Looking into the New Year, we will
be working on a couple initiatives and would love to have members of faith
communities get involved. These include:
Expanding the Greenbelt to include Urban River Valleys.
The Hamilton faith community is
being invited by Environment Hamilton to participate in their campaign to
expand the greenbelt in Hamilton, along the urban river valleys (thanks to the
province’s new urban river valley designation).
The Ontario Greenbelt Alliance
recommends that the municipalities of Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Oakville,
Markham, Guelph and Hamilton use the Province’s designation as a further layer
of protection for green spaces. Over five million more Ontarians would be
directly connected to the Greenbelt if the Greenbelt grew along some of the
province’s best-known rivers and creeks. Faith groups could play a significant
role in both the symbolic message (Celebrating our valleys) as well as
promoting congregations engagement and health too (we plan to do hikes and
clean ups with many other groups).
Pollinator
Paradise Project.
Here, we are interested in getting
more communities and individuals involved in creating habitat for monarch
butterflies and other pollinators by planting corridors of milkweed and
wildflowers in our public parks and around our homes and faith groups.
FCG’s Solar Revitalization for
Faith Communities Project is funded by Ontario Power Authority. We will be
encouraging faith communities across Ontario to share their solar stories and
encourage others to go solar as well. Hamilton will be part of this initiative
of course.
Municipal Level of Engagement
City of Hamilton, Climate Change
Community Action Plan invited GSS (with Environment Hamilton) to be part of the
steering committee in April because they understand the significance of having
faith communities at the table for this ongoing planning.
