In the community section of this website is dedicated to informing Pickering residents of the issues Councillor O’Connell supports and the legislation she is working to have implemented. Issues and legislation appear as threads (often accompanied with downloads and related links) organized from the most recent date of issue to least recent date of issue.
 

Durham residents take Earth Hour pledge at Pickering event
March 28, 2010
By Reka Szekely

PICKERING -- Residents from across Durham and the
GTA took the pledge to turn their lights off for Earth
Hour at a Pickering event on Saturday.


Shoppers signed up at the Pickering Town Centre where the City was celebrating Sustainable Pickering
Day. People who signed the pledge were entered to win a $250 shopping gift certificate to the mall and they also had a chance to record heir environmental messages for a video the City is creating.


By mid afternoon, more than 200 people had signed the pledge to turn out their lights and curb their electricity use from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night. Among them were 13-year-old Mackenzie Bailey, Katie Huras,14, Taylor Barbieri,13, a group of friends from Ajax.


Mackenzie said she's participated in Earth Hour in the past. Last year she played cards in the dark. The girls also observed Earth Hour at school at Lincoln Alexander Public School, said Taylor.


Katie explained why she thought it was important to protect the environment.
"I think in the future life should be the same as it is now and it shouldn't be worse for future generations," she said. In addition to the pledge, there were a number of information booths set up by groups like Veridian, Enbridge, Durham Sustain Ability and the Pickering Public Library where residents got practical tips on conserving energy.


"The message we're trying to get across is very simple, it's easy to be sustainable, it's easy to be green," said Doug Dickerson, Sustainable Pickering Advisory Committee Chairman and City Councillor.


Committee vice-chair and City Councillor Jennifer O'Connell said residents can go online to sustainablepickering.com for tips and try out interactive features like the idle calculator which calculates how much carbon dioxide is created by a resident who idles his or her car and how much it costs them.


Durham Sustain Ability also offered up conservation tips as well as information on the non-profit organization's energy audits.


At the Enbridge booth, Kathleen Hunt talked about her company's solar water heating program.

"It's actually a really exciting pilot project we're promoting this year," she said adding that the project runs until Dec. 31.


The program is a partnership with Bullfrog Power and EnerWorks.


The solar water heaters would supplement natural gas water heaters using the sun's energy to collected by a solar panel on the roof to heat the water.


She had Peter Watson of Tranquility Home Comfort Ltd., the company that does the installation locally, to answer the more technical questions residents may have, such as whether they have enough space.


"It requires a second tank and not everyone has that storage in their basement," said Ms. Hunt.


For more information on the program visit bullfrogpower.com/solar or call 1-866-775-8808.