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Webpage Info for: About the Activities of Bernie Slepkov

Writer | Community Activist | Societal Change Agent | Sustainability Advisor

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.)

My Picture

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 this webpage I have attempted to log most of those efforts, and, with the following, provide some proof as to my successes in affecting change.

In June, 2010, I 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.

In September, 2009, I received a letter of reference from Paul Chapman, Director of Planning Services, City of St. Catharines.

Also in September, I was 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.

In June, 2009, I received a letter of reference from Ken Todd, CAO of Niagara Fall, Canada, and previous Director of Corporate Services, St. Catharines.

In January, 2009, I 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.

On June 26, 2007, I received a letter of reference from Corwin T. Cambray, MCIP, RPP The outgoing Commissioner of Planning and Development for the Region of Niagara

In early 2005, I was awarded the Celebration of Life Day EcoAward, 2004 from The Global Community.

On September 1, 2005, I received a letter of reference from John Rodey, the outgoing Director of Planning for the City of St. Catharines

On June 17, 2006, I received from Julie Steward-Pollack, an email of acclaim regarding my article, 'Do We Need Nature?'

In April 2007 I submitted my application for Mayor McMullan's Prosperity Council. (Although not accepted to the council, the St. Catharines-Thorold Prosperity Council's final report, "Paths to Prosperity" clearly reflected the directions I submitted in my application.)

In 2007, I was selected to the St. Catharines Standard roster of Niagara Voices. The following lists my column publications:

 

Areas of Activities
St. Catharines City Council City Planning Downtown St. Catharines Regional Niagara
Province of Ontario Internet My Purpose My Mission
Education Work Experience Contact Information  

 

 

[ About the Activities of Bernie Slepkov ~ Continued below ]

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Niagara Original - Sustainability

 

Founder/President,
Sustainable Niagara

Senior Associate,
Trendspire Canada, Inc.

Member, Board of Directors
Essential Collective Theatre

  Email Bernie Slepkov:

Email Address:

Name:

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About the Activities of Bernie Slepkov [Continued]

 

 

On any given day I am actively behind the scences of local/regional goings-on making the daily news. Here's how:

 

St. Catharines City Council

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:
    • 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]

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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 May 2, 2006 I submitted to Port Place's Precarious Proposal to Paul Chapman, Director of Planning regarding PDVC's second application to amend our Official Plans. [ More - Download Full Document - Letters to the Editor]
  • 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 7th, 2010, council was considering the adoption of the final draft of the Official Plan,"The Garden City Plan", for which I had given significant input, specifically in matters of sustainability. 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

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."

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Downtown St. Catharines

  • 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, Mayor Rigby's Downtown Development & Revitalization Committee ~ formed December 14, 2005
    • Chairman: Attractors/Tourism Sub-Committee, formed November 16, 2005
  • Participant, General Hospital Redevelopment Planning Committee - [See letter of reference from Donald F. May, MCIP, RPP or Debbie Sevenpifer, CA, CHE]
  • 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)
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Regional Niagara ~ I recently 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:

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.

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Province of Ontario

On several occasions, I have submitted material or made presentations for provincial initiatives open to public input.

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Internet

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Education

  • 1996/7-Present: Self-directed learning and researching Sustainability
    • 1999: Elected to the board of directors, Canadian Creativity Network (CCN) ~ now defunct.
  • 9 months; Toronto School of Business, Computer Technology & Repair
  • 2 years; Sheridan College
    • Creative Arts
    • Media & Film
  • Grade 12; Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School
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Work Experience ~ Specializing in problem-solving, troubleshooting and efficient work methods/systems.

  • 20+ years: Technical Draftsman
    • 5+ years: CAD/Computer/AutoCad Draftsman/PowerUser
      • Now that I think of it, I was the province's first CAD/Cam system user/Draftsman
      • Assorted Programming Skills
      • Varied Program Power Useage
    • 6+ years: Technical Illustrator
      • 1990: Achieved peer recognition as Israel's top Technical Illustrator/Draftsman
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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.

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My Mission

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.
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My Contact Info

Bernie Slepkov
New Society Strategist
Sustainability Advisor/Consultant
Founder/President, Sustainable Niagara, Inc.
1-213 St. Paul Street,
St. Catharines, Ontario
Canada, L2R 3M6

Tel: 905 984-3493

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