Inaugural Meeting Held for the BWCAC

The Brick Works Community Advisory Committee met for the first time last night. This group was created by Evergreen at the behest of the local community. There are about dozen committee members made up of reps from environmental groups, neighbourhood groups and individuals interested in the project. In our initial introductions, I learned that the group includes a retired marketing exec, an elementary school teacher, and a chiropodist.

This committee grew out of a previous committee called the Brick Works Public Advisory Committee which was created by the city. It's purpose was to advise city council and staff on issues concerning the Don Valley Brick Works site. When Evergreen started to manage the site, the committee was disbanded. To provide some continuity, Evergreen agreed to create the new body.

The purpose of the committee is to act as a liaison between Evergreen and the local community. At this stage it's unclear how this will actually work but we agreed that meetings should start with an update on how the project is proceeding. This will be crucial during the construction period which will continue over the next two years.

The first meeting was taken up by introductions and orientation. We didn't get much of a chance to interact so it is hard to gauge how effective the group will be. Someone mentioned that all groups go through a process of forming, storming, norming, and performing. Based on this formula we did parts of the first and second stage but it looks like the 'performing' part may be a ways down the road.