For Immediate Release
Jun. 22, 2009, 09:47 a.m.
City Of Kingston Wins Sustainable Community Award
The City of Kingston - in partnership with Loyalist Township, the Town of Wasaga Beach, the Township of Wellington North, the County of Oxford, the County of Bruce and the City of Thunder Bay - was the recipient of a prestigious 2009 FCM-CH2M HILL Sustainable Community Award at a ceremony during the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' (FCM) 72nd Annual Conference and Municipal Expo(tm) in Whistler, B.C.
Kingston was a winner in the water category for its participation in the Well Aware program, which is expanding across Ontario.
"FCM congratulates the City of Kingston for its FCM-CH2M HILL Sustainable Community Award in the water category," said Jean Perrault, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and mayor of Sherbrooke, Que. "This important project is contributing creative and practical solutions to some of the critical issues of the environment and sustainable development the world faces today."
"Our Well Aware workshops were extremely well attended demonstrating an eagerness for this kind of information amongst our environmentally-conscious residents. Rural Kingstonians appreciated that Well Aware offered very practical how-to knowledge - it gave them what they needed to best manage their wells to protect their community's water," said Leonore Foster, Councillor for Kingston's largely rural Pittsburgh District and a newly re-elected member of the FCM Board of Directors.
Operating since 2002, the Well Aware program encourages Ontario's residential well owners to protect their wells and local groundwater quality. Spearheaded by Green Communities Canada (GCC) and its non-profit member organizations, the program partners with municipal governments and other groups in communities across Ontario. The focus is on building awareness among rural residents about the best way to install and manage wells to ensure safe drinking water. By helping to protect wells, the program also allows municipalities to postpone the expansion of existing municipal water and waste water systems or the development of new systems.
Funding support is provided by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, the Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation and individual municipalities across Ontario. Technical support is provided by the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario, the Well Wise Resource Centre and the Ontario Ground Water Association.
Since 2000, best practices in sustainable community development have been celebrated each year with the FCM-CH2M HILL Sustainable Community Awards.
The Awards are open to all municipal governments and their private-sector partners. To be eligible for an award in one of eight categories, projects must have been completed within two years of the date of application, or be in the final stages of implementation, and must have achieved measurable results. Submissions are judged by an expert panel of judges selected by FCM.
FCM's Green Municipal Fund and CH2M HILL Canada Ltd. are the primary sponsors of the Sustainable Community Awards. Transport Canada sponsors the transportation category and the Affordability and Choice Today (ACT) program sponsors the residential development category.
- 30 -
Media contact information:
Cindie Ashton, Communications Officer, 613-546-4291, ext. 3116 (cell 329-3462). The City of Kingston's media hotline, 613-546-4291, ext. 2300.
For more information about the FCM-CH2M HILL Sustainable Community Awards: Dave Weatherall, Communications Officer, Green Municipal Fund, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, 613-907-6292, dweatherall@fcm.ca
