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Clippings
September 1, 2016
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Winners Announced at the 13th Annual National Awards of Landscape Excellence
The thirteenth annual National Awards of Landscape Excellence took place August 17th in Kelowna, BC. In attendance were the CNLA Board of Directors, BCLNA members, representatives from Caterpillar Inc., DynaSCAPE Software, FCA Canada, HortProtect, Kubota, as well as other distinguished guests and sponsors.
National judges received over 50 entries in the landscape categories alone, where only five could be named national champions. A huge thank you to everyone that participated in their provincial awards for a chance to be entered into the national awards - 2016 was one of the biggest years to date.
The winners in the five landscape categories are: Bruce Wilson Landscaping Ltd.in Ontario, for the Caterpillar Award of Excellence in Commercial Landscape Construction/Installation; Pro-Land Landscape Construction Inc. in Ontario, for the Caterpillar Award of Excellence in Residential Landscape Construction/Installation; Joe Bidermann Landscaping Design Inc. in Nova Scotia, for the DynaSCAPE Award of Excellence in Landscape Design; OGS Grounds Maintenance Specialists in Ontario, for the National Award of Landscape Excellence in Commercial Maintenance; Cedar Springs Landscape Group in Ontario, for the National Award of Landscape Excellence in Residential Maintenance.
Congratulations to all of the winners for truly outstanding projects. Each entrant into the Awards of Excellence program demonstrates a commitment to their community and environment, by upholding the standard of what it means to be a true landscape professional.
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Reminder: Minimum Wage Increase
The provincial minimum wage will be increasing by $1.00 to $12.20 per hour beginning October 1, 2016. This is part of their campaign promise to move to $15.00 per hour by 2018. Landscape Alberta was involved in consultations on this and like many small business groups advocated for a more flexible timeline and for the option of a youth or training wage. Members of our sector that compete directly with other provinces and states, especially on nursery production, are most likely to be impacted by the competitive pressure faced by lower cost imports. Landscape Alberta also raised concerns that such a swift increase would push wages above $15 an hour even higher.
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National Tree Day
Everyone's favourite day to celebrate trees is just around the corner! National Tree Day is taking place September 21. You can either post your events or see what's happening near you on the National Tree Day website
. In the past, members have held local planting demonstrations, donated trees or even held sales to mark the occasion.
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ReTree YYC Update
The 2014 Snowtember event damaged over 250,000 public trees and 1.5 million private trees. Since then, ReTree has been working hard on recovery and restoration of our urban forest, and in developing tree pride and community leadership. The following are some Urban Forestry Operation statistics from the first and second quarter of 2016.
Recovery
-59,959 trees pruned (this is an 45% increase from 2015)
-6,008 trees pruned by City Of Calgary bucket trucks
Restoration
-9,000 trees planted by the end of season
-10,349 views of tree scheduling map (shows potential planting locations in ReTree communities)
-over 1,000 downloads of 10% off tree coupon
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CleanFARMS
CleanFARMS will be running obsolete pesticide & livestock medication collections in October of 2016 in Northern Alberta (Red Deer to AB Peace). The program is free and ag-retail collection locations/dates will be released in early summer. The program is delivered by CleanFARMS and its members in each province/region of the country every three years. Visit
www.cleanfarms.ca for more information.
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Show Your Canadian Spirit with a Garden Contest
The local gardeners, Manitoba Gardener, Alberta Gardener and Ontario Gardener magazines are celebrating Canada's 150th birthday with a garden contest.
The contest is open to all gardeners wishing to celebrate Canada's 150th in 2017. All you have to do to enter is to create a garden, garden bed or container garden themed on something that celebrates Canada's 150th birthday! Send us a photograph of your creation before Friday, June 23, 2017. Winners will be announced on Canada Day!
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Benefits for Members across the Country
Canadian Federation of Independent Business
: Receive a discount on membership fees and access to savings programs, business training resources, business counselors and increased lobbying power at all levels of government
casaGURU:
Receive a free business listing on casaGURU.com and its partner sites, including hgtv.ca.
Take advantage of these discounts and save thousands - see all the deals at the CNLA website
http://www.cnla-acpp.ca/benefits.
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Upcoming Events
October 1, 2016.
Alberta Wood Waste Recycling Association Workshop & Expo, Red Deer, AB. www.awwra.ca
October 31-November 1, 2016.
ISA Prairie Chapter Conference, Sheraton Hotel, Red Deer, AB. www.isaprairie.com
November 17-18, 2016. Green Industry Show & Conference, Edmonton Expo Centre, Edmonton, AB. www.greenindustryshow.com
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If you have any questions or concerns, or if you would like more information on upcoming events, please contact us at 1-800-378-3198 or email admin@landscape-alberta.com.
Sincerely,
Landscape Alberta
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