One of Claire’s favourite views from her family cottage in Cooks’ Bay, Innisfil, facing east.

Release from Claire Malcolmson, Executive Director of the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition

With summer break around the corner get ready for a summer of fun at Lake Simcoe! While you’re at it please send us pictures you want to share with the world that show how valuable, fun, and beautiful our Lake Simcoe is! If you want credit please send your name too, to RescueLakeSimcoeCoaltion@gmail.com or send it via social media!

UPDATES

$11,000 for our Work from Comedy Night!

Thank you generous comedy fans! Our second annual Laugh For Lake Simcoe comedy fundraiser at the Orillia Opera House raised $11,000 for the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coaltion’s work! This event is about way more than laughs. It also ticks our strategic boxes of introducing new audiences to the Lake Simcoe cause and our organization, and working with business. Our corporate sponsors really are the only reason we made a profit, with contributions totalling $9500. Thanks to Accessibility Professionals, Parklane Landscapes, Econse, the Couchiching Conservancy, Mr. Waterfront Ian Woods, Middlefield Investment Group. And thank you to our amazing Board members who made this event happen: Matt Lund, Jennie Ucar, Linda Wells, and Susan Sheard; and graphic design volunteer Anna Bourgeois in particular!

Bradford Bypass Townhalls and Action Updates

In the month of June we hosted three townhalls with Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition and Forbid Roads Over Green Spaces (FROGS) and a dedicated crew of volunteers. Between Sutton, Bradford, and East Gwillimbury, 100 residents, most of whom were unfamiliar faces, came out to learn about the impacts to air, water, human health, groundwater, wells, traffic itself, and our pocketbooks. Most were gobsmacked. For instance, despite political promises, we know through Freedom of Information requests, we know that the Ministry of Transportation’s office has no records of discussions (or emails or anything), discussing Lake Simcoe and this highway project. So, they are NOT taking care of Lake Simcoe here. They’re not even mentioning it.

The Ministry of Transportation’s 576 page milestone “Environmental Impact Assessment Report” released for comment for 30 days on June 1st, summarizes the impacts of the project with very few plans or commitments to address or remediate the highway’s impacts. We have been warning that this would happen for years. Watch RLSC and SCGC on CTV news from June 26:

People just want traffic to get better – and we get that – but the general public doesn’t know what you know: that the MTO expects you to wait 10 years before the highway opens, and that it will be congested five years later! What a massive waste! We need you to stay involved in educating your friends and neighbours about the impacts of the Bradford Bypass.

The Bypass is not built, so we are still working to stop it! The Federal government still needs to issue permits for the highway – or not!  We want this project to stink so badly that no one will openly support it. Help us continue to steer public opinion away from this terrible highway plan!

TAKE ACTION

June 30th is the deadline for submitting questions and comments to AECOM about their Draft Environmental Impact Assessment report. If you want you can use or copy our letter and send it to ProjectTeam@BradfordBypass.ca, or you can send them your own comments. They need to answer public questions – that’s why we have so many of them!

Get involved in future leafleting and other community engagement activities by signing up on this form. We’ll be in touch when we have actions planned.

You can also DIY your own actions using this Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition toolkit.

Write a letter to your municipal Councillor, your MP, and your MPP using the contact info here. You can copy Margaret Prophet’s letter here. 

Our presentations about air quality and traffic related air pollution effects on human health, water contamination concerns,  and traffic analysis, and project description failures; are here. 

Media about the Townhalls:

1. Town-hall meetings to discuss Bradford Bypass set for June – Barrie News
2. Got questions about the Bradford Bypass? Town halls planned in York Region, Bradford
3. Bradford couple refuses to ‘bypass’ support of community
4. Environmentalists say local roads, not bypass, would solve traffic woes – Bradford News

More information and media here https://rescuelakesimcoe.org/bbp/

Before we go we want to share a special thank you with our hard core volunteers, Fabio, Susan, Laurie, Melanie, Benoit, Leni and Peter, and of course Bill!

THE ORO MORAINE (the Oak Ridges Moraine smaller sister) IN SIMCOE COUNTY IS UNDER THREAT and NEEDS YOUR HELP!!

Send an email to protect the Oro Moraine HERE

Sprawling urbanization and unsustainable short-term decision making threaten to undermine the Oro Moraine’s sensitive ecosystems and groundwater systems. This is a bigger system, not isolated because everything is connected to everything else.  The Indigenous peoples teach us this and many of us are just beginning to learn this as well.

There is a very good reason the Oak Ridges and Paris-Galt moraines are protected (under their own conservation acts and as part of the Greenbelt).

People and government worked together using SCIENCE FACT BASED legislation to ensure that protection.

The environment that provides and protects us at no cost must be protected (the Paris-Galt Moraine Conservation Act and Plan was modelled after the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act/Plan)

Much research in many areas’ conservation biology, land use planning, politics, economics, hydrogeology and many more areas were all covered. These were adopted because it is the only financially responsible choice, short term and long term.  It’s a win-win situation for all involved except land speculators/developers.

Is there really a choice ?

The problem is that the politics of ignorance continue to threaten the moraine.  It is hoped that our elected representatives uphold science facts and do the right thing to protect our precious life-giving Oro Moraine. The future of our water / groundwater / green spaces / forests / wetlands / farms / species at risk – all species that call the moraine home, all of it are in your hands. Please protect our moraine.

Note: The Paris-Galt Moraine Conservation Act/Plan was modelled after the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act/Plan and can be used as a model for the Oro Moraine.

PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES to show them you SUPPORT PROTECTING THE ORO MORAINE, it’s Waters, Wetlands, Farmlands and Forests!!

We have a pre-made email or you can write your own or do a combination

Just sign and send through the link below!!
https://oneclickpolitics.global.ssl.fastly.net/messages/edit?promo_id=20455

THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your support!

EVENTS

Lake Simcoe Updates: How’s it going and what are we doing about it?- Virtual Event

June 28 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition will update you about the health of Lake Simcoe, what governments are and are not doing about it, and our response. Learn how you can engage in supporting Lake Simcoe as a property owner, cottager, resident, tourist or activist. Q&A to follow presentations.

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtcO2qqD8iG9wxJRoi4IcRIG8xdLENFbBG

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Find us at the Shanty Bay Festival this year! More details to come.

July 15th, The Village Green 54-102 Bay St, Shanty Bay, Ontario, Canada

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Join us for a fun evening of paddling!

Reserve your spot and pay by e-transfer by emailing barrie@corporaterecess.ca

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The Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition invites 9-12-year-olds with their caregiver to participate in a 3-day outdoor exploration of Lake Simcoe and its watershed at the Kiwannis Club Pavillion

Register through the Barrie Public Library here: https://barrielibrary.libnet.info/event/8454505

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We NEED Emergency-Level Climate Action

It’s only June, and we are already on track to experience the worst forest fire season on record.

From coast to coast to coast, major wildfires have swept through every province and territory except PEI and Nunavut. Even here in Aurora and Newmarket we were affected, experiencing dangerously toxic smoke and air quality warnings. There’s no denying that we will not escape the impacts of climate chaos.

We know why fires are raging and the air is unbreathable. The federal government MUST stop giving fossil fuel companies the green light to profit off of the destruction of our planet.

Join us with communities across the country to bring the heat to our Members of Parliament and demand emergency-level climate action.

DATE: June 28 at noon 

LOCATION: Southeast corner of Yonge and Mulock (Cynthia’s plaza)

MORE INFO HERE: https://act.350.org/event/canada-burning-doa/25649?nr=1&akid=.4801489.wbvv1s&utm_medium=email&utm_source=actionkit

Bring your signs, bring your friends, and bring your outrage.

Looking forward to seeing you on June 28th!

A Message from Keep the Greenbelt Promise Campaign…

Our first Gather in Toronto on March 2nd was a great success. Thank you to all that made it so.

Please gather with us again for an old fashioned barn party at historic Beattie-Blair Barn (circa 1870) in Guelph on July 20th from 6:30-9:30pm. This fundraising event will feature complimentary food & drink, musical performances, a participatory art installation, and speakers that you won’t want to miss!

Doug Ford’s decision to open the Greenbelt to developers is a betrayal of the will of the people of Ontario and our precious environment. Please gather with us to help us continue our fight.

Tickets are limited, please purchase yours today! We hope to see you there.

Your friends,
Keep the Greenbelt Promise Campaign–