This year, GreenUP faces a critical challenge — one that could define our ability to continue serving the Peterborough community for years to come.

For over 30 years, GreenUP has empowered residents to embrace sustainability and take meaningful climate action. As a non-profit charity, we rely on stable funding to support a variety of programs that promote sustainability, environmental education, and green living.

With declining funding available for our work, we are already managing significant revenue reductions which puts some of our valuable initiatives in jeopardy. As funding challenges grow, we are at risk of having to reduce our vital climate programs at a time when they are needed most.

“Our environmental education programs are at the heart of what makes our community unique and resilient,” says Tegan Moss, executive director of GreenUP. “Losing them would have a significant impact on Peterborough and the local environment.”

In 2024, despite funding challenges, GreenUP has made significant strides in climate action and community sustainability. Our programs continue to have a positive impact.

Through our home energy programs, our clients are collectively saving over 14,800 gigajoules of energy annually — equivalent to taking 104 homes off the grid. We’ve also helped divert more than 2,000 plastic bottles from landfills through our “refillery” at the GreenUP Store and Resource Centre.

Our programs have reached the next generation too: 1,300 local students participated in the Peterborough Children’s Water Festival and 386 children took part in our cycling education events, learning how to stay safe while reducing their carbon footprint.

Over 1,500 trees have been planted across Peterborough, and four Little Forests have been established at local schools, creating vibrant spaces for learning and environmental stewardship.

This year, our propagation of native plants has also flourished, with more than 2,500 native plants started through our new initiative at Ecology Park. Our team is deeply invested in enhancing Ecology Park as a space for education workshops and native plant propagation, contributing to local biodiversity and community education.

Unfortunately, recent shifts in funding have made it necessary for us to evaluate how we can continue delivering the most impactful programs with limited resources.

For example, our active transportation programs, which promote safer, more sustainable travel options for youth, though well supported locally, are now at risk due to changing provincial funding priorities.

Likewise, our home energy services have been negatively impacted by rapid changes to federal incentives, and our water conservation programs — which were once funded by Peterborough Utilities Group — are now facing critical funding challenges.

The urgency of climate work is all around us. Ongoing shifts in weather patterns and intensity provide a daily reminder of our changing climate. With a legacy of sustainability education through characters like Cool Captain Climate and programs like Recycle Rangers, GreenUP has long been at the forefront of helping our community adapt.

Our impact has been far and wide. Many thousands of children have participated in our educational experiences at Ecology Park, for example. At GreenUP we need to continue increasing our efforts, not scale back — and we need your help to do that.

Programs like the curriculum-linked school field trips and the native plant propagation efforts at Ecology Park are all powered by community support. Contributions to GreenUP will help maintain what we’ve built together, and allow us to prepare for the climate challenges ahead.

“Resiliency is a collective effort,” says Moss. “With the support of our community, we can ensure that the important local climate work our friends and neighbours care about continues to thrive. We intend to care for and learn in community spaces like Ecology Park for at least 30 more years.”

Together, we can continue to inspire positive change and empower our community to create a greener future. We invite you to join us in making a difference this giving season. Your tax-deductible donation to GreenUP will keep us working effectively to mitigate and adapt to the climate challenges we face together.

To learn more or to donate, visit www.greenup.on.ca/donate-now or schedule a meeting with GreenUP executive director Tegan Moss at tegan.moss@greenup.on.ca.

Jon Grant, one of Peterborough’s most eminent citizens who became a folk hero among environmentalists, has passed away.

The retired businessman, environmentalist, volunteer, and philanthropist died Wednesday (November 27) at the age of 89.

Grant was one of the first business leaders in Canada to embrace the concept of environmentally conscious decision-making and earned a reputation during his career for speaking out against workplace practices and environmental waste.

After graduating from Western University’s Ivey Business School in 1970, Grant worked as a marketing official for a variety of food companies, including Weston Foods Ltd. and Nabisco Ltd. of Toronto.

According to a 2002 story in the Globe and Mail, Grant gave a speech to a group of marketing executives in 1970 in which he criticized businesses that had “near-sighted” and “timid” workplace practices, citing a company that forced a computer expert to work at night because officials were uncomfortable with his long hair, earrings, and unusual clothes.

In 1976, Grant was appointed CEO of Quaker Oats of Canada in Peterborough, a position he held until he retired in 1994. He was known for his commitment to improving the company’s environmental practices, including by reducing packaging waste by 75 per cent and by introducing office recycling programs.

During and after his time at Quaker Oats, Grant served on a number of corporate and public boards, and remained active in environmental and conservation work. As chair of the Ontario Round Table on the Environment and Economy in the early 1990s, Grant helped to convince corporate Canada that sustainable development and environmental stewardship lead to more profitable business plans.

He also chaired the Nature Conservancy, the Ontario Biodiversity Council, and Canada Lands, was a founding supporter of the Georgian Bay Land Trust, was vice-chair of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a director of Pollution Probe, a trustee of the World Wildlife Fund of Canada, and was a commissioner of the Canadian Polar Commission, working to ensure that the interests of Indigenous peoples remained at the forefront of efforts to protect the delicate Arctic ecosystem.

A lover of the outdoors, Grant was an avid mountain hiker and canoeist who paddled many of Canada’s northern rivers with his wife and “best friend” Shelagh Grant, an award-winning author and historian who was part of the original team involved in the founding of The Canadian Canoe Museum and a long-time volunteer.

The couple continued to support the museum over the years, with Jon serving on the museum’s board of directors, until Shelagh died in 2020 at the age of 82. In 2022, the Grant family donated $250,000 towards the new museum in her honour.

In addition to his environmental and conservation work, Grant had a 17-year tenure as a director of CCL Industries (including 10 as chair) and was a member of several corporate boards, for many of which he held the position of chair, including Scott Paper, Laurentian Bank, Atlas Cold Storage, and Agricore United (as vice-chair).

He was chair of Trent University’s board of governors and governor emeritus, was a chair of the Bagnani Trust, was a founder and trustee of the T.H.B Symons Trust, and was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree in 1991.

In 2002, Grant was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and received the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilee Medals in 2002 and 2012. As fellows of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society, Jon and Shelagh were jointly awarded the Bernier Medal in 2017.

“Jon and Shelagh both travelled the world for business, Jon’s environmental activities, and Shelagh’s Arctic lectures, but they always came back home, whether in Peterborough, their Island retreat at Pointe au Baril in Georgian Bay, or their Tremblant log cabin nestled in the trees of the Rivière Diable,” reads an obituary from the Grant family.

“After Shelagh’s passing, Jon and his dear friend Beth McMaster [the founding chair of Showplace Performance Centre’s board of directors] thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company when attending the theatre, during frequent dinners out, and at special events.”

Grant is survived by his three children, Susan Grant (Bob Fitzgerald), Debbie Aben (Mike), and David Grant (Cécile Gambin), and his six grandchildren, Chelsea and Alex, Michael and Sean, and Sébastien and Luc.

The family will be holding a private funeral and, in the new year, will be hosting a celebration of life at The Canadian Canoe Museum. Those interested in attending the celebration of life should email the Grant family at jongrantmemorial@gmail.com for more information.

In lieu of flowers, the Grant family encourages donations to Hospice Peterborough.

A parasitic tapeworm that can cause a potentially fatal disease in humans has been reported in a dog in Peterborough for the first time.

Sherbrooke Heights Animal Hospital confirmed a canine patient has tested positive for Echinococcus multilocularis (E. multilocularis), a tiny tapeworm carried in the small intestines of canids like coyotes, foxes, wolves, and dogs.

In both domestic dogs and humans, the parasite can cause a potentially fatal disease called alveolar echinococcosis.

“There’s a specialized fecal test specifically for echinococcosis because that’s something we regularly keep an ear out for,” says Dr. Kristen Harton, a veterinarian at Sherbrooke Heights Animal Hospital. “There are lots of people that do routine fecal screening through their vet, but this wouldn’t be picked up on those.”

The lifecycle of E. multilocularis begins when the tapeworm’s microscopic eggs are excreted in an infected canid’s feces and dispersed into the environment, where they can live for up to a year.

When rodents (primarily voles and field mice) and rabbits ingest the eggs either through canid feces or from the environment, the eggs hatch into larvae that invade the animal’s liver and sometimes other organs, multiplying and causing severe cysts that grow like metastatic cancers.

When a wild canid or domestic dog then eats an infected animal, the larvae contained in the consumed animal’s cysts latch onto the canid’s intestines and grow into adult tapeworms that produce eggs, and the parasite’s lifecycle continues.

While the adult tapeworms aren’t typically problematic in wild canids, in domestic dogs the parasite can sometimes cause alveolar echinococcosis where, similar to what happens to rodents or rabbits, the tapeworm larvae invade the dog’s liver or other organs. Because domestic dogs are canids like their wild relatives, usually the adult tapeworms will live in their intestines without causing alveolar echinococcosis.

However, even if a dog doesn’t develop the disease, they will continue to excrete the parasite’s eggs in their feces — and those eggs can cause the potentially fatal disease in humans if they accidentally ingest the eggs.

“Dogs can act like the coyote or other infected canid, and then humans can act like the rodent if we ingest the (egg-infested) feces of dogs, coyotes, or foxes without meaning to,” says Dr. Harton.

Since a dog infected with the tapeworm may appear healthy, owners will not know the dog is shedding the parasite’s microscopic eggs in their feces. In fact, the dog confirmed to have been infected in Peterborough was not displaying any symptoms of having the tapeworm — it was brought to Sherbrooke Heights Animal Hospital for something unrelated.

However, when the hospital learned more about the pet’s lifestyle and its tendency to ingest rodents, they administered a specialized fecal test for enchinococcosis.

“The tricky thing with this tapeworm is that they don’t always show clinical signs, so it really a matter of doing the due diligence during our history taking and for owners to really keep an eye on their (dog’s) behaviours,” says Dr. Harton. “The risk factors for dogs truly is in eating rodents, and especially in an area where there are a lot of coyotes or foxes.”

While the most common way for humans to get alveolar enchinococcosis is by eating wild foods like berries and herbs that have been contaminated with wild canid feces, they can also get the disease if their dog gets wild canid feces in its fur, or from an infected dog’s own feces.

“For people, as long as they’re practising good, thorough handwashing after handling dog feces, fox feces, or coyote feces, their risk is really well-managed,” Dr. Harton says. “It’s the best technique — as well as washing your fruits and vegetables before consumption, even if you grow it in your own backyard.”

E. multilocularis is only found in the northern hemisphere, in parts of Europe, Asia, and North America. According to Public Health Ontario, E. multilocularis is now considered endemic in Ontario and was declared a disease of public health significance in 2018.

Infectious diseases surveillance reports show there have been four confirmed human cases of alveolar echinococcosis in Ontario since 2017, with the latest in 2022. However, the actual number of human cases may be higher, since people infected with the parasite can remain asymptomatic for five to 15 years.

Eventually, those infected will show symptoms of abdominal pain, weakness, and weight loss, as the tapeworm causes damage to the liver and other organs. If left untreated, the disease is invariably fatal.

While E. multilocularis had never been found in wildlife or domestic animals in Ontario prior to 2012, a study conducted from 2015 to 2017 showed that 23 per cent of postmortem fecal samples collected from 460 wild canids in southern Ontario — 416 coyotes and 44 foxes — tested positive for E. multilocularis.

Although none of the samples were collected from wild canids in the Peterborough area, Dr. Harton says there’s no reason to assume the situation is different in the region.

“We unfortunately just don’t even have information about the wild canids in Peterborough,” says Dr. Harton. “What we can do, though, is assume that our wild canids are just as infected as the other local areas around us where they did collect samples from, because wild canids don’t follow our public health (borders).”

Given that dogs infected with E. multilocularis often show no symptoms, Dr. Harton suggests the best action for dog owners to take is simply to be aware of the risk, maintain good hygiene for yourself and your pet, and know your dog’s behaviours and habits.

“I wish there was, but unfortunately there’s no quick and easy tell for this,” she says. “If your dog ingests rodents, then this should be a conversation to have with your veterinarian.”