Brampton Environmental Alliance
Community and natural/organic gardening, park stewardship, rewilding, forest management, litter clean up.
The Brampton Environmental Alliance is pleased to announce that it has received grant funding from Employment and Social Development Canada to implement a “New Horizons for Seniors” project called, “Graceful Aging Through Connecting With Nature”.
Continue reading “Graceful Aging Through Connecting With Nature”
Brampton has been all over the news in the last two days because a family of coyotes have chosen a school yard as a place to hang out. Recent sightings on the property of Our Lady of Peace Separate School prompted staff to keep students inside during recess over the past few days. Concerned parents are asking the City to remove the coyotes by trapping or culling as they fear the coyotes present a threat to their children’s safety. While somewhat understandable, this reaction is unfortunate and the action called for would likely be ineffective.
Continue reading “Coyotes! It’s time, (once again), to set the record straight”
There will be a light lunch courtesy of the City of Brampton.
Local environment organizations, City departments, and others will be on-hand with display tables and activities for adults and kids including
Are you a Brampton resident 18 years or older who is passionate about flowers, bees and other pollinator insects? Then you may be interested in applying to become a Butterflyway Ranger for 2023.
Continue reading “Apply to be a 2023 Butterflyway Ranger”
Ontario’s Greenbelt is an aggregation of farmland, wetlands, woodlands and river valleys that surrounds the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area from Niagara-on-the-Lake to just west of Port Hope. The Greenbelt was established in 2005 and was supposed to be protected from development forever. Both the Premier and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing have long promised that the Greenbelt would remain intact under their leadership.
Despite this, the provincial government recently announced the removal of 7,400 acres of protected Greenbelt land. They did so without any public process, transparent criteria for land selection or opportunities for input from landowners, municipalities or the public. While the Ford government maintains it has replaced the lost acres with more land parcels in other areas, critics say the added land is not as ecologically valuable as what is being removed.
Perhaps more troubling than the broken promise is the fact that multiple media outlets have reported that some of the Greenbelt land identified for removal was purchased by developers a mere weeks or months before the changes were made public. Why would a profit oriented developer purchase un-developable land for tens of millions of dollars? The change of status of these lands will result in huge windfall profits for these developers, many of whom have made significant contributions to the Ontario PC party.
If you are unhappy about the Ontario government’s decision to remove greenbelt lands, here is your opportunity to let your MPP know how you feel. Tell them to share any information they have about the removal of land from the greenbelt with the O.P.P. in order to restore public trust in how important environmental decisions are made. Your letter will be sent to your MPP based on your postal code.
The public has a right to know if any of these developers had advance knowledge of the government’s plans. Environmental Defence and Democracy Watch are calling for an investigation. Politicians, and public servants who provide confidential information to a third-party, who stands to gain financially from that information, may be in breach of trust under section 122 of the Criminal Code.
Brampton city staff, from the Community Safety and Well-being Office, are looking for your input on the Nurturing Neighbourhood Program. Now in its 4th year, Nurturing Neighbourhoods is designed to give residents an opportunity to have conversations with staff and members of Council to share their experience on a range of topics that will help create vibrant and inclusive neighbourhoods where everyone feels safe and connected.
Since the program started, staff and Council have visited with residents from 15 neighbourhoods across all 10 city wards. Now they are looking for feedback that will help set their plans and priorities for 2023 and beyond. They want to understand what you like and don’t like about the neighbourhood where you live. They want to know how safe you feel, what your concerns are and how the city could do better.
Members of the Brampton Environmental Alliance are invited to participate in an on-line survey.
Saturday morning dawned cold, wet, and blustery. By noon, the rain had stopped and about 50 people braved the low temperatures and wind chill to protest the Ontario government’s intent to remove land from the Greenbelt and to implement the New Homes Built Faster Act 2022, a bill that would further erode protections for environmentally sensitive areas in the province.
Continue reading “Brampton Environmental Alliance joins protests over the Province’s Bill 23 New Homes Build Faster Act”
Last Thursday evening the BEA was invited to participate in the Peel Talks Climate event sponsored by the David Suzuki Foundation. The event was held at Alderlea, a heritage conference building in downtown Brampton.
Continue reading “Peel Talks Climate”
In last week’s blog, I indicated Bill 23, the Provincial Government’s Building New Homes Faster Act 2022 would mean higher taxes for Brampton property owners. The Bill was passed by the Ontario legislature on Monday. Brampton staff have been working hard to analyse the bill and now the extent of the impact is emerging.
Continue reading “Bill 23 means Brampton residents will be paying much higher property taxes”
If you are a residential property owner in Peel Region, then you will be paying more property tax in the coming years if the Provincial Government’s Bill 23, New Homes Built Faster Act is passed by the Ontario legislature. Bill 23 is the Ontario Government’s response to home affordability. It is intended to make it easier and more profitable for developers to build new housing. The logic is that increased supply will reduce the pressure that is driving up home prices. This makes sense on the surface. But there are huge implications and unintended consequences of the approach this legislation is using to achieve the government’s aim.
Continue reading “Ford’s Bill 23 will mean higher property taxes for existing Brampton homeowners”