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Category Archives: Presentations

ORA Speaks to the Legislature, Re: Omnibus Bill 132

By Linda Heron on Monday, November 25th, 2019
Posted in Bill 132, Bills, Environmental Registry, Government, Industry, Lakes & Rivers Improvement Act, Ontario Water Resources Act, ORA Submissions, Permit to Take Water, Presentations, Regulatory, Regulatory Submissions, River Concerns

With the warming temperatures and extreme rain and drought events that climate change is predicted to bring with increasing frequency and intensity as time passes, decision makers and legislators bear a responsibility to strengthen freshwater protection and resiliency – not weaken it.  If this proposal moves forward it will be a precipitous turning point for our future with freshwater in Ontario and beyond.

You will find ORA’s submissions regarding Bill 132 here.

Check out ORA’s speech to the Standing Committee on General Government: Continue reading →

Howson Dam on the North Maitland River should be Decommissioned

By Linda Heron on Wednesday, June 20th, 2018
Posted in Dam Removals, Howson Dam, North Maitland River, ORA Reports, Presentations

Howson Dam at capacity in the 24 June 2017 storm event.

Linda Heron, Chair of ORA, made this presentation on the 18th of June 2018, to the Township of North Huron’s Reeve and Council regarding the Howson Dam on the North Maitland River.   According to a 19 June article by Adam Bell, Blackburn News, a decision will be made on the future of the Howson Dam soon. Continue reading →

Beyond Brook Trout, by Mike Wilton, Algonquin EcoWatch

By Linda Heron on Monday, December 12th, 2016
Posted in E-Newsletter, Fisheries, ORA Reports, Presentations, River Concerns

brook-trout

A presentation made by Mike Wilton of Algonquin EcoWatch at the Canadian Water Resources Association’s 2016 Annual Conference.

Algonquin Eco Watch applauds the progress that Ontario Parks and the AFA have made in better understanding and making provision for proper protection of brook trout lakes.  In large measure, that addresses our concerns relating to sustainability within the Algonquin Park ecosystem.  However, we feel not only that headwaters lacking natural brook trout populations deserve equal protection, but that complete protection/sustainability cannot be achieved unless the entire recharge zone is adequately protected. Continue reading →

Panel Review of the Environmental Assessment Process – ORA Presentation

By Linda Heron on Sunday, November 6th, 2016
Posted in CEAA, Energy, Environmental Assessment Act, Government, Hydroelectric, ORA Reports, Pipelines, Policy & Process, Presentations, Regulatory, River Concerns

The Chair of the Ontario Rivers Alliance presented to the Expert Panel on the Review of the Environmental Assessment Process, on Thursday, 3 November 2016, in Sudbury, and also made a detailed written submission below:

Download (PDF, 7.05MB)

Our experience in Ontario is that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans defer to the will of the provincial regulators, which should be the other way around.  We need our federal government to set a high standard that will be followed by the provincial players.  Both the federal and provincial governments have gone through an intensive streamlining process which has undermined confidence in their ability to effectively review applications and Environmental Reports, let alone adequately monitor and enforce the conditions of approvals.  Consequently, environmental protections have become very lacking in these streamlined and broken processes.

Continue reading →