The President’s Message
by Judith Grant
In 1999-2000 when citizen groups met to discuss various aspects of Tiny’s “New” Official Plan, they made sure that it was “Environment First”. And in the years since then, Tiny’s residents have become more and more aware of the need to take care of the Township’s natural heritage.
Everyone is concerned that water levels in Georgian Bay may continue to drop. And so it is encouraging that the International Joint Commission has taken the Baird Report’s data about continuing erosion of the St. Clair River bed (erosion that allows the waters of Lake Huron, Georgian Bay and Lake Michigan to drain ever more quickly toward Lake Erie) seriously. It has commissioned studies to check the Report’s findings and will recommend remedial action if it is necessary. The studies should be completed in a year or so.
It is also encouraging that a new threat to water levels in Georgian Bay appears to have been averted. In the Spring Tiny Cottager, we drew attention to loopholes in the Province’s Bill 198 (legislation which supports the important Great Lakes-St Lawrence Sustainable Water Resources Agreement among Ontario, Quebec and the eight American Great Lakes states). These loopholes would have allowed significant water transfers from one Great Lake basin to another. In August, the Minister of Natural Resources wrote me to say that regulations have been put in place requiring “the return of water to the source Great Lake watershed” with no exceptions.
This summer several shoreline residents in Tiny organized an informative, well-attended “Caring for Our Beaches” conference. On page 3 of this issue, Dr. Allan Crowe expands on ideas he presented at the conference, ideas which question the usefulness of E. coli as an indicator of swimming water quality. The Report on Council notes that the Health Unit has been moving away from using E. coli as the sole measure of swimming water quality.
Environmental concerns are also central to articles in this issue about the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre, the proposed wind turbines, the Woodland Beach Master Plan, and the new ReStore. However, we have failed to protect the prime farm land of Site 41. Preliminary work has begun on the landfill, and the County’s CAO anticipates that it will begin to receive garbage next fall. Let us hope that the formal complaint (see page 5) sent to the Ontario Ombudsman by Ray Millar, Chair of the Community Monitoring Committee for Site 41, is heeded.
by Judith Grant
In 1999-2000 when citizen groups met to discuss various aspects of Tiny’s “New” Official Plan, they made sure that it was “Environment First”. And in the years since then, Tiny’s residents have become more and more aware of the need to take care of the Township’s natural heritage.
Everyone is concerned that water levels in Georgian Bay may continue to drop. And so it is encouraging that the International Joint Commission has taken the Baird Report’s data about continuing erosion of the St. Clair River bed (erosion that allows the waters of Lake Huron, Georgian Bay and Lake Michigan to drain ever more quickly toward Lake Erie) seriously. It has commissioned studies to check the Report’s findings and will recommend remedial action if it is necessary. The studies should be completed in a year or so.
It is also encouraging that a new threat to water levels in Georgian Bay appears to have been averted. In the Spring Tiny Cottager, we drew attention to loopholes in the Province’s Bill 198 (legislation which supports the important Great Lakes-St Lawrence Sustainable Water Resources Agreement among Ontario, Quebec and the eight American Great Lakes states). These loopholes would have allowed significant water transfers from one Great Lake basin to another. In August, the Minister of Natural Resources wrote me to say that regulations have been put in place requiring “the return of water to the source Great Lake watershed” with no exceptions.
This summer several shoreline residents in Tiny organized an informative, well-attended “Caring for Our Beaches” conference. On page 3 of this issue, Dr. Allan Crowe expands on ideas he presented at the conference, ideas which question the usefulness of E. coli as an indicator of swimming water quality. The Report on Council notes that the Health Unit has been moving away from using E. coli as the sole measure of swimming water quality.
Environmental concerns are also central to articles in this issue about the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre, the proposed wind turbines, the Woodland Beach Master Plan, and the new ReStore. However, we have failed to protect the prime farm land of Site 41. Preliminary work has begun on the landfill, and the County’s CAO anticipates that it will begin to receive garbage next fall. Let us hope that the formal complaint (see page 5) sent to the Ontario Ombudsman by Ray Millar, Chair of the Community Monitoring Committee for Site 41, is heeded.
