VALLEY VOICES NEWS #51
December 12, 2006
The Shelter Valley cookbook, Taste of the Valley, is now available.
If you are an entomophagist, if you are into geophagical cuisine, or if you are looking for flatmeat recipes, then this cookbook is definitely not for you.
If, however, you are looking for a range of recipes reflecting the varied ethnic, culinary, and cultural mix of the Valley community, then this cookbook is a winner.
Most recipes are practical and down-to-earth, few require the spice and herb pantry of a Nigella Lawson, and most ingredients are widely available. Okay, goat's cheese might be a challenge but it's certainly worth it. The recipes give you the chance to use fresh produce from our local farm community. Some recipes require you to go to George Drew's Emporium for some exotic nectar of the gods.
Our neighbours have opened their kitchens to us. Want a Mediterranean cruise? It's here, encompassing challah, tzatziki, bruschetta, Venetian rice and peas, and Moroccan chicken. Savour the Rhine Valley? Thailand? India? They are here.
The cookbook costs $20.00 and is available at the St. John's Bookshop in Grafton, the Centreton General Store, or from Margaret Jansen, 905.344.7304, on Shelter Valley Road. If you buy four, you get a fifth one free.
It's all for a good cause. The proceeds go towards protecting and enhancing the environment of the Valley and the community, and defraying the costs of our OMB hearing and experts.
Buy a Taste of the Valley Cookbook
For gourmets and gourmands, and for a good cause.
AGGREGATE NEWS
As we wait for the SVA dust to settle, or start, as the case may be, here is a record of a recent exchange at Queen's Park. Dufferin Aggregates had just received Cabinet approval to expand its quarry on the Niagara Escarpment. The exchange serves to show how difficult it is for environmental groups to make headway vs the aggregate lobby, and serves to show why we must presevere.The exchange is between NDP environment critic Peter Tabuns and Environment Minister Laurel Broten.
Mr.Tabuns: My question is for the Premier.With the ink barely dry on your government's so-called Clean Water Act, your cabinet has thrown environmental protection to the winds with the rubber-stamping of the Dufferin Aggregates Milton quarry expansion. It's one of the most serious environmental crimes against source water and environmental protection in this province in decades.
The Niagara Escarpment is the backbone of the greenbelt. It's an internationally recognized UNESCO world biosphere reserve. Why is your government putting it on the chopping block?
Hon. Dalton McGuinty: To the Minister of the Environment.
Hon. Mrs. Broten: I tell you that we are a government that has proudly taken steps to protect our natural environment, our air, our land and our water for the benefit of all Ontarians today and for future generations. I would remind my friends across the House that we have taken steps to protect the greenbelt -- 1.8 million acres of land. The Clean Water Act -- historic legislation to protect our sources of drinking water in the province for this generation and the next. You voted against that act, which you proclaim today, as we do, a historic piece of legislation.It's precautionary in nature, ensuring that we protect our sources of drinking water, with historic changes to the "You spill, you pay" legislation -- changes which you did not support.
Mr.Tabuns:There are times when you can see the minister is reading too many of her own press releases. She should be paying attention to what others are saying: "McGuinty Trashes The Greenbelt." That's the joint release today by the Coalition on the Niagara Escarpment and Protect Our Water and Environmental Resources, POWER, the two groups that appealed this quarry expansion to cabinet. And the Greenbelt Alliance states, "The people of Milton, Halton Hills and all of Ontario need to know that the greenbelt is under attack and that cabinet lacks the resolve to follow its own legislation" -- not a new story.
So Minister, why is your government bent on turning the greenbelt into a gravel belt?
Hon. Ms. Broten: I can tell my friends in this House and Ontarians near this community in Dufferin that cabinet carefully considered a very complex application -- an application that had been heard by experts at the Environmental Review Tribunal and the Ontario Municipal Board, with experts before them for more than 11 months. A public hearing was pursued, and cabinet took many months to examine this most serious and complex issue. In reaching our determination, we concluded that the decision of the Environmental Review Tribunal and the Ontario Municipal Board was one that protected the public interest and protected the environment. At the same time, the decision of cabinet was done to strengthen that very decision-making process that had examined those critical factors for more than 11 months. We protected endangered species, we protected the wetlands, and we will ensure going forward, under the conservation role of the local conservation group, that the land is protected, that the wetland is protected, and that endangered species in and around that aggregate, which has been there for many, many years, will be protected.
COMING EVENTS
Your Board of Directors is planning a General Meeting for early 2007 to go over the agreement with SVA.
The agreement isn't quite the gift we wanted at this festive season but, then again, it's not entirely anthracite.
