{"id":1240,"date":"2026-05-16T16:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T21:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paulainslie.com\/blog\/?p=1240"},"modified":"2026-05-16T16:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T21:42:12","slug":"receiving-the-impact-award-at-the-great-lakes-st-lawrence-cities-initiative-annual-general-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulainslie.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/16\/receiving-the-impact-award-at-the-great-lakes-st-lawrence-cities-initiative-annual-general-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Receiving The &#8220;Impact Award&#8221; at the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Cities&#8217; Initiative Annual General Meeting!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Good evening, everyone.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thank you to Mayor Ryan Sorenson, of Sheboygan, Wisconsin for that incredibly kind introduction !<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I am deeply honored to stand here tonight to accept the Impact Award.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>To be recognized by the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative\u2014an organization that represents the collective voice of over 425 communities\u2014is truly humbling.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>While my name may be on this award, the impact we are celebrating tonight is never the result of one person\u2019s work.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It is the result of the tireless efforts of our municipal staff,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>our Indigenous partners, and the environmental advocates<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>who understand that our shorelines do not stop at jurisdictional borders.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In Toronto, we often look out at Lake Ontario and see it as the heart of our city.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>But through this alliance, we are reminded that it is part of a much larger, more vital circulatory system that sustains 40 million people.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This year\u2019s conference and our focus on the Fresh Coast Economic Corridor is a testament to how far we\u2019ve come.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We are proving every day that environmental stewardship and economic transformation are not competing interests\u2014they are two sides of the same coin.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As we look toward the implementation of the Economic Transformation Action Plan, our work is only beginning.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We must continue to champion innovative solutions for water quality and ensure that our &#8220;Fresh Coast&#8221; remains a source of prosperity for current and future generations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thank you again to the Cities Initiative for this incredible honor.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Let\u2019s continue to work together to protect these waters that define our region and our future.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thank you, Merci Beaucoup, Chi Migweetch!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulainslie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulainslie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulainslie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulainslie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulainslie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paulainslie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1241,"href":"https:\/\/paulainslie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240\/revisions\/1241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulainslie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulainslie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulainslie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}