David Graham joined us again on March 11 to talk about some of the transit issues affecting Guelph. In David’s estimation, the GTA West project still looks like it’s leaning toward building a new 400 series highway despite the fact that light rail transportation would be a far better solution. Unfortunately the Ontario Ministry of Transportation only seems interested in solutions that involve the building of another highway.
The good news is that the Go Trains will be coming to Guelph sooner rather than later. However, the bad news is that both Go and the City of Guelph think (at least, initially) the downtown railway station should be the only Go Train facility.
This seems completely wrongheaded particularly as it will entail building a 1200 car parking garage near the station where commuters will leave their cars all day why they head off to Toronto for work.
Surely it would make more sense to build a Park and Ride parking lot on the LaFarge property close to the highway network?
As well, commuters would have to pay parking fees downtown so that developers can get their money back. Whereas, at a Park and Ride parking lot parking could be free. This would clearly be an incentive for people to leave their cars behind and take public transportation.
Seems like downtown is looking at three new parking garages in the near future… which will do nothing more than hold cars all day.
I’m all for encouraging people to go downtown, but just to park their cars?
Check out David Graham’s blog for more on how we can cope with our transportation challenges… and why investing in real public transportation would be a good thing for all of us, not just for those in the business of building roads and parking garages.
Did I also mention that we discussed what could be a better use of the billions being talked about to bailout North America’s failing auto companies?
Can you imagine the public transportation network we’d have if we threw $3 billion at it instead of trying to keep the “Big Three” car makers alive for a few more months?
Personally, I’d let Chrysler go to the wall after the threats their joke of a CEO made about pulling out of Canada, if they didn’t get all they wanted.
Beyond transit issues… we aired a great interview with Sid Ryan, President of CUPE Ontario, recorded on the Unbottle It tour with Maude Barlow, about why we should ditch bottled water and go back to the tap.
The Council of Canadians would like to highlight the number of individuals who are rejecting bottled water by collecting pledge signatures through their website.
To sign the pledge, visit: http://www.canadians.org/water/issues/World_Water_Day/petition/index.php
Music:
Stephen Fearing, Home from The Man Who Married Music
Stompin Tom Connors, The Flying CPR from The Stompin Tom Phenomenon
Listen to the show:
Formerly Royal City Rag 
Blue Gold: World Water Wars, A New Documentary Movie
Posted in Commentary, tagged Bottled water, Council of Canadians, Maude Barlow, Nestle, Water, Water wars on January 12, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Here is the trailer for the new documentary movie, Blue Gold: World Water Wars featuring Maude Barlow based on the book Blue Gold by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke.
Maude Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians and one of the world’s leading experts on the topic of water, has recently been appointed as senior adviser to the president of the Assembly of the United Nations. She will be in Guelph at the Norfolk United Church at 7 p.m. Wednesday January 14 as part of a 15-city tour of Ontario.
CUPE Ontario and the Council of Canadians co-sponsored the Unbottle It! Tour. Sid Ryan, president of CUPE Ontario, will also be speaking.
In every corner of the globe, we are polluting, diverting, pumping, and wasting our limited supply of fresh water at an expediential level as population and technology grows. The rampant overdevelopment of agriculture, housing and industry increase the demands for fresh water well beyond the finite supply, resulting in the desertification of the earth.
Corporate giants force developing countries to privatize their water supply for profit. Wall Street investors target desalination and mass bulk water export schemes. Corrupt governments use water for economic and political gain. Military control of water emerges and a new geo-political map and power structure forms, setting the stage for world water wars.
We follow numerous worldwide examples of people fighting for their basic right to water, from court cases to violent revolutions to U.N. conventions to revised constitutions to local protests at grade schools. As Maude Barlow proclaims, “This is our revolution, this is our war”. A line is crossed as water becomes a commodity. Will we survive?
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