Summary of CEWF Annual Communications Meeting, September 9, 2023, in Minden
On Saturday, September 9, 2023, the CEWF held its Annual Communications Meeting at the Highland Hills United Church in Minden. The location chosen allowed members the option to join the meeting virtually using Zoom. The meeting was attended by representatives from member lake associations, by members of the CEWF Executive Committee, and by a representative of Parks Canada. The meeting opened with a welcome by Ted Spence, CEWF Chair; and Greetings from Liz Danielson, the Warden of Haliburton County. Click Here to see the Meeting Agenda.
To accompany the agenda is an overview of our Work Plan Summary available Here.
The first item was the presentation from David Britton, Director, Ontario Waterways, Parks Canada who unfortunately was unable to be on-line. Ted Spence took the members though the Parks Canada presentation on the current capital and infrastructure projects for the reservoir lakes. The link to the PowerPoint presentation is Here.
The next presentation was made by Ted Spence. Ted opened his talk by showing the first of CEWF’s two new videos. It reviews TSW operations and provides an overview of climate change trends in the TSW Area. He then went on to provide an overview of the extreme weather patterns impacting water management in 2021 and 2022, followed by a more in-depth review of the patterns experienced in 2023.” That PowerPoint is available Here.
Then Anna Ciorap, Water Management Manager, Parks, Canada provided extensive details of vast data, scenario testing, and resources that went into the Parks Canada decisions for the reservoir lakes and TSW canal over the fall of 2022 and to date for 2023. Her PowerPoint presentation is posted Here.
Prior to the meeting, lake representatives had been asked to provide the CEWF with comments and concerns they wished the CEWF Executive Committee to discuss at this meeting. Bruce McClennan, CEWF Vice-Chair, presented a summary of the common issues raised by a number of lakes. He presented the rationale for some of the water management practices which were questioned and noted others which CEWF would pursue in more detail. Click Here to see the questions and a brief summary of the answers to those questions.
The meeting ended with closing comments from Ted Spence, CEWF Chair thanking Anna Cioap, and all lake association attendees in-person or on-line who had participated.
The recording of the Zoom meeting can be accessed by Clicking Here