RE: Summer 2020 Issue
Just wanted to drop you a line about the current issue cover. I think this is an award-winning shot. It captures emotion and warmth at the same time and casts a youthful and hopeful light on the pandemic. Doug Burlock has done an amazing job.
All the best.
Jack Marley
I feel compelled to write you on this beautiful July morning in Collingwood, while the sun is shining and dappling our condo balcony with light. I sat down beside my husband to read On The Bay outdoors, while listening to the robins and other birds. I have to tell you that I was very impressed by this particular edition.
First of all, the photo on the front cover is so arresting. That little girl drummer looks like something out of a painting. The photos of Collingwood during the beginning of lockdown were fascinating to me, as my husband and I were in Mexico at this time, deciding, as many of us snowbirds were, whether to stay or come home. You can therefore imagine how much I really enjoyed reading Judy Ross’ piece (coming back from Florida). I also enjoyed the other quarantine diaries.
What’s more, I am very interested in birds and I thought the section on the raptors was excellent! Thanks for the silhouettes! Great for ID! I think I’ve seen every one of those except for the Northern Harrier. Birding is a wonderful occupation during these times and a source for a lot of my photography.
Another article that resonated was the beautiful featured home on Wasaga Beach. I spent many a childhood summer at a little rented cottage at Wasaga with my parents. Later in my life, as my husband and I decided to downsize, we looked up here to relocate and during this pandemic, it seems to be the best spot to shelter in place.
Thank you for addressing this extraordinary time in our history. I don’t often keep magazines, but I think this one will be kept by me and by many as a pictorial and written account of all that we have gone through and continue to experience.
Well done. Take care and stay safe.
Sue Livingston
I greatly enjoyed your Summer issue of On The Bay. Your photographer, Doug Burlock, is just one of the many talented people who help to produce On The Bay Magazine. He’s a photographer, a retired chap, a grandpa and an all-around nice guy. Editor Janet Lees is another talent, judging by the variety of interesting items I read in each issue.
On The Bay Magazine stands out with its larger-than-usual magazine-style format and its articles and photos about the Southern Georgian Bay area. This publication is one of the few in our area that delves into issues.
Canada’s King of Rural Funny, as I call him, Dan Needles, is another talent, whose humour column is featured in the pages of On The Bay. Dan, we are proud to say, is a local fellow, past-president of the Great Northern Exhibition, who lives with his wife Heath (a talent in her own right when it comes to baking!) in the Nottawa area. I also enjoyed the educational piece about birds. I shall send it to an ardent birdwatching friend of mine in Belgium.
The current edition of On The Bay features another local talent, my wife Nancy. She appears in a photo by Doug Burlock wearing a mask she made from a promotional piece of cloth we were given at a Mirvish Theatre in Toronto last March. It was just two days before the pandemic hit and closures began.
I also like that there are letters to the editor appearing in clear, readable style about topics. In the Summer issue is a letter in support of the proposed electricity-producing project near Meaford as well as a letter against the project. I am firmly against the proposed Pumped Storage Plant, which will have water pumped to a reservoir on land and then rush down through generators to Georgian Bay. I am positive that rush of water will make a nasty mark on Georgian Bay’s pristine waters. But that’s just my opinion.
I’m glad to see advertisers are continuing to support this magazine, because they do get their money’s worth in readership.
George Czerny-Holownia, Collingwood
I have just started to peruse your Summer issue and feel compelled to send a bravo to you for continuing to publish in spite of so many setbacks. I have lived in Toronto for 98 per cent of my life, but my close ties to Collingwood through family and friends stretches back through decades. As a result, your magazine continues to give me access to your beautiful community even if I can’t visit in person.
Good luck to you and all the local businesses, eateries, markets, shops, etc. I am looking forward to an unknown future date when I can stroll, eat and shop there once again.
Kathleen Case, Toronto
P.S. Dan Needles should be declared a national treasure!
RE: New Homes, Spring 2020
I would like to address all the new home building in the area, having moved into a new build a number of years ago. Have you heard of “builder grade”? These new homes are going up overnight using basic, cheap borderline materials. They will be falling apart in 10 years and will guarantee local jobs for years. The marble counters, brushed aluminum and other cosmetics don’t compensate for the cheap products. The building standards organization of Ontario has a lot to answer for.
Why are reverse sewage traps not installed? Why are surge protectors not installed up front on the electrical panel? Why are people not offered upgrades on the roof, the insulation, the siding, the electrical panel and do the builders even put a fan in the gas fireplace? After freezing in my new home for 2 years, I had to have the attic insulation upgraded at my cost. The roof started to curl after the 10-year limit.
There are a lot of insulation upgrades not offered as well. I believe the only place where they used to have higher standards was the project called Terracewood, that I read about in your magazine many years ago. It is very sad.
Gloria Thompson, Wasaga Beach
RE: COLLINGWOOD TERMINALS
I’m confounded by the number of people who have signed a petition to save the Collingwood Terminals, but not a one is prepared to put up a penny to pay the cost of maintenance.
Collingwood taxpayers are expected to pick up an estimated $10 million tab to save them. Save them? What for? They serve no purpose. They cost the town $100,000+ annually to keep.
The reasons given to save the structure are mostly sentimental: “I’ve lived with them all my life;” “When they come into view, I know I’m home.” Yes, they are a landmark, but they are a monument to inaction.
Politically they are a polarizing issue with a prohibitive price tag. The Terminals have no equity value, but council is required to exercise due diligence, since the structure has been found to be potentially dangerous, and something must done before a catastrophic crumble. Alternative “saves” have been suggested. None have succeeded to date. Most of us don’t embrace change, particularly when we do not have a clear vision of what that change will bring.
Let me run this vision past your economic and your sentimental side: A great opportunity lies in replacing the Terminals with a brilliant glass hydroponic greenhouse that can return more than $1 million to Collingwood annually.
The vision is of a vibrant green space centred on the footprint of the concrete towers, which will be devoted to growing fresh produce year-round. The produce will be harvested daily for the benefit of local restaurants, grocers, hospitals and for our own kitchen tables.
We can all eat local and appreciate the $1.3 million profit forecasted by Collingwood Hydroponics as a contribution to our own tax coffers.
Save us from “Save the Terminals.” Save us from eating “fresh from U.S.” Save us all from sitting much longer on an accident waiting to happen.
John Wiggins, Collingwood
RE: Meaford Pumped Storage Plant
The Collingwood Climate Action Team (CCAT) supports an independent, third-party environmental assessment of the proposed Meaford pumped storage project to ensure environmental concerns are identified and quantified correctly.
Building new pumped storage facilities (water batteries) is part of a current global trend to develop grid-scale energy storage using proven technology that has a very long lifespan. Pumped storage can be used to capture and store Ontario’s clean excess electrical energy, much of which is currently unused and lost due to insufficient storage.
Unused energy could be used to displace vast amounts of fossil fuels. It could also be used to reduce the need for gas generators during peak demand periods. Ontario’s electricity consumers would also benefit financially from building new storage because excess and unsold energy that is currently lost could be stored and used when needed.
Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Georgian Bay are all connected and are at the same height above sea level; because of this, their levels are monitored as one single body of water. The proposed reservoir’s volume, compared to the volume of this single body of water, is equivalent to just under one-seventh of a teaspoon of water compared to a full bathtub.
When considering global emissions, coal-fired electrical generators in neighbouring U.S. jurisdictions are under pressure to close because of legal requirements to reduce emissions. Building new pumped storage in Ontario and elsewhere increases the pressure to close these coal plants because pumped-storage allows more clean renewables like wind, solar, excess hydro and even excess nuclear to displace coal. If coal plants close earlier than expected in neighbouring states, the reduced emissions in those states could be even greater than the predicted reduced emissions in Ontario.
CCAT is committed to listening, learning, and sharing information about mitigating human-caused climate change. We look forward to informed discussions with others.
The Collingwood Climate Action Team is a non-partisan, math and science-based organization that encourages and promotes the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. We also promote open dialogue based on informed perspectives. We listen, we learn, and we present science-based perspectives regarding climate change mitigation strategies. Within this process, we take into consideration the impacts of human emotion, vested financial interests, jurisdictional and political policies. CCAT does not accept donations from, nor do we speak on behalf of, TC Energy or any other vested parties promoting or opposing this project.
Ray Mueller, BSc., Group Leader Energy Group
Collingwood Climate Action Team
