Community action/Ontario
The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism for climate, environment and many other sustainability topics across Ontario.
News
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‘My own contribution’: the Ottawa immigrants learning to retrofit homes and fight the climate crisis, theguardian.com (Apr 30, 2026) — Canadian social enterprise hopes to help solve the urgent need for retrofits and shortage of skilled workers- City Planning, Provincial Rulemaking Take a Snow Day, energymixweekender.substack.com (Dec 08, 2024) — Developers are consulted lavishly. Citizens get less than a week to respond, with city services and prime farmland hanging in the balance. What if cities started listening to the public? Lella Blumer
- Court decision in youth climate lawsuit against Ontario government ignites hope, The Conversation (Jun 20, 2023)
- Ontario's 2017 Basic Income experiment was branded a failure by opponents - but the opposite is true, Mar 6, 2020...thealternative.org.uk
- ‘My own contribution’: the Ottawa immigrants learning to retrofit homes and fight the climate crisis, theguardian.com (Apr 30, 2026) — Canadian social enterprise hopes to help solve the urgent need for retrofits and shortage of skilled workers
- Where the wild things thrive: Finding and protecting nature’s climate change safe havens, theconversation.com (Dec 17, 2025)
- Youth Climate Assembly Spotlights Climate Risks, Accountability, Urges Oil and Gas Emission Cuts, theenergymix.com (Nov 11, 2025)
- How one Kenyan community is building a new future on reclaimed ground, globalvoices.org (May 14, 2026)
- Data Centres Need a Social License to Operate, demnext.substack.com (May 13, 2026) — How lessons from citizens' assemblies are highly relevant for the future of AI infrastructure and data centres, Another Democratic Future and Claudia Chwalisz
- Argentina’s co-operativas escolares: A case study in co-op education, thenews.coop (May 12, 2026) — In 1946, national legislation formally established the teaching of co-operativism and the creation of school co-operatives
Video
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Networks and sustainability initiatives
[edit | edit source]- Green Drinks Ontario
- Plan It Green, Strathroy-Caradoc
- Transition Guelph
- TransitionKW, Kitchener-Waterloo
- Transition Perth
- Transition Town Peterborough
International events
[edit | edit source]Global or International events
May 1 - 3, 2026 (Fri - Sun) first weekend of May every year — Jane's Walk, How to Lead a Jane's Walk, Video, janeswalk.org- May 03, 2026 (Sun) — International dawn chorus day, first Sunday of May, wildlifetrusts.org
- May 3 - 9, 2026 (Sun - Sat) — International Compost Awareness Week, compostfoundation.org
- May 9 and Oct 10, 2026 — World Migratory Bird Day, worldmigratorybirdday.org
- May 20, 2026 (Wed) — World Bee Day, May 20 each year, fao.org
- May 21, 2026 (Thu) — Outdoor Classroom Day, celebrating and inspiring outdoor learning and play, outdoorclassroomday.com
- May 22, 2026 (Fri) — International Day for Biological Diversity, May 22 every year, cbd.int
2021-2030, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, International community action events
Food activism
[edit | edit source]Lanark Local Flavour - Perth Farmers' Market - The Table Community Food Centre - Windsor Essex County Community Garden Collective
The G-Spot in Ottawa
Everyone knows healthy food — be it meat, dairy products, or fresh vegetables — is usually expensive food. For university students, rushing from classes to low-wage jobs with or without family support and grabbing food wherever they can, eating healthy may fall by the wayside, often for financial reasons. The Garden Spot, better known as the G-Spot, is based at Carleton University in Ottawa. It's one of several student-organized kitchens across Canada that has been founded in response to a rising student cost of living. "Rising tuition and rent in Ottawa meant that average food budget took a nosedive. Many students literally live on rice and ketchup for weeks at a time, their energy and concentration faltering, and increasingly must rely on coffee and other stimulants to stave off hunger and keep them going," wrote Kelly Fritsch, an early member of the G-Spot collective, nearly a decade ago. The collective has been serving pay-what-you-can, vegan home-cooked meals weekly since 2001...@Shareable, Carleton Food Collective
Community energy
[edit | edit source]- Ontario Clean Air Alliance, added 13:17, 6 October 2025 (UTC)
Towards sustainable economies
[edit | edit source]Ontario has announced plans to test a type of unconditional income guarantee; it is currently (Oct 2017) enrolling participants in three areas of the province, who will receive an income guarantee for up to three years...@BasicincomeOrg
Community currencies activism
[edit | edit source]Climate action
[edit | edit source]Sustainable transport activism
[edit | edit source]- Guelph Coalition for Active Transportation
- Open Streets Hamilton
- Ottawa has been the site of Ciclovías-type street closures since 1970. Every Sunday morning during the summer over 50 kilometres of roads in the heart of Ottawa and nearby Gatineau Park are reserved for cyclists, in-line skaters, runners, and pedestrians. Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikedays. W
- Open Streets Uptown Waterloo
News archive
[edit | edit source]2013-2017
- Resilience, Community Action and Societal Transformation: in Peterborough, Apr 20, 2017...transitionnetwork.org
- Ontario pilot project puts universal basic income to the test, Oct 28, 2016...The Guardian
- Ontario plans to trial universal basic income, Mar 7, 2016...The Independent
- Windsor Youth Centre plans teaching garden to help build self-esteem and life skills, November 23, 2015...windsorstar.com
- Kitchener group builds community cob oven, August 31, 2015...therecord.com
- Picturesque Perth: a model of sustainable, independent living in Canada, By Jen Wilton, September, 2014...Contributoria
- Hamilton Getting a First-Class Bike Share, Hits the Road in April,Joey Coleman, December 2, 2013.
About Ontario
[edit | edit source]Past events
- March 22 - 29, 2014, Transition Guelph Resilience Festival
Ontario is the southernmost province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it is home to over 14 million people, which is 38.5% of the country's population. Ontario is the second-largest province by total area (after Quebec) and the fourth-largest jurisdiction of all the Canadian provinces and territories. It is home to the nation's capital, Ottawa, and its most populous city, Toronto, which is Ontario's provincial capital.
Ontario is bordered by the province of Manitoba to the west, Hudson Bay and James Bay to the north, and Quebec to the east and northeast. To the south, it is bordered by the U.S. states of (from west to east) Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania (through Lake Erie), and New York. Almost all of Ontario's 2,700-kilometre (1,700 mi) border with the United States follows rivers and lakes: from the westerly Lake of the Woods, eastward along the major rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes drainage system. There is only about one kilometre (0.62 mi) of actual land border, made up of portages including Height of Land Portage on the Minnesota border.
The great majority of Ontario's population and arable land are in Southern Ontario, and while agriculture remains a significant industry, the region's economy depends highly on manufacturing. In contrast, Northern Ontario is sparsely populated with cold winters and heavy forestation, with mining and forestry making up the region's major industries.
Near you
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| Authors | Phil Green |
|---|---|
| License | CC-BY-SA-3.0 |
| Cite as | Philralph (2014–2025). "Community action/Ontario". Appropedia. Retrieved May 31, 2026. |