Daily Archives: March 3, 2010

(The following column was submitted to Niagara At Large by the Ontario New Democratic Party for possible posting and NAL is offering it to our readers as it speaks to concerns raised by many residents across this region about the management of our hospital services. NAL welcomes submissions by all political parties and all of you out there , our readers,  on matters of interest and concern to our binational Niagara region.)

By France Gelinas, Ontario’s NDP health critic  Imagine you or a loved one falls ill but because you do not live in an urban centre, the required health care services cannot be found anywhere close to home. This is increasingly the situation that Ontarians in rural and Northern communities face when trying to access health care services. All Ontarians are entitled to equitable access to health care, yet this equity is being threatened today.

Ontario NDP health critic France Gelinas

Hospital and community health services in Ontario’s rural and Northern communities are being shut down or threatened with closure.  The various levels of bureaucracy and government are failing to listen to the people most impacted by these changes.

People living in rural or Northern Ontario know that the inability to access needed health care is not only unjust, but has devastating, and spiraling, consequences to the health of their families and communities as a whole. The reality is that the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care and the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) have failed to recognize the specific needs of these communities.

Residents in communities like Fort Erie, Port Colborne and Burk’s Falls—and the many surrounding municipalities—know this first hand. All three have lost health care services in the past six months. When residents have posed basic questions about; future access to these health services, travel between communities in the winter months, the capacity of existing paramedic services, and the likeliness of retaining health care workers when their places of employment disappear—silence has been the response of government and officials. Continue reading →

By William Hogg

Right here, in the Niagara area, in our very midst, we have one of the finest symphony orchestras in the world. And it performs in perhaps the best sounding concert hall in the world.

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra on its home stage at Kleinhans Music Hall

That latter fact is little known. The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s Internet site more modestly states that the Orchestra’s permanent home is Kleinhans Music Hall, designed by Eliel and Eero Saarinen, the famous Finnish father and son team.

The Kleinhans Music Hall is a National Historic Site with an international reputation as one of the finest concert halls in the United States. The posting then goes on to say, the music hall ‘is known for its unique combination of graceful structural beauty and extraordinary acoustics and is known worldwide as a major contribution to twentieth-century architecture.

The design of Kleinhans resembles the body of a string instrument, as does the main auditorium. Eliel Saarinen’s aim was to create “an architectural atmosphere…so as to tune the performers and the public alike into a proper mood of performance and receptiveness, respectively.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Fort Erie’s mayor Doug Martin says he’s prepared to stake his political future on supporting a controversial high-rise tower for his town’s historic Crystal Beach district, and he has proved it.

Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin displays images of condo development he's willing to stake his political future on. Photo by Doug Draper

At the end of another marathon meeting before his council this March 1 on the pros and cons of a developer’s plans to erect a 12-storey condominium in front of a publicly owned stretch of the Lake Erie shore, known as Bay Beach to many Niagara, Ontario and Western New York residents who enjoy it during the summer months, Martin stood true to his words.

The mayor – having listened to close to two hours of delegations speaking for and against the council plan – broke a three-to-three tie on his council to support the passage of a bylaw allowing the height restrictions in Crystal Beach (where most of the cottages and buildings presently there are one or two stories) accommodate a building as high as 12 storeys.

“I believe this is the right thing to do,” Martin told Niagara At Large while the marathon meeting was still looming. “It is about Crystal Beach. It is about rejuvenation. It is about laying the foundation for our children to built on.” Continue reading →