Author Archives: dougdraper

The Niagara Parks Commission’s Floral Showhouse is pleased to once again feature a seasonal favourite – The Easter Flower Display – a Niagara tradition for over 60 years. Back by popular demand will also be the added feature of real chicks and bunnies, a treat for kids and adults alike.

The Niagara Parks Commission's classic 'Floral Showhouse', located just upstream from the Horseshoe Falls, will be the venue for an annual favourite and free Easter weekend show.

The Easter show features a cross display of lilies surrounded by colourful and fragrant spring flowers such as daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and azaleas. The warm and serene setting is bursting with gorgeous blooms, orchids and exotic tropical plants as well as beautiful songbirds to get you in the mood for spring. The Floral Showhouse features eight different displays each year, so you can return again and again to discover paradise right in the heart of the city.
 
The show will be ready for the weekend of March 27 – a beautiful place to bring the family on Palm Sunday. Admission to this year-round attraction is free. Located just south of the Falls at 7145 Niagara Parkway, the Floral Showhouse is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Parking is available on site. Continue reading →

 By Dan Wilson
 
Earth Hour is fast approaching. That’s the time of year, once a year when we’re encouraged to turn our lights off for an hour to show how much we love and care about the planet.

Started in 2007 by the World Wildlife Fund, individuals, families and businesses are asked to switch off their lights, TVs and other non-essential appliances at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 27th.
 
According to the WWF website, hundreds of millions of people took part in last year’s Earth Hour, making it “the world’s largest global climate change initiative.”
 
To be honest, I haven’t been a big fan of previous Earth Hour events. The idea that the best we can do for THE PLANET THAT GIVES US LIFE is to turn off the lights for one hour is both sad and embarrassing to me. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

If Niagara’s regional government is really all that interested in saving what is left of lands along our Great Lakes for public access, it better get to it, because there isn’t much left to save.

Even less this March following a ruling by the Ontario Municipal Board – a quasi-judicial board handpicked by the provincial government – to say yes to a proposal for a condominium that would include some 35 units, along the shores of Lake Erie in Wainfleet. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Residents in the Crystal Beach area of Fort Erie opposed to plans for a high-rise condo in their lakeshore community may feel encouraged by a recent decision from the Ontario Municipal Board.

A virtual image of the condo tower planned for the Fort Erie community of Crystal Beach.

That decision, tabled earlier this March, ruled against plans by a Toronto-area developer to build a 27-storey high-rise condo in the west end of Toronto, in the Parkdale-High Park area of that city near the water.

The OMB ruling argued that the proposed high-rise was “simply too large” and “inappropriate for (a) site” of mostly one-to-three-storey buildings.

That argument sounds kind of familiar, doesn’t it? Continue reading →

By Kim Craitor, MPP for Niagara Falls

I have received so many emails and phone calls about the efforts of Andrew Peller Limited and Vincor’s attempt to get the government to rescind the government’s recent initiative to ensure that 100 per cent of the Ontario grape crop gets put into bottles and not end up on the ground that I feel I should publish this response as an open letter to the industry so Niagara’s grape growers can decide from a position of knowing another point of view on this issue.

Niagara grape growers displayed this sign in St. Catharines, Ontario last fall. On the side it says - "growers forced to dump 15,000 tons of local grapes while wineries import 40,000 tons." Photo by Doug Draper

The so-called Winery and Growers Alliance is in fact a lobby group for the handful of giant wineries that enjoy a monopoly position in the trade of “Cellared in Canada” (CIC) wines.

Unfortunately, they own this monopoly at the expense of the grape growers and taxpayers of Ontario – and now they are using their privileged position to threaten the livelihood of Ontario grape growers. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

A few years back, I descended steps leading down the steep gorge walls of the lower Niagara River with retired Niagara Parks naturalist Robert Ritchie for a tour of one of the few remaining places that can give a person some idea of what this magnificent river must have looked like before the first white settlers showed up in the area.

A Jet Boat, roaring toward the whirlpool rapids of the lower Niagara River early last spring in this file photo by Doug Draper.

That place is on Niagara Parks-owned land and is known as the Niagara Glen – a rich, relatively undisturbed oasis of green along a river corridor that has otherwise been a setting for almost every kind of development imaginable, good, bad and ugly.

As we wound our way down stoney paths, past all of the rare and unique plants, trees  and rock formations the Glen has to offer, Ritchie had just finished telling me there was something almost spiritual about this place when the sound of rushing water below us was masked out by the roar of engines and a voice booming through a bullhorn.

As birds scattered from their nesting places in the trees above us, I looked down on the river and there was another ‘Jet Boat’ loaded with tourists, wide-eyed and grinning as if they were on a giant coaster ride at the Darien Lake amusement park. Continue reading →

By Tim Weis

This year’s federal budget plays like a bad sequel to a film that never made the Oscars.

Canadian environmentalist Tim Weis

The plot behind last year’s “Economic Action Plan” was simple: create short-term jobs and immediate cash flow by funding “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects in as many Canadian communities as possible. Critics said the plan reflected a lack of vision from the director’s chair, and the final tallies show it ran over-budget.

In terms of investing in renewable energy, last year’s budget had very little to offer (although nuclear and ‘clean’ coal got over $1 billion combined). This year, it took a surprise turn for the worse. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

 Bob Gale, a Niagara business many on the Ontario side of the Niagara River may know as the owner of Gale’s Gas Bars, may not seem the most likely guy to get recognized nationally as a whistleblower for the public good.

Former Niagara Parks Commission board member blew the whistle on the NPC for not putting a new contract for the Maid of the Mist ride up for competitive bidding. File Photo by Doug Draper.

But he most certainly has by The Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform (FAIR), a nationally supported charity group that includes among its members David Kilgour, one of the longest-serving federal MPs from Alberta,  Bob Stenhouse, a highly decorated member of the RCMP who found his future on the line a decade ago for blowing the whistle on the ineffectiveness of federal investigations into outlaw motorcycle gangs.

FAIR has appointed Gale to join Kilgour, Stenhouse and others on its advisory board in the wake of his revelations, in the wake of his service on the board of the Niagara Parks Commission, that the commission was not placing a contract for the Maid of the Mist ride out for competitive bidding in a way that might ultimately benefit a taxpaying public that is the ultimate custodian of lands along the Canadian side of the Niagara River corridor.

Since Gale blew the whistle on the Maid of the Mist business and ultimately parted ways with the NPC’s board, the provincial government has directed the commission to put the contract for that iconic ride out for competitive bidding. The commission has also opened its board meetings to the public for the first time in its 124-history as a steward of one of Canada’s natural gems. Continue reading →

The City of Welland and Brock University signed a memorandum of understanding this March 10 that provides a foundation for the city and Niagara-based university to work together on future projects.

Onlookers applaud after Welland Mayor Damian Goulbourne and Brock University President Jack Livingstone sign 'memorandum of understanding' to work cooperatively on future projects. Photo courtesy of Brock University

“In signing the document … at Welland City Hall,” according to a media release circulated  by the university, “Brock President Jack Lightstone and Welland Mayor Damian Goulbourne also announced the partnership’s first initiative and a significant step forward.
“The University is agreeing in principle to a long term-lease of space to locate the Brock University Human Performance Centre in the Welland International Flatwater Centre. The Brock Centre will operate non-academic, revenue-generating activities that support the work of Brock’s Faculty of Applied Health Sciences. Continue reading →

By Dianne Giliforte

Get ready Niagara Falls!! Coming soon to your community – NOISE and POLLUTION.

Dick Juloksy owns a farm for race horses near the site for the proposed NASCAR speedway and is opposed to the plan. Photo courtesy of CARS

An application to establish a Motorsports Park at the intersection of Sodom Road and the QEW has been submitted to the Region. If this is not what you envisioned when you moved to your quiet rural abode or the quaint community of Chippawa, then start making your own noise now and make it loud and clear, since some politicians are hard of hearing.

Take a look at the travesty in Fort Erie and be afraid, be very afraid. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The Niagara-based Preservation of Agricultural Lands, one of the oldest citizens groups dedicated to conservation in the province, has launched an appeal before the Ontario Municipal Board of a plan to build a NASCAR speedway facility on rural lands in Fort Erie.

PALS is concerned that decisions by the Town of Fort Erie and Niagara’s regional government that allow such a massive facility on more than 800 acres of agricultural lands outside the town’s urban boundaries literally paves the way for the loss of more of what remains of our rural lands to this kind of development.

Fort Erie’s town council sees the proposal by a consortium called Canadian Motor Speedway as a great economic and tourist opportunity for the municipality, drawing tens-of-thousands of racing fans to the region each and every time races are held. But not everyone in the town embraces the idea – at least not for lands outside Fort Erie’s urban boundaries. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

“There is only one word to describe our health system and it is chaos,” said Pat Scholfield of Port Colborne toward the beginning of a public hearing the Ontario Health Coalition held this March 9 in Welland, Ontario on the state of services in smaller hospitals across the province.

This sign loomed at public hearings over hospitals, though no Welland city councillors made a presentation at the hearings.

More than 250 people from across the Niagara region attended these bipartisan hearings – a series of which is taking place across the province – to address concerns people have over the loss of services at smaller and rural hospitals in Ontario.

The Niagara hearing featured presentations by more than two dozen individuals and groups, including two mayors (Vance Badeway of Port Colborne and Doug Martin of Fort Erie), the president of the Canadian Auto Workers’ Local 199, Wayne Gates, doctors, nurses, paramedics and others

Almost to a person, those who spoke at these hearings expressed concern for diminishing services at the hands of government bodies unresponsive to them. Some, including Badeway, also spoke of building new health system for their communities despite what is being lost through the province’s status quo. Continue reading →

By John Kennedy, grandfather of the late Reilly Anzovino, on behalf of his wife Phyllis, daughter Denise and the rest of Reilly’s family and friends

To Whom It May Concern … And it won’t be (Ontario’s premier) Dalton McGuinty or (the province’s health minister) Deb Matthews that’s for sure.

Reilly's grandfather, John Kennedy, her aunt Marnie Kennedy, mother Denise Kennedy and her brother Kain look on as Sue Salzer reads a message from the family to a public hearing in Niagara on our diminishing hospital services. Photo by Doug Draper.

First of all, thank you to everyone that is working passionately at getting our Fort Erie hospital or what they call “small town facilities” secured. Please forgive me if I sound a little bitter but I woke up this morning again…. a grieving grandfather who has lost his beautiful, sparkling granddaughter Reilly! My granddaughter, who I hugged not knowingly (for) the last time on Christmas Eve.

We all watched Reilly in amazement like we always did, tell us about school and her future plans….. and how happy she was to see her friends and family for Christmas Break. (It was) a visit that was cut short because, and I will try to be nice… of maybe, the McGuinty government’s negligent thinking and paying out millions to restructure our small town health care. … 40,000 people (in Fort Erie when, during the summer, the Buffalo area and other U.S. summer cottagers come in) is apparently considered a small town now?? Continue reading →

By Hillary Beney and Nikki Caperchiono

(Two close friends of Reilly Anzovino, a Fort Erie, Ontario teen who died following a tragic traffic accident in her hometown this past Boxing Day, could barely contain their tears as they asked tearful listeners at a public hearting in Welland this March 9 if Reilly might still be alive today had the province not shut down the emergency rooms in Fort Erie and Port Colborne.)Reilly was not only an amazing daughter and sister, but also the best friend anyone could have asked for.

Denise Kennedy, mother of Reilly looks on as two of Reilly's close friends hold back tears after delivering a message during a public hearing on hospital services in Niagara, as Sue Salzer, a Fort Erie advocate for hospital services in south Niagara looks on.

When she walked into a room, her angelic smile and beauty took over. She was artistic, beautiful, funny, clumsy, smart, passionate and outgoing.

She was the best prom date (anyone) could have asked for. She brought laughter into the lives of everyone she knew. We have all felt as though Reilly had a greater purpose in life, this may just be it.

On December 26th, Reilly passed away in a tragic car accident. Each and every one of us can remember the exact moment when we received the news and the overwhelming rush of heartbreak and disbelief.

What happened that night forever changed our lives and our outlook on this community? We believe that this irrational decision to close down emergency rooms within the area played a big role in the death of Reilly.

The closure of the emergency rooms forced the ambulance to travel a greater distance and ultimately cost Reilly valuable time. In those critical moments we lost the girl who would buy you lunch, when you ran out of money, lend you her clothes if you had nothing to wear and run to your house, in a heartbeat when you needed her just because you had a bad day. Continue reading →

By Linda McKellar

(from a presentation Linda McKeller delivered during public hearings hosted this March 9 by the Ontario Health Coalition in Welland Ontario, as part of a series the not-for-profit, province-wide coalition is holding in regions across Ontario on concerns over service cuts to our hospitals.)

I have been asked to give a presentation representing the point of view of a group who have been reluctant to speak out due to fear of repercussions – the front line nurses.

Retired Niagara nurse Linda McKellar testifies at public hearing about diminishing hospital services in Niagara. Photo courtesy of Donna Frankson.

By way of introduction, I was a nurse for 40 years, the last 25 in Welland ER (emergency room), so I feel I can speak accurately about the conditions.

Conditions in the entire hospital have gotten progressively worse. The staff attitude has become one of despair and frustration and public opinion of services has gone down the toilet. This started with cutbacks and closures under the Conservatives and now continues under the Liberals. Care has suffered horribly.

These initiatives didn’t work then and they won’t work now. Continue reading →

(From an address Dr. William Hogg presented to public hearings hosted this March 9 by the Ontario Health Coalition in Welland Ontario, as part of a series tof public hearings he not-for-profit, province-wide coalition is holding in regions across Ontario on concerns over service cuts to our hospitals.)

By William Hogg, MD

Hello everyone.

Dr. William Hogg, a retired Fort Erie physician, speaks on concerns over cuts to Niagara's hospital services at public hearings in Welland, Ontario.

I’m a retired doctor who has done acute emergency work – and taught it on both sides of the border.

Today I’ll try to translate a tiny part of the grievous loss of Ms Reilly Anzovino into a plea and rationale for local Medicare repair. In June of last year, concerned about the Niagara Health System’s depredations, I sent a series of short notes to NHS – warning of deaths to come. SURELY to come – should the small town Emergency Departments in our region’s southern tier be shut down?

NHS did not acknowledge my early warnings. It did not care enough to act humanely for any of the critically injured or sick people in our area. | NHS just ploughed ahead unwisely. Both emergency rooms WERE closed. And deaths HAVE happened – unwarranted and wrongful deaths! Now – the kinds of deaths I predicted and warned of happen during so-called ‘TIME-critical’ emergencies.

They can come on in a split second. They can happen anywhere. At home. On a country road. In ambulances. If a ‘far away’ hospital IS reached, disability or death may still occur – even there. Continue reading →

In his first address to an annual meeting as leader of Ontario’s Conservative Party Leader,  Tim Hudak – a Fort Erie native and Niagara area MPP – vowed to “modernize” his party, “once again lead as the province with the strongest economy, best hospitals, best schools and best jobs in Canada,” and “leave behind the failed policies of the McGuinty Liberal government.”

Ontario Conservative leader and Niagara area MPP Tim Hudak delivers keynote address at party's annual meeting in Ottawa this March.

In a continued spirit of publishing, for the record, statements by significant others on matters of importance to the residents of our

 region, Niagara At Large is providing Tim Hudak’s first address, as Conservative leader, to the party’s annual meeting below.

Please feel free, at the end of the text for this speech, to join the discussion and debate where we as a binational region of this province should be going by sharing your views in the comment boxes below.

We encourage your views and believe they are as vital to the process of building healthier communities as those of anyone holding an elected or non-elected office in government today. We also welcome the opportunity to review for publicaltion addresses on matters of interest and conern from other residents and community leaders in our region. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting the following media release from Ontario’s colleges with quotes from Niagara College president Dan Patterson, praising the throne speech delivered this March 8 by the provincial government of Dalton McGuinty. NAL posts it, without edits, with a few questions we are not sure have been answered through the throne speech, including – What is the government specifically going to do to take the burden off our college and university students around the costs for tuition and the outrageous prices charged for text books? Or is most of this provincial initiative all about packing our colleges and university – many of them built through donations by generations of Ontarions in our communties with more foreign students, at even higher tuition rates, so they can go back to their countries with the skills and knowledge they learned here to fuel the futures of their countries’ economies? Again, what is there in the McGuinty throne speech that will make it more affordable for young people in Ontario to receive a college or university education?)

March 8, 2010 – Ontario’s colleges, including Niagara College, are praising the important commitments made by the Ontario government today to produce more college and university graduates.

“Greater numbers of people will get the higher education and training they need to achieve success,” said Anne Sado, the chair of the colleges’ committee of presidents, “This is an important commitment to people’s futures and to producing a stronger workforce in this new knowledge economy.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

If we need one more reminder that the party is over for all the relentless binging aging baby boomers like me have been on for everything from pet rocks to big, bloated vanity homes for just two boomers with no kids, consider the news last week that General Motors is at long last closing the curtains of its show rooms on the Hummer.

Seems GM could not find another buyer on the planet for this gargantuan, gas-sucking pig of a vehicle – not even from auto manufacturers in China – and had no choice this March but to shut the “brand” down.

And thank whatever god you and I pray to for that!

There are possibly few more conspicuous symbols of the ‘no-holds-barred, let’s-live for-today’ drive to consume almost anything and everything we boomers can grab on to, regardless of the consequences, than the Hummer.

There was something very obvious about the Hummer and many of the larger Sport Utility Vehicles (more infamously known as SUVs) that spoke to a culture – pre-soaring oil prices and 2008 economic meltdown – that said; ‘We who drive this car couldn’t give a damn about energy conservation, air quality or anything else. … If we happen to get in a collision and you are driving a smaller car, we’ll just brush you off the grill and move on.” Continue reading →

By Dan Wilson

Bob Timmons, an artist, vegan and animal rights activist, spoke about ocean life at the Niagara Action for Animals Vegan Potluck Friday night in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Bob Timmons, artist and advocate for marine life, speaks in Niagara. Photo by Dan Wilson.

Timmons, who is based in Toronto, was in town to raise awareness of the plight of sea animals, including sharks, which are being slaughtered by the millions for the shark fin trade.

According to Timmons, 90 million sharks are fished every year, with 80 per cent of the shark fins going to Hong Kong. Many shark species are on the verge of extinction because of over-fishing and shark fining, the practice of catching sharks, cutting off their fins and throwing them back in the water to drown. Continue reading →

By Larry Beahan

Buffalo’s own Senator Antoine Thompson, Chair of the New York State Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, proposes that the State borrow $5 billion to pay for clean water, clean air and, in the process, create green jobs. Sometimes you need to borrow money.

Waters both Buffalo area and Niagara, Ontario residents share could benefit from a 'Green Bond' being proposed by Western New York Senator Antoine Thompson. Photo by Doug Draper

My friend Chuck’s grandfather arrived in New York City from Russia with no money at all. He borrowed $5 from relatives, rented a push cart, peddled bananas and wound up a successful real-estate developer. New York State’s finances now resemble those of my friend’s forbearer on his arrival here. And since that time we have badly polluted the air and water of our State.

The $1.76-billion-dollar 1996 Clean Water Clean Air Bond Act paid for a lot of wastewater treatment, separate storm sewer systems and aquatic habitat restoration but it is now exhausted. The Environmental Protection Fund, supplied by the real-estate transfer tax, has protected open space, bought parks, revitalized waterfronts and closed dumps all over the State.

But in these difficult times the Governor has used his power to sweep it clean of cash. He has used the money to plug holes in the leaking dike that is the New York State budget. Problem Number One is that our economy is stalled. There are not enough jobs to go around. People who are out of work don’t pay taxes and without tax revenues we cannot attack Problem Number Two, our polluted environment.

This $5 billion will buy us an enormous push cart, a push cart of green jobs, a push cart full of clean water, clean air, and reclaimed land. To bring it right home, Woodlawn Beach State Park has a magnificent wide sandy beach and it is close to where a lot of Western New Yorker’s live. Continue reading →

By Bob Korol

Dear Honourable Members of the Legislature,

It has been brought to my attention that the Ontario government is considering re-designating 827 acres of good quality agricultural lands to site a proposed motorway, aka a NASCAR race track. 

I wish to express most strongly my opposition to the proposal for several reasons. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

When it comes to the Niagara Regional Police Service and its plans for building a new police headquarters, any semblance of openness and transparency too often flies out the window for Niagara, Ontario’s regional council.

The Niagara Regional Police Service's existing headquarters in downtown St. Catharines. Photo by Doug Draper

For about the umpteenth time over the past two or three years, the doors to the regional government’s council chambers were closed to members of the media and general public this March 4 – this time for more than four hours. The doors were shut for so long that Cogeco’s Cable 10 media crew, which dutifully trains the eyes of their cameras on regional council proceedings for the public, finally packed up their gear and went home.

The optics of those doors remaining closed until members of the public finally get fed up and leave on Thursday council meeting nights are not good for a regional government that otherwise has a pretty decent record for openness.

And to swing those doors shut almost every time there is a discussion or debate over a police headquarters that would amount to one of the largest capital investment of our money the regional government is perched to make in its 40-year history is unacceptable.

The region has been drawing a curtain of secrecy around this issue for far too long now and it is about time members of the public began contacting their mayors and directly elected regional councillors and demanding some disclosure. Continue reading →

By Rob Nicholson,
Niagara Falls, Ontario MP and Canada’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General

Canadians lose faith in the criminal justice system when they feel that the punishment does not fit the crime. They have told us they want criminals – particularly violent offenders or those involved in gangs and organized crime – to serve a sentence that is proportionate to the severity of their crimes.

Niagara Falls MPP and Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson

I am pleased to write that we have met those expectations in the Truth in Sentencing Act, which came into force Monday, February 22. This piece of legislation strictly limits the amount of credit granted for time served in custody prior to sentencing, thereby ensuring offenders will serve sentences that are more appropriate.

In the past, courts often applied a credit of two-to-one for time served in pre-trial custody when sentencing criminals.  In some circumstances, certain offenders even received three-for-one credit.

This awarding of extra credit lead not only to the perception that sentences were too lenient – it also lead to the reality that, all too often, criminals were being released back on our streets far too soon.

Like the majority of Canadians, our Government believed that this situation was unacceptable. So, we acted on it.  Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Beyond the sandy dunes lining the northeastern shores of the Cape Cod community of Provincetown, Massachusetts, is one of the most fertile areas for marin

Humpback whale off coast of Cape Cod's Provincetown. This Photos and others below courtesy of the Dollphin Fleet of Provincetown.

e life in the coastal waters of the North Atlantic.

This 842-square miles of ocean – known since its designation by an act of U.S. Congress in 1992 as the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary – is still thankfully host to Humpback, Minke, Finback and other species of whales, and to sharks, seals, porpoises and tuna. On a good day of sailing on these waters, a person may enjoy the spectacle of dozens, if not hundreds of dolphins dancing in the boat’s wake.

Thanks to the Dolphin Fleet of Provincetown – a company of boats that, in concert with marine experts like Carole Carlson and others from the Center for Coastal Studies, my family and others have enjoyed the experience of viewing these wondrous beings in their natural habitat now for more than 30 years. I can still remember taking my daughter Sarah out on one of these excursions a good 15 years ago when she was only five-years old, and watching her eyes turn wide as boat cut off its engines and all we could hear was the sound of water lapping against the bow as a female Humpback and her calf glided by.

Since then, this is the only way our daughter has experienced these great creatures. She has never expressed any desire to go to SeaWorld or Marineland, and my wife Mary and I have never had any desire to take her there. And I don’t mind telling you, I am proud of that as the tired old debate of whether whales and other marines mammals comes up again. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper 

A friend to the left and Reilly in pink along the shores of Lake Erie

The mother of Reilly Anzovino – the Fort Erie teen who died following an ambulance trip from a traffic accident scene in her hometown to a hospital emergency room in Welland – hopes that an inquest into the circumstances around her death will lead to better health care for all Niagara residents.

Reilly’s mother, Denise Kennedy, was responding to news this March 2 that Ontario’s chief coroner, Dr. Andrew McCallum, will hold an inquest into the 18-year old’s death in the early morning minutes of this past December 27, following a traffic accident on Hwy. 3 before midnight on Boxing Day.

“Although nothing will bring Reilly back,” Denise told Niagara At Large on behalf of herself, Reilly’s father, Tim Anzovino, and other members of the family, “we hope that this inquest will bring recommendations and changes to the health care of our community. …. “I think it is important to have recommendations that are unbiased and made by a competent expert,” she added. Continue reading →

(As part of Niagara At Large’s mission to provide more information than the mainstream media on issues of concern to residents in our greater binational Niagara region, we offer the following for-the-record exchange between Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty and NDP leader Andrea Horwath on the issue of hospital services in Niagara)

Ms. Andrea Horwath: This is over to the Premier as well. Ontarians are soon going to have some answers about the terrible tragedy that took place on December 27 in the Niagara region. The coroner’s inquest into the death of Reilly Anzovino will determine whether this young woman’s tragic death may have been prevented had the emergency room of Fort Erie not been forced to shut its doors last year.

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath

In the face of growing health care cuts, Ontarians are looking to the government for assurance. If the coroner’s jury determines that the ER closures in Port Colborne and Fort Erie contributed to Reilly Anzovino’s death, will the Premier commit to reopening them?

Hon. Dalton McGuinty: I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the outcome that my colleague is speculating about.

Let me just say, on behalf of the government, we welcome this review by the coroner’s office. We look forward to receiving the jury’s recommendations, and we look forward to acting on those in any way that serves the interests of the people of Ontario. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

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

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

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

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

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

By Doug Draper

Some breaking news here this March 2.

Reilly Anzovino

Dr. Andrew McCallum, Ontario’s chief coroner, has announced that he will hold a public inquest into the death of Reilly Anzovino, a Fort Erie teen who died from injuries in a car accident in her home town when she was ambulanced to emergency services at a hospital in Welland.

Many south Niagara residents and politicians, including Niagara Falls Liberal MPP Kim Craitor, Welland NDP MPP Peter Kormos and Niagara area MPP and Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak, called on the chief coroner to hold an inquest following Reilly’s death. All, including Reilly’s parents in their own letter to the coroner, wonder if Reilly might still be alive today if the emergency rooms at the Fort Erie and Port Colborne hospitals had not been closed by the Niagara Health System and Local Integrated Health Network as cost cutting measures last year.

Read on for the text of the chief coroner’s announcement, and Niagara At Large will provide more news and commentary on this development as information comes in. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

A few years ago, when Ontario’s environmental commissioner Gord Miller appeared as a keynote speaker at an annual fundraising dinner for the Mel Swart Lake Gibson Conservation Park in the Thorold community of Niagara, Ontario, he proved once again what a fearless voice he was for environmental protection and this province’s people.

Ontario government is pulling plug on Gord Miller's stint as province's top environmental watchdog

 During the course of his speech, he made several references to a lack of priority and resources the Liberal government of Premier Dalton McGuinty was devoting to a host of environmental issues from energy conservation to the protection of our land and water resources. At one point, he went so far as to say that the budget for the province’s Ministry of Natural Resources had been cut so much, its field officers could hardly afford fuel for their trucks. All the while Miller (also a former Ontario Ministry of Environment scientist) was saying these things, Jim Bradley, a St. Catharines MPP and a minister in McGuinty’s cabinet, was sitting there at the head table taking all this in.

When I approached Bradley later, he didn’t give an impression that he minded Miller’s criticism so much and even suggested that he had some respect for the man. But that was a few years ago and still some time away from a 2011 provincial election in which McGuinty, by all accounts, plans to run in and win a third term as premier.

With that election looming ever nearer, we learned late this February that McGuinty and his gang have decided to let their contracts with Miller and with an equally fearless public watchdog – Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin – expire at the end of this March. Continue reading →

By William Hogg, MD

Most people in Niagara see the Niagara Health System as an ogre.
 
Health care delivery here is bad. The lay-administrators of Niagara Health System (NHS), who should be focused on balancing finances properly, have stuck their noses into medical matters and thoroughly botched them.

Emergency department closures in the southern tier of Niagara are just part of the fiasco. But they are enough to gain the bureaucrats a new and sinister slogan to play with: NHS = DOA!!!
 
Not a happy thought. And so recently borne out by the untimely death of an exceptionally promising young girl, Reilly Anzovino. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin calls it a “win-win” for the town and the residents of Fort Erie’s Crystal Beach area.

This image was produced by Crystal Beach area residents as an expression of their concern of what might happen to this historic cottage community if Fort Erie's council passes a plan for a condo tower in the community. Fort Erie's mayor, Doug Martin, insists the plan is a 'win-win' for everyone.

Many residents in Crystal Beach insist it will destroy the character of a quaint little lakeshore community that has a good deal of historical significance attached to it. A history that goes back to the time when it was a summer haven for the better half the last hundred year for residents in Southern Ontario and Western New York, when the grand old amusement park of Crystal Beach was still – up to more than decade ago before it closed – sending visitors on some of the best roller coaster rides in North America.

Many residents also argue that it will diminish access to one of the last remaining beaches along Lakes Ontario in Niagara – the popular Bay Beach are that the Town of Fort Erie purchased at a cost of slightly more than $2 million in 2001.

The “it” this commentary is referring to is a controversial proposal by the Molinaro Goup – a consortium of developers from the greater Toronto area – to build a 12-story condo tower on property in front of the beach, breaching a height restriction now on the bylaw books for the age-old cottage community of Crystal Beach of two-and-a-half storeys. And it is a conflict that may very well reach a crescendo this coming Monday, March 1, when Fort Erie’s council votes on matters that could make the first high-rise condo tower in Crystal Beach a reality – setting a precedent for possibly many more high-rise condos along the shores of Lake Erie to come. Martin believes this new development will make Bay Beach even more accessible to the public and may even make more beaches along the lakeshore open for public use.

“The entire (Bay Beach) will be open to the public,” the mayor stressed, adding that he can’t understand whom others believe the beach will become less inviting to the general public than it has since the town purchased it.

“There is overwhelming opposition to the Bay Beach project,” insists Marcia Carlyn, a Crystal Beach resident in a recent call for fellow residents to attend the March 1 meeting of Fort Erie’s town council at 6 p.m. and express their views. Continue reading →

 By Doug Draper

Great news this February 24 for students at Niagara College and 23 other colleges across the province.

The flag of Niagara College will continue to fly above its campuses with students walking in and out of their classrooms thanks to the end of a strike stand-off with the province's college teachers union.

Late this day, the Ontario Labour Relations Board has finally confirmed that a slight majority of college teachers across the province – 51.45 per cent – has accepted an offer by the province’s college presidents. This close vote in favour of the offer averts a strike that could have wreaked havoc for some 450,000 students – just as they are working to complete an academic year so many of them and their parents have sacrificed so much for in time and money.

The confirmation that a slight majority of college teachers – a total of about 54 per cent of them at Niagara College alone – has accepted this offer that gives the most senior teachers in the province’s college system the highest annual pay (more than $102,000 a year by 2011) of any college teachers in the country, is a tribute to slightly more than half of our province’s college teachers who showed some grounding in the realities most of the rest of us in the world out here are  facing today.

As for the union representatives for Ontario Public Services Employees Union – the union that continued playing a game of brinkmanship with the academic year of our province’s college students, even when it was clear, this January, that they had the thinnest of mandates to strike – I would suggest that those responsible college teachers out there take another look at them to the point of replacing them with representatives that show more respect for the concerns of students and the general public – many on fixed and lower incomes – who are struggling through their taxes to pay for our post-secondary schools and the good work they are doing.

These OPSEU representatives – so arrogant and self-righteous during this latest, so-unnecessary stand off with a college presidents’ group that has offered them a 5.9 per cent increase in teacher’s salaries over the next three years – should be run out off  their  bully pulpits on a rail. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

As the parents of ReillyAnzovino – the Fort Erie teen who died following car crash this December – continue their call for a provincial inquest to determine if Reilly would still be alive today if emergency rooms had not been closed at hospitals in Fort Erie and Niagara Falls, they have joined others in south Niagara in establishing a bursary in her memory.

The bursary, announced this February 22 at a Fort Erie council meeting by the Yellow Shirt Brigade, a citizens group fighting for fair access to emergency and other hospital services in Niagara’s southern tier, will provide financial assistance to deserving students entering Niagara College’s Paramedic Program.

Reilly  died shortly after arriving at the Welland Hospital’s emergency department following a late night accident on a stretch of Hwy. 3 in her hometown of Fort Erie the day after this Christmas.

“We, as a family, would like to take this opportunity to say that having a Bursary fund set up for students wishing to pursue the Paramedic course at Niagara College is a great legacy for our daughter and sister Reilly Kennedy Anzovino,” said Reilly’s parents, Tim Anzovino and Denise Kennedy, and their son Kain Anzovino, in a statement they shared with Niagara At Large. Continue reading →

 (Bob Timmons, the Toronto area’s “artist for the ocean” and advocate for all creatures on this planet,  visited Niagara Friday, March 5 to speak on the disgusting practice of hunting down sharks for shark fin soup and other ocean conservation issues.  What follows is  an article Bob Timmons has prepared exclusively for Niagara At Large on the destructive practice we humans have of hunting down the last of this planet’s sharks .)
By Bob Timmons

 Back in 2007, I watched a movie called “Sharkwater” and it exposed me
 to a whole new world that was hidden.

A Tiger Shark, photo courtesy of Amanda Cotton

 This new world was the barbaric shark-fining industry that puts out thousands of miles of long lines to catch sharks, after which they remove their fins and dump the living body back into the ocean to die. Approximately 90 million or more sharks are killed
 in this manner every year.

The most targeted sharks do not have offspring yearly and can take up to 20 to 25years to become sexually mature. At this rate, the sharks are endangered and not sustainable for this type of industry. The fining  industry does not only take one type of shark. They take anything they can get from the endangered whale shark and basking shark, and from more than 200 other
shark species. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

I can still remember them marching by  so proudly, wearing their neatly tailored uniforms with all those metals pinned on their chests.

Canadian troops land in Plymouth, England on their way to the killing fields of the First World War. Photo courtesy of Great War Primary Document Archive: Photos of the Great War - http://www.gwpda.org/photos.

I was barely seven years old as I watched them march by in a parade to mark Welland’s 1958 Centennial celebrations and most of them were probably in their late 50s and early 60s. And to my youthful eyes, they all seemed so old then.

They were veterans of World War I – ‘the Great War’, as so many then called it – and they were actually a good deal younger at the time I was watching them march by than our remaining World War II veterans are today.

And now they are all gone. With the death this February 18 of Canada’s last World War I veteran John Babcock, who was born and raised in Kingston, Ontario in 1900 and died at his home in Spokane, Washington, we have lost the last living Canadian who wore a uniform during five of the bloodiest, most nightmarish years in more than two thousand years of recorded human history.

Other than the fascination I think many young boys (I can’t pretend to speak for young girls) have for wars and possibly joining the army, I have opposed wars all of my adult life. Other than agreeing that it was a good idea to finally blast our way in and put an end to that Nazi plague lead  by one of history’s maddest mass murders Adolf Hitler, I can hardly accept the possibility that we can’t resolve conflicts between one another in some other way.

As a reporter for more than 30 years, I ‘ve joined fellow staff at the old St. Catharines Standard, The Thorold News, Niagara This Week and other newsrooms where I’ve worked in covering Remembrance Days and other anniversaries of conflicts our veterans have fought it. And what almost always strikes me is this.  Very few of the veterans I’ve met have any taste for more war or the conflicts we continue to get ourselves entangled in today. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

In a week in which the state of Niagara’s hospital services has taken quite the ripping in Ontario’s legislative assembly, the head of the body responsible for operating most of the hospitals across the region capped it off with what she called some ‘long-awaited…great news’.

The $1.5-billion plus new hospital complex the NHS is building on the fringes of west St. Catharines rather than somewhere in the centre of the region.

The $1.5 billion-plus hospital complex for Niagara in the outskirts of west St. Catharines under construction. Niagara Health System CEO Debbie Sevenpifer, in a February 19 memorandum “to all Niagara Health System employees, physicians and volunteers,” announced that the province’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care has managed to scare up an additional $14 million in funding for the NHS’s current fiscal year.

“This is great news for the Niagara Health System and long-awaited,” said Sevenpifer in the memorandum she circulated a day after a two-day debate in the provincial legislature over hospital cuts and their impacts on residents in Niagara and surrounding regions that you can find related stories on, including hansard from those provincial debates, by clicking on www.niagaraatlarge.com.

Sevenpifer went on to say that the $14 million infusion of funds from the province, which is basically just a drop in the bucket compared to the tens-of-millions of dollars in debt load the NHS is carrying and the more than $1.5 billion it will have us paying for a new hospital complex in the wrong location, “is a gold medal day for the Niagara Health System.

Celebrate?” A “golden medal day?”

What kind of twilight zone or alternative universe is Sevenpifer and her minions living in? Continue reading →

 By Doug Draper

Opposition parties in the Ontario legislature hammered the province’s Liberal government once again this February 18 over hospital costs in Niagara and the possibility that they may have contributed to the death of Fort Erie teen Reilly Anzovino.

Reilly Anzovino

Reilly died following a car accident on Hwy. 3 in the late hours of this past Boxing Day,  enroute or very shortly after arrival by ambulance to the Welland hospital site.

Concerns that she may have lived if ambulance paramedics could have taken her to the Fort Erie or Port Colborne hospital sites instead of Welland are so pervasive that members of all three major political parties in the province – Liberal MPP Kim Craitor from the Niagara Falls/Fort Erie area, NDP MPP Peter Kormos from the Welland/Port Colborne area and Tim Hudak, a Niagara area MPP who is now leader of the province’s Conservative Party, have called for a public inquest.

A plea for a public inquest was also made this past January by Reilly’s parents, Tim Anzovino and Denise Kennedy, and that, along with other related stories on health care and hospital cuts in Niagara, can be found by clicking on www.niagaraatlarge.com. Niagara At Large will also reprise the letter Reilly’s parents sent to Ontario’s chief coroner, asking for an inquest, at the end of this post.

But before that, Niagara At Large is once again publishing hansard from the Ontario legislature this February 18, with oppositions critics slamming the McGuinty government, once again, for gutting hospital services in the southern tier of Niagara and calling on the government to hold an inquiry into the circumstances around Reilly’s death.

You can read the debate, featuring Hudak, McGuinty, Liberal health minister Deborah Matthews, Tory health critic Christine Elliott and others by clicking on ‘keep reading’ at the end of this sentence. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

A year ago last June, Hillary Clinton walked halfway across the Rainbow Bridge from the American side of the Niagara River to announce that, at long last, the United States was ready to work with Canada to renegotiate the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

Hillary Clinton, America's Secretary of State, on the Rainbow Bridge between Niagara Falls U.S. and Canada last June, announcing plans to renegotiate the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Photo by Doug Draper.

On that 13th day of June – celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Canada-U.S. Boundary Waters Treaty as one of the precedent-setting international agreements for protecting the health of shared natural resources in the world – Canadian and U.S. environmentalists around the Great Lakes applauded. They had been urging their respective governments to update the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (first signed in 1972 and last amended in 1987) for years to better address the kinds of pollutants and their sources, the alien species like zebra mussels and Asian carp, and other threats that could ravage these great reservoirs of fresh water today and for generations to come .

But eight months after America’s secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, made the announcement to renegotiate this groundbreaking treaty to protect and preserve the world’s largest resource of fresh water, it looks like the tens-of-millions of U.S. and Canadian residents living around the lakes might be shut out from the talks. Continue reading →

 By John Bacher

One of the great tragedies in the effort to construct an 821-acre ‘Canadian Motorway Speedway’ on agriculturally zoned and designated lands in Fort Erie is that the scheme rips through the heart of one of the most intact areas of Carolinian forest in all of Canada.

It also rips through the heart of the planning laws that seek to protect it. 

Dave and Sandy Mitchell of Fort Erie enjoy some rural peace, while they can, near their home, less than a mile away from the proposed Nascar speedway in Fort Erie.

The area east of the Welland Canal and between the Niagara River in our region has the largest remaining concentration of the most biologically diverse woodlands in Canada – our equivalent of tropical rainforests. This precious mosaic of farmland and forests, repaired from past ecological abuse through the influence of one of Fort Erie’s greatest residents, the pioneer forester Edmund Zavitz, is now threatened by a bizarre “NASCAR-like” motorway complex – a complex that includes an associated mix of shopping centres, and a camp ground for speedway worshippers. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

 Why would anyone want to sit down on the cold pavement, locked up in a steel cage in downtown St. Catharines in the middle of February?

Tayler Staneff is caged while from left, behind her is Sarat Colling, Chris Shaperon and Kimberly Costello. On the cage is a fur coat that is the product of 15 foxes. Photo by Doug Draper

“We’re just trying to put out a message,” said Talyer Staneff as she talked to me through the mesh of that cage with animal make-up she had on.

“A lot of people who buy and wear fur coats probably don’t know how much suffering animals have to go through for them to get them.”

As I talked to her, an old fur coat hung over one corner of the cage, made from the pelts of 15 foxes. Staneff was one of more than 20 animal rights activists in Niagara who participated this February 13th in Canada’s 21st national anti-fur day, not that any federal and provincial government we’ve had in power over that time – Conservative, Liberal or NDP – has done much to recognized it.

What Kimberly Costello, a member of Niagara Action For Animals (NAFA) and one of the organizers of the demonstration had to say should leave Canadians wondering how our country could continue have such backward laws on protecting animals compared to the United States and European Union that at least bans the import of garments made from dog and cat fur, and has placed stronger restrictions on the sale of fur garments and the killing of animals for fur.

 “We are just out here to educate people,” said Costello, adding that the location, which happened to be in front of a store called Henry’s Furs in St. Catharines, which just happened to be closed during the protest, “is just symbolic.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

It’s a municipal election year and Niagara region’s council is on the verge of passing a budget for the year that would keep any increase on its portion of municipal taxes down to around zero.

A zero tax increase in an election year? Is that just a coincidence?

Some would say of course not.

They might say these councillors can now go out at election time and say; ‘Hey, look what we did this year. We kept the regional portion of your municipal taxes down to zero.’ Even if zero this year comes back to haunt us an big jump in taxes next year.

Others might say; ‘Hey, give the council a break. They are doing this because they are aware of all the joblessness out here, along with the all of the people struggling to get by on low and fixed incomes. They are feeling our pain.’

It is more likely that the decision the council approved this February 11 to beat down any increase on a regional budget for 2010 has something to do with all of the above. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Niagara’s regional council has granted the proponents of pans for a mammoth NASCAR speedway complex some of the key approvals they need to build the speedway outside the town of Fort Erie’s urban boundaries.

One of the posters Fort Erie area residents have made up to protest NASCAR speedway project.

The council gave its blessings to amendments to the region’s policy plan and the town’s official plan – amendments that allow for such development on rural lands – despite a plea this February 11 from a citizens group to spend more time studying the impacts the speedway could have on the lives or nearby residents and farms before making any decisions.

“Amending the official plan at this point only results in hastily thrusting opponents, local governments and proponents into the expense and time commitments of an Ontario Municipal Board hearing,” Sandy Vant, head of CARS (Citizens Against Racing Speedway) warned the regional council. Continue reading →

By David Serafino

It’s important to take a position on the Crystal Beach Gateway Project.

Why? Because it means you can influence change.

An image of how the Port Dalhousie heritage district in St. Catharines, Ontario will look if and when 'Port Place' is built.

It is not essential that you do, but ideally, a democratic society hears all opinions. Opinions matter to varying degrees, but an informed opinion matters most. I don’t have one. At least not yet. At present, I choose to maintain objectivity through ignorance.

However, my experience in a similar situation has provided me with insights that I wish to share with the Crystal Beach community. Comparisons have been drawn between the Gateway and the condo development in Port Dalhousie. Port Place includes a 17 storey, 80 unit residential building, a 450 seat theatre, a 70 room boutique hotel and a public courtyard. I don’t know the features or layout of the Gateway but I do know that, like Port Place, it’s overlooking the beach.

When it comes time to take a position, I will begin by informing myself on the benefits and detriments of the project. I will ask this question first: ‘Does the project represent good planning and is it in the public interest?’ Continue reading →

 
By Doug Draper

In a February 8 statement to his own council, Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey renewed his council’s call for an investigation into management of the Niagara Health System responsible for operating the majority of hospitals across the region.

Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey

Badawey also urged Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and his health minister, Deb Matthews, “to give Niagara their full attention (on concerns over hospital services) immediately.”

“If not,” said Badawey in his statement, “(the premier and health minister) are ignoring their responsibility to ensure that the people of Niagara receive the highest quality of health care we deserve. … Throughout the past year,” added the mayor, who is moving forward with plans to develop a South Niagara Health Care Corporation to make up for the loss of emergency rooms and other cuts the NHS and provincially appointed Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) have made to hospital services in the region’s southern tier, the city of Port Colborne has worked extremely hard to do its part.

“We now demand that the province do theirs. It is time the premier and minister of health extend their attention to the affordability of delivering health care services within the region of Niagara in 2010.”

For the record, and by clicking keep reading, we are publishing a full text of Badawey’s statement. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

In case you haven’t heard or read it already, a vote this February 10 on a contract offer Ontario’s colleges have made to their teachers is so close to call it could take several more days before the final results are known.

This parking lot of Niagara College's Welland campus could be empty soon if college teachers' union follows through on its strike threat.

That means that more than four-hundred thousand full- and part-time students at Niagara College and more than 20 other colleges across the province are left worrying about whether there will be a teachers strike that disrupts their studies as they should be working toward their final exams and the end of this academic year for possibly another 10 days or so.

The February 10 vote by some 9,000 college teachers across Ontario was reportedly so close that slightly more than 51 per cent of the teachers – by a margin of 210 votes – said “yes” to the college presidents’ offer. Apparently there are about 300 “mail-in votes” left to be counted by the Ontario Labour Relations Board which must hire the most sluggish people in the world to recount votes because we are told it may take the OLRB another week and a half to let the students and public at large in on the final count.

The whole thing is disgusting for the young people and their families investing well over $3,000 a year now for tuition and for over-priced text books (often foisted on them by college teachers who author them with information anyone can find on the internet or in any well-stocked library) to pay the freight, including the salaries and benefits of college teachers who are already among the best paid in all of Canada. Continue reading →

 (This article, shared with Niagara At Large from a leading resident in Port Dalhousie, may give those fighting a similar high-tower condo project in the Crystal Beach area some idea of the odds they are up against.)

By Carlos Garcia

Ontario’s dismal record of failing to preserve our heritage is about to get worse – much worse.

Port Dalhousie, from across the harbour, as it looks today, but apparently not for much longer.

The landmark Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) decision to allow a 20-storey height condo tower in Port Dalhousie’s low-rise Heritage Conservation District (HCD) means every one of over 90 HCDs in the province is now vulnerable to towers and inappropriate development.

The volunteer community organization PROUD Port Dalhousie’s epic struggle to preserve the heritage of Port Dalhousie included: City and Regional Council meetings, OMB pre-hearings, a failed OMB mediation, and a 71-day marathon OMB Hearing. The City of St. Catharines and PROUD put forward a very strong OMB case, supported by leading expert witnesses and provisions of  the Provincial Policy Statement and City’s Official Plan, Zoning By-Law (3-storey height limit) and Heritage Guidelines.

Despite this Herculean effort, OMB Vice-Chair Susan Campbell claimed to strike a balance between the Planning and Heritage Acts and approved the proposal in almost its entirety (the OMB had NEVER before approved a tower in a designated HCD). PROUD then requested a review of the decision arguing that, contrary to Campbell’s ruling, the HCD Plan had the elevated status of the 2005 revision to the Heritage Act and, accordingly, Council “shall not …pass a by-law for any purpose that is contrary to the objectives set out in that plan”. Continue reading →

 From Doug Draper

 I was checking out at the service desk of a retail store some three or four weeks ago when the cashier, who has been reading my columns years, asked me what I was writing about that week.

A Student Centre? This campus of Niagara College may have no students at all taking classes on it if the college teachers' union moves forward with a strike in the days ahead. Photo by Doug Draper

“Well, I’m writing about the possibility of a college teachers’ strike,” I said, “and I’m calling the piece – ‘College teachers who strike this time should be fired.’”

At that point, a young girl who was also working at the service desk turned around and told me that she is a student at Niagara College, and that about the last thing she and her fellow students need right now is a teachers’ strike. All three of us – the cashier, the young girl and I – got carried away in a discussion about this until I turned around and noticed a man behind me, weighed down with a couple of fairly heavy items, waiting to check out. I immediately apologized to him for keeping him waiting.

“That’s okay,” he said. “I have a son in college and we are worried about this too.”

Worried indeed!

These are far from the only folks I’ve talked to in recent weeks who feel the same way. Continue reading →

By Wayne Gates

Over the past six years, the provincial government has increased spending on health care in the Niagara Region by 42 per cent.

CAW Local 199 President Wayne Gates

The question today is where did it go?  It obviously didn’t improve quality! 

This increase has instead produced closures of beds, programs, and operating and emergency rooms. It has resulted in staff layoffs and buyouts. It is leading to the closure of the GNGH’s maternity ward. How can the Honeymoon Capital of the world not have a maternity ward?

Here are a few troubling facts:

·  Our emergency room wait times far exceed the provincial average.

·  Surgeries are being delayed and even cancelled. Witness last week when local surgeons complained about the postponement of serious cancer surgeries. Continue reading →

By Sue Salzer
 
A report given by Kevin Smith to the regional government of Niagara points out glaring problems that have been created by the Niagara Health System.
 
Smith , who represents the administration of the Regional Ambulance Service (EMS) , reports overwhelming wait-times for paramedics to off-load patients at the Niagara Falls Hospital emergency department. The amount of time before paramedics can release their patient to Hospital personnel has almost doubled since the closures of the Emergency Rooms in Fort Erie and Port Colborne. Hours of wait  time have increased from around 130 hours to current times of approximately 240 hours per month.
 
The ambulances, two paramedics and the unfortunate patients are delayed an average of  eight  hours daily before they can be released to the care of hospital personnel. This is neither a wise nor necessary use of our ambulance resources and personnel. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The debate over a controversial plan to erect a 12-storey condo tower in front of one of the last stretches of lakeshore in the Fort Erie community of Crystal Beach open to the public raged on in the Sunday edition of The Buffalo News this Feb. 7.

The developer's image of a high-storey, big box condo that has become a subject of controversy over future development in the historic Fort Erie community of Crystal Beach.

The condo plan, as the front-page story in The Buffalo News reports, has received the support of Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin and a majority on his council, even as it has drawn waves of opposition from residents – dividing this historic beachfront community as the council prepares to vote this March 1 on changing its height regulations to permit the tower.

The Buffalo News story, which you can read by clicking on the following link http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/948395.html, quotes Martin at one point saying: “There will be those who see it (the condo plan) as a great beginning, the cornerstone of the redevelopment of Crystal Beach, and there will always be those who will wish for older days when the (Crystal Beach amusement) part was still there and it had a small-town collage atmosphere… I think the new history of Crystal Beach begins with this project.”

On the other hand, Wayne Redekop, a former Fort Erie mayor who once supported the idea of selling some of the land in front of what is actually known as Bay Beach in the Crystal Beach area to generate revenue for buying up more lakefront for public use, is thumbs down on this particular project in a community of mostly one or two-cottages and businesses.

“I think the 12-story condominium is completely out of character with the neighborhood. I think it’s pitting people of good faith against each other, creating problems for the municipality in terms of trying to move forward, and I think it appears very much as if the council is trying to ram something through,” Redekop said. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

If there is any doubt that Niagara’s southern tier holds a golden key to the region’s future, there was sure no hint of it at the annual Mayors of South Niagara luncheon this Feb. 4.

Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey addresses annual south Niagara mayors' summit as Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin and Wainfleet Mayor Barbara Henderson listen on. Photo by Doug Draper

More than 200 makers and shakers from across the region, including many of Niagara’s top political and business leaders, packed a banquet room at the Sparrow Lakes Golf Club in Welland to hear five of the region’s mayors – Dave Augustyn of Pelham, Vance Badawey of Port Colborne, Damian Goulbourne of Welland, Barbara Henderson of Wainfleet and Doug Martin of Fort Erie – focus on the achievements and challenges facing a part of the region poised to possibly experience an unprecedented amount of business and residential growth over the next few decades.

The mayors too turns focused on five pillars for building a healthier, more prosperous future for Niagara’s southern region, including revitalizing downtowns, agriculture, transportation, stimulus funding for building roads, recreational and education facilities and other infrastructure, and building an economic gateway to people and markets across the Canada-U.S. border and around the world.

But fo a handful of women from Port Colborne and Fort Erie who attended the luncheon sporting the attire of the Yellow Shirt Brigade – a citizens group struggling to save hospitals services in Niagara’s southern tier, the 800-pound gorilla in the banquet hall was hospital services because they were never discussed. So the women in the yellow shirts walked out at the end of the luncheon, wondering how the mayors could spend an hour outlining their collective efforts for growth in south Niagara without ever once mentioning health care services.

“How can all of the grandiose plans for the future of the southern portion of Niagara be achieved without accessible health care, and hospitals to care for the sick and dying,” said Joy Russell, a Fort Erie resident and one of the Yellow Shirt Brigade members who attended the Feb. 4 event. “If they widen roads, improve water and sewers, and entice more people (to live and establish businesses in the southern tier), what is going to happen to them if they have an accident or need a hospital bed nearby?” Continue reading →

By Becky Day

The St. Catharines-Thorold Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual State of the Cities address titled “The Tale of Two Cities” on February 5. Thorold Mayor Henry D’Angela and St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan both shared the achievements of their cities with the business community.

The Chamber brought the two cities together for the event, not only because they represent them, but because it believe people from St. Catharines and Thorold should care about what is happening in both cities.

Chamber President Rob DePetris emphasized the idea of municipalities coming together for the common good in a motivating speech to a room full of Niagara business people and dignitaries.

“The public sector and politicians must modify the way in which they do business,” he said. “Governments in Niagara can send a powerful signal to the private sector that this region is ready for investment by showcasing that municipal boundaries are simply lines on a map and not barriers to progress. By throwing away parochialism and embracing cooperation for the greater goal of economic prosperity.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, once wrote that if it “were left to (him) to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter.”

Reporter and columnist Becky Day refused to let the corporate chains put her down. She has launched her own online news site called Thorold Politics

What Jefferson was essentially saying at the time – some 200 odd years ago – is that you can’t have accountable democratic government without having a free and vigilant press.

In that spirit, Niagara At Large, as a new and fledgling source of independent news and commentary in the Greater Niagara Region, will use this venue, for as long as it lasts, to stand up for journalists in this region who try against all kinds of odds these days to do their job. We are talking about journalists who too often find themselves running up against the corporate chains that own and operate too many of our media outlets, and either don’t’ provide the resources journalists need to play an effective watchdog, without fear or favour, or go out of the way to block their efforts to get at the truth.

Becky Day, a journalist in Thorold, Ont. who was about the only shining light at a pretty crappy chain-run weekly called ‘The Thorold Niagara News’, falls into the category of a journalist in that community – one that she and I happen to live in, by the way – that continues to care. The fact that she is no longer gamely employed at ‘The Thorold Niagara News’ just about says it all for that publication. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

How would you rather travel between the Buffalo area and New York City? In a Toyota with a sticky gas pedal or on a flight on one of those smaller commuter airlines subcontracted by larger airlines because they figure they can save money not taking you on their own.

I don’t know about you. But I’d choose a Toyota over a commuter plane in a New York minute! And if the gas pedal sticks, at least I’m behind the wheel and can do everything from slamming on the brakes (unless that Toyota happens to be a Prius) to turning off the ignition or both as I veer off the road into a field full of snow where I can hopefully punch open the door and jump free with a minimum of broken bones.

On a commuter jet, all I can do is sit back there in the passenger section, clutching whatever book or magazine I’m reading like a teddy bear as the pilot, who might have about as much training and salary as someone managing a fast food restaurant, works with whatever limited training and hours of experience he’s had in the air to keep to keep us from spiraling downward to that same field of snow.
 
If you think I’m being a little unfair to the airlines, just check out the stories on the front page of The Buffalo News this Feb. 3 (you can find them by visiting www.buffalonews.com and plugging in a few key search words like ‘Flight 3407’ and “fatal stall”) on the fatal flight of a commuter plane, subcontracted by Continental Airlines, a year ago this February as it crashed into a neighbourhood in the Buffalo area community of Clarence. Continue reading →

One of the Buffalo area’s environmental groups dedicated to protecting and preserving the Niagara River watershed for future generations is hosting a series of fund-raising concerts to support its green efforts.

Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper – a group linked internationally to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and folk music icon and activist Pete Seeger – is receiving support from the Labatt beer company in Canada and the Good Neighbourhood to showcase six hot bands from north of the border in fund-raising venues in Buffalo from Feb. 9 through Feb. 13.

Click on the ‘keep reading’ tab at the end of this sentence to receive all the details on this fund-raising concert series for improving the quality of our environment and one of the most icon rivers in the world.  Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

There was Premier Dalton McGuinty on a CHCH television news clip last week, trying to persuade us that his Liberal government is not gutting fair access to hospital services in small communities across Niagara and the rest of the province.

A sign of the times. An American private health care provider is posting billboards like this in Niagara, Ont. to take advantage of a health care system here that is beginning to fail us. Photo by Doug Draper

 “I do sense a responsibility on behalf of Ontarians to do everything we can to ensure that they have access to the best possible health care, as close to home as is reasonably possible,” insisted McGuinty in response to questions a scrum o reporters asked him about comments made earlier by Dr. Alan Drummond, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians. “I am convinced we are leaders on that score.”

McGuinty was responding to comments Dr. Drummond and his association were making on the death this past holiday season of Fort Erie teen Reilly Anzovino.

Reilly, who would have celebrated her 19th birthday last week, died in the early hours of Dec. 27 following a traffic accident in her hometown that had her being rushed to an emergency room at a Welland hospital because as of last summer, thanks to the McGuinty government, the emergency rooms at Fort Erie’s Douglas Memorial Hospital and Port Colborne Hospital have been downgraded to urgent care centres that will no longer take patients suffering some of the most serious medical emergencies. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Those opposed to the erection of a condo tower in front of Bay Beach – one of the last and most popular public beaches along Niagara’s lakefronts – have created a new coalition of homeowners, businesses and other organizations determined to fight it.

The McGuinty/Bradley vision of the future for Bay Beach, one of the last popular public beaches along the Niagara shores of Lake Erie. An image of Bay Beach, from summers past, is featured below.

The coalition, called the Fort Erie Waterfront Preservation Association, is made up of a host of community organizations, businesses, property owners and individuals in the Niagara area and, according to its spokespersons, is “firmly opposed” to plans to build a multi-storey condominium in front of the last public beach left – known affectionately by countless thousands as Bay Beach – in the iconic Crystal Beach area of Fort Erie.

“A private 12-storey tower on waterfront property that belongs to the public is simply not acceptable,” says Eric Gillespie, a lawyer representing the new coalition. “Amongst many other concerns, the scale of the building is totally inappropriate for an intimate waterfront cottage community. …

“All residents of Fort Erie should likely be concerned,” Gillespie added. “The changes to the zoning bylaw required for the (condominium) development may set an irreversible precedent for high-rise, high-density development all along the Fort Erie waterfront.”

Indeed, all residents along any waterfront throughout the rest of Niagara or any other region across the province of Ontario should be concerned. And maybe you folks who live in waterfront communities across the border should be concerned too, if you are not already.

Once again, and thanks to a recent decision by the Ontario government of Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty and the hacks he has working for him on the province’s Ontario Municipal Board, to approve the erection of a multi-storey condo tower in the heritage district of Port Dalhousie in Niagara, any land along a waterfront is open game now for development, however out of place or hostile it is to the surrounding communty. Continue reading →

 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 →