St Henri stuff.

Informed consensus model, for sticky public policy questions. Check it out.

This Public Health Agency article explores social economy as a determinant of health.

Everyone in the know about the social economy should know about BCA and the stuff people are doing in Cape Breton. Quite Frankly, it rocks.

Victoria BC leeds the way in green neighbourhood planning...or does NDG?

Resources for the Social Economy

This is a link to great stuff...

Chantier responds...

The Chantier defends itself against what it considers a hostile attack. The conflict raises issues that ought not to be ignored, say some.

Quebec thinks long term...debt

Quebec establishes a long term fund to pay down the debt. Good thinking.

Chantier and RISQ have a falling out

Social economy hits page one of Le Devoir.

Evidently the disagreement is between certain members of the board of RISQ that supported the coop movement's efforts in a bid for the 28 million$, and those that were aligned with the Chantier de l'economie sociale.

Pity these squabbles can't be settled in house.

An article from 1910 makes a link between Stoics and modern non-state thinking.

Getting Things Done

I work with a guy who SWEARS by this dude's organisational system. Worth checking out. I know, it's not rocket science, but...

The Cubans are living a post-oil agricultural world, and managing with textbooks from the 1930s, now updated, as reported in Harper's last year.

We will expect much higher costs of growing food, as oil prices increase.

Will old growing techniques come back into vogue, for economic reasons?
Wouldn't it be odd if a return to agriculture is responsible for a job-boom in 2040?

The key documents of the Benny Farm project, as proposed by the now defunct Fonds foncier communautaire Benny Farm, can be seen in an Internet archive.

There are some interesting questions yet to be answered about this important NDG project:

1) Will the CLSC be a LEED project?
2) Why did the Quebec government require underground parking for a low-income seniors project at Benny Farm, but they won`t require it for the CLSC?

Quebec has wicked resources for supporting the development of the social economy, such as the technical resource groups (GRTs) which develop non-profit housing...CDECs for supporting non-profit business development...

The resources are in place, at least for now.

Chantier de l'economie sociale

The Chantier (building site or worksite, in French) is a clearinghouse for information and data on the social economy in Montreal. Lots of good stuff to be found, although sometimes their understanding of what is happening outside Quebec is limited. For academic research check out the CURA on the Social Economy...

Encyclopedia Britannica 11th edition online. Cool.

Hydro to buy excess energy from wind and solar sources

It bodes well for people who want to install "off the grid" systems. It seems that Hydro Quebec has accepted the concept of reverse metering.

I am appalled that anyone is thinking about privatizing the SAQ (liquor board), especially when we are collectively worrying about paying down the debt.

"...In the last ten years the (Ontario Liquor Board)paid the provincial government a total of $8,033 million in profits and taxes, and the federal government $3,661 million in taxes, bringing the total paid to the two levels of government to $11,694 million in the past decade."

And Quebec? Would we kill the goose that lays the golden egg?

This blog will be used to record the events and work of various projects that are related to the transformation of the social and economic fabric of Montreal, from a simple private-interest driven capitalist economy towards a more complicated, community driven social economy. Occasionally, I will also link to items of general interest.