The Village of Bayfield is a blue community!
The small community, which is located within the town of Bluewater, Ontario, is situated on the eastern shore of Lake Huron about 220 kilometres west of Toronto.
Blackburn News now reports, “TEDx Chatham-Kent speaker Jennifer Pate is hoping more people take her ‘glocal’ idea to heart. Pate spoke on what she sees as her own ‘glocal’ lifestyle, talking about tackling global issues in a local setting. …Pate says it doesn’t take a large community to make change happen, pointing to the small town of Bayfield, Ontario as a prime example. ‘They’ve signed up as a blue community with the Council of Canadians, they’ve committee to becoming a plastic-free community, they are putting in re-fill stations for water bottles’, says Pate.”
On October 24, 2014, the Village of Bayfield passed their blue communities resolution that states:
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Bayfield recognizes water as a human right -
Bottled water will not be provided at meetings of the organizations listed below where access to public drinking water is available -
Bottled water will not be available in public buildings where public drinking water is available -
Access to safe publicly supplied and managed drinking water will be protected
At that time, Blackburn News reported, “The village of Bayfield has joined an international club known as ‘Blue Communities’. Resident Ray Letheran is one of the leaders in getting Bayfield involved. …Letheran says 25 Bayfield groups and service clubs have [also] agreed to do their part to eliminate the use of bottled water.”
In one example, the Bayfield Ratepayers Associated voted to become a blue community that August. Their resolution stated:
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the BRA views access to clean water as a human right; -
the BRA will serve only municipal water at its meetings and sponsored events unless same is not readily available; and -
they encourage members to use refillable water containers
Local activists are also encouraging the Municipality of Bluewater, the Municipality of Central Huron and the Town of Goderich to become blue communities.
The Bayfield: A Blue Community website highlights, “In September 2013, Maude Barlow, Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, spoke at a water festival in Bayfield. Inspired by her presentation, fifteen community leaders organized the Bayfield Blue Community Project. It is estimated that 60 – 70% of the community of approximately 1500 is reached through some 25 organizations that have committed to participate in this project.”
Barlow will be in Bayfield on June 20 to present the community with their blue community certificate during the “Bayfield Walk for Water” event.
The Blue Community Bayfield Facebook page is here, their website is here, and you can follow them on Twitter at @bayfieldblue.
For information on how you can help make your community a blue community, please click here.
