SAVE the Saugeen RIVER

10/04/2026

**Happy update! 🐾❤️**

We’re so happy to share that the girls have found their new home! They’re heading to a small farm where they’ll have plenty of room to roam, lots of love, and a familiar kind of country setting to help make the transition easier.

A huge thank you to everyone who shared their story, reached out, and helped spread the word. We’re so grateful for this wonderful outcome and can’t wait for these two sweet girls to settle into their new home. ❤️🐾

**Happy update! 🐾❤️**

We’re so happy to share that the girls have found their new home! They’re heading to a small farm where they’ll have plenty of room to roam, lots of love, and a familiar kind of country setting to help make the transition easier.

A huge thank you to everyone who shared their story, reached out, and helped spread the word. We’re so grateful for this wonderful outcome and can’t wait for these two sweet girls to settle into their new home. ❤️🐾

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❤️ This isn’t our usual kind of post, but sometimes, even pets are impacted by new gravel pits.

🐾 These two beautiful 4-year-old female St. Bernards are looking for a new home together. 🐾

Their family are facing the loss of their home just north of Mount Forest as the property is being turned into a gravel pit. As they move from their farm to a home without a yard, they are trying to find a suitable new home for their two beloved dogs.

Their family has been trying for quite some time to find the right home for them, but they now only have a short time left before they have to move, and they desperately want to make sure their girls go to a loving, suitable home.

They need a home with the space and environment these big girls deserve. They are bonded so keeping them together is very important.

We’re hoping someone in our community, or someone you know, may be able to open their home and heart to these two gentle giants.

📞 If you or someone you know may be able to offer them a suitable home, please reach out or you can reach Michael by text at 5193130194 for more information.

Please share widely. Even if you can’t help directly, sharing this post might reach the person who can. Let’s help this family find the right home for their girls. ❤️🐾

10/03/2026

🗳️ **Your vote. Your voice. Your community.**

Municipal elections are just around the corner, and we want to encourage everyone to get involved!

Over the past few weeks, we’ve met with **all nine West Grey municipal candidates** to talk about aggregate management and the concerns we’re hearing from residents.

We’ve also submitted questions for the upcoming all-candidates meetings, and we’ve asked each candidate to complete a short survey about aggregate management and the future of our community.

We’ll be sharing their answers to the survey soon, giving residents another opportunity to hear directly from the candidates about their perspectives and priorities.

📅 **Check out the graphic below for the dates and times of the upcoming all-candidates meetings.**

If you’re able to attend, we encourage you to ask your candidates about aggregate management:

• How should pits and quarries be planned and located?
• How will groundwater, rivers, farmland and natural heritage be protected?
• How should cumulative impacts be addressed?
• How can residents have a meaningful voice in decisions affecting their communities?

Ask your Mayor and Deputy Mayor candidates how they will support a thorough update to Grey County Aggregate policies in next years Official Plan Review so we develop Gold Standard Aggregate Policies.

And remember, these issues aren't unique to West Grey.

Communities across Ontario are grappling with many of the same challenges. Wherever you live, ask your municipal candidates about their approach to responsible aggregate management.

Aggregates are important. So are our water, farmland, forests, rivers, communities and the people who live in them. **Good planning needs to consider all of them.**

So attend a meeting if you can. Ask questions. Listen to the answers. Watch for our upcoming survey results.

And when election day comes — **get out and vote!** 🗳️

Your voice matters. Your participation matters. And the choices made at the municipal level can shape our communities for years to come.

💚 **Saugeen Preservation Society**

10/01/2026

We are part of the Coalition. We need change at all levels of government to manage the resource responsibly!

Gravel mining may be regulated provincially — but its impacts are experienced locally.

That's why RGMC is a coalition.

Residents and community groups across Ontario are dealing with different pits, different quarries and different applications — but many are encountering the same questions about water, health, planning, oversight and local decision-making.

When communities share knowledge, tools and experience, nobody has to fight these battles alone.

That's what coalition-building looks like.
https://www.reformgravelmining.ca/who-we-are

09/29/2026

**Happy update! 🐾❤️**

We’re so happy to share that the girls have found their new home! They’re heading to a small farm where they’ll have plenty of room to roam, lots of love, and a familiar kind of country setting to help make the transition easier.

A huge thank you to everyone who shared their story, reached out, and helped spread the word. We’re so grateful for this wonderful outcome and can’t wait for these two sweet girls to settle into their new home. ❤️🐾

*************************
❤️ This isn’t our usual kind of post, but sometimes, even pets are impacted by new gravel pits.

🐾 These two beautiful 4-year-old female St. Bernards are looking for a new home together. 🐾

Their family are facing the loss of their home just north of Mount Forest as the property is being turned into a gravel pit. As they move from their farm to a home without a yard, they are trying to find a suitable new home for their two beloved dogs.

Their family has been trying for quite some time to find the right home for them, but they now only have a short time left before they have to move, and they desperately want to make sure their girls go to a loving, suitable home.

They need a home with the space and environment these big girls deserve. They are bonded so keeping them together is very important.

We’re hoping someone in our community, or someone you know, may be able to open their home and heart to these two gentle giants.

📞 If you or someone you know may be able to offer them a suitable home, please reach out or you can reach Michael by text at 5193130194 for more information.

Please share widely. Even if you can’t help directly, sharing this post might reach the person who can. Let’s help this family find the right home for their girls. ❤️🐾

09/28/2026

🌊 **Happy World Rivers Day from the Saugeen Preservation Society** 🌊

Today is a day to celebrate the rivers that give our communities life — and to remember that protecting them is something we all share.

Here at SPSI, we’re especially grateful for the **Saugeen River**. It’s where we paddle, fish, camp, explore, watch wildlife, and gather with family and friends. It supports farms, businesses, tourism and communities all along its watershed.

But a river is more than the water we see.

Its headwaters, wetlands, floodplains, groundwater, forests and tributaries are all connected. What happens upstream can affect everything downstream. That’s why responsible planning matters.

We believe we can have strong communities, thriving businesses and the aggregate resources we need **while also protecting the rivers, water, farmland and natural places that make Grey County such a special place to live.**

Today, take a moment to enjoy your river. Walk beside it. Paddle it. Watch the water. Pick up some garbage. Bring someone who has never experienced it before.

And remember: **we don’t inherit our rivers from the past — we hold them in trust for the future.** 💙

Happy World Rivers Day!
🌿🌊

09/27/2026

Your municipality has more power than you may think.

RGMC's Municipal Action Plan gives residents and municipal councils a practical roadmap for reviewing outdated aggregate policies and strengthening local protections.

Caledon showed what's possible.

Its process survived an industry challenge at the Ontario Land Tribunal — demonstrating that municipalities can modernize their policies while balancing aggregate extraction with community and ecological interests.

If gravel mining is an issue where you live, you don't have to start from scratch.

📘 Explore the Municipal Action Plan: https://www.reformgravelmining.ca/municipal-action-plan/

09/27/2026

We are not alone!

In Grey County there are 14 water taking permits that allow the aggregate industry to take TWICE the amount of all Municipal water taking permits combined!

We need strong lower tier policies to ensure proper siting, truly minimize impacts through standard monitoring requirements and best management practices plans in place to mitigate issues quickly and effectively.

Ask your mayoral and deputy mayoral candidates if they will push for a thorough aggregate policy update in next year's Grey County Official Plan Review.

Ask all candidates of they will support putting am Interim Control Bylaw in place in your Municipality while the work is being done at County to protect them from having to make aggregate rezoning decisions before the work is done.

With 60% of Southern Ontario’s aggregate resources Grey County needs gold standard aggregate policies and we rely on councils to make this happen.

Reform Gravel Mining Coalition

09/16/2026

This is a post from a current mayor and candidate outside our region but the problem is across the board. There are thousands of "active" pits like this across Ontario not including the 8209 unrehabilitated legacy sites that are managed by The Ontario Aggregate Resource Corporation (TOARC).

Here in Grey County there are 128 active LICENSES but that doesn't mean they are operating.

There is no record of how much aggregate is left in any given site, that is classed as proprietary information for the license holder. All the while new pits and quarries are being licensed because the Provincial Policy Statement states "there is no need to show need" to justify a new license.

That's not responsible management of the resource, that's a free for all.

This is yet another reason that policy reform is needed from the Provincial level right down to the County and Municipalities.

Ask your candidates what they will do to fight for responsible management of aggregate resources at all levels of government!

Reform Gravel Mining Coalition

09/14/2026

📣 Our advocacy is getting noticed!

Great article reporting on the outcome of our delegation at Grey County last week, first published by Collingwood Today and now picked up by the Hamilton Spectator! 📰

We’re grateful for the coverage and, more importantly, for the opportunity to bring our concerns and recommendations forward to Grey County and be HEARD. Advocacy matters, and we’ll continue working to ensure our community’s voice remains part of the conversation.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us and helped shine a light on this important issue.

**We’re keeping the momentum going!** 💪

Reform Gravel Mining Coalition County of Grey Top Aggregate Producing Municipalities of Ontario Alex Ruff, MP OFAH Membership

09/11/2026

🎉 **THE BALL IS ROLLING!**

Yesterday was an important day for the Saugeen Preservation Society.

We presented to Grey County Council asking the County to **start the groundwork now for next year’s aggregate policy update** including consideration of an Aggregate Inventory and Policy Study and Interim Control Bylaws while the work is underway.

Council was engaged. They asked questions, listened and had a thoughtful discussion.

Then came exactly the outcome we were hoping for:

👉 Council requested a staff report on our delegation and on the pre-work needed for the policy update.

The ball is rolling!

We weren’t asking Council to decide yesterday exactly what the new policy should look like. We were asking them to start the process of figuring that out and they have.

A huge thank you to everyone who contacted their Mayor or Deputy Mayor, shared our posts, supported SPSI and followed along. Your voices matter.

There is still work ahead, and we need your help to keep it moving.

💚 Protect what we love. Our river. Our homes. Our communities. Our future.

Watch the Grey County Committee of the Whole meeting on YouTube
https://youtu.be/nYiOk9jxJEk?si=qfAENgmQzg4eAQsC

SPSI is a grassroots organization, and donations help us continue the research, advocacy and outreach needed to stay engaged in this process.

👉 Support the Save the Saugeen campaign and get a tax deductible receipt https://smallchangefund.ca/campaign/save-the-saugeen/
Or directly e-transfer: [email protected]

Every contribution makes a difference.

This is how change happens, one step at a time.

County of Grey OFAH Membership Reform Gravel Mining Coalition