Rod Muir, Sierra Club of Canada, in Milton
October 17th 2011Miltongreen Environmental Association sent us this news about an event this week:
See the motivating presentation by Rod Muir of the Sierra Club Canada about Waste Diversion – the quick, cheap, and yes easy-means to achieving Sustainability! Then, join workshops on smart and practical approaches to events, celebrations and gift giving!This ecofriendly event is held at the Milton District High School Theatre on Thursday, October 20th, 6:30-9:00 pm. Refreshments will be served.
Hear-about and participate-in workshops on family, cultural and public celebrations and household or other waste issues to reduce your “footprint” and sustain the earth’s resources. You will take away from this event, lots of fun and hands-on ideas to making sustainable choices and activities a part of everyday life. This family friendly event is held with regard for all cultures.
Presented by Miltongreen Environmental Assoc. and MDHS Ecoclub in partnership with the Halton Environment Network and sponsored by an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant of Miltongreen. Please bring clean gently-used (or new) PYJAMAS to donate to the Halton Women’s Place – all sizes are needed.
Sign-in at 6:30 pm when you arrive to receive your “door prize” tickets for cool items donated by the handful of this event’s theme-based vendors. For more information or to let us know you are coming email miltongreen.ontario@gmail.com; call 905-878-0995.
Escarpment Views at Halton Eco Festival on Saturday
April 04th 2011
Escarpment Views will be one of the exhibitors at the Halton Eco Festival this Saturday, April 9. Come and say hello to Mike and me (Gloria) and pick up any back issues you’re missing –for free! The current issue and subscriptions will be available for sale. Here is news from the Festival organizers about other reasons to attend:
Are You Going To The Environmental Fair?
“Sixty-five exhibitors including nine sponsors look forward to sharing their many green environmental products, services and campaigns with you at the free-to-attend Halton Eco Festival on Saturday, April 9 from 10 am to 5 pm at the Glen Abbey Rec Centre on Third Line in Oakville. This is a one-day only family event so don’t miss it,” says Mervyn Russell, chairperson of the Oakville Community Centre for Peace, Ecology and Human Rights which organizes this event.
“The first 1,000 visitors will each receive a free gift of a 250 ml hand sanitizer valued at $10 from Nature Clean. In addition, Halton Region will be distributing a limited quantity of free blue boxes to the visitors,” he adds. “The Halton Eco Festival is a celebration of the environment, green alternatives and good living. It’s a fun, festive event that features something to benefit everyone.”
Every half an hour beginning at 10:30 am, you can enjoy an educational presentation delivered by a knowledgeable and inspirational speaker on a wide variety of environmental subjects including (in order of presentation) nuclear weapons, ecovillages, sustainable food, permaculture and gardening, dealing naturally with allergies, measuring and recording your trees, waste diversion, socially responsible financial investing, solar energy, a live animals demonstration promoting biodiversity, embracing diversity, and indigenous peoples rights.
You will experience and learn many new things at the Halton Eco Festival which brings earth-friendly companies and organizations together in a variety of categories. You will discover businesses with various products like residential solar systems and geothermal power, natural cleaning solutions, organic fruit spreads and body soaps, reusable and compostable bags. There will also be many local providers of healthcare and environmental services such as a green diaper service, a raw foods restaurant, landscaping, gardening, ethical financial planning, energy efficiency and conservation, naturopathic and chiropractic healthcare, massage therapy, an organic farmer’s market and lots more.
Meet some very dynamic environmental education exhibitors including Alternatives Journal from Waterloo University, the Association for Canadian Educational Resources, Environmental Defence, Escarpment Views, [that’s us!] FutureWatch, Green Leaders, the Halton Waldorf School, and Katimavik.
Come sit in an eco-friendly smartcar from smart Centre Oakville. Discover how to save money and become more energy efficient when talking to representatives of Eco Alternative Energy, EfstonScience, Excess Energy, Oakville Hydro, Tangoraysolar, and Union Gas which will be distributing free home energy saving kits that will save you hundreds of dollars in future expenses.
iCCOUNTING.ca will help lessen your environmental impact while C & C Planning Group/Partners In Planning Financial Services can show you how to invest more ethically and socially.
Food and Drink exhibitors will include Nature Bite, Nzyme Living Foods Bistro & Juice Bar, and the Oakville Sustainable Food Partnership. Local government will be well represented by the Public Works Department at Halton Region and the Town of Oakville’s Environmental Policy Department.
Health and Wellness exhibitors include Chiropractic Advantage, Chiropractic First Natural Health Group, In-Line Family Chiropractic, No Allergies Please, Oakville Naturopathic Clinic, Sahaja Yoga Meditation, and the Toronto Vegetarian Association.
Home and Garden exhibitors include As You Wish Parties and Programs, Fern Ridge Landscaping, In The Garden…, and Wild Birds Unlimited who will have a wide selection of bird feeders on display for you.
Many local organizations with new ideas and actions to benefit the natural environment will be in attendance including the Halton Environmental Network (HEN), KAIROS (Oakville-Mississauga), the Oakville and District Labour Council, Physicians for Global Survival, Reclaim Our Democracy, and the Sierra Club of Canada.
There is a growing consumer demand for natural products including those featured by Bear Bottoms Diaper Service, Crofter’s Organic Fruit Spreads, Ecolife Natural Products, Enfleurage Organics, Fresh and Clean, and Nincompoop Farms.
The enjoyment and preservation of nature are central to the Coalition on the Niagara Escarpment, Conservation Halton, the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy, Oakvillegreen Conservation Association, the Ontario Urban Forest Council, and Protect Our Water and Environmental Resources (POWER) which is based in Halton Hills.
All four major political parties will be sharing their environmental platforms with visitors; come and talk politics with federal election candidates and other representatives from the Oakville Federal Green Party Association, Oakville and Burlington New Democratic Party Riding Associations, the Conservative Party of Canada – Oakville, and the Oakville Provincial Liberal Association. As well, the Halton Chapter of Fair Vote Canada will be there to promote proportional electoral representation.
The Burlington Reuse Centre is promoting the 3Rs of reduce, reuse and recycle and will be encouraging you to donate your good useable household goods to their location at 3335 North Service Road.
The Oakville Community Centre for Peace, Ecology and Human Rights will be promoting their 20th annual Earth Week Clean Up of Nature Sites in Oakville scheduled for April 16, getting orders for the sale of recycled rain barrels, and signing up visitors to go on a bus trip to an organic farm.
People who are concerned about local development issues and want smart growth should plan to visit with Citizens Opposed to Paving the Escarpment (COPE), Protecting Escarpment Rural Land (PERL), and Whole Village Ecovillage.
“After visiting the sponsors and exhibitors and taking in a presentation or two, relax while sipping on a fair trade, organic coffee. Enjoy a snack, slice of pizza or baked good at our eco café,” enthuses Mr. Russell who also noted that the Halton Eco Festival strives to be a waste-free event.
Please carpool to this free event with friends, family and neighbours. Bus #28 will deliver you to the door from the Oakville GO station while Bus #3 while bring you there from the Bronte GO.
The 11th annual Halton Eco Festival is one of Ontario’s longest-running environmental fairs. This year’s nine sponsors include the Burlington Reuse Centre, Coalition on the Niagara Escarpment, Conservation Halton, Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation, Green Leaders, Halton Region’s Public Works Department, Nincompoop Farms, Oakville and District Labour Council, and the Town of Oakville’s Environmental Policy Department.
“The Halton Eco Festival is for people who want to live a more healthy life, reduce their environmental impact and live in a more sustainable world. Visitors will experience an interactive, informative and fun event featuring a wide-range of eco-friendly products and services that will help them to make sustainable choices for themselves and their families,” said Stephen Dankowich, show manager, and executive director of the Oakville Community Centre for Peace, Ecology and Human Rights.
For more information, phone 905 849 5501 or email the Centre or go to their site.
OMB Denies Rockfort Quarry Application: CCC Applauds
November 16th 2010Here is an important statement in response to the news that the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) has denied the Rockfort Quarry application:
The Coalition of Concerned Citizens of Caledon applauds the OMB decision having to do with the James Dick Construction Limited Rockfort Quarry application for an open pit dolostone mine at Winston Churchill and Olde Baseline in the Town of Caledon.
The Coalition, which has mounted a determined 13-year campaign against the designation and development of this inappropriate mineral aggregate proposal, includes thousands of supporters from Caledon, Erin, Wellington, Halton and Peel, as well as cycling, skiing, fishing, archery, equestrian and hiking enthusiasts from far and wide.
The proposed quarry, which would have involved the extraction of dolostone up to 100 feet below the water table, involved a water mitigation system never before used in a similar scale, manner and setting. It could also have created negative impacts on local roadways, the Niagara Escarpment ecosystem and the Paris Moraine.
The Board in its conclusion found:”The balance among competing interests mandated by the PPS (Provincial Policy Statement) and the OP (Official Plan) has been thoroughly considered by the Board. It is apparent, that with respect to these particular applications, the interest in protecting the natural heritage and cultural heritage resources of the subject lands and those surrounding them outweighs the interest in making the aggregate resource on the subject property available to supply mineral aggregate needs. Too much of enormous value to the Province, the Region and the Town could be lost if the proposed quarry went forward. A failure in the mitigation measures proposed for the quarry, as set out in the AMP (Adaptive Management Plan), would have a catastrophic impact on the natural environment or the natural features and functions of the area. Such an impact cannot be countenanced by the Board. In addition, the fundamental change to the character of the area attendant upon the proposed quarry would not be acceptable. The loss of views of rural lands, the loss of a cultural heritage landscape and cultural heritage resources and the conversion of a rural area into an urban area centered on a heavy industrial operation cannot be permitted in the interest of the production of more aggregate for infrastructure development. It is time for alternatives to aggregate for infrastructure construction to be found. Too much of what is essential to the character of this Province would be lost if aggregate extraction were to be permitted on lands like the subject property. Lands situated in a significant cultural landscape, surrounded by significant natural heritage features and functions, are not lands on which extraction should be permitted in the absence of demonstration of no negative impacts. No such demonstration has been completed in this case. Having regard to the provisions of the PPS, the ROP (Region of Peel Official Plan) and the OP, the Board finds that the requested OPA (Official Plan Amendment) and ZBLA (Zoning By-Law Amendment) do not represent good planning. Having regard to the ARA (Aggregate Resources Act), particularly section 12(1), the Board finds that the requested licence should not be issued.”
“On behalf of the people of Caledon and all the Coalition supporters, we applaud the OMB’s decision to uphold good land use and environmental planning,” said Coalition President Penny Richardson. “We would like to thank all our supporters who devoted their time, energy, money and skill, as well as our legal and expert advisers. We also commend the Town of Caledon, the Region of Peel and Credit Valley Conservation for their opposition to this proposal. Time and again, they argued that this particular application did not meet an acceptable standard for protecting our water resources, sensitive natural heritage and local endangered species.”
“While we are pleased with the decision, we will wait for the 30 day OMB appeal period to close before opening the champagne,” Richardson said.
The OMB decision is available on the CCC website.
The next question is, is this a one-time decision, or a new precedent for the future of the Niagara Escarpment and its neighbouring areas?
Using Up Nature
August 10th 2010The following is an opinion piece by Arlene Kennedy of Tobermory. We’re pleased to post it in full here.
True confession…I am beginning to suspect that I am a megalomaniac. I like big ideas, overarching theories and the “big picture,” both figuratively and literally, since as an art collector I own several rather large paintings, but that’s not what I’m talking about right now.
A friend just lent me A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright, a 2004 Massey Lecturer. Talk about “big picture” – this vast sweep at the tenure of mankind on the planet is a gallop through where we’ve been, how we got here and where we might be heading. It’s not pretty.
Today’s preoccupation with the debt crisis and how many of us appear to be living beyond our means truly pales in contrast with the debt humanity is taking on with our use and abuse of the earth. The author believes that “If civilization is to survive, it must live on the interest, not the capital, of nature.” We are using nature up at a rate far faster than it can regenerate itself.
So I’m thinking about my home here in the Bruce Peninsula in terms of a sustainable community. So are a lot of other people, as evidenced by last fall’s creation of The Meeting Place, the regular occurrence of Transition Communities get-togethers, the educational initiatives at the Lion’s Head school, the numerous grass-roots organizations including the Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory and lately, some relatively independent efforts to generate local “clean” energy. Solar power is a focus that seems to be in favour over giant turbine wind farm power.
What can I do to contribute to securing in the future a quality of life and standard of living I am now privileged to enjoy? How do we conserve and preserve the balance between development and preservation of this unique gem of a Biosphere?
I am hoping that the knowledge generated by residents and researchers in this area will be part of the solution. Which brings me to another initiative worthy of attention and support: the Sources of Knowledge Forum presented at the Parks Canada Visitor Centre this May. Researchers presented brief sessions on their impressive work carried on in this region.
Applied research is the latest buzz that attracts government funding, and although I admire the utilitarian bent of this trend, there is also room in my view for less directed research out of which may grow future but as yet unforeseen applications.
There is some interest in the community to attract an outreach “campus” of sorts, perhaps affiliated with a university or other institute of higher learning that already has access to external funding and has the infrastructure to establish and support a “Bruce Peninsula Research Centre.” A wealth of learning occurs here now. How might it best be maximised?
There’s no place like it in the world. There are instructive parallels and contrasting locals, but we are a one-and-only. So is the earth. How do we avoid bankrupting nature and watching humanity become extinct in the process?
That’s the “big picture.”
Do you have more information about some of the initiatives and ideas that Arlene mentions? Is anything like this going on in your community? Feel free to add a comment. Or write your own opinion piece and send it to us. We may be able to print it in the magazine or post it here as a blog comment. We’re happy to be a forum for discussion!
