 By Pepper Parr
April 12, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
The sun is moving into Claudette Losier’s world. An active artists since 2007 when she sold four paintings at the Jordan Station show she has three significant events in the next few months –and that for this artist is the start of turning things around.
Losier earns her core income as a still life model but the joy for her is her transfer technique, a form of photo based mono printing or mark making with an “abandonment to chance working your intuition”. “You can never recreate the same mark or image”, explains Losier.
 Red poppies – part of Losier’s early work included in the current BAC show. About a month ago Losier had one of her paintings bought by the Province of Ontario for their permanent collection. Losier exhibited “Around the Bend” at the Women’s Art Association of Hamilton’s 118th Annual Juried Show at the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
Her most recent event is her participation in the Burlington Art Centre’s In the Garden exhibition, where she will share space with Wayne Moore, Victoria Pearce and Susan Rankin around Victor Cicansky’s piece Garden Ruins from the BAC permanent collection.
Losier depicts meditative dreamlike flowers, while Moore highlights the structure of the plant. Pearce creates dramatic still life studies, and Rankin incorporates floral elements into her glass blown vases. The exhibition runs April 12 – June 1, 2014.
Losier is truly one of those struggling artists – whose styles seem like they are all over the place. Her recent City Scape series is doing well as is the different locations she is showing and teaching.
 Cityscapes – a new direction for artists Claudette Losier now sowing at the Burlington Art Centre. During that 2012 event we met another artist and were mentioning the Losier work and were told that `the woman is really hard to manage – I once had to get a restraining order against her.” Losier denies that ever happened but added – “if it adds to my character you can tell people that happened – but it didn’t.”
What impresses people when you meet Losier is her energy – she is all over the place; seldom finishes a sentence and will use whatever time you give her to show you every picture she ever painted.
Art is all over the place in the non-descript bungalow she shares with her husband and their cat “Monet” on the mountain in Hamilton. Her husband gets some space in a back room where he does his financial work.
Part of the current event at the Burlington Art Centre required each artists to write a “statement”. She explained that ask this way: “Friday night I tried to tackle my statement but the words would not come. Saturday morning I was lying down staring at my third eye offering my little flowers of devotion to God when all of a sudden I started thinking of my statement and the thoughts were pouring out! I wrote it! Wow I was crying as I was writing thinking those thoughts that God was helping me write it – I believe so because it was effortless – no struggle!”
 Expressive, always in motion and at times totally off the wall; an artist to keep an eye on. There wasn’t a lot of money around the high school period home; alcoholism pervaded the household and for a time Losier lived on student welfare
Applications to the Ontario College of Art and Design, University of Toronto and Brock University ended up with Losier doing a business administration program at Brock.
 Earning a living became the prime focus and for seven years Losier worked as an accounting clerk for a truck leasing company. She did most of he own healing, grew as a feminist and found solace in her mother-in-laws garden – the home she now lives in.
The early art was focused on flowers and gardens. Losier took part in a Jordan Station art show and sold four pieces at that event – “one was a 30×24 inch piece that I sold for $500” said Losier. Flowers dominated her art from 2007 to 2012 when she began her Cityscape series.
Getting her hands on a digital camera opened creative doors for her. Losier always photographs what she wants to paint first – the digital camera allowed her to distort an image. “My first pictures and as a result some of my early paintings s were blurry because I didn’t know how to focus the camera.”
Another break for Losier was being able to work with the Elaine Fleck Gallery and was invited to take part in a group show. Losier however doesn’t wait for people to buy her art. She is a very “in your face artist and will go wherever she has to go to have her art seen.
Losier has her art up on James Street at Lister Arts at Lister Block; at Humblepie, the Hamilton Store, and Centre3.
We are only seeing the beginning of Claudette Losier; this is an artist exploring, pushing boundaries and excited about every opportunity that sits there before her. Someone to watch and worth buying – now.
 By Pepper Parr
April 15, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
The Roseland Heights Community Organization (RHCO), announces that two of its members, Anup Ogale, and Gavin Towers have filed an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board against the city’s decision to approve the building of an apartment complex on New Street at Cumberland.
 Citizen group appeals city decision to approve apartment project. The two RHCO members want to ensure that if any development happens in their neighbourhood, it is compatible with the surroundings. Their goal in launching this appeal is to:
- Prevent Maranatha from developing a six (6) storey structure at their New Street location
- Ensure the North East corner of Brock park remains free from such massive development
- Unite the neighbourhood and give all residents a voice through the RHCO.
- Raise awareness that the policy of intensification is leading to significant environmental consequences to the City.
We are proposing to organize a community meeting in the coming few weeks, so all of us can meet in person, and discuss these important issues impacting our area. The RHCO is also working on formalizing its status, which would give it a strong voice to advocate for its members, and raise funds for community efforts. We do need volunteers to assist, with raising awareness and other community efforts, so please email us at info@rhco.ca for more details.
The RHCO is very much the creation of Burlington lawyer Brian Heagle who wrote the delegation made to Council when it approved the project. Heagle arranged for Anup Ogale to read the material.
Arnup managed to mangle many of the facts during the two delegations he made – one gets the sense that he has been made the front man for others.
A date has yet to be set for the OMB hearing.
Background links:
Citizens oppose apartment complex.
Council approves apartment complex on New Street.
 By Pepper Parr
April 15, 2014.
BURLINGTON, ON.
Mayor Goldring noticed Thursday afternoon that he had an appointment on his calendar with the city manager – it wasn’t one he was aware of and thought he might have gotten something mixed up.
Perhaps he wishes there had been a mix up – when the meeting did take place Jeff Fielding, who has been with the city for just 26 months, advised the Mayor that he was going to accept a position as the city manager for the city of Calgary.
That news was a blow to many, perhaps not all that bothersome for some members of Council who may have experienced some indigestion as a result of Fielding’s style. He has said to this council on more than one occasion to “just do your jobs”.
Fielding, sold himself to Calgary as “pretty much a financial conservative,” and touted his detailed service-based approach as designed for public digestion. “It begins a dialogue within the community about whether they’re getting value or not,” he said.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, one of the most admired Mayors in the country, held Calgary together during the Spring floods in Alberta. He has the electorate in that city in the palm of his hand; few council members dare oppose what he suggests. Staff in Calgary are said to bridle at some of his approaches. Burlington’s Mayor was putty for Fielding – he will have his hands more than full with Nenshi.
The Calgary decision to hire Fielding was the culmination of a months-long competition that included international applicants and at least two City of Calgary general managers. So – while we didn’t know it, Fielding was on his way out the door before we had finalized our budget for 2014.
Calgary is not new to Fielding – he once worked in that city’s planning department more than a decade ago.
Calgary is a different municipal beast: it is western Canada’s largest city that keeps building new suburbs on farm fields.
Fielding was a great breath of fresh air for Burlington. He brought focus and discipline to just about everything. There are more than a dozen staff members, not all senior people, who have grown professionally under Fielding’s guiding hand.
They will miss him both personally and professionally and now they have to try and pick up from where he has left them – and Fielding hasn’t exactly left the city in great shape.
The approach to service based budgeting that he convinced the city to take on is far from complete and while the city has some top notch people working on getting the budget for 2015 set up for the new approach – none are experts and don’t bring the almost evangelical drive Fielding brought to making the people who decide responsible and accountable for their decisions.
It is going to be very difficult to maintain the progress that has been made to date on the service based budget concept. We are newbies at this and we don’t have a leader with the depth needed to put it into place. We will soldier through – but it would have been easier with Fielding at the helm.
The city is on the hook for a $300,000 – three year contract for the services provided by Angus Reid and his son’s Critical Vision operation. Fielding knew he needed faster feedback from the public and called the tool “Insight Burlington”. His staff was in the process of fine tuning the service. So far all his team had managed to do was get one question out. That tool might sit on the shelf with Fielding gone.
Perhaps that three year contract with Critical Vision is similar to the contract Fielding had with the city. I thought a five year contract ran for sixty month – Fielding has put in 26 months. Personally, I argue that having taken the city down the service based budgeting path we knew little about, Fielding had an obligation to stick around long enough to complete the job – another year would make a big difference.
During the last budget Fielding told the cultural community he would do his best to find the funds needed to hire a Cultural Manager. Kiss that one goodbye.
The city will be into mediation on the legal problems left over from the construction of the pier – the project that went from $6.7 million in 2006 and ballooned to more than $14 million and it isn’t over yet.
Fielding took the financial file and the legal file out of the hands of General Manager Kim Phillips – left her with Parks and Recreation and fire stations and was the lead hand on the working relationship with the city’s solicitor and the lawyers handling the city’s law suits. Those lawyers started off suing on behalf of the city and now find that the tables have turned and they are defending themselves against the claims of the original contractor. Fielding had meetings with the lawyers the city engaged to map out a mediation strategy. He was expected to be the lead talker for the city. We would have been well served with him at the table.
Fielding was deeply involved in the longer term thinking on how we get something useful out of the downtown core and had a team looking at what we have in the way of physical assets and what we don’t have, including a city hall that doesn’t have room for all those people on the payroll.
There have been renewed discussions with McMaster University and the use of the Elizabeth Street parking lot – some of the people involved in those discussions were stunned when they read the news of Fielding’s departure.
Fielding did a superb job in maintaining the staff compliment and held salary increases to 1%. He could be really hardnosed when it was necessary. The Seniors’ are going to miss him – he gave them everything but a new kitchen sink for their operation.
Burlington paid Fielding $249,940,24 in 2013 plus $8,898.60 in taxable benefits. Calgary is going to pay him $319,000 plus a possible 10% bonus.
So where does Burlington go from here? Does the city call in a recruiting company and ask them to begin running ads? Does Council do what they did when they parted ways with Roman Martiuk and have General Managers Stewart and Phillips carry the ball until Fielding was hired?
Scott Stewart was one of the applicants for the job of city manager and got beat out by Fielding. Is Stewart ready now for the top job? He has been doing a large part of it for the past year; carrying a lot of the weight this past six months. Fielding has done a great job of grooming Stewart.
City Council will meet in a Special session Tuesday after the scheduled Corporate and Community Services meeting. That will be a closed session with perhaps Executive Director of Human Resources Roy Male serving as the pro tem Clerk.
This is a vital meeting for this council. There are those who believe the Mayor is on for someone to serve as an interim city manager while Councillor Sharman has something up his sleeve but wasn’t prepared to say anything more than that.
Mayor Goldring has described Sharman as the best strategic thinker on council and relies heavily on his advice – which Sharman very willingly gives.
Council does have one other alternative. Former city manager Roman Martiuk is looking for work – perhaps he would take on a short term assignment.
 Back in 2012 the city was given an opportunity to accept an offer from the insurance company that carried the performance bond to assure the completion of the pier. Council turned that one down – with very little time spent considering the offer. They instead issued a new tender – and we paid even more for the pier than originally planned.
There is an opportunity for a really sensible decision to be made on Tuesday. Don’t blow this one.
The last word on this sad situation for today comes from a reader’s comment: High performance executives do not leave for money. They leave because they are frustrated or handicapped/handcuffed from achieving success by the very culture of the company.
That sounds a lot like why Frank McKeown quit as the Mayor’s Chief of Staff.
Fielding leaves his desk May 16 and starts work in Calgary June 2, 2014′
 By Pepper Parr
April 14. 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
It must have been with a heavy heart that Mayor Goldring announced today that city manager Jeff Fielding will be leaving the City of Burlington to become the new city manager for the City of Calgary.
Fielding has had a massive impact on change in the city and leaves at a time when there is far too much work not yet done. His leaving will set the city back some distance.
“I want to sincerely thank Jeff on behalf of City Council and staff for his significant, positive impact on the city and its residents,” said Mayor Goldring. “Under Jeff’s leadership, we have accomplished a tremendous amount of work in the last two years, setting us on the path for Burlington to become one of the most innovative and creative municipal governments in Canada.”
Fielding began with Burlington in January 2012. He introduced processes and tools to enhance the delivery of city services, including results-based accountability, business process management and service-based budgeting. Fielding will be with Burlington until May 16, beginning his new position with Calgary on June 2.
An announcement will soon be made regarding an interim replacement for the city manager. The city will provide an update as soon as a decision is made.
Much more to develop on this story.
See it as a blow for the city.
By Pepper Parr
April 14, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
This isn’t the first run up the hill for James Smith, he has run for the ward 5 council seat before and did credibly well in 2010. Federal liberal in 1988
For James the issues in the 2014 election are personal – he is passionate about the need for public transit, worked himself ragged to get the Freeman Station onto a site where work at restoring the structure could begin. In his campaign material Smith says: “As president of the Friends of Freeman Station I learned some very valuable lessons about consensus building and finding solutions to problems city council couldn’t or didn’t want to tackle.”
James Smith has been around politics a large part of his life. His first political encounter was back in 1968 – during the days when Paul Hellyer, was a force – he became the Minister of Defence and merged the armed forces putting them all in the same colour of uniform.
Smith hung around political offices and did all the usual stuff young people do in elections. He did what that generation did and took the “trip to Europe” with some friends. Met a woman who had a cousin and married the cousin – they’ve been married 34 years and have two grown children.
Smith worked for Sears in western Canada for nine years as a store planner; they sent him east where he worked in Scarborough. The work was decent but Scarborough wasn’t for him. They liked the High Park area but prices weren’t within their budget. “We kept moving west, found Burlington and have been here ever since” is the way Smith describes his introduction to the city.
 James Smith, second from left, at the signing of the Joint Venture with the city to move and refurbish the Freeman Station. There was a family to be raised and the Harris government took over the province – not much room for Liberals in those days. Smith hunkered down and raised his children. Smith is a former Director of the Burlington Arts Centre; a past member of Burlington’s Official Plan citizens advisory committee and a founding member of the Burlington Conserver Society – the group that saved the Sheldon Creek Woodlot
Smith was a member of the Shaping Burlington Committee – they advocated for the adoption of the City of Burlington Engagement Charter. Council accepted the Shape Burlington recommendation but the public hasn’t seen much of the concept since then.
Smith, whose father was a broadcaster is the co-host of Transit Talk on Usual Sources Radio CFMU-FM 93.3 In 2013 Smith established the Save Skyway Arena Campaign and stopped the closure of Skyway Arena.
He was host and moderator of BFAST’s (Burlington for Accessible Sustainable Transit) Town Hall meeting in June 2012; an event that brought some of the best minds in transit in the province to Burlington. Smith is the Burlington Representative on the GTA West MOVE Task Force and co-author of the soon to be released MOVE Task Force Report
BFAST takes credit for saving the John Street Bus Terminal.
An finally, Smith is a founder (one of several) and Past President of The Friends of Freeman Station; he has been tireless in finding a home for the station and leading a sound board and team of volunteers that will soon be out refurbishing the station that now sits on Fairview – next to the fire station.
Smith is an active Catholic as well.
The campaign to win ward 5 this time around is based on three premises: Planning, Moving and Prosperity. What the public has seen from Smith is a consistent approach to the way we move people around. He argues that grid lock, the increasing cost of gas, an aging population that will not be able to drive a car at some point and the impact of carbon on the environment make it vital that the city look at different forms of public transit.
GO works well and the service is now more frequent which keeps cars off the QEW. Smith tends to focus on local transit and our ability to get from community to community. Getting Burlingtonians out of their cars is a little like spitting into the wind. Car culture dominates and Smith doesn’t believe this council and particularly the member for ward 5 really understand transit. Their arguments tend to focus on the cost to the city while James believes cost is certainly a concern but that there is a bigger concern that isn’t being seen. Were Smith to be elected there will be different conversations around the council chamber horseshoe.
James Smith believes that the city needs to do a better job of planning. He is pretty blunt and direct when he says: “Burlington has no green fields left to pave.”
Urban sprawl, he points out, costs us all in additional services and hidden costs. He then adds that the only thing people seem to hate more than Sprawl is Intensification. Smith fully understands the province’s “Places to Grow” legislation and the city’s official plan – not something that can be said for every member of the current council.
Smith makes the uncomfortable point that “with no more room to build, the fact we have built to the edge of our urban boundary means intensification is coming. We have to be ready for and understand how to make the changes we want to see in our communities.” Not exactly great vote getters but they do reflect the reality Burlington faces.
Smith has serious issues with a number of the decisions made by the current council and while he earns a very good living as an architectural technologist – he took time last December to hunker down with family and friends and decide if he could win an election and if he felt he could – mount a campaign and work at it full time.
What the public often does not realize is that the people who run for office do so at their expense. They have to put quite a bit of their own money into the campaign and they have to give up on their gainful employment and go door to door in the ward listening to votes and seeking their support.
Smith has been delegating to city council for years – he takes on an issue and will work his way through the work plan and get it done.
He’s Irish and while the temper is seldom seen, it is nevertheless there and on an unfortunate occasion he set aside the words he had prepared and asked council if they “were on coke” – they were going through a transit report that should have been before council several weeks before. Smith just lost it.
How we get around has been an overriding issue for Smith. He believes we have to work with other governments and agencies to develop an action plan to build a CN grade separation on Burloak before 2020. Smith is adamant – we have to use the Gas Tax monies we get for transit; that is what the funds were intended for. Smith and his Bfast colleagues get close to apoplectic when they see gas tax monies being spent on roads.
While there has been a lot of talk about working with employers to put active transportation plans in place – there hasn’t been much actually implemented.
Smith wants to re-allocate resources and review transportation budgets for waste and duplication with the Region of Halton and plan for a Transit system people will use and can rely on, with a City commitment to funding transit at least to the level of the GTA average
If James Smith makes it to city hall expect him to press hard for a commitment to work with Oakville, Waterdown and the province to plan and build the Dundas BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) called for in Metrolinx’s BIG Move. Should he end up with more votes than anyone else in ward 5, the city will finally have a true transit advocate on council.
Burlington now has Prosperity Corridors. Smith isn’t overly impressed with the public relations language and points out that with a fixed urban boundary the city has to look for creative new ways to attract new development, industry and residents. He seems to have forgotten that the city has an Economic Development Corporation, albeit one that hasn’t done very much and currently has its head buried in a governance exercise. Smith would like to establish a Task Force on unlocking the potential of Employment Lands. He will be walking into a hornets nest on that one. He wants to involve residents in the earliest phases of planning to develop community supported new development. The BEDC has yet to ever invite the public into its deliberations – anything Smith can do to open up that operation will be welcome news and certainly in line with the objects of the Community Engagement Charter that can’t seem to get outside the doors of city hall.
Smith wants mixed use for all Employment Lands to at least be considered and to insist on a residential component for all retail re-development – he would like to add in a residential and an affordability component as well.
So who is this guy? Irish that’s for sure. A citizen who has paid his dues and shown that he can get things done. City council basically threw its hands in the air with the Freeman Station – Smith was part of a team that saved the station so that citizens could refurbish it.
In 2010 there were eight candidates running for the council seat. Paul Sharman won that contest after deciding that he wouldn’t run for Mayor – he filed nomination papers for that job first.
The candidates were: Serge BERALDO, Rick GOLDRING, Paul KESELMAN, Dave KUMAR, Anne MARSDEN, Cal MILLAR, Peggy RUSSELL, Paul SHARMAN and James SMITH. Goldring dropped out as a ward council candidate and ran for Mayor.
David Kumar went on to his heaven by getting appointed to the Committee of Adjustment, Cal Millar went on to become president of the federal Conservative Party association in Burlington.
While Sharman has yet to file his nomination papers for re-election in ward 5 (maybe he is going to file to run for the office of Mayor and mean it this time?) the race is currently between Ian Simpson and James Smith.
Background links and related stories:
Smith loses it.
By Pepper Parr
April 9, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
“In the absence of effective leadership in ward 6” said Vanessa Warren “I have filed nomination papers and will contest the seat Councillor Blair Lancaster currently holds on city Council”, and the race for the ward 6 seat got serious.
Warren is the fourth citizen to go after the seat: James Curran, Angelo Bentivegna, Mina Wahidi have filed nomination papers and now Warren. All will have their names on the ballot in October. It should be the race to watch come the October municipal election.
 The community first got a look at Warren when she chaired the Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition to stop the trucks that were dumping what she called “toxic landfill” on what she described as an unlicensed landfill operation known as the Burlington Executive Air Park on Appleby Line.
The issue first came to the wider community’s attention when the Gazette published a story on all the trucks that were on upper Appleby Line carrying fill into the Burlington Air Park site.
Citizens in the rural part of ward 6 were lived with the lack of response from their ward Councillor who seemed just too close to the owner of the air park.
Warren delegated very successfully to city council and just as effectively to the Region. She proved to be very forthright and to have done the homework necessary to get at the issues. It was Warren who dug up the fact that there was $4.5 million in mortgages on the air park property that she called the Burlington Airpark landfill dump.
Warren then become engaged in critical issues such as the LaSalle Park Marina expansion, the Mount Nemo Heritage Conservation District, the new Official Plan and the 2014 Budget, where she challenged a speaker for hijacking a public meeting. Burlington was beginning to see a very feisty advocate.
In her campaign media release Warren said she “seeks to radically improve on Blair Lancaster’s poor record of access and engagement at City Hall.” The white gloves were clearly off.
“We’re going to need really strong leadership to enhance the livability of our urban spaces while still protecting our green spaces.” said Vanessa who was a Burlington Green board member for a short period of time. She resigned all her community affiliations when she announced she was going to run as a candidate.
“I commit to being an unflinching listener, communicator, and leader”, said Warren. She has also committed to continuing to do her homework and let the people of ward 6 see what she has to offer.
With three other candidates in the race for the seat on council – it may well prove to be the most interesting election race in October – BUT ward 4 has some interesting developments. More on that situation at another time.
Who then is Vanessa Warren? She and her husband run two equine business operations; one in Mississauga that is one of that last public riding facilities left in the GTA.
Husband Cary has been farming at some level for most of his life – he is also a small craft pilot.
The Mississauga operation is on land they have rented for more than thirty years. An opportunity to buy a property in Burlington came their way and as Vanessa put it – “this was going to be our ‘pine box’, we expected to be on the Burlington farm for the rest of our lives.”
 The issue was the air park property – and the landfill that had been dumped on the site – hundreds of thousands of tonnes of un-inspected landfill. The Warren property is shown upper right with red lines. Vanessa Warren is a fair human being. Tough, – she doesn’t take a lot of nonsense from anyone but she is at heart fair. She has worked with animals for most of her adult life and understands the need for a firm hand as well.
 Vanessa Warren brings the discipline and focus required as a dressage competitor to just about everything she does. Here she works her favourite stead at a competition. Burlington first saw Warren when she delegated before city council on the number of trucks carrying landfill along Appleby Line to the Air Park site. She wanted to know what the city was doing about the traffic and the content of those trucks.. At that point the city wasn’t doing very much – but senior people on the administration side took the concerns seriously and began to look closer at what had been the prevailing view: the Air Park was regulated by the federal government – end of story.
This time the city looked a little deeper and brought in some advisors. While Burlington did it’s work Warren took her story to the Region and while she did a good delegation she didn’t get much in the way of support. Oakville Mayor Rob Burton gave Warren what amounted to a patronizing lecture and sent her on her way. Burton had no idea who had was running up against.
Warren looked to her community, worked with people to form an organization that could speak on behalf of the people in rural Burlington – and this was born the Burlington Rural Green Belt Coalition. It was a little bumpy at first but Warren brought strong administrative skills to the task and proved more than capable of listening to her peers and moving the ball forward each time they met.
Before long the city was in court with the Air Park owner and Warren felt her part of the job was done. She felt strongly that the community was poorly served by its elected representative and was active in helping people find someone who lived in rural Burlington to run for the council seat. She met with a number of people and there were solid meaningful conversations with several but nothing was panning out.
Warren had moved on. She became a BurlingtonGreen board member and was active in the working on the difference of opinion between the LaSalle Park Marina Association and the people who cared about what was happening to the trumpeter swans who had made a home for themselves at the marina. Warren also began to work with Councillor John Taylor to get him re-elected in ward 3. There was still no viable rural candidate for ward 6.
Warren maintains Taylor urged her to run for the seat; whatever it was – something changed her mind and we were advised several weeks ago that Vanessa would be declaring her intentions after a short trip south where she snorkeled and looked at fish.
Back in the country – the wheels began to turn and she was in.
While the air park has been the focus for Warren – she does not appear to be a single issue candidate. She is an environmentalist; BurlingtonGreen was a good fit for her and we saw some of the grit she has consistently shown when she complained about a speaker from the LaSalle Park Marina Association hijacking a public meeting that was supposed to be about the budget. At that same meeting she asked why the public was reading about decisions that had basically already made – she wanted the public to be involved well before decisions were made.
She did the same thing last week when she asked city council why they were deciding on the building of a new court house that no one knew anything about. Where was the community engagement, Warren asked.
Warren understands that the “next several years in our Ward are going to be critical ones. The urban areas in the ward are developing rapidly and we are at risk of outpacing our own economic development, infrastructure and transit planning. Growing and intensifying without a strong, integrated planning vision will mean disconnected, poorly serviced neighbourhoods. Upcoming Provincial reviews of the Greenbelt and Niagara Escarpment plan mean that our current rural protections could become less fulsome, and I want to ensure that our community’s formidable desire to protect its liveability, green space and agricultural economy is rigorously represented.”
Rigorous is a word that fits the Warren persona. There is nothing “wishy washy” about this candidate.
Yes – the airport runway ends a field or two away from the farm she works with her husband and one could argue that she has a vested interest. The small aircraft pilots who rent hanger space at the Air Park certainly think that is the case. The small engine aircraft aren’t a problem – it is the threat that there might be larger small jet engine aircraft using the runway – and that is an entirely different situation.
Warren’s overriding question about the Air Park is this: What’s going on up there? Is was her questions that got the city into a court room where the won their case at the Superior Court level and are heading into an appeal that will be heard in June.
In the meantime Warren will run her campaign knowing that the illegal dumping at the Airpark has been stopped. Then, once all the appeals are done with the need to clean up the toxic heritage of a five year fill operation needs to start.
The community will hear about a candidate who would like to see “a new financial model for a liveable Burlington that grows in place – one that keeps an eye on the triple bottom line: social performance, environmental performance AND economic performance.
 Vanessa Warren with her nomination papers in hand. She may not be elected yet but she has figured out what the photo-op is all about. Is Warren as good as she sounds? We do know she was a reluctant candidate and that it was the performance of the sitting member, Blair Lancaster, which was a large part of the driving force behind the Warren decision.
In the next six months the people of ward 6 have an opportunity to listen and decide who they want to represent them. Councillor Lancaster has said publicly that she intended to run but has yet to file nomination papers.
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 Ray Rivers
April 10, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
It is tax season and I normally use an XL spreadsheet to do mine, but this year the complications made that almost prohibitive. So I tried to buy a tax software package, on-line, at the CRA website. The first one, H&R Block, wouldn’t open for a Mac, even though it was listed for the Mac. The second, Turbo Tax, somehow went haywire mis-reading the information I had entered.
So I ended up retreating to my spreadsheet and working into the wee hours to finish the return. Now it might have been that the TV was still on, that the hour was late, or that I’d poured myself too much of that Scottish medicinal nightcap. But as I started dozing off I distinctly recall hearing the conversation below…(Editor’s note: In your dreams Mr. Rivers …in your dreams.)
Michael Wilson: Oh come on now – that is rich. You can’t blame me. I didn’t know that Mr. Mulroney’s income tax reforms would impact the middle class the way it did – creating this growing divide between the rich and the rest. I mean we just thought it was tax simplification.
 Paul Martin – Finance Minister in the Chretien government Paul Martin: Simplification – that is a joke – with all that tax credit nonsense you introduced. The only simplification was reducing the tax brackets so the rich paid less in taxes and the middle class picked up the difference. Oh, and then you made accountants rich as well, since ordinary people could no longer complete those obtuse and complicated returns.
Jim Flaherty: So you were Jean Chretien’s miracle worker, the great Liberal deficit slayer – why didn’t you change that. I don’t know if you remember, but it was our John Diefenbaker who set up the Carter Tax Commission back in the ’60’s. Their report was seen as a landmark everywhere, except in Canada. Your Pierre Trudeau largely ignored the report, pressured by big business and the well-heeled interests who used to finance your party.
Wilson: I remember that. Carter’s work was world renowned – still is. A dollar of income is a dollar, or something like that – treat all income the same. He also showed how he could reduce the taxes of the lowest income folks and still keep the budget balanced.
Martin: Something you never did; balance the budget. And as John Turner once said, Trudeau had no choice, he had to back away from most of the recommendations. But at least he kept the middle class intact, retaining the progressive rates and higher taxes for the wealthy, till the early eighties, anyway.
Flaherty: Well to be fair. He wasn’t alone – everyone was lowering taxes for the rich in the ’80’s and ’90’s. It was the Reagan/Thatcher ‘trickle-down economics’ flavour of the day – you know let the rich keep most of their income and that money will eventually trickle down to the rest of the economy. I mean, I’m a conservative but I don’t believe that horse manure. And they increased the debt in order to lower taxes. Canada’s debt mushroomed in the latter Trudeau years and then our guys just kept digging an even bigger hole – until Paul, here, got the deficits under control.
Martin: Thanks. And back at you though I think you should have run a tighter ship, Jim, especially when you were Mike Harris’ finance minister.
 Michael Wilson – Finance Minister in the Mulroney government Wilson: Justin Trudeau has talked a lot about the middle class, do you think he has tax reform in mind? The least he could do is come up with a simpler tax return. I can’t see how the average tax payer can ever fill out today’s form. No wonder people hate taxes.
Flaherty: I’ve been thinking about that. Here look at this – a one page tax return where you add all your income together – like the Carter tax folks said ‘’a buck is a buck’ – so treat it that way. Then allow for transfers to your family or charity. We’d need some new rules on that.
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Income Tax Calculation
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Item Amount
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Gross Income from all sources
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Transfers to family and others
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Deferred Income (retirement, lotteries, etc)
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Taxes Payable (use tax table)
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Wilson: Right and then I see you have income deferments, like retirement savings, maybe education and home buying as well.
Martin: And then you just subtract those items from the income, calculate the taxes from a tax table and presto. If you paid more in tax installments or had deductions taken off at work, you get a refund, just like we do now. Do it all on-line as we do the GST now.
Flaherty: Well it really makes sense. I mean I don’t see why someone earning capital gains from selling investments or a second property should pay a lower rate of taxes than the poor slob slugging his guts out on the assembly line. And it makes it all simpler too.
Martin: And those folks with the big capital investments are mostly among the top 10% income earners – so why do they need a break? So we get rid of all the regular deductions,and say good bye to all that credit nonsense, which even I have trouble figuring out.
 Jim Flaherty – a finance minister in a Harper government. Flaherty: And I’d be tempted to drop deductions for health care, charitable and political donations from the transfers line. I mean everybody gets universal health care and I think charities and political parties ought to attract donations without using the tax system. We’d be better off to directly subsidize them, I think.
Martin: You mean you want to bring back public funding for political parties?
Wilson: You know what, I like this form Jim. Why didn’t I think of that when I was Finance Minster? Hey, let’s call it tax simplification.
 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:
Need An Accountant Buck is a Buck
Carter Commission on Taxation The Rich
The Flat Tax Alberta’s Flat Tax
Family Taxation Tax Policy (for serious readers)
By Pepper Parr
April 9, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
The objective was $300,000 – more than $80,000 of that was raised in less than a month.
Don’t ever say that this community is not behind the Friends of Freeman Station (FoFS) and their objective to rehabilitate and refurbish the Burlington Junction train station originally built in 1906. Despite the full support of city council – the FoFS have persevered. Councillors Marianne Meed Ward and Blair Lancaster deserve all the council level credit for their work.
Brian Mello and artist David Harrington hold a painting of the Freeman Station in front of the site where the refurbishment of the build will be done when the foundation is in place and the weather is a little warmer.
It has been a struggle but when Mark Gillies was made chair of the membership and fundraising committee things began to happen.
The FoFS created a list of sponsorship opportunities and within a month most of the indoor locations were sponsored.
 John Mello on the right and David Harrington hold a painting Harrington did of the Freeman Station. Brian Aasgaard, president of FoFS advised us that it will not be very long before we see work crews on the site starting the work.
Right now they are waiting for a permit to begin putting in the foundation. The FoFS station had all their drawings but – this is almost funny, the engineer who provided the drawings made a mistake and put in the year of 2013 instead of 2014 and the city rejected the application – so back they had to go. Aasgaard said he will have the permit by the end of the week and the basement work can begin. As soon as that is done – work crews move in – and we should have some warmer weather as well.
There are a number of organizations that are waiting in the wings to announce their sponsorship which puts “DONE” to the task a group of citizens took on to save a piece of local history.
City council struggled for years to find a place to place the station and then have it refurbished – at one point they even had federal money to pay for the move and the refurbishment but they couldn’t agree on a home for the structure. Meanwhile it sat beside the fire station headquarters and began to slowly rot.
Those days will become part of the lore and history of the station – not one of the city’s best moments – but it is the citizens of a city that make a community what it is. City councils just get elected, make their mistakes and move on.
 By Pepper Parr
April 9, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
The Region just might be looking for a serial bank robber – and this kind of situation has the potential to become very, very dangerous.
The Halton Regional Police are investigating a series of bank robberies that occurred between January 3rd and April 8th 2014.Police believe the same suspect is responsible for eight robberies in Burlington, Oakville and Kitchener.
- January 3rd, 2014 Bank of Montreal – 519 Brant St. Burlington
- January 29, 2014 Bank of Montreal – 2 King St. Kitchener
- February 18, 2014 Scotiabank Robbery – 64 King St. W. Kitchener
- February 18, 2014 Scotiabank Robbery – 1258 King St. E Kitchener
- March 5, 2014 C.I.B.C. – 197 Lakeshore Rd. E. Oakville
- March 25, 2014 C.I.B.C. – 575 Brant St. Burlington
- April 2, 2014 Bank of Montreal – 239 Lakeshore Rd. Oakville
- April 8, 2014 Scotiabank – 320 Speers Rd in Oakville
The suspect is described as:
Male, white
Approximately 5’10” to 6’2”
Large build, 200-250 lbs.
Chubby face with a wide jaw
Wearing dark sunglasses, blue jeans, a black hoodie with dark a coloured plaid jacket and a multicolour scarf.
Anyone with information on these robberies is urged to contact Detective John Ophoven, 3 District Criminal Investigations Bureau at 905 825-4747 Ext 2343 or Detective Sergeant Ron Hansen at 905-825-4747 Ext. 2315 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.com or by texting ‘Tip201’ with your message to 274637(crimes).
Regional police will add more images should they become available. They can be found on the web site.
Background links:
BMO on Brant Street robbed.
Friday bank heist.
By Pepper Parr
April 9, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
While not yet a candidate Bell Line resident Vanessa Warren let fly at a city council meeting Monday night.
She delegated to talk about the new court house to be built at Walker’s Line and Palladium Way..
 Vanessa Warren telling council they were not delivering on their promises. What Warren was doing was highlighting the significant lack of communication on the part of the city about a new Courthouse expansion and consolidation of both the Milton and Burlington Courthouses that is ready to proceed with a request for design/build/lease proposals. You could imagine my frustration at not having received any communication about this proposal from my local Councillor; nor have any of the dozens of what I would consider very engaged residents I have spoken with.
“It is clear from the report that, since 2006, it is has been well researched and well funded – and slated for vacant employment lands in the 407 corridor, it might also seem well planned…except for what I see as two glaring oversights.
The first oversight had to do with Community Engagement, which Warren reminded Council was
To fulfill the vision and mission of the Burlington Community Engagement Charter, that included Early and Widespread Notification
Warren added that the engagement charter was to celebrate its first birthday the following day.
Warren reminded Council they were about to confirm the location of this courthouse and seek an RFP for a design/build/lease arrangement for the next 25 years and beyond without even “brushing up against the first level of public participation on the list in its own Charter, which is to inform.
Warren brought to Council’s attention the “really poor transportation planning” for the Alton community when transit wasn’t even thought of until after it was built, and less than three months before the start of the school year.
I think everyone can agree” said Warren “ that that was an example of ad-hoc and backward-looking work and should have been a lesson well learned.
 Council sat stoically while Vanessa Warren reminded them that they were not living up to the provision of the Community engagement Charter which was to celebrate its first anniversary the next day. Warren wasn’t finished: She pointed out that one of the key criterion used to select the courthouse location was that it be “serviced by public transit”, presumably because many people who use the court system will have need of busing and other alternatives. She had wanted to put a map up on the screen in Council chambers showing that there were no plans for a bus route in place to service the court house that is to be move in ready by mid-2016.
It was at this point that the Mayor interrupted Warren and asked her to “make your comments specific to the Growth Management Plan” under discussion. The Mayor appeared to be having a problem with comments about the failure to live up to the committeemen to keep the public informed set out in the Community Engagement Charter.
Warren said later that she didn’t think the Mayor was right in interrupting her and that all her comments were very germane. She added that she felt most of the council members were “squirming in their seats”
“I spoke last week with Jenny Setterfield, Transportation Engineering Technologist at Burlington Transit, the point person on the City’s Transportation Master Plan and she was not aware of this project.
This all makes me very concerned: concerned that Council has failed to, at the very least inform the local community about what is taking place, and concerned that Council will once again be directing Burlington Transit to back-fill it’s development plans with three months notice.
We need really strong leadership to enhance the livability of our urban spaces while still protection our green spaces. This proposal – while overall being positive – has been approached the wrong way. You’ve only looked at one bottom line.
You should not be consulting after the fact and then ask residents to show up for the photo-op later. You consult in advance and you ensure that the big picture planning tools – like transit – are in place to ensure success.
I would suggest that approving the recommendations before you tonight will be a violation of your own Community Engagement Charter, and will only work towards creating a disconnected and poorly serviced City.
 Councillor Paul Sharman asks Warren what some of her assumptions were while Councillor Lancaster listen as she is roundly criticized by a ward resident. Jeff Fielding the city manager did add some comment after the Warren delegation and pointed out that the location of a new court house had to be the result of a consensus of all four municipalities in the Region and that some issues had come up from one of the municipalities – he didn’t say which one – that would be reviewed April 14th. He added that there would be no problem deferring any decision by council until the next round of Standing Committee meetings.
Which was fine – but the comments didn’t deal with the fact that the public had not been made aware of the plans for the court house and any transit requirement has not even been looked at.
Warren had brought the issue to the attention of the people in her ward and the city at large.
That was Monday night. On Tuesday morning Vanessa Warren announced her intention to run for City and Regional Council in Burlington’s Ward 6 and said that after “four years of inaction, inaccessibility and poor communication from the incumbent, Blair Lancaster” she would run for the office.
By Ray Rivers
April 8, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
While we held our breath Monday night, Quebecers chose to postpone their discussion on sovereignty and move on with their lives, largely shunning the two competing separatist parties for the federalist Liberals.
There are those who rationalize that the push for an independent Quebec may have been just a generational thing. As the generation of Lévesque, Bouchard, Parizeau and Marois pass, the progressive leaders of Quebec’s ‘Quiet Revolution’, so will the sovereignty debate they say.
Outgoing Premier Pauline Marois mused that she had erred in raising the sovereignty issue during the campaign. However, for a separatist party, committed to independence, to not have talked about their end goal would have been deceptive and dishonest. And there were other factors for her failure, including a fractious campaign in which she played the desperate political leader, thrashing about, trying to blame somebody else for her inescapable tumble.
 That fist in the air was the one thing the Parti Quebecois didn’t need – now they may have to live with Pierre Karl Peladeau as Leader of the Opposition. It would be only fair to say that voters, concerned about a poorly performing economy and a soaring provincial debt, were looking for something more positive, and from a new government. Many had tired of that divisive, some would say racist, ‘Values Charter’debate which was offensive to the very way in which Quebecers see themselves, and typically are – respectful and fair minded.
The new Liberal leader, Couillard, was refreshingly open and unafraid to speak the truth about issues, like the need for English in the workplace and Quebec society. He spoke about bringing Quebec into Canada’s constitution, closing the generational rift over the place of that province in Canada. Of course, that will not be easy and he will face homegrown opposition, even if he can come to terms with the federal government and the other provinces.
Make no mistake – separatism is not dead yet, and whether it comes back to life will depend on what we all do over the next four years. The constitution is a good starting place, particularly as the governing Conservatives would like to amend the parts that pertain to the Senate anyway.
 It was a bitter evening when Rene Levesque lost the first referendum. The separatists were to lose a second attempt to leave Canada years later. Quebec’s economy is in critical need of rebooting with a national industrial strategy that would also benefit Ontario – a strategy which this government is reluctant to broach, preferring instead to devote itself almost solely to promoting the export of petroleum.
A successful industrial strategy would necessitate reconsideration of our almost manic pre-occupation with international free trade deals, and renegotiation of some we’ve already signed, particularly those with nations that don’t play by the same rules.
Ontario could be purchasing more of Quebec’s low-emission hydro power, rather than investing in more expensive and environmentally harmful gas plants. And, speaking of inter-provincial cooperation and power, Quebec would benefit from addressing the unfairness in that dated Churchill Falls power deal, particularly if it would like access to more Newfoundland energy for its markets.
No doubt Quebec would feel more at home in Canada were we to get to know each other better. Opportunities for this abound, including enhanced tourism, sporting events, and student and other exchanges which we often overlook, perhaps daunted by the prospect of dealing with the potential linguistic challenges. And some of the answer there lies in language education within the school systems.
 Several major political blunders cos the Parti Quebecois power in Quebec. It may take several decades – if ever – for a serious separatist movement to surface again in Quebec. Finally, Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba have sizeable francophone communities, yet in this bi-lingual nation they remain officially unilingual English. If a less well-endowed New Brunswick can afford official bilingualism, why can’t these other provinces – at least in the longer term? Language is a potentially fractious issue in nation-building. One has only to observe the divisiveness that issue is causing in today’s Ukraine.
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.
By Staff
April 7, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
This is National Volunteer Week, an opportunity for us to recognize, appreciate and thank our valuable volunteers throughout our Region.
Volunteers provide generous personal time, dedicated to strengthening our communities. From high school students to senior volunteers, these gracious people are involved in community programs and events that help our communities shine.
The Halton Regional Police Service has the support of over 200 volunteers throughout the Halton Region who work alongside our police officers and civilian members, fulfilling vital roles in helping us provide the best police service we can in one of the safest regions in Canada.
The Halton Regional Police volunteer programs include Auxiliary Policing, Communities on Phone Patrol (COPP), Seniors and Law Enforcement Together (SALT), Seniors Helpline and Victim Services.
We currently have 60 Auxiliary Police officers who volunteered 8216 hours and attended 119 events in 2013.
Our Communities on Phone Patrol volunteers function out of each district and in total, we have 74 volunteers that range from age 21 to 87!! Congratulations to Al Weatherhead, our oldest and still one of the busiest COPP’s volunteers we have.
We have 43 senior volunteers that include both Seniors and Law Enforcement Together (SALT) and those that dedicate time to the Halton Seniors Helpline. Shirley Broostad, a senior helping seniors, turns 84 this year. You are never too old to volunteer your time to help others.
Our Victim Services Unit (VSU) has 36 volunteers who are dedicated to assisting victims of crimes and offer assistance and resources to help people in need get through a difficult time in their lives. Our Victim Services volunteers are compassionate and caring and are a valuable part of our police response. These volunteers have dedicated close to 1000 hours in 2013 and have responded to 96 crisis calls.
To learn more about volunteer opportunities with the Halton Regional Police Services, please click on the link below.
By Staff
April 7, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Willie Sutton, a full time bank robber was once asked why he robbed banks. “Because that’s where the money is” he replied. Two bandits have figured that out and have taken to cracking open ATM machines in what they see as quiet places.
Friday evening, April 4th 2014, at 4:24 AM, a break and enter occurred at Rexall Pharmacy located at 2400 Guelph Line in Burlington.
Two unknown suspects pried open the front doors to the store and then used a large gas cement saw to gain entry into an ATM machine.
The suspects fled the store with an undisclosed amount of cash from the ATM. The same suspects are believed to be responsible for similar entries in Hamilton, London and Windsor.
Suspect Descriptions:
Male, 5’9″ to 5’11”, 160 to 190 lbs, average build wearing a black head covering which concealed his face and neck, plain white long sleeve shirt, black gloves, black pants and white short cut running shoes.
Male, 6’0″ to 6′”2″, 250-280 lbs, large overweight build wearing a black head covering which concealed his face and neck, plain white t-shirt overtop oa black long sleeve shirt, black gloves, black pants and dark work boots.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Vince Couce, 3 District Criminal Investigations Bureau at 905 825-4747 ext 2307
 By Staff
April 5, 2-14
BURLINGTON, ON.
Another ID theft attempt.
The people who do this like using national brands – companies you might have used in the past. This latest one involved Amazon – a company I have used in the past.
They got one of my email addresses and sent me an email they hoped I would think it came from Amazon. However, I haven’t used Amazon since I moved to Burlington. The Different Drummer has everything I need but for those who like the Amazon service – they may have been taken in.
Look carefully at the address of the sender.
 Notice that the domain name is spelt “amazons.ca” And that isn’t amazon is it?
You have to be careful – It’s sort of like counting your change before you leave the store.
By Staff
April 5, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
HalTech is a provincial RIC, an association sponsored by the provincial government and is one of more than 20 such associations across the province to help local corporations and budding entrepreneurs develop and grow their businesses.
RIC: Research, Innovation, Commercialization or RIC Centre provides their clients with: personalized service, face to face support, comprehensive business advisory services with three C-suite level Entrepreneurs in Residence, access to capital and funding opportunities, entrepreneurship training and networking opportunities and an extensive mentor-ship program
Hal Tech is a member of the Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE). The ONE is a collaborative network of unique organizations across Ontario. These organizations are designed to help innovators, entrepreneurs and business leaders, commercialize technology- based, entrepreneurial business ideas.
Haltech is sponsoring a seminar on” Valuing ad structuring your company for success.
The presentation will be given by Brent Jackson from Grant Thornton LLP and Ted Maduri of Davis LLP.
They will take a close up look at both the financial and legal elements of your business. These are key ingredients that will make or break your company in today’s competitive world.
What is your company really worth? The gap between YOUR value and the real market value is something you need to know.
Most companies require investment. First you need to know what to pitch for and how to position your company for ultimate success.
The event takes place at the Ron Joyce Centre at the McMaster DeGroote School of Business on April 17th – runs from 9:00 am to 11:00. Might be worth looking into. For tickets – go to and register. There is no cost for the event.
 By Staff
April 5, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON. They play a very tough game. While some of the players are dis-abled that doesn’t prevent them from playing a very tough, aggressive game of wheelchair basketball.
The three day Canadian Wheelchair Basketball League (CWBL) National Championship is taking place in Burlington at the Haber Recreation Centre which is part of the Alton Campus that includes a high school, public library and recreation centre in the one structure.
Burlington built the complex and planned on attracting national, provincial and regional teams to use the space that has eight courts.
At the end of the first day of competition four teams emerge unscathed. The BC Royals, Bulldogs de Quebec, Gladiateurs de Laval, and Alberta Northern Lights carry perfect 2-0 records into their quarter-final matches set for Saturday at the Haber Recreation Centre where twelve club teams are competing for the national title.
Participating athletes include past, present, and future members of Team Canada including local Burlington Vipers’ athlete Melanie Hawtin, of Oakville, Ont., who will soon represent Team Canada at the upcoming 2014 Women’s World Wheelchair Basketball Championship June 20-28 in Toronto, Ont. Joining Hawtin on the hardcourt are fellow Canadian National Women’s Team members Elaine Allard, of St. Eustache, Que. (playing for the Gladiateurs de Laval), Tamara Steeves of Mississauga, Ont. (playing for the Southern Ontario Suns), and Darda Sales of London, Ont. (representing the London Forest City Flyers). The hometown Vipers club also features London 2012 Paralympic gold medallist and Burlington native Brandon Wagner.
 Doesn’t matter what the game is – the ball still has to be managed.  It’s a long shot – a very long shot. Does it go in?  It’s an intense game. Watching the play and maneuvering the wheel chair to be in position calls for skill, coordination and timing.  Two players want the ball – while two watch to figure out where the ball is going to end up so they can make their moves.  The coach is a vital part of the game. He doesn’t just stand on the sidelines – he directs and motivates.  Equipment has to be maintained and in wheel chair basketball the equipment is a lot more complex for some players.  That woman is just “smokin” as she moves up the side of the court – she played a very aggressive game.  Covering the player with the ball.  There are times in wheel chair basket ball when there are collisions. All of the players wear tape on their fingers to protect their hands.  That long shot – it did go in. The shooter looked a little surprised – the other players wear awestruck expression on their faces. Burlington Gazette photographer Oliver Hannak was on hand Friday night to catch some of the action. His photo essay follows:
By Staff
Photography by Oliver Hannak
April 4, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Things didn’t get off to a great start for the Burlington Vipers – the team Brandon Wagner, Burlington’s Paralympian, plays on – but he will be back at it on Saturday taking part in the three day National Championship tournament at the Haber Recreational Centre. The Burlington Vipers lost their first two games
 The 2014 Canadian Wheelchair Basketball League (CWBL) National Championship takes place April 4-6, 2014 in Burlington and are sanctioned by Wheelchair Basketball Canada.
The event is being hosted by the Burlington Vipers in conjunction with the City of Burlington. These Championships are the first national event to take place at the Centre which was built for just this kind of thing.
The place has eight courts where teams can play at the same time. The building, brand new, is squeaky clean with large plasma screen throughout the building.
Wheelchair basketball players do not have to be disabled – something I didn’t know. When any player falls over in their chair – and with the way these men and women go at it – there are a lot of tumbles, they have to get up by themselves. Men and women do play on the same team.
Every player is ranked, which is a number assigned to a player based on their level of physical functionality. It is basically a measure of their body trunk capability. The players are ranked by professionals who have experience with disabled people.
There are five players on the court at any one time – and the total value of the players cannot be more than 15 points. So a team that has some high ranking – a player is ranked between 1-5 and can be a 3.5 for example.
 If there are two players who have exceptional body trunk capability and they have ranks of 4.5 – nine of the 15 points available to the coach are taken up.
Off to a corner of the court two people sit at a table keeping a count of the points on the floor. They know the ranking of each player and are adding up their rank values every time a new player rolls onto the court.
A players ranking can charge but that doesn’t happen very often.
The tournament runs Saturday and Sunday. The schedule can be reached by clicking on the link.
Brandon Wagner is back on the court Saturday afternoon.
Background links:
Haber Recreational Centre deal put in place.
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 4, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
While some think it isn’t yet a safe bet that there will be no more snow – if there is any it won’t stick around very long – which was enough motivation for the Friends of Freeman Station to begin checking their tool boxes and getting out their work books to troop over to the current location of what everyone calls the Freeman Station.
 It was a different Burlington at a much different time when it was not yet a town and the reason for being was to grow produce and ship it out from this station. Now we want to preserve the place. In 1856, the Great Western Railway completed the rail line. The first train station of the Great Western Railway line was built around 1854 near Brant Street close to where Plains Road is now located. The line itself, which ran between Hamilton and Toronto was completed in 1856.
The local area at the time was called Wellington Square.
In 1869, the Great Western Railway started to list the train station as “Wellington Square”, in their railway timetable schedules. A short time later, the station name “Wellington Square” was changed to “Burlington”, when the area became known as Burlington.
In 1877 on February 14th, the Hamilton & Northwestern Railway line opened from Hamilton to Burlington and on up to Georgetown. This created a junction between the GWR and H&NW railways, and it was at “Burlington”. The designation for the train station changed to “Burlington Junction”.
In 1882, the Great Western Railway and the Grand Trunk Railway amalgamated and the train station at “Burlington Junction” was of a Great Western Railway building style, and now it was part of the Grand Trunk Railway who used different styles for their train stations.
 The train station was a focal point for the city – train travel was how most people for to Burlington. In 1883, the “Burlington Junction” station was completely destroyed by a devastating fire. The station was rebuilt in 1888, and the Grand Trunk Railway continued to use the GWR design. There is an old photograph from this period that shows the station with signage that shows the station with the name “Burlington”.
In 1904, this second station also burned to the ground. It was not that uncommon to have fires at train stations. The locomotives were spewing embers as they entered into the station area, and on windy days, those burning embers often landed on the stations somewhere.
In 1906, the Grand Trunk Railway built a new station using their own classic design, which was known as “Type B2a”. This is the historic station design we are fortunate to have in Burlington, and now it will be preserved and renovated. As a side note, all three stations were built at the same location.
During the time that the stations were active, the signage changed three times. The names ‘Burlington Junction”, “Burlington”, & “Burlington West” were all in use. “Burlington West” was used for a very short time in the mid-1980s as Go Train Service was introduced and the new Fairview Street Station opened. For a brief time, both the Go station & the “Burlington West” station were in operation at the same time. The “Burlington West” sign was there only to distinguish between the two stops until the beautiful old train station was finally closed around 1988 by the Canadian National Railway.
 Burlington grew produce; pears, peppers and apples were some of what got shipped from the Burlington station. So why was it ever called “Freeman Station”? Contrary to popular belief, it was not named after the Freeman family who settled the area over 200 years ago. The station was located in the Village of Freeman, which was the area of Brant Street and Plains Road. The Freeman family has lived in and around the Village of Freeman for all of those years. The Village of Freeman was a thriving community with several factories, including a canning company and a basket making company, and a fair number of nearby houses. The Village of Freeman even had its own Post Office and a postal stamp designation up to 1952, when amalgamation finally brought the Village of Freeman together with the Town of Burlington. The name evolved from everyday usage by the local residents who affectionately called their train station, “Freeman Station”.
With this kind of local history one would have thought city council would have been all over themselves to save the place. The city couldn’t find a place to put it and the leadership to save the structure didn’t show up until the place was being offered for sale as kindling. The city just wanted to get rid of it.
 On the move – the station got moved a number of times – is there yet another move in its future? That is when Councillors Marianne Meed Ward and Blair Lancaster got together and pleaded with their colleagues to just give them some time and they would find a way to save the structure.
The Friends of Freeman Station was formed; the found a way to acquire charitable status and then they found a home for the building – that turned out to be yards away from where the station had been resting – standing on blocks beside the Fairview Fire Station.
The move took place before the winter set in. The building is still sitting on blocks and two large yellow steel beams. A foundation will be put in and then the structure lowered onto what will be its home while the restoration work gets done.
  With the warm weather about to arrive the renovators and refurbishes want to get at it. And that is going to cost – quite a bit – at least $300,000
They can’t sell tickets – yet, but the FoF board has decided they can sell naming rights and they have come up with an ambitious approach to sell naming rights for everything but the toilet that we assume the place is going to have.
Try these on for size:
1. The Station Master’s Office, $15,000
2. The Waiting Room, $12,500
3. The Portico, $10,000
4. The Baggage Room, $7,500
5. The Lower Level, $5,000
6. The Les Armstrong Main Entranceway, $2,500
7. The Lower Level Entranceway, $2,000
8. The Crew Room, $1,000
9. The Windows (14), $2,000 each
10. The Jane Irwin Oval Window, $2,000
11. The Interior/Exterior Main Level Doors (5), $2,000 each
12. Interior Furniture, Lights & Displays (20), $500 each
And that’s just the inside of the structure. Outside you can slap your name on:
1. The Burlington Junction Freeman Station Park, $60,000
2. The Train Platform, $10,000
3. The Parking Area, $5,000
4. The Original Baggage Cart, $2,500
5. The Landscaping, $2,000
6. Exterior Platform Accessories, (20.5) $1,000 each
7. Original 1000 whinstones, $100 each
The fund raisers come up with a total of $305,500
There are two sponsorship opportunities that need comment. The Les Armstrong Main Entranceway, $2,500 and the Jane Irwin Oval Window, $2,000. I’d up the price for those to $5000 each; Irwin and Armstrong were the two strongest advocates for saving the station –Les was the forming president of the Friends of Freeman and Jane the vice president – both are no longer with us.
 The signing of the Joint Venture agreement between the Friends of Freeman Station and the city – with the Friends raising most of the money. The hope is that the FoF board will exercise some discretion and not have the station looking like one of those NASCAR drivers with clothing that is a collection of corporate. Dignified and under-stated please.
Background links:
The station was saved.
Freeman station being prepped for a move.
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Earning a living became the prime focus and for seven years Losier worked as an accounting clerk for a truck leasing company. She did most of he own healing, grew as a feminist and found solace in her mother-in-laws garden – the home she now lives in.