Established in 1994, Leading Edge is Canada’s pre-eminent conference on sustainability, environmental monitoring and biosphere research. This year's 3-day event, Understanding Our Resources, features:

• Over 35 dynamic speakers
• More than 15 plenaries, panels and workshops
• 25 academic and community research presentations
• E xhibits and poster displays
• Meals, reception and entertainment
• Ample networking opportunities with 250 delegates representing environmental and agricultural community organizations, small business, industry, education, and government (including politicians and planners)
• The best deal for your conference dollar and professional development!

Don't miss this opportunity to learn, share and solve the rural and urban sustainability issues that are most challenging in Ontario -- and beyond. Register today or email us to have your name added to our conference update mailings!

Our impressive roster of international, national and local speakers includes:

Wednesday, October 4:
- Tom Daniels, Author, When City and Country Collide; Planning Professor, U. of Pennsylvania
- John Middleton, Professor, Brock University and Greenbelt Council Member
- Ilmar Reepalu, Mayor of Malmö, Sweden
- Barry Lyon, Senior Partner and President, N. Barry Lyon Consultants Ltd.
- Alex Speigel, Director of Development, Context Development Inc.
- Mike Labbé, President, Options for Homes
- George Francis, Advisor, Canadian Biosphere Reserves Association
- Becky Pollock, Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation Fellow
- Graham Whitelaw, Faculty member, University of Waterloo
- Paul Bedford, Urban Mentor and former Chief Planner, City of Toronto
- Karen Farbridge, Professor, University of Guelph and former Mayor of Guelph
- Brad Graham, Assistant Deputy Minister, Ontario Growth Secretariat (PIR)

Thursday, October 5:
- Avi Friedman, Author, Room for Thought: Re-thinking Home and Community Design
- J. David Hughes, Peak Oil & Energy Resource Analyst, Geological Survey of Canada
- Richard Gilbert, Director of Research, The Centre for Sustainable Transportation
- Fanis Grammenos, Senior Research Consultant, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
- Dan Leeming, Partner, The Planning Partnership Limited
- Mark Anielski, Economist and creator of Genuine Wealth Assessment
- Enid Slack, Director, Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance
- Wendy Francis, Director of Science and Conservation, Ontario Nature
- Signe Ball, Publisher, In the Hills Magazine
- Christopher Hume, Urban Issues Columnist, Toronto Star
- Susanna Kelley, Queen’s Park Correspondent, TVOntario - Studio 2

Friday, October 6:
- Jeanne Maurer, Professor, Ryerson University
- Elbert van Donkersgoed, Executive Director, GTA Agricultural Action Plan
- Nettie Wiebe, Professor, University of Saskatchewan
- John Whitaker, Chair, Riding Mountain Biosphere Reserve
- Dan Needles, Author and Playwright of the Wingfield series

Wednesday, October 4:
- Managing the Collision Between City and Country
- Adapting to New Economies
- Building Green: Smart Growth and the Development Industry
- The Great Arc: The Escarpment Across the Canada/U.S. Border
- Environmental Monitoring and Performance Measurement
- The Power of Place: Landscape-based Governance
- Getting to Yes: Stakeholder and Governance Solutions for Achieving Smart Growth in Ontario

Thursday, October 5:
- Re-thinking Home and Community Design
- Energy Trends and Forecasts: Implications for a Sustainable Energy Future
- Transportation Policy and Street Design: Taking the Higher Road
- Academic & Community Research Presentations
- Planning and the Press: Media Perspectives on Smart Growth
- Municipal Finance & Genuine Wealth Assessment: New Tools to Improve Land Use Decisions
- The Ontario Greenway

Friday, October 6:
- Understanding the Working Countryside: Rural Vitality in an Urban Age
- "Living on the Edge"

Wednesday, October 4: Keynotes, Breakouts and Panel Presentations

Managing the Collision between City and Country
For the past 50 years, urban sprawl has consumed huge swaths of Southern Ontario’s best farmland and last green spaces. Currently, more than 50 square kilometers of land is paved over annually with single family dwellings and countless roads. Due to this and other reasons, farmers across Ontario are now fighting back with a campaign called “Farmers Feed Cities!” The urban-rural divide has never been greater. How can this divide be narrowed? What growth management and urban planning techniques can best deal with our fringe metropolitan areas? What consensus is required to ensure that outcomes can be win-win-win for all stakeholders?

Tom Daniels, Leading Edge’s kick-off speaker, has a long list of straightforward, practical, and action-oriented answers to these questions -- and many others. His exciting presentation is based on extensive research and teaching as a University of Pennsylvania planning professor and author of several books, including When City and Country Collide: Managing Growth in the Metropolitan Fringe, Holding Our Ground: Protecting America’s Farms and Farmland, The Small Town Planning Handbook, and The Environmental Planning Handbook. For nine years he managed a nationally-recognized farmland preservation program in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where he now lives. He has been involved in almost 200 conservation easement projects. As a result of this work, Tom often serves as a consultant to state and local governments and land trusts on growth management and land preservation issues.

Following Mr. Daniel’s presentation, remarks on the specific Ontario context will be provided by Ontario Greenbelt Council member John Middleton from Brock University’s Department of Tourism and Environment.

Adapting to New Economies
Are you feeling concerned about how slowly Southern Ontario (and Canada) is moving towards truly sustainable communities? Here’s your chance to be re-energized! Mayor Ilmar Reepalu will awaken you to what is possible “on the ground” with his presentation about Malmö, Sweden -- the Sustainable City of Tomorrow.

You will hear how the City government has worked proactively with all stakeholders to shift Malmo’s largely industrial economy to a "knowledge economy" in a span of barely 15 years. Carefully directed investment in high calibre new technology and training programmes, including the opening of a 22,000-student university in 1998, are helping to fill gaps left by older declining industries. These expenditures are being bolstered and supported through exceptional innovations in brownfield redevelopment, housing, transportation, resource conservation and public service delivery. The result is an “ekostaden” (eco-city) that is nothing less than inspiring!

Ilmar Reepalu has been active in municipal government for more than 20 years. He has been a local municipal commissioner since 1985, Chair of the Malmö Executive Board since 1995 and Chair of the Swedish Local Government Association since 1999. Mr. Reepalu holds degrees in engineering and architecture, and worked as an architect for 15 years before entering municipal government.

Building Green:
Smart Growth and the Development Industry
Recent provincial planning legislation is changing the way the development industry is doing business in the Greater Golden Horseshoe. What are the current residential, commercial and industrial land development trends in Ontario? What innovative solutions can the development industry and established communities bring to bear in response to the new requirements for smarter growth while meeting consumer expectations and sound architectural design? The answers are as diverse as the experience of our three experts:

Barry Lyon is regarded as one of the leading experts on condominium apartment development in the Greater Toronto Area, and is frequently called upon to assist in the development, design and marketing of new projects. He is a recent Inductee to the Greater Toronto Homebuilders’ Hall of Fame. N. Barry Lyon Consultants Limited (NBLC) is a multi-disciplinary real estate consulting firm formed in 1976, specializing in market research, financial analysis and development management.

Alex Speigel is the Director of Development with Context Development Inc. in Toronto. An architect and consultant with a focus on adaptive redevelopment of urban buildings, Alex's projects include the innovative adaptive reuse condo developments Tip Top Lofts, The Loretto and Kensington Lofts.

Mike Labbé, MCIP, is an Urban and Regional Planning graduate from the University of Waterloo. He has been involved in the production of affordable housing for 25 years, the first 13 working on subsidized rental projects with Lantana Non-profit Housing Corporation. During the last 12 years, Mike as President of Options For Homes Non-profit Corporation has been instrumental in developing a model that can provide mixed income housing to thousands of households without any permanent government subsidy.

The Great Arc:
The Escarpment Across the Canada / U.S. Border
A specially selected collection of six presentations focusing on U.S. and Canadian strategies for the integrated management and conservation of protected areas. Included are case studies from Michigan, New York, Ohio, Ontario and Wisconsin.

Participants:
Eric Fowle, University of Wisonsin
James Hamilton, Associate Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University
Patrick Lawrence, Associate Professor, University of Toledo
Lynda Schneekloth, Professor, School of Architecture and Planning, University at Buffalo
Graham Whitelaw, Associate Professor, Department of Environment and Resource Studies,
University of Waterloo

Environmental Performance Measurement:
What We Need to Know
How do you know if your environmental policies and practices are working? What do you need to know? And then, how do you design a cost-effective performance measurement program across a multitude of jurisdictions and mandates? Reporting on ecological change and environmental integrity is a core concern for planners in municipal government, conservation authorities, park managers and various provincial and federal ministries, agencies and departments.

Using Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment as a case study, topics during this session will include: selecting environmental indicators, remote sensing, plan performance indicators, method standardization, engaging citizen scientists, and the role of universities and students.

Participants:

Joyce Chau, Citizens’ Environment Watch
Loveleen Clayton, Credit Valley Conservation
Brian Craig, Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network
John Taylor, Ontario’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs,
Silvia Strobl, Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources
Neil Hester, Niagara Escarpment Commission

The Power of Place:
Citizen Involvement in Landscape Governance
This session delves into how citizens are shaping the politics of conservation and sustainable development through Biosphere Reserve activities in Canada. Three experts from the University of Waterloo’s Biosphere Sustainability Project research team will provide an overview of how governance structures work, how sustainability can be defined, and how citizens work their way through – and help – government policy processes. This session will consist case studies, and breakout groups to compare community experiences. Under discussion will be sustainable rural economies in the Long Point World Biosphere Reserve; countryside movement and urban pressures on the Oak Ridges Moraine; and, co-ordinating conservation efforts in the Georgian Bay Littoral Biosphere Reserve.

Participants:

George Francis is retired from the University of Waterloo’s Department of Environment and Resource Studies where he was the faculty’s first chairperson. Dr. Francis continues to work with graduate and senior undergraduate students. He has degrees in biology, zoology (ecology), economics and political science, and resource management. Prior to coming to Waterloo, George worked with the United Nations in New York where he carried out project and program reviews for United Nations agencies in a number of countries throughout the world. He is considered an initiator of Canada’s growing network of biosphere reserves and is an honorary director of and adviser to the Canadian Biosphere Reserves Association.

Becky Pollock is recipient of the prestigious Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation Fellowship for doctoral studies. Her current studies relate to grassroots governance structures for sustainable communities, with a particular interest in Canadian biosphere reserves.

Graham Whitelaw is a Professor at the University of Waterloo's Department of Environment and Resource Studies. Dr. Whitelaw's areas of research include regional land use planning, monitoring, biosphere reserves, environmental movement organizations and governance.

Getting to Yes:
Stakeholder and Governance Solutions for Achieving Smart Growth in Ontario
Good planning promises strong, prosperous communities with a healthy environment and an excellent quality of life. Many political and planning pundits have said that the public is ready to see smart growth actually implemented rather than see more studies collecting dust on a shelf. But how do we best coordinate the strengths, powers, interests, economics and politics of local, regional and provincial government to achieve smart growth? After outlining the challenges involved, three veterans will present a number of exciting governance and participatory planning solutions.

Panellists:

Paul Bedford, Urban Mentor and retired Chief Planner for the City of Toronto. Paul is a member and fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners, with more than 35 years' experience in urban planning and city building. Since retirement in 2004, Mr. Bedford has been appointed adjunct professor at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University planning schools. He has also been appointed to the National Capital Commission Planning Committee in Ottawa and is a Senior Associate of the Canadian Urban Institute in Toronto.

He is a member of the Urban Design Review Panel for the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation, a senior associate of the Canadian Urban Institute, and a member of the Property Committee to redevelop the campus of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. A frequent public speaker at forums on planning issues, he is also active in shaping the new policy agenda at all levels of government.

Karen Farbridge, University of Guelph Professor & former Mayor of Guelph. During her 9 year tenure in municipal politics, Karen championed sustainable approaches to waste management, water and waste water management, transportation planning, natural area protection and community planning.

During her 3 years as Mayor, Karen initiated an extensive community consultation process designed to develop a strategic framework to manage community change. The resulting plan -- called SmartGuelph -- was based on a set of community-derived principles and adopted a triple bottom line approach to decision making: environmental, economic and social sustainability.

Brad Graham, is the Assistant Deputy Minister of the Ontario Growth Secretariat, with the Ministry of Public Infrasturcutre Renewal, Government of Ontario. The Secretariat provides leadership for the Government's "Places to Grow" initiative including the development of a draft growth plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe that will help to build strong, prosperous communities with a healthy environment and an excellent quality of life. An economist by training, Brad has held a number of positions within the Ontario Public Service over the past 18 years, including Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Ministry of Health and Long Term Care as well as several director positions in health policy and research.

Thursday, October 5 Sessions - Keynotes, Breakouts and Panel Presentations

Re-thinking Home and Community Design
Over the last few years, urban design and sense of place has emerged as the answer to many urban and environmental woes. However, with our emphasis on mobility in a fast-paced and busy world, we no longer take the time to have dinner with family or even experience a quiet moment alone. Rather, we continue to rush from place to place, job to job, topic to topic and email to email without connecting to where we are or asking where we’ve been.

Avi Friedman is redefining how we design our world in order to improve our quality of life. His experiences as an architect, planner, world traveler and educator make him a compelling voice for innovative, practical home and community design. A visionary and charismatic speaker, Canadian Geographic has called him “a whirlwind of energy, ebullience, and no-nonsense arguments.”

In 1988, Avi founded the Affordable Homes Program at the University of McGill School of Architecture, which he currently directs. He is known nationally and internationally for his housing innovations and, in particular, for his Grow Home and Next Home designs. Besides authoring six books on housing and urban planning, including Room to Roam and Planning the New Suburbia, Avi is a syndicated columnist for the CanWest Chain of daily newspapers. He is a practicing architect and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Manning Innovation Award and the United Nations World Habitat Award.

Energy Supply/Demand Trends and Forecasts: Implications for a Sustainable Energy Future
Energy issues regarding peak oil are rarely discussed by planners and politicians dealing with land use and transportation issues. Yet demand in the developing world is forecast to grow by 91% through 2025, when this region will account for nearly half of the world’s energy consumption – 85% from oil, gas and coal. Are these forecast growth rates sustainable given the magnitude and distribution of the world’s remaining energy reserves? What are some of the political and social ramifications of maintaining this rate of consumption? How does Ontario and Canada fit into this “Big Picture”? How do we assure a sustainable energy future?

David Hughes is a geologist with more than 30 years experience studying Canada’s resources for the Geological Survey of Canada and the private sector. He is the Leader of the National Coal Inventory, which is a digital knowledge base on coal used to determine the availability of resources for conventional and non-conventional uses, including coalbed methane production and the sequestration of CO2. He is also Team Leader for Unconventional Gas for the Canadian Gas Potential Committee, an organization which publishes Canada's most authoritative assessments of national natural gas potential. David's evolving analysis of global and North American energy issues has been presented across Canada and the United States to Federal agencies, provincial government agencies; to policy forums and end user associations. Aspects of his analysis have also been taken up by the popular press and trade journals including the Toronto Star, Canadian Business Magazine and the Canadian Press wire service.

Transportation Policy and Street Design:
Taking the Higher Road
For far too long, moving automobiles rather than people has been at the heart of transportation policy and road design in North America. But a new framework that supports successful communities appears to be just around the corner. In the face of ever-increasing pavement, congestion, car crashes, energy costs, smog and climate change, multi-modal solutions to traditional auto-oriented street design are doubly beneficial to our health, economy and environment. What new approaches are needed to entice people to walk, bike, blade or take public transit? Which street designs work and which ones don’t? At the end of this session, you will have many of the answers.

Panellists:

Richard Gilbert is an urban issues consultant who focuses on transportation, waste management, energy systems, and urban governance, with recent or current clients in North America, Europe, and Asia. He serves as transport consultant to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and to Civic Exchange, a Hong Kong-based think tank, as part-time research director of the Toronto-based Centre for Sustainable Transportation (CST, in the process of moving to the University of Winnipeg), and as adjunct professor in the University of Sherbrooke’s Faculty of Administration (Centre d’études en réglementation économique et financière). With Anthony Perl, he is writing a book titled Transport Revolutions: Making the Movement of People and Freight Work for the 21st Century, to be published by Earthscan in 2007.

Fanis Grammenos is a Senior Researcher with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. He has covered such fields of research as energy efficiency, passive solar design, user needs in housing, housing affordability, adaptable building design, planning regulations and sustainable development.

Dan Leeming is currently a principle of The Planning Partnership. As an urban planner, Dan worked on the design and development of new towns, various sizes of planned communities, and waterfront redevelopment for private and public agencies throughout Ontario and the United States. Dan has recently been working on a variety of urban development projects for both the private and public sectors as well as teaching Community Design as an Adjunct Professor with the University of Guelph School of Landscape Architecture, lecturing at a variety of universities, and is active as a founding member of the ‘Urban Design Working Group’, within the Ontario Professional Planners Institute.

Municipal Finance & Genuine Wealth Assessment:
New Tools to Improve Land Use Decisions
How much does it cost? It seems that the question of dollars and cents constantly dampens our ability (and spirit) to improve the state of our cities and environment. Yet, when it comes to planning for urban and rural quality of life, cost goes much further than simply money. Truly sustainable communities seek to integrate, balance and optimize their core assets: people (human capital), relationships (social capital), the environment (natural capital), built capital as well as financial capital. Are there tools that Ontario municipalities can use to improve land use decisions, stop urban sprawl, redistribute wealth and improve the bottom line? Where have they been utilized successfully and what has been learned from their implementation? Come hear the answers from two of the lead Canadian thinkers on this subject.

Panellists:

Mark Anielski, Economist & creator of Genuine Wealth Assessment. Genuine Wealth Assessment (GWA) is a values-based, well-being analysis and management process that individuals, communities and business enterprise can use to better measure and manage their most important assets; the things that make life worthwhile. A truly flourishing and sustainable enterprise is one which integrates, balances and optimizes its core assets: people (human capital), relationships (social capital), the environment (natural capital), built capital and financial capital.

Dr. Enid Slack is the Director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the university, teaching a graduate course in urban public finance to the planning students.

Enid has been president of Enid Slack Consulting Inc. since 1981. Enid advises governments and private companies in Canada and abroad on property taxes, intergovernmental transfers, the division of expenditures and revenues among levels of government, municipal boundary restructuring, and other local finance issues.

The Ontario Greenway
Imagine a robust network of natural core areas and linkages that protects and restores core natural features, water resources and wildlife habitat. Envision a network that connects communities and provides amenities and recreational opportunities for us and future generations. Many of the elements are already in place in the form of parks, protected areas, and lands carefully stewarded by individuals and conservation organizations. Missing are the overall picture and goal along with a practical program to engage communities. How do we make the connection? Listen to Ontario Nature’s innovative vision for The Ontario Greenway, a web of natural areas conserving biodiversity and creating connected recreational opportunities in Ontario south of the Canadian Shield.

Presenter:

Wendy Francis, Director of Science and Conservation, Ontario Nature.

Planning and the Press:
Media Perspectives on Smart Growth
The media’s role in planning (as in other news) is supposed to be one of neutrality: explain both sides of a story and leave it up to the reader to decide what is best. But with the amount of spin coming from government, developers and other established powers at an all-time high, that assumption is starting to change. What is the media’s role in urban and rural planning beyond reporting the news? Does the media have a responsibility to be our social conscience? How can journalists mobilize the public to demand smart growth? Get the straight goods from three veteran journalists who never mince words on the subject of planning.

Panellists:

Signe Ball is the publisher and editor of In the Hills, an independent quarterly magazine. Now in its thirteenth year, In the Hills focuses on culture, history and environment in Caledon, Dufferin and Erin, a region that includes the headwaters of four rivers, the Niagara Escarpment, the Oak Ridges Moraine and Greenbelt designation, and that is subject to intense development pressure from the GTA.

Christopher Hume is the architecture critic and urban issues columnist of the Toronto Star. Since he started writing for the paper in 1981, Hume has been nominated for four National Newspaper Awards (critical writing category) and has received a certificate of appreciation from the Ontario Association of Architects. His book, William James’ Toronto Views, won a Toronto Heritage Award in 2000. In 2004, he received a Landscape Ontario award. Hume appears frequently on radio and television as a commentator on city issues. Hume was named Toronto’s best newspaper columnist by NOW magazine in 2005 and Eye magazine in 2006.

Susanna Kelley is Queen's Park Bureau Chief for TVOntario's "The Agenda with Steve Paikin." In her role as Queen's Park Bureau Chief for TVO's earlier program "Studio 2", Ms. Kelley produced the segment Fourth Reading, a weekly look at provincial politics in depth. Ms. Kelley also went behind the scenes for 18 months, documenting a cabinet minister and his staff as they developed the Conservative Party's Smart Growth initiative. This one-hour documentary, called "Smart Growth, Smart Politics" showed how non-partisan politics was used for the first time ever at Queen's Park in order to develop a plan to protect the environment while developing Ontario's economy.

Friday, October 6 Sessions - Keynotes, Breakouts and Panel Presentations

Understanding the Working Countryside: Rural Vitality in an Urban Age
Farming is a diverse, flexible and innovative industry. The challenges faced by farmers are equally complex, a shifting flux of policies (fiscal, planning and conservation), land speculation, the clash between urban and rural values, changes in rural demographics and generational attitudes towards farming as a lifestyle. This session features four thinkers on farm and rural matters who will present their candid perspectives on the trends driving this most essential industry.

Panellists:

Jeanne Maurer is a full-time instructor at Ryerson University where she studies and lectures on the political ecology of farming in Ontario. Jeanne's research interests and course work remain focus on the impacts of the global economy on local agricultural relations. She is the coauthor of Prospects for Agriculture in the Toronto Region: The Farmer Perspective for the Neptis Foundation, a comprehensive review of the diverse forces at play in farming in the region.

Elbert van Donkersgoed is the Executive Director of the GTA Agricultural Action Plan. He is a founding member of the Ontario Farm Environmental Coalition and member of The Ontario Rural Council, Ontario Farmland Trust, Toronto Food Policy Council and the Business Advisory Network of the Ontario Environmental Commissioner.

Nettie Wiebe is a Saskatchewan farmer, activist, “Distinguished Canadian,” “Global Citizen of the Year" and an ethics professor at St. Andrews College, University of Saskatchewan. In 1995, Nettie became the first woman to head a national farm organization when she was elected President of the National Farmers' Union. She continues her advocacy for farm families and rural communities in Canada and abroad and has spoken worldwide on sustainable agriculture and rural communities, trade agreements, women's equality, human rights and environmental issues and food security.

John Whitaker is a 30-year beef cattle farmer with a strong interest in the integration of protected areas into working landscapes. Chair of Manitoba's Riding Mountain Biosphere Reserve for 10 years, Whitaker was a researcher at the Freshwater Institute in Winnipeg, with a focus on rainbow trout aquaculture.

Lunchtime Presentation:

Living on the Edge
Dan Needles is the creator of the popular Wingfield Farm plays, full-length stage comedies that have filled theatres across Canada and the United States for more than 3,000 performances since 1984. In 2001, his writing was reset for a 21-part CBC television series, "Letter from Wingfield Farm", based on the adventures of the stockbroker-turned farmer. Dan is a winner of the 2003 Stephen Leacock Medal for humour for With Axe and Flask, the history of his mythical Persephone Township. He writes regular columns for two national magazines, Harrowsmith-Country Life and Country Guide. His most recent book, Wingfield’s Hope, was shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Medal in 2006.

In Living on the Edge (with a nod to the Niagara Escarpment), Dan shares his take on living in a “rurban” area – not quite city, not quite country, an uneasy foot in both camps.

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Leading Edge's Opening Night Reception is an opportunity to meet & mingle with conference delegates while enjoying fabulous products from Ontario's Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve.

Poster displays are unveiled during the reception and creators will be on hand to discuss their research and community projects.

Come out and enjoy a great start to Leading Edge 2006!

Mike Ford is a Juno-nominated artist whose concerts and recordings are acclaimed across Canada. Known as part of the eccentrically successful folk-pop-vaudeville quartet Moxy Früvous, Mike has embarked on a completely new career phase with his rollicking Canada In Song project. His two solo albums, Stars Shone on Toronto and Canada Needs You, Volume One (a Juno-nominated romp through Canadian History) are filled with provocative original compositions delivered in a multitude of styles. Mike is the recipient of an Ontario Arts Council Artist in Education Grant, working with Toronto students in the creation of their own songs about the environment, community and identity.

Actor/writer and performer Brigitte Gall is best known for her unique renovation/design show, “Me, My House & I”. The Globe and Mail writes, “It's a relief to come across a Canadian comic who does smart, funny Canadian content”. The Toronto Star says, “…without question, Gall shows a facility for great body language…powered by wit and playfulness…” Now magazine cites Gall as “one of those fine comic performers who can touch emotions as well as the funny bone.”

Leading Edge 2006 is honoured to host Mike Ford and Brigitte Gall following the conference banquet.

Over the last decade, the Leading Edge Conference has developed a reputation for being accessible and affordable. This is a strictly non-profit event and, thanks to our sponsors and volunteers, we can provide you with amazing value at an incredibly low price!

Register online now.

* Note: If you wish to register by cheque, please contact us at leadingedge@escarpment.org or (905) 877-6172.

We encourage you to take public transit and carpool to Burlington! Click here for directions to the conference venue in Burlington, Ontario.

Burlington Transit

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Interested in supporting Leading Edge 2006? Click here for an outline of sponsorship opportunities.

Gold Sponsors: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) City of Burlington ReNew Canada magazine TD Friends of the Environment Foundation Walker Industries Ltd.

Silver Sponsors: Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC) Nelson Aggregate Co. Ontario Professional Planners Institute (OPPI)

Bronze Sponsors: Dufferin Aggregates (Student Sponsors) EMAN (Ecological Monitoring & Assessment Network) Canadian Commission for UNESCO Jacques Whitford Limited Lafarge Canada Inc. MHBC Planning Parks Canada

Student Sponsors: Ontario Power Generation Regional Municipality of Halton