♦

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.

      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 professional con artists 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.   

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.

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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.

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:

• 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.