By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
The town of Waterloo will get a seed library and a community “food forest” with herbs and fruit trees before the end of the year after the municipality sent out a call for citizen-led, town-funded environment and sustainable development projects.
“The first edition of Waterloo’s environmental participatory budget has reached a new milestone. After analyzing the six projects submitted, the selection committee has selected three ideas that will be implemented by the end of 2025,” Waterloo communications director Marilynn Guay Racicot said in a statement. “Since only three proposals met both the participatory budget criteria and the planned budgetary limits, the city will not use a popular vote [to determine the winning projects] as initially planned. All available funds, $6,000, will be invested in the realization of these three ideas.” Two of the proposals, a community orchard and a “collective urban microforest,” will be fused to form a single community food garden. The third proposal is the seed library, which will be set up at the Town Hall in a specially selected cabinet; gardeners will be able to pick up free seeds and contribute their own seeds after harvest.
Over the past few years, several municipalities in the region have turned to participatory budgets to give citizens a direct role in planning projects; citizens are asked to propose small projects, usually with an environmental, recreational or intergenerational focus, that can be carried out on public land within a specific budget and time frame. A selection committee weeds out projects that don’t meet the criteria, and those that do are usually submitted to a popular vote. Since only three eligible projects were submitted and their combined cost didn’t exceed the $6,000 Waterloo had set aside, the vote wasn’t necessary. “It’s the first time we’ve done this, and all of the submissions we got were interesting,” said Waterloo director of urban planning Marc Cournoyer. “Even some of the projects that weren’t eligible will be considered in other contexts. We got some good ideas from people.”
Resident Jérémie Byron, a software developer and passionate recreational gardener, proposed the seed library idea after seeing a similar project take root in his old neighbourhood in Montreal. “There will be a cabinet in the Town Hall and people will come to borrow the seeds, take them home, plant them and harvest them,” he said, adding that the range of vegetable, herb and flowering plant seeds on offer is still to be determined. “It’s a great opportunity to raise people’s awareness of urban farming, and buying local, and promoting biodiversity, local plants and pollinators. It’s really good news – it’s a great opportunity to get more citizens involved in gardening. Maybe eventually we’ll have a seed festival around the seed library.”
The two collective gardening projects were proposed by Manon Godard and Laurie Fortin-Magnan. Godard is the co-ordinator of the local Maison de la Famille, the mother of four children – including one who is now a biologist and another a nature technician – and a passionate gardening advocate. She said she hopes the garden, the exact location of which hasn’t been determined, will help cut down on heat islands, serve as a hub for environmental education workshops and provide an oasis of calm in the centre of town – in addition to an oasis of fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs. “Maybe it will also inspire people to [start gardening] on their balcony or in their homes – you don’t need a huge space to garden,” she said. “I want it to be possible to duplicate [the garden] elsewhere, and to create an image of our city as a green, eco-responsible city.”