Niagara At Large

(Niagara At Large is posting the following note from the Ottawa-based citizens group the Council of Canadians, spirited on by its dedicated director Maude Barlow, about the City of Niagara Falls, Ontario and its efforts to protect and preserve our precious water resources.)

Jeff Guarasci, the community development coordinator with the City of Niagara Falls, has written us to let us know that the municipality “has adopted the Blue Community initiative”.

Niagara Falls, Ontario council deserves some credit for caring here.

Niagara Falls is a city of more than 80,000 people located in the Golden Horseshoe Region of Southern Ontario.

To become a blue community, a municipality must:
-respect water as a human right,
-stop the sale of bottled water on city property,
-commit to keep drinking water and waste water treatment and distribution publicly owned and operated. Continue reading →

From the Constituency Office of Welland MPP Cindy Forster

Cindy Forster wants your thoughts on the future of hospitals in Welland and Port Colborne. The MPP for Welland expects constituents to have their say at two upcoming public meetings.

Welland Riding MPP Cindy Forster holding town halls for public on proposed hospital service changes for Nagara, Ontario

“We’ve been hearing a lot from the government-appointed Niagara Health System supervisor,” Forster said of Dr. Kevin Smith’s proposal to close all existing southern tier hospitals in favour of a single new facility. “It’s time we heard from the people who will be most affected by his recommendations.”

Forster is committed to ensuring the Liberal government knows exactly how people in Welland, Port Colborne and Wainfleet feel about the future of their hospitals.

The public meetings planned are as follows: Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

 For a man who has contributed immeasurably to Canadian society,  Dr. David Suzuki has been persecuted more than most. 

During the years of the Second World War in the 1940s, he was incarcerated with thousands of other Japanese Canadians under the War Measures Act and its racist deliberations.

David Suzuki, Canadian environmentalist and host of the award-winning CBC program ‘The Nature of Things’. Photo courtesy of the CBC

Now, he and a multitude of other Canadians are being smeared by a federal government that views opposition to its policies as radical, extreme, and somehow anti-Canadian.

History has not judgedCanadakindly in the first case, nor will it judge us kindly in the second case.

We need the voices of Suzuki and like-minded Canadians now more than ever to counter-balance the federal government’s efforts to nurture scientific illiteracy in its pronouncements and policies.  Louder scientific voices are needed because the earth’s changing climate (caused by humans), is exacting huge environmental and economic expenses daily. Continue reading →

A Niagara At Large Brief

A few days back, Niagara At Large gave U.S. President Barack Obama a pat on the back for coming out in what is the socially conservative country he is now running for a second term of office in, and saying that he accepts same-sex marriages.

“At a certain point, I’ve just concluded that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” said Obama in an interview with ABC News this May 9. 

For those who may still not appreciate how groundbreaking a statement that is coming from “the leader of the free world,” Niagara At Large is posting the following video, bluntly titled ‘Beware of the Homosexual’ a portrait of homophobia at its worst. It was , produced in the U.S. as a ‘public service announcement” in 1961– the same year Barack Obama was born. 

For some of us pressing for social change on economic and environmental justice, and a number of fronts, it sometimes seems like we are making no headway and are, in some cases, drifting backward. 

On the issue of more tolerance for gay and lesbian people, however, a contrast between this abbhorent video, show to millions of people, including school children across North American, and Obama’s statement of May 9, we have taken a giant leap forward to the promised land of equality for all.

Check out the video – Beware of the Homosexual – by clicking on the image above

(We invite you to share your views on this post  below. NAL only posts views by individuals who are also willing to share their real first and last names.)

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper 

Well, well, well, and what a surprise.

The elites among us always seem to find a way of landing on their feet, don’t they?

Former NHS CEO Debbie Sevenpifer lands new job in the GTA

The rest of us 99 per centers can lose our jobs, simply because someone with a Mitt Romney brain decided that the cost of having us on the job was standing in the way of shareholders’ dividends,  but the Debbie Sevenpifers of this world always seem to find a way of landing on their feet. 

I credit my friends at Bullet News for getting the exclusive on this one. This May 12, that online reported that Debbie Sevenpifer, who was the CEO of Niagara, Ontario’s Niagara Health System during a period when it lost an unprecedented amount of trust from the public, is heading to Toronto for a job as the chief executive officer of one of the GTA’s largest community institutions – the YMCA. Continue reading →

By Fiona McMurran

The May 11 editions of the daily papers across Niagara, Ontario announce that the Niagara Health System’s ‘It’s Our Time’ campaign to help fund the new west St. Catharines hospital has hit its $40 million target – indeed, exceeded it by $8 million — well ahead of the deadline. Much hard work and dedication has gone into that campaign, and its success is also an indicator of how much the residents of St. Catharines and its surrounding municipalities want their hospital to succeed. Congratulations to all concerned. 

Niagara Health System supervisor Kevin Smith floating the idea of a new ‘south Niagara hospital’ at a recent media briefing. Photo by Doug Draper

Today the mayors of south Niagara meet to discuss NHS Supervisor Kevin Smith’s proposal for a hospital for the southern part of the peninsula. There’s a great deal riding on what our mayors have put on the agenda. Will they restrict discussion to the question of a site for a new hospital, as Smith has suggested? Or will they be more wary?

On Monday, May 7, I attended the general meeting of the South Niagara Health Care Corporation, put together under the aegis of Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badaway. The meeting included a discussion of Smith’s draft report and its recommendations. At the conclusion, Mayor Badawey clearly stated that the issue to be discussed by the Mayors today was not whether there should be a new hospital for south Niagara, but rather where it should be built.

Mayor Badawey has long sought membership in the South Niagara Health Care Corporation from other south Niagara municipalities — Fort Erie, Wainfleet and Welland – and all of them are at last participating. My understanding – and I may be in error – is that neither Pelham nor Niagara Falls had been approached previously by the SNHCC, since those municipalities weren’t considered to be part of south Niagara, although Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn is part of the South Niagara Mayors group.

Yet Kevin Smith’s report sets Niagara Falls, along with Pelham, within the catchment area for a possible south Niagara hospital. And therein lies a major problem. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

Well let’s give it up with two hearty high fives for U.S. President Barack Obama!

U.S. President Barack Obama takes the principled, all inclusive high road on equality for all.

This Wednesday, May 19 – a date that might go down in American history as surely as July 2, 1964, the date the Civil Rights Act outlawing major forms of discrimination against African Americans was passed – Barack Obama became the first president in U.S history to say he supports same-sex marriage. And as much as the president’s saying that does not automatically change the marriage laws across American, it is a bold overture for equal rights for all people in a country where you have got more than a few right-wing, homophobic, religious rednecks who will play this out, as a reason Obama is not fit to be in the White House, to its last string. Continue reading →

A Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Great Lakes groups on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border are not going to let the Conservative government of Stephen Harper gut one of Canada’s most effective pieces of environmental protection legislation.

Canada’s decades-old federal Fisheries Act – a piece of legislation that was actually approved and embraced with pride by the former Conservative government of Brian Mulroney – is being “overhauled” by a Harper government that has, of late, been doing a great deal of scrapping and overhauling of environmental rules it feels are standing in the way of resource exploitation and development.  Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

It was a day rich in unpleasant ironies.

On Sunday, May 5, 2012, a group of about 100 protestors rallied peacefully inOttawa, at the Parliament Buildings to protest electoral fraud and to demand a Public Inquiry.

Derek Soberol, founder of the Occupy Canada web page, was peacefully leading chants in front of the nearby U.S Embassy when he found himself arrested for allegedly “inciting a riot.”

Rally participant and witness, Yanna Green, observed that many of the police were not wearing badges or name tags.  Other officers, who did have identification, covered them with vests and refused to display them. Continue reading →

From Publisher Doug Draper

Beginning this May 7, Niagara At Large is taking a week off to reflect on where we are with this site and where we go from here.

While NAL is doing that, I will to thank our thousands of regular readers for your interest and support for this independent news and commentary site, and thank you for your patients while we do some resetting here.

In the meantime, we will continue to moderate and post comments on pieces that are already up on the site and we welcome any comments below on where NAL should go from here or what kind of coverage of issues and events you would like to see here in the future.

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

Aren’t we Canadians nice? Aren’t we now? 

When it comes to white collar crime which, by the way, is known to do far more economic damage than a two-bit thief steaing some gum from a convenience store (not to condone that), we Canadians couldn’t care less.

Lord Conrad Black’s U.S. mug shot from 2005. Canadians could hardly wait to welcome him here.

By Marcia Carlyn

(Marcia Carlyn is one of many residents in Fort Erie, Ontario who have been fighting a now approved plan to build a condo in front of a publicly owned beach in the Crystal Beach area of the municipality. Opponents of the condo recently lost a court bid to overturn a January 2011 Ontario Municipal Board decision in favour of the 12-storey condo. 

The condo plan received the support of Fort Erie’s mayor, Doug Martin, and a majority on the town’s council more than two years ago, and also has its share of support from citizens in the community who believe it could help stimulate some economic growth in a Crystal Beach they say has been stagnant since the old amusement park by the same name closed two decades ago. The mayor, who hopes the May 2 Ontario Superior Court ruling will finally bring an end to the long battle over the condo, has argued from the beginning that he believes the development will help save the town-owned Bay Beach for the public rather than restrict access to it.

Niagara At Large is posting the following reaction to the court ruling from Marcia Carlyn.) 

Dear friends of Bay Beach … Very disappointing news.

A file photo of Bay Beach along the shores of Lake Erie on a hot summer day.

Yesterday the Ontario Superior Court of Justice rendered its decision on our Statement of Claim case which was heard on Feb 8th.  The Court dismissed the lawsuit filed by a group of Fort Erie taxpayers, giving the Town the go-ahead to proceed with its plan to transfer a large portion of the Bay Beach Lands to the Molinaro Group for the construction of a 12-storey condo tower.  Continue reading →

By Sue Salzer

(Niagara At Large is posting the following comments by Sue Salzer, a Fort Erie, Ontario resident and head of the Yellow Shirts, a Niagara citizens group fighting for quality, accessible hospital services in the region. Her comments follow in the wake of a May 3 report from Niagara Health Services supervisor Kevin Smith which, among many other things, recommends replacing the existing hospital sites in Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, Port Colborne and Fort Erie with one new hospital for Niagara’s southern tier. Now here are Sue Salzer’s comments.)

No matter what Niagara Health System supervisor Kevin Smith had up his sleeve in his May 3 announcement, very little damage could be perpetrated on Fort Erie and Port Colborne. The damage was done three years ago. Any proposal would have to be an improvement of local services.

Health care advocate Sue Salzer at a 2011 rally in front of Niagara Falls hospital. File photo by Doug Draper

I find great irony that the communities who have chosen to take independent and diverse actions, re the Niagara Health System, for the past three years are now expected to join forces and collaborate on a site for a new build. There will be unprecedented jockeying for position as each struggles to protect their home turf and rightly so. Either a referee or a mediator may be necessary.

On the losing end are Welland and Niagara Falls . Both communities struggled valiantly against the NHS’s Hospital Improvement Plan that called for all Maternity and Pediatric care to be removed to the new St. Catharines Hospital. As part of Mr. Smith’s May 3 release, we now see both services travel north next year and remain there until a Southern Tier Hospital is realized. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

(The following is just a first take on a very complex interim plan for the future of hospital services in Niagara, released by the Ontario appointed supervisor of the Niagara Health System this May 3. Niagara At Large will have more posts, including commentary and comments from residents across the region, in the days ahead.)

Kevin Smith, the provincially appointed supervisor for the Niagara Health System, wants to see the province build a new hospital somewhere in Niagara, Ontario’s southern tier.

NHS supervisor Kevin Smith unveils recommendations for future hospital services in region. Photo by Doug Draper

If that recommendation, contained in a highly anticipated document called “Interim Report to the Niagara Community on the Restructuring of the Niagara Health System,” unveiled by Smith this May 3 at briefing sessions with municipal leaders and the media, the supervisor said the opening of any new hospital for communities in Niagara’s southern tier would be coupled with the closing of the aging hospitals in Welland and Niagara Falls, and the old hospital sites in Fort Erie and Port Colborne that have already lost the emergency room services that once gave them full hospital status.  Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

You have got to hand it to the people of west Niagara for showing up in droves for their hospital.

A vision of the proposed new West Lincoln Memorial Hospital.

The West Lincoln Memorial Hospital, located in Grimsby, is by many accounts, one of the best run smaller hospitals in the province. Many living in the communities it serves, including  Grimsby, West Lincoln, Lincoln and Stoney Creek, and even many living outside those communities have had nothing but praise for the quality of care they receive at this hospital which is so determined to rebuild its facilities for the future. Continue reading →

From the Ontario NDP

Queen’s Park– Hamilton East–Stoney Creek NDP MPP Paul Miller called on the Premier in Question Period today to stand behind a decade of promises and rebuild West Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Grimsby.

Ontario NDP representative for Stoney Creek/East Hamilton, whose constituents are also served by the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital, located in the Niagara, Ontario community of Grimsby.

“The community has grown but the hospital has not,” said Miller. “Why are the Premier and his government turning their backs on their promises to the residents of West Niagara and Stoney Creek?”

On the cusp of tonight’s massive rally at Grimsby Secondary School, Miller asked the Premier what his message would be to the thousands he has chosen to abandon.

Avoiding the question, the Premier referred to Minister of Health Deb Matthews who in turn did not provide an explanation to the residents of West Niagara. Continue reading →

By John Bacher

Behind closed doors and without media attention a major battle has been going on for the past three years between the provincial government, conservationists, developers and municipal governments. The last open expression of what was going on was a massive demonstration by the building industry in front of the Niagara Regional Council to hear attempts to constrain urban growth boundaries. The protestors came out to hear the condemnation of the province by then planning consultant and now planning director for Fort Erie, Rick Brady.

Another sign of our times in Niagara – more low-density development proposed for what is left of our green space. Photo courtesy of John Bacher

What is at stake is the application of the provincial Growth Plan to the Niagara Region. The Growth Plan was developed by the provincial government in order to compliment the protective policies against sprawl of the Greenbelt. The Greenbelt’s goal is to safeguard its “protected countryside” in perpetuity from sprawl, although its plan concedes that this may not be possible and will be periodically reviewed.  Continue reading →

Niagara At Large is pleased to post the following ‘Action Alert’ from the public interest group Ontario Nature for your information and for you to follow up on if you share the concerns of this organization that budget decisions being made right now by this minority Ontario Liberal government could spell the end for some of our endangered wildlife in this province. 

Action Alert – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Right now, crucial decisions are being made on the provincialbudget 2012.

The Boreal Owl - one of the many great creatures struggling to survive in Ontario.

The Ontario government has introduced a new budget bill called Bill 55 (Strong Action for Ontario Act).

This is no ordinary bill. Buried in this hefty document, hundreds of pages in length, are a series of changes (or amendments) that strike at the heart of Ontario’s Endangered Species Act (ESA) and other vital environmental legislation. Such changes threaten protection for the province’s biodiversity as well as our most vulnerable plants, animals and ecosystems. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

The Wall Street meltdown in 2008/2009 triggered the Great Recession, and led to a tax payer funded bailout of two trillion dollars.  Despite the losses, attributed in large part to a poorly regulated financial system, Wall Street continues to lobby against regulations in a world where self-interest trumps economic and social good.

It was during this same time that Prime Minister Harper assured us that our financial system was stable, and that we need not worry.

Well, he wasn’t telling the truth.

The Canadian Center For Policy Alternatives recently discovered that the bank bail-outs inCanadawere much larger than thought.  Canadian banks received $114 billion in bailouts during the recession, which is 10 times the amount that Canadian taxpayers spent on auto bailouts in 2009.  Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

Imagine if you or I or most of us, for that matter, showed up at the Canadian border with a criminal record to a point where we had spent time in prison, had no Canadian citizenship and expected to drive right through with the intention of residing and possibly doing business in Canada.

Thanks to Harper/Nicholson government, ex U.S. convict Conrad Black will be allowed in Canada

How far do you think we would get? Probably not much farther than the first gate Customs and Immigration officers would open to turn us around and send us back to where we came from. 

Well not if you are ‘Lord’ Conrad Black and the Stephen Harper Conservative government in power – as much as it pretends to be tough on crime, allows the former media baron in with a “temporary resident pass” from Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration department. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

If anyone thinks that Niagara, Ontario’s regional government doesn’t give time to economic development in this region, think again. Our regional councillors have all kinds of time to horse around over who or what should operate a truly effective economic development operation for Niagara.

Well, at least it's a job in Niagara, so take it. . Photo by Doug Draper

Who cares if it takes them months or even years to get past the parochialism that keeps doping and making anemic any real progressive for Niagara as a region,  if it could only truly speak to the rest of the world with one voice and one set of rules and hoops to jump through for businesses that may want to invest and create jobs. While we are waiting for our municipal leaders to decide whether they should place the interests of Niagara at large over those who run a fragmented complex of economic development and tourism agencies in their local communities –  there are still jobs out there in a Niagara, Ontario region that can certainly not be proud of nursing one of the highest jobless rates for any region in Ontario or Canada. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

A university in St. Catharines, Ontario is named after him and more recently a stretch of Highway 405 running through Niagara was renamed General Brock Parkway. And now, in the ceremonial passing of a bill this April 24, the province has named a day in his honour.

A portrait of General Brock

The day has been named Major-General Sir Isaac Brock Day and will, according to the legislation, be observed each year, from here on in, on October 13 which was a fateful date for  this region’s most beloved general.

It was on October 13, 1812 that Brock was mortally wounded while leading a charge up Queenston Heights from a village by the same name below. His troops would eventually chase an invading American army back across the border in this, one of the early key battles of the War of 1812. The invaders  had cut Brock down from the Heights where a 153-year-old monument also stands in his name. Continue reading →

 (Niagara At Large is posting the following public announcement from the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority for our readers information. This has long been a popular day for families with young children, by the way, and it takes place in a very pretty location in the tree-filled hills of Effingham.)

The Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority invites anglers of all ages to join us at St. Johns Conservation Area on Saturday, April 28^thfor the opening of Trout Season.  The season officially kicks off at 12:00 noon with Thorold Mayor Ted Luciani and NPCA board member Mickey DiFruscio making the first cast.

File photo of St. John's Trout fishing day. courtesy of Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority

Admission to the event is free.  The Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority has provided fishing opportunities at St. Johns since 1963, stocking the pond with rainbow trout each year.  This year we are pleased that the Fonthill Lions Club will be providing some financial assistance to help with the stocking costs.  The event provides an opportunity for individuals and families to experience the outdoors and enjoy one of the most spectacular natural areas in Niagara. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

In its latest budget, Canada’s Harper government is once again slashing the budget for CBC.

It is awful that this once proud public Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is seeing its funding slashed again, but there is nothing most of us can do about it. And why?  Because most of us who bothered to vote in the 2011 federal election in Canada helped elect a majority Stephen Harper Conservative government that never liked the CBC and is now having its way with it.

So since our federal government is in the spirit of cutting and gutting the CBC, why not at least do it with some sense of what should be left as a national broadcaster? And that should mean cancelling CBC on television, including Peter Mansbridge and The National, which have become a pale image of what The National and accompanying Journal once were when the late, great Barbara Frum had something to do with them. That show, and all of the dumb hockey violence that CBC seems to like to broadcasts, along with programs like the ’The Lang & O’Leary Exchange, featuring that male pig who cares only about money and that idiotic female co-host who thinks he’s cute or something, can disappear overnight. Who gives a frig about that? Continue reading →

Ontario Liberals Balance the Budget, Create Jobs, Protect Health Care and Education

(Niagara At Large is posting this one for our readers information from the Ontario Liberals, It particularly slams the Tim Hudak Ontario Conservatives. No mention here of NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.),

Queen’s Park– The Out of touch Hudak PCs abandoned Ontarians by voting against the Ontario budget’s strong action to balance the books, create jobs, and invest in families, said Liberal MPP Yasir Naqvi.

Ontario Liberal MPP Yasire Naqvi slams Tim Hudak

“The Ontario Liberal plan makes the right choices and takes strong action to balance the budget, grow the economy and create jobs,” said Naqvi.  “The Hudak PCs keep making the wrong choices – opposing the budget before reading it and trying to force a costly, unnecessary election that puts the economy at risk.”

“While Ontario Liberals worked hard to find common ground to pass the budget, the Hudak PCs abandoned Ontarians from the get-go, refusing to offer a single suggestion” said Naqvi.  “Instead of rolling up their sleeves to make this minority government work, the Hudak PCs are willing to put our growing economic momentum at risk with a costly, unnecessary election.” Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

We’ll there we go. Ontario’s Dalton McGuinty government will survive to kick us in the butt – well, at least most of us, except for McGuinty’s most wealthy and privileged friends – another day.

Ontaro Premier Dalton McGuinty

A Statement from Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

The following statement may be attributed to Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak, in response to today’s announcement by Premier Dalton McGuinty and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath:

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

“I would like to say I am surprised by this deal but I’m not.   What I am concerned about is the direction of Ontario.

“The choice made by the Premier today leads us further down the same failed path we have been on for the last eight years.  This is the path of more spending, more taxing, and no plan to create a better climate for private sector jobs.  It tinkers with small change when what we need is big change. Continue reading →

A Foreword by Doug Draper

 Niagara At Large is publishing the full text of the following April 23 post from the Ontario Public Service Employees  Union   ((OPSEU) should   ast be of interest to residents in the Grimsby, West Lincoln, Lincoln areas of Niagara, Ontario, where the province’s Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty, together with his finance minister Dwight Duncan, are proposing to cancel funding for a new West Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Grimsby.

It's okay for Ontario Liberal Finance Minister Dwight Duncan to go for a new hospital build in his Windsor area ridiing, but to hell with west Niagara. That should sound familiar to old opponents of the west St. Catharines hospital site.

Isn’t that NICE? What follows is the post from OPSEU on this. By the way, before you get down to the OPSEU piece, check out a few online biographies on Dwight Duncan. What you will find is that this guy has never held a real job and has been on public welfare for most of his adult life. Sorry for the aside. Here begins the OPSEU piece. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

 Never mind the Charter Of  Rights And Freedoms which, according to former P.M Chrétien, celebrates and unifies Canada as “un pays de tolérance par excellence”.

P.M Harper recently had more important matters on his plate, namely, the “courtesy call” from Li Changchun, head of propaganda, and Member of the Communist Party of China’s Standing Committee of the Politburo. According to Forbes magazine, Li Changchun apparently “controls what 1.3 billion Chinese see, hear, and speak.” Continue reading →

 (Niagara At Large is pleased to post this media release from some of our good neighbours in Buffalo, New York for your information. Here is another opportunity to enjoy the fabulous architecture in that city.)

 BUFFALO, NEW YORK– A collaboration between Buffalo, NY area sites designed by Frank Lloyd Wright: the Darwin Martin House Complex, the Graycliff Estate, Forest Lawn’s Blue Sky Mausoleum and the Fontana Rowing Boathouse has resulted in an exclusive new tour offering for 2012:  All Wright All Day.

The century-owned Martin house in Buffalo, New York, designed by the legendary American arrchitect Frank Lloyd Wright

Building on successful day-long sessions designed for last year’s National Preservation Conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the four Buffalo-area Frank Lloyd Wright sites are now proud to offer to the general public this full-day immersion in the built environment that Wright created for the region. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Oh my dear God – not that I am all that religious – do I ever miss Margherita! I’d  be one of those she might call a “stupid bastard” if I didn’t.

Margherita Howe, always listening but never ready to say yes to B.S. - A photo courtesy of the Howe family.

I miss being able to call her up today – this time around Earth Day, 2012 – and asking her how she feels about Canada’s federal government walking away from environmental protection reviews on major public works projects that may impact on what’s left of our natural resources. I miss asking her how she would feel about the so-called natural resources minister for Stephen Harper –  Joe Oliver or whatever the frig his stupid name is – calling people who advocate for environmental protection in this country a bunch of villains or enemies of Canada, or whatever other Fox New/Rush Limbaugh-induced rhetoric Harper and Oliver clamp on to for describing anyone who has the democratic balls to disagree with them. Continue reading →

A short tear or two by Doug Draper

 “I pulled into Nazareth, was feeling ‘bout half past dead, I just need some place where I can lay my head.” –  from the song ‘The Weight’ by The Band.

For those of you whose unique voice sang those lyrice, you know where I am going already with this one, don’t you. I am going to the death of Levon Helm, who was so much of the heart and soul of ‘The Band’, one of the most legendary groups of the rock era of the past 50 years.

Levon Helm, enjoying what he liked to do best.

 Levon Helm, the only American (and, by all accounts,  a proud southern American) of a group, including lead songwriter and guitarist Robbie Robertson,  died this April 19 at 71 following a long and courageous battle with cancer.

I have more than a few regrets in my life, and one of them was not getting down to Woodstock, New York, along the Hudson River, a few years back to enjoy Levon and his band (a group of musicians  long after The Band) performing, as they did virtually every week on a Thursday or whatever the night was. I had heard that it was a wonderful show and I actually called down there to find out more about it. As it turned out, I got Levon’s wife Sandy was on the phone, and I still remember her saying being nice enough to call me “sweetie” which is one of those very nice things Americans sometimes do when they like having a conversation with you is call you a sweetie. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is please to post these Niagara Parks Commission Earth Day events for our readers in the greater Niagara region in Niagara, Ontario and Erie and Niagara counties, New York and beyond.)

 The Niagara Parks Commission is pleased to announce a variety of events that will take place on Saturday, April 21 in celebration of Earth Day.

A past Earth Day flower plant sale., photo courtesy of Niagara Parks Commission

 2nd Annual Spring Plant Sale

10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

The Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens and School of Horticulture will be holding its 2nd Annual Spring Plant Sale on Saturday from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. in front of the Butterfly Conservatory. A variety of plants will be on sale, all grown on-site at the Botanical Gardens. NPC staff and Master Gardener volunteers will also be available to answer any questions. Quantities are limited, so be sure to arrive early for the best selection. NPC will be offering special discount admission to Butterfly Conservatory that day, with proof of purchase: $3 off for adults and $1 off for children, as well as a 25% discount on any purchase over $25 in the retail shop.

3rd Annual Earth Day Event with the Friends of the Niagara Glen

9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

At the Niagara Glen Nature Centre, the Friends of the Niagara Glen will be holding their 3rd Annual Earth Day Event from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. The group and their partners will be showcasing various displays and educational materials about their conservation efforts. Members will also be providing guided hiking tours of the Glen, which is home to the greatest concentration of Species at Risk anywhere in Ontario. Those planning to spend the day at the Niagara Glen are encouraged to bring their own bagged lunch and refillable water bottles.

The Niagara Glen Nature Centre will be open for the day, where you will find members of the Niagara Land Trust (NLT) selling recycled rain barrels ($50 each), in partnership with www.RainBarrel.ca, to help raise funds for their ongoing preservation work. The NLT is a non-profit charity that works to preserve Niagara’s ecological, agricultural and cultural landscapes today for future generations.

(Niagara At Large is posting the following ‘Action Alert’ and appeal to citizens to voice their concern for our readers’ information. This post has been circulated by Great Lakes United, a Canada-U.S. environmental groups, angler and recreational groups, Native communities and other parties around the Great Lakes basin.)

ACTION ALERT! U.S. and Canadian voices must be heard on hazardous waste licensing near the Great Lakes

Our Great Lakes from space. Image courtesy of Kevin McMahon, producer of the documentary film 'Waterlife'

Voice Your Concern regarding the Ontario Ministry of Environment’s Proposal to Exempt Transportation of Hazardous Waste from Licensing Requirements
 
The Ontario Ministry of Environment is proposing to exempt waste haulers transporting hazardous waste from the requirement to obtain a license before commencing their operation. This exemption will also apply to transboundary waste haulers. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

There may be a good number of you out there who don’t care all that much for the New Democratic Party’s Ontario leader Andrea Horwath. But let’s give her a bit of credit for one thing.

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath

The water I am talking about is the province’s ability to charge income taxes – a form of tax based on people’s ability to pay. And yes, that is one heck of a lot to ask anyone to do these days – to contribute, based on their ability to pay, to a pool of tax money for essential services like health care, education, policing and so on. Continue reading →

From Niagara College

(Niagara At Large is posting this April 17 media release from Niagara College in Niagara, Ontario for our readers’ information)

The Niagara College Foundation announced today that it has successfully
completed its Building Futures Campaign, exceeding the original
$16.5-million target by more than $1-million.

Applied Health Institute under construction at Niagara College's Welland, Ontario campus. Photo courtesy of Niagara College

Launched in 2008, the campaign has raised $17.7-million for new
facilities, equipment and learning resources, and scholarships and
bursaries. With matching funds from the provincial government’s former
Ontario Trust for Student Support program, the campaign’s total impact
on student learning and success is $21-million.
Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting this one from the Niagara Parks Commission in Ontario for our readers’ interest.)

Niagara Falls, Ontario – The Niagara Parks Commission (NPC) is pleased to announce that it has two of the tallest flowers in the world growing on site in the Floral Showhouse, which are expected to bloom within three to five weeks.

Photo courtest of Niagara Parks Commission

The Amorphophallus titanum, or Titan Arum, is a massive bell-shaped flower up to three metres in height. Aside from its size, the Titan Arum is also known for its unique smell. After flowering, a single leaf emerges in the place of the blossom, which is the size of a small tree, standing up to six metres tall and five metres across. This flower is exceedingly rare to see. Until 1989, only 21 flowerings were recorded to have occurred in botanical gardens worldwide. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

 “Dance band on the Titanic, Sings ‘Nearer My God to Thee’, The iceberg’s on the starboard bow, Won’t you dance with me.” –   from Harry Chapin’s 1970s album ‘Dance Band on the Titanic’.

One hundred years ago this Saturday, April 14, the world’s greatest ship – considered a masterpiece of technology in its day that “not even God could sink” – steamed forth proudly and possibly arrogantly, at a high speed at the time of more than 20 knots, toward an iceberg that just happened to be one of this earth’s many and possibly more minor creations.

The iceberg some allege to be the one that sank the Titanic and the lives of some 1,500 of its passengers and crew. Could one like it still be out there, waiting for the rest of us?

 A Commentary by Doug Draper

Say what you want about Ontario’s Health Minister Deb Matthews.

Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews, being crapped on by the province's doctors now

There are a good number of people across this Niagara region – this columnist included – who has had their beefs with Matthews over the Niagara Health System, and almost anything else that has to do with health care in Ontario.

But let’s at least give Matthews credit for asking for a wee bit of restraint from our doctors – a group or professionals who most if not all of us have a great deal of respect for, but who have not done too badly during a pretty economically depressed decade with salaries now averaging $362,000 and ones that have increase. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The community is in a state of “disbelief and frustration,” said Bob Bentley, the mayor of the Niagara, Ontario municipality of Grimsby of plans outlined in the provincial government’s March 27 budget to scuttle previously promised funding for a rebuild of the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital.

West Lincoln Memorial Hospital as it sits today. How long will it last?

“We were one signature (from the province’s Liberal government) away from putting a shovel in the ground,” the mayor added during a meeting of Niagara’s regional council this April 12 – a meeting during which councillors agreed to make support for the hospital one the Region’s priorities when it takes its annual ‘Niagara Week’ to Queen’s Park later this spring. Continue reading →

 By Bernie Slepkov

There’s something I want you to know.

Bernie Slepkov

For the past few years, the people at the City of St. Catharines, Ontario and the Region of Niagara have been gearing up for some serious mind shifting, and they want your help in those efforts.

Oh, I can almost sense the cynicism and complacency that declaration just aroused.

No, seriously. They know “that the times, they are changin’” and are trying to grapple with it. The challenges confronting the governments and residents of our region and communities (of Niagara, Ontario) are universal. Rising energy costs, climate change and poverty are but a few of the forces propelling community sustainability forward. All of those will increasingly touch us all – along with all of the everyday things we take for granted and virtually every aspect of daily living. Continue reading →

This Media Release prepared by Ontario’s Liberal Government

April 12, 2012

The Ontario government is taking strong action to help eliminate the shock many consumers get from opening their cell phone and wireless services bills. 

The province is introducing legislation to make it easier to understand the costs and terms of wireless services agreements while ensuring service providers are upfront with information before contracts are signed.

 Here’s how consumers will benefit if the legislation is passed: Continue reading →

By Donna Krekorian

Many stories have been told about the sinking of the Titanic.

Neshan Krekorian and other Titanic survivors were rescued on a lifeboat like this one, approaching the Carpathia on the morning hours of April 15, 1912.

Many versions of the story of our Grandfather, Neshan Krekorian, have been written.  Most are similar – the story of a third-class male passenger that managed to escape the sinking when so many others did not. For our family, the story is not so concise.  After 100 years, our family would like to put the rumours and innuendos depicting our ancestor as a “coward” or ‘stow away” to rest.  There is a much bigger picture – another layer that makes his ability to survive such a terrible disaster even more meaningful. It is how Neshan Krekorian clawed his way from tragedy to become the true Canadian immigrant success story.  Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

 During the 2006 election campaign, PM Harper soberly cautioned us,

 “Bend the rules, you will be punished; Break the law, you will be charged; Abuse the public trust, you will go to jail.”

 They’re nice words, and they certainly appeal to values of law and order embraced by Canadians, but as it turns out, they’re also hollow words.

Stephen Harper's Conservative majority rules Canada's parliament

 After all, the Harper government is guilty on all counts: bending the rules, breaking the law, and abusing the public trust, yet it is avoiding appropriate punishment like the plague.  Apparently law and order issues are meant to apply only to those who aren’t affiliated with Conservative party misdeeds. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post this release from Buffalo Niagara Riverkeepers on its annual spring effort to clean the shorelines of creeks and rivers that make up the Niagara River watershed.)

Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper is recruiting volunteers to join the Spring Shoreline Cleanup on Saturday, April 21, 2012 from 9am to noon. 

Volunteers participae in past spring waterways cleanup. Photo courtesy of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeepers

 With the early spring weather we are experiencing in Western New York, many people are starting spring cleaning in their homes and yards.  Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper is seeking volunteers to help with “spring cleaning” of 35 parks and green spaces along our Buffalo Niagara shorelines.   Continue reading →

By Doug Draper, with information and photos courtesy of Linda McKellar

For the rich and famous, it was a ticket to a joyride on “the ship of dreams.”

For many others, it was a chance to begin what they hoped would be a new and better life in America. Then there were those who worked aboard this most luxurious of liners, many of them at the sweatiest and dirtiest of jobs.

Madeleine Mellenger (in some Titanic-related accounts the last name is spelled Mellinger) shown here,  returning to England four months after her harrowing experience on the Titanic. A few years later she and her mother Elizabeth would settle in Canada where they made roots in Ridgeway, Ontario. Image courtesy of Linda McKellar.

Among those who made up these latter two groups were Elizabeth Mellenger and her 13-year-old daughter Madeleine, both second class passengers from London, England and on their way to work for the wealthy Colgate family in New York, and Albert Ervine, an 18-year-old crew member from Belfast, Ireland who worked in the engine room – all of whom have links, either directly or indirectly, to Niagara, Ontario, and all whose names would become etched in history, 100 years ago this April aboard the RMS Titanic.

Elizabeth and Madeleine were among the 713 survivors when the Titanic, on its maiden voyage, sank after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912. They are both now buried where they lived some of their later years in the Fort Erie, Ontario community of Ridgeway. Albert was among the 1,503 men, women and children who did not, and members of his family, including some living in and in the same community of Ridgeway, have helped breath life into his name on the lists of Titanic victims.

Thanks to Linda McKellar, a Ridgeway resident and a Titanic history buff who has, over the years, collected some information and images of Elizabeth, Madeleine and Albert, Niagara At Large is able to share the following brief accounts of their stories. Continue reading →

A Foreword by Doug Draper

I have so far stayed away from doing any commentary on the multi-billion-dollar scandal over those fighter jets Canada’s Conservative government is so determined to buy mostly because I have found myself getting too angry just reading about it. And as much as measure of anger can be a motivator for a column that has some edge to it, too much anger can have you banging out something equivalent to screaming at the walls.

Harper Conservatives' Defence Minister Peter MacKay now knows nothing about multi-billion-dollar fighter jet deal.

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

I’ve often wondered how smart we humans really are as a species on this planet.

Humans and gasoline

There is no doubt we possess enough intelligence to take what we’ve learned from the past and apply it to addressing challenges we face in the present and future.  But we don’t always seem to have the smarts to use that intelligence when we have to.

Take the challenges we as a species face with respect to energy conservation, environmental protection and climate change, for example. I’ve pretty well come to the conclusion that you could  talk to people about driving more energy-efficient cars or about switching to public transit or renewable energy until the last tree is gone and it won’t do much good. Continue reading →

By Brigitte Bonner

The loss of the Fort Erie Slot facilities is a very unfortunate and upsetting event.  But, grouping this recent decision by the Ontario Government with the designation of wetlands, as was evidenced on a sign in front of Fort Erie Town Hall several weeks ago, is a definite mistake. 

The designation of Provincially Significant Wetlands (PSWs) is not an arbitrary decision that the government has made in the same way as the decision to close the slots facility.  Wetlands are important ecological areas that are not only essential for wildlife, but also for us—human beings.  The fact that the wetlands have been designated as “Provincially Significant” means that they provide essential ecological benefits to sustain life.  Yes, it is frustrating that many of the wetlands are in areas close to the major traffic routes which are ideal for industrial growth.  But unfortunately these lands cannot be destroyed and built upon without devastating effects. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post the following notice from the Social Assistance Reform Network of Niagara on an upcoming forum on finding solutions to poverty for our readers information.)

The Dollars and Sense of Solving Poverty Forum

The Social Assistance Reform Network of Niagara (SARNN) is pleased to announce its annual spring forum “The Dollars and Sense of Solving Poverty”. It will include a presentation followed by a question and answer period.

Event Details:

Date: Wednesday, April 11^th, 9:00-11:00am, registration starts at 8:30am

Location: Niagara Region Headquarters, Council Chambers, 2201 St. David’s Rd., Thorold

Presenter: Sheila Regehr, Executive Director of the National Council of Welfare (NCW) Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

In the Edwardian era of a century ago, he was classed as a “peasant” – one of those ‘lower’ members of the human species upper classes of people wanted little or nothing to do with.

Titanic survivor Neshan Krekorian

By Doug Draper

The strike involving close to 40 English-as-as-second-language instructors at Brock University – or the traffic mess in front of Brock’s St. Catharines, Ontario campus, if that is the way some of you looked at it – is over.

Strikers picket one of two main entrances to Brock University campus. File photo by Doug Draper

The union representing the striking instructors and the university reached a final agreement this April 5 which apparently means more job security for the instructors who work on contract for Brock and therefore collect no benefits for their work.

Niagara At Large covered this strike and posted at least two or three pieces that shows some sympathized for the  instructors, some of whom said they were making less than $20,000 a year. All NAL asked of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4207-3, the union local representing the instructors in return, was to be kept in the loop on the outcome of the negotiations. The CUPE local chose not to do so and NAL found out about the end of this strike more than half a day later,  through other media sources. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

 How sad it is that Ontario’s New Democrats – a party that is supposed to be a voice for the little people –  holds the balance of power in this province, yet is less willing to ask for a progressive tax increase from Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government than well-off doctors.

Dr. Michael Rachlis - Ontario;'s Doctors for Fair Taxation.

In a delaration she made in the provincial legislature this past April 3, Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath asked the McGuinty government to consider increasing income taxes to people in the province making more than $500,000 annually to help pay for children’s day care and other services.

For someone who is supposed to be the leader of a party famous for representing ordinary, working class people. Horwath sure has set the bar on who should pay a little bit more in taxes a little bit high, hasn’t she? Maybe she has spent a little bit too much time in the gilded cage called Queen’s Park. Continue reading →

From Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

There has been the odd time over the past couple of years of doing Niagara At Large when I wish I did not click “publish.” This April 2 was one of them.

Fort Erie, Ontario Mayor Doug Martin

The post I published led with a headline; “Sorry To Fort Erie, Ontario Mayor Doug Martin And His Red Bull or Redneck Bullies, Or Whatever They Are” and it suggested that the mayor is in lock step with some of the people who are engaging in some pretty nasty conduct toward others in the town. I have no direct evidence that this is the case and for that reason I apologize to the mayor and have pulled that post from the site. Continue reading →

A Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

In the wake of recent bad news in the Town of Fort Erie, Ontario, the mood has turned decidedly ugly in some corners of the town.

Fort Erie, Ontario resident Wendy Wolff and friend. Photo courtesy of Laurie Langley

It is one thing to get angry at the province’s Liberal government, up to and including taking legal action against it (if there is any merit to that) or lobbing to turf the government out over the news this spring that the Slots and Welcome Centre will soon close in Fort Erie, and that the town’s historic horse racing track may be next. It is quite another to threaten the local Liberal MPP, Kim Craitor, to a point where he doesn’t feel safe coming in to the town.

There have been others in the community, including ordinary citizens and some on the town council, who have been subjected to vile messages and other conduct aimed at humiliating or defaming them, and making them think twice about expressing their concerns or attending public meetings, even those of their own town council. Continue reading →

From the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority
(Niagara At Large is pleased to post this media release from the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority for your information. If you are looking for a breathtaking encounter with nature in our greater Niagara region, you can’t go wrong checking this event out.)
Grab your binoculars and a camera and join the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority and the Niagara Peninsula Hawkwatch team on Friday, April 6th for the Good Friday Open House at Beamer Memorial Conservation Area, Grimsby.

This annual event will run from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and will feature live hawk demonstrations, talks on the hawk migration, a children’s program and nature club displays. This year we are pleased to honour and recognize the dedication of two departed members of the organization; founding president, Bruce Duncan and site founder Dave Copeland. A special dedication and bench unveiling will take place at 11:00 a.m.

The migration trends of birds of prey serve as a valuable biological indicator of ecosystem health. Now in its 38th year, many volunteers from the Niagara Peninsula Hawkwatch have been at the site since observing and monitoring the annual spring migration of these ‘globetrotters’. These include 15 species of hawks, falcons, eagles and vultures travelling from South and Central America, the Caribbean and the United States to their nesting territories in Canada.

John Stevens of the Niagara Peninsula Hawkwatch notes, “with the unusually warm weather in March the count is running ahead of last year’s total. In addition, we’ve had two Black Vultures, a rather sedentary southern species that is beginning to be seen more often in Ontario and may become our sixteenth regularly-observed raptor species.” Nearly 5,000 raptors, including thirty one bald eagles, 3 golden eagles and over 2,500 turkey vultures have been counted in the month of March. More birds of prey are expected now through mid-May, with an average of 15,000 seen annually.

Renowned as the best vantage point in the Niagara Peninsula to observe the annual spring migration, Beamer also offers visitors hiking trails and one of the most spectacular views of the Niagara Escarpment and Lake Ontario Landscape, as well as nature and wildlife habitat viewing at this Conservation Area. On most days one can see the skyline and mist from Niagara Falls and the skyline of Toronto from the overlooks on the escarpment edge.

For directions or more information visit our website at http://www.npca.ca.

(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post in the comment boxes below. Remember that NAL only posts comments by individuals willing to share their real first and last names with their views.)

By Gary Screaton Page

(This is another in a series of articles by Dr. Gary Screaton Page that Niagara At Large is posting about some of the immigrants and refugees who have come to Canada to begin a new life after some often unimaginably brutal experiences they have suffered through in their countries of origin. In these posts, based on stories Dr. Page has learned from helping newcomers to the country in his border town of Fort Erie, Ontario, names have either been changed or last names have been omitted to protect individuals and their families and friends from any repercussions in their native lands.)

The students’ protest was over. Her cousin languished in an Ethiopian jail, arrested for being a part of the demonstration. Other protestors had gone missing altogether.

Gary Screaton Page

Meanwhile Hiwot, fearful that she, too, might be arrested struggled over what to do. She had only been visiting with her cousin when she decided to join him and the other students’ protesting Meles Zenawi’s attempts to divide the country by tribal groups to specific regions thus breaking up families of mixed tribal blood and separating, in many cases, children from parents.

With her cousin in prison Hiwot knew the police would also be looking for other protesters including her. Fortunately, she was not of the same region from which most of the student protestors had come. She would not be under suspicion if she sought an exit visa to leave the country. Hiwot did just that. She got a flight to theUnited Stateswhere she sought political asylum. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

In a matter as important as electoral fraud, transparency and the rule of law should be of utmost importance.  What we’re currently getting is the opposite.

A makeshift sign like this should not have to be hoisted in front of Canada’s parliamentary building

Instead of an immediate Independent Inquiry with the power of subpoena, we’re getting a pseudo-inquiry by Elections Canada, a government appointed watchdog group.

Instead of empowering Elections Canada at a time of electoral crisis, Elections Canada has been disempowered by a funding cut of $7.5 million per year, effective immediately.  The watchdog has already become a well-restrained puppy. Continue reading →

A Media Release from Bert Miller Nature Club

Town of Fort Erie Drainage Superintendent Brett Ruck was honoured at the March 19^thmeeting of the Bert Miller Nature Club for fostering science, community involvement and intergovernmental cooperation through the innovative approach used for drain maintenance in Beaver Creek.

Bert Millier rep Tim Seburn presents certifcate of honour to Fort Erie town official Brett Ruck.

A project was initiated in 2009 through an innovative arrangement between the Town of Fort Erie, the Department of Fisheries & Oceans and several other partners, including the Friends of Fort Erie’s Creeks, and the Bert Miller Nature Club. The purpose of the project, called the Grass Pickerel Project, was to determine if there was a way to perform drainage work in Beaver Creek while promoting the protection of grass pickerel. This species, found in the creek, is at risk of disappearing from Canadian waters. Continue reading →

A Comment by Doug Draper

I just turned on CBC Radio to the news that in this region of the world Earth Hour about to begin.

That means that for a full 60 minutes we are supposed to turn off all of our lights and feel our way around in the dark. I’ve done this for at least a couple of years now since this Earth Hour thing got started by some green-minded person somewhere in the land down under.

The idea behind this now-annual ritual, as I understand it, is that it is supposed to raise a little more public interest in energy conservation and environmental protection. But where is any evidence that it has been the least bit successful? Continue reading →

From the Office of Federal MP Malcolm Allen

(The following message from the Welland, Ontario riding federal MPP is in response to the strike of Brock ESL instructors which began on March 26 following a breakdown in talks over a collective agreement negotiated between the instructors and university over a reported “error” the unviersity discovered in a draft copy of the agreement.)

Ottawa – Welland Riding MP Malcolm Allen is calling on Brock University to live up to the collective agreement they signed with their English as a Second Language Instructors.

Welland, Ontario MP Malcolm Allen

“Ontario workers have the right to bargain collectively as defined in the Ontario Labour Relations Act. Brock University has a responsibility to respect those rights,” said Allen. “When you agree to something, you should live up to it. It’s a matter of integrity.”

Major disruptions are making life more difficult for everyone on campus, added Allen, but picketing would be unnecessary if the University simply accepted the fairly negotiated settlement they already signed. Continue reading →

By John Bacher

When proponents of the Canadian Motor Speedway in Fort Erie, Ontario began their public relations campaign to sell their purported “NASCAR-like” complex, part of the sales pitch was that about a third of their 827-acre scheme was to be a campground. It was claimed that about a third of the acreage was to be a “family recreation area.”

A 'parking camp' around a race track in Michigan. Is this what is in store around a NASCAR track proposal for rural lands, including wetlands and the headwaters of Miller Creek in Fort Erie, Ontario?

Images were made of a camp ground in a conservation area like setting, on former farmland, while protected wetland forests would be laced by hiking trails. This was seen as a charming feature which would lure prestigious industries to establish themselves in a park-like campus.  Continue reading →

A Release from the Greater Niagara (Ontario) Chamber of Commerce
 
Niagara, Ontario, March 2012– With a massive structural deficit and a continued sag in the global economy, the Ontario govenrment has released a budget (this March 27) that projects a return to balanced budgets in 2017-18.

Greater Niagara, Ontario Chamber CEO Walter Sendzik

The budget has been built on the projection of $17.7 billlion in savings in the next three years and $4.4. billion in new revenue growth. While the projections released in the budget signal that the Ontario government is getting serious about addressing the province’s debt load and structural deficit – the test will be in how the government fairs in cutting expenses and at the same encouraging investments in Ontario.
 
“The recently released Drummond Report provided a reality check for Ontarians,” explains Walter Sendzik, CEO Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce. “The report clearly demonstrated that the Ontario government must change its way of doing business – and today’s budget doesn’t appear to be aligned with the report.”  Continue reading →

A  Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

“I don’t understand why prostitution is illegal,” said the late American humourist George Carlin a few years back. “Selling is legal. Fxxxing is legal. So why isn’t it legal to sell fxxxing?”

Hey, Mr. Premier, there is more money for you, right out there walking the streets.

 Sorry if you found the barely disguised use of the F-word offensive here, but let’s not lose the point of George’s question. Why isn’t prostitution legal, especially in Dalton McGuinty’s Ontario?

I mean here we are talking about a government that is all-out in favour of casinos and online gambling, and of finding ways to encourage more people to gamble so it can rake in those ‘sin taxes’ for what? To improve our health care and education systems? Continue reading →