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August 27, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON For those in the Shadeland Avenue and Forest Glen Avenue area:  Let’s put a little flavour into the community – Ciao baby! Traffic flow is going to be restricted to local traffic through to October 2015, for minor reconstruction work. How does minor reconstruction take more than a month? Tom Georgiadis at 905-335-7600, ext. 7806 has some of the answers 
August 26, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON You might not be able to get a hot dog at Easterbooks on Thursday but you will be able to watch a film crew set up for the shoot they will be doing on Thursday, August 27th at Easterbrooks Restaurant at 694 Spring Gardens Rd.  The location scouts wanted a place for a television segment that was going back to the past – Easterbrook’s certainly meets that criteria Halton Regional Police Service will manage short road closures of two to five minutes for filming. Preparation takes place during the day – 7 am to 7 pm With filming starting at 7 pm am running through to 2 am Wrap up will be done on Friday, Aug. 28 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The television segment has to do with going back into the past – that helps understand why they chose Easterbrooks, Pam Brooks, who works at the Spring Garden Road location said the television show is about a time capsule and a bunch of scientists that want to stop a plague that is taking over the world and another bunch of people who don’t want the plague to end. 12 MONKEYS is a character-driven science fiction thriller about one man’s desperate attempt to save mankind using a dangerous and untested method of time travel. The small screen version of 12 MONKEYS will star Aaron Stanford (Nikita), Amanda Schull (Suits), Kirk Acevedo (Fringe) and Noah Bean (Nikita). A portion of the location filming will be at EASTERBROOKS, mostly exterior scenes with 1 interior scene.  A blast from the past – the fifties style at Easterbrook’s was just what the television location scouts wanted. “About twenty guys showed up a few weeks ago and looked the place over and decided we were what they wanted” said Brooks. The production company GEP 12 Monkey Industries is located in Toronto. One of the production crew is a Burlington resident. Segments of the television show can be found on Youtube.
August 26, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON Three young girls from Burlington are spending much of the next few days at the CNE in Toronto taking part in the Rising Star talent event that has taken place for the last 29 years.  Dancer Lauren Salt has been dancing since she was two – has made it to the semi-finals at the CNE Rising Star competition. Lauren Salt from the Dance Station and both Poppy and Olivia from the Creative Edge Dance Studio have all made it to the semi-finals in their event. Poppy and Olivia are dancing as a team while Lauren is doing her own act. She competes next on Sept 1st. Poppy and Olivia compete on August 31st.  Olivia on the left and Poppy on the right are dancing as a team at the CNE Rising Talent competition Olivia indicated that she can express her feelings and emotions through dance. She also said that she feels joy when she dances and would like to continue with dancing when she’s older so that she could travel with dance and see lots of different places in the world. Lauren Salt, who has been in dance classes since she was two years of age said: “Dance to me, is my world. Dance defines me and who I am. It has helped me become the person I am today. By dancing for eight years now, I have learned to be grateful and confident in myself. When I am up on stage dancing, there is an unexplainable feeling I get doing what I love. It is my passion and it is what I would like to do for the rest of my life” That kind of passion is what produces champions. We will watch with anticipation on how well all three girls do at the CNE competition.
August 26, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON At 10:45 pm on Tuesday evening the Halton Regional Police received a report that a pedestrian had been struck by a train.  This location had a bit of pavement on the path leading to the tracks – that was changed. The location was reported to be in the area of Fairview Street and Walkers Line in the City of Burlington. Emergency services personnel responded to the scene and located a deceased male on the train tracks. The Collision Reconstruction Unit attended the scene and determined that the male had been struck by a westbound VIA train, which was traveling from Montreal to Aldershot.  The fence and a sign were put up – which stopped rail line crossing at this point. All westbound and eastbound train traffic was halted for the investigation. The VIA train involved was released from the scene after approximately two hours. Police are still working to confirm the identity of the male pedestrian and next-of-kin notification will subsequently follow. Foul play is not suspected. Pedestrians continue to risk crossing the railway tracks despite the efforts the city has made to put up barriers.
August 25, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON Public health is a service that is provided by the Region. Much of the direction for public health comes from the province with the actual service delivered by the Region to people in the different municipalities. There were two services that the Gazette used to get information from the Region on – the health of the lake water where there are public beaches and reports on the incidence of West Nile Virus. To date – there have been no reports from the Region – which would suggest there are no problems with the water and no reports of West Nile.
The response we got from the Region was – check the web site – all the information is there for anyone who wants it. Whoa – that’s not quite the way the system is supposed to work. The Region has the information and they have a mandated responsibility to do everything they can to inform and advise the public. Someone has taken their hand off the switch at the Regional office.
August 25, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON They will be back soon – that magnificent seven that get paid $100,000 + each year for serving as your representative on both city and regional council. Burlington tends to be very quiet at city hall during the summer. The non-union staff at city hall are not that young. The five year age range of the 129 people who hold leadership positions 2% are 26 to 30 – 3 people There is a lot of vacation time to be used up.  City hall leadership briefs the Mayor on an issue during the budget preparation process The other interesting thing is that close to 50% of the leadership will retire within 10 years; something the Human Resources department spends a lot of time thinking about. The pension plan in place for the municipal sector is seen as very good and many choose to retire in the second half of their fifties and try and new career. As the members of Council drift back into the city and begin looking at their agendas and gearing up for the fall session – which for them begin September when they do two days of meetings at Regional Council where they will look at the Transportation Service 2014 Progress Report; do an On-Site Visit to Verify Potential Threats to Halton Regional Municipal Water Supply; consider changes to Waste Collection Area Boundaries and a look at the Conservation Authorities Act which is being reviewed. When Council adjourned in July for the summer break there was no holding of hands and singing Cumbia. The period of time from when all seven members were re-elected last October to the July break was as fractious as this reporter has seen – even in the days when Cam Jackson was Mayor. Differences of opinion are part of serving the public but the nastiness with which these people treat each other is shameful. On December 18th this Council treated John Taylor, a member of Council with 26 years of experience, terribly. Earlier in that December 18th meeting Taylor was given an long term service award – within a few hours he was basically stripped of committee memberships that he not only deserved but that were dear to his heart. A few weeks later he came close to having to beg for financial support for Community Development Halton which they needed to cover them until a grant application was approved.  Car Free Sunday started as an event to convince people to get out of their cars and walk, bike or use public transit – it became a party put on at public expense for ward Councillors to entertain their constituents – at $10,000 a pop. Earlier in the session members of Council approved the spending of $10,000 for Car Free Sundays for both wards four and five and ward six. Mayor Goldring commented at the time that the events looked more like politicking than they did occasions when the public got to learn why everyone needed to make less use of their cars. His Worship was right – the events have become political boondoggles; hopefully they won’t be in the 2015 budget. Meed Ward wants to see more “quickly to action” on the part of this council. We are collecting a lot of data but we don’t seem to be getting all that much done. Our growth hinges on creating jobs in this city. While the city does not actually create the jobs is can create the environment and ensure that the services needed are in place. That means a city hall bureaucracy that serves the needs of people doing business in the city and with the city. We hear of those situations where things don’t work – the complaints, like gossip make the rounds quickly. The good news tends to take a little longer – but there is some good news.  The public got to see information that was not secret but seldom had they had an opportunity to see a lot of data put before them and then be able to discuss some ideas with developers. A number of months ago Meed Ward held several workshops to which she invited the public and those developers who were prepared to sit down and talk specifics about a project they were developing. Meed Ward will complete her write up, pull together all the data and put it in a format that is uiseful to the public. There will be a final public meeting and then everything gets passed on to planning staff who may issue a report on what they heard. staff played a large part in the public meetings – they were as interested as Meed Ward was in what the developers had to say and what the public wanted built in their city. On balance they were a very worthwhile effort. The final report, which Meed Ward hopes has an impact on the Official Plan Review. Meed Ward is concerned about the Ontario Municipal Board hearing on the ADI Group development that has been unveiled for the bottom of Martha at Lakeshore Road. Many feel the proposed structure just doesn’t fit and the staff report the city put out made that point quite clearly. Unfortunately, city council never got to the point where they were able to vote on the staff report which makes whatever case the city has just that much weaker. ADI filed their appeal to the OMB on the 180th day after they had submitted their proposal. Everyone knew what ADI was going to do – that is the way they do business and what they did was perfectly legal. It is situations like this that bother Meed Ward and many people in the city. Council she argues is not in charge – we are following – not leading. For Meed Ward the Martha – Lakeshore Road development is a game changer. Meed Ward puts it this way: “There is something wrong with our issues management process” and she wants to see changes made. “We are handcuffed with the current process” she said.  Standing up and being counted – Councillor Meed Ward has asked for more recorded votes than any other member of Council. Knowing what your elected member is doing for you is an essential part of the democratic process. City council meets next on the 14th of September.
BEDC operates FreshInsights - a source for help to those emerging entrepreuners - a good news story.
August 25, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON An interesting piece of news drifted in over the news wire. The Burlington Economic Development Corporation wants to be one of the top five cities in Canada for start-ups and innovation. Now there is something that is bold, direct and the results of the effort are measureable. The Burlington Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) has entered into a partnership with Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) to support Ontario start-ups through their career accelerator, FreshInsights Consulting. That seems like several layers of bureaucracy but Frank McKeown, BEDC’s Executive Director explains that the partnership is rooted in OCE’s SmartStart Seed Fund, a program that offers young entrepreneurs in Ontario the opportunity to access seed funding and skills training to grow their companies. In addition to the grant, successful SmartStart applicants are awarded $5,000 to spend on training or consulting services.  Mayor Rick Goldring The BEDC will be involved in that training – which they will deliver through FreshInsights Consulting, a corporation formed by the city – the early thinking apparently came out of the office of the Mayor – and has been housed within BEDC. The $5000 grant emerging entrepreneurs will be given will get spent with FreshInsights – meaning that organization has some revenue –that gives that win-win-win phrase a whole new dimension, doesn’t it? Most people know there are clusters of young people out there with what on the surface look like great ideas. Most of them need a good dose of number crunching to determine if the ideas have some sustainability to them. As one of OCE’s official training partners, FreshInsights Consulting has become one of the most sought after training partners. During the most recent application approval process, more than ten SmartStart companies opted to spend their grant dollars on consulting services with FreshInsights – that ten worked out to 40% of the applications – not bad when seen in terms of market share. FreshInsights will be working through the balance of 2015 to provide these start-ups with market research and business plan development.
What no one is saying is that by being involved in these emerging corporations Burlington is in a position to help them make the city home – we get first dibs at these young people. McKeown added that, “The partnership between OCE and the BEDC operated career accelerator, FreshInsights, is only going to help Burlington get closer to achieving its goal of becoming one of the top five cities in Canada for startups and innovation. It is a step in the right direction for creating an innovation space that fosters collaboration, mentorship, and business growth right here in Burlington.”  Frank McKeown, former Chief of Staff to Mayor Rick Goldring and now the Executive Director of the BEDC has taken on the direction of an interesting training program. Developed under the BEDC in 2011, FreshInsights Consulting was established as a way to retain top talent working in Burlington, while providing professional, cost-effective consulting services in market research, strategic marketing, and business planning to local companies. The program has seen more than 25 recent graduates through the program, and they plan to continue expanding their client base across Southern Ontario. Learn more about FreshInsights Consulting at www.freshinsightsconsulting.ca and BEDC at www.bedc.ca. You can also follow them on Twitter @FreshInsigtsCo and @BurlingtonEcDev. This is a good news story – let’s see where they are in a year.
Cine Starz Upper Canada Place
SHOWTIMES August 28 to Sep 3 , 2015 FANTASTIC FOUR PG JURASSIC WORLD PG VACATION 14A SOUTHPAW 14A INSIDE OUT G IRRATIONAL MAN 14A PAPER TOWNS PG SPY 14A AMY 14A
August 24, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON City council has decided that the completion of the Official Plan Review (OPR) will not get done until the Strategic Plan has been completed – the rub with that decision is that at the rate the Strategic Plan is going it may not be seen until sometime in 2016. Council has some critical issues it must make decisions on – the budget has to get done, there are some key hiring decisions to be made and the significant seven that lead the city have to decide if they are going to manage to get along any better now that they have all had a vacation. Don’t bet on the latter. The Committee of the Whole, which is the Standing Committee that is shepherding the Strategic Plan to its completion, isn’t going to meet until sometime in the middle of October – and the amount of data that the consultants hired to help with the creation of the plan are going to dump on the table could choke a horse. The amount of research is staggering. We will get into that in a paragraph or two – what is disturbing is that when Council approved the research assignment the man charged with the responsibility of bringing jobs to the city wasn’t in the room.  Frank McKeown, on the left explains a concept to Councillor Paul Sharman during the creation of the Strategic Plan in 2011. Frank McKeown, executive director of the Burlington Economic Development Corporation, (EDC) didn’t learn of the meeting date until a few days before it was to take place and he didn’t have a copy of the agenda – he had no idea how much research work the city had asked for. A lot of what was being asked for had already been done by McKeon and his organization. McKeown intends to eventually scrub the data he has collected and post it on the EDC web site for anyone to see and use. Any self-respecting economic development department would do that. Quite why Burlington has hired someone to ask all these questions boggles the mind a bit – don’t we already have that information? The left pocket clearly wasn’t talking to the right pocket – odd because everyone at city hall knows who McKeown is and have a high regard for the quality of his thinking and the manner in which he closes files and gets things done. McKeown was the Mayor’s Chief of Staff for two years. He threw in that towel when he found that city hall wasn’t the kind of place where a lot of real work got done. Not because of the people doing the work – it was a leadership issue for McKeown – there wasn’t all that much of it. There are several who are asking if all this work being done to put a Strategic Plan in place makes any sense. Ward 1 Councillor Rick Craven thinks that what was created in 2011 is just fine – he’d go with that – but his view apparently isn’t shared by the rest of council.  Councillors Meed Ward and Taylor tend to ask a lot of questions and are open to making the process more open. Taylor once threatened to walk out of Council and talk publicly about a report the majority of Council wanted to keep confidential. Councillor Meed Ward finds herself asking if the Strategic Plan needs just a refresh or does the city need a full reboot on what they created in 2011. The ward two councilor was in an auto accident and was not able to take part in a number of standing committee meetings – including two that were critical – the first look at the draft of a Master Transportation Plan and the meeting at which the KPMG Strategic Plan assignment was threshed out and agreed upon. The auto accident resulted in some serious concussion damage from which Meed Ward says she is recovering nicely and expects to be in fine form when Council resumes its work in September. The research assignment sets out five major hypothesis: one labelled Economic, then 2 – Land Use Planning and the Built Environment, 3 – Demographics, Growth and Health, 4 – City Operations, Governance and Powers and 5 – Culture A Primary hypothesis is examined along with several subsidiary hypothesis and the question the researchers would focus on. There were some pretty heavy duty questions asked. Two concerns jump out: why is this level of work being done at this stage – should have been done at least six months ago – and when you look at the questions one is moved to ask: Don’t we already know the answers to these questions. The KPMG approach argues that 1 – Trade-offs shape strategy, 2 – Strategy involves choosing among incompatible alternatives, each of which is attractive, 3 – Failure to choose puts the organization in a situation of becoming “stuck in the middle” and 4 – Straddling problems stymie the success of a clear strategy.  The city hired consultants to take a deep (which means expensive) look into five areas: The economy; Land Use Planning and the |Built environment, demographics and Growth, City operations, governance and Powers and Culture. The KPMG approach to problem solving includes: 1. Focus analysis around key hypotheses Here is the Economic: Principal Hypothesis: The City of Burlington can transform its economy. Subsidiary Hypothesis: The City of Burlington can repatriate jobs and careers to within the City boundaries. Subsidiary Hypothesis: The City of Burlington can create more good paying jobs for Burlington youth  It was about 15 months ago that rural Burlington began the discussion about what it wanted to be. Some things were clear – others not as clear. The early draft of a vision got put on a huge board and for the most part the community liked the look of what they had said to each other. Will this kind of data find its way into the hands of the consultants helping the city work up its Strategic Plan. Subsidiary Hypothesis: The City of Burlington can promote and integrate the rural economy within its boundaries. Subsidiary Hypothesis: The City of Burlington can help create an “innovation economy” Principle hypothesis: City Operations, Governance and Powers: Subsidiary Hypothesis: The City can deliver services in a more efficient and effective manner.  A rapt audience listened to an overview of a city budget. What they did was listen to what the city had already decided to do. Is there a better way to involve the public. Subsidiary Hypothesis: The City can incorporate its citizen’s into decision making and program delivery in a more effective manner. Subsidiary hypothesis: The city can increase its financial capacity to deliver services invest in infrastructure or cut taxes Subsidiary Hypothesis: The City can find innovative ways to fund, finance and deliver infrastructure.  A lot of research has been done on how to make culture a more vital part of the community. Research not withstanding there are still some really stupid cultural decisions being made. Principal Hypothesis: Culture – The City of Burlington can develop cultural institutions and attractions that enhance the quality of life of its citizens. There are three other areas that were to be given the KPMG research treatment. McKeown will be meeting with that crew in February – expect to see some changes. McKeown should have been in the room for that June meeting. Who slipped up on telling him about the meeting?
August 24, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON The Black Swan was packed to the walls – 220 people Friday and 200 on the Saturday and the doors didn’t close until well after 3 am.
Can these four geezers get it up one more time? The Sons Today: Peter Davidson, Dave Best, Ron Canning and Robin McMillan gave the audience more than their money’s worth.
The Rising Sons were going to go out in style They didn’t raise all that much money but they did have a great time – there were stories told and memories shared The finds that were raised went to a hospital in Hamilton.  The Black Swan was packed – 200 + two nights in a row. Every seat available at the Black Swan had a bum in it – there were people at the door both evenings trying to get a ticket. With a two evening event doing that well the promoter in Ric Connors ask – maybe this gig has legs and can be moved to a bigger venue? Performing Arts Centre does come to mind. There are people thinking about the idea – maybe early in November – if there is a spot at the Centre. We will keep you posted.
August 24th, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON When the Arts and Cultural Collective of Burlington was created it was unique and became the place to go to if you wanted to know what was happening in the arts community which had become of age in this city. Their Facebook page became a source of information that pulled the community together – and it worked  The Arts Collective had a presence – they were making a difference – now their Facebook page is being used to sell high end sun glasses and Point of Sale equipment for restaurants. It was refreshing – they kept the membership limited – at one point you had to be referred by an existing member to get on the list. They were effective – they convinced the city to take another look at how artists were going to be treated with their contributions to the new web site – the city wanted to use picture – not pay for them and not even give a photo credit. That got changed. The Cultural Action Plan that was researched by Jeremy Freiburger and his team over at the Cobalt Connection was a strong starting point. The Arts Collective liked what they saw but they wanted more involvement in the detail part of the cultural plans and also in the roll out in whatever was decided upon. They also wanted the final Culture Plan to include an Arts Council that would make grants available to artists. A couple of months ago they began talking about how many members they had – and the size of the list became more important that the quality of the content.  The younger, feistier set knew what they needed – they had done their homework – their challenge was to find their voice and make it hard. It was a moderated information source – which meant that messages that weren’t appropriate did not get posted. The person doing the moderation must have been asleep at the switch the past couple of months – there have been advertisements for high end sun glasses and then something for travel and now someone wants to sell a Point of Sale cash register system. “Perfect for any restaurant or retail business, …” using the Collective site as the advertising vehicle This isn’t what the Collective was created to do. When it got off the ground a couple of years ago there was all kinds of really positive energy and they came up with very good ideas. They took possession of the agenda and pushed city hall to add resources to the cultural file. They wanted to see culture moved out of the jock mentality many people saw dominating the Parks and Recreation department and they wanted to see more dollars put into the cultural field. The province then got into the Cultural business with the promotion of Culture Week that was a decently done during its first year.  Civic square buzzed during Culture week last year – with the increased involvement on the part of the cultural manager Angela Paparizo we may see even more activity. There are apparently all kinds of plans for Culture Week this year but there hasn’t been much coming out of city hall yet – the individual artists are promoting the events they have taking place – there is a Ping Pong and Poetry event that will take place at the new HiVe now located on Guelph Line. Local artist Margaret Lindsay Halton is running that event. The organizational structure of the Arts Collective has always been a little undefined – personalities and ego began to take up too much space and the purpose began to get lost. There is still time for the Arts Collective to recover – but they don’t take too much time doing it. They could and should play an important role. There is still some very good energy within the citizen side of the arts. The Guilds at the Art Gallery of Burlington are becoming more active – management over there is expecting the guilds to be more visible and they are living up to the expectation.  Retiring Executive Director of the Performing Arts Centre Brian McCurdy stabilized the Centre – losing him is going to hurt for awhile. A new leader will need some time to get a sense as to how the Centre and the city work. In this photograph McCurdy is briefing the Mayor on parts of his thinking The No Vacancy people will be putting on their third event in September – this time on Old Lakeshore Road basically outside Emma’s. September 17th from 7 pm to midnight. Last year they recorded 3500 + visitors. This year the event will be called SuperNova and they think they will double last year’s attendance. They have put on the event for two years with nowhere near the funding available to Culture Week and have in the past produced much stronger more vital programs. This year, for the first time they got some funding from the city – courtesy of Councillor Marianne Meed Ward who advocated for the small grant they got. One of the hurdles that few people see coming is the wallop the Gazette thinks the taxpayers are going to face when the real costs of the flood are going to have on the 2016 budget. Reports that have been given to Council point out a number of close to pressing amounts that are going to have to be spent real soon. It is going to amount to millions with an expected new line on the tax bill for the management of storm water. The cultural file just might take a hit – more money is going to have to go into infrastructure; council has been told that transit needs a lot more attention, especially when looked at through an intensification lens and the city is still salting away money to pay for our share of the hospital redevelopment. Some tough work ahead of this Council – which is going to be difficult because all the members of this Council don’t sing from the same page in the hymnal.
August 24, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON The Alzheimer’s Society of Hamilton and Halton in partnership with JBH will be holding monthly information sessions at Joseph Brant Hospital aimed at family caregivers learning to cope with the people who suffer from Alzheimer disease. To register for a session please call (905) 632-3737 ext. 5689. Sessions will take place on the last Tuesday of every month, excluding May and December – in the Gordon Room of the main hospital building from 4:00 – 5:00pm.
August 24, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON The increasing number of scholarship opportunities for basketball players in the United States is something Jim Thornton, of the Wildcats Basketball club feels should be welcomed by the Hamilton Region basketball community. In recent years there has only been one organization in the Hamilton and surrounding area offering an AAU Showcase program. Starting this season (2015-2016), Wildcats Basketball out of Hamilton, Ontario will be introducing two Showcase AAU Teams competing at the 13U category and the 15U category in the United States. These teams will be for players born in 2002/2003 and 2000/2001 respectively.  Wildcats competed at the U15 level last year in Ontario; finished their season in the Top 15 teams in Ontario out of approximately 100 If the last few NBA drafts have shown anything, they have shown that Canadian Basketball in general is getting stronger. Several of the top overall picks have been Canadians over the last few years and going forward Canadian Basketball is only going to get stronger on the world stage. AAU stands for Amateur Athletic Union which is the main organization for youth sports in the United States. Teams that compete in the top tournaments in the AAU have some of the top talent in North American and many of these players go on to play basketball at the collegiate level offered through scholarships. Thornton, President of the Wildcats, took over the club for the 2014-2015 season. In just one year, he and his right-hand man Rob Bowman have been able to change the image of the club; giving it a much needed makeover. Thornton’s plan is to raise Wildcats Basketball Club to The Premiere Basketball Club in the Hamilton and Surrounding area. “Hamilton has some great basketball talent and it is a shame that more young athletes don’t get the opportunity to showcase their skills in front of the right scouts and coaches”, says Mr. Thornton. The Wildcats competed at the U15 level last year in Ontario (Born in 2000), finished their season in the Top 15 teams in Ontario out of approximately 100 teams that competed at that age group. Five years ago this team was one of the lowest rank teams in the province. “Our accomplishments and improvement only testify to the hard work and dedication that my players have put in almost 12 months per year over the last 2 seasons”, said Thornton. These teams will train a minimum of twice a week in the Hamilton area and will compete in exhibition games and tournaments in Ontario. They will then compete in the CYBL (Canadian Youth Basketball League) which is a league designed for the top Canadian teams to prepare for their U.S. Tournament Schedules.  The creation of two AAU Showcase basketball teams opens up an opportunity for young Burlington players to grow with the sport. From April through to the end of July 2016, both the Showcase Wildcats teams will travel to the U.S. where they will attend “Live Tournaments” such as Motown Showdown in Detroit, The Chicago Classic, King James Shooting Classic and others. Live tournaments are tournaments where there are numerous, sometimes dozens of College and University scouts from NCAA schools in Division 1, 2 and 3. Teams like this don’t offer any promises for the athletes that play on them, but at least there will be a second organization in the Hamilton Area that is willing to commit the time and resources to young athletes, helping them get in front of College and University scouts for the purpose of earning scholarships. Thornton will be starting tryouts for these Showcase teams starting as early as September 8, 2015 at McMaster University. For information on locations and times for tryouts visit hamiltonwildcats.com and look up U16 for the 2000/2001 age group and U14 for the 2002/2003 age group.
August 24, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON The Redevelopment and Expansion of the Joseph Brant Hospital is the biggest redevelopment that Burlington has ever seen. So big that is got a line all of its own on your tax bill – the taxpayers are putting up $60 million to get the hospital built. The new hospital will be completed in two distinct phases, with an estimated completion date of 2018.  When completed the orientation for the hospital will have the main entrance on Lakeshore Road facing the lake. The road is being raised by as much as a full metre in places to accommodate the changes. Phase One is complete. The Halton McMaster Family Health Centre is open and already welcoming patients! Construction still continues on the new parking facility and the administration offices of JBH. Highlights of our new building include: Halton McMaster Family Health Centre – the Burlington Family Health Team are operating clinics within the centre; Teaching classrooms for McMaster Residents as part of the McMaster University Department of Family Medicine; Administration offices for Joseph Brant Hospital and Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation. Phase Two: The new seven-storey patient tower will be built on the existing parking lot at the back of the existing hospital and will be connected to the parking facility by a foot bridge. The main highlights of the second phase of the project include: A new Emergency Department  The new entrance to the hospital will be on Lakeshore Road facing the lake with the parking garage yards away on the west side. There will be a walking bridge from the garage to the second level of the hospital. The hospital is being much more proactive with the information they are making available. They have installed a camera that lets you pop in and see what is being done on the construction site – live. Interesting to watch. There is a video of the project overall – a little on the long side but if you want a full sense of what they are setting out to do and you have three minutes you don’t know what to do with – click to see the project – no popcorn.
August 24, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON “Bring along your furry friends and join us for a day of teddy bear-themed crafts, activities and stories. Meet a “life-sized” teddy, go on a scavenger hunt and enjoy a delicious picnic! It’s a day sure to be filled with Kodiak moments” said the media release from the Royal Botanical Gardens.
There are Activity Stations open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Travelling Teddy Totes: Make your own carrying sack to collect all 6 items hidden in the garden.* Bear Tales: Hear bear filled stories at 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Puppet show starts at 1:30 p.m. An asterisk * means you can take home what you make. $ indicates this is a paid activity. Parking is limited at the Laking Garden. RBG is offering a complimentary shuttle from RBG Centre to Laking Garden approximately every 15 to 20 minutes between 10:45am – 4:30pm. The last shuttle is leaving Laking Garden at 4:15pm.
August 23, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON The Kitchener Panthers defeated the London Majors 9-2 to take the semi- finals in the InterCounty Baseball League. They will now play the Barrie Baycats in the final round.  Kitchener Panthers defeat London Majors in the InterCounty Baseball League semi- final Photo credit: Ian Stuart The league announced the schedule for the 2015 final between the first-place and defending champion Barrie Baycats and second-place Kitchener Panthers: Tuesday, Aug. 25 @ Barrie 7:30 p.m.
August 22, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON The Jenn Street pedestrian bridge, connecting Norton Park and Jenn Street will closed starting Tuesday, Aug. 25 through to Thursday, Aug. 27 for work to replace the surface of the bridge. The bridge is expected to reopen on Friday, Aug. 28, 2015.
August 22, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON
The Intercounty Baseball League is a game away from knowing who the two finalists are going to be. The Barrie Baycats beat the Toronto Maple leafs which makes them one of the finalists.
Burlington dropped out of the race when they lost to the London Majors in the quarter finals. The league has seen most of the games in this race to the final tightly matched with no one taking a series in a clean sweep. Things have also gotten a little feisty on the field with the league suspending both players and a coach as the result of more excitement than is allowed when Kitchener played London on August 19th. The game to determine the second finalist will be played in Kitchener at 7 pm on Saturday.
August 21, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON Mark Carr got word that the program he moderates on Cogeco Cable “The Issue” was good to go for the fall.  Cogeco’s The Issue panel: Mark Carr, host on the left with Casey Cosgrove, a guest, then former Mayor Walter Mulkewich and then Brian Heagle First show for this season of The Issue is Tuesday September 15th 8pm LIVE. The show is interactive – twitter them at # The Issue. The Issue is broadcast on channel 23 and channel 700 for high definition. Carr monitors the twitter feed and bounces comments tweeted in with the panel made up of former Burlington Mayor Walter Mulkewich, lawyer and former Burlington council candidate Brian Heagle, and Deb Tymstra who has reported for Cogeco on a number of issues. The intention is to have a guest on the panel as well. The publisher of the Gazette has been asked to take part in the panel from time to time. Those watching the program can tweet comments and see how the panel responds. You can agree or disagree with the panel of community/political experts live” said Carr “ and then watch to see how they respond to what you had to say.”
August 21, 2015 BURLINGTON, ON The Region’s A team headed for Niagara Falls and met with provincial ministers and their aids to explain the problems they are having with the provincially mandated growth targets set out in the Provincial Places to Grow Act.  Regional Chair Carr tasting honey on a farm tour. Few realize just how big and diverse the Region actually is – the Chair covers all of it. Chair, Gary Carr and members of Regional and Local Councils were at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) annual conference to discuss the critical issues facing the Region. “We continue to emphasize to Provincial leaders the pressing need to find solutions to ensure the Region can meet provincial growth targets,” said Gary Carr, Halton’s Regional Chair. “Halton is mandated to grow to 780,000 by the year 2031, which means the Region needs long-term funding and legislative tools to ensure that taxpayers are not responsible for the financial impacts of growth.”  The population growth is very aggressive. Much of it took place in Milton – Burlington is going to have to absorb a significant portion of the 278,000 people we have to take in. The Region currently uses the figure 500,000 when it talks about the size of the population it serves to grow by an additional 280,000 people in 16 years is aggressive to say the least. What Burlington needs to know is how many of that more than a quarter of a million people are we going to have to take make room for and where in the city will they live?  This is where the Region gets its money: Where will the revenue growth come from – user fess, property taxes and development charges – they are all part of your wallet. What are we going to have to provide in terms of services and how do we upgrade the transit service we have to move people around the city because there is no room for additional road capacity. Chair Carr, Regional along with the mayors of Burlington, Town of Halton Hills, Town of Milton, and the Town of Oakville and a number of Regional and local Councillors met with several Provincial leaders: Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Ted McMeekin, to discuss the need to create affordable housing solutions and conformity with Provincial growth legislation; Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, MPP Indira Naidoo-Harris, to discuss funding for public health programs, ambulance off-loading delays, enhancements to the Central Ambulance Communications Centre (CACC) and community mental health services; Minister of Education, Liz Sandals, to discuss the need for long-term funding to support new schools; Minister of Transportation, Steven Del Duca, to discuss Halton’s community infrastructure needs including GO train service in the Town of Milton and Town of Halton Hills; Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry and Burlington MPP, Eleanor McMahon, to discuss Conservation Authority funding and aggregate resources legislation; Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, Yasir Naqvi, to discuss the upcoming review of the Police Services Act; Attorney General, Madeleine Meilleur, to discuss Halton’s immediate need for a new courthouse in the Town of Milton; and Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Glen Murray, to discuss waste management legislation and adapting and responding to climate change.  Municipal leaders argue that they deliver most of the services that citizens want yet get the smallest amount from taxpayers. They want a bigger slice of the pie – or better yet – a bigger pie. Several of the meetings related to near critical needs; the Court House in Milton is a mess; long term care is heading for crisis if something isn’t done and affordable housing needs very serious attention. Transportation and transit are going to gobble up millions and the damage from the August 2014 storm is but a sign of things to come. No one knows yet just how much it is going to cost to upgrade and in some places perhaps have to rebuild the waste and storm water system we have in place. Halton is fortunate in that it has a Regional chair with experience at Queen’s Park and the resources within his own administration to advocate with strength and authority. The Region continues to advocate to both the Provincial and Federal governments as part of the Region’s Advocating for a Strong Halton campaign. The Region wants changes to the Development Charges Act, there is draft legislation now being debated at Queen’s Park. The province wants development charges that support the recovery and collection of growth related costs to ensure that Halton’s taxpayers do not bear the financial impacts of growth. What those development charges do however is increase the cost of new housing which for Burlington are high as it is.
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