Ray Angod of Protect the Land Surrounding Huron Natural Area tells us about the wildlife in the area surrounding the Huron Natural Area, the plans for “light industrial” development, some history of the site. Ray and Bob discuss zoning, the surplus of industrial land currently in Waterloo Region, and the delegations to the Planning and Strategic Initiatives Committee on Monday 27 October 2025. Ray tells us about reading through the 500 page environmental assessment report, and finding inconsistencies and contradictions which he will be pointing out in his delegation. Bob wonders about provincial interference in land acquisition, and Ray talks about the effects on the Huron Natural Area itself, notably the increase in light, noise, and sodium in the ground water.
Ray Angod explains what needs to be protected at the Huron Natural Area — meadow and wooded lands are to be replaced with industrial space. Huron Natural area is located in Ward 5, the south end of Kitchener. It’s not the Huron Natural Area itself that’s being developed, but the area surrounding it. There is a buffer of 20 metres between the wetland and the area slated for development. “Light Industrial” is warehousing, not smog-producing manufacturing. There are snapping turtles, regionally significant wildlife, and it’s a coyote habitat. Ray explains why a coyote habitat is important. The area is also a habitat for the Midland Painted Turtle. The environmental impact study indicated there were 96 depredated turtle nests (where eggs had been dug up), but did not count the viable turtle nests that are buried in the soil. There are also 70 species of birds in the subject area, not just in the Huron Natural Area itself. It is considered one of the seven wonders of Kitchener.
9m40s
Ray tells us the history of the land, how it was bought and sold in the past, and its previous intended use as a hog slaughtering plant. The land had been prepared for development, with trees and vegetation removed, but since the plant wasn’t built the land returned to a somewhat natural grassland that happens to be ideal for turtles and the Grasshopper Sparrow. There was a plan in the 1990s to expand the Huron Natural Area, but plans changed, and areas to the east, south, and west have been developed. Bob and Ray discuss zoning issues. Adding more industrial space in Kitchener makes no sense, there is already a vacancy rate of 7.5% for industrial space, second-highest in southern Ontario. The area is twice the size of the land for Conestoga Mall, but there’s no demand for it. Talking about the recent history for land demand.
16m35s
There will be a meeting of the Strategic Planning Committee on Monday, Ray and others will be delegating to the committee. The intent is to raise doubt for the councillors, will this Ray tells us about the Change.org petition, and the Linktree. Ray encourages everyone to register to delegate at the Committee meeting on Monday; today is probably the last day to register. People can get involved by signing the petition, and contacting their councillors.
What does Ray want to see? Just leave it as is, there’s nothing wrong with the way it is now. Recapping the surplus existing industrial space. Do the developers have customers lined up? Ray would like to know that too. Ray points out the many roadside signs advertising industrial space, showing the surplus of available land. Ray gives his history in doing local advocacy. Ray says the environmental assessment reports are easily found online, but inaccessible in that they’re long, technical, boring, and full of jargon. He’s spent many hours to figure out how it all works, and finding inconsistencies and where the gaps are. The environmental assessment studies are paid for by the developer, so many of the inconsistencies are in favour of the developer. It’s too expensive to commission their own environmental assessment report, and the area is all fenced off with “Private Property” signs. Have the councillors read the environmental assessment report? If not, Ray will point them towards certain areas that they should focus on, such as the turtles, and the Grasshopper Sparrow. The report says the area is not suitable for the Grasshopper sparrows because trees will crowd them out, but also state that trees won’t grow there. There are peculiarities with “complexing” the wetlands, or expanding them. The authors contacted the Ministry of the Natural Resources to discourage them from looking at complexing the wetlands. But other studies contradict their reasoning.
35m30s
Was there provincial involvment in getting this land developed? Ray has not seen evidence of that. Bob is reminded of the Wilmot land assembly, which was definitely instigated by the province, and the Region of Waterloo joined in.
37m05s
How will the industrial activity in these lands affect the Huron Natural Area itself? Ray says the immediate concerns are noise and light. The proposal says the 20 metre buffer will block noise and light. It’s shrubs and trees, and maybe an enclosure fence. People who live there say that noise has increased considerably since development started some years ago. There is now an audible industrial hum in the natural area. Bob is concerned about industrial runoff, Ray says that salt for parking lot maintenance is a big concern. Sodium levels in our water supply is already high, and getting higher. But there is no enforcement for salt use, there are no fines, there are only guidelines.
Ray recaps what he will be doing on Monday (delegating to the Planning and Strategic Initiatives Committee). Bob looks at the various websites: the petition, Instagram, Facebook, and the Linktree. There are lots of resources listed there, including Ray’s article on Melissa Bowman’s website, Citified. Ray tells us how he will be presenting to council, Bob reminds the councillors of the upcoming municipal election in 2026.
49m28s
There has been a lot of community support. There are a few dozen people who stay in constant touch. People are from all demographic, young, old, blue collar, white collar, left and right politically. Ray says the best way to get involved is to start with the petition. People can leave their comments on the petition, and Ray will use some during his delegation.
51m09s
Bob gives the end credits.
CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs alternate Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
No guests today, but CKMS-FM is being audited by SOCAN this week. That’s actually a good thing, because that’s how SOCAN determines which musicians get how much royalties. So today we’re pumping up the volume on KWCon (musicians from Waterloo Region) and CanCon (musicians from other parts of Canada). Let us know when the money starts rolling in!
Today I play music from Waterloo Region musicians (“KW Content”), and then talk all over it to request donations for our Fall 2023 Fundraiser. My sincere apologies to all the musicians.
No podcast today. Instead, go out and buy the music I played or go to a concert, and listen to the music as it was meant to be heard.
It’s another music show, with local bands from Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge (and a few from outside the region). Several have upcoming concerts, check their websites for more information.
Fabian Fletcher, president of the board at tri-Pride Community Association Inc. comes into the studio to talk about the tri-Pride organization, the tri-Pride Summer Festival, the performers, the history of Pride, some other 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations including Spectrum, and ideas for future activities and events.
Introducing Fabian Fletcher, the President of the Board of Directors of tri-Pride, an all-volunteer organization. In addition to the summer festival there’s Winter Pride, in February or March, and PRIDEtoberfest during the Octoberfest weekend. The Board works on organizing the events, but also works on policies and procedures, governance issues, and work more on advocacy and doing grass-roots community organization. The Board is eight or nine folx, a Vice-President and other Board directors who take on roles like vendors market, sponsorships, a treasurer, a development director: a small but mighty group. But there are twenty-plus volunteers who do the work of setting-up and tear-down, oversee the vendors market, volunteers to manage the stage area. There are enough volunteers for the summer festival, but people can sign up now for the fall and winter events. To volunteer, contact info@tri-pride.ca or look for the volunteer call-out on social media.
6m45s
Planning for the summer event started in January; lots of paperwork. The summer festival this year is taking place at Willow River Park, officially known as Victoria Park. The vendor market filled up really early this year, but there are still people looking for spots. This is the second year back after a Covid absence. Last year was really well attended, hoping to increase that for this year.
9m54s
Aside from the vendor booths, there will be performances from Noon to 4pm, local live performers, music, spoken word, standup. From 4pm to 8pm there will be the drag performances. Alysha Brilla is the musical headliner, and the headline drag performers are Ongina and Trinity K. Bonet, both from Ru Paul’s Drag Race. tri-Pride has a sign-up sheet for local performers, but the headline acts were cold-called. There’s a great drag scene in Waterloo Region.
12m27s
tri-Pride has been operating since 2002, doing summer festivals and other events. The City of Kitchener has an events team that coordinates with tri-Pride to arrange all the applications and paperwork. tri-Pride is very privileged to have the Board members it does to fill out paperwork and applying for licenses. Fabian wishes were ways to make the process more accessible to smaller organizations and community-based folks to have space in the park to have events. The requirements for audited financial statements are out of reach of organizations on shoe-string budgets that have no finances.
The tri-Pride festival this year is on Saturday, 10 June 2023 in Willow River Park, from Noon to 8pm. “tri”-Pride covers all three cities, Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge, although they have not been out in Cambridge as much as they want to. But Grand River Pride has just started up in Cambridge, having their summer festival also on Saturday, 10 June 2023!
20m58s
Covering some of the history of the Pride movement, starting with the Stonewall Riots in 1969. Are things getting worse today? Not necessarily, intolerance has always been there, but people today are less hesitant about sharing their hate. Life has become more difficult for Queer folx, actions v transferring over from the United States. Fabian knows of incidents across Canada, not so much in Waterloo Region, although there is the example in Oxford county with the municipality of Norwich refusing to fly the Pride flag.
25m26s
What actions can tri-Pride and other organizations take? It’s tricky, because the organizations need to ensure the safety their membership. Non-Queer folks can show up for the Queer community at events, protests, and rallies, get involved with local organizations, and lobby their elected officials. tri-Pride joined #Act4QueerSafety, and signed a letter addressed to government officials at both provincial and federal levels to say “Enough is enough, you need to act for Queer safety.” But while getting involved, there will be spaces strictly reserved for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. For example, tri-Pride is trying to create safe spaces geared toward BIPOC Queer folk, IndigiQueer youth, Two-Spirit youth, and those intersecting personalities. But non-Queer folk should show up for the larger festivals and use their voice and use their privilege to advocate for their 2SLGBTQIA+ community members.
Talking about tri-Pride‘s online presence; keeping it up-to-date is tough with volunteers. The main website needs to be updated, there’s a new volunteeer to do that.
Talking about other Pride organizations across Canada. There’s a Canada-wide organization, and a world-wide organization called InterPride. Joining such a federation gives tri-Pride a chance to hear from other organizations what’s working for them, to support each other, and to brainstorm ideas for festivals. There’s no Canada-wide Pride festival, although Captital Pride in Ottawa has what is deemed the nation-wide Pride festival, and InterPride has a festival as well.
37m43s
Pride festivals aren’t so much a protest any more, but a celebration. Fabian says it’s building communities. Talking about other events, like PRIDEtoberfest, a dance / drag performance / other performance. It’s an indoor event, unlike the summer festival. Winter Pride is a bit smaller, a dance with one or two drag performers. Fabian would like to have more social, low-key events like coffee nights, or speed friending.
39m50s
Talking about other Pride organizations, like Spectrum, in the same building as the CKMS-FM studio. Fabian is a staff member at Spectrum, overseeing their volunteers and operations. But tri-Pride is careful not to step on anyone’s toes, looking to support and uplift other organizations. Talking about some of Spectrum‘s programs, Fabian mentions “capacity building”, to be more accepting and creating safer space for Queer folks. tri-Pride focuses on the events, and focus on creating spaces. They’re looking at ways to do smaller events throughout the year that are tailored to different parts of their community.
Fabian tells us how Alysha Brilla came to be the headliner for this year’s festival. This year’s lineup was chosen to highlight diversity to represent what our community actually looks like.
50m45s
Bob and Fabian go over the details of the coming tri-Pride festival: Noon to 8pm on Saturday 10 June 2023 in Willow River Park, followed by a dance starting at 9pm hosted by Queer Night Out.
52m35s
Bob thanks Fabian for being on the show, and gives the end credits.
CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs alternate Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
Nothing but music this week, so no podcast, no bonus footage, no image gallery. Just music. Two hours worth! And it’s our SOCAN ratings week, which means that any musicians played today will receive oodles of royalties (for extremely low values of “oodles”). To maximize this economic windfall for Waterloo Region, most of the music is KWCon.
Local Music is Sexy – Austin Kleon Today we have nothing but KWCon music — music by musicians from Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Wilmot, Wellesley, Woolwich, and North Dumfries. All recent releases, too!
If you’re a Waterloo Region musician and want to get your music on the radio check out How To Submit Music and we’ll add it to our library!
This is the week in which we used to celebrate Canada Day. That’s not happening, but there’s no reason to not celebrate incredible Canadian musicians. Stay tuned over the summer for interviews with some of these musicians, and when the studio re-opens we may have some Live, On-Air, In-Studio performances!
Music Index
Time
Title
Album
Artist
0m00s
Theme for CKMS Community Connections Introduction by Bob Jonkman
Since the studio remains closed we’re playing more new Canadian Content and KW Content music today, and a few tracks released last year too. The definition of “KW Content” broadens yet again — while the group Your New False Gods hails from Scotland, lead singer Kevin Combe has family in Kitchener, and that makes them our neighbours from a different country. Right?
It’s the first CKMS Community Connections show of spring, when grass is growing, birds are singing, and new music is released. The studio remains closed due to Covid so there’s no interviews, but we have lots of newly released music with several tracks from local Waterloo Region musicians!
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Creative Commons Attribution Only license. Copy, re-use, and derivative works are allowed with attribution to Radio Waterloo and a link to this page. Music selections are copyright by the respective rights holders. The theme music is written and performed by Steven Todd.
SOCAN
Songs From the Big Chore
2
Mercury
Single
Single
Computer
Single
Bitter / Sweet
Don’t Be a Sucker – Swallow This
Chaos Alchemy
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Creative Commons Attribution Only
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike
Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives
Cowboy
(single)
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