering around climate change and sustainability, bugs as a protein substitute are rapidly proving themselves out of market because…like me, you are not eating Ze Bugs!

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Sanctuary State Told To Cut Spending On Hotel Stays For Migrants As Costs Expected To Hit $1 Billion

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation 

By Jason Hopkins

A state commission is encouraging Massachusetts to cut costs on emergency shelter services for migrants and other families by spending less on expensive hotels.

The emergency shelter system in Massachusetts housing migrant families and others experiencing homelessness is expected to spend over $1 billion in fiscal year 2025, according to a state commission report investigating the matter. The report comes as Massachusetts, a sanctuary state that limits cooperation with federal immigration authorities, is continuing to experience financial hardship over the border crisis and an influx of migrants into their communities.

The draft report proposed spending less on the most expensive accommodations for migrants — which would include hotels and motels. Prior reports have found that housing migrants in hotels or motels in the state can be as costly as $300 per night.

“Since the EA shelter system reached capacity at 7,500 families last year, approximately 50% of families have been in hotels and motels across the state,” the report stated. “The Commission recommends limiting reliance on hotels and motels to best serve families and increase the financial and operational efficiency of the system, while recognizing that hotels and motels may be a last-resort option for surge capacity at times of rapid changes in demand.”

“Data suggests that hotels and motels are the most expensive type of shelter in the EA system,” the report concluded. It also noted that the state’s shelter caseload and system costs have skyrocketed to “unsustainable levels” since 2022.

The immigration crisis taking place under the Biden-Harris administration has hit Massachusetts particularly hard. Roughly 355,000 illegal migrants and other inadmissible foreign nationals live in the state, and approximately 50,000 have arrived since 2021, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

Democrat Gov. Maura Healey, in her efforts to clamp down on the state’s crisis, has publicly called on illegal immigrants to not go to Massachusetts, offered plane tickets for them to leave, and has asked residents to take in migrant families. The state has also experienced a rising number of deportation cases as illegal migrants continue to flock there.

Despite the growing pains with mass illegal immigration, the governor has remained steadfast in her opposition to President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for an immigration crackdown, and she confirmed that her state’s law enforcement would “absolutely not” help with mass deportation efforts. The entire state of Massachusetts is considered a sanctuary for illegal migrants for its laws limiting cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

The state legislature appropriated $639 million to the emergency assistance shelter system for fiscal year 2025, according to the report. However, expense projections are expected to hit $1.094 billion – leaving a shortfall of roughly $455 million for the fiscal year.

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