MR. CHAIRMAN: Committee members, I think we will bring our meeting to order this afternoon. My name is Brooke Taylor and I have the privilege of chairing the Standing Committee on Economic Development. Perhaps before we recognize and identify the witnesses this afternoon, I could ask my colleagues to introduce themselves. They are all quite shy. Maybe Mr. Estabrooks could begin. (Laughter)
[The committee members introduced themselves.]
MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much, colleagues and committee members. Our group this afternoon is with the Communities in Bloom organization and perhaps you can introduce yourselves.
MRS. MARGARET STINSON: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for the opportunity of being here and being able to tell you about a program that we think is a very excellent one. My name is Margaret Stinson. I now live in Fall River, formerly of Maitland in Hants County on the Bay of Fundy. To my left, and your right, is Raymond Carriere who is our national chairperson. He is from Montreal. To my right is Ivan Stinson who is with Communities in Bloom and is a judge.
What I would like to do, if I may, please, is for each of us to present a segment of information but we want to be very careful that we allow enough time for you people to ask questions. So if that format is acceptable to you, then we will proceed with that.
MR. CHAIRMAN: I believe that format is acceptable and agreeable to all. Just for the purposes of recording, when we change speakers, so to speak, could you wait perhaps until you are identified and that will give our recording people an opportunity to note who it is. Thank you.
MRS. MARGARET STINSON: Mr. Carriere.
MR. RAYMOND CARRIERE: Good afternoon. Thank you very much for inviting us. My name is Raymond Carriere and, as Margaret has mentioned, I am the National Chairman of Communities in Bloom. What we wish to do this afternoon is to present to you the program which over the past years has proven itself an excellent venue to improve the quality of life of your citizens and also to provide you with information as a business opportunity for the municipalities in Nova Scotia.
Communities in Bloom firstly, it is very important to note, is a non-profit organization. It is six years old. It was started in 1995 by a group of people who had heard of similar programs in Europe. This is a very important part because right at the outset I will tell you that similar programs that have been going on for over 40 years in Europe, in a lot of cases, are run, financed, managed, promoted, by the tourism departments of those countries, like in France, Ireland, Portugal and very recently also in Hungary.
What is Communities in Bloom? It is an organization that, by means of a competition, encourages communities to tidy up, to be more visibly appealing, to be environmentally aware, to conserve their heritage in order to make their communities better places to live in, to work in and to visit. The competition aspect gets the adrenalin going, gets - in certain cases - the interest of the politicians or the elected officials, to know who has the best community in the province or the country. I think that the best comment that we ever had on Communities in Bloom and one of the very first persons who gave us this comment was Mr. John Cotton from Richmond County here in Nova Scotia way back in 1995 when he mentioned to us that after having participated he didn't care one way or the other if he won the competition or not because he felt that their community was a winner by having participated.
So what the program does is, because of the competition aspect, communities get involved in participating in the program to have their community compared to other communities either provincially, if their community is in a provincial edition or nationally if it is in a national edition. This being an Olympic year, I will compare it to swimming where, if you want to go to the Olympics, you have to start by winning your regionals, provincials and national competitions before you go on to represent Canada at the Olympics.
Well, Communities in Bloom is very much in the same way. For example, this year the communities of Kentville and Springhill participated in the Nova Scotia provincial edition, which Ivan will be able to tell you a little bit about having been one of the two judges who visited those communities. Then, because of the results of this year, Kentville will be invited to represent Nova Scotia in its population category in the national edition of next year, in 2001.
While a lot of the documentation that you will have or information will talk about a competition, yes, as I mentioned, that is what gets the adrenalin going but what is more important is that very humbly we can state that we have had testimonial comments from communities all over Canada, be they as small as Petit-de-Grat in Richmond County or as large as Vancouver in British Columbia, that this is a program that gets people involved. Why does it get people involved? Because once you know that your community will be featured on a national stage, it gets people involved. It gets the school children and the teachers involved in doing some planting of trees and flowers in the school yard. It gets the downtown business association involved in sprucing up their downtown so that it is more appealing to visitors. It gets private citizens involved because yes, they like to have the best front lawn or back yard in their district or street.
One of the results of Communities in Bloom - and we would be very facetious, I think is the word, if we were to say we had planned for it, we have not - is civic pride. If you want to see a lot of civic pride, you come to one of our awards, either provincial or national. Last year the national awards were in Halifax and it was very pleasing to see the small and large communities being so proud of what they had achieved, where a town like Lunenburg was put on the same stage as Vancouver and was being able to promote what they had done.
So, how does the program work? Communities will register. We will provide them with information on how to get their community involved on how to do planting projects, where they can obtain information on heritage conservation, composting. We have strategic alliances with other existing organizations. As a matter of fact, in the package of information that was given to you by the secretary is information coming from a website from one of our strategic partners, Pitch In Canada, which does a tidiness program. We also have a strategic alliance with an organization that is very well known in Nova Scotia, as Nova Scotia does very well in that aspect, is the Canadian Composting Council, because of your rules and regulations that are used as examples throughout the country. We are also developing further strategic alliances with other national and provincial organizations so we can distribute that information to communities on how to participate.
Another aspect that we are very pleased or proud about and is becoming more and more well known is that it is not necessarily the large cities that are teaching the small cities; in a lot of cases it is the other way around. Because of resources that are made available in lesser quantities, the smaller communities will develop some initiatives that will be beneficial to the large cities. We often give the example of Millet in Alberta, which is a neighbour of Edmonton. Depending on who is away for the weekend, there are probably less than 1,000 people in Millet but they provided guidance to the City of Edmonton on certain aspects of community involvement and tidiness.
So, once the municipalities are registered, they are given a lot of information and some of this we even put on CD or on paper and we are very close to having a website. They will be informed of a date where the judges will go and visit them. More and more now, the judging process is becoming a twofold process.
Yes, the communities will receive a report card on their achievements for the evaluation criteria of tidiness, landscaping, turf, environmental efforts, heritage, floral, community involvement and urban forestry, but they will also receive a consultant's report on either problems or initiatives they are looking into or certain aspects they want to improve in the community. The judges, who are volunteers but trained, professional volunteers, receive training in the program. As a matter of fact, last year the training for the Maritimes and Eastern Canada judges was held in Halifax. They will go and they will show them, they will exchange information.
Communities in Bloom is a non-profit organization, contrary to what a lot of people believe; they think that we are a government-run organization. We are not but we are very proud to be Canadians. We are very proud to allow Canadian communities from one end of the country to the other to exchange information, to learn from each other and to get to know each other a little bit better.
What happens because of this, as I mentioned before, is that communities will do beautification programs and to quote somebody else, it is not just a beauty contest, it has a lot more to it. Again, we have had testimonials, comments from - and very importantly - the chambers of commerce, the downtown business associations, stating that because of Communities in Bloom, because of having beautification programs in the downtown core, that it has helped businesses. I will be talking a little bit later on that, because one of our main partners is the Canadian Tourism Commission.
What is very important, when we designed Communities in Bloom way back in 1994, when we sent out the first information, the program was called Canada in Bloom, based on, of course, the names of Britain in Bloom and France in Bloom and so on and so forth. We made a strategic, philosophical decision to call it Communities in Bloom because Communities in Bloom recognizes the efforts of the whole community. It is not just a town because it has nice downtown parks or because you happen to be in an affluent part of a municipality where every citizen injects a lot of dollars into their front yards. No, it has to be the concentrated efforts of the whole community and that is where the program has been the most sustainable, be it in the small areas or large areas - and Halifax, for example, is a very good example - it is where the whole community gets involved. Yes, in a lot of cases it is run or guided or directed by the city, but it also uses the involvement of private citizens, service clubs, affiliated agencies and so on and so forth.
As I mentioned, when the judges do come and evaluate, they are asked to visit the whole community to see what everybody does. Then, in the fall, there are provincial and national award ceremonies which, in addition to being, yes, awards, a banquet, certificates, prizes, bragging rights and so on and so forth, they are also an excellent venue for (a) promotion and (b) information exchange. I am sure that Margaret will mention information exchange, because we provide the communities with opportunities to showcase themselves. If they have a festival, if they have an event, if they have a business centre they want to promote, they are given the opportunities to do so. If they want to learn from each other they are also given opportunities. Even the awards have become, by themselves, of economic value. For example, in Halifax last year we had over 500 people during the awards and a lot of them didn't just come for the awards, they stayed over to visit Nova Scotia during their stay here.
Once the awards are given on a national basis, Communities in Bloom, because we do have affiliations with Britain in Bloom, France in Bloom, and very recently with Japan and also with the United States, there are then opportunities for communities to compete on an international level and to give visibility or promotional opportunities on an international level. All of this gives the community, what I would say, a nice, fuzzy, warm feeling, which is good - be it elected officials, citizens, professionals in the parks and open spaces domain, of course and is very important to us.
There is a second aspect and I don't want to say it is even more important because it would not be able to happen if it were not for the first one, but Communities in Bloom is in the process of becoming an excellent business opportunity for any community that has participated in the past and will now participate. Margaret, is this a good time for me to talk about this?
MRS. STINSON: I think so.
MR. CARRIERE: Communities in Bloom has been recently awarded under the Product Club Program of the Canadian Tourism Commission, a product club that will be called the Bloom and Garden Tours of Canada. Demographics will show you that in the next 25 years the majority of the population will be between 45 and 65 years old. The interest of those people will be in nature and open spaces. I think today is a good example where everybody marvels at the fall colours. In the very same way - be it horticulture, call it gardening, call it open spaces, even call it the environment - the Canadian Tourism Commission has recognized that Canada has the opportunity to become a major tourism draw from around the world on these aspects of nature, open spaces, gardening, flowers and forestry. Thus, Communities in Bloom requested to create a product club that would promote these aspects, not only in Canada and the United States, but around the world.
In essence, what you have in the document in front of you, is confirmation of this project where the Canadian Tourism Commission will invest in developing and promoting what will be called Bloom and Garden Tours throughout Canada. These tours will be in the most various manners of the tourism industry. Yes, there will be standard bus tours. Yes, there will be FITs. Yes, there will be educational tours, it will be all that.
In essence, because of the demographics around the world, because of the interest in gardening and open spaces, to speak in laymen's terms, if we play our cards right in Canada, we will be able to focus on these interests and make Canada a tourism destination recognized around the world. We probably have the privilege, because of the in bloom programs to know that this is a distinct possibility because if you look at the country that now attracts most of the tourism in the world, France, yes, the Eiffel Tower and yes, maybe Place Pigalle and yes, maybe a good bottle of red wine and cheese has something to do with it but they have had an in bloom program for the last 45 years, on which Communities in Bloom, Britain in Bloom and a lot of other programs are based.
What the Canadian Tourism Commission wants Communities in Bloom to do, in partnership with organizations throughout the country is to focus on this opportunity of open spaces, gardening and horticulture and also to complement existing tourism attractions to make our tourism more sustainable. If you allow me to use an example here in Nova Scotia of Peggy's Cove. Yes, you will want to go to Peggy's Cove because of the lighthouses, because of the area, maybe even because of some events that happened near there a few years ago. What Communities in Bloom or the Canadian Tourism Commission wants to do is instead of just zipping, driving by and then going somewhere else, we want to make it so that the environment is tidier, more beautiful, it is more appealing to stay there overnight, to eat at the restaurants, and to stay at the bed and breakfasts or the hotels.
Another aspect that is also very important, as you gentlemen probably know very well, is that horticulture and tourism are labour intensive businesses or industries. For amounts invested or spent in these fields, a very high percentage goes back to hiring people. So, in essence, what we are here to do today is to present to you the Communities in Bloom program and the Bloom and Garden Tours because we want to increase the participation of Nova Scotia in the program. We feel that Nova Scotia, while the communities that are in the program and have been in for many years, Halifax, Maitland, and Lunenburg have done very well, we feel - and this may be because I was born in Annapolis - that there should be more communities in Nova Scotia participating in the program.
We welcome this invitation of making this presentation to you because we know that there are a lot more communities in Nova Scotia that would benefit from participating in the program, and that the rest of the country would benefit by learning from. In essence, that is the presentation I wanted to make to you and the intent of why we accepted your invitation.
MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Carriere. Margaret.
MRS. MARGARET STINSON: My name is Margaret Stinson and I am on the National Committee of Communities in Bloom and I help to coordinate the provincial entries. The topic that I want to speak to you Economic Development Committee people is the fact that I do merchandise as a volunteer for all of Canada. This initiated out of necessity. When it was in its first year I happened to pick up Harrowsmith and I read in it, contest takes root. I knew nothing about Communities in Bloom until that time.
I read with great interest and it so happened that Ivan and I were driving to the municipal office in Hants County to deliver invitations to our Elaine Burke Award. When I got there I asked, do you have information from the recreation director on Communities in Bloom and she said, yes, I believe that I do. In any case, I won't go into a long story of how we did get involved but that year I coordinated a 45 mile strip - and whenever I use the word "I", I mean "we" - along the shore and it was very successful. Now in order to do that I wanted to have some seed money to produce a good newsletter so that the citizens would know what it was about, how to go about things, the order in which things were going to be done, and the outcome.
I talked to my recreation director and she said, things are rather tight now, Margaret, could you come up with some kind of plan to get your seed money? I said to myself, necessity is the parent of invention, isn't it, so we had done things in Maitland for the Heritage Conservation District and for Burntcoat Head Park and for Dawson Dell Park. So I got permission to use the logo, which is the father, mother, and child, and if you look at district and for Burntcoat Head Park and for Dawson Dell Park. I got permission to use the logo, which is the father, mother and child, if you look at the three stylized blooms, the logo there, the father, the mother and child, the unity of the family. I got permission to use that and had 100 T-shirts done. My husband went out and sold those in the area in which I happen to be the president of the Historical Society. Some of the people said, could we have bags? So I had canvas bags done. There we were, we had our seed money that we needed to do things at the seniors', at the fire hall, at the school, and so on.
[1:30 p.m.]
In any case, the judges, when they came, we housed them at our place and I gave each of them whatever they wanted, a bag or a T-shirt of their choice. I said, would you take one to Raymond Carriere, and they said no, no, you are going to the awards, why don't you take one to him. At any rate, I did and I still recall his taking the ribbons off the T-shirt and letting it wind down and gave it a kiss, and he said, you and I will have to talk.
Since that time, I have coordinated merchandise fund-raising for Canada. I did include in the package that you received the official merchandise sheet. We are very proud of the products, they are high-quality products. My husband wore one of them today just to give you
an idea. We are very careful in the number that we add to our list, that we have high-quality things. I think of very important interest to you people is the fact that every single thing comes from Nova Scotia. I will just give you a few figures this year, these are broken down. I dealt with six businesses in Nova Scotia and purchased from them a total of $42,879 worth. I think that is very important for the jobs that that creates.
Why did I do merchandise? There were two reasons, one was seed money, but the second reason was to have a high profile of our logo. That many people wearing ball caps that have the logo, that many people wearing T-shirts or sweatshirts or aprons gives a high profile, a feeling of unity, a feeling of doing things together. I feel that the merchandise has been very successful. From my end, it is extremely rewarding. We do this as volunteers and it probably takes about six months of our year to do this kind of thing, but it is wonderful. I think that Communities in Bloom has probably a stronger binding characteristic than the Ribbon of Steel. The joy that there is to this organization in which we are all volunteers is the fact that we are improving the quality of life of Canadians and making it a better place to live. The communities feel a very high sense of civic pride.
You may have questions that you would like to ask afterward. Mr. Chairman, I would ask, would they prefer to ask questions as each one is given or do you prefer to wait until the end?
MR. CHAIRMAN: Generally what we do, to be quite honest . . .
MRS. MARGARET STINSON: And that is what we want to know.
MR. CHAIRMAN: To be quite frank, we normally hear presentations that are approximately 20 minutes to 30 minutes in length, including the opening comments, although today, somewhat by general agreement, we will agree to digress and carry on. We prefer to place our questions at the conclusion of the presentation.
MRS. MARGARET STINSON: Thank you very much. May I say this, Ivan is here as a judge, and perhaps you would prefer to direct questions to him because we may, in fact, have gone over what your time limits are, and we certainly want to respect those. If that is in agreement with you people, then Ivan would answer questions for you.
MR. CHAIRMAN: Is that fair, colleagues? That would be fine then, Mrs. Stinson, thank you.
MR. WILLIAM DOOKS: . . . interested in being a judge, what background do you have that would qualify you to judge such an event?
MR. IVAN STINSON: My background is, I would say, the basic. The foremost qualification I have is an intense interest in beautification and seeing plants grow. I was a former high school teacher; I taught environmental science and science at a school with two large greenhouses. After retiring we moved to Maitland, Nova Scotia, and became very involved with the Nova Scotia Rural Beatification Program; an excellent program, one which I was sorry to see was no longer continued. It was sort of a natural evolution to go into Communities in Bloom. We developed a property, did some landscaping on it, all on our own, and it eventually evolved into an open garden. It wasn't a commercial venture, but just general interest. We had people stopping by our place and asking if they could look around.
We eventually had open gardens at Maitland and I would say that we had a lot of visitors. Of course, many from the United States; as a matter of fact, a great many from the Halifax-Dartmouth area, as well as a considerable number from Europe - Britain and Germany, especially. I am not a professional. I am not a landscape architect, I am not a professional gardener, but just one who is interested.
MR. DOOKS: How much time does it take? You judge, when, in the autumn or through July?
MR. IVAN STINSON: It is usually in August. We visit a community for one day and prior to that, they have provided us with some information of what programs they have instituted, what they hope to start, what they think they have accomplished, so that we can have an overview of it. We spend one day in the community and then several hours writing a report.
Perhaps if I may, I would just like to outline, briefly, the criteria on which it is based. Raymond has mentioned that it is not just a beauty contest. It is a very all-encompassing program. The communities are judged on seven different criteria. One of them is tidiness and effort; the second one is environmental effort or enhancement; community involvement is a third one; heritage preservation; urban forestry; landscaped areas; floral arrangements and turf and sod areas.
Now, generally speaking, each of these is divided into three units; one from either the public or municipal aspect; one from the commercial; and one from the private. For instance, in the environmental enhancement, one of the things that we look at is what input the private citizens are having on your local government or provincial government; what type of programs are they instituting and encouraging them to become involved in?
MR. DOOKS: How many judges on a team?
MR. IVAN STINSON: There are two judges on each team. This year, I judged, and my partner. We did Springhill and Kentville. On a national basis, there are two judges that visit each population category. So, for instance, from 0 to 1,000, two judges at the national
level will judge those all across Canada, and so on. They have to take up a considerable amount of their summer in doing that.
MR. DOOKS: I'm sure, yes. Well, thank you very much.
MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Dooks. Now moving right along with Mr. MacKinnon, or Mr. Boudreau, somebody from the Liberal caucus.
MR. BRIAN BOUDREAU: Well, just on a point of order. I just want to acknowledge to our guests that there is coffee and tea, they are welcome to it, if they wish.
MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Boudreau. I don't know if it is a point of order but it is certainly a good point. There is water there too.
Mr. MacKinnon.
MR. RUSSELL MACKINNON: I have just a couple of minor observations. As I was listening to the presentation and, of course, as a small-business person, I like to kind of focus on the economics. Do you have any statistics or data that show the impact the Communities in Bloom program has on the economy, in individual provinces and nationally?
MR. CARRIERE: Cold, hard facts numbers, no. What we have started to do this year is, we did do a survey which we are compiling now, on what the benefits were to the communities. We are focusing on the economic benefits. Those comments that we have to date are more evaluations than precise statistics. Because we have not been getting them from chambers of commerce or from people who run the program that have businesses, we can safely say that it has had an economic impact but we wouldn't be able to give you specific numbers.
MR. MACKINNON: Okay. Another question I have is with regard to the private sector. I notice in your brochure here, Plant & Garden, the various landscape settings, flower gardens and so on, that have achieved national awards and are, if I am reading it correctly, all public. You did make reference to private gardens and so on. Could you elaborate on that?
MR. IVAN STINSON: Yes. In each category of judging of the seven categories I outlined, there is a section on which the private contribution is considered. For instance, in tidiness and effort, not only do we look at the public properties and commercial properties, but also the private properties. There is a section there where they are judged on the condition of their buildings and just the general tidiness, picking up.
For instance, for the private citizens, how do they participate in the environmental effort; on their own? Also, are they participating in the environmental efforts that are instituted by the municipality or the province. In community involvement, of course, that is almost self-explanatory of what sort of groups are involved and how involved are they?
One of the things that the judges are encouraging in communities when they visit is for the private citizen to become involved in helping look after some of the public properties. For instance, we are encouraging that if a tree or some grass is on public property but outside your home we are encouraging people to keep it tidy, keep the garbage cleaned up, perhaps even mow the grass, pick up the twigs and so on. Does that answer your question?
MR. MACKINNON: Well, in part. In the back of my mind, what came to mind was the Butchart Gardens out on Vancouver Island. I don't know if you have had an opportunity to visit?
MR. IVAN STINSON: Yes, I have.
MR. MACKINNON: When driving by, you look at it, you would think it was Butchart Gardens. (Laughter) It is something like on that show, Keeping Up Appearances, Mrs. Bucket, or Mrs. Bouquet; it depends on how you want to pronounce it. I was quite fascinated by that particular public garden. Well, it is privately owned but for those on the committee who are not familiar, it is a flower garden that was built to aesthetically reclaim a limestone quarry that was operated by a family business.
It is just phenomenal, what they did to it. They turned it into a commercial enterprise and at the same time, provided some of the best of any flower and tree gardens, anywhere in Canada. I was quite taken by it. I was just wondering how that fits into this process that you have.
MR. CARRIERE: Well, if you allow me, sir, where it fits in is that, you have to look at the two components. You have to look at, for Communities in Bloom, the program, it wouldn't be fair to the other communities if a community would win because it happened to have a botanical garden, a Niagara Parks Commission or a Butchart Garden within its community but if that organization has helped the whole community benefit from it by education or by providing guidance well, then, yes, they will be recognized for that but where the Butchart Gardens and the Niagara Parks Commission and the Historical Annapolis Gardens become involved will be because of the Bloom and Garden Tours. Our intent and purpose on the Bloom and Garden Tours is to attract the visitors with what I would call the givens - the Butchart Gardens, the Stanley Parks, the Niagara Parks Commission - and we want to put the Historical Annapolis Gardens on the same level because they should be.
When I was mentioning at the conclusion of my presentation that we were very pleased to have been invited here, because of the fact that we feel that Nova Scotia has a lot of natural settings or realizations that should be showcased throughout not only the country but around the world, the Historical Gardens of Annapolis are a hidden secret for a lot of people; that should not be. According to me they could be at the same levels as Butchart Gardens.
What we want to do is we will attract the tourists from the United States or from Great Britain and from Japan with these known entities. So, for example, we will say, come to Nova Scotia, come to Cape Breton and come to Halifax but in between, we will show them some nice, private gardens that have been made known in Maitland or in Lunenburg. Yes, they are going to stop off in Halifax and yes, they are going to stay at the main hotels in Halifax maybe for one night but we want to do is to go and help specific niche markets by attracting people. They don't want to just walk through the park. What the people want to do in Butchart Gardens, for example - because they have heard of it, they know of it - they want to talk to the gardener. What kind of fertilizer does he use to have such beautiful roses or to the parks professional from Japan who wants to know, well, how exactly were you able to convert that lime quarry into a garden because we are trying to do the same thing? That is where we want to twist it or to turn it to our advantage where it will make economic sense for, let's say, these smaller or outside-of-the-ordinary communities to economically benefit from the interest in horticulture. That is how we want to do it.
MRS. MARGARET STINSON: Excuse me, may I just respond very quickly to a couple of things? The pictures that you see in Communities in Bloom, put out by Plant & Garden, we ask the community to send the picture that they want. So that is why those are showcased. However, if you had been at the national awards in Edmonton, you would have seen that a private property was featured for Maitland.
The other thing, also, that I wanted to mention, you said, do you have any way of measuring? I go to the example of the 45 kilometres that we did along the Bay of Fundy. Now, first I had a person from the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History and he came to the Historical Society meeting and did a talk on Victorian gardens, because Maitland is a heritage area, but he also added other things. In addition to that, we try to put linkages with things. Foggy Hollow Nursery, the owners there told me that they sold to close to 30 per cent more bedding plants because of Communities in Bloom. So that is only one little statistic.
MR. CHAIRMAN: Mr. Chipman.
MR. FRANK CHIPMAN: Mr. Chairman, you mentioned something there a few minutes ago on rural beautification but I believe the Municipality of Annapolis still carries on a program there but it is funded partially or a portion of it anyway, by the municipality. Dr. Dave Crow, are you familiar with him?
MRS. MARGARET STINSON: No, I am not.
MR. CHIPMAN: Right. He developed a lot of different species of rhododendrons. He worked at the research station in Kentville.
You mentioned urban forestry. Could you explain a little bit more?
MR. IVAN STINSON: One of the things - and, Raymond, you might want to mention this, too - but one of the things that some of the communities are doing is taking inventory of what trees they have. Are they being maintained and if they can't be maintained, are they being properly removed and are new species being planted and is there a diversity of species being planted? Also, some of the policies and regulations that municipalities may have regarding removal of trees and so on.
MR. CHIPMAN: You mentioned species. On the property where I reside there are probably over 20 acres to 30 acres of English oak and something has gotten into them. There is a pin oak and an English oak. Anyway, they are all dying and it is a fungus in the leaves. You can see it. It is almost like a fire has been through, like a blight. It starts at the top. Probably about 10 years ago it started with two trees but it has gone through everything now, even young trees. So as a species, if it is there, I don't know. The only other place I know where English oaks are growing, I think there is an area there just this side of Falmouth, just this side of Windsor, the causeway. Now whether it spreads, I don't know but it is a species that may be protected.
MR. IVAN STINSON: It is unfortunate. That is one of the reasons we encourage a diversity of species. There is less incidence of disease or pest problems.
MR. CARRIERE: To complement the answer from Ivan, this is a good example of the evaluation and information exchange process. For example, in urban forestry, your colleague was asking about the judges. We ensure that our judges have complementary backgrounds. In some cases we have the city forester for the City of Winnipeg as one of our judges so when he will go to a community he will be able to provide information on possibly answering requests like those. Then what we will do is we will make that information available to all the communities.
A very specific example was last year one of the judges was the Environmental Director for the City of Quebec. In Quebec, you only still have elms in Quebec City. There are none left in Montreal, there are none left in western Quebec but in Winnipeg, they have hundreds of them, so he was able to learn from what they were doing in Winnipeg and the other way around. Quebec City has developed a program where they will plant large calibre trees technically and ensure that they survive because a lot of cities, because of the growth and the age, are redoing revitalization programs. So you want to plant large trees because it
is good for the environment, because it is more appealing for the shoppers and so on and so forth.
While answering your question on urban forestry, it is the management, the diversity, the fertilization, the programs, conversations. It is also an excellent opportunity where communities will learn from each other and our judges, because some of them come from the Master Gardener Programs; we have both the acting and retired Chief Landscape Architects from the National Capital Commission in Ottawa who are judges. When they come and judge a city like Halifax they will be talking about policies and planning and urban landscape and so on and so forth. We even have some of our judges who are from Europe who will show the full spectrum.
MRS. MARGARET STINSON: One last comment on urban forestry, obviously for the small community, that is the lower population category, the judges are not looking for an urban forestry plan such as you would have in an area that had more dollars to spend on it but what they are looking at there is how the particular mature trees are taken care of if they are diseased. Are they removed? Are young trees being planted out? So a small community is not treated identically to a large community.
MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mrs. Stinson.
MR. IVAN STINSON: Mr. Chairman, if I might just go back to a comment that Mr. MacKinnon had a moment ago about some figures, I don't have figures on this but this is another example of what I think is an economic spinoff. About three or four years ago, I was out weeding one of our flower beds and a car drove by, then turned around and came back and stopped at the side of the road. I was close enough to the road that I could hear these people. This lady got out and in her Texas drawl said, my, that is the prettiest place I have seen since I left Texas. They came in and had a look around our place and asked questions and then the next question was, is there some place to eat here in Maitland? Yes, I said, we do have. Is there a place where we might stay overnight? Yes, I can direct you to those places. Actually, they took advantage of both things. If a community is interesting, it is going to attract people and there is no question about what tourism means to our province here.
MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Stinson. Mr. Estabrooks.
MR. WILLIAM ESTABROOKS: Mr. Chairman, I apologize for having to leave earlier. When your daughter is up the street and can't find the keys to the vehicle, you have to go. If I mention this and am being repetitive, I know Mr. Chairman will correct me.
I would like to talk about the Prince Edward Island example because I am fortunate enough to - or my wife is these days - to spend some time on Prince Edward Island in the summertime. I do know that at Brackley Beach we are absolutely given the mandate that we must decorate our mailboxes. They arrive with the fences and deliver them to us to put over
the mailboxes and they also provide the seeds. I notice that rural beautification, if I look at that last page here, let's look at the categories. Let's get competitive here. What are they doing on P.E.I.? Charlottetown is the representative regionally for the 20,001 to 50,000. Then they go to Stratford. Well, we will give the 3,001 to 5,000 to Shediac. Souris is back in it in the next category. Murray Harbour is the other one. I am getting to my point. I do know that the Department of Tourism on Prince Edward Island is very proactive when it comes to promoting rural beautification and, of course, Communities in Bloom. So here is my question. What is your relationship with our Tourism Department here?
MRS. MARGARET STINSON: Could I respond to that?
MR. ESTABROOKS: Oh, yes.
MRS. MARGARET STINSON: I try to make as many connections as I can. I work with Martin Wanless with TIANS and, as a matter of fact, Carol Martin, who is head of the Visitor Information Centre, happened to be at the CNTA annual general meeting and we had a display there of Communities in Bloom. It so happened that the Springhill mayor was there and also Carol Martin. This was two years ago. They were going to be putting on the concert, as you know, the big festival. In any case, Carol said to me, do you think Springhill could get into Communities in Bloom? I said, well, I know the mayor is here and I will certainly try to talk to her. Well, it happened that I did talk to her and Springhill was in last year and they were in this year. As a matter of fact, Ivan and I went up about three times: first just to meet with the people there, that is the mayor and the recreation director; the second time we went we asked them to bring some of their movers and shakers there, you know a small group having a fairly wide spectrum. So we brainstormed ideas and sort of lent it to the size of Springhill and what they could do. That is just an example of what I do try to do.
I certainly have made it a very strong point to Tourism that Communities in Bloom is the very fabric that tourism needs for their background in tourism.
MR. ESTABROOKS: Again, if this question has been asked, I apologize. Could you go further with what the international challenge is that is listed here or was that mentioned?
MRS. MARGARET STINSON: Could I just respond also, Raymond and I met with both TIANS people and Tourism people so we have been trying to make inroads.
MR. CARRIERE: Let's put the focus on trying. To be very honest, we feel that the tourism industry in all provinces and in some provinces, like Newfoundland, like British Columbia and in Manitoba, they have become partners of ours. Our goal or wish, to the benefit of Nova Scotia, would be that the Tourism Department of the government and the tourism industry would become more involved in encouraging communities to participate in the program.
[2:00 p.m.]
Where this becomes interesting is, the Bloom and Garden Tour program, with the Canadian Tourism Commission, contrary to a lot of grants, because it is not a grant, should the tourism industry in Nova Scotia - be it the government or the trade - become involved, we would obtain more funding and more help - and when I say "we", I mean Communities in Bloom and Nova Scotia - we would obtain more because it is a program with the Canadian Tourism Commission and it is a partnership. So if you inject a dollar, they will inject a dollar. If you inject two dollars, they will inject two dollars. They will do so if you do so.
It is contrary to a lot of grants, where they will say, well, if we, the federal government, give you $100,000 but you get $20,000 from the provincial, we will deduct it from what we are giving you; with the Canadian Tourism Commission, it is the other way around. Should TIANS or should the Nova Scotia Marketing Agency wish to become involved, it would be beneficial to everyone. That also complements the answers of Margaret's to your first question.
To your second question, the international. . .
MR. ESTABROOKS: If I may. . .
MR. CHAIRMAN: Yes, Mr. Estabrooks.
MR. ESTABROOKS: Thank you for that, particularly with tourism.
The community that I represent has had a number of visitors this summer and fall, and we had a number of children who went to Switzerland. You mentioned Peggy's Cove and some of the consequences there. It was brought up about the fact that there are communities that are twinned, of course.
MR. CARRIERE: Yes.
MR. ESTABROOKS: This was a gardener who was here because of the Swissair coincidence. They didn't mention Communities in Bloom. Who can I direct the people in the St. Margarets Bay area, for example, to, on this topic of international challenge?
MR. CARRIERE: There is a due process. We encourage communities who have done well in Communities in Bloom, to participate in our international challenge which, as a matter of fact, is where couples compete against other couples and the couples are formed of a Canadian winner. Not necessarily only a winner, so if a community has done well - was coupled or twinned with a community from a European or an American contest and they compete together.
For example, this year, Pitlochry in Scotland was twinned with Saint-Adolphe-d'Howard from Quebec and they were in competition with Victoria. I learned that Victoria was in Wales, not in England. I didn't know there was a difference but I was told there was, very strongly. They were twinned with Fredericton Junction in New Brunswick. There also is on the basis of learning from each other and twinning together.
It would be very interesting that should there be some ties between a community from Nova Scotia and a community with Switzerland, and to add on what you were saying that is done in Prince Edward Island, sir, I can tell you that in Switzerland, if you plant a flower box in front of your house, you get a rebate on your taxes, in some communities. That is not an idea, it is a concrete example, that in smaller communities in Switzerland . . .
MR. ESTABROOKS: Not in Nova Scotia. (Laughter)
MR. CARRIERE: I don't want to take away any funding from either the local or regional governments but it is a way of encouraging. I think it clearly identifies the strength of the environment as a business opportunity for tourism.
The due process would be that the person from St. Margarets Bay would contact our provincial representative, Margaret, who would then provide them with information. Ivan, if you could just lift your book, this is just to give you an idea of the volume of information that is given to communities, how to organize themselves. Then on the CD, so that you don't have to re-invent the wheel, what other communities have done, what initiatives have worked well, so on and so forth. Then the community would participate in Nova Scotia in Bloom.
Communities in Bloom is a grass-roots organization. We, on a national level, do what the provincial editions tell us to do and vice versa, as long as we are doing it within the same principles.
I will give you a concrete example. In Newfoundland, they decided to call their program, Tidy Towns of Newfoundland. They don't give many points for floral aspects because they are not there. What is important for them now - and that is why they chose the name, Tidy Towns - it is very similar to Ireland 35 years ago when they started their program, is the tidiness aspect. They have to clean up their place in some communities to make it more appealing which is much more important than planting flowers.
Because of comments from participants in a province - say, well, urban forestry, for example, in Saskatchewan is definitely not very important so there are less points given to that but there are more to floral or environmental and heritage.
The community from St. Margarets Bay would contact Margaret who would give her the information and then they would go on to the program, participate provincially to learn about it and then, once they have acquired expertise, depending upon the ranking they are given, then they go on the national level and eventually on to the international.
I won't bore you with all our rules because they are written in French, translated in English, so they have a tendency to become complicated. But they are a process where we ensure that it is not always the same people that win, because they have got something that is good for them, while on the other hand, if you do win, if you are a winning community of Communities in Bloom, you have earned it. It is not just because it is your turn. You have earned it.
MR. ESTABROOKS: Thank you.
MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much. Mr. Boudreau.
MR. BOUDREAU: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of questions, please. Do you keep a record of how many communities actually participate in your program, in Nova Scotia?
MR. CARRIERE: Yes. You know, when you prepare for these meetings, you bring a lot of documents. We do have a written document on who the participants were. In 1995, we had Halifax, Dartmouth, Richmond County participate. In 1996, we had Maitland, Petit-de-Grat, Halifax participate. The last two or three years, unfortunately, like I mentioned a while ago, we didn't have that many, I will be very honest with you. We feel that it is not doing the province justice.
The last two years, we had Maitland - this year we only had Maitland and Halifax participate on a national level. On a provincial level we had Kentville and Springhill. If you compare this with Alberta, for example, that had 39 communities on a provincial level and 12 on a national level, there is something to be done here in Nova Scotia that we feel - and, again, the irony is that the communities that have participated, be it Halifax or Maitland, have both done well and have done the program good justice.
I know that Kentville will represent Nova Scotia very well next year but we would love to see communities out of Sydney or communities out of Lockeport, Annapolis or Digby participate in the program.
Being a non-profit organization, we don't want to have more participants because it is going to influence our balance sheet. Why we want to have more communities participate is because we want to make Canada a better place to live in.
We know that every community will bring something to the program. Maybe that in Manitoba we have learned a lot on community involvement. Maybe that in Newfoundland we have learned a lot on doing with certain adversity. I know that from Nova Scotia we would learn a lot about attracting tourists, about being more pleasant, being more friendly and so on. That is why we want to have more communities from Nova Scotia.
MR. BOUDREAU: I noticed your judging is in July and August, does that leave any of the communities out, during the fall season? My concern here perhaps is that I am a Cape Breton MLA, of course, and the Cabot Trail is one of the most remarkable sights in the world, but it is not listed anywhere in your material.
MRS. MARGARET STINSON: Any of those things that do happen, whether they are before the season or past the time, can be illustrated by photos. For example, with the Tulip Festival in Truro, even though the Tulip Festival would be over, all of that could be documented and included. Does that answer your question?
MR. CARRIERE: It would be the pleasure of the organization, and this is where the Bloom and Garden Tours comes in as a business opportunity. If you talk to any European about Indian summer in Canada, it is a privilege for them to be able to come and visit Canada during the fall to see her fall colours. That is where the Bloom and Garden Tours, the business part of Communities in Bloom, will focus on. We will not invite people to come and visit Canada just during the summer season to see the flowers. We will invite them to come to Canada in the spring, in the summer, in the fall. I can tell you that we have in the backs of our minds - and this project is still in the embryonic stage - that even during the winter because of the Christmas lights, there might be something happening with the Canadian Tourism Commission on that.
That is where you have to look at Communities in Bloom as something that is good for the community, the nice, fuzzy, warm feeling. On the other hand, once you have done that, now you have a product that you are able to sell around the world. Of course the economy is good in these years. This is one aspect where our dollar is very good for us, let's take advantage of it, and let's take advantage of the pure, simple demographics that show that for the next 25 years - Mr. Foot, in Boom, Bust and Echo, has been saying this and demographics are now proving - if you want to invest you invest in green spaces, you invest in nature, you invest in things that people can put their hands to and can really touch. That is what you want to do.
MR. BOUDREAU: I know you indicated that you are a non-profit organization and you indicated your operating budget comes solely from the federal government.
MR. CARRIERE: No, the Communities in Bloom, as a national organization, runs on a budget of funds and services with a cash value for the year 2000 of approximately $400,000. We receive a little bit of money from the federal government, from the Canadian Heritage
Department. We also receive corporate sponsorship in funds from the National Capital Commission in Ottawa, the Nutrite Fertilizer Company. We also receive some sponsorship in services; Air Canada, for example, will provide some of the airline tickets for our judges. As you can imagine, if your judging tour is going from Maple Ridge, British Columbia to Pasadena, Newfoundland, you are not driving all that way.
What is also very important in the corporate philosophy of the program is that the municipalities that can benefit from this program also contribute to it. They have to pay a registration fee, which is based on the population, which will vary from $200 for a very small community to $900 for a very large community. We also have merchandising which benefits the program to a good extent through the merchandise that is bought into Nova Scotia and then sold throughout the country. We also have other venues, like any non-profit organization. There is a lot of grovelling and requesting that goes on. We do have fund-raising like the information exchange network, and we sell it for a profit which goes back to the organization.
We also hold a symposium on parks and grounds because if you are the Parks Manager of Halifax, Nova Scotia and you want to know how the guy in Burnaby, British Columbia takes care of the problem he has with his oaks, you didn't have a venue to learn about that a few years ago, but now because of Communities in Bloom you do. Another aspect that will be important, with the partnership that we have established with the Canadian Tourism Commission, is our symposium will also be teaching people how to make themselves tourism sustainable so that if you have a bungee jump and you want people to stay a little bit longer, well, you might be able to do it through beautification.
In essence that is it, but what is very important - and I say this any time I have the opportunity - is that our board of directors are judges and they are the people who do the program, design it, organize it, and they are and always will be volunteers so it remains a true essence.
We are not a lobby, we are not a political organization but we do have a mission statement that is very clearly to make Canada a better place to live in, work in and visit. All our funding must go to that. Should we obtain, through corporate sponsorship or government grants an additional $150, whatever amount of money - and we are always looking for those funds - the judges will not travel first class, we won't put more colours on this magazine, but we would be promoting the communities that participate, we would do publicity more in the United States or in Europe or in Japan for people to visit Canada, we would provide more information to the small communities on how to develop this.
Before I forget, we might be doing something right because there is an organization in the United States that has hired us, should I say, on a commission basis to organize an American bloom. They are going to pay us a royalty.
There is a French expression, that you cannot be a prophet in your own parish. Like we have always said, we didn't invent this, it was invented in France or in Europe before, but we have given it a Canadian twist. There was even a gentleman from Japan, and that is why we can say that we will be promoting the communities from Communities in Bloom to Japan because the community involvement aspect is very important to them and they will be coming to visit Canada because of that.
MR. CHAIRMAN: I think we will take another question from Mr. Boudreau, and where we do have some other agenda work to carry on, Mr. Boudreau, perhaps you could have the last word or the last question.
MR. BOUDREAU: I just have one more question. When you indicated that you approached the government in the Province of Nova Scotia, particularly the Tourism Department, I am wondering if there is any other arrangement in Canada with the other nine provinces and one territory, where the provincial government contributes? I am wondering, is that type of arrangement or agreement available to the committee members?
MR. CARRIERE: As a matter of fact, two weeks from today we will be signing a memorandum of understanding between Communities in Bloom, Tidy Towns of Newfoundland and the Ministry of Tourism of Newfoundland. It will be our pleasure to provide the information and probably an executive summary on how it works in Newfoundland. We could also provide you with some information from Alberta. Yes, it will be our pleasure, sir, to give you that information.
MR. BOUDREAU: Would that be reasonable, to ask you to forward some information in that regard to the committee, to Mrs. Henry?
MR. CARRIERE: With pleasure, sir.
MR. BOUDREAU: Mr. Chairman, in closing, I would just like to take the opportunity to congratulate the efforts, particularly of the Stinsons in this province, because we, as a caucus, feel that your efforts are vital to everyday life in Canada. Your mandate is absolutely right smack on, if we can make our communities a better place to live with the efforts of people like you, that is how it is achieved. So I want to both thank you and congratulate you for your efforts.
MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Boudreau, and I am sure your comments are echoed by all members of this committee. Excuse me, Mr. Stinson, what we would like to do at this time if we could, perhaps Mrs. Stinson or one of her fellow presenters could take a couple of minutes to summarize or wrap up. We welcome some final comments so to speak.
MRS. MARGARET STINSON: Thank you, I would be happy to do so and I hope I am succinct. There is one aspect that has not been addressed and maybe someone will say
to you afterwards, well I never heard about bloom rating, so let me identify it in the following way. It is similar to a teacher evaluating a student. We have from one to four blooms in the province and one represents a certain percentage, two a percentage, three and four similarly. It is the highest four bloom winner at the provincial level who is invited to the national level. When we have our awards in the fall, it is the five bloom winner at the national level who receives that special award. So I thought I would like you to know that. Four blooms in the province, highest you can get and five blooms at the national level.
Another thing, too, that we haven't identified, for example, you have HRM within our beautiful Province of Nova Scotia. But you could also have communities within HRM which can participate by itself, it has an identity, it can participate at its population level.
In summary, my husband and I are very proud, and I don't say this in a boastful manner at all but Raymond will tell you that last year through our fund-raising, we also have a silent auction, I think you should know that too and four years ago I initiated this and I invited the communities - incidentally this year we had 98 at our national awards - to bring a community pride product and I was overwhelmed with what they brought to the silent auction. This year we realized $3,213 from the silent auction, just fantastic. In addition to that, my husband and I so far, through that fund-raising venue, sold about $2,800 worth of merchandise at the awards, my sister-in-law always makes a hand-crafted quilt and we sold tickets on that and made $1,147 and so far, we have given to Raymond for the national committee $10,000 this year and that is in cash. So you can do it if you believe in it. Thank you for having us. If you have questions, you know where we are and I would be happy to answer them.
MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much for coming in, folks, the pleasure has been ours. To committee members, maybe we could just take a couple of minutes and then we can reconvene as we have issues that must be discussed, relative to our next meeting date.
[2:24 p.m. The committee recessed.]
[2:26 p.m. The committee reconvened.]
MR. CHAIRMAN: Committee members, just for your information, Darlene has completed the draft of the annual report for the Economic Development Committee. I had an opportunity to peruse it and she is going to send it out this week for your approval and perusal and approbation. I think it is an excellent report. I didn't realize that we did so much work as a committee; we did a lot of work and Darlene did a lot of work. I want to thank our recording staff, they did a lot of work. We have excellent cooperation and camaraderie on this committee. Let's hope it continues.
Our next meeting date is October 31st, Hallowe'en, I don't think there is any significance there. The witnesses, Britex Information System and Mr. Brian Ried, are
scheduled to come in. Whereas the House is sitting, is it agreed that the committee will sit from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. or shorter, if possible? Just to go down the road a little further, November 21st would be the next meeting and it is Information Technology Industrial Alliance of Nova Scotia, Mr. Mario Dimello. When the House is in, we will try to sit from 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. Does anyone want to bring anything up?
We are adjourned.
[The committee adjourned at 2:28 p.m.]