Talk:Waterloo, Ontario

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I trimmed the 'High-tech companies based in Waterloo section; deleting those based elsewhere:

• Adobe
• Agfa-Gevaert
• AMIS
• Ansys
• Automated Benefits
• Blue Coat
• CME Telemetrix - now NIR, based out of Campbellville, Ontario
• EMJ - out of Guelph
• Finline - gone?
• iAnywhere - based out of Dublin, CA
• Leitch - headquaters in Toronto
• LSI Logic
• McAfee
• NCR Corporation - Dayton, Ohio
• SBS Technologies
• Siebel
• Senesco
• Sybase - Dublin, CA
• Quality Print - ???, i found http://printqp.com/ not really high tech, nor in Waterloo.

--Jdeboer 04:30, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

"The biggest failures occurred on August 14, 2003 (the massive power failure of Ontario) and on May 11, 2005."

Can this be referenced from somewhere? I doubt May 11 (down for 4 hours) is at all signifiance, and the August '03 blackout had nothing to do with Waterloo Hydro.

• I removed this paragraph from the article.

Waterloo's electricity supplier is Waterloo North Hydro, and there are generally very few power failures. The biggest failures occurred on August 14, 2003 (the massive power failure of Ontario) and on May 11, 2005. The latter failure occurred when a 230,000 volt power line caught fire, and the backup power line was under maintenance. As a result, many Waterloo residents made their way into Kitchener that evening to get everything they needed as five hours of darkness ensued. --Jdeboer 00:37, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

--Jdeboer 04:38, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

from Colleges and Universities, "[UW houses] as well as Canada's largest faculty of Engineering.". I removed this, as these pages seem to disagree: UoT facts: http://www.engineering.utoronto.ca/English/Facts-and-Figures.html (4300 undergrads), vs. Waterloo: http://www.findoutmore.uwaterloo.ca/campuslife/facts.htm (4000 undergrads)

--Jdeboer 21:48, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

You forgot to include the students in the software engineering (joint program between math and engineering) which is around 300 students. Adding that puts the total to just over 4300.

• Can you cite a university source on the 4300 number? If the engineering faculty has 4300, findoutmore should be updated too. --Jdeboer 19:57, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

Almost nobody makes the mistake of confusing a ward (municipal voting partition) with a riding (provincial or federal voting partition). Claim that this is a popular misconception is removed. MenAtNight 02:08, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Generally, people don't use the term "downtown Kitchener-Waterloo" and they never use the term "uptown Kitchener-Waterloo". The terms in common use are "downtown Kitchener" and "uptown Waterloo" and even "downtown Waterloo" (though Waterloo residents will quickly correct the visitor that it should be "uptown Waterloo"). The claim that the two cities operate as a single city is factually false. Opinions about whether the two cities are treated as one or should be amalgamated into one differ widely and are the source of contentious debates. --MenAtNight 02:21, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Saying that "Uptown Waterloo" comes from the fact that it's north of downtown Kitchener is a good theory as to why it's called "Uptown". -- User:Andrew LuimesAndrew Luimes 06:19, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

It could also be because Uptown is uphill from Downtown. -- timc | Talk 21:28, 14 June 2006 (UTC). Er, I see that that is already mentioned in the article. -- timc | Talk 21:30, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

I've taken out the lines about the origin of uptown vs downtown. No one has come up with a source for the claim that it's from the relative elevations. Removed: "The uptown/downtown distinction stems from the fact that Waterloo's city centre is at higher elevation than that of Kitchener.^{[citation needed]} Parades march from Waterloo downhill to Kitchener as it is easier for participants, and particularly draft animals, to march downhill rather than uphill." --Gary Will 17:06, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Population of the City of Waterloo

I think that 86, 000 is a very low estimate considering that the City of Waterloo website is constantly updating this and has now put it as 110,000.

I heard (by word of mouth) that there was an issue with calculating the population since a significant portion of the population is students (about 26 000 full and part time students at UW, and about 9 000 at Laurier [1]). Apparently, the lower numbers didn't include much of the student population, and the city has been trying to account for this. I haven't found a reliable source for this, but it seems to make sense. If someone knows any info on this it might be worth mentioning. I suppose this would be an issue for any university town.--Stetson 01:01, 8 May 2006 (UTC) .

Would that be exacerbated by the fact that censuses are done during the spring term? -- timc | Talk 21:38, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

It shouldn't be. I think the rule is that if you live year-round in the location where you attend school, then you should be counted in that location. But if you go "back home" when you're not taking classes (no matter when that is during the year), then you get counted there. So you only get counted in your school town if you stay there through the whole year, and the timing of Census Day shouldn't change anything.--Gary Will 22:40, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Water Source

Was reading the article, notied this: "This is the largest region dependent on ground source water in North America". There is no way that's accurate, at least not the way I'm reading it, because, for example, Greater Vancouver (definitely a larger region than the city or region of waterloo) draws its water from a system of lakes in the nearby mountains: GVRD - Water - Sources and Supply. I've deleted the sentence. --ikh (talk) 16:45, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Groundwater refers to water below the surface, so lake water wouldn't fall in that category. I looked up the cited source of the claim in the Waterloo Moraine entry, but it doesn't provide any commentary about North American ranking. --Gary Will 16:52, 17 July 2006 (UTC)