Greenspace Alliance of Canada’s Capital
Minutes of General Monthly Meeting of Nov. 21, 2011
Members present: Amy Kempster (chair and notetaker), Jason Kania, Sol Shuster
Guest: James O’Grady
Regrets: Erwin Dreessen, Elina Elnione
1. Changes to Agenda:
It was agreed to add the question of the City Governance Committee’s report on a Lobbyist register under Other Business.
2. Minutes from October meeting.
Sol moved and Amy seconded that the minutes be approved. Agreed.
3. Membership
Jason renewed his membership and James paid for his membership. Moved by Sol and seconded by Jason that James’ membership be accepted. Agreed.
4. Report on OMB activities.
a) Country lots. Amy reported that the case had finished but no decision as yet. She thought the decision might uphold the moratorium but warned that it was hard to tell what Jackson might do.
b) She mentioned that there was some ongoing work on Flewellyn since the decision needed to be put into actual words for an Official Plan Amendment as well as an actual OMB order.
c) Urban Boundary. Erwin is working hard on the evidence we will bring to the second phase of the urban boundary question re the need to exclude land in eco-corridors/linkages.
5. Other reports:
a) Jason reported that he had finished his research on what is now the zoning on the urban natural areas identified some time ago. He will rearrange his data and then send it out to the executive. We asked him to divide his table by level of priority high, medium and low and, for the moment, send out data on the high and medium levels only.
b) Amy reported that she had a brief conversation with Nicole Parent who suggested we take no action at the moment on heritage trees as they are planning to bring something forward before long.
6. Request to take a position on Greenhouse gases. A request from a neighbour of the Chair was read. Jason moved and James seconded that we pass the following resolution:
Whereas the Greenspace Alliance of Canada’s Capital is constituted to preserve the region’s natural areas and parks; and, the flora and fauna of those green areas has largely evolved to survive in the historic climate of the Ottawa Valley; and, by the emissions of greenhouse gasses (produced by) humans — including we in the National Capital Region — the climate is changing;
We therefore call on the City of Ottawa, Ville de Gatineau, the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario and the Government of Canada to take such actions within their jurisdiction, and to collaborate with and to urge and encourage other government bodies, as a priority to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. This resolution being consistent with the dire warnings of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Panel on Climate Change.
All agreed.
7. The item re the list-serve was discussed briefly but the group was uncertain of the reasons for wanting a change from the present arrangement so it was decided to discuss this further at the next meeting.
8. The report from the staff re lobbying was discussed and the group was alarmed that community groups would need to register as lobbyists and that developers in discussion with staff need not register. James moved and Sol seconded that the Greenspace Alliance protest these suggested actions and ask the FCA to communicate the protest of the Greenspace Alliance and other community groups to the City Governance Committee. It was noted re developers and staff communication that conversations where changing of zoning or an Official Plan Amendment were discussed should be reported. Agreed.
Adjournment.