Podcasts about Southern Ontario

Join us for this lovely episode in which Emily Wood talks about the magic of using a different format (scriptwriting!) for unlocking stuckness, as well as sharing about the best launch day ever! Emily Wood was born and raised in rural Southern Ontario, Canada, where her days were spent as a stereotypical horse girl and her nights as the quintessential bookworm. The former journalist and newspaper editor now works in library services by day, and spends her evenings spinning stories that will make you blush, filled with heat, humour, and found family. Her superpowers include having full conversations in movie quotes and responding to any text message with the perfect meme, and when she's not writing she enjoys reading, hiking with her husband and golden mountain doodle, and being lakeside with a blank page and a cup of tea. Just My Luck is her debut novel. ⚙️ Writing in the Junkyard: July 11 & 12 - click HERE!

The era of top-down energy projects is over. Today demands collaboration, equity, and stakeholder engagement. And in the clean energy movement, Indigenous partnerships often lead the way. James Jenkins, Executive Director of Indigenous Clean Energy, joins thinkenergy to unpack the Regenerative Energy 2026 Report. He explores what a just transition looks like, how Indigenous communities are shaping the future, and what the industry can learn from working together. Related links:  Indigenous Clean Energy: https://indigenouscleanenergy.com/ James Jenkins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-jenkins-27787913b/ Regenerative Energy 2026 Report: https://indigenouscleanenergy.com/regenerative-energy-national-survey-2026/ Bringing it Home Program: https://indigenouscleanenergy.com/our-programs/bringing-it-home/  Trevor Freeman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-freeman-p-eng-8b612114  Hydro Ottawa: https://hydroottawa.com/en    To subscribe using Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405 To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/@thinkenergypod Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thinkenergypod/  Stay in the know on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thinkenergypod  Keep up with the posts on X: https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod -- Transcript: [00:00] Trevor Freeman: Welcome to Think Energy, a podcast that dives into the fast-changing world of energy through conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and people on the front lines of the energy transition. Join me, Trevor Freeman, as I explore the traditional, unconventional, and up-and-coming facets of the energy industry. If you have any thoughts, feedback, or ideas for topics we should cover, please reach out to us at thinkenergy@hydroottawa.com. [00:26] Trevor Freeman: Hi everyone, and welcome back. We often talk on this show about the what of the energy transition. What needs to happen, what is happening, what technologies or initiatives are growing or up-and-coming. But it's also important to consider the how of it all. Energy systems are complex. That is something that should be clear in all the conversations we have around here, but it's not just technical complexity that we need to consider. Our energy systems are also socially, politically, and societally complex. It's not just a matter of picking the right technology and implementing it. If it was that case, we've got, you know, most of the technology we need, and we'd be in a much better position than we currently are. We have to figure out how we move these projects forward. [01:14] Trevor Freeman: Traditionally, energy projects have been these large, top-down infrastructure projects. But increasingly, we're moving into a time when collaboration, equity, and stakeholder engagement are critical components of project success. One area where this can be seen—and, in fact, it's an area that's really pushing a lot of this change—is Indigenous leadership. [01:38] Trevor Freeman: Over the past decade here in Canada, at least, we've seen a profound evolution where Indigenous communities are not just participants in the clean energy transition or kind of bystanders; they are actively leading it in many cases. That's not to say all the problems or challenges have been solved, but we're seeing a lot of movement here. And that's the topic of my conversation today. [02:02] Trevor Freeman: To help us understand the scale of this movement, I'm joined by James Jenkins. James is the Executive Director of Indigenous Clean Energy, which is a leading organization accelerating First Nations, Inuit, and Métis participation in clean energy projects from coast to coast. I'm really excited to have James on the show today because his expertise comes straight from real, actual experience on these projects. As a proud member and former CEO of the Walpole Island First Nation, James personally drove the equity development for two 100-megawatt wind farms for his community. Today, he leverages that firsthand experience along with a diverse background in consulting, local government, and academia to serve as a national champion for Indigenous clean energy partnerships. [02:54] Trevor Freeman: His organization just released their third national survey, the Regenerative Energy 2026 report, which provides a really eye-opening snapshot of how Indigenous communities are shaping Canada's energy future through innovation, equity ownership, and community-driven solutions. So today, we're going to dive into the findings of this report, talk a little bit about, you know, what a just energy transition looks like, and explore what utility and industry players can learn from these successful partnerships. James Jenkins, welcome to the show. [03:31] James Jenkins: Hi Trevor, thank you for having me. [03:34] Trevor Freeman: So, James, let's start a little bit with some background. Tell us about Indigenous Clean Energy and how your organization works to advance First Nations, Inuit, and Métis participation in the clean energy sector. [03:47] James Jenkins: Sure. Indigenous Clean Energy is a not-for-profit organization, and we've been operating for about 10 years. So we started 10 years ago with the 2020 Catalyst Program, which was designed to develop a cohort of clean energy leaders coming primarily from Indigenous communities and businesses that could really shape the future of Indigenous participation in the energy transition. So we started with a cohort. It was led by just a few staff and our founding director, Chris Henderson. And this is our 10th year, so we'll be celebrating 10 years of the 2020 Catalyst Program at our national gathering in August. [04:24] Trevor Freeman: Awesome. Congrats. [04:26] James Jenkins: Thank you so much. So the goal of that program was to really expand the opportunities, the capacity, and the number of communities engaged in clean energy. And we have seen that progress tremendously over the last 10 years. We've seen federal grant programs to support that work also emerge as major contributors, and we've seen utilities across the country get on board and try to find ways to expand Indigenous participation. [04:54] James Jenkins: So we've seen quite a bit of success, and with that success, we've grown as well. So we're now a team of about 35, and we're much larger. So we've expanded into a few other areas. One of them is youth, so we have two different youth programs. And we've expanded into energy efficiency as well, mostly under our "Bringing It Home" umbrella. [05:16] James Jenkins: And the idea behind that is we've seen the success of the 2020 Catalyst Program and clean energy leaders really pushing the envelope in terms of what is possible when it comes to Indigenous-led generation projects. So now we're identifying a gap still existing when it comes to energy efficiency. And so, in a way, we're trying to replicate the success of the 2020 Catalyst Program. We'll be running our third year of the Project Accelerator soon. So that's geared towards energy efficiency; it's an intensive training program, and it comes with a grant. [05:47] James Jenkins: And finally, we have a policy arm as well that's also very involved in engaging at the community and regional level. So that's through our Energy and Climate team, and we have a national hub that just completed a series of directional gatherings regionally. We also have a global hub as well that's active in Oceania and Latin America. [06:09] Trevor Freeman: Oh, that's fantastic. Tell me a little bit about the youth programs that you're running. [06:14] James Jenkins: So, we support youth across our programs, but we have two programs in particular that are geared towards youth. One of them is the Imagination Program, which comes with wrap-around supports and training. Right now, we're developing a micro-credential with the University of Saskatchewan for our program participants. It comes with a grant to lead a community-scale project. A good example might be a solar-powered greenhouse. Many of them are linked to schools, and, you know, we see the passion of younger members of communities that want to move these projects forward, but it's entrepreneurial in spirit. [06:49] James Jenkins: The second is called Generation Power, which is a wage subsidy program for Indigenous youth, and we pair them with employers in the clean energy field. So some of them are utilities or renewable businesses; in some cases, they're communities or Indigenous businesses that are moving forward on projects. And it's more than just a wage subsidy; we identify all of the potential barriers for Indigenous youth entering these jobs and provide those kinds of support to increase their chance of success and staying in the workforce after the placement. [07:22] Trevor Freeman: Oh, that's very cool. We've talked a few times on this show about building that next generation of energy champions and people that are focused, you know, on this new form of energy—this new energy transition or this new world of energy that we're moving into. So fantastic to see you guys participating in that. That's really cool. [07:42] Trevor Freeman: So, I want to spend some of our time here talking about the report that your organization recently released titled Regenerative Energy 2026. So before we dive into the specific data and the numbers, let's talk about, you know, just that title itself and what the document sets out to achieve. So first of all, tell us about that term, "regenerative energy." What does that mean? Why did you choose that title? [08:09] James Jenkins: Sure. So just generally, regenerative energy is the idea that these projects are doing more than producing electricity for the market and potentially bringing in revenue. They're also contributing to the broader ecosystem, which could mean the ecology of the landscape or a reduction of carbon into the atmosphere. So it's looking at the wider impacts and planning energy with that in mind. [08:33] James Jenkins: In the Indigenous context, it goes deeper than that. We're incorporating sovereignty, energy sovereignty, and acknowledging that communities are increasingly expecting to be able to move through their energy journey on their own terms. And so that could mean other outcomes in addition to just energy stability and security. It expands to food security, but also ultimately the community being able to plan its future—how does energy fit into that? [09:03] James Jenkins: I think it fits into what we're seeing in Indigenous communities in general, where there is a need to revitalize our cultures, our practices, our governance structures. We're finding that the energy sector—it's a business sector and an opportunity and an expanding sector—but there's also alignment in terms of values in many places, with communities looking to have an impact on their landscape, on the ecology, and this is a way to do that. [09:30] James Jenkins: So regenerative energy is acknowledging that there is this revitalization happening. It's not as though our communities, our governments, our nations were extinguished over the last 300 years. What does it mean in terms of revitalizing those practices, and how do all of these projects and ambitions when it comes to energy fit into that? [09:51] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, I like that description. Thanks for that, James. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but is it fair to say that the choice to use "regenerative" instead of "renewable"—which is fairly buzzy as a term, everyone kind of has renewable energy on their mind—was a deliberate choice? You're building more aspects to it; there are more facets of the description you just gave of regenerative energy compared to just renewable energy. Is that fair to say? [10:19] James Jenkins: Well, and that's true as well. And as you've read in the report, we're seeing projects expand beyond just what we would term "renewable" projects. So that was the bulk of the projects up until recently, but now transmission lines and battery storage are becoming more prominent. [10:36] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, absolutely. Great. Okay, I do want to talk to you about that. So my second question kind of at a high level around the report is, you know, one of the goals or one of the things you're doing in this report is really compiling and tracking national data around these projects. Why is that important? Why is that something that you're striving to do—to really track and compile that data? [10:59] James Jenkins: Well, in the context right now, we have a federal government that is trying to identify meaningful projects that can have an impact on the economy, have an impact on spurring economic growth in different regions. And so it's a critical time for us to broadcast information on our dataset because collectively, these projects that have Indigenous ownership and co-ownership are a massive portion of the electricity generating infrastructure of Canada, and they have a meaningful impact on the economy, but also the ability for communities to finance their own programs, to reinvest in economic development. [11:36] James Jenkins: So it's a critical time from that perspective. I think there's a need for us to be even louder because collectively as a nation, we seem to be looking for these wins that can be a shot in the arm. You know, we're worried about economic growth, and here we have many examples of projects that have Indigenous participation and that are having these benefits that are allowing different regions that are not participating in the economy in as active a way—this is a real opportunity for them. [12:05] James Jenkins: And unlike many of the mega-projects that we're thinking about right now, these have shorter timeframes, less challenges, and the risk is much more manageable in comparison. So, you know, we are trying to point out that, A, these kinds of projects—which are renewables, but also battery storage and some of these other projects—these are important for the federal government to continue to invest in because they have been investing in it heavily over the last 10 years, and that's part of the success story. [12:35] James Jenkins: But there is also a set of learnings that can be drawn from when we have so many examples of good partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations moving these projects forward. So I think when we look into the future as to how this should look, what does Indigenous participation look like for these mega-projects, we have a bit of a blueprint that we can draw from. [12:57] James Jenkins: And so we are trying to bring more attention to this. I think it's really step one. The federal government can pat itself on the back that it's been one of the key reasons why Indigenous participation in the energy sector has grown over the last 10 years, but it's not getting the attention it deserves in the current conversation. So I think that's why it's a really critical time, possibly for other non-government actors as well that are asking, "Well, in the current global and national framework, what is the best way to achieve climate outcomes, Indigenous participation in the economy, greater social outcomes?" And so we do want to point to this as a good news story that has a track record, and that's what the data really does—it speaks to that track record. [13:41] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, you often hear it framed, and in fact, just, you know, we're recording this on a Monday—just over the weekend I was listening to the radio, one of those call-in shows that really framed the choice as, "you know, we either invest in climate solutions or we focus on the economy." And I think you can probably say, "we invest in, you know, Indigenous partnership or the economy, or climate solutions." And what I'm hearing from you is it doesn't have to be a zero-sum game. It doesn't have to be either/or. In fact, the data you're showing and the projects that you're highlighting show that all of these outcomes can be achieved with the right focus and with the right investment. Is that fair to say? [14:21] James Jenkins: It is. And generally, the bucket of renewable projects or clean energy projects, the timelines are shorter, the cost is going to be easier to quantify, and the cost is coming down for these technologies—wind, solar, battery—in comparison to some of the other technologies that are being framed as the solution, which I think they will be. But framing it as either/or doesn't make much sense, especially when electricity demand is growing and it's an immediate issue. [14:51] James Jenkins: So we should look at some of these immediate solutions and acknowledge it's still a question mark for some of the other sectors that are going to be involved in building out our electricity capacity. Mining, some of these other sectors, there are some examples of Indigenous participation, but not hundreds of examples of equity participation. And so, absolutely, I've been hearing those kinds of either/or arguments, or "no more federal grants, we should have access to capital instead." That could do a real injustice to the existing capacity that's already there, like the number of people in energy offices at Indigenous communities right now. [15:28] Trevor Freeman: Yeah. So let's dive into some of the data then. You know, you see headlines sometimes about major Indigenous clean energy projects happening in collaboration, and the data in your report really backs this up. I don't want to throw too many stats out there for our listeners, but just quickly, you know, there are over 350 medium-to-large electricity generation projects across Canada with Indigenous participation. We've got 250 of those already operational, the rest in either construction or planning stages. From your perspective, James, you kind of already touched on this—the role of the federal government driving some of this momentum and visibility—just expand on that a little bit. Like, how did we get to these pretty impressive numbers where we're seeing lots of these projects? [16:15] James Jenkins: Sure, definitely. I think the origin goes back at least to around 2000 to 2008 when there was a series of Supreme Court decisions that ruled in favor of Indigenous communities when it comes to the duty to consult and accommodate—that's what the Supreme Court ultimately called it. So that's a framework that was very important when it came to Indigenous engagement in energy projects. [16:43] James Jenkins: As the UN Declaration starts to gain traction in our country, it may become less important, but it was certainly a turning point. So decisions like Mikisew Cree up to Tsilhqot'in created a framework where communities could get involved and had the legal backing to do so. Some jurisdictions—with Ontario probably taking the lead at that time, BC following, and many others following that model—supported Indigenous communities so that they could be involved in what the Supreme Court was framing as consultation. And what that meant was having the capacity to be engaged in project review. And often, the developer bore the cost of that. [17:23] James Jenkins: But there could be positive outcomes because it meant there was a framework and an impetus for communities and developers to sit down at the table when the development was taking place in the territory of an Indigenous community and their rights were potentially going to be impacted. So as that process became the norm in most regions in Canada, what emerged was this mechanism called an Impact Benefit Agreement as a way for the developer and the Indigenous community to sit down and say, "Okay, we've identified these impacts—and these are impacts to the practicing of rights that are enshrined in the Constitution, so there's this channel back to the Supreme Court decisions—so we'll have a confidential agreement called an Impact Benefit Agreement to offset those impacts," which never really fit the spirit of the Supreme Court decisions, but it was adopted all over the country. [18:14] James Jenkins: And when Ontario and BC went to bring more renewables onto the grid more quickly, they were looking at different ways to ensure there was the kind of local participation, and so they experimented with creating incentives for Indigenous equity participation in the projects. Sometimes that included municipal participation as well, but we saw a large uptake in that. And that was something I was involved in; I was a band manager in my community of Walpole Island First Nation in the past, and while this was happening, I had some other roles. [18:47] James Jenkins: But we saw it as an opportunity, and ultimately, there were many renewable projects entering the grid in Southern Ontario at a rapid rate. One of the things we were able to identify was that equity participation brought much more benefit to the community than an Impact Benefit Agreement. In the kind of projects we were looking at, it was usually tenfold if you quantified the net revenue from equity participation versus the takeaway from an Impact Benefit Agreement. [19:17] James Jenkins: So that started to become the norm, and Indigenous communities started to see this as a more meaningful way to address the need for development to happen rapidly in certain regions and especially with renewables. So there was a period where new hydroelectric projects started to include some equity participation, and then we saw, with the expansion of wind and to some extent solar, that happening at a rapid rate starting about 2008. [19:44] James Jenkins: It's expanded since then for a few reasons. So one is that over time, most regions in Canada have—most provinces have directed their utilities to put incentives in their calls to power to try to ensure more examples of Indigenous equity participation. The other possibility that's happened, which was more an Alberta story but it's been experimented with in some other jurisdictions, is a deregulated market where an Indigenous partner and non-Indigenous partner, or a fully Indigenous-owned project, can go to a consumer and negotiate a power purchase agreement, sell power directly. Sometimes having an Indigenous community providing power provides other benefits to the purchaser, whether it's the industrial or commercial partner, and so that led to quite a few projects as well in Alberta for completely different reasons. [20:34] Trevor Freeman: Would those other benefits be like preferred rates? What are the other benefits that you're referring to there? [20:39] James Jenkins: It could be preferred rates. In many cases, it's things like corporate responsibility, just the sustainability measures of having, you know, purchasing from an Indigenous partner. So that was enough of an incentive to really, you know, spur a market in those areas. [20:56] James Jenkins: And then we've seen the federal government invest through grant programs in Indigenous capacity in the energy sector. So that has allowed communities in many regions to engage in these opportunities and just have the staff to do it. Because most communities are generally dealing with many, many issues all at once—it's like three levels of government all in one, and most services are underfunded. So being able to actively participate in these opportunities, ensure there is enough trust to move forward and that the community is coming along with it, usually requires some expertise and people in the community that understand energy enough to keep everybody engaged. And these federal grant programs have contributed to that as well. [21:40] Trevor Freeman: Yeah. So with this change over the last let's call it 20-odd years or so, is there a fairly established model or process now that you see Indigenous communities and partners working through, or is every kind of new project finding its way anew? I guess what I'm asking is, yeah, is there an established process? Is it kind of like you know how these projects are going to go now, given that there's quite a bit of experience over the last 20 years? [22:06] James Jenkins: It's not an established process. And so we—for our Energy and Climate team—we engaged with BC Hydro and Manitoba Hydro to some extent on their recent calls to power and procurement because they're both looking at ways to ensure there's more Indigenous equity in projects, and there are different models to choose from. But there is the ability to look at what happened in different jurisdictions, draw from maybe what worked and what didn't, and so we're seeing utilities start to do that as they develop new procurement procedures. [22:38] James Jenkins: On the partnership side, things continue to evolve, and there's always the risk that some of these partnerships may be less beneficial to the Indigenous partner. So another report we released six months ago with Clean Energy BC is an equity guide, and the target audience of that is Indigenous communities that are looking at these equity participation opportunities to make sure that the process is fair to them and transparent to them. So there is a framework in place, but I think there's always a need to ensure that communities have access to the tools so that they have a meaningful seat at the table. And it's not a given that those will be in place, so it is an area where we place some of our efforts. [23:22] Trevor Freeman: And have you seen a change—like you talked about kind of the initial push for a lot of renewable projects being part of the impetus of seeing a big expansion here in Indigenous partnership—at least here in Ontario, which of course is where I'm sitting and we're having this conversation, there was a bit of a slowdown in that, but as we see demand significantly increasing, we're looking at more and more projects. So are you seeing that ebb and flow of project participation as well, or has it been pretty steady in terms of engagement over the last little while? [23:54] James Jenkins: In most regions, it's been growing. So you look at the Atlantic region, Quebec is really pushing for Indigenous participation in renewables. In most regions, that's happening—Maritimes very much so right now. [24:10] James Jenkins: In Ontario, we saw with the results of the most recent call to power quite a few northern projects, which is a bit surprising, but I know that's what they wanted to see happen, and it opens up some opportunity for communities in Northern Ontario. In Ontario, I think there are more regions where renewables are less socially accepted right now. And I talk to some people in Southern Ontario that are surprised how accepted it is in most of the country, with a few exceptions. So, you know, I think we might see ways that Ontario tries to draw projects in, whether it's within regions or partners where there is that social acceptance. But that's to be seen. [24:50] James Jenkins: But Ontario, like other places, knows they need to meet this growing demand, and renewables are relatively quick to deploy, relatively low risk, and will likely be part of that solution, just like everywhere. [25:05] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, absolutely. Great. Okay, I do want to talk to you about that. So my next question, you mentioned this a few times, that we're not just talking about solar panels and wind turbines, which I think is what most people think of when they think of clean energy projects, but you have mentioned a significant growth in transmission projects as well as battery storage. And there's a number of projects that are now kind of in operation with Indigenous co-ownership that fall into that transmission and battery storage category. So tell us about the economic opportunity for Indigenous communities of these types of projects, not just generation projects. [25:44] James Jenkins: Right. So battery storage is growing more along the same trajectory as those generation projects have been in the past, and as the cost for battery storage has come down, it's become a very viable way for utilities and provinces to deal with the intermittency of electricity and increase stability while meeting targets for carbon emissions. So we're seeing more Indigenous leadership in that area. [26:10] James Jenkins: And there's a premier project in Ontario, the Oneida Energy Storage Project, where Six Nations of the Grand River approached NRStor, their partner, to develop the project and then went to the Ontario government and said, "This is what we'd like to do, this is how we see it will meet some of the needs." So there was some real ingenuity in there, and I think in some way, that's an example of what could be the next stage in terms of Indigenous energy planning as that kind of capacity builds because Six Nations of the Grand River had quite a bit of experience under their belt in terms of participating in energy projects. [26:45] James Jenkins: And then Ontario has also been the leader in procuring battery storage projects, and for the most part, most of them have Indigenous equity participation in those projects. A lot of them benefit from existing relationships between construction companies and communities that can look at these opportunities and co-design them together. And I think we'll start to see that in other parts of the country as that builds. But it is a major opportunity as the technology allows us to meet some of the need to stabilize the grid, and, you know, it could reduce our reliance on solutions like natural gas, so it's a real opportunity. [27:21] James Jenkins: When it comes to transmission lines, it's a slightly different trajectory, but I think it goes back to the duty to consult and accommodate and parties sitting at the table understanding where do we go from here when there's a project that is going to have this enormous landscape impact and we can no longer do what we did in the past, which was ignore any Indigenous rights on the landscape. [27:46] James Jenkins: And I was in Ontario for the last 20 or so years and witnessed the demand from Indigenous communities to participate in transmission projects. It wasn't passive in any way. So now we hear from utilities that are saying the right thing to do is to provide these opportunities, which is fantastic. But back then, it really was Indigenous people with the foresight and the stubbornness to for years say, "No, we need a solution that's going to meet all of our needs." And as we started to see some examples—Saugeen and Nawash being one of the first, and then others in Ontario where there would be this kind of Indigenous co-ownership—it gradually started to become more accepted. [28:25] James Jenkins: And now it's part of the plan in many regions of Ontario, and this is a way to move the project forward, have Indigenous communities on board, and when they're sitting there as partners, there are a number of advantages that they bring to the table because in many cases there is knowledge of the landscape itself. And looking at preferred routes and other major decisions can really benefit from having these communities at the table providing their knowledge as opposed to sitting sort of on the other side of an adjudication table, which is only going to add risk to a project. [29:00] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, I mean we see all parts of the electricity sector growing, and transmission is one of those areas for sure that in order to support electrification across the province, we're going to see more transmission. So it's great to hear that this is an area that is growing, or getting more buy-in, or there's more partnership happening in all parts of the electricity sector. [29:21] Trevor Freeman: So, James, you talked about regenerative energy earlier, we touched on that a little bit, and how that term is focused on being built on fairer and more equitable relationships. In your report, you kind of take this a step further by explicitly stating that this work seeks to advance the Truth and Reconciliation Commission—notably, Call to Action number 92. And so for our listeners who are not familiar—and please, definitely step in here if you want to explain it differently than I'm going to—but Call to Action 92 specifically calls on corporate Canada to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to commit to meaningful consultation and consent, and ensure Indigenous communities gain equitable access to jobs, training, and long-term economic benefits. [30:13] Trevor Freeman: So we often hear reconciliation discussed in a social or a political context, but your report really points to the actual act of Indigenous-led clean energy infrastructure and how that can embody this reconciliation in a material and meaningful way. And I apologize that I'm rambling a lot, this is a long question. How does building out physical infrastructure—like generation programs, transmission lines that we've been talking about, battery storage—how does that advance these goals that are kind of laid out and described in this particular Call to Action? [30:52] James Jenkins: Mm-hmm. And you're right, the benefits of these projects isn't just the net revenue, but it's also apprenticeships, jobs, the business capacity that comes with participating in the project, and sometimes the ability to open up opportunities for practicing harvesting rights where, when Indigenous communities don't have a seat at the table, often the gate or the door is shut to opportunities and access. So it's a way to open those up. [31:19] James Jenkins: And in my experience with projects in my community, when we were reviewing projects through the IBA or Impact Benefit Agreement process, the goal was always a number of apprenticeships, contribution to education, capacity, and it was always a good news story getting some jobs, employment readiness out of the project. And it was a remarkable shift to be sitting at the table as a partner and be discussing those same outcomes and really led to more of a spirit of cooperation. And we had some really great successes come out of that. [31:51] James Jenkins: As well as community members feeling like, "This is an industry that I can go work in, and I'm not a stranger in a strange land. My community has a stake in this," and feel that sense of ownership but also home, which can be this indirect challenge when it comes to people entering the workforce and sticking with it. So that kind of ownership—it's part of the solution, how do we grow the Indigenous workforce? When the Indigenous communities have a financial interest in it, it really changes the picture quite a bit, and it really helps with the foreignness that can exist. And so we've seen the opposite in renewable industries and clean energy where many communities and youth are starting to see this as a viable career path and one that makes sense for them. [32:38] James Jenkins: So, you know, and like I said before, when Indigenous communities are sitting at the table—and in my experience we had gone through project review on many, many projects because of the Impact Benefit Agreement process—we were able to bring that knowledge we had of project review to the table, which can help the project. So it was a real meaningful exchange of, "How can we meet these milestones on time? What can we bring to the table?" So there's that aspect of it, but then there's also the multi-generational knowledge that comes with living on the land. [33:10] James Jenkins: And, you know, in some ways sitting down with elders, that does take a long time and commitment and is often different than how we would typically view going through the early stages of a project. But at the end of the day, it can lead to better outcomes and actually not take as long because the pathway to gain the knowledge for the least impact through a traditional process is also incredibly time-consuming. And so having an Indigenous party at the table that can bring the correct knowledge keeps things forward, making a meaningful decision from their perspective can really add value in that way as well. [33:48] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, it's great to hear that you're seeing the impact of these programs on both the projects themselves and better outcomes in the projects, as well as building capacity and partnership in Indigenous communities. And I'm glad you kind of brought those youth programs back up; it's great to hear about those programs. [34:07] Trevor Freeman: So, you have a report or you have a section sorry in your report called "Opportunities Unrealized," which really highlights major gaps or a gap for community-focused projects right now as different federal funding programs sunset, and you specifically call out three particular pillars that need renewed policy and funding commitment. So first off, you talk about 78 healthy energy housing projects that are mostly just small pilot initiatives. And that's looking at energy efficiency in homes, which you did touch on earlier, and how that's tied to Indigenous health and energy sovereignty. So how do we move beyond those pilots to fund these at scale? What are your thoughts on how we do that? [34:53] James Jenkins: Right. So our approach is really, A, to support these pilots as much as we can so that we have that cohort of Indigenous leadership that has that experience in community, and so it can have that ripple effect where, when we started to see successful generation projects, some of them coming out of the 2020 Catalyst Program, other communities said, "Well, I want to do that too. How do I make that possible?" And then there's some leadership to grow from. So it's really catalyzing that momentum. And where do we start? So that's the piece in terms of making sure that there is a core group of energy leaders in communities that are almost at the stage where they can have a very impactful, community-scale project when it comes to efficiency that can be replicated and that there are individuals with this knowledge that are in the community. [35:41] James Jenkins: So that's the first piece, but then the second piece and the other side of the coin that we're very active in is identifying what would the solution look like to make that kind of change repeatable on a national scale. And what we're generally pointing towards is some aspect of federal support, but also private investment as well. So what kind of mechanism can be put in place that will allow private finance to make sustainability programs for Indigenous healthy homes and buildings and infrastructure feasible? [36:15] James Jenkins: And we think it is going to have to be some kind of partnership between the federal government to secure some kind of financing tool and then to bring that private capital in. And so we have a number of partners that's expanding in the finance sector, in government, to really look at what a solution like that looks like. [36:35] James Jenkins: Indigenous housing, being a federal responsibility with the federal government having a large role in it, is certainly unusual and comes with some very unique challenges that make change at that scale difficult, but it's also an opportunity. And it does put the federal government in a position where it could lead a process like that and have some very large impact. So we want to make sure there is the existing community capacity for community members to know what meaningful change looks like at the local level, what the challenges and opportunities are that can contribute to that process. So that's the idea behind the Project Accelerator, but also design at the national level of a program that can lead to new builds, new sustainable builds, and retrofits on a major scale. [37:21] James Jenkins: And there are interesting examples. I was in the US earlier this year at a clean energy conference and was surprised to learn that there were very large subsidies for energy efficiency that were available to Indigenous communities up until recently—I would say at a scale tenfold of what we've ever seen in Canada. So those kinds of programs are possible, and I think we need to think outside the box and think about how do we put this into action. [37:51] James Jenkins: But ultimately, what we point out in those reports is that energy efficiency also leads to other very critical outcomes, including health and social outcomes at the community level. And speaking with communities, politicians from communities, housing tends to be a near number one or number one issue, with housing in need of repair being the core issue. And so ensuring that new housing is built with these sustainability measures in place will lead to houses that stay healthy for longer. And so, you know, it really goes much farther than just energy outcomes and that's why it's so critical. [38:34] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, it's another example of it it's not an either or question here, it's, you know, do it right in the right way and have a focus on both healthy and affordable housing at the same time as making sure it's energy efficient and you're kind of achieving both of those goals. So that's great. [38:58] Trevor Freeman: So, the second item you've identified in this section is, you know, a lot of northern and remote communities who rely on diesel for their energy focus, and our listeners may remember about a year ago we had a conversation with Quest Canada on this topic as well. And so, a lot of those communities are among the most affected by climate change and natural disasters, and you address what needs to happen from an early-stage planning and funding perspective to ensure that those communities that are not necessarily connected to a grid aren't left behind in this transition. Can you speak to us a little bit about that? [39:41] James Jenkins: Absolute. So already the cost of diesel in these remote communities is very high. So it's already an economic and social challenge in the territories and remote areas in the northern provinces. And so it's an area where communities tend to be very engaged and have been since the beginning. So we've been engaged with northern communities since the beginning with 2020 Catalyst. [40:15] James Jenkins: And I think it has a really—for them, clean energy has this impact on them like on a visceral level. For communities that have been able to implement clean technology and turn off the diesel generator for a while, they've talked about the impact of that silence that they haven't heard in so long, you know, the smell of clean air and that sort of thing. So there's this real passion, but also acknowledgment that, you know, they want to be part of a larger climate solution, they're feeling the impacts. And so there are many initiatives in the north, a number of which we've supported. [40:53] James Jenkins: But there are many challenges as well in terms of logistics, the value chain. Transportation is a real challenge compared to infrastructure in the south. So because there have been so many projects and we partnered with the federal government through two phases of a program called the Indigenous Off-Diesel Initiative—and that was supported by a number of federal programs and we're just finishing off the second cohort—there is so much that we've learned through a couple dozen communities that have been heavily invested in reducing their diesel reduction. [41:35] James Jenkins: And we're really at a stage now where we can learn—we can take stock of what we've learned through this process and identify how do we get this to the stage of successful projects. And we've learned a number of things. It's also bringing technology to these places that's robust enough to withstand the challenges and just be at a utility scale, ensuring different technologies can work well with each other. [42:04] James Jenkins: But there's a real need to continue that growth, especially when there's been so much investment and so many communities are so close, with a few success stories and so much pride that comes with this. But ultimately, if they are left behind, the cost for them to power their communities with diesel is not going to become less of a challenge over time. It's only going to become more problematic. And so it's a real priority, and something that, you know, we need to keep staying loud about as well because these are where some of our real energy leaders are living and coming from when it comes to clean energy and ensuring that their priorities have a seat at the table. [42:52] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, you mention success stories, James, and as we kind of wrap up our conversation here, I want to touch on that a little bit. So you talk about looking at this in perspective of the global stage, and one of your policy recommendations discusses Canada Global Indigenous Cooperation. And you outline that there are more examples of successful Indigenous-led energy projects in Canada than anywhere else in the world. How is your organization, Indigenous Clean Energy, sharing this expertise internationally, and what can the rest of the world learn about what's happening here in Canada? [43:32] James Jenkins: So we started to learn just how far ahead Canada is in this area through participation in forums like the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and we participated in a pre-conference with 88 global Indigenous delegates. And many of them were surprised to learn of these equity projects and opportunities that exist in Canada. For us, it can still be very frustrating, so it is good to put that in perspective in terms of—from many other jurisdictions, they're still at the beginning stages. [44:06] James Jenkins: But we do have some programs in place, and for several years we've been supporting a sister organization in Australia called First Nations Clean Energy Network using a train-the-trainer model. So we've been active in Australia every year. We've been active in New Zealand as well. And we have some programming in South America in Ecuador and Colombia. And over the last year, we finished a program where we engaged with all of the provinces within Colombia with delegates from communities to assist in developing clean energy plans for their communities that they could bring to the government and and discuss a partnership framework so that they could start to reduce their reliance on diesel and other other carbon fuels. [44:59] James Jenkins: And we supported those meetings with the government as well and supported delegates from these countries to also visit communities and see success stories in Canada. And the US is another area where there have been some really positive success stories over the last few years, and there were a number of energy programs that particularly rural and remote communities benefited from, Alaska having probably a slight majority and then others in the northern part of the Lower 48. I think they're going to start to struggle because those programs are sunsetting now, I think most of them have recently sunsetted. And so I think it should be a wake-up call to our federal government that there has been this investment in the form of grants from the federal government. If we don't have some kind of programming in place, we will start to see that progress recede. [45:57] James Jenkins: But just in general, there's a lot that we can share with other jurisdictions globally, everything from what a good partnership looks like, you know, what are the learnings for meaningful participation. But we do have some examples that are very unique, I think, in almost every jurisdiction—Indigenous equity in transmission lines is is really unheard of, so so we should, you know, acknowledge that there are some things that we're doing well and um sharing that and learning what other communities are going through in other jurisdictions. It also really helps us in our strategy. [46:40] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, I mean we started this conversation with you describing what your organization does, and something that struck me is it's a combination of supporting projects and project models and helping things get up and running off the ground, providing education, and focusing on advocacy. And I imagine that, you know, even within Canada but also looking at some of the partners you've just mentioned around the world, the focus on, you know, each one of those individual aspects will vary depending on what the biggest need is in that jurisdiction at that time as things change, as funding programs change. So I imagine, you know, advocacy becomes more and more important as you see funding programs change or even just project structure change. Is that kind of fair to say? [47:28] James Jenkins: Definitely. And our model is very community-driven with with community-tailored solutions and with education and capacity building at the community level being our our primary focus, which does set us apart from other organizations to some extent, but does reflect that that um every every solution is going to be different, and really bringing up that capacity at the community level is the most effective way to do it. And for these kinds of projects, there isn't one solution that fits everybody. [48:02] Trevor Freeman: Is there, to kind of wrap it up here, is there, you know, one piece of advice that you'd give to—I know this is a bit of a big loaded question, it's hard to boil it all down to one piece of advice—but is there something that you would kind of leave with let's say a utility or a developer who wants to build a successful and mutually beneficial partnership with Indigenous communities? What's that kind of one piece of advice you'd leave with them? [48:30] James Jenkins: Um, the one piece of advice, and sometimes I am asked that question, and I know there are developers outside of Canada that are starting to look at our market as things change globally. And what I would share, first of all, meeting with the communities is incredibly important. Community leadership, finding out what their process is for engagement and then establishing that relationship is hugely important. And um I think the advice usually stops there. I think many utilities and developers have heard that. [49:07] James Jenkins: But what I would suggest based on my own experience is that engagement occurs from the very top of the organization, from the utility and the developer. And that if the C-suite isn't meeting with the Indigenous partner themselves, they should be fully aware and engaged in what's happening. And that's usually the recipe for success. And you know, for these opportunities, many communities have a history where trust is something that does need to be cultivated, and that would be my main suggestion. I think it's where really successful partnerships have their strength, is there's that level of engagement from the entire vertical organization of the non-Indigenous partner. And so when there is an issue, political leadership from the community, they know who to call and vice versa, and it doesn't lead to larger misunderstandings. And it can lead to some of the more innovative projects we've seen like Oneida Storage, and there are many other examples of that where the developer and the community, after a successful project, they sit down together and they say, "What's next?" And they want to build on what they've developed together. [50:37] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, I guess that's an indication of there actually being a relationship, trust built, rather than just kind of boxes checked and a process being followed. But if there's that actual trust built, it is more of a conversation that what next question can come up and there's sort of that mutual learning. So that's great. Thank you for that. So James, we always end our interviews with the same series of questions to our guests. So I'm going to dive right in here. What's a book that you've read that you think everybody should read? [51:11] James Jenkins: These are the top uh these are probably going to be the tougher questions for me, but um so I recently read a book by Cal Flyn, a UK author from Scotland, and it's called Islands of Abandonment. And the subtitle is Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape. And what she does is, in an investigative journalist style, goes to places where there hasn't been human presence for 50 or more years. Some of them are no man's land in war zones, some of them are cities facing urban decay, some of them are environmental catastrophe sites like Chernobyl, but then finding that nature has rebounded and that there is remarkable biodiversity in some of these places. [51:59] James Jenkins: So the message I don't want to take away from that is that if you get rid of humans everything will be perfect, because humans have had an impact on the landscape everywhere for much longer than we can comprehend. And in some cases, negative impacts to the landscape are because humans aren't doing what they were doing for a long time. So human intervention has a role and always will, but I think it's important to tell more stories that aren't a story of loss when we get to that point. [52:36] James Jenkins: And for Indigenous communities, many of us have been going through a process of healing, and many of us are still in that process. But as we start to heal and and ask ourselves what's next, that's when we start to think about regeneration, so regenerative energy, revitalization of our culture and and that's what's next and acknowledging that practices that have been lost are near lost can be revitalized in a way that that is uh is incredibly meaningful. And so I was happy to see that story in a widely publicized book because the major story in conservation, but also climate and other areas, has been one of loss. And so, with all of this loss, and and in some cases, you know, a bedrock of tragedy and historical tragedy, where is the, you know, where is the good news story? And I think having these stories about how nature can regenerate is important. It's important to tell that story. [53:50] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, that's fantastic. I appreciate that explanation, and these aren't supposed to be my questions to answer, but I do want to quickly mention a book called What If We Get It Right?—and I can't remember the author off the top of my head, but it really is a series of essays and poems and an exploration of like, what if we do the right things and we can address climate change? And I found it very helpful to kind of be able to imagine, yeah, this is what happens if we do the right thing, if we can address some of these challenges. So, along the same vein as what you mentioned. So, the next question is kind of the same, but what's a movie or a show that you've watched that you think everyone should take a look at? [54:36] James Jenkins: Uh, that that's a really tough one. I do like movies and shows. Um, I recently started watching two British series, um and uh they seem to be very into murder mysteries in the UK, which uh isn't something, you know, normally my favorite, but they do it really well. So I I really liked um Shetland, which is a series that takes place in remote islands in Northern Scotland. [55:06] James Jenkins: In some ways, I think even the setting that it's trying to tell, it resonates with our work in some ways and even the experience of living in an Indigenous community in a less remote location. So I enjoyed that, and then that led to um Sherlock, the the newer one starring Benedict Cumberbatch, which I thought was a very intelligent um show with a, you know, a compelling uh character with sort of superhero, but but somewhat comic book style realistic attributes, but also failings. Um, so I find I enjoy shows that are drawing from literature and putting them into today's terms and not worrying too much about um, you know, what's realistic and what's not, but really trying to—what would we how would this be written today? So I enjoyed that as well. [55:58] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, I like that. Um, if somebody offered you a free round trip anywhere in the world, where would you go? [56:05] James Jenkins: So, Air Canada used to have contests for that, and we used to say Nunavut because it would get the most bang for your buck. You know, these are $4,000–$5,000 tickets, which speaks to the challenges that those communities face when it comes to decarbonizing the north. Um, for me, I mentioned I spent much of my childhood in Northern Arizona. I think at this time I'd probably use it for that, you know, I hope to visit again soon. [56:39] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, fantastic. Um, James, who is someone that you admire? [56:44] James Jenkins: Um, I've been grateful for wonderful mentors in the course of my career. Um, I'm really grateful that the founder of ICE, Chris Henderson, has dedicated himself to be a mentor for me and has has really he's committed to that um and I've learned a great deal from him. [57:04] James Jenkins: Working at Walpole Island, there were a number of chiefs that I worked closely with and have been thinking about one, um Charles Samson, who's passed away, and he really came into his own once he was chief. He had run for a long time, over 10 years, and um really learned a lot from him and his perspective. But then, uh other chiefs, Burton Kewayosh and Dan Miskokomon really really supported me and helped um helped develop my uh the breath of experience that I draw from. And today, um the current chief, Leela Thomas, is really showing some really great leadership, and I think it's a real breakthrough in our region that most of the chiefs in Southwestern Ontario are female, which was um really more rare in the past. So that's a breakthrough as well. [57:59] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, that's great. Uh, and final question, what is something about the energy sector or its future that you're particularly excited about? [58:08] James Jenkins: Um, I think what I'm excited about is that the door is open for Indigenous communities to really change the way that they're engaged with the economy, um for there to be some real opportunities for business development. Um, you know, for many years because I lived in the United States for a while, it felt like the overall economic development capacity of US tribes was far beyond what exists in Canada for a number of reasons. And and one of them is there were a few key industries in the US that the federal government, um it cultivated at different times, gaming being one, uh but it did lead to the infrastructure for US tribes to engage in business all across the country in a way that's still the exception rather than the rule in Canada. [59:02] James Jenkins: So it is exciting for me to think about there being that shift and that um truly Indigenous-led projects stop becoming one-offs, um but they start to be that real uh, you know, Indigenous leadership becomes embedded in the framework of energy decision-making. Um, the idea of it becoming a career path becomes more solidified. So I think it was a dream at one point that some ambitious leaders had, like thinking of Saugeen and Nawash equity participation in that transmission line, there was no blueprint for that. [59:39] James Jenkins: Um, but now that there's been a dream and we've seen it come into practice, so um it's exciting to think that we may continue to see that progress, and then in 10 years there there will be some foundational pillars for communities to really meet their own communities' needs on their own terms. Right now it continues to be a challenge in most places. It's uh, you know, what do we prioritize with limited resources? And um yeah, exciting that this could be a pathway to to start thinking more in terms of abundance. [1:00:19] Trevor Freeman: Yeah, I mean we started this conversation with you describing what your organization does, and something that struck me is it's a it's a combination of supporting projects and project models and helping things get up and running off the ground, providing education, and focusing on advocacy. And I imagine that, you know, even within Canada but also looking at some of the partners you've just mentioned around the world, the focus on, you know, each one of those individual aspects will vary depending on what the biggest need is in that jurisdiction at that time as things change, as funding programs change. So I imagine, you know, advocacy becomes more and more important as you see funding programs change or even just project structure change. Is that kind of fair to say? [1:01:03] Trevor Freeman: James, thanks so much for your time. I really appreciate you coming on the show and helping us understand the work that Indigenous Clean Energy is doing, some of the great success stories, but also a little bit of the path that's still to be walked in order to get to success. So thanks very much, I appreciate your time. [1:01:21] James Jenkins: Thank you, Trevor, really enjoyed it. Thanks so much. [1:01:23] Trevor Freeman: Great. Take care. [1:01:25] Trevor Freeman: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Think Energy podcast. Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and it would be great if you could leave us a review. It really helps us to spread the word. As always, we would love to hear from you, whether it's feedback, comments, or an idea for a show or a guest. You can always reach us at thinkenergy@hydroottawa.com.

Loghan Paylor (MFA'20) didn't set out to win CBC's Canada Reads competition. They were just trying to write the book they needed to write. In this episode, the author of The Cure for Drowning—winner of Canada Reads 2026, Giller Prize longlistee, and Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize finalist—opens up about non-linear creative processes, writing queer and trans characters with care, the pros and cons of an MFA, and why the best writing advice has nothing to do with aesthetic morning routines.Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode:TranscriptContact CarolContact JeevanFrom Here ForwardPodium Podcast CompanyLoghan PaylorCanada ReadsLearn more about the UBC MFA in Creative Writing (00:00) - Introduction (01:42) - Meet Loghan Paylor (02:26) - Canada Reads whirlwind (03:02) - Publicity, introversion, and support (04:22) - The “gap” that wasn't: writing life between milestones (05:29) - Favourite passages and hard-won scenes (06:44) - The Post-it drafting method (08:27) - Finding your process (and ignoring aesthetics) (11:18) - Old drafts, saved folders, and ideas that return (13:18) - Characters, POV, and writing identity (14:52) - Writing Ontario: memory, place, and research accuracy (17:11) - Nature and climate grief (18:17) - Bookworm Games and creative balance (20:14) - Reading influences (21:16) - UBC MFA and becoming a professional writer (24:44) - Advice for emerging writers (27:26) - Reader messages and impact (29:14) - Reviews and boundaries (30:16) - Conclusion

Welcome to the CRE podcast. 100% Canadian, 100% commercial real estate. What if the global geopolitical churn is actually creating opportunities to realign your portfolio? In this episode of the Commercial Real Estate Podcast, powered by First National, hosts Aaron Cameron and Adam Powadiuk are joined by Anthony Passarelli, Lead Economist for Southern Ontario at... The post Rising Vacancies, Softer Rents, and What Comes Next with Anthony Passarelli, Lead Economist at CMHC – Southern Ontario appeared first on Commercial Real Estate Podcast.

I have been out with my students a lot in the past month and a half and it seems that every time we go out we are looking to the trees and shrubs that are growing in disturbed areas and likening these disrupted habitats to post glacial landscapes. Some of my students are able to recognize the similarities between an urban construction/destruction site, and some are still picking it up. I always do my best to explain what I am seeing, I still don't know much and wanted to go a little bit deeper, as always. For this show I share some of what I am learning about the migration of trees and different flora through southern Ontario after the glaciers receded. On top of this, I wanted to note how these development sites also hold hope, and set examples for wild rejuvenation through random ecological assemblages and novel ecosystems in the face of uncertain futures of changing climates and infrastructure degradation.Please appreciate the fun title as well.To learn more : After the Ice Age by E. C. Pielou. University of Chicago Press, 1991.Ontario Forests : A Historical Perspective by K. A. Armsom. Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2001.Wild Urban Plants of the NorthEast (2nd ed.) by Peter Del Tredici. Cornell University Press, 2020.Legacy : A Natural History of Ontario edited by John B. Theberge. McClelland & Stewart, 1989.glaciationtreesOntariopost-glaciationdisturbancenovel ecosystemsinvasive

Paranormal Heart welcomes Dennis Ryckman June 2nd, 2026 EP: 88 TOPIC: Into The Sasquatch Mystery   Dennis Ryckman Bio and Links: Dennis has had a lifelong interest in 'otherworldly' topics; Magic, UFO's, Spirits, Cryptozoology, and in particular Sasquatch/Bigfoot. After an experience caught on camera while hiking in his local area, filming it for his other YouTube channel 'Random Adventures', he decided to roll the incident into a Sasquatch channel, sharing his experiences as an enthusiast and video documentor, and discussing sighting reports in Southern Ontario. Links: YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=uNDa0jr7lGI Facebook: facebook.com/dennis.ryckman.10 --------------------------------------------- 2nd Annual Gatineau/ Ottawa Sasquatch Conference: https://slswebz.wixsite.com/gosc2026?fbclid=IwY2xjawRDrLpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEehxPNtIUmg4zVqLsqhjBJJuoi0uZzotPWAMMdg1iBeba6belugWDW5d9zE5s_aem_ks6F15ii06QtWgp3s_F0_A --------------------------- Kat Ward's Links: https://linktr.ee/paranormalheart https://linktr.ee/paranormalheart  

Pilot to Pilot Magazine — Volume 002 is out now. Get yours at pilottopilothq.com/magSponsors — please support the people who support the show: • Avemco Insurance — Save 5% as a Pilot to Pilot listener. Call (888) 635-4297 or visit avemco.com/4297-owner (owners) or avemco.com/4297-non-owner (non-owners) • Textron Aviation — Built for lifelong aviators. Plan your next chapter at txtav.com/stepup • Garmin — Plan, file, fly, log with the Garmin Pilot app • Allworth Airline Advisors — Register for their latest webinar at allworthfinancial.com/justin • Learn the Finer Points — Save 10% off your first year at learnthefinerpoints.com/justin. https://allworthfinancial.com/airlines/lp/runway-for-retirement-webinar?utm_campaign=airlines+-+more+runway+for+retirement?lmls=Partner+Channel&lmld=Pilot+to+Pilot&ad_version=SocialCanadian pilot Mike Andrews has never taken the direct route — and that's exactly what makes his story worth hearing. Growing up in Southern Ontario, Mike got his start through Canada's Air Cadet program, earning a glider license at 16 and a private pilot license at 17 before nearly going the Canadian Armed Forces fighter pilot route. A heart murmur medical delay, a backpacking trip to New Zealand, and a hard reset later, he found himself building a flight school from scratch on Vancouver Island with one airplane and a jacket that said "ask me about flying."Now based on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Mike is one of Canada's leading instructors on the Pipistrel Velis Electro — the country's first electric aircraft approved for primary flight training — and he's about to embark on a brand new chapter as a bird dog pilot doing aerial wildfire fighting in BC's rugged mountain terrain.In this episode, Justin and Mike dig into the Canadian pilot training system, what it's actually like to fly and teach in an electric airplane, the unique aviation culture of the Pacific Northwest coast, and what draws a variety-hungry pilot to a career where low-level mountain flying meets public service. Plus — Mike shares what it was like to nearly make it into Canadian fighter pilot selection before a three-day paperwork deadline changed everything.Topics Covered:Canada's Air Cadet program and glider scholarshipsCanadian vs. American pilot training and instructor rating systemsFlying the Pipistrel Velis Electro — Canada's first electric flight trainerElectric aviation: where it works today and where it's headedAerial wildfire fighting and the bird dog roleBuilding a sub-base flight school on Vancouver Island from the ground upThe TBM 960's "Home Safe" emergency automation featuresWhy variety — not the airlines — has driven Mike's entire career

Tow trucks don't just move broken cars, they sit at the intersection of public safety, insurance money, and human panic. That's why our conversation with Joey Gagne lands hard. Joey has built a major towing operation across Southern Ontario and now serves as president of the Canadian Towing Association, giving him a front-row view of what happens when regulation meets real-world roadside chaos.We talk about Ontario's push to clean up the towing industry after consumer abuses and shocking violence, including burned trucks and shootings. Because Canada has strict firearm laws, Joey explains why gun crime around towing signals a serious criminal element, and why that leaves legitimate operators at a dangerous disadvantage. We also dig into accident chasing and the on-scene sales pitch that can feel like “help” to a rattled driver but can spiral into exploitation of both consumers and insurers.Then we get practical: how Canadian no-fault auto insurance differs from the US system, why “nuclear” lawsuit exposure changes everything for commercial operators, and why governments often reach for towing rate caps even when caps can punish honest companies while bad actors simply shift where they extract money. Joey lays out the uncomfortable truth that many tools already exist, from consumer protection rules to highway traffic laws, but enforcement gaps and inconsistent policing keep the cycle going.If you care about towing safety, fair towing prices, roadside enforcement, and how to stop towing fraud without crushing small operators, you'll get a lot out of this one. Subscribe, share the show with a friend in the industry, and leave us a review with your take: is the fix better laws or better enforcement?

Veteran broadcaster Rick Zamperin is a part of CHCH News as a co-anchor on Morning Live.“Morning Live has always felt like family to me, even from the other side of the screen,” he said.After a 30- plus year career in local radio and sports broadcasting, Zamperin is a familiar face and voice to community members across the Hamilton, Halton and Niagara regions.“I've spent my career telling the stories of this region, and now I'm thrilled to wake up with viewers every morning and continue doing what I love – just with a lot more cameras around.”Co-anchor Annette Hamm says she's excited to welcome Zamperin to the Morning Live desk.“Rick and I once shared a police scanner, a notepad, and way too many donuts,” Hamm said.“To say I'm thrilled to have him beside me again, this time with better lighting, is an understatement.”The self-described ‘Swiss Army Knife' joins the CHCH team during a time of renewed energy and focus on delivering local news to the communities that need it most.“When CHML shut off the lights last summer it was a big hit to the community and myself as well, having spent 24 years there,” Rick said, speaking on Morning Live Friday morning.“When I got the chance to go for this job I thought, ‘absolutely.'” Rick grew up in Toronto and has worked as a journalist throughout Southern Ontario. He has called Hamilton home since 2000.“Rick's reputation speaks for itself,” added CHCH news director Greg O'Brien. “He's trusted, relatable, and deeply rooted in this community.”“We're excited to have him bring his knowledge and perspective to our anchor desk as we continue to evolve the show while staying true to what makes Morning Live special.”Rick is scheduled to make his Morning Live debut on Monday, May 12 at 6 a.m.#rickzamperin #chchmorninglive #hamiltontigercats #chrispomay #livewithcdptalkshow #barrycullenchevroletdealership https://www.chch.com/chch-news/rick-z...https://x.com/rickzamperinhttps://www.barrycullen.com/https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/chris... ( tip the host) https://beacons.ai/chrisdpomayhttps://www.cameo.com/chrispomay book a personalized video message from yours truly CDP! Want to create live streams like this? Check out StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/54200596...https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast...

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What if you could walk through acres of blooming peonies and cut your own bouquet to take home? In this episode, Joanne welcomes Valérie Chort of Fleur de Roy to share the story behind Southern Ontario's largest pick-your-own peony farm and its short but spectacular bloom season. Tickets are now available to Pick Your Own Peony Flowers from June 1st to 8th, 2026. In this episode: How did a conservation property become a pick-your-own peony farm? Valérie shares the story behind Fleur de Roy, a Southern Ontario peony farm located on a 150-acre property near Lake St. Clair, where conservation, family, and a love of flowers came together in a surprising way. What does it take to grow thousands of peonies for one short, spectacular season? Joanne and Valérie discuss the patience, planning, timing, and care behind growing peonies, including why these plants take years to establish and why the bloom window is so weather-dependent. Why is Fleur de Roy's Peony Bloom Festival becoming a must-visit local experience? Valérie explains how the farm has shifted from wholesale flower production to welcoming visitors for a pick-your-own peony experience, with confirmed 2025 opening dates from June 1 to June 8, with the possibility of extending on either side depending on the bloom season. Visit them online at www.fleurderoy.com or on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. Tickets are now available. Purchase them here. Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne on her website: down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

Greg Brady spoke to Evan Solomon, Liberal MP for Toronto Centre, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation and Minister Responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario about what's in the AI strategy? Spring economic update's ‘6 pillars' offer clues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Greg Brady spoke to Evan Solomon, Liberal MP for Toronto Centre, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation and Minister Responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario about what's in the AI strategy? Spring economic update's ‘6 pillars' offer clues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Southern Ontario is cutting grass while northern Ontario is still buried under feet of snow and that isn't just a fun weather story. It's a real window into what it costs to live, work, and build a life under the canopy when your “driveway” is an unplowed bush road and spring breakup can decide whether you move equipment, harvest wood, or even worry about flooding.I'm joined by Pierre for a wide-ranging catch-up that stays grounded in practical reality. We talk about record snowfall near Timmins, how mining exploration ramps up when gold prices rise, and why camp jobs and equipment work can make the north feel like its own microeconomy. We also compare housing prices, taxes, and the very different culture around permits and building, including why some people move north for the freedom as much as the affordability.From there we get into the details that matter if you love the outdoors: ice out timing, dams getting opened to prepare for runoff, and what a huge snow year might mean for forest fires. We break down off-grid style heating with an outdoor wood boiler, the firewood math behind heating two homes, and what the forestry sector looks like when big mills dominate the fibre. You'll also hear our take on small mills, community-based forestry, horse logging in sensitive areas, and keeping an eye on threats like spruce budworm.If you like honest talk about northern Ontario living, mining towns, forestry, winter roads, and staying warm with wood heat, hit play. Subscribe, share the show with a friend who'd actually move north, and leave a review so more people can find us.

How do we understand Palm Sunday in the original historical and scriptural context of Jesus, Justice & Empire? And how does the example of Jesus in Palm Sunday inspire us to live in ways that peacefully resist the ways of the empires of our day in 21st century Southern Ontario today? This Sunday, we conclude our series on ‘The Justice of Jesus' by diving into the ancient, non-violent, unifying way of Jesus of Nazareth that resists the exploitative, "divide and conquer" ways of Empire with Fr. Joash P. Thomas.Join us as we then move beyond teaching and theology into one of the most ancient, unifying, empire-resisting practices of the ancient church: participation in beloved community at Jesus' Table with our full Creator-given identities; identities that are often absorbed and assimilated by Empire and Empire-shaped religion (with conscientious objectors often being deemed 'heretics of Empire'). Come to Jesus' Table and be reminded of this ancient Christian truth: The heretics of Empire are the beloved of God.United Nations report: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/un-report-abuse-temporary-foreign-workers-canada-1.7293495

Send us Fan MailCargo theft is evolving faster than most of us can keep up with, becoming a multimillion-dollar issue across North America. In this episode of the Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast, host Chris Harris sits down with Brett Frazee, President of Double Lock USA, to discuss the sophisticated networks behind these crimes and why a multi-step approach to physical security is essential for protecting your freight.Brett shares his insights into the rapidly changing "theft arena," where petty crime has been replaced by massive, technologically advanced organized crime rings. We dive into why Southern Ontario and other major hubs are seeing record-high theft rates and how the industry is fighting back.Learn about the latest in physical security, from heavy-duty industrial locks to the new division of serialized security seals, and how these physical deterrents work alongside GPS and telematics to create a comprehensive defence.Connect with Double Lock USA:Website: doublelockusa.comLinkedin: @doublelock-usaStay Connected with Safety Dawg:Website: safetydawg.comJoin the Safety Dawg Success Network for more industry insights!0:00 – Introduction: The Evolving Crisis of Cargo Theft 0:54 – Meet Brett Frazee, President of Double Lock USA 1:21 – The New "Theft Arena": From Petty Theft to Organized Crime Rings 2:28 – The Financial Impact: Addressing a $1 Billion Problem in North America2:57 – Hot Spots: Why Freight Theft is Exploding in Southern Ontario 3:40 – Why Law Enforcement is Struggling to Keep Up 4:48 – Joint Task Forces and Cooperative Industry Security 5:13 – Double Lock USA's History and Insurance-Rated Security 5:56 – The Multi-Step Approach: Physical Security, Seals, and Technology 7:12 – Future-Proofing Cargo: RFID Seals and Strategic Deterrents 8:20 – Creative Thieves: Dealing with Sophisticated TargetingSupport the show

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MATTHEW'S JOURNEY: The Return Home Caroline and Matthew have been nearly inseparable for as long as they both can remember. That is, until the untimely call of war summons Matthew far away to the battlefields of Vlaysar. With grand designs on an epic adventure, he promises to safely return to Caroline and Meadowshire a hero. But, seriously wounded on the battlefield and left for dead, those delusions of grandeur quickly fade as he, unbeknownst to Caroline, slowly and painfully makes his way home. Matthew's return becomes a desperate struggle against both time and circumstance. Losing hope at every turn, Caroline grows more desperate with each passing day, not knowing Matthew's true fate, nor certain if they will ever truly be reunited. TOPICS OF CONVERSATION: About the book and the inspiration behind the story Bringing history, love, and war together on the page Why the story begins with the ones left behind A soldier's journey through fear, duty, and survival The emotional toll of war on families and relationships What it really means to make it home after war What's next for William J. Birrell ABOUT THE AUTHOR William J. Birrell is a longtime educator, teaching at a well-known Canadian university for over twenty years. In addition to holding several university degrees, including a graduate degree in Education (M.Ed.), William has also developed a passion for writing and telling stories. He is the proud father of three adult children and seven young grandchildren. He currently lives in the Niagara Region, with his loving partner Sue, nestled in the heart of Southern Ontario. LEARN MORE AND CONNECT WITH WILLIAM J. BIRRELL Website: https://williamjbirrellauthor.com/ Facebook – William Birrell or William J. Birrell – Author  Instagram – william.birrell.5 Linked in - William Birrell  Get your copy of Matthew's Journey

This month on Down the Garden Path, Joanne welcomes four talented landscape designers, each with their own style, story, and specialty. What connects them all is a shared passion for creating beautiful, thoughtful outdoor spaces for their clients. Tune in each week in March as they share their experiences, perspectives, and the many ways landscape design can shape how we live outdoors. This week, Joanne welcomes Rita Nugent, a landscape designer in Southern Ontario, and owner of Rita Nugent Landscape Design. Topics Covered Rita's journey from solving problems in her own garden to becoming a professional landscape designer How compacted soil, mature trees, pools, pets, and family life shaped her practical design philosophy Why Rita focuses on design-only services and how that helps homeowners stay in control of projects and budgets The importance of planning both hardscaping and softscaping together, rather than treating planting as an afterthought How thoughtful design considers entertaining space, traffic flow, privacy, recreation, and future phases of a project The rise of virtual landscape design and how Rita uses Dynascape, client photos, surveys, and Google Earth to make it work Why designers often notice bigger issues homeowners may miss, including neighbouring trees, conservation land, municipal regulations, and permit-related planting requirements How municipalities are increasingly focused on tree canopy, flood mitigation, and sustainable planting Why starting with a landscape design can help avoid costly mistakes, bylaw issues, drainage problems, and neighbour disputes The role of landscape designers in helping homeowners choose plants that will actually thrive, not just survive Why good design saves money by helping contractors quote accurately and reducing changes later Sustainable landscaping ideas, including enlarging garden beds, using natural mulch, amending soil, reducing unnecessary lawn, harvesting rainwater, and supporting pollinators Rita's insight that gardening and landscaping are "the purest form of optimism" The impact professional landscaping can have on property value, resale appeal, and long-term enjoyment Common homeowner requests such as low-maintenance gardens, privacy solutions, deer resistance, and goose deterrence Rita's current favourite plant choice: a unique Japanese maple, chosen for beauty and year-round enjoyment Takeaways and Tips Start with a professional landscape plan before hiring contractors or installing patios, decks, pools, or planting beds. Treat the landscape as a whole system rather than separating hardscaping from planting. Think beyond your property line. Neighbouring trees, conservation land, drainage patterns, and bylaws can all affect your project. Ask about future phases of your yard so today's choices do not create tomorrow's headaches. Use accurate measurements and documentation to avoid design and installation mistakes. Consider virtual design if you live outside your designer's local area or need a more flexible process. Choose plants based on your site conditions, climate, and maintenance goals, not just online inspiration photos. Preserve and support mature trees whenever possible. They add beauty, shade, environmental value, and property value. Harvest rainwater and direct it into your garden, where possible, to support healthier plants and reduce runoff. Low-maintenance does not mean no-maintenance, but smart plant choices and proper installation can dramatically reduce the workload. Before digging, always arrange for utility locates through Ontario One Call A well-designed landscape is not just attractive. It can improve privacy, function, sustainability, resale appeal, and day-to-day enjoyment. Find Rita online at www.ritanugentlandscapedesign.com. Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne on her website: down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

I talk with longtime friend and Telemark skier Cam Evanoff in this episode.  Cam shares his story of how skiing is in his DNA, yep, thanks to his parents. Cam tells us about his early days of skiing in Southern Ontario, Western New York and family ski trips and making his way to becoming a ski Coach for Milton Heights Race Club. He also shares how he discovered Telemark skiing by watching this crazy Canuck, and mutual friend Dave  Kilbourn, slamming slalom gates on his Telemark gear on week nights, and how he got into it. Cam now has his son and daughter Tele-skiing. The cool story, in my humble opinion, is how Cam volunteers as a member of the Sled Dogs and Tremblant Jack Rabbits, who are two volunteer groups who prep and maintain the race courses when the Alpine World Cup Circuit comes to Canada. Enjoy!

Prime Minister Mark Carney to publicly release his $6.36 billion "Buy Canadian" plan for supplying the military and growing Canada's domestic defence industry. Iranian state TV says latest round of nuclear talks with the U.S. ended after almost 3 hours. British Columbia's NDP government to present a budget a week after mass shooting at Tumbler Ridge. Southern Ontario bracing for spring temperatures, rain, and potentially heavy flooding. 2026 Olympic Games: Defending speed skating champs eye Canada's 3rd gold medal. US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson dies aged 84.

In this episode of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman react to Barry Trotz stepping down in Nashville while remaining with the organization through the end of the season, and examine what comes next for the Predators' front office. They dig into Robert Thomas trade-market chatter (29:00), Florida's ability to maneuver its way into a potential Artemi Panarin deal, (30:30) teams checking in on Nazem Kadri (39:20), and why Ottawa could be poised to make a push if their goaltending holds up (44:50). The guys also discuss Buffalo's reluctance to weaken its roster (46:40), Connor McDavid's Players' Tribune piece (49:40), the growing Matvei Michkov situation in Philadelphia (60:00), and the Stadium Series success in Tampa Bay, along with ideas to rethink the Winter Classic schedule (1:05:50). The Final Thought looks ahead as the fellas prepare to head to Milan for the Olympics (1:13:40).Kyle and Elliotte answer crowd questions in the Thoughtline (1:20:54). Today we highlight Southern Ontario musician Julianna Riolino and her song On A Bluebird's Wing. Check out her music here.Listen to all the 32 Thoughts music here.Email the podcast at 32thoughts@sportsnet.ca or call the Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and hosted by Elliotte Friedman & Kyle Bukauskas.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates

MPs return to Parliament Hill to face a long to-do list. Pressing matters like food prices, productivity, and the U.S. trade war are top of mind. The Prime Minister tried to address at least one of those issues — affordability. The government announced a GST credit top-up aimed at helping millions of Canadians. The opposition Conservatives say they'll support the plan, but want the government to do more to cut food costs.Also: People across Southern Ontario are trying to dig out from a weekend winter wallop. Record levels of snow blanketed much of southern Ontario. Especially hard hit — Toronto, with a record breaking 60 centimetres of snow, Sunday. It was the largest one day snowfall in the city's history, closing schools and businesses, and snarling traffic and transit.And: The dangers of radon. What you need to know about the invisible threat, lingering in the homes of many Canadians.Plus: ICE in Minnesota, gold's new milestone, alleged Canadian drug kingpin Ryan Wedding in court, and more.

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT OUR NEW STUDIO SETUP ON YOUTUBE!  Joining us for this conversation on addiction is our friends from Agape Recovery, a new Christ-centered recovery program launching January 2026 here in Southern Ontario. Jake and Carling share bit about the organization and the Agape framework. We address the spiritual foundations of addiction and what it means to be in recovery and experience healing. We hope this episode both convicts you to see what might be taking the place of God in your heart while also encouraging you in the hope of the Holy Spirit's transforming work. If you are struggling with substance abuse, we urge you to reach out to Agape. They are willing and able to help. Find more about Agape Recovery by going to https://agaperecovery.ca/ If you're in Southern Ontario be sure to check out their upcoming information evenings to learn more: November 27th: Living Light Canadian Reformed Church – Grimsby                                        December 4th: Orangeville CanRC - Orangeville                                                                          December 11th: Zion United Reformed Church – Sheffield This is the first episode in our BRAND NEW STUDIO! A big thanks to Bert Vis Flooring, Wolfe Creek Contracting and Reformed Book Services amongst many others for making this a reality. We are so excited to continue to bring you real and meaningful content from our new home here in Brantford, ON. A BIG THANKS TO OUR OFFICIAL SPONSOR, TRIVAN! WE APPRECIATE YOU HELPING US MAKE THIS CONVERSATION POSSIBLE. BE SURE TO CHECK THEM OUT AT WWW.TRIVAN.COM To keep up with the podcast, check out our website: https://www.realtalkpodcast.ca/ Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for updates, clips, and more! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReformedRealTalk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reformedrealtalk/ We'd love to hear from you. Please send us your questions, comments, or other feedback at realtalk@reformedperspective.ca. Thanks for listening! If you liked what you heard, please share this podcast with your family and friends!

Acadia University (NS) Percussion Professor, as well as Freelancer, Composer, and Researcher Ken Shorley stops by to talk about his unusual faculty position at Acadia, his Freelancing career, traveling and studying musics of the world, and forming a performing duo with his wife (03:40), the Canadian Percussion Network and The Space Between conferences (43:25), growing up in Southern Ontario, along with discussions of his musical and literary influences (52:40), attending York University (ON) for undergrad and sticking around Toronto after graduation before moving to Nova Scotia (01:05:25), and finishes with the Random Ass Questions, including segments about physicality in percussion performance, classic movies, the author Helen Humphreys, and memorable live performances (01:20:15).Finishing with a Rave on the 2025 film One Battle After Another (01:39:40).Ken Shorley links:Ken Shorley's homepageKen Shorley's YouTube pagePrevious Podcast Guests Mentioned:Shawn Mativetsky from 2023Other Links:Sahara JaneFolk Music OntarioNova Scotia Music WeekNeil PeartTrichy SankaranJohn Brownell“Within You Without You” - The BeatlesEverygreen Club Contemporary GamelanSimon CookNovation Launchpad seriesTorQ Percussion QuartetThelonious MonkJohn ColtraneBlue RodeoThe Tragically HipThe Indigo GirlsRaves:One Battle After Another trailer

Trevor reconnects with his former professor, Dr. Rupp Carriveau from the University of Windsor, to explore how Southern Ontario's agriculture and energy sectors intersect. From powering greenhouses and managing massive industrial demand to reimagining aging wind farms and testing “atomic agriculture,” together they unpack how innovation, AI, and new tech are reshaping Canada's clean energy future. Listen to episode 164 of thinkenery.    Related links Dr. Rupp Carriveau on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupp-carriveau-b4273823/ Environmental Energy Institute: https://www.environmentalenergyinstitute.com/ Turbulence and Energy Lab: http://www.turbulenceandenergylab.org/ Offshore Energy and Storage Society: https://www.osessociety.com/    Trevor Freeman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-freeman-p-eng-8b612114    Hydro Ottawa: https://hydroottawa.com/en      To subscribe using Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405   To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl   To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited   Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa   Stay in the know on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa   Keep up with the posts on X: https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod --- Transcript: Trevor Freeman  00:07 Welcome to thinkenergy, a podcast that dives into the fast, changing world of energy through conversations with industry leaders, innovators and people on the front lines of the energy transition. Join me, Trevor Freeman, as I explore the traditional, unconventional and up and coming facets of the energy industry. If you have any thoughts, feedback or ideas for topics we should cover, please reach out to us at think energy at hydro ottawa.com, hi everyone, and welcome back. Today's episode brings us back to a few elements of my own personal history. Now you'll have to bear with me for a minute or two while I dive into my past in order to properly set up today's conversation, I grew up in southwestern Ontario, in and just outside the border town of Windsor, Ontario. Now for those of you not familiar with this area, Windsor and its surroundings are the most southern part of Canada. It might surprise you to know that Windsor is at the same latitude as Northern California and Rome, Italy. You can imagine that after growing up in Windsor and then living in various places around the globe, when I finally settled down here in Ottawa, adjusting to the more stereotypical Canadian winters of this northern capital, took a little bit of getting used to Windsor is so far south when you cross the border to its neighboring American city, Detroit, Michigan, you actually travel north. Have a look at a map if this seems to defy logic, but I promise you, it's true. This is the area that I grew up in. It's also where I went to school and got my engineering degree. More on that in a minute. Now, if you've ever driven down to the southwestern end of the 401 going past London and Chatham, you will notice two things. First, it is flat, very flat. You will not see a meaningful Hill anywhere in sight. I often joke with people that I used to toboggan when we did get any meaningful snow off of highway overpasses, because that was the only hill we could find. I was only partly joking, and I have indeed tobogganed off of said overpasses in my young and foolish days. But that is a story for another time. That brings us to the second thing you'll see, which is wind turbines. A lot of wind turbines. They are seemingly everywhere, stretching as far as you can see, southwestern Ontario is a hotbed of wind energy generation. Finally, a hint at why I'm going on about this part of the province on an energy podcast. But before we get into it, there's one other thing to touch on, and that is the fact that this area is also home to a large number of greenhouses growing produce year-round, as well as manufacturing. Windsor and its surrounding area is the automotive capital of Canada, with a number of plants from major car companies, as well as a supporting ecosystem of parts manufacturers. Incidentally, that's where I started my career, working as an environmental engineer for one of the automakers, and many members of my family have also worked or still work in that industry. The reason I bring up greenhouses in the auto industry is because they have some very high energy demand profiles, and that is how we get for me going on nostalgically about the area I grew up in, to our conversation today, I recently caught up with one of my engineering professors, Dr Rupp Carriveau, about the work that he and his colleagues have been doing that ties all of this together. And I thought it would be great to have him on the show to talk about that. Dr. Carriveau is the director of the Environmental Energy Institute and co-director of the Turbulence and Energy Lab and the CO lead of AGUwin at the University of Windsor. Back in the day, he was my fluid dynamics professor. But today, he balances his teaching duties with research into energy systems futures and advanced agricultural systems. He is a founder of the offshore energy and storage society, a recipient of the University Scholar Award, and has been named to Canada's clean 50 for his contributions to clean capitalism. Dr Rupp Carriveau, welcome to the show.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  03:59 Trevor, great to be here. Thanks.   Trevor Freeman  04:01 Yeah. So, Rupp, the last time we chatted, well, so you and I chatted a couple weeks ago, but before that, the last time that you and I interacted, I was in third year university. You were my fluid dynamics Prof. So, in addition to your professorial duties, you're now the director of the environmental Energy Institute at the University of Windsor. So, there's two questions around that. First off, how did you end up going from my fluid dynamics prof a number of years ago, probably close to 20 years ago now, to running this institute? And tell us a little bit about what the Institute does.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  04:40 Sure. Though. So, thanks. Yeah, and very memorable Trevor, because I, you know, I remember you well. And, yeah, that was, that was a very nice class that we had. I remember, well, I remember your colleagues too.   Trevor Freeman  04:54 If there's one thing I do, well, it's, it's be memorable, and you can take that however you want.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  04:58 That is, that is. Something to be said for that. Yeah, thanks for that question. So I should point out that in addition to EEI, I am a co-director in the Turbulence and Energy Lab, which is really where all of the EEI initiatives have started from, that's a lab that I co supervise with Dr David Ting in mechanical engineering and the nuts and bolts, the very serious engineering side of things, comes out of the Turbulence and Energy Lab. EEI kind of came about to handle topics that were, frankly speaking, less interesting to Dr Ting. So, things that push more, a little bit more into policy wider systems looks at things as opposed to, you know, pure thermodynamics and energy efficiency type pursuits, which underpin a lot of the EEI policy pieces, but are sort of beyond the scope of what turbulence and energy lab does. So those two things, and then more recently, actually, I'm co lead on, AGUwin, which is like a center of excellence, emerging Center of Excellence at the University of Windsor. So, Agriculture U Windsor is a group of about 40 professors that do work in agriculture in some shape or form. And we've, we've, we've taken to organizing that movement in seeking sort of group funding proposals, developing curriculum and organized sort of platforms to help industry in agriculture. And it's, it's really taking off, which I'm really excited about my extremely hard-working colleagues and CO lead, Isabel Barrett-Ng, she in particular, has been really driving a lot of really cool initiatives ahead and all the people that work with us. So, yeah, lots, lots happening at the University since I saw you last. But you know, time has a way of helping with that, people find ways to find efficiencies and get to do and build on, build on, hopefully incremental progress.   Trevor Freeman  07:08 Yeah, very cool. And you're teasing a few of the areas our conversation is going to go today, that sort of intersection between agriculture and obviously, this is an energy podcast, and so how does agriculture and the way we're moving in with agriculture impacts energy and vice versa. So, we're definitely going to get to that in a minute, I think, for our listeners that are not familiar with Southern Ontario, and I haven't talked about Southern Ontario on the podcast a lot, but people that know me know I will gladly talk about what goes on in the very southern part of our country. It's where I grew up. Help us paint a picture of what Southern Ontario is like. So, in the context of energy, what makes this area of Ontario unique?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  07:50 Well, it's that's a really good question, and I'm glad you phrased it that way, because I think it gets taken for granted. And also, folks, folks don't know energy isn't in the headlines every day, and if it is, it's not a headline that everybody pays attention to. But the southwestern Ontario region, if you take the 401 west of London, you'll start to see a high concentration of wind. So, there's a significant wind corridor in the region, and that's because it's very flat, so the whole area used to be a lake bed, and so we have very fertile agricultural lands as a result of that. And we also have very few obstacles to fetch, which is a huge aspect of how wind carries over the lakes, and is, you know, not, not obstructed. And so it's like you have offshore resources onshore, which is completely ideal. Also, we have, as it may be, we have massive natural gas resources in the area, in sort of the subterranean space of Devonian reefs for natural gas storage. We have natural gas generation facilities down around the Windsor area that help with provincial peaking and there is some solar in the region, because it is the Leamington Kingsville area is referred to as the sun parlor of Ontario. And as a result, we have a lot of under glass agriculture there, which benefits, obviously, directly from solar resources. And then we have solar photovoltaic that takes advantage of that sun as well. So there's, there's a lot happening here energy wise.   Trevor Freeman  09:38 Yeah, and there's a lot on the demand side of things as well. So, you mentioned the greenhouses, which are an up and coming, you know, source of demand draws on our grid. There's also a big manufacturing base. Talk a little bit about the manufacturing base in the area. Yeah, yeah. And that's that gets into my next question is talking about some of the specific, unique energy needs of greenhouses. I think on the manufacturing side, you know, you mentioned the auto industry and the parts industry that supports it, you're seeing more. There's a battery plant being built now I think that, I think people have a sense of that, but greenhouses are this thing that I think a lot of folks don't think about. So, you talked about the magnitude of the load, the lighting side of things. What else is this like, a 24/7 load? Is this sector growing like? Tell us a little bit about, you know where things are going with greenhouses?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  09:53 Yeah, thanks. So, yeah, I was, I was thinking about generation and, yeah, demand is. Significant we have. You know, Windsor has laid claim to Canada's automotive capital, and while I'm biased, I'd like to think it still is. And so we have significant manufacturing around the automotive industry, either automotive OEMs or tier one parts makers that have significant draws. We have Stellantis. Every minivan comes out of this area has come out of this area. The electric Dodge Charger comes out of this area. But there are engine plants for Ford, but they're also now, you know, sort of next generation transport technologies. You've talking about battery manufacturing. So, there's an enormous LG consortium with Stellantis here that's doing battery manufacturing. And so, these are huge loads that that add to existing and growing loads in the greenhouse space, which, again, I'll just mention it now, is something that isn't well understood. And we did a, we did a study for the province a couple years, three, four years ago. Now, I think grid Innovation Fund project that looked at sort of really getting into granular detailing of the loads that come with a lit greenhouse. A lot of people don't appreciate that a lit greenhouse, when switched on, depending on the lighting technology, depending on how it's used, can be like a 50-megawatt load, which is a significant load. And just imagine that's one so they can come on quickly, and they are non-trivial, significant loads. And so, this is something that we looked at trying to develop distributed energy resource sort of solutions for, because, simply speaking, you can't put up a new transmission line overnight, and we don't want to economically constrain the growth of the sector. Sure, yeah. I mean, it's, it's not a simple thing to characterize, because what you can take away from this is that these greenhouse developers are business dynamos, and frankly speaking, many of them do very well, because they're very good at what they do, and with the resources they have, they can largely do what they want. And if, if the infrastructure isn't there, they will build it so. So, you'll have folks that are operating off the grid, essentially not off the gas grid, of course, but they're using gas for cogeneration purposes, to produce heat for their crops, but also the electricity for their lights. So that is one aspect of it that further complicates how to figure out what these loads on the grid will be. But for the most part, of course, the grid provides quite clean and quite affordable electricity in the province, and you know where they can they want to be able to connect to the grid. Now, lights are designed to extend the growing day and extend the growing season as well. So, in terms of when they're switched on and how they're switched on, that is highly variable, and that is also something that is, I would say, in development, folks are looking at different ways to use intermittent lighting to be conscious of when peaking happens. It is dispatchable in a way, in that some growers are able to turn their lights off to avoid, you know, peaking charges. But again, there's a lot to manage. And, and it's, it's very complicated, both on the grid side and, and for the greenhouse grower.   Trevor Freeman  14:38 Yeah, so you mentioned natural gas for cogen for heating as well. So, as we look to decarbonize all different aspects of the sector, we talk often on the show of what are the specific areas where decarbonization might be challenging. Is, is greenhouses one of those areas? And, and what are the options available for heating these spaces? Like, is it realistic to think that there's an electric solution here, or what? What's happening in that sector related to decarbonization?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  15:10 Again, you've hit on a real sort of hot button issue for the for the sector, the trouble with natural gas is that it's spectacular. Oh, it's storable. It's dispatchable. It's a triple threat for greenhouses in the best way possible, because you can make your heat, you can make your electricity, and the plants crave CO2, and that comes out of the flue gas on the other side of the combustion reaction. So, you know, when you swing in there and you say, Oh, I've got this great new solution. It's called hydrogen. We'll burn hydrogen and we won't have these nasty CO2 release. And they're like, Okay, who's going to replace my CO2? So, it's a difficult fuel to displace. Now, admittedly, people understand that, you know, that's where we really need to go. And is, is electric? You know, electrification the path. So, people talk about, people talk about heat pumps, people talk about electric boilers. And then, as I mentioned, people talked about, you know, we've, we've also looked at the idea of blending hydrogen into a natural gas feed for existing infrastructure to, you know, because, because not all of the CO2, that is, you know, released is, is taken down by the plants. And so could you get to a magic blend where it's just the amount of CO2 that you need is what goes into the other side, and then there's nothing left after the plants take what they need. So, there's a lot of things that are being looked at. It is again, a challenging space to operate in, because it's highly competitive. Getting really granular. Data is very sensitive, because this, this, this is a, you know, it's a game of margins, and it's in its high stakes production. So to get in there and sort of be in the way is, is difficult. So, this work is being done. We're participating in a lot of this work. We just finished a study for the province, a Hydrogen Innovation Fund study on looking at the integration of hydrogen into the greenhouse space. And it was, it was pretty revelatory for us.   Trevor Freeman  17:36 So is the exhaust from burning natural gas on site. Does that get recycled through the greenhouse and therefore captured to some degree? Do we know how much you kind of hinted at finding out that sweet spot? Do we know how much of that gets captured?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  17:53 Yeah, so the short answer is yes. So, they have the cogen engines have scrubbers on them, and these, these machines are spectacularly capable of being tuned the combustion and the professionals that operate them at the greenhouse facilities are artists, and that they can get the sort of combustion profile a certain way, and so that that flue gas will go into the greenhouse, but to know exactly how much is being taken down, that is an area of active research, and we don't, we don't know that answer yet. There are people that are looking at it, and you can imagine it's kind of a provocative number for the sector. So, they're being very careful about how they do it.   Trevor Freeman  18:36  I'm sure, I'm sure. Okay, let's, let's park that just for a minute here, and jump back to something you mentioned earlier. You talked about one how flat Southern Ontario is, and it took me leaving, leaving the county before I really knew what skiing and tobogganing and everything else was. So, there's a lot of wind power generation. And for anyone listening, yeah, as rip mentioned, if you ever drive down the 401 going towards Windsor, you'll just start to see these massive wind turbines kind of everywhere you look. So, help us understand how these turbines, you know, you look out over a field and you see, you know, 2030, of them more in your line of sight. How do they connect to our provincial grid? How do the contracts work? Like, who gets that power? Give us a little bit of a sense of how that works.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  19:28 For sure. Yeah, well, so what most people don't realize, and again, it's not something that's talked about, and if it is, I don't know people are necessarily paying attention to it, but, but you know the comment I'll get from relatives we talked about Thanksgiving. So, you know people, because they know I'm a wind person, they'll be like, 'Hey, I was driving down the road and I saw they weren't spinning with, what's going on? Are they broken or what?' Well, you know, because we, we've got some pro wind and some non pro wind folks in the in the family, so it's an exciting time for me. But you know, and I mentioned that the greenhouses I'm working with are often starved for utility supply. And they said, well, how can that be? The turbines are right there. They're sharing the same space, right? And most people don't realize that. Really, I would say 95% of the wind in our corridor is put on a transmission line and sent up to, effectively, to Toronto, to be distributed throughout the province, which is great, but it's not really a local asset. And that was sort of what inspired us when we saw these two sorts of juxtaposed. We thought maybe you could turn these assets into something that acted as really a new type of distributed energy resource, and that you've got a transmission connected asset that's currently under contract, but if that contract could be modified, then the fiscal connections could potentially be modified so you could have local distribution, let's say at a time of maybe at a time of transmission curtailment, maybe under different conditions. So again, looking into the physical plausibility of it was part of our study, and then doing some sort of economic investigation of how that would work, having a nearly 20-year-old asset all of a sudden springing into a new role in a new life, where it continues to perform transmission duties for the province at large, but it also serves local needs in the production, let's say, of hydrogen through an electrolyzer, or just plain electrons turning lights on. That is something that isn't possible yet. Regulatory reasons exist for that that would require some, some significant changes. But it was a really interesting exercise to go through to investigate how that could happen.   Trevor Freeman  22:08 Yeah, so there's just trying to understand how this work. There's someone who owns these turbines. Some conglomerate somewhere, you know, Canadian, not Canadian, who knows. They contract with the Independent Electricity System Operator who operates the grid in the province. And they basically say, yeah, well, look, we'll provide you with X amount of power on some contract, and when ISO needs it, they call on it. How long do those contracts last? Is that a 10-year contract? A 20-year contract?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  22:35 So, they are in Ontario. The ones that I'm familiar with for 20 years. So it's possible there are others. I know. I have a there's a farm that operates in PEI that has a nice 30 year PPA. So the longer you can get, the better. Yeah, and these, these power purchase agreements are, are wonderful for developers, because they're known entities, doing the math on your finances is really straightforward with these contracts. And frankly speaking, when you had a sector that needed to be brought up from nothing, they were very necessary. They were very necessary. And but those contracts, and they're and they're locked down, as much as we try to, you know, persuade the province to get crazy, to amuse us with these new, newfangled ways of of connecting to people, commerce wise, through energy, they are not interested so far, at least in and they're like, let's finish these out, and then we can talk your crazy ideas, you know, and so, but that's we're getting glare, because I would say many, many, many farms in the province will be coming up on the sun setting end of Their power purchase agreements in the coming five, six years.   Trevor Freeman  24:03 Yeah, yeah. Which brings me to my next point, of the assets themselves, the actual physical turbine, I assume last longer than 20 years. You're going to build one of these things. You know, 20 years is not its end of life. So what are the options available today? You talked about regulatory barriers. We talk about regulatory barriers on this show often, what are, what are the options today for a wind farm that is at its end of contract? Does it look at re contracting? Can it kind of direct source to someone else? Like, what are the options available for an owner?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  24:40 Yeah, well, to me, it's an exciting time, because it could be work for us. We get excited about this. I think it could be a source of anxiety for owners, because there's nothing better than that long term contract. So many of them will try to apply for things like a medium, a new medium term length contract from the. Province, like an MT two, I think they're called. There are other contract types that are possible, but there'll be, it'll be a highly competitive landscape for those, and the in the province won't be able to give everyone one of these contracts. So some of these, some of these operators, will likely have to look at other options which may be going into the spot market, potentially, you know, getting into the capacity game by getting a battery on site and firming up their ability to provide power when necessary or provide capacity. And then there's a there isn't a relatively recent regulatory development in the around the middle of July, the province said, you know, if you're a non emitting generator and you're not under contract, you could provide virtual power someone else who might need it, if they're looking if they're a class, a customer that's trying to avoid peak charges. You know, rather than that class a customer buys a battery behind the meter and physically reduce their peaks. They could potentially virtually reduce their peaks by setting up a virtual power purchase agreement with another supplier. So these, these off contract spinning assets could have an opportunity to get into this game of peak relief. Which, which could be very lucrative. Because, based on last year's provincial global adjustment charges at large, you're looking at being paid something on the order of about $72,000 a megawatt hour for the, for the for the for the megawatt hours in question, which, which, of course, you know, try to get as many as you can. .   Trevor Freeman  26:31 Yeah. So there's a couple of things there. Bear with me while I connect a few dots for our listeners. So on different shows, we talk about different things. Global adjustment is one of them. And we've been talking here about these long term contracts. Global adjustment, as you might remember from previous conversations, is one of those mechanisms that bridges the gap between the spot market price, you know, the actual commodity cost of electricity that's out there, and some of the built-in cost to run the system, which includes these long term contracts. So there's a there's a fixed cost to run the system, global adjustment helps bridge that gap. The next concept here that is important to remember is this class, a strategy where the largest the largest customers, electricity customers in the province, have the opportunity to adjust how they are build global adjustment based on their contribution to the most intensive demand peaks in the province over the course of a year. So during a really high demand period, when everybody needs electricity, if they can reduce their demand, there's significant savings. And so what you're saying is there's this new this new ability for kind of a virtual connection, where, if I'm a big facility that has a high demand, and I contract with a generator, like a wind turbine that's not in contract anymore, I can say, hey, it's a peak time now I need to use some of your capacity to offset, you know, some of my demand, and there's those significant savings there. So you're absolutely right. That's a new thing in the province. We haven't had that ability up until just recently. So super fascinating, and that kind of connects our two topics today, that the large demand facilities in southern Ontario and these these generators that are potentially nearing the end of their contract and looking for what else might happen. So are you guys navigating that conversation between the greenhouses or the manufacturers and the generators?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  28:49 I'm so glad you asked. And here comes, here comes a shameless plug. Yeah? So yes. So there's a spin off company from the turbulence and Energy Lab, and it's called jailbreak labs. And jailbreak labs really represents sort of the space that is more commercial than research, but it also was sort of spurned, spurred from research. So jailbreak Labs has developed a registry, and we've been providing some webinars as well. So this, again, this is a company that that is essentially run by students, that this registry allows generators and consumers to ultimately find each other so that, so that these kinds of connections can be made. Because, as you may well imagine, there is no guarantee that the wind will be blowing at the time that you need it so, so and your load may be such that you need a different type of generation profile. So it needs to be profiling on the generation side. There needs to be profiling on the customer side. Yeah, and, you know, we've been doing this on our own for years. It was the time was right for us to sort of step in and say, because we were following this, we were real fanboys of this, of this reg, even before it came into play. And we kept bugging, you know, OEB for meetings and ISO and they, begrudgingly, to their credit, would chat with us about it, and then the next thing we know, it's announced that it's that it's happening. Was very exciting. So, so, yes, so we're really interested in seeing this happen, because it seems like such a unique, we're thrilled, because we're always interested in this sort of Second Life for assets that already have been depreciated and they're clean energy assets. Let's get everything we can out of them and to have this dynamic opportunity for them, and that will help Class A customers too hard for us to ignore.   Trevor Freeman  30:56 And you mentioned the last time we chatted about building a tool that helps evaluate and kind of injecting a little bit of AI decision making into this. Talk to us about that tool a little bit.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  31:08 Yeah. So we have a, we have a tool called quantract which is basically playing on the idea of quantifying all the risk and opportunity in in a contract. So it's really a contract visualization tool. Another way to think of it as a real time Net Present Value tool that allows renewable energy stakeholders to really, evaluate the value of their investment by not only understanding the physical life left in an asset. Let's say that a wind farm that's, you know, at 20 years and it looks like we may need to replace some blades. Do we just walk away and say, look at it. We had a good run contracts over, you know, we made some money. Let's sell the assets as they are. Or do we say, you know, I'm looking into this vppa game, and we could do okay here, but I'm not exactly sure how that's going to work and when. And so this, this tool that we've developed, will do things like will first of all identify all risk factors, and risk includes opportunities and then we'll profile them, and then builds them into basically what is more or less a glorified discounted cash flow model. So it is a way of measuring the potential value of investment in the AI space. I mean, the AI piece of it is that we have developed agents that will actually identify other things that are less, less sort of noticeable to people. In fact, this regulatory change is one of the things that our AI agents would have been looking for. Okay, now it pre it predated our tool going online, so we didn't see it, but it's the kind of thing that we'd be looking for. So the agents look for news, they look for changes online, and then, and then what happens is, they got brought, they get brought into a profiler. The profiler then determines the probability of or makes an estimate of the probability that this risk will occur. IE, a regulatory change will happen. IE, battery plant will come to town at a certain time. IE, a Costco facility will come in. Then we'll determine the potential magnitude. So there'll be uncertainty in the occurrence, there'll be uncertainty in the magnitude, and there'll be uncertainty in the timing. So we have basically statistical distribution functions for each one of those things, the likelihood of it happening, the magnitude and the timing. And so those are all modeled in so that people can push a button and, say, with this level of certainty your investment would be, would be worth this much. And that's dynamic. It's in real time. So it's changing constantly. It's being updated constantly. And so no so that that is something that goes in, and one of these virtual power purchase agreements would be one of the types of things that would go into this sort of investment timeline?   Trevor Freeman  34:22 Yeah, so it's giving these owners of these assets better data to make a decision about what comes next, as you said, and as we're talking I'm kind of doing the math here. If these are typically 20 year contracts, that's bringing us back to, you know, the mid, early, 2000s when we were really pushing to get off coal. So a lot of these assets probably started in and around that time. So you've probably got a whole bunch of customers, for lack of a better term, ready to start making decisions in the next you know, half a decade or so of what do I do with my. Sets. Have you seen this? Has it been used in the real world yet? Or is, are you getting close to that? Like, where are you at in development?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  35:07 Yeah, it actually started. It's funny. It started a little a little bit even before this craze. A couple years ago, we had, we had a manufacturer in our county come to us with, they had a great interest in, in just, just they were trying to be proactive about avoiding carbon tax and so, and they wanted to develop a new generation technology close to their facility. And so we used it there since that time. Yeah, so, so it was field proven that was a still a research contract, because they were the technology that they were interested in was, was, was not off the shelf. But since that time, we got a chance, because we represent Canada in the International Energy Agency, task 43 on wind energy digitalization. And so one of the mandates there was to develop a robust and transparent tools for investment decision support using digital twins. And we had a German partner in Fraunhofer Institute that had developed nice digital twin that would provide us remaining useful life values for things like blades, you know, towers, foundations, etc, and those are, again, those are all costs that just plug into our but they did. They didn't have a framework of how to work that into an investment decision other than, you know, you may have to replace this in three years. Okay, well, that's good to know, but we need the whole picture to make that decision, and that's sort of what we were trying to bring so the short answer is, yes, we're getting a lot of interest now, which is thrilling for us, but it's, I'll be honest with you, it's not, it's not simple, like, you know, I I've talked about it a bunch of times, so I'm pretty good at talking about it, but, but the doing it is still, it's computationally intensive and in the end, it's still an estimate. It's a, it's a, it's a calculated, quantified estimate, but it's an estimate. I think what we like about it is it's better than saying, Well, I have a hunch that it's going to go this way, but we could get beat by the hunches too. Yeah, totally, right. So, so, you know, I'm not trying to sell people things that, like I we have to be transparent about it. It's still probability.   Trevor Freeman  37:35 Well, I think if there's, if there's one thing that is very apparent, as we are well into this energy transition process that we talk about all the time here on the show. It's that the pace of change is is one of the things that's like no other time we are we are seeing things change, and that means both our demand is growing, our need to identify solutions is growing the way that we need to build out the grid and utilize the ers and utilize all these different solutions is growing at a rate that we haven't seen before, and therefore uncertainty goes up. And so to your point, yeah, we need help to make these decisions. We need better ways of doing it than just, as you say, having a hunch. That doesn't mean it's foolproof. It doesn't mean it's a guarantee.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  38:27 Nope, it is not a guarantee.   Trevor Freeman  38:30 Very cool. So Rupp, this is a great conversation. It's really fascinating to talk about to me, two areas of the energy sector that aren't really understood that well. I think the agriculture side of things, not a lot of people think about that as a major demand source. But also wind, I think we talk about solar a lot. It's a little bit more ubiquitous. People's neighbors have solar on their roofs. But wind is this unless you drive through Southern Ontario or other parts of the province where there's a lot of wind, you don't see it a lot. So it's fascinating to kind of help understand where these sectors are going. Is there anything else that the Institute is working on that that's worth chatting about here, or is what we've talked about, you know, kind of filling your day, in your students days?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  39:15 Well, actually there is something we haven't talked about the nuclear option. Literally, literally the nuclear literally the nuclear option. Yeah, so we've been really thrilled to have a growing relationship with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, which is much closer to you than it is to me. And specifically in the connection of small modular reactors to meet these growing agricultural loads. So I have a science colleague at the University of Windsor, Dr drew Marquart, who was all hot and bothered about these s. Mrs. And he's like, we should drop one of these SMRs in Leamington. Then I this, this part I really enjoyed, because it's obviously so he came from Oak Ridge National Laboratories in the States, and he's and he's been at CNL as well. So he's fully indoctrinated into the nuclear space. But it just didn't occur to him that that would be provocative or controversial at all, that there wouldn't be some social he, you know, he's like, we can do the math. And I said, Oh yeah, yeah, we can do the math. But I'm like, I think you're missing something. I think you're missing something, right? So, but so it's, it's a super fascinating topic, and we're trying to connect, physically connect. So just before the weekend, I was in the turbulence and Energy Lab, and we were trying to commission what we believe is North America's first we're calling it a model synthetic, small modular reactor, synthetic being the key word, and that it's non nuclear, okay? And so it's non nuclear. What it what it is really and if I'm going to de glamorize it for a second, it's a mini steam thermal power plant, which doesn't embody every SMR design, but many SMRs are designed around this sort of where you've got a nuclear reaction that provides the heat, and then after that, it's kind of a steam thermal power plant. Our interest is in this physical little plant being connected to small electrolyzer, being connected to small thermal battery, being connected to a lab scale electric battery and being connected to a lab scale fully automated inlet, cucumber, small cucumber, greenhouse, mini cubes greenhouse, all this in our lab. The exciting thing around this is, you know, I I've said that I think nuclear technology needs to get out from behind the walls of nuclear facilities for people to start to appreciate it, and by that, to start doing that, you have to take the nuclear part out, which, to me, is not necessarily a deal breaker in terms of these dynamic issues that we want to solve. You know, because nukes have traditionally been said, Well, you know they're not that. You know, you can't just ramp them up and down, and that's true, you know, and small modular reactors are supposed to be considerably more nimble, but there's still lots of challenges that have to be solved in terms of having how it is an asset that is provides copious energy, but does so maybe not, not as dynamic, certainly, as a gas turbine. That how does it? How do you make it nimble, right? How do you partner it up with the right complimentary other grid assets to take advantage of what it does so well, which is crank out great amounts of heat and electricity so, so effortlessly, right? And so that's, that's sort of what we're trying to do, and connecting it to what we're calling atomic agriculture. I don't know that's a good name or not. I like it, but, but, but, yeah, so that that's another thing that we're that we're flirting with right now. We're working on. We've done a few. We've had a few contracts with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories to get us this far. We did everything computationally. We're continuing to do computational studies with them. They develop their own hybrid energy systems, optimizer software, HISO, which we use, and we are now trying to put it into sort of the hardware space. So again, just the idea that physically looking at the inertia of spinning up a turbine, the little gap, the little sort of steam powered turbine that we have in the lab that's run by an electric boiler. But our hope is to, ultimately, we're going to get the electric boiler to be mimicking the sort of reaction heating dynamics of a true reactor. So by, but through electrical control. So we'll imitate that by having sort of data from nuclear reactions, and then we'll sort of get an electrical signal analog so that we can do that and basically have a non nuclear model, small modular reactor in the lab.   Trevor Freeman  44:14 Very cool, very neat. Well, Rupp, this has been a great conversation. I really appreciate it. We do always end our interviews with a series of questions here, so I'm going to jump right into those. What's a book that you've read that you think everyone should read?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  44:31 I would say any of the Babysitters Club. That's as high as I get in the literary hierarchy. I'm barely literate so and I thoroughly enjoyed reading those books with my daughters that they were great. So I recommend any, any of the Babysitters Club titles. I mean that completely seriously, I that was the peak of my that are dog man, yeah,   Trevor Freeman  44:56 I'm about six months removed from what i. Was about an 18 month run where that's, that's all I read with my youngest kiddo. So they've, they've just moved on to a few other things. But yes, I've been steeped in the Babysitter's Club very recently.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  45:11 So good. So, you know, absolutely.   Trevor Freeman  45:14 So same question, but for a movie or a show, what's something that you recommend?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  45:17 Everyone thrilled with that question. If you're looking for a good, good true story. I've always been romantically obsessed with the ghost in the darkness, the true story of, I guess, a civil engineer trying to solve a problem of man eating lions and Tsavo. That's a, that's a, that's a tremendous movie with Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas. Yeah, that's good then, and I think for something a little more light hearted and fun, a big fan of the way, way back and youth and revolt, nice.   Trevor Freeman  46:03 If someone offered you a free round trip flight anywhere in the world, where would you go?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  46:05 I don't really like flying, I got to be honest. But if, if I was forced onto the plane, I think, I think I go to Japan. Nice. Have you been before? No, I haven't. I'd like to go. Okay, cool. You're not the first guest that has said that someone else was very That's understandable. Yeah, who is someone that you admire? I would say truly selfless people that help people when no one's looking and when it's not being tabulated for likes those people are who I aspire to be more like nice.   Trevor Freeman  46:47 And last question, what's something about the energy sector or its future that you're really excited about?   Dr Rupp Carriveau  46:53 I think maybe power to the people I really like, the movement of distributed energy resources. I'm sure there's a limit to it, but I think, I think if we have more responsibility for our own power production, and again, I can see there are limits where it's probably, you know, there's, there's a point where it's too much. I'm all for, for major centralized coordination and the security in the reliability that goes with that. But I think a little bit more on the distributed side would be nice, because I think people would understand energy better. They would they would own it more, and I think our grid would probably increase in its resiliency.   Trevor Freeman  47:37 Yeah, that's definitely something that no matter the topic, it seems, is a part of almost every conversation I have here on the show. It works its way in, and I think that's indicative of the fundamental role that decentralizing our energy production and storage is is already playing and is going to play in the years to come as we kind of tackle this energy transition drove this has been a really great conversation. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us, and that's great to catch up. Great to chat with you again.   Dr Rupp Carriveau  48:11 Total privilege for me. Trevor, I really appreciate it. Outstanding job.   Trevor Freeman  48:15 Thanks for having me. Yeah, great to chat. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the thinkenergy podcast, don't forget to subscribe. Wherever you listen to podcasts, and it would be great if you could leave us a review. It really helps to spread the word. As always, we would love to hear from you, whether it's feedback comments or an idea for a show or a guest. You can always reach us at thinkenergy@hydroottawa.com.  

The Toronto Blue Jays have punched their ticket to the World Series, a feeling the team - and Toronto at large - haven't felt for 32 years.But it isn't just Southern Ontario that's feeling the pride of the Boys of Summer. Fans from all across Canada are beaming for what's now being called 'Canada's Team', as the team gears up to host the Los Angeles Dodgers on home turf in just a few days time. But the arrival of the Dodgers is a reminder of who the Jays are, and who they aren't, which is a team not easily wavered by big names or even bigger franchise payrolls. Host Alex Seixeiro speaks to the host of Blue Jays Radio Broadcast on Sportsnet, Shoaib Alli, to break down what it means for the Jays to take baseball's biggest stage, and the impact of a mostly international roster playing for the more than 41 million Canadians counting on them. We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

Welcome back to TACTICAL AWARENESS - a Canadian Podcast about Corvus Belli's landmark Sci-Fi Wargame; Infinity N5. Come along with our hosts Ash, Owen and Dan for a whole new ITS Edition of Infinity! Autumn Assault is six weeks away! Canada's new Satellite Event will be cruising into Southern Ontario with a ton of fun and prizes and a WHOLE NEW SET of Missions from ITS 17. We're joined by the Organizer GREG to run down missions, check out the UPDATES that have already happened to the packet and get the inside on this event we will all be attending! JOIN US for Two Days of fun November 22nd, 23rd. Register HERE: https://infinityuniverse.com/games/infinity/its/tournament/e2c2f8f47-autumn-assault-2025Buy tickets HERE: https://torchlightgh.com/products/infinity-tournament-autumn-assault-2025-2-day-its17-satellite-nov-22-23-2025Listener Mailbag: ⁠https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sZBGrL7XqK03lyU5bunLkIMDMPce4GnI0278hi3PeRI/edit⁠ Join us on Discord HERE: ⁠⁠https://discord.gg/5hndYxvpTuAdd us to your favourite Podcasting App using the RSS Feed: ⁠⁠https://anchor.fm/s/cfa52998/podcast/rss⁠⁠

Weeeeeeeee had a great day at the Franklin Club in Southern Ontario! We got to hit the water with Team Canada legend and still water trout expert Ian Troup. Ian took us out for a morning of fabulous trout fishing, and then we recorded a podcast in the clubhouse. The Franklin Club is a wicked, beautiful place to spend a sweet nature-forward day. The grounds are amazing, the water is splendid, and the fishing is next level. It's a fantastic place to learn still water fishing, and dial in different techniques.  Thanks for having us Franklin Club! Thanks Ian for taking us out.  Learn more about the Franklin Club here. Book a day with Ian and learn or perfect still water fishing.    HOW TO HELP SO FLY: Please go leave us a review on APPLE PODCASTS. It really helps our show get out there, which means we get to make MORE episodes.  Thank you to our sponsors: Drift Outfitters Redington Chums Costa Muskoka Brewery Hooké Podcast Intro Theme Song Music: “Favela Beat“ by Birocratic (www.birocratic.com) The song used in our podcast was licensed via Birocratic License v05.2016. For info on how you can use this music in your project, check out ⁠http://www.birocratic.com/license-app.⁠ To download Birocratic's 60+ song discography, visit http:// birocratic.bandcamp.com. Thanks to all our listeners.  

Welcome back to TACTICAL AWARENESS - a Canadian Podcast about Corvus Belli's landmark Sci-Fi Wargame; Infinity N5. Come along with our hosts Ash, Owen and Dan for a whole new ITS Edition of Infinity! Autumn Assault is six weeks away! Canada's new Satellite Event will be cruising into Southern Ontario with a ton of fun and prizes and a WHOLE NEW SET of Missions from ITS 17. We're joined by the Organizer GREG to run down missions, check out the UPDATES that have already happened to the packet and get the inside on this event we will all be attending! JOIN US for Two Days of fun November 22nd, 23rd. Register HERE: https://infinityuniverse.com/games/infinity/its/tournament/e2c2f8f47-autumn-assault-2025Buy tickets HERE: https://torchlightgh.com/products/infinity-tournament-autumn-assault-2025-2-day-its17-satellite-nov-22-23-2025Listener Mailbag: ⁠https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sZBGrL7XqK03lyU5bunLkIMDMPce4GnI0278hi3PeRI/edit⁠ Join us on Discord HERE: ⁠⁠https://discord.gg/5hndYxvpTuAdd us to your favourite Podcasting App using the RSS Feed: ⁠⁠https://anchor.fm/s/cfa52998/podcast/rss⁠⁠ Music "Built to Last" by NEFFEX used via Creative Commons

debeeaff.wordpress.com In a Restless World, One Woman Finds Refuge—and Wisdom—in a Patch of Infinite Paradise TUCSON, Ariz., August 25, 2025 — In a time when the planet, and peace of mind, feels increasingly at risk, author Dianne Ebertt Beeaff offers a gentle but profound antidote: slow down, pay attention and listen to the land. Her newest book, Infinite Paradise: Witnessing the Wild, welcomes readers to a 16-acre expanse of forest and water meadow along the Conestoga River in Southern Ontario, Canada — a piece of land her mother once named “Paradise.” Part meditative memoir, part love letter to nature, Infinite Paradise invites readers to rediscover nature not as just background scenery but as a source of solace, healing and belonging. “As a child, I grew up in this remarkable space,” Beeaff explained. “Interacting with nature can combat stress, heal the human spirit, and foster new and calming perspectives on life.” Using personal vignettes and breathtaking color photographs, Beeaff chronicles the passing seasons of a single year with poetic precision and reverent detail, connecting readers with the wonder of wildlife and the rhythm of nature — and the quiet, essential truths they hold for all of humanity. Divided into seasons and then further into months and days, Infinite Paradise focuses on the buoyancy of life, showing readers that in a world battered by global warming, habitat destruction and species extinction, many riches still remain. Readers' Favorite calls Infinite Paradise “… a perfect choice for those who cherish nature and seek peace and reflection in their reading,” and BookLife Reviews says, “Beeaff's reflections will instill a powerful urge to slow down, breathe, and be fully present ... this might be the change we all need.” As Infinite Paradise illustrates, the complexity, beauty and power of the natural world is available to any reader who stays open to the splendid lifeforms they live among. “I hope readers will be moved in some small way to learn about and appreciate the many miracles of the natural world and its healing power that surrounds them,” Beeaff added. Infinite Paradise: Witnessing the Wild Publisher: She Writes Press Release Date: September 9, 2025 ISBN-13: ‎978-1647429324 Available from https://www.amazon.com/Infinite-Paradise-Witnessing-Wild-Memoir/dp/1647429323 TIP SHEET The press release above may be published in part or entirety by any print, broadcast or internet/digital media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing. Reviews, photos, links to previous interviews and Q&As are available upon request. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dianne Ebertt Beeaff is the author of six other books, including the bestselling memoir, A Grand Madness: Ten Years on the Road with U2; the sequel, A Grand Madness: U2 Twenty Years After; the award-winning historical fiction novel, Power's Garden; Homecoming, a book of poetry illustrated with her graphite drawings; Spirit Stones: Unraveling the Megalithic Mysteries of Western Europe's Prehistoric Monuments; and the short story collection On Tràigh Lar Beach. She began her writing career in magazine journalism, and her work has appeared in a variety of nonfiction publications, including Arizona Highways, Tucson Magazine, Vegetarian Times and Horse and Horseman. Beeaff is also a poet and artist, working primarily in graphite and watercolor. Her artwork has been featured in local, national and international galleries. A native of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, Beeaff lives in Arizona with her husband, Dan.

Officially, fall has arrived here in Southern Ontario. Although with the warm weather we've been having recently, it's hard to tell other than the fact that the days are getting shorter. And with the change of season, the team sits down to talk about everything related to fall photography, from capturing the bright colourful leaves on your favourite film stocks to showing off the late fall gloom in stark black and white.

We're at the end of summer, and, like you, we don't know how it went by so quickly. Also, the constant heat warnings here in Southern Ontario limited when and how long we could get out and practice photography. However, James, Alex, and Bill all had the opportunity to get out or at least intended to practice photography. And today, they sit down to discuss mostly film stocks, such as Phoenix II and Kentmere 200, which were used by the team's cameras. But also when things go sideways and the best intentions to get out and shoot end up with leaving the camera (accidentally) behind.

Today we have Justin. He is 40 years old and lives in Northern Ontario. He took his last drink on August 20th, 2023.   This episode brought to you by: Better Help – 10% off of your first month #sponsored Café RE – the social app for sober people   [04:03] Thoughts from Paul:   In our question for sobriety, we often ask ourselves why the drinking? Why can't I stop? What's the problem here?    Paul shares his experience with the 12 Steps of AA, more specifically, step 4 where you list all of your resentments. He filled an entire notebook for his fourth step and after reading this out loud to his sponsor, it became clear to him that he was at least 50% of every problem that he encountered or had been part of. The fourth step showed him the patterns, and the data was clear – he was the problem. The same is true for all of us.   It turns out, in a non-shaming way, you are the problem, and you are not the solution. This should be empowering because if you are the problem, you're the only thing you can control. The solution is not a one and done thing. The big one here is to burn the ships and to start building community.   We used alcohol to numb the pains of living in a super challenging world, and the solution is that we have to find a better way to respond to the world and we have to come together to make this happen.   [08:39] Paul introduces Justin:   Justin is from Northern Ontario, has been married for 14 years and they have two dogs and cat. Formerly an electrician, Justin is now a part-time day trader. He enjoys hiking, yoga and meditation. Justin and his wife Danielle quit drinking together just over two years ago.   Justin had his first drink at age 15 with some friends. He didn't see the point in drinking at first but was happy to have friends to drink with. Over time he not only enjoyed spending time with friends he also began to enjoy the drinking too.   At 18, Justin had a job with a sound and lighting company, and they would do a lot of concerts. He reflects that the amount of booze that was around and available to him for free was insane. Within the next two years he developed a habit of drinking 10 to 20 beers a day. In addition to the drinking, Justin had developed an addiction to harder drugs.   When Justin was around age 23, he quit the job and doing hard drugs but used alcohol to help him. This contributed to his intake increasing and he was still drinking daily. Because he wasn't doing hard drugs anymore, he thought it was ok, and he was living clean. After Justin's third DUI charge in 2015, he begins to realize that he might have a problem. He quit for five days and decided he didn't have a problem, so he went back to drinking.   Living in a small town where many people drank more than them, Justin and Danielle had the illusion that they “weren't that bad”. They enjoyed drinking together most of the time, but when they began fighting more often, they acknowledged that there might be an issue. They began trying moderation techniques, but eventually knew they just needed to stop altogether.   They drank one last time after losing their horse and Justin says he had the worst hangover the next day. They both had already been listening to the RE podcast and had joined Café RE. Justin is grateful to being doing this with his partner and they find strength in one another.   Justin was just diagnosed with a brain tumor, so they are planning a big move back to Southern Ontario to be closer to family. Being sober for these life changes is a gift, Justin says. When asked what his mantra has been for the last few months Justin says “go with the flow, keep on truckin', be like water. You can't fight life. Life is just going to push you as it pushes you and generally, you'll get what you need”.   Justin's parting piece of guidance: the only way out is through. You gotta go through it to move out of it.       Recovery Elevator We took the elevator down. We gotta take the stairs back up. I love you guys.   RE on Instagram Recovery Elevator YouTube Sobriety Tracker iTunes       

Send me a text! I'd LOVE to hear your feedback on this episode!Important Links:Brenda works both virtually and in-person.  Get in touch with her here:https://www.sobrilliant.ca/If you're local to Southern Ontario, she is holding space for an in-person daytime retreat on September 20, 2025, where you can experience her energy healing methods.  Register here:https://sobrilliant.simplybook.me/v2/#book/service/34/count/1/provider/5/date/2025-09-20/Through authentic conversation, we explore the world of energy healing with transformational quantum healer Brenda Farrugia, delving into how negative influences can be removed to elevate consciousness and unlock our full potential.• Born with natural healing abilities, Brenda could see dark entities when sad and angels when happy• At age 14, Brenda unknowingly performed quantum healing on her injured dog, visualizing wellness that resulted in a miraculous recovery• Self-love and establishing boundaries have been Brenda's greatest personal challenges despite her innate ability to see divinity in everyone• Creating "bubbles of protection" provides energetic shielding for ourselves, loved ones, and even our digital presence• Scientific research increasingly supports energy healing, with studies from the Heartmath Institute showing measurable effects of collective meditation• BEAM therapy (Bioenergetic Emotional Access Method) works by removing layers of energetic interference through phrases guided by a client's higher self• Each BEAM session permanently removes one complete layer of energetic blockage, gradually increasing one's light quotient and vibrational frequency• Everyone experiences BEAM therapy differently—some have emotional releases or memories surface while others simply feel peaceful• Energetic discernment helps identify authentic healers—trust your intuition and never feel pressured into working with someone who doesn't feel rightRemember that quiet time connecting with nature is essential for hearing your inner guidance and noticing synchronicities. When you begin seeing synchronicities in your life, it's a sign you're tapping into a higher vibration.Support the showPlease rate & review my podcast with a few kind words on Apple or Spotify. Subscribe wherever you listen, share this episode with a friend, and follow me below. This truly gives back & helps me keep bringing amazing guests & topics every week.Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandyknutrition/Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/sandyknutritionTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sandyknutritionYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIh48ov-SgbSUXsVeLL2qAgRumble: https://rumble.com/c/c-5461001Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandyknutrition/Substack: https://sandykruse.substack.com/Podcast Website: https://sandykruse.ca

A engaging episode of The Weekly Scrap with guest host Scott Hewlett, the voice behind Multiple Calls Podcast. A 26-year veteran firefighter from Southern Ontario. His podcast, with over 300,000 listeners, delivers authentic stories about the fire service, mental health, and professional growth, making him a perfect fit to helm this episode. He's joined by Andrew Brassard, a respected Milton Fire Department firefighter since 2000. Andrew instructs at prestigious programs like FDIC and Spartan Rescue. They explore fire service culture, leadership, and lessons from decades on the job. A candid, compelling conversation grounded in real-world experience and practical wisdom. With Scott's knack for meaningful dialogue and Andrew's wealth of expertise, this episode offers a unique perspective on the challenges and rewards of firefighting. Don't miss this chance to hear two Canadian fire service leaders share their stories and insights!

Have you ever wondered what life might look like if you actually pursued the thing that makes you leap out of bed in the morning? Jake Monk's journey offers a rare glimpse into what happens when passion meets opportunity and purpose finds its perfect home.Jake's adventure begins unexpectedly when, as a teenager obsessed with fishing but with limited experience, he wins a contest for a stay at Chaudière Lodge. That single trip plants a seed that would take years to fully bloom. Working at the lodge as a young adult, Jake develops foundational skills in outdoor hospitality while forming connections that would shape his future. Though his path leads through boat sales and various careers in the marine industry, something keeps pulling him back to the water.The turning point arrives when Jake makes the bold decision to leave Southern Ontario behind and relocate to Sault Ste. Marie in the Algoma region. This move isn't just about the dramatically more affordable housing (though finding a three-bedroom home for under $350K certainly helps); it's about reconnecting with what matters. The slower pace, the genuine community connections, and most importantly, the unparalleled access to world-class fishing waters creates the perfect environment for Jake to build something authentic.Now guiding full-time in a region where nearly every freshwater species swims within a two-hour radius, Jake has discovered what many spend a lifetime searching for – work that transcends the paycheck. "This is the one thing I would say in my whole life where I wake up excited, I enjoy doing it, and if I won the lottery one day and money was no object, I would still want to do this," he shares with the kind of conviction that can't be manufactured.His story serves as both inspiration and practical roadmap for anyone questioning their current path. The career satisfaction Jake found didn't come from chasing status or money, but from creating experiences that mirror the transformative moments from his own youth. Every client represents a chance to spark that same love of fishing that changed his own life trajectory years ago.Ready to reimagine what your relationship with work could be? Listen to Jake's full conversation and consider what might be possible if you followed your own compass north – whether literally or figuratively – toward the life that's been waiting for you all along.

We sit with Rob Voisin of Friends of the Grand River to chat about his fishing life and the great work this non-profit does, in order to be a voice for an iconic river in Southern Ontario, Canada. Friends of the Grand River is a volunteer-driven, non‑profit organization based in Fergus, Ontario, dedicated to preserving and enhancing the Grand River watershed. Since 1995, they've worked to educate, engage, and unite people who care about this incredible river — through conservation projects, public seminars, and hands-on efforts to protect its natural beauty and ensure it can be enjoyed for generations to come. Thanks for coming on the show, Rob! Help Friends of the Grand River: https://friendsofthegrandriver.com/ HOW TO HELP SO FLY: Please go leave us a review on APPLE PODCASTS. It really helps our show get out there, which means we get to make MORE episodes.  Thank you to our sponsors: Drift Outfitters Redington Chums Costa Muskoka Brewery Hooké   Podcast Intro Theme Song Music: “Favela Beat“ by Birocratic (www.birocratic.com) The song used in our podcast was licensed via Birocratic License v05.2016. For info on how you can use this music in your project, check out ⁠http://www.birocratic.com/license-app.⁠ To download Birocratic's 60+ song discography, visit http:// birocratic.bandcamp.com. Thanks to all our listeners.  

I think there's a lot of roles for art generally, and one of my favorite ones is kind of imagining that art helps you imagine, even if it has nothing to do with it. It helps. You can be a springboard to help you dream and stuff like that. The project that we're going to talk about today has a lot more to do with the kind of solace or companionship or remembering melancholy, maybe. Although I think it's also about joy and surprise so there's a few levels of which I guess are all things that you hope to get from art.My conversation with an artist who prefers to remain anonymous. We went for a walk under the Gardiner Expressway in Tkaronto on March 11, 2025 to discover or rediscover the downtown critters project, a series of large printed drawings of local animals, birds, insects and amphibians in Southern Ontario. The idea is to create little moments of surprise and joy for pedestrians and motorists around some of the most bleak and industrial stretches of Toronto and Ottawa. The drawings are quite moving and made me want to go back in time…Show notes generated by Whisper Transcribe AIAction pointsRecognize the presence of local wildlife in urban environments through art installations.Understand the role of art in creating moments of surprise and joy in unexpected places.Appreciate the interplay between urban spaces and the natural world.Explore the use of graffiti art as a medium for environmental awareness and community engagement.Consider the impact of public art on personal well-being and community connection.Story PreviewImagine stumbling upon a vibrant drawing of a local animal beneath the cold, concrete of a city expressway. This is the reality created by Downtown Critters, a public art project sparking joy and reflection in Toronto's urban landscape. Discover the story behind the art, the artist's motivations, and the unexpected connections it fosters between city dwellers and the natural world.Chapter Summary00:00 The Role of Art in Imagination01:00 Introducing Downtown Critters02:42 The Inspiration Behind the Critters04:55 The Emotional Connection to Urban Wildlife06:31 The Joy of Discovery09:00 The Ephemeral Nature of Art10:41 Art as a Reflection of Loss12:26 Connecting Species and SpacesFeatured QuotesSo I guess part of it is like, part of it is remembering that the animals are here.It's sort of brutal to think of animals in that situation underneath the gardener. But it's also us who's underneath the gardener.It makes me so happy when I'm, you know, I go for my jog and it's like under the traffic… and then you're like, oh, look, a frog.Behind the StoryDowntown Critters began with a simple observation: a family of bunnies living under a dumpster in a construction site near Toronto's Gardiner Expressway. This sparked the artist's desire to remind people of the animals that still inhabit, or once inhabited, the city. The project uses large-format drawings and wheat paste to create ephemeral art installations in unexpected places, prompting viewers to consider their relationship with the natural world. *END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODESHey conscient listeners, I've been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020 on un-ceded Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (Ottawa). It's my way to give back.In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and its francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I I publish fee ‘a calm presence' Substack see https://acalmpresence.substack.com.Your feedback is always welcome at claude@conscient.ca and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads or BlueSky.I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. Claude SchryerLatest update on June 27, 2025

On this weeks episode Brendan chats with Dr. Meagan Kindree about her work on the interactions between the invasive Round Goby and the native White Sucker in the tributaries of the Great Lakes, as well as how the changing thermal regimes brought on by climate change may impact both species.  Dr. Kindree discusses how they came about studying the impacts of Round Goby on juvenile White Sucker, what the experiments on thermal tolerances of both species reveal, and how all hope is not lost for the White Sucker!    You can get in touch with Meagan about her work here: https://x.com/meagankindree?lang=ar or email meagan.kindree@gmail.com.      Main point: "Always be writing!" Get in touch with us! The Fisheries Podcast is on Facebook, X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky: @FisheriesPod  Become a Patron of the show: https://www.patreon.com/FisheriesPodcast Buy podcast shirts, hoodies, stickers, and more: https://teespring.com/stores/the-fisheries-podcast-fan-shop Thanks as always to Andrew Gialanella for the fantastic intro/outro music. The Fisheries Podcast is a completely independent podcast, not affiliated with a larger organization or entity. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the podcast. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by the hosts are those of that individual and do not necessarily reflect the view of any entity with those individuals are affiliated in other capacities (such as employers).

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Andrew Forbes about his phenomenal novella, McCurdle's Arm: A Fiction (Invisible Publishing, July 16, 2024). Southern Ontario, 1892. The Ashburnham Pine Groves are a semi-professional baseball club in the South Western Ontario Base-Ball Players' Association, sponsored by the Grafton Brewery, makers of Ashburnham's Famous Pine Grove Ale. When sober the Ashburnham players are an impressive group, though coarse and occasionally cretinous, and as with any collection of men, not without their peculiarities. Robert James McCurdle is one of their most formidable pitchers, though he understands that his body won't let him perform at a high level forever. McCurdle's Arm is an account of a particular man in his particular time, playing a version of baseball devoid of the comforts of the modern game, rife with violence, his employment always precarious. Against this backdrop McCurdle must choose between his love for the game and his desire to be reunited with the woman who loves him. About Andrew Forbes: Andrew Forbes is the author of the novel The Diapause (Invisible, October 1, 2024), the novella McCurdle's Arm: A Fiction (Invisible Publishing, July 16, 2024), and the essay collection Field Work: On Baseball and Making a Living (Assembly Press, April 15, 2025). He is also the author of two books of short fiction and two earlier collections of baseball writing. His work has appeared in publications such as the Toronto Star, Canadian Notes and Queries, and Maisonneuve Magazine. He was the 2019 Margaret Laurence Fellow at Trent University, and served on the jury of the 2022 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. Forbes lives in Peterborough, Ontario. About Hollay Ghadery:Hollay Ghadery is an Iranian-Canadian multi-genre writer living in Ontario on Anishinaabe land. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental health,moir. Her collection of poetry, Rebellion Box was released by Radiant Press in 2023, and her collection of short fiction, Widow Fantasies, was released with Gordon Hill Press in fall 2024. Her debut novel, The Unraveling of Ou, is due out with Palimpsest Press in 2026, and her children's book, Being with the Birds, with Guernica Editions in 2027. Hollay is the host of the 105.5 FM Bookclub, as well as a co-host on HOWL on CIUT 89.5 FM. She is also a book publicist, the Regional Chair of the League of Canadian Poets and a co-chair of the League's BIPOC committee, as well as the Poet Laureate of Scugog Township. Learn more about Hollay at www.hollayghadery.com. was released by Guernica Editions in 2021 and won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/Me Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Andrew Forbes about his phenomenal novella, McCurdle's Arm: A Fiction (Invisible Publishing, July 16, 2024). Southern Ontario, 1892. The Ashburnham Pine Groves are a semi-professional baseball club in the South Western Ontario Base-Ball Players' Association, sponsored by the Grafton Brewery, makers of Ashburnham's Famous Pine Grove Ale. When sober the Ashburnham players are an impressive group, though coarse and occasionally cretinous, and as with any collection of men, not without their peculiarities. Robert James McCurdle is one of their most formidable pitchers, though he understands that his body won't let him perform at a high level forever. McCurdle's Arm is an account of a particular man in his particular time, playing a version of baseball devoid of the comforts of the modern game, rife with violence, his employment always precarious. Against this backdrop McCurdle must choose between his love for the game and his desire to be reunited with the woman who loves him. About Andrew Forbes: Andrew Forbes is the author of the novel The Diapause (Invisible, October 1, 2024), the novella McCurdle's Arm: A Fiction (Invisible Publishing, July 16, 2024), and the essay collection Field Work: On Baseball and Making a Living (Assembly Press, April 15, 2025). He is also the author of two books of short fiction and two earlier collections of baseball writing. His work has appeared in publications such as the Toronto Star, Canadian Notes and Queries, and Maisonneuve Magazine. He was the 2019 Margaret Laurence Fellow at Trent University, and served on the jury of the 2022 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. Forbes lives in Peterborough, Ontario. About Hollay Ghadery:Hollay Ghadery is an Iranian-Canadian multi-genre writer living in Ontario on Anishinaabe land. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental health,moir. Her collection of poetry, Rebellion Box was released by Radiant Press in 2023, and her collection of short fiction, Widow Fantasies, was released with Gordon Hill Press in fall 2024. Her debut novel, The Unraveling of Ou, is due out with Palimpsest Press in 2026, and her children's book, Being with the Birds, with Guernica Editions in 2027. Hollay is the host of the 105.5 FM Bookclub, as well as a co-host on HOWL on CIUT 89.5 FM. She is also a book publicist, the Regional Chair of the League of Canadian Poets and a co-chair of the League's BIPOC committee, as well as the Poet Laureate of Scugog Township. Learn more about Hollay at www.hollayghadery.com. was released by Guernica Editions in 2021 and won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/Me Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sports

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Andrew Forbes about his phenomenal novella, McCurdle's Arm: A Fiction (Invisible Publishing, July 16, 2024). Southern Ontario, 1892. The Ashburnham Pine Groves are a semi-professional baseball club in the South Western Ontario Base-Ball Players' Association, sponsored by the Grafton Brewery, makers of Ashburnham's Famous Pine Grove Ale. When sober the Ashburnham players are an impressive group, though coarse and occasionally cretinous, and as with any collection of men, not without their peculiarities. Robert James McCurdle is one of their most formidable pitchers, though he understands that his body won't let him perform at a high level forever. McCurdle's Arm is an account of a particular man in his particular time, playing a version of baseball devoid of the comforts of the modern game, rife with violence, his employment always precarious. Against this backdrop McCurdle must choose between his love for the game and his desire to be reunited with the woman who loves him. About Andrew Forbes: Andrew Forbes is the author of the novel The Diapause (Invisible, October 1, 2024), the novella McCurdle's Arm: A Fiction (Invisible Publishing, July 16, 2024), and the essay collection Field Work: On Baseball and Making a Living (Assembly Press, April 15, 2025). He is also the author of two books of short fiction and two earlier collections of baseball writing. His work has appeared in publications such as the Toronto Star, Canadian Notes and Queries, and Maisonneuve Magazine. He was the 2019 Margaret Laurence Fellow at Trent University, and served on the jury of the 2022 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. Forbes lives in Peterborough, Ontario. About Hollay Ghadery:Hollay Ghadery is an Iranian-Canadian multi-genre writer living in Ontario on Anishinaabe land. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental health,moir. Her collection of poetry, Rebellion Box was released by Radiant Press in 2023, and her collection of short fiction, Widow Fantasies, was released with Gordon Hill Press in fall 2024. Her debut novel, The Unraveling of Ou, is due out with Palimpsest Press in 2026, and her children's book, Being with the Birds, with Guernica Editions in 2027. Hollay is the host of the 105.5 FM Bookclub, as well as a co-host on HOWL on CIUT 89.5 FM. She is also a book publicist, the Regional Chair of the League of Canadian Poets and a co-chair of the League's BIPOC committee, as well as the Poet Laureate of Scugog Township. Learn more about Hollay at www.hollayghadery.com. was released by Guernica Editions in 2021 and won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/Me Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

About Jennifer JohnsonHi, I'm Jennifer Johnson, and I am a wife, mother of two, and a Registered Nurse in Ontario, Canada. I have spent the last sixteen years of my career in the emergency room of big and small hospitals all over Northern and Southern Ontario. I have personally been a part of all the heartbreak, drama, bullying, life to death moments, and then also trying to cope in the ER during an ongoing pandemic. My debut book- Nursing Intuition: How to Trust Your Gut, Save Your Sanity and Survive Your Career is finally here and it's my rally cry to all the other nurses struggling through this pandemic and finding that they are losing their love of nursing. They (as well as I) are burnt out and depressed and feeling hopeless. The love, caring, and camaraderie of nursing have changed for all of us, and the expectation that we continue to show up to a job that puts our lives on the line is new to us, and we are not doing well. I wanted to put this book out there to let nurses know they are not alone. Bringing back the love of nursing is possible. Now more than ever, we need to support and help raise each other.https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-johnson-bscn-rnhttps://www.rxforgrowth.com/---------------------------------------------------------About Dr. Shanea ClancyFrom witnessing insurmountable trauma to rewiring my brain through intentional transformation and approaches to life, my journey defies the traditional path of a surthriver.A forensic nurse turned mindset strategist who thrives on empowering audiences to shift from survival mode to their peak performance potential.Why? Because I know what it's like to be in the trenches of life, feeling lost, overwhelmed, unworthy, and completely alone. Even while surrounded by those who mean the most.I've sat with stories most people run from. All while my passion, purpose, and identity unwillingly stripped from me. After years of slowly rebuilding a future from scratch, once afforded a second-chance, my passion & hearts mission is to teach leaders, entrepreneurs, and changemakers how to lead with emotional intelligence, dismantle limiting beliefs, and build resilient & confident teams by getting in the trenches alongside them. Why? Because, I also know what the power of belief, hope, mentorship, and unconditional love does to ones soul. I'm living proof that our pasts and mishaps do not dictate our future.Whether we're talking trauma-informed care, mental health, mindset mastery, or moral injury, I'm not just sharing theory and expert insights. I'm also sharing my heart & soul with the tools and critical keys of transformation that changed the entire trajectory of life as I once knew it.https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanea-clancyhttp://www.shaneaclancy.com/-------------------------------------------------When It Worked Podcast

Send us a textEver wondered what it takes to build a thriving, diversified business in the shed industry? Norman Eicher of Mountain View takes us behind the scenes of his remarkable journey from humble beginnings to running a multifaceted enterprise that's continuously expanding.Starting with a simple construction company that added shed sales in 2009, Norman has methodically grown his operation to include a truss plant, metal fabrication facility, and a full-scale lumberyard. The conversation reveals fascinating insights into his metal manufacturing innovations, where his team has developed techniques to produce trim pieces every 15 seconds rather than the traditional 30 seconds per piece. This kind of efficiency has allowed his metal business to nearly match his shed sales in revenue generation.What makes this episode particularly valuable is Norman's candid discussion about business relationships and profit margins. "If my employee isn't making me money, why is he here? If I'm not making Sam money, I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong," he shares, highlighting a refreshing perspective on value creation throughout the supply chain. Norman articulates why being upset when others profit from your work represents a problematic mindset that limits growth and cooperation.The episode takes fascinating detours into Norman's background – building rafters at age 12 for $2 an hour in Southern Ontario, his time in Illinois learning the shed business, and finally establishing his Tennessee operation in 2006. His approach to quality, particularly in customer interactions, underscores why superior service trumps price-cutting. "If your price is within 15%, they will buy based on your personality and your way of approaching them," he notes, explaining why one of his salespeople consistently outperforms expectations.Whether you're directly involved in the shed industry or simply interested in business growth strategies, Norman's philosophy that "quality will long outlast quantity" offers timeless wisdom. His predictions about market consolidation and insights on keeping transportation in-house provide food for thought for anyone navigating similar business decisions.Ready to learn more about diversification strategies that can weather market fluctuations? Listen now and discover how innovation, relationship-building, and unwavering quality standards have positioned Mountain View for continued success in an evolving market.For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.This episodes Sponsors:Studio Sponsor: Union Grove LumberCardinal ManufacturingCardinal LeasingShed Challenger

When a newly purchased century-old home in Southern Ontario starts acting like it's still fully inhabited—by someone or something—it doesn't take long for skepticism to give way to fear. From heavy footsteps across creaky wood floors to a TV shutting off mid-break-in panic, it was only the beginning. Then came the night the bedroom door violently shook while his wife screamed from upstairs. A locked door. No open windows. No visitors. Just a terrifying force that seemed desperate to be noticed. Sometimes a house just needs a little love… and sometimes, it wants you out. Permanently. If you have a real ghost story or supernatural event to report, please write into our show or call 1-855-853-4802! If you like the show, please help keep us on the air and support the show by becoming a Premium Subscriber.  Subscribe here: http://www.ghostpodcast.com/?page_id=118 or at or at http://www.patreon.com/realghoststories Watch more at: http://www.realghoststoriesonline.com/ Follow Tony: Instagram: HTTP://www.instagram.com/tonybrueski TikToc: https://www.tiktok.com/@tonybrueski Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tony.brueski 

Jennifer Johnson is a wife, mother, and Registered Nurse in Ontario, Canada, who has spent the last sixteen years of her career in the emergency room of big and small hospitals all over Northern and Southern Ontario. She has personally been a part of all the heartbreak, drama, bullying, life to death moments, and then also trying to cope in the ER during an ongoing pandemic. Her recently published debut novel is titled “Nursing Intuition: How to Trust Your Gut, Save Your Sanity and Survive Your Career” is her rally cry to all the other nurses struggling through the highs and lows of the medical system and realize that they are losing their love of nursing.  Jenn explains that nurses are burnt out, depressed, and feeling hopeless. The love, caring, and camaraderie of nursing have changed, as well as the expectation that they continue to show up to a job that puts their lives on the line is new to them. As a result, nurses are not doing well.    Jenn describes the many intricacies of being in the trenches of the ER, sometimes without the necessary resources of proper supplies as well as the assistance from support staff. She also gives valuable insights and tips, not only for nurses, but for anyone who wants to learn how to follow their heart, listen to their intuition, prevent burnout, and practice healthy coping techniques.  This episode is not just for nurses; it's for everyone who feels like they are losing control of their life. Download it today to learn how you can take charge of your life and career by following your heart and your intuition.        https://www.rxforgrowth.com/ https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jennifer-A-Johnson-RN/aut https://www.instagram.com/ernurse.jenn/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-johnson-bscn-rn/ https://www.tiktok.com/@ernurse.jenn?lang=en  

Show Notes:  https://wetflyswing.com/707  Presented by: Pescador on the Fly, FishHound Expeditions, Four Wheel Campers Sponsors: https://wetflyswing.com/sponsors  In this episode, we are thrilled to have Mitch and Aldo, the dynamic duo behind the renowned So Fly Fishing podcast, one of Canada's top fly fishing shows. Join us as Mitch and Aldo take us on a journey through Southern Ontario's stunning waters and beyond. They'll share captivating stories from their podcast, offering insights into their favorite trips and the incredible guests they've hosted. Whether you're planning your next big adventure or simply dreaming of the perfect fly fishing escape, Mitch and Aldo are here to provide inspiration and expert advice. Episode Chapters with Mitch Duesling and Aldo Pescatore-Tardioli on the So Fly Fishing Podcast 1:28 - I had the pleasure to guest on their podcast in April last year about starting and sustaining a fly fishing podcast. 3:44 - We started our chat by getting into their creative journey in the podcasting space. Mitch reflects on the origins of their project, which began as an idea in 2015 and launched its first episode in January 2016. Mitch notes the rise of the creator culture, observing that even young family members aspire to be creators now. Aldo recalls joining the podcast as a guest on an episode and later becoming a co-host. The team experienced a shift in their production schedule during the Covid lockdown, initially increasing their output to one episode per week due to having more free time. Eventually, they settled into a rhythm of releasing two episodes per month, which they find to be a balanced and sustainable approach. 6:52 - We talk about fishing in Ontario. Mitch and Aldo discuss how Ontario offers a wide range of fishing opportunities due to its large size and diverse ecosystems, from Southern Ontario to the far north. They note that while they have traveled globally, Ontario remains a prime fishing destination for them. Aldo mentions the multi-species fishing opportunities, including smallmouth bass, pike, and musky, particularly in Ottawa. He also remarks on the less populated areas of the province, which offer remote fishing experiences. 9:51 - Aldo shares that time when a listener's invitation led them to Texas for redfishing, highlighting the exciting and memorable experiences that result from this kind of trips. Both Mitch and Aldo emphasize the importance of being open to opportunities and seizing them when they arise. 13:29 - Mitch discusses the shift from audio-only content to video podcasts on YouTube. He notes that more people are engaging with their content on YouTube, likely due to the visual component that video offers. Despite this shift, creating video content presents challenges, such as ensuring guests have the necessary technology to participate visually. 16:00 - We discuss the excitement of having well-known guests on the show, particularly those outside the fly fishing community. They recount a near-success in booking actor Liam Neeson, who declined their invitation but showed interest initially. They dream of featuring other famous personalities, focusing solely on their fishing experiences rather than their celebrity status. 18:39 - I mention our episodes with Yvon Chouinard and Henry Winkler. 19:13 - The hosts discuss their experiences with receiving negative comments or "hate mail" after podcast episodes. Mitch and Aldo acknowledge that early on, they received criticism for swearing too much, which they have since reduced. 21:19 - Aldo and Mitch reveal how they plan and produce their episodes. They rely on a network of sponsors, fly shops, guides, and local connections to secure guests, aiming to maintain a balance between international content and local stories from Ontario. 24:25 - We ask them about their plans for this year. One of the highlights is a trip to Belize in February, where they'll be exploring Ambergris Caye and San Pedro with a mix of DIY adventures and guided tours. Another major milestone for the team is the upcoming 200th episode of their podcast, which they are thrilled about. 26:28 - They share about an annual event called the Southern Ontario Trout Opener Social in April. It serves as a fundraiser aiming to support local river conservation efforts. The event features a cocktail party setup with around 150 attendees, including tying competitions where participants can win a day with a guide. The event has been running for four years and was designed to attract both fishing enthusiasts and non-fishers. 30:25 - Our conversation discusses potential guests and episodes for this year. Aldo expresses a strong interest in having Andy Mill on the show. He admires Andy's work and has been an avid listener of the Mill House podcast, which captures the allure of saltwater fishing. 35:33 - We dig into Aldo's first time travelling to Belize. Mitch also shares his favorite fishing trip so far which was in a river in Northern Ontario because of the available fish species and wild life there. 45:14 - Aldo raises a concern about the potential apprehension of having earlier episodes of their podcast accessible to listeners, particularly if they might not reflect the current quality or style. 46:34 - They share their favorite podcasts. Mitch highlights "Design Matters" with Debbie Millman as his favorite podcast. He praised Debbie's interviewing style, noting her ability to keep conversations engaging and forward-moving. Aldo recommends "Pivot" with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. He explains that the podcast explores the intersection of business, technology, and everyday life. Aldo appreciates the hosts' approach, as they avoid talking down to listeners. 49:22 - Mitch shares the inspiration behind starting a podcast, highlighting his love for radio and conversation. His interest sparked from listening to "The Ricky Gervais Show," which he considers one of the best podcasts due to its humor and engaging content. 51:40 - We ask for the story about the title of their podcast, So Fly. 52:48 - We share a story about our family's recent trip to Anchorage, Alaska with the team of Fishhound Expeditions. We travelled in our amazing pop up camper from Four Wheel Campers. 56:17 - We ask some random questions like their go-to YouTube channel and podcast platform. Show Notes:  https://wetflyswing.com/707  

Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/699 Presented By:  On DeMark Lodge, Pescador on the Fly, Yellowstone Teton Territory, Four Wheel Campers Sponsors: https://wetflyswing.com/sponsors What are the five top species that come to your mind right now for fly fishing? Are brown trout, steelhead, smallmouth bass, muskie or largemouth on that list right now? And have you ever wondered about fishing some of the great waters of Canada? Today's guest is a guide in Southern Ontario and is the new Fly Fisher host, and today he's gonna give us a roadmap to success on some of the great rivers of the Great Lakes. Rob Heal, Southern Ontario Guide and The New Fly Fisher host is going to share his experience fishing the Grand River, the Saugeen, a bunch of great rivers that include not only steelhead but great trout fishing. You're gonna hear about these unique rivers and this holdover steelhead species that doesn't out-migrate until a year later. So you got a chance to catch these larger fish. We're gonna find out about these big brown trout in the area as well, and how to target them and some of his other go-to rivers that he fishes. Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/699

Subscribe to NaturesTemper https://www.youtube.com/@NaturesTemper Get CRYPTID: The Creepy Card Battling Game https://cryptidcardgame.com/ Read our new wendigo horror novel https://eeriecast.com/lore Sign up for Eeriecast PLUS for bonus content and more https://eeriecast.com/plus Get our merch http://eeriecast.store/ SCARY STORIES TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 INTRO 0:49 The Mimic from Maci 5:01 The Voices in Piney Grove from Chrisss 14:59 Willow Creek Whisperer from GregoryHorrorShowFan 26:04 My First Skinwalker Encounter from Harloe 37:05 The Echo from Reverberator 45:14 Skinwalker in Southern Ontario from Bluecollarfarmer Join my Discord! https://discord.gg/3YVN4twrD8 Follow the Unexplained Encounters podcast! https://pod.link/1152248491 Follow and review Tales from the Break Room on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! https://pod.link/1621075170 Follow us on Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/show/3mNZyXkaJPLwUwcjkz6Pv2 Follow and Review us on iTunes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/darkness-prevails-podcast-true-horror-stories/id1152248491 Submit Your Story Here: https://www.darkstories.org/ Subscribe on YouTube for More Stories! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh_VbMnoL4nuxX_3HYanJbA?sub_confirmation=1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices