Each year the Burlington Foundation nominates and celebrates a person who believes that the things you do for others remains your legacy.
The Foundation ask citizens of Burlington to help them in discovering and celebrating a community giver who quietly recognizes the power of one person’s influence.
The Foundation is looking for an individual, couple or family, who have a history of constantly thinking about how they can take action and help others.
The Foundation’s Presenting Partner, Great-West Life, London Life, Canada Life are part of the honouring a true everyday community hero, our Distinguished Philanthropist for 2018.
Please submit nominations on or before 5 p.m., May 28, 2018.
The selected nominee will be honoured Thursday, October 18, 2018 at our People Power 2018 community celebration of giving.
The Barrie Baycats’ quest for a fifth straight Intercounty Baseball League title started with a 3-1 win over the visiting Kitchener Panthers Sunday afternoon.
The Barrie Baycats were the top team in 2017 – got off to a good 2018 start by winning their home opener.
Kyle DeGrace and Kevin Atkinson each had solo home runs in the decisive seventh inning as Barrie increased its lead to 3-0. Brandon Dhue singled home Branfy Infante in the sixth.
Emilis Guerrero (1-0) went seven scoreless innings for the win, scattering two hits with one walk and six strikeouts.
Chris Nagorski picked up the save after giving up a run on three hits with two strikeouts in the ninth.
Mike Gordner drove in the Panthers’ run, while Colin Gordner had two of Kitchener’s six hits.
Adrian Yuen (0-1) took the loss after giving up a run on two hits in an inning.
Panthers starter Christian Hauck went three scoreless innings, walking four and striking out five while allowing one hit.
The Toronto Maple Leafs opened the 100th Intercounty Baseball League season and 50 years of ownership under Jack Dominico with a 10-6 win over the London Majors at Christie Pits Sunday afternoon.
Toronto led 7-0 after the first inning and held off a late London surge for its first win of 2018.
Jonathan Solazzo went 2-for-5 with a home run, two RBI and two runs, while teammate Julian Johnson hit a three-run blast in the Leafs’ seven-run first.
Mike Reeves had two hits, two RBI and scored three times, Dan Marra had three singles and scored a run, and Adam Odd went 2-for-4 with a run.
Leafs starter Zac Sloan (1-0) benefitted from the offence, going five scoreless innings and allowing one hit with four walks and four strikeouts.
Petro De Los Santos picked up the last five outs for the save, allowing a run on no hits with two walks and a strikeout.
Edward Salcedo led London’s attack with two hits, including a home run, while driving in three and stealing a base. RJ Fuhr singled twice and scored three times, and Chris McQueen singled once and scored twice. Byron Reichstein had the other RBI.
Joan Montero (0-1) took the loss, allowing seven unearned runs on five hits in two innings as the Majors committed three errors. Montero struck out one and walked one.
The Burlington Herd were taken out of contention in the quarter finals; winning just the game. Their 2018 Home opener takes place on Saturday May 12th at Nelson Park – 1:05 pm. The Herd plays the Barrie Baycats on Sunday.
Future games Friday, May 11 Toronto at London, 7:35 p.m.
Saturday, May 12 Brantford at Guelph, 1 p.m. Kitchener at Burlington, 1:05 p.m.
Sunday, May 13 Burlington at Barrie, 2 p.m. London at Kitchener, 2 p.m. Guelph at Toronto, 2 p.m. Hamilton at Brantford, 2 p.m.
Crime Stoppers of Halton, in partnership with FileBank Canada, is hosting two Shred Events this May to help combat Identity Theft and other fraud.
The Burlington event will be held Saturday, May 26, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the parking lot at M.M. Robinson High School on Upper Middle Road. The Shred Event in Oakville will take place on Sunday, May 27, from 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the parking lots (A, B, C) of Halton Regional Centre on 1151 Bronte Road.
Shreds sensitive documents.
For a cash donation to Halton’s Crime Stoppers program, residents and business owners can feed FileBank’s “Beast” – a state-of-the-art mobile shredding vehicle – to ensure destruction of personal and sensitive documents so they are not used by scam artists to defraud victims.
Identity Theft remains one of the largest means of fraud with losses running into the billions of dollars
Detective Constable Jodi Richmond, police coordinator of Halton Crime Stoppers, said it’s important for people to protect themselves from becoming victims by ensuring any documents with personal information are destroyed properly.
The flow of people wanting to have sensitive financial documents shredded is usually consistent all day.
She also warned that anyone can become a victim of Identity Theft, but seniors are particularly vulnerable because of the amount of paper work they amass through the years from financial institutions and other sources.
“Items such as cancelled cheques, financial records, old letterhead, invoices, copies of job applications or anything containing personal information can easily be used by criminals to obtain credit cards; steal money from bank accounts; procure passports or other identification and even get a mortgage on your home without you even knowing,” Richmond said. “Destroying confidential and business documents is the best way to protect yourself from becoming a victim of fraud.”
Halton Crime Stoppers is committed to helping people protect themselves from this crime with conveniently located community shred campaigns across the region throughout the year.
Detective Constable Richmond
Detective Constable Richmond also pointed out that FileBank’s process is eco-friendly since all sensitive documents pulverized through the mobile shredding equipment is recycled into new paper products.
In addition, those bringing old financial records and other documents to the shredding site in Burlington will receive a 500-sheet package of recycled paper courtesy of Domtar, one of Canada’s leading paper producers.
“Shred events hosted by Crime Stoppers of Halton are a win-win situation for everyone,” Richmond said.
A century of baseball in Ontario started in 1919, the IBL kicks off its 100th season this weekend.
The opening game will be a rematch of last year’s championship series as the defending champion Barrie Baycats play host to the Kitchener Panthers for a Sunday afternoon matinee.
The Baycats swept the Kitchener Panthers to win their fourth title in a row last summer.
Herd player sliding home in a 2017 game. Ph by Crystal Young
Meanwhile, down the 400, the Toronto Maple Leafs play host to the London Majors in another afternoon game. The IBL has a number of events planned to celebrate its 100th Season and thanks to Rawlings, the league will use commemorative baseballs this season.
Sunday is another milestone as this marks the 100th season for the Panthers and the 50th season for Toronto Maple Leafs owner Jack Dominico.
The IBL finishes off its first century with eight teams as the Guelph Royals return after failing to finish the 2017 season. The Royals, with new owner Shawn Fuller at the helm, have no intentions of living in the basement this season.
Veteran IBL baseball man Steve Scagnetti wasted little time in putting the Royals back in the mix. The Royals acquired reigning MVP Sean Reilly as well as first baseman Justin Interisano from the Kitchener Panthers and have former Panthers field manager Dave TeBoekhorst at the helm.
Hamilton Cardinals, who struggled last season, also have new ownership. A community group, led by P.J. Mercanti, looks to revitalize the Steel City franchise. In conjunction with that new ownership, the city of Hamilton has committed to major improvements to Bernie Arbour Stadium.
The London Majors have their home opener next Friday night while the Burlington Herd open up Saturday followed by home openers for the Brantford Red Sox and Kitchener Panthers next Sunday.
Fill out the form on the Herd website for your chance to win: Three Tickets to the Locker Room Lager Opening Day All-You-Can-Eat Seats behind home plate Three Burlington Herd T-Shirts Three tickets to a July Toronto Blue Jays Home Game Contest closes on May 10th, 2018 at 11:59 p.m.
If the weather holds Conservation Halton could get the 100 community volunteers it needs to help plant 500 native trees and shrubs at Bayview Park on King Road; a part of the city where the Jefferson Salamander crosses the road to mate in the spring.
The view of th Bay and the Skyway bridge from Bayview Park.
The park is in between two of the cell quarries where shale is mined for the manufacturing of brick. It has astounding views of the Bay and the Skyway bridge. It is home to a rifle club; the space where model airplane enthusiasts send the models climbing into the sky and an enclosed dog run.
At the bottom of the photograph is the location of the now closed city dump. To the right of that is the western cell of the quarry with the brick manufacturing plant below. Then Bayview Park where there is a rifle range, a Dog Run and space for the model airplane people. On the eastern side of King Road there is the Centre cell of the quarry. To the left of the red marker is a forested area where the brick manufacturer wants to begin mining for shale in the eastern cell – that’s where the 900 tress are going o have to be cut down.
Registration and check-in for the tree planters will begin at 9 am. Light refreshments will be available – coffee, juice, water and a continental breakfast. Volunteers are reminded to dress according to the weather, wear waterproof boots and bring a shovel.
The Tyandaga people, who live two quarry cells to the east of Bayview Park are delighted to learn that more trees are going to be planted – what they fear is that the 9000 trees around the most easterly quarry will get cut down. In a letter to the Mayor the Tyandaga Coalition people said:
“We are pleased to read that the City of Burlington is partnering with Conservation Halton and CootesToEscarpment in a “Trees for Watershed” Health” tree planting event that is, ironically, just across the road from where Meridian Brick intends to destroy 9,000 trees of the diminishing Carolinian forest.
Excavation equipment like this will operate yards away from the homes on West Haven Drive once the eastern cell of the three cell quarry begins to be mined for shale.
“Why is that we yet again need to request our City’s participation in coming to a resolution on this matter? A request the Tyandaga Environmental Coalition (www.tecburlington.com) has repeatedly brought to your attention since September 2015. We have constantly and consistently asked you and the City to be part of a solution that is to the benefit of ALL but once again you prefer to take the political photo- op rather than make the hard decision to stand by your own statement – “more than ever, sustainability and green initiatives need to be our priorities,”. Your inaction on the Meridian Brick quarry development matter is very concerning.
“What proactive and sustainable measures will you take beyond telling us that this is not a City matter. Surely the fact that, to our knowledge, there have been no official Air Quality measurements by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) and the Ministery of Natural Resources and Forestry ( MNRF) is of concern to you and the City, especially when you consider the numerous ‘heavy’ industries that surround the tax- paying residents of the Tyandaga and Aldershot areas, and beyond.
“Without this Air Quality information what guarantee can you assure the residents with respect to their health and well-being?
Now is the time to show us that you will help all who “live, work and play” in our City and live up to your many talks of a greener and healthier Burlington when you said: – “we want to create a sustainable and healthy Burlington for our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren”.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with leasing out a school that is empty and not being used.
What is wrong is not telling the public what you have done.
The Halton District School Board leased the Lester B. Pearson high school to the Halton Catholic District School Board.
Pearson high school is schedule for closure in June of 2017 due to poor enrollment.
The parents at Pearson high school didn’t agree with that decision and argued vociferously that there school could be kept open if the Board kept the elementary feeder schools in place.
Pearson high school parents at a Board of Education meeting – they did everything they could to keep their school open.
The trustees didn’t see it that way and voted to close the school and have the Pearson students begin attending M.M. Robinson high school in September of 2018.
Merging the two student populations has not been an easy task. How well that merging is going to work will be known in September when the former Pearson students begin showing up at M.M. Robinson in September.
Some of the parents at Pearson have always felt there was some other reason for closing their school. Those suspicions were given some validity when the Board of Education, without any public discussion, met in a closed session to decide to lease the school the Catholic Board.
Some questions:
Who called who?
Did the Public school board call the Catholic school Board or was it the other way around?
When did the discussions about a leasing possibility take place?
The when is critical – and that may be the reason for the HDSB handling this matter in private session.
It is understood that the Catholic school board wants to do some major renovations to one of their high schools – Assumption, and that they wanted to close their school while the work was being done. Nothing wrong with that.
But did the Catholic School Board talk to the Public School Board before the trustees had made a decision to close Pearson?
Did the availability of an opportunity to lease the school have any influence on the decision to close Pearson?
And why is the public learning about this now?
At the May 2nd meeting of the HDSB, vice chair Ehl Harris read into the record two resolutions that were passed in the private session to:
Approve the resolutions from private session respecting property matters.
Ehl Harris moved the motion, Oakville trustee Kelly Amos quickly seconded the motion. There was a bit of confusion whether trustee Papin wanted to be the seconder of the motion (Pearson high school is in her ward)
Board Chair Grebenc said to trustee Papin “You don’t actually want to speak do you?”
Director of Education Stuart Miller during the vote to approve resolutions made in a closed session of the Board of Education.
When it was clear that Papin didn’t want to speak – she just wanted to be the seconder of the motion, the chair then asked if anyone else wanted to speak.
Not a word from anyone.
They voted and that was that – Pearson is leased to the Catholic Board for a year.
Everything was going according to whatever plan was hatched in the private session- this Board of trustees was going to make sure they stayed on script.
Get the resolutions on the record as quickly and as quietly as you can and move on.
There is no surer way to lose the trust of the public than to try to fool or hood wink them; and without public trust there can be no growth and without growth the students who enter those schools lose and cynicism takes over.
Why did Stuart Miller not tell the public how the opportunity to lease a school he no longer needed to another school Board came about?
Burlington has a community that just doesn’t trust it’s school board trustees. And there is, on the surface, very good reason not to trust them.
A media release from the Halton District School Board:
“At the May 2, 2018 meeting, trustees of the Halton District School Board passed a motion to temporarily lease Lester B. Pearson High School to the Halton Catholic District School Board (HCDSB) beginning November 1, 2018. This request from the HCDSB serves as temporary accommodation for Assumption Catholic Secondary School students during the school’s upcoming renovation expected to begin in late 2018.
“This temporary lease of the school by the HCDSB will commence on November 1, 2018 to prepare the school for student accommodation during the second semester. The term of the lease will end on August 31, 2019.
“This provides a responsible use of the school facilities until the Halton District School Board determines the future use of the school property according to Ontario Regulation 444/98. The leasing of this school property to another school board is not precedent setting. The Halton District School Board has leased school facilities to other school boards in the past on a temporary basis.
“Lester B. Pearson High School will be closing at the end of June 2018 with students moving to nearby M.M. Robinson High School.”
There was not a word of public debate on this matter during the May 2nd Board of trustees meeting.
The Board meets in closed session for a period of time before each public meeting. They pass motions during those private meetings and debate in private.
What the public got to hear was a motion that approved all the motions about a “property matter”done in the closed session. And then the next day the releases of a media notice.
And that was the extent of what the elected trustees had to say.
At each Board of Education meeting there is a report from the Director of Education – he didn’t say a word either.
It is one of the most universally recognized casino games, both at land-based casinos as well as online casino establishments: roulette attracts a great multitude of gamers each day from every part of the world.
Roulette is one of the popular gambling terms that have made it to our day-to-day vocabulary!
In American roulette the wheel is at the head of the roulette table.
While everyone knows that roulette is about spinning the wheel, and betting on various options, there are some distinct differences between the popular versions of roulette.
Although American and European roulette are quite similar to each other, you must know the subtle differences between the two if you wish to play them on a regular basis.
It’s also important for anyone wanting to win consistently from roulette, to play only at a reputed casino. For instance, playing roulette at Mr. Green, you’re guaranteed the fairness of the roulette games and your payouts being handed over to you
How these two versions differ?
Roulette evolved gradually and simultaneously over a period of time in America and Europe. However, certain differences started emerging between the two from the early stages. These differences included their unusual table layouts, the way in which wheel was positioned, including different colour-coded chips.
If it is your lucky day you could bag huge roulette wins such as this one!
However, it’s the American roulette with its wheel at the head of the roulette table, and simpler betting options, which has been widely adopted throughout the world. If there is one big difference between these two roulette styles, it’s to do with the number of zeros in them.
The single zero roulette emerged sometime in 1843 when Bad Homburg Casino went in with the game thinking that a roulette game with a lower casino edge would increase their casino’s popularity. Once they moved to Monte Carlo Casino, their prediction became a reality and the version was soon exported to the different parts of the world.
It was Las Vegas and Monte Carlo that determined the gambling trend during the 20th century. While the Monte Carlo’s single 0 roulette game came to be recognized as the European roulette, the 00 version of the US became the American roulette.
These zeros in roulette are often called the bankers slots as they’re the numbers that give casino an edge over the player.
Roulette is one of the popular gambling terms that is part of our day-to-day vocabulary!
About American roulette
American roulette employs both 0 and 00, having a house edge of 5.26%, significantly higher than European roulette (with a single zero).
Regardless of the lower odds, purists often go with the American version, staying loyal to roulette in its original form. American roulette has been widely adopted in land-based and online casinos throughout Europe, US and UK.
About European roulette
As mentioned earlier, European roulette only has one 0 in it, making a total of 37 outcomes possible. As a result, the house edge reduces to 2.7% in European roulette, significantly lower than the American version.
Not just that, European roulette also has a betting option known as ‘En Prison’ wherein players are allowed to take back half of their bet amount, on the even/odd bets, whenever the ball lands on the 0. The house edge goes down even further in case of such 50/50 gambles.
On the whole, European roulette appears as slightly more even and beneficial game, making it more popular among the beginning roulette players.
Although Doug Ford has slipped a tad in the polls he is still very much in majority territory. So what would a Ford government mean for the health of our health system. Ford claims he’ll add 30,000 hospital beds over the next decade – two and half terms in office.
How does anyone come up with a figure like that? I guess if you want people to believe something you make it sound spectacular. I’m not saying he won’t or doesn’t intend to live up to that promise of creating more beds and bed spaces. But does he even know how many beds are in service today?
The Ontario Hospital Association likes to share a wealth of statistics with its clients. There are 145 hospitals in the province, employing 200,000 people. They do over 350,000 in-patient surgeries and 1.2 million out-patient surgeries and treat 6.3 million emergency patient visits each year. But nobody is saying anything about how many beds are in service. That may be because the number of beds is only one, and not the best measure of how a health care system is performing.
Aren’t doctors telling patients these days that they need to avoid staying in a hospital any longer than absolutely necessary – that the last place you want to be when you’re sick is in a hospital bed if you can avoid it. These places are crawling with infections with scary sounding names like strep and MRSA. There are horror stories of some patients coming home sicker than when they went in.
It’s everywhere yet our healthcare system generally does a good job. Oh sure health care, especially among seniors, is such a common topic that when you ask ten people about the quality of delivery you’ll get eleven different opinions, depending on the day. But a recent Conference Board study of health care systems overall among 30 global jurisdictions places Ontario seventh.
Perhaps Australia gets help from the lowly (duck billed) platypus, the milk of which research indicates may have properties that protect against infections.
Only B.C. which placed third, scored better among Canadian jurisdictions. Ontario scored better than the Canadian average and beat all but four European nations each of which spend considerably more than we do, and Australia. Perhaps Australia gets help from the lowly (duck billed) platypus, the milk of which research indicates may have properties that protect against infections resistant to antibiotics (MSRA).
Moreover, according to the Fraser Institute, Ontario has the lowest hospital wait times in the country, almost a third less than New Brunswick. And yes, those times have increased since 1993, as have all of those in Canada, but so have the demands of an aging population.
Former Premier of Ontario Mike Harris
1993 was only two years before Mike Harris’ Common Sense Revolution in which Harris promised to leave health care untouched by his cost-cutting surgical knife. But that wasn’t what happened. As he closed hospitals and cut staff, wait times grew to the highest in Canada. It is not an exaggeration to say that some patients were literally dying in the corridors waiting to get into heart surgery, Others had to be transported to the USA for radiotherapy or an MRI, as we recall.
Back then Globe and Mail columnist John Ibbitson went through journalistic perdition trying to get the Harris government to simply tell him the number of operable hospital beds. It turns out that there had been 35,194 acute-care hospital beds in Ontario in 1990.
But a decade later, after only five years into Harris’ revolution, bed numbers had fallen to 21,805, a decline of 38 per cent. “Chronic-care beds declined by 32 per cent over the decade, from 11,436 to 7,787. During that time, Ontario’s population grew by 1.3 million (9 per cent) and its mean age increased by a year and a half, to 36.9 years”.
So it may be a little hard to take Doug Ford seriously with his 30,000 bed promise, while also hearing him promise to bring back Harris-like cuts of overall government spending by six billion dollars. Everybody knows that when it comes to cutting, the most vulnerable area and biggest target is health care. We’ve seen this movie before.
Ontario has the best health care system in Canada given the reviews on overall quality and wait times. But it is also the most efficient in Canada with the lowest per capita cost in the country. It could always be better of course, but it could also be a lot worse.
Doug Ford – wants to be the next Premier of Ontario
Doug Ford may well become our next premier. But before he wins the support of Ontario voters he needs to do more than just pick a number (30,000 beds) out of the air. The truth is that the Liberals have done a good job in restoring and managing the health care system over the last decade and a half. In fact, the full implementation of pharmacare and other provisions presented in the last budget will make it even better.
Ford needs to convince the province’s voters, particularly its senior citizens and parents of young children who are the heaviest users of our health care system, that he can do at least as well. He needs to convince us that he is not going to pull another Mike Harris on us.
Ray Rivers writes regularly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Tweet @rayzrivers
Art in Action – that opportunity people have to tour close to a dozen studios around the city each fall has announced that they are once again offering a graduating Burlington High School student a scholarship in 2018. This year’s scholarship is in memory of one of our long-standing artists that passed away this year.
Edward Robin Hoyer was a true artistic spirit that welcomed life with his arms wide open. He will be truly missed on this year’s tour.
The applying student must be graduating from a Burlington High School in the school year 2018, and is intending to pursue a future career in the Arts, studying at the post secondary level in an arts focused program. The jurors are looking for originality, creativity, concept and execution.
The scholarship has a minimum value of $1000.00 to be awarded to the most deserving student and is to be awarded at the school’s commencement ceremonies. The student is invited to participate in the gallery exhibit, the Burlington Studio Tour and will receive media attention.
Sarah Tom Art in Action winner 2014
Emma Roberts, Art in Action -2016 winner
In 2012, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Art in Action we initiated an annual scholarship to encourage young artists in Burlington pursuing a post secondary education in the fine arts. We were able to offer 2 scholarships of $1000.00 each to two Burlington students. From 2013 – 2017 we presented one Scholarship of $1 – 1,500.00 to a talented student.
The 2012 scholarship winner was both Olivia Hashka and Jessica Gneth; in 2013 was Michelle Nguyen was the scholarship winner and Annie Mason won in 2015
Art in Action is an organization that assists artists towards becoming entrepreneurs, by encouraging a social community for artists within Burlington. As well, Art in Action provides exposure for the artists within the Burlington community. Art in Action organizes and promotes a weekend Burlington Studio Tour on the first weekend of November, where juried participants showcase their work to the public in their own studio locations.
This self-guided tour is free for the public to come and enjoy. Other events include a gallery exhibit with work from all the artists in early fall. For more information check out our community sponsors and our artists at www.artinaction.ca
For more information about this scholarship contact your high school’s guidance counselor or contact, Darlene Throop, scholarship coordinator, for Art in Action at darlene.throop@gmail.com. All applications must be post marked by May 15th, 2018. All students, their Principals and Heads of Guidance will be notified by June 30th, 2018.
The federal government has a program that funds jobs for students during the summer. Employers apply for a portion of money they pay students they hire for the summer months.
The jobs are then listed and students can look and see if there is anything they are interested in.
The program offers students meaningful summer work experiences with local businesses and organizations, and helps them to facilitate future transitions from school to career.
Students with MP Pam Damoff talking about Summer job opportunities at Habitat for Humanity Restore
Since 2015, the federal government has doubled the number of jobs created through the Canada Summer Jobs program, creating paid work experience for nearly 70,000 students each year. Students who worked at Habitat for Humanity Halton- Mississauga last summer described their experience with Canada Summer Jobs, saying:
“The Canada Summer Jobs program has been such a fulfilling and enriching experience—I am truly fortunate to have enjoyed two successful summers at Habitat for Humanity. I have gained so much valuable and tangible experience from my time here.”
Students aged 15 to 30 who are returning to full time school in the fall can apply for a valuable summer work experience through Canada Summer Jobs.
In making the announcement earlier this week Oakville North Burlington MP Pam Damoff xxx
If you or someone you know is interested in applying you canfind the complete list of employers hiring in Oakville North Burlington.
Please feel free to contact Damoff’s at pam.damoff@parl.gc.ca or by phone at 905-847-4043 for more information.
On Thursday, April 26th the students of Mrs. Yott’s Food and Nutrient class volunteered at Wellington Square United Church to help prepare the weekly Friday Night Community Dinner hosted by the church.
There were a total of eleven excitable students who walked from Burlington Central High School to the Church to showcase their talents in the kitchen, crafts and care packages. The eleven students that were involved in this endeavour were Alexis Ray, Kerala Mathew, Se Heon Bae, Cameron Sagar, Elissa Radanovic, Shannon Russell, Sarah Mulay, Lily Blythe, Reagan Day, Nicole Ubando and Anisa Hussein.
Burlington Central High School students prepare community dinner at Wellington Square United Church.
The eleven students helped make a variety of culinary delights including different types of cookies and muffins. “We were basically feeding an army.” Said Elissa. It was told by one of the church representatives that there would be over 300 people coming to this helpful and weekly event.
While some students were cooking away in the kitchen others were more than happy to help with the crafts. “During the tour, when my friends and I found out that the church created dolls and teddy bears for children in the hospital, we couldn’t stay away; especially since the elders making them were so kind.” Explained Shannon. The students sat there working with the ladies for a good hour and didn’t want to leave.
The students also helped organize care packages which carried five juice boxes and ten snacks for children in need. “It takes a weight off the parents shoulders financially knowing that their child has food for school.” Said Hazel another regular volunteer at the church.
There was a lot of work packed into the six hours the students spent at the church but it was pleasurable at the same time. Everyone was so engaged with helping that the time seemed to slip by quickly.
Afterwards, the students were able to reflect on their excursion and the consensus was they would love to return to the warm and caring environment to replicate their experience.
The Burlington Central High School, Food and Nutrient class would like to express their gratitude to the representatives of Wellington Square Church for making the time spent there memorable.
Shannon Russell is a very keen grade 10 student who also swims competitively at a national level. Her main interests include: swimming and hanging out with friends.
The community now knows what it is going to look like and they weren’t all that impressed with what they saw and heard at a neighbourhood meeting last night at the Lions Hall.
The questions were consistently critical with the president of Revenue Properties sitting quietly in a corner watching every movement, gauging the audience very carefully.
The architects prepared a rendering of there structure and shadowed in how it will relate to the already approved 423 Brant development. Both are on opposite sides of James Street across from city hall. The intention is to angle the corners of the of each building on the Brant James intersection allowing for an opening up to the Civic Square and a more expansive view. done right – it could work.
The architect did a decent job of explaining how the building was going to connect relate to the development to the already approved 23 storey on the north side of James and Civic square which was described as an underutilized space.
The design of the buildings will have a portion of one of the corners cut away so that the view from James Street opens up onto Civic Square. There really isn’t all that much traffic going west on James – but architecturally it could add some flair to the streetscape.
Civic Square will be getting a total face lift – mention was made of a community design exercise
Glen Wellings, the developer’s planning consultant, earned his fee – he managed to skirt around the issues that he was uncomfortable with. There was one occasion when Wellings tried to toss a question to one of the Revenue Property executives who waved Welling’s off. Those people tend not to answer directly – that’ what the hired guns are brought in for.
He explained that this first public showing of the development was meant to gather opinions and reactions from the public.
Most of the people in the room understood that – what they were having difficulty with was that their views didn’t seem to get very far beyond their mouths.
It is close to a given that this structure is going to get approved. If their developer doesn’t get that approval this development comes under the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) and not the newly created Land Planning Act Tribunal (LPAT).
The city staffer who served as moderator struggled to keep the microphone in her hand. George Ward, a resident of ward 4 wasn’t able to get it out of her hands.
At one point the Mayor and the ward 2 Councillor began to get into a slinging match over “facts” – Meed Ward arguing that the Mayor didn’t have his facts quite right.
When it began to get a little feisty the staffer cut them both off – not something you see from city hall staff very often.
Parking both in and out will be from John street. That parking ramp in the middle of the building makes for pretty small retail spaces. The scale of the set back, shown here in the upper left, gives you some idea as to how the building will open up on to Civic Square
Parking was a focal point – the development will have .92 parking spaces per unit (a total of 212 parking spots) in a structure that will have 224 units that will be 1, (600 sq. ft.) 2(850 sq. ft. and 3 bedroom with 1200 sq. ft. of space. Current planning rules call for 1.2 parking spaces for each unit. There will be no parking for the commercial spaces
Nothing on pricing.
No mention of park space.
There will be just one level of commercial space – those units will be very small but will ring the building.
No visitor parking.
Good bold design – quite a bit different than anything Burlington has seen in the past.
A major concern for several people was what will happen to Brant Street during construction – especially if the two projects are under construction at the same time.
It s a bold design that will have retail on all four sides of the building. But much less in the way of retail square footage. This view looks south to the lake with city hall on the right and the Queen’s Head where it has always been and where it is always going to be.
The architect suggested that it would take two and a half to three years to complete the building – they are putting in five levels of underground parking.
The entrances to the underground parking will be on John Street for both buildings – the public is looking at some 400 cars that will be entering and leaving the two buildings on a street that will have bus traffic all day.
There won’t be much in the way of vibrancy on Brant Street from about Ontario street south for that five year period – the east side of the street will be hoardings and construction overheads.
Wellings kept dropping in the phrase “a complete community” which he didn’t really define.
The Albert Schneider and the Kelly’s Bake shop locations are being kept as historical sites – what the public will see when the project is completed will be far from what is there today.
The buildings will be taken back to what they looked like in their early renditions when Brant and John Streets were quiet pokey little places where everyone knew everyone and the merchants knew your first name.
Back to the time when Spencer Smith walked the streets of the town and Smith was the Police Chief, when the Gazette was a print publication with an office on Brant Street.
The process going forward is for planning department staff to meet with the developer and compare notes on what he public had to say. The developer will be expected to come back with some changes to deal with the prime concerns.
The phrase Section 37 benefits for the community didn’t get mentioned; expect the developer to say that keeping the two historical structures is what the public will get.
There is a lot of misunderstanding in the minds of the public. The city is required to accept every development that is dropped on their doorstep and if it is a complete development with all the required studies attached they are required to write a report to city council recommending that it be accepted, turned down or have significant changes made. That’s the law – the city has to live within those rules
The various levels of set back. As the building rises the area gets smaller. How much will there be in the way of changes when this eventually gets to city council? Hard to tell – depends to a large degree on the kind of city council the citizens elect.
The site is made up of nine different properties that are .02 of a hectare in area. One woman wanted to know what a hectare looked like – It was a unit of measure she wasn’t familiar with. No one was able to give her a sense as to just how big this development was going to be.
Another downtown resident asked why the building has to be 24 storeys high “why can’t you leave it at 17”. The answer was “it’s the money honey!”
This development will get to a council that may well be quite a bit different than the one in place now. There may be a new Mayor with a perspective a lot different than that of the current planner.
There are at least two declared candidates that see the current city manager as not quite what the city needs.
Things are just a poppin at city hall. Hang on to your hats!
The Gazette had heard that Marty Staz was expressing some interest in running for the ward 1 council seat.
There is a group in Aldershot who are close to desperate to find a candidate that can replace four term council member Rick Craven.
There was a potential female candidate who was made one of Burlington’s BEST a few years ago. She was reported to be “seriously thinking about running” but the sense the Gazette gets the sense that her heart is not in it.
Staz, a former printer and now a real estate agent is said to be thinking about running for office. There seems to be a small swell of support for the man.
The Gazette sent Staz a note:
Would you suggest a time today when you and I can have a conversation.
The response:
Regarding?
We replied:
Your plans to run for public office.
His response:
Nothing to comment yet
It isn’t a no – which is more than the Aldershot crowd looking for a Craven replacement had yesterday.
The province is going to pump $460,000 into the East Plains Co-operative Preschool making it easier for families in Burlington to find high-quality licensed child care; 25 new spaces will be created.
These new spaces will help to accommodate families taking advantage of the government’s free preschool child care program.
This is part of a series of actions the government is taking to ensure that every child and family has access to a range of high-quality and affordable child care.
This funding is on top of the government’s investment in renovation and addition projects at schools across the province, which will create more than 15,000 new licensed child spaces.
It is the latest step in creating 100,000 more child care spaces for children up to four years old over the next five years.
Since September 2016, Ontario has increased access to licensed child care for a total of 31,000 children aged 0-4.
Beginning in 2020, the government is making licensed preschool child care absolutely free for kids from age 2.5 until they are eligible to start kindergarten.
Building more child care spaces and making child care more affordable will give parents, especially women, more choice about when and if they return to work.
After a couple of videos that had Doug Ford, who is running for the office of Premier of Ontario, explaining to unidentified groups what he was prepared to do with Greenbelt lands – the public reaction was close to fierce.
Within a day he back tracked – and that idea was off the table.
Doug Ford – running for the Office of Premier. Learned to back track on his Greenbelt ideas.
He appears to be trainable and needs to be watched.
The Ford comments did flush out of the bushes a couple of the local developers with their view that they looked forward to building affordable housing in the Greenbelt.
The Greenbelt in rural Burlington is not the place where affordable housing is going to be built. Affordable housing has to be close to transit.
Halton Region doesn’t have a coherent affordable housing policy. The city of Burlington isn’t in the affordable housing business – that is a Regional responsibility.
The Region is at least half a decade behind creating the much needed affordable housing policy and working with the four municipalities that make up the Region.
Regional Council does photo-ops very well. Not doing quite as well with the development of an Affordable Housing policy.
A lot of work to be done on this file. Burlington’s current crop of politicians need to press the Region to come up with a policy – taking some ideas to the Region wouldn’t hurt but that isn’t going get done by those in office today.
The city is now into full election mode – citizens want to watch and listen carefully to what those seeking your vote have to say.
During February and March 2018, three elderly female victims were shopping at Ikea, Costco and one local Metro grocery store in the City of Burlington.
Each victim was targeted and their wallets were stolen in typical distraction style theft. Their credit cards were then later used at various stores and banks to obtain cash and products.
With assistance from York Regional Police, Halton police were able to identify the three accused for their involvement.
Arrested/Charged are:
Thiberius-Mihai FLOREA (29 yrs) of North York (held for bail and will appear next May 2, 2018)
• Unauthorized use of stolen credit card (two counts)
• Fraud under $5000 (two counts)
• Possession of property obtained by crime (two counts)
Suraj BRATIANU (41 years) of Markham (held for bail and will appear next May 2, 2018)
• Unauthorized use of stolen credit card
• Fraud under $5000
• Possession of property obtained by crime
Costel LAPADAT (34years) of Toronto (released on a promise to appear in Milton Court on May 23, 2018)
• Unauthorized use of stolen credit card
• Fraud under $5000
• Possession of property obtained by crime
Anyone with information regarding these incidents or other purse thefts is asked to contact Detective Constable Derek Gray of the Burlington Criminal Investigations Bureau – Vulnerable Persons and Seniors Liaison Team at 905-825-4747 ext. 2344.
Tips can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers “See Something? Hear Something? Know Something? Contact Crime Stoppers” at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), or through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.ca
Police continue to received reports of such thefts. The persons targeted are typically female senior citizens whose purses and/or wallets were stolen from their shopping carts while the owner was not looking. In some cases multiple offenders work in teams to distract the victim, bump their carts or ask for their assistance in the store or parking lot.
Watch the Crime Stoppers Video of purse thefts (actual footage) at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRxIeFBXyEE
Halton Regional Police are reminding residents to keep a close eye on their purses and wallets.
Prevention Tip: Residents are reminded to only carry the necessary identification such as Driver’s Licence or Health Card, and should try to minimize this potential loss by leaving their SIN card, birth certificate and passports securely at home.
If you become a victim of a purse or wallet theft please contact your financial services providers, cancel you cards and then call the Halton Regional Police to file a report.
By Staff
The Foundation is looking for an individual, couple or family, who have a history of constantly thinking about how they can take action and help others.
The Barrie Baycats’ quest for a fifth straight Intercounty Baseball League title started with a 3-1 win over the visiting Kitchener Panthers Sunday afternoon.
The Burlington Herd were taken out of contention in the quarter finals; winning just the game. Their 2018 Home opener takes place on Saturday May 12th at Nelson Park – 1:05 pm. The Herd plays the Barrie Baycats on Sunday.
The traditional Mother’s Day Champagne Tea takes place on May 12!
The Ontario Hospital Association likes to share a wealth of statistics with its clients. There are 145 hospitals in the province, employing 200,000 people. They do over 350,000 in-patient surgeries and 1.2 million out-patient surgeries and treat 6.3 million emergency patient visits each year. But nobody is saying anything about how many beds are in service. That may be because the number of beds is only one, and not the best measure of how a health care system is performing.
Ray Rivers writes regularly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Tweet @rayzrivers
Mayor
Shannon Russell is a very keen grade 10 student who also swims competitively at a national level. Her main interests include: swimming and hanging out with friends.
These new spaces will help to accommodate families taking advantage of the government’s free preschool child care program.
Mayor
