EVENTS

The Peoples’ Summit

Thunder Bay

Canada has pledged to meet a target of conserving 30% of its lands and oceans by 2030 (the 30 x 30 commitment). US President Biden made this commitment in one of his early executive actions. Québec and California are ahead in delivering on the promise of 30×30. Ontario currently sits at 10.7%.

The Peoples’ Summit will showcase and celebrate efforts to protect special places in Ontario.

Getting to 30% requires leadership from of all of us: Indigenous Nations, environmental organizations, communities, municipalities, conservation authorities, progressive industry, land trusts and more.

Your Protected Places Webinar

canoe on lake - Derek Sutton

Join Ontario Nature on May 27th for an informative discussion about expanding Ontario’s protected areas. During the Your Protected Places webinar, we will consider emerging opportunities and unveil a collective StoryMap showcasing special places across the province that people would like to permanently set aside from development for future generations. 

Though the Government of Ontario recently announced its intention to protect more natural areas, it provided no public process for offering input on where or how protected areas should be established. To raise awareness and open up the conversation, Ontario Nature, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Wilderness Committee, the Carolinian Canada Coalition, CPAWS-Ottawa Valley and Environmental Defence have invited people from across the province to contribute candidates for the Your Protected Places StoryMap. 

Highway 413 Webinar

Stop the 413

Environmental Defence hosted a Highway 413 Webinair on March 23 focused on how the highway will impact Caledon and what we can do about it. If you weren’t able to join, the information is available to watch again on YouTube.

Watch the Highway 413 Caledon community discussion here.

Do you want to take action to stop Highway 413 from ripping through our farmland, communities and river valleys? There’s so much you can do to make your voice heard:

Growing the Greenbelt 2021 Webinar

milkweed

A free webinar will be hosted by the Ontario Headwaters Institute to learn about responding to the Environmental Registry of Ontario request for feedback on ways to grow the size of the Greenbelt. Submissions must be made by April 19, 2021. 

This webinar, part of Growing the Greenbelt 2021: REGIONAL RESILIENCE will feature insight from professional planner and Greenbelt educator Susan Lloyd Swail speaking on ‘The Consultation and its Six Questions’.

Date: Thursday, April 1, 2021 7 – 8:15 p.m. ET
Registration is required. 

Speak Up on How to Grow Ontario’s Greenbelt – Webinar

Ontario Greenbelt

A free webinar will be hosted by the CELA (Canadian Environmental Law Association) to learn about how to support growing the Greenbelt. The focus will be on the central Grand River Watershed and the Paris-Galt Moraine.

Protecting Ontario’s Environmental Future

Watershed

What’s next after the gutting of the Conservation Authorities?

On December 8th, the provincial government passed a law making big changes to the way Conservation Authorities operate, handing major environmental planning decisions over to the government – and their developer friends.

But these huge and damaging changes were just the latest in a long string of attacks on Ontario’s environment, such as reduced protection for endangered species, planning an unnecessary highway through farmland and a portion of the Greenbelt, weakening climate action plans and approving developments on protected wetlands. Together it paints a very clear picture of who benefits: developers.

Ontario’s Model for Biodiversity Conservation

Newcastle-bluff-biodiversity

Ontario Headwaters, along with 6 partners is offering a Biodiversity webinar from 7 – 8:25 p.m. Wednesday October 28. Steve Hounsell, chair of the Ontario Biodiversity Council, holds that “The conservation of biodiversity, the variety of life on Earth, is foundational to our pursuit of a healthy, prosperous and sustainable future. It is also vital for clean air, healthy waters and a stable climate. Yet we seldom connect the dots”.

This presentation will orient participants to the Ontario Biodiversity Council: how it works, its notable accomplishments, priority actions moving forward, and how organizations and the public can participate in efforts to protect biodiversity.

Webinar: Environmental Assessment is Not Red Tape

Fall scene

The Ontario government has recently made sweeping changes to environmental assessment (EA) law in Ontario, ending long-standing public safeguards designed to protect the environment and our health. These changes have serious and alarming impacts for Ontarians: not only do they restrict the applicability of EA processes to new projects and developments, but they also increase uncertainty about how new projects will be reviewed.

In response, the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) will be hosting a free one-hour primer on October 22, 2020, from 1-2 p.m.