[All] FW: Resending GREN Minutes Attachment

Sat Mar 16 10:16:46 EDT 2019

Thanks Kevin – before I go any further, I would like to highly recommend everyone watch a new documentary (on Netflix for one source) about climate change by Leonardo di Caprio called “Before the Flood” - I am just watching it now – he goes to many places which would be hard for us to see otherwise - prepare to be shocked at how fast some things are changing around the world. For instance in south Iceland a scientist is showing him how the height of the ice surface has decreased by 30 feet, and channels of melt water are barreling down crevasses in the ice toward the ocean.  

My other comments are below beside the items in blue text. 

From: Kevin Thomason <kevinthomason at mac.com <mailto:kevinthomason at mac.com> > 
Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2019 3:34 PM
To: strothjkl at sympatico.ca <mailto:strothjkl at sympatico.ca> 
Cc: Susan Bryant <shbryant at uwaterloo.ca <mailto:shbryant at uwaterloo.ca> >; GREN <All at gren.ca <mailto:All at gren.ca> >
Subject: Re: [All] Resending GREN Minutes Attachment

Indeed Lori.  Mike Harris Jr’s comments were quite concerning - he went on to say that if people didn’t like what his government was doing that they would get their say at the ballot box in three and half years.  I responded that he might not like what the outcome is and that Waterloo Region had gotten to where we are today through collaboration, dialog and working together between all our levels of government and communities.  Good reply, and it is largely true I would say. I don’t do so much now, but me and most of my enviro friends were able to work collaboratively with local governments to get things done over many years. The initiatives I worked on started in 1989 when the Blue Box was just being introduced. Isn’t it strange to think of a time when everyone threw everything out-everything was garbage.  There was the whole education process for everyone learning about things like recycling, composting, waste diversion in general, planting things other than grass in or lawns, stopping the spraying of chemicals on our lawns and gardens (which was rampant), commuting in greener ways, the Alexandra Street public recycling depot was set up (for those who didn’t have blue box pickup plus a few other materials that weren’t accepted at the curb but would be picked up., eg. Styrofoam for a couple of years, automobile oil curbside pickup (for those who change their own oil- goes to Breslube), education re: leaving grass clippings on the lawn, and so many other things. City of Waterloo employee Brian Detzler’s methods of taking care of the turf in the City of Waterloo parks and grounds was ground-breaking (no pun intended-it was using almost zero chemicals and was revolutionary) helped many people see that decent grass could be grown without chemical fertilizers (but some natural fertilizers were used I think) and weed killers. He used things like aerating, over-seeding, spreading composted soil, not cutting grass so short (raising the bade height) to keep grass green. Dandelions were just mowed and they would disappear into the mixture- the playing fields and park he oversaw did have some dandelions, but people grew to accept them…no easy feat, as the lawn care companies were brain-washing everyone that dandelions were a sign or irresponsibility and if we didn’t get rid of them all, they would take over everywhere. Brian was asked to go and give talks all over North America and changed many cities’ turf care practices, reducing harmful chemical use on a large scale.

He acknowledged that this works in Waterloo Region – it might “work” but when people have no choice/input, I wouldn’t call it ‘working’!! - and agreed that it was essential to our success but went on to say that most other places in Ontario are just so broken it would never work and that is why his government has to take the approach that they are and how proud he was of how fast they were moving on initiatives. Fast is not always good when things need to be looked at in depth and with sensitivity, and may have taken years of thoughtful work to put into place !!  Again, I responded that speed and quantity of new laws being enacted might not be the best measures of success or of a great place to live but it was clear that Mike felt his job is to bring provincial policy and party dogma to Waterloo and not to take our ideas to the rest of the province.  He seemed far more interested in bringing Doug Ford policies here than representing local constituents at Queen’s Park.  Not good

We also spoke about the lack of local citizen participation in consultations and open houses and how it seemed that only developers and well connected business people got notice of these few invitation-only events.  I provided several recent examples and he said that he would look into it and ensure that we were included in the future (Sandra even provided a contact list of names, addresses. e-mails and phone numbers) though I have yet to hear anything further. Good comments, but unfortunately I don’t think they want the input. This was an article in The Record from a few days ago about a Kitchener  neighbourhood group who were able to cancel a tall parking garage near their houses due to the existence of the Local Planning Appeal Support Centre, which I believe is the agency that John said the Ford gov.’t wants to eliminate  https://www.kitchenerpost.ca/news-story/9215302-five-storey-parking-garage-nixed-after-midtown-neighbours-appeal/   -a quote from the article: Parker added that she and her group probably wouldn’t have been able to reach a settlement if not for the expert testimony of a professional planner and the support of the Local Planning Appeal Support Centre, which was established to help people understand and navigate the land use planning and appeal process but has since been defunded by the provincial government.

It was an insightful meeting and many kudos to Sandra and Susan for working hard to try to build bridges and find positive points. Yes- good for GREN’ers and all their hard work

As for the GREN annual membership fee’s it’s likely easiest to bring it to a GREN meeting or give it to another person to bring.  Alternatively, you can always mail it to John, Greg Michalenko our treasurer, or myself. Ok thank you

Cheers,

Kevin.

…..additional notes in blue and terra cotta from Lori Strothard

Cheers as well, and….

The first day of Spring is less than a week away!
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Kevin Thomason

1115 Cedar Grove Road
Waterloo, Ontario Canada  N2J 3Z4

Phone: (519) 888-0519
Mobile Phone/WhatsApp: (519) 240-1648
Twitter: @kthomason
E-mail: <mailto:kevinthomason at mac.com>  kevinthomason at mac.com

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