Conservation
Initiatives

Current Issues

Bill 23: More Homes Built Faster Act

Bill 23 represents a wide sweeping attack on our environment.  We need your help to either stop or amend it.

The Waterloo Region Nature Board has shared a letter expressing our concerns with all relevant Ministers and local MPPs.

If you are unaware of the issue please read this overview written by Environmental Defence or this backgrounder by Ontario Nature and this review from Professor Dawn Parker of the University of Waterloo. Also visit: Save Ontario Wetlands.

In short, Bill 23 is a 227 page Omnibus Bill that significantly changes numerous acts and regulations, undermining a communities ability to effectively deliver affordable housing (despite the acts intent), severely limits Conservation Authorities role in protecting our community, and overrules regional planning authority to prevent urban sprawl into our rural and natural spaces. This Act has already passed second reading (in a matter of days) and could pass third reading as early as Friday this week!  It is incredibly urgent that we address yet another attack on our democracy (the fast tracking of this huge Act) and ask for something better from our Provincial Government.

What we are asking you to do:

  1. Please join us and Environmental Defence in signing this petition.
  2. Contact as many people, groups, associations, special interest groups as you can and make sure they know about Bill 23.  Ask them to make their voices heard.
  3. Express your concerns about the bill to the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy, responsible for reviewing and approving or modifying the bill before third and final reading (deadline for comment is November 17).
  4. Review the multiple postings on the Environmental Registry of Ontario related to Bill 23, summarized by the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) and shared by Ontario Nature.
  5. Call or email your MPP and or MP to discuss this issue. This tool can help: https://saveontariowetlands.weebly.com/take-action.html. In Waterloo our MPPs are:
Mike Harris
Unit 3 & 4
63 Arthur St. S
Elmira, ON N3B 2M6
Mike.Harrisco@pc.ola.org
Jess Dixon
Unit 4
4281 King St. E
Kitchener, ON N2P 2E9
Jess.Dixon@pc.ola.org
Brian Riddell
Cambridge Place
Suite 409
73 Water St. N
Cambridge, ON N1R 7L6
Brian.Riddell@pc.ola.org
Laura Mae Lindo
Suite 500
151 Frederick St.
Kitchener, ON N2H 2M2
LLindo-QP@ndp.on.ca
Catherine Fife
Suite 220
100 Regina St. S
Waterloo, ON N2J 4P9
CFife-QP@ndp.on.ca

 

Current Projects

Ecoposts

In May 2015, with funding from the Region of Waterloo, TD’s Friends of the Environment Foundation, and the University of Waterloo, WRN began the EcoPosts initiative. EcoPosts aims to inform the public about Waterloo Region’s natural heritage, and will encourage folk to explore the outdoors. The project will achieve this through informative signs placed in various natural areas. Using an EcoPost’s QR code and a smart phone or tablet, a user will be able to quickly access a website with information on the natural features of the area. Each web page accessed also informs the viewer of nearby areas of interest (both natural areas and other features). The website will be accessible to people of all ages, and can also be used at home as a resource on Waterloo region’s natural heritage. The web page also has a form for user input, about species sightings, management issues etc.

Peregrine Nest Box

Past Projects

 

Peregrine Nest Box

In February 2015 we donated the money needed to build a light-weight nest box to put on the CTV tower in Kitchener where the pair of downtown resident Peregrine Falcons hatched and successfully fledged four chicks.

 

Pollinator Information Session

In April 2015 we paid to rent a theatre for a Sierra Club Canada information session on pollinators and the risks to them from neonicotinoid pesticides.

Past Donations from our Sanctuary Fund

 

Purchases

Duntroon Crevice Heights
Duntroon Crevice Heights
rare Hike
rare Charitable Research Reserve