A blue wave swept across Ontario this past week with Blue Community presentations being made in Barrie, Pickering and Ajax.
Members from our Simcoe Region Chapter appeared before Barrie’s City Council (watch the video here) and in Pickering, 13-year old Robyn Hamlyn made her fifth presentation to a city council since last November, asking elected officials to pass the three resolutions needed to become a Blue Community.
Robyn has contacted dozens of municipalities and has been criss-crossing the province for meetings with individual mayors in addition to her official delegations before councils. She was inspired by watching “Blue Gold”, a documentary about water privatization featuring Maude Barlow and she took the message of that film to heart- we need to act now to protect our water. There is nothing complicated about Robyn’s strategy-we can all do it. It just takes a little optimism, a little courage and a lot of determination.
On Monday, it was my pleasure to follow up on Robyn’s previous success in Ajax where I presenting Mayor Steve Parish and the Town Council with their Blue Community certificate. Five municipalities in Canada have now become Blue Communities by passing resolutions acknowledging water as a human right, banning the sale of bottled water on city property and committing to keep water and sewage services under public ownership and control. Many more communities are scheduled for a visit by Robyn or by their local Council of Canadians chapter. But most cities and towns in Canada are still unaware of the Blue Communities Project. What about yours? It doesn’t hurt to ask. The Blue Communities section of our website has everything you need to get started.Ajax
