So, welcome everybody. My name is Vicky Mane. I work at Lakehead University and Algoma University. And I am just here tonight as a helper, so we planned a great event for you this evening. In honor of World Water Day, so we're going to talk a little bit about World Water Day. We have a presentation, I have a presentation here for you. But just before we get to that, this is our agenda for this evening, so George is going to do the opening prayer and the land acknowledgement. Are you doing the opening prayer or am I? I'm good. I'm good to go with the opening prayer. Okay. All right. That sounds good. And then we'll have George's opening welcome and introduction and the background of World Water Day, which I will give to you. And then we have Claire Malkinson, and Claire is here to talk about the Bradford Bypass and Elaine will be introducing Claire to all of us. And we're going to have a bit of a round table discussion as well. So just before we move any move forward, we were to have Jillian von Langstorf present to us tonight on the work of the connections of water and indigenous liberation and in South Africa. And unfortunately she hasn't, she had to pull out because she's not feeling well. And so it's just one of the realities of COVID that we have to deal with. So we want to send her our warm thoughts and just think of her and her family right now. She doesn't, from what I know it's not, she doesn't have COVID. At least we hope not, but I just want to send her, send her thoughts towards her to this evening. So with that, I'm just going to turn it over to George. Thank you. So we begin with a prayer. Thank you to God, we give thanks for the gift of life, and for this sustaining home that we share on this planet Earth, a home that meets all of our needs. We gather this evening to deepen our connection to the planet. We gather to deepen our commitment to protect its fragile ecosystems. So we might open ourselves to wisdom that can guide our future as planetary protectors. Creator we offer our thanks for this observance of World Water Day, for the thoughts, perspectives, and wisdom offered here this evening. Bless our speakers. May we all be blessed in this sacred time. Amen. I'm speaking to you from Barry in 60 in treaty 16 territory. It's the traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg of the Chippewa Tri Council. Also the traditional territory of the Huron, known as the Wendat, and also the Mohawk, who call themselves Ganyangahaga. We recognize and are grateful for their love of this land and their stewardship of it over thousands of years. Miigwech George, that's beautiful. Thank you so much. Okay, so World Water Day, what are we even here for, I just want to say, again just thank you for that wonderful land acknowledgement I'm actually going to talk a little bit about the pre confederation treaties in the area, and how that kind of shows. A relationship with the watersheds this evening so we had to I had to try to fill in for Jill. So I filled in so I hope you're I hope you're going to stay tuned, because there's lots coming. So background so what we wanted to do with this the with the idea or the concept of this event was really to talk about the Anthropocene. And ultimately the Anthropocene is an anthropological term. And it talks about human impact on the earth and it talks about this sort of era we're in which is industrial the industrial era and the digital age, where we're seeing ultimately the natural resource agenda. Being magnified and amplified across the globe, and ultimately leading to environmental destruction and climate change disasters. And so that relates to World Water Day because that is ultimately the root cause of why we have water day in the first place. So over time, water resources freshwater resources clean sustainable freshwater resources, the quality of water started to erode, in addition to that the quantity of water has begun to change. And so there's a lot of different factors that contribute to that, particularly in and around the Great Lakes. So the background of World Water Day started in, I believe it was 1993. And it ultimately, the whole goal of World Water Day now is about the UN sustainability goals which I will show you in a minute. Our watershed in this area for Central County is George and Bay Lake Huron, Lake Simcoe, Lake Kuchaching and the Alliston aquifer and all of the other aquifers that connect to this body of water and the population in and around this area is huge. And so we have a lot of people that are using water, either really through wells or through municipal systems. And so that's how we get our water. For my community of Bowsley First Nation, if you don't know who I am, I am from Bowsley First Nation, and I was involved in some a little movement called Site 41 way back and 100 years ago, when I was young and vibrant. But so we have a lot of different infrastructure related to water in and around Simcoe County. And a lot of that is wastewater treatment facilities and freshwater treatment facilities. And that's how we are getting our water. So it's really, really important that we connect with water and George is taking a big swig right now that clean, beautiful water. But it's really, really important that we continue to connect with water and work with with. Here's it. Here's the kicker work with the water, work with the water. And that means that when we say work with the water we're recognizing the personhood of water as a spirit as an entity as its own being right, having its own essence and its own life. So there's different types of human development that are half that is happening in and around Simcoe County that is actually affecting the quality of the water and the quantity of the water, particularly in Claire's going to Claire's done a lot of work on Lake Simcoe. And that is one of the one of the major, major areas where development and urban sprawl is happening. And with respect to that, there's also infrastructure that is being developed that is threatening water resources, not just water resources all natural resources in the area. So this is the website, www.worldwaterday.org so you can take a look at that website if you haven't done it. Sometimes, I wanted to put that there because I want to, I want to really, really emphasize the fact that we're working together across the globe that this water day was initiated by the United Nations. And so, all across the globe right now, everybody is participating in some sort of observance of Water Day. So the Sustainability Goals, the UN Sustainability Goals, these are the UN Sustainability Goals if you've never seen them before. There's 17 Sustainability Goals and they're all about creating equal opportunities but limiting the impacts of environmental disasters and ensuring what we know as an, as Anishinaabe people, as Minova-Manzuin or the Good Life, right? That is the fundamental goal of the Sustainability Goals is to create, promote and extend Minova-Manzuin, which means that we program our life around these goals in order to create good life for everybody. And so, Sustainability Goal number six is access to clean water and sanitation. And that is a really, really huge goal because it also implies that we have to ensure the development of infrastructure in order to create sanitary conditions. So water is life. And a lot of people know this term. It's really, really popular now because of the Mother Earth water walks because of Anishinaabe activism. So if you haven't ever, if you've never heard of Josephine Mendaman, Josephine Mendaman, she actually walked all of the Great Lakes and not only did she walk all of the Great Lakes, but she also walked twice the St. Lawrence River and the four directions of Turtle Island. And so she started that walk in 2002 and it emerged from something called the Three Fires Medewan Lodge. So the Three Fires Medewan Lodge is known as the Grand Medicine Society of the Anishinaabe people. And it doesn't mean that it's really, really a society of elite healers or anything like that. What it means is that for people that are part of that society, they're committed to healing. And they're committed to healing themselves. They're committed to healing the earth. They're committed to living in a way that promotes healing and wellness. And so I say that because that then really becomes incumbent upon Anishinaabe people to bring that everywhere that they go and with everything that they do and in all of their relationships, including the relationship with themselves. And so in our lodge, in 2001, it was prophesied by our Grand Chief. His name was Eddie Benton-Banesi. And he's passed on to the spirit world now, both Josephine and Eddie have passed on to the spirit world now. And what they did was they, he prophesied that a time would come where water, an ounce of water would be more than an ounce of gold. And we are actually starting to see that now. And he asked the question to everybody in the lodge that was gathered in ceremony. And the question to them, who is going to stand up for the water? Who is going to stand up for the water? And that is when grandmother Josephine decided that she would stand up and walk the Great Lakes and walk. The water walks are designed in a way where you're walking with the water, for the water, near the water, which means they always had to be near a shoreline. And every time they approached a body of water, they would pray and offer their good wishes to that one that we know isn't a bit mental or the water spirit. So very, very carefully, you know, they would carry life, the whole idea is to carry life, right? And so they're carrying life wherever they went. And I was a part of the two water walks at the St. Lawrence River. But the work for water has to be in every single area of our lives. We do a lot of the water walks and different other different things, but it has to be a part of our lives from the time we get up to the time we go to bed. It's the organizing principle of our life, water protection, right? Now in this time of the Anthropocene, where we are seeing human development really, really drastically affected the quality of the water and the quantity of the water. We could essentially say that the quality of the water directly reflects the quality of life for humanity, the quality of life for animals, the quality of life for all trees, all plants, everything. So water is life, and water continues to bring life to all beings across the planet. So that catchphrase is everywhere now, it's a part of every, it's been, it's in multiple different languages and there's all kinds of different ways that you can say it. And always say it, if you can every day say that water is life and give thanks to that one. So it is estimated that 10% of the world's water, total water resources is fresh water, but only 2.5% of that are, or sorry, only half a percent of that is available 2.5% of the earth's fresh water is unavailable lock up glaciers, polar ice caps atmosphere and soil highly polluted or lies too far under the earth's surface to be extracted at an affordable cost. So this is important when we look at this 2.5% because when we see that the earth is being affected by a ground level ozone and and carbon. And the temperatures are starting to rise, then we're seeing the melting of the glaciers and we're seeing sea levels and water levels rise because of that. So that's really, really concerning there. So this is actually the map. So I wanted to be able to give you a visual understanding of the watershed. And we see the Great Lakes there, but we also see like simple in and around there. But this is actually a treaty territory map. And so, in and around here we have 16 treaty 18. The ones with the black borders is actually the Williams Treaty of 1929. This is the one that is shaded there is pre confederation treaty 20. And so, kind of where the black one where the black lines are there's seven First Nations that are part of the Williams Treaty. Land claim settlement. And these ones over here in and around like Simcoe these pre confederation treaties, the treaty descendants that have treaty rights in that area are the Chippewa Tri Council so that's mostly First Nation Ram and Georgina Island First Nation. And so when it comes to things like such as the Bradford bypass in and around here. It really is incumbent upon the federal and provincial government and even the municipal governments to consult with those First Nations so that means that they have they have an act. They have a duty to consult. And when developments start happening without that consent that means that essentially it's an illegal development. It's illegal or it's that indigenous rights don't exist under treaty. So there's either one or the other and oftentimes it is the approach that the federal government and provincial government take is that they, they just kind of forget that or try to dance around the First Nations right. And also free prior informed consent free prior informed consent means that First Nations people must be consulted, and a part of all decision making processes and get consent and be duly informed and understand all of the developments right. In and around here. These are the First Nations that need to be consulted when development is happening. So we're talking about the Anthropocene again we're talking about human development we're talking about this tendency in and around the area of dairy and Aurelia, Midland kind of tango sheen all of these different areas where we all live where that are growing rapidly, and the populations are expanding and as a population start to expand the need for infrastructure to accommodate that also has to expand. And so that essentially means that we have to protect the resources in and around us. And this is actually the picture of the Alice in Africa this was on the site 41 website. And so you can see how big the aquifer actually is so parts of this aquifer have been tested by Dr Bill shot it. One of my friends I love talking to him. It's fantastic guy, but he lives in just outside of home bill and so he tested groundwater samples and found it to be cleaner than the cleanest layers of articulation ice. He's over 6 to 8,000 years old at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. And now he's at the University of Alberta and he is conducting a study right now adopted drawn sherry on this aquifer to find out why the water is so pure and essentially how to protect it. One of the interesting things to look here is that with this water like when we talk about the purity of water. We always think of it in terms of the initial of a perspective and the fact that we were promised that the water would forever flow pure, and that there was a time when all of the world's waters on the earth were pure and clean. And so there's, we can. Yes, we can say that the water is the purest in the world here in simple County because we have scientific evidence to back that up. But it also means that that comes at the expense of all of the rest of the world's waters. So we must be cognizant of the health of all of the waters around the watershed not. It is important to protect the alastin aquifer, but we also have to protect all the waters around because if you can see by this diagram that all of the waters are actually are connected. So the aquifer is connected to the alastin aquifer. The alastin aquifer is connected to Georgia Bay. So there's a clear channel there. And I'm not going to go into the hydrologic cycle. I could, but I'm not going to do that today, but I wanted to be able to demonstrate that this is this is really important in and around this area. So 65 water advisories in Ontario do not drink and do not consume water advisories. And of that 31 our first nations in Ontario. That is really important when we think about water because water the in. If we think about the United Nations sustainability goal of access to water and sanitation. That means that in order to achieve the sustainability goals that first nations water has to be a priority for the federal government. And they have made some progress. I'm not going to lie. There are a couple of communities in here that I view this website. This is from watertoday.ca. And I view this website quite frequently and there are some what some communities that have been removed, which means that they got water water facilities or water treatment facilities, facilities, but I don't know why I left the Addison heading there. But when you consider the health and well being of first nations and the distance away from where development is generally occurring. It actually means that it's much harder to develop infrastructure for clean water systems in like Northern Ontario. And so that is really important that we understand that because what first nations communities are much smaller and they have much higher rates of comorbidities, which makes them more vulnerable population. So if they don't have access to clean water, and they have the presence of comorbidity within the community, it means that it could be potentially devastating and is devastating for a lot of first nations. So I'm not going to take up too much time here, but human development development in simple County there's a couple of different things happening. There's a poor young friend just hill that is taking permits to take water directly from the Alaston aquifer to wash gravel and then essentially dump it back into the earth and the concern here with human development is that once human development occurs. It usually destroys the ecosystems in and around and what their governments usually do in when they're issuing licenses as they ask for remediation plans but the remediation plans can never actually ever restore those ecosystems back to 100% of what they were there permanently had to change and oftentimes permanently damaged. And so that really means that through a license the corporation actually is able to get away with a huge amount of profit, while still leaving permanent damage in the area once they exit. So the Bradford quiet pass which there's going to talk about and then urban sprawler really this is another one. So there's plans to develop and where they're going to be developing is is prime farmland. I would have liked to have Jacob come and talk about this maybe that'll be the next series that we'll have. But there's a movement right now to stop the urban sprawler and really because of the threats to the pristine farmland but also to the water. And then water infrastructure what we know right now is that water infrastructure is outdated it needs to be updated so for my community in particular I'm concerned about this. Because the water infrastructure for particularly for wastewater, when it rains that wastewater goes into Georgia Bay and my community's health depends on the health of Georgia Bay. We do have a water treatment facility but how much of that are we still being exposed to anyways. So those are just different things that I wanted to show with respect to the Anthropocene. And so, as we continue on this natural resource agenda, we're continuing to the quality and quantity of water, and essentially make these monumental changes globally that are going to affect all of us no matter where we live or what you. I'm just going to turn it over to Lee. I see Claire stepped away for a minute but I'll turn it over. Oh, there you are. All right. Okay, so I'm going to turn it over to a lead and then lead is going to introduce Claire's for us. Okay. It's my pleasure to introduce Claire Melkinson this evening. Claire is currently the executive director of rescue Lake Simcoe coalition, and her work with Lake Simcoe began in 2001. That's 21 years ago Claire that that says a lot. When she created the award winning paddling around Lake Simcoe education program. She later worked for environmental defense managing campaign Lake Simcoe, which led to the successful passing of the Lake Simcoe Protection Act in 2008. Claire has been a member of the provincial multi stakeholder committee, the Lake Simcoe coordinating committee since its inception in 2010. She has a master's degree in integrated watershed management with a focus on Lake Simcoe protection plan and growth plan. Claire was also a guest speaker last year at Simcoe County Kyros water event in honor of World Water Day. Welcome again this year Claire. Thank you very much. Thanks Elaine really nice to be here. I just changed one thing in my bio which is that I quit the lake Simcoe coordinating committee. Because it was going to be a sham, and I thought I would rather do this and speak to the public and be free to be an advocate, then be muzzled. This is a total sidebar, but it was a committee set up for the creation of the Lake Simcoe Protection Act and plan, and then we met quarterly for full days these are multi stakeholder you know first nations developers recreation fishing municipal everyone. And we met for full day meetings four times a year we actually knew what was going on with Lake Simcoe we provided substantive advice. And when there was a change in government, the government's just said we don't want to have these committees anymore we don't want to pay for the coffee and stuff. And the travel and so the committee has, I think never met in person and they certainly don't need for full days four times a year anymore.  I'm sure about me and my work so thanks again for inviting me. The Brad for bypass is a really, really big mess, and I'm really happy that you're interested in it because it's a project that we've been fighting for a year, but fight is really over and frankly the next municipal and provincial elections are really likely the way this would be decided. So it's not over. I have a lot to say George asked me a lot of very detailed questions so feel free to send me a private chat if you're like, you are getting too boring, where this is too depressing because I haven't been through this exact presentation so please let me know. It's a small enough group, I can take it. Okay so I'm going to share my screen with you. I'll tell you a little bit about the rescue like some quick coalition first. We are a charity set up in 2003. And I was not on the original board but I joined a couple of years after it was established. And the reason it was established is really to have a citizen's voice that was going to have some understanding about like issues and be able to mostly be a connection between the federal and government and government processes. And really we quite quickly started advocating for better protections for the lake, which we got through the lakes and protection act in 2008, but it didn't solve all the problems. For example, it allows major infrastructure to go through under certain conditions which are, it's hard to believe that those conditions have been met with the Bradford bypass but you'll hear a lot about it. So the topics I was asked to discuss the ecological impacts. I added the lower landing historical site because I thought it would be interesting it's a really important part of the story. A little bit about sort of the process the construction and timelines. And then, since I have last spoken to anybody but Bradford bypass there's been some really good research put out by some of our friends about the impacts of gravel. We needed for both Bradford bypass and highway 413 which are both proposed and kind of part of the board governments election platform now. So they were looking at the impacts of these proposed highways on the communities around in those areas. I want to acknowledge that the rescue lake some co coalition is only one of many groups that have been fighting the Bradford bypass Margaret profit and Adam ballot simple county greenbelt coalition have been really doing a fantastic job. Really, Margaret especially release really leading on this file. But also there are a number of small community groups and a lot of really important volunteers who've done a ton of work. Most notably, Bill Foster from frogs forbid roads over green spaces in East Goanbury. And Kathy Wellesley and some other folks from concerned citizens of King Township. So this is the women from Bradford Bradford women's plus group who joined this joined this fight. Okay, so this is the ecological impact slide so this is actually an M&R generated slide it's sort of not really official, because it's just an M&R slide that people put some lines over top of, but this is the approximate level of the Bradford bypass. And the reason I'm showing this one to talk about ecological impacts is you can see how many ecological features are going to be affected by this. So the big picture is Bradford bypass is a proposed highway connector, connecting the 404 on the right of your screen and the 400 on the left. And if you look at the parameters long, it would be a raised highway, at least in many portions. And there was an environmental assessment done in 1997. I am pausing for effect. And it is now like that's 25 years ago, almost 25 years ago. Yeah. So what we're using in Ontario now that'll do 25 year old environmental assessment but it just gets better. They're not even doing a full environmental assessment. So the, and I talked about some of that physical impact here so there are 28 river water water crossings, including the East and West Holland Rivers which you can see there quite clearly. So the wildlife surveys for the area that would look at impacts are really old and they both they predate federal and provincial species at risk protections, and their recovery strategies. In 25 years no mitigation for severe stormwater and groundwater impacts have been proposed or identified. But some of these studies will go forward but what the province has to do with the information generated by the studies is very different than what it would have been in a normal environmental assessment. So, this project has been approved by the ministry of the environment. There are no more environmental approvals required. And I'm going to tell you all the things we don't know yet. So, so there was a lack of up to date aquatic terrestrial and wildlife surveys for the Hall and Marsh and the mask and on impacted areas the mask and on river is just a little bit up here through the center of of Keswick. So the project would remove 32 hectares of significant wildlife habitat, nine and a half hectares of the provincially significant wetland which this is this is the Hall and Marsh, including some rare fen wetlands. And as you can imagine to it will obviously results in fragmentation. And this is all by bisecting a really really the most important wetland in the lakes and cold watershed. It's been called one of the most important wetlands in southern Ontario, and it is ironically one of the best protected features under provincial policy but the province with infrastructure project is able to ignore their own protection measures in large part. So now in Ontario and dangerous species are really only protected. If they're, I mean, these are my words but if they're nearly extinct. You don't have to protect the habitat of an endangered species in Ontario anymore as of a couple years ago. If there is a population elsewhere. So it's like, we're just going to let other provinces, hopefully maybe take care of other species. I mean, I have to say thank you so much Vicki for I always love to hear you speak and I really feel like I really wish first nations would just take over, because this is the philosophy that we really need to keep us alive. I mean the lack of consideration for other species is really just astounding. I mean we're not the best. So in this area, we know that it is red headed woodpecker habitat that is a federally listed endangered species and we thought that maybe there might be some protection through the feds on that but more about that later. In the early 90s, 78 stated that this, that this site was reported, quote, a full suite of forest interior area sensitive bird species, including yellow bellied sap sucker winter Wren would thrush the very northern water thrush Canada warbler black and white warbler I mean, I have been birding it like some of my whole life and these are birds that I almost never see or have never seen so these are fairly rare. The red, the red stars are the birding hotspots. That is where the birders love to go because there's so many birds but the, the white dots are what would be the highway interchanges. And then no overall assessment of impacts to fish aquatic habitats or fish populations in the 1970s. But the impacts to water quality that would affect fish have been noted. So the Department of Fisheries and Oceans review in 1998 concluded that the project would result in harmful alteration destruction or destruction of fish habitat. So all told this damage and removal of habitat is considered an adverse effect in the 1997 environmental assessment. So it is obviously quite shocking that that information is basically still good to go in the province of Ontario right now. It's disappointing to say the least. We have to talk about water quality in Lake Simcoe we have to talk about phosphorus which is naturally occurring fertilizer but it also occurs in our natural poop. Any animals natural and sewage. It's also just in soils and that gets wind born airborne in firm fields and aggregate sites and construction sites. So we are in the province of Ontario now, and it rains down to so we basically have about twice as much phosphorus going into the lake as our target. This target was established by the multi stakeholder committee. Oh no, sorry by the Science Committee, it was appointed by the province of Ontario in 2008 to help them come up with the Lake Simcoe. So we had about double the amount of phosphorus that we should be at. There was a peak in 2017 though of 131. Tons of phosphorus per year that's really so far away from, from 44. So is that climate change and phosphorus are interacting so when we have these major storm events. We have a much higher flow so this is the 2017 water flow, and this is matched by years that have a huge spring fresh at where there's like a ton of water on top of frozen ground, or other massive storms. So these massive storms are just accompanied by massive phosphorus loads going into the lake as well. So we really do need to protect what's happening on the land and reduce sedimentation and reduce soil erosion to help protect the lake. Climate change and phosphorus loads are two or four really big issues affecting the lake the others are salt and invasive species, and they all interact in ways that are really kind of turning the science tables on their head, and there's a lot of very interesting and new science being developed at like some people understand what what's happening. So there's no information about how the Bradford bypass would, in fact, or how much phosphorus it would add to the water, but severe impacts to groundwater were anticipated in the 1997 environmental assessment. So the stormwater runoff has the potential that it also says quote stormwater runoff has the potential to severely impact the quality and quantity of surface water and groundwater. And also notes that there's potential for sedimentation to harm terrestrial and aquatic resources. So this is, it's fairly obvious if you understand how the how the lake works that if you disrupt a lot of soil, and then you put a highway. It's still Canada we put salt on our highways, you're going to have a lot more salt in the water and that they will try to mitigate that in some way we don't have any details yet but it's very difficult to do. And then climate change and phosphorus loads will both be exacerbated by a project that facilitates more driving and more and more drivers and then construction contributes to phosphorus loading to the lake so there's no goodness. So the other problem is that, you know, we have such a low density watershed that everybody drives and 57% of net emission 54% of total greenhouse gas emissions just come from from driving from transportation. There's not a lot of industry in the lakes of the watershed. We, they also projected into the future and said if we continue with the business as usual scenario, the net emissions will grow by 57% and by 2031 I believe from the 2016 baseline. So what that means is that if we continue building low density sprawl and highways, those greenhouse gas emissions will be going up and of course you're aware, signed on to these international agreements that we are going to bring our emissions down. So right now, again, it comes back to what's happening politically in Ontario. And the drive to sprawl and build highways is completely counter to the federal agreements that we've signed on to that Canadians have just ordered again in that collection. So salt is something that has been getting a little more attention lately. So like some Norwegian conservation authority has done a really good job studying this and getting municipalities to change the way they apply salt. However, it's important for us when we're talking about the Bradford bypass to point out what highways do to water. So the chart on the left shows, I just took this screen screenshot, while somebody from the conservation produce making a presentation about the mask and on Virginia. So before the highway 404 went across that river, only 12% of water samples exceeded the guideline for chloride. And after the highway was built, 84% of samples exceeded the chloride guideline. I mean highways create salt hotspots and rivers. And ultimately the more roads we have the more salt we have. And it's really hard to get out of the water. Once it's there. I did some research on this this year and found that No, sorry. Next slide. I did some research I wrote an op ad and I'm just bragging here I got my first op ad in the star. This year. Very sad. One know is about salt. But one of the things that I learned was that 64% of plants and animals in the lake simple watershed may already be affected by salt contamination. I know that they are destroyed by salt contamination but that is a huge percentage of the beautiful life and all the biota that we have being affected that certainly does not look good for the future. The other thing that I learned is sorry if you can see that is that having saltier water allows for easier invasions from salt water species to come into our freshwater lake. And then having more salt in the water in low oxygen water conditions helps create the conditions for how harmful algae blooms. I just want to make a distinction because the conservation authority made sure I knew this, it is not salt equals algae blooms, it's it contributes to the conditions that may result in more algae blooms but these are serious things because people and animals are definitely affected in recreation the whole recreation sector for lakes and water and sustainable jobs are really affected if our water quality is is really crappy. Does anybody want to ask any questions so far. I'm going to leave this aside for now. Let's talk about the lower landing. Now, I am not a real expert on the lower landing so please forgive me while I have to read my notes. But the upshot is that this is a hugely important historical First Nations, early settler European colonizer site. I mean, everybody has used this site. It's not an understatement to say it is one of the very most significant trading and meeting places in all of Southern Ontario. It would be under the bypass, and it is completely unclear if consultation or archaeological work that has been done to date is considered to be adequate with First Nations. To be honest, I hope that First Nations think it has not been just the whole project I mean we're still looking for ways to stop it. And a First Nations objection would be the most powerful pool that we have left having exhausted many, many of them already. Without the lower landing to the Anishinaabe people, the river here, this is on the Holland River, was known as Escoi Undi, and by the Chippewas, as Mika Gwin. Sorry, Mika Gwin by the Mississauga, and I wonder if it's a relationship with the mask and on, if there's some connection there. Records, historical maps, and the research of many confirmed that this is the site. That this site, it was also called Pine Fort Landing Place, Fort Gwillembury, Old Indian Landing, Steamboat Landing, and Old Soldiers Landing. For millennia, indigenous people used this area of the Holland River as a junction to get to and from other places. Because in the dry season, the Holland River was hard, it could be difficult to navigate farther south. So from this spot on the Holland River to the east, basically, I'm fast-forwarding enormously, but Young Street was built just east of this. It's really partly to connect with this site because this was the jumping off place to go from the Great Lakes to connect the northern Great Lakes to the southern Great Lakes. Having traveled up the rivers that flow through Toronto, and then doing a little bit of a portage and ending up connecting with the Holland River. So it connects with the Dawn River, the Humber River, sort of these old trails. If you're really interested in this, I would just very strongly look up, I would recommend looking up the lower landing. There is a good article written by one of the people we've worked with who's a retired archaeologist who used to work with the ministry in Ontario, who wrote an article about this from which my notes are taken. There's also a really good article in The Pointer, which is available online for free as well. So for countless generations, the area north of here was home to the Wendat and other Algonquin in Iroquan-speaking peoples. To these people, the lower landing was the natural focus of the travels between south and home. Going beyond that, though, the water route to the upper Great Lakes, along Lake Ontario, Niagara River, Lake Erie and the Detroit River, onward is often difficult and often through enemy territory. Indigenous peoples' knowledge of the value of the lower landing was shared with others. It is believed that the first Europeans in the lower landing were Jesuit missionaries in 1641. Through the fur trade, this site was used by Corot de Bois, Voyagers, the Northwest Company, and this was the route to the Great Lakes and beyond. Records speak of seeing no less than 30 large wigwams at times clustered about the banks of the Holland River. I'm sure there's a lot more information. Apparently when there has been some archaeology done, they just find it is just loaded with archaeological material and much of it is pre-contact. So it's really significant and it's on the route of the Bradford bypass. So I think I'm not alone in thinking that that is totally inappropriate and that we should not do that to archaeological site that's important. So the other sort of obvious thing here is that this is a highway going through wetland and it seemed particularly important to point that out when British Columbia was flooding everywhere and these roads were getting washed out. So the Bradford bypass would be a raised highway going through wetland and I think we've known enough now to know that that's not the best place to put a highway. So the province has now issued tenders to try to get an interchange built at Young Street just north of Bradford. They did that in December. And although they're starting to work on the first part of the bridge basically as soon as they can, there are no technical engineer design drawings of the bypass. There is no budget. So they're just putting windows on a house with no foundation.  So this is the, this is, if you go to the Ministry of Transportation site, you don't see the pictures of how this would affect any natural features. It just looks like, oh, look, there's a nice empty space. There's quite a highway there. Right. So you can see 400 here. You can see the 404 over here. And then the reason this is important is this is only about 150 meters away from existing subdivisions and they're more, they're more going over. Oh, there's definitely more going in here now. We know people on this side who's who have been served with expropriation notices, they've started to expropriate people that started just before Christmas and 80, 80 properties will have to be expropriated. So what a sort of a process piece I think is important is that, you know, we have a typical environmental assessment process in Ontario. The government of Ontario has really streamlined that process now. And then they passed an exemption to their streamline process, especially for this project. So not highway 413 but just this one is exempt. The exemption before like the Ministry of the Environment Conservation of Parks does not need to approve anything else. It is self approval. The exemption was meant to not have to complete the conditions of the 2002 conditional EA approval. 2002 environmental assessment was contingent on completing a number of other studies, including archaeological assessments, stormwater management, hydrological systems, noise and compliance monitoring. The highways exempted from these additional studies. And if they study some of them what they have to do about information is not is really not clear. It's kind of like we can gather the information, decide if it's significant enough ourselves on our own project team. And then if we think it's significant enough to do something about, and we'll set out to mitigate that. So it's really a terrible process. So also, you know, the Lake Simcoe protection plan and the Greenbelt plan are both in effect now they're passed in 2005 and Lake Simcoe in 2008. Both projects, like if this project was proposed today. I do not think it would get anywhere because it is so contrary to those those pieces of legislation, but they're using the fact that the legislation wasn't in place when the 1970 a was developed to justify not following those pieces of legislation. So backwards. So, in December, the Ministry of Transportation, Ontario went to New Market. Oh no sorry to York Region. And there was a person assistant deputy minister, really quite high up who said in a letter to these to the regional counselors for York Region, this project will be far from Lake Simcoe and will not directly affect it. So, thank goodness, some of our really great York Region leaders. Well, the, I will say the great York Region leaders are a lot of people that are causing a lot of trouble there too but the good ones in my opinion were really like, pardon me, we have been learning about Lake Simcoe and what affects it for 20 years so I guess everything I know is wrong. We can't come here and tell us that this will not affect Lake Simcoe. If they were, they were pretty upset, and it really shows a lot about how little the people who are running the show understand what they're doing and how easy they find it, frankly, to lie about what the impact will be. I mean we just this is World Water Day, like water is life water is sacred doesn't my door. I mean we cannot just do this this is just wrong. So this is, this is their, you know, next steps. And what I wanted to tell you really here was just like this, this is what they say they're doing. They say they're looking at alternatives but they're actually not and that's the problem and that's kind of the argument we've been making the whole time is that an alternative to this highway is what we want to talk about we want to talk about, you know, can you do regional road improvements, but not over a significant wetland, can you do transit improvements. Yes, I mean we don't even have traffic studies that justify this. The traffic studies actually indicate that this will affect the four of the 400 in a really bad way like the traffic will get worse on the 400 with this highway. So who's it for who does serve. What are the actual time savings I mean this hasn't been redone in so long. It's, it's, it's really. They just don't know what they're doing. So, the one thing there's something here about. I don't really remember myself what the, what the connection is to this slide but they further early works I guess they have just as of today released a study their early work study. So we've been doing freedom of information requests and found out that they had got quite far in this sort of early works part that they want to build a particular interchange just north of Bradford. We've been moving ahead without contacting the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. We thought maybe there weren't, there wasn't fish habitat but then we found out actually there is quite significant fish habitat that would be affected by this early work. So, one of the things that I do consider to be a success is that I got the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters which tends to be very conservative to write a letter to the project team to say, you're about to destroy fish habitat and you haven't told the DFO that. And so they, they wrote to the project team, we wrote to the DFO to Department of Fisheries and Oceans and said, now everybody knows what's happening we hope you will now do your jobs and protect the fish so that is actually one of our strongest cards remaining is that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans looks at this project determines that the impacts to lakes and co-init fish are too bad and that they don't want to wear that and that they asked for some something else but it's really not like DFO to do that. So that that would be great but I wouldn't really hold my breath there but it was really good to get Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters involved. It's not just as the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers says that these studies are at a date EA. The province should ensure a new robust EA is conducted construction should not start without a proper EA. And yeah, this is what the product is to do is to start building. So in response to all of this misinformation and confusion and I it's been, it's been, there's a lot of words I can't use. Okay, so through all of that, we have done two requests for an impact assessment to be done at the federal level because the province is not taking care of the environment. So the first request the government said no. And it may be because there wasn't enough political attention and public support for our position. And then we worked really hard for the next year, and we changed public opinion, and now, you know it used to be that apparently 85% of people were in favor of the Bradford bypass now. It's more like 80%. Sorry, I think it's like 65 to 80% opposed in three different writings around in all right on Lake Simcoe, including in York York Simcoe and we still have our you know federal MP for York Simcoe like rah rah Bradford bypass let's build it. Let's get her done. But these people are also self proclaimed Lake Simcoe champions. So, I think it's really time for anybody who feels like doing this who hasn't yet done this to just try to remember that our elected officials work for us and that they need to know that they are being caught in the lie, or that like you can't say I love Lake Simcoe and then like a big booster for the Bradford bypass with all the information I've just given you. Anyway, we put in a second request or some other groups actually put in a second request for an impact assessment. And we did a lot of work right we got. No, okay. I think we kind of deleted the slide, we got a lot of municipal councils to to support a request for an impact assessment we had seven municipal councils do this. And even the councils that were supportive of the break Lake Simcoe, sorry of the Bradford bypass for asking for studies and route changes that weren't being considered by the product. Okay, I really important question is who's this for, and who are they working for, because the municipalities want far more environmental rigor than the province is even contemplated. So here. The federal government has said no to the request for an impact assessment twice, even though we changed public opinion and we got massive municipal support for our position in that intervening year, less than a year, we worked very hard. And they said no the second time and so our lawyer and eco justice is working pro bono on this most of us have worked, you know, mostly for free on this project. You know that they reviewed the decision and said there's not they're not basing this on anything like there is not there's no justification for this decision. So, last week we took our first legal action we actually joined. And really I would say a lot of other large Ontario NGOs joined us and frogs, and a judicial review. So basically we served the federal government I've never done this before it's quite exciting. We serve the federal government and said you know you've got to do your job like you have to show us how exactly you were following the impact assessment act when you made this decision because it is quite clear that they didn't. The redheaded woodpecker, for example is the reason why they said that they would do an impact assessment on the way for 13. And then in the, in the government's letter about why they decided not to designate the product by positive impact assessment they mentioned the redheaded woodpecker in contradictory ways on the same page.  So we're saying that's not good enough we're going to make you look bad and hopefully you will change your decision. But I think it's, it's really more to make the case that it's really more to make the case that you, you should not say no to a second request just because it is the second request. So we have Wildlands League Ontario Nature Environmental Defense and Western Canada Wilderness Committee Ontario chapter, joining us on this litigation because they do a lot of work where they ask the federal government to intervene and mining. A lot of stuff that affects First Nations rights land use. If you can never get a second opinion, then they just think that that's a terror, this is a terrible precedent. And so that's actually why they're joining us. And it's very helpful. Hopefully. So who is who is investing. So you can look this up if you can get to the star, you can see. It's called friends with benefits they did a really good series on this highway. It's called friends with benefits and it's really all about who is building it. What companies are connected to what politicians and who's donated to whose campaigns and so on I don't have that information. It's not really the area that I focus on I think it's great that journalists do that but as an environmental charity. That's what we look at. ACOM is the company that has been hired by the province to facilitate the so called consultation and to be the project team. But I don't know off the top of my head who's who's actually building it I mean they've only they've put the tenders out. I don't know that they have awarded the tenders yet. So, and that's only for one section of the highway. The next piece, I just need to do a little time check. How am I doing Elaine. We will you're in. Okay, okay, so I'm just going to wrap it up with two more things. Okay, so I'll just be another two minutes. So one of the things that we've done is, we've tried to figure out how we can reach people who are not our traditional allies. And we're trying to help educate them about the impacts to fish impacts of fish, and that there are groups like ours that are actually out there trying to protect what matters to all of us. If you are interested. You know I'd be happy to share just a link in the chat afterwards but it's also these webinars are posted on our Facebook page. This one is going to be April, April 13. So it's being hosted by us with hot box huts and Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters. We have another one similar objective, you know to help people be active and local and informed in the next little while. So the other webinar is, I kind of call it social media for grannies. And I think there's a lot of grannies who are wonderful people who have all the best intentions but they maybe don't know how to use social media that well, and they don't share therefore. So we need people who care about these things to be sharing messages with their friends who don't share their same opinions, a lot in the next little while. And so we just want to help empower people to do those things so we've got a couple webinars to do that. And then finally, my last happy slide is the municipal vulnerability to aggregate activity for new highway construction. So this is looking at what would happen if the 413 and the branch of my house went ahead, and where there are aggregate resources, and how extensive those aggregate resources are. So you can see the vulnerability score, you know, or a medante and spring water would certainly be affected a lot on the green belt the green belts here. You know, so Caledon, which is like the land of awful pits right now will be more so and Richard Stovall also looks like it would be pretty heavily impacted. So that's a really great work by a gravel watch environmental defense and some prophetic green belt coalition to just look at other impacts, these proposed highways other than the obvious ones. And the reason that this is important I think is one it's environmentally destructive it can certainly harm water and groundwater, but also it's hugely irritating like beyond irritating for people who live in towns that have a lot of aggregate activity, and it's quite unsafe. And so there's a there are a lot of people who would join us in not wanting so many more truckloads aggregate cruising through cruising through the community, their community. I'm going to end it here but I just want to give some credit to these municipalities that actually joined us and requested an impact, but past of me as Council motion requesting an impact assessment and then sent that off to the feds. So that's Barry, Brock Georgina in a spell, East Blumberie, Romero, Seagog new market and add holotas ratio. Seagog didn't make my list but they did too. You never know how when there's going to surprise you. And so there's there's more stuff to say here but I'm just going to leave it here. I just want to end with a big thanks. I really hope that you folks can, you know, do all you can to be vocal and engaged in the next few months as we approach the provincial and municipal elections. And what I've learned over the last year is that this politics matters more than than I think any of us would care to believe. But that municipal politics is actually a lot more nimble than you might think, and that there are some real champions there for some positive outcomes. There's a lot of people like us who share a love of water who have no intention of harming like some folks, but they don't really understand that you can't have your cake and eat it too. And I think that now just to come from a circle this is where First Nations teachings, I offer me so much, just like, Oh, got this figured out how to live sustainably. And I really one of my hopes is that our cultures can learn more from First Nations people and that we can be more sustainable in our decision making and prioritize sustainability and, and really good values and the people that we elect who make these decisions that affect our beloved water and our beloved like so. Thank you very much. Thank you so much Claire that was an excellent presentation. I am so grateful that we had you come and, and I didn't want to stop you because I could listen to you all night. So that was really great. And at the same time it's very alarming to right with the amount of destruction that's happening but also the political trends that are happening, even particularly with the changes in the election act in Ontario. That is making it harder to resist these kinds of developments right so I think you are right on the money when you say that political influence is really is really at play here. And so I just wanted to we have some time for questions, we're going to, we were going to do a round table on water but I just kind of want to open it up for everybody. I really believe that everybody brings something to the discussion. And so I want to allow everyone an opportunity to be able to say whatever it is that they want to say whether it's talking about World Water Day, specifically with the President or or the the Bradford bypass. You're given a lot of amazing information tonight. And so I just want to open that up to anybody so feel free to unmute yourself or put your thoughts and feelings in the chat about water protection in Simcoe County and beyond Simcoe County and the Greenbelt and and what you feel about that what we can do together and and how we can kind of shape the future so I turn it over to everybody on the call today. So just feel free to jump on. Oh, but don't all jump on at once. Okay, Jessica. I'm actually an educator out of the Great Bruce area and my family lives in the Innisfil area. And this question is actually for both you Vicki and Clare your Clare your presentation was really well informative. However, my question is, in this time how as an as an educator do I like the one thing that I could pass along the information and I'm, and I do teach an outdoor education program within Indigenous class. And how, how do I invoke the passion that both of you have and I have the same passion but what's one thing that I could pass along to kids to get involved to get politically passion for that water is life that we are interconnected with this land. And no matter what we do. There are always consequences or choices that we have in our life that that had impact on myself or others or as well as the land and the water around us. So, if you have any advice for me as an educator and to get people involved. What would it be. I'll throw that to that one to Claire first and then I'll go after. Okay. Sure. So I'm just going to pop something in the chat. Yeah. So, we have a couple of fabulous retired educators who brought their passion for the environment and they're probably you know just think about you and 30 years Jessica. You know they created this environmental education toolkit that you can download from that site from that link on our website. And it basically goes through you know anybody can use this by the way this is free. You know this is like what is a watershed what does it do what are the threats to our watershed. And they framed it in a way that is supposed to be student led inquiry based learning kind of approach. So it's really good for you know your educators you'll have better sense than I would you know there's some kids. There's some age groups that really can latch on to powerful ideas. And I think it's really incumbent on educators to allow kids to do that and find their passion I think, you know I like probably a lot of other kids didn't really figure out what that was until I was sort of, you know, 1819 20. There's no reason why kids can't get more involved and get mad or get excited about what is actually happening in this in this world, and I actually think on that point I'm going to kick it back to you, because I think there's some teachings. Yeah, Claire I really appreciate that I for, well I actually am an education so. And I do do indigenous education, and what I found with an issue now be education which the territory that you're in is very boost that's an issue now be territory. You know, the people was a nail wash our, our, and what is the other one screw up. No, it's not screw up. Oh my god I can't remember sorry I had cool but so sometimes I have memory problems but. So that's an issue now be territory where you are so I would assume that the majority of students that you have that are indigenous or an issue now be. And so what we find with an issue now be students is that they're looking for themselves. They're looking for something to anchor themselves to, and when they find that piece of identity within the learning, they're able to continue learning but they're able to retain more. And so for an issue now be people. They're incorporating the teachings, and they can find themselves within those teachings, they can remember those teachings right so their essential philosophies within the nation of a world view that they need to understand. And so the way that I designed my programs for an issue now be students as they always get ceremony through that. So one of the best ceremonies that I can share with you I wish I had this other picture because I as you. I don't know if people can see that but that's actually the water walk for the quarry on 2017 I might have been. Yeah, it was 2017. And you can see that there's little kids there I wanted to actually show you the pictures of the other water walks. In 2019 there was a multi school water walk here in Midland actually that had almost over 1000 students participate. And that kind of immersive experience where they're getting to engage with each other because collective learning is important. So when you get to engage with each other and learn about the water through those kinds of experiences, they remember that forever and then on top of that when you have a water walk for children their families come. And so then it becomes a community event, and it's a community event around water in the celebration of life. And then they remember those experiences, their whole lives, but in order to create those experiences or students within the classroom you have to have the support of the school board. You have to have the support of the families you have to have the support of the surrounding First Nations but I would say, start small first with a water walk and start teaching them about water so there's a couple of books that you can get on water walks the one that I would read that comes to mind the most right now is by Joanne Robertson, and it's about Josephine Mendelman's water walks and it's a little children's book and it's perfect for teaching the connection to spirit and life through water. So I would say start there but for Indigenous students, especially when it when they're in the mainstream school system. You want to use to to I'd seeing approach which means you're using your tying Indigenous knowledges to the Ontario curriculum, and you're kind of weaving it in. At the same time, you know you're doing this reparative work that is essentially allowing the reconstitution of identity that has been eroded through various processes of simulation. So, and the more you can incorporate cultural practices within the classroom, the more they're those students are going to benefit. So, is there anything else? Were you okay with that answer? Vicki, actually it was, I was an anchoring point for myself and it's something that I, it's something that I'm struggling with my first time in my career that I've been teaching this courses for a while. And I, it's something I think it's because of COVID. I don't I don't know but it is the anchoring point of their true identity and I'm we're just finding more kids these days, especially having a really hard time anchoring themselves and finding out who they are. And yeah, you just you did you hit the head on the nail there you just like that anchoring point that I really need to focus on and bring it back to the basics of who they are to anchor themselves. So thank you. And Claire put in the chat on bringing kids to protest and I actually highly recommend that and we actually had a blockade day with children outside 41. Nobody brought their kids and the kids just sat there. Oh, they had such a blast, but it wasn't legit was a part of the blockade. And it was a day just for kids at the blockade. What are we blockading Claire? Yeah, we're ready to blockade. I feel like there may be some blockade I haven't been arrested yet. I don't know where to do that for the bread for black. And so, you know, again, because I really again have a kind of respect for the personations just like this is what we do we have to protect the land we're always here protecting and so moved by. It might even the last Simcoe County cameras talk there was somebody speaking about that specifically. And anyway, it was it just that that we have to actually be there and represent and I took my kids who were only like seven six and seven last year to protest at against the Bradford bypass. And I got them to make signs and even just the act of making a sign was a really good thought process for them and then they're like can we bring stuffed animals I don't know what age kids are talking about Jessica but like, you know they brought what meant something to them and then we talked about like, you know, oh, this, there's this very iconic image of them which is in the article that I sent you that, you know, beavers don't like highways and ducks don't like highways, and that was kind of the thing that the that the reporters latched on to so, you know, as long as the kids are interested and willing just know that it's also a really important part of media is actually showing a whole lot of different people including kids that care and kids that care about things. It really is hard for adults who are doing bad things to speak to kids who are telling them that they're doing bad things. And so I think kids actually have a lot of power and if they can recognize that they're that their values are that they have values for small and that their values are being violated by this crap, you know, empower them like they might that just might be an outlet right. So, probably your school board won't love all of this. The number comes to mind as well right and the power of the climate change protests that were in 2019 2020 right. So I just just on that I want to continue opening it up so if there's anybody that wants to say anything feel free to come on or write a comment in the chat there's lots of comments coming up for questions for Claire. I just want to fill some space here by saying, instead of typing there'll be a lot more protests going on so tomorrow there's one that I'm going to try my very best to be at, while accepting an award. I Queen's Park, not the award at Queen's Park but. Okay protest right for the for the, the hit the purest water on earth you've just been talking about. April 23, the weekend of April 23 environmental defense is organizing lots of days of action but they're being organized by people like me on the ground. So we're going to do one April 23 about the Bradford bypass we just don't have details yet but it will be April 23, right on Earth Day so you know, put it on your calendar like make a plan to come and and meet some other people and it's also an opportunity if it's sort of far enough I had to be like hey do you want to come and you've been to a protest and you've been outside in two years like let's go do something.  So there's a, there's also may first all the unions have their rallies, and then there's may 14. There's something climate change rally at Queen's Park. And there's going to be something about how we for 13 on April 1. So I mean, if you ever wanted to go to a protest this spring is your season. Well, we go ahead Claire so we're coming up for about 830 now and I guess I just want to say if you can't make it to Queen's Park tomorrow you're welcome everybody's welcome to join me at Lakehead University Aurelia campus in front of the hall we will be doing a water ceremony at 11am so please dress for the weather if you feel like you want to come and attend. That being said what we the reason why we, why we chose today, which is not World Water Day to do this event was so that we can encourage people to participate in other events but also to connect with the water tomorrow to actually sit with the water where wherever you are and really try to connect with the spirit of that water, whether it's in whatever way you connect with the spirit. This is why I like working with Kairos because we're very much faith based, and we, we believe in life and we believe in the creator. And so I really want to encourage people to be able to make a water offering because you can make a little gift for the water out of natural biodegradable materials we don't want to put anything toxic into the water but make a little gift for the water make an offering for native people what we do is we're going to offer the water to go to the water and just give thanks for the life that we receive, particularly at this time so at this time what should we understand is these bactoke geysers or nabana geysers. The water other snow is starting to melt the ice is starting to break this is one of the most sacred times in the Anishinaabe calendar. And what that means when that ice is starting to break is that we're, we're preparing for all the new life that is going to come in the spring. And so this is what the water is doing right now it's doing its work saturating the earth and going to all of those places and spaces where life is going to occur and to flourish. So that that's all I want to say tonight I'll turn it that Elaine and George want to say anything before we ended by thank you everybody for coming and thank you so much to Claire I can't thank you enough and we should do more of these, actually. Likewise, thank you very much. George you're still muted. Sorry. Okay, I have a chiming clock so I mute myself. And finally on in the event tonight, he talked about how the quality of life affect the water quality of water affects the quality of life. And from that comes a very easy leap. It's not even a leap it's just a short hop that healthy water means a healthy life. And when I was thinking about the water World Water Day and I went to my Christian tradition, the care of the planet and the care of water was not a big issue, and I had a hard time finding anything in scripture that would address where we are today and I found this is from the contemporary English version of the Bible because it's puts a bit sharper point on it than the NRS V does. Some of you eat the greenest grass, then trample down what is left when you finish. Others drink clean water then step in the water to make the rest of it muddy.  And this hasn't been a big thing in our Christian tradition and so I would humbly suggest that we need our Aboriginal sisters and brothers to show us the way, because it is not part of the fabric of our spiritual lives to hold reverence for the creation, the way our Aboriginal sisters and brothers do. We need them to teach us. The only other thing that I want to mention was, there's been a lot of good resources mentioned tonight and Elaine do we have a way that we could, we could put some of this on our website. Elaine and Vicki talked about upcoming events and I can't write fast enough and all that kind of stuff so if we could have a list Elaine and Vicki, I'm sorry, Vicki and Claire. If you would send that information to Elaine, then we would have it there as future steps, future actions to take. Sure, we don't actually have a website. The Simcoe County Kyros though has a Facebook page and yes, that would be great for us to put it on our page. So please do and also I've copied the chat so that I can use all the ones you've already given us. Thanks. Awesome. Well me which everybody thank you and good night. I think we're done. So thank you everybody is nice to see all of you some familiar faces and have a great, have a great World Water Day tomorrow. Thank you.


Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to give my full support to the resolution brought to this Honourable House by the Minister for Finance and the Honourable Member for Cass Rises to raise funds by the issue of savings bonds. Mr. Speaker, Section 3 of the National Savings and Development Bonds Act, Cap 15.25, Offerises the Minister Responsible for Finance by Authority of the Resolution of Parliament to raise funds by the issue of saving bonds money up to the amount of 2.4 billion for financing capital expenditure or other expenditure and for such debt refinancing as he or she determines. The resolution Mr. Speaker requests the approval of this House for the Minister responsible for finance to raise funds by the issue of saving bonds for the following. One, the financing of the budget in the amount of 32,100,000 and two, the amount of 433,500,000 for debt refinancing. Mr. Speaker, these funds are to be raised through the Regional Government Securities Market or Private Placement at a maximum interest rate of 7% per annum. On the issue of the financing of the budget Mr. Speaker, it is to be noted that this Honourable House recently passed an excellent budget presented by the Minister responsible for finance. The net financing requirement of this budget Mr. Speaker amounted to 288,656,156 dollars of which 256,595,192 was to be financed by external borrowing and 32,964 was to be financed by Treasury bills and bonds. The reference to this Mr. Speaker is page Roman numeral three of the estimates of revenue and expenditure 2023-2024. The Minister responsible for finance is therefore requesting approval to raise $32,100,000 to finance the budget. Mr. Speaker, we are also required to give the Minister for Finance the approval by way of a resolution to refinance debts that have matured and are due for payment. As the name suggests, Mr. Speaker, this does not represent an increase in debt, but simply the refinancing of existing debt. The amount of debt that is required to be refinanced is $433,500,000. The Minister for Finance is proposing that the maximum interest rate for raising funds is 7%. Mr. Speaker, as you know, we are a small open and vulnerable economy with a narrow margin of error and we have a narrow band of policy options. Therefore, we have to ensure that we manage this economy in a way that will give us the space so that we can create an improved framework for us to finance social services to impact positively on the lives of St. Louisians. Now, Mr. Speaker, we have witnessed the most aggressive wave of monetary tightening in four decades as countries attempt to reduce inflation. Mr. Speaker, the Federal Reserve Bank recently raised interest rates to 5.25%, the highest in 16 years. I repeat, Mr. Speaker, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to 5.25% the highest in 16 years. We wish to note, Mr. Speaker, that the Federal Reserve rate was 0% as recently as the first quarter of 2022. As recent as the first quarter of 2022, it was 0% and it's now up to 5.25% the highest in 16 years. We have therefore witnessed a massive increase in interest rates from 0% in 2022 to 5.25% in May of this year. Mr. Speaker, this of course has implications for small developing countries such as ours in terms of the interest rates that investors will be willing to pay for government paper. This therefore explains why the Minister for Finance is proposing that the maximum interest rate for raising these funds is 7%. This of course, Mr. Speaker, has implications for our debt servicing as interest rates costs will inevitably increase. And therefore, it is consistent with prudent management of the economy to give ourselves the maximum amount of space to be able to deal with the pressing but legitimate needs of the people of this country. Mr. Speaker, whatever we can deliver to the people must be a function of the economic health of this country. Moreover, Mr. Speaker, the IMF anticipates that the federal funds rate will remain in the range of 5.25% to 5.4% until late 2024, as it expects core and headline inflation to continue to stay over the Fed's inflation target of 2% during 2023 and 2024. Mr. Speaker, this seems to be born out of the new inflation numbers released on May 26, 2023, which shows that inflation climbed to 4.4% in April from a year earlier. We must therefore be prepared to battle the strong headwinds which are outside of our control. Mr. Speaker, as we continue our path of economic recovery, Mr. Speaker, we have the fullest of confidence in our Minister for Finance in managing the situation most effectively. He has in such a short period of time proven himself to be extremely astute in managing the fiscal mess we inherited from the former Minister for Finance and now leader of the opposition. On the issue of debt management strategy, the Minister for Finance stated the following in his 2022-2023 budget policy statement, and I quote, over the past five years, we have just been rolling over the Treasury bills and essentially treating them as long-term instruments. Mr. Speaker, my government will attempt to address this untenable situation and as a result, during this fiscal year, we will seek to convert Treasury bills into longer-term instruments. Mr. Speaker, conversion of these short-term instruments is in keeping with the government's medium-term debt management strategy to lengthen the maturity profile, reduce, roll over risk, and reduce the cost of borrowing by seeking lower interest rates. On quote, the words of the member for Cassidy's East and Minister for Finance in his last policy statement, not this year, but 2022-2023. This is why my colleagues and I have every confidence in this Minister for Finance. He understands our vulnerability associated with holding so much short-term debt and will be willing to take action to lengthen the debt maturity profile. This strategy, Mr. Speaker, will ultimately result in reducing our roll over risk associated with debt refinancing. I therefore wish to give my full support to this resolution, Mr. Speaker, to authorize the Minister for Finance to raise on the regional government securities market or by private placement at a maximum interest rate of 7% per annum, 1, the amount of 32,100,000 for financing the budget, and 2, the amount of 433,500,000 for refinancing existing debt. I thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to make this brief intervention.


Hello everyone, this is financial author Amit Dan of amitdan.com on this channel You'll find financial travel and more videos just like the one you're watching right now If you like what you see, please give me a thumbs up and consider subscribing Hello everyone, this is Amit Dan of amitdan.com today I'll talk about three things you know about shoppers optimum points and PC points. I'm expecting this video about three minutes long February 1st 2018 is the date when shoppers optimum points and PC points will be merged into one program called PC Optimum Rewards Program Until then you will be able to collect points as usual using both your shoppers optimum points card and PC points or PC plus points The merge ratio to convert shoppers optimum points and PC points to PC optimum points will be one is two What it means that for each one point Whether it's shoppers optimum points or PC points, you'll be given one PC optimum points And it will be done automatically You'll not have to do anything on your side and after the date February 1st, 2018 You'll be able to collect PC points. I'm sorry PC optimum points under PC optimum points program The second thing you'll need to know is the earning rate Under the current shoppers optimum program you are in 10 points per dollar spent at shoppers drugmat stores However under the new PC optimum program You'll be earning 50% more at shoppers stores Which is going to be 15 points per dollar spent instead of one point per dollar as it is right now So you'll be benefiting more if you shop or Buy stuff from shoppers drugmat because it's giving 50 percent more points The third thing you need to know is redemption rates under the current programs shoppers optimum programs offer a minimum redemption at 8,000 points which will give you $10 and PC points program offers minimum rate of 20,000 points which will give you $20 However under the new PC optimum program the minimum redemption point is going to be 10,000 points for $10 So you'll be receiving $10 per 10,000 points and you'll be able to redeem at 10,000 points instead of 20,000 points Which is the PC points offer right now That's basically all you need to know about the merger which will happen on February 28 2018 after the merger you will be able to use one app Which will work both at shoppers and loblos stores and everywhere else Thank you for watching if you like what you see Please give it a thumbs up and consider subscribing and there will be more videos coming up. See you shortly. Bye


In fact, strangely enough, the experience of the body is actually much more real and much more present than the experience of the Supreme Self. That is an experience that happens in the conceptual. I can physically feel my body. I can't physically feel the Supreme Self. But I know that there is that because I feel it as an impulse within. I feel it's individualized impulse or presence sending an impulse. So to actually go with this reality as the base station is not an aberration because it leads me into the understanding that the surrender has to happen from here.


This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A new study suggests that early exposure to germs strengthens the immune system.  The study involved laboratory mice. It found that adult mice raised in a germ-free environment were more likely to develop allergies, asthma, and other autoimmune disorders. There are more than 80 disorders where cells that normally defend the body instead attack tissues and organs. They include rheumatoid arthritis, which attacks the joints, Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel condition, and juvenile diabetes. Hay fever, a common allergy, is also an autoimmune disorder. Richard Bloomberg is a professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He says, in 1989, medical researchers sought to explain these diseases with what they called the hygiene hypothesis. They proposed that the increasing use of antibacterial soaps and other products, especially early in life, could weaken immune systems. Now, Dr. Bloomberg and a team have what they say is the first biological evidence to link early exposure to germs to stronger adult immune systems. They say this exposure could prevent the development of some autoimmune diseases. In the adult germ-free mice, they found that inflammation in the lungs and colon was caused by so-called killer T cells. These normally fight infection, but they became overactive and targeted healthy tissue, an autoimmune condition seen in asthma and a disease called ulcerative colitis. Dr. Bloomberg says the mice raised in a normal environment did not have the same reaction. He says their immune systems had been educated by early exposure to germs. Rates of autoimmune disorders are rising worldwide, but mostly in wealthier industrialized countries. Mr. Bloomberg says one obvious question is whether doctors should be more careful to limit antibiotic use early in life. Rob Dunn is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. He says the new study does not mean people should stop washing. In his words, wash your hands, but don't do it with antimicrobial soap. Let your kids play in a reasonable amount of dirt and get outside and get exposed to a diversity of things. The study appears in the journal Science. For VOA Special English, I'm Carolyn Presuti.


What is up everybody this is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution and I am so excited right now you don't even know. As you saw in the thumbnail that is not me. This is my first contributor video and I want to do a bunch of these and this is from my buddy Tanya. She is going to be talking a little bit about the Myers-Briggs test which is to define different personality types that people have and this is something that I've always been very curious about and I've done it myself and I'm personally noticed that I used to be one personality type and then it changed and Tanya has some great insight into that so I was like hey girl come on over make a video for me and she's super well versed on this stuff so I hope you enjoy this video if you are new here I'm always doing videos about mental health mental illness and addiction so be sure to click the little subscribe button but anyways here's Tanya. What's up guys my name is Tanya I'm coming to you live from Los Angeles California and I'm so excited to be talking to you here today on the Rewired Soul especially about one of my favorite topics of all time the psychology of personality specifically the Myers-Briggs test and how it relates to sobriety. Before we get into that relationship let me tell you about the Myers-Briggs test. So this is a super popular test and you've likely seen some trappings of it either in your personal life or on social media where I feel like it's kind of trending right now. You'll see people post things like I'm an INFP or an ESTJ and you're like am I an ESPN is this the new horoscope what is this why does this relate to my life so what the Myers-Briggs personality test is is based on Carl Young's theory of personality is developed by two women Isabel Briggs Myers and Catherine Briggs they wanted to take his theory and make it accessible to the public so they created this test the test will ask you several questions to help you figure out your preference on four key categories so one of them is your favorite world are you extroverted are you introverted another one will ask you for how you take in information are you intuitive are you sensory another one will ask you how you make decisions are you thinking or are you feeling and the last one will ask you about how you structure are you judging or perceiving so you'll answer these questions and then you'll get a four-lettered category and this is your Myers-Briggs type and this will give you information about how you show up best and what you do best in the world so a lot of people will use this different therapists different coaches in the workplace you see this kind of all over so what does this have to do with people in sobriety so for those of you who know either you are in sobriety or you know someone in sobriety as soon as you start to get over a lot of amazing things start to happen to you a lot of these results can be hard so maybe you have some health benefits like you're losing weight or you correct a heart or liver problem because your consumption habits your consumption habits have changed maybe you're saving a lot of money because you're going out less and not spending as much money and then there are also softer changes that happen maybe you're more agreeable and less aggressive maybe you are more inclined to think before you speak maybe you're more willing to pitch in and help these kind of soft changes are kind of fall under the category of what we call like a psychic change no it does not mean that you get the ability to read minds in sobriety as far as we know but these ones are a little bit harder to measure so I think people really have this question when they first get into early sobriety is like okay so if I stop doing this what changes what gets better about my life because you know very often the problem is not the substance it's everything that got us there so what's really cool about this and I'll share with you a little bit about my story is that it really it really does work so the Myers Briggs test has always been on my radar like I said huge psychology nerd for years I tested consistently ENTJ so that's extroverted intuitive thinking and judging those of you who are privy know the ENTJ personality type can be a little bit severe I feel like if ENTJs had a tagline they would be like the kick ass take name kind of people if you've got a really hard problem you don't know how to solve it and you need someone to come in take the reins and just get the job done and you have a friend who's an ENTJ they're the one you want to call if you have someone who need to come over and hold your hand and talk you through a tough situation might not want to call the ENTJ friend they can kind of have blinders on and they miss a lot of the emotional effects that they leave on people so recently I had just taken this test again um for something related to work and I thought I was all wrapped up and as I taken the test I got a different result now this is massive um why is this so massive because psychology also tells us that your personality will be stable after your early 20s or so unless a major life event has occurred and that will often change your your base personality what could have happened in the last couple of years well um I'm currently about two and a half years sober going on three and this is definitely absolutely changed my personality and it's amazing to see that there's actually a quantifiable way to measure how it's been changed so I took the test a couple of times and so I do still test ENTJ um but it's amazing that I do I have a new result that also shows up and I think that that just speaks volumes and really answers that question does this work do we kind of go and go through a foundational change to who we are once we start changing our behavior and the answer is yes so even more I'll tell you a little bit more um what the difference is so the it was ENTJ and ENTP so it comes down to that last letter J and P judging and perceiving and this discusses the difference in how we approach opportunity so previously the judging kind of person will be very focused on one result they won't take more they won't take less but they are getting the result that they came for the perceiving person might still have a goal in mind but they're always open to new opportunity on the way and this is definitely how I've changed I think prior to uh getting sober I could only handle like one way of thinking one goal I couldn't handle multiple things coming at me and I've definitely softened in my time in sobriety where now I can make a goal in mind but I I'm so funny before I saw this result really take um like so concrete in this test I would call it I leave room for the magic of life now and maybe you relate to that too I hope you do um we're not everything has to be so severe um I've definitely chilled out a lot and I know what you're probably thinking which is Tanya how could someone who doesn't do drugs or drink be more chill and all I'm telling you is you should have seen me before so I hope you relate to this I hope you find this pretty interesting um go take the Myers-Briggs test you can go to MyersBriggs.org to learn more about it um share your results in the comments or if you have any questions for me or any questions about the test post them there too uh I know Chris and I want to hear about them and hopefully I'll be back soon to talk to you guys some more have a great day can you believe her she took my question of the day what's up with that she's about to steal my job anyways like Tanya said in the comments down below leave any questions that you have about all that stuff she went over I have a ton of questions that I've been writing down and check this out more exciting news I told you all that I was going to be starting a podcast and Tanya is going to be one of my first guests so be sure to leave your comments down below if you have questions or comments about different personality types leave them down there so I have some stuff to talk to her about when I bring her on the podcast it'll be a live stream as well I'll be posting about it on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter once I know the exact date and time so be sure that you stay tuned and everybody please give a round of applause for Tanya no matter where you are she did an amazing job and I hope to have her back soon but if you like this video make sure you give it a thumbs up and again if you are new here make sure you click that little round subscribe button because I'm always doing videos about mental health addiction mental illness and click or tap on one of the thumbnails next to me because I have a ton of more videos just for you all right thanks for watching everybody and I'll see you next time