Tuesday, November 15, 6:30 pm
St Andrew’s Church
40 Bentinck St
Sydney

The Sydney event is co-sponsored by the AIDS Coalition of Cape Breton and the Cape Breton District Labour Council. Each event will include a handful of speakers, a short question and answer period and then break out groups to develop a People’s Agenda for the 2014 Health Accord. The public is invited to attend and provide feedback on what issues are important leading into the 2014 Health Accord. The first town hall was held in Yarmouth and events are being scheduled for the Valley and the South Shore.

For more information please contact: Kyle Buott, Coordinator, Nova Scotia Citizens’ Health Care Network, (902) 406-9422.

Light refreshments will be provided.

About the Nova Scotia Citizens’ Health Care Network:

Formed in 1996, the Nova Scotia Citizens’ Health Care Network’s goal is to stop the privatization of the public health care system, ensure high levels of care, and create a forum for people and communities to discuss issues in health care.

The Network is a coalition of local health committees, community groups, organized labour, faith groups and individuals dedicated to protecting and advancing public health care to include services like pharmacare, dental care and long-term and home care.

The Network is political but non-partisan and receives no government funding.

The program, funded by Efficiency Nova Scotia and delivered by Clean Nova Scotia, looks at eight elements of sustainability: water and waste, energy, grounds and gardens, transportation, food, purchasing, learning, and operations. It carries out school sustainability audits (walk-about assessments) and interviews with administrative and custodial staff to assess practices and behaviours at each school. From the findings, Green Schools helps to identify priority areas that can benefit from attention and change, and provides sustainability audit reviews to schools. Student-driven environmental clubs then work with supportive teachers and custodial staff teams to set a course for short and long-term planning for implementing sustainability at their schools.

The organizers of Lumière will partner artists with unconventional indoor and outdoor spaces in downtown Sydney to create a unique nighttime cultural event. Venues will be in the area between Townsend St. & Dorchester St. and Charlotte St. & The Esplanade.

Lumière infuses Sydney’s downtown core with the vibrancy and excitement of theatre, dance, music, and visual arts/craft. It is in the same spirit as Nocturne in Halifax and Nuit Blanche in Toronto, original works of art will be displayed in a number of unconventional spaces.

A night-time celebration of the arts, Lumière takes place from 6:57 pm to 1:57 am on October 1st.

More at the website

Bike, board or walk to your local farmers’ market and celebrate Moving Planet Day with a local food feast!

Take action and eat well by using sustainable, active transportation to get to either of Sydney’s farmers’ markets. Each market will have a Moving Planet Pledge for Cape Bretoners to show they’re ready to move past fossil fuels.

The first 25 people arriving sustainably at each market will be rewarded with $2 in market money to be used during the day’s market. Whether it be a fair-trade coffee or organically grown produce, get active, buy local and enjoy!

8:30AM-1PM: Moving Planet Day @ CB Farmers’ Market (340 Keltic Dr., Sydney)

1PM-4PM: Moving Planet Day @ Downtown Sydney Market (Corner of Pitt and George Streets, Sydney)

This event is hosted by ACAP Cape Breton with the support of the Cape Breton Farmers’ Market, the Downtown Sydney Farmers’ Market and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.

Making Tracks: Active Transportation Safety Education for Children and Youth is about making active transportation safe for children and youth in Nova Scotia by giving them the skills they need to do it safely. Using a train-the-trainer model, the program enlists the help of adults and youth in teaching safety skills to other youth and children.

Making Tracks focuses on skill-based, experiential workshops. It offers walking, cycling, in-line skating and skateboarding safety skills. The goals of Making Tracks are to increase the use of active transportation, increase safety skills of active transportation users and ultimately make it safer for children and youth to walk or wheel on our travel ways.

Making Tracks is supported by the Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal and Mountain Equipment Co-op, with support from St. FX University and Skate Pass. Participating schools and youth-serving organizations get free coordination and materials along with a training workshop for a small fee.

Visit the Active and Safe Routes to School website for more info or to register your school.

Event details at blbra.ca.

This means no oil for cooking, no chocolate, no salt, no grains, and hardest of all, no coffee! But it also means potatoes, onions and herbs from North River Organics in North Shore, garlic from Blue Marsh Farm in Nevada Valley, corn from Hanks Farm in Millville, lamb from GlenRyan Farms in Margaree, Honey Wine from Winter Winery in Scotch Lake…. and that was only day one.

Passionate about local food and how it pertains to community economic development in the region, Alicia has a firm belief that the choices we make when it comes to feeding ourselves and our families have wider social, environmental and economic implications.

“I believe that sustainable agriculture can be a foundational element for Community Economic Development, by providing health, food security, local jobs, social capital and sense of place for citizens. Purchasing local food is also a way of supporting the local economy that is available to all citizens and not only to those who can afford invest,” she writes on her blog.

“However, since the disappearance of many producers it is no longer a simple task to purchase food that is produced only in Cape Breton. The purpose of this adventure is to demonstrate how many wonderful foods are produced here, and also to learn about the holes in our island food security.”

Alicia is posting her daily menus on her blog at cblocaldiet.ca, along with stories, photos, and occasional observations and discoveries along the way in her Cape Breton Local Food Adventure.

Alicia grew up in Iona and now lives in Baddeck with her husband and two children. She is founder and president of the Baddeck and Area Community Market, and is a Community Development Officer in the Political Science Department at CBU. She holds Bachelor degrees in both Community Studies and Political Science from Cape Breton University, and is currently pursuing an MBA in Community Economic Development at CBU.

The Health Accord is up for negotiation again in 2014. Join Kyle Buott, Provincial Coordinator for the Nova Scotia Citizens’ Health Care Network, and local health workers to discuss to implications of the 2014 Health Accord for the future of public healthcare.

This event is part of the summer NS Citizens’ Health Care Network speaking tour. The Network is a coalition of local health committees, community groups, organized labour, faith groups and individuals dedicated to protecting and advancing public health care

This event is co-sponsored by the AIDS Coalition of Cape Breton and the Cape Breton & District Labour Council.

More information, including application form, at their website: http://downtownsydneyfarmersmarket.wordpress.com