Today Mike Schreiner and supporters launched the Protect Our Water — Say No to Dolime campaign.
The provincial government recently approved Dolime's application to amend their water permit. This approval threatens the quality and quantity of our water in Guelph and the City of Guelph is seeking to appeal this decision: City Will Seek to Appeal.
The intent of the Protect Our Water — Say No to Dolime campaign is to raise awareness about this important issue and support the City of Guelph in its bid to appeal. Ways for you to play a part in the Dolime campaign:
For more information about the campaign see MikeSchreiner.ca.
Posted by Carl Griffin on April 30, 2013 | Permalink
The Guelph Greens AGM is coming in June and will feature the election of new Executive. If you have questions about what the Guelph Green Party is, how we function or the descriptions of various positions, please read our constitution available here!
The Guelph Greens AGM is coming in June and will feature the election of new Executive. If you have questions about what the Guelph Green Party is, how we function or the descriptions of various positions, please read our constitution available here!
Posted by Robert Routledge on April 07, 2013 | Permalink
December 21, 2012
Posted by gmaurice on January 06, 2013 | Permalink
The Greens have conducted local polls showing that 50% of Guelphites are more likely to vote Green with the Leader running here. Mike is also already the clear second choice among traditional non-Green voters - just think what we could do before spring!
Let's show Mike our support by coming out to his official nomination meeting. Everyone is welcome, supporter, member or just plain curious! Bring a friend out for a chance to meet Mike!
(Only members registered prior to November 20th may vote.)
If you have any enquiries or would like to get involved, please contact us at info@guelphgreens.ca.
December 4th, 7:30pm
Innovation Guelph
111 Farquhar
Please let us know you're coming by confirming via the facebook event.
I look forward to seeing you there!
Gillian Maurice
Secretary, Guelph Greens
Posted by gmaurice on December 04, 2012 | Permalink
The Guelph Greens are preparing for an election likely to take place in the spring of 2013 in response to Dalton McGuinty announcing his intention to resign. The nomination meeting is on December 4th, 2012, 7:30pm at Innovation Guelph (111 Farquhar Street). The meeting is open to anyone interested in hearing why the Green Party is the party of good ideas and why Guelph's next representative to Queen's Park should be Green.
If you are interested in becoming the candidate, please contact the Chief Returning Officer Philip Zachariah via info@guelphgreens.ca to get the nomination package or to ask any questions.
To vote at the nomination meeting, you must become a member of the Green Party of Ontario before November 20th. Go to www.gpo.ca/join to become a member. A one-year membership is only $10.
Information about the potential candidates will be made available to all members of the party as it becomes available.
if you have any enquiries, please contact us at info@guelphgreens.ca
Posted by gmaurice on November 07, 2012 | Permalink
A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring
-Alexander Pope
I was very frustrated when the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario came out with a position against wind turbines. Specifically, he's against turbines in Important Bird Areas.
Here's what boggles my mind. Windows are killing 22 million birds in Canada each year. House cats are killing half a billion birds in North America each year. Power lines kill birds. Cars kill more birds. Oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico kill 200,000 birds a year. And that's when they're not spilling oil all over bird habitats (I'm looking at you, BP).
Wind turbines do kill birds. They kill about 2 birds a year. In Canada, there's about 5500MW of wind turbines, or about 3000 turbines. So, we're talking about 6000 bird deaths a year.
Let's put that in perspective. For every bird killed by a turbine, 3,600 are killed by a window. The big problem is that fossil fuel plants, and nuclear plants, will kill birds too. Both directly, and as a result of negative effects on climate. And when you have big generating stations, like you do with nuclear, you have big power lines. Big power lines kill birds.
And this doesn't even touch on the fact that climate change will be devastating to bird climates. That's part of why the Audubon society has come out in favour of wind turbines.
I'm not writing this to be against nuclear, or coal. I'm just curious why the Environmental Commissioner would come out against a clean, renewable source of energy like wind. Even just in Important Bird Areas. If he wanted to really help birds in those areas, perhaps he should come out against windows in important bird areas.
So, do wind turbines kill birds? Yes. But wind turbines also provide us with part of the key to a carbon-free energy mix. And that's going to be better for all of us, birds included. Let's not just learn a little, let's think about it in a bigger context.
David Estill
Posted by gmaurice on October 04, 2012 | Permalink
Dear Honourable Mayor and Councilors:
It is puzzling why a by-law, which ostensibly is being considered as a way to address the unruly and sometimes damaging behaviour of club patrons or neighbourhood party-goers, has, in what appears to be a seemingly stealth addition, included public demonstrations and protests, and the erection of temporary structures on public property.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms enshrines a certain number of fundamental rights that are deemed necessary in a healthy democracy. One of them is the public’s right to assembly.
At the same time that this by-law is being considered the City is also working on an initiative that covers community well-being. The well-being of a community depends on many things, but one of the most basic is the right to assemble in public. By attempting to constrain that right, regardless of the wordplay used to make this palatable to the public, this by-law would be an assault on democracy and community well-being as it is currently proposed.
As well, the inclusion of these two additional activities places us on a slippery slope that could lead to major abuses of the public right to assemble here in Guelph. One just has to look at New York City last week, Anaheim, California earlier this summer, and the G20 in 2010. This is what happens when laws are struck without respecting the fundamentals freedom they are assaulting. It is also the first steps that governing bodies take when their fear of public response is high; but it is also certain that those same bodies, by enacting laws that contravene basic rights and freedoms, could lead to an eventual police state, where repression of the public is key for social control. I am sure that this is not the City’s intent, but it is a danger with the proposed by-law.
Freedom for the public to assemble must never be constrained or outlawed, no matter how uncomfortable it may be to observers, or how conflicting it may be to currently held attitudes of any level of government. A push-back from citizens of a city, province, state or nation is always a sign of a healthy democracy and that is the purpose of protests and demonstrations. They bring attention to issues that threaten our basic freedoms and rights. The abuses and arrests of peaceful demonstrators in the Occupy Movements and G20 would never have been able to occur had not the states, province and municipalities enacted temporary and illegal laws to curtail the protests.
The erection of temporary structures, the second activity about which I write to you today, includes those structures that may be part of a public protest or demonstration, but could also include the temporary structures of the homeless. Neither are public nuisances. They may be uncomfortable to behold and may offend our sense of tidiness, but both are outcomes of injustices and attempts to survive. The homeless are another casualty of either mental health issues or inequality from vulture capitalism, and they could be another casualty in the efforts to comply with the by-law.
I urge you all to please consider the direction that this by-law takes us. Fear and power are not amiable companions and when you use both to resolve issues that may be uncomfortable and disruptive it can only lead to a deterioration of community well-being. I understand the need to curtail unruly behaviour and vandalism in both the downtown and in residential areas. Living in close proximity to downtown I have firsthand experience with this type of behaviour and vandalism. But, please, consider this proposal carefully and in the end I hope you will decide to strike from the by-law the activities of public protest and demonstrations, and the erection of temporary structures on City (public) property.
Sincerely,
Patti Maurice
Posted by gmaurice on September 29, 2012 | Permalink
President’s Blog
Robocall vote suppression update: The Liberals are fined?
The Liberal campaign in the 2010 Federal Election made a mistake, they sent out a voice message to thousands of phones in Guelph (a robocall) and did not identify themselves as being the source of the call. This is a violation of Election Canada rules and they were fined accordingly. This is how our system should work: If a party chooses to violate law or rules they should be caught and face consequences. A similar example occurred in Etobicoke Centre where voting irregularities occurred at a high enough frequency that they likely affected the outcome of the election. The results of this election were overturned and the Supreme Court of Canada is currently examining the case.
These examples beg the question: When are we going to see someone held accountable for the voter suppression that took place in Guelph? This isn’t about the results of the election being affected, MP Valeriotte, won by a large margin. This is about our right to vote, this is about encouraging the next generation of voters to know that their vote matters, this is about setting a precedent for what is and is not acceptable in Canadian politics. I find it hard to believe that there is no action that could be taken in our situation with the information currently available to our elected representatives in Ottawa.
The Green Party holds participatory democracy as a core value. It’s too bad the traditional parties don’t share that belief.
Posted by Mary Cross on September 16, 2012 | Permalink
The writ has dropped for the Kitchener-Waterloo by-election, with residents going to the polls on September 6th. With so many folk on vacation, and students not back yet, Green candidate Stacey Danckert can use all the help she can get!
Let's show our neighbours that the Guelph Greens are here to help - visit danckert.ca and sign up to volunteer or donate at this critical time!
During by-elections there is no concern about what party will form the government - but what party will hold the balancing vote? That could be the Greens, with enough people and support - let's help Stacey get to Parliament!
Posted by gmaurice on August 09, 2012 | Permalink
It’s going to cost Ontarians $180 million to move a gas-fired power plant from Mississauga to Lambton County.
This is, according to the Energy Minister Chris Bentley, because the governing provincial Liberals were “listening to the community” when they made that 2011 decision.
I’m a huge advocate of renewable energy. That said, take a drive through the country, and you’ll see the “Stop the wind turbines” signs all over. Does the precedent of the Mississauga gas plant decision mean that any community that doesn’t want a generation facility of any type in their community will get its way?
So perhaps a few larger generation stations that are out of the way will work in this plan. However, Bruce Power failed to meet its commercial operation milestone. This gives the ratepayers of Ontario a chance to save upward of $500 million.
Are we going to reward failure, or take bold action?
Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals campaigned in 2011 on green energy jobs and the feed-in-tariff program they introduced. In stark contrast, the Progressive Conservatives said that if they got into power, they’d cancel the program.
The Conservatives said they’d cancel it in part because they didn’t have a handle on the economics of energy in this province, but also because it took too many powers away from the community.
So on one hand, the Liberals are stripping power from a community. On the other, they’re moving plants because a community doesn’t want it, at a heavy cost to all Ontarians. We want to control energy prices, but it looks like Bruce Power will get its payday despite not living up to its side of the bargain.
And the green energy jobs? They’ve been leaving the province in droves, since the feed-in-tariff program has been more or less stalled since last October. It looks like the Liberals gave the Conservatives their wish, and haven’t been accepting applications in the program, which in turn has been driving investment elsewhere.
Big bills to pay for moving gas plants. Green energy jobs leaving the province. And nuclear reactors that aren’t producing on time. This is what Bentley’s Ministry of Energy has accomplished. It’s like they’re a rudderless ship, reacting to problem after problem, instead of leading us forward.
We deserve better.
We deserve a government that listens to us, yes, but that has the courage to stand up for its convictions. We need to choose a path toward clean, renewable energy. And toward keeping jobs and innovation in our province. We have a choice. Let’s move forward.
David Estill is president and CEO of Estill Energy Inc., a Guelph- based company that installs solar systems for businesses and residences in southwestern Ontario.
Article originally published in the Guelph Mercury, guest column, July 13, 2012
Posted by gmaurice on July 16, 2012 | Permalink
So, let me explain.
The Ontario Liberal party won the election in the fall with a broad minority. During that campaign, they touted Green Energy, particularly the Feed-in-tariff program, widely. It was a key election issue, especially for those in the renewable energy field.
Liz Sandals even said: "The reality is that if Hudak is elected, a lot of people in Guelph will lose their job"
The FIT program has attracted lots of investment, and created lots of jobs in Ontario. I run a solar installation company myself, and I've created real jobs here in Guelph.
So, why then has the Liberal Government effectively shut down the FIT program?
This was, ostensibly, for a price review. Which is fair. The price of solar has decreased dramatically, and the tariff rates should come down. But it's a pretty simple calculation. The Canadian Solar Industry Association, along with the Canadian Wind Energy Association had recommendations in within a month.
For the past five months, I've been hearing "This is the week. This is the week the program will start back up". And each week comes and goes.
No new procurement contracts for renewables have been issued in the entire time that Chris Bentley, the current Minister of Energy, has been sitting. He's probably been busy trying to figure out how to deal with Bruce Power.
How do you think an industry is holding up when you can't sell anything for nine months? It's been hardest on the small companies, who don't have deep pockets to weather the storm. We're seeing plants leave Ontario because of this political instability. I ask- where is the commitment to Green Energy that the Liberals campaigned on?
So, I'd challenge you to contact Chris Bentley or your MPP and ask them- where's the renewable power? If you're in Guelph, ask Liz Sandals why her government has issued the same amount of renewable energy contracts as the conservatives would have- zero.
Oh, and the analogy Rob was talking about? He said that the renewable industry is like Charlie Brown, and the Liberals are like Lucy. And he's right- we're poised for success, and keep falling down at the last minute.
Good grief.
Let's create and support the green jobs in this province.
Posted by Dave Estill on July 05, 2012 | Permalink
I highly encourage anyone who has ever thought about voting Green to read this article about the role Elizabeth May played in the Budget bill debate. The writer from the Ottawa Citizen paints a clear picture of the power of one MP, imagine the power of 2, 5 or even 10 MP's willing to approach politics differently. We should expect this from our leaders.
Story from the Ottawa Citizen.
I highly encourage anyone who has ever thought about voting Green to read this article about the role Elizabeth May played in the Budget bill debate. The writer from the Ottawa Citizen paints a clear picture of the power of one MP, imagine the power of 2, 5 or even 10 MP's willing to approach politics differently. We should expect this from our leaders.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/power/6771246/story.html
Posted by Robert Routledge on June 17, 2012 | Permalink
Dear Guelph Greens,
Please feel free to pass this message along to your members who may be interested in saving Canada's Experimental Lakes Area.
-----------------------
Hello Everyone,
On May 17, 2012 the Department of Fisheries & Oceans notified its employees at the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) that the world-renowned freshwater research facility will be shut down in March 2013. This latest blow to Canada's scientific research community has caused many academics within Canada and around the globe to speak out.
ELA is Canada's 'flagship environmental research centre'. There is no other comparable facility in the world. The ELA, located in northwestern Ontario, consists of 58 small lakes and their watershed that have been set aside for research. Since 1968, this facility has been a natural laboratory to study the physical, chemical, and biological processes in lake ecosystems. The tremendous value of this facility lies in the ability of scientists to conduct whole-ecosystem manipulation experiments. These studies have provided sound scientific knowledge for the development of environmental policies both nationally and internationally. The key areas of influence have been in understanding and managing algal blooms, acid rain, climate change, mercury pollution, greenhouse gas production, hydroelectric reservoir development, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
The scientific output of Canada’s ELA has been impressive to say the least – it has produced 745 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 126 graduate theses, 102 book chapters and synthesis papers, 185 data reports, and several books. ELA scientists have been the recipients of numerous prestigious international water awards, including the Stockholm Water Prize, the International Tyler Prize for Environmental Science and the Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal for Science and Engineering.
What is surprising about the Government’s decision is that Canada’s ELA has received outstanding reviews by Canada’s Auditor General's office, and the Government has invested ca. $3 million in new infrastructure over the last 10 years. Furthermore, the annual operating budget of Canada’s ELA facility is only $2 million. A $600k portion of this covers operating expenses for the facility, a cost which is split between Fisheries & Oceans Canada and Environment Canada. Research expenses are largely funded by external agencies and institutions. In contrast, the Canadian Government spent $1.9 million during the G20 Summit in Toronto to build a tourism pavilion that housed a fake lake in the summit's media centre.
This decision, and the reactions, have been the subject of much media coverage over the last few days including this article in Nature. Several of the recent press releases and media articles can be found on the website of The Coalition to Save ELA. Today, a national, public petition was launched to officially oppose the federal decision to close the Experimental Lakes Area. I will be helping to get signatures at the University of Guelph and in my community. If you are also opposed to this decision, and wish to help strengthen our voice in the House of Commons, I would urge you to also collect signatures wherever you can.
Please let me know if you are interested in helping with this petition. Feel free to forward this email to anyone who might be interested in this issue. The decision to shut down ELA is bad for Canada, bad for Canadians, and bad for future generations that need clean water, healthy fisheries, and a healthy environment to live in. I support our country's aim to be fiscally responsible, but closing ELA will do nothing to help this cause. We may save $2 million/year, but we stand to lose so much more.
Yours truly,
Dave Snider
Posted by Mary Cross on May 27, 2012 | Permalink
It seems like there are a lot of "Buses" in the news these days.
First off, here at home, the new bus terminal is being opened on Sunday. I'm not an urban planner, so it's hard for me to comment on the location, but it's nice to see a commitment to transit. And they're using LED lights at the terminal, which is forward thinking too.
Then there's the omnibus budget implementation bill, bill C-38. This is not to be confused with the omnibus crime bill.
So what is an omnibus bill? It's a bill that covers a lot of different, and often unrelated bills. Omnibus is from the latin, and means "For everything".
The omnibus budget bill does help implement the budget, but it also changed over 60 different laws. From the Parks Canada Act, to the Canada Marine Act, to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. What do these acts have to do with implementing the budget?
Nothing.
Really. Which is why the NDP wants to have the bill split out into smaller, more manageable parts. The bill as it stands comes in at 425 pages. Elizabeth May is pretty sure she's one of the only MPs to have read the entire thing, because it's so convoluted.
Large bills like this can be problematic for many reasons. One is political. Say I introduce a bill that had two parts- one that decreased environmental oversight, and the other that offered a tax break to low income families. You might be against the bill because you want stronger enviromental oversight. But if you vote against it, I can say you voted against a tax break for low income families.
Another reason is practical. Seriously- try to read this bill. It's very convoluted. As one MP once said: "In the interests of democracy, I ask how can members, represent their constituents on these various areas when they are forced to vote on a block of such legislation?"
That was Stephen Harper. Again, if only politicians would listen to themselves, we'd be better off.
Want to help? Sign up for our newsletter using the form on the right (or join the party). We'll keep you in the loop.
Posted by Dave Estill on May 16, 2012 | Permalink
The budget omnibus bill was best described by Terry Glavin the other day as a “statutory juggernaut that introduces, amends or repeals nearly 70 federal laws.” (Ottawa Citizen, May 5, 2012 “Something’s fishy with Bill C-38”).
What Canadians are beginning to realize is that the budget omnibus bill, or Bill C-38, is an outrage. There is much in the budget that was never hinted at, but there are also claims of what is in the bill that simply are not there.
Aspects never even hinted at in the budget itself include removing over-sight from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and changing entitlement to Employment Insurance (this is still vague but appears to allow refusing EI to anyone if there is any job available, even not in their field).
Nearly half of the budget implementation bill is directed at re-writing Canada’s foundational environmental laws. The budget never mentioned that the Fisheries Act was to be re-written, gutting habitat protection and restricting federal action in many instances to commercial, recreational and Aboriginal fisheries. Rumours abounded due to a leaked memo to retired Fisheries scientist Otto Langer, but there was nothing in the budget about it at all. But C-38 devotes a lot of space to the overhaul of protection of fish habitat. If a human isn’t catching a fish, there is no protection for its habitat. There was nothing in the budget about changes to the Species at Risk Act, putting the National Energy Board (NEB) in charge of permitting destruction of endangered species and their habitat found on the proposed route of a pipeline; nor for the supplanting of the NEB as arbiter of pipelines under the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA). The NWPA is amended such that pipelines are no longer considered an obstruction to navigation – even if they are.
Although it was abundantly clear that a large focus was to be “streamlining” the environmental assessment process, the advanced hype focused on time limits for hearings. It was nowhere mentioned that the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act was to be repealed. C-38 wipes out the law and introduces an entirely new approach to environmental assessment.
With so many new laws and repeal of old laws and complex text, the Conservative ministers speaking in the House in support of C-38 frequently claim the Act will include measures that are simply not there at all, or mis-state how the new laws will operate.
I have heard members and Cabinet ministers claim the Act adds to environmental protection through increased tanker safety – but that is not in Bill C-38. I have also heard members and ministers claim that the substitution of a federal environmental review is only allowed if the province has an “equivalent process” or as Parliamentary Secretary Michelle Rempel would have it, only if the provincial review is, “As good or better,” Whenever opposition members ask about the appalling nature of the omnibus bill, the Conservative talking points include a gratuitous insult, “Perhaps if the Member opposite would actually read the bill...”
I would find it refreshing if any of the Conservatives speaking for the bill had read it. I went over to one Conservative MP to inquire where he found the equivalency provisions and he pointed to the bill’s summary -- not a legislatively operative section. True, the summary section claims the processes must be equivalent, but the bill itself falls short of that or any other objective criteria. The provisions allowing for a provincial government to sign an agreement to substitute the federal environmental review with a provincial review are a strange combination of discretionary and mandatory language.
Discretionary: “If the Minister is of the opinion that a process for assessing the environmental effects of designated projects that is followed by the government of a province...that has the powers, duties or functions in relation to an assessment of the environmental effects of a designated process would be an appropriate substitute (mandatory) the Minister must, on request of the province approve the substitution.” (Section 32, on page 51 of C-38.)
What would make the minister think it was “appropriate”? “Appropriate” is not defined. Maybe Environment Canada is short of cash? Maybe the province is looking for a major development and wants it rubber-stamped quickly? There is nothing to rule out an exercise of discretion without any ability to justify it as “equivalent.” Once the Minister has reached that conclusion and a province requests a substitution, there is a mandatory duty to pass over the federal role to the province.
I am unsure if I have found everything alarming in C-38. I cannot, for example, figure out why one section of the Fisheries Act is placed more than a hundred pages removed from the rest of the Fisheries Act changes, and I also cannot figure out what the stranded “Fish Allocation for financing purposes” (page 289, section 411 of Fisheries Act) amendments are supposed to do. It looks like a scheme for selling fish or equipment for financing government activities. But that is pretty bizarre.
I am sure that putting all this in a fast-track budget bill, with time allocation on debate and heading to the Finance Committee, is a direct assault on the principles of Parliamentary Democracy.
Posted by Mary Cross on May 09, 2012 | Permalink