A permaculture garden and an energy efficiency group have earned eco-bucks from city council’s environmental grant program.
St. Albert city council approved $33,200 worth of environmental initiative grants to 11 groups Dec. 16.
The annual grants, the recipients of which are recommended by the environmental advisory committee, fund sustainability projects that align with the city’s environmental master plan.
Chair Brad Peori said the committee had to make some tough choices this year, as they got 17 applications asking for some $94,000 – almost three times the grant’s budget. It’s the most applications they’ve received since 2008, which was likely the result of new promotion and mentorship efforts by the committee and the city.
Garden and animals
Receiving the most cash at $5,190 was the Lacombe Park Garden and Connection Place.
This project is part of a larger initiative started by Pastor Michael McElroy of Grace Family Church to make the church’s land on Liberton Drive more of a community gathering space, said project co-ordinators Elwira Rosiak and Jennifer Conneely. The site is already host to the St. Albert Tool Library, and this money would add an educational permaculture garden to it.
“We want to show people that you can feed yourself without putting in an exorbitant amount of hours working on a pristine garden,” Rosiak said.
Instead of private plots and raised beds, this garden will feature fruit trees, flowers and weed-control crops such as potatoes and strawberries, Rosiak said. Guests will harvest or tend to whatever plants they want as they learn about local food production and how to help pollinating insects. The group also hopes to raise seeds to stock a seed library run through the St. Albert Library.
Rosiak said the group would work with permaculture expert Kenton Zerbin to design this project. (Zerbin also designed the St. Albert Food Forest.) Future phases could include benches and an outdoor classroom to make the garden more of a gathering place.
Rosiak said the group hoped to start work on the garden this spring.
WILDNorth got $5,000 to support its efforts to rescue and rehabilitate injured or orphaned animals in northern Alberta.
WILDNorth receives about one animal every three days from St. Albert, said director Dale Gienow. This money would help pay for the care and shelter of the roughly 150 species that come through WILDNorth’s door each year in the Edmonton region.
Peori said this was the third year in the row WILDNorth had received one of these grants. The committee has recommended council give the group ongoing operational funding in future years as it provides an important service to St. Albert.
Education and more
Empower Me received $5,000 to hold a series of free energy and utility conservation workshops in St. Albert for underserved and underrepresented residents.
Empower Me is a group that aims to bring energy efficiency education to senior, immigrant, low-income, Indigenous, and other hard-to-reach populations, said founder Yasmin Abraham.
“So many people come to our province and have never lived in a Canadian home before, and might not know how to run a thermostat or a furnace or an air conditioner,” Abraham said.
Abraham said her group hoped to work with the city to better target energy efficiency information and help more people pay their energy bills.
Bertha Kennedy students received $4,000 to build a learning garden that will have bee homes, hummingbird feeders, and native berry trees. Ronald Harvey, Joe Demko, and Sister Alphonse schools got $2,000 each for an outdoor classroom, urban farm, and edible garden, respectively, while the Outreach High School now has $1,650 for garden boxes and native plants.
The St. Albert Tool Library will add more tools to its belt with its $3,850 grant. Paul Kane’s Environmental Leadership group will use its $1,645 grant to run presentations at elementary schools, while Keenooshayo’s Green Team will invest its $865 into schoolyard cleanups, energy audits and plastic bag recycling.
See bit.ly/35J7Vby for more on the grant program.
