Niagara At Large

“This is excellent news for steel and manufacturers in Niagara Centre, and across Canada. …”It was extremely stressful for steel producers, manufacturers, workers, and for families. This is a big win for everyone, having tariffs lifted, with no quotas attached.” – Niagara Centre MP Vance Badawey

A News Release from the Constituency Office of Niagara Centre MPP Vance Badawey

Posted May 17^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Niagara Centre MP Vance Badawey

Welland, Ontario – Niagara Centre MP Vance Badawey is thrilled this (May 17^th) afternoon, after almost a year of tariffs applied to Canadian steel and aluminum are cancelled.

“This is excellent news for steel and manufacturers in Niagara Centre, and across Canada,” Badawey said after receiving word from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Hamilton this afternoon.

Trudeau was in Hamilton to make the announcement. Standing strong was what Canadians expected of his government, he said, and “that’s what we did. This was a real Team Canada effort.”

“This was top of mind for me, for all of us, this past year,” Badawey said. “It was extremely stressful for steel producers, manufacturers, workers, and for families. This is a big win for everyone, having tariffs lifted, with no quotas attached.” Continue reading →

Former Media Baron Conrad Black, whose Hollinger corporation holdings once included The St. Catharines Standard, receives full pardon from Donald Trump for decade old convictions in U.S.

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Posted May 17th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

“Dear Doug, Nothing is ever really lost, even if it disappears temporarily. One just has to keep bouncing back until sanity prevails.

“No one can work backwards into the future. You make a very special difference in the lives of those around you. Please don’t lose hear, Doug. Lynne.”

During Doug Draper’s years as an environment reporter at The St. Catharines Standard. When Conrad Black’s Hollinger corporation took ownership of The Standard and dozen of other daily newspapers across Canada, the environment beat disappeared at most, if not all of them, as newsrooms were hollowed out to fatten profit margins.

I received that nice note from a very nice lady named Lynne Matthews who was president of the Glenridge Landfill Citizens Committee, a community group in south St Catharines that played a strong role in shutting down the city’s dysfunctioning Glenridge Landfill site on the crest on the Niagara Escarpment and having it transformed into the naturalized park that it is today.

Lynne, who died in 2005 and had her name deservingly placed on what is now the Glenridge Quarry Naturalization Site for the role she played in this now popular recreational area’s creation, sent me the note after Conrad Black and his then giant Hollinger media corporation assumed ownership of The St. Catharines Standard, where I worked at the time, and dozens of other newspapers across Canada. Continue reading →

“Since Doug Ford tabled his budget (early this past April), municipalities throughout Ontario have been hit with cut after cut. Now, cities are forced to choose between making deep cuts to municipal services or increasing taxes on families… One way or another, people throughout the province are paying big for Ford’s cuts.” – Ontario NDP and Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath

A Brief Foreword by Doug Draper

Posted May 17^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

How real is Premier Doug Ford’s repeated claim to Ontario residents that he is “putting money back in our pockets.”

Since Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his self-described “Government for the People” tabled their first major provincial budget early this past April, their self-serving propaganda service called Ontario News has been issuing one news release after another talking about how the government has made cuts to services to put money back in the pockets of those of us who live across the province.

But how much, if any, money that Ford and company cut from budgets at the provincial level is really going to go into our pockets?

What if the services being cut at the provincial level are simply being downloaded to towns and cities at the municipal level, then passed on to home and business owners through property taxes? That is, of course, unless municipal councillors want to be the bad guys and cut the services altogether. Continue reading →

“Speaker, I want to apologize. The member (Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff) had a chance to apologize on behalf of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for the way they were treated.” – Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch, from a statement he made in the Ontario legislature this past Tuesday, May 14th

Members of a Niagara area book club at the Welland constituency office of Niagara Centre NDP MPP Jeff Burch last 10th, discussing how the police were called on them while they protested Ford government cuts to public libraries at the Beamsville constituency office of Niagara West MPP and ford government member Sam Oosterhoff earlier in the week. Photo by Doug Draper

A Brief News Commentary by Doug Draper

Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff has been asked for apology for call to police over seniors protesting public library cuts at his Niagara constituency office.

Posted May 16th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

More than a week has passed since staffers in the Beamsville constituency office of Niagara West MPP and Ford government member Sam Oosterhoff called the police on a group of about 15 seniors and book club members from across the region who had come to Oosterhoff’s office to hold what they called a “read-in” to protest recent funding cuts Ford, Oosterhoff and company are making to Ontario’s public libraries. Continue reading →

Old Storybook Tells Tale Of Children’s Concern For Caribou  

Students Created The Book To Express Their Fear That Coastal Caribou Could Disappear

A News Release from Ontario Nature, a province-wide advocacy group for protecting and preserving Ontario’s natural heritage

Posted May 17, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Thunder Bay, Ontario – The Recent Discovery Of A Children’s Storybook About Saving Caribou Shows That Fear For The Animal’s Future Is Not New.

A Woodland caribou. Photo courtesy of Paul Tessier and Ontario Nature.

Nearly 20 Years Ago, Elementary Students At Schreiber Public School Wrote The Book To Voice Their Concern That Caribou On The Slate Islands Off The Northern Coast Of Lake Superior Could Disappear.

Mirabai Alexander Was One Of Those Students. Growing Up In Rossport, And Now An Ecologist Working For A Conservation Organization In Thunder Bay, She Reflects On A Time When There Were More Than One Hundred Caribou Estimated To Live On The Slate Islands. Continue reading →

“As three young owners who have come up through the ranks in the restoration and construction industry, we understand the importance of earning enough to get by.” –  ServiceMaster Restore of Niagara co-owner Justin Callon

News from the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network

Posted May 15th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

The Niagara Poverty Reduction Network is pleased to announce that ServiceMaster Restore of Niagara <https://www.svmrestore-stcatharines.ca/> has become a certified living wage employer.

ServiceMaster Restore of Niagara now certified as a “Living Wage Employer in the Niagara region.
Photo courtesy of the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network.

ServiceMaster Restore of Niagara is a full service restoration company that provides property owners and insurance companies with the highest quality emergency restoration services. They have been serving the Niagara region for over 50 years. Continue reading →

Turn in an animal hide to Ford government authorities and get your made-in-Ontario hat!

Province’s  “Government for the People” is Making Ontario More Open for Destroying Wildlife

“Our government supports Ontario’s hunters and recognizes that they are good stewards of our resources. … Hats for Hides supports thousands of hunters across Ontario, by making life easier and reducing waste.” – some of the most recent garbage coming out of the mouths of Ford government MPPs

A News Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper

Posted May 14th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

“Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?”

• from The Beatles song, ‘The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill’

Let me begin by asking  my fellow Ontarians something.

Not the 2.3 million people across the province who voted for Doug Ford and his extreme right-wing band of crazies in last June’s provincial election. They knew what kind of bully and ignoramus Doug Ford was, or at least they should have from his highly publicized Ford Nation days in Toronto, before they voted for him. So they deserve everything they get.

Let Ford and his morally bankrupt caucus and cabinet gut all of their health care services if they want to cram money back in their pockets.

Just please leave the rest of us alone!

Continue reading →