Water Policy Fellowships

Matt is originally from Bracebridge, Ontario and is currently living in Toronto, where he is working on a Masters degree in planning at York University and his collaboration with the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy (CIELAP) and Friends of the Earth. He completed a Bachelors degree in Environmental Studies in 2005 at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario with an emphasis in environmental law and policy.

Matt's research interests currently rooted in municipal and provincial planning, recent Ontario policies such as 'Places to Grow: A Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe', the 'Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan' and the 'Greenbelt Plan' and policy barriers to implementing new technologies and planning approaches. In the last two years, he has published articles on environmental education policy in Ontario for CIELAP and co-authored an articial on regional planning in Ontario for the Canadian Journal of Urban Research. In his spare time he enjoys working on music and has recently donated music to a benefit compilation for War Child Canada and contributed soundtrack work to an animation project to promote the city of Windsor, Ontario's Green Corridor project.

Fellowship Project Description

Matt's fellowship project investigates the challenges some municipalities designated as urban growth centres in the Growth Plan will face in supplying new residents, businesses and facilities with water during the period of rapid growth in the GGH predicted for the coming decades (the GGH is expected to gain 3.7 million people by 2031). The project will primarily examine the feasibility the soft path for water to alleviate pressures on water supply caused by the Growth Plan using a case study of Guelph, Ontario. The project will be based on collaboration with municipal employees in order to generate new insights on where soft path planning needs to improve, as well as what components of the soft path are currently most feasible for municipal staff in Guelph to implement. The final outcome of the project will be a draft soft path scenario report for Guelph and a report on barriers to implementation that also proposes strategies to overcome them. Several areas in the GGH that have been designated as urban growth centres under the Growth Plan will experience significant pressure on their local water supplies as a result of their new growth projections, most notably Guelph and Waterloo, who both rely primarily on groundwater resources. This is especially true for Guelph which currently relies entirely on groundwater and is already preparing to develop new water supplies to meet the increased demand that will result from the province's growth designation. As an urban growth centre, the city's population may increase from 115,000 to over 300,000 by 2031. Under the Growth Plan and its supporting legislation, The Places to Grow Act, it is possible that Guelph may lose some control of its growth trajectory, in spite of local concern over the availability of adequate water to support this growth. Critics such as Ontario Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller suggest that the Growth Plan lacks sufficient foresight on the appropriateness of its growth designations with respect to water availability and on ecological carrying capacity in general.

The province has established a broad vision for the GGH region, but many of the details on how to actually get there are now left up to the municipalities. The soft path for water could be an appropriate tool for addressing water supply limitations resulting from the Growth Plan, but more research will be required to determine the feasibility of its use and the barriers that might be encountered in incorporating soft path concepts into municipal planning revisions that will be occurring over the coming years. This project will bridge the gap between the recent identification of water supply issues in the Growth Plan and the identification of solutions required to address those challenges.

Project Components

1. Develop a basic soft path scenario for Guelph based on the best available data (culled from Environment Canada's municipal water use database, Guelph's 2006 Water Supply Master Plan and 1999 Water Conservation Study) that will demonstrate the potential water savings that could be realized, using a newly developed Soft path scenario calculator to conduct the analysis. Missing "water end use" data for Guelph will be estimated based on the same methods used in past soft path scenarios for Oliver, BC and the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. Identify with municipal staff what soft path concepts are already in place in Guelph and what soft path concepts could improve their water conservation performance.
2. Detailed identification and analysis of the barriers that might be encountered in attempting to implement the soft path concepts identified in step one. Determine where the barriers lie (i.e. are they rooted in organizational structure, conflicting priorities within municipal departments, public perception, policy, or other factors).
3. Creation of a report that communicates the findings of the soft path scenario, specifically demonstrating any potential for soft path planning concepts to reduce the need to develop new water supplies in order to meet the requirements of the Growth Plan. This component of the report would be followed be a strategic plan that discusses necessary actions and potential barriers that would be encountered in trying to achieve any of the potential savings identified.
4. Communication of findings to the broader public through an ENGO publication. Identification of a Guelph based non profit organization to aid in translating research findings into action over the long term.