Grey County Update: Grey 1 and Rehoming Through | 1being

Grey County Update: Grey 1 and Rehoming

Through you honourable Warden Milne,

So the "Climate Action Team" (CAT as they used to call themselves) did another presentation to the county today, this time about Grey Rd 1 bike lanes. It's an interesting collective largely of wealthy seniors and empty nesters who moved up to the area to retire, and found their calling/past-time in secular social groups such as those focused on political activism. Due to their senior years, they are uninterested in things with long time frames. One time I called them out on their wealth and privilege, always pushing things like electric cars, and other wealthy people's play things, and they sponsored a homeless person to run for Owen Sound City Council in response.

A good principle in modern political groups is that the one who proposes the motion, heads the committee. Taking it a step further in the public-private-partnership arena CAT has many volunteers in their group, enough that they could pave the shoulder with a little guidance and supervision from the County.

Historically, civilizations like Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, and medieval Europe relied on community labor systems such as corvée labor to build and maintain critical infrastructure. These systems utilized citizen contributions to create roads, canals, and public works without heavy reliance on external resources. As we face rising road maintenance costs and the expected decline of fossil-fuel-based economies in the 2030s, adopting similar community-driven models in Grey County could provide a sustainable solution. A pilot project for shoulder paving using volunteer labor, supervised by county foremen, would test the feasibility of this approach while fostering community engagement.

Such as a community-driven initiative to pave a 500-meter stretch of road shoulder using a tar-and-chip method. This approach meets Ontario's minimum construction guidelines while relying primarily on volunteer labor. The county’s role would be to provide materials (150 liters of asphalt emulsion and 37.5 m³ of aggregate, approximately $1,425 in costs) and minimal oversight: a foreman to train volunteers at the start and a supervisor for final inspection.

Volunteers would handle debris clearing, gravel leveling, aggregate spreading, and compaction, reducing labor costs. Equipment needs are minimal: a rented tar sprayer and manual compactors (estimated at $450, covered by the volunteers). This plan delivers a safe, bike-friendly shoulder at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods, making it a collaborative solution to improve road safety efficiently. CAT as previously mentioned is comprised mostly of senior citizens, however such a proposal may motivate them to reach out and connect with the under 50 crowd and get them involved.

okay now on another topic "safe-n'sound" a local soup kitchen and warming center, is applying for a grant to get an additional building where they can have beds for the homeless to get quality sleep at night, and possibly rooms for some privacy.

While certainly it is a humane and rights based initiative. I have concerns because when such a system was implemented in Hanover a few years ago it led to sharp increase in drug related crime, and eventually the building burned down and a dog died. Of course this isn't isolated to just Hanover but similar story has played out all over Canada, though with less fires. The issue is that when people don't have a place to call their own, and something to do, the greatest service they can offer society is to get high so they don't bother anyone, and possibly overdose and die so they bother them not at all, and that's what they end up doing due to systemic pressure of our society that lacks human right to land.

The critical issue being that such safe n' sound accommodation while humane must be a temporary stepping stone until they get land where they can have their own shelter, grow food, firewood, and have a life of dignity, possibly even starting a family and business. Notably it's mostly the under 50 or under 45 people who are still young and able enough to do so on their own, wheras those over 50 would need to be part of a village or community.

While human right to land is mostly a provincial matter, and the land hoarding issue by mega corporations and speculators can only be resolved provincially in a decisive manner. Doug Ford like many boomers is in denial about the housing and cost of living crises, blaming it on people being "lazy", or anyone other than himself, he being the only one with the power to resolve it province wide.

At the county and municipal level there is still the possibility of having incentives for orchard farmers and woodlot owners to allow 1 person per extra hectare to camp there, grow food, firewood, and possibly help out with the orchard or woodlot. This would be a good interim measure until either the province becomes more humane and recognizes the human right to land, and starts implementing Land Protection Acts to force land hoarders to sell, or alternatively Ontario collapses from excessive cruelty to it's residents in the 2030s as the global fossil fuel economy enters free fall.

Such rural camping initiative can also help transition farmers that use foreign labour to using more local labour. Especially since temporary foreign labour is not only becoming more politically difficult, but because as fossil fuel reserves continue to run out fossil fuel based travel costs can only increase. I also talked to the presenter from Safe N' Sound, and she agreed that many of the young homeless people are just trying to make their own way, but simply have no opportunity, and may benefit greatly from the rural agricultural opportunity.

Another relevant point regarding transition is we have to avoid pushing "municipal services" as they are becoming increasingly expensive to maintain, and instead promote decentralized or distributed services which are more sustainable long term. Often pushing municipal services just increases building and running costs to the point it's unattainable for the increasing number of people that have to become agricultural workers/peasants to stay alive, if society would let them.

Industrial parks may be nice, but as fossil fuels run out the amount of non-agricultural workers our planet can sustain keeps dropping, as it has been in Canada for years. Unfortunately due to lack of human right to land, in Canada instead of becoming farmers, people are simply dying in the streets, injection sites or doctors offices via MAiD, as the only measures our government/society is willing to provide them. In effect it turns places like Safe N' Sound into de facto hospices just for young people.

The issue is many politicians aren't following their own Christian faith, cause if they did, they wouldn't become victim to usury predators, and would cultivate forgiveness, love and kindness for all beings, including the human right to land, and Canada would be a much better place. Remember the divine within you has the power, you just have to let it help you and all creation.

As the Confederation of Planets has said: 2022/03/09: "And this path of service to others, this desire to serve, is not a discrete unit. It is not a, shall we say, one-off, but is alive, is an awakening of an intelligence within the self that has its own life and journey of manifestation within the self, such that, as the entity spends time in this interior room, intentionally practicing prayer in service to others, aligning the self to become a vehicle for service to others, this spark ignites more of the tinder of the personality on fire, consuming more and more of the self in this fire, offering the self to this burning, such that it does not stop at interior work alone, but of necessity, manifest outward, first and foremost, as fires are want to do, by radiating metaphysical heat, spiritual light, and the polarizing conditions that aid others and encourage more of the same, more of the positive polarity of harmony and service and beauty and interconnectedness and the honoring of freewill of all."

May you be blessed,