GREENSPACE ALLIANCE OF CANADA’S CAPITAL
Greenspace Watch
General Meeting
March 27, 2014
Hintonburg Community Centre
1064 Wellington Street West
K1Y 2Y3
MINUTES
Members present: Erwin Dreessen (chair), Jason Kania, , Juan Pedro Unger, Sol Shuster and Elina Elnione (note taker)
Regrets: Amy Kempster, Ian Whyte, Nicole DesRoches
The meeting commenced at 7:45 p.m.
1. Adoption of agenda
Agenda adopted as proposed.
2. Administration items
a. Minutes of February 27, 2013
Elina moved, seconded by Jason, to approve the Minutes of February 27 as circulated. Approved.
b. Action items from the Minutes
E-mail address – we have a new e-mail address: contact@greenspace-alliance.ca.
List serve – outstanding question: how to archive the 67 postings distributed while the list was out of service.
Research proposal to OETN – on March 13 Erwin had a meeting with OETN supervisor Andrew Cowan and law student Zak Melham. We agreed on timeframe and methods for doing the necessary research regarding country lot estates.
April 8 FCA meeting – we are hosting the next FCA meeting. Set-up will start at 6:45 and Erwin will do a presentation about the Greenspace Alliance. Elina will supply the refreshments.
Summer meeting dates – were approved to be July 24 and August 28.
MEC capacity grant application – MEC application was sent on March 9th with two endorsement letters. We will get an answer in mid-May. If the application is unsuccessful we can reapply in September.
Ottawa Bird Count – a representative of Ottawa Bird Count will make a short presentation at the April meeting and we will discuss how we could work together.
Former Rockcliffe Airbase Community Design Plan comments – our comments have been submitted.
c. Treasurer’s report
Jason moved, seconded by Elina to pay the City $30.90 for meeting room rental. Agreed.
Jason moved, seconded by Sol to pay Erwin $10.85 for printing membership materials. Agreed.
Juan moved, seconded by Sol to pay Jason $149.47 for webserver services. Agreed.
d. Membership report
Sol moved, seconded by Jason to approve the membership of John McDonnell for the Canadian Parks & Wilderness Society-Ottawa Valley chapter. Agreed.
e. AGM
Nominations – we are looking for new board members.
Annual Report – Elina will prepare the first draft of the Annual Report that will be finished by Erwin and others.
f. Outreach opportunities
April 11 at City Hall – Elina will be present at this event.
May 31 at Haydon Park – Sol will be present at this event.
Brochure update – Sol will update the brochure.
3. Development Charges review: process
Media release – we endorsed issuing a media release on the absence of public consultation on the development charges review.
4.Road through Stony Swamp
We could organize a symposium on road ecology in order to raise the profile of mitigation measures should the road through Stony Swamp proceed. This could be done in cooperation with the NCC which still has its own review process to go through. We need a leader to run this project. The City of Oakville held such a symposium last October.
5. NCC Urban Lands Masterplan: PAC (March 19), Public meetings (March 25, 26)
Nicole and Poets’ Pathway representatives attended March 19. One of our major concerns is the ‘Other lands’ designation, 10% of the total of urban lands. Almost all of it is on the Poets’ Pathway (Southern and Woodroffe-Merrivale Corridors). If the Poets’ Pathway want to maintain its original idea then the NCC has to be convinced the project is within its mandate.
6. Municipal Election 2014
The current proposals for action include:
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formulation of a community platform
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identifying good candidates
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preparing a training session after the election.
Further action was deferred.
7. Brief Reports
a. NCENNetwork meeting of March 10 – 8 groups, including Juan for the Alliance, presented. There will be a retreat on April 3.
b. FCA meeting of March 19 – discussed infill guidelines and conversions.
c. Discussion with Eric Zeemering (March 28) – as part of his research he wants to find out more about our work and relationship with local government.
d. Tree Ottawa meeting of March 8 – was attended by about 30 people.
8. Other business
Nick Stow will attend the next meeting in April.
9. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 9:25 p.m.
Next meeting will be at the Hintonburg CC on Wednesday, April 23, 2014, starting at 7:30 p.m.