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‘Go for it!’ Atwood tells Midhurst – Video and news clips

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In Agriculture
Jun 23rd, 2014
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Margaret Atwood with MRA president Sandy Buxton and Jeff Monague from Beausoleil First Nation

SCROLL DOWN FOR TURNIP’S STORY – VIDEO OF FULL SPEECH

Calls on premier to correct previous government’s mistakes

Margaret Atwood came, and Midhurst turned out to welcome her!

Can the Midhurst Secondary Plan be stopped? Yes, Atwood told a crowd of about 400, after reviewing the changed political landscape in the wake of the provincial election.

Premier Kathleen Wynne should prevent the destruction of the Minesing Swamp, the pollution of Georgian Bay and the trashing of good farmland, she said – and residents should apply pressure to make sure she does so.

“You have a chance – go for it!” Atwood told the people who spent the summer solstice  – a beautiful sunny day – at the Wrico Holsteins Farm in Midhurst.

ATWOOD ENCOURAGES RESIDENTS TO, “HOLD THE LINE”

by Margaret Prophet Springwater News July 3 2014

One of Canada’s most renowned authors, Margaret Atwood, came to tiny Midhurst to salute the community’s pioneer heritage and rural way of life with about 400 concerned Simcoe County and GTA residents.  A Celebration of Rural Living with Margaret Atwood was organized by the Midhurst Ratepayers’ Association to honour our agricultural roots, culture and natural heritage, all of which we are duty-bound to protect for future generations.

Ms. Atwood quickly set the tone in her speech.  She did not mince words when describing how she feels about what is in store for Midhurst – a sprawl development proposal that would destroy almost 2000 acres of prime farmland for 10,000 homes, inflating Midhurst [pop. 3,500] to the size of Orillia [pop. 30,000].  “There’s good change and there’s bad change, and then there’s idiotic change.  Idiotic change is when you just can’t figure out why anyone would DO that.  I’m here today as a part of a larger, common-sense effort to stop a piece of idiotic change—a potentially disastrous development proposal here in the village of Midhurst.”

“To lose another 2000 acres of prime farmland while we are losing 350 acres of it already per day, doesn’t make any sense,” outlined Food and Water First vice-chair, Shirley Boxem.  “This, at a time when our food security is at risk and food imports and costs are on the rise.”

It’s change that could be potentially hazardous for the internationally significant Minesing Wetlands and surrounding communities, as well.  Beyond seriously threatening the extensive wetlands’ ability to control flooding and purify water for communities downstream, the proposed Midhurst plan with its almost 11 million litres of effluent ejected daily (upon full build) could well harm the various endangered, rare and sensitive species that live within it.

The Minesing Wetlands ranks internationally with the Florida Everglades,” cited Sandy Buxton, president of the Midhurst Ratepayers’ Association.  Alluding to the harm that has been brought to the Florida Everglades by the release of exotic pets, Buxton continues, “they have their Burmese python; we have the Midhurst Secondary Plan.  I don’t see much difference between the two.”

The Midhurst Secondary Plan is approaching final stages of approval despite massive public outcry including more than 5000 people who have signed our petition, written letters, made phone calls and attended meetings.  Buxton said, “This feels like a one-sided process, not democracy.  We’re often told by local government how it will be, but rarely asked.  This has to change and it will.”

Well-known environmental lawyer, David Donnelly, wanted to send a message to those who cite lawsuits as a reason for sticking to the status quo, “You can’t say that, in a democracy, speaking out against development, for your rights, for the rights of your children, for the environment should be subject to a lawsuit…to say that land-use planning is being affected by the threat of a lawsuit – this is not planning, this is intimidation and it shouldn’t occur here.”

He went on further to assure residents that this  “no cost” model isn’t new; it’s been tried and tested repeatedly.  And it has failed time and time again.  “We’re being told to “trust us” by the local politicians and even by the province –[trust] that this development will pay for itself and won’t increase the taxes paid by current residents.  If that was true, the people in Oakville would cash a cheque each year from their municipality instead of paying the municipal taxes as they do.  We’ve seen it.  It’s been done before in places south of here – places like Vaughan, Richmond Hill and Burlington.  The system doesn’t work.  Building new infrastructure to accommodate new growth does not pay for itself.”  The Midhurst Secondary Plan aims to build roughly $150,000,000 worth of new infrastructure, and the maintenance and operation of it will be financed by local taxpayers.

All of us will pay for this one way or another,” continued Buxton.  “That’s why I’m here- I’m here for the little guy. We’re all little guys; but our collective voice can make changes here. Get involved. Do the right thing. Be a good ancestor.”

Closing the day, Ms. Atwood made an impassioned plea to the audience to stand up and “hold the line”.  She outlined her belief that those against the MSP and sprawl in Springwater generally “would prevail”; but she cautioned us that this is not the time to coast. “Now is the time to get behind it and continue to push that stone up the hill.  It’s way, way further up than it was.  You’ve got a crack at it – go for it now.”

The Midhurst Ratepayers’ Association (MRA) is a grass-roots organization of over 400 concerned residents from both Midhurst and Springwater Township at large. Established to protect the integrity of Midhurst and surrounding communities, it stands up for the best interests of residents and for responsible growth. The MRA has a positive vision of growth for the area.  It is trying to persuade rural Springwater Township to develop a more fiscally responsible and ecologically sound plan for growth which will protect precious farmland and preserve water resources.  You can find out more about the MRA and the Midhurst Secondary Plan on their website www.friendsofmidhurst.ca or through their Facebook page “Save Midhurst Village”.

Photos at Springwater Park Citizens’ Coalition

The Turnip’s Story – Atwood’s full speech on YouTube

Focusing growth in Barrie best, Margaret Atwood tells Midhurst crowd

By Laurie Watt Barrie Advance June 23 2014

Iconic author Margaret Atwood issued a few warnings, not couched in fiction, for Barrie, Simcoe County and Ontario Sunday.

The keynote speaker at the Celebration of Rural Living — a fundraiser for the Midhurst Ratepayers’ Association’s anti-sprawl fight — put the risks of tripling the village’s size simply.

The issue is water — adequate drinking water and protecting the Minesing Wetland and Georgian Bay.

“How much poo do you want to be swimming in? You’ll be told there’ll be a wonderful (sewage) treatment plant, but they can only treat some things. (The effluent) will go down Willow Creek into the Minesing Wetland,” said the author, whose 2013 novel MaddAddam completed a post-apocolopytic trilogy that explores the effects of environmental mismanagement.

The effluent, which could include medications that don’t get filtered out at the wastewater plant, will make its way to Wasaga Beach and into Georgian Bay.

She also questioned where the proposed village of more than 30,000 people will get its drinking water, noting the aquifer also serves Barrie.

“Be afraid. Be very afraid of anther community as big as Orillia sucking out your water. Urban growth should be in Barrie,” she said.

Atwood also raised concerns about the process that resulted in the approval of the Midhurst Secondary Plan, which, during the next two decades, will not only almost triple the village’s population, but consume 2,000 acres of prime agricultural land.

“Someone in the government made a special legal loophole for just Midhurst, just for the developers that want to do this. Why?

“They should be building in an area that’s already urban. That’s where the jobs will be.”

 Atwood burrows in Oro-Medonte

By Laurie Watt Barrie Advance June 27 2014

One of the places Margaret Atwood ventures to write — figuratively speaking, the burrow — is in Oro-Medonte.

On a treed hilly acreage between Barrie and Orillia, she ventures into her burrow near her sister’s organic farm.

She has a book coming out in the fall: Stone Mattress: Nine Tales, which will be published by Bloomsbury Publishing Sept. 16. It’s available now as an e-book.

A collection of short stories, the title refers to stromatolite, 1.9-billion year old rock, a piece of which is used as a murder weapon.

“It came out from a trip in the Arctic. It came out of a question: if you’re going to kill someone on this boat, how would you it?” the award-winning author said.

One of Canada’s most renowned authors, Atwood, 74, has crossed genre boundaries as well as politics and economics.

Poems were the first to be published, while she was still a University of Toronto student.

She initially explored science fiction with The Handmaid’s Tale in the mid-1980s and shifted into what she calls “speculative fiction”, a what-if scenario should environmental disasters occur and blends in social science. That’s the outline she followed as she created the MaddAddam trilogy, which began with Oryx and Crake, included The Year of the Flood and wrapped up last fall with MaddAddam.

Looking ahead, she’s taking part in a Hogarth Press initiative, in which today’s authors take another look at a Shakespearean play.

She’s revisiting The Tempest, her favourite play.

“There are lots of unanswered questions,” Atwood said.

Margaret Atwood appears at a fundraiser in Midhurst

BY KC Colby  CTV Barrie June 22 2014

People who are against a big development planned for Springwater Township received support from Canadian author Margaret Atwood on Sunday.

“I don’t live in Midhurst but we go way back in Oro-Medonte to the 1950’s. So I’m very familiar with the region,” says Atwood.

The literary legend didn’t come to a farm in Midhurst on Sunday to showcase a book; she came to showcase a cause. She joined hundreds of others at a celebration of rural living to stop a proposed residential development that could see the population of the Midhurst area swell by more than 20,000.

Those against the proposal say it would destroy close to 2,000 acres of prime farmland – an area equivalent to about 1,500 football fields.

“At risk is our precious Minesing wetlands which is internationally recognized and is pivotal feature in our region,” says Sandy Buxton with the Midhurst Ratepayers Association.

The association is concerned with the amount of waste water created by the proposed development.

“It works out to be 10.7 million litres a day, which works out to be seven Olympic sized pools per day,”
says Margaret Prophet.

They are concerned the wastewater would eventually damage the Minesing swamp, the area where some of the treated wastewater would be directed. Atwood says that’s a lot of wastewater.

“The plan that has been proposed is for the effluent from a city the size of Orillia to flow through the Minesing swam and into Georgian Bay.”

And some say that would have a negative effect on fish and wildlife.

“Any changes we do in this are through a water treatment plant is going to have an impact on these fish,” says Gary Christie with the Nottawasaga Steelheaders.

Atwood says it’s time now for Kathleen Wynne’s government to deliver on addressing what they called an environment priority.

“So with this as a priority for your government – why would you let the most important wetland in Ontario be destroyed?”

Midhurst Ratepayers Association says they are not sure what their next step is but they are awaiting the findings of an environmental assessment due out in September or October.

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