How willing would the provincial government actually be to approve the building of a new hospital in south Niagara?

Niagara Falls, Ontario Mayor Jim Diodati

Ontario’ health minister Deb Matthews told Niagara representatives this May 28 that she’s not prepared to begin providing an answer to that question until they can provide her with more assurance that a new hospital is what their communities want and with a proposal on where that hospital should go.

“She made it clear that (the idea of a new hospital for Niagara’s southern tier) is not pie in the sky,” said Niagara Mayor, who attended the meeting with Matthews during the annual ‘Niagara Week’ in Toronto, “but she wants to be real that that this is what we and our communities want, and she wants a suggested location.”

Diodati, who met Matthews with Welland Mayor Barry Sharpe, Niagara regional chair Gary Burroughs, Niagara Falls regional councillors Barbara Greenwood and Selina Volpatti, and Grimsby regional councillor Debbie Zimmerman, said that despite leaving with no iron-clad guarantee from the minister that the province would approve a new hospital for Niagara’s southern tier, he was pleased with the way the meeting went.

“I feel that it was a positive meeting,” the mayor said. “Overall it was worthwhile.”

Diodati and Sharpe, along with  Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey, Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin and Wainfleet Mayor April Jeffs have been holding ongoing meetings of their own since early this May when Kevin Smith, the provincially appointed supvervisor for the Niagara Health System, asked them to see if they could reach some consensus on the idea of building a new hospital and on where it should be located in south Niagara. The new facility, said Smith, would replace aging hospitals in Welland, Niagara Falls, and what are left of the hospitals in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Fort Erie, and Port Colborne.

In a draft report Smith released this May on making changes to a Niagara Health System that has drawn years of public criticism, he reasoned that building a new hospital in the southern tier that could cost more than $850 million would be less expensive than trying to upgrade and operate five older sites.

At least some Niagara residents believe Smith is only putting forward the new hospital idea as a “smoke screen” that will never materialize – all in an attempt dampen the anger and concern many have expressed over the decision the old NHS board made years ago to build a major hospital complex (now under completion) in west St. Catharines rather than in a more central, and to ultimately move most of the acute care services in the region there. Residents in Port Colborne and Fort Erie have already seen the emergency rooms at their hospitals converted to urgent care facilities that will no longer accept people suffering heart attacks, strokes or other life-threatening maladies.

Diodati said he and other Niagara representatives stressed to Matthews at the May 28 meeting that they will not accept more care services being transferred to the hospital complex being opened next year in west St. Catharines while residents wait for approval and construction of a new hospital in south Niagara – something Smith said could take at least six years.

Smith has given the south Niagara mayors until June 15 to come to him with agreement on his recommendation for a new hospital and with a proposal from them on a location for it.

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The way Harper’s dutiful foot soldiers put it, the Canadian Consulate in Buffalo, New York is little more than a front office for processing visas for foreign nationals and others. So why not close it and save the taxpayers of Canada a little money.

That plan, made public this past May 26, no doubt hits the mark for the Stephen Harper government’s core constituencies of neo-conservatives and libertarians who see government as an enemy that ought to be vanquished unless, of course, it comes to military procurements or any entitlements like seniors’ pensions or drug and health benefits that enrich their lives personally.

“I can assure the people in our region that this will certainly not affect – in any way – our historically strong relationship with our American neighbours,” said Niagara Falls MP and Harper government cabinet member Rob Nicholson in a written response to the local media following the May 26 news. “The reality is that with the increasing use of technology, there is less need for physical space and applicants can now increasingly apply and pay online, without ever having to visit a visa office. Our Government will continue providing better service at the best cost to Canadian taxpayers.” 

Of course anyone who has spent any real time in media and communications knows that anyone in the Harper Conservative caucus, up to Harper himself, cannot clear their throat publicly without having their words vetted through the prime minister’s office. So there is no reason why anyone should care what Nicholson has to say about the planned closing of the Canadian Consulate office beyond that point. For any further information from the Harper government on this issue, one might just a well eliminate the middle man, including Nicholson or any other Harper MPs in the region, and go straight to the spin doctors in the prime minister’s office.

Our regional politicians and businesses have something different to say about the impending closing of this office, which is scheduled to take place this August.

“I am devastated by this news,” Niagara, Ontario regional government chair  Gary Burroughs told Niagara At Large during an interview this May 28. “This (Canadian Consulate) office has been such a key player for economic development in this area. It has been our link (to political and business leaders on the U.S. side of the border) as a regional government and as a business community.”

Niagara Falls, Ontario Mayor Jim Diodati told NAL he’s surprised he found out about the planned closing of the office through the media and not from the federal government

“I am very disappointed in this and I don’t see the logic here,” said Diodati of the apparent interest the Harper government has expressed in the past in encouraging cross-border communities and businesses work more closely together for the economic benefit of all. “This (planned closing) appear to fly in the face of that strategy.”

Diodati, like Burroughs, said the Canadian Consulate office in Buffalo is far more than a “visa processing factory.” It has continuously brought mayors and other municipal leaders, and businesses on both sides of the border together to search for solutions to the job and business challenges they face together. It has also played a lead role in organizing heritage events, including the upcoming bicentennial remembrances for the War of 1812. 

Three years ago this June, Canadian’s Buffalo consulate office was instrumental in organizing Canada/U.S. gatherings celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the signing of a binational Boundary Waters Treaty that has remained a key tool for both countries to protect and preserve the waters of the Great Lakes. That celebration saw the Canada/U.S. International Joint Commission meet in the Niagara region to discuss Great Lakes-related concerns with area politicians and citizen groups, and it saw U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stand in the middle of the Rainbow Bridge and announce plans between the two countries to update the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

Burroughs and Diodati said they will work with other politicians and business groups on both sides of the border to persuade the federal government to keep the consulate office in Buffalo open.

According to a recent, front-page story in The Buffalo News, business and politicial leaders there are also vowing to fight the closing.

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer of New York was quoted in that newspaper saying; “I fully plan on pushing the Canadian government to reverse this decision. This office is an important resource for businesses throughout Western New York and ought to stay open for business in Buffalo.”

The Harper government said it will turn over the Buffalo office duties to a diplomatic office in New York State, but Burroughs said he doesn’t see how an office in New York could have the same connection and sensitivity to issues affecting communities sharing what is one of the busiest border crossings in North America as an office right here in the greater Niagara region can. 

(Niagara At Large invites our readers to share their views on this post in the comment area below.)

Cindy Forster, the provincial member of parliament for Niagara, Ontario’s Welland Riding, is planning to reach out to every constituent in her riding for their views on what they feel is working and not working when it comes to hospital and related health services in the region.

Welland, Ontario riding MPP Cindy Forster

Forster, who was elected as the NDP member for the Welland Riding in last October’s provincial election, told Niagara At Large she is preparing a survey that will soon be sent to every household in the riding which includes the communities of Welland, Port Colborne, Fort Erie and Thorold.

“We are going to ask (residents in those communities) about hospital services and we are also going to ask them for their views on health care in general, including home care,” said Forster, who was a nurse and area representative for the Ontario Nurses Association, including nurses working for the Niagara Health System, before she was elected MPP.

A key reason for the survey, stressed Forster, is to receive as much input as she can from residents in her riding about the recommendations released earlier this May by Kevin Smith, the provincially appointed supervisor of the NHS, for reforming the hospital system.

Those recommendations include a call to the province to build a news hospital in south Niagara that would replace current hospital sites in Welland, Port Colborne, Fort Erie and Niagara Falls. What remains of the old Niagara-on-the-Lake hospital site would also be closed.

Since Smith wants input from the mayor’s for those municipalities by June 15 on where a new hospital should go, “time is of the essence for getting the survey out,” Forster said.

Forster has also contacted Kim Craitor, the Liberal MPP in Niagara Falls, to ask if he would join in sending out the survey to his constituents in the Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake and, in a separate interview, Craitor said he favours the idea. He said he hopes to meet with Forster this week to agree on a set of questions for the survey and logistics of getting it out and completed on time to meet Smith’s deadline for community feedback.

Craitor, who has had a record of questioning his own Liberal government on where it has gone with hospital services in the region, said he also believes the survey, sent out by MPP from two different parties, would serve as at least one “gesture” that health care concerns in Niagara trumps partisan politics.

Niagara Falls, Ontario riding MPP Kim Craitor

Yet survey or no survey, Craitor over his eight years as an MPP, he has continuously received calls from constituents, expressing their concerns over where the NHS has taken hospital services in the region, and he feels he has a “pretty good feel” for where his constituents stand on everything up to and including Smith’s recent recommendations for changing the system.

In the meantime, Forster has received at least a few comments from constituents in her Welland Riding who ask why she has only recently spoken on the NHS and did not do so while she was still serving, up to a year ago, as a Niagara regional councillor for Welland. 

Forster told Niagara At Large that she had no choice then but to declare a conflict of interest when debate at the regional council level turned to the NHS because she was still working and representing nurses in the health care system. “But I believe I still was speaking out for health care every day by representing nurses. It was just that I was doing it in a different way.”

Smith, who was appointed supervisor of the beleaguered and besieged NHS late last summer, unveiled his recommendations for changing the hospital system this past May 3. They include plans for a new hospital somewhere in south Niagara, even as the NHS continues construction on a new hospital complex in west St. Catharines that will cost taxpayers more than $1.5 billion. 

At least some south Niagara residents, including mayors for municipalities in the southern tier, wonder how likely it is that the province will approve the construction of another new hospital, at a cost of at least $800 million. They also wonder what will happen to pediatric and other services in hospitals still operating in the southern tier when the new hospital in St. Catharines opens sometime next year.

Will those services remain in the current hospitals until a new south Niagara hospital is built (if it ever is) or will they be transferred, as indicated in a “hospital improvement plan” a former NHS board released four years ago, to the new north Niagara hospital site?

Niagara Falls, Ontario Mayor Jim Diodati, for one, has made it clear that he wants answers to some of those key questions from Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews as soon as possible.

You can view a complete version of the NHS supervisor’s report and recommendations for reforming the hospital system by clicking on http://www.niagarahealth.on.ca/news/2012/05/03/dr-kevin-smith-presents-new-vision-for-nhs-hospitals . 

(Niagara At Large invites our readers to share their views on this post below. NAL only posts comments by individuals who are also willing to share their first and last names.)

Word is circulating on both sides of the border that Canada’s Conservative government is planning to close the Canadian consulate office in Buffalo, New York.

The office has, for decades, been an important cog in the wheel of cross-border relations for business, for heritage and culture, sporting events and for other interests and concerns Canadians and Americans alike who live, work and play on both sides of the border. 

Not much has been said by politicians and businesses on the Canadian side of the border, but according to a story on the front page of the Buffalo News today, business and political leaders in the Buffalo area, and all the way up to and including Charles Schumer, an influential U.S. senator for New York State, who was quoted in the paper saying; “I fully plan on pushing the Canadian government to reverse this decision. …. This office is an important resources for business throughout Western New York and ought to stay open for  business in Buffalo.”

Niagara At Large will be updating this post with more commentary before the end of the day.

“Something’s happening here, What it is ain’t exactly clear,  There’s a man with a gun over there, telling me I’ve got to beware.”
- from the old Sixties classic ‘For What It’s Worth’  by Buffalo Springfield.

It seemed like almost every time I turned on the television news this past week I was treated to images of police outfitted in riot gear, clashing with protesters in the streets.

Young people protesting in the streets of Quebec. Where are the rest of us?

‘Must be Syria’, I caught myself thinking.  Nope. It was the streets of Montreal where, what started out about fifteen weeks ago as a student strike against proposed tuition fee hikes, has escalated into an all-out youth movement against a Jean Charest government in Quebec (and maybe against governments in general) that appears to be even unpopular than the Dalton McGuinty government in Ontario.I would turn on the news again and there was more footage of or police wearing Darth Vader masks and wielding clubs and shields in a crackdown on demonstrators at the G20 summit in Toronto two years ago this June. These scenes were being rebroadcast because of a report released late last week by the Office of Independent Police Review.

This report, like the one Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin produced in December of 2010, concluded what at least some of us who took the time to listen to citizen eyewitnesses rather than simply take the word of the authorities knew almost from the start – that the policing operation got so out of control, it resulted in one of the worst cases of civil liberty assaults in Canadian history, with the arrest and detention of more than 1,000 citizens, many of them jailed in makeshift cages a humane society for animals might condemn and where they were never read their rights over even allowed to call a lawyer until they were ultimately let go with no charges ever being filed against them. Then there was the reprehensible “kettling” of people, including people that were doing nothng more than shopping, like the herding together of dolphins for a slaughter in the streets of a City of Toronto we Canadians were once so proud to boast about as one of the world’s most civil metropolises.

As much of a stain as the  G20 summit mess is on Canada’s reputation as a peaceful, freedom-loving democracy, it is the burning fire of protest in the streets of Quebec I want to get back to at the moment and a Draconian law, passed in haste in recent days by a desperate (likely not to get reelected) Charest government that, among other things, bars more than 50 people protesting in public space at a time unless they give the police a couple of days’ notice, and if anyone in the gathering deviates from the protest actions or messages they defined in their report to the police, they could face criminal charges.

Of course, there are those among us who will say; ‘Good. If these people don’t want to get in trouble with the government, then they should just stay home, close there curtains and hunker down to watch a hockey game, and basically shut up.’ I’ve heard that from many readers who dismissed my complaints in the past over the police actions at the G20 fiasco – and please, I’m not blaming the police. It is our federal and provincial governments that make their orders – and all I can say to them is read a classic history called ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’ by William Shirer, then come back and talk about how it is so much better to hide in your house rather than engage in any protest that we, in a democracy, should have every right to attend.

It has always mystified me that many of the same people who lash out against protesters are slamming the government themselves for dissolving their entitlements.

What we all ought to consider as we watch the situation play out in the streets of Quebec is that when it comes right down to it, we only have the right to assemble and speak our mind in this country if our exercising of them is not in conflict with the ideology of the government of the day. The moment it is, government will begin to take those rights ahead of ourselves.

Yes, there have been acts of violence and vandalism on the part of some of the demonstraters that are inexcusable. But most of these young people are reportedly demonstrating peacefully and are youth who see their opportunities for the same entitlements many of their elders, including the Baby Boomer generation had, to an affordable education, a decent paying job and a quality environment diminished by the actions of at least some of their elders.

If we don’t get that, then we may be in for more fire on the streets of this country.

(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post below. Remember that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last names.)

The Heritage Committee of Thorold, Ontario has released a brochure that showcases 48 of the community’s designated buildings and sites – some of them dating back to the area’s history as a battleground during the War of 1812 and as a key mill town during the fledgling years in the history of the first Welland Canal.

The Keefer Mansion Inn in Thorold, Ontario, going back to the 18th century and owned by a founding family of the community that played a key role in the construction of  the first Welland Canal.

This brochure, produced by this dedicated committee of volunteers on a shoe string budget, is now available at Thorold’s Tourism Center at Lock 7, at its main library, at the Keefer Mansion Inn off St. David’s Road in the community, the Quebec Bank Gallery and City Hall You can also find it by visiting the Heritage Committee’s website   http://www.heritagethorold.com/designatedproperties.html  

Pamela Minns, the secretary-treasurer for Thorold’s Heritage Committee and a long-time, passionate advocate for protecting and preserving all of our greater Niagara region’s heritage sites, says the committee wishes “to extend our thanks to all of our designated heritage property owners for their commitment to stewardship of some of Thorold’s finest heritage sites.

We, in Thorold, are very proud of our extensive built and natural heritage, and we invite you to view this latest display of our heritage on our web site, or pick up a copy of the brochure at the locations mentioned.”

“Even better, adds Minns, “use the brochure to take a tour of these sites using the maps supplied.

Minns finishes by sharing a quote from Ontario’s Ministry of Culture which goes like this;

“Every community in Ontario has its own unique culture and heritage. Each City, town, township or county has places, spaces and stories that enrich it, inspire it, enlighten it and guide it in its growth and development.  These places are integral parts of the identity of our communities, but they also play a significant role in economic development by helping to enhance a community’s quality of life, strengthen its distinctiveness, stimulate revitalization and attract tourist dollars.  Formal designation of heritage properties is one way of publicly acknowledging a property’s heritage value to a community”

Let Niagara At Large simply add that wonderfully, dedicated volunteer groups like Heritage Committee in Thorold, Ontario deserve our full support. Most of them do their work out of passion, on a shoestring and will little or no support from the politicians-that-be in their communities. Yet the positive legacies they are leaving to present and future generations likely add up to far more than any that those politicians that nickel and dime budgets for heritage preservation leave.

Call or email our local members of municipal government to make sure they understand that we want our tax dollars being invested in enrichment programs for our communities like this.

(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post below.)

If you dig history, heritage and fabulous architecture, then Doors Open Niagara is back – celebrating its 10^thyear on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border in this region, and you can once again soak in all the riches it has to offer for free. 

Two-century old Benjamin Long Homestead, at western head of Erie Canal system in Tonawanda, New York, is on Doors Open tour list

This event – scheduled to take place this spring between Friday, June 15 and Sunday, June 17 – offers residents who live and visit this region an opportunity to view some of the finest historical homes, institutions and historical site in Niagara for none of the charges that usually apply to these sites. It is a chance to remind ourselves, or possibly discover for the first time, how rich a history and heritage we have right here.

Doors Open Niagara, along with a ‘Heritage Peace Garden Trail’ launching in recognition of the 200^th anniversary of the War of 1812 that divided a fledgling United States and an evolving Canadian nation, before bringing us together in peace, is being sponsored by the Canada\/U.S. Binational Tourism Alliance, a not-for-profit organization representing businesses and tourist venues on both sides of the border.

Here is the Binational Tourism Alliance’s recent media release on these events. Enjoy them.

Binational Doors Open Niagara & Heritage Peace Garden Trail For U.S. and Canadian Media/Publications                                  

Written by Arlene White, Executive Director, Binational Alliance

General 2012 Doors Open & Peace Garden Trail Information

2012 is a very special year in our cross-border region.  We are kicking off the War of 1812 Bicentennial – an event that played a major role in defining Canada, the United States and the 200 years of peace we have shared since that war ended.

The Battle Ground Hotel Museum on Lundy Lane in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and across from the Drummond Hill Cemetary where War of 1812 heroine Laura Secord is buried, is on the Doors Open tour list.

The Binational Alliance invites you to join us this June to celebrate the 10^th Anniversary of Doors Open Niagara and launch of the Binational Heritage Peace Garden Trail – an 1812 Bicentennial

Legacy Project permanently connecting the built heritage, architecture & garden landscapes of  the Southern Great Lakes.   

You’ll enjoy ten amazing days of special events, tours, exhibits and performances, culminating in the free Doors Open Niagara weekend  between Friday, June 15 and Sunday,  June 17. 

June 8, we’ll be kicking off Architecture Week in the binational Niagara Region, with a special focus on the architecture of the 19^th century.   Jackson Triggs  Stratus and Southbrook Wineries in Niagara-on-the-Lake will be offering architectural tours of their sites and Jackson Triggs is the location of our special Doors Open Niagara 10^th Anniversary celebration on Saturday evening,

June 9.  We’ll be highlighting the architecture of binational Niagara through video, photographic and architectural exhibits and opening the doors to the next decade of Doors Open Niagara through dance and music in a new cross-border collaboration of Canadian and American dancers from Toronto’s Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, Buffalo’s Configuration Dance Theatre, and the works of artists Amy Taravella, Lacey Smith and Veronica Lake.   Tickets go on Tuesday, May 22 – go to doorsopenniagara.com. 

Visit Buffalo, New York’s classic Bontanical Gardens during Doors Open Niagara

Between June 9 and 14, the 35 heritage sites and Peace Gardens involved in 2012 Doors Open will be offering a variety of special exhibits, lectures, tours and programs and from Friday June 15 to Sunday June 17, they will offer free entry to all visitors to these sites during the Doors Open weekend.                                                                                                                     

The 2012 Art of Architecture and Architage photography contests are open to all visitors and participants in Doors Open and there will be a variety of prizes and opportunities for the winning photographers to exhibit their works in galleries and museums on both sides of the border.

And a special downloadable passport  will entitle participants to enter into a grand prize

 getaway in Niagara later this summer.  For complete details about the Doors Open 10^th

Anniversary celebrations and to purchase tickets to the June 9 event at Jackson Triggs, go to doorsopenniagara.com.

Niagara Doors Open & Peace Garden Sites – Open Free June 15 to 17 

U.S. Sites:

1. The Benjamin Long Homestead
2. Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens and Peace Garden
3. Colonel William Bond-Jesse Hawley House
4. Connecticut Street Armory NY National Guard
5. Das Haus Heritage Museum
6. Erie Canal Discovery Center and Penny Gallery
7. Hull Family Home & Farmstead and Peace Garden
8. Lehigh Valley Historic Site
9. Lewiston Peace Garden
   1. Market Arcade
   2. McClew Interpretive Center at Murphy Orchards
   3. Niagara County Historical Society Campus: Out water Building (1863), Washington Hunt Law Office (1835), Kandt House (1880) and Pioneer Building (1899)
   4. North Tonawanda History Museum’s The Lumber City History Center
   5. St Anthony of Padua Church
      1. Saint Adalbert Basilica
      2. The Mansion on Delaware
      3. Town of Porter Historical Museum –Youngstown Red Brick School
      4. Youngstown  Peace Garden

 Canadian Sites:

1. Fort Erie Historical Museum
2. Niagara Historical Society & Museum
3. Willoughby Historical Museum
4. St. George’s Anglican Church
5. St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canal Centre
6. Jordan Historical Museum
7. The Fry House
8. 3800 Main St, Jordan
9. Niagara Apothecary Museum
10. Morningstar Mill
11. Holy Trinity Anglican Church
12. RiverBrink Art Museum
13. Grimsby Bicentennial Peace Garden
    1. Grimsby Museum
    2. Battleground Hotel Museum
    3. Niagara Bruce Trail Association
    4. Willoughby Community Centre

 June 9 Doors Open Niagara 10^th Anniversary Celebration at Jackson Triggs NOTL

 The Binational Alliance invites you to join us to celebrate ten years of Doors Open Niagara and two hundred years of Peace between Canada and the United States on Saturday, June 9 at Jackson Triggs Niagara Estate Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake. 

You’ll enjoy a magical evening of local wine and food, architectural exhibits from the University at Buffalo Architecture & Education program, photography exhibits from the first decade of Doors Open Art of Architecture and Architage contests,  the Unbuilt Niagara video retrospective – the best designs never built, and a special binational dance showcase featuring dancers from Toronto’s Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, Buffalo’s Configuration Dance Theatre and artists Amy Taravella, Lacey Smith and Veronica Lake.  We’ll be premiering two new Peace Dances choreographed by Gerry Trentham of Pounds per Square Inch and danced to a new musical composition by Julia Aplin and her band Heartsong.

The event begins at 6 p.m. and guests can take advantage of the wonderful culinary options provided by Jackson Triggs – enjoy an exquisite barrel cellar dinner with wine-paired courses or relax on the patio with the barbeque selections provided by the on-site chefs under the direction of David Penny and recommended Jackson Triggs wine for tastings or by the glass.

Ticket prices start at $55 for the winery exhibits and amphitheatre dance performance and wine and food samples, with VIP tickets available for those who would like to take in the barrel cellar dinner and end the evening in the executive lounge with a private gathering to meet the artists and take away a special memento of the evening at the winery.  For complete details and to purchase your tickets go to doorsopenniagara.com.                                                                                                                      

Other Binational Heritage Peace Gardens Launching in 2012

1. May 27 – Victor, NY
2. June 1 – Burt, NY
3. June 15 – Leamington, ON, Niagara University, NY
4. June 16 – Sacket’s Harbor, NY
5. June 21 – Tecumseh, ON
6. June 22 – Thamesville, ON
7. June 29 – Youngstown, NY
8. July 1 – Fort Erie, ON
9. July 4 – St. Marys, GA
10. July 19 – Windsor, ON
11. July 20 – Colchester, ON
12. July 22 – Lancaster, NY
13. Aug 9 – Reif Winery, NOTL, ON
14. Aug 26 – Black Rock, Buffalo, NY
15. Sept 1 – Winery, Colchester, ON
16. Sept 8 – Olde Sandwich Towne, Windsor, ON
17. Oct 13 – Amherstburg, ON

What a shame it is that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has declared a “firm and final end” to Canadian’s military involvement in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

A member of the NATO force wades through about the only thing Afghanistan seems to have going for it – fields of poppies for its world-wide illicit opium trade.

At least Harper, at a NATO meeting held in Chicago this May 21 promised Canada’s NATO partners that it will go on investing $110 million annually to assist Afghanistan in paying for its own army forces. Why would Canada rather spend that money in its own country on such things as environmental protection or maybe building a proper functioning water treatment plant in Native communities back here that have all the earmarks most of Afghanistan has of struggling in Third World dilapidation and poverty? 

Yet seriously, how outrageous it is that Harper and company took this long to say Canada is pulling out of the Afghanistan quagmire. If your memory serves well enough to take you back to the mood of many of us Canada, the United States and other western nations in the weeks and months following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the former Liberal government of Jean Chretien agreed that Canada should join a NATO invasion of Afghanistan to hunt down Osama bin Laden and his band of Al Qaeda psychos, believed to be based in that country at the time. But bin Laden slipped away and our U.S. allies under then president George W. Bush decided it to invest most of their military resources on an invasion of Iraq.

Had Harper been Canada’s prime minister at the time, he would have joined Bush’s so-called “coalition of the willing” in the Iraq mess. He and his then-opposition Conservatives, openly expressed their all out support for the Iraq venture from its beginning in 2003. As much as we may not care for the Liberal governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin in other ways, at least they did not engage Canada in that costly, tragic mess. 

But then Harper and Company inherited the Afghanistan mission and have stayed there long enough to cost the lives of 158 of young and brave Canadian and leave many more with injuries they will be burdened with for the rest of their lives. Even Harper pointed out that Canadian troops have been in this God-forsaken rock pile of a country (not his words for the place, of course), with its chronically corrupt government, its warlords and its multi-billion dollar illicit drug trade, for more time than Canadians and Americans fought in World Wars I and II combined.

So why haven’t we gotten completely out of Afghanistan like, at least, yesterday, and why are we going to continue to send hundreds of millions of dollars of our hard-to-get tax money for programs in our own country when we do?

If it is to help support the Afghan army in a continued fight against the Taliban, then consider a couple of things. Plenty of experts on that region of the world, including the former U.S. secretary of state for Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski have said that if the Afghan army had any real will to fight for the corrupt government it is serving, why is it taking so many years to train it to do so? After all, no one appears to be spending anywhere near that amount of time and money to train the Taliban rebels they are apparently supposed to be defending the government against. 

And finally, why can’t the Afghan government and its friends in the drug trade fund its own army? After all, we are talking about a country that is the undisputable largest producer and exporter of illicit opium in the world – a business with a reported export value of more than $4 billion annually – and the world’s producer of hashish. Is this what Canada, is helping to defend?

Think about it folks. We have a Harper government that has recently passed a crime bill that calls for mandatory sentences for individuals caught with enough marijuana that there might be enough there to peddle. And at the same time, we are investing young lives and our dollars to support the world’s major pusher of illicit drugs?

We should not spend one more breath of our time or our money to this place now. Let’s invest those resources in improving the quality of life for our own people.

(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post.)

From the Peace Bridge Authority

BUFFALO, NY/FORT ERIE, ON, May 21, 2012– Today the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority (Peace Bridge Authority) announced that it has engaged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in order to exchange information on previous air quality improvements at the Peace Bridge corridor and also share ideas and best practices regarding future “green” stewardship opportunities at the port.

Traffic lineups at the Canada/U.S. Peace Bridge crossing.

“Much has been done at the Peace Bridge over the last ten years to mitigate traffic and environmental impacts on the host communities,” said PBA Chairman Sam Hoyt. 

“However, with the help and guidance of the EPA, NYSDEC, and other community organizations, we believe even more can accomplished on this important issue.”

“The EPA is very pleased to be working with the Peace Bridge Authority to help identify ways that they can reduce the environmental impacts of the bridge on the environment and particularly on neighborhoods around the bridge,” said U.S. EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck.  “I look forward to continuing to work with the authority

in a way that fully engages the public to make this project a model of environmental sustainability.” During preliminary conversations between the PBA and EPA, a number of suggestions were offered regarding ways to immediately address related buffering and commercial idling concerns at the port.  Such proposals include:

 Expansion of the “Spare the Air” idling reduction program sponsored by the PBA.

 Added landscape buffering in and around the corridor.

 Greater idling enforcement by the New York State Department of Environmental

Conservation within the plaza and adjacent neighborhood areas.

 Clean construction specifications and approaches.

 Utilization of a “green” consultant to assess building plans and operations to

identify new opportunities for sustainable practices.

 Potential affiliation with the SmartWay Program to encourage commercial fleet efficiencies and fuel savings.

In addition, the PBA expressed an interest in promoting a fleet upgrade/retrofit grant program or similar port-specific project, as has been implemented by EPA at numerous other land and marine trade hubs throughout the United States.  The Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority, a binational bridge authority, has owned and operated the Peace Bridge since 1933. The bridge, which was opened to traffic in 1927, spans the Niagara River between Fort Erie, Ontario, and Buffalo, New York, and is a key international border crossing.

For more information on the Peace Bridge Authority visit www.peacebridge.com . You may also visit -

□ Facebook: /PeaceBridge □ Twitter: @PeaceBridgeAuth □ 

□ YouTube: /PeaceBridgeAuthority □ Traffic: Mobile.PeaceBridge.Com □ 

Niagara At Large invites readers on both sides of our Niagara River border to share their views on this post. Remember that we only post comments by individuals who also share their first and last names.

At a time when too many of us feel a bit sour on the state of Canada – not that we don’t have some reason given the almost total lack of inspiration and hope for the future from our political leaders – it is important to remember that there are still plenty of good stories out there about the country and its people.

Niagara native and award-winning Canadian documentary producer Kevin McMahon.

This show is produced by a Niagara native and an old friend and colleague of mine from our days in journalism days going back to The St. Catharines Standard in the 1980s. His name is Kevin McMahon and as leader of Primitive Entertainment, a film company based in Toronto, Ontario, he has made some great award-winning documentaries on everything from our Great Lakes (‘Waterlife’) to Marshall McLuhan and the crash of this country’s Cod fishery. 

I am pleased to post the following note from Kevin and links to ‘Made Canada’ below. Hope you get a chance to watch it.

A new TV series about innovation, invention and discovery

Premiering Friday, June 1, 2012 at 8 pm on History Television

From Kevin McMahon

Hello friends, colleagues and acquaintances, 

In keeping with our mission to boost all things Canadian, we are launching a new TV show called Canadian Made. It’s a celebration of Canadian invention, innovation and genius. It’s full of wonderful and surprising stories about our home and native land. 

It turns out that one of the very few things we Canadians do not do so well is blow our own horn. So we are hoping you will help us do that!

We are on on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#%21/CanadianMadeTV , on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CanadianMadeTV , and on a contest website where you can answer skill testing and/or nonsensical questions for the chance to win our Ultimate Canadian Made Prize Pack: http://canadianmadetv.com/featured/join-the-i-am-canadian-made-contest/ .

So please spread the news!  And check out the show starting June 1 on History Television!!

Thanks so much.

all the very best, Kevin McMahon
Visis Primitive Enertainment’s home site at www.primitive.net .

CANADIAN MADE premieres on History Television, Friday June 1st at 8:00 pm!  It’s fun for the whole family!!

Also, see our award-winning views of the Great Lakes:
http://waterlife.nfb.ca/  … and Canada’s wilderness: http://www.nationalparksproject.ca/