GREENSPACE ALLIANCE OF CANADA’S CAPITAL
Greenspace Watch
General Meeting
December 18, 2013
Hintonburg Community Centre
1064 Wellington Street West
K1Y 2Y3
Members present: Erwin Dreessen (chair), Amy Kempster, Nicole DesRoches, Juan Pedro Unger, Jason Kania, and Elina Elnione (note taker)
Guests: Ian Whyte, Judy Makin, Prue Thomson
Regrets: Sol Shuster
The meeting commenced at 7:35 p.m.
1. Adoption of agenda
Agenda adopted as proposed.
2. Administration items
a. Minutes of September 19, 2013
Jason moved, seconded by Nicole, to approve the Minutes of September 19 as circulated. Approved.
b. Action items from the Minutes
List serve – still looking for another moderator and ways to promote the list
Web site – subscribing via the web site now works again, by email not yet.
MEC grant – matter forwarded to the next meeting.
Research proposal to OETN – was to be considered by their Steering Committee on December 11.
Posting of June and July minutes – done.
c. Treasurer’s report
Amy moved, seconded by Jason, to pay $79.65 for printing to Erwin. Approved.
Amy moved, seconded by Nicole, to pay $30.00 to renew our FCA membership.
Jason moved, seconded by Amy, to pay $20 for Industry Canada annual filing to Elina. (In exchange, Elina paid $15 to renew her membership, plus a $5 donation.)
d. Membership report
Amy moved, seconded by Nicole, to accept Judy Makin and Ian Whyte as new members. Approved.
Erwin reported that he continues to look for a membership chair.
e. Industry Canada Annual filing
Annual Return Form 4022 was successfully submitted online to Industry Canada. Erwin signed the printed form.
f. Hosting FCA meeting
Erwin has suggested that we host an FCA meeting. Response from FCA has not yet been received.
g. Registering with the City of Ottawa
City representative Eric Cooper will get back to Erwin about including the Alliance in a list to be sent information to environmental organizations about development or policy proposals from the planning department.
3. Carp Hills: Update on preservation efforts
Judy reported that residents of the Carp area have formed a 5-member executive committee in order to form a connected eco-corridor with public access along the Carp River. Residents use Hidden Lake as a recreation area although formally it is a private property. Recently the owner of this property has expressed an intention to fence off his property due to littering. These plans have distressed the residents who greatly value the access to the lands around Hidden Lake. Well-attended public meetings have been held. The committee will contact the City of Ottawa and possibly land trusts such as Nature Conservancy to see if they would be interested to buy the area surrounding Hidden Lake. The committee’s broader intent is to preserve broad swaths of the Carp Hills.
4. Greenspace Alliance Renewal
Current and recent members of the Alliance were engaged in a discussion about the future direction of the organization. It was concluded that people want to maintain the current activities of the Alliance. An active recruitment should be carried out in order to ensure the sustainability of the organization. It was agreed that attendance to other organizations’ meetings is highly valuable where we should distribute business cards and tell people about the value of our work.
Action: Juan will prepare some slides summarizing the work of the Alliance.
Erwin will draft some tasks in order to enable new volunteers to participate as active members.
5. Ottawa Official Plan review
MMAH invites residents of Ottawa to comment on the Official Plan adopted as By-law by Council on December 11. The intent may be to foresee any potential appeals to the OMB. Erwin suggested we contact MMAH regarding the deal with Cavanagh and the implementation of the natural linkages (eco-corridors). He will circulate a draft letter.
6. Road through Stony Swamp
We are awaiting the posting of a Notice of Completion of the Environmental Assessment and will then request a Part II Order to use Fallowfield instead of Old Richmond Road or, in the alternative, to ask for better mitigation measures.
7. Ontario land use planning and development charges consultation
Erwin posted draft responses to the land use planning questions and awaits comments. Amy will draft answers to the development charges questions.
8. Domtar Lands (The Isles)
Many Alliance members were among the large number of people attending the first consultation on December 11. The deadline for comments on this round is December 30. Post-meeting note: John Almstedt has agreed to be the liason for this project.
9. Municipal Election 2014
It was agreed that we should be involved, together with FCA and Ecology Ottawa. Juan suggested we have scrutineers at the polling stations.
10. NCC Urban Lands Master Plan: Update
Nicole will follow up with the NCC’s Jocelyne Moncion.
11. Mediation of NCC appeal of the 2003 Official Plan
There has been no word from counsel for the NCC nor the OMB although the deadline for a request for an update was October 16.
12. Confirmation of agreements made by email:
a. Sign-on to letter from Ontario Nature and others about the PPS review.
b. Sign-on to letter from Ecology Ottawa and others about municipal financing of energy retrofits.
c. Urban Natural Area strategy intervention at Planning Committee of October 8.
13. Brief Reports
a. NCENNetwork meetings, October 21 and November 18
b. FCA meetings of November 7 and December 2
c. The NCC Board of Directors meeting of November 20 gave final approval to the Greenbelt MP.
The meeting adjourned at 9:20 p.m.
Next meeting will be at the Hintonburg CC on Thursday, January 30, 2014, starting at 7:15 p.m.