Biker stops in Belleville on water education tour around Lake Ontario

By Tyson Leonard

BELLEVILLE (05/07/12) Paul Baines is biking around Lake Ontario to promote water education. Photo by Tyson Leonard.

Paul Baines is promoting water education by biking around Lake Ontario.

Baines is a college teacher from Toronto. He will be teaching a global citizenship program at Centennial College in Scarborough starting this fall.

He said the program has a lot to do with what his bike tour is about, but it was interacting with water throughout his life that initiated his interest in water sustainability.

“I grew up in Toronto and I lived along the water. I jogged and rode my bike along the water but I never really saw the other side of it. In the last little while I’ve become increasingly curious about water issues and water sustainability,” said Baines.

He stopped in Belleville on July 5 during the final leg of his trip.

Baines said cycling was the best way to interact with people throughout the tour.

“Cycling is a great way to talk to people about what their interests are, what there connections are to the water, what their worries are when it comes to water, and also for me to experience different swimming, fishing, economic, and recreation conditions around Lake Ontario,” said Baines.

Baines started his tour on June 18 in Hamilton and biked counter-clockwise from there. He said he expects to finish up in Hamilton around July 19.

“People feel pretty passionate about their access to the water,” said Baines.

Along the tour Baines said he has met with a lot of people who are passionate but generally unaware of how the lake is governed over.

Baines said he hopes peoples’ passion will translate into action.

The tour is meant to promote the idea of the Great Lakes as a commons.

Baines is promoting the commons approach on his tour through his online, Great Lakes commons map. Anyone who wants to share a story, idea, criticism, or anything else connected to water can do so through the map. When each person uploads his or her comments to the map it can be seen by anyone.

The Council of Canadians is another organization that also hopes to see the Great Lakes become a commons. They describe a Great Lake commons as no one owning the water but rather it being a common heritage that belongs to other species, and future generations.

“It’s really about this idea of stewardship. Rather than letting governments or corporations do everything, the people who depend upon a resource should have a level of control over how that resource or service or space is governed,” said Baines.

Baines said the idea extends farther than water issues but that’s what he is focusing on right now because it relates to so much in life.

“People have always had a connection to water, be it through drinking water, farming or recreation,” said Baines.

Baines talked to a famer in Prince Edward County about his issues with water sustainability.

“He was trying to grow organic food but his neighbours are spraying chemicals on their plants, which then goes into the soil, which then goes into the water table, and then his plants have to use that same water,” said Baines.

During the bike tour Baines said he met a lot of people that felt uninformed about water issues.

“I do feel the conservation authorities, environmental organizations, and government departments need to spend more time and energy on making these issues more accessible to the general public and also target the different communities with local issues,” said Baines.

Baines said the bike tour is a small part of a big project focused on educating people about water.

*Original story stated that Paul Baines biked clockwise from Hamilton when he actually biked counter-clockwise.