Transportation Minister explains what the provincial government is going to do with rail transit - catch up and keep up!

News 100 redBy Pepper Parr

September 8, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

Once the “love in” part of the evening was over – those in the room at the Royal Botanical Gardens were able to take part in a good discussion on what the province was planning on doing about transit in the province.

Transit - McMeekin tight

Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs is in the thick of transit issues as well – Ted McMeekin takes part in Town Hall on Transit

Burlington MPP Eleanor McMahon and Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs MPP Ted McMeekin hosted the event at which Minister of Transportation Steve Del Luca did most of the talking and the listening.

The stopover in Burlington was the fourth Town Hall type meeting Del Luca has held – 40-50 people in the room – close to a quarter of them bureaucrats of one flavour or another.

He told the audience that his mandate was to “catch up” and “keep up” on transit matters. While highways are a large part of that mandate – this meeting was about transit.

Difficult for a Burlington audience not to want to drift into highways when the QEW and the 403 cut us into pieces.

Del Luca pointed out that the government has committed $130 billion over ten years into getting a transit system that meets the needs – it’s amazing how these people throw around those big number – billions – millions.

An additional $31.5 million has been has been added to put a 15 minute – both ways service in place on the Lakeshore, Kitchener, Stouffville and Barrie services.

De Luca made a strong point when he explained the situation on the Barrie line: four trains leaving Barrie every morning and four leaving Union Station for the trip home each evening.

Which was Ok for people who just commute and stay in the city all day but for those who want to slip into the city for an early afternoon meeting and then head back to an office in Barrie the current service doesn’t work – those people explained Del Luca drive in and out – adding to traffic congestion and wasting a lot of time behind the wheel of a car.

The Transportation Minister added that getting 15 minute service has some hurdles to be gotten over – and the electrification of the system has its own problems.

Track ownership is also a problem – but Del Luca was able to leave the impression that he has a strong team and that they can learn to understand the problems and then find solutions.

What was refreshing was that Del Luca didn’t even try to sugar coat the problem.

Transit - McMahon - tight H&S

Burlington MPP Eleanor McMahon hosts a Town Hall on Transit and lets the Ministers do all the talking.

He made it clear that he wants to see the changes made within a decade and that to make it happen there has to be a change in the culture – the car isn’t going to be what it has been – both in the way it is used and in the way it is designed for the future.

The rail lines are going to be electrified – if we don’t do that greenhouse gasses will kill us all.

Everyone wants better service but the changes we need to make to provide that service will be disruptive – which boots the ball into the political realm. Del Luca’s trip to Burlington was to get a sense of what the public in this part of the world was thinking.

Something not usually seen at Burlington based event s was the participation of students from McMaster. All males and all appeared to be graduate level students – and they had good questions.

Del Luca, who represents Vaughan in the Legislature, pointed out that his mandate is focused on capital projects – this guy is building a transit system – all the bells and whistles on what happens when the transit system is in place is the responsibility of the municipalities that connect with those rail lines.
The only thing the Ministry does, explained Del Luca, is give the municipalities a portion of the gas tax it collects. Burlington got between $20 and $21 million last year.

There are Buringtonians who come close to swallowing their tongues when they see some of that tax rebate being put into infrastructure (roads) upgrades and upkeep.

The cultural change the Minister is working to bring about hasn’t penetrated as deeply as it is going to have to in Burlington – the city may be one of the last to fully understand what has to be done.

There were people from Burlington transit and transportation in the room – but they didn’t seem to be paying a lot of attention from where I was sitting.
There was a little bit of money for new ideas and pilot projects explained Del Luca. “We put $1 million into a fund for new ideas and doled it out in $100,000 grants. It was so popular and useful that we increased the annual allotment to $2 million.”

Milton got a grant to create an application that would let commuters use their smart phones to tap into their transit schedule – there was no mention of any application from Burlington Transit.

Transit Del Luca + Woodruff

Minister of Transportation for the province Steve Del Luca engages Greg Woodruff on the role of the car in future transit plans – both agree the car isn’t going away.

Aldershot activist Greg Woodruff engaged the Minister on the role cars would play in transportation. He pointed out that the car is undergoing a very radical change and added that research suggests there will be 40% fewer cars on the road within the decade – what does that do to your transit plans he asked.

Del Luca told Woodruff he didn’t think he was wrong and added that within the decade 70% of the cars on the rod will be automated.  Both men agreed that the car was not going to go away and it doesn’t need to go away – it will just play a much different role and will not dominate the way it has for the past number of decades

While transit was the focus of the meeting – land planning policies that make sense was a critical clutch point – and the sense in the room seemed to be that we weren’t doing all that well on developing those policies.

Transit - Rishia Burke + McMeekin

Ted McMeekin, a political activist who got into government to make changes talks with Rishia Burke, a staffer with Community Development Halton – an organization McMeekin got started with others many years ago. One could almost see the torch being passed.

Minister McMeekin, who wasn’t saying all that much, explained that he was coordinating a review of the urban sprawl we have to work with and what part urban boundaries play in transit planning.

There are transit advocates in Burlington who wonder why the Oakville, Milton, Burlington and eventually Halton Hills transit services are not rolled into a single service – York Region has done that very successfully.

At some point there is going to be transit service along Dundas and rolling up into Milton – whose court will that ball be in – Milton or Burlington?
Creating a smoother transition for transit users in the east end of the city who want to or have to use both Oakville and Burlington transit is another problem

When Burlington’s politicians got all hairy about transit and began taking the bus to work, and making sure there was a photo op to prove they had actually ridden the bus, ward 2 councillor Marianne Meed Ward took the bus to a Regional meeting – that isn’t something she will be doing again.
It has become clear to the government that in order for transit use to be increased – growth and intensification has to be along transit lines.

Transit - Vito Tolone

Vito Tolone, interim director of transportation for Burlington, did a lot of listening as the two provincial minsters did all the talking. Their comments seemed to tie into the Draft Transportation Master Plan Tolone is working on

Where are the transit corridors going to be in Burlington. Vito Tolone, interim Director of Transportation, is working on a Transportation Master Plan – a draft was put together by people from both planning and transportation. While far from complete – there were some pretty solid suggestions as to the direction the city could consider taking.

Unfortunately there wasn’t much in the way of enthusiasm in the response from city council on what was a well presented set of suggestions and ideas – whatever Burlington does – transit is going to have to be the core – and this city council just doesn’t have much of an appetite for more busses on the streets – all they can see is empty busses going by.

Minister Del Luca asked the municipalities to “work with us and get it right” He wants to do away with the artificial transit barriers and the artificial municipal barriers to get it right.

It is not going to be easy to do that with the city council Burlington has today.

The last topic to get some time was the HOT lanes that were put in place for the Pan Am Games. It may not be popular, but High Occupancy Toll lanes are becoming the flavour of the month in transit and transportation circles.

Ontario transportation officials are fine-tuning a plan to introduce the concept to selected highways in the Greater Toronto Area. Most Ontarians are familiar with HOV (or High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes that require a vehicle to have at least one passenger.

The HOT lane expands upon that, extending access to lone motorists — but charging them a toll. The government is moving ahead on installing high occupancy toll lanes. These are on the way but “we want to make sure we get it right,” he told the media.

At the Burlington event Del Luca said the move wasn’t intended to produce revenue but to free up capacity – the thinking being that if someone was prepared to pay a fee to drive in a HOT lane that meant their car would not be taking up space in the free lanes.

Del Luca told the Burlington meeting that the government had not clearly communicated what the program was, how it would work and the difference it would make.

He certainly got that part right. Many wonder just what the cost would be – and how much would be spent on creating the things – whenever government and technologically are in the same room – the costs just seem to rise – remember the mess and the expense with making hospital records electronic – gazillions – and it isn’t done yet.

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Liberal candidate doesn't buy what the Prime Minister had to say - adds that her party will do what the Prime said he was going to do.

News 100 blueBy Pepper Parr

September 2, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

The Prime Minister came to town and spoke to a decent sized audience at a small steel plant and told them if his government was re-elected there would be an Advanced Manufacturing Hub created in Burlington. A number of people in the twitter world were asking – what is an Advanced Manufacturing hub?

Harper in Burlington sept 1 - 2015

Prime Minister Harper making his Advanced Manufacturing hib at a steel plant in Burlington on Tuesday.

The Gazette is asking – where does that hub fit in with the long range Strategic Plan the city has been working on. We are in pretty close contact with the Economic Development Corporation in Burlington and we’ve not heard a word about this idea from them.

The city is certainly talking about hubs, mostly in a transportation context, with the idea of developing both housing and office accommodation as part of those hubs. The city has four mobility hubs of in mind; one at each of the GO Stations and another at the John Street bus terminal.

Gould Karina H&S

Federal Liberal candidate for Burlington: Karina Gould

Liberal candidate Karina Gould, who was in all probability not in the audience when the Prime Minister spoke, had these comments on the Conservative announcement.

“After a decade of watching manufacturing jobs disappear under Stephen Harper no voter is going to believe that he suddenly cares about the sector. Over the next 10 years a Liberal government will invest $60 billion in the kind of productivity enhancing infrastructure that all sectors, including manufacturing, need to compete in the 21st century.

“Strong economies produce goods. Manufacturing is the number one investor in research and development. It provides good jobs outside urban areas as well as in urban centres. We will help manufacturers to modernize and to reach new markets. We will help small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets and help them gain a foothold in Europe. We need to be prepared for the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.

“Since Stephen Harper came to power our growth in exports has been the worst of any G7 country.”

Election poll

Conservatives at 28.8; NDP at 30.8 and the Liberals at 29.7 – tight.

There is certainly an election taking place and with the opinion polls where they are it is an all-out effort on the part of every candidate.

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Youth put some pretty direct question to federal election candidates

News 100 greenBy Pepper Parr

September 1, 21015

BURLNGTON, ON

It wasn’t a debate – but it got pretty freewheeling a couple of times and it was a more than decent opportunity to hear what the candidates thought about specific issues and to get a sense of where they were coming from in terms of why they were in politics.

Election poll

The national picture – tight – some of the Conservative seats are going to have a different seats are going to be a different colour – |Is Burlington one of them? Too early to tell.

3 things for BurlingtonThe event was sponsored by 3Things for Burlington – and was an event intended for youth. There were as many adults as there were youth in Centennial Hall at the public library but the young people brought the energy to the room. Some adults had questions they wanted to ask – there was no time – the young people had good direct questions – it was a pleasure to see them involved.

3 things - Randy Minaker

Randi Minaker introduces the panel:   Laird, Best, Gould, Damoff, Shabaz, Clement and |Wallace. They each set out the position and their main arguments quite well. Some had to use notes – why? – while others wandered off the topic – Wallace.

Attending were David Laird, New Democrat candidate for Burlington, Janice Best for the NDP in Oakville North Burlington, Karina Gould, the Liberal for Burlington; Pam Damoff the Liberal for Oakville North Burlington.

Adnan Shabaz the Green candidate for Oakville North Burlington, David Clement the Libertarian candidate and Mike Wallace.Member of Parliament for Burlington

David Laird is a long time New Democrat with some pretty hard boiled views on the economy and the role the banks play – he sees the money system as one that is a private thing run by the banks – he seems to have forgotten that the Bank of Canada is in the game and that the federal government regulates the banking industry.

Laird has the government in the pockets of the bankers.  He referred to an Oxfam report that had 85 people owning 50% of the wealth in the world – which is a stretch.

Laird commented that he had never seen youth involved in an election before.

Karina Gould the Liberal candidate for Burlington reminded Laird that he once spoke at a civics class at MM Robinson – she was in the class – she went on to explain that it was those high school days that were the beginning of her political career.

Gould told the audience that most young people saw politicians as older men in suits. Gould said she found younger people don’t think they will ever have the lifestyle their parents have and that student debt and the environment were key issues – most seemed to feel they would never be able to own a home.

Mike Wallace, Burlington MP, takes a closer look at art work at the Burlington Art centre.

Mike Wallace, Burlington MP, takes a closer look at art work at the Art Gallery of Burlington.

Mike Wallace, the current Member of Parliament for Burlington has been an MP since 2006 and a politician for 26 years. Wallace commented on the audience having as many adults as youth – he wasn’t wrong. His advice for the young people: do your research and decide who has the competency to do the job.

David Clement is the Libertarian candidate for Oakville Burlington North. That political party. Which Clement described as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, has yet to actually elect a member to the House of Commons. Clement said he didn’t see politics as either left or right – what he wanted to see was a political process that empowered people.

Adnan Shabaz is the Green Party candidate in Oakville North Burlington. That party’s leader is a hero in Shabaz’s eyes – “She stands up and speaks her mind” and Shabaz certainly came across as very well informed with not much nonsense in his comments and answers to the questions he was asked.
He told the audience that a politician’s job is to represent the people; that their views are why a Member of the House of Commons is in Ottawa.

That is not what party politics is about. Several references were made to “whipped” votes – but no one explained to the young audience just what a “whipped” vote is.

Every political party has a person known as the “whip” whose job is to make sure the members of the political party are in the House and casting their vote in favour of the party’s policy.

The practice is referred to as “party discipline – without that discipline it would be very difficult to get anything done. However, it is when party discipline is overdone that democracy suffers; many feel that this is where politics in Canada has gotten to under the Harper government.

Damoff with LiberaL sign

Pam Damoff – Liberal candidate for Oakville North Burlington

Pam Damoff, the Liberal candidate for Oakville Burlington North never tires of telling people that it is the young people that change the world – and she wants to be around as many young people as she can. The room at the Central Library certainly had more than her share of kids in red T shirts.
Damoff wants to see young people at the table – based on what was heard at the meeting Monday evening – those young people deserve a seat at the table – they had good questions and handled the meeting very well.

Damoff told the audience that the federal government is not doing enough at the municipal level – a point that Regional Chair Gary Carr would agree with that statement.  The pie chart shows where the tax dollars go – that isn’t where the spending goes.

Region - average tax bill all 3 levels

Janice Best, the New Democratic candidate for Oakville North Burlington commented that she would certainly like some of those young people on her campaign team.

She delivered one of the toughest comments to the young people. “You are going to become part of what is called the “precarious work force” – part time, low wages and no benefits. And if you did get to university” she added “you will leave with a degree and a debt load of about $26,000.
She pointed out that the student loan legislation has not been upgraded since 1971.

What was disappointing was that both Damoff and Best had to read from notes – one would have hoped that these two women would have had more than enough of a grasp on what they and their party stood for to be able to speak extemporaneously.

However – the two women were in the room – the same could not be said for Effie Triantafilopoulos, the Conservative candidate in Oakville Burlington North. She was a no show.

Oakville North Burlington

Oakville Burlington North is a new federal riding.

3 things - Randy and Stephanie

Stephanie Bye and Randi Minaker made sure the event went smoothly – expect to hear more about Bye – WOW – she ran the event with an iron fist.

Handling the speakers was left to Stephanie Bye – what a stick of dynamite this young woman was. Awesome she would say when a speaker had finished. Cool she would add. And when a speaker was getting off topic Stephanie was in there like a little Bull Terrier getting them back on track.

After each speaker had explained why they were there the questions came from the audience – here is where the audience got to see what they felt on an issue by issue basis.

Immigration was the base of a question from a young man who asked why a close friend had been waiting more than 11 years to get landed status. Mike Wallace did his best to explain what the issues work – but his colleagues were not buying it. It was almost a pile on.

Both Shabaz and Gould explained that if their parents had been in a Canada that has a Bill C 24 when they came to Canada– they would have been described as citizens with “second-class status”

Burlington - federal boundaries

The boundaries for the federal constituency were changed – not by much but they were changed

Bill C 24 is seen as a controversial piece of legislation that recently came into effect, allowing the government to revoke Canadian citizenship from dual citizens who are convicted of terrorism, high treason and several other serious offences.

As a result of the new provisions that came into effect a few months ago, many people warn that dual citizens, including those who were born in Canada, now have “second-class status” and that their Canadian citizenship can be “stripped arbitrarily.”

Added to that mix was the amount of information the government now collects on people. Both Shabaz and Clement felt this was a very serious problem. “No government should have that amount of information on any citizen” he said. The only person at the table who wasn’t comfortable with collecting of the data was Wallace – he seemed to buy into the government policy that this was necessary to catch the terrorists. Shabaz, Damoff, Gould and Clement saw this as fear mongering and believed that this approach to problem resolution was hurting the country.

3 things - Gould with adult

Karina Gould listens to a senior who had decided to take part in the Youth led event.

Gould wanted to know “what has happened to Canada on the world stage” the reputation the country had twenty years ago is not the reputation we have today. The admiration and respect we used to have is no longer there, said Gould.

Damoff set out the environment, the economy, health issues and changing behavior as the issues that she wanted to hear about from people,
Clement wanted lower taxes “leave more money in my pocket” was his war cry.

Wallace, understanding what he has in the way of a political base, brought up the Old Age Supplement – he wanted to see the formula used to increase that monthly payment to seniors given an index that was considerably different than that used for the consumer price index.

His comments were well out of the ball park and Stephanie Bye shut him down pretty quickly.

3 things Den Mother CDH

Richia Burke explains to members of 3Things for Burlington how she expects the meeting to go – and hands out the work assignments.

The event was run by 3Things for Burlington, a youth group formed by Community Development Halton – they were great but no one said a word about that organization which is often struggling for funding to stay alive.

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Burlington is the first stop of a World Premier tour of Sleeping Beauty - October 2nd

News 100 redBy Staff
eptember 1, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

The Performing Arts Centre is going to be one of the stops for the World Premiere Tour of the unique classical ballet Sleeping Beauty.
The performance will take place October 2, 2015 at 8:00 pm.

Dance Critic Gary Smith will give a pre-show talk, in addition to a post-show chat with the artists.

Sleeping Beauty, Performance, Act I

Sleeping Beauty, Performance, Act I

Sleeping Beauty is one of the world‘s most famous classical ballets and holds a place in the repertoire of virtually every major company.

This major new ballet tells the enchanting story of Aurora and her prince complete with its inherently magical qualities and dazzling choreography. The fairy tale about a young woman placed under a spell to sleep for a hundred years only to be awakened by a kiss is an easily accessible story. It appeals to a child’s imagination and holds a special place in the hearts of adults.

Sleeping beauty - blue suit maale

Superb performances of Sleeping Beauty are going to take place on the stage at the Performing Arts Centre – October 2

The underlying theme is the tug between the forces of good (the Lilac Fairy) and evil (Carabosse), serving as an important thread to the plot. Told in three acts, the ballet benefits from the character development and technical expertise for which Canada’s Ballet Jörgen is known.

Artistic Director and award-winning choreographer Bengt Jörgen focuses on the magical elements and the interpretation of the ballet as a nature allegory: The young woman represents nature, the wicked fairy is winter, who deadens life with pricks of frost until a young man, spring, cuts away the brambles to allow the sun to awaken sleeping nature. Sleeping Beauty by Canada’s Ballet Jörgen draws on the traditional choreography by Marius Petipa to spin a tale of nature and love that will inspire young and old alike.

Sleeping beauty - red coated male

Sleeping Beauty has a very large cast – it is a traditional ballet that has been done as a Walt Disney film and is a favorite with young people and adults that appreciate the richness of the story and the strength of the dancers.

The delightful story will be danced to the original 1890 score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set to a libretto based on Charles Perrault’s story La Belle au bois dormant. In ensemble with stunning costumes and captivating lighting design, Sleeping Beauty by Canada‘s Ballet Jörgen is guaranteed to provide an evening of entertaining and inspiring live performance.

If you want your children to have some understanding of what great ballet is – this is the event to take them to – the Walt Disney movie version always does well – real dancers with fabulous choreography is one of those things every child should have an opportunity to see.

Tickets can be purchased online www.burlingtonpac.ca, by phone 905-681-6000 or in person at the Box Office located at 440 Locust Street.

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CineStarz - SHOWTIMES September 4 to 10 , 2015

Cinestarz logo

 

Cine Starz Upper Canada Place
460 Brant Street
WWW CINESTARZ.CA

SHOWTIMES September 4 to 10 , 2015

SINISTER 2 14A
Fri to Thur 1:20 3:30 5:20 7:15 9:10

AMERICAN ULTRA 18A
Fri to Thur 1:35 5:40 7:30 9:20

FANTASTIC FOUR PG
Fri to Thur 11:30 1:30 3:15 5:30

JURASSIC WORLD PG
Fri to Thur 11:10 1:00 3:20 5:10 7:00 9:15

VACATION 14A
Fri to Thur 11:20 1:30 3:15 5:10 7:30

SOUTHPAW 14A
Fri to Thur 11:15 7:20 9:30

INSIDE OUT G
Fri to Thur 11:15 1:15 3:15 5:15 7:15

PAPER TOWNS PG
Fri to Thur 11:00 3:30 9:30

AMY 14A
Fri to Thur 9:15

 

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Slow dancing in the sunset on a late summer evening -

Event 100By Staff

August 31, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

Do you remember the s l o w dances?

Sure you do – and Kyle Tonkens, a local installation artist would like you to experience those wonderful evening dances once again.

Sunset slow dance

Your invitation.

On Thursday, September 10, between 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm., Tomkins is inviting you have one of those slow dances as the sun sets in the west. The event features a real-time two hour sunset, where there will be live music, refreshments, and of course wonderful works of art on display.

I wonder if they will play Red Sails in the Sunset – that one always worked for me.

The event takes place at the The Art Gallery of Burlington on Lakeshore Road.

It was vision and cultural courage that got this piece of art outside the Arts Centre.  The artists in the city are going to have to bring the vision to city hall and press hard for the cultural courage that will be needed to make the city a place with a cultural base.

It was vision and cultural courage that got this piece of art outside the Art Gallery of Burlington – plus the desire of a man to make a statement of his devotion to his wife.

It will be held in the RBC Community room where a glorious sunset will be projected on the south wall of the community room.  For those who want the real thing in the way of a sunset – they will be able to dance outside close to the Rebbecca – one mans statement of his love for his wife.

The sunset that will be projected was filmed at Princess Point – a part of the Cootes Paradise where the view of sunsets is incredible.

 

Admission is free.

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Local MPP's holding a Town hall meeting on transit at the RBG Tuesday evening

Event 100By Staff

August 31, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

There is going to be a Town Hall meeting on transit issues on Tuesday September 1st at the Royal Botanical Gardens starting at 6:00 pm through to 7:30 pm.
Transit town hall meet RBGThe event is being hosted by Burlington MPP Eleanor McMahon and Hon Ted McMeekin, Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs.
Ontario Transportation Minister Steven De Duca is the featured guest.

Not a lot of information in the meeting notice we were sent other than to say they will be speaking about transit issues and answering questions.

McMahon and McMeekin H&S

Burlington MPP Eleanor McMahon and Hon Ted McMeekin, Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs are hosting the Transit Town Hall meeting.

Transit is a major issue for Burlington as it grapples with the intensification that is to take place and an ever more crowed QEW.
GO transit is a provincial service that is critical to Burlington.

There was no sense that a major announcement is to be made – but there is a federal election and the Premier of the province has gotten behind federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau who recently announced a policy that will pump millions into public infrastructure.

The event is for anyone who wants to be at the RBG – the Gazette will report on the meeting.

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Film crew using Easterbrooks as the location for segment of a TV show - 12 monkeys.

News 100 redBy 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.

Easterbrooks - outdoors

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.

Easterbrooks

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.

 

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SHOWTIMES August 28 to Sep 3 , 2015

Cinestarz logo

 

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

 

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Development of a Strategic Plan has a big research hurdle to get over - some think we don't need the data or that we should already have it.

element_strategic_planBy 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.

McKeowen and Sharman

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.

Meed Ward + Taylor Water Street vote

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.

Five motherhood statements

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 discusion 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 communuty liked the look of what they had said to each other.

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 the 2014 budget.  What they have yet to have explained to them is the desperate situation the city will be in ten years from now if something isn't done in the next few years to figure out how we are going to pay for the maintenance of the roads we have.

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?

Besides mapping data participants in the Cultural Conversations were asked to contribute their thoughts and ideas.

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?

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Has some of the vitality gone out of the Arts Collective?; what might that mean to culture in this city?

SwP thumbnail graphicBy 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

Collective masthead

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.

CUlt-Ac-Pln-chart-692x1024

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.

Noack interview - city culture days 014

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.

Performing Arts Centre Brian McCurdy makes a point with the Mayor.  He is making points all over the city as he brings about a different working relationship with the Centre and the city.

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.

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Alzheimer’s Society of Hamilton and Halton meet at JBH last Tuesday of every month

element_healthservicesBy Staff

August 24, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

The Alzheimer’s Society of Hamilton and Halton in partnership with JBH will be holding monthly information sessions at Joseph Brant Hospital aimed at family caregivers learning to cope with the people who suffer from Alzheimer disease.

To register for a session please call (905) 632-3737 ext. 5689. Sessions will take place on the last Tuesday of every month, excluding May and December – in the Gordon Room of the main hospital building from 4:00 – 5:00pm.

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Two Showcase AAU basketball teams competing at the 13U category and the 15U category in the United States are holding tryout - Burlington players can get in on this..

element_sportsBy 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.

Wildcvats 2015 Team Picture

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.

Basketball player red shirt

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.

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The Ultimate Teddy Bear Picnic - at the RBG August 29th and 30th.

Event 100By 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.

Teddy Bear picnic kidsMark 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!

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Kitchener takes the semi final in the InterCounty Baseball League - will play Barrie for the tittl

element_sportsBy 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.

IBL panthers winning

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. =

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The Issue - a Cogeco Cable broadcast will be back in September and taking live tweets for the panel members.

News 100 redBy 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 - The Issue crew

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.”

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Regional Compost giveaway and two waste diversion days to take place in September.

News 100 greenBy Staff

August 21, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

Two of Halton Region’s popular fall waste diversion events are fast approaching.

The fall Compost Giveaway event will take place on Saturday, September 12 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Halton Waste Management Site (HWMS) located at 5400 Regional Road 25 in Milton.

cvbfg

Regional Councillors showing off the larger size blue boxes. The Region is very proactive with its waste diversion programs.

The Region is also hosting the two remaining Special Waste Drop-off Days on Saturday, September 19 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Sheridan College in Oakville and on Saturday, October 24 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Mohawk Raceway in Campbellville.

Compost Giveaway Event
During the one-day, fall Compost Giveaway event, Halton Region will offer compost to residents free of charge. Residents are reminded to bring their own bags or containers (maximum seven garbage bags or equivalent per household) and a shovel in order to bag their own compost.

Residents attending this event are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item or cash donation, which will be distributed to Halton area food banks.

Composting - best way to get a garden to really produce - and this time it is free.

Composting – best way to get a garden to really produce – and this time it is free.

During the spring Compost Giveaway in May, 3,610 residents picked up approximately 1500 tonnes of compost created from all of the leaves, brush, tree and garden trimmings collected curbside and dropped off at the HWMS.

Residents also donated $7,878 and 3,640 kilograms of food to local food banks as part of the event. Visit halton.ca/compost for more information.

Special Waste Drop-off Days
To make the recycling of electronic and household hazardous waste more convenient for residents, Halton Region holds seven Special Waste Drop-off Days throughout the year, free of charge. Almost two thousand Halton residents dropped off electronic or household hazardous waste during Special Waste Drop-off Days earlier this year.

At this year’s two remaining special waste events on September 19 and October 24, residents are welcome to drop off acceptable items such as: pesticides, paint, motor oil, antifreeze, propane tanks, computers, stereos, TVs and DVD players.

Residents who are unable to attend the Special Waste Drop-off Days may drop off acceptable hazardous waste (20 litres per trip, no commercial materials) and electronic items, free of charge at the HWMS, 5400 Regional Road 25, Milton, Monday to Saturday between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Special Waste Drop-off Days are for Halton residents only. No commercial waste is accepted.

For more information on the upcoming waste diversion events and a complete list of acceptable and unacceptable hazardous items, contact Halton Region by dialing 311 or 905-825-6000, toll free 1-866-422-5866 or visit halton.ca/waste.

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The Forming of The Rising Sons - a Burlington band that once stood in the limelight - now doing a reunion in a sold out event

Event 100By 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.

Band Burl Central HS

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

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”.

First photo

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.

Rising Sons Van 3

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 Burl Central HS

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.

Standing Sons

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

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! She Just Likes MeThe 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

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

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 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.

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Burlington youth invite federal candidates to speak to them; the event is seen as a kind act.

News 100 blueBy Pepper Parr

August 19, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

Youth from across the Burlington have been invited by the 3 Things for Burlington team to hear what the Federal Election Candidates have to say about issues related to young people and to learn how a federal election works.

There will be an interactive discussion designed to ensure the politicians hear the voice of youth and understand that youth issues are important.

The event takes place Monday, 31 August 2015 from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM at the Burlington Public Library – Central Branch Centennial Hall.

The event is being put on by 3 Things for Burlington, a youth led initiative that wants to inspire others, initiate change, and impact our community.

Free tickets can be had by clicking on the link to the left

3 things for BurlingtonTheir core activity is to encourage everyone in the city to take part in three kind acts each day and share your story with the group.  These young people believe Burlingtonians will feel more connected to their community and to others.

When two members of the group, Bryan Giron and Chris Choi, delegated before city council they got a very enthusiastic response – didn’t see any kind act in the days that followed – maybe the concept doesn’t apply to elected officials.

Randi Minaker is the project lead with a group of teens that sit on a Steering Committee who plan all of the events, and discuss how they could better spread the word about the project.

These teens encourage every citizen in the City of Burlington, no matter age or ability, to take part in 3 random acts of kindness. Once people complete a kind act we ask that they either check out our website, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to share their story with us.

By sharing your story with us we believe that it will inspire others to take part in this initiative. After all, 3 Things for Burlington is all about inspiring others, initiating change, and impacting community.

3 Things for Burlington has been around since early 2015, their official launch party was in July. A youth committee came up with the idea for the election related event and they were able to get funding for the project through the Laidlaw Foundation.

Election signs - many

Some of Burlington’s youth will be taking part in an event where candidates for federal office will be speaking directly to youth and there issues.

The 3 Things for Burlington Steering Committee decided that they wanted to host a Federal Candidate Discussion for youth as one of their 3 Things. They noted that young people tend not to vote when they come of age because they are not educated enough on what their candidates stand for.

At this event, which all candidates from all parties have been invited, youth will be educated on the political platforms of our candidates, and have the opportunity to ask any questions. They will be learning about issues that directly impact youth, and how an election works.

This event is politically neutral, none of our team is a part of any political party; they have made sure that all candidates were invited.

The format will have each candidate addressing the people who show up followed by time for questions as well. They will also have a welcome package with information about the upcoming election, how it works, and other important info.

Minaker helped the teens set up the event.  She works for Community Development Halton.

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Temporary changes to the bus service to Hamilton; Detour Routes: 1, 1X and 101 Express on Aug. 20, 2015

News 100 redBy Staff

August 19, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

When something happens in Hamilton it sometimes impacts Burlington.

Temporary changes to the bus service to Hamilton;

Detour Routes: 1, 1X and 101 Express on Aug. 20, 2015
Due to the closure of Bay Street from 9:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. between King Street and York Blvd in downtown Hamilton on August 20, 2015 Burlington Transit routes 1, 1x and 101 Express will be detoured as follows:

• Regular routing to King Street and Bay Street,
• Right on Hess Street,
• Left on Cannon Street,
• Resume regular routing

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