Gift certificate & charitable receipt
Our info session was a great success—thank you to the 75+ who attended. Please see the video below for a replay of the 15-minute presentation and 45-minute Q&A that followed.
For this final fight before the Environmental Review Tribunal, for their final decision on SR 26/27, we need approximately $30,000 (see details in the presentation) and we are still far short of our goal. The Maker’s Outpost, a Collingwood shop and friend of the Watershed Trust, has stepped up with a great offer: for every $100 donated, you can receive a gift certificate for $20* and a free tote bag (while supplies last). Browse their wonderful Canadian-made goods and DIY supplies here.
If you choose to donate to this cause, please use the Comments box on the Donate page to let us know if you would like the gift certificate offer (offer valid on donations submitted by 11:59pm Feb 8 2021). If you do not, we will assume that you wish only to receive a charitable receipt. For those who have donated $100+ since January 10 2021 who wish to take us up on this offer, please let us know at info@watershedtrust.ca.
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* By law, we must deduct the value of gift certificates from donations before calculating the value of your charitable receipt.
As a reminder of the issue: Walker Aggregates has an agreement to purchase the western portion of former County Road 91 (CR91) abutting their properties. They propose to replace this 100-year-old inter-county road by upgrading seasonal Sideroad 26/27.
Neither the purchase nor the replacement should happen. We’re here to see that they won’t. The Watershed Trust has been fighting this fight since 2015—now we need your help.
What’s this sideroad?
Sideroad 26/27 is a 2.7-kilometre long road that serves only 3 permanent residents who all access the road from the top of the escarpment where it is relatively flat and can be easily maintained. Closed in winter, the road descends down the slope to wetlands as a steep, single lane, rutted and poorly drained road that has always been designated as seasonal. The wetlands are fed by seeps and springs keeping them cool and a perfect temperature for speckled trout and rare wetland vegetation. The road cuts across sensitive sections of the Niagara Escarpment, ending at a T intersection with 10th Sideroad after a steep descent. This road is so narrow that the canopy meets above it. So steep that it’s closed in winter. So wet that there are seeps in the roadbed year-round and wetlands on both sides. So tranquil that animals and birds (some of them endangered) cross it at will.
Why now?
The Blue Mountain Watershed Trust has taken a leadership role in protecting the Blue Mountain watershed since 1994, has been involved in the Walker Quarry Hearing since 2010, and in the Sideroad 26/27 reconstruction development application since 2015. Now it’s coming to a head, at a hearing date to be set on 24 February 2021. The Watershed Trust has party status in this fight; the Niagara Escarpment Commission needs our help in providing expert testimony, studies, witnesses and cross-examination, as concerns conservation. We need to be there. And we need to find more funding.
Watch the video to learn:
- The backstory behind this bizarre, untendered sale of a public road
- The environmental risks
- The road safety risks
- The win-win alternative that should be adopted
- Where we stand
- What’s next
- Ways you can help
Speakers
George Powell, retired professional engineer & Chair, Watershed Trust Watershed Action Group
Carl Michener – Watershed Trust Communications
Doug Dingeldein, local resident, Grey County
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The Blue Mountain Watershed Trust is a Registered Charity. Income tax receipts will be issued for all donations. Any donation that you make towards this fight is tax-deductible. As an example, a donation of $500 would net a tax credit of about $160.