A grassroots citizen group is looking to expand its membership in a bid to offer one voice to independent action groups fighting the provincial government.
Ontario Neighbours United (ONU) hosted a meeting on June 9 at the Harriston Legion and invited people representing groups battling the government over its policies on wind turbines, commercial water taking ventures, quarries and the equine industry.
Concerns about the provincial government’s decision to drop its agreement to provide the horse industry with 10 per cent of slots profits was the focus of a public meeting in Aboyne on May 29 with over 200 people attending.
Wellington County hosted the meeting, which focused on concerns by the horse racing industry. The meeting also attracted wind turbine opponents whose views were not heard.
The county meeting spawned the ONU membership meeting hosted by Greg Schmaltz a founding member of the organization.
About 20 people attended the Harriston meeting. Schmaltz said the intent of the meeting was to position ONU as an “umbrella organization” to represent individual groups.
“It’s strength in numbers,” he told the group of ONU’s membership drive. “We’re trying to get the message out that if we can build a public critical mass then politicians will listen.
“Until we can show we are a group of critical mass no one is going to pay attention.” He referred to what he called political roadblocks to stop challenges to municipal, provincial and federal policies on issues such as wind turbines.
Schmaltz said the ONU has seen what individual groups face when challenges are put up against governments at all levels. The ONU is advocating a more united approach.
“We have our own individual battles and we know how the deck is stacked against those people. Fighting as a bigger force is really the key message,” he added.
Lorrie Gillis of Flesherton said commercial water taking, a proposed mega quarry and wind turbines are issues of concern to residents of the area. According to her, opposition to the plans is being hampered by government policies.
“All of this is in our area,” she said of the issues in the Flesherton area. “They’re raping our land, but you do have more people realizing something is wrong.”
She attended the meeting to get more information on ONU and was attracted by its slogan “Ours to Recover,” a take-off on the provincial slogan “Yours to Discover.”
The ONU mandate is to “grow membership, execute increasingly high profile swarms, stage large rallies, create province-wide awareness and citizen mobilization.” It’s objective is to work for “legislative change of unjust policies.”
Schmaltz said ONU is looking for input on issues from members and potential members.
Among the issues the organization could get involved in is the upcoming provincial byelection in the Kitchener- Waterloo riding vacated by long-time Conservative MPP Elizabeth Witmer. A Liberal win in the riding would give the provincial government the majority it needs – a scenario criticized by several at the meeting.
Schmaltz also urged those attending the meeting to individually sign up five new members as part of their membership cost.
