Eyes open, ear to the ground

You may have noticed we have added some new bloggers to this site. It is a real pleasure to welcome Gary Christie, a passionate angler from the GTA with a particular attachment to the Nottawasaga River. He’s also a scientist who explains with great clarity what’s happening to the lifeforms in the water as we continue to sprawl without proper care for the consequences.

AWARE Simcoe worked with Gary Christie and his band of Nottawasaga Steelheaders over the last summer as we exposed some behind-closed doors machinations at the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority (it was great to have the anglers out to the protests that were attended by several other groups). Our co-operation continued into the fall during the municipal election and we look forward to Gary’s monthly blog to bring clarity – literally, we hope – to the river.

Welcome also to Kelly Clune. I first met her during the battle to stop Dump Site 41 in 2009. She was not only a water warrior, but also a waste annihilator, part of the team that she helped organize to ensure the garbage at the protest camp was sorted and diverted. She is an outspoken advocate – I shall never forget watching her dress down Simcoe County’s waste consultants, because at an open house that year in Wasaga Beach, refreshments were provided in plastic bottles and Styrofoam cups. Walk the talk, she urged – and at least on the matter of disposable beverage containers, we have not seen the county repeat the mistake. I kept in touch with her intermittently, and then word got out about the amazing Zero Waste conference she helped organize in Orillia last August.  Now that it’s time for the county and the two separated cities, Barrie and Orillia, to get their act together in achieving better diversion rates, we look to Kelly to help sort the good ideas from the non-starters as we move forward this year. Our communities are among the top diverters in Ontario, but in the county, we learned last year that diversion numbers actually dropped, and we all still fall so far short of Zero Waste, the goal the county, at least, adopted in 2010.

Three of us – me, Sandy Agnew and Bill French – are among the original bloggers who started when we moved to a new format in 2013 after our old website could no longer sustain the attacks that, I have now learned, are the fate of every site on the net. Sandy is engaged across the county on issues involving sustainability, conservation and agriculture, and you can read back through his blogs. Bill is now the mayor of Springwater, and I wondered whether he might have reservations about continuing to blog for us. My concern was that people might think he was in some way controlled by AWARE Simcoe, or that we might pull our punches if there are to be issues where we might wish to criticize him, or that he might hesitate to criticize us where we deserved censure. But Bill was unconcerned, and from our corner, I can assure you that the debate in Springwater will be frank, open and respectful. I should note that his blog is not exclusive to us and appeared in other media before we picked it up.

I am the webmaster for this site, and have been busy in recent weeks making necessary changes. Which means that when I sent out a stern notice advising that bloggers should file at least once a month, by the 15^th at the latest, I sent one to myself, too. And then set a very poor example by missing the deadline. What I generally write about is the democratic process – keeping the public’s business public.  As a former newspaper reporter and editor, transparency is close to my heart.

We do need some more bloggers – especially from the south and the west. We also need council monitors. Attend your council meetings, write up your observations and send them in to aware.simcoe@gmail.com. Not sure what happened before your very eyes? That can happen at council meetings, some politicians like it that way. Look to the municipal clerk to be your ally. He or she will provide you with the text of resolutions, the vote (if it was recorded – if not, you have to be there to do the count), and links to any documents that might provide you with useful background. Keep your eyes open, your ear to the ground and let the rest of us know what’s going on in your community or neighbourhood.