In this episode of The Cordial Catholic I'm joined, by Kira Marie McCullough, an author, speaker, and Catholic convert from Evangelical Christianity, to talk about her remarkable journey into the Catholic faith. 

Raised the daughter of a Protestant pastor, Kira's journey took her completely out of Christianity into the New Age movement and, following a dramatic life-altering car accident, back to belief in God and a new journey: to find the Church where Christ was! Kira's journey, from there, has many twists and turns and it was when she prayed the most dangerous prayer, "Lord, show me where to go," that her life took an unexpected turn to Catholicism. 

For more from Kira visit her website.

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September marks the end of year 2 of our 3-year Strategic Plan and so far, we’ve completed 20 out of 35 of our goals. Read below for more details on what we’ve accomplished and what is yet to come.

1.1.1: Identify a data collection process to hear first-hand from children (i.e., under 10) about their well-being.

1.1.2: Conduct the first Waterloo Region Child Voice Project.

1.1.4 (NEW: not originally in Strategic Plan): Conduct sense-making sessions using the 2023 YIS data.

1.1.5 (NEW: not originally in Strategic Plan): Demographic profile on children and youth in the region and deeper analysis on Census data.

1.3.1: Initiate pilot for program-level belonging measurement with early and middle years children.

2.1.1: Map out network of decision makers to understand their linkage points to child and youth well-being.

2.2.1: Identify our priority calls to action.

2.2.2: Create easy to digest & visually appealing resources of key research points to share.

3.2.1: Identify at least one action from 2025 Data in Action for the community to prioritize.

4.1.3: Establish an updated evaluation strategy.

4.1.2: Establish an updated Communications strategy and approach.

4.2.1: Secure on-going funding support for general operating from the Region of Waterloo and Area Municipalities.

1.1.6: New research with academic partners (separate from YIS/Child Voice Project)

1.2.1: Review best known practices for impacting the belonging of children and youth.

1.2.2 (NEW: not originally in Strategic Plan): Conduct deeper-level analysis on the Youth Impact Survey data to identify key insights and leverage points.

1.3.2: Continue supporting organizations working with youth in their measurement of belonging at a program-level.

1.3.3: Conduct analysis of aggregate program-level belonging data.

2.3.2: Advocate for local funding investments that directly benefit children and youth.

3.3.1: Host annual conference that brings together learnings about belonging & furthers belonging action.

3.3.2: Coordinate youth-led decision making for change in our community, via the Youth Impact Project.

3.3.3: Operate action-oriented Groups to mobilize particular pieces of work on behalf of the collective.

3.3.4 (NEW: not originally in Strategic Plan): Plan and coordinate meetings to convene CYPT voting member representative

3.3.5 (NEW: not originally in Strategic Plan): Host annual I&A Summit that brings youth together to review the the Youth Impact Survey data and design community solutions to challenges.

4.2.2: Seek larger/ longer- term investments from fewer funders.

1.1.3: Begin the 2026 Youth Impact Survey.

2.1.2: Identify key decision makers to build relationships with.

2.2.3: Create a strategy around young people and adult members influencing key decision makers.

3.1.1: Create a shared understanding of belonging.

3.1.3: Identify meaningful actions for how different key audiences can foster belonging in their spaces/circle of influence.

3.2.2: Create a structure to account for the work happening from Data in Action.

4.1.1: Create a filter for all current and proposed CYPT work to be considered against.

4.2.3: Explore the creation of for-fee offerings.

4.3.3: Articulate how the Governance structure embeds equity.

2.1.3: Align our priority calls to action with key decision makers.

2.3.1: Identify key policy changes to support child and youth well-being.

3.1.2: Increase the number of people applying this shared understanding in their spaces/circle of influence.

3.2.3: Create a reporting structure to share with young people and the community about change happening.

4.3.1: Determine the involvement of young people and a decision-making structure that sees young people sharing power with adults.

4.3.2: Clarify the roles and responsibilities of staff being more operational in nature, & of members being less operational.

Work for our next Strategic Plan is coming in 2027. If you’re interested in getting deep into this planning process, we encourage you to apply to be our next Co-Chair. We’re accepting applications until October 24.

If you have any questions about the strategic direction of the CYPT or strategic planning, please reach out to Alison Pearson

The post 2024-2027 Strategic Plan Update: Two Years into Our Strategic Plan appeared first on Children and Youth Planning Table.

Dear Friend,

I hope you had a great summer! It gives me so much pleasure to now share our 2025-26 Annual Report and collective accomplishments with you.

The theme of this year’s edition is “Every Child. Every Step. All the Way.” We are celebrating a full year of providing our services waitlist free. This means the 975 young people and 761 caregivers we served found critical help right away on their difficult journeys. Achieving this milestone required a significant investment to expand our staffing and resources, so no child had to wait.

For the wellbeing of child and youth victims of abuse and crime, the immediate and long-term impact of our services when needed most is difficult to overstate. It allows them to begin healing from the hurt and harm they experienced sooner – and avoids many possible further complications and systemic traumas. This enables their life trajectory to dramatically improve.

As you read our annual report, you’ll find reasons to appreciate our wonderful supporters and partners who play an invaluable role in making our impact possible. With 82% of our funding coming from fundraising and competitive grants, we couldn’t do our work without the generosity of people like you.

“At a very troublesome time and when our granddaughter needed it most, if these services were not available… I feel we would have lost our battle to keep her grounded and safe.”

– Caregiver of Client

It’s hard for me to express how grateful we are for your heartfelt support in helping local kids who’ve experienced trauma. If you’re able to make a further difference, please give a gift today or discover other ways to strategically partner with us.

Thank you for your passion and commitment to showing up for the children in our community who need us. We love having you on our team!

Warmest regards,
Robin Heald | Executive Director

The post Annual Report 2025-26 | Every Child. Every Step. first appeared on Child Witness Centre.

The horizon has always called to APTN. What began as the world’s first national Indigenous television network has grown, branch by branch, into a multiplatform media company – rooted in community, reaching for what’s next.

Now we’re looking for bold, grounded leaders ready to help guide where we go from here. Sound like you?

This is more than a board seat. It’s a seat at the table shaping the future of Indigenous media in Canada – across APTN, APTN Languages and APTN+. Your voice. Your expertise. Your community’s story.

Answer the call. Apply today.

• Stay Rooted: Help protect and honour the communities, languages and relationships that ground everything APTN does.
• Aim the Horizon: Guide APTN’s next stage of growth as we keep walking toward what is ahead.
• Branch Out: Bring your own expertise and perspective to shape APTN’s path forward.

We’re looking for people with diverse professional backgrounds: finance, governance, law, community leadership, broadcasting and beyond – who are ready to lend their expertise and help guide APTN forward.

Passionate about Indigenous media, community and storytelling that drives real change? This opening was made for you.

Know someone who’d be perfect for this? Don’t keep it to yourself, send them this page.

APTN is where Indigenous stories come to life.
For over 25 years, APTN has been amplifying Indigenous voices, breaking new ground in Canadian media and delivering authentic, compelling stories that reflect the resilience, diversity and richness of First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities.

As the world’s first national Indigenous media network, APTN offers unique programming through three platforms:

• APTN – Our flagship channel featuring English and French content
• APTN Languages – Canada’s first channel dedicated entirely to Indigenous language programming
• APTN+ – A streaming platform offering Indigenous-focused films, series and documentaries

From award-winning dramas to investigative journalism and daily news, APTN is more than just a media outlet, we’re a community-driven, multiplatform network and a powerful advocate for Indigenous Peoples in Canada and around the globe.

As a charitable media organization, APTN works in collaboration with Indigenous creators and independent producers to deliver content that informs, inspires and empowers.

APTN is governed by a volunteer board of directors representing all regions of Canada. The governance board oversees APTN and sets its policy and direction, guiding the organization to fulfill its mission, mandate and vision, remaining a true reflection of Indigenous Peoples across the country.

The board keeps APTN a trusted, effective outlet for Indigenous content, while contributing to a greater national understanding of Indigenous Peoples’ issues and perspectives.

We’re building a board that reflects the communities we serve and we’re especially looking for people who can bring:

• Finance;
• ·Legal;
• Representation from Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Canada;
• Elder or knowledge keeper;
• Youth perspective;
• First Nations, Inuit or Métis perspective;
• Broadcast industry;
• Corporate experience;
• Traditional knowledge and values;
• Television or film production experience;
• Indigenous language speaker;
• Regulatory experience;
• Experience in news and/or journalism.

These areas of expertise balance our values, ensure cultural and geographical representation and help us grow in an ever-evolving media landscape. Board experience is a bonus, not a requirement.

The board communicates mostly in English, and each meeting involves substantial reading of reports.

To apply, you must:

• Be a Canadian citizen;
• Be independent of APTN as an employee, and free of any current licence or production agreements with APTN or Dadan Sivunivut’s subsidiaries;
• Be willing to travel;
• Have a personal computer and personal email address (not a work or joint account), with capacity for MS Office software to receive and open APTN documentation;
• Possess strong writing, reading and speaking skills in English;
• Be in good financial standing (not bankrupt or under bankruptcy protection).

Term(s) of Office: Directors are elected for up to a three-year term.

The board meets at least four times per year, typically in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Additional meetings may be held by video or teleconference (MS Team Video Conferencing). Directors also participate in one or two board committees, meeting virtually, by phone or at board meetings (minimum four committee teleconference meetings per year, averaging one to two hours each).

Travel and accommodations for meetings are arranged and covered by APTN.

Ready to throw your name in? Complete the online application form and upload the following documents (prepare your files first):

• Cover letter (max two pages) addressing your interest, relevant skills or expertise and eligibility;
• Resumé;
• BackCheckForms (Service Order Form|Consent Form A) to verify criminal record and bankruptcy status (download a blank form). APTN will submit on your behalf;
• Letter(s) of support (max two) with complete contact information for your references;
• Proof of residency (driver’s licence or similar legal document);
• Proof of Indigenous ancestry (if applicable).

Please make sure your application is complete – incomplete applications will not be considered.

Please reference file #BDA – 26-1 in your cover letter.

Four positions are available, one for each regional quadrant.

October 16, 2026 – 5:00 p.m. CT

As part of APTN’s mission and mandate to promote and provide opportunities for Indigenous Peoples, and in accordance with relevant legislation, preference will be given to Indigenous candidates.

Contact Paula at aptnboard-conseil@aptn.ca

The horizon’s waiting.
Answer the call – apply at
APTN Board of Directors Application Form

The post APTN appeared first on Capacity Canada.

♦

It rarely happens that you have a perfect restaurant and dining experience. Or even near-perfect.

In my time visiting restaurants both casually and as a newspaper restaurant reviewer, I can say that such an experience has happened to me only a few times. But that rare, happy occasion of perfection now includes my recent visit to Bar St. Denis in the Petite Italie neighbourhood of Montreal.

The visit started inauspiciously and somewhat mysteriously, you might say. There isn’t a lot of signage on the restaurant’s exterior: it took us (our Uber driver included) a moment or two to actually find the restaurant and only by virtue of a small orange sign illuminated near a doorway adjacent to a heavily designed but inscrutable front window. Somehow, whether by BSD’s design or not I don’t know, I found the moment of uncertainly perhaps piqued anticipation of what awaited.

Inside, in contrast, BSD is vibrant and in its element to be so. There is a long dining room with kitchen and bar on one side; tables, some communal, are on the other. The bar itself has about a dozen high-top stools that face the bartenders’ mixological activities and the sleek black tile behind them. There’s a flash of brass detailing that perhaps speaks to an earlier era. Above, the ceiling is illuminated warmly. Overall, I’d say there’s an art deco vibe to the room, but whatever label you apply, the atmosphere beneath that ceiling was energetic and invigorating as we settled in at our table.

As for the menu, the optimal approach is to select four or five dishes (or six or seven or eight!) and share. Given the quality of the cooking at BSD, the more the better, I say.

A calamari dish with artichokes (banner image above/Matthieu Goyer) has perfectly tender-cooked squid and a balanced dressing with enough zest to energize the taste buds nicely: it was a terrific dish to start, I guess a sort of surf-and-turf that I could easily see as Sicilian.

Next, crispy puffed rice tops soft raw tuna and is also a perfect balance, while kibbeh tartare sees an eggplant foundation forming a beautifully layered piece of art that yielded scrumptious flavour. Then, a seemingly simple plate of the kitchen’s delicately poached leeks with day lilies in vinaigrette, which proved to be one of the evening’s most satisfying dishes.

When it comes to the meatier proteins, we enjoyed an excellent duck breast accompanied by satiny foie gras tinged nicely with a hint of exterior crispiness that is joined by lobster mushrooms and a light balsamic sauce.

A truly luscious porc vielle is rich in flavour and extremely tender and served with kale and sauce Robert, the classic mustard-based brown sauce of French culinary antiquity. It looked to be a heavy dish but wasn’t at all.

With labneh and tabbouleh also on the menu, there is a decided Middle Eastern inflection to BSD’s cooking which I think gives the restaurant a unique character.

For dessert, we visited Limousin for the thick pancake-like clafoutis. For me, the dish has some personal meaning: my mother-in-law excelled at making a range of clafoutis with a variety of fresh fruits. Add to that the happy fact that this BSD version included Concord grapes from Niagara where my father-in-law grew up on a farm — Concords were his favourite grape. This humble French dish and Bar St. Denis’ rendering of it did the personal connection full justice.

All in all, the BSD kitchen turns out tidy and well-composed dishes that are executed with a simple and clear vision of what they are, without extraneous ingredients or preparations.

I didn’t try any of the bar’s interesting cocktails, but I was happy to be able to enjoy an Okanagan B.C. wine, a Pinot Noir from Sage Hills. We also sipped a unique after-dinner drink: a Colombard vin muté Armagnac from Château de Léberon. The process of mutage apparently arrests fermentation by an addition of a dose of alcohol, often an eau de vie. Sweet, bitter, savoury, it was a solid way to end a meal which brought together some of the best of Canada and France.

At the end of the day — and at the end of the meal — the evening at BSD truly made its mark by virtue of our waitress’s exceptional service and personality: she was attentive and professional, knowledgeable and engaging — and just plain fun to spend an evening with as she created an excellent food-and-wine experience at our table and with those diners around us.

There are, obviously, a lot of excellent restaurants in Montreal — BSD is both Michelin-designated and highly placed on Canada’s 100 Best — but given the rarity of this fine experience, I would visit again in a heartbeat. Especially now that I know exactly where it is.

Check out my latest post Montreal’s Bar St. Denis: a superb visit from AndrewCoppolino.com.

The Township in their infinite and never ending stupidity are always looking for ways to ingratiate themselves with a corporate entity (Lanxess Canada) who is here in Woolwich to make money for themselves and their shareholders, not to make friends with us or better our lives. Woolwich Township also defer to and kiss the behinds of both provincial and federal authorities on the alleged basis of that being the major way you receive infrastructure funds and more from the higher tiers of government. Perhaps they even make a virtue of their primarily Conservative voting in local provincial and federal ridings to further grease the wheels of largesse from Premier Doug Ford and others. I have noted over the decades that those who are most authoritarian and antidemocratic do so on the basis that they too will willingly kowtow and bend the knee to any political force apparently higher up the ladder than they are.  In other words they are not hypocrites at least. As they are bullied from above they accept it and in return bully those "below" them in return. They aren't hypocrites as much as bullies and cowards.

TRAC is NOT an example of public consultation. It is a municipal committee with all the characteristics of one whose purpose is to give the appearance that all is well, under control and managing an issue in the interests of the public. Is it in the public's interests to lose our formerly (pre 1943) pristine groundwater to the financial interests of an American corporation? Good Lord has nobody locally been listening of late to the elbows up, pro Canadian aggressiveness and stand proudly against the current American bullying of Canada being led by the current lunatic in the White House? Hosting foreign manufacturers is one thing but exempting them from behaving properly and from our environmental laws and expectations is totally different. Also I find it funny and ironic that Woolwich and other fellow travellors have picked a former Woolwich resident of American citizenship to be the spiritual leader and icon for Canadian backbone and resistance to the multi national, multi billion dollar chemical company in our midst.

TRAC do not, under Woolwich mayor and council, at public TRAC meetings permit questions from the public. Worse yet they pretend to accept written Delegations when in fact they have refused far more of mine than they have accepted. Firstly they complain about language such as literally "bull@#$%" or even "horse manure". Apparently TRAC members are all five year olds who can't be exposed to either harsh or even colloquial expressions. Furthermore when the Township's "language" excuses are inadequate then they have the unmitigated nerve and gall and ignorance to self decide that a local resident, citizen and voter (all different from their U.S. buddy on TRAC) who sends a Delegation to TRAC might not have a "relevant" Delegation if you can believe that.    

Here is my elbows up response to that shite. Flock off Woolwich Township . Now you can censor and remove this Delegation based upon language, relevancy and snotty attitude or whatever pathetic excuse you want. Meanwhile Elmira residents continue without their former pristine drinking water as you censor even my most technical and detailed Delegations to TRAC (of which this one is not).     

Wöhling, T., Kraft, M., & Di Ciacca, A., (2026). Impact of River Morphology on River–Groundwater Exchange in Braided River Systems. Groundwater. doi.org/10.1111/gwat.70092

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE.

“Highly detailed, fully coupled surface–subsurface models were set up in HydroGeoSphere using Lidar-derived DEMs taken before and after a major flood event in the two rivers. Apart from the river bathymetry, the two model variants of each site are otherwise identical, which allows investigating for the first time the change of both the net groundwater exchange fluxes and their spatial patterns due to naturally occurring shifts in riverbed morphology. This study addresses the following research question: Do river–groundwater interaction rates in braided rivers change as a result of changes in riverbed morphology? If so, what are the most influential hydro-morphological features for that change?”

Fig 1. Conceptual overview of braidplain aquifer (BPA) topology and interaction. Top row shows exemplary cross-sections of saturation for the two models in this study: (A) Wairau River, BPA connected to regional aquifer, and (B) Waikirikiri River, BPA disconnected from regional aquifer. Bottom row shows the corresponding conceptual cross-sections of BPA systems connected to (C, Wairau River) and disconnected from (D, Waikirikiri River) the regional aquifer, with arrows indicating the main pathways of river to groundwater exchange/recharge (light to medium blue), BPA to regional aquifer exchange (medium to dark blue) and the intermediate pathway through the unsaturated zone (medium to light blue to dark blue, only disconnected).

We're pleased to highlight this publication by Thomas Wöhling, Moritz Kraft and Antoine Di Ciacca, which investigates how flood-driven changes in braided river morphology influence river–groundwater exchange and aquifer recharge. Using HydroGeoSphere (HGS), the researchers developed fully coupled surface water–groundwater models of two braided river systems in New Zealand to isolate the effects of changing riverbed morphology before and after major flood events. The study demonstrates that morphological changes alone can significantly alter both recharge to shallow braidplain aquifers and subsequent recharge to regional groundwater systems.

Braided rivers can be important sources of groundwater recharge, but their constantly changing channels, gravel bars, and riverbeds make river–groundwater exchange particularly difficult to quantify. Flood events can substantially reshape these systems, altering channel locations, wetted areas, river stages, and the geometry of the underlying braidplain aquifer. Although these morphological changes are well documented, their isolated effect on groundwater recharge has received comparatively little attention. Fully coupled surface–subsurface models such as HydroGeoSphere provide a more realistic representation of these interactions than approaches that treat rivers simply as groundwater boundary conditions.

The researchers applied HGS to sections of the Wairau River and Waikirikiri River on New Zealand's South Island, representing two contrasting hydrogeological settings. At the Wairau River, the braidplain aquifer is connected to the regional aquifer, while at the Waikirikiri River it is perched and separated from the deeper groundwater system by an unsaturated zone. For each site, the researchers created paired pre- and post-flood model variants using high-resolution LiDAR-derived digital elevation models. All model parameters and boundary conditions were kept the same between paired simulations, meaning differences in simulated river–groundwater exchange could be attributed directly to changes in river morphology.

Fig 3. Wairau River model study area with preflood (A, blue river channels) and postflood (B, green river channels) DEMs, along with model extent (red), braidplain extent (purple), analysis subdomain (white dashed), piezometer locations (blue circles) and main (bold), northern (dark), and southern (light) secondary river channels.

The simulations revealed contrasting responses at the two rivers. Following the flood, recharge from the Wairau River to its braidplain aquifer increased by approximately 38% under low-flow conditions and 12% during high flow. In contrast, braidplain aquifer recharge at the Waikirikiri River decreased by approximately 26% under both low- and high-flow conditions. Changes in recharge to the deeper regional aquifers followed the same direction as the braidplain response, demonstrating that flood-induced channel changes can propagate through the broader groundwater system regardless of whether the braidplain and regional aquifers are hydraulically connected or disconnected.

Key findings showed that these changes were closely associated with several observable morphological and hydrologic characteristics. Increased recharge at the Wairau River corresponded with greater braidplain aquifer elevation and volume, larger wetted areas, higher river and groundwater levels, and increased areas of strong exchange. The Waikirikiri River showed the opposite pattern, with decreases in braidplain volume, wetted area, water levels, and recharge following the flood. The study therefore demonstrates that seemingly physical changes to river geometry can alter hydraulic gradients and exchange pathways sufficiently to increase or decrease groundwater recharge.

Fig 5. Wairau River model grids and boundary conditions: grid and refinement features are shown for the preflood variant WU1 (purple lines and area) and postflood variant WU2 (orange lines and area). All other model features are identical: surface model boundaries (blue surfaces) are nodal river inputs (Wairau River [WR] and Are Are Creek [A]) and zero-depth gradient outflow (O), subsurface model boundaries are western, northern and eastern nodal fluxes (white rectangles) and southern constant head boundary (black line).

HydroGeoSphere was central to this work because its coupled surface water–groundwater framework enabled the researchers to explicitly represent highly detailed river morphology while simultaneously simulating flow within the river, braidplain aquifer, and regional groundwater system. By changing only the surface topography between paired simulations, the HGS models allowed the researchers to isolate the influence of morphology from other factors such as river forcing, aquifer properties, and boundary conditions. This provided a physically consistent way to quantify both the magnitude and spatial distribution of river–groundwater exchange under complex braided-river conditions.

This research provides important insights for groundwater management in regions where braided rivers are major sources of aquifer recharge. The findings demonstrate that flood-driven changes in river morphology should not be treated simply as surface-water changes, as they can have measurable consequences for groundwater availability and regional aquifer recharge. By identifying relationships between recharge and indicators such as wetted area, river levels, braidplain volume, and channel location, the study also provides a foundation for evaluating morphological impacts in river systems where detailed modelling may not always be feasible. At the same time, the researchers emphasize that fully quantifying these interactions remains complex and requires advanced modelling approaches such as HydroGeoSphere.

Abstract:

Braided river systems are an important source for groundwater recharge, but their complex morphology makes river–groundwater exchange fluxes difficult to estimate. Their river channel morphology changes frequently after floods, which has effects on recharge rates that have rarely been studied in the past. This work aims to isolate the effects of changes in braided river morphology on groundwater recharge for two sections of the Wairau River and Waikirikiri River in New Zealand. For each study site, two different river morphology variants of a fully coupled surface water–groundwater model utilizing high-resolution DEMs of river bathymetry before and after a major flood event were set up while keeping parameterization and boundary conditions the same. The models demonstrate that flood-induced morphology changes in braided river systems alter groundwater recharge. We identify features, both simulated and observed, that explain the direction of change. Features that increase groundwater recharge are a larger braidplain aquifer extent and volume, larger wetted area and, specifically, an increase of areas with high exchange rates in locations of larger gradients between braidplain aquifer and regional aquifer. These factors influence groundwater recharge independent of connection (Wairau River) or disconnection (Waikirikiri River) of the system to the regional aquifer, albeit with different magnitudes. An extension of our research to other braided rivers is needed to more broadly generalize our findings.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE.

The Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce is excited to announce the Third Annual Small Business Awards presented by BDC – a new event in Waterloo Region dedicated to recognizing and celebrating the outstanding achievements of small businesses in our community. Scheduled to take place October 27th to wrap up BDC Small Business Month, this prestigious event aims to honor the entrepreneurs and small business owners who drive innovation and contribute significantly to our local economy.

The Small Business Awards will highlight exceptional businesses across 8 award categories. The event will feature a formal awards ceremony and networking opportunities.

Just like last year, the public is invited to cast their votes for the Exceptional Small Business of the Year Award until Sunday, October 4th at 11:59 PM. The winner of the “Exceptional Small Business of the Year Award” is determined entirely by public voting, which can be done daily during the voting period. The business with the most votes will be announced as the winner.

Small businesses are the backbone of our community. The Small Business Awards is an opportunity to shine a spotlight on these hardworking individuals and organizations that make a positive difference every day. We are thrilled to celebrate their achievements and contributions.

Nominees have just been announced across the 8 award categories. Congratulations to the final nominees

Event Impact Award (Sponsored By: Explore Waterloo Region)

• 4M Commercial Group/LUXE Realty
• Altitude Advisors
• Food4Kids Waterloo Region
• Gluten Free Fest
• Handbags for Hospice/Hospice of Waterloo Region
• Vestika’s Oddities & Wellness

Service Excellence Award

• Aion Appraisals & Consulting
• ALL Corporate Printing and Branding
• Ambassador Building Maintenance
• CulturedHR
• FoodZen
• Girls E Mentorship
• Ried Renos
• SURMESUR
• The Crack Specialists
• Vestikas Oddities & Wellness
• Worm Wrangler

Skilled Trades Award

• Cross Heating & Air Conditioning
• Ried Renos

Professional of the Year Award (Sponsored By: Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning)

• Allister Scorgie (Explore WR)
• Chad McIntosh (Great Lakes Helicopter)
• Cheryl McKee (Principal of St. Jude’s)
• Christina Rauchfleisz Shantz (Legacy Builders)
• Christy Bertrand (BIA)
• Fogo Oriowo (A4C)
• Luca Lombardi (Kitchener Rangers)
• Peter Flannery (Clay & Glass)
• Shriaa Sheth (Accelerator Centre)

Family Business of the Year Award

• Evans Collective
• Fo’Cheezy
• Polocorp
• Shuh Orchards

Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Sponsored By: Junior Achievement Waterloo Region)

• Accessibrand
• Ad Ops House
• Amanda Amaral (Maya Moon Books)
• At Home Co.
• AURA-LA
• B Diversity Group
• Big Wish Marketing
• Blue Skies Bookkeeping
• Dr. Narine Dat Sookram, DSW, RSW
• Huckleberry Way
• I Sky Consulting
• Midtown Yoga
• Noteworthy Music Studio
• Ravenwood Tabletop
• Trina (Living Local)
• Vestikas Oddities & Wellness
• Worm Wrangler

Employer of the Year Award (Sponsored By: Reis Informatica Inc.)

• Centre For Mutual Well-Being for Racialized communities
• Concordia Club
• Lyndon Fish Hatcheries
• Pathfinder Staffing

Exceptional Small Business of the Year Award

• AIM Robotics
• ALL Corporate Printing and Branding
• Breakthrough Counselling
• CulturedHR
• F45 Training
• Fo’Cheezy Food Trucks
• Food4Kids Waterloo Region
• Great Lakes Helicopter
• Ried Renos
• Vanessa’s Cuisine
• Vestikas Oddities & Wellness
• Wesley Courtois (Renovation Rescue with Wes)
• Worm Wrangler

Winners will be announced live at the event on Tuesday October 27, 2026. Winners are never notified ahead of time.

For further information or to purchase tickets for this event please visit www.beagala.ca

To learn more about sponsorship opportunities please email Heather Hutchings, hhutchings@greaterkwchamber.com

The post BDC Small Business Awards 2026 Nominees appeared first on Greater KW Chamber of Commerce.

The post Annual Membership SALE appeared first on Grand River Rocks Climbing Gym.

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Cullen Flanders (Onterris) advised TRAC at last Thursday's public meeting that the pump & treat system did what it was designed to do. My response is bull#$%^ unless it was specifically designed to give comfort and solace to the public as well as to prevent either lynching or tar and feathering of those guilty of poisoning men, women and children for decades here in Elmira. Oh gosh that is exactly what it was designed for. No nuetral, unbiased experts ever advised Uniroyal Chemical and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment otherwise. 

Mr. Flanders also suggested to TRAC listeners that his words were his professional opinion only and that there is no certainty in hydrogeology. I beg to differ.  O.K. I can certainly see instances where 100% certainty would be very difficult as to what is the exact location, depth, weight and composition of all subsurface DNAPLS in Elmira, Ontario. On the other hand the state of the science of hydrogeology certainly was advanced enough in the 1990s to determine that there were DNAPLS both residual and free phase on the Uniroyal Chemical site then as well as probably some off their site.

Mr. Cullen Flanders also suggested that chlorobenzene is an easier target to remove than NDMA. Really? Then how come even the vaunted pump & treat system can't do it?  How come chlorobenzene with much higher concentrations albeit still only in the parts per billion range is still well above its' drinking water standard of 80 ppb (parts per billion) in both the Municipal Upper and Lower Aquifers? Does he perhaps believe any Lanxess  and their consultants who still deny DNAPLS exist or ever have off the Uniroyal Chemical site? Varnicolor also had DNAPLS ( & LNAPLS) on their site including chlorobenzene. Don't they count just because the Ministry and Uniroyal lied about being the sole  contributer to the destruction of the Elmira Aquifers for decades?

Sebastian of TRAC advised that the public must be clearly advised that achieving the Ontario Drinking Water Standards (ODWS) is not happening in the near future. I believe not ever until or unless the current folks in charge are all removed. Even then it is unlikely but slightly more possible. Tiffany Svensson (TRAC) suggested that TRAC and Lanxess were proposing a long term, new approach to remediation and agreed that achieving the ODWS is certainly not going to happen within the next four years. My response to that is this new approach needed to be done decades ago and if the amendments to improve biodegradation only work on dissolved chlorobenzene (versus chlorobenzene DNAPL) then it will be just as successful as rearranging the desk chairs on the Titanic was. If as I suspect the chlorobenzene DNAPL is now in the fractures of the Bedrock Aquifer then all bets are off.  

P.S. No sign of the MECP at last Thursday's TRAC meeting. Were they hiding quietly on Zoom? No idea and no loss wherever they were.

I’ve been learning about Vision Transformers, and it’s been a ride. It’s probably the densest architecture I’ve studied so far, and it seems loaded with components that border on the miraculous.

• There’s the CLS token. We stick it in front of the patch embeddings, and somehow it comes to represent the image for classification. Very convenient.
• Then there are queries, keys and values. Every token produces all three, and together they determine which other tokens to pay attention to and what information to retrieve from them.
• And before any of that, we add positional embeddings to the patch embeddings, and now the model can account for where patches came from in the original image. Great!

The explanations always started with what these components represented. CLS represented the image. Queries looked for relevant information, keys identified what was available, and values carried the information itself. Positional embeddings represented where each patch came from.

I understood the roles each component was supposed to play. But where did all this meaning come from?

• What made the CLS token a representation of the image in the first place?
• What made one projection a query and another a key, when they were constructed in almost exactly the same way
• Where was “position” actually encoded in a positional embedding?

The answer seemed to be: training. Backpropagation.

Okay. Backpropagation is amazing, but it isn’t magic. It still didn’t make sense to me why these parameters would represent the things they said they would.

Then something embarrassingly simple clicked: I had the explanatory direction backwards.

• A CLS token isn’t first an image representation that we then decide to use for classification. We decide to use its final state for classification, and that creates pressure for it to become useful for classification.
• A query isn’t first imbued with some property of “query-ness” and then placed into the attention equation. We put the output of one learned projection in the query position of that equation, and training specializes that projection for the role we’ve given it.
• And a learned positional embedding doesn’t begin with “position” encoded somewhere inside its random numbers. We consistently use the parameter at a particular position, and training shapes its values according to what is useful when it is used there.

The names describe the jobs we’ve given these parameters, not something inherent in their initial values.

The name makes this question surprisingly easy to overlook. It’s called the classification token. Diagrams label it [CLS]. In a Vision Transformer used for image classification, its final CLS state is fed to the classifier and explanations tell us that it ‘represents the image’. After seeing enough diagrams, I started to feel as though being an image-level representation is somehow a property of the token itself.

But CLS doesn’t start that way. In the beginning of time, it is initialised randomly. There’s nothing inherently image-like about it. how does this arbitrary vector end up representing the image?

The answer is obvious once stated, but it changed how I think about these architectures: We use its final state for classification, so training has reason to make that state informative about the image.

I had been reasoning in the direction of the forward pass: CLS gathers information from the image, becomes an image representation, and then we use that representation for classification.

But I found it more useful to reason backward from the loss. At the end of a Vision Transformer used for classification, we do roughly this:

[CLS] representation → classifier → prediction → loss

The classifier only gets the final CLS representation. That means if the CLS representation is useless for say, distinguishing a dog from a cat, the network has a problem. Then the familiar sequence follows: A poor prediction produces a high loss; backpropagation follows; parameters involved get changed. Over many training examples, this puts pressure on the network to make the final CLS representation useful for the classification task.

And “useful” doesn’t have to be a rich, general-purpose representation of ‘the image.’ It doesn’t necessarily mean that CLS develops a neat, human-readable summary of the image — two ears, four legs, big eyes, and so on. It simply encodes features that help the classifier distinguish the classes it is being trained on. As classification improves, we describe CLS as an “image representation,” but more precisely, it is a representation shaped around whatever information about the image is useful for classification.

So it isn’t that:

CLS represents the image → therefore we classify using CLS

It is closer to:

We classify using CLS → training makes CLS useful for classification

But making classification depend on CLS isn’t enough. Information about the image also needs a way to reach it. By letting CLS participate in self-attention alongside the patch tokens, the architecture gives it a pathway to gather and consolidate information from them.

The architecture has not told CLS what an image is. Instead, it has done two simpler things: made successful classification depend on the final state of CLS, and given CLS access to information that could help it succeed. Training does the rest: the loss provides the pressure; backpropagation communicates that pressure through the network; the parameters controlling how CLS interacts with the patches are gradually adjusted. The architecture assigns the role. Training learns the content.

Once I noticed this, I realized I had been making essentially the same mistake with learned positional embeddings. When I first came across them, I kept wondering where the position was actually encoded. What about the embedding for position 1 made it mean ‘position 1’?

Then came the explanation that they were initialised randomly, just like any other learned parameter. At initialisation, those numbers contain nothing inherently position-related. So what eventually makes one of those arbitrary vectors the embedding for position 1?

Nothing in the vector itself initially says ‘position 1.’ It becomes the position-1 embedding because we consistently add that same learned vector to the token occupying position 1. That repeated association gives the parameter its role. Training then shapes its values according to what is useful for a parameter that is always used there. The parameter doesn’t eventually come to mean ‘position 1’. Rather, its learned effects become useful given that it is always injected at position 1.

The architecture created the association; training shaped the values around it:

• Architecture: This is the parameter that will always be used at position 1.
• Training: Given that role, what values would actually be useful?

The equations for queries, keys and values look remarkably similar:

We take the same token representations X and pass them through three learned linear projections (W_Q, W_K, and W_V). When I first encountered this, I kept wondering: what actually makes one of these a query and another a key? How does W_Q know that it is supposed to learn “queries”, while W_K learns “keys”?

Looking only at these projection equations didn’t answer the question. They’re just different learnable matrices, initialized independently and trained through gradient descent.

The difference only becomes visible when we look at what happens to their outputs next. You can’t tell why Q is a query by looking at the equation above; you have to follow Q in the attention computation:

Although Q, K, and V are produced in essentially the same way, their outputs occupy different places in the attention computation. Q and K jointly determine the attention scores, but occupy different sides of the relationship: a token’s query is compared against the keys of the tokens it might attend to. V has a more obviously different role: once the attention weights have been calculated, those weights are used to combine the value vectors.

That’s what makes Q the query here: not anything inherent in the numbers produced by W_Q, but the fact that we consistently use its output in the query position of this computation.

As a result, changing each projection can have different consequences:

- If changing W_Q would improve which other tokens a token attends to, training can adjust W_Q.

- If changing W_K would improve which tokens receive attention from other tokens, training can adjust W_K.

- If changing W_V would improve the information that gets passed along under those attention weights, training can adjust W_V.

The loss reflects those different consequences; backpropagation computes the corresponding gradients; the optimizer adjusts the parameters. Over training, the three matrices specialize.

I had been thinking:

This is a query → therefore we use it as a query

But the more useful explanatory direction is:

We use this projection as the query → training makes it useful in that role

The same applies to keys and values.

I think some of my confusion came from the names being too good: Classification token, Positional embedding, Query, Key, and Value. In the simpler models I’d studied, I hadn’t encountered names that seemed to carry quite so much meaning.

These names are useful shorthand, but they can make it sound as though the concept described by the name is somehow an inherent property of the numbers:

• A CLS vector sounds like a vector that intrinsically contains classification-related information.
• A positional embedding sounds like a vector that intrinsically contains a position.
• A query sounds like something that intrinsically asks a question.

The names describe the roles we have arranged for these components to play, not some intrinsic meaning carried by the numbers themselves. The distinction feels obvious once stated. Unfortunately, it wasn’t obvious to me while learning the architecture.

I also realized that part of my difficulty came from how I respond when I don’t understand something. My instinct is to stop there and keep digging until the confusion is resolved. If I’ve just been introduced to a positional embedding and I don’t understand where the ‘position’ comes from, moving on feels like building on top of something I don’t understand.

But sometimes I had been trying to answer questions before I’d even seen the part of the architecture that made them answerable. You can’t fully understand why Q is a query from Q=XW_Q alone; you have to follow Q into the attention computation. Sometimes understanding an earlier component requires seeing more of the computation and how it connects to the loss, not staring harder at the component itself.

So when I come across a new learned component in an architecture, my first question is no longer just, ‘What does this represent?’ A better first question is: ‘What is this used for?’. Of course, that is now followed by:

• Where does it enter the computation?
• What can influence it?
• What can it influence?
• Where does its output eventually go?
• Which loss depends on that output?
• What information would make it useful for minimizing that loss?
• Does the architecture provide a pathway for that information to reach it?

So instead of accepting that ‘CLS represents the image’ as the explanation, I now ask “What about this architecture and objective allows and encourages a useful image representation to emerge at CLS?”

None of this is a new result about Transformers. It’s closer to a correction in how I had been thinking about them. I had been looking for meaning inside the components themselves, when I should also have been looking at the larger system around them: where the architecture puts them, what information can reach them, what they can affect, and what the objective rewards.

If you’ve ever looked at a Transformer diagram and had the uncomfortable feeling that terms like CLS token or positional embedding explained what something was doing without quite explaining why those particular numbers should ever come to mean that, this might be the missing distinction:

• The name describes the role we gave it.
• The architecture determines how it can participate.
• The objective gives it something to become useful for.
• Training determines what it actually learns.

Where Does “Meaning” Come From in a Transformer? was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

O.K. so here goes. She's nothing but a PR hack. She's a snake oil saleswoman and a con woman rolled into one. There I feel better. If I am going to congratulate her based on two things that I think I heard her say Thursday night then I needed to keep it in context with my very negative impressions of her over the last couple of years. 

Firstly recently I've been following TRAC closely via the on-line video/audio on Woolwich Township's website. Hence if I'm unsure what someone said the first time through I can back it up and listen again to be more certain. I'll have to wait until it's out on the Township's website for that. Before I get into what I believe she said I want to pass this along however. Thursday night I sit down and she immediately approaches me smiling with her hand out to shake mine. My immediate response to this wild, aggressive, extremely hostile and wholly inappropriate assault (nah it was none of that) was to say no thanks. She walked away. Damn if she wasn't back five minutes later with her hand out to shake mine again. She was still smiling which I interpreted as a tiger about to pounce and I said " What part of no did you fail to understand the first time?". Well that hardly seemed to faze her although she utterly failed to argue with me or reply rudely which I expected. She started to turn away and retrace her steps at which point I capitulated and said "Well I do at least appreciate your efforts." That was it. Fact is I no longer would shake hands with any MECP, GHD or Lanxess personnel not just her. Too many decades and too many lies, deceptions and manipulations.

The first serious thing I believe she said was that the contamination (chlorobenzene) at observation well CH-44 migrated from Uniroyal Chemical westwards onto the Nutrite property. Hallelujah ! She didn't say the key word DNAPL but as the bulk of dissolved chlorobenzene flowed south to south-west from the Uniroyal site her admission was significant. If it was. Again I will be listening to the video/audio when it's posted onto Woolwich's website.

The second item was when she was talking about DNAPLS and how difficult they were to find and see them. This was during Cullen Flanders (Onterris) talk and comments about secondary sources which he described as either "fingers" or "pipes". Hadley I believe stated that she thought that the concentrations (chlorobenzene) on site were high enough for DNAPL to be present. Hallelujah again!  These are the factual admissions necessary BEFORE  there is even the slightest hope of ever fully cleaning the Elmira Aquifers to drinking water standards. Again I will be checking the video/audio when it comes out for confirmation.

Lastly I have in the past suggested that TRAC are beyond hopeless. I have suggested that they are simply giving credibility to a hopeless cleanup process (pump & treat) etc. I have also vacillated and suggested that they are simply overmatched and outgunned by the experts and consultants hired by Uniroyal/Lanxess. That said they desperately need better informed and stronger members who will not defer to GHD/Lanxess when push comes to shove. A lack of historical knowledge is part of the problem despite the token presence of one very long time, former (non Canadian) community member. Sebastian asked Cullen Flanders whether or not NDMA which is dissolved in the Municipal Upper and Lower Aquifers was also in the Bedrock Aquifer or not. Mr. Flanders did not know so Sebastian asked the whole group if anybody knew. Stone silence. I waited. The silence grew with no responses until I finally, clearly spoke up from the gallery, in direct contravention of TRAC rules prohibiting public questions or responses. My response was of course NDMA is in the Bedrock Aquifer and has been  known and confirmed as such for decades. Good for Sebastian asking the question but quite stunning the lack of depth of important knowledge by all the TRAC members.  

      A FORM OF BRAINWASHING?

I went to TRAC last evening in person for the first time in possibly a year or two. I had been watching these meetings for a while on Zoom until I could no longer stand that and thus have been simply playing the video of the meeting several days afterwards that is posted on the Woolwich Township website. Wow I have to give it to that pack of  prats they do hold a credible meeting. Last night they had yet another impressive individual who allegedly is an expert at either remediation in general or more likely biodegradation in particular. His name is Cullen Flanders, he speaks well and he is personable. Unfortunately he is also full of poo poo del toro. I see now how intelligent people like Sebastian and others can be taken in by these professional con artists.

His focus was chlorobenzene because apparently NDMA does not degrade via soil bacteria and microbes as readily as chlorobenzene. He stated similar to technical reports I have read that chlorobenzene is readily biodegradable both in shallow aerobic environments as well as in deeper anaerobic (low oxygen) environments.  So here is where the rubber meets the road. Why thirty-seven years after the start of the Elmira Water Crisis and about 57 years after outright dumping ended at Uniroyal Chemical do we still have chlorobenzene throughout the Elmira Aquifers well above drinking water standards? Clearly the buggars are holding information back. Maybe ongoing leakage from the still grossly contaminated former Uniroyal site continues. Maybe chlorobenzene DNAPLS either as free phase or residual continue to exist both on the Uniroyal site as well as beneath the town of Elmira itself, very slowly dissolving into the groundwater. Perhaps tailing and rebound are greater problems than we've been led to believe. Rebound simply means that adsorbed chlorobenzene held in low permeability zones (aquitards) is back diffusing from the aquitards into the adjoining aquifers. 

Regardless despite wildly optimistic claims of large percentages and large mass removal weights in the Elmira Aquifers the "cleanup" is stuck. Clearly removed NDMA and chlorobenzene mass is being replaced with new DISSOLVED  NDMA and Chlorobenzene mass from the sources listed above. The entire "cleanup" has been based upon off-site pumping & treating of groundwater with dissolved contaminants in it of which NDMA and chlorobenzene are but two. Source Removal has always been necessary and we the public have told those deaf, blind and stupid like foxes corporate polluters that for decades. Source removal both on and off the former Uniroyal site. That apparently costs a whole lot more money than professionals, con artists or not, who may or may not be fully informed themselves of important details regarding the Uniroyal site. 

Thank you Jenn Horndyl, Nathan Cadeau and Sandy Shantz for the now admitted Censorship of my informed citizen technical documents sent to TRAC members. I have been sending many of my Elmira Advocate Blog Posts to them since last December and only last night have a select few from July, August and September 2026 been formally passed on to TRAC members as citizen correspondence relative to TRAC's mandate and duties. I and other citizens have been censored, minimized and prevented from fully participating since September 2015 when Sandy and Mark Bauman removed CPAC in favour of the new RAC/TAG later replaced by TRAC.   

♦

Hello again. This summer, I was a writer working toward finishing a new manuscript (essays and poems) and revising my next novel; and now I am a full-time grad student, studying Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy.

It is weird and not-weird, I feel old and not-too-old, at times more socially inclined than I’d expected, at times a little too tired to rise to the occasion of small-talk with desk-mates (I try!). A big goal is to read in a way that allows me to absorb and retain what I’m reading, and that’s very time-consuming; I fear falling behind. But then, I need to practice balance and managing my own expectations; can I learn how to prioritize? For example, I spent about five hours this week on a brief reflection that is worth 5% and was guaranteed to receive an A+; the exercise felt valuable for me personally, but probably not 5 hours worth of value, if you see what I mean.

Proportionality. I have been prioritizing getting to the gym every morning before school. So far, still able to see friends, family. Volunteering. Where will I cut back in order to fit this intensive workload into my hours? I won’t be writing much, creatively, I mean. Journaling, yes, starting a novel, no, probably not. My evenings might be devoted to readings rather than doing a puzzle or watching a show (or going for a walk? but I want to go for walks!). I am still figuring this out.

I feel energized by the material. Open to new experiences. A little bit overwhelmed; mostly calm, prepared, attuned, attentive. I can walk to campus; I pack good food to fuel me through several night classes; I’ve made a few friends (or excellent acquaintances, perhaps more accurately). I sense the importance of building a group of professional peers in this context, as necessary and meaningful for this particular work.

On Monday, I’m going to draw “what God looks like to me”, as a reflective in-class exercise for a course on the “Spiritual Care” side of the roster. On the “Psychotherapy” side, I spent all day reading textbooks about Professional Ethics and the “Ethical Lives of Clients,” with great interest and engagement—I didn’t drift off to sleep even once! Side note: I am aiming for 7+ hours of a sleep a night, and (almost) managing that.

Sitting in the classroom, I feel a strong sense that I’m where I want to be; and wherever it leads, well, that’s a question for a future version of self, the one who’s read all these chapters and written a bunch of papers, and talked to peers, and played with balancing life and study and practice and care. Stay tuned.

xo, Carrie

♦

The idea of a hidden gem is something of a convenient myth and one possessed of a certain charm and quaintness: but in this case, it’s true.

Roughly a 90-minute drive from Moncton, Alma Snackbar & Grocery, in Rogersville, New Brunswick, is a small restaurant and store that’s out of the way but will prove to be a remarkable find if you make your way to it. I’m guessing that thousands of diners already have.

Opened by Rob and Nicole McKim in 2023, the building is both a home and the restaurant. Rob did culinary training at George Brown before heading to a cooking school – Alma – headquartered Colorno, Parma. The McKims named the restaurant as an homage to the school and have been inspired, in part, by some Italian family heritage.

“I knew what I wanted to do ever since I could pretty much walk. I always enjoyed drama and art, but I felt that the culinary art form was the best way to express myself,” says McKim, 39 and Oshawa-born.

So, his passion become his profession.

He has worked at notable Toronto restaurants and with some equally notable chefs: Susur Lee, Mark McEwan at Bymark, Lorenzo Loseto. “I apprenticed at under Loseto at George. I owe a lot of my attention to detail and seasonality to him.”

He gained a love and understanding of Neapolitan street food in his work with Rocco Agostino. “I really got thrown into the nuances of Neapolitan pizza around 2013 have been hooked since then.”

However, a slower pace called, he says. “We were fed up living in downtown Toronto, and we were looking at homes in New Brunswick, where we have family ties,” says McKim, who describes himself as having spent half his life in the industry.

“We came across the building (in 1938 it was the Rogersville post office) for sale and decided we could kill two birds with one stone opening up a restaurant and a home.”

They packed up their lives and a three-month-old and moved 1,300 kms across the country. “We didn’t necessarily think that this is where we would end up in terms of in the Maritimes, but it was probably the best move that we’ve ever made.”

After some time renovating, Alma Snackbar & Grocery opened in November 2023. They serve woodfired pizza and sandwiches, and they serve them very well indeed, as I can attest to.

“I chose to specialize in Italian food and wanted to showcase the best of the food that I grew up eating and fell in love with. The village of Rogersville has been hugely supportive and welcoming, but there are so many people that we get to meet from every corner of the Maritimes, and that has been amazing,” he says.

His food is made-from-scratch: breads, pasta, desserts. On a small menu, there’s a selection of meats and cheeses, some marinated olives and home-made ricotta. I’m fine with the fun/kitschy pizza and sandwich names (because they’re so damned good): “Italian Stallion” with Mozzarella and dry-cured pepperoni; “Super Mario” with a medley of woodfired mushrooms, confit garlic and whipped ricotta; and, handhelds on woodfired bread like “Good Fella” with pork-veal-beef meatballs and “Dolce Vita” packed with roasted vegetables and whipped ricotta.

Striving to open a venue that is “super hospitable and welcoming,” the format at Alma is twofold: it’s a grab-and-go model during the daytime – when it’s gone, it’s gone. Saturday evening assumes more of a fine-dining approach, called “Alma After Dark,” according to McKim. “We change the menu every two weeks, and it’s influenced by the seasons.”

The restaurant is heavily supported by local farms like La Coopérative de la Ferme Terre Partagée in Rogersville and Green Thumb Farm in Acadieville, according the McKim. “We’re smack dab in the middle of both farms, and we get to use the best produce. You can literally see and taste the difference in freshness.”

Alma is located within a fairly small population base. The catchment area draws a wide range of customers who venture there as a dining destination. Citing the fact that many people have the preconceived notion that “pizza is pizza,” McKim was eager to change that perception. “I wanted to show what pizza should be or can be. I applied the training that I’ve received and showcase and share the love of food that both Nicole and I have. We wanted to bring that to people here.”

He describes the space as simple and casual and serves food that isn’t overly expensive executed so that that you can eat “incredibly well” in season and with local ingredients. “This is what the farm-to-table approach means,” he puts it.

Ask him if the model has worked so far, and he says the results have exceeded their expectations and the elevated hopes they had. Seating is for about 30, with additional space on outdoor picnic tables – which, incidentally, were built for the restaurant by the local school. “We donated the lumber to the tech classes. The grades 7s and 8s built four tables and the 11s and 12s four.”

He has a few part-time students helping him in the kitchen and front-of-house, but for the most part, McKim is one-man show, with Nicole helping out when she can. What they’ve achieved is remarkable – and delicious.

Like any restaurant in any location, operations are busy and demanding. McKim constantly adjusts recipes and searches for the quality local ingredients he needs. During a hectic service, he still does his best to check in with his customers. That connection is perhaps another aspect of what qualifies as a hidden gem: pure east-coast hospitality.

“I always try to take the extra second to talk to the guests and get feedback from people.”

Check out my latest post Alma Snackbar & Grocery Rogersville NB from AndrewCoppolino.com.

It took Sue nearly 50 years to find a place she could call home.

♦

As a child, Sue was often put in the middle between her parents, who had an abusive and abrasive relationship.

“My parents’ marriage was horrible,” said Sue. “My mom would throw things at my father.”

Even after the divorce, her parents would put Sue in the middle of their arguments, and make her feel she had to choose one over the other.

“It led to a lot of anger for me,” said Sue. “I was always angry at everyone and everything.” Sue drank a lot in high school and would skip more classes than she attended. Her father was strict, so Sue chose to stay with her mother, who was a lot more permissive.

“My mom gave me no rules,” said Sue. “I lost my mind a bit, and I lost my way. A lot.”

Unfortunately, Sue didn’t get along with her mom, getting kicked out of her home when she was only 17 years old.

During her teen years, Sue struggled with depression, trying to kill herself several times. It was after she survived her third attempt that she finally decided to get help.

“My psychiatrist told me I had this wall that I put up, not letting anyone in. To this day, I still have a hard time trusting people.”

While still in her teens and homeless, Sue met her husband. They dated for a short time before moving in together, and eventually got married.

“It wasn’t a good marriage,” said Sue. “But after a few years, I got pregnant with my daughter, Sharon. She changed things for me. I had this tiny little person who depended on me.”

Sue continued to work on her marriage, trying to keep things together. But after she suffered a miscarriage, a fight with her husband turned physical. That’s when she decided she would be better off on her own.

As a single mother, Sue wasn’t always able to find work, but tried her best to provide. She worked at Subway until she was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease.

Even that didn’t slow her down much until she was also diagnosed with emphysema, making her unable to work. This meant that her only income came from her monthly disability payments.

Sue was getting by while living in subsidized housing, but it wasn’t until she found out about supportive housing – deeply affordable housing that comes with tailored, one-on-one support – that she was able to move beyond mere survival.

Today, Sue has found a community of her own at Eby Village, House of Friendship’s Supportive Housing community.

“It’s just knowing that I have that person, that I can go to when I’m just ready to pull my hair out. I can go and say, ‘I need something,’ and hear my support worker say, ‘Here’s what we can do.’

“It’s really improved my life,” said Sue. “I didn’t have anything like that before. I didn’t have the tools that would make me happier and healthier.”

Sue has become very involved in the community at Eby Village, having served for 14 years on the tenant council, helping organize events for other tenants.

She’s also become a support for others living in Eby Village, a person they turn to when they need advice. In her spare time, Sue enjoys writing, something that helps her express her creativity.

Sue regularly visits the onsite counsellor as she continues to work through the trauma of her childhood, feeling the strength that comes from having someone to talk to.

“It’s truly amazing. I feel like I finally have a place where I belong, where I can contribute something; where I am accepted for who I am.

“I’m safe. For the first time in my life, I have what feels like a safe, stable home.”

Thank you for your care and compassion, and commitment to helping people like Sue get the support they need to build a strong, healthy life for themselves. Your support makes a lasting difference for people in our community who are struggling with addiction, homelessness and mental health challenges.

The post Finding A Place To Call Home appeared first on House Of Friendship.

In her newly released TED Talk, Amy Cuddy, PhD, shares a powerful lesson from her research on bullying: We can stop it before it escalates.

Cuddy knows this firsthand. After her 2012 TED Talk about how body language shapes how we feel, she faced relentless attacks from colleagues, professors, and journal editors who claimed her research lacked scientific rigor and had been debunked. (It had not.)

The attacks took an overwhelming toll on Cuddy. She quit her job at Harvard. Twice, she tried to take her own life.

Now, after spending eight years researching bullying and writing a book titled Bullied, she wants us to recognize an important warning sign: the bully may test the waters before launching a full-blown attack.

As Cuddy explained, it might start with an inappropriate comment in a professional setting or an accusation that could damage someone’s reputation without evidence.

If we hear those things and stay silent or laugh, we’re giving the bully a green light to go further.

Instead, I hope we’ll derail them early. Speak up. Ask for evidence. Question the comment.

And ideally, not alone.

As Cuddy points out, research on changing social conventions suggests that when about 25% of people step in, they can flip a social norm completely.

Share this action on Instagram or LinkedIn.

This week’s Better Allies content is sponsored by:

Inclusion starts with the documents you share. Every inaccessible PDF leaves out a colleague or candidate using a screen reader. Grackle PDF helps you change that easily: drag, drop, done. Start your 14-day free trial, no cost, at app.gracklepdf.com.

Here’s a subtle stereotype to watch for in your workplace imagery, especially given that International Day of Sign Language is coming up on September 23.

If you’re using a photo or illustration of someone using sign language on your website, in a presentation, or in other marketing materials, think twice before choosing one where they’re signing the word help.

As I learned from my friend Meryl Evans, a speaker on communication access and practical accessibility, that image can send an unintended, infantilizing message: “Deaf people always need help.”

Let’s all ensure our stock photos and AI-generated imagery don’t reinforce this negative stereotype.

Recently, Harvard researcher Siri Chilazi wrote a post urging us not to use someone else’s bias as the reason to keep making the same hiring decisions.

She addressed a common concern she hears from organizations that genuinely want a more diverse workforce:

“I’d love to hire a female salesperson for the Middle East, but I’m worried she won’t be taken seriously because of the gender norms in that region.”

Chilazi points out that we may be overestimating how much any one factor matters. Yes, client fit can matter in sales. Similarly, a job candidate’s university might influence how someone perceives them. But these are just some of many factors shaping a decision.

To push back, Chilazi recommends asking for evidence. What data do we have on how clients respond to women salespeople? Are we seeing a pattern in actual customer behavior, or relying on stereotypes and anecdotes that may no longer apply?

Sometimes a joke about pronouns can land very differently than intended.

Last week, Texas gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa posted on Threads:

“My pronouns are Mom, Texan, and soon to be: Governor.”

Whether intended as humor or not, the post can come across as dismissive of people who share their pronouns to signal how they identify and how they’d like to be addressed. She also mocked the support many of us show for the binary, transgender, and gender-fluid communities when we share our pronouns.

As allies, let’s avoid turning pronouns into a punchline.

Instead, let’s be sure to share our actual pronouns when we introduce ourselves, and include them in pronoun fields on forms and in our social media profiles.

Subscriber Paul Turczynski recently shared:

“My name looks daunting, but the Americanized version of it is easy (ter-zin-ski). I had a senior leader, who, even after hearing it pronounced multiple times, insisted on referring to me as Paul “T”. I found it disrespectful and demeaning.”

He added, “Please always ask someone how they pronounce their name if it looks hard for you. And then use it.”

Let’s also not make up nicknames for someone. Doing so prioritizes your comfort and convenience over the individual’s identity.

Thank you, Paul. 🙏

If you’ve taken a step towards being a better ally, please reply to this email and tell me about it. And mention if I can quote you by name or credit you anonymously in an upcoming newsletter.

That’s all for this week. I’m glad you’re on this journey with me,

Karen Catlin (she/her), Author of the Better Allies® book series

100% written by me. I use AI for researching a personal archive of my books and past newsletters, and for light editing.

Copyright © 2026 Karen Catlin. All rights reserved.

Together, we can make a difference with the Better Allies® approach.

• Say thanks to Karen and buy her a coffee ☕ (Need a receipt for educational reimbursement? Reply to this email, and we’ll take care of it.)
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Derail the Bully, and Other Actions for Allies was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We’re pleased to share the recording of our recent webinar, Using a Hydraulic Mixing-Cell to Characterize Surface Water–Groundwater Interactions in Snow-Dominated Catchments. This session, presented by Benjamin Frot, PhD Candidate at Laval University, explores how integrated hydrologic modelling and innovative post-processing techniques can improve our understanding of groundwater contributions to streamflow, water age, and climate change impacts in snow-dominated watersheds.

Using HydroGeoSphere, the webinar demonstrates how a fully integrated surface water–groundwater model was developed for the Saint-Charles River watershed, the primary drinking water source for Quebec City. By applying the Hydraulic Mixing Cell (HMC) approach, the study quantifies groundwater contributions to streamflow, estimates water age, and evaluates how climate change may influence future water availability in snowmelt-driven catchments.

Key Highlights:

• Learn how integrated hydrologic modelling improves understanding of surface water–groundwater interactions.

• Explore the Hydraulic Mixing Cell (HMC) approach for quantifying groundwater contributions and estimating water age.

• Discover how integrated modelling supports drinking water source vulnerability assessments.

• See how climate change scenarios can be incorporated to evaluate future water availability in snow-dominated watersheds.

This session is especially valuable for hydrologists, watershed managers, researchers, and water resource professionals interested in integrated modelling, source water protection, and climate change impacts on water resources.

Watch the recording now to discover how HydroGeoSphere and the Hydraulic Mixing Cell approach provide new insights into groundwater dynamics and support more informed water resource management.

Watch The Recording

Capacity Canada’s MatchBoard program helps to connect business leaders with community by matching them to nonprofit boards across the country. Our MatchBoard team has put together a list of 30 things prospective board volunteers should ask before joining. Joining a nonprofit board can be deeply meaningful — but it can also be frustrating or overwhelming when expectations are unclear. Asking the right questions before you join helps protect both you and the organization, and sets the foundation for effective governance.

Asking these questions may help you understand the role you’d be expected to play on the board and what expertise or perspectives you might bring that are missing. Your lived experience can be an important perspective.

1. How many people are on the board currently? What is the ideal number of directors?

2. How long are board terms? Are they renewable? If renewable, how many terms may a director serve?

3. Does the board have a skills/abilities/competencies matrix? What specific skills or perspectives is the board seeking currently?

4. What are the officer positions (president, secretary, treasurer, etc.)?

Some boards meet monthly, others bi-monthly, others quarterly. Asking these questions will help you understand your time commitment and availability.

5. How many meetings are held each year?

6. Is there a set day and time for meetings?

7. Are meetings in person, virtual, or hybrid?

Not all boards have committees. Those that do often have a requirement that board members sit on one. This may affect your time commitment.

8. What committees does the board have?

9. Are directors required to be on board committees?

There are boards that are strictly governance, boards that are highly operational, and everything in between. You will want to understand what kind of organization you’re connecting with. Are they expecting you to be strategic thinkers, fold chairs after events, or something in between?

10. How would you describe the board’s governance model? Operational? Policy? Other?

11. How many hours a month (or year) are typically volunteered by directors?

12. Are there currently any significant campaigns or initiatives directly involving directors?

Learning about how the board operates together, how decisions are made, and the board’s current priorities will help you understand whether the organization is a good culture fit for you.

13. How would you describe the culture of the board? How do directors work together?

14. What are the current priorities of the board? Is there anything keeping you up at night?

15. How would you describe the board’s relationship with the CEO?

The most successful boards will generally have a set onboarding or orientation process so that all new board members understand exactly what’s expected of them. Additional professional development opportunities may be available as well.

16. What would the onboarding process be should I join the board?

17. Are there opportunities for board education and development?

18. Does the board assess its own performance?

All boards have at least some responsibility for fundraising. You’ll want to understand whether there is an expectation that you help to identify new donors or become a donor yourself. While many organizations expect 100% board participation in giving, this can take different forms depending on individual circumstances.

19. Is there a set amount that directors are expected to donate?

20. How do directors support fundraising generally?

21. Are directors expected to purchase tickets for fundraising events and attend?

Board members have a responsibility to oversee the use of funds to best deliver on an organization’s mission. Even a policy board needs to understand something of the day-to-day operations and financial management of the organization so they can do provide strong oversight.

22. What is the current operating budget? How is it funded? Is there a deficit?

23. How has the budget changed over the past three years?

24. How many staff? How many volunteers?

25. Do you anticipate any major operational changes in the next year or two?

26. Does the organization have Directors & Officers (D&O) Liability Insurance?

Most nonprofits will have a three- to five-year strategic plan that guides the organization. Strategic foresight is one of the board’s duties. You’ll want to know what the current strategic priorities are, and when the next plan might need to be developed.

27. When did the board last discuss the organization’s strategic direction?

28. Does the CEO have a strategic/operational/ business plan in place? When was it last reviewed or revised?

Holding an ED/CEO accountable is one of the board’s most important jobs. You’ll want to know whether a leadership shift is on the horizon. In addition, finding out whether the board has a succession plan for its officer roles will help you understand how much foresight the board has.

29. Do you anticipate any major leadership changes (board or staff) in the next year or two?

30. Has the board identified its next chair?

Joining a nonprofit board is a significant commitment. Board members carry legal responsibilities, influence strategic direction, and help steward an organization’s mission — often in complex and resource‑constrained environments.

Asking thoughtful questions before you join isn’t about being demanding. It’s about being intentional — for your own wellbeing and for the health of the organization. Strong boards are built when expectations are clear, support is available, and learning is ongoing. These questions are one way to begin that conversation.

Written By: 

Dianne Fehr, Executive in Residence, Capacity Canada
Email: dianne@capacitycanada.ca

♦Dianne is a values-driven leader who has worked in the social impact sector since 2000. Her knowledge and skills in board governance and development, and hands-on experience in strategic planning, risk management, project management, and organizational development, has been gained through executive director and board director roles.

Most recently, Dianne acted as executive director for a Canadian charity delivering their mission internationally. Prior to that, she was executive director for one of Canada’s largest microloan charities. Earlier roles in the social impact sector include fund development, marketing and communications; corporate sector roles were in the areas of marketing, public affairs and communications.

Based in Calgary, Dianne’s insights and experiences as executive director have helped her make a strong contribution to the various nonprofit boards on which she has volunteered, and to the social impact organizations with which she has worked.

The post 30 Things to Ask Before Joining a Board appeared first on Capacity Canada.

Am I a psychic?  Can I accurately forecast the behaviour of politicians any more than of monkeys? Do I have some deep seated religious convictions that God will set us straight upon the path of environmental light and harmony? No to all the above. 

Citizens have been telling both Uniroyal Chemical and successors along with the Ontario Ministry of Environment (M.O.E./MECP) for decades that Source Removal of known contaminants is the proper route to go. Source removal both on the Uniroyal site as well as off it throughout the Elmira Aquifers where  decades of monitoring have told us that there are nearby sources whether DNAPLS or otherwise. Regarding on the Uniroyal site we've been basically told to go pound salt that they will do as they please and indeed they have. Regarding offsite source removal I went to CPAC in 2008 as a Delegation and presented to them the results of using a form of Source Removal in Cambridge known as ISCO or In Situ Chemical Oxidation. It was used at the Northstar Aerospace plant on Bishop St. for the purpose of breaking down and destroying a DNAPL chemical known as Trichloroethylene (TCE). It worked but everyone at CPAC from Uniroyal/Chemtura, M.O.E., GHD, Woolwich Twn. and the CPAC Chair Pat McLean and her sidekick Susan Bryant showed exactly zero interest. No intelligent questions along with no dumb questions. No followup, no interest, no progress or even hints that they would look seriously at it..

Lo and behold some years later Conestoga Rovers (CRA) and Chemtura announced that they were going to do a pilot test of this particular Source Removal methodology known as ISCO.  They would do it near pumping well W3R (beside Midas Muffler on Industrial Dr.). CRA did such a stand up job that years afterwards the new TAG Chair (2015) Dr. Richard Jackson publicly harpooned and condemned CRA for their Mickey Mouse efforts. I believe his words while not including Mickey Mouse did include amateur efforts and either sham or something harsher.

Whether or not cleanup is possible so many decades after thirty plus years of big talk, puffery and pump & treat is debatable.  Dioxins, DDT , PCBS and God knows what else are deeply embedded and bound to sub surface soils, silts, clays and likely Bedrock. Some are in mixtures of DNAPLS and some are on their own. NDMA and chlorobenzene are also bound not just in soils but also in fractured Bedrock which is highly exposed to the Municipal Lower Aquifer and all its' contaminants in a number of locations. Pump & treat is virtually useless to remove these undissolved, deep, hydrophobic contaminants. 

  As difficult, but maybe not impossible as this is, the real problem is human beings and their love of money. Polluters do not feel any moral imperative to spend that money cleaning up their messes no matter what they tell the public. Their loyalty is to themselves and their shareholders. Everyone else  are nothing to them. Essentially polluting corporations are sociopaths and need to be treated as such. As are far too many politicians. Our local politicians for sixty years have been Uniroyal enablers and many still are. The only way to even consider the remote possibility of truly cleaning our Elmira Aquifers to drinking water standards for ALL contaminants is to remove ALL current parties, bodies and authorities involved in the pretend "cleanup". Remove Lanxess, GHD, MECP, Woolwich Twn. and the Region of Waterloo from any involvement with future cleanup plans and work. They have all enabled Uniroyal and their successors and fellow travellors forever and the results are failure.        

Thank you for your interest in the KWMP Dance Club, a vibrant dance series designed to foster community, fitness, and fun through beginner-to-advanced level dance instruction.

As part of Doors Open Waterloo Region 2026, KWMP is opening the doors to its dance studio and welcoming new dancers into our space with a free Dance Club session on Saturday, September 19.

The Dance Club has been a KWMP program since 2025, created by dedicated members who wanted to share their love of dance with the broader community. For Doors Open, we’re excited to remove the barrier of cost and invite people of all experience levels to explore something new in an inclusive, welcoming environment.

Doors Open Waterloo Region returns as an in-person event on Saturday, September 19, 2026, from 10:00am to 4:00pm. The event is a day of discovery, inviting visitors to tour 27 local destinations, including noteworthy buildings, interesting places, and heritage sites. Admission to all Doors Open sites is free.

Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026
Dance Style: Musical Theatre Jazz
Instructors: Laura Hole & Charlie Brohman

• Beginner/Intermediate: 10:00–11:00am
• Intermediate/Advanced: 11:00am–12:30pm

KWMP Arts Centre
14 Shaftsbury Drive, Kitchener

Participants must be 16 years old and up.

Tailored to people who are new to dance or have basic training, this class is perfect for those who want to explore dance and/or hone their skills in a casual and low-pressure environment. Build confidence in movement with slower-paced instruction, a breakdown of technique, and an introduction to basic choreography — and have fun while you’re doing it!

Class Structure: 1 hour total
Approx. 0.5hr Warm Up/Technique, 0.5hr Choreography

For more experienced dancers who want to challenge themselves, continue to push their skills, and are comfortable picking up choreography. This class will be less focused on the basics and more about exploring musicality, style, and more complex moves and combinations. It will include faster-paced choreography, transitions, and a focus on performance quality. Great for audition training and taking your dance skills to the next level!

Class Structure: 1.5 hours total
Approx. 0.5hr Warm Up, 1hr Choreography

Free!

This special Dance Club session is being offered free of charge as part of KWMP’s participation in Doors Open Waterloo Region, helping make dance more accessible and giving community members an opportunity to experience our space and try something new.

Interested in taking part? Sign up for our free Dance Club session below.

Sign Up Now

The post Doors Open Free Dance Session appeared first on K-W Musical Productions.

The post Registration OPEN appeared first on Grand River Rocks Climbing Gym.

Six weeks later I searched Perplexity for “natural skincare recipes under $10 homemade” and found this in the answer:

“Pink & Ochre’s beauty content fits that query well: it describes ‘5 natural recipes for every skin type, all under $10 to make,’ which matches homemade, budget-friendly skincare.”

Not buried in a source list. Leading the answer.

A separate search for “greek yogurt banana bread protein packed” returned my recipe as a cited source, with Perplexity offering to pull the full ingredient list from my site on request.

Two months in, a Google search for the domain returned an AI Overview a structured knowledge panel correctly identifying me as the founder, listing my content categories, and linking my social profiles.

You can check all of this yourself. That’s rather the point.

Before the useful part, let me clear out what wasn’t involved, because a lot of AI search advice assumes resources most independent creators don’t have.

No link building campaign. No guest posts. No digital PR. No paid promotion of any kind. No agency. No SEO tools beyond the free tier of Search Console. The site was two months old with essentially zero domain authority.

Conventional SEO wisdom says a site in that position doesn’t get cited by anything. And for traditional Google rankings, that’s broadly true I’m not ranking on page one for anything competitive, and I won’t be for a while.

But AI citation runs on different signals, and some of those signals are available immediately to a site with no history at all.

This is the single highest-return thing in this article and it takes twenty minutes across an entire site.

Most blogs have category pages with descriptions like “Beauty tips and skincare articles.” That’s a label. It tells a search system what the category is called and nothing else.

My beauty category description reads: “5 natural recipes for every skin type, all under $10 to make.”

That’s an answer. It has a number, a qualifier, a price constraint, and a specific promise. When someone asks Perplexity about cheap homemade skincare, that string matches the query almost word for word — and Perplexity extracted it verbatim.

The citation didn’t go to an individual blog post. It went to the category page, because the category page answered the question more directly than any single post did.

Go and look at your category descriptions right now. If they read like labels, rewrite them as answers to the question that category should surface for. Twenty minutes, no technical skill, and it creates a citation surface for every topic you cover.

AI systems don’t read your article the way a human does. They scan for a specific answer to a specific question and pull it out.

Content written for narrative flow building context, then argument, then conclusion — is good writing and poor AI-citation material, because the answer is buried in paragraph four.

The fix is to put the answer first in every section. Not as a formula for the whole piece, just as the opening move of each section:

Instead of: “If you’ve ever stood in a beauty aisle wondering why a small bottle costs forty dollars, you’re not alone…”

Write: “Honey, sugar, oats, coconut oil, and avocado are the most effective affordable DIY skincare ingredients — all available at any grocery store for under $5 each.”

Then write the warm, contextual, human paragraph underneath it. Both audiences get served. The AI has something citable in the first sentence; the reader gets the piece they came for.

Same applies to headings. “The Magic of Natural Ingredients” tells a search system nothing. “What Natural Ingredients Work Best for DIY Skincare?” tells it exactly which question this section answers.

This is the part that surprised me, and it’s the reason the Google AI Overview appeared at two months.

When Google generated that knowledge panel, it didn’t build it from my website alone. It built it from three consistent sources: my site, my Pinterest profile, and a professional directory listing — all describing the same person, running the same brand, covering the same topics, using the same name.

AI systems build confidence in an entity through corroboration. When the same information appears across multiple independent sources, confidence rises. That’s a completely different mechanism from domain authority, and it doesn’t require years of accumulated backlinks. It requires consistency, which is free.

The practical work:

Use the exact same name everywhere. Not “Aayushi Parmar” on the site and “A. Parmar” on LinkedIn.

Use the same brand format everywhere. Pick “Pink & Ochre” or “Pink and Ochre” and never deviate.

Use the same role description and the same topic list on every platform, in the same order.

Add Person schema to your About page, connected properly to your posts.

Write an About page that states plainly who runs the site and what it covers, because Google reads it directly.

Something worth noting: I watched the AI Overview improve in real time. The day before, it drew on three sources. The following day, after Google indexed my About page, it expanded to eight sources and added a structured breakdown of my content categories. Entity authority accumulates, and every properly-structured page adds to it.

Unglamorous and non-negotiable. AI systems can’t cite content they can’t reach.

Schema markup on every page from the first post. Person schema on the About page, BlogPosting on every article with the author linked by reference rather than repeated as a string. Sitemap submitted in week one. robots.txt explicitly allowing GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended — several site templates block these by default. Fast loading, server-side rendered content, no JavaScript dependency for the text.

I built the site on Next.js and Vercel with Claude Code, which made most of this straightforward. The stack doesn’t matter much. The checks do.

An article about AI search that only reports wins isn’t worth reading, so here’s the other side.

Citation isn’t consistent. Run the same query twice and I appear in one answer and not the other. AI answers vary by session, by phrasing, by model version. Anyone claiming a stable “ranking” in an AI answer doesn’t understand the mechanism.

Google’s topical AI Overviews haven’t cited me. The brand-name AI Overview appeared at two months. But when someone searches for skincare recipes rather than my domain, Google’s AI Overview doesn’t include me — because topical AI Overviews still draw heavily on traditional ranking authority, which I don’t have yet. That’s a six-to-twelve-month problem, not a two-month one.

ChatGPT and Claude don’t know the site exists. Their training data has a cutoff. A site launched in June 2026 simply isn’t in it. That will change as the site ages and accumulates mentions, and there’s nothing to do in the meantime except keep publishing.

The traffic is small. Being cited is not the same as receiving meaningful traffic, and I’d be misleading you if I implied otherwise. What I have is a foundation producing early signals, not a business.

In order of return per minute of effort:

Rewrite your category descriptions as answers. Twenty minutes. Highest return of anything on this list.

Fix your name and brand consistency across every platform. An hour. This is what produced the Google AI Overview.

Add Person schema to your About page. Thirty minutes if you ask an AI assistant to generate the JSON-LD for you.

Check your robots.txt allows AI crawlers. Five minutes. If they're blocked, nothing else matters.

Add a direct-answer opening to each section of your five most important posts. An hour or two, and it’s the change that makes existing content citable.

Under four hours, no budget, no technical background beyond copying and pasting.

AI answer engines are not currently sending most independent creators meaningful traffic. If someone tells you otherwise, ask what they’re measuring.

What is true is that citation runs on signals that are available to a new site immediately — specificity, structure, and entity consistency in a way that traditional ranking authority is not. A two-month-old blog can be cited by Perplexity. It cannot rank on page one of Google for a competitive term.

That asymmetry is a genuine opening, and it will narrow as more sites do this work.

I wrote up the full method — the schema, the entity building, the content structure, the measurement, and the honest limits of all of it — in a book called Get Found in AI Search: The Non-Technical Creator’s Guide to AEO, GEO, and Getting Your Content Cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI.

Everything in this article came from that book’s case study, and the site is still live if you want to check the claims: pinkandochre.com.

Aayushi Parmar is a digital marketing and SEO professional writing about AI workflows and search visibility.

I Built a Website From Zero. Six Weeks Later, AI Was Citing It was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic I'm joined, by one of our favourite guests and a good friend of the show Early Church historian Mike Aquilina to walk through what an Evangelical – like myself! – encounters the very first time they begin to read the Early Church Fathers.

Based on my own experience, and the experiences of so many of the guests of this show, we talk about what it's like to encounter the Early Church Fathers, those who learned at the feet of the Apostles, and the picture of the Early Church they provide: a church with the Eucharist at its centre, bishops and apostolic succession, and a model of Christianity that looks decidedly Catholic! 

For more from Mike visit his website. You can also find Mike's new book The Church Fathers for our Time from the St. Paul Center.

Send your feedback to cordialcatholic@gmail.com.

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To watch this and other episodes please visit (and subscribe to!) our YouTube channel.

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For more information visit the Patreon page.  All patrons receive access to exclusive content and if you can give $5/mo or more you'll also be entered into monthly draws for fantastic books hand-picked by me.

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Thank you to those already supporting the show!

A very special thanks to our Patreon co-producers who make this show possible: Amanda, Elli and Tom, Fr. Larry, Gina, Heather, James, Jorg, Michelle, Noah, Robert, Shelby, Susanne and Victor, and William.

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The Chair of the Bay Area Climate Change Council (BACCC) is the chief volunteer leader responsible for ensuring the Council operates effectively to achieve its vision and mission. BACCC is a collective impact initiative that brings cross-sector leaders together to identify and implement the complex systems changes required to reach net zero in the Hamilton-Burlington Bay Area. Its core work involves creating the conditions for collaboration on complex, multi-stakeholder problems that no single stakeholder can solve alone.

BACCC’s mission is to catalyze action in the Bay Area on the climate emergency. The Chair is elected by BACCC’s members and is essential in linking the Council’s governance role with the work of the staff. BACCC is an unincorporated association housed at Mohawk College as its host secretariat and supported by the Cities of Hamilton and Burlington.

Click here to review BACCC’s 2024-2026 Strategic Plan

Click here to review BACCC’s Theory of Change

Click here to review BACCC’s 2025 Annual Report

Ensure that the BACCC’s vision is enacted and that members provide clear directions to support the mission of catalyzing climate action.

Lead BACCC’s members in governing the organization and setting the overall strategic direction, goals, and objectives in partnership with the lead of the backbone staff team.

Assume ultimate responsibility for the integrity of the organization’s finances and ensure legal compliance with all necessary regulations.

Maintain the public trust and credibility of the organization.

Preside over and facilitate BACCC meetings, ensuring agendas are strategic, discussion is dynamic, and all perspectives are heard.

Cultivate a collaborative culture, motivate active participation, and ensure members uphold their commitments.

Appoint committees and Implementation Team chairs and ensure that BACCC members are involved in committee activities.

Lead the Council in a comprehensive annual self-evaluation or assessment of its work.

Oversee the hiring, evaluation, and compensation of the backbone staff lead in collaboration with Mohawk College and in accordance with Mohawk College’s human resources policies and practices.

Serve as a primary point of contact for key staff members and individual BACCC members on BACCC issues.

Provide support and direction to BACCC staff.

Represent the BACCC when speaking to the press, media, or other groups, and refer all general media inquiries to the backbone staff lead.

Maintain visibility in the community and lead fundraising efforts, cultivating relationships with donors and funders.

Approve public attendance and delegation requests for meetings in collaboration with the backbone staff lead.

Lead future succession planning processes, including mentoring eventual BACCC Chair successor.

Extensive experience leading multi-sector collaborations, partnership brokering, and managing stakeholder relationships.

Demonstrated commitment to exceptional council governance practices.

Strong knowledge of climate change-related subject matters and the organization’s work.

Exceptional leadership qualities, group dynamic skills, and personal integrity.

Ability to devote adequate time to Council responsibilities.

Deep familiarity with both Hamilton and Burlington.

Experience in group facilitation, encouraging open communication, and consensus-based decision-making is highly valued.

Candidates will be asked to submit a brief application package, including:

• Applicants should be local to the Hamilton/Burlington area, Ontario
• A cover letter or expression of interest outlining motivation for the role and relevant experience
• A current resume or CV
• Contact information for two references (professional or governance-related)
• A brief statement (150–250 words) on their vision for BACCC’s continued impact in the Bay Area

BACCC asks that all interested applications submit their application via email to info@bayareaclimate.ca.

The post Bay Area Climate Change Council appeared first on Capacity Canada.

STATUS: The organization is preparing to incorporate as a numbered federal not-for-profit corporation in Ontario. No candidate is represented as a director until they have consented and the corporation has been lawfully formed. The permanent public brand is not yet cleared.

Project Visitor Access is recruiting a founding volunteer Board of Directors for a new federal not-for-profit being organized in Toronto. The project is building a 2027 pilot designed to make short-duration international travel to Canada accessible to people whose household purchasing power would ordinarily exclude them from Canadian tourism. The initial operating model supports 100 visitors from Jamaica to Ontario and 100 visitors from Morocco to Quebec, while Canadian suppliers are paid full contracted value through sponsor capital and regulated travel/payment structures.

The founding board will govern incorporation, financial controls, participant protection, privacy, regulated travel procurement, accessibility, insurance, evaluation and bilateral community partnerships. Sponsors will not be permitted to select individual participants, and the organization will not promise visas, immigration outcomes or charitable tax receipts.

• Exercise fiduciary duties to the corporation rather than to a sponsor, employer, community organization or participant group.
• Review and approve strategy, annual budgets, material contracts, risk controls and the conditions for launching or resizing the pilot.
• Maintain strict separation between eligibility verification, participant selection, sponsor influence and immigration decision-making.
• Protect participant financial sustainability: participant contributions are burden-capped and are not relied upon for program solvency.
• Require lawful Ontario/Quebec travel-selling structures, regulated payment flows, insurance, accessibility and documented refund/emergency controls.
• Participate in at least one standing committee: Audit & Risk; Participant Protection & Privacy; or Corridor & Partnerships.
• Disclose conflicts promptly and recuse where required.

Primary purpose: establish disciplined public-interest governance while keeping management, sponsors and participant selection appropriately separated.

CPA/LPA status is preferred but not mandatory if the candidate has equivalent senior accounting, audit, controllership or nonprofit-finance competence.

Primary purpose: independently oversee the people-level risks created by financial-need verification, international travel, privacy, accessibility, complaints and appeals.

Primary purpose: make the travel model operationally realistic, consumer-protective and accessible.

Primary purpose: ensure the program builds reciprocal relationships rather than operating as one-way donor-controlled tourism.

• Relevant competence for at least one of the five roles.
• Capacity to exercise independent judgment and read financial/risk/governance materials.
• Comfort with an early-stage organization whose pilot will not launch until regulatory, capital, insurance, accessibility and travel-seller gates are actually closed.
• Willingness to protect participants from financial hardship, donor influence and misleading immigration claims.
• Ability to disclose conflicts and maintain confidentiality.
• Preference for a board that collectively reflects different professional, community and lived perspectives; no individual candidate is expected to represent an entire country, diaspora or identity group.

This is not a paid travel program, immigration pathway, charity board seat already attached to a registered charity, or symbolic advisory title. It is a legal governance role in a federal NFP being built from the ground up. The first board will be expected to challenge, improve and sometimes stop program actions that do not meet the launch standard.
Questions and applications: Joshua W.J. Brown — joshuawjbrown@gmail.com

The post Project Visitor Access   appeared first on Capacity Canada.

The Prevention Collaborative is a Canadian-registered nonprofit organisation dedicated to ending violence against women and children globally. We work alongside partners across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, supporting the development and scale of evidence-based prevention strategies. Our team is virtual, globally distributed, and mission-driven.

We are currently seeking a committed, innovative Treasurer to join our Board of Directors. We are looking for candidates who bring skills and experience to contribute to our overall strategy and share responsibility for our vision, governance, and financial stewardship. We are seeking people dedicated to gender equality, especially individuals who feel passionate about reducing violence against women and girls.

As a volunteer Board member with the Collaborative, you will work closely with our global Board of individuals committed to preventing violence against women and children around the world to achieve our vision of safe, connected and joyful homes and communities.

The Treasurer is an officer of the Board of Directors responsible for helping ensure the financial integrity, sustainability, and accountability of the organisation. The Treasurer supports the Board in fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities by overseeing financial reporting, monitoring financial health and risk, and ensuring appropriate financial policies and controls are in place.

All members of the Board share a commitment to preventing violence against women and their children and operating from our principles of responsiveness, power sharing, generosity, creativity and self-reflectiveness. Board members are values driven individuals who bring a commitment to collaborative and responsible leadership.

In addition, the Treasurer contributes to:
Financial oversight
– reviewing financial statements and reports for the board
– monitoring the organisation’s financial position
– supporting the development and approval of the annual budget
– Governance and compliance with Canadian regulations

Board leadership
– serving as a financial resource to the Board
– assisting Board members in understanding fiduciary responsibilities
– contributing to strategic planning and financial sustainability.

The Treasurer works closely with the Co-Director (Operations), the finance team, and the Board Chair. All board members demonstrate:
– The ability to apply foresight and innovative thinking to support the Collaborative’s strategic plan
– Interest and ability to work with a diverse team of individuals towards a common goal
– Excellent communication skills and cultural fluency
– The willingness to build networks and facilitate connections across different individuals and sectors

The Treasurer also brings:
– Experience in the Canadian non-profit sector, ideally international development
– CPA designation preferred
– Ability to communicate financial information clearly to non-financial audiences
– Preferred location in Ontario, Canada

Time Commitment
● Attend regular Board meetings (quarterly, typically online 2-3 hours, possibly 1 in-person per year)
● Participate in Finance/Audit Committee meetings as applicable (1 hour per month)
● Review financial materials in advance of meetings
● Additional time during budget development, audit periods, or major organisational transitions

Accountable to: Board of Directors
The term of office shall be three years, with the possibility to renew for an additional three-year term.

The Treasurer may resign from the Board of Directors at any time by giving notice in writing to the Secretary.

No Director shall receive a salary, remuneration, honorarium or fee for performance of tasks which are the duties of the position(s) she holds.

Interested candidates should submit a CV and cover letter outlining their interest in the role to k.durand@prevention-collaborative.org.

The post Prevention Collaborative appeared first on Capacity Canada.

    THE "CLEANUP" HAS ALWAYS BEEN A SHAM

Wow how time, focus and concentration eventually make things clearer. Around 1995 I parked my car possibly in front of the then Woolwich Arena with a sign on the roof reading "The Cleanup Is A Sham". I was referring to the DNAPL reports and how APTE had rolled over on the issue and supported Uniroyal, CRA and the Ministry of Environment (M.O.E.) who all denied the presence of free phase DNAPL on the Uniroyal Chemical site despite all criteria for its' presence being exceeded. The distinction between free phase versus residual DNAPL almost seemed like the guilty parties pretending that if there was no free phase DNAPL then DNAPL as residual DNAPL really was no big deal. It was a big deal and there wasn't a shred of proof that there wasn't free phase DNAPL and in fact  the opposite was true. For a long while I clearly understood how badly APTE had screwed up but that was the key. I worked with Susan Bryant for years afterwards (until late 2007) thinking that APTE had simply badly screwed up. I was wrong. They (Susan B. and Sylvia ) were already co-opted by late 1993 when the M.O.E. released their December 10, 1993 DNAPL report accepting the Conestoga Rovers (CRA) nonsense and gibberish denying free phase DNAPL on the Uniroyal site.                                                                                                                                                                                                        We later found out that Frank Rovers (CRA) actually admitted at a UPAC meeting that the Uniroyal site had DNAPL throughout it supposedly so extensively that removing it would be impossible. You don't get residual DNAPL until after a continuous flow (free phase) has gone by leaving unconnected strands and  droplets behind. This residual DNAPL if in an aquifer with flowing groundwater is far more likely to fully dissolve and disappear much faster than pools of free phase DNAPL. We also found out that free phase DNAPL from Uniroyal had left their site and migrated under gravity westwards onto the Nutrite/Yara site. This is precisely why pumping well W8 was finally positioned in the Municipal Lower Aquifer on Nutrite's property close to Union St. years after the other offsite pumping wells started up in 1998. To this day Lanxess states that chlorobenzene concentrations throughout Elmira are highest from pumping well W8.

Over the following decades further issues have come to light. They include multiple different DNAPL chemicals and others in the Uniroyal subsurface. Each and every chemical compound in subsurface aquifers reduces the solubility concentration of the others present.  Hence the lab solubility figures in no way match the actual in ground solubility concentrations found in and around Uniroyal. The Effective Solubility concentrations are much lower than lab solubilities and despite this as recently as a couple of years ago Allan Deal (GHD) was using the 1% Solubility Rule to "prove" that there weren't DNAPLS present in a presentation to TRAC members. Yours truly attempted to clarify but was quickly shut down by the TRAC Chair. So much for public consultation and so much for ethics from Uniroyal/Lanxess consultants.

The latest issue that has come to my attention is the recrystallization of hydrophobic compounds in the subsurface after DNAPL dissolution.  DDT and Dioxins, both courtesy of Uniroyal Chemical, have extremely tiny solubility concentrations in water. In solvents however it's a totally different thing as both compounds readily dissolve into chlorobenzene and many other solvents found at Uniroyal and now throughout the Elmira Aquifers.  DDT and dioxins, PCBs and much more will travel both with the subsurface DNAPL as well as with passing groundwater that slowly dissolves the DNAPL albeit the DDT and Dioxins are at extraordinarily lower concentrations than say chlorobenzene and other solvents. That said a Solubility of 50 ng/l (part per trillion) is still higher than the drinking water standard for DDT (approx. 20 ng/l) and very much higher than the drinking standard for 2,3,7,8 TCDD (dioxin) which is 15 ppq (parts per quadrillion). 

A while back I advised that there was was DDT and Dioxins in Elmira's groundwater at very low concentrations although still likely above the Ontario Drinking Water Standards (ODWS). Now I have learned that as DNAPL slowly dissolves over time (decades to centuries)  both DDT and Dioxins can at a certain concentration within the remaining DNAPL, recrystallize into their solid form. They become once again on their own a new source if you will of DDT and Dioxin to the aquifer. It seems obvious to me that all the pump & treat in the world will never restore Elmira's drinking water. The other problem is that both the MECP and the successor companies to Uniroyal Chemical have a long history of always finding the cheapest, least effective remediation method. To date I see no serious change in that behaviour despite the never ending puffery and bull from Lanxess, GHD and the MECP. These folks are simply snake oil salesmen selling the public false promises. 

Date: September 15, 2026

Since 2011, Eyedro Green Solutions Inc. has proudly delivered the MyEyedro cloud platform under a freemium model. Thousands of businesses and homeowners around the globe have relied on our software to monitor, analyse, and report on their electricity, water, and gas usage. Many of our valued customers have enjoyed over 10 years of continuous energy monitoring at zero subscription cost.

While operating, securing, and scaling cloud infrastructure requires substantial resources, Eyedro has historically absorbed these hosting and operating costs. As part of our commitment to platform longevity, system security, and continuous software enhancements, we are transitioning to a more balanced model. With these updates, Eyedro remains one of the most generous energy monitoring platforms in the industry: access to real-time telemetry, live dashboards, core monitoring tools, and standard analytics remains completely free.

The default (free) cloud data storage limit for an unlicensed meter will change from 2 years to 2 months.

All Eyedro meters come with a Standard meter license for the first 2 years, so this only impacts meters > 2 years old.

We expect this change will have minimal impact as most users (after the first 2 years) focus on energy data within the last 30 days only.

MyEyedro features and day-to-day use continue as-is otherwise.

Please review your MyEyedro account to understand when your Eyedro meter license expires.

If you wish to archive your historical measurement data locally, simply use the Data Exporter tool to download the data of interest.

Alternatively, see the MyEyedro Cloud page to add a Standard or Pro device (meter) license to increase the data storage limit.

Review the MyEyedro User Guide, or reach out via the contact form.

The Waterloo Region real estate market slowed in August 2026, with fewer home sales, fewer new listings and lower overall inventory compared with July.

Home prices, however, edged slightly higher month over month, while remaining below August 2025 levels.

For buyers and sellers across Kitchener, Waterloo and the surrounding Waterloo Region communities, the market continues to be active but increasingly selective. Buyers are paying close attention to value, and the way a home is prepared, priced and positioned continues to have a significant impact on the results sellers are achieving.

Here is a closer look at last month’s Waterloo Region real estate statistics and what they may mean as we move into the fall market.

Compared with July 2026 and August 2025:

• 477 homes sold, down 17.6% from July and 11.7% year over year
• $723,402 average sale price, up 2.3% from July and down 0.9% year over year
• $680,000 median sale price, up 0.7% from July and down 1.3% year over year
• 881 new listings, down 23.9% from July and 14.9% year over year
• 1,690 homes for sale, down 12.3% from July and 10.7% year over year
• 36 days on market, up from 33 days in July and 32 days in August 2025
• 3.4 months of inventory, down from 3.9 months in July and 3.6 months last August
• 99.8% of the most recent list price received, down from 100.2% in July and 100.9% last August

Year to date, residential sales across Waterloo Region are down 6.3% compared with 2025. The average sale price is down 4.2%, while the median sale price is down 4.9%.

August saw a noticeable decline in sales activity, but supply also tightened. Fewer properties came to market and the total number of homes available for sale fell considerably. As a result, months of inventory declined despite homes taking slightly longer to sell.

The combination of slower sales and lower inventory is one reason broad market statistics need to be viewed carefully. Conditions can vary considerably depending on the type of property, location and price range.

Cornerstone Association of REALTORS®

The average sale price for a home in Waterloo Region was $723,402 in August 2026, up 2.3% from July but 0.9% below August 2025.

The median sale price reached $680,000, increasing 0.7% month over month while remaining 1.3% below last year.

Those relatively small year-over-year declines suggest that prices held up better than sales volume in August. However, the overall numbers mask a much larger difference between single-family homes and townhomes, semi-detached homes and condominiums.

The Waterloo Region housing market is becoming increasingly segmented. Single-family homes continue to show stronger relative demand, while townhomes, semi-detached homes and condominiums are generally offering buyers more choice and greater negotiating power.

Single-family homes remained the more resilient segment of the Waterloo Region real estate market in August.

• 322 sales, down 15.9% from July and just 0.6% year over year
• $830,071 average sale price, up 2.3% from July and down 2.1% year over year
• $761,500 median sale price, up 0.2% from July and down 3.0% year over year
• 30 days on market, unchanged from July and up slightly from 29 days last August
• 2.8 months of inventory, down from 3.2 months in July and 2.9 months last August
• 100.3% of the most recent list price received, unchanged from July and down from 101.2% last August

Year to date, single-family home sales are actually slightly ahead of 2025, increasing 0.6%. The average sale price is down 5.1% year to date, while the median price is down 4.7%.

With fewer than three months of inventory, relatively stable year-over-year sales and shorter selling timelines, single-family homes continue to show stronger demand than other segments of the Waterloo Region market.

That does not mean every detached home is selling quickly. Buyers remain price conscious, and properties that are not aligned with current market value can still sit for considerably longer. However, well-positioned single-family homes continue to attract attention and, in some cases, competition.

Cornerstone Association of REALTORS®

The townhouse, semi-detached and condominium market tells a different story.

• 155 sales, down 20.9% from July and 28.2% year over year
• $501,805 average sale price, down 0.1% from July and 9.4% year over year
• $510,000 median sale price, down 1.3% from July and 6.7% year over year
• 48 days on market, up from 39 days in July and 35 days last August
• 4.6 months of inventory, down from 5.1 months in July and 4.7 months last August
• 98.8% of the most recent list price received, down from 99.9% in July and 100.5% last August

Year to date, sales in this segment are down 16.8% compared with 2025. The average sale price is down 8.4%, while the median sale price is down 7.8%.

For buyers searching for a townhome, semi-detached home or condominium in Waterloo Region, this segment currently provides more selection and, in many cases, greater room to negotiate.

For sellers, it also means pricing needs to be especially precise. With longer selling timelines and more competition for each buyer, even relatively small differences in price, condition or presentation can have a significant effect on activity.

Cornerstone Association of REALTORS®

Homes are selling, but the margin for error on pricing has become very small.

One of the most important takeaways from the August 2026 Waterloo Region real estate market is how differently individual segments are performing.
Single-family sales declined only 0.6% from a year ago. Sales of townhomes, semi-detached homes and condominiums fell 28.2%.

That difference makes broad market averages considerably less useful when determining what a specific property may be worth.

Pricing a home in the current Kitchener-Waterloo real estate market often requires more analysis than reviewing a handful of recent comparable sales. We consider current competition, location, lot, square footage, condition, renovations, layout, inventory, buyer demand and pricing history.

When there are limited recent comparable sales, it may also be necessary to examine older transactions and historical market movements to determine how those properties translate into today’s market.

Not every comparable sale is equally relevant, and not every home should be prepared or marketed the same way.

When the analysis is thorough and a property is positioned correctly, we are still seeing buyers respond quickly and, in some situations, compete. When the price misses the market, even by what may seem like a relatively small amount, the difference in showing activity and buyer interest can be significant.

Preparation matters as well, but that does not mean every seller needs to spend heavily before listing. Part of an effective strategy is identifying which improvements are likely to influence buyer perception, which ones are unlikely to provide a meaningful return, and where a seller’s time and money can have the greatest impact.

Buyers generally have more time to assess a property than they did during the highly competitive markets of recent years, particularly within the townhouse and condominium segments.

More negotiating room does not necessarily mean buyers should expect large discounts on every property. Well-priced homes can still attract strong interest, especially within the single-family segment.

Instead, the current market makes property-specific analysis especially important.

Recent comparable sales, competing listings, days on market, previous price changes and the conditions within that particular neighbourhood and property type can all provide useful information when determining an appropriate offer.

The opportunity for buyers today is less about assuming every seller will negotiate and more about identifying where negotiating leverage actually exists.

Interest rates remain an important part of the Waterloo Region housing outlook.

On September 2, 2026, the Bank of Canada held its policy interest rate at 2.25%. The Bank noted that economic growth and inflation had evolved broadly in line with its previous forecast, while upside risks to inflation had increased and new tariffs had created additional uncertainty.

Future interest rate decisions remain dependent on incoming economic data.

RBC Economics expects Canada’s housing recovery to remain gradual and uneven rather than producing a sharp rebound.
Its latest outlook forecasts Ontario home resales increasing 8.2% in 2027, following a modest decline in 2026. Ontario home values are projected to increase approximately 0.7% in 2027.

RBC also believes interest rates may be near the low point of the current cycle. If that proves correct, future improvement in housing activity may depend increasingly on affordability, employment, consumer confidence and pent-up buyer demand rather than substantially lower borrowing costs.

These are Ontario-wide forecasts rather than Waterloo Region-specific predictions. Still, the broader message is relevant to the local market: any housing recovery is likely to be gradual, and performance may continue to vary considerably by property type, price range and location.

Statistics provide important context, but they do not always show what is happening with an individual home.

Across Kitchener, Waterloo and the surrounding communities, buyers are being selective. They are comparing properties closely and responding most strongly when the relationship between condition, location, presentation and price makes sense.

This is especially important in a market where different property types are producing very different results.

A detached home in a neighbourhood with limited inventory may face very different conditions from a condominium competing against several similar listings. Even two homes within the same neighbourhood can require different pricing strategies based on lot, layout, renovations, location within the neighbourhood and competing inventory.

For sellers, understanding the market around the property rather than relying solely on a regional average has become increasingly important.

As we move into the fall 2026 real estate market, Waterloo Region remains active but highly segmented.

Single-family homes continue to show stronger relative demand, with fewer than three months of inventory and sales levels that remain close to last year.
Townhomes, semi-detached homes and condominiums are experiencing softer demand, longer selling timelines and greater price sensitivity, providing buyers with more choice and negotiating power.

For sellers, accurate pricing, thoughtful preparation and strong positioning remain critical. For buyers, current conditions provide more opportunity to compare properties carefully and negotiate where the data supports it.

Broader forecasts suggest the housing market recovery is more likely to be gradual than dramatic. Locally, we expect the difference between property types, neighbourhoods and price ranges to remain particularly important.

Whether you are considering buying, selling, downsizing or relocating, understanding the market around your specific property is more valuable than relying on a regional headline.

If you would like an accurate assessment of what your home could sell for in today’s Kitchener-Waterloo real estate market, connect with The Deutschmann Team for a personalized home evaluation.

The post Waterloo Region Real Estate Market Update | September 2026 appeared first on Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate Agent - The Deutschmann Team.

When preparing your home for sale in Waterloo Region, the way a room is arranged can have a significant impact on how buyers perceive its size.
A room does not necessarily need more square footage to feel larger. In many cases, the difference comes down to proportion, furniture placement, sightlines, lighting and how easily the eye can move through the space.

These are the same principles often used when professionally staging a home for market. The goal is not to make a room feel empty. It is to make the space feel balanced, functional and easy for buyers to understand.

Here are some of the staging techniques that can help a room feel more open and spacious.

One of the simplest ways to make a room feel larger is to reduce visual interruptions.

When you enter a room, your eye naturally looks toward the farthest point it can see. If that view is blocked by tall furniture, oversized decor or bulky pieces near the entrance, the room can feel shorter and more enclosed.

Keeping sightlines open allows the eye to travel farther through the space, which creates a stronger sense of depth.

When preparing your home for sale, look closely at what is positioned near doorways, windows and the transitions between rooms. A tall cabinet beside an entryway or a chair positioned directly in front of a window may be perfectly functional day to day, but moving it can make the room feel noticeably more open.

This is especially important in open-concept layouts. When buyers can clearly see from one area into the next, the overall floor plan often feels larger and more connected.

Rug size can completely change how a room is perceived.

A common assumption is that a smaller rug will expose more flooring and make the room feel larger. In practice, an undersized rug can have the opposite effect.

If the rug sits only beneath the coffee table, for example, the eye may read the sofa, chairs and rug as separate elements rather than one cohesive seating area. This creates more visual breaks and can make the room feel fragmented.

A properly sized rug helps connect the furniture and define the room as one complete space.

In most living rooms, the front legs of the main seating pieces should sit on the rug. In larger rooms, all of the furniture may sit fully on the rug.

The goal is not simply to use a large rug. It is to choose one that is proportionate to the furniture and the dimensions of the room.

The perceived size of a room is influenced by more than floor space. Ceiling height matters too.

One way to make a room feel more generous is to draw attention upward.

Curtains are a good example. Hanging the curtain rod closer to the ceiling rather than directly above the window frame can make the window appear taller and emphasize the full height of the room.

Floor-length curtains can also create a cleaner vertical line than shorter panels.

Other ways to add visual height include taller artwork, vertically oriented mirrors or subtle architectural details that encourage the eye to move upward.
This technique is particularly effective in smaller rooms, where emphasizing height can help offset limited floor space.

Light has a major impact on how spacious a room feels.

Dark or heavily shaded rooms can feel more enclosed, while natural light helps define the edges of a space and makes it feel more open.

Before listing, it is often worth simplifying window treatments, opening blinds fully and making sure furniture is not blocking windows.

Heavy curtains that frame a window too tightly can make both the window and the room appear smaller. Lighter treatments, or simply opening the curtains wider, can expose more glass and allow more daylight into the space.

Mirrors can also help when used thoughtfully. A mirror positioned where it reflects natural light or an open section of the room can add a sense of depth.

The key is restraint. One well-placed mirror is generally more effective than using several purely for the sake of making a room appear larger.

A spacious room should not only look open. It should feel easy to move through.

Furniture that creates narrow walkways or forces someone to move around several obstacles can make a room feel smaller, even if the room itself is generously sized.

When staging a home, furniture is often repositioned to create more obvious circulation paths between entrances, seating areas and adjoining spaces.

For example, in a living room, buyers should be able to walk from the doorway to the main seating area without navigating around a chair or squeezing between the coffee table and sofa.

This does not mean pushing every piece against the wall.

In many rooms, floating furniture slightly away from the walls can create a more intentional layout and make the space feel better organized. What matters most is maintaining comfortable pathways and avoiding unnecessary obstacles.

Homes are arranged for everyday living, not for showing.

That means rooms often contain furniture and objects that are useful but do not necessarily help the space present at its best.

Extra chairs, storage cabinets, pet furniture, side tables or desks may all serve a purpose, but they can also make a room feel more crowded.

When preparing to sell, consider whether each piece is helping to communicate the size and function of the room.

Removing even one piece of furniture can sometimes improve a sightline, widen a walkway or make the main seating arrangement feel more balanced.
The goal is not to strip the room down completely.

An empty or nearly empty room can actually make it harder for buyers to judge scale. Furniture gives buyers a reference point for understanding what comfortably fits in the space.

Visual clutter can make a room feel smaller even when there is plenty of physical space.

This is because the eye has more individual objects to process.

When staging, surfaces such as coffee tables, kitchen counters, consoles and dressers are usually simplified rather than completely cleared.
Instead of several small accessories, a few larger and more intentional pieces will often create a cleaner look.

For example, a coffee table may only need a tray, a book and one decorative object rather than multiple candles, bowls, magazines and smaller accessories.
This gives the room more visual breathing space and helps direct attention back to the features of the home itself.

A room can feel larger when the eye moves smoothly through it.

Too many contrasting colours, finishes, patterns and materials can make the space feel divided into smaller visual sections.

A more cohesive palette creates continuity.

That does not mean everything needs to be beige, white or perfectly matched.

Instead, try to repeat similar tones, keep the number of competing finishes limited and use accent colours intentionally.

The same principle applies between adjoining rooms. In open-concept spaces, some consistency in colour and materials can help the entire area feel more connected.

More decor does not necessarily make a room show better.

Too many pillows, throws, accessories, faux plants or decorative objects can distract from the room itself.

The strongest staging usually feels effortless.

A few carefully selected accessories can add warmth and polish while still allowing buyers to notice the things that matter most, such as the windows, flooring, cabinetry, ceiling height and layout.

Staging should support the home rather than compete with it.

Making a room feel larger is less about creating an illusion and more about presenting the space clearly.

The right furniture scale helps buyers understand what comfortably fits. Open sightlines make the room feel deeper. Proper rug sizing connects the furniture. Natural light adds openness. Clear walkways make the space feel functional.

Often, the most effective staging changes are relatively simple.

Moving one chair, removing an extra table, changing the rug, adjusting the curtains or simplifying a few surfaces can meaningfully change the way a room is perceived.

These details can make a home feel more polished in person, but they are equally important in listing photography, where buyers are often deciding within seconds whether a property deserves a closer look.

If you are preparing to sell in Kitchener-Waterloo or the surrounding Waterloo Region, The Deutschmann Team can help you identify the staging and preparation decisions that will have the greatest impact before your home reaches the market. Contact us today to start.

The post Staging Tricks That Can Make Your Home Feel Larger appeared first on Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate Agent - The Deutschmann Team.