Inspiring Visions and Purposes for Regional Change
(Disclaimer:I apologize for any links within any of my websites which may have become inactive over time.)
TrendLinks ( ¶ ) tie into SustainableNiagara.ca's Sustainability Resources Portal, to offer summaries of, and links to related websites. GlossaryLinks ( Δ ) tie into the Sustainability Glossary to offer definitions and informative resource links and StatLinks ( § ) tie into the Stats/Info Portal to offer valuable insights.
Try this >¶ <, this >
Δ < or this >
§ < to see what you get for Sustainability.
Since 1997, my core mission has been to stimulate, then serve, market demands for sustainability¶Δ§ throughout the Niagara Region, starting with St. Catharines. In 2004, I founded Sustainable Niagara., with the hopes of it becoming an umbrella organization intent on spearheading the Niagara Region's sustainability and related socio-economic activities.
In December, 2008, using my own closed-looping logo (at the right), I created the sustainability marketing icon (at the left), for the Niagara Original campaign.
If your company is located anywhere within the Niagara Region, and your business activities pertain to sustainability, please consider displaying the Niagara Original icon for the sustainability sector on your website, marketing and/or packaging materials. (FYI, the icons for other sectors are available by clicking here.)
In this webpage I have attempted to log most of those efforts, and, with the following Areas of Activities and Information, provide some proof as to my successes in affecting change.
About the Activities of Bernie Slepkov [Continued]
My Purpose
My purpose is to challenge all members of my hometown, St. Catharines Ontario, within the Region of Niagara to see the incredible 'first-to-market' opportunities that developing sustainability¶Δ§ offers any city or region. Rise to this challenge swiftly enough and at best our city could prosper from an acclaimed international leadership. At the very least, our efforts could restore a high quality of life for all residents within our region - and beyond.
The emerging future about to change our community is the same for communities the world over. The Canadian National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) has identified Urban Sustainability¶ as one of four emerging challenges of this decade.
Meeting this challenge head on calls for vision, foresight, a diversity of creative skills and big picture thinking applied toward creating new realities -- all of which I offer in the service of others interested in making sustainability a priority.
My personal mission statement: The Golden Rule guides my life and work as I treat others just as I myself wish to be treated. Recently (Feb. 2003) it occured to me that Sustainability¶§is the ultimate adherence to the Golden Rule. Envisioning the world anew and promoting social innovation¶, I strive to:
Establish my leadership as a contributing force to trends affecting societal change.
Foster within myself as well as in others, a mindset that integrates personal growth, professional development and community sustainability¶Δ§ for the purpose of restoring a collective sense of well-being and insuring a sound, meaningful future for succeeding generations.
Apply my sensitivity, empathy and life-lessons to nurture others also examining their connectivity to those around and beyond them.
Share my wisdom and foresight with others also seeking to bring deeper meaning and purpose into clearer focus.
Commit my talents to opening up hearts, minds and souls to new perspectives on trends likely to heal assorted fragmentations within our societies.
Offer inspiring vision and purpose to new models and systems for affecting social, educational and organizational reformation.
Translate my concerns for civil strife resulting from Breakpoint change, into opportunities for collaborative, solution-based undertakings.
Sustainability¶§ - understanding it, defining it, and encouraging others to striving toward achieving it along with me, for legacies' sake, underpins my thinking and actions.
It has been a long, hard road for me to reach a point of generating an income from what I have done up until now. For one, my big-picture view and earlier, ambitious vision of 'Healing Fragmented Communities' tends to make me appear to be all over the place. The other reason I think holds true for a majority of an every increasing number of wannabe entrepreneurs. They are wannabes because they have fewer and fewer choices in today's collapsing economies. They are 'wannabes' because amongst the numerous barriers and hurdles that lay before them, they lack a diversity of:
Skills;
Resources; and of
Mind, heart and soul needed for forming effective teams, parnterships and/or collaborations capable of turning their aspirations into successful, sustainable realizations
Futurists Robert Theobald, John Naisbitt, and Canadian Economist David Foot (of Boom, Bust and Echo fame) personally agreed with my assertions that while entrepreneurship¶ holds the keys to very quickly regenerating stagnated communities, it also presents a very real threat of contributing towards widespread socioeconomic¶ upheaval and collapse.
Because of the enormous impact upon the well-being of our communities, and the individuals within them, this has been an enormous concern for me. To help clarify further the magnitude of this threat, here are just a few key considerations to be taken into account. (Each point generates its own subset of problems.)
Entrepreneurial initiatives:
Take time and money of which most wannabe's have very little. Many entrepreneurs employed are one paycheck away from bankruptcy. Many more are already emotionally bankrupt.
Exert stess and strains on relationships. Our societies are suffering enough already from failed relationships, complex blended families created with each remarriages that follows.
Conventional/traditional enterprise development processes more parasitic than symbiotic, hinder today's entrepreneurial aspirations.
Place the entrepreneur in the role of running the 'business' which I think contributes to 4 out of 5 initiatives failing within the first 5 years.
Since significant change has always stemmed from the grassroots forces driven by individuals, I try to address the desires, needs and mentality of individuals from an individual's perspective--mine!
Many of whom are about to affect societal change are in need of both coaching and facilitation. As entrepreneurial spirits seek to gain self-awareness and self-direction, I anticipate that many positive changes about to occur, will happen because of intensive personal growth and professional development processes. We are living at a time in history when generations of sexual, emotional and physical abuse are playing significant roles in drawing the impending Breakpoint ever closer. Beyond this Breakpoint, every aspect of our daily life and work will have changed so dramatically that the 20th century's rules will no longer apply. The atrocities committed on September 11th, 2001 have pushed us ever closer to Breakpoint change. Collapsing economies have left little financial resources to repair the unraveling social safety nets.
I came to realize the nature of many of the fundamental changes soon to affect our daily lives. I sought to find where I might place my awareness, intuition and creative talents so as to earn an authentic living by helping to affect positive change. The following is a scant record of my efforts.
On December 2, 1010, The Acting Executive of Sustainable Niagara were invited to attend a special Niagara climate change research project event held by Kerrie Pickering, in partnership with Brock University and Environment Canada
On June 23, 2010, the Niagara Region hosted the first ever Sustainable Niagara community forum, for which I attended and gave input.
June, 2010 - Received a letter of reference from Debbie Sevenpifer, CA, CHE
President and Chief Executive Officer for the Niagara Health Systems, thanking me for my contributions towards the future directions for General Hospital Revelopment project.
September, 2009 - Received a letter of reference from Paul Chapman, Director of Planning Services, City of St. Catharines.
September, 2009 - Invited by Guelph University's School of Hospitality and Tourism Management to speak to a group of MBA students, and two faculty members visiting from Management Center Innsbruck, Austria. The first of two letters, thanking me for my address, begins with that of Joe Barth from Guelph.
June, 2009 - Received a letter of reference from Ken Todd, CAO of Niagara Fall, Canada, and previous Director of Corporate Services, St. Catharines.
January, 2009 - Received a letter of reference from Donald F. May, MCIP, RPP Professional Land Use Planner for the Niagara Health Systems new hospital and the St. Catharines General Hospital Revelopment project.
June 26, 2007 - Received a letter of reference from Corwin T. Cambray, MCIP, RPP The outgoing Commissioner of Planning and Development for the Region of Niagara
Following the 2003 municipal/regional elections, on several occasions, I met with Mayor Rigby, and in separate meetings with newly elected councilors Gervais, Donevan, Secord and Stevens who seemed most supportive of pursuing what I refer to as 'Procedural and Systemic Change' at City Hall. Of those changes considered, or yet to be considered by Council, I suggested:
Less councillors, and full-time representation
A separation of the Economic Development department from within City Hall
A clearer division of 'governance' from 'administration'
A need for outlets to increasing civic engagement, such as:
An open-mike process now used at the Strategic and Corporate Planning Committee
A Citizens Advisory Task Force to help steer procedural and systemic change, including the makeup of council. That task force, formally recommended to council by the Governance Committee, was rejected.
After council rejected the Citizens Advisory Task Force, I formally submitted to the City, a proposal for a Citizens Community Development Committee. In that proposal, I strongly recommended a committee of citizens be charged with engaging the public for:
initiating a 'participative budget process'¶ for the City of St. Catharines; and
emulating Rochester, New York's successful Neighbours Building Neighbourhoods
For the record,my experiences as a member of the Community Vision Committee were more than disappointing. On June 12, 2006, the Strategic and Corporate Planning Committee of council received the final community vision committee's recommendations for the Strategic Plan for the City of St. Catharines. I used the 'open mike' period to address my concerns regarding the CVC's final report and present to council a set of tables comparing the CVC's recommendations against the priorities their process had identified. Click here to read my address, and here to download a copy of the tables.
June 13, 2006 I opened up the 7 night series of public meeting regarding PDVC's second application to amend the Official Plan so as to establish Port Place within Port Dalhousie's Designated Heritage District. [See address]
August 21, 2006 Council held a public meeting regarding the 2006 Parking Budget, at which I strongly encouraged council to either direct staff to undertake a 'comprehensive transportation master plan' such Hamilton, Ontario had just completed, or to pass a motion advising the next mayor and council, to consider doing so. [See address and download Hamilton: Electric City from which page 9 of the "Peak Oil Report" was read.]
In August, 2004, Councillor Gervais requested from Staff a report to direct the City of St. Catharines in adopting sustainability tools and/or processes recommended within a set of papers I had submitted to the Province as input into their Provincial Planning Policy Reform, and the Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt. That report, for the following papers, is still pending.
On January 29th, 2007, I addressed the newly elected council, requesting my motion to eliminate municipally sponsored non-essential bottled water be moved and endorse. [See address, (endorsed) motion and related research]
On February 9th, 2009, when an update report came before council, I asked for and was granted an appointment to address council. [See the address]
In May, 2009, the Niagara Falls city council was on the verge of reconsidering a February 2009 decision to ban all plastic bottled beverages from their municipally owned and operated facilities. Click here to download a copy of my address to council and some local newspaper articles regarding council's decision.
On April 30th, 2007, Used the council's Strategic and Corporate Planning Committee open mike session to provide my input into "Enhancing Communications", the second of five discussion papers regarding the newly elected council's strategic priorities. [See address]
On June 4th, 2007, I used the council's Strategic and Corporate Planning Committee open mike session to respond to a report from the Department of Transportation and Environmental Services claiming that major actions to mitigate climate change/global warming, were beyond the control of the municipality. [See June's address]
On September 17th, 2007 I addressed the Strategic and Corporate Planning Committee of council, when staff reported back to council with a new, insightful Climate Change report. [See September's address]
On November 5th, 2007 , 2007 I was granted an appointment to address council on the requested follow up report. [See November's address]
On November 28th, 2011, as a result of my address, council directed staff "to prepare a report on the idea of providing a jitney [share taxi] service and how it may compliment transit in the city."
On February 27th, 2012 I addressed council to request the passing of a motion to address the impending school amalgamations and closures, for which council requested a Staff report. On March 26th, 2012 council received that report, "Request for Resolution from Council Regarding School Closures" and adopted its recommendations to request for "the Minister of Municipal Affairs to review with all provincial ministries, including the Ministry of Education, the importance of compliance with provincial land use planning policies."Click here to download a copy of the City's letter to the Minister of Municipal Affairs, as well as Staff's report.
On May 14th, 2012 council immediately dealt with a Notice of Motion regarding the school closures controversy. Click here for a draft of the motion based on the issues covered by my 2008 St. Catharines Standard article DSBN Must Consider Smart Growth: School closures tear a community's social and economic fabric
City Planning
Following my 2003 success at 'behind-the-scenes' facilitation of changing Planning's initial recommenations against approving an application for the National Coin Wash Laundromat on Eastchester, I have addressed council on various occasions, at Public, and Strategic and Corporate Planning meetings. [My address at a previous public meeting regarding the laundromat]
Public Meeting, Re: Zoning By-law Amendment for Proposed Co-location for a Niagara Health Service hospital, Feb., 2004, I spoke out in opposition to removing the hospital from the urban core [Address | Click here for my involvement with the Citizens' for a Smart Growth Hospital]
Public Meeting, Re: Official Plan Review, Feb. 28, 2005, Suggested policies to encourage smart growth, residential developments about mall and plaza parking areas, and adding levels to buildings [Address | Letter to the Editor regarding an article reporting the address]
Open Mike, May 05, 2005: Expressed my support of Staff's Land Needs Assessment report. Due to the lack of developable lands within our urban boundaries to enable the city to meet anticipated growth, staff encouraging council to address shifting market demands, such as infilling and densifications, likely to extend our growth potential. [Address Highlights]
On July 8, 2005 I submitted a rather strongly worded position paper, entitled The Wording is Critical to the Intent to staff and council regarding an application to amend the St. Catharines Official Plan and Port Dalhousie Neighbourhood Plan. Major amendments, if passed, would have enabled a 328 foot (100 meter) condominium tower to be built within the commercial core of the Heritage Designated Area of Port Dalhousie. [PDF Version | Letters to the Editor regarding the 2 Port Proposals]
On March 28, 2006, I uploaded the Executive Summary and Preface for my position paper on PDVC's second application. Port Places's Precarious Proposal will expound considerably on the previous paper, focusing more on the weaknesses of PDVC's key arguments defending their continued desire to include a residential high-rise within a more comprehensive development within the Port Dalhousie Heritage District. [ HTML Version || PDF Version ]
On August 18, 2005 I submitted to Mayor Tim Riby, Councillor and senior staff in Planning, and Recreation and Community Services, my 'smart growth' concerns and suggestions regarding densification and: 1. the redevelopment of surplus schools; and 2. the downtown core. [Letter to the City]
On June 13, 2006 I initiated the Port Dalhousie Public Meeting, opposing the Port Place proposal with the following address
On April 9, 2008, I delivered my deposition to Susan Campbell, Vice-Chair of the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), compelling the board to assess the development against the principles of smart growth.
On April 22, 2008, I addressed the District School Board of Niagara regarding the possible closure of Niagara-on-the-Lake's Niagara District Secondary School. Two days later my 5th Niagara Voice column entitled, "DSBN must consider smart growth", was published. That article was about a third of the material I presented to the Trustees, and lacked the footnoted references and three appendices.
On June 9th, 2009, council was considering a staff recommendation to proceed with the "Quadrangle Area" study in which a Smart Centre shopping mall was applying for re-zoning a large industrial area to commercial, while the developers wanted to move more quickly to a public meeting to approve their application. Click here to read my address to council
On June 21st, 2010, council was considering an unprecidented staff recommendation to pre-zone the area surrounding the General Hospital to make way for the redevelopment of the General Hospital site once the new hospital is completed. Click here to read my address to council
On November 21st, 2011, council appointed me to sit on the Integrated Community Sustainability Committee.
Over the past 3+ years, I have been liberally sharing knowledge, information and my own ideas with the Planning Department, pertaining to infilling, densification, sustainable communities, community revitalization and urban renewal.
On April 18, 2005, at City Council, Councillor Bruce Williamson said,
"I think that we're going to have some natural market forces that are going to drive changes more than some of these kind of plans, which are a good attempt, hopefully, to get us in the proper directions. Other bigger forces are what's probably going to be driving the change.
Now we have our friend Bernie Slepkov in every once in a while, he talks about things, and some people think that he's sort of maybe too futuristic in his views, but I think that with the direction we're going, with the end of cheap energy, that some of those things will actually happen before we probably realize."
Attended most public meetings and gave input regarding the development of what is currently being referred to as the Downtown Performing Arts Centre
Demolition, captured here in the City's video of the event, officially started on December 3rd, 2010.
In a conversation with Tim Rigby in early December 2010, he agreed that the seed for Brock University using the Canada Haircloth building for the future site of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, may have come from me. He vaguely recalls me coming to him in 2004 or 2005 with inside information regarding the Haircloth closing within 3 years and plans for its demolition. That in a conversation with Jen Semple, from the Downtown Association, we envisioned Brock using the building somehow, for the Fine and Performing Arts course, which desperately needed more space. Immediately following that conversation, I went to Mayor Tim, and shared that conversation with him.
Mid 1999, opened the region's first, 'Community Building & Resource Centre'
Organized & held a stakeholder's workshop exploring the socioeconomic impact to regional business owners, if Y2K warnings were realized in 2000
Was Secretary/Newsletter Editor, Downtown Winners' Circle ~ withdrew in June, 2003
Partner, Friends of Downtown St. Catharines
Member, Downtown Development & Revitalization Committee ~ re-formed November 21, 2011
Member, Mayor Rigby's Downtown Development & Revitalization Committee ~ formed December 14, 2005
Chairman: Attractors/Tourism Sub-Committee, formed November 16, 2005
Participant/Advisor, Citizens for a Smart Growth Hospital Committee
In March, 2005, on my own initiative, I emailed A Very Important Appeal to all levels of government, particularly Prime Minister, Martin, Premier McGuinty, and Senior Provincial Ministers whose departments have either set new planning policies, or would have to provide external funding for the new hospital. On February 2, 2007 the letter was resubmitted to Premier McGuinty. [Click here to download Word copy of letter]
Participant, St. Catharines' Comprehensive Development Strategy (for Downtown St. Catharines)
Participant, 1996 Garden City Civic Square Forum (for St. Catharines Task Force on Downtown Revitalization) - rejected by council, July 11th, 1996
Researching the reasons behind council not approving - in principle - a civic square, in 2004, I took steps to bring this back to life. I decided it best, however, to wait until certain changes at council, occured. Anyone interested in reviving this issue should contact me. (Use the form in left-hand column)
Regional Niagara ~ In 2006, I learned from Former Chair, Debbie Zimmerman, that she used one of my mission statements "Harnessing Chaos and Directing Change" in her inaugural speech. [Note! I later changed the phrase to "Harnessing Chaos and Stewarding Change".
My involvement with Regional initiatives ties into my stated purpose and mission (below). So it was great pride that I learned in 2005, through Dr. Nola-Kate Seymoar, President and CEO of the Sustainable Cities¶Δ§ project, that Niagara has gained recognition as being the first region worldwide to be assessing itself against the Melbourne Principles,¶§ of which the following are all a part:
Scoping committee member for the First Annual Regional Chairman's Niagara Community Design Awards (a.k.a. the 'Smarties')
Member of Heritage Program for Niagara: Planning Scoping Committee for the Historic Places in Niagara - Open Space Summit, scheduled for November 10, 2005
Content workgroup member
School Closures Workgroup (2010)
The workgroup was formed at my insistance over the years that the Smarter Niagara Steering committee needed to formally bring forward to regional council, concerns pertaining to past, and possibly future, school closures, in light of updated regional and provincial policy directions while education ministries continued to operate in isolated silos. As of the fall of 2010, a report was delivered to the committee and the time remaining before the 2010 elections, only permitted the committee to pass the report on to staff for their comments.
Attended several Waste Management Advisory Committee (WMAC) meetings and participated in several public workshops, shaping the terms of reference for the (now) Niagara-Hamilton Waste Plan
Spoke out at a Public Meeting, calling on the Region to strive for Zero Waste¶Δ§ programs rather than pursue any incineration models. Unfortunately, I can't find my address.
2003 Workshop participant and personal input/feedback for proposed Policy Plan Amendment #183 ~ Places for People: Investing in Urban Communities
June 2010 Workshop participant and personal input/feedback for the Region's Sustainable Niagara Initiative's Sustainability Plan
December 2010 Workshop participant and personal input/feedback toward the Region's Climate Action Plan
Citizen Advisory Committee member for Niagara Water Quality and Protection Strategy (NWQPS) ~ recepient of a Sustainable Community Award for excellence in municipal service delivery from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and CH2M HILL Canada.
Participant of Opportunities Niagara's first public event/workshop
Marketing & Communication Task Group Member for 211 Niagara info hotline
On July 16, 2009, as a member of the public, I spoke to a 'committee of the whole' Regional Council meeting, which was to consider a report recommending a phase-in of a significant increase of development charges. I spoke in favour of the development charges increase, but opposed to the phase-in. Click here to download a copy of my presentation.
Province of Ontario
On several occasions, I have submitted material or made presentations for provincial initiatives open to public input.
First of two parts submitted to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for the Greenbelt Task Force and the Provincial Planning Policy Statement ~ Greenbelt, Planning Reform and Sustainability
2003-present: Design, create and maintain the website and databases for Sustainable Niagara, the organization I founded.
1999-2001: established an online reputation as being a thought leader in Sustainability, Societal Transformation and Socioeconomics, receiving recognition from experts in Economy, Knowledge Management, Human Resource Management, Whole-Systems Thinking, Creativity, Coaching, Facilitation, Futurology, and educators and researchers from education institutions world-wide.
1999-2001: moderated, and actively participated within a number of online activities and listservs. One such group, 'A Coalition For Self-Learning', was the first to collaboratively compile and published a book thru the internet. In 2000, The Coalition was nominated for the Mead2001 Award, "as being a small group of people who are changing the world".
October 2000-9/11: Editor and writer for the C4C (Catalyst 4 Change) department of www.seen.com (now offline). Articles Directory at: www.newciv.org/c4c
Recognition of Work/Resources [DreamTEAMS, Future of Hope, New Society Strategies, or Sustainable Niagara ~ You may have to search for it]
Bernie Slepkov New Society Strategist Sustainability Advisor/Consultant Founder/Consultant/Webmaster, Sustainable Niagara.
1-202 St. Paul Street,
St. Catharines, Ontario
Canada, L2R 3M2
Tel: 905 984-3493
bslepkov < at > gmail < dot > com
Disclaimer: The information provided through For Legacies' Sake is without charge as a convenience to visitors. Any reference to products, services, links and other information not produced by me, Bernie Slepkov does not constitute recommendation, endorsement or sponsorship. Nor does it particularly reflect the views and/or opinions of Bernie Slepkov, as an individual. I apologize for any links which may have become inactive over time.
