Calgary Minute: Parkour Park, Wildfire Evacuees, and Decreased Water Use

Calgary Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Calgary politics

This Week In Calgary:

• This is the last week of Council’s summer hiatus. Committee meetings at City Hall resume on September 6th.
  
  
• The Calgary Police Service is taking part in Operation Tee-Time, a pilot project that provides free golf lessons to youth from the South Asian community. The Calgary Police Service Diversity Resource Team partnered with City of Calgary golf courses to provide the lessons, and there were more than 120 applicants for the program. After these conclude, the City and the Police will explore opportunities to provide lessons for kids from all communities.
  
  
• The owner of family-run Calgary business Bowest Appliance Inc. is warning people about a job scam. Fraudsters used the company’s identity to send fake job offer letters to at least five victims - mostly newcomers - tricking them into divulging personal information and sending money to secure a job that doesn’t exist. The company called the police, but since they are not technically the ones victimized, there’s nothing that can be done. Bowest Appliance took to its own social media to warn people about the scam. At the same time, police are warning Calgarians about door-to-door furnace inspection scams targeting seniors. Scammers are knocking on doors, demanding to come inside and inspect furnaces under threat of financial penalty, and then claiming to find issues with the appliances.

Last Week In Calgary:

• The first City-owned parkour park in Calgary had its grand opening. Parkour is a sport that involves moving from one point to another through jumps, flips, climbs, vaults, or other movements - sort of like an urban obstacle course. The new park is located in Coventry Hills and is open to adults and youth over the age of 12. There are wood chips on the ground to try to keep people from hurting themselves if they happen to fall in a jump over the logs and poles in the park.
  
  
• Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, and her Northwest Territories counterpart Premier Caroline Cochrane, met with wildfire evacuees in Calgary. More than 2,700 people are sheltering in Calgary, and 145 pets have also been registered at the local evacuation centre. Calgary is at about half of its 5,000-person evacuee support capacity. Cochrane expressed gratitude to the people of Alberta, and Smith pledged continued assistance.
  
  
• The City said its water restrictions have made a noticeable impact on water use. Stage 1 water restrictions were implemented on account of drought conditions, preventing residents from washing cars, sidewalks, driveways, or walkways, filling fountains or decorative water features, washing outdoor windows, or cleaning exterior building surfaces. As a result, daily water use decreased between 57 million and 87 million litres - the equivalent to between 14 and 21 Olympic-size swimming pools per day.

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