 By Pepper Parr
September 15, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
The Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation has announced that Michael Lee-Chin and his family have made a $10 million dollar donation at its 14th annual Crystal Ball Gala.
The donation is the largest ever made in the City of Burlington and the largest made to the Joseph Brant Hospital. This gift brings the total raised for Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation’s Our New Era campaign to $37M – more than 60% of campaign goal.
 Michael Lee-Chin – hospital’s biggest donour. “There is no greater investment than in our health and the health of our community” said Lee-Chin. “We are embarking on a new era of health care in Burlington and I’m proud and honoured to be a part of it.”
Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation’s Our New Era campaign is on target to raise $60M by 2017 and will help enable the Hospital’s Redevelopment and Expansion Project which includes the construction of the new, state-of-the-art, seven-storey patient tower, scheduled to break ground in spring of 2015.
“We are so thankful to Michael Lee Chin and his family for their incredible generosity and for supporting our vision of a new era of health care in Burlington” says Brenda Hunter, Chair of the Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation Board. “This gift is a true testament to the family’s philanthropic spirit and to their commitment to ensuring our community has access to exceptional care, in a state-of-the-art facility”
Joseph Brant Hospital’s Redevelopment and Expansion Project includes the construction of the new patient tower which will house a 28,000 square foot Emergency Department, nine additional operating rooms, an expanded Cancer Clinic and Intensive Care Unit, a renovated special Care Nursery (level 2 NICU) and expanded medical, surgical, diagnostic and outpatient services.
The Hospital, which recently celebrated its 50 year anniversary, has not undergone a major renovation in 4 decades.
 Shovels will go into the ground next year for a new seven storey tower that will be named after Michael Lee-Chin who donated $10 million to the hospital foundation. The Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation is in the middle of a $60 million Capital Campaign, the largest in the Hospital’s and Burlington’s history, to support the local share component of the Redevelopment and Expansion Project.
The city of Burlington levied a tax on its citizens to raise an additional $60 million.
This campaign will be the most significant health care development in Burlington’s history and will ensure that our Community’s residents have access to quality care in the years ahead.
While it may not be all that polite at this point to mention, the hospital has had its problems in the past when more than 90 people died from complications related to c-difficile that resulted in a very significant insurance settlement.
There has yet to be a public apology from the hospital administration for the harm done to the community from that event.
Joseph Brant Hospital is a community hospital serving the City of Burlington and surrounding area since 1961. The hospital provides a range of services including medicine, surgery, emergency, maternal/child, mental health and rehabilitation/complex continuing care.
Joseph Brant currently operates 245 inpatient beds and accommodates over 170,000 patient visits, 13,512 admissions, 47,389 Emergency visits and 1,165 births each year. Its team includes 175 physicians, 1,400 full- and part-time professional health care staff and more than 600 active volunteers.
The hospital, its Foundation and Infrastructure Ontario are partnered on what will be the hospital’s first major redevelopment in 40 years. The design, build, finance project will include the construction of a new, seven-storey patient-care tower and significant renovations to existing space.
Past problems however should not take away from the incredible Lee-Chin donation; the new seven story tower will be named after Michael Lee Chin.
 By Pepper Parr
September 11, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Everyone knows what happened – a lot of rain came down and the pipes underground couldn`t handle it – which is true.
But there is more to the story than that – and understanding the more is, what will get the city and the Region to the point where they can figure out what they have to do to handle the next big storm. Everyone on this file seems to have assumed that we have not seen our last big rain storm.
City staff prepared an elaborate presentation that set out the full picture – and as ugly as it was – it is a look at what we might be facing for the next 50 years.
 Weather Network map of the part of Burlington where all the rain fell. The rain came over the city in three waves. The rainfall began to approach the city from across the lake at around 1:00 pm and was the first of what is reported to have been three different rain storms.
The 1:00 pm storm was followed by another at 4:00 pm and a final blow at 9:00 pm; the storms basically followed one another.
 The 191 mm of rain worked its way into the creeks and roared into the city – heading for a storm water system that couldn’t deal with the volume. As the rain blew in off the lake and approached the Escarpment the water made its way to the extensive creek structure that drains into Lake Ontario
Members of city council, who are all now in full election mode, tell people that we were not equipped to handle a storm of this size.
The city has creeks, storm sewers, culverts, catch basins, storm ponds, roads and swales to handle large sudden amounts of water. Unfortunately for all of us – we have let the swales and the creeks get away from their intended use and, when we needed them, – they didn`t do the job they were supposed to do for us.
Who is to blame for this – because there are a lot of people in this city who want to blame someone? Ward 5 Councillor Sharman held a meeting at the Pineland Baptist Church that he wanted to characterize as a private meeting. Sharman appears to have an understanding of what the problem was and is – but that didn`t wash all that well with the 30 some odd people who were in the church.
A decent grass roots community has evolved and they are gathering information – but don`t seem to have a sense as to what they want to do. Is there anything they can do?
Councillor Sharman commented frequently that the Region wasn`t anywhere near as forthcoming as they had to be with the homeowners – but he didn`t stress that he was running not just as a city Councillor but as a Regional Councillor as well.
 Creeks had far more vegetation than they were designed for – the Conservation Halton policy of letting the creek beds be as natural as possible – may have been a mistake. Those tree limbs got pushed and began to form dams that prevented the water from flowing into the lake. Water takes the path of least resistance – which turned out to be the streets of the city. To his credit Sharman did manage to get the Region to agree to do a detailed study of the storm water problem at a July meeting of the Region; little did he know then that his ward was to be deluged with rain fall less than three weeks later.
 Contractors were brought in to clear the debris from the badly damaged creeks. Watch for this expense to get reflected in the budget that gets put forward in the New Year, Sharman doesn`t have the political touch that Councillor Jack Dennison has and struggles with many of his constituents. Some of those constituents are flaming mad – one walks about with a thick file of papers urging people to think in terms of a class action suit.
These people are hurting – the financial burden to most of them is exceptionally difficult – and their homes cannot be sold. No one is going to want to live in those communities for some time.
How the city manages this crisis seems odd at times. City hall is focused on the infrastructure – they don’t seem to have anything for the citizens. Any help a citizen is going to get will come from their member of council.
What the city has done is outsourced the raising of funds to help people get at least some of the financial support many of them are going to need. The Burlington Community Foundation has taken on the task of raising funds that they hope will be matched by the province on a two for one basis under a provincial program called ODRAP –Ontario Disaster Relief and Assistance Program.
No one is certain just what the status of that application for help is at this point in time. When the BCF announced how they were going to manage the distribution of funds Mayor Goldring mentioned that this might take a long time – which doesn’t create much comfort or assurance for the people who need help.
The BCF has said they will begin to issue grants of up to $1000 for those people who are desperate and need some cash to cover the daily necessities. They are going to distribute funds even though they don`t know when or even if the province is going to match what the community raises on that two for one program.
Burlington is about to see just how slowly provincial bureaucrats move.
The city did see how fast people can get things done when they are committed, focused and motivated. The Samaritan’s Purse was in the city repairing homes the day after the storm.
 This is what Burlington looked like in the late 1990’s. Trees weren’t all that big and there were few swimming pools.  Same streetscape as above – see all those swimming pools – what did they do to the natural flow of rain water. We know now what they did. During the briefing given at Council on Monday, city staff explained that the problem lies with changes that were made in the Ontario building code and how storm water pipes and sewage pipes were put in place.
Homes built prior to 1968 had to meet a code that called for pipes being put in one way – homes built after 1969 called for a different set up.
Much of the problem rests on weeping tiles and downspouts and where the water that passes through these two parts of a house actually goes.
City staff talked of the “new norm” and how we can prepare for that change. That new norm has been around for more than a decade – In Peterborough there was 193mm of rain on July 15th, 2004. Hamilton got 110mm on July 26th of 2009. Thunder Bay got 91 mm on May 28, 2012.
Peterborough didn’t get a dime from the provincial government – which does not bode well for Burlington’s chances of getting all that much from the provinces ODRAP program. Not much has been heard from MP Ted McMeekin who represents Flamborough just to the west of us. No one is sure that he is at his desk all that much.
The city activated its Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) at 9:00pm on August 4th. Roads and Parks Maintenance people responded to 103 calls and the city called former city general manager Kim Phillips, who had retired a month earlier, back to city hall to help out. Both the city manager and the Mayor were out of the city and didn’t get back until the following day.
 The colours tell the story. The older sub-divisions adhered to a different building code. There is a direct correlation between the older subdivisions and the flooding. Scott Stewart, City general manager for Development and Infrastructure, was left to handle everything on his own. Interim city manager Pat Moyle referred to Stewart as the “man of action” which he certainly was on this occasion. Stewart lost out to Jeff Fielding when Burlington went looking for a new city manger three years ago. Fielding thought the grass was greener in Calgary and he departed in month 26 of a 60 month contract. Many thought Stewart should have been made at least interim city manager then but because the Kim Phillips retirement was in the works, Council decided to bring in someone to oversee projects and add some stability to the senior management level.
 The 407 – engineered not that long ago – wasn’t able to handle the water that flowed into it. The water roared down the creeks – and found that the 407 was a barrier. Stewart will in all likelihood apply for the job again when it is opened up – that will happen once the municipal election is a done deal. If Stewart doesn’t get the nod this time around – heck he might join Fielding in Calgary; the two of them worked very well in Burlington.
While city hall is doing as much as it can to take care of the infrastructure – much of the problem lays in the way we have managed that infrastructure. The creeks are the responsibility of the Conservation Authority that has a policy of letting the creeks be as natural as possible. That meant they didn’t get all that much done to them in terms of maintenance – which resulted in tree limbs being left in the creeks. Those tree limbs became dams which resulted in serious damage because the water flowing into the creeks couldn’t flow properly. That water backed up and flooded into streets.
 Downspouts that have been set up so that they drain into the storm water system added to the problem. The spouts could not handle the amount of water that was landing on roofs.
The Red Cross was out on the street going door to door 36 hours after the scope of the flood was evident; they made 10,970 calls and did 1,532 assessments and determined that 501 homes will require some form of financial aid. They reported that 271 home had partial or no insurance.
The average cost of restoring homes was set at $18,000 – if you can find a contractor. City general manager Scott Stewart commented that the market for contractors is “red hot” right now.
Red hot is a phrase that some 24 homes in this city will not be using – there are that many homes in one part of the city that may not have furnaces in place before December 1.
Earlier this week Calgary had its first snowfall.
Hard times may be ahead for some of our neighbours.
By Staff
September 5, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON.
It has been one of those summers – floods, awkward weather, there were a couple of good weekends but the environment on the whole has not been good to us.
 Blue green algae tends to float near the surface and wave action brings it close to shore. Its colour makes it very easy to identify. Exposure to the algae causes skin irritation. Add to the woes is the news from the Halton Region’s Health Department advising residents to avoid swimming and wading in the waters at Beachway Park and LaSalle Park in Burlington because blue-green algae (BGA) have been identified at these locations. Residents are also advised not to eat fish caught in these areas and not to let pets play in or drink the water.
Halton’s drinking water is not affected and continues to be safe.
“Some blue-green algae have the potential to produce toxins or skin irritants,” explained Dr. Hamidah Meghani, Halton Region Medical Officer of Health. “Adverse health effects from the algae can be caused by drinking BGA-contaminated water. Additionally, skin irritation and itching can result from skin contact with BGA-contaminated water.”
As a precaution, signs have been posted to warn beach users.
If you have been swimming or wading in these waters and feel unwell, please visit your physician or walk-in clinic.
 By Pepper Parr
September 1, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Communities organize themselves in various ways. Almost a month ago many of the people in Wards 4 and 5 were scrambling to save as much of their possessions when their basements were being flooded.
 The food lines wound their way back and forth on Elwood Street. The Bake Sale was a hit and the T- shirts also did very well. That little red head, with blonde Mom behind her gets the hair from a grandmother. That was a month ago and there has been a lot of anguish, despair and hard kitchen table conversations about the financial impact since then.
Many had insurance that covered their situation but just as many, perhaps more, had insurance that is proving to be inadequate. All have homes that are less today than they were August 3rd.
Each household works through its situation differently, some talk to immediate neighbours, some work with their extended families. The placement of homes in suburbs is such that community is different. People aren’t always as close. Burlington has districts, but it doesn’t have neighbourhoods with strong sense of identity.
There are few large apartment buildings where people gather in a party room.
For those in that pocket of Burlington, west of Walkers Line and north of New Street – a short, short walk to Tuck Creek that over ran its banks and did serious damage to the infrastructure – their sense of humour came to the rescue and they organized a street party.
 It seemed like a good idea to Glenn Nicholson, the Elwood Street resident who came up with the idea of holding an event for his neighbours. He then watched it grow to the point where he was able to get the Burlington Teen Tour band and CHCH television coverage. Not bad for a local kid. Glenn Nicholson, an Elwood resident decided to organize an event for his neighbours. It was going to be small – just for the people on the street at first – but when the name of the event got around – the occasion grew like topsy. “I have about 35 volunteers and we expect somewhere between 1000 to 2000 people.
Nicholson did get loads of support from his ward Councillor. Jack Dennison made phone calls and got permit fees waived and someone got the Burlington Teen Tour Band out on the street for some marching band music.
We don’t know yet how much Nicholson and his volunteers managed to raise – we will report that when it is available.
 The T shirt says it all for a lot of people. They called it “Up the Creek” which reflected just how many of the people flooded felt as the struggled to save their homes with little in the way of support from the city corporately.
City hall decided to outsource the resolution to another organization and asked everyone else to take on a task while the city worked on recovering as much as it could from the province for the damage done to its infrastructure.
 Ward 4 Councillor Jack Dennison chats with Mayor Goldring and his wife at the Elwood Street Up the Creek event. The Mayor apparently chose not to wear one of the Up the Creek T shirts. While Calgary is a much bigger city and the flood it was hit with this year was bigger – there wasn’t a day that the citizens of Calgary did not see and hear from there Mayor. Naheed Nenshi, Calgary’s Mayor was everywhere.
Yes Calgary has better media than Burlington ; we are squeezed between Hamilton and Toronto – but a little creativity on the part of the media people at city hall could have had video done and posted on the city web site and loaded up to YouTube.
The Mayor could have gone into communities and meet with people. He did this the once – to great effect. Handling people and their issues seems to be within the Mayor’s comfort zone; certainly not the case with Gary Carr the Regional Chair.
 Burlington MPP Eleanor McMahon is everywhere. She is being referred to as a “rock star” by Ron Foxcroft, chair of the Disaster Relief fund. Would it have been different were Goldring being opposed in the municipal election for the job of Mayor? Most certainly – but while it isn’t too late for someone to step forward – those who hold their breath waiting for another name to appear on the ballot are going to have health issues.
For those who felt they were left “Up the Creek” – they will work things out and come away with a different understanding as to what their municipal level of government is doing for them.
 By Staff
August 25, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
The first official data on mosquitos that are carrying West Nile Virus was released by the Region this morning.
A batch of mosquitoes trapped last week in Oakville has tested positive for West Nile virus (WNV). This is the second batch of WNV positive mosquitoes for Halton this year. In Halton, only one other batch of mosquitoes from Milton tested positive for WNV this year.
 This is how West Nile virus is transmitted. “We know West Nile virus is here in Halton and it’s usually just a matter of time before we begin to see more positive results,” stated Dr. Hamidah Meghani, Halton Region Medical Officer of Health. “Halton residents should always protect themselves against mosquito bites and get rid of mosquito breeding sites.”
Urban areas are more likely to have mosquitoes that carry WNV. The types of mosquitoes that transmit WNV to humans most commonly breed in urban areas in items that hold water such as bird baths, plant pots, old toys, and tires.
The following are steps that residents can take to protect themselves and their families from mosquitoes:
Cover up. Wear light-coloured, long-sleeved shirts and pants with tightly-woven fabric.
Avoid being outdoors from early evening to morning when mosquitoes are most active and likely to bite, as well as at any time in shady, wooded areas.
Reduce mosquito breeding sites around your home by getting rid of all water-filled containers and objects. Change the water in bird baths at least once per week.
Use an approved insect repellent, such as one containing DEET.
Make sure your window and door screens are tight and without holes, cuts or other openings.
A map showing the locations of standing water sites that have had larvicide applied is here.
To report standing water or for more information about West Nile virus, please visit Halton.ca/wnv, dial 311, or call Halton Region at 905-825-6000 or e-mail wnv@halton.ca.
By Pepper Parr
August 23, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
“We should have the door to door work wrapped up in a few days” said Peter Hodgson, lead Red Cross person on the task of learning just how many homes were damaged in the August 4th flood, and the extent of that damage.
 Peter Hodgson, lead Red Cross volunteer points to maps that show how many homes were damaged and where they are located. The volunteers will have covered in excess of 10,000 homes, explained Hodgson. Their data gets sent to the Region, where it is plotted on maps, which will allow the city to quantify the damage.
Mayor Goldring had explained at the city council meeting earlier in the month that “we need to know how extensive the damage is”. It is extensive and it is tragic.
For Hodgson the story is much more than numbers on a map. There are some truly tragic situations out there. “We were working with a man who had an extensive “collectibles” collection in his basement. “This was his retirement – and it was gone. The man valued it at more than $1 million.”
 The dots indicate a house that was flooded. This was not a small disaster. There was an apartment building that had some affordable housing units in it. The owner of the building had moved a tenant with little in the way of personal means into a basement unit a few days before the flood so he could renovate the unit they lived in. All was lost.
There was an elderly couple who had suffered extensive damage to their house – all of which was more than they could cope with – but they didn’t want to leave their home.
Hodgson wasn’t able to say, but the sense is that there may be some homes that have to be torn down.
 Red Cross volunteers get training on what to do at eah house they call on. “We don’t talk about poverty in Burlington, but it is there” said Hodgson “and it is situations like this that bring these people to the surface – they have no resources to fall back on. The Red Cross is able to help out but just for a very short period of time.”
“We have people sleeping on air mattresses on the floor in some places” said Hodgson. “We opened up Evacuation Centres but they didn’t really get used – but we had them in place if needed.
The Red Cross has a Memorandum of Understanding in place with the Regional government- which allows them to move into a community on a couple of hours’ notice.
Their volunteers were on the streets within hours doing the door to door work. At the same time the Samaritan’s Purse had crews ripping carpet out of flooded basements and doing power washing, while the fire department put a calendar up on their website showing times, when fire fighters were available to help people with the clean-up.
While all this was going on, citizens were making donations to the disaster relief funds – the total on Friday was $140,000
By Pepper Parr
August 20, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
This is not going to be easy. The people who are going to have to manage the distribution of flood relief funds have a mammoth task on their hands and it is vital for them to ensure that what they do is totally transparent even though they are dealing with some very personal information about the people who have lost so much due to the flood.
The immediate good news is that the public fund raising is coming along. The amount donated as of 5:00 pm on Tuesday was $120,000. $10,000 of that came from CUPE Local 44.
 The damage for hundreds of homes is extensive. The fear is that some families may not be able to recover from the flood. Local fund raising is vital. The Burlington United Way is serving as the main collection point – they will hold the funds and accept donations through their secure website. Once the Disaster Relief fund is established – and the province requires that this committee be created, they will set out the policies and procedures that will determine what is available for distribution and who gets funds.
There will be situations where the damage to a house was severe but the occupants were fully insured – would they get any funding? Take a neighbour two doors down who was also badly flooded and they also had insurance coverage but the deductible was very high – would they get funding. And then the household that had insurance but the insurance company decided there would be no payout – what would that household get.
Add to that the concern many people will have about the personal details of their finances being trotted out for the whole world to read about.
Colleen Mulholland, president of the Burlington Community Foundation, an organization that donated $15,000 to the Disaster Relief Fund, lives in a house that was badly flooded. Many will ask – isn’t there a conflict of interest here? Mulholland doesn’t see it that way. She is totally focused on pulling together the committees that will do their very best to help the people in Burlington take care of each other.
She is currently working at creating the various committees that will be needed to get the financial help out to people. At this point the thinking is to create three levels within the Disaster Relief committee; one will focus on the corporate sector seeking additional funding.
 It was a nicer evening and a better time for Colleen Mulholland when she posed with the BCF Masquerade Ball Honorary Chair Angelo Paletta For every dollar that is donated the province can match that on a two for one basis. While no one is certain yet as to exactly what the need is – the sense is that the community is going to have to come up with more than $1 million which would bring in $2 million from the province for a total of $3 million. Will that be enough?
A second committee will focus on working with the numerous agencies that are going to be involved in a task that Mulholland believes will become the legacy of the BCF. Not sure if this is the time to be talking about legacies but she makes a point. The Burlington Community Foundation is going to be the group that pulls this thing together so that the needs of the people that need help are met.
A third committee will focus on the “grass roots” which hopefully turns out to be people from those pockets in the community that were hit so very hard.
A concern that has been raised is the number of people involved – while it is vital that this be a community effort – with 22 different agencies at the table it could become the equivalent of trying to herd cats.
While working on a story with the Samaritan’s Purse we wanted to take a close look at the work they were doing helping people who need help. “Let me see how the house we are working at now feels about pictures being taken” said our contact. ”These people are feeling very emotional right now and their dignity has to be maintained.”
There is a delicate balance to be maintained and a mammoth task to complete.
The announcements from Mulholland as to the makeup of the committees should be available sometime this week.
By Pepper Parr
August 9, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
When there is a disaster in a community the province has a program that requires the community to raise funds locally which the province will match on a two for one basis.
 It’s a sort of ‘if you will help yourselves – we will join you’. You can donate online to the United Way
It seemed to take a little longer that one would expect for the city and the United Way to get together and create a Burlington Flood Relief Fund. Everyone knew how bad things were by Tuesday morning but it was Friday before there was any announcement about the plans to solicit donations which the province will match.
 A number of people have commented on the paucity of information available to the public Monday evening – other than requests to stay off the roads and stay inside your homes. Tough for those who had water several feet deep. There wasn`t much more information available on Tuesday either.
Burlington had much the same problem with the ice storm last December. There was very poor communication between the city and the different media outlets – turned out that the city media people didn’t have an up to date data base and weren’t able to get information out.
For those who were not caught in the storm it is difficult to grasp just how bad it was. Some television footage tells part of the story.
 Well managed cities have contingency plans that were written, tested and sitting on a shelf ready to be implemented in hours. Imagine how much relief those dealing with flooding would have felt, had they known that come the next morning the city would have the wheels rolling.
We didn’t see wheels rolling in this town until Friday, when there was what amounted to a photo-op for the Mayor and the Regional Chair.
Earlier in the week ward 5 candidate James Smith urged Council to declare a state of emergency and get a disaster relief program rolling. It might take months to get funds into the hands of people, who have gone through several floods in the past and seen their insurance cancelled or capped at $10,000 when they face a restoration cost of $150,000.
Burlington has massive reserves; funds set aside for specific situations. Was there anyone at city hall on Friday pouring over the rules and looking for ways to loosen up some of those reserves and make funds available to people who need the help now?
Burlingtonians are generous people – the donations will flow and the province will eventually cut a cheque – but that will take time. Why can’t the city loan a couple of hundred thousand dollars to the relief fund the United Way is going to set up and have funds move into the hands of that family on Stanley Drive, where they were up to their knees in feces.
Ted McMeekin, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, said that Burlington must declare a “disaster area” for the purposes of the ODRAP program. That apparently isn’t going to take place until the Council meeting on Thursday – why the wait until close to the end of next week?
A large congregation in the east end of the city had senior staff members driving to the homes of the members of the church with cheques in their hands within 36 hours of the flooding. If a church can move this fast – city hall should be able to do so as well. .
The Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program is intended to ease the hardship suffered by private homeowners, farmers, small business enterprises and non-profit organizations, whose essential property has been damaged in a sudden and unexpected disaster, such as a flood. The program provides funds to those who have sustained heavy losses for essential items such as shelter and the “necessities of life.”
Jeff Valentin, CEO of the United Way said: “The families of at least 1,000 homes in Burlington are struggling to get their lives back to normal following the storm, and some do not have the means to make this happen. The United Way is here to help direct the generosity of people in Burlington toward their neighbours into a fund that can help the people who need it most.”
The City of Burlington has been working with Halton Region to clean up following the storm on Aug. 4, repairing, reopening and cleaning roads and sidewalks, and clearing debris in creeks and parks. Nearly 200 millimetres of rain fell in three hours. The high-intensity short-duration storm caused creeks to overflow and resulted in road closures and flooded basements in many areas of the city.
“We are very grateful to the United Way for setting up a community flood relief fund to help the people of Burlington affected by the flood,” said Pat Moyle, Interim City Manager with the City of Burlington. “The creation of a community-based fund is crucial to the success of securing provincial funding support for the residents impacted by the flood. For every dollar raised locally, the province has the ability to double that amount through its Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program.”
 “I have spoken to hundreds of people since Monday’s storm. Everyone is doing the best they can to return their lives to normal, clean up their homes and to try to make it work financially,” said Mayor Rick Goldring. “This is truly a very serious situation for the people of Burlington. I look forward to our provincial partners helping the United Way help those in need.”
Halton Region announced that it will support the City’s request for provincial assistance through the Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program (ODRAP). The provincial program provides assistance for those who have experienced extraordinary damage due to a natural disaster. The City will adopt a resolution next week requesting funding from the program. To strengthen the request, the Region will provide a letter to support Burlington’s request for Provincial assistance.
By Pepper Parr
May 17, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
It just goes on and on.
During the consistent rain last week there was a lot of run off on portions of Appleby Line. Want to guess which parts of that road were flooded? Just past the south gate of the air park. City engineers visited the site, took photographs but then had to pass the file along to the Regional government – Appleby Line is a Regional Road. Residents along that road want to know who is going to pay for the clean-up.
In the libel notice legal counsel for the Air Park sent to members of the Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition (RBGC) they said: “No neighbours have suffered excessive run-off or silted wells as a result of any activity of the Airport.” That letter was sent to the RBGC after the rain.
 The graphic shows the extent of the air park properties. There is a second runway that is not easily seen in this picture. Now the residents learn that King Paving is working on the air park property. One resident commented: “I think its concerning that the Airpark will not submit to the Site Alteration Bylaw as ruled by Justice Miller, but plans to continue work on the runway/taxiway. How can Mr. Rossi ‘cherry pick’ which parts of the ruling can apply? I think the City needs to be pressured to continue to enforce the stop work order unless Rossi is complying with ALL parts of the ruling.”
Another resident asked: “How is it that Rossi is allowed to appeal Miller’s ruling, whilst selectively complying only with the parts he likes of it. How wrong is that?! “
The city has an injunction in place and residents wonder: “what does the City’s injunction enforce? Doesn’t it allow him to work on his main runway/taxiway (and to only bring in asphalt grindings)?
As well they want to know:
1) exactly what type of work?
2) what equipment will be used?
3) what materials will be used and how/when will it be transported to the site?
 Residents want to know if equipment like this is going to be parked a stones throw from their kitchen windows while upgrades to a runway are done. 5) what is the start date?
6) what is the completion date?
7) what will be done to mitigate the dust, dirt and noise for the neighbors?
The city’s engineering department will be inspecting this work to “ensure compliance with good engineering practices and respect to the local residents.”
 Vince Rossi, president of the Burlington Executive Air Park and believed to be the sole shareholder of the private company, met with north Burlington residents, took all the comments made “under advisement” and then found himself in court where he learned he did indeed have to comply with a city bylaw. He has appealed that decision. One Appleby Line residents sets out the situation very clearly: “We agree that work at the airpark should remain at a standstill. Vince Rossi has chosen to use the courts and nothing should happen until the next round of legal procedures is complete. Without a clear picture as to how the bylaws apply, and without a proper site plan and drainage plan, any work related to drainage can only be a short term fix. It is not possible to hold a short meeting at the edge of the dirt cliff and quickly develop a repair plan for the drainage. Drainage problems exist at all boundaries. The drainage plan must be carefully planned and Vince Rossi must accept the fact that the repairs will be costly.”
 The pile of landfill, dumped on the airport property without a site bylaw plan, drains into neighbouring lands flooding fields that cannot be farmed. “The airpark has direct access to the Bronte Creek watershed from its property. It does not have to rely on neighbouring properties to remove its water. I certainly hope that the City of Burlington’s Engineering Department clearly comprehends the scope of this issue.”
It’s an ongoing battle for residents in the immediate area and of significant concern to all the residents of rural Burlington. There is a water table at risk that cannot be fluffed of by the protestations of the air park owner and his legal counsel. Citizens have seen what the protestations from oil line operators amounted to. Once a water table is damaged – it take years to recover. The citizens of Walkerton, Ontario learned that lesson the hard way.
They call this kind of thing libel chill. Quite how the RBGC is going to get the Spectator to publish the apology the Air Park wants should be an interesting exercise.
It just goes on and on.
 By Ray Rivers
April 24, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
The Harper government is having one helluva time getting its stuff past the Supreme Court. Last month it was dealt another blow. More like ‘smoked’ than ‘blown’ actually, as another piece of Mr. Harper’s psychedelic puzzle for controlling whacky-tobaccy went up in smoke and got knocked into the ash can of Canadian drug history.
I can understand the PM’s fears. If sick people, whom a doctor has determined require access to the medicinal herb, continue growing their own, as they have been doing legally, it might lead to chaos. Gangland killings will become as commonplace as they are in Mexico; children clipping buds off their parent’s pot plants will get hooked for life; food prices will skyrocket as dopers feed their munchies; and Rob Ford will do another Hollywood in an Etobicoke apartment. Oh wait – that was crack-cocaine!
So our sober-faced PM, who claims to never have experienced the pleasure of a toke of nirvana, decided to axe all the private mom and pop grow-ops in one fell swoop. Only commercial outfits would henceforth be allowed to grow the heavenly herb, under the ever-watchful eye of Health Canada. There is even a rumour that some chemist called Heisenberg will be brought up from New Mexico to monitor weed quality. Marijuana, like lettuce, spinach and tomatoes, is susceptible to moulds and bacteria after all, so you can’t let just any backyard gardeners grow their own.
 There are tens of thousands of people using marijuana under prescriptions from doctors for medical reasons And pesticides are a definite no-no. Dope-heads learned that lesson the hard way back in the 70s’ when the US drug enforcement agency (DEA) was forcing the Federales to aerial spray Mexican crops with a lethal herbicide, never thinking that the farmers were going to harvest and sell the pot anyway. As that velvety smooth Acapulco Gold made it’s way to markets all the way up here, the DEA got a whiff of what it had done and started freaking out.
So the middlers and dealers were asked to send some of the evil weed for government testing. And sure enough, almost a quarter of the samples had been contaminated by that deadly pulmonary toxin, Paraquat. Well that was enough to make you stop smoking your ‘shit’. No wonder Clinton never inhaled.
It is estimated that the Canadian market for medical mary-jane in the next few years could reach almost half a million users. So why not turn this growing enterprise into a big corporate business? That way taxes could be collected to help keep dope smokers in the expensive new private prisons which Mr. Harper’s government is building for them? Increasing the commercial supply of grass makes perfect sense for a government, otherwise committed to stamping out reefer madness.
 Managing pain is one of the reasons people get a prescription to use marijuana for medical reasons. Then one of the new commercial grass-growing ops, with the almost hallucinogenic inducing name of Greenleaf messed up. Whether it was pesticide use, bacterial contamination, or unintentionally over-strength THC (the fun component) hasn’t been confirmed. But if you or your buds ordered your medical buds from Greenleaf – stuff with the cool handle of ‘Purple Kush’ – yeah you read that right – you have to send it smack back and the company will ship you a bag of fresh ganga in return.
Then Health Canada tells us that if you’ve already “bogarted” all your Purple Kush – and not blown your mind yet – don’t sweat it because it’s no big deal. Is it any wonder the Tory attack ads tell us that Justin Trudeau’s stand on marijuana legalization lacks judgement?
 Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington where he ran against Cam Jackson in 1995, the year Mike Harris and the Common Sense Revolution swept the province. He developed the current policy process for the Ontario Liberal Party.
Background links:
Court Decision Recall
Purple Kush
Quality Product
Medical Marijuana Colorado Grow Your Own Paraquat More Paraquat Market Potential
 By Staff
April 17, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
The kids love them, grandparents have a great time hiding the coloured eggs and parents learn to deal with the sugar high that follows that Friday morning fun.
It’s something we do – harmless but at some point those children should hear the story and let them decide as they grow what they choose to believe.
But there is another culturally historic story behind those Easter eggs.
 It’s not the forty loaves story is it? Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are decorated eggs that are often given to celebrate Easter or springtime. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide. The oldest tradition is to use dyed and painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as jelly beans. Eggs, in general, were a traditional symbol of fertility, and rebirth.
In Christianity, the celebration of Eastertide includes Easter eggs symbolizing the empty tomb of Jesus: though an egg appears to be like the stone of a tomb, a bird hatches from it with life; similarly, the Easter egg, for Christians, is a reminder that Jesus rose from the grave, and that those who believe will also experience eternal life.
One can argue for years over the concept of a risen Christ – but the facts are, there was a man who was crucified – his name was Jesus. The rest of the Christian tradition is a matter of faith.
By Pepper Parr
April 16. 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
While the current city manager is out looking for new digs in Calgary as he transitions from one city to another, the business of the city still has to move forward.
The Development and Infrastructure Committee released their 12th Update on Air Park matters earlier in the week. The appeal by the Air Park to the decision handed down in Ontario Superior Court will be heard on June 11th – quite a few people from Burlington will be trooping into town for that event; we understand that most of the ward 6 candidates will be in that courtroom in Toronto to take it all in.
 How much of the landfill on the Air Park property is toxic and how toxic? – are questions both the city and the residents want answered. The answers to those questions are tangled up in Privacy red tape. While all this is taking place both the city and north Burlington residents want to know – just what is in all that landfill that was dumped on the site in the past five years?
Everyone suspects there is some level of toxicity in that landfill. The city hired Terrapex to do some tests and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment got onto the property and did tests of their own.
In their appeal the Air Park took significant exception to the reports provided to the city by Terrapex and challenged some of the data.
At some point there will be a decision on what the Air Park has to do – at this point there is a decision from a judge saying the Air Park has to comply with the municipal by law. That decision stands until a higher court overturns it.
Will the city require the Air Park to remove all of the landfill or just some of the landfill or maybe the city will decide it can all stay in place?
What will determine the direction the city takes, assuming the Air Park appeal is lost depends on just what is in all that earth.
And other than the Terrapex report – we don’t know.
The Ministry of the Environment did testing but they haven’t released the information. Why? Privacy issues. Someone, believed to be the Air Park, has taken the position that the information is private and cannot be released without the permission of the person whose privacy is being harmed.
Many in the community find this both incredible and close to unbelievable. But it is a real problem for the city who now have planners working their way through the privacy process. Planner Mike Crowe started out by asking the MOE for the information; they said no and the city used the Freedom of Information process to get the information. When the MOE continued to say no – the city asked for a mediation – and that is where things are at the moment.
If a mediation fails the city can up the pressure and ask that their Freedom of Information request be adjudicated. It does get messy and very bureaucratic.
 Are these dead fish victims of a hard winter – or was there something in the pond water that did them in. The owner of the property is very anxious and wants to know why previous landfill testing results are not available. They see this as a matter of opublic health and not individual privacy rights. She called the Ministry of the Environment who had some of their people out on the property testing within a day. The belief in north Burlington is that the landfill is toxic, that the MOE knows it is toxic but can’t say so publicly because of the privacy mess.
But a request for testing of pond water that had hundreds of dead fish will give both the MOE and the property owner some additional data.
 That rise of land behind the pond on an Appleby Road property is not a natural feature – it is a 30 foot + hill made up of landfill that was placed on the land without proper approvals. Water seeping through that landfill flows into the pond. North Burlington residents aren’t stopping there. They have prepared a petition and sent it along to the MOE people. The petition is from the Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition (RBGC), but they aren’t releasing the contents of that petition. One of the things they do want is better transparency from the MOE.
The MOE is prepared to meet with the community – but until the privacy issues are cleared up – there isn’t all that much they can do.
What we have is two level of bureaucracy fighting with each other over test data that is critical to understanding what the problems really are – with the owner of the property using privacy rules to keep the information confidential.
Messy.
The north Burlington locals don’t help their cause all that much when they withhold the contents of their petition to the MOE. What is it they want and is it reasonable?
Background files:
In the beginning the buck got passed around.
Record length city hall debate on Air Park site.
Air Park digs in its heals.
City seeks an injunction to stop landfill dumping.
Air Park sues the city – city takes off the gloves.
City wins Air Park court case
By Pepper Parr
April 11, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Was it the cold winter that resulted in hundreds of dead fish floating on the pond of the Appleby Line property that is surrounded on three sides by the Air Park land fill or is the death of the fish the result of toxic and silt filled water now in the pond?
The argument as to whether the land fill was going to do any real damage has been simmering in the background. Some testing was done but the
 A spring fed pond with hundreds of fish – normally. Today wasn’t a normal day on the Appleby Line property. Hundreds of dead fish were floating n the water this morning. Ministry of the Environment got involved in a struggle over who was entitled to the information from their testing results – privacy issues came into play and the privacy officers at every level of government seem to be taking the time they feel they needed to determine just who can see what.
 The spring fed pond is yards away from a mountain of landfill that was never properly tested when it was dumped on the property. Runoff from the landfill is now getting to the water table – dead fish are showing up in the pond. Some of the evidence may have come to the surface – literally, for one resident. Hundreds of dead fish were found floating on her pond this morning. That pond is yards away from a 30 foot high pile of landfill that is in place in violation of the city’s site alteration bylaw.
The property owner advises that the Ministry of the Environment will be on her property later today to test for contamination in the pond.
 That crane sits atop a 30 foot high wall of landfill that is yards away from a pond that had hundreds of dead fish floating on it this morning. No one will be surprised if it is contaminated – they fully expected this to happen. It is the result of thousands of tonnes of untested landfill being dumped without the required permissions.
Everyone will feel badly for the property owners – but no one is going to fix the underground water course that may be damaged for decades.
A win of the appeal of the court case in which the city won its case – their bylaw is valid and the air park is bound by that rule – isn’t going to bring the dead fish in that pond back to life.
There is more damage to come as well. Individual livelihoods are being damaged here. What is this going to do to our best small city to live in reputation?
By Staff
April 4, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
It’s hard to keep up with the different colours used by the corporate community and community organizations to signify interest in what they are doing. I think it all started with that American pop song: “Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree” to celebrate the return of a person who wasn’t at all sure he would be welcome.
I thought that pink was taken by the CIBC bank people and their Run for the Cure to raise funds for cancer treatment but pink is also being used to recognize International Day of Pink
 Set in the east end of the city on New Street the Nelson Youth Centre has been serving youth since the 1980’s Each year on the second Wednesday of April, millions of people wear pink to remember that positive actions make a difference. On Wednesday April 9th, RBC will make a donation to the Nelson Youth Centre in Burlington to support their efforts to eliminate bullying and discrimination.
Nelson Youth Centre is an accredited Children’s Mental Health Centre that offers treatment programs for at-risk youth in Halton. Reconnecting Youth is a community based program focused on helping youth develop effective social/emotional skills, coping strategies and effective learning skills to transition into adulthood and become successful and independent. The program works with youth, families, schools and the community and provides mental treatment and support for youth between the ages of 14-17 who are experiencing moderate to severe mental health issues which significantly impacts their ability to cope.
Day of Pink is an international day against bullying and discrimination supported by RBC. Last year, more than 16,000 RBC employees wore pink to show support for this great cause; this year the bank is encouraging employees to wear pink and in Halton South we are also making a donation to the Nelson Youth Centre in Burlington.
The Nelson Youth Centre has a program called Reconnecting Youth that provides individual and group counseling for youth struggling with self-esteem, social/emotional issues and poor peer relationship issues.
Next week we will take a look at the people and programs at Nelson.
 By Staff
April 1, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Starting today, right now actually you have to butt out in any city park. Burlington passed a bylaw in November of 2013 , to ban smoking in city parks and recreation facilities. Exceptions to the bylaw include LaSalle Park Pavilion; Discovery Landing; Paletta Mansion; and Tyandaga Golf Course. Smoking at these locations will be allowed in designated areas.
 A leisurely smoke in a park – comes to an end in Burlington today. Those locations generate revenue for the city.
It will be interesting to see how this works during RibFest.
 Weed rules are bending – expect to smell this at the Sound of Music. The Sound of Music will be different – at that event a different kind of smoking takes place and it looks as if the weed will become fully legal at some point.
The city says its parks will become smoke-free, joining a province-wide movement to create healthier outdoor spaces. . “Like our neighbouring municipalities, we wish to provide a place where people can enjoy their recreation time without the health hazards associated with smoking.”; except for those exceptions – hypocrisy rules!
Hamilton and Oakville put in place smoke-free parks and recreation bylaws in the summer of 2012. According to the Play, Live, Be Tobacco-Free website, 121 Ontario municipalities have adopted an outdoor smoke-free bylaw or policy.
Enforcement in Burlington will be self-regulated and self-enforcing, as it is in many municipalities.
We’d like to hear how that works out; I don’t think I’m going to tell some bruiser of a biker to but out at RibFest and apparently there isn’t going to be a bylaw enforcement officer roaming around to do any enforcement.
 By Staff
March 31, 2014,
BURLINGTON, ON.
There has been another outbreak of measles that has the capacity to impact people in Burlington.
Persons who have visited any of the following locations may have been exposed to measles:
Saturday, March 22, 2014:
The Queen’s Head (pub), 400 Brant Street, Burlington, 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Sunday, March 23, 2014:
Milestones Restaurant, 1200 Brant Street, Burlington, 7 p.m. to midnight
Wednesday, March 25 – Friday, March 27, 2014:
Joseph Brant Hospital, 1230 North Shore Blvd., Burlington
March 25, 7 p.m. to March 26, 9:30 a.m.
March 26, 3:30 p.m. to midnight
March 27, 11:15 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The Halton Region Health Department is following up individually with patients and individuals accompanying them who may have been exposed at Joseph Brant Hospital.
“Measles is preventable through immunization with two doses of measles vaccine,” stated Dr. Monir Taha, Halton Region Associate Medical Officer of Health. “Persons who have measles need to isolate themselves while they are ill and for four full days after the rash first appears. Always call ahead before going to a health care setting.”
Measles starts with cough, runny nose, red, watery eyes, and fever, and after about four days a rash begins on the face and moves down the body. There may be white spots inside the mouth. Measles spreads easily to persons who are not immune. Infants under one year of age, pregnant women, and persons with weakened immune systems can get very ill with measles. Complications of measles can include middle ear infections, pneumonia, croup, and inflammation of the brain. Learn more at www.halton.ca/measles.
If you think you may have measles and need to see a doctor, you must call ahead to the doctor’s office, walk-in clinic, or emergency department. This will allow health care staff to give you a mask to wear when you arrive and take you straight to a room in which you can be isolated. In a doctor’s office you may be given the last appointment of the day.
For more information, dial 311 or call the Halton Region Health Department at 905-825-6000, toll-free 1-866-442-5866 or visit www.halton.ca.
 By Staff
March 20, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
St. Luke’s Church Annual Spaghetti Dinner!
 In the Parish Hall 1382 Ontario Street, on Saturday April 5 with continuous servings of the best spaghetti & meat balls in town from 5:00pm to 7:00pm.
Tickets Adults $10.00
Children 12 & under $5:00
They want you to reserve – call 905-634-4345.
Cash bar serving Wine, Beer & Soft Drinks – these ARE Anglicans!
 By Staff
March 9, 2013
BURLINGTON, ON.
Cute name, conveys the message, and it might meet the needs of busy people with significant parent and child care responsibilities.
Imagine That offers a service that includes back-up care when there is a temporary disruptions in child, adult, or elder care that prevents them from fulfilling work obligations.
The reality of bustling city life: the commute, the traffic, the long work day of meetings and juggling multiple projects, the cell phone calls, emails, texts, and then of course family needs are thrown into the mix. Finding time for everything is a challenge, especially for those who have children, or are in need of adult or elder care.
Imagine That, originally a child care services operation, has expanded to offer back up care for individuals of all ages – children, adults and seniors, under the umbrella of Imagine That Family Care Services.
The services, a first of its kind, means employers can now set up Imagine That Corporate Family Backup Care for their employees.
 Managing that work life balance usually requires involving outsiders – where do you find the people who you can trust – and afford? “Our services offer employers and employees alike with that added piece of mind. Through the support of our professionally trained staff, employees now have the opportunity to utilize back-up care services like no other so that they can meet necessary work commitments.”
Anne Bonfigli, Director Sales & Marketing for Imagine That Family Care Services, explains it this way: our extensive services for family care are about supporting employees while helping keep work absenteeism to a minimum”.
“People out there want to excel in their careers and now have access to a support system that covers employees from all walks of life –from the trades and labour, to professionals, and all the way to Bay Street.”
The family care services are cost-effective and flexible and they are offered round the clock, 365 days per year.
Imagine That Family Care is a division of Bartimaeus Inc. Bartimaeus was founded in 1988. It is a Canadian-owned and operated company, committed to providing the highest quality services to individuals of all ages. The services of Imagine That were first offered in 2001. The expansion into Imagine That Family Care Services is a result of the company’s dedication to the highest quality of services that are safe, engaging, and professional.
Imagine That Family Care provides high quality child care, adult care and elder care to individuals, families and employers in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area. Their Corporate Family Backup Care service is made available to employees, through their employer, often incorporated into their wellness programs. Their Hotel Family Care service is available to guests staying at premium Toronto hotels, whether they are visiting for leisure or business, and need a quality care for their child or senior who may be travelling with them. The Direct Family Care service is available to family members of all ages. The care providers arrive to an individual’s home, prepared with age-appropriate activities.
 By Staff
March 9, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
An accident on Mainway in Burlington earlier in the week was more than an Oakville resident’s body could handle; he died at the Hamilton General Hospital at around 3:30 pm yesterday.
Detective Constables from the Halton Regional Police Collision Reconstruction Unit (CRU) continue to investigate the matter. Police have not released the name of the victim and to date no charges have been laid against the driver of the vehicle.
This is the second traffic fatality to be investigated by the CRU in 2014, and the first in Burlington.
Background links:
Evening accident sends Oakville resident to hospital.
 By Emily Ferguson
March 8, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
My name is Emily Ferguson and I am the sole individual behind Line 9 Communities. (This is a blog Ferguson writes about the communities along the path of the Enbridge Pipe Line 9 that runs from Sarnia to Montreal.)
I graduated from McMaster University with Honours BA Geography & Environmental Studies and a minor in Political Science.
 Emily Ferguson mapped every yard of the pipeline so that communities along its path could know just what was beneath the ground. I first heard about Line 9 at a climate conference in Ottawa in 2012. My interest led me to attend information sessions in Hamilton and surrounding area in early 2013. At one meeting in particular, I asked for a Line 9 information package which had been provided to Council. Although there were extra packages after the meeting, an Enbridge official denied my request and asked “Who are you working for”? The Enbridge team then proceeded to ask myself and a fellow community member for our driver’s licenses and said they would mail a package. Something about the encounter just didn’t feel right and we walked away without the information.
 Emily Ferguson – National Energy Board intervener, geographer. That was the turning point. I went home that night with so many questions. Why was I being denied access to information at a public meeting? What were they trying to hide? Why didn’t they want me to know where the pipeline was?
So I took it upon myself to map Line 9. Throughout an unimaginable number of late nights, I compiled satellite images, integrity data and publicly available information to create detailed maps of the 639 km pipeline.
I did it because they said no.
I did it because I felt the need to inform the public.
If Enbridge wasn’t going to adequately consult … who would?
 For Burlington – this is where the pipeline was located. I contacted multiple City Counselors along the line and sat down over coffee with many to discuss the proposal. The lack of information provided to municipalities shocked me. I proceeded to canvass neighbourhoods along the line to poll residents and provide details about open houses and how to get involved.
Line 9 Communities gained instant attraction. Although I blogged about the application, past spills, and changes to federal legislation, viewers wanted one thing … MAPS! Essentially they wanted to know, where is the pipeline and why don’t I know about it?
 Emily Ferguson mapped ever foot of the pipeline from Hamilton to Montreal and learned that the thing ran underground right behind her elementary school – the pipeline had always been a part of her life – She didn’t even know it was there. During the map creation, I found out that Line 9 crosses right through the small community where I grew up. The pipeline is located directly behind my public school playground in Glenburnie, ON, just north of Kingston. It also passes behind Seneca College in Toronto which I attended for three years. I had literally been living beside the line my entire life … and didn’t even know it existed. All of a sudden, things became very personal.
I felt compelled to learn everything I could about the project. My biggest supporter along the way was Eva Simkins – my Grandma. Although diagnosed with cancer in 2009, two weeks of radiation treatments gave us the gift of four extremely memorable years. We traveled, talked politics, did puzzles, celebrated, smiled and laughed. Through it all though, I knew there was that big question in her mind. Why me?
I wondered the same thing.
She held my hand as she peacefully passed away at sunrise on Earth Day of this year … just three days after I applied to be an NEB Intervener.
In my opinion, we accept the status quo far too often. At a Line 9 open house, an Enbridge official told me, “if we say it’s safe, it’s safe”. But I must question the safety of this pipeline. At almost 40 years old and only meeting the engineering standards of 1971, why is the NEB even considering the application? Enbridge has cited over 400 integrity digs (cracks, corrosion, dents) along the line in 2013 alone! They have also acknowledged that their in-line inspection tools do not detect all defects and that their Edmonton control center cannot sense pin hole leaks. With the current application before the Board, Enbridge is proposing to ship Bakken crude and diluted bitumen laced with drag reducing agent (DRA) chemicals – which include known carcinogens such as benzene – through our communities.
I have never had any malicious intent towards Enbridge. As a citizen of Canada and student of environmental politics, I have always been interested in energy issues, climate change, and a sustainable future for our planet. I believe in the strength of communities working together to achieve great things.
My mission through this entire process has been to raise awareness and promote a community discussion. We are living in a critical time. Will we continue to accept the status quo, or will we start asking the tough questions and demand a better future?
Editor’s note: I had an opportunity to interview Emily while she was thinking about applying to be an intervener at the National energy Board hearing. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do then and she needed quite a bit of encouragement to send in her application, which was an experience in itself. But on October 16th, 2013, Emily Ferguson, all 5’ 2” of her stood before one of the most powerful regulators in the country and gave “the best speech of my life”
Background links:
Burlington doesn’t take to the idea of a change in the flow of the Enbridge pipeline
National Energy Board give Enbridge a green light – with 30 conditions.
The Emily Ferguson maps.
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