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International Joint Commission of the Great Lakes
The IJC Biennial Meeting now takes place in Montreal in October after being postponed from its original September date due to the current international crisis. One of the major items on the agenda for discussion is that of municipal Sewer Use Bylaws and another is that of environmental contaminants and human health. The Great lakes Health Effects Program of Health Canada has been discontinued as of this year but the IJC has attempted to review the significance of the Health Canada Studies in the 17 Areas of Concern on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes. These studies have been largely dismissed by Provincial government officials but nonetheless contain some tantalizing hints as to human health effects accruing from environmental pollution in those Areas of Concern, one of which is the Bay of Quinte.
QWC Great Lakes Basin conference, November 2001
The RAP Restoration Council and QWC are planning are planning a day long session on Thursday November 15 on Great Lakes issues, open to the public. Three scientists have been invited to make presentations. Speakers and location to be announced.
City of Belleville Official Plan
In June QWC made suggestions for revisions to the Draft Official Plan in a written submission to the City of Belleville. Subsequent events are an interesting example of how the views of citizens on environmental matters, rationally developed and presented in the forum offered, can be utterly ignored. Local politicians who habitually have development as their principal priority presumably see environmentalists as an anti development lobby which only interferes with business as usual.
In this case QWC developed a cogent set of recommendations in response to the draft Official Plan after its release in the spring for public review. When the next draft was released it was apparent that none of QWC's recommendations had been incorporated. A public meeting was then held at which QWC and other interested parties made oral presentations and written submissions. The meeting was presided over not by the City Planner but by the Director of Development. The QWC submission was made, the report was received and the chairman then called for the next presentation. That was it. No opportunity for discussion was afforded.
Finally, Errant: .new vessel commissioned on Prince Edward Bay
Although Susan Peterson's Ariel has not recently been seen on the Canadian side of the eastern Lake, Svend Petersen's Errant has recently been launched after three years of construction. This impressive catamaran of 52 foot length has been seen on some recent afternoons sailing out of Waupoos Marina and into Accommodating (Smith's) Bay, full sail aloft , reaching at ten knots and heading south of Waupoos Island into Prince Edward Bay for sea trials prior to a planned voyage by the owner to the Floridas and the Caribbean next spring. This project has been an inspiring one to watch over the past couple of years, successfully completed entirely through the skill, knowledge, self confidence and hard labour of the owner. Visit www.errant.ca for chartering details.
A. C. Goddard-Hill,
October 1, 2001
Eastern Lake Ontario Environmental Research Group