40TH ANNUAL
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Lana Michelin talks with artist Susan Woolgar in today’s FRIDAY FORWARD
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Red Deer Advocate FRIDAY, FEB. 12, 2016
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AUDITOR GENERAL’S REPORT
College chastised for IT faults RDC EXPECTS TO RESOLVE SHORTCOMINGS SOON BY MURRAY CRAWFORD ADVOCATE STAFF Photo by CRYSTAL RHYNO/Advocate staff
Jonah Saringo and Lynsey Hermary lead the walkers in the annual Red Deer Primary Care Network’s virtual Trek to the Hawaiian Islands.
Virtual trek encourages community to get active BY CRYSTAL RHYNO ADVOCATE STAFF And they are off. Dozens of walkers stepped out for the launch of the Red Deer Primary Care Network’s annual virtual trek around the Hawaiian Islands at City Hall Park. The trekking started with a short walk around the downtown streets. Dr. Peter Bouch, one of the organizers, said essentially the trek is about getting the community active in an exciting and fun way. It began on Thursday but there is still time to join in on the fun. Participants are encouraged to do 10,000
steps a day for the 30 days. While he did not have specific statistics on Red Deer, Bouch said Central Alberta has been known to be slightly more less active than the rest of Alberta. “Red Deer is getting healthi- DR. PETER BOUCH er,” said Bouch. “We are trying to change Alberta over the years. I think with
these treks and with lots of other programs and exercise equipment in the parks, the amount of exercise has improved.” Bouch said most people need 30 minutes of exercise each day such as brisk walking. No gym is necessary. “Obesity is becoming an epidemic,” said Bouch. “We know sedentary lifestyle is a major risk factor for developing diabetes, high blood pressure and multiple other medical illnesses. The people who are sitting on their couches the whole time … it is as high risk as smoking (for illnesses) if you are inactive.”
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Red Deer College drew the ire of Alberta’s auditor general for not implementing a recommendation made several years ago. But, Jim Brinkhurst, chief financial officer and vice-president of college services with RDC, said they have implemented about 90 per cent of the recommendations and expect the issue will be resolved by the next report. The auditor general’s report released Wednesday said the college still hadn’t implemented an information technology risk assessment, the new executive committee to oversee information technology had not met and the college’s disaster recovery plan was only in draft and incomplete. The auditor general first raised the issue with the college in 2007. “This last year we put a significant number of resources into completing this recommendation,” said Brinkhurst, pointing to the 90 per cent completion of the recommendations so far. “There wasn’t enough of a time period for them (auditor general office) to be able to test the things we’ve put in place and to give assurance it has been fully implemented. The work was done, but there wasn’t enough time to give them the evidence.”
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Humans of Olds project building relationships BY CRYSTAL RHYNO ADVOCATE STAFF A young Olds man needs a job. But instead of focusing on the negative, Nish Naidoo, 20, picked up a Canon Rebel and began snapping photos. The snapshots are now part of the Humans in Olds project. It was inspired by the popular Humans in New York photography project. “It was always something I thought was needed especially now in 2016,” said Naidoo. “I felt that communities could come together and realize there is more to life than just focusing on the negative news … In order for Alberta to get through this year of uncertainty we really need to come together clos-
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er as communities … Building relationships is what will ultimately get us through this year.” Since January, Naidoo has been taking photos of everyday Olds residents and learning a little bit about the person behind the photo. He doesn’t ask specific questions. He just starts listening. The photo and the person’s story is uploaded to the Humans in Olds Facebook page. The page has about 2,500 likes. By the end of the year, Naidoo would like to create a mural of sorts to tell all the stories. So far he has about 30 portraits in his collection. “Being in a small town in Olds everybody knows a little bit about each other,” he said. “But when I see these
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people in their day-to-day. They are part of my dayto-day really. Whenever I am doing that day I see them and I take their picture.” Not everyone is ready to jump on board but he tries to get people talking. He has had a few “nos.” Recently one NISH NAIDOO senior citizen caught his eye. “He was just excited that someone had some in-
terest in him,” said Naidoo. “He was more than happy to share his life with me. The story that I got out of that was he spent a lot of time on a reserve and taught him good foundations of life. The cool part of it is later on in his life, he took six native foster kids in his home. It’s stories like that.” Naidoo said the big picture is to have more rural communities and cities in Alberta to create a Humans of Alberta project. “We can focus all our attention on the economy,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we’re all humans … We are Albertans. We are strong and we’re going to be all right.” Naidoo has his eye on a job working for the Town of Olds. crhyno@reddeeradvocate.com
Promises kept, promises broken Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made 214 promises during last fall’s election. He’s delivered on 13 of them.
TH 40TH ANNUAL
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FEBRUARY 12-21, 2016 WESTERNER PARK, RED DEER Sunday-Thursday 10-6 • Friday-Saturday 10-8
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ONE TIME ENTRY $5 per vehicleDAILY ADMISSION General: $5 Senior: $4
Children 5 & Under: FREE! Family of 4: $15.00 Pay at the Door | Tax Incl.