Daily Archives: February 16, 2010

 By Doug Draper

“Another day older and deeper in debt.”

That lyric from an old American folk tune could just as well serve as a theme for the Niagara Health System – the body created by the province a decade ago to manage the affairs of most of the hospitals in the region.

NHS CEO Debbie Sevenpifer speaks at a recent forum on the hospital system's financial challenges. Photo by Doug Draper.

Much has been made of the fact that the NHS is swimming in red ink that includes an annual operating budget of somewhere between $10 and $20 million, and a $100-million plus capital deficit that is expected to swell to $129 million within the next two years, according to the NHS’s own projections.

And much should be made of the NHS’s deficits because they are driving a controversial “hospital improvement plan” it was directed two years ago by another provincially appointed body – the Niagara and Hamilton areas’ Local Health Integration Network – to find ways of getting out of the red by consolidating more and more of our hospital services, including emergency and maternity services, into ever few of our hospitals.

It is a plan that is already having an impact, and many would argue not a good one, on people living in Niagara’s southern tier.  And within the next two or three years, it could significantly impact the accessibility of hospital services for a majority of residents in the region, including larger municipalities like Welland and Niagara Falls. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

“I suppose you are wondering why I’m interested in black history,” said Wilma Morrison who just happened to be the only black person in the room as she spoke this February 15 to a gathering of members of the Welland Historical Society and their guests in commemoration of Black History Month.

Niagara historian Wilma Morrison. Photo by Doug Draper

Morrison – one of Niagara’s foremost scholars of black history in this region – went on to say one of the great shames is that our schools are not teaching children more about the history of blacks in the region and of other people who’ve settled here, for that matter.

“I think that if we take the time to learn more about each other and what each other has worked to contribute to the community, it will bring us closer together,” said Morrison, who spent years working to amass a library of black history in Niagara (known as the Norval Johnson Heritage Library after a longstanding member of the black community in Niagara Falls) that last year was donated to the St. Catharines Public Library for access to the public at large.

Morrison said she and others approached high school teachers in Niagara over the past few years to ask them if they would consider teaching their students about black history in the region and “right up front, they told us they don’t have time. … You don’t have time to teach Canadian history,” she responded. Continue reading →