Meeting was held on Jan 30, 2025 at the main City Hall building and was attended by approximately 20 people from various organizations.
There was quite a bit of discussion regarding the Litter Charter endorsement event. Approximately 50 people and organizations signed the Charter and those who attended felt it was good to meet so many like-minded people. The types of organizations that signed were non-profits like the BEA, religious groups, and the Brampton Board of Trade. I asked if there would be a public listing of the groups that signed the charter and if there would be any commitments from those who did sign. Publicly listing the groups was being looked into and a follow up with the signatories will offer active measures that they can take to reduce litter and waste. There will be a request for some measure of what was accomplished.
The Board of Directors for the Brampton Environmental Alliance is pleased to invite members and guests to the Annual General Member Meeting.
When: Wednesday March 19, 2025, 7:00-9:00pm Where: UNIFOR Union Hall, 23 Regan Rd #1, Brampton, ON L7A 1B2
Keynote presenter: Franz Hartmann. Franz is the Coordinator of the Alliance for a Livable Ontario and former Executive Director of the Toronto Environmental Alliance. He also served as Chair of the Greenbelt Alliance and was Jack Layton’s Environmental Advisor in Toronto and Ottawa. Franz will be speaking about the 5 ways that political parties can build affordable homes in Ontario without impacting the greenbelt or destroying the environment.
Brampton is the fastest growing city in Canada. This year its population surged past Mississauga’s and it is now the third largest in Ontario. Growth is putting extreme pressure on housing. healthcare, transit, infrastructure and the environment. These pressures, combined with the impacts of climate change, will lead to further degradation of our eco-systems and will have both direct and indirect impacts on the quality of life elements that make this city such a great place to live.
As a BEA member you can help the Alliance determine its priorities for 2025 and beyond, helping protect the natural heritage of Brampton for present and future generations. Participate in a workshop on being a good environmental citizen. Learn what personal actions you can take and how you can help hold our leaders to account for the actions they take that will either protect or destroy our environment.
The meeting is free and open to everyone whether you are a BEA member or not. (Only BEA members are allowed to vote on BEA business matters).
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:
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.
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.
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.
Miranda Baksh introduces panel members Amisha Moorjani, Steve Kirby, and Divya Arora.
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.
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.
Last week at a news conference , Premier Doug Ford confirmed that his government is considering a province-wide ban on bike lanes where their installation would require removal of a vehicle lane. This proposal may be good populist politics. The topic of bike lanes is contentious. It often elicits visceral negative reactions, from business owners who see them as a threat to commerce, from neighbourhood groups who see them as a threat to what they believe is their God-given right to on street parking and, from drivers in general, who see bike lanes as a loss of their allocated road space and an addition of complexity to their already mentally and emotionally challenging commute. Yet the installation of bike lanes, as part of a broader vision for allowing more choice in how we travel, is a potential antidote for many of today’s environmental, social and economic challenges.