Buying from social enterprises simple, effective and positive
What if I told you there was a way for the city of Vancouver to address its pressing social issues without raising taxes? And what if I added that it would have a nominal effect on the city budget?
It's quite simple.
The city purchases just about everything imaginable, from paper clips and dish towels to trucks and catering.

Battered binner staying off the streets: Street alcoholic suffers multiple injuries after attack by assailant in Topaz Park
Beetlejuice is more sober than he's been for 30 years. But he's also nursing a few broken bones and will probably be out of the only official job he has been offered for decades. William Hay, 50, a.k.a.

Sex trade workers need safer conditions: report
The most marginalized street prostitutes in Vancouver need places to live and work safely, says a community group calling for a series of changes to clean up the city's sex-trade industry. The Living in Community group has issued a report that makes 27 recommendations to reduce the negative impact of the sex trade industry on workers and neighbourhoods.

Local student using project to help others
Students at the Sturgeon Creek Alternative Program have been producing business plan projects for four years, but 10th-grader Felicia Schmutz is doing something rather unique for her venture. She developed a non-profit business called “Adopt-a-Doll,” where she sells hand-made Guatemalan dolls—complete with an adoption certificate. And the money she raises from selling the two-inch dolls for $2 each will go towards building shelters for residents in Guatemala.

Vancouver's SROs: 'Zero Vacancy'
When poverty experts warn that homeless Canadians will likely outnumber Olympic athletes in Greater Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Games, part of their calculation is based on the swelling number of regional residents living just one fumbled paycheque away from the street. From Bowen Island to Langley, there are an estimated 126,000 such people at risk of homelessness.

Social housing needs feds, province, city: Dion
All three levels of government must be partners on the issue of social housing, says federal Liberal leader Stephane Dion. Dion said in an interview that while the province has the main responsibility for building and providing social housing, Ottawa “will be there” not just as a provider of transfer payments.

Two Towns, One Choice: How salmon farming resuscitated a coastal nation and why another said no.
[Editor's note: Last week, a committee of the B.C. legislature called on the province to end open net fish farming on B.C.'s coast in the next five years. For the past eight months, Vancouver journalist Helen Polychronakos has been exploring the world of fish farms and B.C.'s aboriginal communities.

Housing co-op eyes five-unit building:
If funding falls into place, Bank Street block would add to city's affordable housing stock
A fledgling rental co-operative is close to a deal that could block a five-unit rental building from being turned into less affordable strata apartments.

Forum focuses on sustainable practices
At least 80 out of 100 pairs of hands shot up when "Climate Walt" Palmer asked the audience at Guelph's Corporate Social Responsibility Forum yesterday if they had seen Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth." Perhaps a testament to the fact that climate change awareness is lighting up the business world -- or at least the Canadian industry of cooperatives and credit unions

Beyond Wikipedia: Larry Sanger wants to keep it honest. Get ready for Citizendium.
Larry Sanger doesn't trust the wisdom of the crowd, so he's no big fan of Wikipedia. But he's not like the others who get their kicks pooh-poohing the all-powerful (but flawed) wiki: Sanger had a huge hand in creating it.