Niagara At Large

By Doug Draper

Should students from Brock University and Niagara College be allowed to use their transit passes to ride Niagara’s inter-municipal transit system?  Or should they pay the $5 fare on top of the $139 they  pay each year for a pass to ride local bus systems.

Following a vigorous debate on the question a December 8 regional council meeting, a majority of councillors voted to put a decision off until early in the New Year when they get some feedback from the three main local transit operators based in St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Welland.

Students enrolled at Brock and Niagara College have begun pressing Niagara’s regional government  to honour  their transit passes – also known as ‘U passes’ paid for through their tuition fees – for the Niagara Region Transit system that began rolling between St. Catharines, Thorold, Niagara Falls, Welland and onward with feeder lines to and from Port Colborne and Fort Erie last September.

One of the problems, say students, is that the local transit buses running between campuses in St. Catharines, Welland, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Niagara Falls frequently become full to capacity. At that point, students who can’t get on them are left standing at the side watching one of region’s nearly empty buses drive by, which they can only use if they shell out five bucks per ride. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

The late Niagara MPP Mel Swart – a champion for fairer auto insurance rates in Ontario – may agree with me with I say three cheers for the province’s  Auditor General Jim McCarter.

In his latest annual report, released at Queen’s Park this past Monday, McCarter criticized the eight-year-old Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty for not doing enough during that time to keep we, the people of this province, from being mugged in our pocket book when it comes to the soaring costs of such essentials as energy, health care and, last but not lease, auto insurance.

There are so many important things McCarter addresses in his report but I’m going to focus on auto insurance – an issue I’ve been taken to task for by some members of the insurance industry for arguing that for many years over the past decade and a half,  drivers have been hit with premium increases well above the rate of inflation while the industry has has enjoyed record profits. Continue reading →

NAL  Christmas Concert

Niagara at Large is pleased to post the following poster, advertising a free Christmas concert to be performed by the popular Chorus Niagara Children’s Choir on Wednesday, December 14 at 7 p.m. at 7 p.m. at St. Barnabas Anglican Church on 31 Queenston St. in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Please click on the poster below to enlarge it on your screen and after you have had a closer look at that, we are also posting below a media release for the a Christmas concert version of Chorus Niagara with the Niagara Symphony, to be performed at Brock University’s Sean O’Sullivan Theatre in St. Catharines this December 10 and 11.

This one includes ticket fees that you can find out more information out about below, and it is worth it!  Chorus Niagara, as you may by now know, is still receiving hundreds of thousands of hits on top of the millions already received for an online video of its rendition of  an amazing rendition of Hallelujah at of all places, the Seaway shopping mall a year ago this Christmas season in  Welland, Ontario.

We are posting information on the Chorus Niagara concert at Brock University below. Continue reading →

A Brief by Doug Draper

This December 7, Canadian Prime Minister  Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama signed a cross-border agreement – loosely being called the ‘Canada-U.S. border plan – that may be as significant as any binational agreement the two countries have signed going back to the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909.

Niagara At Large has posted a few media releases and statements from government and business groups on both sides of the border since this agreement was signed between the two leaders in the White House this December 7. We have done so because in our greater Niagara region, including residents in Niagara, Ontario and Erie and Niagara counties, New York, we share some of the busiest border crossings in all of North America, and residents and businesses here will be significantly impacted by this It appears many members of the business community on both sides of the Niagara River have rushed to the conclusion that this agreement, to the extent it will make it easier to move goods back and forth, believe this agreement is a positive step for our economies and for the growth of jobs in a region that has been suffering economically with the out-sourcing of good-paying manufacturing jobs overseas.  Perhaps they are right.

There are others, including the Ottawa-based citizens group Council of Canadians, that are expressing concerns about what this agreement may mean for the loss of individual privacy and national sovereignty. In a statement published on the Council of Canadian’s website this December 7, the group’s director Maude Barlow said the border plan will “create new checks on travel into and out of Canada, and increase the amount of personal information that is shared with U.S. security agenices. It will announce new joint policing initiatives that could make it normal to have U.S. agents operating in Canada.” Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting this letter, dated December 7, to residents on both sides of our greater Niagara border from the U.S. ambassador to Canada, David Jacobson, on the historic signing of a new cross-border agreement between Canada and the United States for your information.)

I have just come from the Oval Office, where President Obama and Prime Minister Harper took our relationship to the next level as they announced the Action Plans for Beyond the Border: A Shared Vision for Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness.

The United States and Canada have long been the best of neighbors, friends, partners, and allies. Based on foundations of mutual reliance and respect we have built prosperity at home while standing shoulder-to-shoulder defending our shared values around the world. We have long understood that if we work together we are stronger, more prosperous, and more competitive.

 Building on that spirit, in February we set forth a plan for the future of North America. We committed to a shared vision for perimeter security and economic competitiveness. We agreed to work together within, at, and away from our borders to enhance our security, better coordinate our regulatory systems, and accelerate the legitimate flow of people, goods and services. We rejected the false choice between security and efficiency at the border. We realized that by improving the efficiency of the border in smart ways we would enhance the security of North America while lifting the standard of living of our people. We promised to consult with our citizens and to deliver a detailed Action Plan to realize our vision. Today we deliver on that promise. Continue reading →

 (Niagara At Large is posting this December 2 media release from members of the Niagara, Ontario businesses community on an unprecedented border agreement between Canada and the United States – an agreement that very much impacts on our greater Niagara region given the fact that it hosts some of the busiest border crossings on the continent.)

(Niagara) – As Niagara continues to play a leadership role in Canada’s economic transition, the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce and St. Catharines – Thorold Chamber of Commerce welcomes the new Canada – U.S. Border Action Plan announced today.

 

A key component of the border deal will be the expansion of pre-clearance programs NEXUS and FAST (Free and Secure Trade). The chambers are encouraged to see that there will also be expanded lanes and booths for NEXUS holders at the Fort Erie and Queenston border crossings.

 “As a community that benefits directly from this trade with nearly 30 per cent of all Canada-US trade passing through Niagara, we certainly recognize the importance of facilitating movement of goods and people between Canada and the U.S,” explains Mike Watt, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce. “The business community will benefit from expedited access to the United States market as a result of this agreement.” Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting the following December 7 media release from Buffalo, New York area Congressman Brian Higgins, the first area politicians from either side of the great Niagara border to respond to plans to “enhance” and make more “efficient” crossing the Peace Bridge and other area border points. He calls it a “victory.”)

Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-27) celebrated U.S. President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Harper’s historic agreement declaring a shared responsibility for enhanced security and efficient access for the legitimate movement of people, goods, and services between the northern border.

 “For quite some time we have urged changes at our border to increase the capacity, encourage predictability and otherwise facilitate a better flow of goods and people between our two nations,” said Congressman Higgins.   “The specific attention to the Peace Bridge is welcome news for Western New York.  Today’s recommendations provide long-awaited coordination that will lead to better security and great new opportunities between our shared economies. “

 President Obama and Prime Minister Harper first announced plans for a “Beyond the Border” working group to develop a shared vision strategy in February.  On July 14^th Congressman Higgins wrote a letter to the President asking that he and Prime Minister Harper address three specific issues to advance the cross-border relationship.  Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Behind some of the most dedicated citizen activists I’ve met in Niagara over my 32 years of reporting are incredibly patient and supportive spouses.

I think most particularly of Norm Howe and Jim Matthews, the husbands of two of the most effective environmental activists whose efforts I covered earlier on in this region – Margherita Howe and Lynne Matthews. And I think of Joe Salzer, the husband of Sue Salzer, a Fort Erie resident and leader of the Yellow Shirt Brigade, a group of mostly south Niagara residents that is continuing to fight for accessible, quality hospital services for all.

Joe  Salzer passed away quietly this past Sunday, December 4 following a lengthy illness. He spent his last hours at the Douglas Memorial Hospital in Fort Erie, one of the hospital s that was taken hostage by the Niagara Health System under an amalgamation of most of Niagara’s hospital services, imposed without any say from the public by the former provincial Conservative government of Mike Harris. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

 The United Nations Climate Conference has been convening in Durban, South Africa, since November 28 and will continue until December 9, 2011.  This, and Canada’s shameful response to environmental injustices, including human-caused global warming, prompted a rally and protest from the Toronto Occupy Movement this past Saturday, December 3 for a “Global Day Of Action for Climate Justice”), starting at Dundas Square and ending at St. James Park.

  The rally started with a traditional Mohawk ceremony thanking Mother Earth for her abundance.  Next, a speaker from Amnesty International described the tragedy of the Union Carbide/Dow industrial accident in Bhopal, India 27 years ago, and the tragic failures of the clean-up efforts.  Continue reading →

 By Doug Draper

  A bill Tim Hudak and his Ontario Conservatives put forward this past December 1 to allow local communities to have more in where facilities for generating wind energy should be located was defeated by the NDP and governing Liberals.

  “Local residents have more say over where a Tim Hortons or a chip truck goes in town than they do over the location of an industrial wind farm,” said Hudak during a recent interview with Niagara At Large. “To centralize that decision making (with the provincial government) is an injustice ad it is wrong, and it should be fixed.”

  Hudak said the purpose of the private members’ bill his party hoped to get passed this December 1 was to restore the right of local residents to have some say in deciding where wind farms should go, not to say no to wind energy altogether in Niagara. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

A provincial inquest into the circumstances around the death of Fort Erie teen Reilly Anzovino will continue in a Welland courtroom this coming Monday, December 5.

The high-profile inquest, which began early this November, has been adjourned twice while the family of Reilly asked for time for a new lawyer, Maureen Currie, to study the circumstances of her death following a traffic accident in the late hours of December 26, 2009.

The inquest was called by Ontario’s Chief Coroner’s office in the wake of questions from the Anzovino family and many others in the south end of Niagara whether 18-year-old Reilly would still be alive if the Niagara Health System – the body responsible for managing most of the hospital services in the region – had not closed the emergency rooms in Reilly’s hometown of Fort Erie and in nearby Port Colborne earlier that year. Reilly was pronounced dead in the early hours of December 27, 2009 following a longer trip to the emergency room at NHS’s Welland hospital site. Continue reading →

(NIAGARA At Large is posting the following media release from Niagara, Ontario’s regional government on the passage of a 2012 budget that will see a $41 increase on the regional portion of property taxes across the region.)

NIAGARA REGION, Dec. 2, 2011– Niagara Regional Council approved their 2012 budget last night with a focus on both affordability and sustainability. Residents will see an increase of 3.14 per cent in Regional taxes this year, after Council passed its 2012 net operating budget of $294.5 million and capital budget of $149 million.

On average, a homeowner with a 2011 property assessment of $219,732 will pay about $1,360 for Regional services; an increase of approximately $41 from the 2011 tax levy.

The proposed water budget will see a 0.02 per cent increase, wastewater a 4.3 per cent increase and waste management will see a 0.24 per cent increase. The combined water and wastewater household impact for 2012 is an average increase of $14. The waste management impact per household is an average decrease of $2 per household. These impacts vary based on the municipality you live in. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

 This is a good one from Ontario’s premier – strike a toughter than ever blow  against bullying!

 The province’s premier, Dalton McGuinty, met with students in one of Ontario’s school today to send out a message that bullying and intolerance will be met with much tougher consequences than before against those doing the bullying.

 McGuinty also released a video, and Niagara At Large is providing a link to this video below, that reinforces his government’s intention to crack down on bullies.

 Most of this new bullying legislation, introduced by McGuinty’s Liberal government this November 30, focuses on bullies at elementary and secondary schools, including those who harass young people who are perceived to be or are gay. Those found guilty of harassing others at their school to a point that makes their lives hell may now be subject to expulsion from school under this legislation, and that is good. Continue reading →

 (Niagara At Large is posting the following media release from the office of Welland, Ontario Riding MPP Cindy Forster for your information.)

 Queen’s Park – Newly elected MPP Cindy Forster used her first question in the Ontario Legislature to tell the government local seniors deserve better home care services.

“The Niagara peninsula has one of the largest concentrations of seniors in Ontario and Canada. Yet, the services that these seniors need to stay healthy in their homes are hard to access and are inconsistent in the Niagara peninsula and across the province,” said Forster, the NDP member for a Welland Riding constituency that includes Welland, Port Colborne, Wainfleet and and the south end of St. Catharines.

 Yesterday, Port Colborne City Council unanimously passed a motion urging the provincial government to increase the funding for supportive home care for seniors. The council’s motion cited the cost effectiveness of home care, which often allows seniors to remain independent, and avoid costly hospitalisations. Continue reading →

A Note from NAL publisher Doug Draper

Yes, that’s right. Niagara At Large will be back in full swing beginning Monday, December  5. Not that we have completely gone away.

For all of our many regular visitors to this independent news and commentary site, we’ve continued posting news, commentary and comments from readers over the past week, although we’ve not been as prolific as we often are in the amount of content that goes on this site. It is hard to do that while you are visiting friends at a nice inn called Old Sea Pines on Cape Cod or walking a beach along Cape Cod Bay.

We have just returned from the Cape and we’re shaking the sand out of our shoes and stoking the fires for the next week. As we all know, there are a good need of issues that need to be addressed in our greater Niagara region and Niagara At Large intends to address them with the same kind of insight and vigor that few other media venues in the area employ any more.

In the meantime, we would like to get a bit of feedback for you on the following. How would you feel about Niagara At Large featuring advertising on this site in the New Year? We are considering  featuring ads from locally owned, independent businesses only in order to raise some income to keep Niagara At Large alive. We also wish to ask you how you would feel if this site appealed to readers for donations to help sustain it. How do you feel  about site like this that asks for financial support from its readers?

Please share your views on these questions below and thank you for your past interest and support in this site. We are encouraged by your support and look forward to all future contributions from our readers, including news and commentary that we can post here.

 

By Doug Draper

 “Give me love, give my life, give me peace on earth.”

–         Lyrics by George Harrison

 For those of us who grew up on The Beatles, but even if we didn’t, he was one of the great ones. He was known to so many as the ‘the quiet one’.

George Harrison always had to work harder to  live up to the song writing wonders  of his mates, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who  continue to go down  as one of the greatest song-writing teams of the past 50 years. And he did it!

Through such great songs as ‘Here Comes The Sun’, ‘Something’ and ‘As My Guitar Gently Weeps’, George put himself in the same regal company as anyone else who wrote songs that any of the greatest, from Frank Sinatra to any of the other greatest musicians from the [past half century would sing or play

George Harrison died 10 years ago this late November and for those of us who loved George Harrison’s music and the kindness for the world he stood for, this is a time to sit for a few moments and  remember. George was a person of peace.

 Bless you George and that great opening chord – some of us are still trying to figure it out – at the start of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’.

Niagara At Large will get back to local issues but post your view on this one below.

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

This late November week, before joining more than 30 of my American friends for a traditional American Thanksgiving feast at a warm and wonderful Cape Cod inn called Old Sea Pines, I ventured out to the very tip of the Cape – about as far east as you can go in these parts before falling into the Atlantic Ocean.

It was here, on this fragile finger of sand dunes and evergreens curling out to sea , at a place called Race Point off  Provincetown,  that the legendary 19^th century essayist Henry David Thoreau once said; “A man may stand there and put all America behind him.”

That’s what my wife and I decided to do for a precious few days, put all America, along with my native Niagara and Canada, behind us, and enjoy some time with friends, walking a beach, sitting near the fireplace with a book about all the famous authors and actors who lived here, and strumming a few tunes on the guitar. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

 Okay, so we’ve had Occupy Buffalo and Occupy Toronto and all the other occupations in cities and towns across the continent to draw attention to the greed of a few and the declining fortunes of the rest of us who make up the 99%. Now wher does the Occupy movement go next?

How about Occupy Christmas?

 You don’t have to spend cold nights sleeping in a tent to Occupy Christmas and you don’t have to worry about being evicted and pepper sprayed. We can Occupy Christmas by spending the next four weeks up to and including Boxing Day not purchasing a single item from big box, corporate-owned stores. We can make a Yuletide pledge to make all of our purchases at locally-owned, independent shops instead. Continue reading →

  By Dan Wilson

 It seems that as soon as the snow starts to fly this question rears its ugly head. But it’s usually the “other side” that raises it, offended that some people are offended by such an “innocuous” salutation. So I’m going to take a stab at explaining it, being one of those who does take offense to it.

 The simple answer is this: there’s absolutely nothing wrong with saying Merry Christmas to someone else. That is of course, if you’re saying it to someone who has the same beliefs as you do, such as a family member, close friend or someone you know from church.

 However, if the recipient, let’s say a total stranger you encounter on the street or at the shopping mall, has a “problem” with Christmas, Christianity in general or is affiliated with a different religion (or rejects religion altogether), there might be some friction. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post the following media release from the Ottawa-based citizens group, the Council of Canadians, for our readers to review and comment on.)

In the Ontario government’s (November 22) Throne Speech, it stated, “Your government also knows that Ontario’s wealth is not just economic — it is found in our abundance of natural beauty and resources, and we all have a duty to protect it. That’s why your government will follow through on its goal to become the continent’s water innovation leader by 2015 and work with environmental experts and community groups to develop and introduce a Great Lakes Protection Act.”

The Council of Canadians welcomes the commitment to the Great Lakes noted in yesterday’s Throne Speech. We believe that the Great Lakes must be recognized as a commons, public trust and protected bio-region. We intend to work with the Ontario Legislature to ensure that these critical principles are reflected in the new Great Lakes Protection Act. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting the following November 24 media release from the Ontario Conservative Party for your information.)

NEWS:

QUEEN’S PARK — Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak said Dalton McGuinty’s voluntary wage freeze has failed everyone except the union bosses that helped him get re-elected. Hudak renewed his call for a mandatory, legislated wage freeze that will save the government up to $2 billion over just two years.

Dalton McGuinty implemented a two-year voluntary wage freeze for public sector workers in March 2010. While the government’s 300,000 non-unionized workers had no choice but to comply, arbitrators and the union bosses representing 700,000 unionized workers have thumbed their noses at the wage freeze – continuing to accept pay raises and bonuses. Since the voluntary freeze was put in place, thousands of non-unionized workers have joined unions to circumvent Dalton McGuinty’s failed wage freeze. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

 A chief Ontario coroner’s inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death of Fort Erie teen Reilly Anzovino has been adjourned again, and that is a good thing.

 Anything less than an agreement to adjourn the inquest this past Monday, November 21 until a new lawyer for the Anzovino family has an opportunity to properly prepare would have been a miscarriage of justice for the family and for a wider community seeking answers for this tragedy.

 Dr. Jack Stanborough, the presiding coroner, ruled in favour of the adjournment after hearing statements from Maureen Currie, the new lawyer the family has retained, and from Reilly’s father, Tim Anzovino, asking for at least two more weeks to review the volumes of information that have accumulated following the 18-year old’s death in the early hours of December 27, 2009. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post the following media release from the Niagara Parks Commission about holiday season events around the Falls for your information.)

 NIAGARA FALLS, ON. — Spend this holiday season walking through a real Winter Wonderland at Niagara Parks.

The Winter Festival of Lights is already well known for adding a twinkle to Niagara Falls in the winter, and The Niagara Parks Commission (NPC) is adding new and exciting attractions to the traditional lighting displays.

 The centerpiece of this winter showcase will be the Victorian Candy Land at Queen Victoria Place with its vintage winter carousel overlooking the Falls, placed amid a glistening display of seasonal décor prepared by the Niagara Parks garden design team. Families will also have a chance to make their own s’mores over an open fire. Continue reading →

A Brief news Commentary from Doug Draper

 While other cities –New York, Vancouver and Toronto included – move to clear out encampments of Occupy movement in their parks – reports from Buffalo so far say that the city’s mayor has no plans to evict the Occupiers there.

 

 Niagara At Large paid a brief visit earlier this November to the encampment located on Washington Square in  front of Buffalo’s towering city hall and Occupiers said at the time that the city was openly expressing its respect for their right to demonstrate for economic justice for the 99 %.

 In return, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told local media recently there are no plans to remove the Occupiers because, according to one PBS-WNED report, “they have been respectful and are keeping the square in front of city hall clean.” Continue reading →

  By Mark Taliano and Tori Crispo

 This past weekend’s  2,000 strong  ‘Evict Rob Ford March’ – a response to Mayor Ford’s efforts to evict the occupiers from St. James Park in Toronto, Ontario – emphasized the  strength of the Occupy movement. It also emphasized the weakness of current government policies as they relate to the 99 %. 

 The corporate friendly City of Toronto is about to reduce subsidized housing for the poor, close youth hostels,  close libraries, and weaken social services at a time of need, when they should be doing the exact opposite.  If the “tent city” at St. James Park is forced to de-occupy, many ofToronto’s most fragile citizens will lose yet another support system, and they will be forced to rely on the cold political austerity of a city that is treating them as less than worthy people. Continue reading →

By Angela Bischoff, Ontario Clean Air Alliance

Despite the fact that Ontario has a $16 billion deficit, Conservative Opposition Leader Tim Hudak and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath are asking Premier McGuinty to increase the province’s deficit by $350 million by removing the HST from home heating bills.

While we recognize that some Ontarians are struggling to pay their heating bills, the opposition’s proposed solution is fiscally and environmentally irresponsible.  Fortunately, there is a better solution: invest in energy conservation and efficiency.

By investing in energy efficiency we can create jobs in Ontario right now and permanently reduce our home heating bills while reducing the outflow of Ontario dollars to Alberta to purchase natural gas.

The main barrier to home energy retrofits is their high up-front capital cost.  However, Ontario’s electric and natural gas utilities (e.g., Toronto Hydro, London Hydro, Hydro One, North Bay Hydro, Enbridge and Union Gas) can eliminate this barrier by:

·    Providing financial incentives and low interest, on-bill financing for home energy retrofits; and
·    Establishing rental programs for high-efficiency water heaters and furnaces, thermal storage units (for those with electric heating), and solar and geothermal heating systems.

Please email Tim Hudak and Andrea Horwath ( cc me ) and ask them to advocate for energy solutions that will lower our energy bills, create jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while not increasing the provincial deficit.

P.S. For more info, see our report An Energy Efficiency Strategy for Ontario’s Homes, Buildings and Industries

Angela Bischoff is the outreach director of the Toronto-based citizens group, Ontario Clean Air Alliance.

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

By Willy Noiles

Niagara’s regional council, for the first time in its 41-year history, has rejected advice it sought from a local municipality on how to fill a vacant council seat.

In this case, the municipality was Welland and the seat was the one vacated by Cindy Forster, who won the the Welland Riding in last month’s provincial election. Forster, along with George Marshall, won the city’s two regional seats in last year’s municipal elections. Former Welland mayor Damian Goulborne finished third in the race.

When Forster’s seat was declared vacant Oct. 27, Regional council asked for Welland’s recommendation on how to fill the seat at the Region. Welland’s council began with a motion to appoint Goulborne, but that motion was defeated by one vote. City councillors then voted seven to six to hold a by-election at an estimated cost to the region of $100,000.

At this Thursday’s (November 17) regional council meeting, many councillors there raised the cost of a by-election as their reason for voting against Welland’s recommendation. The money would have come from the projected $1.2 million unaccounted for surplus from the 2011 budget. Continue reading →

By Maude Barlow and Wenonah Hauter

(An Niagara At Large note – The following article, written by Council of Canadians head Maude Barlow and Wenonah Hauter, director of the United Nation’s Food& Water Watch, appeared in The Buffalo News this November 13. A warning on what could be a serious threat the Niagara River and Lake Ontario – a source of drinking water for millions of Ontario and New York residents – NAL posts with the permission of the Ottawa-based citizens group, Council of Canadians.)

Niagara Falls isn’t just a place where newlyweds go to snap pictures.

It’s an international treasure that feeds into Lake Ontario and provides drinking water to Toronto and beyond. And now, its future is in the hands of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, both of which are pushing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state, as well as the Niagara Falls Water Board, which will soon decide whether or not to accept toxic fracking waste trucked in from around the state. Get ready Niagara — you’re about to get fracked.

Many Americans are familiar with the disaster at Love Canal and the ensuing demand for stronger environmental regulation after a corporation buried massive amounts of toxic chemicals around Niagara Falls — chemicals that saddled thousands of residents with chronic health problems ranging from birth defects to cancer. Now the oil and gas industry wants to send its toxic waste to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, which discharges into the Niagara River, into Niagara Falls and eventually into Lake Ontario. Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

Late this October a lone town councillor in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario named Jamie King tabled a resolution that should be heeded by everyone whose health and welfare depend on the quality of water we draw from our Great Lakes for drinking and other purposes.

It was a resolution that called on r government leaders on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border – municipal, provincial, state and federal – to investigate a plan to take the chemically contaminated waters from hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking) operations in the northeastern United States and discharge it to the Niagara River near the world-renown Horseshoe and American Falls through a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Niagara Falls, New York. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

When the Ontario New Democrats table a private members bill in the weeks ahead, calling for the removal of Harmonized Sales Tax from home heating bills, a Niagara member of the governing Liberal Party says he will support it.

Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor, who has a reputation as a bit of a political maverick in his governing party, told Niagara At Large this November 15 that when the provincial legislature reconvenes in the days ahead,, he will vote in favour of taking the HST off home heating.

“I certainly believe the HST (a combination of the federal GST and provincial sales tax or PST) should be taken off,” said Craitor, who said he believed home heating should have been exempted by the provincial and federal governments when it was introduced in Ontario two summers ago. I believe it should be taken off for home heating right across the country,” he added. “It is an essential service. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

As if the antics of the Niagara Health System over the past decade haven’t already put our heads through, here is another mental twister for you.

Try to wrap a rational mind around this. A mere two days after a public survey was released this November 9, confirming that a broad cross section of Niagara residents have little or no trust or confidence in the way the NHS is running a majority of the hospital services in this region, we learn that the NHS’s interim president and CEO Sue Matthews was off to Toronto to receive an “Award of Excellence in Nursing Leadership.” That same day – December 11, Lorretta Tirabassi-Olinski, president of Ontario Nurses Association Local 26 representing nurses working for the NHS, released an open letter charging that, in the ONA local’s view, a “crisis situation” has been reached as far as workload and staffing at NHS hospital sites.

“No one at the Niagara Health System can say they have been unaware of the issues related to poor staffing, the inability for staff to get a day off work even to attend education sessions and subsequently less than adequate resources available to provide optimal care to their patients,” said Tirabassi-Olinski in her letter.

“Nurses are often called at home several times a day on their days off to come in and work overtime shifts so that their peers get some relief, knowing that their peers will come in for them when they too need extra staff to help with the demand to provide optimal patient care. Often times they are still faced with poor staffing, inadequate resources and support services that close up shop at 4 p.m. Monday to Friday.” Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano and Tori Crispo

Pulitzer Prize winning author Chris Hedges, in Death Of The Liberal Class, says “to live in the fullest sense of the word, to exist as free and independent human beings means to defy injustice.”

Occupiers at St. James Park, Toronto, and the growing number of people who support the Occupiers Movement, are productively and peacefully fighting societal injustices, and for this, they should be proud.

They should be thanked, as well!

One glaring injustice is media coverage. Much of the media suggests that the park is attracting the homeless. Yes, say the Occupiers, this is true, but what isn’t mentioned is that the park and its adjoining Anglican church has always been a refuge for the homeless. The church has always had a “Good Food Box” program to feed the needy. A box would cost about $3.00 and the food would help sustain them. Currently, the Occupy people are preparing and serving about 1,000 meals a day.  As Reverend Stoute from the church explains; “You’re downtown. There’s going to be people who are fragile. That’s not a product of the Occupy protest. That’s a product of living in the city.” Continue reading →

By Pat Scholfield

(NAL editor’s note – There has long been a feeling among many south Niagara residents that the Niagara Health System was treating them like second-class citizens. The biggest slap for many came when the NHS moved forward with the building of the super hospital complex in west St. Catharines rather than in a more central location in the region. Pat Scholfield was one of those whose call for a central hospital complex went unheeded by former NHS CEO Debbie Sevenpifer and company.)

When Dr. Jack Kitts reviewed the Niagara Health System’s HIP (hospital improvement study) in 2008 he said, “The NHS has little public support.” Support was so bad he questioned whether the NHS would be able to implement the HIP. He recommended an Advisor.

A HIP Advisory Forum was established January 2009 to allow the NHS to better communicate with community partners and to allow them an opportunity to provide input as the HIP is implemented.

 Since 2009 parts of the HIP have been implemented including removal of inpatient acute and emergency services in Fort Erie and Port Colborne and drastic cuts to beds and frontline staff across Niagara .

Trust in the NHS eroded further.

A PR firm was hired to conduct an NHS trust survey. Dr. Terry Flynn, who led the survey, said, “I’ve never seen reputation scores this low”, when reporting the results of his report this November 9. He stated the NHS reputation scores were the worst he has ever seen. Continue reading →

(Niagara at Large is pleased to post the following from the organizers of Garden Walk Buffalo in the great border city of Buffalo, New York.)

Garden Walk Buffalo is looking for submissions of original artwork for use on the Garden Walk 2012 posters, t-shirts and maps. Artwork must be garden-related and should relate to the type of gardens, flowers, and neighborhoods found on Garden Walk Buffalo in late July. This is an excellent opportunity to feature your work to hundreds of local gardeners as well as thousands of visitors.

Submission tips:
·    Keep Artwork Simple – it needs to reproduce well on a variety of materials. Do not put any type over the design.
·    Try not to use colors or flowers similar to recent artwork used by the GW
·    Artwork should be considered “wearable and salable” for both men and women

Entries are due: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 Continue reading →

(This Remembrance Day note from Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak – the only one Niagara At Large received from one of the province’s three main party leaders – is worth a read. NAL is posting it for your information.)

November 11, 2011

Remembrance Day marks the solemn occasion when Canadians gather to honour and pay tribute to those who fought and died for our freedom, and the liberation of millions around the world.

On behalf of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition and the Ontario PC Caucus, I express our deepest gratitude to all the men and women in our Armed Forces.
To those who gave their lives in service of Canada and our values, we remember your sacrifice and cherish the country you made possible.

From Vimy to Dieppe, Korea to Bosnia, Rwanda to Kandahar, their sacrifice for Canada is something we must never take for granted. The debt we owe is insurmountable.

The bombers shot down over German territory, the carnage that took place in the trenches, the IEDs that have taken so many lives in Kandahar province, it his hard to fathom a moment in their boots. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The trust and satisfaction members of public feel for the Niagara Health System – the body responsible for managing a majority of the hospital services in Niagara, Ontario – is extremely low, says Terry Flynn, a McMaster University researcher who has a long background in doing public surveys on organizations.

In all of his more than 30 years in the field, Flynn told a media conference in Niagara, Ontario this November 9 that in all of his more than 30 years in conducting public opinion studies on organizations, “I have never seen reputation scores this low. Even Toyota, in the heat of their controversy (a few years ago over faulty gas and break peddles), did not have a reputation score this low.”

“The message is that the reputation of the NHS is damaged and the relationship they have (with the public) is fractured,” added Flynn following exhaustive surveys he and his team conducted this summer and fall through phone interviews, questionnaires and more in-depth one-on-one interviews with more than 4,000 Niagara residents, including NHS employees. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

“I want to know who the men in the shadows are. I want to hear somebody asking them why – they can be counted on to tell us you our enemies are, but they’re never around to fight or to die.”
–    from the Jackson Browne song ‘Lives in the Balance.

Through most of human history, it seems, there have always been men in the balance orchestrating one war after another. In every case, countless lives have been destroyed and where has it all gotten us as a species on this planet?

For the first time in my adult life, I bought a poppy last week off some nice friendly fellow who belongs to one of our local Legion halls but was not a World War II veteran. There are fewer and fewer Second World War veterans around and that, too, is sad because there is a great deal we can learn from their horrific experiences of war.

In my years as a journalist, I’ve interviewed many of these Second World War veterans for Remembrance Day articles and I was always impressed by their modesty. They did not ask or expect to be treated like someone special or a hero. They were more often interested in talking about the tragedy of war and how, in their view, war is represents the ultimate failure of our species to resolve our conflicts in more civilized ways. Continue reading →

A Post from the Niagara branch of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group

The Ontario Public Interest Research Group ( OPIRG) is a student funded and student directed socially just environmental organization. In preparation for the holiday season OPIRG has decided to hold a Clothing Swap Party as a way to address rampant consumerism and it’s environmental consequences.

OPIRG is urging the Niagara Region to consume “smarter” by moving away from the outdated concept of outright ownership – and the lust to own – towards one where we share, barter, rent and swap.

All are welcome to come! Critical mass is important for collaborative consumption. If there aren’t enough people “out there” offering or demanding these goods and services, then these systems quickly wither.

November 23^rd at 7 p.m. in the OPIRG InfoShop at 21 King St, St. Catharines, Ontario is the perfect opportunity for you to clean out your closet, wardrobe, attic , whatever, and swap things that you might actually wear/use! Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

An Ontario coroner’s inquest into circumstances surrounding the death of Fort Erie teen Reilly Anzovino, has been adjourned while the Anzovino family finds another lawyer.

In a statement read at the inquest this November 7, Reilly’s parents Tim Anzovino and Denise Kennedy, informed the presiding coroner, Dr. Jack Stanborough, that they cannot proceed with Wayne Redekop as the attorney representing them at a hearing that commented in a Welland courtroom on October 31 and is expected to run another two to three weeks. Continue reading →

By Willy Noiles

Regional councillors got their first look at the Niagara Regional Police Service’s proposed 2012 budget last Thursday at a budget committee of the whole meeting. Deputy Chief Joe Matthews called the proposed budget both “efficient” and “effective.”

Deputy Chief Joe Matthews presented the budget, which managed to fall within the target set by the Region. The force’s proposed operating budget represents a 3.93 per cent increase over 2011.

The $126.9 million plan includes debt charges that were consolidated and removed from the operating budgets of regional departments and interim facilities costs that were included in the budget instead of being funded from regional reserves. When those factors are removed, Matthews explained, the force’s increase is 2.28 per cent or $2.78 million. The Region had asked the force to hold its increase at $2.8 million, Matthews added. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Once again we in Niagara, Ontario are being treated to another episode in the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ world of a Niagara Health System that has made a mess of our regional hospital services for most of the last 10 year.

This time we are invited to stumble through the looking glass courtesy of a “letter to the editor,” sent to mainstream media in Niagara over the first few days of November. The letter comes to us, courtesy of Kevin Smith, the CEO for St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hamilton that McGuinty and company parachuted in to our region a few months back to spin a bit of yarn in the hope of lulling us in to a sense of confidence that concerns over our hospital services will be addressed.

In the letter,  Smith stresses that assertions by others in the Niagara community that he, as a supervisor brought in by the McGuinty government to review hospital services here, is “unwilling to review data and recommend program alignment in the “HIP” (Niagara Health system’s Hospital Improvement Plan) are not correct. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” he says. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

While the grand poobahs of various cities across Canada, including Toronto, Halifax , Vancouver and Victoria, are in the process of clearing ‘Occupy Movement’ protestors out of their parks, the Occupy Buffalo wing of the movement still seems to be going strong.

During a short visit this November 5 to the encampment for Occupy Buffalo, located on Niagara Square in front of Buffalo, New York’s majestic city hall, this Niagara At Large reporter was told by some of the protesters that things are still going fine with the city.

“Our relationship with the city has been good,” said one of the protesters as the colony of tents here goes into its second month. This encampment that appears to have gone out of its way to keep the area clean and free of drugs or alcohol was also continuing to enjoy a good deal of support from drivers and passengers, honking horns and sharing waves of support as they passed by. Continue reading →

Niagara At Large is posting the following media release from the not-for-profit citizens group Climate Action Niagara for your information. The release invites you to attend presentations and an open discussion at 7 p.m. this November 7 at 111 Church St. in St. Catharines on what communities across Niagara can do to respond to the global challenges of climate change, weakened economies and diminishing supplies of cheap energy.

Transition Towns are coming to Niagara! – How might our response to peak oil and climate change look more like a party than a protest march?

The fourth workshop of the SUSTAINABILITY SERIES, (eco films and speaker panels, and excursions) Climate Action Niagara is pleased to host representatives from Transition Toronto, Transition Guelph and Transition Oakville.

Niagara’s own Anthony Barrett, Daniel Bida, Sally Ludwig and Chris Mills will share the successes and challenges of Ontario communities and the many manifestations of the model of Transition Towns, followed by an open discussion on opportunities for Niagara.  Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

St. Catharines regional councillor Andy Petrowski, in an open letter to Niagara, Ontario’s regional chair, Gary Burroughs, is calling for an emergency meeting to discuss how Niagara can find a way of winning up to 340 jobs that may be brought here by GreenSafe Demanufacturing Inc., a company that apparently has a successful track record of recycling old stoves, dishwashers and other large household appliances of their kind in t east coast facilities in Canada.

Petrowski, a new regional councillor who has already made it clear he doesn’t mind shaking things up at council, told Niagara At Large he would rather see economic development personnel at the regional government level working to attract a company like GreenSafe here but, in his view, where are they?

Burroughs told Niagara At Large during an interview this November 4 that as much as he agrees with Petrowski that he wants to see a company like GreenSafe set up shop and generate jobs here, it is not really a municipalities place to make up for any part up to the $10 million the company asked Ontario’s government (which has so far said no) to set up shop here. Continue reading →

By Pamela Minns

Culture defined to its fullest is  arts, culture and heritage.

Although they are connected, heritage is not always mentioned in the same breath as culture !

Since Niagara has recently been declared by our federal government the ‘Cultural Capital of Canada’ for 2012, with that title comes a huge responsibility for all of us; we need to not only think seriously about the future sustainability of the arts, culture and heritage in our Region, but we need to “walk the talk”.

I had the privilege of serving on the first term (2007–2010) of the Regional Culture Committee, when time was spent bringing the group together on discussion of cultural issues, the Asset Mapping of the Region, and work towards a formal Culture Plan for Niagara. This plan was approved by the Regional Council and implementation of it was declared the mandate of a new Culture Committee. Continue reading →

A New Brief from the Niagara Volunteers for Bangladesh

Outside, it was blustery and damp. Inside, the hall was filled with warmth generated by friends, old and new, gathered together for Niagara Volunteers for Bangladesh’s eight annual fundraising dinner at the Westminster United Church in St. Catharines. On October 15, almost 350 people, from across the region and Southern Ontario, came to celebrate past successes and to continue support for projects serving impoverished women and children in Bangladesh.

The evening was filled with goodwill and great food. Everyone was treated to the graceful, traditional dances performed by Mahiya Habib, Lamia Sayed, and Jessica Amin.

Through the generosity of those attending the evening, Niagara Volunteers for Bangladesh raised more than $7,200 which will go to support the almost 300 students currently attending the Scholars’ Special School in Dhaka, the UTSA primary school in the slums of Chittagong, and schooling for the children of the ‘Tiger’ widows in the coastal region. Continue reading →

A brief comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Seventy-five years ago this November 2, switches where flipped and the first voices from public broadcasters went crackling across the Canadian airwaves from coast to coast.

CBC Radio was born as a voice all of us scattered across the expansive landscape of this country could tune in to and discover all those things that bind us together (and sometimes have us quarrelling with one another) as a country.

Through all of its 75 years, CBC has had its share of supporters and detractors. There have and will probably always be those among us who feel that the government has no business using our money to support a broadcasting network. Yet I defy anyone to deny the immeasurable role CBC Radio has played in engaging us, whether we live in Ontario, Nova Scotia, British Columbia or the Northwest Territories, in events and issues of foremost interest and concern to Canadians. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

A councillor for Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario has called on other municipalities in the region, and provincial and federal governments to demand a moratorium on flushing chemically contaminated “fracking” fluids through the Niagara Falls, NY. wastewater treatment plant to the Niagara River.

The resolution, tabled by Niagara-on-the-Lake councillor Jamie King this October 31 and supported unanimously by the town’s council, also calls for a stop to any discharge of this waste to  the Niagara River until there is a “robust public discussion…with full consideration of the human and environmental impacts.”

If you are wondering what the resolution means, don’t feel bad because there has been a dearth of coverage in the mainstream media about this plan to discharge chemically laced water from fracking operations in to the lower great Lakes. Twenty or 30 years ago, such a scheme would have made front-page headlines in newspapers from here to Toronto. But that was then and this is now.

What is happening now is that there are plans afoot to discharge large columns of water contaminated with a cocktail of mostly unknown chemicals through the Niagara Falls, N.Y. wastewater treatment plan to the Niagara River and onward to Lake Ontario. Continue reading →

A Note from Sarah King Head

I’m writing to ask you to help raise some money for the restoration of historic Beaverdams Church in Thorold (c. 1832). Not only is it a gem of a building (an early example of primitive Vernacular, Greek Revival style), but its association with the father of public education in Ontario, Egerton Ryerson, gives it national (and international) significance.

Indeed, Ryerson established the first free, non-denominational school in the British Empire close to the current location of the church.

Notwithstanding the reasons for the church’s current state of dilapidation, a new municipal board has been created to facilitate its restoration. But, it’s going to be expensive; and for this reason the board is exploring all possible fundraising avenues. Among these are the Aviva Community Fund. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano and Tori Crispo

Unions are suffering. Corporations are leaving to make profits elsewhere.  The middle class is disappearing.  Economic disparities between rich and poor are growing faster in Canada than in the United States, and banks are making a fortune. It might be described as “the best of times” (for banks) and “the worst of times” for the 99%.

The October 30 Occupy Robin Hood March, leaving St. James Park in Toronto and traveling to the Financial District for a rally, featuring speakers such as CAW Economist and author James Stanford, came up with some assessments and answers.

A reasonable assessment is that the rules are not equal and fair, and many are waking up to some uncomfortable realities.

Yes, the banks were bailed out and they paid it back, but it’s still unfair that the public sector has been burdened with insuring their risky loans, and yes, we’re talking billions of dollars. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Did Niagara’s paramedics do enough, and did they do it fast enough, at the scene of a car crash to save Reilly Anzovino life? And would the Fort Erie, Ontario teen still be alive today if the Niagara Health System had not closed the emergency rooms at hospitals in Fort Erie and neighbouring Port Colborne?

That last question, in particular, is the one that has haunted Reilly Anzovino’s family and many residents in the south end of Niagara for the better part of two years.  And it is a major focus of an Ontario coroner’s inquest that got underway in a Welland courtroom this October 31.

Hopefully this inquest, ordered by the province’s chief coroner, Dr. Andrew McCallum, less than four months after Reilly’s death in the wee small hours of December 27, 2009, will get to the bottom of that question and will result in recommendations that reduce the chances that families in this region will ever have to suffer a similar tragedy. Continue reading →

Niagara At Large is posting the following notice for a cat in dire need of adoption from the not-for-profit group Niagara Action for Animals.

Chance is a 10-year-old, black and wWhite cat who is in immediate need of a forever home.

Chance was found abandoned in the country completely emaciated and starving. A Niagara Action for Animals (NAFA) member traced his tattoo and discovered that this sweet boy went missing over seven years ago, and the former guardian had absolutely no interest in his current well-being.

As if being abandoned wasn’t enough, Chance has feline diabetes which was causing his extreme emaciation, excessive thirstiness, and skin problems. Chance is currently on a diabetes treatment plan and is doing much better, however he will require ongoing medication, special food, and frequent monitoring. These conditions are difficult to fulfill in multi-cat foster homes or adoption centers, and if taken to an animal shelter, Chance would undoubtedly be euthanized. Continue reading →

By Doug D. Ripper (alias Doug Draper)

The pumpkin’s been carved and the werewolves are howling.

For all of the children out there, and for those of us who remain children at heart, it is time to grab those costumes down off the hangers and get ready to head out into the neighbourhoods for candy kisses and all of those other devilish, teeth-rotting treats.

Sadly, my ‘spaceman’ costume stopped fitting me when I was about 12 years old, even with a few alternations here and there. So for the past 48 years I’ve had to dig out my ski mask, hockey stick and a pillow case large enough to just about give me a double hernia when its bulging full of all candy those nice old ladies are afraid not to give when I’m standing there in all my spooky stealth, outside their front door.

I got to admit that at this stage in my life,  trick or treating at Halloween has lost a bit of its witchy magic.  Instead of getting the old; “Isn’t that a nice costume. I’m gonna give you another candy apple” that I used to get back in the olden days when I was five or six years old, I’m more often getting; “Aren’t you a little big for this?” And I’m just thinking; ‘If they only knew how old I look under that ski mask. Thank God it hides my graying hair!’

Oh well, you can’t let a little bite in the neck like that stop you from going on haunting people.

Have a nice Halloween and I hope you are not haunted by someone like me knockin’ at your door.

Niagara At Large is posting the following October 28 media release from Niagara College about a major financial gift to the college from Tom Rankin, the head of St. Catharines, Ontario-based Rankin Construction.

Niagara College announced what is now the largest gift in its history
today. Tom Rankin,  CEO of Rankin Construction,  Inc. and Rankin Renewable
Power, Inc. is donating a $1-million leadership gift to Niagara
College’s Building Futures Campaign.

In recognition of Mr. Rankin’s generosity and leadership, the Niagara
College’s Technology Building has been renamed “The Rankin
Technology Centre.”

“Through its Master Plan, Niagara College has transformed itself, and
greatly enhanced its ability to support industry and innovation in
Niagara, and created a sense of renewal in our community,” said
Rankin. “We’re very pleased to play a leadership role in supporting
this transformation.” Continue reading →

A Foreword by Doug Draper

At the beginning of the October 27, 2011 regional council, the Region’s chair, Gary Burroughs, repeated a few lines from an an inaugural address he delivered to the council a year ago, asking councillors to show respect for one another, for staff, and for residents and community groups across Niagara. One cannot help but wonder why he felt the need to repeat this message and expand on it a year later, but Niagara At Large feels it is worth posting here. Perhaps other government bodies that have sometimes lost it when it comes to civil discourse, can also draw some inspiration from Gary Burroughs words, which follow.

Tonight, I want to address another issue, one that I addressed in my „election speech to Council, and one that I am firmly committed to upholding as we approach the one-year mark of this Council.  I feel it necessary and timely, to speak to that issue tonight.

I want to read a few paragraphs from my inaugural speech to you during my election as Chair:
§ …“We need significant improvement in the fundamentals required for an effective Council and then take those fundamentals to bring about service excellence, value for money and innovation.

Let me start with the fundamentals. Respect.
§ Respect for the process of a Council meeting, respect for fellow Councillors, for staff as well as residents, community groups and taxpayers, and we need every councillor to have the opportunity to participate fully in the decisions and direction of this Council and this government. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Niagara, Ontario’s regional government is putting a vehicle on the road aimed at providing dental care to children and youth in need.

Niagara’s Mobile Dental Clinic, paid for through the provincial government’s ‘Healthy Smiles Ontario’ program, will now begin traveling to Niagara schools and community agencies throughout the region. This mobile clinic is now one of five of its kind across Ontario receiving funding from the province.

The 33-foot Winnebabo houses a fully-equipped dental clinic, staffec by a registered dental hygienist and certified dental assistant. It ill provide free preventative dental care to children and youth up to their 18^th birthday.

Niagara regional chair Gary Burroughs, St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley and Dr. Valerie Jaeger, the region’s medical officer of health, where among those there at a ceremony this October 27 for the launch of this program.

“Good, strong teeth do a lot for us,” said Jaeger during the launch. “ Since there is no fluoride in the water in Niagara, it is doubly important to have a check-up and follow dental advice carefully. The mobile clinic will make it that much easier. … Essentially we are bringing the clinic to the client.”

If you wish to know more about this new service or how to access it for a child or youth, call 905 688-8248 or (toll free) 1 888 505-6074, ext. 7399. You can also access Niagara Region’s website at www.niagararegion.ca and follow the links.

Niagara At Large is pleased to feature some of the fine photo images captured by residents in our region – these by Dan Wilson.

“Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.”

From Robert Frost’s poem, Gathering Leaves

The last of those rustling leaves are gathering on the ground all around us and in the wind – running away – as the first frost kills off what are left of the geraniums and snow gets ready to fall.

The greater Niagara region has plenty of colourful beauty to show off in the Fall, from the trees that grace the Delaware Park area in Buffalo, New York to those that feature an equally beautiful tapestry of colours in the Effingham and Short Hills areas of Niagara, Ontario and beyond. Dan Wilson, a friend and supporter of Niagara At Large, who has contributed his thoughtful prose and his fine photography to this site on a number of occasions in the past, has done it again with some very nice  parting shots of Autumn. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Well good for the majority of those sitting on the City of Toronto’s council, and good for one of the oldest and most exploited creatures on this planet – the shark.

This October 25, following many hours of debate, all but a few members of that council, including the mayor, Rob Ford, voted in favour of a ban aimed at closing Toronto’s doors to shark fins, traditionally used by members of the Chinese community in soup, by September of next year.

The Toronto council, given the size of its Chinese community and the fact that it has been the largest single market for shark fins in Canada, deserves high marks for courage in taking this stance. It has placed an opportunity to do its part to prevent the final extinction of another life-form on this planet against a gruesome activity that involves sawing off the fines of live sharks then throwing the bleeding creature back in the ocean to certain death. Continue reading →

A Niagara At Large News Brief

Cindy Forster, recently elected MPP in the riding of Welland, Ontario, will serve as deputy house leader and the municipal affairs and housing critic in the provincial NDP’s new “shadow cabinet.”

“Cindy brings years of experience in municipal and regional politics to the role of Municipal Affairs and Housing Critic” said Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath in a statement released following Forster’s appointment to the positions. Continue reading →

A Brief Note from Doug Draper

I have so many friends who say that their favourite season of the year is Fall.

There are days that are still warm enough to do outdoor things and, of course, there are those spectacular Fall colours. No doubt about it, a ride through Effingham in Niagara, Ontario or a walk through Buffalo, New York’s Delaware Park can be beautiful when the sun is sparkling through the red and yellow of changing leaves on a nice October day. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano and Tori Crispo

“You Gotta Go To Know.”

New York Times reporter Thomas Freidman’s truism has been resonating recently. One would think that with the rain and cold, the Occupy Toronto movement might have lost its momentum.  Not so. On October 15, the first day of the protest, there were 60 tents at St. James Park.  One week later, there were 180.   “You gotta go to know” though, because this wasn’t in the corporate papers.

The park has transformed itself from a rag-tag assemblage of hastily assembled tents to a vibrant community with a library, legal center, medical center, music center, sign-manufacturing area, garden areas, and on and on.  Even more impressive, it is inhabited by a group of democratically-oriented, peaceful, and goal-directed people. You won’t find apathy here, but you will find plenty of interesting ideas.

Hira, a young “occupier” offered that everyone in the community, though different, (like the five fingers of a hand), is a Leader.  It’s a refreshing notion, especially compared to the world outside the park, where it’s sometimes difficult to know who’s really “pulling the strings”.  Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

The 92-year-old folk singer icon Pete Seeger traveled down the Hudson River Valley with his folk-singing friend Arlo Guthrie this October 21 to lend support to the ongoing ‘Occupy Movement’ for the 99 per cent that got its start, more than a month ago, at ground zero in New York City.

On a chilly Friday evening,  Seeger, long known for his support for social justice and peace (so much so that he was blacklisted by the right-wing equivalents of Sarah Palin in the 1950s), and his busy Arlo sang songs with hundreds of others around Columbus Circle in New York City in support of countless hundreds of thousands of others in the U.S., Canada and other nations around the world who are getting sick and tired of watching their opportunity for a good life melt down while a few greedy people gamble with stock paper and hedge funds at their expense. These people on the stock floors on Wall Street and Bay Street behave like hogs in a pit who, as filthy as they are in a more figurative sort of way, look like they’ve never had any honest dirt on their hands in the sense that they’ve ever produced a toaster or anything else of any real value.  They don’t deal in a real economy that is about working at a  job producing things that people need. They trade in bogus bonds and other paper garbage that have contributed to the most catastrophic economic downturn on this continent since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

All that this swine has done is shove on the rest of us the worst face of capitalism and left ticker tape equivalent  of toilet paper on the stockroom floors with their feces on it.

So there was good old Peter Seeger and his friend Arlo Guthrie out there with some of the Occupy movement people camping still braving the colder air descending on their rallies. They led the gathering in a few choruses of ‘We Shall Overcome’. For the sake of a middle class on this continent that is being dismembered by the hogs on Wall and Bay Streets, let’s damn well hope we do overcome.

(Share your views below. Please try to stay at least as civil as the author of this post was in your comments. On this particular topic, I know it’s hard.)

A Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

I’ve often said that if I had a dollar for every time I heard someone complaining about their property taxes on the Ontario side of our greater Niagara region, I’d be able to cover the cost of my tax bills for the rest of my life.

We do a lot of complaining, alright, about annual hike in our property taxes and about all of the things we think our councillors are wasting our money on, but here is what gets me as a veteran reporter of municipal budgets in Niagara. Come time for our regional councillors to debate the annual budget, hardly anyone from the public bothers to show up at the meetings, let alone get on any list of speakers to speak out on behalf of themselves and their fellow citizens.

Members of the Niagara Regional Police Board are usually there to defend their often way-out-of-whack-with-our-ability-to-pay budget hikes. There are also the department heads of departments and the odd representative of one of the unions representing workers at the regional government who attend the budget meetings and who sometimes offer the council a few words around their interests. But you rarely saw any more than two or three members of the general public attending for the purposes of saying a few words on behalf of that common taxpayer. That has been so even though about half of every dollar you pay out of your property taxes go to regional services. The rest goes to your local municipalities and to education.

It’s not like Niagara’s regional government has gone out of its way to discourage ordinary citizens from participating in its budget process. In recent years, it has tried harder to engage the interest of ordinary citizens and this year it is doing it with what it is calling pre-budget consultation sessions this coming October 26 and November 2 in halls in the municipalities of Lincoln and Fort Erie for residents across the northern and southern tiers of the region.

You can let Niagara Regional Chair Gary Burroughs, who will be hosting this meeting along with other regional representatives, that you are concerned about how your property tax dollars are spent by showing up at these meetings and offering your input. Or practically no one will show up at these meetings which may send our municipal leaders another message that is probably not so good in terms of our level of interest in how our taxdollars are spent.

What follows is the media release for these budget consultation meetings, circulated this October 21 by Niagara’s regional government.

 Understanding Regional services and what they cost:
2012 pre-budget consultation

NIAGARA REGION, Oct.21, 2011 – In an ongoing effort to increase public awareness of Regional programs and services and the Regional budget process, pre-budget consultation sessions will be held on Oct. 26, 2011 at Lincoln Town Hall and on Nov. 2, 2011 at Fort Erie Town Hall. These sessions will also be webcast live at www.niagararegion.ca, giving residents an opportunity to participate online.

In addition, a water, wastewater and waste management information open house will be held Oct. 24, 2011 at Regional Headquarters in Thorold.
The budget sessions will be hosted by Regional Chair Gary Burroughs; Regional Councillor Dave Augustyn, Chair of the Budget Review Committee of the Whole; and Mike Trojan, Chief Administrative Officer. Brian Hutchings, Commissioner of Corporate Services and Treasurer for Niagara Region, will brief residents on the 2012 budget and the programs and services that are funded by that budget. Residents will have the opportunity to give input and feedback directly to Councillors and Regional staff who are there to listen and answer questions.
Residents are invited to make a short five to 10 minute presentation, at the budget consultation sessions based on information available on the Region’s website, and in response to the following questions:

1) What are the top five funding priorities you feel that Regional Council should address in the 2012 budget?
2) How would you direct those funds?

To register as a delegation, visit the Region’s website at www.niagararegion.ca .
Questions will also be taken online at www.niagararegion.ca or through Facebook (www.facebook.com/niagararegion) and twitter (www.twitter.com/niagararegion). Both sessions will be broadcast live on the Region’s website, allowing residents to participate even if they can’t make it out in person to the meeting.
“About 49 per cent of residents’ property taxes are going to fund programs and
services delivered by Niagara Region. What does that mean for Niagara residents? In 2012, on an average home valued at $220,000, residents would pay around $1,534, which is a significant amount of money,” said Regional Chair Gary Burroughs. “That’s why taxpayer affordability is Council’s number one priority. At the same time we need to be fiscally responsible by ensuring we maintain a sustainable budget that will meet the needs of today, without compromising our future needs.”
-more-Join the conversation and interact with the Niagara Region in real time on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube MR2011-CFS-134
”These forums are opportunities for residents to learn about the services we provide
and their value,” said Regional Councillor Dave Augustyn, Chair of the Budget Review
Committee of the Whole. “We want to hear from residents about Council’s priorities and the 2012 budget, so we’re providing less formal opportunities for residents to hear about, comment on and ask questions about our next budget. Residents can still participate at regularly scheduled budget Council meetings taking place in November and we hope to have strong participation at these meetings,” concludes Augustyn.

A report summarizing the public feedback will be prepared for Committee and Regional Council.

(We encourage our Niagara At Large readers to share your views on this post below.)

Niagara At Large is posting the following October 18 open letter from the newly elected MPP for the Welland Riding, NDP Cindy Forster, to the Liberal government’s health mnister, Deb Matthews. It speaks to the escalating health costs residents in this region and others in Ontario around transferring their information from one doctor to another.

To Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews

“Since a new government cabinet is not being sworn in until October 20^thand the urgency of this matter, I am sending this letter to your attention as current health minister regarding some 1,800 patients now in limbo regarding their health care.

Dr. Vinod Shaw ended his practice at the end of September here in Welland and arrangements made to transfer files to Dr. Muftah Belgasem to the Carlton Medical Clinic in north St. Catharines, some forty kilometers from Welland. However due to a family emergency as indicated on his phone service, files are now in the hands of his colleague Dr. Mathura Ravindram. He has indicated that between 1,600 and 1,800 patient files arrived yesterday and he now has to sort through them.

Bob Fralick of Welland is 80 years old and he’s now looking for another doctor along with his wife Mary and called my office when told it would cost nearly $40.00 for the first five pages of his patient record and $1.55 for each page after that. He is understandably outraged. Continue reading →

A Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak wrote the following open letter to the province’s premier, Dalton McGuinty, in the wake of a deplorable incident earlier this October where 82-year-old Doreen Walker, who was visiting her dying husband at the Niagara Health System’s Niagara Falls hospital site, was left without help on the lobby floor for a reported 28 with a broken limb before she received help.

Before Niagara At Large posts Hudak’s letter, we want to point out that accounts of this incident in the media have given at least some people the impression that it took an ambulance attached to the Niagara regional government’s EMS services, and not to the NHS, 28 minutes to arrive at the scene after someone inside the hospital was told that 911 had to be called to help Wallace. John Sherwin, a spokesperson for EMS told NAL records showed that the ambulance arrived at the scene in seven minutes and 24 seconds after the 911 call was made. That may mean that there was some delay in making the call.

It is, in NAL’s view, a shame that Niagara Region’s EMS – an emergency response unit with an excellent reputation across the province and country – sometimes finds itself getting gummed up in delay times and other incidents that are more of the NHS’s making. And that doesn’t begin to account for the extra costs municipal taxpayers across Niagara are paying for our ambulance services due to the apparent willingness of the NHS to use our ambulances as mini-hospitals as they close emergency rooms and beds at hospital sites across the region.

Hudak’s letter to the premier follows in the wake of earlier expressions of upset over the Doreen Wallace incident and coverage on it that made national headlines. Here is Hudak’s letter to McGuinty.

October 20, 2011

Dear Mr. McGuinty,

I am writing in regards to a series of troubling, and quite frankly disgraceful, events that require your immediate attention and intervention.

I refer to recent news that a senior, Doreen Wallace, was denied emergency care after falling and breaking her hip near the entrance of the Greater Niagara General Hospital (GNGH) while on her way to visit her dying husband. Continue reading →