A WALK AROUND BECHTEL PARK WITH EMILY URQUHART

It was author Emily Urquhart’s pup June that brought us out to the Bechtel Dog Park on a grey Saturday afternoon. We were greeted by a well-dressed poodle in boots and an orange jacket, and June and her new friend ran off while Urquhart and I opted for a slower pace.

“Walking is one hundred per cent part of my writing process,” Urquhart said as we followed the path on a loop around a cluster of trees. “[O]ften, when I’m walking, I’m working something out…something about the movement of walking forwards can sometimes shake things out in a way that, if I was sitting at a desk and trying to write, it just doesn’t work.”

Urquhart was born in Kitchener and lived in Waterloo until she was seven, when her family moved to Wellesley. After high school she studied art history and journalism, then ended up at Memorial University in Newfoundland where she completed a PhD in Folklore Studies and also met her future husband. It was his job at the University of Waterloo that brought them back to Ontario to settle with their family in Kitchener.

“I was always interested in folklore,” Urquhart said. “I had this huge Brothers Grimm silver-coloured book that I used to read as a kid a lot. And I was interested in my Irish culture and heritage, and that kind of naturally coincides with folklore.”

Urquhart’s understanding and exploration of folklore goes beyond the written stories of her youth, and includes visual art, gossip, rumours and even home decor and bumper stickers.

“[Folklore is] the way you’re signifying who you are to the world and the story you’re telling about yourself and your place in it,” Urquhart said. “Once you’ve got [folklore] under your belt, it kind of changes your worldview.”

Urquhart explored folklore in her third book, Ordinary Wonder Tales, published in 2022 and shortlisted for the 2023 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. She drew on her journalism background for her second book, The Age Of Creativity, published in 2020, in which she examined late-in-life creativity using her father, acclaimed painter Tony Urquhart, as the subject and inspiration.

Her mother, award-winning novelist and poet Jane Urquhart, is also an artistic presence in Urquhart’s life. She was in high school when her mother gained wide-spread notoriety for her novel Away, and people became interested in her last name and family.

“There was a rumour at university that my mom was Jan Arden because there was a broken telephone situation…someone said ‘Jane Urquhart,’ but [someone else] heard Jan Arden,” Urquhart said. “So, I’ve always had a kind of kinship with Jan Arden.”

From an early age, Urquhart was an avid reader and was also drawn to writing.

“I had teachers who [said] ‘oh, you’re such a good writer’…But I’d feel like, is that because my mom’s a writer, or is it coming from an authentic place?” she said. “But I knew I liked to do it, and I also knew that it didn’t pay any money.”

Pursuing a PhD allowed Urquhart to continue reading and writing, and also to have some security in the form of teaching. In addition to being a published author and a non-fiction editor at The New Quarterly, Urquhart is also a Professor of Creative Writing at Laurier where she coordinates the Edna Staebler Awards.

It was through The New Quarterly that Urquhart connected with other writers in the area. At the Wild Writers’ Festival in 2019, Urquhart was approached by novelist Carrie Snyder about forming a writer’s group along with author Tasneem Jamal. Urquhart agreed, and they have been writing and workshopping ever since.

“It’s so wonderful to have that community,” Urquhart said. “We write together, which I’d never done…I’ve been through two books with them now.”

Urquhart’s experience of community is one done directly with other people as she is not on any social media. In 2016 she made the decision to leave Facebook when she found the platform to be full of vitriol and in-fighting. She left Twitter not long after.

“It was getting me down,” Urquhart said. “Finally, I was like, no one’s inviting you to this party. You have to stop showing up.”

While she reads poetry daily and cites short stories as a favourite genre, Urquhart is also drawn to some less-expected media.

“I like to watch really trashy documentaries,” Urquhart said. “When I say documentary, people think, ‘Oh, that sounds smart.’ No, I like anything to do with catfishing…I’m really into cults. I just find it fascinating.”

Urquhart’s dog June came over to say a quick hello before going to greet a new arrival. Before adopting June from the Humane Society a year ago, Urquhart and her family rescued a dog from another agency; however, they were unable to keep him because of an aggressive response to walks.

“He was sweet, actually, in the house, but…he wouldn’t go in our yard, so he had to be walked…whenever I walked him, he attacked me,” Urquhart said. “I had leather gloves, they were split open, my parka was split open. I was on the ground trying to shield my face and he had my hand and he didn’t let go.”

The experience did not deter Urquhart from dogs, however. 

“I just got obsessed or something after that,” Urquhart said. “I was thinking about dogs, I only watched things about dogs, and then I started writing about it.”

Part of that writing process included painting a watercolour of the destroyed gloves and using visual art as research. What started as memoir turned into a fairy tale.

“I don’t know if the stories I’ve been writing connect as one piece or if they’re connected stories,” Urquhart said. 

“But they all have some sort of supernatural…element threaded through them.”

While the move to writing fiction might be new for Urquhart, her background in folklore and careful powers of observation honed through journalism will no doubt mean she is right at home navigating these creative waters.

WATER CAPACITY CONSTRAINTS FORCE TEMPORARY HALT ON NEW DEVELOPMENTS

As of January 2026, the Region of Waterloo reached a critical bottleneck. Severe water capacity constraints within the Mannheim Service Area, which encompasses Kitchener, Waterloo and parts of Cambridge, forced a temporary halt on all new development approvals. 

Although existing water supplies are safe, the water supply system lacks the necessary buffers for repairs, prompting the need for emergency plans regarding new infrastructure and enhanced water supplies. 

While the Region of Waterloo struggles with population growth and land development, Peter Huck, distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Waterloo, notes that the Mannheim district relies on a complex Integrated Urban System. 

“The Region of Waterloo is using two types of water,” Huck said. “One is groundwater from about 100 scattered wells, and the other is surface water from the Grand River treated at the Mannheim Treatment Plant.” 

The Mannheim Plant began it’s operations in 1994.  

This creates a technical bottleneck where the wells are at their full capacity and increasing river draw is limited by the need to protect downstream ecosystems. 

The Region initially identified the issue in November 2025 and announced the findings in December 2025, citing that rapid population growth and aging infrastructure led to demand exceeding available capacity.  

The issue has been further discussed and detailed in a Jan. 13, 2026, meeting of the Region of Waterloo’s Sustainability, Infrastructure, and Development committee, where staff confirmed the need for a revised water supply strategy and infrastructure investment. 

During the Jan.13 committee meeting, Sam Nabi, Director of Hold the Line WR, challenged the Region’s ‘surprise’ at the crisis, noting that the 2015 Master Plan had already identified the infrastructure and pumping stations necessary to bolster the Integrated Urban System.  

Nabi questioned why these long-planned interconnections failed to prevent the current bottleneck and challenged the lack of groundwater context in regional planning. He argued against Provincial oversight, calling instead for a collaborative solution led by the local municipalities directly affected by the freeze. 

Huck said that the current 60 per cent operating capacity may be due to equipment that requires more upgrading or replacing it to restore it to its full design potential. 

While Nabi focused on historical planning, Joseph Puopolo, co-CEO of Polocorp Inc., laid out a stark economic forecast for the Region. Puopolo warned that halting development approvals would trigger a “dry-up of municipal development charges, rendering capital budgets irrelevant and driving skilled trades and private investment out of the Region toward more stable municipalities. 

Additionally, he said that investments will be directed elsewhere, citing a further erosion of public trust and inevitable tax hikes if the construction industry remains stalled. 

To prevent what he claims is an economic exodus, Puopolo presented a detailed action plan to the committee, urging Council to decouple planning approvals from water allocation immediately.  

The proposed strategy includes a 30-day sprint to define a capital plan for the immediate refurbishment of the Mannheim system, bridge the gap by initiating a link between the Middleton and Mannheim water systems, and audit high-capacity users by meeting with the Region’s 50 largest water consumers to incentivize rapid reduction in usage before the August peak. 

However, the solution for the water capacity issue isn’t as simple as building more pipes and infrastructure. Alex Latta, associate professor in the Department of Global Studies and the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, said that while ceasing development entirely is not the answer, the Region must re-evaluate its population targets.  

“We need to re-evaluate the scope of population growth that we have said we can accommodate in our region’s Official Plan,” they said. Huck also highlighted the “social” side of the capacity equation: conservation. While the Region has implemented odd-even lawn watering and low-flush toilet incentives, Huck said that further measures might begin impacting residents’ daily lives, raising the question of whether residents would support the further restrictions necessary to measurably increase the buffer between supply and demand. 

While a Great Lakes pipeline is often discussed as a solution for capacity issues, both Latta and Huck remain cautious. Latta said it would be a “last resort” due to extreme costs, urging the Region instead to adopt aggressive conservation measures and stricter regulation of commercial water permits. 

“One of Canadians’ deeply held myths is that we have boundless supplies of fresh water,” said Latta. “Starting to value and respect water is the first step to living in tune with the hydrological realities of our region.” 

Sam Nabi is WLUSP’s Web Manager. 

This article was cross published with The Cord.

Canadian quarterback Tre Ford signs with Hamilton Tiger-Cats: sources

Courtesy: CFL The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have signed Canadian quarterback Tre Ford, per sources. It’s a two-year contract through…
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