Author Archives: dougdraper

A Comment by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

(If you missed the February 25 airing of this Fifth Estate story on the policing at last June’s G20 summit in Toronto, it is titled ‘You Should Have Stayed Home’ and you can watch it online in its entirety at  www.cbc.ca/fifth/2010-2011/youshouldhavestayedathome/ or if the link fails you, go to your search engine and punch in Fifth Estate and CBC and look in the ‘episodes file’.)

On Friday, February 25 , CBC’s investigative news program, The Fifth Estate focused  on what arguablly was one the worst episodes of civil liberties abuse in Canadian history – one that unraveled close to our regional Niagara home, in Toronto, Ontario.

Riot squads, sanctioned by Canada's federal and Ontario governments, roam the streets of Toronto during last June's G20 summit.

The Fifth Estate piece, titled ‘You Should Have Stayed Home’,  highlights   “untold stories” of younger and older citizens from regions across Ontario and Canada, including many from our Niagara region, who gathered in Toronto during the G20 summit last June to promote environmental protection, fairer trade for our country’s workers, the preservation of publicly funded health care and a host of other social justice causes.

Too many of them – more than a thousand – were arrested and detained with none of the normal reading of their rights that a rapist or serial killer would get, even though many of them were attending peaceful rallies on the lawns outside the province’s Queen’s Park legislature.  It was the largest mass arrest of Canadians exercising their right to dissent in the country’s history. Continue reading →

A Preface from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Niagara At Large has been following reports of excessive force by federally sponsored riot police at last June’s G20 summit in Toronto for the past eight months, and has come to a fundamental conclusion – the abuses of the basic rights of Canadian citizens to assemble and express their views in what is supposed to be an open democracy  were plentiful and beyond all reason  and have yet to be  addressed by a federal government entrusted to uphold the constitutional laws of Canada.

In that spirit, Niagara At Large is posting the following Youtube commentary and video on this site for your information. Whether you agree with the following or not, share your views below. Join in an important debate about where we strike a balance between security and civil liberties in our country.

Here is the Youtube commentary and video. Continue reading →

(The following article, Niagara At Large hopes you read, was written by Zainab Elghul, a 17-year-old Canadian living in Thorold, Ontario and of Libyan descent who is hoping Canada and the rest of the world join Libyans in demanding that Gaddafi “stop committing crimes against (his country’s people) and step down.”)

By Zainab Elghul

What is happening in Libya is no longer a peaceful protest for change of government and it is no longer a violent crackdown on peaceful protestors; it is a massacre and it has been even described as genocide!

Zainab Elghul

Unarmed people in Libya are being shot by machine guns, and the use of warplanes has been numerously attempted and as a result the numbers of the innocent people dying are countless! The numbers of the killed Libyans that are currently disclosed are not close to the real number of the Libyans killed. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post the following media release from the not-for-profit palliative-care agency Hospice Niagara.)

Hospice Niagara’s Medical Director, Dr. Brian Kerley, received the Elizabeth J. Latimer Prize in Palliative Care on Thursday, February 24th at the Third Annual Lectureship in Palliative Care at McMaster University.

Dr. Brian Kerley honoured for his work.

The Elizabeth J. Latimer prize recognizes excellence and innovation in palliative care within our local (Niagara, Ontario) region.

Dr. Brian Kerley was born and raised in Niagara. Not only is Dr. Kerley the Medical Director at Hospice Niagara, he is also an assistant Clinical Professor and Niagara Clerkship Coordinator for the Department of Family Medicine and Division of Palliative Care at McMaster University and practicing physician with the Garden City Family Health Team.  Dr. Kerley is also a member of 5 medical associations, and active in a wide range of scholarly and professional activities. Continue reading →

By Chris George

As a parent of a child with anaphylaxis – coping with severe, life threatening allergies – this February’s St. Valentines Day was especially sweet!

Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq speaking with the George family, Lisa, Chris and sons David and Alexander.

My family traveled to Ottawa this week to take part in an important federal government announcement concerning the labelling of allergens on Canadian food products.

Canadian Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced that new labelling laws will ensure allergens are clearly marked on all food products. For the George family – and for thousands of families across Niagara Region – this means a great deal less stress when grocery shopping and at meal time. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

Lee Iacocca once said that there “are no free lunches”. It seemed to be a mantra extolling the virtues of hard work.  Fair enough.  Then along came “free trade” and all of its ensuing inferences and associations.

Who is really in calling the shots?

Somehow free trade was thought to be linked directly to democracy, equality, and the shedding of the yoke of poverty and disease from the world. Turns out, it’s not very “free”, and it’s quite indifferent to poverty and disease, unless there’s money to be made. Continue reading →

By Susan Howard-Azzeh

A delegation to Ottawa last Tuesday,  February 15,  including St. Catharines Libyan Canadians, asked the Canadian government to condemn the current crack down by Moammar Gadhafi on peaceful protesters.

Three young people, including youth from Niagara of Libyan descent, rally in Toronto earlier this February. Photo courtesy of Susan Howard-Azzeh.

The delegation also asked the Canadian government to work with the United Nations  Security Council to establish a no-fly zone to prevent Gadhafi from using the air-force against Libyan people;  to press the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague to hold Gadhafi, his family and his regime responsible for crimes of genocide; called on our government and other governments to freeze the assets of Gadhafi, his family and his senior officials; and called on the Canadian Red Cross to work with their counterparts in both Egypt and Tunisia to provide safe haven areas and medical treatment on the outskirts of Libya. Continue reading →

By Tom Millar

Egad, he’s at it again. Premier McGuinty is pulling away from it. He’s back pedaling from his Green Energy Plan.

Seems McGuinty is doing it every other day, right?! And for good reasons, too.

Just recently, on Friday February 11, 2011, McGuinty pull the plug on offshore wind farms. His reason: There isn’t a lot of science on offshore wind farms.…We need some time to review the science.

Egad, didn’t McGuinty do his homework before approving the tendered Green Energy projects for offshore wind farms? Continue reading →

By Pat Scholfield

Have you ever had to use Ontario Patient Transfer {OPT} services to be
transported from a hospital to home?

Pat Scholfield

The Ombudsman is conducting an investigation into non-emergency medical
transportation services  (MTS).  In Niagara, the Niagara Health System
exclusively uses Ontario Patient Transfer,  a private company out of Hamilton.

Since Port Colborne and Fort Erie had their ERs converted to Urgent Care
Centres, situations occur where a patient calling 911 is transported by ambulance
to a hospital in Welland, Niagara Falls or St. Catharines. Only under extremely
stringent circumstances can an ambulance attend either Port Colborne or Fort Erie former emergency departments.There is no ambulance service to return a patient back to their point of origin. Continue reading →

(Buffalo, New York’s Central Library has one of the finest archives available for items showcasing the history of our greater Niagara region. With that in mind, Niagara At Large is posting the following media release from that library, featuring an exhibit we may all enjoy.)

Travel diaries, posters, photographs and postcards on display

Colorful travel posters, postcards, photographs, diaries and other travel ephemera from the 1920s and 30s are now on display in the Rare Book Room of the Central Library, 1 Lafayette Square, through May 28, 2011.

One of the many vintage images featured at library exhibit.

Travelers and Cosmopolitans: the Tourist is the Other Fellow explores the golden age of travel through the eyes of 2 prominent locals: Hamilton Phelps Clawson (1892 – 1975) and Geneva Thompson Porter (c. 1883 – 1971).

The 1920s marked a significant change in travel habits. More people had more time and more discretionary spending for tourism. Likewise, automobiles, trains, ocean liners, and even zeppelins offered reliable, comfortable, and luxurious methods for transport.

Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

I don’t know about you, but if I entered a room full of people and it was plainly obvious that at least half of them didn’t want me there, I think I know what I would do.

This mock poster depicts some Crystal Beach residents' nightmare image of what their community may one day look like if the condo tower for Bay Beach is approved.

Unless I had nowhere else to go or absolutely had to be there, I would find a way to make a dignified exit.

But that hardly seems to be the way with developers pushing an unpopular building plan on a community, even when it is clear that a critical mass of the residents living their don’t want it. If they can get a majority of the councillors to back the plan and if it then gets the okay following a hearing before the Ontario Municipal Board, just try to show the door to that developer without a long a costly fight.

That seems to be the case in the town of Fort Erie, Ontario where a Greater Toronto Area group of developers – the Molinaro Group – is pushing to follow through with an agreement consummated with the last town council to build a 13-storey condo tower in front of a popular Lake Erie beach in Crystal Beach where most of buildings, residential and commercial, are one or two storeys high. Continue reading →

A News Brief from Niagara At Large

When the District School Board of Niagara makes up its mind it is going to do something, it does it.

Whether it is closing the only secondary school it operated in the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake (as it ultimately did last year), or opening a first-of-a-kind school in Ontario for low-income students, it doesn’t seem to matter how much concern is expressed by people, right up to and including the province’s education minister,  Leona Dombrowsky.

This is one school board that – like it or not – sticks to its guns, and so it did this February 22 when a majority of board members voted to move forward with its plans to open the controversial ‘DSBN Academy’ this coming September in Welland. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Don’t know whether you heard this because it did not get a lot of coverage in the mainstream press, but Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has announced his intention to freeze the minimum wage.

Ontario government seems like it is asking for a Wisconsin-like labour rebellion here.

McGuinty chose a talk he gave to some well-healed group in Oakville earlier this February to announce his Liberal government’s decision to freeze the minimum wage for countless many families across this province. Lest there be any doubt, these are people who are trying to pay their ever higher hydro, heating, transit, grocery and health-care bills, not to mention their property taxes, for work they are performing at the lowest end of the wage scale.

And isn’t that nice.

It isn’t enough for McGuinty and company to dish out billions of dollars in cuts in corporate taxes to companies like Walmart – Fortune 500 corporations that are making more profits than Genghis Khan could ever imagined on the labour of people in this country and others who could never imagine having enough money to stop worrying about next week’s grocery bills. Continue reading →

A Commentary by John Bacher

Integral to efforts to bulldoze the path for the proposed Canadian Motor Speedway in Fort Erie has been an assault on the basic land-use planning framework of the provincial government.

A Black-Crowned Night Heron, one of the rarer species of birds that visits the Frenchman's Creek watershed now. To what extent will the impact of a motor speedway on the diversity of life in this area be taken into account?

This began with the first “public meeting” of the Niagara Region and Fort Erie on this issue, which did not even mention one of the biggest points of contention with the proposal. This is that the 827 acres proposed for the speedway is currently both agriculturally zoned and designated. Then came another bizarre twist.

Rather than designating the proposal as an urban boundary expansion, it became referred to as a “Special Policy Area.” This provides an exemption from the province’s Growth Management Plan, which is currently holding up urban re-zonings of agricultural land in Smithville and Niagara Falls.

For a while, despite having manipulative public meetings and confusing official plan terminology, there was a firm stand taken by the Niagara Region and the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority on the matter of provincially significant wetlands. Amendments to the Fort Erie and Niagara Region’s official plans, had language that did not approve encroachment of the provincially significant Frenchman’s Creek Wetland complex. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Less than a month after Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty celebrated the “Big Becky” hydro power dig in Niagara Falls as another act in bringing “tremendous progress (and) strength” to the province’s electricity system, the province’s Conservative opposition leader, Tim Hudak, is charging that it is a “boondoggle”  contributing to “hydro bills that have been skyrocketing.”

Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak with Niagara Falls riding PC candidate George Lepp.

”It may not be a line item on your hydro bill,” said Hudak during a media briefing he held this February 18 in Niagara Falls, “But you need to know that you’re paying the full cost of Dalton McGuinty’s mismanagement. For Big Becky, your bill should read $137 – and counting.” Continue reading →

By Dylan Powell

Four hundred million animals. Twenty million in Canada. Eighty per cent on fur farms.

A recent Niagara rally against the fur industry.

Those are the stark statistics that surround our domestic fur industry, an industry which in recent years has attempted to re invent itself, moving from coats to trims, from the West to China (and back again) and from blight to “green.” Continue reading →

(In an effort to keep readers up to date on plans to ship radioactive-contaminated material through the lower Great Lakes, including the Welland Canal, Niagara At Large is posting the following letter from Ontario NDP environment critic Peter Tabuns, urging the province’s environment commissioner, Gord Miller, to prepare a special report on the risks such shipments may pose to the world’s most abundant supply of fresh water.)

February 16, 2011
Mr. Gord Miller
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario

Dear Commissioner,

I am writing to ask that your office prepare a special report on the environmental risks associated with the proposed transport of radioactive nuclear steam generators from Bruce Power’s plant in Kincardine across
Ontario’s roads to Owen Sound and then through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway to Sweden for volume-reduction processing.

Ontario NDP environment critic Peter Tabuns

The Government of Ontario is actively supporting this project by allowing Ontario Power Generation, of which the province is the sole shareholder, to amend its agreement with Bruce Power in order to permit the transport of these 16 radioactive steam generators thousands of kilometres instead of following the previously agreed upon plan between OPG and Bruce Power (approved by a 2006 federal environmental assessment) to store the generators in a surface facility until 2043 and then in underground storage. In addition, the province is further supporting this project by providing permits through the Minister of Transportation for the transport of the steamgenerators on Ontario roads. Continue reading →

By Gail Benjafield

The Historical Society of St. Catharines (HSSC) announces a topic of considerable local interest to take place on the evening of Thursday February 24th.

Click on this poster to enlarge it and make it easier to read.

Local Architect Harald Ensslen of MacDonald Zuberec Ensslen will be giving the society and its guests a revealing look into some of the city’s most interesting mid-century buildings. One of them, the Lapierre/Peacock residence has won prestigious design awards, among them the Ontario Association of Architects Award, 2010.

Architecture is an extremely varied topic including European churches, classical temples and early skyscrapers. Modern buildings, specifically those of mid-twentieth century residential design, are often overlooked. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post the following media release from the Niagara Park’s Commission for our readers’ interest.)

Niagara Falls, ON – The Niagara Parks Commission (NPC) has proudly launched a new website  niagaraparksnature.com as part of its on-going commitment to environmental stewardship and efforts to promote the preservation of sensitive lands around the Falls and along the Niagara River corridor.

The Niagara Glen Lookout along the lower Niagara River. Photo courtesy of Niagara Parks Commission.

The website was funded in part by the Habitat Stewardship Program of Environment Canada as part of NPC’s efforts to preserve and enhance habitat for Species at Risk. Special features to the page include information on upcoming events such as community clean up days, environmental initiatives and a blog that will be updated regularly with content by Niagara Parks’ naturalists. The new site also offers information for visitors on things to do such as hiking, cycling, bird watching and the increasing popular activity, geocaching. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

At the risk of coming across as a little hard-hearted here, the more I read about the concerns residents in west St. Catharines are raising over plans for a new interchange off Hwy. 406, the less sympathy I feel for these people.

A random moment on the roads of west St. Catharines. file photo by Doug Draper.

The interchange – the subject this February 15 of a first of what is expected to be a series of public information meetings hosted by the City of St. Catharines, Ontario and Niagara’s regional government – is being proposed for the stretch of Hwy. 406 curling through west St. Catharines to address the traffic congestion in that area now, and forecast to grower even heavier in the future.

Residents living in the area say they fear another interchange, just north of an existing one running on and off Fourth Avenue Louth, will only add to the traffic congestion in their west St. Catharines neighbourhood.

Now these folks are concerned about traffic congestion? Have they been paying the slightest bit of attention to what has been unfolding in that area of the region over the past decade or so? Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Get ready for a few big changes in the way Niagara, Ontario’s residential waste is collected at curbside.

New waste collecton trucks about to roll out across the region. Photo by Doug Draper

Starting this coming Monday, February 28, if you live in a single family home in Niagara, the amount of household trash destined for a landfill site will be limited to no more than one bag per home per week, unless you want to purchased $1 tags to put out more.

To some who’ve never really caught on to recycling, that one-bag limit may seem like a downer. But here is the upside for the environment and for the more avid recyclers among us. Start this same week, you will now be able to put out your Blue and Grey boxes every week, along with your Green Bin, instead of alternating weeks for paper and cardboard and for plastics and bottles and cans. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

By a margin of four to three, the council of Fort Erie, Ontario has voted down a controversial plan to build a 12-storey condominium along the shores of Lake Erie.

A depiction of the proposed condominium towering over Lake Erie in Crystal Beach.

The vote, delivered at a February 14 council meeting, represents an 11th-hour victory for numerous residents in and beyond the historic Fort Erie community of Crystal Beach who’ve been battling the condo plan for the better part of two years.

Many residents in the area argued that this high-rise condo, advanced by developers who have sited similar multi-storey facilities on the northern shores of Lake Ontario, would constitute an out-of-character intrusion on a community of mostly one- and two-storey homes and business, and would also block access to Bay Beach, one of the last open stretches of beach available to the public along the Niagara shores of Lake Erie. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post this piece, promoting a benefit concern of fine Niagara musicians in support of Hospice Niagara, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for people facing life-limiting illnesses that you can learn more about by visiting http://www.hospiceniagaraq.ca .)

19th Celebration of Women in Music Benefit Concert in support of Hospice Niagara

The 19th Celebration of Women in Music Benefit concert will be held at The Black Sea Hall on March 6th starting at 4:00pm in support of Hospice Niagara.

BroadBand is an exciting and eclectic group of five versatile Niagara musicians. Violinist Beth Bartley doubles on mandolin and flute. Guitarist Jeff Hale also plays percussion, and singer Betsy Tauro plays percussion, guitar, bass and piano. As well as being an accomplished pianist, Neva Tesolin plays accordion and banjo, and percussionist-drummer Laura Thomas has been known to dust off her old comet for special occasions.  Everyone sings! Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting this piece in the wake of concerns expressed by citizens groups and others, including mayors living in our Welland Canal communities, about plans to ship radioactive scrap from Ontario’s Bruce nuclear plant through the lower Great Lakes.)

By Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
Supporters of nuclear power in general — and of Bruce Power in particular — are perplexed at the widespread opposition to Bruce Power’s plan to ship 16 radioactive steam generators to Sweden so that most of the contaminated metal can be melted down and blended with �clean� recycled scrap metal.

Do we want to risk radioactive-contaminated scrap being shipped through a Welland Canal that has had its share of shipping accidents?

As one of those opposed, let me explain my concerns.
During last September’s public hearings in Ottawa on its application for a transport license, Bruce Power said its motive is not to save money, nor to save space, but simply to recycle metal because it’s the right thing to do. Continue reading →

By Rob Foster

The budget for the Town of Lincoln is now complete for 2011, having been voted upon and passed this past February 7.

Town of Lincoln councillor Rob Foster

This is considerably sooner than other governments in Niagara, not to mention across Ontario.  It should be noted, however, that from a Lincoln point of view, this is considerably later than normal over the past 10 years, with most budgets being completed by mid-December.

Lincoln Council has for many years adopted a series of financial principles, particularly around budgets, that have required the municipality and its staff to behave very much like a private corporation – this has meant budgets are completed before the upcoming fiscal year (except when elections are involved).

The benefits to following these values has been important for the Town – tenders and RFPs are out early, best prices are usually garnered and capital projects are able to start as soon as the frost comes out of the ground.

For instance, in 2009, all of the road construction projects came in considerably under budget, allowing many more miles of road to be improved.  The trend continued into 2010, with savings seen in water, sewer and road construction in the municipality.  While some municipalities in Niagara have allowed infrastructure projects costs to balloon, Lincoln has been able to keep capital costs well under control.

But even with all these positives, there are some gray clouds appearing on the horizon, and it is coming down to a very simple question – are smaller towns like Lincoln sustainable into the future?  This was the question when I first came on Council in 2001,  and it is rearing its head again. Continue reading →

By Tom Millar

I read with interest the insert in my electricity utility bill; ‘Customers to receive 10 per cent rebate on electricity bills‘. Then I turned sceptical.

Bala Falls in the Muskoka Lake region being harnessed for hydro power. Image from a 1900 circa postcard of the falls.

One thing I’ve gotten to know is this truism; ‘There is not such thing as a free ride.’

When the going gets tough, Ontario’s Premier Dalton McGuinty rolls out imaginative machinations to cover the short falls in his ‘Green Energy’ policies. And it is not what I want to see play out. It will end with you and me paying much more of our hard earned dollars for electricity and in taxes in the years ahead. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

The shadow of terrorism is almost a universal part of our collective unconsciousness after the 9/11 massacre.  It’s there,  it won’t go away,  and that’s certainly what the terrorists want.  But how best do we deal with it?

Terrorists, by definition, want to sow terror.  Certainly, jet planes crashing into the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon accomplished that. Better international Intelligence may have prevented it, but that’s hindsight; we’ll never know. So how do we best deal with terror?  The answer is simple, but far from easy.  The best way to deal with terror, and to have more control over our lives, is to not allow it into our lives.  Continue reading →

By Susan Howard-Azzeh

We Are Free!

Celebrating freedom in the streets of Cairo.

Thunderous cheering. Joyful shouts of “Egypt is free”! Flags waving. Prayers. Dancing. Tears of relief. Fireworks. Jubilation and celebration exploded across Tahrir Square and Egypt as Omar Suleiman grimly announced, “President Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave his position as president of the republic“.

A short time earlier a helicopter was seen leaving the Presidential palace. Soon we learned the “iron-fisted” Mubarak was already deposited in Sharm el Sheik near the Red Sea. To await trail for corruption?

It is absolutely amazing. Young peaceful men and women of Egypt have toppled a 30-year repressive regime in the world’s largest Arab country! The most peaceful revolution of our time. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

What a difference an election can make.

Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati, standing at back, makes a successful pitch to regional council for support of a resolution for an investigation of the Niagara Health System

Last September, a resolution for an independent investigation of the Niagara Health System and how it is managing our hospitals went down in flames at regional council. This February, with some new voices on the council thanks to last October’s municipal elections, it passed with flying colours. Only three members of council – St. Catharines regional councillors Tim Rigby and Brian Heit and Lincoln councillor Mark Bylsma – voted against it Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

In a week when many in Niagara, Ontario have been mourning the death and celebrating the life of Henry Burgoyne – a person who was a great friend and supporter of community-based newspapers – we are witnessing another example of what happens when our family, independently-owned papers fall in to the hands of corporate chains. Continue reading →

By Peter Joe Certo

This week the Buffalo Common Council unanimously passed this resolution relative to our international crossings, summarized below:

An aerial shot of the Peace Bridge crossing from the Fort Erie, Ontario side looking over to Buffalo, N.Y.

Merging the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission & The Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority—The Council adopted a resolution from Council Members Joseph Golombek, Jr. and David A. Rivera requesting United States President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Spending and Government Efficiency Commission (“SAGE”), and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to undertake a review of the operations of the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission and the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority and to identify the process to merge these entities so that the shared border crossings can be managed in a more efficient and cost effective manner. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The provincial government will provide funding to the family of Reilly Anzovino to participate in an inquest into the circumstances surrounding the Fort Erie teen’s death.

Reilly Anzovino

“I am pleased to announce that Reilly’s family (her mother Denise Kennedy) will have provincial assistance in the upcoming coroner’s inquiry into the tragic death of her daughter on Boxing Day of 2009,” said Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor in a February 9. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting the following media release from the Ontario government on the status of this major energy project for readers’ information.)
February 8, 2011 – McGuinty Government Supports Hydro Power As Part Of Clean Energy Future
Mining on the Niagara Tunnel Project is nearing completion. Upon project completion, the tunnel will provide Ontario with enough clean, renewable hydro power for 160,000 homes annually for the next 100 years.

'Big Becky' drilling machine at work in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Photo courtesy of Niagara Power Generation.

The massive 4,000-tonne boring machine, nicknamed “Big Becky”, is currently tunneling under the City of Niagara Falls. Approximately 90 per cent of the machine’s 10.2-kilometre journey has been completed. When the project is finished, the Sir Adam Beck Generating Station will increase its generating capacity by the equivalent of 200 MW. The project has employed over 230 full-time construction workers and brought approximately $1 billion in related investment into the region. Continue reading →

By Susan Howard-Azzeh

On January 29, 2011 Hosni Mubarak appointed Omar Suleiman as his Vice President, the first vice president in Mubarak’s 30-year regime.

Niagara peace activist Susan Howard-Azzeh

Will Omar Suleiman be the saviour of Egypt? Will he be the next president? Can we count on him to usher in democracy? Both the United States and Israel see Suleiman as their preferred candidate to replace Mubarak. That in itself makes him suspect.

Who is Omar Suleiman? From 1993 until this January, Suleiman was the Chief of Egypt’s feared General Intelligence Service.  He controls the infamous police and secret police we have watched attacking peaceful protesters in Tahrir Square and Alexandria. For years he has also negotiated directly with top US CIA officials bringing “terrorism suspects” to Egypt for “questioning” and torture. One of his and the CIA’s victims was a Canadian citizen, Ahmad El Maati, who was detained and tortured for 22 months.

Continue reading →

By Joan Wiley, a former St. Catharines Standard reporter

Despite the family wealth and the powerful position he held in the community
as publisher of the local newspaper, Henry Burgoyne was a thoroughly unpretentious, decent and grounded individual. He insisted on being called Henry, not Mr. Burgoyne.

Henry Burgoyne with restired editorial page editor for The Standard, Tom Nevens, enjoying a game of golf. Photo courtest of Merv Cripps

Henry gained the respect of the newsroom ‹ never an easy task ‹ when he
endorsed the publication of controversial stories, knowing full well that by
doing so the paper would lose advertising revenue. His principles regarding
the news probably cost him personal friendships as well. I believe  the newspaper was more than a business to Henry  (it was a tangible expression of the high value he placed on professional and personal integrity, an
example of the respect he held for the citizens of Niagara, and a venue to
continue the legacy of his family¹s good name in the community. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

What can one say about Henry Burgoyne.

I will always remember him as a great lover of life, an uncommonly generous person with people he liked, and the greatest fan Elvis Presley ever had this side of the American border.

Henry Burgoyne, speaking recently at another one of many community events in his beloved Niagara. Photo courtesy of the Burgoyne family.

Yet Henry Burgoyne, who died this February 7 at age 61 following a brave battle with cancer, was much more than that.

He was the last great publisher of the last great independent daily newspaper in Niagara, Ontario before that paper  – The St. Catharines Standard –was sold in 1996 to the first in a string of media chains that have owned and operated it ever since. And as someone who was privileged enough to work with Henry (I never felt like I was working “for” him), he was one of the best friends a journalist could ever have.

Henry became publisher of The Standard after his father, W.B.C. (Bill) Burgoyne died at age 49. By then it had a family legacy that went all the way back to 1892 when his great-grandfather, William Burgoyne, purchased what was then a floundering news publication in the community for a dollar. Continue reading →

Since Debbie Sevenpifer was ousted from her job this January 18 as Niagara Health System’s president and CEO, Niagara At Large has received one question more than any other from our readers.

How much of our province's scarce hospital care dollars is ousted Niagara Health System CEO Debbie Sevenpifer walking away with?

We know that Sevenpifer was paid more than $340,000 a year in salary and benefits for being the top administrator at an NHS responsible for managing a majority of the hospital services in across the Niagara, Ontario region. That is more than $20,000 more a year than Canada’s prime minister is paid more than $120,000 more than Ontario’s premier receives in compensation.

Yet we are being told by members of NHS’s board that Sevenpifer’s severance pay may never be made public. Continue reading →

By Samantha Battersby

This letter is to address the District School Board of Niagara decision on January 25, 2011 to open the DSBN Academy. I am a young mother of two from a low income family,  according to Stats Canada income levels.  I am strongly against the idea of segregating children based on their social-economical status.

Samantha with her husband and two young children.

Where does one begin? After reading the article in January 26th edition of the St. Catharines Standard, I am completely baffled at the board’s decision. The plan is to have no more than 75 kids per grade starting at Grade 6.

Didn’t the board just close Niagara District (the only secondary school in Niagara-on-the-Lake) because of low enrollment?  Graduating from Niagara District, my grade was one of the first “low enrollment years.”  We had about 70 students in Grade 9 (and) the board used these low numbers to justify closing Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Community High School, saying it wasn’t practical to run a high school with such low enrollment numbers. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Just what the people of Southern Ontario and Western New York need while so many of our communities, on both sides of the border, continue to grapple with serious economic challenges, including some of the highest jobless rates on the continent – another high-profile political figure in the U.S., portraying our shared border as a greater national security risk than the one the U.S. shares with Mexico.

U.S. Senator and homeland security chair Joe Liberman

That’s what Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, chair of the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security and one-time vice-presidential candidate, did at a Washington, D. C. media briefing this past February 1, just a few days before Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s White House visit with President Barack Obama to discuss (among other things) border security.

During the same week that Glenn Beck, the grand spokesperson for the right on the Fox broadcasting network, warned millions of his listeners that American is in danger of becoming an Islamic state, Lieberman warned (based on some U.S. government study the rest of us have not seen) that the Canada/U.S. border is providing “easy passage into America by extremists, terrorists and criminals whose purpose clearly is to harm the American people.” Continue reading →

By Linda Crouch

(Niagara At Large is pleased to run this piece submitted by Linda Crouch, a St. Catharines resident who ran and lost her bid last fall for a seat on the District School Board of Niagara’s board of trustees. We believe Linda Crouch’s comments contributes to the discussion over what has become a very contentious issue in our region and we welcome your comments at the end of this piece and any comments members of the school board may wish to submit.)

Segregation or not, the fact is that the District School Board of Niagara cannot afford the DSBN Academy. This publicly funded board simply does not know how live within its means. For years now, the DSBN has not been living within its means and has been drawing down its reserves.

Linda Crouch

In January 2011, the DSBN agreed to spend over $431,000 *just to bus* the first 150 school children to this school from all over Niagara, an area of more than 751 square miles (1,852 km2) to this new DSBN Academy. Ostensibly, the dollars for the transportation came out of the reserves as well. How much will transportation cost taxpayers when the full 525 students attend the Academy? Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The public gallery of the Niagara regional government’s council chambers might very well be painted in yellow this coming Thursday, February 10 – yellow shirts that is.

Yellow Shirts from south Niagara gathered in regional chambers last September, only to hear the council say 'no' to a resolution for an investigation of the Niagara Health System's managment of our hospitals.

Recently elected Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati is planning to reprise a previously defeated resolution, asking the regional council to support a call for an independent, provincial investigation into the way the Niagara Health System has been managing the region’s hospital services. And suffice to say, members of the Yellow Shirt Brigade, a south Niagara citizens group fighting to preserve hospital services in the region’s southern muncipalities, including Fort Erie, Port Colborne, Wainfleet, Welland and Niagara Falls, are planning to be there to support Diodati’s effort.

The Yellow Shirts and their supporters in south Niagara are hoping that with this recently elected regional council, a renewed call for an investigation of the NHS might finally get approved, just as the same call for a provincial investigation was passed last year by seven of Niagara’s 12 local municipal council’s – those of Niagara Falls, Thorold, St. Catharines, Wainfleet, Welland, Port Colborne and Fort Erie.

“Join (Diodati) and us at the regional headquarters (off Hwy 406 and St. Davids Road and Hwy. 406 in Thorold) this Thursday, February 10 at 7 p.m.,” says south Niagara resident Pat Scholfield, who wears one of those yellow shirts and is a founder of a Port Colborne area group, Peoples Healthcare Coalition.

“I am elated to hear of Mayor Diodati’s resolution to have the province conduct an independent, internal and external investigation of the NHS,” Scholfield told Niagara At Large.  “This resolution was rejected before because some of the mayors and representatives said there had already been a number of investigations, most of those investigations had been in-house and did not include reviewing the effects on the region of the Niagara Health System’s hospital improvement plan (HIP). …

“When the HIP is fully implemented,” Scholfield continued, “there will be no acute or emergency services at hospitals in the southern tier. Right now the closures of ERs in Port Colborne and Fort Erie has left the hospital system in chaos…. way above provincial wait times at the ERs in St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Welland, and soaring off load times for the paramedics across the region.”

“We are supportive of Mayor Diodati and his efforts to move an investigation of NHS,” added Sue Salzer, a Fort Erie resident and head of the Yellow Shirt Brigade in comments to Niagara At Large. “Perhaps the new regional council, which had the sense recently to reopen the public’s ability to address full meetings of council, will now support the seven local municipalities across the region that have already voted in favour of an investigation of the NHS.”

“We will definitely have a representative group in attendance (at the February 10 regional council meeting) in support of (Diodati’s) motion,” Salzer said. “We see this motion as a step forward in achieving our goal to regain, retain and improve a Niagara health system that is in chaos.”

The Yellow Shirts and other south Niagara residents gathered in the regional council chambers last September – one of the final meetings of the last term of regional council before that fall’s municipal elections – and witnessed the council turning down a resolution for an NHS investigation.

Among those who gave their thumbs’ down to an investigation were Niagara Falls and Welland mayors Ted Salci and Damian Goulbourne – who were rejected by the voters in their municipalities in those fall municipal elections, but were still there at the time of the September regional council session to support the NHS. About five years earlier, Goulbourne and Salci joined then St. Catharines mayor Tim Rigby, in a trip to Queen’s Park to lobby for the NHS’s decision to build a new hospital complex for Niagara in west St. Catharines. The move upset more than a few constituents, including city councillors, in Goulbourne’s and Salci’s municipalities.

Yet that didn’t stop them from joining a majority of others on regional council in voting against a resolution for an investigation into the NHS last September, and it certainly didn’t stop Rigby (by then and now a St. Catharines regional councillor) from voting against the resolution. In fact, Rigby went so far as to offer supporters of the resolution one more slap in the face by declaring that the new hospital complex the NHS is building in his municipality in a “St. Catharines hospital,” even though it is so obvious that most of the acute care hospital services for all of the Niagara region will be sucked out of hospital sites in the south to this new St. Catharines site.

The Yellow Shirts and others have hope that this time, with a new regional council, their concerns over the way hospital services have been managed by the NHS may finally be heard.

Niagara At Large will be there and we shall see.

(Visit Niagara At Large at http://www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to our greater Niagara area.)

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post this piece by one of the great matriarchs of heritage preservation in Niagara’s Ontario region as we approach Heritage Week in this province during the third week of this February. Here are a few words of wisdom all of us – young and old – should pause to reflect upon.)

By Pamela Minns

We hear that buzz word frequently – “heritage”; what does it really mean?

The Morningstar Mill In Niagara, just one of so many heritage sites in our greater region on both sides of our binational border worth preserving. Photo by Doug Draper

“Heritage” is what we inherit from the past and what we pass on to future generations.  Our heritage is important to our every day lives…. it gives us a touchstone to the past and sense of place; it provides familiarity and is essential to mental health and to our quality of life.  It is everywhere – it is what is familiar – in the close surroundings where we live our lives every day. Continue reading →

Chorus Niagara, that singing group in Niagara, Ontario that received global exposure onYoutube this past Christmas season for its offering of the Hallelujah Chorus in a Welland shopping mall, is returning to the scene of that milestone moment to perform again.

A moment captured by Vickie Fagan and crew from that video-gone-viral around the globe of Chorus Niagara and company at Welland mall.

On Saturday, February 12, from 10 a.m. through to 3 p.m., Chorus Niagara will return to Welland, Ontario’s Seaway Mall’s Centre Court for its fifth annual “Sing-a-Thon” – a fundraiser to keep this now world-famous musical organization in business.

If you missed that Youtube moment when Chorus Niagara went viral – garnering   millions of hits all over the world for its Hallelujah piece, you can head out to the Centre Court (might better know it as the ‘food court’) for more from this group. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

It is no doubt one of the last things that those of us, who live in Niagara, Ontario, from our political and business leaders on down, want this region to be known for.

Niagara Falls Federal Conservative MP Calls 'Economic Action Plan' a big economic and job booster.

Yet month after month over the past three years or more, when Statistics Canada releases its monthly unemployment rates, Niagara, Ontario ends up on a very short list of regions, including Windsor, Ontario, suffering the highest jobless rates in the province and country.

And once again, the Statistics Canada figures, released this February 4 for the month of January show Niagara, Ontario experiencing among the worst jobless numbers in the, right their with Windsor with about 9.7 per cent of the potential workforce in this region out of work – up from a little less than 9.5 per cent this past December. Continue reading →

By Karim Ahmed

(Karim Ahmed is a native of Egypt, now living with members of his family in St. Catharines, Ontario, although many of his relatives remain in Egypt and have been participating in the demonstrations for a democratic government there.

Niagara At Large is pleased to give him a voice here as he makes a case for the Canadian government and Canadians at large to support his Egyptian brethren in their longing to enjoy the same democratic rights that we have.)

Canadians enjoy a great privilege that many of them take for granted and don’t realize how appreciated it should be.  That privilege is democracy.

Karim Ahmed, left, and friend Hanafi holding an Egyptian flag during a demonstration for democracy in their native city of Alexandria, Egypt in 2008. It has been at least that long coming!

Only those like me, who come from a country, ruled by a dictator government like Egypt greatly appreciate democracy and the freedom of speech that we enjoy in Canada.

Born and raised in Alexandria, second largest city in Egypt, my generation was brought up in fear. Fear from the police, fear from the undercover security and fear to actively participate in politics or even talk about it! Everybody’s dream was to leave the country and immigrate to a free country like the United States and Canada where they can enjoy freedom, fair opportunities and good life style. Continue reading →

By Ashlea Brockway

(Ashlea Brockway lives in Port Colborne with her husband, Iraq war resister Jeremy Brockway, and their two Canadian-born sons. A passionate spokesperson for the cause of the war-resisters, Ashlea will be speaking at the David S. Howes Theatre at Brock University on Monday, Feb. 7, at 5:00 p.m. Ashlea will be joined by Bruce Beyer, from the Buffalo Chapter of Veterans For Peace, and Michelle Robidoux from the Toronto-based War Resisters Support Campaign.)

Support the Troops!

Jeremy Brockway, his wife Ashlea and their children at home in Port Colborne, Ontario.

Exactly what the heck does that mean, support the troops? As far as I’ve seen, it means that people are all for spending up to five bucks to put a ribbon on their car or house while young men and women are shipped off to die. People seem to want to support the troops when they are going off to die fighting for one cause or another but suddenly that support vanishes for all who make it back alive.

In Canada, we celebrate Remembrance Day. It’s a day to honour the memory of those who perished while trying to protect others, whether foreign or domestic. I think that it is great, honouring those who were willing to give up their lives for us; but is just remembering them a sufficient way to honour them? I don’t think so. I think that the very best way to honour them, in addition to remembering them, would be to treat those who make it home the same way we would want those who have passed away in combat treated. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Welland Riding MPP Peter Kormos has written an open letter to Ontario Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky, slamming plans by the District School Board of Niagara to establish a school for a select group of “poor” students in Niagara as an arrogant act of “apartheid” and “roulette-wheel education.”

Welland Riding MPP Peter Kormos

“This is a repugnant proposal that does nothing to address poverty,” said Kormos, the NDP’s justice minister said the February 2 letter to Dombrowsky on the decision the DSBN made this past month to move forward with plans to bus 150 kids – picked by lottery – from “poor-income families” across Niagara to the old, recently closed Empire Elementary School in Welland.

The Niagara public school board, working on launching this “DSBN Academy” with Brock University, Niagara College and other partners like Betty-Lou Souter’s Community Care agency, argues that by segregating these students and giving them some special attention, it might be possible to improve their chances of going on to college or university. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Wiping their hands of the Niagara Health System, a majority of Welland city councillors have agreed  to seek legal advise on how to possibly stop a “hospital improvement plan” from moving ahead that could see continued reduced cuts to hospital services in Welland and other parts of south Niagara.

Welland city councillor Frank Campion

The motion to seek legal advise on where next to go to protect and preserve south Niagara’s hospital services was put forward and approved this February 1 by Welland councillor Frank Campion.

“I think we have hit a dead end with the NHS,” Campion, who has served as chair of the city’s Health Care Committee, told Niagara At Large in an interview. “It is time to take our fight beyond the NHS to the LHIN (the ‘Local Health Integration Network for this and neighbouring region, including Hamilton, Burlington, Haldimand and others that is supposed to be governing bodies like the NHS) and to the province.” Continue reading →

By Pat Scholfield

The new interim CEO of the Niagara Health System – the NHS and the body responsible for managing most of Niagara’s hospital services – says she will not be changing the Hospital Improvement Plan (HIP) other than possibly minor tweaking.

Pat Scholfield

As an example, she states Regional maternity services will be located at the new
hospital in west St. Catharines and cataract eye surgery will move to Welland.

CEO Matthews does not tell us there will be a long list of specialty services at
the new St. Catharines hospital besides maternity, including cancer, cardiac
catheterization, tertiary mental health, obstetrics, pediatrics, inpatient
gynecological, inpatient urology and others. Nor does she tell us under the HIP that Welland will lose obstetrics, pediatrics, inpatient gynecological, inpatient
urology, ear, nose and throat surgery, plastic surgery and orthopedics. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

“Support freedom! Support the Egyptian people,” shouted Susan Howard-Azzeh to a small but spirited gathering of people on the steps of St. Catharines, Ontario’s City Hall this January 31.

Niagara, Ontario residents rally in support of Egyptian people on a bone-chilling night.

About two dozen Niagara area residents braved bone-chilling temperatures to attend the “solidarity rally,” organized the day before by the Niagara Coalition of Peace (a group Howard-Azzeh is a member of) as a prelude to possibly more local demonstratons of support for the people of Egypt in the future.

“The people of Egypt want democracy,” said Karim Ahmed, a speaker at the rally and native of Egypt who moved to St. Catharines, Ontario with members of his family seven years ago. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

The problem with this world is that we really don’t see it.  Or if we do, we don’t always see it the way it is.

Marshall McLuhan’s observation that “the media is the message” ties in with the notion that we see the world through “the wrong end of a telescope,” small, insular, and distant.  I suppose it’s a human limitation that we have to deal with, but the more we’re aware of it, the more informed we’d be.

If I turn on my computer, I’m immediately confronted with the news that Justin Bieber cured his acne, or that Paris Hilton has a new boyfriend.  That’s the message.  Never mind the really important stuff.  Focus on a tiny spec of meaningless pop culture, and the worlds’ pain will float away. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

A developer’s plans to build a controversial condo tower along the shores of the historic Fort Erie, Ontario community of Crystal Beach has been approved.

A digital image of the controversial condo tower planned for Crystal Beach, Ontario.

According to a decision, approved by the OMB this January 31 following a hearing last November, OMB board member Reid Rossi concludes that the 12-storey condo, planned in a community of mostly one or two-storey homes and other buildings, “represents good land use planning” – that despite arguments from many local residents that the tall structure would be an assault on the character of the surrounding community and would front one of the last few publicly-available beaches in the area. Continue reading →

By Susan Howard-Azzeh

Concerned citizens of Niagara Region will be gathering in solidarity with the people of Egypt this Monday, January 31st at 6 p.m. on the steps of St. Catharines, Ontario’s City Hall.

Masses of Egyptian people demonstrate on streets of Cairo.

The people of Egypt have suffered under the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak and martial law for 30 long years. They have said enough is enough and we must stand with them in building democracy, freedom and prosperity for all. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

It used to be that municipal council’s would typically approve budgets with the highest cost increases they felt they could get away with in the first year following a municipal election.

Niagara regional government's corporate services commissioner Brian Hutchings

From my more than 30 years of following municipal budgets, there appeared to be at least two reasons for this.

First, you have councillors wanting to deliver on all the promises they made to voters during the election. And second, more than a few municipal councillors have confessed over the ages that if they are going to approve a big budget hike, they would rather do it in the first year of a council term than in the last year when they have to once again face the electorate.

Those days seem to be all but gone though as more property taxpayers let their councillors know they’ve had it with taxes increases and this year, the regional council seems close to delivering a budget that will add up to little or no increase in taxes.

At a committee-of-the-whole meeting this January 29, the regional government’s corporate services commissioner Brian Hutchings outlined an operating budget for 2011 that so far keeps any increase over last year down to 1.2 per cent – already below a cap the council set of 1.4 per cent before councillors get into any further cutting before a final budget is approved later this winter. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The province’s Liberal government is providing the Niagara Regional Police Service close to $800,000 in funding over the next two years to “reduce future criminal activity and make communities safer,” St Catharines MPP and Ontario Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Jim Bradley announced during a media conference at the NRP headquarters this January 28.

Ontario Minister and St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley

The funding for the NRP is a piece of the $15 million Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced a day earlier (on January 27) for police departments across the province for what the government calls its ‘Provincial Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy’.

“Rooting out gangs from our neighbourhoods, taking guns off our streets and giving young Ontarians opportunities for a better, more productive future, all help reduce future criminal activity and make communities safer,” said Bradley in a media statement released in concert with his announcement at the NRP headquarters.

NRP Chief Wendy Southall, who joined Bradley for the announcement, said that “Our Guns, Gangs and Grows team dismantled a large-scale marijuana grow operation that was helping to fuel the drug trade and the import of illegal weapons,” said NRPS Chief Wendy Southall. “PAVIS grants help us to target criminal gangs and activity that put Niagara neighbourhoods at risk.” Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

On a recent drive back to St. Catharines from the town of Lincoln, I glanced northward from St. Paul Street West, across snow-covered orchards and vineyards to a huge building that seems totally out of place with its surroundings.

There it is, beyond the snow-covered hedge rows and vineyards, and completely out of its surroundings. Photo by Doug Draper

As some of you may already have guessed, I’m talking about the massive, 970,000-square-foot hospital complex the Niagara Health System is building at the western end of St. Catharines’urban boundaries at a cost that will total close to $1.5 billion over the next 30 years.

That does not include the many millions of dollars more that will have to be spent on improving roads, exits off Hwy. 406 and other infrastructure needed to accommodate a major institutional complex that, according to the provincial government’s own ‘Places To Grow’ planning policies, should be located in an urban center (or at least at a site where the needed infrastructure is already in place) rather than at this ridiculous location. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

If you want to bestow this province’s most prestigious civic award –  Order of Ontario  – on anyone in Niagara, few people are more deserving than Wilma Morrison.

This 81-year-old Niagara Falls, Ontario resident  has invested years of her life, out of her love for history and her heritage, documenting Black history here. She has been a leading force in restoring the more than century and a half year old Nathaniel Dett Memorial Church on Peer Street in Niagara Falls – also known as the British Methodist Episcopal Church and one of the oldest surviving Black churches on the Ontario side of our greater Niagara region.

Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor with Wilma Morrison during Order of Ontario ceremonies.

“It was the most wonderful thing,” Morrison told Niagara At Large of receiving the Order of Ontario Award at Queen’s Park this January 27. “When I listened to the stories about all of the other people (a total of 30 including herself)  who received the award,” she added, “I was pleased to be in their company. Continue reading →

Niagara At Large is pleased to post the following ‘state of the city’ address delivered by St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan this January 28 at Club Roma in St. Catharines, Ontario.)

Mayor Brian McMullan
Tale of Two Cities
Club Roma, Jan. 28, 2011

Thank you for the introduction. I’m pleased to be here today for this Tale of Two Cities event being hosted by the St. Catharines Thorold Chamber of Commerce.

St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan

Welcome Chamber of Commerce members, special guests, and members of Council and City staff here today.

In attendance from City Council are: Councillors Jeff Burch, Mark Elliott, Len Stack, Dawn Dodge, Bill Phillips, Mat Siscoe, and Matt Harris.

We also have senior staff: CAO Colin Briggs and Recreational and Community Services Director Rick Lane – as well as a number of support staff who have joined us here today.

It gives me great pleasure to share with you what our City is doing to diversify our economy, support local businesses and encourage private sector confidence in our community which in turn will lead to more investment and job creation. Continue reading →

For those of you waiting since last falls municipal election to know who will prevail as  mayor of Fort Erie, Ontario, it is incumbent Mayor Doug Martin.

Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin

In a legal, carefully monitored recount of ballots in Fort Erie this January 28, Martin remains the town’s mayor over competitor Ann-Marie Noyes, a former town councillor, by a five-point spread.

Last fall, Martin and Noyes locked horns in a municipal election fought over everything from the diminishing of acute care services at the Fort Erie hospital site, to plans by developers to build a multi-storey condo in Crystal Beach and plans by others to build a speedway for high-speed racing cars in rural Fort Erie.

As of this January 28, Martin has prevailed in that campaign by five votes, which may not necessarily stop those opposing his visions for the town from speaking out.

(Visit Niagara At Large at http://www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater Niagara region.)

A View by Pat Scholfield

(Pat Scholfield is a long-time south Niagara resident who is fighting for equitable access to hospital services for all the region’s residents. The following is based on a January 25 presentation she made to the Health Care Committee for Welland’s city council.)

Welland people should no longer be kept in the dark about the fate of their
hospital. Accurate information should be distributed to all residents of
Welland.

How much longer will that 'H' remain at the top of the Welland Hospital?

In 2008, the Niagara Health System (NHS) released its Hospital Improvement Plan
(HIP), which alarmed the physicians at Welland Hospital. Under the HIP, they
would lose so many surgical specialties, they would no longer have a vital hospital or a viable 24/7 ER (emergency department). Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey is hoping to meet with mayors across Niagara to ask them to lend their collective support for fair access to acute-care hospital services for all of the region’s residents.

Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey

As one mayor who has witnessed emergency and other acute care services disappear at his municipality’s hospital, Badawey told Niagara At Large in a January 25 interview that he will be seeking the support of the region’s mayors to get those services back.

Port Colborne has  supported St. Catharines and other Niagara municipalities when they have approached the province and Niagara Health System (the body created by the province a decade ago to manage most of the region’s hospital services) to keep services in their municipalities, said Badawey during the interview. Now he is hoping other mayors and their councils will support municipalities like Port Colborne, Welland and Niagara Falls that are fighting for their hospital services. Continue reading →

By Kimberly Costello

Niagara Action for Animals (NAfA) is hosting two upcoming fundraisers, the proceeds from which will help animals throughout Niagara.

Buster and Hope, two of the cats in NAfA's care that now need a good home.

Throughout the Niagara Region, thousands of homeless and abandoned animals are euthanized every year due to pet overpopulation. In the past year, close to 2,000 animals were euthanized at the Lincoln County Humane Society alone. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Four months after it was approved, Niagara, Ontario’s new regional council is doing away with a section in a “procedural bylaw” that would have limited opportunities for public delegations to speak before the full council.

Newly Elected St. Catharines regional councillor Andy Petrowski wants full access for public delegations at council meetings

The bylaw – intended, in part, to shorten the length of council meetings by barring public delegations from participating in them – was passed, rather ironically, during a September 2010 council meeting that dragged on for more than seven hours, mostly because of closed sessions the council held on policing costs and other matters that evening.

Pat Schofield, a south Niagara resident and an advocate for hospital services in that end of the region, was refused an opportunity to speak before the council that evening although her presentation would have been limited to 10 minutes. So too was Andy Petrowski, now a St. Catharines regional council, whose request to speak at that time as a private citizen (tabled by regional council and Lincoln Mayor Hodgson) was voted down by the council.

This January 20, Brian McMullan, a regional council and mayor of St. Catharines, tabled a motion (approved that night by the new council) that lifts restrictions in the bylaw. It clears the way for individuals and groups to speak before a full session of council if they can’t make it to a regional committee meeting or if they have additional information that was not already presented to a committee.

“I am very pleased with (the passage of this motion),” McMullan told Niagara At Large in an interview. “We want to make people feel that they can come forward with their concerns.” Continue reading →