Posted by Clarence Haverson on Sep 26, 2018
Desk:   Nancy and Donna G.
Greeter:  Dave R.
 
Guests:   Evan Ferrari (Guest Speaker), Jim Weir (prospective member), Lynda Moore (RC of Orangeville Highlands, and former member of Guelph Trillium), Jason Blokhuis (former member)
 
HB and Fines:
 
Robert – surprised that his wife seems to have now decided that the boat is a good idea, and wants to move it to be moored at Port Credit next summer.   
Sonia – Daughter in England has a new position as Head of Science, and their son has a new position as Head of Global Procurement
Don – he and John B. were both at an apple farm.   Don was buying an apple pie, and John was buying one apple.   Don wanted to write John a prescription for a whole pie, but John stuck with one apple.
Lynda – Happy to be back and see everyone.   She is now President-Elect of her club Orangeville Highlands.   She is also involved on a lot of volunteer boards and organizations.
Mary – Celebrated her 35th wedding anniversary.    Secondly, thank you to Don and Dave for a great Ribfest Committee wrap up meeting.    Finally, she will be achieving a long term dream and is going to hear Jane Goodall give a talk in London this evening. 
Laurie – To celebrate her 30th wedding anniversary, they went to Sault Ste. Marie and Lake Superior Provincial Park.   Lake Superior Provincial Park was spectacular.    Sad that she missed Suzanna’s classification talk last week.
Maureen – A happy buck for generators.   She was able to keep the power on at the cottage last week after the storm, when the power went out.
Leslie – She reconnected with a chef friend at the Soup Sisters event last year, and is now going to be a chef in residence as Soup Sisters starting on Monday.
Frank – went to a Blue Jays game for the first time in a long time, and they won!
Suzanna – continuing on the theme – they celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary yesterday.   As well, her son flew home from Yellowknife for a day.
John K. – also celebrating his 35th wedding anniversary. 
Cam – went to a Dwayne Gretzky show, a musician he had never heard of – but they were amazing.  As well, saw a great TV special about Quincy Jones
 
50-50:  Trent pulled the 4 of Diamonds
 
Announcements and Club Business:
 
Pres. Mike - Ave is currently on LOA as she travels in Europe 
 
John B. – our October 24th meeting will be an off site meeting to raise the End Polio Now flag at City Hall.   We will meet for a short meeting at the Breezy Corners restaurant first, and then go to City Hall.   More details to come.
 
Frank – Met with the President of the Guelph Rotaract Club.   They have 30 members, and are doing very well.    Stay tuned for an upcoming opportunity to meet with them at the Brass Taps.
 
Dave R. – First meeting of the International Funding Committee will be on October 9th.     Anyone still interested in joining this committee and helping to determine how our International Budget should be allocated should contact Co-chairs Dave R. or Maneesh. 
 
Program:
 
Greg J. introduced our Guest Speaker - Evan Ferrari, Executive Director of eMERGE Guelph.  
 
The City of Guelph, as an organization, has committed to reaching a goal of 100% renewable energy by the year 2050.   The goal now is to get the citizens of Guelph to make the same commitment, so that the whole City will reach that goal.   To reach that goal, we need debunk some of the myths about what this means – Change the Channel on Climate Change.
 
As a province and as a city we have made progress.   Greenhouse gas emission in Ontario’s electricity generation system have been drastically reduced by the phase out of coal.    That has also resulted in much better air quality and health benefits.   Waste diversion is making gains, and as a city our water consumption in Guelph is quite a lot less than the provincial average.   Guelph, as a community, is predisposed to doing our part.
 
To reach a goal of relying 100% on renewable energy by 2050 (or sooner) we need to take action on six fronts.
 
  1. Energy Conservation.   About 2/3 of the energy we use in home heating and transportation is wasted energy.   Even showed examples of people who have made great progress in improving the energy efficiency of their homes, including one of our own members.  
  2. Resilient Local Distribution – if we strengthen the local power grid, facilitate storage and net metering, we can reduce our reliance on large scale power plants.  Change from a centralized system to a distributed system.
  3. Seizing Opportunities – there are new opportunities for saving and generating power.  For instance the cost of solar generation has dropped drastically over the past few years.
  4. Full Cost Accounting – we need to make sure that we include all the costs of our energy, including health costs, environmental costs, and insurance costs of climate change.
  5. Electrifying the System – electrical heating and transportation is far more efficient and economical than it has been.   In Ontario, our electrical generation system is very low in greenhouse gas emissions.   Both our home heating systems and our transportation systems need to be electrified.
  6. Massive Switch to Renewables.   Renewable energy is more decentralized, creates more local jobs, and more local investment.   $500 Million leaves Guelph every year in energy expenditures.  We could keep that closer to home and spur our local economy.
 
What can each of us do?
  • Access eMerge Guelph’s Home Tune Up Program
  • Commit to 100RE Guelph
  • Work towards the commitment
 
For more information - have a look at eMerge Guelph’s website emergeguelph.ca
 
Norm L. thanked Evan for his presentation, noting that Evan’s focus on strengthening our local community is well aligned with the goals of our club.