Members of Royal LePage Community Realty stand outside their Southview Drive office with a $1,000 check for Medicine Hat Family Services on Friday, the first of a dozen donations in the organization’s 12 Months of Giving campaign.–NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
Forget the 12 days of Christmas, Royal LePage Community Realty is stepping up with 12 Months of Giving.
The local real estate team recently announced it will be taking $1,000 from its Institutional Advertising fund and giving it to a local not-for-profit group every month for the next year.
“We wanted to repurpose those funds and do something we could feel good about,” said Royal LePage Community Realty owner/broker Brooklyn Kalista, adding the Institutional Advertising fund is built through monthly contributions from agents.
“We support the community and the community supports us. Without community support it’s pretty hard to have success in our industry. It’s just wanting to be there for the community on a collective level. A lot of us do it personally and collectively throughout the year, but just seeing what was happening this year, specifically with COVID and everything else, we just thought this would be a really good time and a great way to repurpose funds and inject something back where we could.”
First up will be Medicine Hat Family Services, followed by the Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter Society, the Santa Claus Fund, the food bank’s Brown Bag Lunch Program, the Kinsmen Club of Medicine Hat and Medicine Hat Soccer Association.
The second half of the campaign will feature donations to McMan Youth, Family and Community Services Association, the local Mustard Seed, SPCA Medicine Hat, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Hat Ronald McDonald House and Habitat for Humanity Southern Alberta.
Kalista says many of the team’s 46 members already volunteer their time at a number of these organizations throughout the year. When approaching the 12 Months of Giving campaign, Kalista says team members were asked to express which organizations mattered most to them.
“We kind of just picked things that really hit home, literally,” she said. “We went with things like bringing food to the table, things that deal with mental health – because obviously that’s been a really big thing for our community this last bit – and just family. Anything to do with those sorts of services that relate to everyday living, we wanted to make sure we were hitting.”
After figuring out the 12 recipients, Kalista says the team reached out to each one to co-ordinate a schedule that will help each organization at a time when it’s needed most.
“We put some thought into our timeline over the next 12 months, as to when it works best for those organizations. We connected with the organizations too, to see if there were times that were more opportune for them as well,” said Kalista. “We kept our one that goes directly to the Santa Claus Fund right around the time that we know we’re usually donating to them anyways. And we will collectively donate toys and games on top of what we’re doing. We did try to match up with the food bank for the brown bag lunch that they have going on right now.”
HALIFAX – A village of tiny homes is set to open next month in a Halifax suburb, the latest project by the provincial government to address homelessness.
Located in Lower Sackville, N.S., the tiny home community will house up to 34 people when the first 26 units open Nov. 4.
Another 35 people are scheduled to move in when construction on another 29 units should be complete in December, under a partnership between the province, the Halifax Regional Municipality, United Way Halifax, The Shaw Group and Dexter Construction.
The province invested $9.4 million to build the village and will contribute $935,000 annually for operating costs.
Residents have been chosen from a list of people experiencing homelessness maintained by the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia.
They will pay rent that is tied to their income for a unit that is fully furnished with a private bathroom, shower and a kitchen equipped with a cooktop, small fridge and microwave.
The Atlantic Community Shelters Society will also provide support to residents, ranging from counselling and mental health supports to employment and educational services.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.
Housing affordability is a key issue in the provincial election campaign in British Columbia, particularly in major centres.
Here are some statistics about housing in B.C. from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s 2024 Rental Market Report, issued in January, and the B.C. Real Estate Association’s August 2024 report.
Average residential home price in B.C.: $938,500
Average price in greater Vancouver (2024 year to date): $1,304,438
Average price in greater Victoria (2024 year to date): $979,103
Average price in the Okanagan (2024 year to date): $748,015
Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Vancouver: $2,181
Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Victoria: $1,839
Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Canada: $1,359
Rental vacancy rate in Vancouver: 0.9 per cent
How much more do new renters in Vancouver pay compared with renters who have occupied their home for at least a year: 27 per cent
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Voters along the south coast of British Columbia who have not cast their ballots yet will have to contend with heavy rain and high winds from an incoming atmospheric river weather system on election day.
Environment Canada says the weather system will bring prolonged heavy rain to Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Fraser Valley, Howe Sound, Whistler and Vancouver Island starting Friday.
The agency says strong winds with gusts up to 80 kilometres an hour will also develop on Saturday — the day thousands are expected to go to the polls across B.C. — in parts of Vancouver Island and Metro Vancouver.
Wednesday was the last day for advance voting, which started on Oct. 10.
More than 180,000 voters cast their votes Wednesday — the most ever on an advance voting day in B.C., beating the record set just days earlier on Oct. 10 of more than 170,000 votes.
Environment Canada says voters in the area of the atmospheric river can expect around 70 millimetres of precipitation generally and up to 100 millimetres along the coastal mountains, while parts of Vancouver Island could see as much as 200 millimetres of rainfall for the weekend.
An atmospheric river system in November 2021 created severe flooding and landslides that at one point severed most rail links between Vancouver’s port and the rest of Canada while inundating communities in the Fraser Valley and B.C. Interior.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
Members of Royal LePage Community Realty stand outside their Southview Drive office with a $1,000 check for Medicine Hat Family Services on Friday, the first of a dozen donations in the organization’s 12 Months of Giving campaign.–NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
