MES Major Papers

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Open Access
The 15-Minute City in Toronto: Insights from Lefebvre and Fanon
(2021-08-31) Amin, Aaminah; Kipfer, Stefan
This major paper examines the spatial and political project of the 15-minute city by drawing on the insights of Henri Lefebvre and Frantz Fanon. This research paper interrogates the 15-minute city urban vision and explores the social and spatial implications of the model. This analysis explores the different contexts where this plan is being promoted, highlighting local dynamics of socio-spatial inequality, state policy, and expectations of social life in urban areas. It applies a conceptual framework that foregrounds the works of Henri Lefebvre and Frantz Fanon which offers insight into the ways that areas can be spatially organized into hierarchical relations and be impacted by racialized and gendered dynamics of everyday life. This paper also examines the 15-minute city in Toronto within existing popular planning discourses and in the context of neoliberal policies and dynamics of socio-spatial inequality. I am engaging in a contextual reading that looks particularly at the role of the state and everyday life in influencing spatial and social relations. The aim of this research is to challenge the underlying assumptions around desirable social life and urban space and to highlight the colonial, capitalist, and neoliberal dimensions of the 15-minute city.
Open Access
The 15-Minute City in Toronto: Insights from Lefebvre and Fanon
(2021-08) Amin, Aaminah; Kipfer, Stefan
This major paper examines the spatial and political project of the 15-minute city by drawing on the insights of Henri Lefebvre and Frantz Fanon. This research paper interrogates the 15-minute city urban vision and explores the social and spatial implications of the model. This analysis explores the different contexts where this plan is being promoted, highlighting local dynamics of socio-spatial inequality, state policy, and expectations of social life in urban areas. It applies a conceptual framework that foregrounds the works of Henri Lefebvre and Frantz Fanon which offers insight into the ways that areas can be spatially organized into hierarchical relations and be impacted by racialized and gendered dynamics of everyday life. This paper also examines the 15-minute city in Toronto within existing popular planning discourses and in the context of neoliberal policies and dynamics of socio-spatial inequality. I am engaging in a contextual reading that looks particularly at the role of the state and everyday life in influencing spatial and social relations. The aim of this research is to challenge the underlying assumptions around desirable social life and urban space and to highlight the colonial, capitalist, and neoliberal dimensions of the 15-minute city.
Open Access
A Climate of Inequality: Evaluating Re-emerging Malaria Risk among Vulnerable Immigrant Populations in the Greater Toronto Area
(2014) Saroli, Miranda; Raphael, Dennis
The impacts of climate change are expected to affect certain groups disproportionately, based on the degree of inequality of social and material resources as defined by the social determinants of health (SDOH) model. One of these predicted impacts includes changes in the incidence and distribution of certain infectious diseases. In southern Ontario, this may include local sporadic outbreaks of malaria. Through travel and immigration, malaria already exists in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) as an imported disease. Although local transmission does not occur within our current context, endemic malaria was present during the 18th and 19th centuries in southern Ontario. As such, malaria as a disease and as a cultural feature has significant presence within this region's past, its present, and possibly its future. The degree to which malaria already poses a health threat within the urban setting of the GTA, and how this may be implicated within a future climate change scenario forms the basis of this paper's investigation. Three temporal scales (past, present, and future) were explored using various disciplines to understand the scope of both imported and potential locally-transmitted malaria. The main goals were to identify who are the vulnerable groups within the GTA and why, to explore how these themes align with historical realities of malaria in this region, and to gauge potential future vulnerability based on intersections between climatic projections and transmission requirements. These topics were investigated through literature review and through interviews with several local infectious disease specialists and health policy officials. With regard to imported malaria, many inadequacies were recognized with respect to Canada's public health system regarding underreporting, surveillance, and disease management. Vulnerable immigrant groups were identified based on their likelihood of travelling to or immigrating from malaria-endemic regions, an overall lack of connectivity with the public health system, high rates of malaria in countries of origin, and, less directly, a disproportionate burden of TB and HIV/AIDS, a high risk of poverty, experiences of racialization, and a lack of power and influence. These circumstances have both immediate and long-term effects on health and well-being, accounting for an increased risk of exposure to malaria infection abroad, as well as determining the severity of infection. Although several groups were identified, multiple-generation south Asian and African immigrants were considered to be particularly high-risk. Historical parallels drawn between past and present susceptible immigrant groups revealed similarities of social and economic disparity and the consequent poor health outcomes. Finally, an exploration of municipal, provincial, and national literature on infectious disease generally and malaria specifically revealed certain barriers to positive social change. Most prominently, a stubborn adherence to the biomedical focus of disease within policy recommendations, associated with reactive measures such as public education and surveillance, were found to undermine the saliency of the SDOH within malaria discourse. This political and economic setting, perhaps irrespective of climate change, may further deepen existing health inequalities felt by vulnerable groups, thus providing a compelling case for the application of the SDOH as an explanatory model within all considerations of health, including infectious disease.
Open Access
A Comparison Of Environmental Assessment (EA) Prediction Practices For Offshore Oil And Gas In Canada And Nigeria: How Do They Compare To Best Practices In EA Literature In Relation To Seabirds And Marine Vertebrates?
(2016) Okpuruka, Charles Bruno Ejimofor; Fraser, Gail
Anthropogenic economic activities are progressively harming the ocean environment. This is true of the oil and gas sector, which has increased in scale, and is a major driver of the offshore economy. Oceans are severally polluted, as a result, through vessels accidents, accidental spills and large oil spill. There is also the challenge posed by seismic activities and operational installations associated with offshore oil and gas projects. Evidently, offshore oil and gas operations levy extensive impacts on seabirds and marine vertebrates, and the totality of the marine environment. The goal of Environment Assessment (EA) is to predict project environmental impacts with a reasonable degree of certainty. In the offshore oil and gas sector of most jurisdictions, EA is a compulsory requirement for project approvals. This paper considered the EA prediction practices of Canada and Nigeria. In the process, the Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) of the Terra Nova and Hebron offshore oil projects in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada and the Diebu Creek and Jones Creek Nearshore oil projects of the Niger-Delta of Nigeria, were analyzed and compared. The objective was to investigate the EA prediction processes of these two countries and how they met best practices, in relation to predictions on seabirds and turtles. The paper concludes with a critical evaluation of the performance of the sampled EIS documents. The outcome of the analysis indicated a weaker EA prediction regime in Nigeria. The Canadian counterpart appeared stronger in its adaptation to best practices, although there are gaps in the process, suggesting a necessity for improvement.
Open Access
A Materialist Acoustemology of Urban Atmospheres in Mexico City's Centro Histórico
(2017) Martínez De Velasco, Guillermo; Gilbert, Liette
The resonant frequency of sound, that is to say, the vibratory quality of sound, is felt and registered by our bodies in a way that goes beyond the audible. In an urban environment, the combination of sounds creates a sonic topography that manifests itself in the environmental qualities of a place. Sound is an integral constituent of atmospheric construction. How we think and feel sound is contingent on the architectural and lived conditions of space. In turn, the configuration of space is linked to capitalist-nationalist practices of urban development. This paper takes a materialist approach to urban sound in two areas of Mexico City's central district (Centro Histórico). The first is the corridor made up by San Jerónimo and Regina Streets and the second is the area known as La Merced. Through a combination of sound recordings, soundwalks and interviews with local residents, this paper aims to gain insights the construction of the built environment and its relation to quotidian interactions with situated sound atmospheres in the context of urban regeneration. Additionally, this paper seeks to bring to the forefront aural research methods as a way of approaching the nuances of urban life at the intersection of political economy, geography, and ecology.
Open Access
A Moist Seedy Endivor: The Making of the Toronto Seed Library
(2015) Berger, Katherine; MacRae, Rod
It is now widely recognized that the contemporary global food system is characterized by structural weaknesses that threaten the ecological, social, and economic sustainability of our societies. The world-wide predominance of several types of malnutrition, degradation of the natural environment, and inhumane conditions for humans and animals alike offers overwhelming evidence that a fundamental restructuring of the food system is needed if people are to continue to survive and thrive (Lang, 2009). While purported technological 'fixes' to food system problems abound (functional foods, bio-fuels, genetically modified seeds, etc.), leading food systems experts argue that advances in technology will be sorely inadequate to address –and in fact may actually exacerbate – issues that have arisen not from inherent technical or economic limitations, but primarily from government failure (Lang, 2007; Roberts, 2010). The food system in Canada "is increasingly implicated in creating the conditions compromising human and environmental health" (Macrae, Abergel & Koc, 2012, p3). The failure of our nutritional policies and programs has become clear as the nutritional health of Canadians continues to deteriorate. Levels of obesity are still rising even as more and more people struggle to get enough to eat (ibid). Since 2005, the number of people suffering from food insecurity1 has grown or persisted in all provinces and territories (PROOF, 2012). According to a 2012 study, 4 million people, including 1.15 million children, lived in households that struggled to access the food they needed to maintain good health. Out of those households 336,700 were living at a level of deprivation experts define as 'extreme food insecurity' (ibid). In addition, while modest improvements have been made in some agri-environmental conditions, others continue to worsen including greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient contamination of waterways (Lefebvre, 2005). Concerns about how this pollution from industrial agriculture 1 Food security is said to exist "when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life. Commonly, the concept of food security is defined as including both physical and economic access to food that meets people's dietary needs as well as their food preferences." (World Health Organization, nd) contributes to climate change, concurrently rising levels of hunger and obesity, food waste, the effects of GM technology and pesticide build up, on human, animal and soil health, loss of biodiversity, highly unsustainable water use, animal cruelty in and the human health effects of intensive meat and dairy production, unjust and unsafe labour conditions for migrant farm workers, and regularly occurring food safety scares among other reasons have made consumers increasingly apprehensive about how the Canadian food supply is being managed (Macrae, Abergel & Koc, 2012). According to a 2015 report by the National Farmers Union, Canadian farmers themselves are no less concerned (National Farmers Union, 2015). Canadian agricultural policy continues to reflect a productivist, export oriented agenda rather than prioritizing ecological sustainability, human health and social welfare (Macrae, Abergel & Koc, 2012). Farmer autonomy and local control of land – what the National Farmers Union calls 'the foundations of food sovereignty2' – are under increasing threat. Significant changes have been made to agriculture related laws, policies, and institutions in Canada since 2010. These changes weaken farmers' market power and increase farm costs while benefiting agribusiness corporations. For example, the destruction of the single-desk Wheat Board in 2012 – which occurred under the auspices of trade liberalization – has done severe damage to the prairie grain economy, compromising prices and equitable delivery opportunities (National Farmers Union, 2015). The threat of corporate control over seeds is also becoming increasingly serious, reducing farmer control of land and livelihoods even further. This makes it more and more difficult for farmers to make long term decisions that prioritize ecological and social sustainability over immediate revenues (ibid).
Open Access
A Review of Watershed Restoration Practices and Partnerships in the Toronto region
(2018) Mackie, Elise; Winfield, Mark S.
With the continued urbanization of cities through the Great Lakes Basin, the continued degradation of these areas will occur without substantial efforts to restore the natural environment. The research in this paper explores the sustainability of the watershed restoration project implemented in the Toronto region of Ontario Canada. It is assessed through the use of four indicators: Land and Water Acquisition, Adaptive Management, Funding Process, and Public Participation and Community development. The lessons learned through the research, interviews, and analysis of four watershed restoration case studies in the Toronto region help to inform and improve on the methods and tools used for watershed restoration projects across the Great Lake Basin. The normative UPE framework used to assess the sustainability of watershed restoration projects uncovered some significant issues in the entire watershed management framework. This combined with pragmatic methods and tools like adaptive management, provides insights and information concerning the intricate relationship between watershed restoration and the social, political and economic sphere. The recommendations for future watershed restoration work include enacting a streamlined watershed restoration communication centre, a standardizing an adaptive management framework through consistent funding tactics, and implementing innovative public engagement tools. This is all to help advance the sustainability of the watershed restoration projects, and the overall health and sustainability of the Toronto region watersheds. This might ultimately shift us from an era of watershed degradation in the Toronto region to an era of watershed restoration and help mitigate the impacts from urbanization through sustainable watershed restoration projects.
Open Access
A Snapshot of Socio-Economic Dynamics Influencing Indigenous Canada
(2017) Djokic, Andrijana; Slowey, Gabrielle A.
Open Access
A Spatially Explicit Assessment of the Biocapacity of Brazilian Forests from 2001 to 2019
(2021-12-31) Kapoor, Chaya; Mulvihill, Peter
Through the demand for resources and ecosystem services, the accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide poses a striking example of how humanity exceeds the regenerative and absorptive capacity of the biosphere. The magnitude to which humans exceed this threshold is often expressed using the Ecological Footprint (EF) methodology. This approach tracks the amount of biologically productive areas on Earth for which human demands compete. Forested land is an integral component of the EF methodology since it is expected to meet multiple competing demands. This paper assesses the forest component of the National Footprint & Biocapacity Accounting (NFBA) framework – the most widely known application of the EF methodology. It investigates the forest component from a methodological and data perspective through an extensive literature review. Since the discussion of outdated input data to the forest component seems neglected in the literature, this study explores alternative datasets to estimate a key parameter of the carbon Footprint (cF), the Average Forest Carbon Sequestration (AFCS). A spatially explicit analysis involving net primary productivity (NPP) and land use datasets is conducted to generate forest metrics and timeseries data for the country of Brazil between 2001 and 2019. The results are subsequently compared to forest area and biocapacity data found in the NFBAs. The outcome of this analysis presents forest extent and productivity data in a more nuanced manner which could work towards improving the robustness of the Accounts if applied at the global scale.
Open Access
A Sustainability Assessment Review Of The Highland Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant (hctp) Biosolids Management Class Environmental Assessment (2016): Sustainable Assessment Leverage Points Analysis
(2017) Korinjoh, Abisola Modupe; Mulvihill, Peter R.
This research paper examines sustainable methods used to assess potential and current waste management policies, plans, projects, and programs. The Highland Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant Class B environmental assessment serves as a case study. This investigation is achieved by utilizing strategic EA methodology alongside Gibson's sustainability assessment protocol. The idea is to seek valuable knowledge that can be applied as a guide in order to integrate and align waste management processes in its entirety more closely to greater goals of sustainable development. Integration (social, economic and environmental factors), strategic management and environmental assessments serve as the bedrock for achieving sustainable waste management strategies and practices that are more adaptable to any contextual uniqueness. These three pillars are embodied within the methodology of strategic EA. Most current waste management practices and plans are designed in an attempt to enhance cohesion within these systems however, cohesion is usually limited to the recovery of nutrients, materials, and energy from waste streams which are hardware components. Hard component recovery is aimed at reducing landfill disposals of waste and improving recyclable content. Although this is necessary, issues arise when credit is awarded to increased waste diversion rates (evident in the report on data retrieved by statistic Canada on disposal and diversion of waste showing increases by provinces and territories between the years 2012-2014) while these may be masking overall rise in waste generation (this is in references to the “D” grade on municipal waste generation given to Canada by OECD report in- State of waste management in Canada : Giroux environmental Consulting 2014). In response many developed countries like Canada have made significant attempts to adopt mechanisms that address article 12 Kyoto Protocol on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) (Shrestha & Timilsina 2002) by designing policies and plans such as Waste Action Plan and the very ambitious Zero Waste management hierarchy of 2014 amongst others (CD4CDM, Malawi). These are aimed at providing specific and targeted depth to 3Rs strategy (reduce, reuse and recycle) by placing emphasis on all participants involved in the waste production and management such as, policymakers, industry, and individuals (stakeholders). Solutions such as policies designed to enable the best and lowest use of materials by encouraging activities and investments that promote the preferred hierarchy of reduction as well as solutions intended to assist in developing a guide that will promote the development of systems and products designed to advance a zero waste policy are being implemented in Canada (Giroux environmental Consulting 2014). Although these are well intended and acknowledgment should be awarded for waste diversion gains, In order for there to be a corresponding and significant decrease in waste generation there needs to be improvements within the methodology delivering on plans, policies, programs, and practices. Improvements in the areas of connectedness, integration, strategic management, stakeholder involvement and environmental assessments are integral to sustainable waste management.
Open Access
Aboriginal Land Title and Indigenous Nationalism
(2018) Moustaqim-Barrette, Assya-Khadija; Lehrer, Ute A.
This paper overviews the question of aboriginal land title, positioning it in the context of the broader Canadian political economy. Aboriginal land title is an evolving legal concept which has carved out a unique social, legal and political space regarding the property rights in Canada. To analyze this evolution, the progress of aboriginal land title is analyzed from the standpoint of the province of British Columbia. In order to argue for the need to integrate aboriginal struggles around land within a broader socialist movement, I explore the following questions: What are the liberal capitalist epistemologies on land? What are the indigenous concepts of epistemologies of land? How are the indigenous concepts of land effected by capitalism? How are indigenous communities reviewing/maintaining/overhauling these epistemologies in light of the current political economy of neoliberal capitalism? This paper will use the works of Canadian indigenous scholar Howard Adams as a reference point through which to examine these questions.
Open Access
Accessory Dwelling Units And Housing Affordability In A Resistant City: Overcoming Parochialism And Restrictive Zoning In Palo Alto
(2015) Smith, Adrienne; Mulvihill, Peter R.
The San Francisco Bay Area of California is in the midst of a housing supply and affordability crisis. As the birthplace of Silicon Valley and home to many technology powerhouses and startups attracting many newcomers, the City of Palo Alto, California shares in the greater Bay Area’s struggle for sufficient housing supply and affordability. Palo Alto has experienced incredible growth as a technology powerhouse since the 1960’s, which has placed great pressures on the housing supply and resulted in a remarkable increase in property values attainable to only the very wealthy. There is no one catchall solution to Palo Alto’s housing supply and affordability struggle but one promising tool is development of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) in the city’s single family residential districts. ADUs allow for unobtrusive, gradual intensification while increasing the housing stock and helping to ease unaffordability. This major research paper traces the roots of Palo Alto’s rise in the technology sector, the housing affordability crisis and the political and policy-based barriers that have so far prevented the facilitation of an effective ADU program. The perspectives of ADUs amongst Palo Altans will be assessed and the outlook for ADUs to be used as housing affordability tool in Palo Alto’s near future will be considered.
Open Access
Achieving equity in public transit planning: A critical assessment of Markham, Ontario's Highway 7 rapid transit corridor
(2015) Dionigi, Anthony; Young, Douglas G.
Contrary to other research that critically assesses transit projects using an equity imperative, the primary intent of this research is not only an empirical assessment of physical barriers which contribute to diminished transit access, but also a critical assessment of the policies used to guide the Highway 7 vivaNext Rapidway and land use development across York Region and Markham. A review of broad policy frameworks, I argue, is necessary to begin addressing issues that transit equity experts continuously raise. My research reviews transit equity and social exclusion literature to provide readers with an understanding of how equity can be defined and why appropriate terminology is important when planning transit infrastructure projects. In forming a critical assessment of the Highway 7 rapid transit corridor, I use a political economy framework to examine the growth imperative used in justifying greater density on Highway 7, and the continually changing nature of governing regimes involving both public and private sector actors. With social vulnerability growing in both Markham and York Region, it becomes increasingly relevant to assess policy in order to determine how planning processes could produce more equitable outcomes. Equity should be a key component in planning public transit however, equitable outcomes will become more difficult to achieve if transit continues to be less of a "public" infrastructure, and more of a "private" responsibility.
Open Access
Action Research in the Impact Field of Documentary Films
(2022-08-31) Campos, Tamotsu; Stiegman, Martha
This major portfolio explores the growing field of impact producing in so-called Canada. This research seeks to explore the questions of how impact producing can contribute to meaningful social change, what are the main skills needed to become an impact producer and how do we train people to become impact producers? This portfolio has two components; 1) an overview of the development and implementation of a 15 week program to mentor new impact producers and 2) experiential learnings and reflections on the impact campaigns for three documentaries; No Visible Trauma, Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy and The Klabona Keepers. Much of this research involves an active partnership with Story Money Impact, a small charity that focuses on building up an impact producing sector in so-called Canada.
Open Access
Active 18 & The West Queen West Triangle: A Case Study In The Politics Of "Good Planning"
(2017) Santiago, Ryan; Lehrer, Ute A.
This paper explores the relationship between community members and planners in Toronto as notions of “good planning” are formed, and how a prevailing interpretation of “good planning” that is born from this relationship shapes Toronto’s urban landscape. The redevelopment of Toronto’s West Queen West Triangle (WQWT) from 2005-2008, with special attention to the efforts of the community organization Active 18, is used as a case study to explore how good planning principles are differentially informed by knowledge from community members relative to professional or expert knowledge. Two main questions guide the analysis of this case study: (1) How did the efforts of Active 18 help define and interpret “good planning” policy, and (2) how do the material impacts of their efforts fulfill the expectations of “good planning” as set out during the WQWT’s redevelopment between 2005-2008?
Open Access
Activist Social Entrepreneurship: A Case Study of the Green Campus Co-operative
(2018) Hopper, Madison; MacRae, Roderick J.
The globalization of the garment industry has encouraged transnational companies to further externalize their cost of production on workers and the environment around the world. Producing countries are engaging in what many scholars refer to as a “race to the bottom” regarding global wages and labor standards as these countries compete to attract foreign investment. There have been many attempts to push back against the egregious effects of this process through anti- sweatshop campaigns, laws, codes of conduct, union activism, and most recently, social enterprise. While these actors have traction in some ways we have yet to see significant changes in the behaviour of transnational corporations. This action- research case study introduces the concept of the activist social enterprise that not only engages in commercial activity but also advances a social and/or environmental mission through institutional entrepreneurship practices, in this specific case fair trade. Using institutional entrepreneurship theory, social capital theory and cognitive frames theory this case study attempts to create a normative framework to understand how social enterprises can begin to pave the way for systemic change in the garment industry by: 1. Fighting to capture and influence institutional norms and regulations of business behaviour. 2. Training managers to embrace the navigation of trade-offs between economic, social and environmental progress. 3. Leverage social capital to develop a radical mainstreaming distribution strategy when competing with traditional corporations.
Open Access
Addressing Climate Change and Grassroots Level Adaptation Measures to Food Security in Northwestern Bangladesh
(2019) Rahman, Tahsin; Perkins, Patricia Elaine
Climate change is no longer a new phenomenon; it is one of the foremost challenges of the 21st century and is a dire threat to all of humanity. Although it is an international spectacle, its impacts are not equally distributed throughout the world. Several factors make the Global South more vulnerable to its impacts, such as extreme population pressures, rural-urban and refugee migration, and lower financial resources, amongst many other dynamics. It is known that in developing countries such as in Bangladesh, which is commonly known as the ‘ground zero for climate change’ and where four fifths of the land is floodplains, the consequences of climate change will be devastating. In Dhaka there are approximately 1,115.62 people per square kilometer, which makes it rank tenth highest in the world, in terms of its population density (World Population Review, 2017). It has been predicted by the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2014) that global sea levels will rise by up to ~60cm by the year 2100. Therefore, the need to find solutions to climate change has become acutely urgent. Adaptation measures in developing countries, such as Bangladesh include “any adjustment - passive, reactive, or anticipatory - that can respond to anticipated or actual consequences associated with climate change" (Alam et al, 1999). This paper has relied on extensive literature review, case studies and long distance telephone interviews to explore the following: i) observed climate change in Bangladesh: ii) climate change impacts on crop productivity, mainly on rice: iii) Bangladesh’s government policies on climate change: iv) local grassroots level adaptation measures in the agriculture sector. Overall, I have found that there has been a very positive trend towards adopting adaptation measures such as floating gardens, high yielding varieties of rice and sand bar cropping; however only certain regions have been using such measures. The challenges climate change poses for Bangladesh remain staggering.
Open Access
Addressing Community Development through Sustainable Mining Practices: The case of Abosso Goldfields (Damang) in Ghana.
(2016) Essah, Marcellinus; Perkins, Patricia Ellie
The performance of the gold mining industry globally is in no doubt. However, the industry's susceptibility to the frequent rise and fall in the price of gold, coupled with the various negative impacts it generates in mining communities have made it reliability for economic growth and development questionable. These impacts have often been grouped under environmental, social and economic impacts. Using a case study of Goldfields Damang in Ghana, this study examined in detail how stakeholder communities within the catchment areas of Goldfields can be developed through sustainable mining practices. The study used political ecology theory to understand the powers of the various actors (multinational companies and government) and to further investigate how decisions taken by these bodies have led to a devastation of the local environment. The study revealed that while Goldfields Damang has been doing a lot in terms of development in the areas of education, livelihood programs and infrastructure, community members on the other hand are not satisfied because the developmental project are not sustainable in the long term. To community members, issues such as unemployment, pollution and compensation were key if Goldfields Damang aims to address sustainable development in their operations. The study concluded that what mining companies cite as sustainable practices are the same as their corporate social responsibilities, except the reclamation practices which are geared towards restoring the nutrients of the soil. Also, the study calls for deep attention to be paid to public participation in the Environmental Impact Assessment process if community development is to be effectively addressed by mining companies.
Open Access
Addressing Community Exposure to Hydrogen Sulfide in the Saskatchewan Oilpatch: Interdisciplinary Investigations as a Lever to Expose Industrial Risk
(2019) Malivel, Garance; Wylie, Sara
How can communities from poorly regulated industrial regions assess their exposure to environmental contaminants? And what resources could their collaboration with interdisciplinary research groups provide to address the environmental health risks they are exposed to? A corrosive neurotoxic gas, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is produced by the bacterial degradation of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Characterized by a strong rotten-egg smell, it can be released through industrial processes like oil and gas extraction, sewage treatment, paper production, and hog farming. In the fall of 2017, several news articles published in Global News, the National Observer, and the Toronto Star, alerted readers to hazardous levels of H2S emissions from oil and gas facilities in southeast Saskatchewan. Several incidents involving H2S were also reported—including the death in 2014 of a worker from a local oil company. If H2S has been recognized as a major workplace hazard, it remains poorly monitored and regulated in residential areas affected by fugitive emissions. In fossil fuel producing regions, this concern has been growing with the development of oil and gas enhanced recovery techniques, such as hydraulic fracturing, that can contribute to H2S proliferation. Why is community exposure to H2S exposure so poorly prevented, while an increasing number of people live near oil and gas facilities? And why, despite being aware of significant exposure risks, has the Saskatchewan Government remained mostly silent on the issue and failed to take binding action? This paper explores the interdisciplinary collaboration between an investigative media consortium, The Price of Oil, a team of social and data scientists, the Wylie Lab at Northeastern University in Boston, and a community group to assess residents’ exposure to H2S in southeast Saskatchewan. While The Price of Oil conducted extensive research, interviews, and Freedom of Information requests, the Wylie Lab developed with several families an experimental air monitoring study to detect H2S around their living place. Conceived as a low-cost method to address the lack of accessible H2S monitoring instruments and provide preliminary data on exposure to corrosive gases, the testing kit uses samples of photographic paper that darken when reacting with sulfur gases. The findings from the interdisciplinary investigation have been reported in two series of news articles, published by The Price of Oil in national media outlets in October 2017 and October 2018. To analyze this collaboration and the environmental health risks it addresses, I first examine the conditions of production of H2S, and the ways in which the economic and regulatory orientations of the Saskatchewan Government have contributed to the creation of exposure risk. I then evaluate the resources that interdisciplinary investigations can offer to expose such environmental health risks, and to make them graspable through counter-narratives and what I call “operative data”. Finally, based on the preliminary outcomes of the investigation conducted in southeast Saskatchewan, I highlight the potential of such collaborations to consolidate community capacity, and to trigger greater public and corporate accountability mechanisms.
Open Access
Adopting Sustainability: Greywater Recycling and Ontario's Transitioning Water Management Regime
(2017) Crawford, Dane (Jonathan); Winfield, Mark S.
Greywater is a technology with the potential to reduce water demand. This paper looks to answer, is Ontario's water management regime is undergoing a sustainability transition that is conducive of greywater technology's adoption? The multi-level perspective has been applied as a theoretical framework to comprehend this as a technological transition within a sociotechnical system. The multi-level perspective perceives transitions to be the result of interactions between actors at multiple levels of a system. Policy was identified as the dominant factor in determining the answer posed by this research. Selections from Ontario's policy-led planning structure illustrate how the province's water management regime is currently transitioning toward sustainability objectives that are accepting of greywater technology. However, widespread adoption of the technology has not occurred. A review of key barriers suggests that amendments in policy could potentially facilitate adoption of the technology.