Please Lead us to a Better Future at the G-20 and in Canada

Dear Prime Minister Harper and Finance Minister Flaherty:

I am a young Canadian Engineer who is learning a lot about how our global markets and societies function and how they fall far short of functioning. I am concerned for my job and those of my family and friends and fellow Canadians, but I am more concerned about the path we are taking as a country and as humanity: I am concerned about how we will avoid catastrophic climate change and adapt to the changes already underway; concerned about how we will feed the world and allow all people to live dignified and secure lives; concerned about where our water will come from over the long term, and I am concerned about how the decisions I make and the decisions you make on my behalf will affect my children and grandchildren. We are at a major decision point. We know the paths we chose up to now led to major challenges for the environment, society, and even the economy. So the question is, what do we choose for our new path?

As you head to London this week for the G-20 meeting to help find a path forward in overcoming this financial crisis, I respectfully request that you please provide the type of leadership the world needs, and that all Canadians can be proud of. The whole world is facing great uncertainty currently and Canada is no exception, but we are better off than almost every other nation. As a result, the world will be looking to us for leadership and guidance. Our voice is disproportionate to our population at this critical time. With this power, and influence comes great opportunity and, more importantly, great responsibility.

Please keep all Canadians, and all the people of the world whom our words and actions impact in mind as you enter into these discussions. Canadians care about the world and our role in it. We know that a more equitable world will be more sustainable, secure and prosperous for all. We also are learning the hard way that the things we have considered to be external to our measurements of economic success are actually the very things we need most. We can no longer ignore the costs of pollution, exploitation, trade injustice, over consumption, and resource depletion.

Humanity is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, and the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of humanity. Our priorities in decision making and our measures of well being must change to recognize these facts. The capitalist economy can be a powerful tool for harnessing human creativity and naturally prioritizing our efforts to address our most pressing challenges – but only if we choose to make it this by engaging all of humanity in responsible and respectful pursuit of solutions. The time is right for making these fundamental and essential shifts.

So as you enter into discussions at the G-20, and as you make important decisions in our own country, please:

· Do not just denounce protectionism; denounce trade injustice in all forms. Especially the subsidies and tariffs and dumping of excess goods that affect the nations of the developing world (and that Canada is currently complicit in)

· Reaffirm global aid commitments made by the G8 and the urgency for all donor countries to achieve the 0.7 percent of Gross National Income aid target. Follow through on our own commitments for aid amounts and for focusing aid on poverty alleviation above all other goals. Canada is well situated to take the lead on this, by setting a time line for achieving this goal.

· Ensure emergency funds are provided to countries to pursue their own economic stimulus policies, including establishing social safety nets and protecting livelihoods for the poor, and strengthening the public provision of essential services such as health, education and water and sanitation services.

· Take advantage of this opportunity to use stimulus packages to build a sustainable and responsible global economy, and tackle climate change.

· Democratize the governance of the global economy - Financial institutions must be accountable and adequately regulated, including provisions to stop capital flight and address tax havens. The World Bank and the IMF must be fundamentally transformed and held accountable to international standards on human rights, and labour and environmental standards. The role of the UN in overseeing the global economy should be strengthened.

· Help us shift from the pursuit of ever expanding consumption and growth, to the pursuit of ever improving quality of life and integrity of environment, worldwide. Do not artificially prop up industries that led to our problems in the first place. Engage the people in those organizations in retraining and refocusing on providing the solutions we need for the future - like building a sustainable energy and transportation solutions, pursuing resource efficiency and pollution avoidance on all fronts, and growing healthy communities. Stimulate radical growth and innovation, not stagnation and repetition of past mistakes.

The financial crisis, as well as the food, fuel and climate crises, are threatening to reverse significant progress made on reducing extreme poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. I urge Canada to demonstrate leadership at the upcoming G-20, and press for the above initiatives to address the needs of all people and nations and the environment we depend on. We are all on this planet together and must work together to address the needs of today, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet the needs of tomorrow. We need effective decisions that will help people in the short term, and set humanity up for sustainable prosperity. I believe that Canada can play a lead role in this, and I am asking you to start leading today.

Yours sincerely,

Justin Wheler

Halifax, NS

B3K 5L3

Earth Hour without Candles

This evening is an annual one hour event called Earth Hour. People around the world will turn off their lights and maybe even avoid other uses of electricity to show solidarity in an effort to curb anthropogenic global warming.

I am convinced that anthropogenic causes to global climate change are significant. And I think this is a problem that we, humanity, should work hard to address. My full time job is playing one roll in addressing this from the industrial emitters side. I think the personal choice, or consumer side of the equation is very, very important too though.

I have to say I have mixed feelings about earth hour though. On one hand it raises awareness, starts discussions and brings communities together in the name of a critical issue. This is great. It also pisses some people off and they will deliberately try to sabotage the event by maximizing their own environmental impact. A quick browse of any newspaper or blog site this week probably gave you both perspectives. All in all, there is probably a pretty big net gain in awareness of the issue and willingness to make personal lifestyle changes to reduce environmental footprint because of Earth hour.

The downside in my mind is the practicality of some of the actions encouraged in the name of Earth Hour. So my action today is to CELEBRATE EARTH HOUR as a great way of bringing people together in an effort to address one of the defining challenges of our century, and to avoid Lighting Candles. Candles are pretty much bottom of the barrel when it comes to the amount of energy required to produce light.

The amount of energy in a candle that actually turns into visible light when they are burnt is about 0.04% of the total energy. True, we are willing to accept a lot less light when it is coming from candles but still, that is crazy. I once had an engineering professor whose biggest example of human achievement was our ability to produce light. We have increased the amount of light per unit energy and per unit human effort by many orders of magnitude in the last millennium. So I will not light a candle. When we burn candles all of that wax turns into airborne things, CO2 being the best case scenario. I am sorry to be a bit of a party pooper (last year I made my in laws sit in the dark for an hour at an anniversary party) but if earth hour is worth observing then it is worth not increasing our footprint for.

I also won't drive or bus to our earth hour party and will try to minimize the amount of energy in the food I contribute. Happy Earth hour :)

What are we stimulating?

This is a big question and a bigger rant which I will try to spare you of. Basically, my opinion is that the current crisis is damn complex and pretty scary for a lot of people, but it is also a fork in the road for society. We can choose to take this opportunity to build something new and better for all, learning from the mistakes of our old collapsed and collapsing systems and understanding of the world, or we can react in fear and try to recreate the 'good old days' sacrificing important intangible assets of our society for the sake of recreating a flawed system reliant on massive and continuously growing consumption, and massive and continuously growing global inequalities and environmental problems.

I signed up here for transcripts of the proceedings of the standing Senate Committee on Human Rights.

Thought it might be good to figure out how these things work so I know how to best present my concerns. This committee is the one that will be examining the implications of Bill C-10 on human rights, specifically the provisions around gender pay equity. At the meeting this Monday they had statistics Canada in to present an interesting set of stats on Minority groups and employment in Canada. The above images are a couple of the most interesting slides in my mind.

In case you can't or don't want to read them they show that visible minorities in Canada have lower employment rates, and women are lower than men, but are gradually closing the employment rate gap. Average income is actually highest for second generation immigrants compared to other groups and lowest for new immigrants for both women and men, and there is a significant gap between the sexes again.

This matters in our current time for a couple reasons:

1. Lower wage and lower employment rate groups are often hardest hit by recessions because they bear the brunt of layoffs and are most vulnerable to shocks, so women and minorities who were already at a disadvantage in the Canadian job market are also most vulnerable.

2. Most of the jobs that are created through stimulus will be construction type jobs which benefit men more. Not to say men don't need it, it is just important to keep in mind that there is often a disconnect between who benefits and who is most vulnerable.

3. Part of the budget implementation act, Bill C-10 is making changes to the ability for people to fight pay inequity and other discrimination due to gender. (Example letter of concern from the Canadian Association of University Teachers).

My action is to figure out how to voice my concerns most effectively to the senate committee on this non budget related change being passed off as necessary to stimulus that might actually impede the economic well being women, and more importantly impede the pursuit of a just and equitable society. This is a multi stage action so stay tuned on the results, but the enquiries are under way.

I also passed on this information to my wife Heather so that her IDS class can discuss this in their next lecture but I won't take credit for just doing what I'm told :)

Democracy in action... or inaction?

Well, its a big day for attempting a better world. A couple weeks ago I contacted the members of Canada's Senate to ask them to remove non budgetary items from the Budget Implementation Act (Bill C-10), specifically some disturbing changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) that were highlighted by the Sierra Club: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5654/t/3791/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1092

I received some decent replies, but ultimately the Senate proved to be only slightly more effective than the House of Commons in making our 'democracy' work. There was some decent discussion, but a motion to split the bill into its budgetary and non budgetary parts was voted down: http://www.albertasenator.ca/hullabaloos/

I have not interacted much with Senators but based on the replies some of them are pretty worried about the path we are going down too. And since they know a lot more than me, that makes me even more concerned.

The redeemer is this:
Hello,Thank you for your email regarding Bill C-10, the Budget Implementation Act. I seconded a motion to split the non-stimulus provisions out of Bill C-10 and urged the Senate to adopt it today. Although many Senators were sympathetic, our motion failed. However, and this will be important for laying the ground work for future changes, the Senate did agree to refer non-stimulus subject matters to various committees for further study.
The Navigable Waters Protection Act goes to the Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
The Investment Canada Act and the Competition Act go to the Banking, Trade and Commerce Committee.
The Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act goes to the Human Rights Committee.
All other non-stimulus items go to the National Finance Committee.
I sincerely hope that you will contact the relevant committee and make arrangements to register your concerns. As a Canadian citizen, you have the right to be heard and it is important for the future of our country that you make this effort. Here is the link to the Senate Committees page which will give you contact information for the committee clerk and the names of Senators who are members of each committee.
Thank you for all your efforts and inspiration to date. Best regards, Elaine McCoy

So my attempts at a better world are to do just that. I am going to contact every senator on the relevent committees and see if I can register my concerns. So there may be more than one entry today but here is number 1, if anyone knows how to make this more effective please tell me:

Concerns with Bill C-10 relevant to your committee

mailto:eenr-eern@sen.parl.gc.ca,adamsw@sen.parl.gc.ca, anguswd@sen.parl.gc.ca, gautht@sen.parl.gc.ca, merchp@sen.parl.gc.ca, milnel@sen.parl.gc.ca, mitchg@sen.parl.gc.ca, russem@sen.parl.gc.ca, sibnic@sen.parl.gc.ca, spivam@sen.parl.gc.ca, stgerg@sen.parl.gc.ca, lebrem@sen.parl.gc.ca, comeag@sen.parl.gc.ca, cowanj@sen.parl.gc.ca, tardic@sen.parl.gc.ca

Dear members of the Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources,

I have never registered a concern with a Senate Committee before so I am unsure of whether this is the right way to do so. If it is not, please advise me on how I can go about doing this.

My name is Justin Wheler and I am a young Canadian Environmental Engineer with a reasonable level of knowledge and a high level of interest in Environmental Assessments and approvals and how development impacts society and the environment. The concern I have that pertains to your committee is with Part 7 from Bill C-10. Part 7 makes substantial amendments to the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) that are unrelated to budgetary matters, and were rushed through without adequate stakeholder consultation.

I love the outdoors, especially canoeing and am concerned that this change removes an important step in assessing whether or not projects involving waterways represent a net gain to society. The EIA process is vital to ensuring that all relevant information is brought forth by all affected parties for this type of decision. I am not comfortable removing this responsibility to the discretion of the minister. Passing this type of amendment to a completely unrelated matter under the cover of economic stimulus is completely inappropriate,irresponsible, and undemocratic. This is not the way our Canada should function.

I have many friends and family who have been directly affected by the current economic situation - whether it be through loss of retirement and rainy day savings, loss of jobs, or inability to find work upon graduating from university with a high debt load and little hope. It is a tough time for our economy, and our people. I am personally on a contract position right now that ends in July and I am a little worried about my prospects for finding fulfilling and engaging work after that date. But please, please do not let this tough time be an excuse for unrelated and irresponsible changes to the other parts of Canada that we hold dear.

When we protect public access to waterways in Canada, we are also protecting the natural environment of those waterways. I understand that it is important to initiate infrastructure projects to stimulate the economy, but we should not use that as an opportunity to dismantle safeguards put in place to protect Canada’s environment. In fact, these hasty changes to the NWPA will have serious repercussions for the recreational navigation, ecotourism, fishing, and hunting sectors of our economy, none of whom were consulted about these amendments. Our navigable waterways and the activities conducted on them are a core part of our Canadian Heritage. They provide value to our country in so many ways that are not accounted for in economic balance sheets, but are core to our economy and the well being of our communities nonetheless. The public right of navigation pre-dates Confederation, and it needs to be part of our future.

Including non-budgetary items in Bill C-10 has and will continue to slow down the process of passing the budget. Please separate non-budgetary items, such as the amendments to the NWPA included in Part 7 to allow for these important, long term issues to be dealt with separately in greater depth and expedite the process of passing the budget.

Please separate the proposed amendments to the Navigable Waters Protection Act from C-10, the Budget Implementation Act, so we can get on with the budget. It’s the best way forward for the environment, the economy, and democracy. I have been following some of the Senate discussion on this matter and dared hope that the discussions in your chambers were more attuned to the needs and rights of Canadians.

Please seriously consider the long term impact of your deliberations on this matter. We, the youth of this country, do not want to pay for this urgent economic crisis long into the future with the loss of our rights and our environmental integrity.

I will anxiously await the results of your deliberations on this matter.

Sincerely,

--"name"
"town"
"postal code"

Sending Flat Stanley Home

My 7 year old little brother Nicholas (BBBS brother) recently sent Flat Stanley to visit. Stanley is a quiet little guy that somehow ended up very flat. The upside to this predicament is that he can travel by mail! He arrived in our mail box almost two months ago and has been adventuring with us ever since.

Just in case Nic and his Grade 2/3 class were worried Stanley sent them a post card. Now he is on his way home with all kinds of stories about life in Halifax, and our visits to Toronto and St. John's. Helping Stanley travel is a great way to flex the imagination muscles and learn about different places all over the world (with a much smaller carbon footprint).

My Attempt at Making the world a bit better for today is to send Flat Stanley home. Along with a detailed report of the fun we've had together here in Nova Scotia. This is a cool way to connect with my favourite Grade 2 student from across the country - he is not really in to phone calls or electronic communication. Normally we would hang out every week or two and do a random activity, like crafts or swimming. I miss Nic a lot and I think being a part of the lives of a few kids as they grow up is a pretty awesome way to make the world a better place, on a lot of levels. Make time for kids!

DreamCatcher Mentoring

Kids in Canada's North have a pretty tough go of it sometimes. We have probably all heard some of the press about the negative things going on and may have even heard a few of the success stories of the heroes like Mr. Tootoo the gritty Nashville Predators NHL player from Rankin Inlet.

Anything we can do too help our youth reach their full potential is a big part of making the world a better place. So check this out:

"Help looking for mentors - please spread the word and register by Friday!

DreamCatcher Mentoring (DCM) is looking for Canadians to e-mentor high school students in Yukon and Nunavut. DCM is an innovative e-mentoring program that connects students with Canadian mentors who work in the students’ aspired “dream careers”. We have created a unique strategy to bridge the education, cultural, communication, and geographic gaps in Canada.
With the decreasing rate of high school graduation in Canada’s north, this program was created to empower students to realize the rewards of staying in school.Since 2005, we have connected over 200 students in Canada’s north with amazing Canadian mentors from around the world who work in professions such as medicine, carpentry, social work, sports management, military sciences, and many more. This year, we have had unprecedented enrollment from 8 Yukon schools and the high school in Iqaluit, Northwest Territories.
We are always looking for more mentors for our program. Every year from April-June, mentors communicate with students by posting messages on our website. These are not “live” discussions, but rather a message posting forum. Depending on how much you write and the frequency of your messages, the average time commitment is 30-60 min/week until the end of school (June 2009).
If you know anyone that would like to e-mentor a Yukon or Nunavut high school student, please have them visit us at: http://www.dreamcatchermentoring.ca/. Even if you can’t participate this year, it is always good to register anyway so that we can call-upon you for future years.

This year, we are in particular need of the following careers:
· Business person/ Entrepreneur (multiple)· Esthetician/ Hair dresser (lots of these this year)· Medicine (medical students, doctors, and researchers)· Conservation Officer (multiple)· Construction (multiple)· Sports management (multiple)· Carpentry (multiple)· Trades: Mechanic/Electrician (multiple)· Fitness Training· Singer· Fashion designer"

This week I received the above email from an amazing friend and mentor that helped start this really cool initiative. My attempt at a better world for today is signing up to be a mentor if any youth are interested in hearing what I do, and passing the info on to anyone I could think of that fit the list of needed careers or has connections that fit the list. Please consider doing the same.

Language

I have always been impressed by the amount of courage and determination it must take to be a newcomer to Canada. I know life here is generally pretty good but for newcomers it is often cold, lonely, confusing, challenging, frustrating and even boring. One of the big bottlenecks to new immigrants making the life they want is language. If you have ever tried to learn a new language you know it takes a lot of time, energy and bravery. I have tried to learn three second languages and still have them all on my 'to do' list. New immigrants to Canada often take English Second Language (ESL) courses where they are often learning their 3rd or 4th or 5th!

My attempt at a better world for today is my weekly (almost) couple hours of tutor time in an entry level ESL / literacy course. This is for people, often refugees, who are very new to English and often weren't literate in their first language. The class is paired with a daycare service to cater to people with young children and it is put on by the Halifax Immigrant Learning Center (HILC). It is my weekly dose of cultural diversity, time with kids, and humility. All things that are often lacking in my life, and I dare say, in the life of most young middle class adults in Canada.

It reminds me that literacy does not mean intelligence (or vice versa), rather it usually means a lack of previous opportunity. It also reminds me of how hard people are trying to become contributing members of society and that supporting these people is a benefit to everyone. In my opinion anyway :)

English and education are gifts most Canadians have, that are free (or often benefit you) to share. Consider it. And give feedback.

The Morality of Economics

KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives is a dynamic church-based social justice movement.KAIROS works with its members, partners, and our cross-Canada community based network in the following areas: Ecological justice, Solidarity in Canada, Human rights and trade, and Grassroots action for global justice grounded in the local community

I just heard about KAIROS this weekend and liked one of their actions in particular - a letter to the Canadian Government calling for a moral response to the economic crisis. The full letter can be seen here.

I feel like religious communities provide a valuable contribution to the morals and ethics of our society. They help build communities of moral and spiritual support, often actively caring for the people and addressing larger needs of the population (through things like pastoral care and counselling, advocacy, philanthropy, etc). I don't always agree with the theology or specific approach of different groups, but I still think these communities provide an important voice for the morals of our society. They provide support and tradition for both mourning and celebration. When these communities, or leaders within them, speak out on issues, people take notice and at the very least, critical discussion is generated. Since KAIROS can send a message that represents a large number of these communities I hope that much more notice is taken. I don't know though since I only heard about it at a church which contributes to the organization. It can't hurt to try though, even if no attributable impact shows up in the news that I pay attention to.

So the attempt at a better world is to contribute to the united church Mission and Service fund, which contributes funding to a wide variety groups working on all kinds of issues. KAIROS is one example of an organisation that receives funds from M&S and this letter on the need for moral evaluation of our efforts to stimulate the economy is one example of how a group like this can play a valuable role in bringing about a better world, in my opinion of course.

As always, I would love to hear any feedback on the value of funding something like this, and the value of pushing for a moral response to our current economic woes.

Being a good friend

Today was International Women's Day so I intended to make an attempt to address a gender issue, but it has not happened. I do have a couple ideas that will hopefully be put to action later this week. Here are a couple stats on the status of women in our world currently: http://www.internationalwomensday.com/facts.asp


For today's attempt at a better world though, I tried to be a good friend. I called up a friend I hadn't talked to for quite a while. We talked about careers, school, organizations we care about, the state of human knowledge and, of course, girls.

This was not too public but I do feel it is an important part of my better world. Friends and personal networks are foundations of community. The best ones act both to hold us accountable and challenge and support us in becoming the best human beings we can be. They give us love, purpose, and identity. So I spent a very enjoyable hour or two fostering a quality friendship.

What do you think about the role of friendships and personal community in building a better world? Is this attempt making the world a better place or escaping from my personal pledge.

Regardless, I encourage you to call a friend or family member you haven't talked to in a while. Especially if its a woman or me :)

Engineers Without Borders (Day)

If you were in a grocery store in a Canadian city today you might have seen something like this:


Engineers Without Borders Chapter members were trying to raise awareness of Fair Trade Certified products - products certified to give producers a guaranteed fair price for their work and promote human development in the communities producing these goods.

The idea is that if consumers have a choice to buy fair products they will do it - activism through shopping. I don't think it solves all the problems with our current trade systems but I do think it is a good step, and potentially leads to people considering the impacts of their actions on the world.

Here in Halifax I would say they are pretty ahead of the curve on Fair Trade awareness and access. We have found fair trade bananas, oranges, grapes, chocolate, tea, coffee and rice so far. Also it didn't really work to have the same kind of event (although one is in the works) yet so instead we had a cool event called "Propelling Change."

We met at the Propellor microbrewery and had a presentor who is an expert on microfinance in Bangladesh - Farzana Naz Shmapa - share some of her research. We raised some money for EWB, learned a lot about microfinance and the Grameen bank (you may have heard of Dr. Muhammad Yunus winning the Nobel Peace prize in 2006), drank some excellent all natural beverages (pop too!) and had a tour of the brewery.

My attempt at a better world was to introduce the event and give a quick into to EWB. Hopefully it contributed to the overall effectiveness of the event and created some interest in EWB. I adlibbed but here is a similar intro for anyone interested.

"Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Canada is a registered Canadian charity working towards human development. There are EWB organization in some other countries but EWB Canada is a stand alone organization.

EWB works simultaneously overseas and in Canada to promote human development.

Overseas EWB works in four countries in SubSaharan Africa, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, Zambia. They have worked in more countries in the past but have gradually focussed in on these countries to capitalize on great partnership opportunities and allow for more accumulation of locally appropriate knowledge and experience. EWB volunteers are young Canadians who work in (4 month to 2 year ) partnership with existing organizations working to promote human development through improving water and sanitation, impoving rural agriculture production and the associated value chains. Each volunteers 'job description' varies a lot depending on the needs of their partner and the local context of the projects.

In Canada EWB is mainly a student driven organization with 27 chapters at universities across the country, 6 professional chapters, and about 25 staff (some working overseas). These chapters work to promote human development through increasing the development knowledge of their members, promoting public awareness of human development issues and associated behaviour change, advocating for pro poor changes to our systems (like pushing the government to make development aid more effective), and fundraising.

Although EWB does not work on microfinance directly some of our partner organizations do and the 'Propelling Change' event was a chance to learn from an expert on the subject while having some fun and earning some money.

Jumping at formal engagement opportunities

Each large or high risk development project in Canada pours a ton of resources into completing an Environmental Impact assessment that examines the project specific and cumulative impacts of the project on many different aspects of the environment, the local community and society. These assessments are the primary tool for gathering information to feed into the project hearings and approvals. Governments read through these assessments and require additional info for anything that is unclear or incorrect. Stakeholders also have access to the assessments and can present their views at the approval hearings.

This process has been criticized for the level of voice it gives to affected and concerned people (stakeholders) but generally speaking there is some pretty high quality and important research done because of the process.

But then the EAs sit on a shelf. It is incredibly labour intensive to track down relevant EIAs and extract information from them. The actual data is not publicly linked back to the EIAs to track the projects performance.

my attempt...

I signed up at http://environment.alberta.ca/1274.html to the list which updates on Alberta EIAs are sent to. This was to try to get informed and up to date on EIA related news.

Recently through this list I was informed of the survey above:

"The following notice has been forwarded to you in case you wish to participate in the federal government survey. One of the strategic priorities of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (the Agency) is to advance the science and practice of environmental assessment in Canada. The Agency is currently exploring the potential of a national, collaborative online knowledge system to improve EA, particularly to help inform regional cumulative effects assessment.In order to inform the conceptualization and design of a knowledge system, a user needs determination is being conducted by Lynch Stewart and Associates. As such, we are asking for your participation in an online questionnaire. The purpose of this questionnaire is to provide a more comprehensive profile of the interest of all stakeholders involved in EA knowledge generation in Canada. Please use this questionnaire to communicate your issues and concerns, and recommend the kinds of improvements you would like to see. We are asking that you please take 15 minutes to complete a short questionnaire (25 questions - primarily multiple-choice) online before Friday, March 6th, 2009. Please forward the questionnaire to your EA colleagues if you think they would like to contribute their views. To protect anonymity, questionnaire responses will be kept confidential and the results will only be released in aggregated tables. Please direct any questions you may have to info@lynchstewart.com. https://www.keysurvey.com/survey/241357/129c/ "

my attempt at a better world for today is to try to articulate my feedback for the government on EIA process in this survey. I feel like acting when people search out your opinion is one of the most effective ways to engage in creating actual change. I think this was one of those opportunities. What do you think?

For a taste of why EIAs and EIA policy matters, and a more activist action check out: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5654/t/3791/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1092

Romeo Dallaire's Challenge

I just finished listening to Senator and fomer General Romeo Dallaire berade a thousand people at Dalhousie university to take action now to lead and challenge Canada and Canadians to change the world. I have meant to create a blog for a while and had some elaborate plans in the back of my mind, but enough is enough - it is time for action.

some messages:

Change is no longer incremental and evolutionary. There are no more security blankets. Change is happening, its revolutionary, its pervasive- so don't just survive it, embrace it and lead it.

Young people are 30% of Canadian voters, but only 15% of them vote. We have a voice, we have the balance of power - SPEAK UP!

Canada is a great middle power - we have the ability and responsibility to change the world. We have been well managed but not well led. We are reactive and short term, especially those in power. It is long past time to start shaping the future and leading the world into it.

Attempt # 1
so without further ado, here is attempt number 1 at a better world. Please give me your feedback on how to be more effective tomorrow.

to: pm@pm.gc.ca, Flaherty.J@parl.gc.ca, Harper.S@parl.gc.ca,Kent.P@parl.gc.ca, Ignatieff.M@parl.gc.ca, Oda.B@parl.gc.ca, Ritz.G@parl.gc.ca

bcc- some key family and friends

subject: Please explain our new overseas development assistance priorities and how they will reduce poverty


Hello, I am a young engineer from Lashburn, Saskatchewan who is a proud Canadian and works hard to be a responsible and engaged global citizen.

I recently learned of Canada's decision to change our list of priority countries for development assistance. I am curious to know what reasoning was used in this change and how it meets the requirements of Bill C-293 that I signed a petition for which is supposed to prioritize poverty reduction above all other motivation for ODA spending.

I am also disappointed to read the following article about how some of our previous partner countries were informed of the change at the last minute rather than being engaged in a process which has a huge impact on their citizens. http://embassymag.ca/page/view/international_development-3-4-2009

If this article is accurate then I am ashamed for the disrespect and indignity with which we have treated these countries whom we have worked in partnership with for so long.

Canada has the ability and responsibility to make the world a better place and effective development assistance is an important pillar of this responsibility.

Can you please tell me:
How did we choose the new ODA focus countries?
How will this increase the effectiveness of our aid in reducing poverty?
How where our previous partner countries engaged in this process?
Why are we still so far off of our pledge to give 0.7% of GNP to ODA, when Lester B Pearson on behalf of Canada is the one that initiated this pledge and convinced the world to commit to it so long ago?

I look forward to your response and to seeing Canada take a leadership role in working towards a more just, prosperous, and sustainable goobal society.

-- Justin Wheler
S0M 1H0