Black Out Day Challenge from Woodstock

Woodstock and Blackout Day challenges Ontarians to “have fun with the lights out” on Aug. 14^th!

 

WOODSTOCK, Ont. (July 17, 2008) The city of Woodstock, in partnership with the Blackout Day group, is once again challenging Ontarians to “have fun with the lights out” on August 14^th.

Why August 14^th? It’s the 5^th anniversary of the widespread Ontario blackout of 2003 that started in the United States and cascaded over the border, ultimately affecting 100-plus generating stations – and hundreds of thousands of people – in Ontario and eight U.S. states. 

“The Sesame Street’s Kermit the Frog once sang it’s not easy being green, and he was right – in more ways than one,” said Woodstock Mayor Mike Harding. “Having fun with the lights out is our way of raising awareness across Ontario that energy conservation is vital to our economic health.”

During the massive 2003 blackout, people met neighbours for the first time and “communities really came together, said Caroline Reilly, Director of the Mississauga-based Blackout Day Group.

“So in the spirit of energy conservation, we’re inviting people to get together again on that day and have fun with the lights out!” 

Blackout Day caught the collective imagination of Woodstock residents in 2005 (when the Mayor’s Challenge first launched, Harding explained. “That grassroots enthusiasm has delivered real energy conservation results for our city.”

Blackout Day brings home the need for conservation and how it positively impacts power bills, said Jessica Happl, Vice Chair of the Woodstock Environment Advisory Committee.  

This month, the Blackout Day Group launched its new website, (www.blackoutday.ca). It shows plenty of ways to have fun with the lights out for individuals, businesses, schools and municipalities. The website also serves as a virtual meeting place for people to interact and share how they will take the Blackout Day challenge.

For instance, so energy conservation doesn’t become a burden, the site offers ways to dine without cooking and themes for Blackout Day parties that involve friends and colleagues in ways that spread the word about demand management as a tool to lower the province’s energy usage.

Woodstock, the city that launched the voluntary Blackout Day Challenge in 2005, has partnered with The Blackout Day Group. Ontario cities can now sign up online and challenge neighbouring municipalities to see who can conserve the most energy on August 14^th. They can also access tools and media to promote the day in their cities and find ideas for fun events.

“People, businesses and cities are invited to get creative on how they will take action to conserve energy while planning a unique party or event on Blackout Day,” says Reilly.  “Businesses and organizations especially can make a big difference by involving their customers and employees, sponsoring prizes or holding fun events or promotions to help spread the word and motivate even more people to participate in Blackout Day”

www.blackoutday.ca also provides a talk-back section for sharing stories about the 2003 Blackout, no-cook recipes, Blackout Day party ideas, energy conservation tips. For individuals, there’s a sweepstakes prize – an Ecomagination^TM dishwasher generously sponsored by General Electric.

People can go online between July 15 and August 12, sign up for the individual challenge and they are automatically entered into the sweepstakes. With its SmartDispense™ reservoir, the GE Profile™ dishwasher can hold the equivalent of a 1.38-liter container of detergent. Fill it up once, and it calculates the exact amount of water and soap needed for a perfect wash, every time, for two months.

“We’re hoping the Blackout Day Challenge will become a viral movement that will capture peoples’ imagination,” says Reilly. “It’s pure contagious inspiration!”

The Not-For-Profit Blackout Day Group saw an opportunity to make a difference by creating an online community www.blackoutday.ca for people, schools and businesses to power down on the August 14^th anniversary of the 2003 Blackout.

This online community also hosts the City of Woodstock’s grassroots Blackout Day Challenge, which, since 2005, has challenged Ontario Municipalities to power down on August 14^th. The Blackout Day Group, Woodstock Environmental Advisory Committee (WEAC) and Woodstock Hydro Services partnered to raise awareness of energy conservation through this innovative challenge.

-30-

 

Managing Budgets II

In a previous post I spoke about our goal to move to a more proactive budget setting process which involves Council earlier in the process:

http://mayorofguelph.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/managing-budgets/

This has certainly led to lots of discussion in the community and has resulted in several positive opportunities for dialogue.  For instance, Ward 3 Councillors (Maggie Laidlaw and June Hofland) discussed budget matters with some of their constituents at a townhall meeting they organized last month.  Ward 2 Councillors (Vicki Beard and Ian Findlay) recently attended a gathering of their constituents to discuss the budget.  The Guelph Civic League  is organizing a panel discussion on July 23rd to discuss municipal budgeting  http://www.guelphcivicleague.ca/articles.php?a=21. The Chair of Finance, Administration and Corporate Services, Councillor Karl Wettstein, is one of the panelists. And the Guelph Chamber of Commerce has organized a session for its members on the City’s capital financing plans.

All this will provide valuable input for Council when it sits down in several months to deliberate on the 2009 budget.

20 Minute Transit Service starts July 7th

This was a big issue in our community last fall when we had to fall back to a 40 minute service during peak times to ensure people would be making their connections.  We heard from many people that this was not acceptable.

Council approved additional funding in the 2008 budget and staff have purchased the buses and hired the drivers to hit the streets on Monday July 7th.

More details on the new level of service can be found at: http://guelph.ca/living.cfm?smocid=1764

You will also see 969 Information Posts being installed at the 683 bus stops in the city; each route at the bus stop will have its own sign (a few stops may not have information posts installed due to the location of the pole).

Next bus is still available for people to get real-time bus arrival information that is accessible through the internet and telephone.

The Information Post provides the following information:

·     Route and Stop name

·     Next Bus contact information and Stop ID

·     Route map

·     Stop times

·     Fare chart

·     Guelph Transit contact information

The interesting thing is that transit is one of the services that people frequently cite in their letters to me as as a non-essential service that can be completely eliminated or reduced to cut the budget.  There are very different views in our community about the importance of transit service.

 

 

 

 

Dumping in rural areas

I received the following comments and photo about the irresponsible dumping of garbage that goes on in rural areas especially just outside of the city boundaries:

 

“I recently led a cleanup of a chronic dumping ground on the lands of the GRCA on Niska Road, just outside of City limits, where we have a new trailhead and new “John Wood Sidetrails” at the Puslinch snowplow turnaround facility. We sought and readily received help from Puslinch Township, who supplied a five ton truck and two men, which we overloaded with garbage from this location. Their operations staff who helped the club volunteers in loading the truck, and their road supt assert that Puslinch and Guelph-Eramosa have long standing, ongoing problems with many dozens of informal dumping sites, most of which are close by Guelph. It seems that many Guelphites are too lazy to take yard waste, hazardous waste, and household garbage any extra distance to the Dunlop Road location, and prefer to drive just a klik or two to dump off tires, paint, batteries, garage sale remnants, yard waste, matresses, construction waste, etc. in any convenient spot.”

 

So what do you think about Guelphites who dump garbage in the country?

Restraint on Capital Projects

Council’s Finance, Administration and Corporate Services (FACS) Committee met today. 

The committee (Councillors Karl Wettstein (chair), Ian Findlay, June Hofland, Bob Bell and I) received a report that will lead to significant changes in the City’s capital budget spending program should it be supported by City Council on July 28th.

First, the committee is recommending that the burden on taxpayers for capital projects be reduced by more than $40 million over the next 5 years.  This will be achieved by:

• eliminating, revising or deferring some projects
• building reserves (savings) so we have the money in the bank when we need to fix our infrastructure
• managing our debt so that today’s taxpayer doesn’t shoulder all the burden of new growth
• maximizing external sources of funding (e.g. federal and government funding programs, development charges)

Second, and for the first time, an upper limit will be set on the amount of debt that the City can carry.  Provincial legislation does not permit a municipality to commit more than 25% of net revenue fund revenues to paying for debt.  The FACS Committee is recommending that the City set a  more conservative limit of less than 10%.

Council establishes priorities and allocates resources to capital projects which will make a signficant difference in the quality of life of our community including:

• infrastructure renewal and rehabilitation (e.g. Eramosa Road bridge repair)
• recreational and cultural facilities (e.g. South End Community Centre)
• economic development (e.g. Hanlon Creek Business Park)
• environment and waste management (e.g. new organics facility)
• affordable and social housing (e.g. youth shelter)

These investments in our community address:

•  the renewal of city assets (e.g. water distribution infrastructure)
• growth (e.g. South End Emergency Services Facility) 
• strategic initiatives (e.g. new main library)

Council recently supported another recommendation from the FACS committee that will limit the amount of your tax dollars that can be spent in any one year on capital projects to 20% of the budget.  This decision drove the need to re-evaluate the 10-year capital budget and forecast. 

This new policy will be in place before the 2009 budget process.  The 10-year capital budget and forecast will come forward for approval as usual during the annual budget process later in the year.

 

 

 

 

Skating outdoors - totally Canadian

The recently-launched Guelph Citizenship Committee organized a citizenship ceremony at Canada Day celebrations this year at Riverside Park.  It was brilliant.

Thirty new Canadians took their oath of citizenship in front of Judge Morrow and an audience of hundreds.  They were well welcomed into our country and community as new citizens.

In the days leading up to this event, I got to thinking about my own citizenship ceremony.  My family emigrated to Canada when I was three.  Several years ago!

I thought about my earliest memories as a child in Canada.  The image that came most vividly to mind was my brother and I bundled up in fluffy parkas learning to skate on a local pond.  Early on, my parents wanted us to have an authentic ”Canadian experience”.

Every year, I join my brother and his family for a skate on an outdoor rink in Toronto.  The tradition continues. And, I am always moved by the number of new Canadian families doing just the same thing our family did so many years ago.

This brought me to think about the community volunteers who call themselves the “Rink Rats”.  They are raising $2 million to build an outdoor skating rink in front of the new City Hall.  

As I was sitting on the podium watching our newest citizens take their oath of allegience, it came to me that we should make a special dedication of this skating rink to the new Canadians we welcome in Guelph each year.  This skating rink will become a place were all Canadians, new and old, come together to do something that is quintesentially Canadian - skate outdoors.

I suggested this when I brought greetings at the ceremony — to massive applause from the audience.  I asked Judge Morrow whether he would come back to Guelph and preside over a citizenship ceremony on ice. 

With no hesitation, he said, “count me in!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quebec City - Celebrating 400 years!

On July 3, 1608 at 11 a.m., Samuel de Champlain landed at the “Pointe de Quebec” and established Canada’s first city – Quebec City.  

The Mayor of Quebec City has invited all cities across the country to ring bells this Thursday at precisely 11 a.m. to mark Quebec’s 400th anniversary. In Guelph, St. George’s Anglican Church will ring their magnificent Carillon to mark the occasion.  

So, if you hear the bells on July 3rd, pause and think of our friends in Quebec City. What began as a trading post consisting of three buildings surrounded by a ditch grew to become one of the most beautiful and historically important cities in our nation.  

Happy anniversary, Quebec!

Farmers’ Market - Alive, Well and Safe

There was a letter to the editor today in the Mercury suggesting that the City of Guelph is working to close the farmers’ market.

I know this is going to have many people concerned, so let my response be unequivocal. Why on earth would we close the farmers’ market?  Period. Or, make any changes to the market without the full input of the vendors and patrons who make the market such an unqualified success and fundamental part of our community? Good grief!

City staff has been engaging vendors and the Executive Board at the Farmer’s Market in a fully collaborative and transparent consultation process to revamp the policies/procedures and bylaw governing the market’s operation.  They are old and outdated.

This work is good news.  The health of our Farmers’ Market is being taken seriously and is no longer being ignored.  The City is committed to an inclusive process with all vendors of the market.  The vendors will have four opportunities to express any concerns on the new policies, procedures and by-laws by the time this matter is presented to Council. 

The letter also suggests that the naming of the space in front of the new City Hall as “Market Square” is part of the plan for dislocation.  The naming is historically-based and is completely unrelated to the Farmers’ Market.  It is simply what the area used to be called.

So to all heading to the Farmers’ Market tomorrow, enjoy in peace!

 

Recycling at Canada Day and Ribfest

One of the recommendations in the draft Waste Management Master Plan is to promote recycling at major community events and celebrations. 

The Hillside Festival has been the leader in recycling at their music festival at Guelph Lake for many years.

The next events to come on board are Canada Day and Ribfest.  Rotary and the City will be partnering to promote recycling at both of these events.  This will be a pilot study and will allow the City to get a jump start on this WMMP objective.

 

Tree Registry launched by Rotary

For their 100th anniversary in 2020, the Rotary Club of Guelph has set a goal for a 40% tree canopy in Guelph.

In addition to the new Rotary Forest that is being planted at Guelph Lake in partnership with the Grand River Conservation Authority, they have launched a new Tree Registry.  If you are planting trees, go to http://www.rotaryclubofguelph.com/tree_form.php and register your trees.

Trees are a top priority for this term of Council.  Early in our term, we provided funding for the development of a Urban Forest Master Plan.  The City has not treated our urban forest as an important asset.  The master plan will change that. Community leadership and initiatives like the Rotary project will be an essential part of achieving the goals established in the plan.  In addition, we have hired a new student position this year to ensure all newly planted trees are watered regularly.  This is in response to the high level of loss we have seen over the last few years especially during periods of extreme drought.  None of this is fast enough for the tree protectors in Guelph and members of Council share their frustration but we are committed to significant change during this term.

We are fortunate to have scenes like this within our City boundary.