Sarah Harmer Credit: Steph Montani
Sarah Harmer is a multiple award-winning, platinum-selling singer-songwriter and
environmental activist. Her solo music career launched with the now classic debut You Were Here (2000) and includes six critically acclaimed albums, including her latest, Are You Gone, released via Arts and Crafts in 2020.
A deeply personal and political collection of songs motivated by the beauty of life, the urgency of the climate crisis, and the question of loss, Sarah called the album a spiritual successor of sorts to her acclaimed 2000 debut.
Its simple title, Are You Gone, is a meditation on presence and a bookend to the questions posed on You Were Here - a sharpened, more electric
confrontation with the realities of nature and human nature.
Between co-founding the citizen’s organization PERL (Protecting Escarpment Rural Land) and leading the successful effort to prevent an open-pit gravel mine in a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve on the Niagara Escarpment, Sarah has become a fixture in local politics and advocacy.
In 2022, Sarah helped launch the Reform Gravel Mining Coalition (RGMC) in her home province of Ontario to protect water, farmland, and biodiversity.
This spring, she received the prestigious 2025 Juno Humanitarian Award, presented by Dr. David Suzuki in Vancouver, BC, for her human rights and advocacy work, and was recently honoured with the keys to the city of Burlington presented by Mayor Marianne Meed Ward for her ongoing contributions to the region.
Sarah is currently writing songs for a new album.
Sarah shares growing up on a farm on the Burlington escarpment and how she became involved in environmental activism.
In 2025, Sarah, won three Junos for I’m A Mountain and the album was nominated for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize. That year she also co-founded PERL with her mother, Isabell.
That summer, Sarah went on a two-week walking tour called, I Love the Escarpment, stopping in communities along the way to perform and talk about the PERL campaign. That campaign became the documentary, Escarpment Blues.
In 2012, after a decade of hard work, PERL successfully stopped the expansion of the Nelson Aggregate quarry. But when Doug Ford became premier in 2018, he changed the rules around quarry licencing and expansions and Nelson Aggregates once again applied to expand their open-pit gravel mine located on Mount Nemo which is part of the Niagara Escarpment UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.
Sarah explains the difference between Nelson Aggregates’ expansion original plans dating back to 2004 and their expanded 2025 plans and how those significant changes will impact people living near the quarry.
According to the Ministry of the Evrnionment, Conservation and Parks site, the Jefferson Salamander is endangered meaning, “the species lives in the wild in Ontario but is facing imminent extinction or extirpation.” Credit: Leo Kenney, Vernal Pool Association
If Nelson Aggregate is successful and expands the quarry Mount Nemo’s ecosystems will be forever impacted. At the same time, the Ford government recently changed Ontario’s Endangered Species Act via Bill 5. That will cause the extinction of species like the Jefferson salamander as well as plant species like the Butternut tree, American Hart's-tongue Fern and ancient cedars believed to be the oldest living trees in Eastern North America — all of which live on Mount Nemo.
For more information read Sarah Harmer’s op-ed, Endangered species protections are now themselves at risk.
The Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) hearing for Nelson Aggregates' proposed expansion began on March 4, 2025 and wrapped up in late June. This time PERL, Conserving Our Rural Ecosystem (CORE), the City of Burlington and Halton Region opposed Nelson Aggregates expansion.
Environmental lawyer, David Donnelly, once again represented PERL at the OLT hearing. Donnelly just had a significant win in Caledon when the provincially appointed OLT dismissed Canada Building Material (CBM) Aggregates’ appeal based on the claim that the town of Caledon’s Aggregates Reform Interim Control By-law (ICBL) limited “the economic well-being of the province and GTA, because, as the Appellant’s [CBM] planner testified, aggregate reserves that are “close to market” are “critically low.”
The OLT Decision stated, “The Tribunal was persuaded by The Forks of the Credit Preservation Group’s (FCPG) submissions and evidence, including data they provided, that there appears to be an ample supply of aggregate resources, with at least 13.44 million tonnes available annually, contradicting the Appellant’s [CBM] concerns about economic harm and aggregate shortages.”
Sarah explains what that precedent setting win means for other communities, like Burlington, who are fighting quarry expansions and new licencing.
Sarah is also co-chair of RGMC and tells listeners about the coalition as well as their newest campaign, All Eyes on Mount Nemo.
Left to right: Roger Goulet (PERL), Sarah Harmer with Key to the City of Burlington and Gord Pinard (CORE) Credit: Doreen Nicoll
At the 2025 Junos, Sarah received the Humanitarian Award for her tireless environmental and social justice work. She also received the Key to the City for her unwavering commitment and contributions to the Burlington community in April.
In her acceptance speeches, Sarah was humble and shared her gratitude for those working towards the same goals – and, of course that included her mom, Isabell. Sarah shares with Small Change listeners a bit about some of these wonderfully determined and dedicated folks.
Sarah Harmer and Jim Cuddy entertain anti-gravel mining audience at rally in Milton, ON Credit: Mike Balkwill with Reform Gravel Mining Coalition (RGMC)
Additional information:
SarahHarmer.com
Bluesky @sarah_harmer
Instagram @yoharmer
Facebook @sarahharmermusic
YouTube @sarahharmermusic
Spotify Sarah Harmer
Apple Sarah Harmer
Thanks to everyone who read today’s article and listened to my podcast. With your financial support, a little Nicoll can make a lot of change.
Music: Real Estate by UNIVERSFIELD is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License. freemusicarchive.org.
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