Brampton Environmental Alliance
Discrete events either hosted or supported by BEA members or by the BEA as a whole.
The Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign, (OCEC), is a non-partisan group promoting awareness on the climate crisis and environmental issues in the Province of Ontario. It’s aim is to empower citizens and urge political leaders with the power of democratic voice to drive the urgent transformational changes needed for the present and the future climate security of all Ontarians.
Continue reading “Ontario Climate Emergency Network Town Hall”
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Christmas Bird Count is one of the world’s oldest and longest running citizen science efforts. It began out of a barbaric practice, known as side hunts, where families would go into the forest and see who could kill the most birds.
Frank Chapman, an early Audubon Society member, proposed the idea of counting birds instead of killing them. He organized 27 observers in 25 places, both the U.S. and Canada, to count all the birds they could on Christmas Day 1900. According to Wikipedia, 90 bird species were observed and 18, 500 individuals were counted that day.
Since then, the counts have been held every December/January with more than 50,000 observers in about 2,000 locations across 17 countries. The data from each count is submitted to the National Audubon Society which helps inform population counts and conservation practices.
Counts can be held on any day from December 14 to January 5. Individual counts are done in a “count circle” with a diameter of 24 kilometers. Each circle has a “compiler” and at least 10 volunteers. Some volunteers follow assigned routes within the circle that remain essentially the same each year. Others count all the birds they see on their backyard feeders from the comfort of their homes.
For many years BEA member Bob Noble has been organizing a Christmas Bird Count in a count circle that covers the eastern half of Brampton and parts of Vaughan, King and Caledon including, Tullamore, part of Caledon East, and all of Bolton. Bob is an amazing naturalist and nature photographer. You’ve likely seen some of his incredible insect pictures posted on Facebook, Instagram, and on his own website . Each year a selection of Bob’s best shots are compiled into a calendar which is published and given to City of Brampton and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority volunteers.
Bob describes the December 15, 2024 count. “The temperature stayed around freezing for the day with a bit of light snow. The smaller ponds were completely frozen but there was some open water in the larger lakes. Thirty field observers and seven feeder watchers managed to count 10,859 individual birds. This is below the average of about 12,000.
We set a new species record of 62 with the previous record being 61 even though the general consensuswas that it was a tough day to find birds. We didn’t find any new species this year leaving the total number of species observed in all counts at 120. Good birds included Green-winged Teal (3rd record), Bald Eagle (3rd record), Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (3rd record) and White-crowned Sparrow (4th record). Record high numbers were recorded for Common Goldeneye (6), Cooper’s Hawk (10), Red-bellied Woodpecker (18), Merlin (3), Eastern Bluebird (6) and Northern Cardinal (180).
A number of regular species were missed including Ruffed Grouse (34 previous counts), Pine Siskin (33 previous counts), Snow Bunting (33 previous counts) and Swamp Sparrow (27 previous counts). Low numbers were recorded for Wild Turkey (2), Rough-legged Hawk (1), Cedar Waxwing (22) and Common Redpoll (1).”
Thanks to Bob for organizing and being a compiler for this important annual event!
by Dayle Laing
Ontario Bill 212 will sadly result in more road violence deaths on unsafe streets. More than 34 cyclists from Brampton and Toronto gathered on Jan 25th to rally, ride and install a ghost bike to symbolize this prediction.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has teamed with City of Brampton, the Federal Government’s Healthy Communities Initiative, United Way, and various community partners, including the BEA, to deliver projects in Bramalea’s K, E, and F sections. This is all part of the Bramalea Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Plan (SNAP). The Bramalea SNAP integrates local community interests and sustainability objectives under the overarching theme of working together for a green, healthy, and welcoming Bramalea neighbourhood. The Action Plan is made up of six themes, each with their own integrated initiatives:
Continue reading “BEA Completes Healthy and Connected Bramalea Project”
On October 22nd, BEA members Polly and Chaya attended the Litter Reduction Charter Launch in the City Hall Conservatory. Ruth and Christina also attended from Heart Lake Turtle Troopers. There was an opportunity to meet with many of the dignitaries who attended including, Commissioner Bill Boyes, Wards 1&5 Councillor Rowena Santos, Wards 2&6 Councillor Navjit Kaur Brar, and Wards 9&10 Councillor Gurpartap Singh Toor.
Those who visited the BEA table were interested and engaged in Brampton’s environmental issues, particularly the Emerald Energy from Waste expansion proposal and Brampton’s Mobility Plan that focuses on Sustainable Transportation including, walking, cycling, transit and other micro mobility options such as e-bikes and e-scooters. All in all it was a good event for the BEA.
Contact the City of Brampton’s Community Safety & Well-being Office for further details about the Litter Reduction Charter and the plan to make Brampton a litter-free city.
This past week the Ontario government introduced legislation that will be incredibly damaging to Ontario’s environment. Bill 212 will fast track construction of highway 413 by removing the requirement for it to go through an environmental assessment. The bill will also will allow the province to override municipal planning departments and limit the installation or force the removal of bike lanes in Ontario’s cities and towns. While this bill may be brilliant politics, it is terrible public policy. Here’s why.
Continue reading “BEA Participates in Rally & Ride Event”
This past Wednesday evening about 50 Brampton residents met in the community room at Century Gardens Recreation Centre to learn more about Emerald Energy from Waste’s proposal to become the largest waste burning facility in Canada. The event was jointly organized by Environmental Defence, Sierra Club Peel, and Brampton Environmental Alliance. Miranda Baksh introduced the speakers and moderated a Q & A panel session, that was followed by open questions from the audience.
First to speak was Karen Wirsig, a Researcher specializing in plastics and Senior Program Manager with Environmental Defence. Karen noted that the Emerald plant is located just inside Brampton’s southeast border at 7656 Bramalea Road. It currently burns 182,000 tonnes of waste each year. The company has a proposal pending Ontario government approval that would allow it to more than quadruple capacity to 900,000 tonnes per year or about 1/3 of all of the waste generated in Ontario. That means the plant would need to truck in garbage from all over the Province in order to support its business model.
Karen shared several concerns about the current plant and its proposed expansion. First, while the company promotes energy from waste as a climate friendly way of producing energy, it is anything but. It turns out that burning waste produces 50% more carbon emissions per kilowatt-hour generated than coal and almost 3X the emissions compared with burning natural gas to create electricity.
Second, the household waste stream contains about 13% plastics, 5% building material including preserved wood, 3% Textiles, including a high proportion of man-made materials, and 9% of other household waste including e-waste. When burned, these products produce a range of chemicals that are known to cause health problems including cancer, endocrine system disruption, and respiratory issues such as asthma. The company’s own data forecasts, that, with the expansion, the levels of these chemicals in the plant’s discharge would significantly exceed both Provincial and Federal guidelines by 107 to 375%!
Third, the emissions from the plant’s stacks are self-monitored by the company. They are subject to inspection by the Province but that happens only once per year, and then only after the plant has been notified of the coming inspection.
Finally, more than 50% of the waste stream is food and other organic waste. As anyone knows who has ever tried to burn left-overs on a campfire, food waste doesn’t burn well because of its high moisture content. It sizzles, smolders and works to put out the flames. The same is true in a waste burn facility. Often natural gas must be added to the waste stream in order to drive off the moisture and keep the material burning. In other words, burning waste is neither good for human health nor environmentally friendly.
Next to speak was Emily Alfred, a Senior Waste Campaigner at the Toronto Environmental Alliance, (TEA). Emily said that only about 30-40% of Ontario’s waste is residential, the rest comes from industry and institutional sources that have a much poorer track record of separating, recycling and reusing waste. Emily’s message is that there are better ways to deal with garbage than burning it. It just takes political will and leadership to define appropriate policy.
For instance, as stated, about half of the waste stream in Ontario is organics and burning it is very inefficient. Putting it in landfill is also problematic as buried organic material breaks down into methane in a process known as anerobic digestion. This methane is toxic, flammable, and a greenhouse gas more powerful than carbon dioxide. Food waste can, however, be safely composted and returned to the land as rich soil for food production. Several US states including, California, New York, Connecticut and Vermont, as well as cities such as New York NY, Austin TX and Vancouver BC have banned organic waste from being burned or put in landfill thus forcing municipalities to compost instead.
Emily explained that plastics represent the second largest percentage of waste material much of which can recycled or reused if separated properly. A significant amount of plastics pollution comes from food and beverage containers. Currently Ontario and Manitoba are the only two Provinces in the country that do not have a non-alcoholic beverage container deposit system.
Ontario’s current rate of non-alcoholic beverage container recycling is 51% according to the Canadian Beverage Association, (CBA). The CBA also reports that over 80% of Ontarians are favourably disposed to expanding container deposits to non-alcoholic beverage containers. Despite these facts, this past July, the Ontario government shelved plans to implement a deposit return system for non-alcoholic containers citing “significant costs” of the system that would have to be borne by small businesses and families at a time when living costs are so high. The fallacy of this argument is that we all bear the cost of pollution and environmental destruction it’s just that these costs are less immediate and less visible.
Emily also indicated that textiles represent a significant portion of the waste stream and should be recycled or reused. For instance, old clothes can be donated or swapped. Buy used instead of new clothing. Alter or repair clothes that are damaged or no longer fit. Shred unrepairable items for use as cloth rags or for stuffing pillows. Stained fabric can be redyed and used for useful things like headbands or handkerchiefs. Natural fabrics like cotton can be composted. And if you are installing new carpet in your home, use an installer like, Home Depot, Alexanian, S&R Flooring Concepts, or Golia Flooring which participate in the Aspera Carpet Recycling Program in Ontario.
Finally, if you live in a condominium or multi-unit apartment building, contact Emily at Toronto Environment Alliance for tips on how you can start a recycling program in your building.
The session wrapped up with Miranda moderating a panel discussion including Amisha Moorjani – business owner and BEA Board member, Steve Kirby – business owner and member of Sierra Club Peel’s Executive Committee, Divya Arora – Community Climate Council founding member and Youth Outreach Coordinator for David Suzuki Foundation as well as Karen and Emily. Steve and Amisha recently delegated to Peel Region and Brampton City Councils about the Emerald proposal. Both Steve and Amisha have taken steps to reduce the amount of waste from their business even though these efforts result in higher operational costs. For them it is a question of doing the right thing.
If you think, as we do, that the Emerald proposal is a mistake, take a few minutes to write a personal letter to your local MPP. But please do it soon as the Environment Minister will likely be rendering their verdict within the next few weeks.
Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment opposes waste burning
A reminder that the Brampton Environmental Alliance, along with Environmental Defence and Sierra Club Peel will co-host a community information session tomorrow night starting at 7:30pm at Century Gardens Recreation Centre. See the BEA Events page for more information and to register to attend this important event.
In the summer of 2023, BEA member Bill Godfrey pitched an idea to Brampton City Council that the City should develop a strategy to become the first litter-free city in Canada. Bill is the founder of a local community group, People Against Littering. Since 2019 he and his enthusiastic volunteers have organized and participated in hundreds of clean-up events across the City and have documented picking up over 3,000,000 pieces of litter! Despite these efforts litter remains a persistent problem that is both an eye-sore and a health hazard to visitors and residents alike.
Continue reading “Litter Reduction Charter Launch & Signing Event”
The Credit Valley Conservation Authority (CVC), celebrated the 5th anniversary of the Fletcher’s Creek Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Plan (SNAP), by hosting an event this past Saturday October 5th at Fred Klein Park. A beautiful fall day attracted residents to come out for a nature walk, an invasive species pull and a celebratory free lunch!
