Mille-Isles ~ The Future
Has not the time come to do something to help this beautiful planet of ours, mother earth, recover from the insults we have inflicted upon her over the last couple of hundred of years? Like ostriches we bury our heads in the sand and keep on repeating the same environmental degrading things over and over again. Our world overpopulation, our greed and our desire for a gadget/comfort society have taken its toll. Many experts think we have already passed the point of no return. Many species are disappearing every year and yet we persist on thinking that mankind will never die off. Think about it. The bees are dying off and yet the scientific community keeps relatively quiet so as not to cause panic. However did you know that without bees to pollinate all plants we would have no food? When was the last time you seen a bullfrog? The caribou herds in the North West Territories and Nunavut have seen their numbers, in the last 10 years, go from 300,000 individuals to a mere few thousands.
It's not only by using reusable shopping bags that we are going to save this only place in the universe that is hospitable to mankind. We have to do much more than that. We have to change our way of doing things altogether. We have to stop thinking that "the winner is" the one who dies with the most toys in his yard or the most money in his bank account. We must change the technologies we use to more eco friendly ones, even if they cost more. We have to diminish our environmental footprint to one that can be regenerated. So what can we do to help and be pro-active? Well, let's look at the problem from a village point of view.
Soon we, in Mille-Isles, will be faced with the problem of residential development. Which means more houses, more people, more traffic, less peace and quietness and less space for us and other critters. No way can we fight off the encroachment that will take place as we are too close to the big city and the need for space to house the massive exodus of people leaving Montreal and Laval. People leaving the cities in order to make room for the incoming flow of immigrants to our province. Do we sit back and let our municipal representatives make all the decisions for us or to we participate, with them, in the planning of our future? Do we really want to, or have to, go the route that most of the rest of the world is taking and let development be a "free for all" or do we try to do something different and innovative with Mille-Isles, the last jewel of the Laurentians. At my age I won't be around when the situation is at it's worst but I love this place, "this land", and I want to make sure that we at least try to be innovative and different in our approach to the problem. Yes I believe we can have development on a scale that will not change our environment radically and yet fill our municipal need for more tax dollars. A place where our children will want to remain because it reminds them of their youth. Where the sounds and the smells comfort their bodies and souls.
The time has come to innovate, to change the paradigm and approach to municipal development? Should we not be increasing the lot size required for new houses leaving space between neighbours and room for us and the other creatures. Bigger lots bring bigger prices. As our contribution to help fight "global warming" should we not encourage, with municipal tax incentives, the use of passive and active alternatives energies in these new homes, the use of recycled materials in new building constructions and the application of the LEEDS norms. Should we not encourage the building of a local home for our elderly, where they could eventually pass away in dignity overlooking their place on earth rather that having to finish there days in an unknown environment amongst strangers? Would not such a home for the elderly bring us quality jobs, more so that restaurants and golf courses. Should we not have natural parks that would pay for themselves through their use as "green classes" by neighbouring school boards? Could we not invite hi-tech, low polluting, companies, through tax incentives, to establish themselves in Mille-Isles in a healthy natural working environment where their employees would look out the windows at green spaces and not concrete walls?
I'm sure you have as many ideas, and maybe even more, than I have. Please express them, and better yet, please participate in our future. Go to Council meetings, participate in citizen groups, be pro-active and care for our village's future.
I leave you with a few quotes from Kahil Gibran's writings taken from the chapter on "Houses" from his book "The Prophet" published in 1923.
"Build of your imaginings a home in the wilderness and not within the city walls."
"If I could gather your houses into my hand, I would go and scatter them in forest and meadow."
"Let the valleys be your streets, and the green paths your alleys, that you might seek one another through vineyards, and come with the fragrance of the earth in your garments."
"Have you peace in your houses?." "Have you beauty, that comes from things fashioned of wood and stone? Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and becomes a host, and then a master?"
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