The evening of Mar. 5 found five students from the Youth in Action group huddled together for warmth outside of Elmira Pentecostal Assembly, kicking off their night spent outdoors to raise awareness about youth homelessness.

Five EDSS students bundled up and spent the evening outdoors at the Elmira Pentecostal Assembly Mar. 5 to raise awareness about youth homelessness. Two staff members, David VandenBerg and Barb Gaudet (center and right) joined participating students Alyssa Brunkard, Mikayla Stroeder, Tessa Charnuski, Kurtis Rempel and Madeline Charnuski.

The goal of the project was to make students, the school and the surrounding community aware of an issue that so many people don’t fully understand. Mikayla Stroeder, one of the participating students, said she, like many, didn’t even have an idea what the experience might be like.

“We don’t really know how hard a struggle it is for people who are homeless.”

The group decided to make their experience as true to life as possible, bringing with them only cardboard to sleep on and tarp for keeping dry, as well as pledging to leave all electronics behind them for the night – no cell phones or iPods. Even the flashlight they carried was hand-powered rather than battery operated.

“I think most people are pretty addicted to their technology these days, so even just going without that for a night might be tough,” said participating teacher and student advisor David VandenBerg.
When asked about what they might do if given the opportunity to tackle the problems of homelessness, the students offered a variety of ideas – from the creation of jobs, to increasing the amount of affordable housing, and providing more places for people to stay or simply have a meal if they need to.

“But it’s not just about creating jobs and then leaving,” explained participant Kurtis Rempel, rather “continually checking in with people to make sure that their job is going well, that they’re able to afford their housing payments; that they are getting back on their feet.”

The EDSS Youth in Action group, which is affiliated with the charity Free the Children, has been running for two years now. Its focus is on raising awareness and educating members on current issues locally and around the world. Students meet on a weekly basis to fundraise and discuss these issues. Past events have included buying Christmas presents for families in need and attending leadership conferences.

In addition to the night spent outside, students collected non-perishable food items which will be given to Ray of Hope in Kitchener, an organization that supports troubled and disadvantaged youth in the community.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, the students were able to come in out of the cold of the previous night’s activities, a fact that was not lost on participant Madeline Charnuski.

“We all got to go home at the end of the night and take hot showers and warm up,” she explained. “We were also wearing winter clothing and hats and mitts, things that people who are actually homeless might not have access to.”

Regardless of how true to life their experiment turned out to be, Charnuski said the students will have at least a little bit more understanding of the challenges associated with poverty in Canada.
“If I visit Waterloo or Kitchener or Toronto and I see someone who is homeless, I am going to remember this, and I know that this is just a little bit of what they might be going through.”

“Hopefully, this event will encourage students to view the homeless as more than just statistics,” said VandenBerg.

Blue, but not yet bald, participants in the WestJet Go Blue! Go Bald! fundraiser are Mark Bullard, Scott Shillington, Josh Fernandes, Kris Pickett, Erik Wehner and Kevin O’Drowsky. The guys were prepped to shave their heads in support of the Make-A-Wish Foundation at the Region of Waterloo International Airport Mar. 6.

This is the third year that the event has happened at the local airport, an event in which community members pledge to raise awareness and funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation by dying their hair blue, and a few weeks later shaving it off completely. The money raised goes towards completing the organization’s mission of granting the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions.

West Jet also partners with the organization and donates flights to Make-A-Wish chapters across Canada to help fulfill travel wishes.

Larry Devitt said he expected there would be bugs in a project as large as the $23-million, 113,000-square-foot complex. Staff continues to work with the general contractor and a variety of subcontractors to get the building on track.

“I believe they are making strides to get things improved. I think a lot of progress has been made.”
However, soft ice and the upper-level concession area where a large rollup door is still not in service, for example, make the deficiencies highly visible.

David Brenneman, Woolwich’s chief administrative officer, noted that problems persist. Even though expected, the issues come to the public’s attention and need to be addressed in that light.
“We’re still working through a whole list of things,” he admitted, adding each will be addressed.
While mechanical difficulties will be worked through with contractors, the operations side – staffing, scheduling and programming, for instance – is strictly a township concern. That too is in flux.

For Devitt, the WMC will have to go through an entire year before those issues can be assessed properly.

That also applies to the fitness centre housed at the WMC. Rather than rent the space for guaranteed revenue, the township opted to have more control by paying an outside firm to manage the 2,300-sq.-ft. centre. Woolwich is now perhaps half way to reaching the break-even point on that agreement, having sold about 150 memberships. With membership fees set at $480 per year, the target is 300 to 325. Those numbers are needed to pay for the $132,000 contract council awarded to Personal Best Health and Performance Inc. of Caledon.

The company is being paid $11,000 a month to manage and staff the operation. Under the contract, the company provides a full-time fitness manager, part-time staff to cover weekday mornings and evenings and weekend hours, plus group instructors.

Devitt said that deal was chosen because it gave the township control over the programs offered from the fitness centre. Program registration continues to grow, which should help with membership numbers, he added.

“The program that is being provided is helping us achieve our goals.”

There’s been no leveling off – “more people are signing up every day” – so he remains optimistic even as he notes more memberships are required.

“We’ve got a ways to go to get to our target numbers. This is going to take some time to fully develop.”

Grants totaling $200,000 will come from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
The provincial money includes $160,000 for the transition to the Rural Ontario Institute, and an additional $40,000 investment in the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program – a program of The Centre for Rural Leadership that will continue under the Rural Ontario Institute.

The Rural Ontario Institute will officially begin operations on Apr. 1, with a mandate to provide rural leadership development and a mechanism to engage rural and multi-sector stakeholders for the purposes of informing and influencing rural policy development. Three core services will be provided – leadership training, stakeholder engagement and third-party program delivery.

“These resources will ensure the Rural Ontario Institute has a tremendously strong start, right out of the gate,” said Harold Flaming, executive director of The Ontario Rural Council. “We expect initiatives focusing on stakeholder engagement covering a wide range of emerging rural issues and opportunities to benefit from this critical investment in the Rural Ontario Institute. Partnerships with universities and other organizations will be enhanced as a means of more effectively articulating the rural voice on issues impacting rural Ontario.”

The Rural Ontario Institute will soon be announcing its 12-member board of directors, CEO and staff members.

In that setting, Elmira’s Sulco Chemicals Ltd., a manufacturer of sulphur-based products, has been looking to do its part, year over year. For 2009, the company dropped its sulphur dioxide (SO2) output by 81 per cent versus the previous year.

For the producer of sulphuric acid, oleum and sodium bisulphite, this represents an overall reduction of 94 per cent since the 1990 base reporting year.

In 2008, Sulco emitted approximately 282 metric tons of SO2. In 2009, only 52 tonnes were emitted, or six per cent of the amount allowed by this type of company under provincial standards. By the end of 2010, general manager Ron Koniuch predicts that number will be closer to 36 tonnes.

Aside from the acid rain issue, the reduction in SO2 emissions also has health benefits, as exposure can lead to respiratory problems, according to the Ministry of the Environment measure of air quality.

For those of us who don’t remember much from our chemistry classes in high school, the words sulphuric acid, oleum and sodium bisulphate many not ring any bells, but most of us do use them on a regular basis. Sulfuric acid is a major component of the ethanol found in gasoline; it’s used to prepare steel for industrial use, and in the treatment of water. The lion’s share is used for fertilizer production. Sodium bisulphate is used for bleaching paper and the dechlorination of water.

Sulphur dioxide is a byproduct of the three chemicals produced at Sulco.

Interestingly, the reduction at Sulco was reached through a 20-per-cent increase in plant production.

The 2009 emission reduction was related to the February 2009 installation of a sulphur dioxide ‘tailgas scrubber unit’ which produces sodium bisulphite (SBS). Sodium bisulphite is a chemical used to take the chlorine out of drinking water in municipal water plants and as a low toxicity bleaching agent in pulp and paper production.

“This material is a lot easier for our customers to handle,” Konuich explained. “That is why the market is growing for this environmentally-preferred chemical.”

The new scrubbing unit has turned what would otherwise be a waste emission gas into a marketable product.

In comparison to other nations involved in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Canada ranks 27th of 28 countries, in both per capita sulphur dioxide emissions and total sulphur dioxide emissions. Canada produces 88.9 kg of sulphur dioxide per capita, more than two times the OECD average of 39.2 kg. Only Australians produce more per capita emissions than Canada, while only the United States produces a higher total amount of emissions.

Since 1985, Canada’s emissions of sulphur dioxide have decreased by 15.3 per cent. However, 16 of the 20 other OECD nations for whom trend data are available achieved larger reductions in sulphur dioxide emissions during this period than Canada. Provincially, maximum emissions allowances are set, but organizations such as the Canadian Chemical Producers and, more locally, Sustainable Waterloo are helping companies set even more proactive targets for themselves.

Koniuch credits the Canadian Chemical Producers’ Responsible Care Program for stimulating these developments within his company.

“With Responsible Care, we submit ourselves for verification every three years, and the verifiers – that include representatives with industrial experience and expertise as well as members of the public – expect to see progress on our environmental goals.”

As a result of the industry program, Sulco initiated a community advisory panel (CAP) several years ago.  The CAP is comprised of members of the Elmira community and is designed to offer direction and feedback to Sulco about community concerns.

“There are certain regulations set by the province, but what Sulco is doing is going above and beyond that,” explained Chemtura Public Advisory Committee chairperson Pat McLean. “Their actions are very proactive when it comes to environmental protection.”

Acting on a consultant’s report, Woolwich councillors last week charged staff with preparing a capital program for the rehabilitation work.

Required by the province to inspect bridge structures – bridges and culverts – every two years, the township last year had an engineering consultant determine the state of its inventory and then come up with a cost for tackling any deficiencies. Remediation work was ranked as high, medium or low priority.

Of the 48 structures inspected, nine were deemed to be of high priority, nine judged medium and 16 low. Fourteen were seen as requiring no action. Most of those with the highest priority should be repaired or replaced within one to five years, with some falling in a 10-year timeline, noted director of engineering and planning Dan Kennaley at Tuesday’s meeting.

The nine most pressing projects include the Glasgow Street span dealt with last month. The list included a Floradale Road culvert (repairs, $150,000), another Floradale road structure (replacement, $630,000), a culvert on Reid Woods Drive (replacement, $430,000), a steel truss bridge on Middlebrook Road (repairs, $135,000), a similar span on Peel Street (repairs, $128,000) a culvert on Halm Road (replacement, $180,000) and a culvert on Bisch Street (replacement, $490,000).

None of the structures is unsafe at the moment, though load limits will be reduced on some until the repairs are done, Kennaley noted.

Those reduced loads promoted Coun. Mark Bauman to raise the issue of fire safety, but Woolwich chief Rick Pedersen explained none of the crossings are on regular fire routes.

A funding plan and rehabilitation schedule is expected to be part of the 2011 budget process that will get underway next fall.

Tuesday night, councillors discussed the decision made at last week’s committee-of-the-whole meeting, opting to formally adopt the recommendation to drop servicing plans in the wake of strong public opposition.

Residents balked at forecasted costs of some $92,000 apiece to extend water and sanitary sewers to the older parts of the village. About a hundred of them turned out last week to argue against the idea.

However, Coun. Sandy Shantz, who chaired last week’s meeting, expressed concerns about safety and water quality, calling on staff to keep an eye out for federal or provincial government funding that might help bring municipal services to the community.

That, in turn, led to a debate over how much the township should do, with Coun. Ruby Weber noting that a longstanding policy dictates homeowners pay the full cost of servicing rather than the municipality picking up any of the costs.

Complicating matters somewhat are plans for an extension of water lines required to loop the system that now extends to the new subdivisions in Breslau. Some of the homeowners now using private wells and septic systems could have the opportunity to connect to the new pipes when they’re eventually installed.

That would, however, present the township with something of a dilemma when it comes to billing those homeowners: does it charge only the cost, or the full amount estimated in a consultant’s report, approximately $15,000 for water services? asked director of engineering and planning Dan Kennaley.

He noted that allowing some homeowners to tie into the looped line at a much lower cost would mean the remaining property owners would face even higher costs should they opt for municipal services down the road, as the much more expensive project to extend services would be shared by a smaller number of people.

Seeming to side with the idea of seeking grants to help offset costs, Coun. Murray Martin argued residents in the older part of the village should pay no more than what homeowners in Elroy Acres paid for a 2003 project to replace a privately-owned communal well system, about $15,000 each.

“I’ve always favoured that.”

“We are hoping to raise about $5,000,” explained Allison Gramlow, a member of the Conestogo PS parent council. “We are hoping that the students will go out and talk to their families and friends about it.”

Pupils have been sent home with pledge forms to support their day of dancing, and prizes will be awarded to the class that brings back the highest percentage of completed forms. Additionally, students who return a completed pledge form will be entered into a draw to win a free lunch with their school’s principal.

The dance has a ‘beach party’ theme and will be held throughout the day in the gym, with students in Grades 2 through 6 dancing first between 9:20-10:40 a.m., followed by the Grade 7s and 8s at 11:20 a.m. to 1:20 p.m. At about 2, the JK, SK and Grade 1 students will be dancing until about 3:10 p.m.

To accentuate the beach theme, each child will get a glow-in-the-dark bracelet and a Hawaiian lei upon entering the gym. Gramlow predicted they won’t think about it so much as a dance-a-thon than as a party.

“I think it will be really fun for the kids to be able to dress up in their beachwear on the Friday before March Break,” she explained. “I think they’re really looking forward to it.”

Elmira and St. Jacobs are among 130 cities and towns in Canada that were added to Street View on Feb. 9. Major roads in Woolwich and Wellesley townships were also added at the same time.

Google’s cars have been filming in Canada since 2007, and the first images of Canadian cities, including Kitchener and Waterloo, went live on Oct. 7, 2009.

Google also added images of the Vancouver athlete’s village and ski slopes in Whistler, taken using a snowmobile equipped with cameras.

To view a location on Street View, search for it in Google Maps and then drag the yellow “pegman” icon in the top left corner onto the map. Areas available in Street View are highlighted in blue.

Google uses face detection technology to blur faces of people recognizable in the photos. The company announced it would blur faces and license plates after Canada’s privacy commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, argued Street View violated Canada’s privacy laws.

A number of websites have sprung up collecting photos of odd or humorous incidents captured by Google’s cameras: people urinating in public, a man dressed as Waldo from the children’s books “Where’s Waldo,” and two Norwegian man wearing scuba gear chasing the Street View car with pitchforks.

In a mood to compromise Tuesday night, Woolwich councillors listened to arguments made by business owner Krista McBay, rejecting an engineering staff recommendation to reconstruct the street, install sidewalks on both sides and eliminate perpendicular parking adjacent to the store.

At first scrapping the project altogether, councillors appeared to settle on extending the west-side sidewalk all the way to William Street, connecting Church Street with Riverside Public School. The township will also look at resurfacing the street, which runs alongside the township’s new administrative building.

Its proximity led McBay to suggest the work was being done simply to spruce up the street to match the new facility.

That argument struck a chord with Coun. Mark Bauman, who questioned the need for the project, especially if there are no underground services to be replaced. Doing the work for cosmetic reasons makes little sense, he suggested.

“We don’t need to look for more ways to spend money.”

The project was put off last year after tenders came in at $180,000, more than three times the $58,000 budget. New plans, including replacing the perpendicular parking with 45-degree angle parking, are being drawn up, and the work will be retendered later in the year.