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Tag: Helping

How technology is helping municipalities crack down on illegal short-term rentals

How technology is helping municipalities crack down on illegal short-term rentals

During what Orest Katolyk calls the “wild west” of short-term rentals — the time before regulations were put in place — bylaw officers in London, Ont., would have to rent properties listed on websites like Airbnb to check for infractions.

“We actually rented a shed several years ago that was near Western University, and it was being rented out as a kind of overnight stay for $35 a night,” said Katolyk, director of municipal compliance for the City of London.

The city had been fielding complaints from neighbours throughout the school year. Renting the property was a necessary step that allowed them to prosecute the case.

In recent years, municipal governments across Canada have strengthened regulations to limit short-term rentals. Enforcing those rules, however, can be tricky because most listings don’t include an address.

But the jobs of investigators like Katolyk are getting a lot easier thanks to new tech

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How technology is helping grain farmers adapt to weather woes

How technology is helping grain farmers adapt to weather woes

British Columbia grain farmer Malcolm Odermatt says all he can do is pray for rain this spring after repeated droughts sabotaged his harvest last year.

Odermatt, who is also the president of the B.C. Grain Growers Association, has been working with his father since 2012 to farm about 2,000 acres of land in the Peace region of B.C.’s northeast. He said seeding typically begins in May and although he’s worried, he hasn’t yet lost hope the weather will turn around.

“We’re in a Class 5 drought, the highest classification you can get actually, and we’ve had low rainfall and not a lot of snow,” said Odermatt, who grows wheat, barley, oats, canola and grasses for seed production.

“We rely on runoff in the springtime, like the snowmelt, to actually replenish our soil moisture and we just haven’t had that for a couple of years.”

Farmers in B.C. and industry analysts

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A New Technology Is Helping To Save The Florida Citrus Industry With A “Shot In The Arm”

A New Technology Is Helping To Save The Florida Citrus Industry With A “Shot In The Arm”

The Cambridge Dictionary defines the familiar idiom, “a shot in the arm” as “something that has a sudden, strong, positive effect on something.” It apparently came into popular language as early as 1916, long before the connection between a “shot” became the delivery method for immunization with the introduction of the polio vaccine in 1955. Putting aside the political controversies that have recently risen around getting an injection to prevent COVID infection, there are many beneficial human health therapies that are delivered through an injection (antibiotics, pain medications, cortisone…). There are also reasons that plants can benefit from “getting a shot,” but that has been difficult to do.

Plants get sick too, but unlike humans most of their diseases are caused by fungi

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