[All] Two More Councils Oppose Bill 66, New Concerns, Upcoming Events
Kevin Thomason
kevinthomason at mac.com
Wed Jan 16 13:09:39 EST 2019
1) Council Updates - It is fantastic to report that last night two more local Council’s voted to oppose Bill 66:
a) City of Cambridge - Thanks to Stephanie Sobek-Swant from rare, Bob Burtt from GREN, and others from the community who spent hours at Cambridge Council yesterday delegating then awaiting Council deliberations on the wording of their motion opposing Bill 66. In the end, they were able to achieve one of the strongest and best motions to date against Bill 66! Thanks to the Councillors who worked so hard in advance of the meeting and then fought for stronger wording.
b) Township of Woolwich - Kudo’s to Bob Jonkman from KW Peace, Sean Campbell from Hold The Line and others who missed the ECO Dianne Saxe event to ensure that a very good resolution opposing Bill 66 was passed by Woolwich Council. While it was one of the few area resolutions against Bill 66 that has not been a unanimous Council vote, it should be noted that Councillor Scott MacMillian who voted against it was working hard and holding out for an even stronger resolution against Bill 66. It’s was fantastic to see all the efforts of municipal Staff, Mayor and Councillors over the past few days to ensure that their community was clear in their opposition to Bill 66 and support for our strong local protections as well as public engagement.
c) North Dumfries Township - Monday, January 21st, 7:00pm - please come out and join us Monday night at North Dumfries Council Chambers as we work to get the 8th and final resolution against Bill 66 from our last remaining local municipality. Hopefully, we will be able to tell Queen’s Park that all of Waterloo Region is united and strongly opposes Bill 66.
2) Stewards of Our Future: Protecting What We Love - Hundreds of people came out last night to hear ECO Dianne Saxe give an incredible presentation about Climate Change and the challenges before us. It was wonderful to see so many different community groups in attendance, so many interesting displays, hear such great questions, and engage in a community discussion about the need for each of us to speak up more and do all that we can.
Thanks to Laura Hamilton and the team at Divest Waterloo along with so many others who worked day and night to rapidly pull together this massive undertaking.
I have attached some photos below. You can also watch a recording of the event and share it with others who may not have been able to attend at:
https://www.facebook.com/divestwr/videos/356227264929627/
3) Our Water Our Future - Thursday, Feb 7th 7:00pm - Tickets are now available for our second speakers event to follow-up the incredible success and turnout for last night's ECO Dianne Saxe event. Join us at First United Church in Uptown Waterloo where we will have speakers from Walkerton and other water experts discussing Bill 66 and its potential impacts. You can register now for free at Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/our-water-our-future-tickets-54808634100 <https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/our-water-our-future-tickets-54808634100>
4) Growth for Growth - Tomorrow! - Thursday, Jan 17th - 6:30pm - Join the Food System Round Table of Waterloo Region, Open Food Network Canada and others at this discussion of Sustainable Urban Development and Agricultural Protections in Waterloo Region. It sounds like it will be a great event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1176927062458374/
5) Recent Press Coverage - Watch a short clip from CTV CKCO News about the City of Cambridge opposition to Bill 66 last night:
https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1587600&binId=1.1147261
6) More Concerning Announcements from the Provincial Government - yesterday the provincial government announced two new initiatives that could be quite concerning to our communities:
a) Proposed Changes to the Greater Golden Horseshoe Growth Plan - the province is proposing changes to the Growth Plan under the guise of increasing housing supply that will allow more urban sprawl, reduce density targets, facilitate employment sprawl, remove land needs assessment processes, and allow municipalities to expand settlement boundaries into rural areas. It also could make aspects of Bill 66 even worse.
https://news.ontario.ca/mma/en/2019/01/ontario-to-help-increase-housing-supply-attract-investment-and-protect-jobs-in-the-greater-golden-ho.html
b) Review of Regional Governments - the province also announced a plan to review 8 regional governments including Halton Region, York Region, Durham Region, Peel Region, Niagara Region, Muskoka District, Oxford County, Simcoe County, and Waterloo Region. This could include amalgamation, new efficiencies, and new governance. Given the success of Waterloo Region, our local municipalities and the great quality of life we enjoy there could be a lot at stake here for us - particularly given previous amalgamations and reforms have not gone well in many areas.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-regional-government-review-1.4978949
https://www.newhamburgindependent.ca/news-story/9126851--if-it-s-not-broke-don-t-fix-it-local-politicians-respond-to-review-of-regional-governments/
https://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/9127473-d-amato-fasten-your-seatbelt-amalgamation-is-coming/
7) MPP Calls, Letters and Meetings - Now that almost all of our local Council delegations are complete, successfully getting strong reports and resolutions against Bill 66, it is time to turn more of our focus and attention to our provincial MPP’s. It will be important for groups to try to get meetings with our local MPP’s - in particular our Conservative MPP’s. We also need our Members of Provincial Parliament to continue to hear from citizens with your concerns about Bill 66. Phone calls can be especially effective, so can dropping by their offices to deliver your letters personally. Here is the contact information and addresses for area MPP’s:
8) EBR Filing Deadline - Sunday! - January 20th is the deadline for comments to Bill 66 on the Environmental Registry of Ontario (EBR). Be sure that you and others that you know speak up and let your concerns be known. It would be fantastic if your group or organization can make an official response or submission. Some groups have prepared excellent documents outlining a myriad of issues and concerns, others have signed onto submissions on Bill 66 being prepared by other groups - lending their support and collaborating together. Don’t be shy about making comments personally - even if it is just a short sentence or two.
https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/013-4293 <https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/013-4293>
Attached below is the draft response from dozens of Ontario Nature Network Clubs across Ontario. Feel free to utilize parts of it in your submissions.
Kudo’s again on the great outcomes at our Councils and the amazing event attendance. Lets see what we can accomplish standing up and speaking out in the days ahead!
Cheers,
Kevin.
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Photos of Last Night’s ECO Dianne Saxe Event - Thanks to everyone who was part of this important community discussion!
A packed house awaiting ECO Dianne Saxe - Photo Credit Louisette Lanteigne
The main room full and our overflow facility getting the camera feed - Photo Credit Jennifer Marshman
The view from onstage - Photo Credit Kevin Thomason
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (for now…) Dianne Saxe starting her presentation - Photo Credit Kevin Thomason
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Kevin Thomason
Vice-Chair, Grand River Environmental Network
Phone: (519) 888-0519
Mobile Phone/WhatsApp: (519) 240-1648
Twitter: @kthomason
E-mail: kevinthomason at mac.com
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How to contact MPPs, Waterloo Region and Guelph
General information about MPPs and how the legislature functions
www.ola.org/en/get-involved/contct-mpp <http://www.ola.org/en/get-involved/contct-mpp>
This site gives general information about MPPs, the Ontario Legislative Assembly (that’s the “ola” in provincial websites) and how it works, and suggestions about how to contact MPPs. It also mentions the standing committees of the OLA, the bills they are considering, and how to register if you want to appear before them. So far, Bill 66 is not mentioned under any of the committee postings.
Michael Harris Jr, Kitchener-Conestoga, Progressive Conservative Party
Toronto: tel 416 326-6945, fax 416 326-6942
Rm 434, Main Legislative Bldg, Queen’s Park M7A 1A8
Constituency office: Unit 3 and 4, 63 Arthur St. S., Elmira, N3B 2M6
Mike.harrisco at pc.ola.org <mailto:Mike.harrisco at pc.ola.org>
Tel 519 669-2090, fax 519 669-0476
Amy Fee, Kitchener South – Hespeler, Progressive Conservative Party
Toronto: Hepburn Block, 6th floor, 80 Grosvenor, Toronto, M7A 1E9
Tel: 416 325-1128
Constituency: Unit 4, 4281 King St. E., Kitchener N2P 2E9
Amy.fee at pc.ola.org <mailto:Amy.fee at pc.ola.org>
Tel 519 650-9413, fax 519 650-7006
Belinda Karahalios, Cambridge, Progressive Conservative
Toronto: Hepburn Block, 6th floor, 80 Grosvenor St., Toronto, M7A 1E9
Tel. 416 325-1793
Belinda.karahalios at pc.ola.org <mailto:Belinda.karahalios at pc.ola.org>
Constituency: 498 Eagle St. N., Cambridge N3H 1C2
Tel 519 650-2770, fax 519 650-3918
Catherine Fife, Waterloo, New Democratic Party
Toronto: Room 154, Main Legislative Building, Queen’s Park, Toronto M7A 1A5
Tel 416 325-6913, fax 416 325-6942
Constituency: Suite 220 100 Regina St. S, Waterloo N2J 4P9 (office is in City Hall Bldg)
For legislative issues: Cfife-QP at ndp.on.ca <mailto:Cfife-QP at ndp.on.ca>
For community issues: cfife-co at ndp.on.ca <mailto:cfife-co at ndp.on.ca>
Tel 519 725-3477, fax 519 725-3667
Laura Mae Lindo, Kitchener Centre, New Democratic Party
Toronto: Room 170, Main Legislative Building, Queen’s Park, Toronto, M7A 1A5
Tel 416 326-7221, fax 416 326-7217
Constituency: Suite 212, 25 Frederick St., Kitchener, N2H 6M8
For legislative issues: LLindo-QP at ndp.on.ca <mailto:LLindo-QP at ndp.on.ca>
For community issues: LLindo at ndp.on.ca <mailto:LLindo at ndp.on.ca>
Tel 519 579-5460, fax 519 579-2121
Mike Schreiner, Guelph, Green Party
Toronto: Room 451, Main Legislative Building, Queen’s Park, Toronto M7A 1A2
Tel 416 325-4664, fax 416 325-4666 Mschreiner at ola.org <mailto:Mschreiner at ola.org>
Constituency: 173 Woolwich St., Guelph N1H 3V4
Mschreiner-co at ola.org <mailto:Mschreiner-co at ola.org>
Tel 519 836-4190, fax 519 836-4191
Premier’s Office Call 416 325-1941 and leave a short message re your concerns about Bill 66
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Other Bill 66 Resources:
www.stopbill66.ca
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