Environmental groups join forces

By JENNIFER BURDEN, THE Orillia Packet and Times September 8 2010
The Oro-Medonte Citizens Alliance (OMCA) has recently joined forces with AWARE Simcoe, a non-partisan citizens’ environmental group that works for transparency and accountability in government. “What we discovered is we have virtually parallel organizations with AWARE in that our objectives and goals are virtually the same and it seemed to make a whole lot of sense to put our forces together,” Susan Woods, a member of OMCA’s steering committee, said Tuesday.
Twenty-five OMCA members unanimously voted to cease to exist as an organization and to work with an Oro-Medonte chapter of AWARE at a meeting on Sept. 2. Woods said it made sense for the citizens’ group, also an environmental and municipal government watchdog that formed April of last year, to join the more established AWARE organization as the Oro-Medonte chapter.
AWARE Simcoe formed out of the struggle at Simcoe County over the Site 41 landfill. It now has affiliates in many of the 16 municipalities that make up Simcoe County.
“They came out of (the Site 41 issue) with a head of steam. It was clear they had so much going for them,” Woods said.
Ann Truyens, a member of the AWARE Simcoe board of directors, said both organizations were moving separately in parallel directions.
“We have a lot in common. Our goals are very similar. Because some of the people were part of both organizations, we felt it was beneficial to join forces. The objectives are pretty much the same. It’s better to join forces than to risk confusing the public and diluting our message,” Truyens said.
Those goals include promoting open government at the local level and the protection of water, environment and health.
“What we are focused on is the upcoming election and individual candidates who are running and issues that relate to Oro-Medonte,” Woods said.
The AWARE Oro-Medonte is currently completing questionnaires that will be sent out to all candidates in the upcoming municipal election and is planning on interviewing each of them.
The questionnaires and compiled candidate information will be posted on the AWARE web-site. The Oro-Medonte chapter will then endorse the candidates they believe will best serve Oro-Medonte and represent residents with “honesty, integrity, and transparency, and protect the rural environment and our water resources.”Woods is hoping the online resources help residents make a more intelligent decision about who they are going to vote for on Oct. 25.
“We really want to see people vote. We really want to see the electorate get excited and motivated to actually show up,” she said.