Communities In Bloom 2005 Awards
Celebrating The Beautification Of Canada
by Raymond Carriere, Communities in Bloom

Founded in 1995, Communities in Bloom is a Canadian organization committed to fostering civic pride, environmental responsibility and beautification through community participation and the challenge of national competition.

The program is primarily about educating people in a community by demonstrating that when they take pride in their environment and become involved in its appearance, maintenance and development, they will enrich the quality of their own lives and those of their neighbours. Obviously, this will be the product of the interaction between citizens, the business community and municipal administration, all working together with mutually agreed, or understood objectives. Communities become better places to live in, to work in and very importantly, to visit.

Judges visit each municipality for the evaluation process, taking into account efforts of the whole community (municipal, private, corporate and institutional) in tidiness effort, urban forestry, landscaping, floral arrangements, turf areas, environmental effort, heritage conservation and community involvement.

The elements of this endeavour include the visual impact on the community as reflected by its floral arrangements, landscaped areas, turf areas and urban forestry development. Collectively, these may be grouped as "beautification efforts" where beautification starts from tidiness and progresses towards improving not only the green spaces but also our urban and natural settings. The popularity of gardening, green spaces, bird watching and nature hiking is creating a market for horticulture tourism. People are planting seeds, learning the names of new plants, finding out that gardening is a pleasant hobby. Gardeners, professional or amateur, like to talk about plants and to visit gardens, both private and public.

Communities in Bloom is creating an excellent opportunity to learn and to feature our green spaces, while discovering the fabric of Canadian communities, each coping with their specific climate, geography and cultural make-up. The judges of Communities in Bloom have made us discover, amongst many treasures, la Route des fleurs de Laval QC, the desert landscape of Osoyoos BC, the Lily Festival in Neepawa MB, the Christmas tree plantations in East Hereford QC, the Marigold Mile in Saint-John NB, the floral arrangements of Whitehorse YK, the magnificent elm trees of Winnipeg MB, and many a secret private garden in backyards throughout Canada.

2005 National Awards

On September 24, the City of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, hosted the 11th Edition of the Communities in Bloom National Awards Ceremony honoring municipalities from Canada, the United States, Japan and Europe. Communities in Bloom recognizes community participation in landscape beautification, heritage conservation and environmental awareness while celebrating pride of community and country. National Award Winners Over 100, 000: Winnipeg, Manitoba 50,001 to 100,000: Strathcona County, Alberta 20,001 to 50,000: Owen Sound, Ontario 10,001 to 20,000: Midland, Ontario 5,001 to 10,000: Olds, Alberta 3,001 to 5,000: Petrolia, Ontario 2,001 to 3,000: Athabasca, Alberta 1,001 to 2,000: Souris, Manitoba 1 to 1 000: Hamiota, Manitoba Canadian Classic Kincardine and Mildmay, Ontario, won the Canadian Classic, a category in which past winners were twinned with municipalities that had never participated in order to mentor them in the program. International Challenge In this category, past winners of Communities in Bloom compete with past winners of the national programs of Britain in Bloom, America in Bloom, Tidy Towns of Ireland and Japan in Bloom. Vaughan, Ontario, in the Large category, Woodstock, Ontario, in the Medium category, and Wetherby, England, in the Small category were the winners in the International Challenge categories. Criteria Awards Awards were given to communities who illustrated themselves in one of the evaluation criteria: Canada Lands Company Sustainable Development Award: Ogema, Saskatchewan National Capital Commission Floral Display Award: Pembroke, Ontario Scotts Turf and Groundcover Award: Prince George, British Columbia Home Hardware Community Involvement Award: Walkerton, Ontario Waste Management Environmental Awareness Award: Rosemère, Québec Scotts Best Community of Gardeners Award: Kawartha Lakes, Ontario Maglin Youth Involvement Project Award: Deer Lake, Newfoundland Congratulations to all finalists of the 11th National Edition of Communities in Bloom, and thank you to all the sponsors and partners for their contribution to the quality of life in Canadian municipalities.

Winnipeg, Manitoba Strathcona County, Alberta Owen Sound, Ontario Petrolia, Ontario Athabasca, Alberta Prince George, British Columbia

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