THE NIAGARA ESCARPMENT FOUNDATION

The Niagara Escarpment Foundation (NEF) is a registered charitable organization founded in 2001 to encourage public awareness of the natural and cultural significance of the Niagara Escarpment and to conduct research related to protection of the Niagara Escarpment.

The Foundation has undertaken a number of research projects, primarily related to the effectiveness of the Niagara Escarpment Plan in protecting the Escarpment from inappropriate development and conserving its sensitive ecosystems.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Niagara Escarpment Foundation acknowledges that the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere is on Indigenous lands that have been inhabited by Indigenous Peoples from the beginning. The Foundation is grateful for the opportunity provided to many people to enjoy the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere and we thank all the generations of people who have taken care of this land for thousands of years.

We acknowledge that this Biosphere is on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Tionontati, Attawandaron, Métis and other Indigenous Peoples. The Foundation acknowledges that the Biosphere is covered by many treaties and agreements between Indigenous Peoples and the Crown, including the Upper Canada Treaties and the Haldimand Grant.

We recognize and deeply appreciate Indigenous Peoples’ historic connections to this place. We also recognize the contributions that other Indigenous Peoples have made, both in shaping and strengthening the Biosphere community in particular and our province and country as a whole.

This recognition of the contributions and historic importance of Indigenous Peoples must also be clearly and overtly connected to our collective commitment to make the promise and the challenge of Truth and Reconciliation real in our communities.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

(L to R) Rob Leverty, Linda Pim, Cecil Louis
(L to R) Rob Leverty, Linda Pim, Cecil Louis

Rob Leverty, President

Rob Leverty is the former Executive Director of the Ontario Historical Society. Founded in 1888, the Society is a non-profit corporation and registered charity that brings together people of all cultural backgrounds who are interested in preserving and protecting Ontario’s history and built and natural heritage.

Rob has worked on environmental and rural development projects across Canada and overseas, including in France, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, in South America and at the United Nations in New York.

Since 1973, Rob and his partner Annie have owned a working farm in the Beaver Valley (in Grey County) which is designated Escarpment Natural and Escarpment Protection in the Niagara Escarpment Plan. The farm is certified organic and includes a heritage conservation easement securing a wildlife corridor and protecting environmentally significant groundwater and surface water resources. The Bruce Trail has been routed through their farm for 45 years.

Cecil Louis, Vice President

Cecil Louis is a retired member of the Ontario Professional Planners Institute and the Canadian Institute of Planners. He was hired in 1965 by what today is the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs.

In 1974, he was seconded to the newly created Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC) as Manager of Development Control. He prepared the first set of Development Control regulations and hired, trained and supervised a staff of planners and landscape architects.

In 1979, as Manager of Plan Preparation, he supervised a planning team responsible for preparing the proposed Niagara Escarpment Plan (NEP), defending it during two years of public hearings and preparing the NEC’s final submission to the Ontario Cabinet. After the NEP was approved by Cabinet in 1985, Cecil became the Manager of Plan Implementation and led a team responsible for preparing the first Five Year Review in 1990.

He retired from the NEC in 1996. A few years later, he was appointed as a public-at-large Commissioner on the NEC and subsequently as the NEC’s representative on the government’s Greenbelt Council and at the Canadian Biosphere Reserves Association, all until 2017.

Linda Pim, Secretary-Treasurer

Linda Pim is an environment biologist and a land use planner. In 2017-2019, she served as a public-at-large Commissioner on the Niagara Escarpment Commission and in 2018-2020, as the NEC’s representative on the Ontario government’s Greenbelt Council.

Over the past 40 years, Linda has held environmental and land use policy positions both in the Ontario government and in environmental/conservation non-profit charitable organizations including Pollution Probe and Ontario Nature (Federation of Ontario Naturalists). She has worked at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, the Minister’s Office at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, and most recently, at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, from which she retired in 2016.

For the past 25 years, Linda has lived in the village of Inglewood, which is within the Niagara Escarpment Plan area in the Town of Caledon (Region of Peel). She maintains a section of the Bruce Trail in Grey County.

PUBLICATIONS

The Niagara Escarpment Foundation has participated in numerous research projects on issues related to both the environmental science and the public policy of the Escarpment.

Flowing Off the Edge Cover

Flowing Off the Edge: A Strategy to Modernize the Water Science and Water Policies of the Niagara Escarpment Plan, December 2008 (52-page PDF file, 1 MB)

A Review and Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Niagara Escarpment Plan Regarding Proposals to Expand Urban Areas and Minor Urban Centres, January 2004 (28-page PDF file, 2 MB)

An Analysis of the Effectiveness of the NEP in Maintaining and Enhancing Natural Corridors and Linkages, December 2003 (11-page PDF file, 1 MB)

An Analysis of the Effectiveness of the NEP in Protecting Georgian Bay Shoreline within the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula, September 2003 (14-page PDF file, 1 MB)

A Comparative Analysis of Land Values Within and Adjacent to the NEP Area, July 2003 (26-page PDF file, 1 MB)