Royal Botanical Gardens Receives Financial Shot in the Arm

MP Mike Wallace and MPP Ted McMeekin Announce Funding

This morning I attended the much anticipated and welcome announcement of infrastructure funding at the Royal Botanical Gardens. MP Mike Wallace announced $7million in Federal Funding. Minister Ted McMeekin MPP announced a matching $7million. The $14 million funding is for the rejuvenation of the famous Rock Garden at RBG.
As an  RBG Board member, I am thrilled with the announcement. This funding is badly needed as the Rock Garden has structural problems that need immediate fixing, such as the septic and irrigation systems.
The Rock Garden is actually located in Hamilton whereas the RBG Centre, in the photo above is located in Burlington and is therefore in Halton Region.
The Rock Garden gets rave reviews but it is the things that are unseen by the public that were a concern to the RBG staff. The overhaul is long overdue and will add new vitality to what is the anchor tourist attraction in the Region. $14 million will make a huge difference to the RBG in a similar vein to the addition of the award winning  Camilla and Peter Dalglish Atrium, pictured above  and the adjacent Aldershot Escarpment Garden.

Georgetown Bach Chorale Offers Gorgeous Performance

Antique Harpishord

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the Georgetown Bach Chorale's 2011 Christmas Concert at the lavishly decorated residence of their conductor, Ron Greidanus.
It is hard to say who stole the show as there were several worthy candidates. Was it the eye popping decorations that reportedly take a week to install? Or perhaps the readings of the always entertaining  Vera Macdonald and Yvonne Oldaker? Or could it be the haunting rendition of Silent Night?
All three were the subject of much discussion at a social event following the presentation.
The residential venue itself is unique with beamed cathedral ceilings, mellow paneling and stone hearths all aglow with thousands of baubles and flickering candles.
The musical offerings had their origins in English, Irish and Basque traditions accompanied by Ron Greidanus on harpsichord and Avery Maclean on recoder.
The evening offered a unique and enjoyable Christmas experience rarely found in communities this size.

GDHS Music Students Overcome Loss of Teacher With Impressive Performance

On Friday December 9th Georgetown District High School lost a great teacher and mentor when Ms Eleanor Wallace was transferred without notice to another school. Ms Wallace provided 28 years of dedicated excellent leadership to the music students at GDHS. Through those years the GDHS bands garnered many awards of merit in provincial and national competitions.
My daughter was a band member for 5 years and so I was well aware of the wonderful program available to our local students. It was definitely one of the most rewarding aspects of high school for my daughter.
Plans for the GDHS Christmas concert had to be completely reworked when it turned out that no teachers would be available to lead the bands and choir. Although the students were distraught over the loss of their beloved teacher, they rallied by deciding to put on the show by themselves.
I was invited by the students to attend their concert and took them up on the invitation. It was one of my best decisions of the year.
I have attended many GDHS concerts but this was an outstanding one. It had been billed as "A Classy Christmas" and it certainly was.
The very poised master of ceremonies welcomed us and introduced the first performance.
The Wind Ensemble, all 60 members filed onto the stage quietly, sat and awaited their student conductor, Geoff Chen. The tuxedo clad Chen strode onto the stage, bowed to the audience and then took control of the Ensemble.
And then it began - a  performance to make a teacher proud. The students obviously intended to pay tribute to their teacher and illustrate the passion and musical precision that had been instilled in them . They certainly succeeded.
Each band and choir was lead by a different student conductor and each time the musicians paid close attention and performed marvellously.
And just to take it over the top, we were treated to a string quartet performing chamber music, a gifted opera singer belting out an aria in Russian no less, and finally a showstopping performance of Rachmaninoff  by Grade 12 concert pianist Thomas Dobrovich. Wow!

It is sad that these kids have lost their leader but on the bright side, they have had the benefit of wonderful mentorship and inspiration. They have proven that great leadership produces great results. Wherever inspiration shows up the kids respond. And now these kids have proven to themselves what they are capable of and that will serve them well throughout their lives.
Thank you Ms Wallace for making such a huge difference in the lives of hundreds of grateful students.

New bridge links North and South Hungry Hollow Trails

Pictured above is the new installed bridge that links the north side (Dawson Cres.) and south side (Miller Drive) trails through Hungry Hollow in Georgetown. Also shown is construction under way on the boardwalk on the north side. The boardwalk is necessary to protect the delicate environment and make the trail passable during wet weather.

This new link will be welcome by all of the trail users since it doubles the trails that are available from any entry point to the trails network.

In conversation with the contractors I heard that virtually every resident who has approached the construction site has commented on how pleased they are that the Town is investing in the valley. This is great feedback. It isn't surprising since anyone who has walked these trails will appreciate what a treasure we have in this valley and how accessible it has become with the formalization of the trails.

Providing our residents with the ability to stroll through a natural area in a valley setting allows them to escape the hustle and bustle of urban life. Suddenly you can hear the birds singing. Most of the time you can't see any housing or buildings of any kind. You would be hard pressed to know exactly where you are. It really is a great escape.

Congratulations to our Town staff for designing this wonderful project and thanks to our contractors for doing such a great job with very limited damage to the surrounding area.

What is Canada Doing?

Climate Change Conference -Durban, South Africa

So it has come to this. China is in a position to criticize Canada for our lack of  action on climate change, and they don't look silly doing it. Virtually every other country in the world including China has a presence at the conference, showing off what they are doing to be progressive, while Canada apparently has nothing to show. We have a closed door that says clearly to the whole world "Canada doesn't care". See Globe and Mail report from Dec 7th http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/low-profile-in-durban-relegates-canada-to-margins-of-climate-debate/article2262549/
This is a federal agenda  that stands at odds with what I see and hear every day as a local and regional municipal politician. Canadian municipalities and provinces are taking climate change seriously and investing  huge amounts of staff time and resources into making changes to reduce our carbon foot print. Our small town of Halton Hills alone has invested in geothermal heating for all of our new buildings constructed in the last 5 years. That includes 2 fire halls and 2 libraries, not to mention one heritage house.
How can our federal government be so disconnected from the people it governs? How can it care so little about our reputation internationally? How can it deny there is a problem?
To quote  Geoffry York in the referenced  Globe and Mail report, "While Canada remains low profile, its reputation is taking a beating. "It's incurring diplomatic damage that will take years to repair," said Radoslav Dimitrov, a Canadian professor and member of the European Union delegation at Durban.
Add to this that we are now ranked 54th out of 61 countries on an index for carbon emissions and climate policies according to a German environmental group. This is not the sort of publicity that I would like for my Country.
I can remember thinking of Canada as a LEADING country, not a laggard. The odd thing is that I still think of Halton Region and Halton Hills as leaders and innovators. I believe that people in municipalities across this country think the same way about their cities and towns. I have learned about progress across Canada via my attendance at the Canadian Federation of Municipalities annual conferences.
The performance of Canada on the world stage is a great disappointment and embarrassment to this Canadian.
Meanwhile there is an on-line petition that can be accessed at http://www.avaaz.org/.  protesting efforts to derail climate change talks. At the time of writing the petition was over 640,000 and growing by the second. As people sign up  their name comes up on a scrolling list which  includes a little nationality flag. People from around the world are signing and lots of Canadian flags are showing up too. I don't think they are too happy with the Canadian performance at Durban either.

Innovation and Care in Condo Construction Pays Dividends in Milton



Today a group of Halton Regional representatives had an opportunity to tour a new residential condo development in downtown Milton that is just 3 weeks away from occupancy. The development is by Del Ridge Homes and the tour was lead by  Dave De Sylva and George Le Donne, the driving forces behind this new style of condo development.

Pictured above is the tour group on the roof of the Green Life Condo where the racking structure that will support the photo voltaic panels is being installed. This is the most obvious difference between this and the average condo. However it is but one of many features that make this building completely different from anything else on the market.

It is ironic that CBC radio has been airing a series on the glass towers of downtown Toronto. These towers are being referred to as "throw away buildings". The contrast is quite remarkable. The Toronto towers feature window walls that offer next to zero insulation and require elaborate engineering to overcome their deficiencies. The window walls are predicted to fail within 20 years.

Contrast that to the Green Life Condo. It has super insulated walls right down to the second basement level. The basement/parking levels (pictured above) require no heating as the area stays above freezing all winter relying only on mother nature for its warmth. The thick walls, having been bulked up with insulation, create attractive wide window ledges framing the triple glazed windows. Geothermal heating and cooling is complemented by a heat recovery system.

The walls achieve R 44 and the roof is at R 70.

The net result is a building that will not need to be supported by nuclear plants or coal fired plants or even gas pipelines. The residents will have next to zero condo fees and their energy bills will be unbelievably low - forever.

This is the kind of building that people will deed to their children and the kids will fight about who gets to move in. 

Contrast the impact on society between the 2 building philosophies. In one case, the glass is beginning to fall off the side of the buildings and will cause untold financial hardship on the buyers. The energy requirements to heat and cool the buildings will continue for the life of the building. All of this has an impact on green house gases and the cost of infrastructure to support its energy needs.

In the other case, the building is solid and care has been taken to reduce its net carbon footprint to zero. 

The thing is that apart from the solar panels, none of it is rocket science. Insulation is old technology. And everyone knows that glass is a conductor of energy not an insulator. Heat exchangers are simple things. 

What I cannot understand is why the Green Life style of building is not mandatory. Why do we have a building code that allows anything less? 

As a municipal politician it is my job to push developers in our town to build at a higher standard. I am proud to say that in Halton Hills we do have a Green Checklist that developers must satisfy before we allow them to build. But there is more to be done to make housing more efficient and more durable. 

Congratulations to Dave De Sylva and George Le Donne for proving that attention to energy efficiency does not mean the building is unaffordable, unattractive or lacking a market. Green Life sold out in a flash and new projects are taking shape in Oakville and Markham. Someday I hope to see them in Halton Hills.  

7 Billion and Growing

Today our planet reached a human population of 7 billion people. That number is beyond comprehension, but the more remarkable part is the rate at which we got to 7 billion. However, my subject is not our numbers but rather, the pressing need to adapt.

Can we adapt fast enough to sustain this growth in human population?
Adaptation is essential and the concept is likely well accepted. However, on most fronts adaptation  is sluggish and lacking in  focus and urgency.

If I was to form an action plan based on my  view  from my window, I wouldn't change a thing. From my personal perspective  it is hard to imagine a more benign environment on the entire planet than the one I see here in Georgetown, Ontario, Canada. It is only when I look at the scientific data and the long term trends that the urgency becomes apparent.

For me it is a real joy to meet people who believe in adaptation and are willing to invest in it and  talk about it with enthusiasm and optimism. Yesterday I had the opportunity to hear such a person who isn't just talking about it, he is doing it. That person is Dave de Sylva, partner in Del Ridge Homes along with George Le Donne.

They have made business choices based on principles of sustainability. They are shunning old building practices and adopting new ones that make more sense on every level including economic.

They are set to build the Green Life Business Centre, Canada's first Net Positive Condo Office Building in Milton, Ontario. Net positive means that this office building will create more energy than it uses. It won't be a drain; it will be a faucet, pouring energy into the grid instead of sucking it out, burning it up and spewing waste into the atmosphere.

This is not their first project to be at or near "Net Positive". They have built residential condos that have condo fees so low people wonder what the catch is. There is no catch. These buildings are built in a different way to firstly, reduce energy waste and secondly, use the renewable energy that is in the ground  below and in the sky above.

Dave de Sylva and George Le Donne understand that we have a very big problem to solve and so they have set out to do what they can to solve it. They get absolutely no help from any level of government to do this and yet they are steadfast in their personal pursuit of responsible action.

The things that Del Ridge Homes is doing should be incorporated into our building code so that all of our new buildings, whether they are residential, commercial, industrial or institutional are built to reduce energy wastage and make optimal use of sustainable energy sources.

In my opinion this is a wonderfully optimistic story of determination and positive action to adapt to important threats that are all to easy to ignore if one is looking out the window in Georgetown Ontario Canada.

http://www.sbmagazine.ca/archives/42