The market has slowed and become more balanced, with buyers taking more time to make decisions. Prices have softened across all housing types, improving affordability compared to this time last year. Inventory remains relatively controlled, which is helping support values despite fewer overall sales.

Detached homes continue to be the most resilient segment, while townhomes and condos are currently more favourable for buyers.

As we move through Q1 2026, the local market continues to adjust after several years of rapid price growth and highly competitive conditions.

January’s data confirms what many buyers and sellers are already experiencing on the ground. The market is slower, more balanced and noticeably more price-sensitive. Both sides are taking longer to commit, and negotiations are becoming more thoughtful and data-based.

Nationally, Canadian home sales declined in January and Waterloo Region followed a similar pattern. Sales eased from December into January, new listings pulled back and days on market increased. This slowdown does not reflect a lack of interest in home ownership. Instead, it reflects a market recalibrating to affordability pressures, steady borrowing costs and more cautious buyer behaviour.

In practical terms, buyers now have more choice and more time. Sellers are seeing the strongest results when pricing and presentation clearly match today’s conditions, not last year’s expectations.

January detached home statistics

• Sales: 161 sales, down 15.3% year over year and lower than December
• New listings: Down 16.6% year over year
• Median sale price: $750,000, down 8.3% year over year and slightly below December
• Average sale price: $854,266, down 3.2% year over year
• Days on market: 41 days, up 28.1% year over year and slightly lower than December
• Inventory: Up 13.0% year over year
• Months of supply: 1.8 months
• Sale-to-list price ratio: Approximately 100%

Detached homes remain the most resilient segment in the Waterloo Region market, particularly in established and in-demand neighbourhoods.

However, pricing accuracy matters more than it has in years. Sellers who anchor their expectations to peak market conditions are seeing longer days on market and more negotiation. Homes that are positioned realistically from the start continue to attract serious buyers and sell with far less friction.

• Sales: 99 sales, down 31.3% year over year and lower than December
• New listings: Down 21.3% year over year
• Median sale price: $525,000, down 10.3% year over year and below December
• Average sale price: $530,282, down 9.6% year over year
• Days on market: 51 days, up 37.8% year over year and higher than December
• Inventory: Down 4.6% year over year
• Months of supply: 3.6 months
• Sale-to-list price ratio: Below 100%

The townhouse and condo segment is currently more buyer-friendly. With longer marketing times and more available options, buyers have greater leverage and are negotiating more confidently. Sellers who are pricing aggressively or relying on last year’s benchmarks are finding it harder to secure firm offers.

The strongest results in this segment are coming from homes that are clearly positioned on value and prepared properly before hitting the market.

January 2026 market statistics across all property types

• Total sales: 260 sales, down 22.2% year over year and lower than December
• Median sale price: $662,500, down 8.0% year over year
• Average sale price: $730,903, down 3.2% year over year
• Days on market: 45 days, up 32.4% year over year
• Inventory: Up 2.4% year over year
• Months of supply: 2.5 months
• Affordability index: Up 15.8% year over year
  

Source: Cornerstone Association of REALTORS®

Waterloo Region is firmly in a balanced and transitional market. Sales activity is lower, but inventory is not surging. Instead, the market is being driven by strategy, pricing discipline and product quality rather than urgency or fear of missing out.

Buyers are more selective. Sellers are being rewarded when their homes are well prepared, competitively priced and professionally positioned from the outset.

One of the most important trends emerging right now is improving affordability combined with relatively controlled inventory. As prices have softened and borrowing conditions have stabilized, more buyers are starting to re-enter the market, especially those who delayed decisions over the past year. This sets the stage for a more active spring market, but only for homes that are prepared and positioned correctly from day one.

Today’s market rewards preparation, pricing precision, strong presentation and thoughtful promotion. Sellers who are realistic, data-driven and proactive are seeing far better outcomes than those testing the market without a clear plan.

Buyers who remain patient, but are ready to act decisively when the right opportunity appears, are gaining real negotiating power.

The right time to buy or sell is never determined by headlines or seasonality alone. It comes down to your personal goals, your financial comfort and your longer-term plan. Market data provides context, but clarity comes from understanding how these trends apply specifically to your situation in the Waterloo Region market.

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

Stevenson Memorial Hospital (SMH) is proud of its deep roots and nearly 100 years of service. A 38-bed community hospital located in the Town of New Tecumseth, SMH is a valued and essential part of the fabric of the region through the care and treatment it provides to patients from New Tecumseth, Adjala-Tosorontio, CFB Borden & Essa Township.

On the cusp of a major redevelopment, Stevenson Memorial Hospital is undertaking an exciting renewal of its governance and is seeking exceptional community leaders to join an entirely new, skills-based Board of Directors. Desired skills span typical subject matter areas such as accounting/audit, legal, IT, HR/LR, government relations, strategic planning, and risk management as well as specific clinical, quality and patient safety and health care expertise.

Directors play a vital governance role in supporting the Hospital’s mission and ensuring excellence in accountability, oversight, and strategic leadership. As a Board Director, you will be expected to act honestly and in good faith in the best interests of Stevenson Memorial Hospital, exercising the care, diligence, respect and skill of a practical and prudent individual. Directors contribute to strong governance through active participation, informed decision-making, and collaborative engagement with fellow board members and senior leadership.

Board members are also expected to complete orientation and ongoing education, comply with governance policies such as the Code of Conduct and Conflict of Interest policy, and represent the Hospital within the community when appropriate.

This role requires a meaningful time commitment, including preparation for meetings, attendance at approximately six board meetings per year, and service on at least one standing committee of the board. Directors should expect to devote approximately 15 hours per month.

Directors are elected for a three-year term, with the opportunity to serve up to nine years based on performance and ongoing contribution.

If you are passionate about supporting quality healthcare governance and making a positive impact in your community, we welcome your interest.

While skills remain the most important consideration for board appointment, it is the goal of Stevenson Memorial Hospital that its board reflects a diversity of identities, age, colour, abilities, backgrounds, cultures, skills, perspectives and experiences that are representative of the communities it serves.

To apply for this exciting opportunity, please visit: boyden.thriveapp.ly/job/3152. For more information, please contact Andrew Dumont and Collin Ritch of Boyden at critch@boyden.com and state the title of the position in the subject line of your e-mail.

We thank all applicants for their interest, however only those under consideration for the role will be contacted. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will not be used in the evaluating or assessing of candidates. This is a current existing vacancy.

The post Stevenson Memorial Hospital appeared first on Capacity Canada.

You know I have far more respect for the Ruby Weber's of the world with their right wing, pro business positions and opinions then I do for the local, former, psuedo environmentalist Elmira residents who have cut and run. This is because I think that Ruby is a true believer whereas the others are simply opportunists looking out for number one and if that means switching sides mid stream then so be it.. Ruby was a Woolwich Council member for many years and very sympathetic to Uniroyal Chemical. She never forgot that they provided local jobs and tax revenue despite the mess they've made environmentally. In fact if she were still involved herself with TRAC and the former TAG I expect that she would have expressed her horror at how Uniroyal's promises have turned out to be nothing but wind. I also got to know her through a couple of other local issues and was pleased with her common sense as well as of her ethics of fair play. Quite possibly her, what I view as right wing, pro business attitudes, may very well have been due to her husband Amsey who I understood to be a self-made man. A self-made man who was an astute businessman who did well for himself and family.  

It is that lack of ethics, decency and fair play which have appalled me in regards to Sylvia Berg, Susan Bryant and Pat Mclean. Their modus operandi is not to declare war on someone they view as a threat or a risk to their plans but to claim friendship and collegiality along with common interests. They do not want their intended victim to even see coming their assault of lies and deceptions all intended to lower that individual's status, standing and positions be they environmental or otherwise. It is my opinion based upon personal experience that there is no room in their lives to treat others as well as they've been treated. Their incredibly self-centered approach is to slowly undermine while pretending the opposite. It does not matter that the intended victim doesn't even know that they are in the cross- hairs of their sights. The victim does not have to be intentionally undermining goals and plans that he/she are totally unaware of. In fact if asked they would likely, honestly respond oh no those self-centred goals can not be their's. 

Further thoughts have come to mind. Susan Bryant did not like Bill Strauss at all. She claimed to me that his speaking and education were an embarrassment to Woolwich Township. On the other hand both Pat McLean and Sandy Shantz liked Bill Strauss because as mayor he worked with them on Council or perhaps Pat thought she was manipulating him as she attempted with others. At first Pat made her dislike of Sandy clear based on losing her council seat to her. Later they were best buddies as both Susan and Pat worked on Sandy's election campaigns. In the scheme of lying manipulators I would rate Susan as number one, Sylvia as number 2 and Pat as number three.  

It has been specific Woolwich Council members working mostly through Susan and Pat that have enabled Uniroyal and successors, in harmony with the Ontario Ministry of Environment, to give Woolwich residents a totally inadequate and unsuccessful cleanup of their groundwater, surface water and soils and sediments.

When: Saturday May 2nd, 4:00 – 5:00 pm

Meeting Point: M.R. Good Family Trailway parking lot (650 Otterbein Road)

Walk Leader: Scott Clark

Take a stroll with Scott Clark of John MacDonald Architect on an approximately 3 km loop starting and finishing at the M.R. Good Family Trailway parking lot. Along the way, we’ll explore the local network of trails, as well as look at the area’s history and infrastructure, including the planned Ottawa St extension over the Grand River to Breslau. Hiking shoes or boots are recommended, as the route will include a meander through the single track trails of Natchez Woods. Unfortunately, the route is not accessible.

Advocating for our members and the broader local business community is one of the Chamber’s highest priorities. Ensuring Waterloo Region remains both sustainable and economically competitive requires thoughtful, informed advocacy. One of the most important ways the Chamber supports our members is by bringing forward their perspectives directly to decision-makers on issues that impact business confidence, investment, and long-term prosperity. Over the past several weeks, we have engaged extensively with members across sectors regarding the Region’s water servicing pause. The following letter was submitted to Regional Council this week. It reflects that collective feedback and outlines a constructive path forward – one that balances infrastructure renewal with economic momentum and reinforces that Waterloo Region is open for business.

Dear Chair Redman and Regional Council,

This letter reflects the feedback of the Chamber and the many members that have reached out over the last 6+ weeks to share their views, concerns and ideas on how to navigate this issue.

Many of these discussions underscore what the Chamber’s review of the reports and presentations are telling us. Namely, that the current water supply issue is an infrastructure capacity challenge rather than a water shortage crisis.

As we work together toward solutions it will be important to find the balance between the need for infrastructure renewal, improved efficiency, improving the resiliency of the system with appropriate surplus capacity and ensuring that the development applications process is re-opened immediately. And by that we do not mean approvals of development permit applications but with holding provisions put in place. Our members are looking for the certainty that building permits will be issued and the construction that drives our local economy will continue uninterrupted.

In the calculations of the current water usage, the number includes development applications approved but not yet built. These approved applications will take at least several years to come on stream and therefore create an artificially high actual usage rate. This should be a factor heavily in favour of immediately opening up the development application process across the Region.

The current situation has been worsened because of poor messaging and unclear explanations on why we are where we are, what is being considered to remediate the problem and how and when the development freeze will be lifted.

Moving forward, clear and accurate communication on these issues will be essential to maintaining confidence with the community.

A significant item we want to highlight for Council is that the current pause on new servicing agreements is already having tangible impacts on business confidence and investment decisions.

At our Chamber Titans committee meeting this week, an example was highlighted of an international employer considering investing to build an advanced manufacturing facility (involving investment of hundreds of millions of dollars) here but that has since eliminated Waterloo Region from consideration because the Region is seen as “too risky” given the current uncertainty surrounding water.

Another issue of concern that was also noted was that attracting institutional investment for both employment developments and housing developments is often the result of years of sustained relationship-building with financial investors and capital markets. The certainty that the financial investors and capital markets require, is approve development applications without any holding provisions.

Eroding the confidence of Waterloo Region as a good place to do business will have long-lasting damaging impacts on investment attraction, job creation, and prosperity for us all.

With this in mind, it is critical to have a balanced approach that reflects prudent risk management while helping to maintain the Region’s ability to attract housing and employment projects.

A suggestion that has come up through our discussions is for Council to appoint an independent outside expert to assist in evaluating the actual extent of the problem and the practical, short-term solutions available. This individual can give full and complete attention to all of the issues at play. They can act as an advisor directly to Council and coordinate the gathering the information from staff, getting external expert advice, review the data received and recommend options for Council. Most importantly, they can monitor progress, keep on top of the evolving nature of the issue and ensure clear and frequent communication with the community at large.

Finally, we recommend establishing clear, transparent metrics that spell out when the ban on development applications will be lifted.

The indefinite nature of the development freeze in place today must end.

For example, where new water supply is brought online from any infrastructure renewal project undertaken or conservation programs result in reduced usage there should be an even split between approving new development applications and increasing resiliency level of the system as a whole.

We appreciate the complexity of the decisions before you and the responsibility you carry for the region’s long-term sustainability.

As always, the Chamber and our members are committed to being a constructive partner in finding solutions that ensure Waterloo Region remains competitive while continuing to be a responsible steward of its resources.

The Chamber believes it is not only possible but essential to chart a path forward that balances community concern, environmental accountability but also reinforces that our Region is indeed open for business.

Sincerely,

Ian McLean President & CEO

Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce

The post Water System Renewal and Being Open For Business: Why Waterloo Region Can Do Both appeared first on Greater KW Chamber of Commerce.

The Youth Impact Project (YIP) is a collaboration between the Children and Youth Planning Table of Waterloo Region (CYPT) and Smart Waterloo Region Innovation Lab (SWRIL). The Youth Impact Project looks to fund youth who are addressing local challenges which are identified through the 2023 Youth Impact Survey results. The funded projects include a focus on supporting youth mental and physical health, increasing feelings of belonging, and responding to climate change and food insecurity.

In 2024, over 100 youth from 15 local organisations pitched their ideas to a panel of nine youth. The Youth Decision-Making Panel (“The Dragons”) decided which projects would receive funding to make their idea a reality. In 2025, CYPT and SWRIL accepted youth applications online, and a team of three youth decided which projects received funding.

MechMania was started to foster promising minds and ideas, focused on solving problems that are prominent in the community. The project aims to increase high school student access to robotics, by offering a free robotics competition in Waterloo Region. MechMania will offer information sessions, demos and tutorials, and upgraded kits to interested students free of charge, to facilitate their participation in the competition. This year’s theme: Save the Earth.

Applications for the 2025 Youth Impact Project are now closed and 17 youth projects across Waterloo Region received funding. We have now announced all of the projects!

Last but not least, we are grateful to our funders United Way Waterloo Region Communities and Region of Waterloo for making the Youth Impact Project possible.

Learn more about the Youth Impact Project here.

The post 2025 Youth Impact Project Showcase: MechMania appeared first on Children and Youth Planning Table.

Last year, I had a fantastic experience teaching React at work. I got a chance to show how to learn it from scratch. It wasn’t easy; creating a study plan was exciting and overwhelming at the same time, but the results were worth it.

In the process, I saw what new React programmers needed help with, and one of the stumbling blocks was JavaScript. Why?

Components are the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about React. However, digging deeper, you will find that functional components are just JS functions, but JSX syntax is an extension that lets us use HTML elements with JavaScript expressions.

Like it or not, it is not easy to learn the ropes of React without JavaScript knowledge.

Let’s look at 7 JS terms you need to make learning React more comfortable.

Of course, understanding different data types is essential for making coding more comfortable, but in React, it is also crucial for managing the component’s state correctly.

Why? Because there is a difference in how to work with an array and a simple string in the state. Inaccurate usage can lead to incorrect data representation.

Let’s look at how re-renders occur when the state is updated:

• We pass a new value through the setter function.
• React calculates the difference between renders.
• React makes only necessary changes to the DOM.
• The screen is repainted, and we see the changes.

React only changes the DOM nodes if there’s a difference between renders.

But if the changes do not appear? It means something went wrong, and React thinks no changes were made. It is a common problem working with arrays or objects in state.

Let’s start with the basics. There are 8 data types in JavaScript, and only the primitive ones are immutable. That in React is extremely important.

Primitive data types are: String, Number, BigInt, Boolean, Symbol, undefined and null. The Object type holds different data types: Arrays, Objects, Maps, Sets….

Let’s look at the documentation to find out more about mutability.

In JavaScript, objects and arrays are mutable by default — their properties and elements can be changed without creating a new object or array. By contrast, primitive values are immutable — once a primitive value is created, it cannot be changed, although the variable that holds it may be reassigned another value.

What does it mean for us?

It changes the way we must manage these types in the state. To correctly update the UI, React must detect changes, which is why all values must be treated as immutable.

In simpler terms, you shouldn’t modify arrays or objects in React state directly because React detects changes by comparing references. Objects and arrays are stored in memory by reference, so mutating them doesn’t create a new reference.

If the reference stays the same, React assumes the state hasn’t changed and won’t update the DOM. To ensure React notices the change, always create a new array or object rather than mutating the existing one.

const arrayDefaultValues = ["1", "2"];

const [arrayData, setArrayData] = useState<string[]>(arrayDefaultValues);
const [user, setUser] = useState<{ name: string; age: number }>({
  name: "Alice",
  age: 25,
});

/**
 * For mutable data types (arrays, objects), always create
 * a new copy before updating. This ensures React sees a new
 * reference and triggers a re-render.
 */

// Updating an array by creating a new copy
const newArray = [...arrayData, "3"];
setArrayData(newArray);

//Incorrect wayt is to mutate the array
arrayData.push("newValue");


// Updating an object by creating a new copy
const updatedUser = { ...user, age: 26 };
setUser(updatedUser);

To do that correctly, we must understand the spread syntax and different array methods.

Destructuring lets you extract values from objects or arrays into variables with simple, intuitive syntax, and you can also define default values. In React, you often see this approach in using props and state.

const PersonInfo = (props: IUserInfo) => {
  const {name, login, isAbsent = true} = props;
}

With spread syntax, we can expand an array or object into its individual elements or properties. It’s an easy way to copy, merge, or extend data structures without mutating them.

const clonedUser = { ...user };
const updatedUser = { ...user, age: 26 };

React state must be treated as immutable. That means you shouldn’t modify arrays or objects directly. Spread syntax makes it easy to create new copies with updated values, which ensures React sees a new reference and triggers a re-render.

The only nuance is that we must be careful with nested state. Let’s look at the official documentation.

When updating nested state, you need to create copies from the point where you want to update, and all the way up to the top level.

In React, a component’s props are represented as an object, which is why we often use syntax like: props. [object key]. Also, a component’s state is often described as an object; useReducer, for example, only operates with objects.

Objects are collections of key-value pairs, where each key (known as property names) has a value.

interface IListItem 
{
  id: number;
  name: string;
  desription: string[];
}

const ListItem = (props: IListItem) => {
  return(
  <div>
    {props.name}
  </div>
  );
}

Because objects are mutable, updating them requires creating a new object rather than modifying the existing one. And here, spread syntax can help.

The best place to find all information on the correct usage of objects in the state is the official React documentation.

When we want to show a user a list of objects, we use arrays. Methods like map, filter and reduce are essential in React because they transform data into UI.

Since arrays are mutable, updates must be done by creating new arrays rather than modifying them directly. To better understand how to do it, you need to read the official documentation.

There are a lot of different operations that can be managed with arrays, but it is important to learn which of them mutate the array and which don’t. That is essential for managing the state.

Functions encapsulate reusable logic, but in the React world, components and hooks are functions too. The difference is in the names and what these functions return.

• The functional component’s name starts with a capital letter.
• Hooks start with the “use”.

The ternary operator is a simplified way of writing an if…else statement. With JSX syntax, you can’t use if statements; that’s why the ternary operator is handy. Of course, you can use it without JSX syntax, for example, for calculating the values of the variable.

In React, you can conditionally render JSX using JavaScript syntax like if statements, &&, and ? : operators.

return (
<div className="item">
    {isOpened ? "opened": "closed"}
  </div>
);

Template literals use backticks `` to create strings that can include variables and expressions. They’re especially useful in React for building dynamic class names, messages, and inline styles. Conditions can be included.

const name = "Anna";
const variable = `string with variable ${name}`;
const withCondition= `string with condition ${isActive : "on" : "off"}`;

Learning React takes time, but it is impossible without a strong knowledge of JavaScript and HTML. Of course, you will need more, but these JS essentials are the bare minimum needed to feel more comfortable.

React. Learn. Easy. was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

♦

♦YEP Social March Break Sessions
Fierce N’ Fit Boxing – Tuesday, March 17
THEMUSEUM – Wednesday, March 18
Skyzone Trampoline Park – Thursday, March 19
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
KW Habilitation – 99 Ottawa St. S, Kitchener

Spend your March Break enjoying boxing, exploring the Museum or jumping around with friends. On the Tuesday, Youth Exploring Possibilities (YEP) is heading to Fit N’ Fierce gym for some boxing fitness and fun. On the Wednesday, YEP will be exploring a world of colour, light, and endless possibilities at the THEMUSEUM’s Kaleidoscope exhibit. On Thursday, YEP is defying gravity while they jump around at Skyzone’s trampoline park.

Don’t spend your March Break cooped up at home. Sign up for one or all of these fun activities.

Click here to register

♦♦ ♦

♦Pom Pom Love Bugs
Sunday, February 22
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
FREE
Homer Watson House & Gallery – 1754 Old Mill Rd. Kitchener

Join us on the last Sunday of the month for some art-making fun! In this drop-in program, we will explore painting, textiles, sculpture, printmaking, and more. Learn new skills and explore your creativity. There will be a new activity each month. Materials are provided.

Click here for more info

♦Pancake Day Community Celebration
Monday, February 16
12:00 PM – 6:30 PM
$15
Ukrainian Catholic Centre – 15 Michael St. Kitchener

Celebrating Pancake Day, Maslyana and Family Day Together. This year, Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday) in Canada falls on February 17, 2026 — a time when many Canadians enjoy fluffy pancakes before the start of Lent. In Ukraine, there is a very similar and beloved tradition called Maslyana (Масляна) on February 16. Since February 16 is Family Day in Canada, we thought — why not bring families together to share in these traditions and have fun? Pre-order your tickets online (recommended) or pay cash at the door.

Click here for more info

♦Free Community Skate
Sunday, February 22
4:00 PM – 6:30 PM
FREE
Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex -101 Father David Bauer Dr. Waterloo

The Uptown Waterloo Neighbourhood Association invites you to lace up your skates and join us for a FREE Community Skate! Bring your family, friends, and neighbours for an afternoon of fun on the ice. All ages and skill levels are welcome! Let’s kick off the new year together with some winter joy. Feel free to share this post with other neighbors who might be interested! Thank you, City of Waterloo for sponsoring & Uptown Waterloo neighbourhoods for organizing.

Click here for more info

♦

♦Having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card! You can borrow so much more than just books and movies these days. They have Waterloo Region Museum passes, Grand River Parks passes, trekking poles and wildlife kits for the adventurers out there.  There’s also roller skates, ice skates, pickleball equipment, bocce ball sets and more for your sporty side. You can borrow computers, musical instruments, board games, record players or a Nintendo Switch Lite if you’re looking for some indoor fun. You can even get a carbon monoxide monitor so you can test the air quality, if that’s what you’re into.

Call or go online to put items on hold for pickup at the library location that is closest to you. Don’t have a library card? If you live anywhere in the Region of Waterloo, you can head to your nearest library with a piece of ID like an Ontario Photo Card and get yourself a Kitchener Public Library card for absolutely free. Check out all the cool things you can get from your Kitchener Public Library!

Click here for more info

The post February 11, 2026: What’s Happening in Your Neighbourhood? appeared first on KW Habilitation.

The post Family Day Hours appeared first on Grand River Rocks Climbing Gym.

The post Family Day Hours appeared first on Grand River Rocks Climbing Gym.

Autoload Config for PostCSS

JavaScript 665 Updated Dec 10, 2025

✂️ Find unused files, dependencies and exports in your JavaScript and TypeScript projects. Knip it before you ship it!

TypeScript 10.2k Updated Feb 12

Join us this summer for an unforgettable baseball experience and learn from the pros! Our Summer camp is designed for players ages 8-14 of all skill levels - from beginners learning the fundamentals to experienced players looking to sharpen their game

What to Expect:

✔ Professional Coaching: Learn from current Kitchener Panthers players and coaches

✔ Skill Development: Improve hitting, fielding, throwing, catching and base-running with

structured drills and hands-on instruction.

✔ Game Play & Teamwork: Apply new skills in fun scrimmages while learning the importance

of teamwork and sportsmanship.

✔ Inclusive & Engaging: Open to players of all skill levels—whether you are new to baseball or

looking to sharpen your game

✔ Camp Schedule: Runs 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM, at The Yard Training Facility. The camp will be both indoor and outdoor

✔ Price: $325 plus HST.

✔ Panthers tickets and t shirt included!

Whether your child is new to baseball or dreaming of the next level, this camp offers professional instruction, positive mentorship, and a true behind the scenes look at how a professional team approaches the game in a fun atmosphere. 

Come train with the pros and have fun doing it!

Session 1: July 13-17

Session 2: July 20-24

Fast, light, simple Docker containers & Linux machines

Shell 8k Updated Aug 15, 2025

Some politicians might even admit quietly that lying to the public is an art form. They might suggest that every lie requires a fallback position. That fallback position might be new information that the public generally don't have. It might be scapegoating another political party for "obstructing" your legislative agenda. It might be blaming a higher tier of government such as the provinces blaming Ottawa and the Federal government for environmental failures. When in great trouble relying on "acts of God",  weather emergencies, outside influences, immigrants, the radical left whatever is the hot button issue of the day helps. Unions and labour unrest used to be a great scapegoat for corporations and businesses to blame when their outdated  products or technologies were no longer competitive. All in all accepting responsibility and taking blame for mistakes and failures is not the preferred option.

So according to today's K-W Record the Region of Waterloo are planning on using another $15 million dollars of taxpayers money to bring in a type of "workaround" technology.  This technology is referred to as container filtration systems.  A quick on-line check shows that several companies sell prefabricated water treatment systems generally for smaller applications including mining camps, isolated small locations involving using surface water (creeks & rivers) versus wells and even industrial plants. Yes they do claim that they can properly treat river water which in the case of the Grand River includes high turbidity (murkiness), pathogens such as bacteria and viruses, heavy metals, industrial discharges (legal or otherwise), parasites from cattle including cryptosporidium and less than perfect treatment of human wastes.  Lets not forget nice things like dead fish and animals that end up in the river not to mention the odd human body found immersed.

These new units apparently can produce 25 litres per second of clean water hence you would need at least eight of them to up our water supply by a whole 200 litres per second.  Boy that's not very much and certainly tells me that this is simply a workaround or maybe even a bandaid approach. Now I did the math on a couple of commercial units and they claim a somewhat higher volume of water produced than 25 l/sec but maybe the Region are simply being conservative in their estimates. Regardless based upon this one article and half an hour of research I am a little underwhelmed. 

But then again our local developers and builders want results yesterday and maybe that's exactly what they are going to get. Remember no problem is so serious and so bad that rushed, panicked decision making can not make it worse. Are our regional politicians up to the challenge? Hey we all elected the buggars so we get what we deserve.  

Partington, D., Brunner, P., Simmons, C. T., Therrien, R., Werner, A. D., Dandy, G. C., & Maier, H. R. (2011). A hydraulic mixing-cell method to quantify the groundwater component of streamflow within spatially distributed fully integrated surface water–groundwater flow models. Environmental Modelling & Software, 26(7), 886–898. doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2011.02.007

“The nodal flow check tolerance in HGS, which is derived in McLaren et al. (2000), was utilised to ensure the nodal volumetric balances calculated in the HMC method were sufficient in preventing large cumulative errors.”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE.

Fig. 1. Conceptual diagram of a surface water-groundwater catchment (left hand side) featuring different flow regimes (as illustrated in the right part of the figure). The white sections of the catchment adjacent to the stream represent the groundwater discharge upslope of the stream (return flow). The dashed lines on the right part of the figure represent the water table. The flow direction is towards the reader.

This research highlight co-authored by D. Partington, P. Brunner, C.T. Simmons, René Therrien, A.D. Werner, G.C. Dandy, and H.R. Maier, introduces a hydraulic mixing-cell (HMC) method to accurately quantify the groundwater component of streamflow within fully integrated surface–subsurface hydrologic models. This study leverages HydroGeoSphere (HGS) to address long-standing challenges in decomposing streamflow generation mechanisms without relying on tracer transport simulations or simplifying assumptions about groundwater discharge.

Traditional approaches for estimating groundwater contributions to streamflow often rely on summed exfiltration along stream reaches or tracer-based hydrograph separation. While commonly used, these methods fail to account for travel time delays, stream losses, and changing gaining–losing conditions, frequently leading to significant overestimation of groundwater contributions. By contrast, the HMC method uses only hydraulic information produced by fully integrated models like HGS, enabling direct extraction of groundwater contributions at any point along a stream network.

Fig 4. Test case 1: “two-region” model grid, and HMCs for HGS nodes in “two-region” model grid. In the right part of the figure the two nodes at y=0 belong to HMC 1, the two nodes at y=1 belong to HMC 2 and the nodes at y=2 belong to HMC 3.

The study developed and tested the HMC method using HydroGeoSphere simulations across two numerical experiments. The first test case verified mass conservation and numerical stability under controlled conditions, while the second applied the method to a highly transient catchment featuring rainfall events, groundwater pumping, and dynamically shifting gaining and losing stream sections. Results showed that the HMC method accurately tracked groundwater and rainfall contributions through time and space, revealing substantial discrepancies between true groundwater contributions and those estimated using summed exfiltration.

Key findings demonstrated that summed exfiltration can significantly overestimate the groundwater component of streamflow, particularly in catchments with long stream networks, internal losses, or strong temporal variability. In contrast, the HMC method correctly accounted for channel storage, streamflow travel times, and alternating flow regimes, providing a physically consistent decomposition of streamflow components directly from the hydraulic solution.

HydroGeoSphere proved essential in enabling this work due to its ability to simulate fully coupled surface and subsurface flow and to report spatially distributed exchange fluxes between domains. By integrating the HMC method directly into the HGS simulation framework, the study demonstrated how integrated hydrologic models can move beyond total streamflow prediction to provide mechanistic insight into streamflow generation processes.

This research provides critical insights for catchment hydrology and water resources management, showing that advanced, physics-based modelling approaches like HydroGeoSphere are essential for accurately quantifying groundwater contributions to streamflow. By overcoming the limitations of traditional separation techniques, the HMC method paves the way for more reliable interpretation of streamflow dynamics in complex and transient hydrologic systems.

Abstract:

The complexity of available hydrological models continues to increase, with fully integrated surface water–groundwater flow and transport models now available. Nevertheless, an accurate quantification of streamflow generation mechanisms within these models is not yet possible. For example, such models do not report the groundwater component of streamflow at a particular point along the stream. Instead, the groundwater component of streamflow is approximated either from tracer transport simulations or by the sum of exchange fluxes between the surface and the subsurface along the river. In this study, a hydraulic mixing-cell (HMC) method is developed and tested that allows to accurately determine the groundwater component of streamflow by using only the flow solution from fully integrated surface water–groundwater flow models. By using the HMC method, the groundwater component of streamflow can be extracted accurately at any point along a stream provided the subsurface/surface exchanges along the stream are calculated by the model. A key advantage of the HMC method is that only hydraulic information is used, thus the simulation of tracer transport is not required. Two numerical experiments are presented, the first to test the HMC method and the second to demonstrate that it quantifies the groundwater component of streamflow accurately.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE.

They say love is a mystery. I believe love is just an algorithm in a dataset full of too many outliers.

Welcome to the corner of the internet where we don’t just “trust the process,” we work on it. I am Ms.DataByte, and I am on a mission to find Real Love (If there exists one).

Dating in 2025 isn’t about serendipity or meeting someone at a coffee shop (does anyone actually go to those anymore?). It is about optimization. It is about beating the algorithm before it beats you.

Dating apps have become new modes for socializing. Its all about how you present yourself and how the other person perceives you to be. Cause, lets be real… You can post your super exciting “lavish” life on social media, but in real life, you can hardly afford your college fees.

So, I got my hands on a dataset of 50,000 dating app users. Because I didn’t want “dating advice” from a lifestyle guru. I’m an impatient girl. I wanted hard evidence. I wanted to know exactly why people are getting ghosted, why things aren’t working out, and why dating is more difficult than coding.

So, I fired up my Python notebook, cleaned the messy CSVs, and ran the numbers.

⚠️ Quick Disclaimer: This analysis explores dating trends through real statistics. Any observations regarding gender, age, or behavior are based on dataset averages and are intended for educational (and entertainment) purposes only. No feelings were harmed in the making of this Python script.

So is it true? Urban for fun, Suburban for the long run. Being in the city, I have seen a number of relationships shatter because of the difference in location. So, I analyzed Location Type vs. Match Outcome. The bar chart reveals a fascinating split.

Geography is destiny. Urban Users have 40% more successful relationships, but their “Catfished” rate is double. The paradox of choice is real in the city. Suburban Users get fewer matches, but a significantly higher conversion rate to “Date Happened.” They are bored enough to actually show up and meet.

The “Dating Puddle” phenomenon is a condition in small towns and remote areas. Your match rate is low, but your “I Already Know Their Cousin” rate is 85%. This must be the reason why One-sided Like is also high. According to the data, relationships are mostly formed in the urban and metropolitan cities; this must be because of the hope of a safe future.

Ms. DataByte’s Advice:

• If you want a reliable partner, swipe in the city, but get ready to face the horrors of love.
• If you want to explore your chances at love, go to the suburbs, have fun with the flow.
• If you live in a small town, expand your radius to 50 miles or prepare to date your neighbor.

But whatever be the case, your location will determine only if you will meet a good candidate… consistent efforts depends on you. Just You.

I created a little metric I like to call the Swipe Score. It calculates a user’s Swipe Right Ratio against their Match Outcome. This will tell if the swiping culture really means if you’re carefully chosen or a random pick.

There is a direct, negative correlation between how much you swipe and how successful you are in securing your partner.

The “Optimistic” Swipers with Right-swiping >60% are statistically doomed. The algorithm smells your fear. You are using the app as a dopamine diet.

The “Picky” Swipers with Right-swiping <25% get more matches. Seems like you really invest in knowing and understanding the other person.

Ms. DataByte’s Advice: Stop treating the app like it’s a game of Fruit Ninja. The data says that desperate swiping is a cologne, and the algorithm can smell it. Dating apps are for you to meet new people and try out love life scenarios. You have to make this work for yourself, not doom the other person’s life.

I analyzed App Usage Time vs. Likes Received. This was my favorite chart because it hurts the most.

The graph is full of bubbles of tragedy (bursting with Extreme users).

This data demonstrates a “plateau effect,” where increased time spent on the app does not correlate with a higher volume of likes received. Statistically, this suggests that the algorithm prioritizes profile quality or “pickiness” over raw time investment.

Spending 300 minutes a day on the app yields zero statistically significant increase in matches compared to someone who spends 30 minutes.

Thus, swiping does not equal more love. It just equals more thumb cramps.

I understand this conflict, so I ran a heatmap of Swipe Time of Day vs Match Outcome.

The Heatmap may seem a bit confused, cause so am I. Most swipes that happen after midnight end up being “one-sided likes” and ghosted. On the other hand, swipes that happen around 8 am end up being blocked. Thus, The Golden Window is set from 6 PM to 9 PM. This seems just a bit weird, actually. I trust data, but don’t always agree with it.

Ms. DataByte’s Advice: Even I may get swayed a bit, but this is what the data suggests. Never Trust a Swipe Before Breakfast, people might just feel lonely. And “nothing good happens after 2 am” by Ted Mosby (HIMYM). Such wise words. Truly.

Everyone is terrible, but in different ways. NO one should point fingers at each other. But just to resolve the mystery, I broke down the Chat Ignored statistic by Gender. And the truth is out.

Statistics hurt, don’t they? As a female, I know people always feel that we happen to get the perfect date, the perfect relationship, the perfect partner. But that’s not always true. Some of us are hiding the scars of so many failed dates. With more data exploration, I found out,

• Men are statistically more likely to ghost after the first date.
• Women are statistically more likely to ghost during the chatting phase.

Ms. DataByte’s Advice: Don’t take it personally. The data shows that ghosting is less about you and more about the other person’s inability to type “No thanks.” How you carry yourself out of it and give another chance at life, that’s the game. And I really hope you master it!

We often think the algorithm is working against us, but this chart shows it’s actually working for the community. The developers have a difficult job; they have to turn human chemistry into binary code.

This data shows the “punishment” for over-swiping is just their way of maintaining balance. It encourages users to be thoughtful rather than mechanical.

In a world of infinite choice, the algorithm is just trying to force us to pause and actually look at the person behind the pixel.

I didn’t just want to analyze the past, I wanted to predict the future. So, I built a Logistic Regression Machine Learning Model to calculate a “Compatibility Score” between any two users.

I didn’t use star signs or “eye color.” I used only the three features that scientifically determine if you will survive a dinner date (by dating apps data).

I boiled compatibility down to three non-negotiable variables:

• Swipe Behavior
• App Usage
• Interests.

The logic is simple; if you use the “shotgun approach” (swiping on everyone) while your match is a “sniper” (swiping on almost no one), or if you respond instantly while they check the app weekly, you are mathematically incompatible.

Finally, I used a Jaccard Similarity index to verify if you actually both like hiking, or if one of you is just lying for the aesthetic.

The Model’s Verdict: I now know how dating profiles find you the one. Dating apps use models with your data to help you find your most compatible partner. When I tried to do it, I got an accuracy of 99.15%. I imagine myself to be the Date-Lyfe Advisor now.

Why do these models work? Having “The Office” in common doesn’t help you when you have different personalities.

Behavior trumps interests.

The algorithm knows that shared habits create relationships; shared interests just create first dates.

We spent this entire post analyzing swipe ratios, response rates, and compatibility algorithms. But the most important data point I found wasn’t in the CSV files. It was the fact that despite the bugs, the ghosting, and the algorithmic chaos, we kept trying.

The data proves that Effort ≠ Results on dating apps. You cannot code your way into chemistry, and you cannot “optimize” a human connection. My logistic regression model can predict if you’re compatible on paper, but it can’t predict if you’ll laugh at the same jokes.

Love might be a mystery, but the data is crystal clear. So, here is your new strategy:

1. Be Picky: The algorithm rewards standards. Swipe someone whom you actually would like to meet.
2. Be Brief: Your bio is a movie trailer, not the full script. Keep it short. Keep it Original. Keep it all about you.
3. Be Offline: The best matches happen when you are efficient enough to close the app and leave the house.
4. Be Consistent: Try to engage with the other person. Don’t just text, meet, and have fun.
5. Most Present: Things may go wrong, and you may get hurt. But try to be present with the process. Escaping may seem like the best way, but maybe we just need faith. “The universe has a plan, and the plan is always in motion”, Ted Mosby (HIMYM).

Stop trying to “hack” the system with pickup lines and fake personality. The only way to win the game is to play it efficiently enough that you can finally delete the app. Meet someone, go on the date, and let the chaos happen. Because the best parts of love are the outliers that no algorithm can predict.

Happy swiping (but mostly, happy living), Ms. DataByte

I analyzed 50,000 Dating Profiles to Decipher the Myths of Love in Algorithm was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When: Sunday May 3rd, 10:30 am

Meeting Point: 39 Grand Avenue South, Barnacle Bill’s parking lot, Cambridge

Walk Leader: Judy Welsh

Discover how a neglected vacant plot in downtown Galt becomes a vibrant sculpture garden along the River.

In case you’ve missed things, Ontario is experiencing one of the slowest markets in decades. We’re facing plenty of headwinds after years of very robust growth. Prices are falling, inventories are up. And for now, the situation for buyers is looking great. Here are the January numbers from my board for the Region.

So should we be worried about housing shortages in Waterloo Region too? Surprisingly enough, yes, when we look at things on a slightly longer time scale, given the Region of Waterloo is now facing an unprecedented water capacity crisis that will be years to fix.

Development has now been frozen across much of the region due to shortages in the Mannheim service area. All of Waterloo and most of Kitchener are affected as well as a lot of the smaller communities in rural areas. While the freeze won’t affect units currently under construction, new permits are not currently being issued.

Waterloo Region staff came up with a preliminary rough estimate of 81 million dollars to fix our water supply crisis but Regional Chair Karen Redman has already bumped that figure, citing $90 million a few days back. A short term solution decided on by the Region on February 6th won’t be completed until 2027 and the timeline for a more permanent solution is unknown.

The Region is advising municipalities that “the region does not support approval for development applications at this time,” which obviously begs the question, when will new developments resume? Local builders, needless to say, are a little dismayed.

If you’re a buyer looking for a home to live in you’ll likely prefer freehold. According to CMHC, for December 2025, only 6% of the 6679 units currently under construction is either semi, town or detached. The bulk of housing currently being built is either purpose built rental apartment or apartment style condo.

The resale market is equally constrained in these exact segments. I’ve been saying for a while now that the downturn is somewhat investor driven and the data backs that up. Inventories for freehold properties while higher than before, are still in seller territory for semis and barely into neutral for detached and townhouses. Tightness in these sectors will provide freehold owners with a bit of a buffer in a down market like we have been seeing.

Conversely, the condo market will see increased downward pressure on prices as new rental properties come online. Developers will eventually curtail future builds if they are unable to sell the existing stock they have underway right now, regardless of the water issues I’d mentioned earlier.

Nevertheless, if you’re a buyer, things are good here in Waterloo Region. We have seen year over year reductions in every segment except semis. Buyers have choice. Conditions are a thing again! And if you can’t afford freehold or really hate cutting the grass, condos are still an option.

How long will this last though is a matter of debate. The water crisis is a real problem for new builds. Shortages in the more desirable segments of our market are likely. And at some point, the market will turn. “When?” is the million dollar question.

The post Waterloo Region Housing Shortages? appeared first on Andrew Shackleton.

Job Title: Volunteer Board Director Opportunities Available with CTN
Location: Simcoe County, York Region & Toronto
Remote Position: Hybrid, Onsite
Job Type: Volunteer

Children’s Treatment Network (CTN) is currently recruiting volunteer Board Directors. CTN is seeking individuals with strategic leadership experience in the areas of accounting/financial management (CPA designation), information technology, service quality and performance and/or leadership experience in children’s and community services, health, public or non-profit sectors. If this sounds like you and you’re passionate about the well-being of kids and youth, we invite you to apply today!

CTN’s Board plays an important role in helping to achieve our vision of a vibrant community where all kids, youth and families belong. Together with our service partners in the health, education and community service sectors, CTN is a dynamic network that supports approximately 39,000 kids and youth with disabilities and developmental needs in York and Simcoe[KE1]  and school-based rehabilitation services in Central and West Toronto.

Volunteering with the CTN Board is an opportunity to make a meaningful difference by guiding the organization’s strategic direction, ensuring accountability and upholding our mission, vision and values. Board service supports the delivery of high-quality, equitable and family-centred services. Our work is collaborative and grounded in equity, inclusion and accessibility in everything we do.

CTN is committed to continuing to build a Board that reflects the families and communities we serve. We encourage applications from people with disabilities, individuals who identify as Black, Indigenous, racialized individuals, members of the LGBTQ2S+ community, family members/caregivers of individuals with disabilities or developmental needs, individuals from other equity-owed communities and anyone who wants to achieve our vision.

• A three-year term of office
• Volunteer approximately 11-15 hours per quarter
• Participation on one Board committee

• Interest or experience in governance
• Knowledge of equity, diversity and inclusion practices
• 18 years of age or older
• Not employed by, contracted with, or closely related to a CTN employee
• Not currently serving on the Board of a CTN contracted service partner organization

The deadline to apply is March 6, 2026.

Board Directors will be elected at CTN’s Annual Meeting in June 2026.

We are happy to provide accommodations at any stage of the application process and invite you to let us know how we can best support you. Please contact Marisha Holmberg, Lead, Strategic Operations at mholmberg@ctnsy.ca.

Funded by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, CTN is a children’s treatment centre delivering services through a network model of service delivery with partners in the health, education and community service sectors. Together with our partners, we work towards making our vision of a vibrant community where all kids, youth and families belong a reality. Services include intake, service navigation, coordinated service planning, diagnostic assessments, autism services and rehabilitation services including physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech language therapy. CTN also delivers school-based rehabilitation services in Central and West Toronto.

We serve clients who have a variety of diagnoses including developmental, neurological and physical disabilities. CTN’s commitment to providing family-centred care is anchored by a shared client record that is accessed across partner organizations and provides the foundation for integrated plans of care and services.

Application Email or URL:  www.surveymonkey.com/r/CTNBOD2026app

The post Children’s Treatment Network (CTN) appeared first on Capacity Canada.

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♦KITCHENER - The Kitchener Panthers are proud to announce the signing of speedy outfielder Jamie Cabral.

 Cabral is going into his second full season with the Panthers. 

His first year, he was mainly used in a pinch running role, where he utilized his speed to snag 11 stolen bases, including three on Canada Day in Guelph. He went 11-for-12 on stolen bags in 2025.

At the plate, he went 10-for-51 with a double and two triples.

Cabral is also a former Toronto Maple Leaf and a TMU Bold graduate. 

"Jamie's game changing speed can wreak havoc on the base paths, and put a lot of pressure on opposing pitchers," said general manager Shanif Hirani.

"I'm excited to see him build on his rookie year and impact the game with his legs on both sides of the ball."

============

JAMIE CABRAL

• Bats/Pitches: R/R
• Hometown: Vaughan, ON
• Birthdate: August 22, 2002
• Pronunciation: Jay-me CAB-rawl

February 9, 2026 – KITCHENER – Capacity Canada is thrilled to announce a new partnership with the Community Sector Council Newfoundland & Labrador (CSCNL) to champion greater equity in nonprofit leadership.

Together, we’re launching the Open Hearth project in Newfoundland & Labrador — a bold initiative designed to increase the presence of underrepresented women and non‑binary individuals in leadership and decision‑making roles across the nonprofit sector.

Through this partnership, CSCNL will lead the delivery of two transformative initiatives in their region:

• A mentorship network uplifting underrepresented women
• A culture‑change framework supporting nonprofits committed to building workplaces where belonging and inclusion truly thrive

“We’re honoured to partner with our wonderful colleagues at Community Sector Council Newfoundland & Labrador (CSCNL) to bring Open Hearth to St. John’s and communities across Newfoundland & Labrador. This work is rooted in community wisdom — supporting underrepresented women and non‑binary people who have long carried leadership in our sector, often without equitable access to decision‑making spaces. Together, we’re building a mentorship network and a culture‑change approach that strengthens belonging, connection, and the conditions for more people to lead — right here at home.” – Cathy Brothers, CEO, Capacity Canada

“We are excited to be partnering with Capacity Canada to bring the Open Hearth mentorship project to Newfoundland and Labrador. In our province, approximately 70%   community sector is staffed by women and gender diverse individuals. Meanwhile, our research suggests this group holds just 62% of executive positions and earn approximately 23% less than their male counterparts. We need to work together to close the gap by uplifting sector voices, rebalance statistics with lived experiences, and co-create the conditions for a thriving, equitable community sector.” – Colin Corcoran, CEO, CSCNL

Open Hearth is a 33‑month project running from July 2024 to March 2027. It builds on two concepts co‑created with women from underrepresented communities during the 2023 Makeover Project — ensuring the work is grounded in lived experience, community insight, and real sector needs.

After a successful pilot in Waterloo Region, Open Hearth will also expand to Calgary, Alberta in Spring 2026, extending its impact across the country.

Join us on February 17, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. NST / 11:30 a.m. EST for a 45‑minute virtual session highlighting the benefits of both initiatives and launching the mentorship application process in Newfoundland & Labrador.

To register for the February 17, 2026 information session, please click here.

For more information, contact:

• Christine Snow, Open Hearth Local Program Manager, CSCNL
• Fableeha Choudhury, fableeha@capacitycanada.ca , Open Hearth Project Manager, Capacity Canada

Learn more: capacitycanada.ca/open-hearth/

The post Building Belonging: CSCNL and Capacity Canada Launch Open Hearth in Newfoundland & Labrador appeared first on Capacity Canada.

It looks to me as if they have over time changed their process for Delegates to speak at this meeting of Woolwich/Lanxess vetted citizens.  Apparently if a Delegate is speaking to a new item not on the agenda, one must register eight days prior to the meeting. Now of course the fricken Agenda doesn't come out until one week before the meeting hence potential Delegates have no way of knowing if their specific TRAC related/mandated speaking topic is or isn't on the Agenda until after their deadline (8 days) is passed. So in other words you'd better register eight days beforehand unless of course you have an inside track to TRAC and can get tipped off early about the Agenda topics. I view this as a valid metaphor for the efficacy and honesty of this committee, which blame does not lie with individual members but with Woolwich Council.

This meeting may be observed silently and reverently from the chairs in the gallery or on Zoom. For those of us with twitchy stomachs and concerns about speaking out of turn (i.e. at all) then it may be safest to watch it by video a few days later on the Township's website (under Council Calendar). This I usually do and then post here both the good and the bad. The good may contain some kind words about restoring our groundwater and the bad may be the feeble excuses made and reasons allegedly out of their control as to why they have failed to do either that or to clean up the Uniroyal Chemical gross downstream contamination in the creek soils, sediments and floodplain soils. The other bad part is the unwillingness or inability for the members as a whole to stand up and call out Lanxess and the MECP for their never ending bullshit and junk science. There simply is no hard questioning as to why this project goes on and on for decades (36 years) without successful completion.

I keep catching myself mid-thought lately.

Not because I do not know what I think. But because I am less sure who I am thinking with.

I design products that live online. They still have interfaces. They still have flows, content, decisions, and edge cases.

But more and more, the person on the other side is not clicking, scrolling, or even looking. They are delegating.

Which means something else is doing the reading.

And that changes the job.

For a long time, product design assumed a pretty stable setup. A human shows up. They interact. They experience friction, clarity, confusion, delight. We design around that journey.

Now, there is often an extra step in the middle.

A person asks an AI assistant for an answer. The assistant consults an agent. The agent reads our product, our content, our system. The agent decides what matters. The human receives a compressed outcome.

The interface still exists. It just is not always the point of contact.

I find myself wondering how many of the products we design are now being experienced second-hand. Or third-hand. Or not at all, in the way we imagined.

Alongside this, human behaviour is shifting in a way that feels obvious once you notice it.

People are scrolling less. They are viewing less. They are opening fewer apps “just to see.”

Instead, they are asking.

Find the best option. Filter this down. Compare these. Book the sensible one.

Voice makes this even more pronounced. When you can say an outcome out loud, the appetite for browsing quietly evaporates. No feed. No exploration. No slow orientation. Just intent, expressed plainly.

AI assistants accelerate this shift. They sit between the person and the product, quietly absorbing complexity.

AI agents take it a step further by acting on behalf of the user. They do not just recommend. They decide, execute, and move on.

This matters because many of our products were designed for discovery through exposure.

We assumed people would arrive, look around, gradually build context, and then decide.

That assumption is weakening.

If interaction starts with a request rather than a visit, then the product is no longer a place someone goes. It is a system that gets queried, filtered, and sometimes acted upon without ceremony.

And suddenly, the design challenge is not how something looks when someone scrolls, but how it behaves when an agent asks on someone’s behalf.

One thing that feels important to say out loud is this. AI agents are not impatient humans. They are something else entirely.

They do not get curious. They do not skim because they are bored. They do not hesitate because something feels slightly wrong.

They parse. They extract. They rank. They decide. Then they leave.

They care about structure, intent, constraints, and outcomes. They do not care about delight, tone, or the subtle reassurance we often design into human experiences.

Which means a large portion of what we obsess over as designers is invisible to them.

Microcopy. Transitional states. Moments of hesitation designed to help someone feel confident. All skipped.

So I am sitting with questions that did not matter much a few years ago.

What survives when an experience is reduced to a set of rules and priorities.

What gets lost when nuance is treated as inefficiency.

What happens when ambiguity, which is often where judgement lives, is flattened so an agent can move faster.

This is the part I am still working through.

If we design purely for AI agents, everything becomes rigid. Hyper-explicit. Slightly lifeless. We remove uncertainty because machines do not tolerate it well, even though people often need it.

If we design only for humans, we risk creating products that are beautiful but poorly interpreted by the systems increasingly mediating access to them.

Neither approach feels sufficient.

What helps me is thinking of humans and AI as different readers rather than competing users.

AI needs structure. Humans need context. AI needs consistency. Humans need judgement. AI needs clarity. Humans need meaning.

The mistake is trying to satisfy both with the same layer of design.

I have seen this pattern before.

When the internet arrived, it did not make publishing faster. It changed who could publish and how ideas travelled. When mobile arrived, it did not improve desktop software. It changed when interaction happened.

AI feels similar, but closer to the core.

It is not just changing how people use products. It is changing how products are approached.

People are no longer entering systems. They are sending assistants. They are authorising agents. They are delegating intent.

Which makes me wonder whether we have been over-investing in interfaces and under-designing intent.

Another shift I am noticing in my own work is a move away from continuous engagement.

Less emphasis on keeping someone inside a product. More focus on the moments where decisions actually get made.

When does an agent need to act. When does a human need to intervene. When does uncertainty need to remain unresolved because judgement matters.

These moments carry more weight now because they may be the only points of contact that survive delegation.

Which raises some uncomfortable questions.

Are we designing systems that can be understood without being toured. Are we explicit about what should never be automated. Are we comfortable with parts of our work being invisible, as long as the outcome is sound and accountable.

I do not have a framework to neatly wrap this up. Mostly, I have a set of questions that keep following me around.

Where does intent live in the products we design. How does meaning survive when assistants summarise and agents execute. What does good design look like when the user never scrolls at all.

And maybe the hardest one.

How do we design systems that remain understandable, accountable, and humane, even when humans are no longer the ones doing the navigating.

I suspect the next phase of product design will not be louder or more performative. It will be quieter. More structural. More deliberate.

Less interface. More interpretation. Less scrolling. More asking. Less engagement. More consequence.

Which, depending on your temperament, is either slightly unsettling or oddly reassuring.

For me, it is probably both.

Thank you so much for reading my article. I hope you found it engaging and valuable. If you enjoyed it, a clap would tell me I resonated with you. For more articles like this, consider following me on Medium. You can also subscribe to receive new articles directly in your inbox. Also, connect with me on LinkedIn to catch my latest articles in your feed or chat.

Designing for a World Where AI is also Using the Product was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When: Saturday May 2nd, 10:00 – 11:30 am

Meeting Point: Under Zuber angel at cemetery entrance across from 128 Moore Avenue, Kitchener

Walk Leader: Wayne Miedema

A walk through this mid-town cemetery that opened in 1865. A fascinating connection to local history, local street names, and folks both famous and not.

Women are writing about technology on Substack. A lot of them.

Their work is thoughtful, well researched, and engaging.

But when you look at who shows up on Substack’s Technology Bestseller and Rising lists, a different story appears. One that has very little to do with talent, and everything to do with how visibility actually works.

Last fall, as Code Like a Girl started paying closer attention to Substack’s tech ecosystem, we went looking for more women to follow, subscribe to, and share. The Technology lists seemed like the obvious place to start.

What we found wasn’t shocking. But it was disappointing.

There were hardly any women on either list.

These lists aren’t decorative. They’re a signal. They say this is who matters. They’re one of Substack’s primary discovery mechanisms. Show up on a list and you gain followers, views, recommendations, and subscribers.

For our Medium readers, think of Substack’s Rising and Bestseller lists the way you’d think about Medium’s topic feeds, curation, or distribution boosts. They’re the mechanisms that decide what gets surfaced, shared, and rewarded, and who quietly disappears.

Visibility changes outcomes.

And once visibility concentrates, it compounds.

Substack’s discovery systems reward existing visibility. Lists, badges, and recommendations are all downstream of who is already being seen.

Every publishing platform has its own version of this — whether it’s badges, distribution boosts, recommendations, or algorithmic preference — but the effect is the same.

When women start with less exposure, they receive fewer recommendations, appear on fewer lists, and benefit less from compounding growth mechanisms.

The system isn’t designed to correct imbalance. It unintentionally reinforces it. And we’re going to do our best to counteract that.

Looking at the lists, it was clear women were underrepresented. But by how much? And how did that compare to the industry more broadly?

Women make up roughly 22% of the tech workforce. That number is already low, but it gave us a baseline.

So instead of relying on gut instinct, we reviewed the lists manually.

As of December 8:

• 13 women appeared on the Technology Rising list
• 10 women appeared on the Technology Bestseller list
• Each list contains 100 publications

Representation on these lists was worse than industry averages, not better.

At a minimum, you might hope visibility would roughly mirror participation. At best, you might hope it would exceed it, because overrepresentation is one of the few ways entrenched perceptions actually change.

Visibility doesn’t just reflect reality.

It shapes it.

That belief has been core to Code Like a Girl for nearly ten years.

Over more than ten years on Medium, we’ve published work from over 1,000 writers, many of them women writing thoughtful, rigorous work about technology.

In our first five months on Substack, we’ve continued that work by publishing more than 45 women writing deeply informed technology stories.

Beyond our publication, we follow hundreds of women writing about tech. SheWritesAI alone tracks 600+ women writing about AI on Substack.

The women are here. They are writing. They are building in public.

What they’re missing is visibility.

One thing that made this impossible to ignore was watching how thresholds and badges change what gets seen.

Appearing on Rising or Bestseller lists increases exposure. Badges act as social proof that increases trust and improves conversion.

Research shared recently suggests that earning a Bestseller badge can temporarily increase paid conversion by roughly 25% for several months. — Thanks to Mack Collier for this info.

Early visibility doesn’t just feel good, it creates a structural advantage.

Manually counting these lists every week wasn’t realistic.

And once you know something can be solved with code, doing it manually becomes unbearable.

Building this system wasn’t easy. I hadn’t written production code in nearly two decades. Modern tooling felt intimidating. But watching women in this community ship ambitious, technical work made one thing clear:

If they could build, so could I.

The story of how the tracker was built lives in a separate post, which I’ll link here.

This post is about why we’re tracking at all.

Going forward, this becomes part of our rhythm. We will take weekly snapshots and share them with you, our readers.

This leaderboard isn’t about calling anyone out. It’s about refusing to let structural imbalance remain invisible.

Now that we’re watching, we plan to keep watching and sharing what we learn along the way.

Here’s what we learned in the first two weeks.

Tracking the lists is only the first step.

Our goal isn’t just to measure who shows up on the Technology lists; it’s to understand what actually helps more women get onto them.

On Substack, women reach the lists by gaining paid subscribers. That means two things have to be true at the same time:

1. More people need to find and read their work
2. Their publications need to convert when readers arrive

We’re focusing on both.

Most people assume strong writing eventually rises on its own.

It doesn’t. It needs to be amplified. Here’s our approach.

We will keep featuring women in tech writing on Substack and sharing their work directly with our subscribers.

We will continue highlighting, restacking, and engaging with women’s posts so their work travels beyond their immediate networks.

We have also started a new notes series spotlighting one woman writing about technology on Substack.

Here is the first one we published.

Recommendations are one of the simplest and most powerful tools available on Substack to boost a publication’s visibility.

We’ve seen this firsthand. In January alone, 65 of the 241 new subscribers who joined Code Like a Girl came through recommendations. That’s not a nice-to-have. That’s impact.

We follow and subscribe to hundreds of women writing about technology, AI, and robotics. But when we look across recommendation lists, a pattern keeps showing up: in roughly one third of them, women don’t appear at all.

To counteract this, we’ll continue to:

• Explain how recommendations actually work
  Not as etiquette, but as infrastructure that shapes discovery.
• Model intentional recommending
  We recommend every writer we publish, because visibility should travel with the work.
• Remind our community why this matters
  Recommending women in tech isn’t symbolic; it directly affects who gets seen, followed, and paid attention to.

Our monthly newsletter, Women Rising, is where we bring this work together with visibility analysis, practical publishing insights, and a celebration of the most-read Code Like a Girl stories across both Substack and Medium.

We’ll cover topics like branding, SEO, collaborations, and self-promotion that will always be grounded in real examples from within the Code Like a Girl community.

Next month's newsletter will be focused on branding. We’re currently working through our own visual rebrand, and we’ll share what we’re learning along the way.

If you want a sneak peek at what our image branding will look like, take a look at the image in this post.

For our Medium writers, this work continues here as well. We’re still submitting stories for boosting and featuring on Medium, and we’ll continue highlighting Medium stories as part of Women Rising.

We’ll close this edition by highlighting the most-read Code Like a Girl stories from January, across both Substack and Medium.

A reframing of what “technical” actually means in an AI-mediated world. This piece shows how relational thinking, clarity, and judgment, which are skills women are often penalized for, are becoming central to effective AI use. You don’t need permission to belong here.

This essay dismantles the myth of the “leaky pipeline” and shows how girls are sorted out of technical confidence long before adulthood. It argues that STEM futures are decided at kitchen tables, not boardrooms and names exactly where the erosion begins.

A forensic look at how identical AI-assisted work is judged differently depending on who uses it and why neurodivergent women pay the highest price. By framing AI as access rather than cheating, this piece exposes the quiet competence penalties still shaping technical careers.

Denise tells a deeply human story about mentorship, confidence, and learning to stop making yourself small in technical spaces.

Spanning decades, the essay connects early career moments to later battles over ownership, credit, and boundaries. It’s a reminder that technical competence isn’t just about skill, it’s about believing yourself the first time you’re right.

Vinita examines the internal shift leaders must make as their scope grows — from solving problems themselves to creating conditions where others can succeed.

It challenges performance-based identity and highlights the quieter, harder work of trust, restraint, and systems thinking. A grounded take on leadership that resonates well beyond management titles.

Ms. DataByte takes a data-first approach to career anxiety in analytics, scraping thousands of Reddit posts to separate signal from noise.

The analysis reveals a “panic loop” driven less by AI job loss and more by skill overload and market uncertainty. Instead of hype, the piece offers evidence and a calmer, more grounded view of what’s actually happening in data careers.

Join Code Like a Girl on Substack or keep following along on Medium.

Note to our readers:
We will be taking some time off in starting March 12th through to March 22nd.

Women Rising: Why Women inTech Writers Are Invisible on Substack was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Your first week as a software engineer feels like this:

You open the repo.
Your laptop fan starts screaming.
There are folders inside folders inside folders.
Nothing makes sense.

And the loudest thought in your head is
“I thought I knew how to code.”

Welcome to the biggest lie in engineering education ever sold to you.

In college, problems are polite.

• One file
• One purpose
• One right answer

In corporate, code is archaeology.

Every line has a backstory:

• “This was added for a client who left in 2019.”
• “Don’t touch this; it breaks prod.”
• “Yes, it’s ugly, but it works.”
• “Comments are added, but they are a little outdated.”

You’re not reading logic.
You’re reading decisions made under pressure by people who no longer work there.

The Takeaway:
When you see “bad” code, don’t immediately judge it as a lack of skill. It is likely the result of a specific constraint (a 2019 deadline, a vanished client, a legacy bug). Before you refactor or “fix” something, you must understand the context of why it was built that way, or you risk breaking an invisible dependency.

New engineers often say:

“This code is terrible.”

What they mean is:

“I don’t understand the constraints this code was written under.”

Deadlines.
Legacy systems.
Backward compatibility.
Managers who wanted it shipped yesterday.

Clean code is a luxury.
Surviving code is what companies actually run on.

The Takeaway:
Being a “10x developer” isn’t about how fast you type; it’s about how efficiently you can navigate a 500-folder repo without panicking. The goal of your first few months isn’t to contribute 1,000 lines of code; it’s to build the mental map of how data flows through the system.

You think the gap is:

“I need to learn more algorithms.”

The real gap is

• Reading unfamiliar code without panicking
• Making changes without breaking invisible dependencies
• Understanding why something exists before “fixing or replacing” it

The Takeaway:
You have to balance your desire for “elegant architecture” with the reality of business needs. Seniority is knowing when to write a perfect abstraction and when to write a “safe” fix that keeps production running.

Here’s the dangerous loop:

1. You don’t understand the system
2. You assume others do
3. You stop asking questions
4. You struggle alone
5. You conclude, “I’m not good enough.”

Meanwhile, seniors are Googling the same things you are — 
They’re just calmer about it.

Confidence in the corporate isn’t about knowing everything.
It’s about being comfortable not knowing yet.

The Takeaway:
Imposter syndrome often stems from a lack of “accumulated familiarity.” The difference between a junior and a senior is that the senior doesn’t see confusion as a sign of incompetence; they see it as the first step of the task.

Someone commits 20 files.
Someone talks fluently in meetings.
Someone says, “This is trivial.”

What you don’t see:

• How long did they take to get there
• How many times have they broken things earlier
• How much context do they already have

You compare your inside confusion with their outside confidence.
That comparison is unfair—and brutal.

The Takeaway:
Feeling “stupid” is a signal of growth. To avoid burnout and overwhelm, narrow your scope. If you can explain exactly how one function works by the end of the day, you have succeeded. Software engineering is a marathon of “small clicks” of understanding that eventually form a complete picture.

Stop thinking:

“I should understand everything.”

Start thinking:

“Today I’ll understand one small part slightly better.”

One service.
One flow.
One function.

That’s how senior engineers are made.
Not through brilliance—through accumulated familiarity.

Feeling stupid in a big codebase is a first step towards growth.
Now, you know the distance to be covered.

If you are NOT feeling this way,
It would mean you’re not actually learning anything real.

And that would be the real problem.

You Don’t Suck at Coding. You’re Just Meeting a Real Codebase. was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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