The public participation process is a vital and necessary part of planning that provides citizens with the opportunity to express their concerns and suggestions about projects that affect the overall well-being of their community. One contemporary planning issue is brownfield revitalization, which is the repurposing of former and abandoned industrial sites into residential, commercial or recreational sites. Brownfield revitalization is a timely and relevant matter in Ontario due to a) their locations, which are often within urban centres and are close to existing infrastructure, which reduces the need to develop on greenfield lands, and b) legislation, such as Places to Grow and various growth plans that require cities to meet intensification targets while preserving greenfield land, thus making brownfield revitalization an attractive option. In addition to their anticipated benefits, brownfield revitalization is a complex matter, as it invovles environmental contamination, heritage preservation, investment and financing challenges, and undesirable surroundings. For these reasons, it is an engaging and controversial focus in public participation. There is strong evidence in the literature that brownfield revitalization consultations often address the unique environmental, historical and demographic issues that are associated with these sites. Some strategies employed at the consultation sessions include informal meetings, consultations with experts in the sector, and legal agreements between community groups and developers to ensure projects are beneficial to the community. The intent of this thesis is to discover if the public participation sessions for brownfield projects in Ontario differ from participation sessions involving other planning projects. This research includes reviewing engagement, communication and retention strategies, and any exist specific policies or guidelines that are used when planning for the public participation process. Five site-specific and two municipal case studies were selected as a focus in this thesis. All case studies are affiliated with brownfield revitalization projects throughout Ontario. Data collection for this thesis involved: 16 semi-structured interviews with 13 individuals which included planners, public consultation facilitators or representatives of community groups who either organized or participated in public participation sessions involving brownfield sites, and content analysis of transcribed consultation sessions, survey responses, anecdotal information from participants, and document or media analysis. The data was then coded, and relevant themes were selected in order to answer the research questions. The overall findings in this thesis revealed that there are few differences between public participation process for projects involving brownfield revitalization sites and other planning projects. The most common strategies that were used in the participation sessions in these case studies (such as targeted invitations to special interest groups, the usage of social media, and liaisons with community ???champions???) are also common in standard public participation processes. Policies and legislation offer guidelines for conducting efficient participation sessions, and addressing issues such as financing and environmental concerns, but do not advise how to present this information or engage people. Issues that commonly arose in the literature, such as contamination concerns and demographic differences, did not appear to have the same presence in the Ontario subtext. Recommendations for this thesis include identifying the key stakeholders in each brownfield revitalization project, and establishing trust between citizens that live near brownfield revitalization sites and planners. The use of community benefit agreements can also create an efficient and equitable participation process. These recommendations are useful as brownfield revitalization is a common and beneficial strategy for achieving sustainability in Ontario and enhancing the societal, environmental and financial vitality of a community.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a stepping stone for technological innovation in the development control process. As a foundational piece of research on this topic, it leverages classic technology adoption theory alongside an investigation of how municipalities adopt innovation for tools of planning, such as geographic information systems. This thesis provides a qualitative analysis of opportunities and barriers to the potential for the adoption of an online development control process, investigating satisfaction with the current process, perceptions on potential aspects of innovation within the process and willingness to adopt. The survey conducted revealed a gap between perceived versus actual satisfaction with the current process, conflicting views between municipal and consulting planners, and a strong overall interest the ability to submit development control applications online. This paper found that perceived barriers such as complacency with the current system can be overcome when confronted by innovation; however barriers including capital cost investment are real and require further consideration in the adoption process. Findings from this thesis point to a strong willingness for innovation of the process, especially the conception of an intuitive online development control process.

La présente recherche tente d’identifier et de décrire les conditions d’implantation qui ont été mises en place dans deux écoles élémentaires francophones de l’Ontario pour atteindre un stade de fonctionnement avancé, soit l’intégration (Leclerc, Moreau et Lépine, 2009a) des communautés d’apprentissage professionnelles (CAP). En utilisant un échantillon de directions d’école et d’enseignants qui travaillent à l’intérieur d’écoles où les CAP sont à un tel stade de fonctionnement, notre recherche a permis de relever quelles conditions ont été mises en place pour atteindre un fonctionnement avancé des CAP. Des entrevues semi-dirigées ont été menées auprès de deux directrices et de quatre enseignantes d’écoles élémentaires franco-ontariennes. Ces entrevues abordaient de grands thèmes tels que la structure des CAP, la culture de collaboration et les processus employés en CAP dans le contexte de l’école. Un questionnaire sur le sentiment d’efficacité personnelle fut aussi rempli par les directrices d’école. Les résultats mettent en évidence le rôle complexe de la direction d’école dans la mise en œuvre des CAP tout en précisant les conditions d’implantation des CAP mises de l’avant par deux directrices d’école. En fait, nous relevons l’importance de recevoir des appuis humains et financiers et un soutien par la recherche; d’instaurer des exigences organisationnelles « préparatoires »; de respecter des exigences organisationnelles de mise en place des CAP; d’assurer que la direction et les membres du conseil scolaire aient confiance et soient compétents; d’instaurer un leadership partagé entre la direction, le conseil scolaire et les enseignants du comité d’amélioration du rendement des élèves (CARE); de rédiger des objectifs SMART à partir de ressources particulières et aménager un parcours de fonctionnement; d’établir des structures physiques et d’encourager une culture de collaboration entre les enseignants. Les résultats de notre étude rejoignent ce qu’avancent les recherches au sujet de l’implantation de la structure organisationnelle – CAP – dans une école. Or, notre recherche sur le terrain permet d’apporter des précisions quant à ces conditions d’implantation. D’ailleurs, nous avons recensé certaines sous-catégories thématiques qui ne sont pas reflétées explicitement dans la littérature.

Human development owes a great debt to cheap plentiful energy. Historically, abundant and energy dense materials such as coal, oil and more recently natural gas, have played an important role in powering our economies. To this day, any study analysing the short-term costs and benefits of energy system expansion, will continue to favour fossil fuels. At the same time, there is increasing concern about the levels of human made greenhouse gasses such as CO2 (the major by product of burning fossil fuels) and their forecasted effects on the global climate. This thesis investigates the consequences of using political intervention to internalize the cost of future negative effects of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. More specifically, this thesis investigates the effects of regulatory and market based instruments for curbing CO2 emissions from electric power systems in terms of both cost and efficacy. A model is developed to approximate the yearly changes in generation capacity and electricity supply mixture of a power system subject to the constraints of carbon abatement policies. The model proposes a novel approach for incorporating investment in non-dispatchable, intermittent wind generation capacity as a decision variable in the planning process. The model also investigates the effects of the stochastic nature of input parameters through the use of Monte Carlo simulation. To explore many features of this model, the Ontario power system is chosen for a case study because of its diverse portfolio of both generation technologies and political objectives. Five policies are simulated and compared with a ‘business-as-usual’ base case in which no carbon abatement policy is imposed. No single policy can meet all of the political objectives being investigated; however, some policies are clear winners in terms of specific objectives. Due to the broad scope of this work, the study finds many conclusions, such as: - Aggressive policies do not always promote heavy investment in intermittent wind generation sources. - On a $/tCO2 avoided basis, aggressive policies are expensive. Modest policies (very small penalties for CO2 emissions) are very sensitive to the uncertainties in future fuel prices and load profiles. - Investment in nuclear capacity is very responsive to the severity of CO2 penalty. The study also concludes that the most aggressive policies produce the greatest overall reductions in CO2 emissions. / Graduate

Sixty teachers from the Ottawa-Carleton region of Canada were surveyed to measure their knowledge of child maltreatment risk indicators, knowledge of reporting procedures, and the frequency of reporting sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect. Correlations did not support the hypothesis of a significant relationship between knowledge and actual reporting frequency. Multiple Regression analyses demonstrated that the knowledge of child maltreatment risk factors and the knowledge of reporting procedures were not predictive of reporting. It was found that the teachers sampled were very knowledgeable of the basic risk indicators of child maltreatment and reporting procedures and policy. However, the findings did not support the hypotheses of a significant relationship between knowledge of child maltreatment risk factors and of reporting procedures and actual reporting frequency. These findings are discussed in consideration of the limitations of the current study, the implications for practice and the possibilities for further research.

The work presents a framework for analyzing complex decision making in policy from the perspective of planning power supply mix for Ontario. Concepts of sustainability are introduced and analyzed followed by an in-depth view of two case studies. The first analyzes the power supply mix for Ontario and the second analyzes policy impacts in Germany and Denmark. A linear programming model, including energy storage is then developed that would yield an optimized sustainability based development policy for electricity production in Ontario. Future work is recommended to calibrate and run the model. The analysis discusses the new model in relation to the first case study and provides a mechanism to evaluate tradeoffs traditionally unquantifiable, to yield a strategic plan for electricity development in Ontario.

The work presents a framework for analyzing complex decision making in policy from the perspective of planning power supply mix for Ontario. Concepts of sustainability are introduced and analyzed followed by an in-depth view of two case studies. The first analyzes the power supply mix for Ontario and the second analyzes policy impacts in Germany and Denmark. A linear programming model, including energy storage is then developed that would yield an optimized sustainability based development policy for electricity production in Ontario. Future work is recommended to calibrate and run the model. The analysis discusses the new model in relation to the first case study and provides a mechanism to evaluate tradeoffs traditionally unquantifiable, to yield a strategic plan for electricity development in Ontario.

This study is, primarily, a presentation of a "re-exploration" of the physiography and vegetation of a large portion of Northern Ontario. At the same time, it serves as an illustration of a method of multiple survey through the use of aerial photographs.

Women preached and itinerated in different Methodist traditions in the first half of the nineteenth century in Canada. By the middle of the century, many of them had relinquished the pulpit and they soon disappeared. In the United States of America, women preachers also met with resistance, but well before the twentieth century some Methodist women had been ordained. Although many aspects of the Canadian and American contexts were similar, women preachers experienced a somewhat different reception in each country because of the contrasting political climate. Whereas the American Methodist churches reflected the more liberal atmosphere of their country, the Canadian Methodist Episcopal church intentionally adopted the more reactionary stance of the British Wesleyans in order to gain respectability and political advantage. The other Canadian Methodist churches gradually imbibed this conservative atmosphere, and as a result, Canadian women were eventually discouraged from a preaching role. This dissertation recovers the history of a number of nineteenth century Methodist women preaching in Canada, examines their British heritage and the experiences of their American sisters, and suggests reasons for the Canadian devolution.

No description available.