General Meeting – 20 September 2007

Greenspace Alliance of Canada’s Capital

Minutes of General Monthly Meeting of September 20, 2007

Champlain Field House, 149 Cowley Avenue

Started:  7:10 PM

Members present:     Carol Gudz (Chair), Theresa Jobateh (Minutes Taker), Amy Kempster,  Janice Seline

Regrets:    Bill Royds, Erwin Dreessen, Daphne McCree, George Wilson

  1. Welcome and Introductions
  1. Adoption of Agenda

Amy moved.  Janice Seconded.

     3. Approval of minutes from the May 17th meeting

Theresa moved. Amy seconded.

     4. Approval of minutes from the August 16th meeting

Theresa moved. Janice seconded.

  1. Business arising from the August 16 meeting minutes

3 b) Amy provided the text required to complete the May 17 minutes.

Continuation of business arising from July 19th meeting minutes:

7 b) OPL Ottawa room I cataloguing (Bill) – BF to next meeting;

7 c) Activist recruitment (Carol) – BF to next meeting.

6. Treasurer’s report

      • Auditor’s report (Amy) Amy informed the meeting that she did get in touch but will have to follow up again with the auditor.
      • Transfer to GIC – BF

7 a) Greening the Capital Symposium proposal write-up (Bill) BF to next meeting.

7 b) City Hall room and speaker for AGM (Amy) COMPLETED.  AGM will be in the Honeywell Room on October 18th.  Guest speaker will be David McLaughlin , President & CEO of the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy.

7 c) Chair’s report for 2007 (Carol)

Action: Carol will do.

7 c) GA Pamphlet.  Janice informed the meeting that she did translate and sent to Erwin.

Action: Janice will follow up with Erwin on final “clean” copy.

9 b) City of Ottawa’s notification process (Theresa and George).  The attendees discussed the draft document presented.

Action: Theresa will make updates to the comments document, fill in the city’s form, scan and send to GA Directors for review/approval.

  1. Membership report (Janice)

Janice provided I distributed a draft of notice that she will send to the membership. It described the fee increase, the benefits of membership and the importance of renewing.

Action: Janice will update based on comments from attendees and will get it out to the list I web site.

  1. Treasurer’s Report (Amy)

Action: Amy will send the report via email to directors.

  1. Discussion Items

a) AGM

i) Nominating Committee:  Carol provided an update and presented suggested names for potential committee members and directors.   Attendees discussed these as well as others.

Action: Carol will ask Bill Royds if he could perform nomination committee tasks.

ii) 2007 Chair’s report:

Action: Carol will prepare a report and send a draft to directors.

iii) Updated Pamphlet:

Action: Janice will follow up with Erwin on the final copy and arrange for printing.

iv) Catering

Action: Theresa will arrange for coffee/tea needs.  Others are encouraged to bring “nibbles”.

b) Codes of Practice for Environmental Assessments

Carol read and reviewed Erwin’s draft text on behalf of the Greenspace Alliance to Special Projects Advisor, Ministry of the Environment, Project Coordination Section.

Amy moved to approve.  Janice seconded.

c) Imagine Ottawa

Attendees discussed this event coming up October 20th and the Alliance’s attendance.

Action: Carol will register the Alliance for a table.

  1. Updates/ information items:

a) Poets’ Pathway Update – Carol provided this update on behalf of George.

Jane Moore and George attended the NCC Open House on Tuesday night, re: Pinecrest Creek reconstruction and they spoke publicly about the Poets’ Pathway project.  They will be making a presentation at an upcoming NCC meeting.  They have accepted a request to give a workshop at the Imagine Ottawa conference in October. More information will be forthcoming.

b) Website update – BF to next meeting.

c) Greenspace Library – (Bill I OPL Ottawa Room) – BF to next meeting.

d) OP progress on rural issues (Amy)

Amy provided an update on recent meetings and exchanges. There will be a forum on November 3rd, aimed at the rural community. She would like to see support I presence of Greenspace proponents.

Action: Amy will send a copy of the final report via email to directors. She will ask Ron to post an updated document to the GA web site indicating where comments should go. She will also have this posted to the mailing list.

e) City’s Planning Primer Sessions

Theresa provided an update of sessions 1 and 2.  Attendees discussed information and concurred that the OP amendments will be a good project on which to apply some of the new-found skills and knowledge.

f) GA Display board

Action: Janice will follow up with Mik on cost information.

g) Carp River Coalition – Sierra Club Ottawa Group affiliation

Carol reported that the Sierra Club now has a similar affiliation as the Alliance.  Carol can now speak on behalf of SCO.

10. New Business

a) 5500 Kanata Avenue

Motion:  Amy moves to submit comments re:  Open Space and net loss, stating the concern that we are losing it and we prefer not to lose it. Amy moved.  Janice seconded.

Action: Amy will submit comments.

b) Growth Projections for Ottawa

Amy provided an information update along with information quoted from the draft book for 2006-2031, especially the population increase scenarios.   Projections are less than originally thought in the 20/20 plan for the prospect for population, housing and jobs. One notable problem is they did not use 2006 census data.

11. Adjournment – The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 PM.

Next meeting:  October 18, 2007 (AGM)