GREENSPACE ALLIANCE OF CANADA’S CAPITAL
Greenspace Watch
General Meeting
September 22, 2014
Hintonburg Community Centre
1064 Wellington Street West
K1Y 2Y3
Members present:
Erwin Dreessen (chair and notetaker), Ian Whyte, Nicole DesRoches, Bruce Lindsay, Sol Shuster, Juan Pedro Unger, Jason Kania
Guest: Bill Toms
The meeting commenced at 7:21 p.m.
1. Agenda
The agenda was adopted as amended.
2. Administrative items
a. Minutes of August 28, 2014
Bruce moved, seconded by Nicole, to approve the Minutes of August 28 as amended. Agreed.
b. Action updates
– The MEC grant was submitted on September 6. If we are successful, we should hear around October 22.
– Donna DuBreuil and Erwin registered for the Ontario Road Ecology Group’s symposium on November 27-28. There is no news on whether the invitee list has now been widened.
c. Appointment of a Secretary
Deferred.
d. Treasurer’s report
Sol moved, seconded by Bruce, to compensate Erwin for the cost of the election advertisements ($1,238.96), printing ($2.17) and registration for the OREG symposium ($96.05), for a total of $1,337.18. Agreed.
e. Membership report
Bruce moved, seconded by Nicole, to accept the membership of Bill Toms. Agreed.
f. Display panel repair
Nicole volunteered her husband to repair and remodel our display panel.
g. GA List bounces
Jason explained that the high number of bounces (20%) are entirely due to protocol changes introduced by yahoo.com. He is awaiting Sympa software changes that will resolve the problem and checks for updates weekly.
3. Municipal election
a. Update & status of our initiative
– Emails went out to all candidates (except 5 who did not provide an email address; mailing to 3 others failed despite repeated attempts). Three of 8 mayoral candidates and 30 out of 116 councillor candidates (net) have responded to date, including only two incumbents.
– JP and Jason will set up a Twitter account ASAP, with the incumbents as the first target.
– Centretown News and the Metroland papers will have a news story.
– It was agreed to issue a media release around the second week of October.
b. Ecology Ottawa’s mayoralty debate (September 24)
It was agreed to ask a question about public consultation and advisory committees and, if there is an opportunity for a second question, to press for a site alteration by-law.
c. Capital Ward debate on the environment (October 15)
It was agreed to co-sponsor this event.
4. Brief reports / updates
a. Part II Order request re Road through Stony Swamp
A letter of acknowledgment was received from Lisa Raitt, the federal Minister of Transport. No news yet from the Ontario Minister of the Environment.
b. KNL – Drainage Act item
Before the item was considered (and approved) by ARAC, there was a substantive “kitchen” meeting with staff when further explanation was provided about this proposal to appoint an engineer for the purpose of investigating the implications of diverting drainage from Shirley’s Brook to Kizell Drain. City counsel was instructed to provide Council with a memo explaining what was discussed at the “kitchen” meeting but this memo has not surfaced. (Council approved the proposal at its meeting of September 10.) Many other questions about this matter remain unresolved.
c. Kanata North tree cutting
There was no news about what happened at Court on September 18. Post-meeting note: Martha Copestake (Forester – Planning), via Paul Johanis, conveyed the following: “The second appearance for the March Road tree cutting case was last Thursday. It was about 30 seconds long. Basically, it was a time for the City’s lawyers to request a pre-trial, which was accepted. The date for pre-trial was set for November 27 at 1:30 in Courtroom 2 at Constellation Drive.”
d. FCA meeting of September 10
Iola Price represented the Alliance at this meeting and supplied a report. The main business was a panel discussion on “Working effectively with elected officials.” Three Councillors attended, two of whom are running again; out of deference to the black-out period during the election campaign, their names were not advertised; the third was Diane Holmes.
e. Friends of the Farm AGM (September 17)
– Erwin proposed a friendly amendment to the Friends’ by-laws to post the Minutes of their Board meetings on their web site which was accepted.
– An event to watch is a proposal for “Flora 2017,” an International Horticultural Exhibition which would require massive infrastructure to be constructed on the site south of Fletcher Gardens; it would set the stage for later development of a botanical garden there. A decision to proceed will happen in October.
– The featured speaker was Phil Jenkins. Erwin used the opportunity to re-establish contact with him with an eye on getting the opportunity to attract seniors as volunteers.
f. Gravel Watch Ontario
The Alliance has long been a “non-paying member” of Gravel Watch Ontario. Erwin had the opportunity to attend a BBQ in the Kitchener area in honour of founder and long time president Ric Holt who is retiring, and to meet the new president, Graham Flint.
The meeting adjourned at 9:11 p.m.
The next meeting will be on October 27, 2014 starting at 7:15 p.m. at the Hintonburg CC.