Monthly Archives: January 2010

 By Doug Draper

Reilly Anzovino would have been 19 years old this Jan. 26.

Some of her friends gathered at her home in Fort Erie on that day to celebrate her life and, at the same time, console grieving members of her family.

Reilly Anzovino

Lest we forget, Reilly was the young woman involved in a tragic accident on a stretch of Hwy. 3 in her hometown of Fort Erie this past Boxing Day and whose chances for survival drained to a point where she passed away slightly before or after she arrived in a 19-and-a-half-minute ride on a cold, icy night to the emergency at the Welland hospital.

Since then, thousands of residents in her community and others across this Greater  Niagara Region, including her parents Denise Kennedy and Tim Anzovino, and three of Niagara’s provincial members of parliament – Kim Craitor, Peter Kormos and Tim Hudak – have called on Dr. Andre McMallum, Ontario’s chief coroner, to hold a public inquest into the circumstances surrounding Reilly’s death.

They want to know if the decisions by two agents of the Liberal provincial government of Dalton McGuinty – the Niagara Health System (NHS) and Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brand Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) – that lead to the closing of emergency rooms at hospitals in Fort Erie and Port Colborne last summer may have had a hand in this tragedy. Continue reading →

Until the wee small hours, the region's meeting on our transit future drags on

By Doug Draper

“Patience, patience,” Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badeway implored others on the regional council and dozens of us listening in the gallery as the marathon meeting over whether or not the region should play a role in cobbling together an inter-municipal transit system for Niagara dragged on and on.

Patience was not in the cards for some.

Judy Casselman, a veteran regional councillor for St. Catharines, looked frustrated as she stressed more than once that any further delay in moving forward with an inter-municipal transit system would show a “void of leadership” to far too many in the public, including students, seniors and lower-income people who’ve been waiting for years for  a good, reliable transit system to get them to school, to job, to visit with a loved one in a hospital, or just get out to buy a few groceries.

St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan said he walked into the special meeting the region was holding on transit services this Jan. 28 expecting to participate in a “historic” session in which, after 40 years of the region running hot and cold on the idea of building a transit system for all Niagara’s residents, it was finally going to do it. Anything less that driving forward with a launch of an inter-municipal transit system amounts to “failure,” McMullan added, “and I don’t accept that.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

It may be cold out there. But the last week of this January has seen the battle with Ontario’s government over what it is allowing its appointed hacks to do to Niagara’s hospital system approach the boiling point.

Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin slams province on hospital services

During the week, Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin fired off a letter to Ontario’s health minister, Deborah Matthews, challenging recent comments she made in The Globe & Mail that the closing of the emergency room in the hospital in his municipality was undertaken to provide better health care for residents and not to save money.

In the meantime, Sue Salzer, a south Niagara resident and leader of the Yellow Shirt Brigade, a citizens dedicated to fighting for better hospital services, was a guest on CBC’s Radio Noon program on 99.1 FM. On the program, she discussed questions raised  by many in the community about the death of Fort Erie teen Reilly Ansovino, who died in a Boxing Day traffic accident in the municipality, and whether she might still be alive today if the emergency rooms at either the Fort Erie or Port Colborne hospitals – closed last year by the provincially sponsored Niagara Health System – were still open.

You can hear the entire CBC interview with Sue Salzer (if you have speakers on your compute)r by clicking on the following link http://www.cbc.ca:80/ontariotoday/story_archive.html  and scrolling down Radio Noon Ontario’s home page in the ‘Audio Archives’ section until you reach the title “ER Closing,” then click on that and listen.

Niagara At Large is also posting the Fort Erie mayor’s letter to Ontario’s health minister in its entirety, which you can read by clicking on ‘keep reading’ now. Continue reading →

 By John Bacher

 On January 23rd 2010, a major milestone took place when the people of the Niagara Region lost one of the most prophetic figures in the advocacy of our beautiful landscapes, particularly our unique Niagara fruit lands, from the combined blight of new expressways and urban sprawl.

Niagara conservation pioneer Bob Hoover

Robert Hoover – a founder and the first president of the Preservation of Agricultural Lands Society (PALS), one of the longest standing conservation groups in southern Ontario – died on January 23rd at age 89.  Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

In front of a standing committee of Ontario’s legislatures this Jan. 25, Sue Salzer, a Fort Erie resident and head of a ‘Yellow Shirt Brigade’ of residents fighting to preserve hospital services in south Niagara, made the call for fairer access to those vital services for her friends and neighbours.

Yellow Shirt Brigade leader Sul Salzer

In Salzer’s address to the committee, holding public sessions for one day in Niagara Falls, she stressed the concerns so many people in southern and cental communities of the Niagara region feel – that their services are being diminished as the Niagara Health System,  the body the province created for amalgamating hospital services in Niagara, moves forward with its plans to integrate more and more services in a new hospital complex it is building at a west St. Catharines site in north Niagara, at a cost of more than $1.5 billion.

Salzer went on to conclude that additional funds from the province is not the answer to a fiscal hole the Niagara Health System has found itself in.

“It is now (the NH’S’s time) to practice fiscal prudence and live within their existing budgets.  It is now time for Health Care Dollars to reach the hospital floor. … With your recommendation, and legislative support, you can start a new trend across Ontario and send the message that you really are concerned about the care of your constituents. …

“That destination should not be the grandiose LHIN Headquarters, or for salaries for the 32 staff supporting a nine member supposed volunteer board. …
“That destination should not be for the $357,000 salary for a non-medical CEO (Debbie Sevenpifer) or the 169 staff on the sunshine list or for more consultants.

To read the full text of Salzer’s address to the provincial legislative committee on financial matters click on and keep reading. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Niagara, Ontario’s top municipal politician will not be seeking another term on the regional council.

Niagara Regional Chairman Peter Partington announcing decision not to seek another term of office.

“Tonight’s meeting is important for a number of reasons,” said Peter Partington after he and other councillors were escorted into the region’s council chambers by a lone piper on Thursday, Jan. 21. “It’s the first meeting of a new year in this last year of this term of council. It’s also the first meeting of (the Niagara regional government’s) 40th anniversary year – truly a year to celebour and many achievements and the difference the region has made in the lives of our resident and in the health and vibrancya of our communities.”

“And it is the first meeting in what will be my final year as your chairman and as a member of regional council.” Continue reading →

 By Fiona McMurran

Wow!

It was a big victory in the Welland council chambers on Tuesday, Jan 19 for those residents in this city fighting to keep hospital services at Welland’s hospital and for others fighting for better hospital services throughout Niagara.

Welland councillor Frank Campion

The city’s council finally passed a motion put forward by one of its councillors, Frank Campion, to join Niagara Falls, Port Colborne, Fort Erie and Wainfleet in urging the province to investigate the way hospital services are being managed by the Niagara Health System – the body the former Conservative government of Ontario created a decade ago to amalgamate hospital operations in Niagara and that the province’s Liberal government continues to have calling the shots when it comes to most of the hospitals in the region. Continue reading →

 By Doug Draper

The next time the Niagara Health System – the body responsible for administering most of the hospitals across Niagara, Ont. – wants to host an ‘Open House’ for the public, why not hold it in a bowling alley. And preferably on an evening when there is a tournament on.

Niagara Health System CEO Debbie Sevenpifer and Welland resident Joe Somers try to converse in noisy corridor of Y complex

It would probably be less noisy and chaotic than it was on a Monday evening, this Jan. 18, as about 40 or 50 Niagara residents tried to crowd into a corner of a corridor a crowded Welland YM/YWCA building, between a swimming pool, gymnasium and staircase leading up to exercise rooms, for an opportunity to discuss their concerns about the region’s hospital services with the health system’s president and CEO Debbie Sevenpifer. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

An article that appeared in the Sat., Jan. 16 edition of The Globe & Mail on the Niagara Parks Commission seems to be getting a good deal of buzz among Niagara area residents.

Niagara At Large has received email on with some asking if we could post The Globe piece in its entirety on this site. That we cannot do since the article is the rightful property of The Globe but we will post that newspaper’s link to the article that you can access if you click on the ‘keep reading’ tab below. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

It appears to be turning into a once-every-four years ritual for the union representing Ontario’s college teachers. And it goes something like this.

Receive a deal for a new salary and benefits contract in late summer or early fall from the presidents of the province’s 24 colleges and play around with it to the point of rejecting it by January of the following year.

This Niagara College campus In Niagara-on-the-Lake is a target of possible strike action by college teachers' union

The union then calls for and wins a strike vote from its members and, however weak or narrow the mandate for a strike might be, threaten to strike anyway. And always – and when I say always, I mean ALWAYS – make sure a deadline is set for some time in February or early March when a strike would exact maximum punishment on the very students the teachers belonging to this union claim they care so much about.

In other words, throw into jeopardy hundreds of thousands of students’ school year – one they and their families have scrimped and saved and sacrificed for  – because well, you know, the teachers are entitled to a two-to-three percent increase in wages every year, regardless of how badly the economy and the rest of us are doing outside of whatever bubble they choose to live in.

This is the stance this same grievous union – the Ontario Public Services Employees Union (OPSEU) representing more than 9,000 college teachers across the province– has taken again this January with a strike vote it won by a margin of roughly 57 per cent and a strike set for sometime in February if the college’s presidents and province don’t agree to their demand of a 2.5 per cent annual salary increase for their members over the next three years.

Well this time the college’s presidents, province, students and the rest of us who are paying for all of this should stand up to this bully union and say ‘No. We are not going to let you hold the academic year of some 150,000 full-time students and more than 300,000 part-time students hostage. Not this time.’

Either accept the offer the college presidents have put on the table – one that is pretty damn generous given the fact the rest of us are suffering through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and one that would given your members an eight-per-cent salary increase over the next four years up to a maximum of $103.975 – or any of your members that go out on strike are fired! And that should be the public’s final offer to these bullies – no retreat, no surrender. Continue reading →

 By Doug Draper

In a move that has at least some people in his old hometown of Fort Erie wondering what took him so long, Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak has joined the rising call of south Niagara residents for a public inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death of Reilly Anzovino. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Chalk one up for the vegetarians of the region.

One of Niagara’s largest transit systems will be reviewing its recent decision to ban ads promoting a vegetarian diet over eating meat on its buses.

“I don’t find them offensive,” St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan has told Niagara At Large of the ads Niagara Action For Animals (NAFA) is prepare to pay to display on buses owned and operated by his city’s transit commission.
 
“These (ads) would trigger a concern for me if they were hateful to an individual or group, or shocking in some way. … But from what I see, they don’t fall into that category and are meant to be thought-provoking and challenging,” said the mayor. Continue reading →

(This is the first in a series of posts Niagara At Large will carry on treasured heritage sites in our binational region)

By Paul Kassay

At the far end of lake Erie near the Niagara river on the south shore, sits an historic lighthouse, Point Abino juts out into lake Erie and is less than 15 miles from Buffalo NY which is visible most times.

Point Abino Lighthouse on Lake Erie

The Abino light station as it is known has been decommisioned since 1995. The Town of Fort Erie now owns the historic light, thanks to the perserverence of a group of local historians.

From Crystal Beach where we live we can still see the structure, but alas, getting to it is not a simple undertaking.. The road leading to the light is owned by an association of wealthy summer residents, mostly from the USA.. Visitors can access the point via a trolley in the summertime maintained and operated by PALPS through a special arrangement with the Town of Fort Erie who pays the assocication some $4,000.00 anually for the privilege.

The really big problem here is that the Lighthouse proper is considered to be on the Doomsday List by some. It is literally deteriorating. In an effort to get enough money to save the light, the Town has decided to sell off the Lightkeeper’s dwelling, in order to pay for the restoration. And many, like me, are outraged. Continue reading →

(The parents of 18-year-old Reilly Anzovino, who died  on route to the Welland Hospital following a traffic accident on Hwy. 3 shortly before midnight on Boxing Day, have joined numerous others in Niagara’s southern tier in asking for an Ontario coroner’s inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death.

Many, including Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor and Welland MPP Peter Kormos, want to know if the Niagara Health System’s decision last year to close the emergency rooms at the Fort Erie and Port Colborne hospital sites could be a factor in Reilly’s death, since she died shortly before arriving on at the Welland hospital site which was further away.

Niagara At Large has run news commentaries on this tragedy over the past two weeks which can be viewed by scrolling further down this page.

Below we are sharing a transcript of the letter Reilly’s parents sent to Dr. Andre McCallum, Chief Coroner of Ontario, requesting a public inquest.) Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath came storming into south Niagara this week like a winter blizzard to slam the province’s Liberal government for letting emergency room services at hospitals in Fort Erie and Port Colborne die.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath and CAW Local 199 president Wayne Gates join area residents in front of beleaguered Fort Erie hospital site.

“The hardworking people of Niagara have the right to know that help will be there in a medical emergency or when a loved one gets sick,” said Horwath to a gathering of area residents outside Fort Erie’s Douglas Memorial Hospital. “The McGuinty Liberals found billions of dollars to provide a tax giveaway to some of Ontario’s richest corporations, but they’re closing down local emergency rooms. That’s wrong.” Continue reading →

By William Hogg, MD

The people in Niagara’s southern tier are beginning to realize that dying in an ambulance today is more likely to happen than it was just a few months ago.

A most tragic death was that of 18-year-old Reilly Anzovino a couple of weeks ago (this past Boxing Day) during her college break. She was badly injured in a car accident on the Garrison Road. It was a wintry-slippery, foggy night.

She died in the ambulance as it pulled into Welland hospital’s ER. If that ambulance had been able to go to her own home town’s hospital in Fort Erie, she would have been alive on arrival – not DOA. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

“NHS = DOA.”

Those acronyms – NHS for Niagara Health System and DOA for ‘dead on arrival’ – were coupled together on a sign a man dressed up in a Grim Reaper costume was carrying last year during a protest rally in front of the one and only hospital serving the border community of Fort Erie.

Hundreds of residents from both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, who work and own homes in Fort Erie, joined the rally last September in protest of the NHS’s decision to close Douglas Memorial Hospital’s emergency room. Many expressed fear that lives would be lost ambulancing patients in critical condition further away, to already crowded emergency rooms in Niagara Falls or Welland. And many now wonder if their worst fear has come true in the wake of a tragic traffic accident that occurred on Boxing Day, along a stretch of Hwy. 3 running through Fort Erie.

One of the victims of the accident – Fort Erie teenager Reilly Anzovino – was ambulanced to the Welland County Hospital where, according to a police report, she was pronounced dead on arrival. Continue reading →

(If you’d like a little more insight into why people in Niagara’s south tier have so little confidence in the Niagara Health System and province when it comes to hospital services and their hospital care, this address by Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey should provide a few clues.

Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey

He delivered it this December, during the last session of 2009 of his city’s council, on the same night it approved a resolution by the council for the City the of Niagara Fall calling on the province to have the NHS’s operations investigated. Niagara At Large posts the address in its entirety and welcomes a rebuttle from the NHS or province if they so choose.)

By Vance Badawey

Good evening.

May I take this opportunity to elaborate on comments I had made regarding the resolution passed by Niagara Falls City Council and subsequently supported by Port Colborne City Council at our last meeting. Continue reading →