Month: March 2014

World Water Day Celebration – Friday, March 21, 2014 – 10:30 am to 5:00 pm

From the University of Waterloo events calendar:

World Water Day Celebration

Friday, March 21, 2014 – 10:30 am to 5:00 pm

A special event to mark UN World Water Day that includes a poster exhibition, two keynote speakers and a career fair.

Keynote speakers are the CRI’s Water Grandmother Cecelia Brookes and Dr. Monique Dube.

The Water Institute and its graduate student group SWIGS are marking UN World Water Day with a day-long event that includes a poster exhibition, two keynote speakers and a career fair. Join us, our WLU partners from Laurier Institute for Water Science and the Cold Regions Research Centre as well as some of the Water Institute’s External Partners in the EIT building.

Host: The Water Institute
Event website: World Water Day 2014
Location: EIT – Centre for Environmental and Information Technology
Room 1015, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1 Canada

WISE Film Screening: Pandora’s Promise – Tuesday, 11 March 2014, 7:30pm

The University of Waterloo’s Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy is hosting a film night on Tuesday, 11 March 2014 at 7:30pm to show Pandora’s Promise: Changing the conversation about the myths and science behind nuclear power. From their Web site:

PANDORA’S PROMISE
A Robert Stone film
Official Selection – Sundance Film Festival

Location: RCH 302, University of Waterloo [map]

You are invited to a special screening of Pandora’s Promise.
There will be a short introduction by Dr. Peter Poruks, Ph.D., Manager of Regulatory Affairs, the Canadian Nuclear Association, who will also be available for questions following the screening.

This screening is open to all students and the public.

Impact Partners, in association with Vulcan Productions and CNN Films, presents PANDORA’S PROMISE, the groundbreaking new film by Academy-Award®-nominated director Robert Stone. The atomic bomb and meltdowns like Fukushima have made nuclear power synonymous with global disaster. But what if we’ve got nuclear power wrong? An audience favorite at the Sundance Film Festival, PANDORA’S PROMISE asks whether the one technology we fear most could save our planet from a climate catastrophe, while providing the energy needed to lift billions of people in the developing world out of poverty. In his controversial new film, Stone tells the intensely personal stories of environmentalists and energy experts who have undergone a radical conversion from being fiercely anti to strongly pro-nuclear energy, risking their careers and reputations in the process. Stone exposes this controversy within the environmental movement head-on with stories of defection by heavy weights including Stewart Brand, Richard Rhodes, Gwyneth Cravens, Mark Lynas and Michael Shellenberger. Undaunted and fearlessly independent, PANDORA’S PROMISE is a landmark work that is forever changing the conversation about the myths and science behind this deeply emotional and polarizing issue.

Visit the Eventbrite page for free registration.

@FairVoteWRC hosts a CETA Panel Discussion — Thursday, 1 May 2014

Fair Vote Canada logo
Fair Vote Canada Waterloo Region Chapter

The Fair Vote Canada Waterloo Region Chapter is hosting a panel discussion on CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement proposed between Canada and the European Union.

What: CETA Panel Discussion
When: Thursday, 1 May 2014 from 7:00pm to 8:30pm [iCal]
Where: Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, 120 Duke St., Kitchener [map]

Invited Panelists:

  • Stuart Trew, Council of Canadians trade campaigner (confirmed)
  • Stephen Woodworth, CPC Member of Parliament for Kitchener Centre
  • Jacqueline Romanow, the GPC‘s trade critic
  • Don Davies, NDP trade critic
  • Chrystia Freelander, the LPC trade critic

Tell Council “I support Light Rail”

Eleanor Grant writes:

Friends and Neighbours in Waterloo Region –

The winning bid to build the LRT in Kitchener-Waterloo was announced Friday, and it comes in under budget.

It will be voted on by Regional Councillors on March 4 in committee, and ratified on March 19. There should be shovels in the ground this spring.

The official announcement: Staff recommend GrandLinq as the preferred team for ION Stage 1 LRT

The winning consortium is GrandLinq. It is not the one with ties to SNC Lavalin, we can be relieved to hear! I’ve put links to all the media coverage on it at the end of this message.

Must see video

The TriTAG group (stands for Tri-cities Transport Action Group) has produced an excellent little video explaining the ION project in 90 seconds:

Please view it and pass it on to your friends 🙂

As you know, our Councillors have been bombarded with negative messages, most of them based on pretty inaccurate information, from those who want to stop the project or tie it up in endless delays.

But I suspect that the silent majority of us see the benefits of LRT (that doesn’t mean it’s perfect), and we want to see it get started.

Councillors need to hear from us at this time.

On TriTAG‘s site please click on the link to “E-mail your Councillors”. Tell them briefly in your own words, why you think the light rail project should go ahead.

You can also register as a delegation at the meetings on 4 March 2014 at 3:00pm and 19 March 2014 at 6:00pm.

I have registered for 4 March. One thing I’ll be talking about is the confidence-building we need to do with our neighbours in Cambridge, so they can feel more reassured during the gap years between Stage 1 in KW and Stage 2 being built to Cambridge in the future.

I’ve learned some exciting facts about the project recently, that aren’t all on the web sites:

  • The next new iXpress (203) route is being introduced the end of April. It will travel from Sportsworld along Maple Grove (Loblaws warehouse and Toyota plant), into the core of Hespeler, then down Franklin Blvd and over to Cambridge Centre mall. A new terminal area for a dozen bus links is being built on Hespeler Rd near the front of the mall.
  • Starting in Sept this new iXpress will also go from Sportsworld to Conestoga College at peak hours.
  • Also starting in Sept, the original iXpress, the 200, will be stopping at Sportsworld (I wish they’d do this sooner).
  • The adapted bus rapid transit for Cambridge – aBRT – is now expected to start in early 2015. Tenders for this work should go out soon. It will assume the 200 route from Fairview on. Stops will be: Fairview; Sportsworld; Eagle/Pinebush; Cambridge Centre mall new terminal; Can-Amera (YMCA); the Delta (Babcock & Wilcox); and Ainslie St terminal. Ainslie terminal is also going to be spruced up.
  • Serious talks are underway to improve GO train service to Kitchener, and maybe even reopen the Milton rail corridor to Cambridge. It all takes time – no promises yet! But for the Province to invest in these improvements, they need to see a higher order rapid transit built here, such as LRT.

Three things must dovetail together: a good bus grid, a rapid transit “spine”, and inter-city links. That’s why it’s time for LRT now. Waterloo Region is getting out in front of the population growth mandated for our area. Failure to get ahead of the curve only leads to the wasteful gridlock we now see in the GTA.

Please go to TriTAG now and click on the link to “E-mail your Councillors”. Right now is when our Councillors need to know we’re with them, and that we appreciate their efforts to bring us this far.

Thanks All,

Eleanor

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Media coverage on LRT bid:

Kitchener Post: LRT: $593 million to build, $900 million to run

CTV (2 segments):
http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=299012
http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=299314

CBC News: LRT construction bid pegged at $532M

The Record: Top LRT bid comes in under budget

570 News: GrandLinq recommended group for LRT project

The Region has also released a nice brochure (26 pages long) explaining the Why and How of Rapid Transit: The story of rapid transit in Waterloo Region (6.0 MBytes, .PDF file)

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Eleanor Grant writes a semi-regular e-mail newsletter on social justice issues. You can contact Eleanor at eleanor7000@gmail.com