About lobrec
In May 2011, a number of interested citizens from the Lake of Bays area and the surrounding communities of Dorset, Baysville and Dwight came together to explore options for developing a community based renewable energy cooperative. Motivations for the formation of this group included:
a concern for the environment and climate change
a desire to further community development
the notion of engaging the community in a green energy initiative
OUR VISION & MISSION
LOBREC’s vision is for the communities of Lake of Bays to be recognized as leaders in community owned renewable energy while encouraging sustainable economic development for the benefit of all citizens.
LOBREC’s mission is to engage the broader community in the cooperative not-for-profit model as a viable organizational approach for furthering renewable energy in the community.
THE STRATEGIC PLAN
For more information, download the full strategic plan (pdf) .
THE LOBREC BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Our board of directors as confirmed at the sixth Annual General Meeting in October 2019, are:
Melinda Zytaruk
A permanent resident of Baysville, Lake of Bays. Melinda is a founding owner and general manager of the Fourth Pig Worker Co-op, a sustainable building, education and consulting business based in the community offering services within the region of Muskoka and the GTA. Melinda is an expert in renewable energy and community organizing. She has a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University and is a frequent speaker on renewable energy and sustainable building. Melinda is on the board of Passive Buildings Canada and the Solar and Sustainable Energy Society of Canada.
Martha Lenio
Martha Lenio has been involved in sustainability and renewable energy technologies for over 10 years. She has worked in sustainable and low energy building design at Enermodal Engineering, and holds a PhD in Photovoltaic Engineering from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. After 4 years working in R&D in California's Silicon Valley, she moved back to Canada to begin her own company in the area of off-grid and smart grid renewable energy solutions.
Martha has been coming to Lake of Bays all her life, to spend summer vacation time at the family cottage on Lake of Bays. She is keenly interested in the energy issues of northern and remote communities, and would love to be more involved in making the Lake of Bays communities more energy-sustainable.
John W. Casey
Brings a commitment to the Lake of Bays greater community and expertise in finance and wealth management. John splits his time between Toronto and Lake of Bays. He has over 30 years of experience as a financial advisor and branch manager at BMO Nesbitt Burns. His strengths include experience in equity and bond market matters, providing advice and comfort to his clients, personnel management, motivation, cost control and creating a world class service culture.
Rick Zytaruk
A seasonal resident of Lake of Bays and a Professional Engineer with over 40 years of Canadian business experience. Rick’s work includes consulting to major private and public sector organizations such as banking, insurance and utilities. He owns two successful small corporations and has been on the board of non-profit community support groups.
Peter Goring
Peter splits his time between Dorset and Toronto (and travel!), and as a Sudbury native he has always maintained a strong interest in the Northern part of the province.
He had a lengthy career a senior executive with an emphasis on finance. For the past 17 years, as either a senior executive or board member, he has been involved with the a major real estate development company, which is a leader in award winning green and environmental initiatives in both Canada and the US.
He is the sponsor of a lecture series at Laurentian University in Sudbury focusing on Sustainable Northern Economic Development and also an Advisory Board member of the Northern Policy Institute.
Richard Fine
As a teenager, in the mid 1960s Richard Fine took part in a Wilderness Leadership Course in the Northern Kwazulu province in South Africa. This experience kindled a life long interest in Environmental Protection and Appropriate Technology. After completing a Masters Degree in Electronic Engineering at U of T, Richard joined Energy Probe in the 1975 to promote renewable energy. This involved writing a Handbook on Renewable energy and carrying out a speaking tour across Canada.
After leaving Energy Probe Richard joined a solar heating company based on a flat panel design invented by the company founder. The design did not perform as well as hoped and the company was not successful. Richard then moved to a large consulting Engineering Company in which he took part in the energy auditing of commercial buildings and the design and installation of a Building Control System. This system was used to optimize building energy consumption using remote control.
Since 1983 Richard has grown his own company designing and manufacturing electronic control boards for a wide variety of industries. Over the last decade his company has specialized in the design and manufacture of medical and diagnostic equipment.
Richard and his wife and family have vacationed in the Lake of Bays region since the early 1980s. First staying at a cottage owned by his parent in laws on Dickie Lake and since 2012 at their own cottage on Lake of Bays.
Elaine Anselmi
Elaine is a journalist based in Erin, Ontario and often found farther north. She has written for newspapers and magazines across Canada, with a focus on environmental issues and opportunities.
She studied journalism at Humber College after finishing a degree in sociology and social anthropology at Dalhousie University. Work in journalism has moved her from Toronto to Dawson Creek, B.C, to Yellowknife and back. Five years of tree-planting brought her most places in between.
Her family has been on the Lake of Bays for more than 50 years and her grandfather was born and raised in Huntsville, Ontario.