April Update 2025

Dear Friends of Kingston Inner Harbour,
Thanks Hilbert, once again, for this picture of a young bald eagle.
How wonderful the birds are at this time of year.

URGENT! TRAIL CLEAN-UP SAT, APRIL 19,
9 AM START
MEET AT RIVER AND RIDEAU STREETS.

PLEASE COME! WE REALLY NEED HELP!
LAST YEAR WE WERE ONLY 3! WE REALLY NEED 30!

WEAR GLOVES AND POSSIBLY RUBBER BOOTS.
BREAD AND BUTTER BAKERY ARE PROVIDING GOODIES FOR US.
EVEN A HALF HOUR WOULD BE HELPFUL!!!!!

WE ALSO REALLY NEED A TRUCK! –
TO TRANSPORT FULL BAGS FROM THE TRAIL.
If you can help with a truck please phone me at 613-544-1246

LOCAL ISSUES AND EVENTS
1. Friends of Kingston Inner Harbour Divesting of Charitable Status June 1, 2025
2. All Candidates Kingston Debate – YourTV April 18 + YouTube
3. LaSalle Causeway Open for Boats April 19; Closed to Traffic, Cyclists and Pedestrians
4. Earth Week Events – April 19, 25, 26 & 27
5. St. Vincent de Paul Spring/Summer Clothing/Food Drive
6. Forest Management Strategy
7. Official Plan and Integrated Mobility Plan – https://getinvolved.city
8. Canadian Flags Approved by Council; Watch for Distribution Updates
9. Slower Speeds. Safer Streets
10. Tariff Business Support for Kingston Businesses
11. Household Hazardous Waste Depot to Open for 2025 Season
12. Notice of Intention to Designate Kingston Pen as Heritage
13. Our Liveable Solutions Update: Housing at Crossroads Church
14. Councillor Jeff McLaren’s Co-operative Housing Update
15. Jane’s Walks 2025, Fri, May 2 – Sun, May 4

FROM FARTHER AFIELD
16. Liberal Housing and Economic Announcements
17. Mark Carney’s Housing Plan is a Big Step Forward
18. Opinion: Here’s Why We Will Survive Donald Trump’s Tariffs- the Answer is Right in Front of Us
19. An ‘all-in-Canada’ Supply Chain? How ‘Backward Integration’ Could Work
20. Port of Churchill Sees Renewed Interest as Canada Looks to Diversify Trade Routes
21. Carney Pledges $5-Billion in Trade Infrastructure to Diversify Economy
22. Excellent Piece on Tariffs

FOR FUN AND GENERAL INTEREST
23. Dinosaurs at Pump House Museum
24. Special Screening and Chat with Loreena McKinnett, Apr 16, National Cdn Film Day, Apr 16
25. Easter Crafts and Games for Kids

LOCAL ISSUES AND EVENTS
1. Friends of Kingston Inner Harbour Divesting of Charitable Status, June 1, 2025
It is with both sadness and a sense of relief that we are divesting ourselves of federal Charitable Status although we will still retain our Provincial Non-Profit Corporation status.
We are making this decision for the following reasons:
– We are no longer engaging in community projects for which we need to apply for grants,
– Filing tax returns is a hassle,
– I am 84 and not sure how much longer I will be around (although I expect to live to 100 – lol)
– despite efforts to find interested parties to take over, nobody has expressed interest
As a result, we will no longer be issuing charitable receipts as of June 1, 2025.
I will be paying the expenses of my newsletter myself.
If you would like to contribute for me to buy some office supplies to last me a year, I would be grateful but that would have to be before June 1.
Also, we are looking for a charitable organization where we can deposit our current assets, with the possibility of taking them out to pay legal expenses in case we have to fight the $70 million dollar fiasco that Transport Canada and Parks Canada are still proposing – dredging and capping sections of Kingston’s Inner Harbour and installing offshore shoals thereby, according to our experts, creating mosquito-infested backwaters with dead fish off the Doug Fluhrer Park shoreline.
If the funds are not needed for this legal purpose, accommodations can be made to donate the funds to the charity willing to help out.

2. Kingston All Candidates Debate
Received from Scott Meyers, April 7 – Scott Meyers
We, at YourTV, are recording the Kingston Chamber of Commerce event on April 15 at 830am.
We will be broadcasting it on Friday, April 18th at 7pm.
YourTV Ch 100 on Epico, 700 on HD and 13 on standard definition.
We will also post it on our youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@yourtvkingston
So far that is the only event these candidates have agreed to take part in.

3. LaSalle Causeway Open for Boats April 19; Closed to Traffic, Cyclists and Pedestrians
Received from the City of Kingston April 7, 2025
Ahead of the 2025 lift operations for the federally owned and operated LaSalle Causeway, the City of Kingston is sharing the transportation mitigation measures that will be in place to support causeway users throughout the marine navigation season. It’s expected that the federally owned and operated LaSalle Causeway will complete the first lift of the 2025 season on Saturday, April 19 from 9 a.m. to midnight. During this time, the LaSalle Causeway would not be available to motorists, pedestrians or cyclists.
The draft 2025 lift operation schedule was developed by Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) and is subject to approval by Transport Canada. During Transport Canada’s comment period, the City and its partners offered input that, if lifts were required, a Sunday lift schedule would provide the least inconvenience for residents, tourists and local businesses.
Traffic and transit strategies during scheduled closures
To address potential traffic congestion and provide alternate travel options, the City is implementing several mitigation strategies:

Monitoring and adjusting traffic light timing along affected routes, including Montreal Street at John Counter Boulevard, and along Highway 15.
Sharing information about trip planning tools, such as Google Maps and Waze, for motorists and providing a live web cam of the Waaban Crossing.
Establishing flexible transit routing during lift operations to minimize impacts to riders.
Updating real-time transit information via the Transit app, or your preferred map and travel app.

Subscribe for regular updates
Residents and visitors are encouraged to plan ahead by signing up for email notifications from both the City of Kingston (select Road and Parking Notices) and Public Services and Procurement Canada. Transit riders can subscribe to notices by selecting Transit News and Service Alerts.
Questions or concerns about the lift operation schedule can be directed to the office of the Member of Parliament for Kingston and the Islands. Questions about transit schedules can be directed to the City’s Customer Experience team at ContactUs@CityofKingston.ca or 613-546-0000.

4. Earth Week Events – April 19, 25, 26 & 27
i) Friends of Kingston Inner Harbour Trail Clean-Up. Sat, Apr 19
Meet at River and Rideau Sts. 9 am start.

ii) Turtle Day at Cat 10, Fri, April 25 am
Received from CityFlats March 31 – Duncan Bourke, Vice President, Development
What: Public Educational Session + Q&A about the CityFlats Development + Turtle Fences, Signs, Nests
Who: CityFlats, Neighbours, and Turtles Kingston
Where: The greenspace just south of the Woolen Mill
When: Fri, April 25, 9-10 am
Notes: Refreshments provided. All welcome!
More Info: Duncan Bourke – duncan@cityflats.ca 613-542-0503, 302 Wellington St, Kingston

iii) City of Kingston Earth Day Event, Sat, April 26, Confederation Park, 1 pm
Received from kingstonlive.ca/show/734850. More details to be added soon.
Featuring Speakers, Community Booths, Activities, Vendors, Drumming, Dancing, and much more!
Family Friendly. All Welcome!
Special thanks to Sustainable Kingston, Kingston Native Centre and Language Nest, Seniors for Climate Action Now, New Climate Stories and many more
Contact: Yessi at ollinkingston@gmail.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/1918426075596949

iv) Earth Day 2025 Celebration at Memorial Centre, Sunday April 27. 11am-4pm
Received from SCAN and 350Kingston, April 4, 2025 – Abbie Miolee – abbiemoilee@gmail.com
I’m reaching out on behalf of the team of climate activists organizing this year’s Earth Day event, which mainly consists of folks from SCAN!, 350 Kingston, and New Climate Stories.
We appreciate the amazing work you’re doing in the community and would like to invite you to have a booth at Earth Day! It will be on Sunday, April 27th from 11-4 at the Memorial Centre, with live music, speakers, drumming, arts and crafts, and more.
Food will not be provided but is available at the Farmers’ Market in the barn onsite.

Below is the link to RSVP if you’d like to have a table. It’d be a great opportunity to network, attract support and engagement for your group, meet like-minded individuals and organizations, and celebrate our beautiful home in community!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfvkfV9odV_DTQzzUdGsvrXkcv84RI4DxNvT99PgUBzA_oRng/viewform
Kingston’s Earth Day theme this year is “Our Power/Our Planet.”

5. St. Vincent de Paul Spring/Summer Clothing/Food Drive
Received from Councillor Paul Chaves’s Loyalist-Cataraqui District April Newsletter, March 31, 2025
I am sponsoring another clothing/food drive for St. Vincent de Paul.
I have been a proud supporter of St. Vincent de Paul ever since I found out they give all their donated items to their clients for free. This was what I was looking to do with my donated items, something to have a greater impact for our community. Here is a list of items they are always looking for the spring/summer.

Donated Requested Items:
· Summer clothing (warm sweaters but mostly shorts, t-shirts and dresses)
· Waterproof clothing (rain jackets)
· Umbrellas
· Rain ponchos
· Rubber boots
· Sandals
· Summer essentials – sunscreen, bug spray, summer hats
· Beach towels and bathing suits
· Hygiene products
· Adult depends (large and extra large being requested most often)
· Men’s clothing
· Bedding
· Kitchen items
· Shoes
· Undergarments (both men and women)
· Baby products (formula, diapers of all sizes, and other snacks)
· Tarps

Emergency Pantry Requested Items:

Non-perishable foods
- Our pantry focuses on the basics to be sure people can have staples in their pantries at home. We often provide pasta, pasta sauce, canned protein (tuna, chicken, peanut butter etc.), soup, beans, cereal, and vegetables. We are always happy to accept all non-perishable items to our pantry as it allows us to offer the community more.
Baby Formulas and Food
Can Openers
Toiletries (soap (bar or liquid), toothbrush, toothpaste, lotion, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, razors, new hairbrushes, tampons, and pads)

6. Forest Management Strategy
The City of Kingston is developing a Forest Management Strategy for its rural and urban forest and woodland areas. The new Forest Management Strategy will have a 20-year planning horizon. Public engagement will help shape the development of the Forest Management Strategy and learn more about the state of Kingston’s rural and urban forest.
Survey available until May 11 at at
https://getinvolved.cityofkingston.ca/forest-management-strategy?utm_source=ehq_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ehq-Get-Involved-Kingston-Rodden-Park-Community-Forests-Rural-Community-Program-Fund-and-Forest-Management-Strategy&utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ehq
You can also subscribe for updates and submit comments at that site.

Editor’s Note: Vicki Schmolka has a truly excellent blog on substack. The one on trees is so informative. vickischmolka@substack.com
We really have to get serious about increasing the city’s tree canopy – especially in light of the huge amount of development projected. This is urgent!

7. Official Plan and Integrated Mobility Plan – https://getinvolved.city – April 24, 6-8 pm

What’s YG220K? It’s a shared vision for the future of Kingston carrying us forward for the next 25 years. YG220K is the amalgamation of YGK – the city’s airport code and regional identifier – and 220K, short for 220,000, which is the population Kingston is expected to hit by 2051.
YG220K is a rewrite of the City of Kingston’s Official Plan, which is a document that guides our city’s future land use, growth and change and the City of Kingston’s Transportation Plan, now called the Integrated Mobility Plan, which guides our city’s future transportation network.
Information Session April 24, 6 – 8 pm at Memorial Hall
This will be an opportunity for you to hear an update on the project’s progress so far and contribute input or ask questions.
Date: April 24
Time: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m
Location: Memorial Hall, second floor of City Hall 216 Ontario St.
Format: Introduction and overview followed by facilitated activities
If you can’t make it to this information session, there will be additional opportunities to participate as work on these plans progresses. Details from the session will also be shared on the YG220K project page, and we’ll send out an update to project followers once those details have been posted.
We hope to see you on April 24. – YG220K Project Team
More Info: https://www.cityofkingston.ca/news/posts/yg220k-hosts-first-public-information-session/

8. Canadian Flags Approved by Council; Watch for Distribution Updates
Received from the City of Kingston, April 4, 2025
We’re still putting the “eh” in ETA.
On April 1, 2025, Kingston City Council passed a motion to provide Canadian flags free of charge to Kingston residents.
City staff have been directed to source, distribute and communicate the details of the availability.
The City is in the process of purchasing approximately 300 Canadian flags for community distribution. Flags will be available on a first-come, first-served basis at various City facilities, with a limit of one flag per household. The flags are expected to arrive later this month.
For updates on when and where you can pick up a free flag, please continue to check our website, social media and news releases. You can also contact us by phone at 613-546-0000 or by email at ContactUs@cityofkingston.ca.

9. Slower Speeds. Safer Streets
Received from the City of Kingston via Facebook, April 5, 2025
In most residential areas, the speed limit is being reduced to 40 km/h. New ‘AREA’ speed limit signs are being installed at the entrances to neighbourhoods.
Directly in front of schools along local roads, speed limits are being further reduced to 30 km/h.
Why lower speed limits? Because safety is the priority.
Driving at lower speeds means fewer collisions and reduced severity if they happen. For pedestrians, the probability of a fatal outcome is significantly lower when vehicles travel at or below 40 km/h compared to 50 km/h.
Neighbourhood speed limit reductions are rolling out in several phases.
Check the status of speed limit changes in your neighbourhood on this interactive map:https://experience.arcgis.com/…/6505bfaafffe446d9462ca…/

10. Tariff Business Support for Kingston Businesses
Received from Kingston Economic Development Weekly Digest, April 7, 2025
http://www.investkingston.ca/tariff-support/?mc_cid=5060c9a969&mc_eid=ecdc42de92

11. Household Hazardous Waste Depot to Open for 2025 Season
Received from the Kingstoist, March 28 – Jessica Foley
https://www.kingstonist.com/news/household-hazardous-waste-depot-to-open-for-2025-season/
The depot at 196 Lappan’s Lane will accept household hazardous waste items on Thursdays from 8 am to 5 pm and on Saturdays from 8 am to 4 pm.

Hazardous Waste Items include: adhesives, aerosol containers, antifreeze, batteries (all kinds), lightbulbs (all kinds), fire extinguishers, fuels, household cleaners, mercury devices (switches, thermometers, thermostats), oil, paint, propane cylinders, and solvents.

Residential yard waste acceptable materials include: leaves, yard waste & brush – 196 Lappan’s Lane Open Monday to Friday from 8 am to 5 pm, Saturday from 8 am to 4 pm

It is important to stay in your vehicle while waiting for an attendant to direct you and bring proof of residence such as a driver’s license.

Do not bring: asbestos or smoke detectors (smoke detectors can go in your garbage)
To dispose of explosives, flares, or ammunition, contact the Kingston Police at 613-549-4660

Out of date pharmaceuticals can be dropped off at Street Health Pharmacy, 115 Barrack St. or Quarry Medical Pharmacy at 100 Princess St.
More info: www.CityofKingston.ca/WasteLookup

12. Notice of Intention to Designate Kingston Pen as Heritage
Received from the City of Kingston, April 8, 2025
The following property to be of Cultural Heritage Value and Interest Pursuant to the Provisions of the Ontario Heritage Act (R.S.O. 1990, Chapter 0.18)
Take Notice that the Council of The Corporation of the City of Kingston intends to pass a By-Law under Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act, R.S.O. 1990, Chapter 0.18, to designate the following lands to be of cultural heritage value and interest:
560 King Street West (Block 183-184 and 192, Plan 54, Except Part 1 on Reference Plan 13R-14792; Together with Easement over Part Block 182, Plan 54, Being Part 12 on Reference Plan 13R-18756 as in FC46925, City of Kingston, County of Frontenac), known as Kingston Penitentiary;
The property includes 8.5 hectares of land on the south side of King Street West at the terminus of Sir John A Macdonald Boulevard and is adjacent to Portsmouth Olympic Harbour (formerly Hatter’s Bay) within the Portsmouth Village neighbourhood of the City of Kingston.
Kingston Penitentiary (KP) was the first purpose-built penitentiary in Canada and, at the time of its construction, embodied the most enlightened concepts for the reformation of incarcerated individuals. It is a major institutional complex of largely 19th and early 20th century buildings designed in the neoclassical style and constructed of local limestone. Taken together, the structures, landscape, spatial arrangement and rich layers of meaning associated with KP comprise a cultural heritage landscape that has local, provincial and national significance.
Kingston Penitentiary (KP) has design value for its high degree of technical achievement, artistic merit and craftsmanship related to its prototypical configuration, layout and spatial organization, in addition to its rich collection of well-crafted 19th century neoclassical structures.
The 19th century site plan prioritized symmetry, to support ‘an ordered universe’, with a primary north-south axis from the entrance portico/North Lodge carried through the centre of the Main Cell Block and the South Workshop’s Greek-cross design. This symmetry was also expressed in the location/orientation of the Dining Hall/Chapel and Hospital buildings, west and east of the Main Cell Block, and the similar locating of the East and West Workshops relative to the main South Workshop.
The property’s fine craftsmanship is exhibited in its use of materials and construction methods.The property is a rare and early example of a closed-loop sustainability model of construction.
The property displays a very high level of workmanship and elements of technical achievement, particularly exemplified in the ‘flying’ staircase executed in cut stone at the South Workshop rotunda, the remarkable groin-vaulted ceiling in sections of the South Workshop, the basement of the Dining Hall and on the main level of the North Lodge. Also of note are the cast iron ‘winged’ columns designed by Edward Horsey for the Dining Hall that represents an early technical achievement in the use of exposed structural iron.

The buildings within KP that contribute to the property’s overall cultural heritage value and interest include:

The North Lodge (1841-6) with bell cupola (1895);
The guard towers, particularly the northeast (c.1840) and northwest (1852) towers, and sections of the prison walls;
The Main Cellblock building (1834-57), excluding the modern gymnasium (1951), kitchen (1956) and disassociation wing (1948);
The South Workshop (1846-8);
The Chapel and Dining Hall (1849-52);
The Hospital (1847);
The West Workshop (1858-9 and 1876-82);
The East Workshop (1855-8) with extant isolation cells (1889);
The Keeper’s Hall (1911); and
The Women’s Prison (1913).

KP possesses historical and associative value because it has direct associations with a number of Themes, Persons and Events and demonstrates the work of various architects that are significant to Kingston, the Province of Ontario and to Canada.
KP was designed to incorporate the most progressive ideas regarding punishment of its day. The very idea of the “penitentiary” – a state-run facility based on principles of reform, rather than simply incarceration – was still relatively new when KP was built.
Established in 1835, KP was among the first wave of penitentiaries constructed in North America. The creation of KP was an important step towards a modern, systemic, and rational treatment of legal transgressors. The history and events that occurred at KP provides an understanding of the historic role of corporal punishment and the treatment of youth, women and those experiencing mental illness in the penal system in Canada in the 19th and early 20th century.
Significant people associated with KP include Hugh Thompson, John Macaulay, Henry Smith, Henry Smith Jr., Philip Pember, Dr. James Sampson, Thomas Kirkpatrick, The Reverend William Herchmer, George Brown and John Creighton, as well as Architects Wiliam Coverdale, Edward Horsey and James Adams.
Kingston Penitentiary has direct association with the 1848 Brown Commission report that charged Warden Henry Smith with 119 counts of mismanagement of the facility and the neglect and abuse of incarcerated individuals, leading to substantive changes to the Canadian penal system.
The federal penitentiary system has been a dominant part of Kingston’s socio-economic life throughout most of its history. Kingston has served as the premier focus of the federal penitentiary system in Ontario from its inception. KP has strong contextual value because of its importance in defining, maintaining and supporting the character and growth of Portsmouth Village and the City of Kingston. It is physically and visually linked to its surroundings and is a landmark of national significance.
Additional information, including a full description of the reasons for designation is available upon request from Ryan Leary, Senior Heritage Planner, Heritage Services at 613-546-4291, extension 3233, or at RLeary@CityofKingston.ca during regular business hours, or by visiting the Development and Services Hub at CityofKingston.ca/DASH.
Any notice of objection to this notice of intention to designate the property, setting out the reason for objection and all relevant facts, must be served upon the City Clerk within 30 days of the first publication of this notice.
Dated at the City of Kingston
This 8th day of April, 2025
Janet Jaynes, City Clerk
City of Kingston

13. Our Liveable Solutions Update: Housing at Crossroads Church
At Our Livable Solutions (OLS), we continue to hear from people in need of housing who are eager to see Crossroads Village become a reality. Our dedicated staff, who bring invaluable lived experience to support residents as they transition out of homelessness, want to return to work to help create lasting change.
Homelessness continues to grow in Kingston and across Canada, and it’s clear that we need diverse initiatives that reflect the needs of those we support. That’s why we’re committed to making Crossroads Village a reality.

In the coming weeks, you may notice some activity on the land OLS has leased from Crossroads United Church for just $1 per year to host Crossroads Village. Thanks to the dedication of our Play Gaming & Entertainment volunteers, we’ve been able to secure funding to partner with Groundworks Engineering Ltd for a vital geotechnical investigation. This investigation, costing $8,300+ HST, will provide essential engineering insights including:

Bearing capacity
Foundation design
Seismic site classification
Site excavation and backfill
Dewatering
Frost protection
Soil corrosivity

Given the history of the site as a former quarry for the Kingston Penitentiary, it’s essential we ensure the ground can support the helical piles needed for the common facilities building.

14. Councillor Jeff McLaren’s Co-operative Housing Update

A brief update: we met with representatives of Providence Village at 1200 Princess St and we all felt very good about the possibility of building on their land. Our values align with theirs and there are many synergies if we go there. some of the positives are: its is a more central location, a bigger location, and a more welcoming location. Providence Village will lease the land at cost so we will not have to buy the land and Providence Village will provide many more amenities too (like access to natural green space and forest on their property). Next Step is to collect some more information and make a presentation to Providence Village Board.

15. Jane’s Walks 2025, Fri, May 2 – Sun, May 4
Once again a truly wonderful series of walks being offered this year.
Always such a fun and entertaining weekend. Have a look at the amazing and wonderful varieety..
Of particular Inner Harbour interest:
Urban Birding with Hilbert Buist – 8 am Fri, Sat, and Sun from Doug Fluhrer Park to Skeleton Park
Sunday noon: Biking the K&P Trail with Roger Healey: Cycling Fun + Current Issues
Sunday at 2: Inner Harbour History and Current Political Issues with Mary Farrar
Sunday at 3:30 The Tannery Clearcut?with Kathleen O’Hara of No Clearcuts Kingston
https://janeswalkkingston.wordpress.com

FROM FARTHER AFIELD

16. Liberal Housing and Economic Announcements
Editor’s Note: I prefer to leave national politics to other sources. However because HOUSING is such a huge issue locally, I have included a couple of articles on Carney’s housing policies as I believe they are headed in the right direction. Have a look and decide for yourselves.
Received from Evan Schrimshaw, March 31 – scrimshawunscripted@substack.comI owe Nate Erskine-Smith an apology.
In December, I took the news of Nate’s decision to take the Housing portfolio pretty fucking badly, thinking (not necessarily unreasonably, given the polling) that Nate was signing up for a stint on the Titanic, and that it would be a worthless job and an anchor to his political career.
And now the Liberal Party of Canada is proposing a public builder, over $25B in financing for prefabricated home builders, $10B in low interest financing for affordable home builders. They’re also working with municipalities to slash Development Charges in half for multi-unit building, working to cut needless red tape and zoning restrictions, making it easier to convert single family homes into affordable housing, and harmonize regulations that increase costs and create barriers for developers to work in multiple provinces and territories. It is an innovative plan that meets the scale of the crisis we face, and is proof of the seriousness Carney’s Liberals bring to the issue of housing.
The public builder is the newsiest bit, but I have to say, I have been banging the fucking drum on cutting Development Charges and filling the gaps with Federal dollars for months now, and to see Carney do it is remarkable. It’s a concrete step to get the cost of housing down, and it serves to help both home builders and home buyers make the math pencil out easier. Especially at a time when Canadian lumber, steel, and aluminum are at a tariff risk, spurring domestic demand for those products through more home building seems like a damn good idea.
The other part, beyond the public builder, that strikes me is the prefabricated builders financing. There’s a lot of money being thrown at innovative solutions in the prefab space, and this Policy Options article examines a lot of the benefits of prefab building. This is a big commitment to prefab as a source moving forward, that can cut costs, speed up timelines, and make it easier to achieve outcomes. The introduction of federal financing – both for prefab and traditional affordable builders – also gives certainty in an economic environment where there is little certainty elsewhere.
It’s also worth noting that prefab’s lower costs could work well for transitional and supportive housing, of the kind that we’ve completely abandoned in recent decades. If the government wants to end encampments and the kind of tent cities that have become commonplace in a way that’s better than just bulldozing them, then building more places for the homeless to go is a pretty key part of that. I assume this is not lost on the team at Housing.
The public builder is the most interesting idea, however, because it achieves both a policy objective and a political one. There’s been a lot of talk about how the left is going for the Goldman Sachs banker who is moving to the right, but that’s always been a dumb and facile understanding of what’s actually happening here. Mark Carney and the Liberals understand what happened to the housing market cannot merely be fixed through necessary market reforms, but by a return to public building. It’s a very crucial sign that a re-elected Carney government will not be bound by rigid ideology, and will listen to the best arguments.
I wrote before the Cabinet Shuffle that the Liberal left doesn’t need to be in control, we just need to be assured of having a seat at the table. The public builder kills any argument we don’t. This is a hugely significant step towards firmly putting the NDP in the single digits and keeping them there, because a solely market-oriented reform package would have seen the government attacked for being too centrist and insufficiently progressive. Now, that line is there.
That the Liberals are proposing both market and non-market solutions is hugely significant. If the housing crisis is as severe and serious as we all agree it is, then we need every tool in the toolkit to do so. We need pro-market reforms like cuts to DCs, tax incentives, and cuts to red tape and needless, duplicative regulation to spur housing, but we also need a more active Federal Government in building affordable and non-market housing.
The other part of this that’s worth enumerating is the sheer scale of the ambition here. This is a hugely ambitious agenda that has the potential to not merely stall the crisis getting worse but actually be transformative over the course of the next Parliament. It is the housing ambition dreams are made for. That this is the first truly big announcement the party is making of the campaign that isn’t a response to Trump is an even better sign that this truly will be the priority we all want it to be.
I know it can be cynical about this government’s housing record, and lord knows it was bad in the majority Parliament and the immigration decisions taken in 2022 added fuel to the fire. But this is not that government. With a new PM, a better immigration and housing policy set, and back to back Ministers of Housing who know their shit, this is a very good policy and a Liberal Party that is re-committed to best practices.
The honest truth is that this is the kind of policy agenda that I’ve been waiting for from a Liberal PM for years. Something this bold, this ambitious, this all encompassing. We have a serious plan to end the housing crisis, and Nate was right to think there was value in going into the Cabinet even when I didn’t see it.
Sorry, bud. Next time I’ll trust your instincts more.

17. Mark Carney’s Housing Plan is a Big Step Forward
Received from Canada’s National Observer, April 8, 2025 – Max Fawcett

When Mark Carney says it’s time to build, he clearly means it. Yes, the Liberal leader’s housing policy includes promises to cut the GST for new builds and reduce the regulatory red tape and development fees that have helped drive up housing costs in Canada. And yes, it includes $25 billion in financial support for what it describes as “innovative prefabricated home builders in Canada … using Canadian technologies and resources like mass timber and softwood lumber,” along with an additional $10 billion in low-cost financing for affordable home builders.
But the biggest component of Carney’s plan — and the biggest contrast to Pierre Poilievre’s own ideas on housing — is the direct involvement of the federal government in building homes. A new agency called Build Canada Homes would act as a developer of affordable housing, including on lands owned by the federal government. Even at the peak of previous federal involvement in the housing market, whether it was the co-operative housing boom of the 1970s or the post-war buildout of the late 1940s, the federal government never got this directly involved.
Then again, the housing crisis has never been as dire in Canada as it is right now. As TVO’s John Michael McGrath noted in his analysis of the Carney plan, “given the way housing starts have plummeted in Ontario in the last year there’s undeniably demand for a government (any government, but the feds will do) to step in and jump-start the housing sector.”
Doing it by emphasizing the role of prefabricated home builders has the added advantage of supporting Canadian manufacturers at a time when they’re under threat from America. As Carney wrote in an op-ed last March, “scaling up factory-built housing could speed up construction times, reduce costs and fast-track climate-smart features. Other housing construction innovations, such as low-carbon concrete and mass timber, are potential game-changers, and Canada’s resource industry can take the lead.”
Conservatives are, of course, deeply horrified by the prospect of a federal government doing more than just sending cheques to the provinces. Toronto Sun columnist Joe Warmington described Carney’s policy as “communism”, suggesting that it would “destroy the Canadian dream of owning a home and solidify the end of the middle class.” Jesse Kline, his colleague at the National Post, managed to reference both North Korea and the Soviet Union in his own predictably hysterical response.
The Financial Post’s Terence Corcoran, meanwhile, wrote that “the scope of the housing policy plans suggest a Carney Liberal government would become one of the most aggressive interventionist regimes in Canadian history, even beyond the scale set during world wars.” He might not want to threaten young Canadians with a good time here. After years of watching federal and provincial elected officials either do nothing about the housing crisis or just tinker at the margins, they might welcome a more activist and interventionist approach.
Here, yet again, Poilievre and his proxies may be badly misreading the public mood. In fairness, his previous prescription for eliminating so-called “gatekeepers” was correct, given the role municipalities and local homeowners consistently play in opposing increased housing density. But the Liberal government has implemented most of that prescription already through its Housing Accelerator Fund and the incentives it offers communities that embrace ambitious homebuilding targets. Poilievre, meanwhile, has been oddly silent in the face of anti-density NIMBYism coming mostly from his own ranks — and even members of his own caucus.
Both Pierre Poilievre and Mark Carney want to see more housing get built. There’s one key difference: while Poilievre sees yet another opportunity for cutting taxes and regulations, Carney wants to get the government more directly involved.
But in doubling down on tax cuts and regulatory relief, which is his preferred solution to almost every problem (including COVID-19), Poilievre is showing — yet again — that he can’t adapt to our changing circumstances. Re-running the same Thatcherite playbook that he’s been preaching from since he was a teenager won’t work in a world where the rules of economic engagement have been fundamentally altered. Cutting the GST on new builds over $1 million won’t help people who can’t afford anything at half that price, and eliminating capital gains on real estate investments doesn’t do much for people who don’t have any investments.
As to the “Soviet-style housing” that Postmedia pundits are pre-emptively turning their noses up at? I suspect most of them have never paid much attention to what social housing actually looks like in Canada. I happened to grow up in co-operative housing, none of which came even remotely close to being “Soviet-style”. They were vibrant places where people from diverse economic backgrounds came together and built deeply interconnected communities. One, in fact, was designed by a young Richard Henriquez, who would go on to become one of Canada’s most acclaimed architects.
That happened in large part because the federal government was willing to get involved, either by providing land or low-cost financing. With the housing crisis today now an order of magnitude (or two) bigger than it was in the 1970s, the scope for federal government involvement can and should expand accordingly. Mark Carney, at least, seems to get this.

18. Opinion: Here’s Why We Will Survive Donald Trump’s Tariffs- the Answer is Right in Front of Us.
Received from the Toronto Star, March 29 – Jim Stanford
https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/heres-why-we-will-survive-donald-trumps-tariffs-the-answer-is-right-in-front-of/article_84a72942-4c9c-49ed-97a7-373cc5cebf57.html

Canada’s economy has been thrown into jeopardy by U.S. President Donald Trump.
We are already losing jobs and investments after his recent announcement of a 25 per cent tariff on car imports, after 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum two weeks earlier.
Jim Stanford: In the face of Trump’s tariff threats, Canada can emerge stronger than ever. Here’s the plan
The next blow is expected Wednesday, when he’s scheduled to impose “reciprocal tariffs” on all countries which collect levies on imports from the U.S.
Logically, Canada should be spared from that, since almost all our U.S. purchases are already tariff-free — but that won’t stop Trump.
Bizarrely, he says policies like our GST and digital services tax are grounds for retaliation — even though they apply evenly to all products, wherever they’re made. Alas, we’ve learned by now that Trump’s concocted grievances have no relation to reality.
Canadians rightly fear what comes next.
After 35 years of free trade with America, all our export industries are very dependent on U.S. customers: minerals, forestry, energy, agriculture, manufacturing.
It won’t spell the end of Canada’s economy
Trump claims Canada is “not viable as a country,” and says he’ll use “economic force” to ultimately annex us. So our alarm is justified.
However, while disruptions in U.S.-bound exports will cause major pain and a recession, it won’t spell the end of Canada’s economy.
And we will certainly survive as a country. Indeed, in important ways, we are actually less reliant on foreign trade than commonly assumed.
Almost 80 per cent of what we produce never crosses a border. It’s produced in Canada, by Canadians, for Canadians.
Sure, more than half our minerals and manufactures go to other countries, mostly the U.S, and about a quarter of our agricultural output is exported, too.
But what about the rest of the economy? In other sectors, exports are much less important. In transportation and trade, exports (largely bought by tourists) make up 15 per cent of output.
In business and private services (including banking, technology, and management services), it’s under 10 per cent, and just five per cent of our utilities output is exported — mostly electricity, which we can always use at home.
These are industries Donald Trump can’t reach
In the broader public sector (including education and health care), just two per cent is exported, and the booming construction industry exports virtually nothing.
These are huge segments of Canada’s economy. They employ the vast majority of Canadian workers — producing goods and services in Canada, for Canadians. These are industries Donald Trump can’t reach.
Counterintuitively, exports have been shrinking in importance since the turn of the century.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
In the 1990s exports surged, after the initial Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (in 1989) and the subsequent NAFTA (in 1994).
The gross value of exports (more on this below) reached a peak of 45 per cent of Canadian GDP by 2000.
That export-reliance then began to unwind for various reasons. Services make up a growing share of the economy, and most services are not traded internationally.
Thinking global is important. But it isn’t everything.
Meanwhile, Canada’s manufacturing sector (highly export-dependent) contracted painfully in the 2000s, driven down by both trade pressures and a then-overvalued currency.
By 2010, the share of our economy represented by gross exports had fallen back to 30 per cent of GDP, where it has languished since.
Moreover, that measure of gross exports is misleading. Almost a third of the value of our exports consists of inputs, materials, and parts imported from other countries.
If we adjust for import content built into those exports, and instead measure the true domestic value-added of our exports, their relative importance shrinks further. Net (or value-added) exports constitute a bit more than 20 per cent of GDP. The rest, almost 80 per cent, is produced here — and stays here.
Expanding that huge non-traded portion of our economy will be essential to successfully rebuffing Trump. Boosting Canadian investments in infrastructure, housing, public services, and domestic trade will help.
Without doubt, our export industries are critical. We must do everything possible to protect them: finding new markets in other countries, new customers at home, and (hopefully) one day negotiating an end to this madness with our former ally.
But Trump’s claim Canada can’t survive without the U.S. is utterly false. We’re the tenth largest economy in the world. We have 40 million people: workers, consumers, citizens. We survived without depending on the U.S. in the past, and we will again.
Thinking global is important. But it isn’t everything.

19. An ‘all-in-Canada’ Supply Chain? How ‘Backward Integration’ Could Work
Received from Global News, March 29 – Uday Rana
https://globalnews.ca/news/11103394/donald-trump-tariffs-canada-election-ideas/
As U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war escalates, federal party leaders are pitching Canadians on plans that could re-imagine the country’s economy and core supply chains.
But can they work?
Trump announced another threatened round of tariffs, this time on automobile imports, earlier in the week, leading Prime Minister Mark Carney to pause his election campaign as Liberal leader to focus on Canada’s response as the April 2 tariff date nears.
Carney called for building Canada’s “economic autonomy” by building a fully-integrated Canadian supply chain.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Carney said he planned on “backwards integrating” the Canadian supply chain after stating that Canada’s “old relationship” with the U.S. “is over.”
Carney said Canada’s strategic response plan included “integrating the supply chain here domestically.”
He said, “I’m using fancy term — backwards integrating into steel, in aluminum to help our steel and aluminum industries that are used, and encourage that backwards integrating further into critical minerals and minerals that we’re going to develop.”
The concept of doing more here at home is one that continues to emerge on the campaign trail.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Friday talked about increasing housing production in Canada, using Canadian lumber, which is a sector that also faces U.S. tariff threats.
“We can build millions of new homes with Canadian lumber that will get the workers at this mill and in the forests of Canada, can make bigger paycheques, which they could bring to houses that they can afford to buy,” Poilievre said, while at a campaigning event at a lumber mill in B.C.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has said the NDP would use “every legal tool” to stop U.S. companies “who took public money (and) won’t be allowed to gut Canadian plants or ship out machinery and tools paid for by Canadians.”
“The NDP will mandate that federal departments and agencies—including Canada Post and the RCMP—purchase Canadian-made vehicles,” a party statement says.
“To support good jobs here at home, U.S. companies that want to sell vehicles in Canada would be required to use Canadian-made parts or assemble some of the vehicle in Canada. Singh also committed to exempting Canadian-made cars and trucks from the GST to support domestic manufacturing and encourage Canadians to buy Canadian.”
What does ‘backwards integrating’ mean?
Ernan Haruvy, a marketing professor at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management who holds a Ph.D. in economics, explained what the term “backwards integration” means.
“Backward integration just refers to integration between different suppliers and the supply chain,” he said.
“Essentially an integration of different parts of the supply chain into a single, cohesive, centralized unit that does everything.”
Campaigning as Liberal leader on Wednesday, before Trump announced his auto tariffs, Carney said his government would build an “all in Canada network for auto manufacturing components.”

The average car has around 30,000 individual parts that go through several steps on a single supply chain.
Raw materials, like steel and aluminum, are made in one facility, refined at another and added to a car part at a separate facility before it makes its way to an assembly plant to be fitted inside a car before you drive it out the dealership.
Explaining his plan to respond to Trump’s auto tariffs, Carney said, “The core of that (plan) is to build out the auto sector and our auto supply chain in Canada as much as possible, instead of autos going back and forth across the border six times and getting a tariff each time.”
The term “backwards integration” would mean connecting a later phase of the supply chain, like a car assembly plant, with an earlier phase, like a steel or aluminum plant or critical minerals so Canadian supplies in those strategic sectors become part of the supply chain for other strategic sectors.
Moshe Lander, economist at Concordia University, said, “Backward integration, as I would understand it, is: let’s start at the consumer and slowly work our way backward through the supply chain and make sure that the things closest to the consumer are going to be produced here in Canada.”economy
Can it be done in a modern economy?
Lander said it would be “extremely difficult” to have a separate supply chain in the modern economy.
“If we go back to the 1950s, it’s not that hard at all. But the fact is that because we have free trade with the U.S., Mexico and other countries, we realize that there’s certain parts of the production process that we shouldn’t be doing,” he said.
Dennis Darby, president and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said the supply chain is so integrated, it would be painful for industry to pry it apart.
“The steel might be made in Canada, stamped in the U.S. and then brought back in, assembled in a car here,” Darby said.
Drew Fagan, professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, said until the 1960s, the Canadian economy produced goods and services primarily for domestic consumption, in addition to some exports to the United States and the United Kingdom.
“That changed in particular with regard to autos in 1965 when Canada and the United States did a sectoral free trade agreement (the Auto Pact) and then changed more again in 1988 with the free trade agreement (NAFTA),” said Fagan, who is also a senior adviser at McMillan Vantage Policy Group.
Fagan was also assistant deputy minister for strategic policy and planning at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, before it became Global Affairs Canada.
Lander said before the 1950s, the auto manufacturing process in North America was clunky and ineffective. Cars were made in one single factory, start to finish.
The rise of just-in-time inventory meant car companies didn’t need to stockpile parts and thousands of factories, each focusing on one or two essential parts, sprung up across the continent.
Trump’s trade war threatens to break up this streamlined infrastructure.
Experts say it would take a significant amount of investment to retool some businesses and build entire homegrown industries.
“Entire companies need to restructure the way that they run their operations,” Haruvy said.
Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturing Association, is hopeful that Canada could continue to have a car industry even with U.S. tariffs.
“We don’t have a massive market, but we have enough to supply our own demand. All of that is rather complicated (and could take) 12 to 18 months to relocate supply,” he said.
Volpe said making everything within Canada was the more expensive option, but it’s a good contingency plan if Trump’s tariffs don’t go away.d, unwarranted and
Could Canadian aluminum make cans or bikes here?
Haruvy said the idea of building internal supply chain starts to look a lot easier when you think beyond the automobile.
For example, several Canadian breweries use cans that are manufactured in the United States using Canadian aluminum.
While there are still several steps in the supply chain, with the aluminum travelling from Quebec to be made into cans before coming back into Canada, it’s not quite as complicated as making a car.
Fagan added, “It may well be that cans end up being made in Canada because it’s now more economical because of the tariffs to make those cans in Canada than it is to send the aluminum to the United States to make the cans and bring them back.”
Haruvey said that Canada’s competitive advantage lies in being an exporter of raw material and intermediary goods. When it comes to consumer goods, Canada produces relatively little.
“We’re not exporters of finished goods, we’re importers of finished goods. So, all those imports we could replace with our own production. But it would take a major political undertaking on whoever is the prime minister to encourage domestic production,” he said.
More recently, Fagan said the Canadian economy proved quite nimble and was able to pivot to domestic production with one specific product — N95 masks.
“We saw during COVID, for example, that there was an importance that Canada or other countries produce their own masks,” he said.
“We didn’t have mask producers. Suddenly, masks become a matter of national security.”

20. Port of Churchill Sees Renewed Interest as Canada Looks to Diversify Trade Routes.
Received from the Toronto Star, March 30, 2025
https://www.thestar.com/business/port-of-churchill-sees-renewed-interest-as-canada-looks-to-diversify-trade-routes/article_f112d10e-d35d-5c71-b103-849f3cb33f30.html

21. Carney Pledges $5-Billion in Trade Infrastructure to Diversify Economy
Received from the Globe and Mail, March 29, 2025
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/federal-election/article-carney-pledges-5-billion-in-trade-infrastructure-to-diversify-economy/?login=true

22. Excellent Piece on Tariffs
Posted on Facebook by Roman Sheremeta, April 6 and shared by Andy Fa
In light of yesterday’s developments, I felt a bit compelled to post a much too long FB post on tariffs. There is a great deal of misunderstanding about how these work and what they will do flying around. Trump tells us that his tariffs will do 2 things. First, they will raise $6 trillion paid for by other countries. Second, they will revitalize American manufacturing and generate new high paying jobs and wealth for our country. All awesome things if they happened. At a minimum, though, it is mathematically impossible for both to come true. If we raise $6 trillion from the tariffs it is because we continue to buy from foreign countries rather than from US manufacturers. So no manufacturing revolution. If the manufacturing revolution occurs, then we aren’t buying from other countries and no $6 trillion emerges. So at most one of those things happens, but which one?
Could the manufacturing boom happen and would it generate jobs? No and no. There is an important misunderstanding here (ok, several) which is that we don’t manufacture in the US anymore. Domestic manufacturing is at record highs. So why are jobs in manufacturing down? It’s because it is done by robots, not people these days. Manufacturing jobs weren’t stolen by factories in Mexico. They were stolen by robots. This has been known for a long time by everyone except politicians trying to sell you on bad policy and “feel good” sound bites. If we increased manufacturing in the US, it would not create a ton of jobs for humans. We would be making our robots work more. As to whether we will create much more manufacturing, consider what you have to think about if you were a company planning new manufacturing in the US right now. First, you have to build a factory. Problem: all the components to build that factory are now tariffed so building that factory will be much more expensive than it was last year when it was already not worth building. Also, all your production inputs are tariffed. Your products will be super expensive. Second problem: who would work in it? Were you to build a factory dependent on labor, there aren’t workers. We are near full employment and we are kicking all immigrants out and shutting off new ones. This is one of the reasons you would have to rely on robots.
What about your ability to sell? Well, exporting is completely out. Other countries will block that and you will be too expensive anyway. Domestically, everyone will already be paying a lot more for things and so they will be buying less and you will be super expensive. By the time your factory is up and running, odds are good we are in full recession. It might be easier to get employees because of that, but no customers. So any manufacturing boom will only employ robots and it’s unlikely to happen anyway. Plus, we were already booming!
So what about that $6 trillion paid for by others? This is complicated. Everyone knows that it is the importer, i.e. us, who pays the tariff directly. So how could Trump claim other countries would pay it? There actually is a way for that to happen. Take Canadian steel as an example. If it gets tariffed and we have good substitutes like Japanese or Chinese steel, then we don’t have to buy the expensive Canadian steel and can buy elsewhere. Canadian steel companies then have pressure to price reduce so that they are less expensive unless they can find other customers. This means they shoulder the main burden of the tariff. We still pay more for less, but Canada takes some of the burden by setting lower prices. The key to that was the availability of less expensive substitutes. Trump set tariffs on everyone. We have no alternatives. We will take almost all of the surplus loss from these tariffs. We will pay a lot more and get a lot less. You might then think “well, just buy American steel!” There isn’t enough. We don’t produce all the types of steel needed or the quantity and even if we did, American companies would be jacking their prices up due to the demand increase and the fact that their competition is eased. We will still pay a lot more for a lot less and we will not generate new jobs for Americans either in the short or long run.
There is no coherent argument in favor of tariffs implemented this way. If you are thinking, “hey, give the guy a chance, how do you know?” Well, there is all of the clear economic theory leading to the arguments above. There is also a ton of historical evidence showing that all of that theory checks out. This is not a new policy design. It is one that people think up all the time. We know how it works. None of this is new. None of this is novel. None of it has been designed in an intelligent or purposive way. It’s just as dumb as taking ivermectin as a cancer treatment. Well, actually dumber still than that as there’s a chance ivermectin doesn’t harm you (not a great one, please don’t take that junk unless you are a horse with worms!). And I’m not going into the dumbness of how they actually arrived at these tariff numbers as their “process” simply boggles the mind at its stupidity (you should check it out so that you understand why he is tariffing stuff produced by penguins).
Why does Trump want to do it? I’m not a psychologist. I can’t say. It does fit in with his general policy agenda which is simply getting revenge on everyone he thinks has wronged him. This includes all the law firms he is shaking down for money because someone he doesn’t like used to work for the firm, the universities he is shaking down, the States he is shaking down and this is him doing it to other countries. This is policy agenda as designed by someone who only understands mafia style protection rackets. If you disagree and can mount a coherent explanation for why this tariff policy could achieve the claimed goals, great! Let me know. The administration has so far mounted no such argument and I don’t see one as possible, but I would be happy to see some argument for why it will work.
That aside, if you have questions along the lines of “well, why is it fair that other countries have tariffs against us and so this is just returning fairness”, that’s a reasonable question as trade policy is complicated but that is another monstrously long post. Happy to discuss it with you if you want the full explanation (short version, total barriers to trade are complicated and not fully captured just by tariff numbers. The US through a ton of US controlled international trade organizations have been pushing all of these to near 0 for decades setting all international trade standards in our favor. It’s part of why other countries somewhat justifiably hate us and among the reasons we used USAID for decades to pay them off in pennies for what we took back in hundreds and thousands of dollars.)
BTW, nothing in what I wrote above has anything to do with politics or any political party. It’s just straight math. In fact, what I wrote above was understood by Republicans for many decades prior to Trump. Democrats only started to embrace this view while Clinton was president but there have been a lot of holdouts in that party. Prior to Trump, Republicans argued this side and Democrats, except for Clinton and Obama, argued for tariffs. It’s a topsy turvy world but none of my points are constructed based on or intended to support the ideology of either party. It’s just math. Math doesn’t care about parties and neither do I.
We really need to start requiring some semblance of competence in the policy domain as this policy, if it remains for long and the trade war escalates, may be as destructive to world economies as the financial collapse of 2007. This time, the economic devastation is completely and easily preventable. Republicans, please rein in this guy. No one else can. The world needs your help.

FOR FUN AND GENERAL INTEREST
23. Dinosaurs at Pump House Museum
Received from the City of Kingston, April 7
Dinosaurs take over PumpHouse Museum with Dinosaurs Among Us exhibit
Dinosaurs are coming to Kingston! The City of Kingston’s PumpHouse Museum is thrilled to announce the opening of Dinosaurs Among Us, an extraordinary exhibition on loan from the American Museum of Natural History, opening April 15, 2025. The experience will run for a full year, offering visitors the chance to explore the astonishing connection between ancient dinosaurs and the birds that soar through our skies today.
Featuring vibrant, large-scale illustrations and fossil evidence, Dinosaurs Among Us delves into the evolutionary journey that transformed prehistoric giants into the birds we see every day. The exhibition showcases how dinosaurs developed feathers, how flight evolved, and how certain species adapted in ways that continue to shape life on Earth.
In addition to the main exhibition from the American Museum of Natural History, visitors can get a close-up look at dinosaur casts and specimens on loan from the Royal Ontario Museum, including a prehistoric ostrich skull, a full raptor cast, and a real dinosaur leg bone. A special feature from the Miller Museum of Geology will also highlight local fossils, offering a look at prehistoric life that once thrived in the Kingston region.
“Dinosaurs Among Us brings prehistoric life into the present, challenging the way we think about the world around us,” says Melissa Cruise, City Curator. “Visitors of all ages will be amazed to see the connections between dinosaurs and modern birds come to life right here at the PumpHouse Museum.”
Exhibit highlights:

The Evolution of Birds from Dinosaurs – Discover the fascinating journey of how certain dinosaur species evolved into modern birds, featuring vibrant scientific illustrations.
Dinosaur Fossils and Casts – Marvel at over a dozen fossilized dinosaur bones on loan from the Royal Ontario Museum and even touch a real dinosaur leg bone!
Local Prehistoric Discoveries – Explore fossils from the Kingston area, connecting our local history to the age of dinosaurs.
Engaging year-round programming – From Dino Trivia Nights to Dinosaur Murals and even Dino Skates, the PumpHouse Museum will offer exciting events throughout the year to complement the exhibit.
Fun and educational school programming available. Fossils & Feathers explores the connection between birds and dinosaurs. Thanks to our Velociraptor Visionary Sponsor, Loopstra Nixon LLP, for supporting educational programming.

Plan your visit
Location: PumpHouse Museum, 23 Ontario St., Kingston
Dates: April 15, 2025 – April 15, 2026
Admission: Included with museum entry
Suitable for all ages – Engaging enough for adults, interactive enough for young minds!
Dinosaurs Among Us is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (amnh.org), with support from Museo de Ciencias, Universidad de Navarra, Spain; North Museum of Nature and Science, United States; Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, Canada; and Universum Museo de las Ciencias de la UNAM, Mexico.
The exhibit features additional artifacts on loan from the Royal Ontario Museum and a special display from the Miller Museum of Geology.

24. Special Screening and Chat with Loreena McKinnett, Apr 16, National Cdn Film Day, Apr 16
Received from the Friends of Canadian Media, April 10

We are thrilled to announce that REEL CANADA is once again hosting its National Canadian Film Day(CanFilmDay) on April 16th, 2025. This event has become a cornerstone of our annual celebrations of Canadian culture, providing a platform for thousands of Canadians to come together and revel in the rich tapestry of stories woven by our talented filmmakers. This year, we are proud to partner with REEL CANADA again to present a special screening of Family: A Loving Look at CBC Radio. This fascinating time capsule, produced by the NFB, spans 50 years of radio history at our beloved national public broadcaster. Following the film, Sarah Andrews, our Director of Government & Media Relations, will be chatting with singer-songwriter and outspoken arts and culture advocate Loreena McKennitt about the importance of standing up for the CBC, and Canadian storytelling, especially in these turbulent times. You won’t want to miss it! This virtual screening will be accessible nationwide on the CanFilmDay streaming platform. Mark your calendars for Wednesday, April 16th at 7 PM, and join us for this FREE and exclusive screening! All you have to do is RSVP at https://canfilmday.ca/event/friends-of-canadian-media-presents-family-a-loving-look-at-cbc-radio/

25. Easter Crafts and Games for Kids
https://www.dltk-holidays.com/easter/games.html
https://www.simpleeverydaymom.com/easy-easter-crafts-for-kids/

So that’s it for April,
Happy Easter!
And hope to see you at the Trail Clean-up on April 19!

Cheers,
Mary Farrar, President, Friends of KIngston Inner Harbour

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