GreenerPolitics

From CBC.ca

The Calgary Health Region may require city eateries to eliminate trans fats from their menus in order to get an operating permit.

Health officials in Calgary are pushing ahead with a plan to ban the artery-clogging fats in restaurants by October 2008, a move that would be a first in Canada.

Dr. Brent Friesen, the region’s chief medical officer of health, said Tuesday that a total ban is a realistic prospect for Calgary’s eateries.

“The major approach that we’re looking at right now is attaching conditions to the food permits that the health region issues to all the food establishments in our region. And those conditions would restrict the use of trans fats.”

At the health region’s board meeting Tuesday night, board members voted to meet with the public, restaurant owners and different levels of government to discuss the proposed ban.

Mark Von Schellwitz, a spokesman with the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, said Calgary’s plan to go it alone is flawed.

He supports moves for a national trans fat ban in 2010, which he said would be much easier than “individual municipalities going on their own timelines and imposing their own rules.”

“It’s just a red tape nightmare. It’s much easier to do this all together,” he said.

Can lead to heart disease

Trans fats raise the levels of low-density lipoprotein or “bad” cholesterol in the body and can lead to clogged arteries and heart disease.

Trans fats, initially believed to be a cheaper and healthier alternative to butter and lard, are created when liquid oils are turned into solids.

Under current regulations, companies are required to list trans fats along with other nutritional information on all pre-packaged foods and drinks — but restaurants and bakeries do not have to disclose any nutritional information, including whether their products contain trans fats.

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From Canada.com

OTTAWA - Green Party Leader Elizabeth May faces harsh internal criticism over her frequent praise for Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and her plea to Canadians to oust Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The grumbling over May’s approach erupted after high-profile Vancouver Island environmentalist Briony Penn bolted last week from the Green party to run as a candidate for Dion’s Liberals.

Penn, who will attempt to unite all “progressive” voters against Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn in Saanich-Gulf Islands, told The Vancouver Sun in an e-mail her decision was “very much” inspired by May’s praise of Dion and her message that Harper must be defeated.

Penn told a local newspaper last week there’s “an informal alliance, or respect” between Dion and May “to try to bring progressives closer together.”

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From CBC.ca

San Francisco has become the first city in North America to ban the use of traditional plastic grocery bags, a step that municipal leaders hope will spread across the country.

Passed Tuesday by the city’s board of supervisors, the law prohibits large grocery stores and drugstores from using non-recyclable and non-biodegradable plastic bags made from petroleum products.

Supermarkets will have six months to comply while drugstores will have up to one year.

The city legislator who introduced the bill, Ross Mirkarimi, said that up to 200 million plastic bags are used each year in the city of roughly 740,000 people.

It’s estimated a traditional plastic bag takes 1,000 years to dissolve.

“The first order of conservation is reduction and what we want to do is reduce the non-recyclable plastic bag,” Mirkarimi said.

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From the Waterloo Record

BY MIKE SALISBURY

The Ministry of Transportation announced last week it is moving forward with plans to build a new four-lane highway between Kitchener and Guelph to reduce traffic congestion, improve safety and accommodate growth.

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From the Chronicle Herald

By ANDY WALKER Special

CHARLOTTETOWN — There’s plenty of interest in building a biodiesel plant in Canada’s smallest province. There are even competing bids to build farmer-owned co-operatives that would separate the oil from canola and mix it with diesel to produce fuel for transportation and heating.Fred Martens, who is leading one of the applications, held a meeting in Charlottetown earlier this week that attracted 30 farmers.