Planet Haliburton

Today we take a look at the water level situation within the so-called RaFT or reservoir and flow through lakes portion of the Trent Severn Waterway (TSW).

The spring melt is now well underway in the northern-most reaches of the TSW, and a lot of people are wondering about the prospects for high water, ice damage and flooding throughout the system.

To discuss how the ice-out season is setting up so far this year, we’re joined by retired hydrologist and chairperson of the Coalition for Equitable Water Flow (CEWF), Ted Spence.

Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Background-Resource-for-Managing-Spring-Water-Levels-Under-A-Changing-Climate-April-2020.pdf</p><p><br></p>;

 Can we protect those natural shorelines from ongoing decline without undermining shoreline landowner property rights or the shoreline landscape industry?

 To shed some light on this and other questions related to the draft County Shoreline Preservation By-law, we speak with shoreline naturalization expert, Julia Sutton.

Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Resource-list-for-Healthy-Shorelines-Healthy-Lakes-and-the-County-Shoreline-Preservation-Bylaw.pdf</p>;

On the next episode of Planet Haliburton we examine the science and regulatory issues related to natural shoreline protection. Natural shorelines perform a range of important ecological functions essential to the environmental and economic health of Haliburton County. But they’re are under increasing pressure due to shoreline development and redevelopment.

 Can we protect those natural shorelines from ongoing decline without undermining shoreline landowner property rights or the shoreline landscape industry?

 To shed some light on this and other questions related to the draft County Shoreline Preservation By-law, we speak with shoreline naturalization expert, Julia Sutton, and environmental planning consultant, Stephen Fahner.

Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Background-Resources-for-Planet-Haliburton-March-30-2020.pdf</p>;

Ever wonder about how taxpayers, like me and you, end up subsidizing large carbon-intensive and climate disrupting projects, like the Trans-Mountain and GasLink pipelines, across this country?

 And just how much demand really exists for more pipeline capacity to get Alberta’s tar sand bitumen to tidewater?

 To lift the rug on these and other fossil-fuelled follies, join us for an ear-popping conversation with independent energy economist, Robyn Allan.

Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Background-Resources-for-Planet-Haliburton-March-9-2020-1.pdf</p>;

In this episode of Planet Haliburton Short Takes, we focus on the debate surrounding the recent tabling of a draft County-wide Shoreline Preservation Bylaw. A massive 60 lake, 12,000 property “Love Your Lake” shoreline heath assessment was carried out across Haliburton County by the Coalition for Haliburton Property Owner’s Associations (CHA) between 2014 and 2018. That study found that only 47% of Haliburton’s shorelines are in a “natural” state when 75% is the recognized minimum required to maintain healthy lake water quality.

A draft bylaw designed to protect the remaining natural shoreline was presented at the February 12th County Council meeting but immediately met with considerable push back from the Haliburton County Home Builders’ Association and others employed doing shoreline work.

To help us understand the need for, and resistance to, strong legal protection for natural shorelines, the CHA’s Paul MacInness and Dysart Ward 4 Councillor and Chair of the Environment and Climate Change Committee, John Smith, join us on the first episode of “Planet Haliburton Short Takes”.

Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Resource-list-for-Healthy-Shorelines-Healthy-Lakes-and-the-County-Shoreline-Preservation-Bylaw.pdf</p>;

On the February 24th episode of Planet Haliburton we examine what Doug Ford has been up to since he eliminated the independent Office of the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, almost one year ago. Why did Doug Ford go to the extraordinary length of passing legislation to fire Ontario’s public environmental watchdog 2 years before her 5 year term of office was set to expire?

 Join us for a candid conversation about Doug Ford’s ever-expanding environmental footprint with Ontario’s 3rd and last Environmental Commissioner, Dianne Saxe.

Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Background-Resource-for-Planet-Haliburton-February-24-2020.pdf</p>;

Ever wonder about the environmental footprint associated with what happens to your body after you die? How does the carbon intensity of a conventional burial in a finished casket surrounded by a concrete vault, for example, compare to the carbon emissions caused by cremation?

The Green Burial Movement has been at the forefront of raising inconvenient questions about everything from the use of embalming

chemicals to the mountains of carbon-intensive materials embodied in the caskets, cement, fibreglass or metal vaults buried along with humans remains in the typical grave in a conventional cemetery.

On this episode of Planet Haliburton we interview Suzanne Kelly, author of the 2015 book entitled “Greening Death: Reclaiming Death Practices and Restoring Our Tie to the Earth”.

Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Background-Resources-for-Planet-Haliburton-February-10-2020.pdf</p>;

On the next episode of PH we take a close look at the role Haliburton’s wetlands play in limiting future climate change as well as adapting to the warming already in the pipeline. Ontario is home to an astounding 25% of Canada’s and 6% of the world’s wetlands.

Haliburton’s almost 20,000 acres of wetlands, sequester a huge amount of carbon, filter our lake and drinking water, and limit the impact of flooding by slowing surface runoff and channeling it into the water table.

Covering 25% of Haliburton’s land area, wetlands have nominal protection under all five Municipal Official plans across the County, but are still being eroded by increasing site alteration and development pressure.

The Haliburton County Land Trust has recently obtained two wetland mapping and evaluation grants which it hopes will greatly enhance the capacity of municipal governments to stop further encroachment and lay the groundwork for improved future wetland protection and restoration actions.

On the next episode of Planet Haliburton we take a hard look at the climate crisis and the health of Ontario’s Boreal Forest. Discussion about slowing down, stopping, or even reversing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere place a lot of faith in the world’s forests as virtually inexhaustible carbon storehouses. But are Canada’s and Ontario’s forests really the carbon sinks we think they are?

To begin answering that question join me, Terry Moore, for a conversation with Dave Pearce, Forest Conservation Manager for the

Wildlands League, about the League’s recent bombshell report entitled “Logging Scars”.

Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Background-Resources-for-Planet-Haliburton-January-13-2020.pdf</p>;

On Friday December 20, 2019 the last vehicle rolled off the assembly line at the GM Oshawa Plant throwing 5,000 direct employees out of work as well as eliminating an additional 10,000 indirect supplier jobs across Ontario.

On September 13, 2019, in the middle of the federal election campaign, Green Jobs Oshawa and the Canadian Worker Co-op Federation released a feasibility study supporting the conversion of GM Oshawa into a publicly-owned centre for green vehicle production.

On the next episode of Planet Haliburton we interview the principal author of that study, Russ Christianson, about what the proposal contains, how it’s been received and its future prospects.

Show Notes: https://canoefm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Background-Resources-for-Planet-Haliburton-December-30-2019.pdf</p>;