Peter Annin, Former Newsweek reporter and author of The Great Lakes Water Wars, will be GBA's guest speaker at this year's 90th Annual General Meeting on April 11th, 2007. Peter holds the position of associate director for the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources based in Madison Wisconsin.

Peter's interest in the Great Lakes began when in 1998 a Canadian consulting firm, The Nova Group, proposed to export 150 million gallons a year of Lake Superior water to Asia. "Water diversions are the spotted owl issue of this region-very polarizing, very bitter. Many communities are sitting on either contaminated or declining groundwater resources. This is where the next forays into this water war are going to take place. We've seen it with Waukesha. We've seen it with New Berlin, and we saw it in 1989 with Pleasant Prairie.

"For those who say the Great Lakes are too big to be damaged, do what I did: travel to the Aral Sea (in central Asia). Once the fourth-largest inland body of water in the world, in my lifetime, four decades, it has been decimated losing 75 percent of its surface area and 90 percent of its volume. It shows that large lakes can be drained. They aren't invincible."

A veteran conflict and environmental journalist, Peter Annin spent more than a decade reporting on a wide variety of issues for Newsweek.

Peter Annin's book, The Great Lakes Water Wars is published by Island Press To learn more about this recently publish book, go to:

www.greatlakeswaterwars.com.

Leaside Memorial Gardens
William Lea Room
1073 Millwood Road. Toronto (see map below)

Registration ........................6:00 pm to 6:30 pm
Wine reception for retiring GBA Executive Director
John Birnbaum ..................... 6:30 pm to 7:15 pm
Meeting ................................ 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm

We invite members of of GBA's 22 member associations, our GBA Corporate and Individual family Members, and guests to attend this annual gathering of our "extended GBA family" in order to:

• Get the latest news on important issues for Georgian Bay
• Share information with other members
• Confirm acceptance of Skerryvore Ratepayers Association as a GBA associate member association
• Elect a new board of directors and officers

GBA has invited our Honourary Patrons, the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D., and John Ralston Saul C.C. to join us for the evening. 

• Free Parking
• Free Admission
• Dress: Informal