About 23 years ago, I advocated for increased daycare. I discovered to my amazement that some right-wing groups were against Statistics Canada. StatsCan was painted as a leftist organization because they showed that more women were working outside the home and they had a poverty line that the right-wing think tanks disagreed with. As a librarian, I have to say that Stats Can had never struck me as a biased organization.

So we should not be surprised that the Harper government wants to stop making the Long Form Census mandatory.  The actual lives of Canadians do not match the social conservative agenda. Statistics show that Canadians aren’t made up exclusively of religious white married two parent families with several children; Mom at home and Dad working hard enough to support them all.  In fact we are all over the map.

My friend who is unemployed and whose husband is retraining thinks that the next census will show through the employment and income figures that the recession is not ending, that many Canadians are still in dire straits and looking for employment.

Making the long form mandatory is important. I belong to organizations like the Crime Prevention Council who regularly conduct surveys, as does the Region. The most difficult part of voluntary statistics is the response rate. It can be 5% or 54%(a very good rate) but never almost 100% like the census. This means that the data is reflecting those who answer. Wikipedia uses the example of a survey of how hard professionals work that would be incorrect because those working hardest probably don’t have time to answer a voluntary survey. How many of us hang up the phone when Angus Reid comes calling?

The region uses census data to plan transit, bicycle paths, and social programs. How easy it will be for the federal government to cut programs, especially those pesky social and housing programs, when the data is no longer accurate.

Here are some information sheets the planners at the region have created from the last census to give an accurate snapshot of the region. http://bit.ly/9Lzggd

At Barries asparagus farm with Mr. Barrie and some of his products

A few posts ago, I discussed my reading of the book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” Not wanting to be one of those “city folks with a garden” who get all their agriculture info from books, I jumped at the chance this year to take the Waterloo Federation of Agriculture’s farm tour.

First of all, don’t mention “Factory Farms” in a bus full of farmers! Intensive farming is also a sensitive phrase. They also rolled their eyes (I saw you guys) when the owners of Oakridge said people used to come in looking for meat from happy cows. Pesticides are a hot topic. One said to me that the world could not be fed if pesticides were discontinued. Another noted that in the case of animals and anti-biotics, he would rather eat from a healthy animal.

Onto the trip.

Farms are experiencing land pressure from commercial/industrial/residential development/hobby farms/gravel/environmentally protected areas.

It is hard to make a living on a farm, especially with one crop like asparagus. A lot of farmers and/or their spouses are working off the farm as well as trying to run the farm. We visited three farms where the owners are making a go of full time farming.

First we visited Barries asparagus farm. Their famous asparagus is only available for approximately 6 weeks in the spring. They are thriving on asparagus only by partnering with local canning and manufacturing enterprises to put asparagus in all kinds of products such as salsa, pickles, crackers. The Barries run a store on their property to sell their goods and the food goods of other local or nearly local farmers. These small enterprises need the help of municipalities willing to permit it! They barter with the other farm stores, trading corn and even coffee for asparagus products. I found Barrie asparagus in my local farm store, Herrles, famous for their corn (and the golden beets are great too). Barries is so successful that they renovated the old homestead into the store. http://www.barriebrothers.com

The farm next door, Herman Poultry Barns, run a conventional farm, raising and selling broiler chickens to KFC,Maple Lodge and Swiss chalet. Their chickens are sent to a distributor in Toronto. So when you go to KFC and Swiss Chalet, there is a good chance you are eating local! Who knew?

 The chickens are grown for 34 days in an open barn (not caged), before sold. They have to have low dose antibiotics as any chickens in numbers are prone to disease. I know my daughters’ three chickens had to have feed with antibiotics in it when they were chicks. That’s why she calls her eggs ”free range” not “organic”.  The Herman chickens are fed from corn grown on the farm. The land is fertilized with leaf litter from the Region of Waterloo leaf collection program and chicken manure.  At the end of the 34 days when the chickens are gone, the two barns are cleaned and sterilized before a new batch comes in.  Herman’s uses solar walls for energy efficiency and have worked on environment improvements for manure management. The farmer is able to make a living from his conventional farm.

Our final stop was Oakridge Farms. Mark and Cindy Gerber run an enterprisse that champions “fair trade” for local farmers. Chicken, pork, game, and the Gerber’s beef is sold by asking the farmers to look at their costs and a reasonable return and that is what the meat will be sold for. The meat I bought seemed the same price as Sobeys regular prices. Each freezer has the name of the farmer and a picture of the family raising the meat.  This method stops the ups and downs that farmers experience selling on the open market.

The Gerbers raise Angus beef that is drug free and fed on oats, barley and grass. All the meat is frozen right after butchering to cut down on disease or you can go out on the kill day for fresh. http://www.oakridgeacres.ca/

Our final stop was at FS Partners, Ayr branch, a farm service supplier. They are a coop who buy cash crops like corn and wheat from farmers. They sell soybeans all over the world but they cannot be genetically modified as they sell to Europe and China who do not accept GMO soybeans for human consumption. For the farmers they work with flexible financing and sell their product. they also sell seeds, marketing and chemicals  to conventional farmers. They are a division of Growmarket Agriculture Cooperative in the States and compete with the world. Today it is a global market and the farm service sector must be nimble. Farmers are competing with the cost of fertilizer in China, for instance.

Emerging trends in farming are larger farms, part time farmers, an aging population, and lack of succession planning. Also new technology the up and down of commodity prices, environmental concerns, consumer buying habits and traceability.

Here are two good websites about Canadian farming.

http://www.foodlink.ca for Waterloo Region local farming and farm products.

http://www.farmissues.com/ Includes a pdf of a great booklet on Canadian farming under resources. For instance, Did you know?

1 98 % of Canadian farms are family owned.

2. More traditional farms will not feed the world

3. Hormones are not used in dairy cows, poultry and pigs in Canada

4. Farmers have reduced pesticide use by 52% since 1983.

5. Organic farms are the fastest growing segment of Canadian agriculture.

Last Friday, I took a tour of North Dumfries with the Waterloo Federation of Agriculture. Much to my surprise, not only agriculture was on the agenda. We also toured some “rehabilitated” gravel pits.

First let me say that we need gravel. It is used to build houses, stores and roads. Gravel was used to make the 401 in 1963 and we saw the remains of the pit where the gravel came from, now covered in corn. The problem with this pit and others, according to the WFA, is that the process removes the topsoil,then digs out the gravel. The company is supposed to rehabilitate the land back to agricultural land but in fact it cannot be rehabilitated or is not rehabilitated. For example, the former pit we saw from 1963.

The land in North Dumfries is some of the best agricultural land in the province because it sits atop gravel and is therefore well drained. The topsoil is excellent. But the extraction process scrapes off the topsoil and removes the gravel. The company is supposed to put everything back but there is a hole where the gravel was and the top soil is not returned. The corn in the field now used for farming is smaller and stunted compared to spots that have never had the gravel removed. The farmer is working and has worked for years with manure and crop rotation with hay and alfalfa to rehabilitate the soil. We also saw areas were the gravel pit wasn’t rehabilitated at all and another spot that had been turned into a golf course. A golf course is fine, but good agriculture land is forever out of production. 

One solution that seems to be working is a farm where the farmer did not sell his land to the gravel company but only rented it. The farm family keeps a close eye on the operation and makes sure that a field where the gravel is removed is returned almost completely to agricultural land. It should be noted that large sections of North Dumfries farmland are designated by the province as areas of gravel extraction. North Dumfries also includes environmentally significant lands and sensitive water recharge.

This leads to the problem the Region is having with the province.  The province does not like our proposals to deal with gravel, as noted in the June report on the Regional Official Plan. Everything was OK with the province except for this section:

 The Province has recommended two significant modifications to the ROP that are inconsistent with the policy direction as adopted by Regional Council. More specifically, the Province is proposing modifications that would:

Permit mineral aggregate extraction within the two year time of travel in Wellhead Protection within Wellhead Protection Areas.

Permit manufacturing of asphalt materials associated with mineral aggregate operations

The Region does not want this to happen as most of the Region’s water comes through groundwater filtered by gravel. We are one of the few areas in the province that gets its water from groundwater.

When it comes to gravel, the province of Ontario, environmentally progressive in other ways, still seems stuck in the early 19th century, when mineral extraction was King.

The province has given 300 million for rapid transit.

 Three things to remember as the Record notes the possible shortfall from the province.
1. I am sure staff is busy looking at plans and alternatives for council.
2. The feds have to put their amount in.
3. Regional councillors are not going to look kindly on any funny kind of money agreement like the RIM park financing. The accountants on staff (not to mention the accountants like Mayor Carl Zehr) are thankfully extremely prudent and conservative (small c)

 Further thoughts on LRT

Electric trains will be a lot quieter along King St. And people forget that roads and increasing lanes not only cut up a city but also increase noise and gridlock. Onlyhaving more roads  would cost the same and the dedicated bus 555 million. But most importantly in these times, this line will create approxitmately 35,000 permanent jobs around the stations.

Two statements that keep coming up.

The trains are going from mall to mall.  First, there is a certain amount of snobbery in people who use the word “mall” as if it was a bad thing. Secondly, the LRT stops at the universities, both downtowns, the RT park, hospital and King/Ottawa. Eventually it will go to Cambridge where, horrors, it may stop at a mall then onto historic Ainslie St.

The trains aren’t flexible like buses, the route can’t be changed.  There will always be transit in the central corridor. There is now with the number 7 buses and Ixpress  and there was in the deep past when I was a girl and took the bus and trolleys ran between Forwells and Rockway Center.  No need for flexibility when the main route will always exist and always be busy. Yup, Ixpress was busy on Monday morning even with the students gone for the summer.

Here is a comment from my cousin John in England about the LRT.

My speech on Tuesday in response to Tom Galloway’s motion to not include the sensitive SW corner of Kitchener as part of the protected countryside.  The motion was defeated, 14 to 3, and so the land will remain firmly agricultural and part of the countryside, not in the urban area.  Tom, Mayor Zehr, Jake Smola and Jim Wideman voting in favour.

The following would have been removed from the motion for the final changes for the official plan

Request the Province to modify Maps 4 – Greenland Network and 6g – Other Source Water Protection Areas to designate the southwest corner of the City of Kitchener as Regional Recharge Areas as originally recommended to Regional Council on June 16, 2009
d) Request the Province to modify Map 7 – The Countryside to designate the southwest corner ofthe City of Kitchener as Protected Countryside as originally recommended to Regional Council on June 16, 2009;

Speech

Kitchener is leaking out onto our farmland and deflating our environmental plans.

The owners of the land in the SW corner have been led on a string, first for 12 months now proposed for 5 more years, that their land might be developed.

Many developers, consultants and land owners from all over the region have come before us asking to have their piece of land put back into the urban area. They have been turned down.

Just like Kitchener  council did for the SW corner, the previous council of the City of Waterloo opposed designating the NW corner of Waterloo, another sensitive water recharge area, as part of the Environmentally Sensitive Landscapes.  The Region designated the area anyway, which I agree was the right thing to do.

Why should Kitchener be treated  differently than the rest of the region?

It is time we drew a line in the sand around the urban area.

Mayor Brenda said, “ It’s time to take a stand as a regional council and enforce a protected countryside line.”

 Tom’s motion was introduced by Jim Wideman, the chair, as an amendment even though it was contrary to the full motion on the table as moved by Sean Strickland and seconded by Jean Haalboom long before anyone moved and seconded Tom’s motion.  We complained but did not challenge the chair when he didn’t change it as “challenging the chair” can lead to councillors being ticked off unnecessarily. We carried on. At the end of the discussion, Jim called the question then spoke to the motion about the poor treatment of the  owners of the land that will be designated.  Jim stopped all rebutes on his words with this manouver but fed up councillors were having none of it.

Jane Brewer waved Tom’s paper in the air, calling it “This piece of paper”, refusing to call it an amendment and then she pointed out that the owners of the land had had a discussion with staff at the Ayr meeting and that if she was the owners,she would have pned the next day and arranged a meeting if this was such an important issue to them.

The ROP report on final changes and provincial response: http://bit.ly/abjUFG

ROP passed last year without SW corner included for one year for further consultation. http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/region.nsf/DocID/CA5BC18540AE6A2185257555006D0304?OpenDocument

After we also passed the transportation master plan, I thanked staff for all their hard work. I reminded council once again, that when I voted for the Light Rapid Transit, it was because I had been assured that the ROP with the firm countryside line protecting our farmland and environmentally sensitive areas and putting limits on urban sprawl; and the transportation master plan with its emphasis on more transit everywhere and more cycling and pedestrian routes would be passed. I was now satisfied that those requirements had been fulfilled. Because without those other pieces, the LRT would certainly not work as a method of intensification.

http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/region.nsf/8ef02c0fded0c82a85256e590071a3ce/AB487A489BD086708525774600577521/$file/P-10-059.pdf?openelement

David Foot, of Boom, Bust and Echo fame was the key note speaker at a Regional Housing Forum, The Past is not the Future. To my mind, he emphasized that the past is the future. The Baby Boomers rule everything and will for the next 30 years. By the way, Baby Boomers aren’t the retired, they range in age from 44 to 64 with an average age of 50.  They are the biggest voting block because as people age, they tend to start to vote and there are so darn many of us.

Foot feels that transit is only for the young and that the young like to live downtown. The birth control pill and working women has meant a drop in birth rates (also the BB is an anomaly when you look at birth rates,  the end of the trauma of WW II and the huge loss of life meant people wanted homes and children, in my opinion) In any case, the City of Waterloo needs to think carefully about who will live in Northdale, as in 10 years the BB Echo (ages 18 to 30) will have gone through university and college and there will be a decline in students as there presently is in the younger grades.

Foot feels that as boomers retire they will move their summer homes and while they might buy downtown condos, they won’t use them all the time. They will move to one car and hospitals are needed in small towns. They won’t use transit. Woah, hold on here. Is this the truth according to demographics or the wishful thinking of a retired academic? Last time I looked, my baby boom self didn’t have a summer home and I’m not moving from my bungalow to buy a part-time condo. By the way, intensification doesn’t mean a downtown of  highrise condos. It can also mean townhouses and two to three story buildings. Our own Kevin Eby noted that older bungalows, and small war time housing is also very popular with boomers. Hmmm. Like the few vets in Northdale.

That’s why, although many things Foot said were interesting, it was also important to listen to the speakers in the afternoon at the forum.

Doug Norris,  the Chief Demographer of Enrivonics Analytics said that while he respects Foot, demographics is not destiny. Three quarters of it is demographics and one quarter is attitude.  He pointed out that Baby Boomers are different from their parents.  We move more from place to place and their are more women on their own, whether through widowhood or divorce.  The Boomers are moving all over but 75 % actually stay in the city. A person in my small discussion group noted that people are moving from Toronto to the region, the region being their smaller town!

Ted Tsiakopoulos of CMHC noted that right now is a good time to be a  landlord and that re-sale homes are popular right now.  He introduced the word De-malling which means building housing over our one story malls as we finish with greenfields. Living on top of the mall, surely the dream of all current generations.

 While Foot felt imigration isn’t needed because the BB Echo can fill it, others feel that immigration is key with the gradual exiting of Boomers from the work force. It was noted also that Boomers may be working longer and part time.

The biggest group entering the workforce is 50 plus women. And there will be a large demographic of 75 year old widows in a few years. Women equal condos, travel, good food and quality entertainment. Oh yes, women ride the bus.  (It’s amazing to me how often women are missed as a demographic, OK, no it’s not)

As far as transit goes, we are building for the future: the BB Echo and beyond, very elderly boomers who can’t drive and want to be near good hospital care, immigrants used to good transit  and women.

There’s been a number of issues in the media recently about disputes between neighbours and individuals (including corporations). One was a property in an old neighbourhood of Waterloo where the trees were removed on a property for a parking lot and the neighbours objected to losing shade. I have also given advice to a constituent on the opposite problem where a neighbour objected to her tree dropping leaves on the neighbour’s property and wanted the tree cut down. 

Some of these reports have led to a rash of letters and a facebook discussion about the rights of individuals to do what they want to their property. Oh what a thorny topic that is!  The City of Waterloo has by-laws and a mediation service. Ask the neighbours in the student area if landlords should have the right to do what they want to their property!

 In my opinon, the  major role of municipal government is finding the balance between the needs of the individual (including the corporate individual) and the needs of the neighbours and community.

We’ve all heard “Tough on Crime” and “Soft on Crime”, politicians crow about the first and throw the second at their opponents, particularly at the provincial and federal levels. There’s a better expression, “Smart on Crime”

The Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council wants you to tell them what “Smart on Crime” means. I wrote, “Smart on Crime means making prevention a priority.”  Here’s some other thoughts from other people who answered their small survey,

You can add your thoughts here

If you get Rogers Cable 20, The WRCPC is hosting a program about different aspects of crime. the last program, So What, Now What? is June 30th at 9 p.m.

When I was a girl, my mother used to buy New Dundee butter from Zehrs. In the winter the butter was a pale yellow. In the summer it was a yellowy creamy colour. The taste was different too. I preferred the summer butter.  The butter looked and tasted different because in the summer, the local dairy cows ate grass instead of the feed of the winter. New Dundee Dairy with its beautiful tasting butter is long gone. All butter now tastes like winter butter as dairy cows live inside.

The Grand River  has a few dead spots where algae use up all the oxygen needed by plants and fish and there is a plume of algae coming out of the mouth of the river as it enters Lake Erie.

How do these two things even relate and what does it have to do with Big Oil? Glad you asked.

I am reading “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan, that my daughter gave me for my birthday.

Pollan follows American food from corn in Iowa to a MacDonald’s eaten in a car driving in California.

The hybrid corn creates huge yields (Yet strangely, farmers are losing money, see the book). Part of that yield is caused by artificial fertilizers.  Nitrogen helps plants grow but until humans learned how to fix the nitrogen in the atmosphere to create artificial fertilizer, nitrogen was pretty much a closed system with some made by the bacteria growing with soybeans or already in the soil or manure or plants. All energy came originally from the sun through plants. Now that energy comes from oil (yes I know oil is from million year old plants but it can run out vs. the sun has a few billion years left)

Like the poem, “The House that Jack Built” (this is the cat that ate the mouse that ate the grain that lived in the house that Jack built), oil is at the beginning of a long food chain. Oil is used to make the nitrogen fertilizer that feeds the hybrid corn that feeds the cows (pigs and chickens) now in huge feedlots or factory farms (versus our local Waterloo county mixed farms with different crops and animals or smaller operations) that go to the slaughterhouses that make the hamburger from cows all over American that make the boxed patties and BBQ chickens that are eaten by us. This chain is heavily subsidized by the American Government but not in a good way.

In Canada, we still have egg and milk marketing boards and the wheat marketing board that protect the farmers from the ups and down of weather. Not so for beef and hogs as shown with the problems caused by the mad cow scares that crippled our beef industry. (Canadian steers end up in American feedlots)

Including cost of creating pesticides, driving tractors, cost of driving corn to terminals and feedlots, it costs more than a calorie of fossil fuel to produce a calorie of food. Before chemical fertilizer, one calorie of energy created two calories of food.

This food chain uses a tremendous amount of cheap oil to transport it all over North America and the world.

The artificial fertilizers are so good that the excess that runs into the Grand River feeds algae that create the dead zones. Nitrates from fertilizers are the biggest problem in the Grand, not sewage.

http://www.grandriver.ca/WatershedReportCard/2004_Fall_Grand_Pg4.pdf

The sad Gulf of Mexico that is now being destroyed by the BP oil spill already had a large dead zone caused indirectly by oil. The excess artificial fertilizer from the corn farms in the US mid-west travels down the Mississippi and the nitrates and nitrites create a large dead zone in the gulf.

So eating local food is more than how far it travels from the slaughterhouse or fields of Mexico or Peru or the US. It is also about using our local smaller mixed farms and finding organic farms that don’t use artificial fertilizers to grow monoculture corn fields. This is a huge topic, for example,did you know that most of the small abattoirs  (slaughterhouses )in Ontario are gone. It’s not just the disappearance of local creameries.

And despite what the supporters of business as usual will tell you, local and organic food isn’t about any difference in taste or driving to the farmers’ market or whether there are spoiled peaches in the basket (The lady at the Martin’s stall was so offended by that. Mmm. Martin apples),it’s about whether we want to be dependent on oil that destroys the ocean or a monoculture agriculture based on cheap GMO or hybrid corn that creates an unhealthy diet and climate change. Organic isn’t about taste it’s about eliminating pesticides and artificial fertilizers. Yes the yield is reduced but the environment improves.

The good news? A visit to St. Jacobs market, internet search and a glance at www.foodlink.ca shows that local producers are popping up all over Waterloo Region and Perth County with organic or local veggies, fruit, meat, cheese and butter.  Go local.

OK, so I also talked in my speech about how the cities are increasing their council size but despite my trying, Regional Council didn’t. When councils increase in size, there is an oppportunity for change and new and different voices. Better representation for the citizens.

I failed to increase Regional Council because due to a quirk of the municipal act, we had to get permission of the cities and the rural didn’t want to lose power to the urban. The four township councils would vote against increasing regional council. And several councillors from the cities were ready to make hay with the region increasing their size. It was also, as I said at the time, when the big crash happened and not a good time to spend money. The conservative white men who call into the Jeff Allen show seemed to hate it, the idea of more politicians. 

The cities seemed to get little flack when they increased their size.