New Montreal social platform Luminance aims to help people help others

University students, working in pairs or threes, invite the homeless of downtown Halifax to share a meal and get to know them. A couple in Caraquet, N.B., is building a net zero home — a structure that produces as much clean energy as it consumes.
In Quebec’s Gaspé region, about 30 merchants have created a parallel local currency by cutting Canadian bills in half to create the demi. Usable only locally, the bills, valued at half the intact versions, are a way for people to re-