markpaskal

On the heels of a summer in which heat records were smashed in North America and Europe, thousands of oil and gas industry executives, government officials and media representatives from around the world will converge on Calgary for the World Petroleum Congress.

As they gather for the five-day conference to discuss the future of the sector, they'll do so under growing climate scrutiny and concern. Their conference is themed with that in mind, titled Energy Transition: The Path to Net Zero.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said a central kitchen believed to be linked to an E. coli outbreak in Calgary that has made hundreds of children sick has been closed indefinitely, and she has ordered a review of all shared kitchens that serve daycares in the city.

Smith also said she will be offering a one-time payment of $2,000 to parents of children who have been affected by the outbreak, and called on the affected daycares to reimburse parents for any fees incurred while the children were unable to attend daycare.

The whole of Calgary is about to undergo one of the most significant housing policy changes in its history — a build whatever, wherever bonanza. In a report submitted to city council in May, the Housing and Affordability Task Force — comprising mostly city employees, ex-city employees and developers — recommended blanket rezoning for any neighbourhood anywhere in the city. This data-starved report has come to the community development committee for approval this week.

Calgary city councillors are set to debate a new strategy aimed at making housing more affordable.

Councillors will spend the next two days discussing the proposed new housing strategy, in a public hearing where Calgarians will also be able to weigh in.

The meeting comes in the wake of a recent Housing Needs Assessment report released by the City of Calgary on Sept. 6.

The report, which is published by the city every five years, put forward several recommendations to address what it calls the city's "housing crisis," by making renting and owning a home in Calgary more affordable.

A slim majority of Albertans would support some kind of national cap on carbon emissions from the oil and gas sector, two new polls suggest.

The polls, conducted by different polling firms at the same time with the same questions, come after Alberta Premier Danielle Smith warned Ottawa last month not to test the "resolve" of Albertans to oppose such measures.

"(The results) conflict with the narrative that our current government is telling Albertans and Canadians that Albertans do not support this kind of action," said Joe Vipond of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, which commissioned the polls.

"Our polling suggests that's not correct."

A number of Calgary parents say they're frustrated that the company that runs a series of daycares hit by an E. coli outbreak have yet to commit to offering full refunds for the month of September, instead offering credits for days affected by the closure.

That doesn't go far enough for parents who are no longer comfortable sending their children to the campuses, or for those who have faced financial impacts as a result of the outbreak.

It seems this drama isn't over after all.