Conference to focus on NWO sustainability

News Release
SCNC

For two days in February, sustainability challenges and opportunities for northern Ontario communities will be explored at a conference taking place at Lakehead University and Confederation College. The Sustainable Communities in the North Conference will be the largest forum ever organized in Northern Ontario for businesses, community organizations, students, aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities to come together to address the challenges that are particular to Northern Ontario around food, water, energy, economic stability and community vibrancy.
The event will feature workshops and talks by local speakers as well as leaders in sustainability thinking and practice from across Canada and the U.S. It will also feature a green job fair and a forum for high school students to discuss youth leadership in sustainability initiatives.
“The timing of this conference is critical” says Andrew Hamilton, co-chair of the conference organizing committee. “Many communities in Northern Ontario have been struggling with challenges such as a lack of economic diversification, youth migration, resource intensive infrastructure and isolation from larger markets and political centers. At the same time, there are more opportunities now then ever to, be innovators - to do things at an individual, business and community level that will make northern Ontario a stronger, greener place to live and work.”
“There is a clear need to bring together the leaders of today and tomorrow in order to think about the kinds of communities we want in Northern Ontario” adds Alexander Boulet, Sustainability Commissioner for the Lakehead University Student Union. “We are hoping that through this conference we can not only strengthen the growing network of northerners who share a sustainability ethic, but also to build a vision of a prosperous, vibrant north that respects the natural limits of our growth.”
The event will be held Thursday and Friday Feb 25-26th at Confederation College and Lakehead University.
The conference will feature keynote speakers Peter Robinson, CEO of the David Suzuki Foundation and former CEO of the Mountain Equipment Co-op as well as Hunter Lovins, winner of the “Leadership in Business” award and Time Magazine’s “Millennium Hero of the Planet”
In a 2007 Pembina Institute report ( HYPERLINK “http://pubs.pembina.org/reports/ocsr-07-report.pdf” http://pubs.pembina.org/reports/ocsr-07-report.pdf), Northern Ontario ranked lowest in an Ontario wide index of community sustainability. Of the 27 municipalities ranked, Sudbury, Sault St. Marie and Thunder Bay made up the bottom 3.
On October 23rd, the provincial government released for discussion a draft Northern Growth Plan that recognized the urgent need for strong vibrant communities and better environmental management in Northern Ontario.