St. Ann's Bay Development Association
Meeting of 5 January 2010
In attendance:
Yves Despois, Gordon Douglas, Loreto Doyle, Marcelle Lavoie,
Chrissie MacEachern, Merrill MacInnis, Corrina Petersen
(VCCAPS), Aaron Schneider, Andy Watt, Paul Weinburg, Kurt
Yonder, Susan Zettell
Regrets:
Angelo Spinazzola
1) Agenda
Approved (moved: Yves; seconded: Susan)
2) Minutes of 15 September 2009:
Approved (moved: Paul; seconded: Chrissie)
3) Elect a Secretary, and collect Joint Stocks
registration data
- Defer selection of a Secretary to the end of the meeting;
Aaron agrees to take notes for this meeting (with
our thanks).
- Chrissie gathers addressing information from new Board
members for SABDA's Joint Stocks registration update.
4) Business Arising from the Minutes of 15 September:
- September 20 cleanup of old Cabot Trail
Several people turned out. Some work remains to be done,
but a good walking route that is mostly accessible to bicycles,
too, is now available.
- North River Church pews for fundraising
This is Angelo's project; in his absence tonight, this item
will be deferred to our next meeting.
ACTION: Angelo will pursue the idea with
pew owners.
- Celebrating Communities Conference
Marcelle attended this conference on our behalf.
ACTION: As suggested by Susan, Loreto (who
attended on behalf of the Health Centre) will post her
report on the Conference on the SABDA web site. (NOTE:
the report appears as an appendix
to these minutes.)
- Arboretum Society
The Arbouretum Society is in default of its Registry of Joint
Stocks fees. Dennis Laffan has expressed his interest in
helping to get the Society going again, and plans an Arbour
Day planting on May 1. (Dennis Laffan and Bill Nicolson are
the best sources of more info.)
5) Business Arising from the Minutes of the
November AGM:
- Expensive Internet Access
Aaron reported that Seaside high-speed Internet customers
are paying more than $250 per year more than if they were
able to access the Bell Aliant service. He learned that CRTC
does not regulate Internet access, and the consensus at our
meeting is that the Province funded a programme aimed at
universal access to high speed, not at guaranteeing a level
playing field, price-wise. Corrina suggested calling Keith Bain
to discuss our concerns. (Aaron notes that he did call, and
found Keith's assistant Diane very knowledgeable and helpful.
She will forward our concerns to Keith and the Provincial
Broadband Team <broadband@gov.ns.ca>).
- Ecology Action Centre Presentation
Donna forwarded an article that mentions some of the
provincial coastal initiatives that SABDA should be aware of
and keep in mind. Jen Graham mentioned (at our AGM) the
Sustainable Coastal Development Strategy, which
is due in 2010. Its release will be preceded by a State
of the Coast report (now released; see
http://novascotia.ca/coast/state-of-the-coast.asp);
following the release of this report, there will be public
consultations. Jen thinks SABDA should participate to avoid
the dominance of a Halifax point of view. As well, there is
a Provincial Water Resources Strategy being
developed that focusses on fresh water.
Jen also talked about a Climate Change Adaptability
Fund that will be available soon, and SABDA may well
find that we can put in a proposal for funding.
As well, the Coastal Coalition (ccns.chebucto.org)
plans a congress in early February, and SABDA may want to
be part of this Coalition.
The Eastern District Planning Commission (headed by John
Baine?) for Cape Breton and Antigonish stresses land use
planning. We've tried to talk about this around here, but
little real planning has been done. Something else SABDA
needs to investigate…
ACTION: Marcelle will follow up on Coastal
Coalition membership possibilities.
6) Financial Report: Chrissie
- $6,984.72 in the SABDA account.
- Financial report accepted as read (moved: Chrissie;
seconded: Susan)
7) New Business:
- Hiking trail at Indian Brook—Paul pitched his idea to
build a trail along/above the Indian Brook to a promontory
above the "Great Falls". Liability, maintenance, routing,
financing, and sponsorship (SABDA) issues were discussed
and questioned. A motion was passed as follows:
Moved: SABDA supports the development
of a safe and accessible walking trail to the Great Falls on
the Indian Brook, and asks Paul Weinburg to explore its
feasibility with government officials and report back.
(moved: Merrill; seconded: Yves; passed)
ACTION: Paul will take our expression of
support to his contact in government, and find out what
next steps they suggest or require.
- VCCAPS offerings—Corrina Peterson, Coordinator
of Victoria County CAP Sites Association (VCCAPS), spoke
to us about ongoing CAP site projects:
. Classes for seniors, organisations, and small businesses
. Youth-staffed winter web info project (see
webopt.info):
- Web design, maintenance
- Web-based commerce
- Internet security training
Corrina can also assist in proposal writing.
VCCAPS is open to suggestions for other programs of
interest; Corrina can provide a trainer, and many
courses are also available on line for self-teaching:
. Easy step guides on a variety of topics:
vccaps.com/easy-step-guides
- Software—Loreto tells us that inexpensive software
is available for non-profit organisations from Techsoup Canada.
Qualifying is complex, but software is very inexpensive. If
anyone sees a need for software for SABDA, this can be
investigated further. Their web site is techsoupcanada.ca
- Insurance—The nature of and need for Directors'
and Officers' insurance and liability insurance for SABDA's
committees was discussed.
ACTION: Loreto will find an agent/broker
to advise us at April's meeting.
- Election of a Secretary—Yves was nominated as
our new Secretary; he accepted his nomination and was
acclaimed to the office.
8) Next Board Meeting: Tuesday
20 April 2010, 7:00 pm, at St.
Ann's Bay Health Centre.
9) Meeting Adjourned
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Appendix I
Celebrating Communities Conference
--Loreto Doyle
I attended the "Celebrating Communities" conference in Truro
on September 23–25, 2009. My conference and travel costs
were funded by the Ministry of Economic and Rural Development,
the primary sponsor of the event.
This conference is held every two years (it's been done three
times, I believe). It is sponsored in part by the host community,
this year, the Colchester Regional Development Agency/City
of Truro.
The main theme of the conference is community development; it
incorporates an awards programme targetted to communities and
volunteers who are getting things done locally.
Format
In addition to an evening devoted to awards, and assorted
recreational events, the conference included several speakers
and presentations that offered motivational exhortations, case
studies of community projects on differing scales, and government
policy announcements or discussions of said policy.
We also had a field trip to one of six selected development
projects in and around the Colchester area. We were not free to
select our destination; however, I was assigned to one of two
that had interested me.
Principle Lessons
Listening to other groups' stories of their projects and
challenges, I was reminded of just how unusual is our community.
Represented at the conference were communities of all sizes,
including Halifax, but the preponderance of groups were, as in
the province itself, quite small and/or rural. None, however, had
quite as large a geographic size as ours, coupled with such a
tiny population.
We are probably in the very top group of communities when it
comes to average age. And we are among the most "wealthy", again,
on average. We also have a very healthy percentage of people not
born here, or even with historic ties here, also quite unusual.
So, anything but typical. It was therefore sometimes hard to draw
direct parallels between us and other communities represented at
the conference.
Two things became very clear over the three days of the
conference:
- The most successful communities have clear, long-term
goals, and strategies for achieving those goals. Everything
they undertake serves those goals within the context of their
agreed strategies. Goals are commonly agreed in the wider
community, and are not set in stone.
- The most successful communities spend quite a bit of energy
keeping each other informed. Rather than inciting more
contention, common knowledge appears to reduce
misunderstanding, and increase participation. Keeping the whole
community very informed seems to build involvement, even if
some people are involved only on a per-project basis.
As I spoke with volunteers from other communities, I heard
refinements on these basic ideas:
- Long-term goals can be changed. They should be
revisited regularly. Strategies must be changed, as
times, regulations, and opportunities change. Strategies
serve goals, and are not goals in themselves.
Any project we undertake must have very clear goals, and
these must be referenced as the context for all
decisions affecting both the project and our other work.
Our projects should clearly serve the community's long-term
goals. If they don't, they won't endure, or won't succeed.
Even if we're really fond of them.
- Our newsletters should include a fair degree of detailed
information about our on-going projects, plans, funding, and
goals. Except for personally identifiable information (as a
health-related organisation in a very close-knit community, we
sometimes have access to such, and have a special duty,
therefore, to protect it), we should have no secrets, and
should even become boring on the subject of what
we're doing.
Interesting Presentations
Currently, the Cape Breton District Health Authority is
focusing on healthy eating as a primary component of its Health
Promotion strategy (see the "Communities in Motion" and
"Healthy Eating" initiatives). It is on this platform that we have
built our successful Seniors' Lunch programmes. So, these two
presentations were particularly interesting to me, as a
representative of our Health Group.
- The Edible School Yard
The community of Summerville, in Hants County, has a
school which maintains a vegetable garden. Students help to
select the plants that are grown, and the community at large
(primarily parents) help to maintain plantings during the summer.
The garden produce is included in school meals. Students learn
about growing and harvesting food, and preparing it in the
kitchen, even including tool use (garden
and kitchen).
This is a difficult project for a school, given the summer
break during the height of the growing season. And in
our community, we are currently school-free. However, there
are growing numbers of seniors in our community who can no
longer do all that is required to grow and maintain a garden, but
who still want to garden, and who certainly want
garden produce.
A community garden (or a series of them), with a twist,
could be in order. The twist is that the community's
gardeners would offer a little time to the garden for plots that
are not their own. Seniors, or seasonally busy people,
or those with special needs, could have garden plots that they
could tend some time, with support from others for
heavy work, or help at planting and harvest times, a little weeding
or watering, etc.
- Deconstructing Dinner
Jon Steinman, a proponent of food-source/quality
awareness, has a radio programme produced in
Nelson BC that examines the cultural, political,
economic, and health consequences of our
food choices.
Web site:
deconstructingdinner.ichannel.ca
In addition to giving us an introduction to the kinds
of issues he researches, Jon presented background
on his current long-term project, which follows BC's
"community supported agriculture (CSA)" project to
raise grain.
A CSA is a cooperative that essentially buys a farmer's
production at the start of the season, thereby
guaranteeing a living to that farmer. The CSA assumes
the risk of crop loss or failure, and receives all of the
product of the farm at harvest time. The idea is to
keep farmers on the land, and procure local supplies
of produce.
The idea of a CSA could work quite well in our kind
of community, where farms tend to be small, and land
hard to work. The example that Jon is documenting
in BC involves three grain farmers; like here, it is not
reasonably possible to have very large grain farms in
the area being farmed, so three smaller holdings
combine to meet the demands of the CSA. Here, too,
it is likely that more than one farmer would have to
enter the arrangement, in order to meet all or most
of the needs of a group of consumers. CSAs may be
one viable solution to the combined problems of small
holdings, difficult land, an aging population, and
"interesting" seasons, in a community that expresses
a growing demand for quality local produce.
- Connecting Communities
Lorraine Glendenning, of the "Broadband for Rural
Nova Scotia" initiative, has already been to Victoria
County this year to introduce the Ministry's workshop
"Planning for a High Speed Future". Apparently, we
were among the first to try out the workshop, because
it is just now being rolled out to the province at large.
The presentation at the conference introduced the
workshop, and profiled several community and business
ventures from around the province that are succeeding
because of the advent of high-speed
Internet access.
The workshop is a tool to help communities examine how
they might use the Internet to effectively develop and
deliver social and economic benefits. The province has
trained various local volunteers to run the workshop, and
it is now available to any community group. Even though it
has already been presented in Victoria County, we are
free to organise it again any number of times. Because
the first one occurred during business hours on a week
day in fishing season, I do think another would be a
good idea...
Web site:
novascotia.ca/econ/broadband/connect/planning
- Enabling Funding Announced
During his remarks at the conference, Minister of
Economic and Rural Development, Hon. Percy Paris,
announced $100,000 in new funding for the "Building
a High Speed Future" program, to help communities
develop new Internet-based services. From the press
release: the funding "... will ensure communities
are better positioned to develop a stronger presence
on line, and become more competitive".
I have spoken with several people from the Ministry, and
I am reasonably reliably informed that funding will be
granted on the basis of quality of application, rather
than geographically. In short, we needn't fear that
multiple applications for funding from the same region
will be in competition. They are more interested in finding
and funding good projects that can become models for
other communities.
See the press release here:
novascotia.ca/news/release/?id=20090925003
So, there is a tool available to help us test our wishes
for the Internet, and funding offered to help us
implement whatever we can devise.
Field Trip
Glooscap Heritage Centre/Nova Scotia Arctic
Charr (Aquaculture)
We toured these two projects of the Millbrook First
Nation. This community is a group of about 800 on-reserve
residents, plus another 500 or so who live off reserve, or on one
of three satellite reserves in HRM, or one in nearby Truro. The
population is quite small, and includes both "town" and "rural"
components. Unlike our own community, there are very few
elderly seniors, and quite a few youth and children.
Millbrook has a very active economic development strategy,
high notes of which are the two facilities we toured. The
community is also very focused on providing education and
cultural preservation and promulgation inside the community.
The Millbrook business web site and community portal are very
good examples of what can be achieved with some imagination,
dedication, and excellent grant applications:
Web site:
millbrookfirstnation.net
The Glooscap Heritage Centre is located just off the
main highway between Truro and Halifax, and is marked by
a very giant statue of Glooscap. It shares space with a visitor
centre and gift shop, and features museum displays and an
audio-visual presentation of the history of the Mi'kmaw people.
The facility is staffed by very enthusiastic tour guides who are
prepared to speak at length about the cultural heritage of the
local people. In fact, our 20-year-old tour guide was able to
speak from personal experience when he described the making
of porcupine quill tapestries--he undertook to learn the art so
that he could more fully explain it!
While I am not a particular fan of the type of indoor
aquaculture practiced at Millbrook (I don't like conditions from
the fish's point of view), it is an undeniably successful economic
venture. Great care is being taken to prevent damage to the
watershed of the community, and waste heat and animal waste
are actively captured to be used by the adjoining independent
greenhouse operation.
The Millbrook community impressed me with its many
large-scale development projects, including a health and
fitness centre, community centre, and business centre. Such
a very small community is actively involved in multi-million dollar
development projects in its own right and name. While even
this small community is quite large in comparison with our own,
population-wise, its determination in the face of some quite
daunting cultural disadvantages is quite inspiring.
Specific Programmes and Resources
I have brought back a copy of the 2005 "Strategy for Positive
Aging in Nova Scotia"; I am told that it is in process of being
updated and reissued/replaced.
"Women's Health in Rural Communities"
- Partnership between Nova Scotia Agricultural College
(NSAC), Dalhousie University, and IWK Health Centre
- Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
- Web site:
www.bringinghealthhome.com/whirc
- The focus of this group is young women living rurally. They
do research, and aim to develop strategies and influence policy
toward improving health in rural communities through the young
women they see as guardians and promoters of health.
- They publish reports, a newsletter, and their web site.
Some studies may be reported at some point.
- They invite input from communities, including through seats
on their advisory boards.
- They may be a source of ideas for our own programmes, even
though they target younger women.
"Voluntary Sector Resource Collection"
"The Rural Research Centre"
"Community Counts"
- Web site:
novascotia.ca/finance/communitycounts
- This is a new and developing resource. It presents
pre-packaged views of census data (the data source is
StatsCan). Because it is new, we can interact with the data
designers early, and help "guide" their choices. As might be
expected, our community is not specifically described, and so
we have to further extrapolate and guesstimate. However, it is
worth seeing how far the designers are willing to go (and how
well they are funded) in making this data specific enough
for us.
- We have already started to use some of the presented data
in our current grant applications, and previous-project reports
to funders.
- There are obvious uses of census data in planning, for both
social and economic development. This is currently a free
service, and that is what is new--local community
groups can base decisions on more or less "real" data, rather
than assumptions and guesses.
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