We have Johnny Max for 2 sets – filling in for Virgil Scott who is away on a well-earned vacation. This sounds like trouble of the best kind!
Johnny is a brilliant entertainer who is a fan favourite at The Beacon. He gives 110% and you just know that if he is in the room, there is going to be a party! Johnny always looks like he is having more fun than anyone. His bluesy-based music, banter and huge personality will make your evening unforgettable.
Collingwood, ON [15 October, 2024] – The Yonnhe’ón:we storytelling series returns for its final show of 2024, inviting the community to dive deep into the richness of and power of Indigenous storytelling. Join us on Thursday, November 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the Simcoe Street Theatre for an unforgettable evening that honors the spirit of stories as they weave together history, culture, and the shared human experience.
Attendees at Yonnhe’ón:we will enjoy an inspiring lineup featuring a short play, a musical performance, and a documentary, each celebrating Indigenous storytelling and talent.
“Our November 2024 event will mark a year for this series,” said Collingwood Poet Laureate, Jillian Morris.
“So much of producing these events has been about facing fears, and putting in the work to bring about something meaningful. It feels fitting that we will celebrate with a theme of ‘confronting ghosts’ during the transformative time of the fall season.”
Experience the premiere of the short play, “The Curse of Stolen Seeds,” written and hosted by Poet Laureate Jillian Morris. This poignant work delves into themes of reconciliation and healing as it follows the story of Evelyn and her estranged daughter Autumn. As they confront the ghosts of their past, the audience will witness their heartfelt journey in search of truth and reconciliation, brought to life by talented actors from the region.
Adding to the evening’s thematic richness, Elder Jeff Monague returns to share wisdom through song, interweaving the Fall Yonnhe’ón:we theme of ghosts and the life-giving spirit of stories.
The audience will also experience an exciting episode of “Ghost Hunters of the Grand River”, where a team from Six Nations ventures to investigate paranormal activity at a community theatre. Viewers will be captivated by the unique exploration of cultural narratives that intertwine with the supernatural.
In a special segment, host Jillian Morris will engage in a conversation with cast member and ghost hunter Jay Smith, providing insights into the artistry behind the production and the significance of storytelling in addressing contemporary issues.
The Yonnhe’ón:we series is a testament to the enduring legacy of storytelling, connecting generations, knowledge sharing and building understanding.
Join us for an evening marked by creativity, connection, and community on November 14, at 7:00 p.m.
Bosley has been a trusted, established name in real estate for decades. Since William H. Bosley helped shape the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) in the ‘20s, the Bosleys have been at the forefront of the industry in the City of Toronto, and the province. https://www.bosleyrealestate.com/our-history/
How do big hurricanes form? Neil deGrasse Tyson teams up with meteorologist John Morales to explain how hurricane season works and why Hurricane Milton was different from other storms.
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Get the NEW StarTalk book, ‘To Infinity and Beyond: A Journey of Cosmic Discovery’ on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3PL0NFn
About StarTalk: Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!
By October, summer may be done, but the party isn’t over in Wasaga Beach—it’s Hootenanny season!
In celebration of fall, we bring out the hay bales, don our denim, and prepare for a rootin’, tootin’, good time! Test your skills with calf roping and hold on tight on the mechanical bull. Enjoy goat yoga, let the kids get creative with pumpkin painting, and delight in face painting and balloon twisting. Don’t forget the fun wagon rides! Mark your calendars for October 12th, 2024, for an unforgettable fall celebration!
Goat Yoga classes:
11:30 am & 1:30pm
Please make sure to bring your own yoga mat. Goat Yoga tickets include entry into Hootenanny.
Non-walking tykes ages 0-2 are eligible for complimentary ticket.
Disasters are indiscriminate when it comes to election cycles. People reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Helene in the southeastern United States are likely having a tough time focusing on the November election — some could even find voting difficult as polling locations and mail delivery have been disrupted.
Election outcomes, however, can make an enormous difference in crisis response and in the frequency and intensity of the instigating events. Governments are responsible for everything from warning people about storms and ensuring they’re kept safe to cleaning up after disasters.
Governments also have the power to enact policies that could prevent or reduce impacts caused by extreme weather, from building codes to climate policy.
Despite the increasing number and intensity of these climate-related events, voters usually rank the economy and health care as top priorities, with environment and climate somewhere down the list — regardless of whether it’s a provincial, state or national election. To some degree, that makes sense. Economics and health care are immediate concerns that affect people in tangible ways.
But environmental issues, especially climate change, are also economic and health issues. Treating them as separate concerns to be ranked in importance creates a misleading narrative. It also creates a disconnect between human activities and governance and droughts, floods, storms and other impacts.
Those who argue for less government and reduced government spending are often willing to sacrifice policies, programs and institutions that keep people safe during times of crisis. For example, the controversial Project 2025 plan in the U.S. calls for breaking up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Weather Service, reviewing the National Hurricane Center’s work, privatizing the National Flood Insurance Program, shifting emergency spending from federal to state levels and downsizing the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, including disbanding much of its climate change research.
This could severely affect health and economic outcomes.
The death toll from Hurricane Helene alone is now more than 200 and climbing. Scientists explain that warming oceans fuel hurricanes and cause more water to evaporate, increasing precipitation. As the planet heats up, in large part because of the enormous amounts of coal, oil and gas we’re burning, hurricanes become deadlier. This Category 4 hurricane is thought to be among the most powerful ever to hit the U.S.
Fossil fuel pollution and wildfire smoke exacerbate health issues such as asthma and contribute to increasing premature deaths. All of this affects personal and societal health care costs.
The economic impacts of climate-fuelled disasters are also skyrocketing. From rising grocery prices due to drought and flooding of agricultural lands and disaster-related supply chain issues to cleanup costs for devastating storms, the monetary impacts hit at personal and societal levels.
On the other hand, working to resolve the climate and other environmental crises offers tremendous economic benefits — from job creation to tax revenue. For example, the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act has spurred US$100 billion in private investment and created at least 100,000 jobs in clean energy manufacturing alone in just two years.
As we’ve written before, extensive research shows that investing in climate action reduces energy costs and makes energy markets less volatile, spurs technological development, cuts health care expenses, avoids costly impacts on everything from agriculture to urban infrastructure and creates greater economic opportunities for a wider range of people.
The urgent need to quickly shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy and to enact policies to reduce energy consumption shouldn’t even be a subject for political debate — and as recently as the late 1980s to early 1990s, it wasn’t politicized. The only debate should be about the best ways to make progress. It’s clear that the climate and other environmental crises are increasingly costly to individuals, families, communities and society and that effective policies, programs and actions to address them offer countless economic and health benefits.
Of course, ensuring our continued ability to survive should be the highest priority. We must extend our compassion and empathy and do all we can to help those affected by extreme weather events. But we must also ensure that our politics are guided by commitments to addressing their causes.
David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with David Suzuki Foundation Senior Writer and Editor Ian Hanington.
Midhurst/October 8, 2024 – Earlier today, the County of Simcoe celebrated a major milestone, surpassing its goal of raising more than $600,000 towards the purchase of four new accessible buses for its long-term care and seniors services homes.
The Give-A-Lift Fundraising Campaign launched in early 2019 to support each of the County’s four long-term care homes – Georgian Manor and Village in Penetanguishene, Simcoe Manor and Village in Beeton, Sunset Manor and Village in Collingwood and Trillium Manor in Orillia – in purchasing new accessible buses. These buses connect residents and clients to their communities, support programming and enable residents, including those with mobility issues, to participate in events, activities and outings.
Throughout the Give-A-Lift Campaign, the County held a number of fundraising events and activities, including the Warden’s Ski Day, Warden’s Golf Tournaments, as well as smaller plant and cookbook sales, classic car shows, cookoffs, and holiday markets.
Quotes “We are truly grateful to the many individuals, businesses and organizations who have stepped forward to help the County achieve this goal. We are so thankful to have these buses now in service, providing our residents with a way to once again safely explore their communities.” – County of Simcoe Warden Basil Clarke
“These buses aren’t just a means of transportation, we build them into our programming as they support the health, well-being and quality of life of our residents, many of whom have complex mobility issues. I echo the Warden in thanking our tremendous community for helping us raise these much-needed funds. And I want to send a huge thank you to our amazing staff in each home and corporately who went above and beyond to support and drive this fundraising campaign.” – Jane Sinclair, General Manager, Health and Emergency Services
Photo Caption: County Councillors and Long-Term Care and Seniors Services staff gathered to celebrate this major final milestone in the Give-A-Lift Bus Fundraising Campaign.
About County of Simcoe LTC and Seniors Services The County of Simcoe provides a broad range of LTC and seniors services to residents living throughout the region, supporting more than 1,300 seniors. These include four long-term care homes, retirement living, assisted living, adult-day programming, and an entire suite of home support services. LTC and Seniors Services supports a wide spectrum of needs, helps residents to age in place, and assists in a seamless transition as individuals move across the continuum of care.
About the County of Simcoe County of Simcoe is composed of 16 member municipalities and provides crucial public services to County residents, in addition to providing paramedic and social services to the separated cities of Barrie and Orillia. Visit our website at simcoe.ca.
There’s no real reason for the climate and biodiversity crises to have gotten to this point, and there’s no good reason for them to continue getting worse. We’ve known for decades what the problem is — while we had ample time to address it — and we have no shortage of solutions. Many of those solutions are already creating positive change and more are being developed every day.
The world is rapidly shifting to electric power, and renewable energy sources — mainly solar, wind and hydro, with storage — are supplying an ever-increasing amount: 30 per cent in 2023, according to the Energy Institute, up from 29 per cent the previous year. Policies such as the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States are showing results, such as lower emissions, cleaner power and increased electrification. Spinoff benefits include reduced pollution and related health care costs, good employment and economic returns.
It’s not enough.
Coal, oil and gas made up 60 per cent of electricity generation in 2023, with polluting coal making up the largest share. Nuclear power generation — which is expensive, potentially dangerous and takes a long time to build — remained steady at nine per cent. Global oil production reached record highs in 2023.
We also know that protecting and restoring natural areas provides a hedge against runaway climate disruption, because oceans, plants, peat bogs and wetlands sequester carbon and keep it from entering the atmosphere. At the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, countries agreed to a 30X30 plan – “to halt and reverse nature loss, including putting 30 per cent of the planet and 30 per cent of degraded ecosystems under protection by 2030.” Progress will be reviewed at COP16 in Colombia later this month.
Technology won’t get us entirely out of the mess we’ve created, but it is and will continue to be a big part of the cure. Technological advances over the past few decades show there’s no reason to think we can’t come up with even better remedies. Most of us now casually carry mini-computers more powerful than the computing systems that put people on the moon! Renewable energy and storage technologies are rapidly improving and dropping in price.
We also need to use less energy and use it more efficiently — which shouldn’t be difficult because those of us living in the industrialized world use exponentially more than necessary. In 2022, Canada had the seventh-highest energy consumption per capita and the U.S. was 10th. Qatar is number one. On average, a person in Canada consumes more than 20 times the energy as a person in Pakistan or the Philippines. Even among northern countries, Canada uses close to twice the energy per capita as Sweden or Germany.
The problem is that rapidly digging up and burning fossil fuels, logging forests and paving over wetlands for development are all extremely profitable. There’s a reason the automobile industry has long focused on building vehicles that require enormous amounts of fuel. Our current capitalist economic system, which measures progress through growth in gross domestic product, or GDP, encourages wasteful consumption. More growth in everything from population to industrial development creates more profit (albeit mostly concentrated in the hands of a few), which leads to more devastation.
Now we’re exceeding six of nine planetary boundaries and are close to breaching a seventh. These are “processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth system.” As the Stockholm Resilience Centre warns, “Crossing boundaries increases the risk of generating large-scale abrupt or irreversible environmental changes. Drastic changes will not necessarily happen overnight, but together the boundaries mark a critical threshold for increasing risks to people and the ecosystems we are part of.”
Climate change, introduction of novel entities (synthetic chemicals Earth can’t process), change in biosphere integrity, modification of biogeochemical flows, land system change and freshwater change have all been transgressed to varying degrees, and “Ocean acidification is approaching a critical threshold.” Only ozone depletion and atmospheric aerosol loading are stable or improving, thanks to international agreements.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We have solutions. But we need to exercise more foresight and imagination. We can and must change the systems that have brought us to this point where our life-support systems are starting to disintegrate.
David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with David Suzuki Foundation Senior Writer and Editor Ian Hanington.
Collingwood, ON [2 October, 2024] – So you think you can be Mayor? Local students are invited to apply to be Mayor for a Month! Following the initial successful intake in spring 2024, the opportunity to shadow the Mayor returns for fall.
This goal of this initiative is to connect and engage local youth in grades 7-12 with our local government. The Youth Mayor will get the opportunity to attend a Town of Collingwood Council meeting, tour town facilities, get a behind-the-scenes look at how our Town operates, and provide their opinion on Town programs and services.
“The first Youth Mayor during my term – Grace Johnson – was fantastic and had a great experience as Youth Mayor this past spring! I’m excited to extend this opportunity to more youth in Collingwood this fall and look forward to sharing knowledge about local government with future participants,” says Mayor Yvonne Hamlin.
Benefits of the program include:
Working with the Mayor & other Town officials
Connect with the community & local government
Learn about career opportunities in local government
Professional photo with the Junior Chain of Office
Earning volunteer hours
A $250 honorarium
To apply youth are asked to write a short essay, record a video essay, or even create an artistic rendering as to why they want to be Mayor for the Month.
Submissions are open until October 18, 2024, with the program running from approximately October 28 to November 22, 2024. Submissions may be made directly to the Office of the Mayor using the online submission form or through Collingwood schools.
If you know a student in grades 7-12 please encourage them to participate and help foster the next generation of involved, engaged citizens of Collingwood. Who knows, this may inspire them to pursue a dynamic career in municipal government!
Collingwood, ON [1 October, 2024] – The Order of Collingwood is an annual time-honoured tradition recognizing exemplary volunteerism within the community by people who improve social, well-being, natural or cultural environment, or recreational character of the Town of Collingwood. This awards program recognizes the vital role of these volunteers whose contributions strengthen our community, making Collingwood an enviable place to live, work, and play.
Order of Collingwood Nomination Process & Requirements:
The nominee must volunteer in the Town of Collingwood, to the primary benefit of the Collingwood community, and have received no remuneration or financial benefit from the volunteer participation or service;
The nominees do not need to be a resident of the Town of Collingwood, as long as the volunteer contributions benefit the community and residents of the Town of Collingwood;
The nominees volunteer contributions must have been made on a continuous basis over a period of time not less than two years with the exception of youth volunteerism;
The nominee must not be a member of the current Municipal Council;
Awards may be awarded/presented posthumously
Companion to the Order of Collingwood nominees must meet the requirements listed above, and also have previously received the Order of Collingwood, for their continued volunteer efforts to improve the overall character in Collingwood for a period not less than five years.
Nomination packages should not exceed 4 pages and must include:
An electronically completed nomination form on our website;
A letter of support from the Nominator (digital format no more than 1 page / 500 words); and
Two (2) additional letters of support (digital format no more than 1 page / 500 words).
The deadline for Nominations is Monday, November 4, 2024, and they can be submitted online or via email to [email protected].
We look forward to celebrating the 2024 recipients at the Mayor’s New Year’s Levee in early 2025! More information on nominations and a list of previous recipients can be found at www.collingwood.ca/OrderofCollingwood.
