 By Staff
August 26, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
You might not be able to get a hot dog at Easterbooks on Thursday but you will be able to watch a film crew set up for the shoot they will be doing on Thursday, August 27th at Easterbrooks Restaurant at 694 Spring Gardens Rd.
 The location scouts wanted a place for a television segment that was going back to the past – Easterbrook’s certainly meets that criteria Halton Regional Police Service will manage short road closures of two to five minutes for filming.
Preparation takes place during the day – 7 am to 7 pm
With filming starting at 7 pm am running through to 2 am
Wrap up will be done on Friday, Aug. 28 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The television segment has to do with going back into the past – that helps understand why they chose Easterbrooks,
Pam Brooks, who works at the Spring Garden Road location said the television show is about a time capsule and a bunch of scientists that want to stop a plague that is taking over the world and another bunch of people who don’t want the plague to end.
12 MONKEYS is a character-driven science fiction thriller about one man’s desperate attempt to save mankind using a dangerous and untested method of time travel. The small screen version of 12 MONKEYS will star Aaron Stanford (Nikita), Amanda Schull (Suits), Kirk Acevedo (Fringe) and Noah Bean (Nikita).
A portion of the location filming will be at EASTERBROOKS, mostly exterior scenes with 1 interior scene.
 A blast from the past – the fifties style at Easterbrook’s was just what the television location scouts wanted. “About twenty guys showed up a few weeks ago and looked the place over and decided we were what they wanted” said Brooks.
The production company GEP 12 Monkey Industries is located in Toronto. One of the production crew is a Burlington resident.
Segments of the television show can be found on Youtube.
 By Staff
August 26, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
Three young girls from Burlington are spending much of the next few days at the CNE in Toronto taking part in the Rising Star talent event that has taken place for the last 29 years.
 Dancer Lauren Salt has been dancing since she was two – has made it to the semi-finals at the CNE Rising Star competition. Lauren Salt from the Dance Station and both Poppy and Olivia from the Creative Edge Dance Studio have all made it to the semi-finals in their event.
Poppy and Olivia are dancing as a team while Lauren is doing her own act. She competes next on Sept 1st. Poppy and Olivia compete on August 31st.
Poppy said that she started dance for fun when she was younger and added that “I love dancing with my friends and it’s exciting to perform on stage. It feels really good when I am doing choreography and learning new styles. I hope that I can do more with dance as I get older. I would like to perform in shows and maybe do some acting.”
 Olivia on the left and Poppy on the right are dancing as a team at the CNE Rising Talent competition Olivia indicated that she can express her feelings and emotions through dance. She also said that she feels joy when she dances and would like to continue with dancing when she’s older so that she could travel with dance and see lots of different places in the world.
Lauren Salt, who has been in dance classes since she was two years of age said:
“Dance to me, is my world. Dance defines me and who I am. It has helped me become the person I am today. By dancing for eight years now, I have learned to be grateful and confident in myself. When I am up on stage dancing, there is an unexplainable feeling I get doing what I love. It is my passion and it is what I would like to do for the rest of my life”
That kind of passion is what produces champions. We will watch with anticipation on how well all three girls do at the CNE competition.
 By Staff
August 25, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
An interesting piece of news drifted in over the news wire. The Burlington Economic Development Corporation wants to be one of the top five cities in Canada for start-ups and innovation.
Now there is something that is bold, direct and the results of the effort are measureable.
The Burlington Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) has entered into a partnership with Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) to support Ontario start-ups through their career accelerator, FreshInsights Consulting.
That seems like several layers of bureaucracy but Frank McKeown, BEDC’s Executive Director explains that the partnership is rooted in OCE’s SmartStart Seed Fund, a program that offers young entrepreneurs in Ontario the opportunity to access seed funding and skills training to grow their companies. In addition to the grant, successful SmartStart applicants are awarded $5,000 to spend on training or consulting services.
 Mayor Rick Goldring The BEDC will be involved in that training – which they will deliver through FreshInsights Consulting, a corporation formed by the city – the early thinking apparently came out of the office of the Mayor – and has been housed within BEDC.
The $5000 grant emerging entrepreneurs will be given will get spent with FreshInsights – meaning that organization has some revenue –that gives that win-win-win phrase a whole new dimension, doesn’t it?
Most people know there are clusters of young people out there with what on the surface look like great ideas. Most of them need a good dose of number crunching to determine if the ideas have some sustainability to them.
As one of OCE’s official training partners, FreshInsights Consulting has become one of the most sought after training partners. During the most recent application approval process, more than ten SmartStart companies opted to spend their grant dollars on consulting services with FreshInsights – that ten worked out to 40% of the applications – not bad when seen in terms of market share.
FreshInsights will be working through the balance of 2015 to provide these start-ups with market research and business plan development.
 “The opportunity to work with more start-ups through SmartStart is a fantastic opportunity for FreshInsights,” said Claire Morrison, Program Director at FreshInsights Consulting. “We are working with such a diverse range of companies, including retail, food and beverage, software and technology industries. Not only does the partnership allow us to support even more recent graduates through our unique consulting model, we also get to support so many talented entrepreneurs who are choosing to grow their business in Ontario.”
What no one is saying is that by being involved in these emerging corporations Burlington is in a position to help them make the city home – we get first dibs at these young people.
McKeown added that, “The partnership between OCE and the BEDC operated career accelerator, FreshInsights, is only going to help Burlington get closer to achieving its goal of becoming one of the top five cities in Canada for startups and innovation. It is a step in the right direction for creating an innovation space that fosters collaboration, mentorship, and business growth right here in Burlington.”
 Frank McKeown, former Chief of Staff to Mayor Rick Goldring and now the Executive Director of the BEDC has taken on the direction of an interesting training program. Developed under the BEDC in 2011, FreshInsights Consulting was established as a way to retain top talent working in Burlington, while providing professional, cost-effective consulting services in market research, strategic marketing, and business planning to local companies. The program has seen more than 25 recent graduates through the program, and they plan to continue expanding their client base across Southern Ontario.
Learn more about FreshInsights Consulting at www.freshinsightsconsulting.ca and BEDC at www.bedc.ca. You can also follow them on Twitter @FreshInsigtsCo and @BurlingtonEcDev.
This is a good news story – let’s see where they are in a year.
Cine Starz Upper Canada Place
460 Brant Street
WWW CINESTARZ.CA
SHOWTIMES August 28 to Sep 3 , 2015
FANTASTIC FOUR PG
Fri to Thur 11:15A 1:10 3:10 5:10 7:10 9:10
JURASSIC WORLD PG
Fri to Thur 11:00 1:10 3:15 5:30 7:20 9:35
VACATION 14A
Fri to Thur 11:00 1:20 5:20 7:45 9:40
SOUTHPAW 14A
Fri to Thur 11:10 1:25 5:15 7:15 9:30
INSIDE OUT G
Fri to Thur 11:10 1:00 3:30 5:25 7:20
IRRATIONAL MAN 14A
Fri to Thur 3:40 5:30
PAPER TOWNS PG
Fri to Thur 11:00 1:00 7:30
SPY 14A
Fri to Thur 3:00 9:15
AMY 14A
Fri to Thur 3:00 9:30
 By Pepper Parr
August 24, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
City council has decided that the completion of the Official Plan Review (OPR) will not get done until the Strategic Plan has been completed – the rub with that decision is that at the rate the Strategic Plan is going it may not be seen until sometime in 2016.
Council has some critical issues it must make decisions on – the budget has to get done, there are some key hiring decisions to be made and the significant seven that lead the city have to decide if they are going to manage to get along any better now that they have all had a vacation. Don’t bet on the latter.
The Committee of the Whole, which is the Standing Committee that is shepherding the Strategic Plan to its completion, isn’t going to meet until sometime in the middle of October – and the amount of data that the consultants hired to help with the creation of the plan are going to dump on the table could choke a horse.
The amount of research is staggering. We will get into that in a paragraph or two – what is disturbing is that when Council approved the research assignment the man charged with the responsibility of bringing jobs to the city wasn’t in the room.
 Frank McKeown, on the left explains a concept to Councillor Paul Sharman during the creation of the Strategic Plan in 2011. Frank McKeown, executive director of the Burlington Economic Development Corporation, (EDC) didn’t learn of the meeting date until a few days before it was to take place and he didn’t have a copy of the agenda – he had no idea how much research work the city had asked for. A lot of what was being asked for had already been done by McKeon and his organization.
McKeown intends to eventually scrub the data he has collected and post it on the EDC web site for anyone to see and use. Any self-respecting economic development department would do that. Quite why Burlington has hired someone to ask all these questions boggles the mind a bit – don’t we already have that information?
The left pocket clearly wasn’t talking to the right pocket – odd because everyone at city hall knows who McKeown is and have a high regard for the quality of his thinking and the manner in which he closes files and gets things done.
McKeown was the Mayor’s Chief of Staff for two years. He threw in that towel when he found that city hall wasn’t the kind of place where a lot of real work got done. Not because of the people doing the work – it was a leadership issue for McKeown – there wasn’t all that much of it.
There are several who are asking if all this work being done to put a Strategic Plan in place makes any sense. Ward 1 Councillor Rick Craven thinks that what was created in 2011 is just fine – he’d go with that – but his view apparently isn’t shared by the rest of council.
 Councillors Meed Ward and Taylor tend to ask a lot of questions and are open to making the process more open. Taylor once threatened to walk out of Council and talk publicly about a report the majority of Council wanted to keep confidential. Councillor Meed Ward finds herself asking if the Strategic Plan needs just a refresh or does the city need a full reboot on what they created in 2011.
The ward two councilor was in an auto accident and was not able to take part in a number of standing committee meetings – including two that were critical – the first look at the draft of a Master Transportation Plan and the meeting at which the KPMG Strategic Plan assignment was threshed out and agreed upon.
The auto accident resulted in some serious concussion damage from which Meed Ward says she is recovering nicely and expects to be in fine form when Council resumes its work in September.
The research assignment sets out five major hypothesis: one labelled Economic, then 2 – Land Use Planning and the Built Environment, 3 – Demographics, Growth and Health, 4 – City Operations, Governance and Powers and 5 – Culture
A Primary hypothesis is examined along with several subsidiary hypothesis and the question the researchers would focus on. There were some pretty heavy duty questions asked.
Two concerns jump out: why is this level of work being done at this stage – should have been done at least six months ago – and when you look at the questions one is moved to ask: Don’t we already know the answers to these questions.
The KPMG approach argues that 1 – Trade-offs shape strategy, 2 – Strategy involves choosing among incompatible alternatives, each of which is attractive, 3 – Failure to choose puts the organization in a situation of becoming “stuck in the middle” and 4 – Straddling problems stymie the success of a clear strategy.
 The city hired consultants to take a deep (which means expensive) look into five areas: The economy; Land Use Planning and the |Built environment, demographics and Growth, City operations, governance and Powers and Culture. The KPMG approach to problem solving includes:
1. Focus analysis around key hypotheses
2. Triangulate around difficult problems to identify the right strategic levers
3. Keep analytical priorities aligned with key hypotheses
4. Manage precision of analysis to account for economies of effort.
Here is the Economic: Principal Hypothesis: The City of Burlington can transform its economy.
Q: What are the principal economic trends of the City of Burlington?
Q: What are the principal economic trends in the region?
Q: What are the relative economic attributes of the City of Burlington?
Q: What are the key policy levers that can be deployed and the materiality of their effect on economic outcomes?
Subsidiary Hypothesis: The City of Burlington can repatriate jobs and careers to within the City boundaries.
Q: What is the geography of employment for residents of the city?
Q: What is the current labor force composition of the city?
Q: What are the policy levers that can change the location of careers and jobs in the context of the regional economy?
Subsidiary Hypothesis: The City of Burlington can create more good paying jobs for Burlington youth
Q: What are the policy levers that can promote jobs and careers that keep younger residents in the City of Burlington?
Q: What is the current employment profile of ‘youth’ in the City of Burlington?
Q: What is the job trajectory for GTA youth over the short, medium and long-term?
 It was about 15 months ago that rural Burlington began the discussion about what it wanted to be. Some things were clear – others not as clear. The early draft of a vision got put on a huge board and for the most part the community liked the look of what they had said to each other. Will this kind of data find its way into the hands of the consultants helping the city work up its Strategic Plan. Subsidiary Hypothesis: The City of Burlington can promote and integrate the rural economy within its boundaries.
Q: What are the current characteristics of the rural economy?
Q: What is the likely trajectory of the rural economy in this region in the short, medium and long-term.
Q: What are the key regional institutions that could play a role in developing the City’s regional rural economy?
Q: What are the key policy levers the can affect the rural economy?
Subsidiary Hypothesis: The City of Burlington can help create an “innovation economy”
Q: How have other municipal jurisdictions created the conditions for an innovation based economy?
Q: What are the key characteristics of an innovation based economy?
Q: What are the policy levers that Burlington can deploy to create such an economy?
Principle hypothesis: City Operations, Governance and Powers:
The City of Burlington can reform is governance, operations and increase its powers to better implement its strategic vision,
Q: What are the key areas where the City of Burlington does not have the appropriate discretion to implement policies?
Q: How does, and in which areas does provincial policy constrain the City of Burlington?
Q: How does relationship with neighboring municipalities enhance or constrain the City’s ability to deliver services for its population?
Subsidiary Hypothesis: The City can deliver services in a more efficient and effective manner.
Q: What are the current challenges of service delivery?
Q: What are the different models that could be used to administer the city and deliver services more effectively?
 A rapt audience listened to an overview of a city budget. What they did was listen to what the city had already decided to do. Is there a better way to involve the public. Subsidiary Hypothesis: The City can incorporate its citizen’s into decision making and program delivery in a more effective manner.
Q: How have other jurisdictions incorporated citizens better into government decision making and policy delivery?
Subsidiary hypothesis: The city can increase its financial capacity to deliver services invest in infrastructure or cut taxes
Q: How much of the City of Burlington’s spending is discretionary in the short, medium and long-term?
Q: What is the revenue mix of the City over the short, medium and long-term?
Q: What are the current revenue levers?
Q: Are there innovative ways to fund, finance and deliver services being deployed in other jurisdictions that could be used by the City?
Subsidiary Hypothesis: The City can find innovative ways to fund, finance and deliver infrastructure.
Q: What are the infrastructure challenge that are not matched with the correct infrastructure financing, funding, delivery and maintenance tools?
Q: What are the key infrastructure needs that are not being addressed in the short, medium and long-term?
Q: The current provincial planning regime is impeding economic growth in the province?
Q: Value can be unlocked from municipal assets to fund strategic priorities?
 A lot of research has been done on how to make culture a more vital part of the community. Research not withstanding there are still some really stupid cultural decisions being made. Principal Hypothesis: Culture – The City of Burlington can develop cultural institutions and attractions that enhance the quality of life of its citizens.
Q: What are the current cultural institutions and their level of popularity?
Q: What are the current and nascent cultural endowments of the City?
Q: What are the mechanisms through which the City can support and grow an impactful cultural community?
There are three other areas that were to be given the KPMG research treatment. McKeown will be meeting with that crew in February – expect to see some changes.
McKeown should have been in the room for that June meeting. Who slipped up on telling him about the meeting?
 By Staff
August 24, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
The Black Swan was packed to the walls – 220 people Friday and 200 on the Saturday and the doors didn’t close until well after 3 am.
Can these four geezers get it up one more time? The Sons Today: Peter Davidson, Dave Best, Ron Canning and Robin McMillan gave the audience more than their money’s worth.
The Rising Sons were going to go out in style
They didn’t raise all that much money but they did have a great time – there were stories told and memories shared
The finds that were raised went to a hospital in Hamilton.
 The Black Swan was packed – 200 + two nights in a row. Every seat available at the Black Swan had a bum in it – there were people at the door both evenings trying to get a ticket.
With a two evening event doing that well the promoter in Ric Connors ask – maybe this gig has legs and can be moved to a bigger venue?
Performing Arts Centre does come to mind.
There are people thinking about the idea – maybe early in November – if there is a spot at the Centre.
We will keep you posted.
 By Pepper Parr
August 24th, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
When the Arts and Cultural Collective of Burlington was created it was unique and became the place to go to if you wanted to know what was happening in the arts community which had become of age in this city. Their Facebook page became a source of information that pulled the community together – and it worked
 The Arts Collective had a presence – they were making a difference – now their Facebook page is being used to sell high end sun glasses and Point of Sale equipment for restaurants. It was refreshing – they kept the membership limited – at one point you had to be referred by an existing member to get on the list. They were effective – they convinced the city to take another look at how artists were going to be treated with their contributions to the new web site – the city wanted to use picture – not pay for them and not even give a photo credit. That got changed.
The Cultural Action Plan that was researched by Jeremy Freiburger and his team over at the Cobalt Connection was a strong starting point. The Arts Collective liked what they saw but they wanted more involvement in the detail part of the cultural plans and also in the roll out in whatever was decided upon. They also wanted the final Culture Plan to include an Arts Council that would make grants available to artists.
A couple of months ago they began talking about how many members they had – and the size of the list became more important that the quality of the content.
 The younger, feistier set knew what they needed – they had done their homework – their challenge was to find their voice and make it hard. It was a moderated information source – which meant that messages that weren’t appropriate did not get posted. The person doing the moderation must have been asleep at the switch the past couple of months – there have been advertisements for high end sun glasses and then something for travel and now someone wants to sell a Point of Sale cash register system. “Perfect for any restaurant or retail business, …” using the Collective site as the advertising vehicle
This isn’t what the Collective was created to do. When it got off the ground a couple of years ago there was all kinds of really positive energy and they came up with very good ideas. They took possession of the agenda and pushed city hall to add resources to the cultural file.
They wanted to see culture moved out of the jock mentality many people saw dominating the Parks and Recreation department and they wanted to see more dollars put into the cultural field.
The province then got into the Cultural business with the promotion of Culture Week that was a decently done during its first year.
 Civic square buzzed during Culture week last year – with the increased involvement on the part of the cultural manager Angela Paparizo we may see even more activity. There are apparently all kinds of plans for Culture Week this year but there hasn’t been much coming out of city hall yet – the individual artists are promoting the events they have taking place – there is a Ping Pong and Poetry event that will take place at the new HiVe now located on Guelph Line. Local artist Margaret Lindsay Halton is running that event.
The organizational structure of the Arts Collective has always been a little undefined – personalities and ego began to take up too much space and the purpose began to get lost.
There is still time for the Arts Collective to recover – but they don’t take too much time doing it. They could and should play an important role.
There is still some very good energy within the citizen side of the arts. The Guilds at the Art Gallery of Burlington are becoming more active – management over there is expecting the guilds to be more visible and they are living up to the expectation.
 Retiring Executive Director of the Performing Arts Centre Brian McCurdy stabilized the Centre – losing him is going to hurt for awhile. A new leader will need some time to get a sense as to how the Centre and the city work. In this photograph McCurdy is briefing the Mayor on parts of his thinking The No Vacancy people will be putting on their third event in September – this time on Old Lakeshore Road basically outside Emma’s. September 17th from 7 pm to midnight.
Last year they recorded 3500 + visitors. This year the event will be called SuperNova and they think they will double last year’s attendance. They have put on the event for two years with nowhere near the funding available to Culture Week and have in the past produced much stronger more vital programs. This year, for the first time they got some funding from the city – courtesy of Councillor Marianne Meed Ward who advocated for the small grant they got.
One of the hurdles that few people see coming is the wallop the Gazette thinks the taxpayers are going to face when the real costs of the flood are going to have on the 2016 budget. Reports that have been given to Council point out a number of close to pressing amounts that are going to have to be spent real soon.
It is going to amount to millions with an expected new line on the tax bill for the management of storm water.
The cultural file just might take a hit – more money is going to have to go into infrastructure; council has been told that transit needs a lot more attention, especially when looked at through an intensification lens and the city is still salting away money to pay for our share of the hospital redevelopment.
Some tough work ahead of this Council – which is going to be difficult because all the members of this Council don’t sing from the same page in the hymnal.
 By Staff
August 24, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
The increasing number of scholarship opportunities for basketball players in the United States is something Jim Thornton, of the Wildcats Basketball club feels should be welcomed by the Hamilton Region basketball community. In recent years there has only been one organization in the Hamilton and surrounding area offering an AAU Showcase program.
Starting this season (2015-2016), Wildcats Basketball out of Hamilton, Ontario will be introducing two Showcase AAU Teams competing at the 13U category and the 15U category in the United States. These teams will be for players born in 2002/2003 and 2000/2001 respectively.
 Wildcats competed at the U15 level last year in Ontario; finished their season in the Top 15 teams in Ontario out of approximately 100 If the last few NBA drafts have shown anything, they have shown that Canadian Basketball in general is getting stronger. Several of the top overall picks have been Canadians over the last few years and going forward Canadian Basketball is only going to get stronger on the world stage.
AAU stands for Amateur Athletic Union which is the main organization for youth sports in the United States. Teams that compete in the top tournaments in the AAU have some of the top talent in North American and many of these players go on to play basketball at the collegiate level offered through scholarships.
Thornton, President of the Wildcats, took over the club for the 2014-2015 season. In just one year, he and his right-hand man Rob Bowman have been able to change the image of the club; giving it a much needed makeover.
Thornton’s plan is to raise Wildcats Basketball Club to The Premiere Basketball Club in the Hamilton and Surrounding area. “Hamilton has some great basketball talent and it is a shame that more young athletes don’t get the opportunity to showcase their skills in front of the right scouts and coaches”, says Mr. Thornton.
The Wildcats competed at the U15 level last year in Ontario (Born in 2000), finished their season in the Top 15 teams in Ontario out of approximately 100 teams that competed at that age group. Five years ago this team was one of the lowest rank teams in the province. “Our accomplishments and improvement only testify to the hard work and dedication that my players have put in almost 12 months per year over the last 2 seasons”, said Thornton.
Both Showcase AAU teams that Wildcats Basketball will be launching for the 2015-2016 season will compete from October 2015 through to the end of July 2016.
These teams will train a minimum of twice a week in the Hamilton area and will compete in exhibition games and tournaments in Ontario. They will then compete in the CYBL (Canadian Youth Basketball League) which is a league designed for the top Canadian teams to prepare for their U.S. Tournament Schedules.
 The creation of two AAU Showcase basketball teams opens up an opportunity for young Burlington players to grow with the sport. From April through to the end of July 2016, both the Showcase Wildcats teams will travel to the U.S. where they will attend “Live Tournaments” such as Motown Showdown in Detroit, The Chicago Classic, King James Shooting Classic and others. Live tournaments are tournaments where there are numerous, sometimes dozens of College and University scouts from NCAA schools in Division 1, 2 and 3. Teams like this don’t offer any promises for the athletes that play on them, but at least there will be a second organization in the Hamilton Area that is willing to commit the time and resources to young athletes, helping them get in front of College and University scouts for the purpose of earning scholarships.
Thornton will be starting tryouts for these Showcase teams starting as early as September 8, 2015 at McMaster University. For information on locations and times for tryouts visit hamiltonwildcats.com and look up U16 for the 2000/2001 age group and U14 for the 2002/2003 age group.
 By Staff
August 24, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
The Redevelopment and Expansion of the Joseph Brant Hospital is the biggest redevelopment that Burlington has ever seen. So big that is got a line all of its own on your tax bill – the taxpayers are putting up $60 million to get the hospital built.
The new hospital will be completed in two distinct phases, with an estimated completion date of 2018.
 When completed the orientation for the hospital will have the main entrance on Lakeshore Road facing the lake. The road is being raised by as much as a full metre in places to accommodate the changes. Phase One is complete. The Halton McMaster Family Health Centre is open and already welcoming patients! Construction still continues on the new parking facility and the administration offices of JBH.
Highlights of our new building include: Halton McMaster Family Health Centre – the Burlington Family Health Team are operating clinics within the centre; Teaching classrooms for McMaster Residents as part of the McMaster University Department of Family Medicine; Administration offices for Joseph Brant Hospital and Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation.
The new parking facility with over 820 spaces
Phase Two: The new seven-storey patient tower will be built on the existing parking lot at the back of the existing hospital and will be connected to the parking facility by a foot bridge. The main highlights of the second phase of the project include:
A new Emergency Department
172 acute inpatient beds
9 new Operating Rooms and a new post-anaesthetic care unit
An expanded Diagnostic Imaging department and associated services
Expanded medical, surgical and outpatient services
An expanded cancer clinic
An expanded Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and renovated Special Care Nursery – level 2 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)
An expanded and modernized laboratory
70 percent of the rooms across the hospital are single-patient rooms.
 The new entrance to the hospital will be on Lakeshore Road facing the lake with the parking garage yards away on the west side. There will be a walking bridge from the garage to the second level of the hospital. The hospital is being much more proactive with the information they are making available. They have installed a camera that lets you pop in and see what is being done on the construction site – live. Interesting to watch.
There is a video of the project overall – a little on the long side but if you want a full sense of what they are setting out to do and you have three minutes you don’t know what to do with – click to see the project – no popcorn.
Video of the project
The construction cam
 By Staff
August 24, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
“Bring along your furry friends and join us for a day of teddy bear-themed crafts, activities and stories. Meet a “life-sized” teddy, go on a scavenger hunt and enjoy a delicious picnic! It’s a day sure to be filled with Kodiak moments” said the media release from the Royal Botanical Gardens.
 Mark the dates – August 29th and 30th from 11 am to 4 pm
There are Activity Stations open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Travelling Teddy Totes: Make your own carrying sack to collect all 6 items hidden in the garden.*
Bear Binoculars: Make your own binoculars to help you find all the bears roaming around the garden.*
Teddy Tales Treasure Hunt: Get your map to help guide you on your bear adventure. *
Little Bear’s Berry Baskets: Make your own bear basket. *
Bear Disguise: Get your face painted!
Bear County Clinic: Visit the nursing station for a teddy bear check up!
Garden Games: Beary fun for all playing giant sized games.
Big Bear Barbeque: Get yourself some snacks and refreshments. $
11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m.
Bear Tales: Hear bear filled stories at 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Puppet show starts at 1:30 p.m.
12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.
Teddy Bear Adventure: Join us on a hike to learn about what bears eat! Hike leaves at 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.
11:45 a.m. and 1:45 p.m.
Bear-y Special Guests
Saturday – To be announced
Sunday – Bumbling Bert & The Big Book of Magic!
An asterisk * means you can take home what you make.
$ indicates this is a paid activity.
Parking is limited at the Laking Garden. RBG is offering a complimentary shuttle from RBG Centre to Laking Garden approximately every 15 to 20 minutes between 10:45am – 4:30pm. The last shuttle is leaving Laking Garden at 4:15pm.
BUY TICKETS ONLINE NOW!
 By Staff
August 23, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
The Kitchener Panthers defeated the London Majors 9-2 to take the semi- finals in the InterCounty Baseball League. They will now play the Barrie Baycats in the final round.
 Kitchener Panthers defeat London Majors in the InterCounty Baseball League semi- final Photo credit: Ian Stuart The league announced the schedule for the 2015 final between the first-place and defending champion Barrie Baycats and second-place Kitchener Panthers:
Tuesday, Aug. 25 @ Barrie 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 27 @ Kitchener 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 29 @ Barrie 7 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 30 @ Kitchener 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept. 1 @ Barrie 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 2 @ Kitchener 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 3 @ Barrie 7:30 p.m. =
 By Staff
August 22, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
The Intercounty Baseball League is a game away from knowing who the two finalists are going to be.
The Barrie Baycats beat the Toronto Maple leafs which makes them one of the finalists.
 The London Majors forced a seventh game against the Kitchener Panthers after their 5-3 Friday night.
Burlington dropped out of the race when they lost to the London Majors in the quarter finals.
The league has seen most of the games in this race to the final tightly matched with no one taking a series in a clean sweep.
Things have also gotten a little feisty on the field with the league suspending both players and a coach as the result of more excitement than is allowed when Kitchener played London on August 19th.
The game to determine the second finalist will be played in Kitchener at 7 pm on Saturday.
By Staff
August 21, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
Mark Carr got word that the program he moderates on Cogeco Cable “The Issue” was good to go for the fall.
 Cogeco’s The Issue panel: Mark Carr, host on the left with Casey Cosgrove, a guest, then former Mayor Walter Mulkewich and then Brian Heagle First show for this season of The Issue is Tuesday September 15th 8pm LIVE.
The show is interactive – twitter them at # The Issue.
The Issue is broadcast on channel 23 and channel 700 for high definition.
Carr monitors the twitter feed and bounces comments tweeted in with the panel made up of former Burlington Mayor Walter Mulkewich, lawyer and former Burlington council candidate Brian Heagle, and Deb Tymstra who has reported for Cogeco on a number of issues.
The intention is to have a guest on the panel as well. The publisher of the Gazette has been asked to take part in the panel from time to time.
Those watching the program can tweet comments and see how the panel responds.
You can agree or disagree with the panel of community/political experts live” said Carr “ and then watch to see how they respond to what you had to say.”
By Pepper Parr
August 21, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
The Region’s A team headed for Niagara Falls and met with provincial ministers and their aids to explain the problems they are having with the provincially mandated growth targets set out in the Provincial Places to Grow Act.
 Regional Chair Carr tasting honey on a farm tour. Few realize just how big and diverse the Region actually is – the Chair covers all of it. Chair, Gary Carr and members of Regional and Local Councils were at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) annual conference to discuss the critical issues facing the Region.
“We continue to emphasize to Provincial leaders the pressing need to find solutions to ensure the Region can meet provincial growth targets,” said Gary Carr, Halton’s Regional Chair. “Halton is mandated to grow to 780,000 by the year 2031, which means the Region needs long-term funding and legislative tools to ensure that taxpayers are not responsible for the financial impacts of growth.”
 The population growth is very aggressive. Much of it took place in Milton – Burlington is going to have to absorb a significant portion of the 278,000 people we have to take in. The Region currently uses the figure 500,000 when it talks about the size of the population it serves to grow by an additional 280,000 people in 16 years is aggressive to say the least.
What Burlington needs to know is how many of that more than a quarter of a million people are we going to have to take make room for and where in the city will they live?
 This is where the Region gets its money: Where will the revenue growth come from – user fess, property taxes and development charges – they are all part of your wallet. What are we going to have to provide in terms of services and how do we upgrade the transit service we have to move people around the city because there is no room for additional road capacity.
Chair Carr, Regional along with the mayors of Burlington, Town of Halton Hills, Town of Milton, and the Town of Oakville and a number of Regional and local Councillors met with several Provincial leaders:
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Ted McMeekin, to discuss the need to create affordable housing solutions and conformity with Provincial growth legislation;
Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, MPP Indira Naidoo-Harris, to discuss funding for public health programs, ambulance off-loading delays, enhancements to the Central Ambulance Communications Centre (CACC) and community mental health services;
Minister of Education, Liz Sandals, to discuss the need for long-term funding to support new schools;
Minister of Transportation, Steven Del Duca, to discuss Halton’s community infrastructure needs including GO train service in the Town of Milton and Town of Halton Hills;
Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry and Burlington MPP, Eleanor McMahon, to discuss Conservation Authority funding and aggregate resources legislation;
Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, Yasir Naqvi, to discuss the upcoming review of the Police Services Act;
Attorney General, Madeleine Meilleur, to discuss Halton’s immediate need for a new courthouse in the Town of Milton; and
Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Glen Murray, to discuss waste management legislation and adapting and responding to climate change.
 Municipal leaders argue that they deliver most of the services that citizens want yet get the smallest amount from taxpayers. They want a bigger slice of the pie – or better yet – a bigger pie. Several of the meetings related to near critical needs; the Court House in Milton is a mess; long term care is heading for crisis if something isn’t done and affordable housing needs very serious attention.
Transportation and transit are going to gobble up millions and the damage from the August 2014 storm is but a sign of things to come. No one knows yet just how much it is going to cost to upgrade and in some places perhaps have to rebuild the waste and storm water system we have in place.
Halton is fortunate in that it has a Regional chair with experience at Queen’s Park and the resources within his own administration to advocate with strength and authority.
The Region continues to advocate to both the Provincial and Federal governments as part of the Region’s Advocating for a Strong Halton campaign.
The Region wants changes to the Development Charges Act, there is draft legislation now being debated at Queen’s Park. The province wants development charges that support the recovery and collection of growth related costs to ensure that Halton’s taxpayers do not bear the financial impacts of growth.
What those development charges do however is increase the cost of new housing which for Burlington are high as it is.
By Robin McMillan
August 20, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
The Rising Sons came to be in September of 1964 in Burlington Ontario when a couple of my friends; Peter Davidson, Dave Best, Ron Canning, and Mike Kotur decided to form a band.
 The crowd at the Black Swan this weekend will remember events like this – it is going to be a blast from the past for those who managed to get a ticket – it is a sold out event. Dave, Pete and I were already good friends. Actually Peter and I knew each other in grade 5 while attending Burlington Central Public School and we met Dave there. I was transferred to M. M. Robinson High (North Burlington) in 1963, the year of the school’s grand opening. It was there that I met Ron Canning and his friend Mike Kotur, who talked me into practicing with them in the drummer position of the new group. I wasn’t crazy about this at first, but gave in and tried out.
 Robin and his Ludwigs at Skyway I was already a drummer with another band in Burlington — some of you may remember “Little Brutus and The Assassins” — but decided to pack it in because nothing was really happening. I contacted Peter, who was a fabulous pianist and organist, and Dave, who was taking bass guitar lessons at the Stan Bernard House of Music at the time. We all got ‘less than professional’ instruments and began to practice at Ron’s house in North Burlington. Of course we had to come up with a catchy name (it wasn’t easy) but the song “House of the Rising Sun” by Eric Burdon and The Animals was hot in ‘64, and it was Dave’s idea for a play on the word sun, so we became “The Rising Sons”.
 It was their first serious photo – their Mothers were proud. First Audition
Our first audition was at St. Stanislaus Church in Hamilton about four months later, but the audition turned out to be horrible. St. Stan’s politely suggested we practice hard and come back in six months for another try. The whole audition was terrible and we were pretty discouraged. Actually we felt like we were laughed out of the place. Dave thought that maybe he could talk to his father, a prominent doctor in Burlington, to back the group financially with some decent equipment. After some hard persuading, Dr. Best gave the OK and before you knew it, we were in business with the ‘best’ of everything: Fender, Gretsch and Rickenbacker electric and bass guitars, Fender amps, a Hammond B-3 organ with a Leslie tone cabinet (the ‘pipe voice’ of the electric organ), Ludwig drums with Zildjian cymbals, and a P.A. system that was second to none. When we played again at St. Stan’s a few months later, we brought the house down. The Hamilton kids had never seen anything like this before. WOW! We were really on top of our music — tight and professional, with a fantastic sound — and I was up high on a drum platform. The months of practising really paid off and St. Stan’s booked three more dances immediately, and all were huge successes. The Hamilton Spectator wrote that The Rising Sons were the ‘biggest and most popular group’ in Hamilton and surrounding area.
 It was transportation and it was what they used in those day. The 1150-CKOC Rising Sons
Soon our group was in huge demand, playing the Hamilton, Ancaster, Dundas, and Burlington area so often that CKOC 1150 radio in Hamilton approached us and asked if we would be interested in being their official “OC Busy Bees” band, and they would promote us on the air and book us for some extra dances. We were known as “The CKOC Rising Sons” and received lots of much-needed publicity pretty well every day. John Stoneham, one of their on-air disc jockeys (now a retired stuntman), usually introduced us at all of our dances.
The Toronto Market
We were pretty pleased that the band was doing OK locally, but we wanted to break into the Toronto market. It was September 1965 and, as luck had it, my father Bob McMillan was the sales manager of Elgin Ford on Bay Street, Toronto’s largest Ford dealership. Dad worked out a terrific promotion for Elgin, bringing in hot rods for a ‘racing weekend’ with the very popular new Mustangs, plus many high performance cars and racers directly from the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. Elgin called the promotion “The Elgin Ford Shindig”. The dealership spent a bundle for advertising with 1050 CHUM and CFRB 1010 as well as all the major newspapers in the city. The Rising Sons were tied into the promotion with two shows per day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Elgin Ford downstairs garage area — three tremendous days.
 Robin at Burlington Central High School Thousands of people showed up. The promotion was a massive success and, as a result, we were immediately well known in Toronto. It was this quick start that introduced the Sons to booking agencies and clubs in Toronto. Our first Toronto agency was Bigland. (Later we signed with the Yorkville Booking Agency.) This breakthrough kick-started the group into a bigger market … and more money. We played all the well-known teen clubs including Ronnie Hawkins’ Hawks Nest on Yonge Street (our favourite downtown venue), Club 888 (also on Yonge St.), as well as The Gogue Inn, which had three floors of groups playing at once. If you didn’t care for one group you could go to another floor and check out another group.
Our First Recording
The Bigland Booking Agency was owned and managed by well-known Toronto entrepreneur Ron Scribner, who not only booked the Sons in and around Toronto, but also thought that we should have a record released. He booked a recording session as soon as he could at the Hallmark Recording Studios in Toronto. Hallmark had a four-track recording board, which was a big deal at that time, and it was here that we recorded “Land of A Thousand Dances” released on the Columbia label, featuring Ron singing the lead, Pete singing background, and Mike contributing lead guitar work. This record really didn’t do much, although CKOC played it quite frequently, as did some smaller radio markets in Canada. But once again we received lots more publicity in the Hamilton/Burlington region with autograph sessions in local record stores. The flipside was a song Mike wrote and sang lead on called “Don’t Look Away”, which sounded nice and easy going.
Meeting The Rolling Stones
On Halloween, October 31 1965, The Rolling Stones were in concert at Maple Leaf Gardens, and the Toronto Music Union required Canadian musicians on the scene. They asked us to attend, and Ron and I stayed backstage during the show. What an exciting night! Two limo’s pulled in with a police escort and out walked the Stones. They left for their dressing rooms for about an hour and then decided to come out and look around. Mick Jagger walked quietly to the other end of the backstage area and looked closely at a new Mustang convertible that was parked in the corner. I thought that it was now or never to approach Mick and try to get a picture with the two of us, and to try for an autograph. Everyone knew that Mick wasn’t the friendliest guy in the world, so I walked quietly up to him and in a very polite tone asked, “May I have my picture taken with you and an autograph?” And without smiling, he nodded and said “Sure”.
I knew a photographer from the Toronto Telegram (now the Toronto Sun) and it was all set up. Just a few minutes after the picture was taken a well-known Toronto radio announcer touched Mick on the shoulder and said “Hey, Mick, come here,” and Jagger quickly turned around to the announcer and tried to kick him (but fortunately missed by a mile). You could cut the atmosphere with a knife, but Jagger just walked away thinking absolutely nothing of it. About 20 minutes later Charlie Watts came out and talked with both Ron and me for about 15 minutes. Charlie was very friendly guy and talked all about cities he’d played in and said that he was looking forward to Boston the next night where he would meet some friends.
 The Rising Sons were the Standing Sons and they stood tall The 5 Rising Sons
Not sure exactly the year — I think about late 1966 — a group from California with the name Rising Suns guested on the Johnny Carson Late Night Show on NBC . The very next day a couple of CHUM’s announcers talked about the ‘Sons’ on the Carson show, thinking they were us, and how fabulous this was for a ‘Toronto group’. This caused a lot of confusion and we had to do something fast. We decided we needed to change our name, but to what? So we simply added the 5 to the name, and it worked out perfectly.
 Outside Annie’s House The Second Recording “Annie”
About a year after the Bigland scene, The Yorkville Booking Agency, operated by Bill Gilliland of Arc records, took over our group and booked us to record a new tune in 1966. “Annie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” was a bubble gum song that suited us since we appealed to a younger audience. This 45 was also on the Columbia label. We recorded the vocals in Toronto and the music bed was recorded in New York city because they had an eight track recording studio. WOW, eight tracks!  The tune did pretty well as far as getting some air play on CHUM and other stations across Canada and in some better markets like Montreal, Winnipeg, and Halifax. This put us up a few notches, with a little more money again per engagement, and landed us as one of the 14 groups to appear at Maple Leaf Gardens for CHUM’s “Toronto Sound Show”.
Toronto Sound Show
The Toronto Sound Show was September 24, 1966. The other 13 groups appearing were: The Big Town Boys, The Last Words, Bobby Kris & The Imperials, The Secrets (“Here Comes Shack”), Little Caesar and the Consuls, The Paupers, The Spassticks, Luke and the Apostles, Susan Taylor, The Tripp, R. K. & The Associates, The Ugly Ducklings, and The Stitch-in-Thyme. There were two appearances for each group, one in the late morning and another in the afternoon or evening. Many of these groups were signed with The Yorkville Agency, and were also managed by Bill Gilliland, who was a well-known promotional guy in the Toronto area.
 Skyway near the stage About the 5th song in for each group, CHUM radio would cut in and go to ‘live air’ on-stage. Apparently there were about 12,000 kids at the first show and 20,000 for the second! It was like a Beatle concert: kids screaming and trying to get to the stage, police arm-in-arm trying to keep them back. It was an unbelievable experience for all the bands. Ron borrowed my cufflinks (worth about $30, which was not cheap in ’66) and got so excited with the crowd he threw them into the audience and watched the kids go crazy. I brought 10 pairs of drumsticks so I could throw them to the screaming crowds on each side of my drum platform, and the crowd yelled for more.
The Toronto Sound Show was Peter Davidson’s last performance with the Rising Sons, as he was off to the University of Waterloo. We really missed him, especially me, having known Pete for years.
After the show on that very night we had another booking in Belleville for 800 CLUB with DJ Dave Charles, so we had to get away as fast as we could to make the show on time. The kids mobbed us outside the Gardens and climbed all over our van trying to get autographs. We had to have a police escort for two blocks to escape. Needless to say, this show really helped us to get bigger and better audiences in the Ontario market.
The Canadian National Ex.
The Sons also played at the Canadian National Exhibition — better known as the CNE or just plain ‘EX’ — in Toronto, and we performed live many times on the stage behind CHUM’s Satellite Station, just inside the Princess Gates, and other locations around the grounds. I loved radio from about the age of 10, and I used to visit the EX just to sit, watch and listen to the radio stations in action broadcasting live, so it was a real thrill for me to be actually involved with CHUM and the satellite station.
 Robin and his Ludwigs at Skyway The 1050 CHUM and After Four
As mentioned above, 1050 CHUM aired weeks of promotion for their After 4:00 show every Wednesday night on CHUM’s Groove-yard Show with Brian “The Prez” Skinner. Weeks before the big show, Brian would pick a spokesman from each group who would be a guest on his radio show Wednesday evenings. Brian took a liking to us, and he and I really hit it off. He invited me to be his guest on his show every other week for about a month and a half, including one evening at the CHUM Satellite Station.
TV and Radio promotions
The Toronto Sound Show also helped promote our record “Annie”. All of the well-known groups that appeared on the Toronto Sound Show became frequent guests on CTV’s coast-to-coast After Four program, and the Toronto Telegram supplement with the same name gave a huge boost for all the groups every weekend. Dave Mickey from CKEY and CHAM broadcast a dance show in Hamilton called “Mickey’s a Go Go” on CHCH 11 Saturday afternoons, and The Sons guested there. We also appeared on WKBW TV in Buffalo, which led to our appearing with the Gentrys, a group from Nashville who had a big hit world-wide with “Keep on Dancing”.
There were radio interviews all across Canada with the CBC and also with many independent radio stations in different towns and cities wherever the Sons were playing. The Toronto Telegram even had a weekly Rising Sons cartoon strip on Saturdays in the After Four section during the summer of 1966. The strip was created and drawn by Kimmy Coons from Hamilton, who at the time was Dave’s girlfriend. Kimmy had managed the group in the formative years. (I was lucky enough to find one of these cartoon strips from The Hamilton Spectator, and would dearly like to find others.)
What was ‘The Village’ all about?
During the 1960s, Yorkville Avenue in downtown Toronto was the center of ‘hippy culture’ in Canada. Many of Canada’s folk musicians got their start playing the coffee houses in this area, and Yorkville flourished as Toronto’s bohemian cultural centre. It was considered by some to be the breeding grounds for some of Canada’s most noted musical talents, including Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Ian & Sylvia, and Neil Young. Funk artist Rick James got his start in Yorkville, as did many others. Yorkville was then known as the Canadian capital of counterculture and the hippie movement. In 1968, nearby alternative college Rochdale, a part of the University of Toronto, opened on Bloor Street as an experiment in counterculture education. Yorkville was truly Canada’s hippie heartland, full of coffeehouses, boutiques, longhairs, draft dodgers, and freaks. Yorkville was also a tourist attraction, the tourists preferring to watch the excitement from the safety of their cars.
In the village, the Beatle-haired kids, drugs and free love were rampant. But the Yorkville hippies were not all love and marijuana. They held a major sit-in protest in 1967 to protect their street from cops, tourists and fume-belching cars. They wanted to preserve their island of co-operation and love from the violence erupting in the world.
The Yorkville Years with The Rising Sons
This was the greatest and most exciting time of all for us, and more than half the fun of those early years and especially 1967 (the ‘summer of love’) was performing in Toronto in the Village. There were fantastic coffeehouses right next door to each other: The El Patio (our favourite Village club) where we played quite often, The Riverboat, The Mynah Bird, The Flick, The Penny Farthing, and The Purple Onion. We loved to eat at the Upper Crust restaurant on the corner just across the street. The great thing was that bands could play from Monday through Saturday every night, which was a great way of tighten up the act and meet people from all over North America.
Expo ‘67 in Montreal
One of our greatest and most exciting experiences was performing at Montreal’s Expo ‘67 in June of that year. We played at the Garden of Stars pavilion. The Garden of Stars was a unique triangular building in the heart of ‘La Ronde’ and featured Children’s Theatre in the morning and then ‘Action Time’ for the younger jet-set, followed by Rock ‘n’ Roll dances later in the afternoon and evenings.
Expo was divided into two sections or islands. One island had pavilions from countries around the world showing their industry and culture as well as fabulous foods. The other island was called La Ronde, where we played. This fun island had more great food plus entertainment, rides and lots to see and do for younger people. The Garden of Stars was host to many great acts from around the world. International celebrities and local acts performed there together. We were at Expo for two weeks, and I must say we were paid very well, although living expenses were extremely heavy. Invited groups would perform an afternoon show for two hours and an evening show for young people from everywhere in the world. When the show started, the floor would open up in sections with go-go dancers appearing on giant round platform stages that would rise up through the floor. Our record “Annie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” was quite popular in Montreal on CFOX the year before, and we were guests on a couple of top Montreal radio stations.
From here it was off for a fun two-week “vacation” to play in Belleville and Brockville at the local Tiki Clubs. The owner of this chain of clubs had a fabulous ‘yacht’ with lots of food on board and BBQs on shore. He invited us into his home and us treated like kings … we loved it there. It was at The Tiki Club in Belleville that I fell for a girl name Cathie, who was sitting close to us at the front table with a few of her friends. I dated her for a few years and married her in 1971 back in Belleville.
Bruce Ley joins The Sons
It was around this time that we brought a good friend of our Hamilton days into the group. Bruce Ley lived in Westdale, a suburb of West Hamilton. He was the bass player with the Hamilton group The Pharaohs, who were extremely popular in the Hamilton and Burlington region. Bruce had a knack for singing softer songs and became the Sons organist, replacing Pete as well as Mike, who left the band shortly after we returned home from a Winnipeg performance.
Bruce wrote a song for his girl friend Jone (no, not Joan) and called the song “To Jone”. This was a pretty good tune, reminiscent of the Young Rascals, and was recorded on the new Yorkville label. It received some pretty good air play in some markets. We changed our name for this recording to “Willapuss Wallapuss” just for fun. I believe Ron got the name from an Alice in Wonderland story. The flip side was named “Sacrificial Virgin” … kind of a spooky sound with Bruce on the organ, with elephant-sounding noises in the background, a trombone, and a chair pushed across the floor, with the rest of us making all kinds of crazy noises. Bruce went on to be a songwriter for children’s shows and did very well.
The Terry Black Comeback
In late ‘67or early ’68, Bill Gilliland approached us and asked if we would be interested in having the well-known singer Terry Black join the group. Terry had some great hit songs — “Unless You Care”, “Only Sixteen”, “Little Liar” to name a few. He had also appeared on some popular American teen shows including NBC’s Hullabaloo, ABC’s Shindig, and Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.
Originally from Vancouver, Terry emerged in 1964 after winning Male Vocalist of the Year at The Maple Music Awards, and had moved to California to join Dick Clark’s Cavalcade of Stars show. After a brief stint in Hollywood — where he came so-o-o-o-o close to playing a role alongside Elvis Presley as Elvis’s younger brother — Terry returned home to Canada. Bill Gilliland signed him to Yorkville along with his arranger, Pat Riccio Jr. (who later became Anne Murray’s musical director).
The Sons didn’t really mind this change and here’s is how it worked. The Sons would play for the first set, then Bruce would take a break during the second set when Terry appeared with Pat to perform a completely different music program. Bruce would then appear again for the third set. This went on for about a year. Sadly, Terry Black died in 2009 after a struggle with Multiple Sclerosis.
The Sons Today Pete Robin Ron Dave The End … Surprised smile
It was October 1968 when we decided that not much was really happening and not much would happen. Times had changed, music had changed, and there wasn’t much to do and few places to play that we hadn’t already done over and over. It was at this point that everyone decided to go their separate ways and try other things. Dave and Ron went back to school to improve their education. Peter was still attending the University of Waterloo. Mike Kotur went to work at Stelco in Hamilton, where his father worked. Bruce headed off to Toronto where he worked in children’s television shows writing songs. I went to work with my dad back in Hamilton and Burlington. A few years later, Terry Black co-founded a band called Dr. Music. You may have heard of them.
Dave now lives in Hamilton and I’ve returned to Burlington. Dave and I talk every now and then, and I see him once in a while. Peter lives in New Brunswick and emails me on occasion. After a stint in Niagara Falls, Ron and his long-time wife Roberta are now in Thorold. Bruce Ley lives on a ranch in Halton Hills. As of this writing, we’re still trying to locate Mike Kotur. I continue to run Rockin’ Robin DJ service and, as near as I can tell, we’ve all survived the experience and are still having a grand time of it.
It’s been 50 years since the Sons’ heyday. On Friday August 21, 2015, four of the original Rising Sons will be performing the music that made them famous. at the Black Swan – it is a sold out event. As an added treat, they have invited fellow musicians The Ragged Edges, another well known band from the same era, who will also perform.
By Staff
August 20, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
The City of Burlington has installed an Electric Vehicle (EV) charging station in the parking garage at 414 Locust St. in downtown Burlington – the first EV charging station in a municipal parking lot in the city.
 “Electric vehicles significantly reduce carbon pollution and help to improve local air quality,” said Burlington Mayor Rick Goldring. “The new charging station supports the City of Burlington’s commitment to sustainability and delivers on one of the actions outlined in the city’s Community Energy Plan.”
Located on floor 1A of the parking garage, the recharging station allows electric vehicle owners to recharge their cars in a central downtown location. Two electric vehicles can be charged at one time.
The EV charging station is part of the Community Energy program that was endorsed by city council some time ago and developed with community groups, agencies and businesses.
The plan is an holistic view of how energy is used, conserved, generated and distributed with a focus on how community partners can work together to improve and integrate community energy systems.
By Staff
August 20, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
The Burlington Bandits didn’t make it out of the quarter finals – but that doesn’t mean Burlingtonians don’t have an interest in the semi-finals games of the Intercounty Baseball League.
 The Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team forced a game 7 after 18-6 win over the Barrie Baycats. Trailing 3-2 going into the bottom of the fourth, the Leafs scored nine runs in their half inning to blow the game open and eventually tie the best-of-seven series at three games apiece.
Toronto had six home runs in the 23-hit offensive onslaught. First baseman Jon Waltenbury and centre-fielder Tyler Mitchell each went deep twice. Waltenbury finished with six RBI and scored three runs, and Mitchell, who added a double and two singles, had four RBI and four runs.
The Kitchener Panthers are battling the London Majors; that series is tied 2-2. Game 5: Thursday, Aug. 20 @ Kitchener 7:30 p.m.; Game 6: Friday, Aug. 21 @ London 7:35 p.m. and if necessary, Game 7: Saturday, Aug. 22 @ Kitchener 7 p.m.
 By Pepper Parr
August 20, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
Part two of a two part feature on how the Conservation Authority explains The Flood.
There are no streamflow gauges located along Roseland Creek, Tuck Creek, Shoreacres Creek, and Appleby Creek. Flow rates for the event were estimated by comparing high water marks that resulted from the storm event with other data.
Crews from Conservation Halton conducted field investigations during the week following the storm. They identified locations of high water marks and debris lines at the upstream and downstream sides of culvert and bridge crossings, through parks and other public lands, and on private properties where permission had been provided.
 The 407 became a catch basin for the water cascading down from the Escarpment creeks. The rainfall totals are higher in the sections of the watersheds upstream of the QEW than rainfall totals downstream of the QEW. This generated a trend of decreasing flow rates relative to return period flows where considerable storage and flow attenuation was available within creek and valley areas upstream of road and railway crossings.
Runoff rates generated by the storm are a function of both total rainfall, and rainfall intensities. Generally, average watershed rainfall totals are higher than 100 year values used in the computer simulation models, and less than the Regional (Hurricane Hazel)
August 4th, 2014 rainfall intensities, for short durations, are approximately equal to the 100 year event.
Generally, estimated flow rates are less than the computer simulated and higher than or equal to the 100 year simulated values.
The areas of most significant impacts associated with riverine/flood plain flooding are located in portions of the City of Burlington that were developed prior to the application of Provincial and Conservation Authority flood plain planning policies. Areas in which these policies were applied as part of the development process experienced significantly less erosion and flood damages demonstrating their effectiveness.
 Tuck Creek days after the rain had stopped. The Hager-Rambo Diversion Channel afforded a significant level of protection during the event for those portions of the City below the channel, south of Fairview Street and east of QEW Niagara to Drury Lane. Conservation Halton staff received reports that the diversion channel was flowing near capacity. Staff also received reports of the Upper East Rambo Creek spilling along the CNR (Halton) tracks from the East Rambo Pond (north of the QEW/403) and flooding several properties along Plains Road.
 The Conservation Authority says:
An investigation should be conducted in partnership with the City of Burlington to determine what mitigation measures can be implemented to reduce future riverine flood damages along Tuck Creek upstream and downstream of New Street.
An investigation should be conducted in partnership with the City of Burlington to determine the extent of runoff diverted from Shoreacres Creek into Tuck Creek at Highway 407 during the August 4th, 2014 storm event. Also, the investigation should determine what mitigation measures could be constructed to prevent or reduce any future spills from Shoreacres Creek into Tuck Creek in this location.
An assessment should be conducted in partnership with the Regional Municipality of Halton and the City of Burlington to inventory the number and location of telemetered rainfall and streamflow gauges within their respective networks to identify potential gaps.
Expansions to the networks should be undertaken in a collaborative and coordinated manner to facilitate data sharing and enhance flood forecasting and emergency response capabilities within the City of Burlington. These improvements will help to better equip all agencies to respond to similar events in the future as more frequent short intense storms are expected as a result of a changing climate.
Consideration should be given to updating the watershed studies for Roseland, Tuck, Shoreacres, Appleby and Sheldon Creeks in an effort to explore opportunities to reduce storm runoff rates and volumes.
To the absolute amazement of the Conservation people was the fact that the storm, which was in fact three separate storms, came in from the northj west and hovered over three different creeks from approximately 1:15 pm to about 9:00 pm.
The two closest water depth collectors were to the east and the west of the storm – the data from those two devices normally tell the environmental staff at Conservation Halton what is going on but there wasn’t any significant rainfall outside the narrow SIZE band of the storm.
From a data point of view – there was nothing abnormal – which wasn’t the way people south of the 407 who were experiencing the storm saw things.
The data from the collectors basically said – there was no rainfall here.
Part one of a two part feature on how the Conservation Authority explains The Flood
By Pepper Parr
August 20, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
Part one of a two part feature on how the Conservation Authority explains The Flood.
All most people have are memories of the flood we had more than a year ago. Any claims that were made for financial support under the Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program (ODRAP) have been paid – although no one has yet been able to say just why the provincial government held back 10% of the money it put up for what they called “risk mitigation”.
MPP Eleanor McMahon has made it a practice to continue to call on some of the people who were badly flooded to see how they are doing. The province has announced major changes to ODRAP that will be ready sometime in 2016.
The only thing ahead is the celebration of the $5,000 + donours and the placing of a plaque, that will take place September 15th at the Performing Arts Centre where a documentary done by Cogeco will be screened.
Reports on what actually happened have been prepared and while they are public – they haven’t been given all that much attention. Those reports have costs buried in them – the flood is going to cost taxpayers millions.
City hall seems to have forgotten that there is a public out there that does want to be informed.
 The rain clouds settled over Tuck Creek and remained there for seven and a half hours flooding the basements of more than 3500 homes in the eastern side of the city. The centre of the August 4th, storm occurred just downstream of Highway 407 along Tuck Creek. The rainfall that occurred at the storm centre was approximately 190 mm, and is similar in total to the Regional Storm. That Regional storm is a benchmark used for comparative purposes – the public knows it as Hurricane Hazel which took place in 1954
The Halton Conservation Authority released its report in which they set out what happened based on the data that was available; they also provided a number of recommendations.
The Conservation Authority is responsible for what they call the riverines and how the water moves through them.
Their report sets out the bigger picture and some of the reasons why the flood did the damage it did –– they make it very clear that global warming is something very real and something we have to accept as part of how we plan for adverse weather.
Heavy rain fell on Burlington during the afternoon and evening of August 4th, 2014. The storm extended from roughly Mountsberg Road in the north to Lake Ontario in the south, Burloak Drive in the east, and Brant Street in the west. A band of thunderstorms continued to develop and intensify during the day over the area.
The eastern part of Burlington was about to be engulfed by a storm that would cause havoc, significant financial loss and change for decades the lives of some families.
The part of the city that was deluged with rain came from a storm aligned in a northwest to southeast direction. The area was elliptically shaped with a length of approximately 25 km and a width of approximately 9 km. The area of the storm was approximately 200 square km.
The storm was centred over the middle and upper portions of Roseland Creek, and Tuck Creek just east of Highway 407.
Its intensity is seen in the videos taken that day. Dundas looking north on Guelph Line, and Palmer Drive.
The watercourses most impacted were Tuck Creek, Shoreacres Creek, and Appleby Creek.
An additional feature of the storm was that it hovered in place from about 1:30 pm through till just before 9:00 pm. There were actually three storms separated by short periods of time; never more than 45 minutes. The significant runoff in a short period of time, basically a flash flood, hit homes, businesses and parks. The flow of water overtopped watercourse crossings, closed roads, and flooded motor vehicles.
Homes were flooded by runoff that entered the buildings through the sanitary/storm sewer system, and from runoff that overflowed watercourse banks.
Incorrectly installed downspouts added to the problem.
Reports were released by both Conservation Halton and the city of Burlington. The Conservation report deals solely with runoff that overflowed watercourse banks (riverine flooding).
The Region of Halton and the City of Burlington have the task of assessing flood damages from storm and sanitary sewer systems which they did through separate studies.
It is the city report that sets out the extent of the damage to property and homes and sets out where changes need to be made – including the need to remove some homes that are now at risk.
An additional financial result for the people of Burlington is going to be a Storm Water Management tax that is going to hit the malls with those large parking lots quite heavily. Think in terms of at least a 4% tax increase each year for perhaps two years.
 More than a handful of weather elements combined to create a very small in area storm that flooded thousands of basements. Approximately 6000 properties were flooded within the City; roughly 3500 of which reported basement flooding.
On August 4, 2014 the atmosphere over south central Ontario in the afternoon was very moist and unsettled making it favourable for storm development.
People were out and about enjoying the holiday. Joseph Brant day was being celebrated at LaSalle Park, which turned out to be well outside the part of the city that got drenched. There were strong winds but not much more than that.
The winds aloft were generally light and from the west, meaning that if storms were to form, they would drift slowly from west to east allowing notable amounts of rain to fall on the areas they passed over. The general light wind pattern also made it a day where a lake breeze circulation could set up and, by early afternoon, the surface winds began to blow inland from Lake Ontario. As the afternoon progressed, these factors came together to generate shower and thunderstorm activity. The lake breeze circulation combined with outflow winds from other nearby storms resulted in a series of storms over the Burlington area.
There was a repeated development of storm cells to the west of Burlington which the weak winds aloft caused to drift continually over the eastern part of the city. When the storm arrived it just hung in the one rather narrow area and didn’t move.
The Conservation Authority measures storm activity using data from approximately 34 rainfall gauges and two radar stations.
The gauges are owned and operated by various agencies.
The Region of Halton had 11 gauges
Conservation Halton had 7 gauges
Burlington had 1 gauge at the Mainway arena
There were only three gauges close to the storm centre. Due to the narrow width of the storm cell, most of the rainfall gauges within the Burlington area didn’t catch any of the rainfall.
Radar data was used to refine the rainfall distribution across Burlington. NexRAD radar data was obtained for the Buffalo station through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Radar data was also obtained from the King City (Environment Canada) station.
A storm that did very significant damage to property on the eastern side of the city was so small in area that it slipped through the gauges that were in place to record and report on the rainfall. The only people who were aware of the storm and its intensity were the people in the middle of it.
Water began to accumulate along the side of the escarpment and worked its way into the creeks and came cascading into the city using creeks that could not handle the volume which meant water was pushed over the creek banks, flooding into streets and lawns that could not absorb all the water in such a short period of time.
This video was taken at Eaglesfield Drive south of Dundas . This footage taken at UpperMiddle Road – Headon – Centennial is almost entertaining; they both show just how much water there was on the streets.
Rain from the roofs of housing poured through downspouts – with thousands of them draining into the waste water system that was not built to handle that kind of volume.
The rainfall that started at approximately 1:30 pm and ended by 9:00 pm was measured at approximately 196 mm – it all came down in a seven and a half hour time frame.
 The bars show the time that the three main storms hovered over the city and their intensity. The line is the measurement of the rain that fell in the Mainway arena tipping bucket. The data collected revealed that there were in fact three separate storms – all three hovered over the same areas and each had its own intensity.
It was the accumulation of the three storms that the creeks and the water run off could not handle.
The closest rain gauge to the centre of the storm that recorded the distribution of rainfall was located at the Mainway Arena. The maximum rainfall recorded at the Mainway gauge was approximately 124 mm.
The device at Mainway was a “tipping bucket” design – something that when it is full tips over and empties. “The rain was coming down so heavily that the bucket filled very quickly and would tip over and empty – making it difficult to get really solid data.
 This chart compares the rainfall during hurricane Hazel with the August 2014 storm that Burlington experienced. Conservation has a benchmark they call a Regional storm (Hurricane Hazel which hit Etobicoke in 1954) that is used for comparative purposes.
Average rainfall for each watershed was:
Roseland Creek 120mm
Tuck Creek 150 mm
Shoreacres Creek 140 mm
Appleby Creek 130 mm
Sheldon Creek 100 mm
That rainfall tore through the creeks which is some cases had a lot of vegetation and tree limbs that should have been cleared out regularly.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) reported that the preliminary estimate for insured damage caused by heavy rains and flooding in Burlington was just over $90 million.
Insurance did not cover the cost of all damages. Some owners received full coverage while others were only partially covered or not covered at all. Approximately 6,000 properties were reported to have experienced flooding, some caused by overland flow roughly 3,500 from basement flooding (storm water or sanitary sewer backup).
The Conservation Authority was focused on damages as a result of floodwaters overtopping the banks of watercourses. Specifically, the Conservation observed and/or reported riverine (creek-based) flood damages for each watercourse. This list does not include flooding associated with storm water (from roadways, ditches, etc.) or sanitary sewer backup as these flood impacts are being assessed by others.
Roseland Creek: Two (2) commercial buildings flooded; approximately two watercourse crossings overtopped; QEW closed; and Watercourse scour and erosion.
Tuck Creek: Approximately 65 residences flooded; One commercial building flooded; approximately 13 watercourse crossings overtopped; Highway 407 ETR closed;
Natural gas main broken upstream of Upper Middle Road; Sidewalk collapse on south side of New Street;
Rural ditch erosion repairs; driveway culvert repairs/replacements at washout locations; landscaping damages – parks, high schools; and Watercourse scour and erosion.
The data available places the centre of the storm downstream of Highway 407 along Tuck Creek. The rainfall that occurred at the storm centre was approximately 190 mm, and is similar in total to the Regional Storm.
Estimated flow rates upstream of Upper Middle Road are slightly greater than the Regional Storm while flow rates downstream are roughly equal to the 100 year simulated event. Flow rates decreased substantially downstream of Upper Middle Road. This is likely due to the availability of flood storage within the wider and more defined natural valley features along the upper portions of Tuck Creek.
Shoreacres Creek: Approximately 2 residences flooded; One industrial building flooded; approximately 5 watercourse crossings overtopped; Rural ditch erosion repairs; driveway culvert repairs/replacements at washout locations; QEW closed; pumping Station flooded; underpass flooded; and Watercourse scour and erosion.
The flow rates within the Shoreacres Creek watershed were estimated to range between a 50 year design event and the Regional Storm (Hurricane Hazel). There is a good possibility that runoff was diverted (spilled) into Tuck Creek from Shoreacres Creek along the north side of Highway 407.
Estimated flow rates increase in a downstream direction and are approximately equal to or slightly above simulated 100 year values for the lower two thirds of the watershed.
Appleby Creek: Approximately 3 watercourse crossings overtopped; Underpass flooded; trails and pedestrian crossings flooded; and Watercourse scour and erosion.
On the west tributary of Appleby Creek, estimated flow rates are approximately equal to the Regional Storm values. On the east tributary estimated flow rates are approximately equal to the 10 year storm simulated flow rates. Estimated flow rates downstream of the QEW are roughly equal to the 50 year storm simulated flow rates.
Several debris jams were identified during field investigations after the storm. These occurred in the following locations:
Section of Tuck Creek between New Street and Regal Road
Private bridge upstream of Shoreacres Road along Shoreacres Creek
Section of Shoreacres Creek downstream of Heritage Road
 As the water roared through the creeks it pushed everything in front of it – including vegetation and tree limbs which did much of the damage to pedestrian bridges. While the debris jams were not the cause of flooding in these highlighted areas (given the significant flows within creek systems during the storm), their impacts may have contributed to localised flood levels on adjacent properties.
Given the unprecedented nature of the storm event and the significant flows generated, a substantial amount of woody debris and creek substrate was mobilized during the storm. This was particularly pronounced in the older portions of Burlington in which the creek widths were narrowed by historic development and flood plain/overbank areas were not readily accessible to flood flows.
This configuration caused flood depths in the creeks to be higher and erosive forces to be more damaging.
Part two of a two part feature on how the Conservation Authority explains The Flood
 By Staff
August 20, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
It took a while but the Halton Regional Police determined that a 40-year old Burlington man is to be charged with a number of offences following a serious collision in Burlington on Saturday August 1st 2015.
 The male was operating an electrically-powered bicycle on Fairview Street, close to the Burlington Mall, when his vehicle was in collision with an SUV that was turning into the parking lot outside the Canadian Tire store.
The male sustained serious injuries in the collision, which was witnessed by a number of passers-by. As a result of the subsequent investigation by the Halton Regional Police Collision Reconstruction Unit, Edward LEE of Burlington has been charged with
Driving while Disqualified, contrary to the Criminal Code, along with Careless Driving, Red Light-Fail to Stop, and Failing to Wear a Proper Helmet on a Motorcycle, all contrary to the Highway Traffic Act.
Halton Regional Police wish to remind all users of power-assisted bicycles that it is their responsibility to ensure that their vehicle, and the manner in which it is used, conforms with all legal requirements
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