“You are only able to use your existing security device until 26 August 2016” said a note from what the sender wanted us to believe was from the TD Bank.
The message was not from the TD Bank – it was from someone who wants the reader to think that.
The message goes on to say:
“Effective 27 August 2016, you will be required to log on to your Web Business Banking with the new synchronized master key. To avoid any disruption to your Web Business Banking service, we encourage you to upgrade immediately.”
“Your online security is our priority, for more detailed information please see the attached PDF document enclosed.”
“Your new Security Device upgrade is pin-protected and will provide you with an additional level of protection. All Web Business Banking users who do not upgrade there Security Devices in due time will be deactivated and unable to authorize transactions.
[TD Canada Trust]
[Commercial Banking Operations]
The spelling mistake we highlighted it in red for you is one of the give aways – banks don’t communicate with their clients this way.
The number is reported to be between 8,000 and 12,000.
And it was huge.
It was wall to wall – with the crowd stretching far into the western part of Spencer Smith Park
But it was more than that – it was the looks on people faces and people who mouthed the words to many of the songs.
It was hot.
When Gord Downie first appeared on the giant screen he was in a passageway hugging and greeting the members of his band. The last performance of the Man Machine Poem tour as about to begin and the crowd of 6000 in the Kingston venue went wild.
He gave it everything he had and went through three costume changes during a performance to be remembered for a long long time.
And then he began to do what he does best – entertained an audience and took them back to better days.
At one point he came close to lecturing the Prime Minister who was in the audience which seemed OK especially when he said Justin had 12 years in office ahead of him
The aboriginal community has always been a concern and a passion for Downie – and he directed the Prime Minister to do something about that as the Prime Minister stood quietly with a look of both awe and respect for the man on the stage. “We are going to figure it out” said Downie.
There were very few open spaces like this – these didn’t have all that good a line of sight.
Some media reported three encores – I thought there were more than that, closer to five. As he left the stage during one of the encores he said: “Have a good life.”
The Tragically Hip music is not the genre I prefer and I didn’t know very many of the songs. I was there to report on the event – and it was amazing – he did three costume changes – each into a different metallic coloured suit and a different hat with feathers. A blue suit, a maroon suit and a gold suit; he was resplendent.
The audience of between 8,000 and 12, 000 listened quietly and during the closing numbers stood to applaud an incredible performance.
He kept pulling up his trousers – as if they didn’t fit or he had forgotten his belt; maybe it was the equipment attached to his waist.
What was amazing for me was the size of the crowd; perhaps the biggest Spencer Smith Park has experienced. It was a well behaved crowd – and the expected plumes of thick white smock with that identifiable pungent odour wafted over the crowd at the base of the screen.
The simulcast into Spencer Smith Park happened when the ward 2 councillor for the city and the Burlington Downtown Business Association approached city council and asked them to match the $12,500 that the BDBA had raised. Council said yes and the team that made it happen got into gear.
The technical part of the performance went off without a hitch.
They arranged for a small trench to be dug to bury a TV cable feed, along with a back up. The equipment that made the technically flawless production happen sat under a tent humming away with one at the controls – the technology was superb. Andie Porecki , president of the Sound of Music said everything technically had gone perfectly.
The enormity of it all hits Downie – this is the last performance
Downie played with is audience and at the close of one of his encores he thanked the audience for “keeping me pushing”
Two things struck me – the pain in his face at times; the howls that were almost primal and then his ability to shift into a lighter mood.
You sat where you could; police patrolled an event that didn’t have a spot of trouble. The officers did wear Tasers however.
At the end of one of the encores a member of the band appeared to have to lead him off the stage – didn’t matter – he returned.
At the second to last encore, the moon that was in the eastern sky was muted by drifting clouds; some of the audience was beginning to pick up their chairs and head for home. The concert was well past the 11 pm finish time.
Like the Spring break up on some rivers – the winter ice did not want to let go. No one wanted it to end.
Media releases that come out of the provincial government will be about creating jobs, doing something about climate change or improving the transportation system.
Getting new employers into a community is the raison d’etre for the people in economic development and there are perhaps 50 communities in the province looking for that company that is ready to move or expand.
Frank McKeown, the fellow hired to do the thinking at the Burlington Economic development Corporation, will tell you that not very many companies move their offices or plants – although International Harvester did move their distribution depot out of Burlington to Hamilton.
Bronte Meadows – a large swath of land that borders on Upper Middle Road and Burloak – should it be residential or employment lands?
The province has been putting resources into helping property owners get their land ready for development using what they call a Certified Site Program to help municipalities attract new jobs and investment
The objective is to help municipalities compete globally and attract new jobs and development by enhancing a provincial program that certifies industrial lands as ready for development.
McKeown adds: “We have been aware of this program for some time. The revisions announced reduce the size of the applicable site. Burlington has few sites that it would apply to. We have had little interest. The amounts are so small compared to the cost of land and development that the local market has indicated that it is not that relevant.”
The Investment Ready: Certified Site program can help get projects off the ground faster by marketing sites that have undergone rigorous due diligence to international investors. It gives potential investors easy access to important property information such as availability, completed environmental assessments, utility costs and transportation access.
The Bronte Meadows site, shown in a photograph above has drawn some comment. Former Mayor Walter Mulkewich commented: ” Your question re “Bronte Meadows” as to whether it should be “residential or employment” is a provocative question, the answer to which has been clear – that the economic future of Burlington will depend on those lands remaining “employment” as designated many years ago – and which City Council will surely maintain.”
There are those on this city council who are being heavily influenced by the property owners to convert at least some of the land to residential. Based on what the Gazette sees and hears at council meetings – keeping this land as employment lands is not a certainty.
Ontario is making several changes to the program to make it easier for businesses and municipalities to participate:
Expanding eligibility to include smaller, non-contiguous lands within business and industrial parks, not just large contiguous industrial lands of 10 acres or more
Doubling the amount of eligible certification expenses reimbursed to municipalities, from $25,000 to up to $50,000
Increasing the range of eligible expenses to cover the full certification process, including application, post-certification site changes and marketing activities
Doubling the certification designation, from two to four years
Introducing a pre-application consultation to help provide municipalities with quick answers to questions about the program before applying
Ontario now has 16 certified sites. None of them are in Burlington.
However, McKeown points out that his office has handled 63 site selection responses this year. About 80% of inquiries are lease opportunities. Hence zoning is a bigger focus for us.”
“We have been trying to create our own “ready to go” model.”
Zoned commercial, spitting distance to the QEW, minutes from downtown – owner wants to rezone and make it residential.
The program recently led to retailer Giant Tiger buying one of these sites in the Township of Edwardsburgh/Cardinal in Eastern Ontario. It is building a 600,000 square foot state-of-the-art distribution centre on the property, which is expected to support up to 300 jobs in the region.
The location of the sites certified to date can be seen on the map. CLICK HERE:
•Ontario has the only province-wide site certification program in Canada. This strengthens the province’s ability to compete with the United States, which has more than 35 certification programs.
• Certified sites are integrated into Ontario’s investment attraction strategy, and receive top consideration for strategic investment opportunities in the province.
• Pre-application consultations for the next intake round are open until December 31, so municipalities can find out more about how to be top-of-mind for potential investors.
When you pick up the phone and dial 911 – or you call the police station – few people realize just how many wheels begin to turn.
It all gets to the Halton Regional Police Service communications department run by Staff Sergent Dave Cross – who is very quick to tell you that he has an office with a window and ensures the place runs smoothly but adds: “I don’t do a thing on the actual communications work side. I administer the operation and ensure that the 66 people who handle those telephone calls are trained, supported and appreciated.”
They are certainly well trained. Cross explains that everyone is cross trained in everything. This is a 24 x 7 operation. It is always up.
The communications people are tied in very tightly to the Bell system’s 911 call service which is immensely complex.
Shift supervisor’s work station – notice the three difference mic on the desk top – can you count the number of screens?
Communications at the HRPS is broken into two parts; those people who handle the incoming calls. Every call to the police comes into the third floor operation at the police headquarters in Oakville. The lights are always dim with the operators, mostly woman, glued to the three, sometimes five, very large computer monitors in front of them and a telephone set with more buttons that you can even imagine.
There are usually two different mouse’s at the ready.
There is very little idle chatter.
On the incoming side the calls that come in are distributed to the first available operator. There are two kinds of calls – a regular telephone call and a 911 call.
The operators can pull up maps fr any part of the Region and zoom in to whatever they want – all at the click of the mouse.
A large television screen in a spot on one of the walls where all of the four to six incoming call operators can see it at a glance, tells them how many calls there are in the waiting que. When the board changes to blue they know that a 911 call is waiting.
Operators will put a regular telephone call on hold – they are pretty abrupt at putting a caller on hold and say to the 911 caller – “Do you want the police, fire department or ambulance.”
The moment they know which, they transfer the call. If it is an ambulance call it goes to the Emergency Measures people and often gets passed along immediately to the police detachment as well.
“Sometimes” said Zee, the operator I sat in with for a stretch “a police cruiser is needed to help clear the roadway for the ambulance.”
While sitting in with Zee things were pretty relaxed – then a call from Fearman’s hog processing plant in Burlington about a protestor who had gotten into the property and was pretty close to the hog chute; they wanted her removed from the property.
Zee was talking to both the person from the hog plant and the police cruiser that was on the way.
A call came in a little later about a house in Oakville where the door was thought to be open. When Zee brings up a screen showing all the police incidents in the area she notices that there had been three breaks in in the area. She passes the call along to a police cruiser and then the call gets transferred to the dispatch side of the communications operation
I will come back to the Dispatch people – they do a decidedly different job.
Zee has directed one cruiser on the way to the open house door scene and is in the process of getting a back up car in place as well.
While directing the first police car she gets a call from the police officer asking if she can send someone else to the open house door call and asks if she would run the plates from a car the police officer spotted and was just a little suspicious about. Zee taps a couple of keys and reads out the name of the owner of the car. The police officer asks her to run the name of the owner – a few more key get tapped and Zee is able to tell the police officer that the driver’s name has been has been queried by police in London and a few other surrounding areas. That’s enough for the police officer to know that his suspicions were right and he pulls the driver over.
The people in the communications division have an amazing array of information sources at their fingertips. They can be in touch with other local police forces – they can be in touch with any police service in the province.
Screen upon screen of information is a fingertip away – and their fingers skip across their keyboard in a flash.
The information available to the operator is almost unlimited – and the speed at which they can access that information is close to stunning.
Calls from cell phone are a little harder to work with explained Zee. However, when there is a call from a cell phone she is able to flick to a screen that will show her which cell tower the call came from is located and then see a circle around the cell tower and tells me that “the call came from within that circumference”.
All this information comes up in an instant.
A little later there was a call from a person with an accent that was difficult to understand – but the words Old English kept being heard. Zee goes to the map and keys in the words – and up comes a street name – she has begun to narrow down the location of the caller.
Another operator hearing part of the conversation pips up and adds some information she had on the caller.
When Dave Cross said these people were cross trained – he wasn’t kidding.
An operator will work at a station for a couple of hours and then shift supervisor Terry will switch them around. No one stay at a particular station for a long time – they get moved around.
I sat in with Zee on the incoming call side and with Nicole and Sam on the Dispatch side.
Terry, the supervisor is a woman with one of those voices that lets you know she has a firm grip on the conversation; you know she is going to guide every word of it. That sense that there is someone really in charge but not bossy in charge becomes very clear.
Data on screens and telephone sets with instant links – note the two telephone sets.
Calls on the incoming side involve a lot of what get described as “domestic matters” which can be pretty hum drum but have the capacity to escalate very quickly; the operators listen very keenly to not only the words but the tone. I could almost hear Zee tuning into one callers breathing.
There was a 15 year old calling from Belleville who wanted the Halton police to call her Mother and advise the Mother that she could not throw the daughters possessions out on the street.
It took Zee seconds to realize that she was working with a distraught teenager and needed to work with the Belleville police to ensure they were fully aware of the matter and then with the Burlington detachment to bring them into the picture.
A call from a resident at a community home who said he was told he had to call in and cancel a complaint he had made earlier had Zee looking a little askance at the phone – she asked if she could speak to the person who had instructed him to cancel the call and got passed along to care giver who explained the background.
The new police headquarters – communications will be on the top floor – is scheduled to open July of 2017.
The operators are trained to listen with almost a third ear. They don’t miss much. The quality of the work done by the people I listened to was a lot better than what you hear on some news reports where callers are over excited and very emotional.
Zee was always able to keep the conversation flowing and draw additional information out of a caller – all the while keeping things calm and under control.
The call board goes blue and the number 1 pops up –a 911 call was coming in.
Zee’s body stiffens a bit and she is suddenly all business – her hand goes up telling me not to talk:
“Police, fire department or ambulance – how do you want me to direct this call” she says in a confident voice – she gets some detail and the call gets passed over to the Dispatcher from Oakville and Zee falls back to a supporting role.
What the people on the Dispatch side is covered in our next report to you.
It was one of those corporate media releases – filled with an upbeat message and all kinds of promise.
Big Rig Brewery is ecstatic to introduce three beers to grocery stores across Ontario.
Alpha Bomb, Canadian Amber and Salute 1179 will be available in 473mL cans at select grocery stores later this month.
“Having the ability to sell beer in grocery stores across Ontario has been a game changer,” says Lon Ladell, Big Rig Brewery’s co-owner and brewmaster. “It allows us to sell beers to the public that up until now may not have been available in retail spaces outside of our brewery store.”
Alpha Bomb is a 6.2% unfiltered IPA that uses a trio of hops, and is double dry-hopped for a big, fragrant punch. Canadian Amber is a 5.2% amber ale with light malt sweetness and balanced hops to allow its depth of flavour to shine through. And Salute 1179 is a 4% light lager based on the brewery’s Gold Medal-winning pilsner.
Not in Burlington supermarkets.
“They are all quite different stylistically, but they showcase different strengths of our brewery,” Ladell says. “Alpha Bomb blends multiple hop varieties to craft something greater than the sum of its parts; Canadian Amber is malt-forward, balanced and accessible; and Salute 1179 is an incredibly refreshing craft lager that doesn’t sacrifice any flavour. I think we’ve succeeded to create something everyone can enjoy!”
Alpha Bomb and Salute 1179 will be available for $2.95 per can, and Canadian Amber for $2.85 per can. All three beers will be available at select grocery stores later this month, with more locations across the province expected to pick them up later this year. Click here to find the store nearest to you.
You can stop right there – no point in clicking.
We looked and then got in touch with the brewery and asked where the suds could be purchased in Burlington. The response:
“Unfortunately there isn’t a grocery store in Burlington that sells beer at the moment! There are some in surrounding towns, though. Hopefully when the government announces that next wave of grocery stores there will be one in Burlington.”
Write your council member – this is worth complaining about!
Despite some problems the province had with creating a system for the electronic movement of medical records the people building the new seven floor patient tower appear to have a grip on the problem.
The new communications system will be operational by the end of the year and will be part of the new seven storey patient tower that is now under construction.
EllisDon Design Build Inc., the company selected to build the new seven-story patient tower, that is very close to being closed in has chosen Orion Health’s Rhapsody Integration Engine which was designed for rapid interoperability between healthcare IT systems. It has been described as the pre-eminent engine delivering secure patient information among healthcare clinicians, collaborators and patients.
Joseph Brant Hospital’s communication infrastructure is being readied to meet the future healthcare needs of one of Canada’s fastest-growing communities. The system will power all communications and data processing
In a media release Gary Folker, EVP for Orion Health in North America said: “There’s urgency in healthcare for building technology solutions that accelerate the shift towards patient-centric care and away from the traditional disease-centred model of care.
“Partnering with EllisDon to help transform Joseph Brant Hospital into the pinnacle of healthcare delivery, will usher in a new wave of smart hospitals, while allowing us to combine our expertise in healthcare integration with their innovative approach to healthcare planning and design.”
“Rhapsody will be a key component of improving the workflow and communication among the various departments within the hospital, as well as the quality of real-time patient information available to clinicians. This greater access to secure patient data will ultimately result in more timely care and better coordination of care.
“As this is one of the most substantial projects we’ve worked on, our goal was to bring a technology partner on board that can help solidify the collaborative, patient-centric environment we are building,” said Stephen Foster Director, ICAT, EllisDon. “In Orion Health, we have the partner that offers the best healthcare information technology solutions to address the needs of both patients and healthcare professionals – now and into the future.”
In addition to the transformation of the hospital’s administrative, clinical and patient information systems, EllisDon is also spearheading the design, build and financing of a number of renovations and expansions within the hospital:
Construction of a new, seven-story patient tower that will have a new emergency department, nine operating rooms and a post-anesthetic care room that will allow for an additional 1,770 inpatient and day surgeries
Upon completion of the project there will be 172 modern inpatient beds and 70 per cent of the patient rooms will be private
Expansion of the cancer clinic, enabling the hospital to serve an additional 2,876 patient visits
Modernization and expansion of the laboratory to improve turnaround time for test results
The implementation of Rhapsody will be completed by September 2016, while construction of Joseph Brant Hospital’s new patient tower will be completed in the fall of 2017 and renovations to the existing hospital will be completed in 2018.
There was little doubt in Alma Sarai’s mind that the stage is where she wanted to be when she grew up.
Everything she has done since leaving elementary school has been one more step towards that realization. This evening, Alma Sarai will take to the stage as Hermia in an outdoor production of Shakespeare’s a Midsummer Night’s Dream that is being performed on a lawn at the new Rock Garden at The Royal Botanical Gardens.
The location is on York Blvd – just keep going west on Plains Road – tough to miss the sign. Parking is on the other side of York Blvd
Alma Sarai – playing Hermia in a Midsummer Night’s Dream at the RBG Rock Garden through to the 21st of August.
Alma is in the process of completing a joint dramatic arts program at both Sheridan College and the Mississauga campus of the University of Toronto. “This is really a unique opportunity for me” she said when explaining how she ended up as part of a nine player cast being directed by Trevor Copp.
Copp who is a performer in his own right, went looking for young talent that was relatively new to live theatre and joined them to the five experienced players.
A cast meeting the day before they take to stage on a lawn at the RBG Rock Garden
In casting this piece, Copp said he “searched this area’s post-secondary theatre programs for the most talented senior students/recent graduates – and offered them paid theatre work. it’s unprecedented in our area.”
Alma and Trevor had crossed each others path on a number of occasions but had not worked in a production. “I have danced with him” said Alma – “he is a wonderfully smooth dancer.”
Trevor is also a director who tends to look for the edges of whatever he is doing and then seeing how far he can push those edges. Alma describes the two act play as one that is “very physical” and it is certainly a different production.
While Copp is the director his approach is very collaborative. During a cast meeting the day before the cast performs changes were being made.
Alma, who says she “is a dork for Shakespeare” is totally stoked for the production. She has a number of costume changes; one in which she wears a white costume while rolling on green grass.
“We are expected to really put ourselves out in this production” said Alma “and that’s what makes it so very exciting”.
Copp is not a director that gets caught up in the language of a production – he is more physical person and tends to focus on body movement and interpretation of a scene through animation rather than words.
What he chooses to do and manages to do with language as rich as that given to us by Shakespeare will be interesting – expect it to be different. and expect actresses like Alma Sarai and the rest of the company to be very physical.
Alma Sarai, an Aldershot High School graduate who will be performing on the grounds of the RBG where she played in what they used to call the bowl.
This is the first summer in ten years that Alma hasn’t worked at Aquarius in Hamilton where she was both acting in productions and then teaching.
With the end of her formal education nearing – “I will always be learning” Alma isn’t sure what she will be doing when she has graduated.
She sings, dances and has a small streak of the comedian in her. “When I am not certain of what I am doing I tend to slip into being funny”
In her outline of what she has done so far Alma Sarai lists:
Midsummer ~ A Dream; Hermia Pericles, Prince of Tyre; Thaisa & Diana How to Make Love in a Canoe; Co-Creator with Melissa-Jane Shaw Antigone; Chorus, UTM Drama Club The Navigator; Guard. UTM Fundraiser A Chorus Line; Val Clark. Theatre Aquarius The Who’s Tommy; Sally Simpson. Theatre Aquarius Departures & Arrivals; People Watcher. Aldershot H.S
The list goes on and on.
The Rock Garden has the place for lunch in the Cafe or dinner at the restaurant. Cafe doesn’t have its license yet.
And for Alma Sarai that list is just beginning; for the next two weeks she will be outside on a lawn at the RBG Rock Garden playing Hermia in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream; a production that will have the unique Trevor Copp touch and emerging actress Alma Sarai as part of the cast.
The location is superb, the production values will be different and you will be able to say you watched Alma Sarai when she was getting started.
Show Times:
August 10th @ 7pm
August 11th @ 7pm
August 12th @ 7pm
August 13th @ 7pm
August 14th @ 7pm
August 17th @ 7pm
August 18th @ 7pm
August 19th @ 7pm
August 20th @ 7pm
August 21st @ 7pm
A video has been posted that shows waste garbage near a storm water grate at the Brant Street Beach, near the Brant Street Pier.
Burlington singer Sarah Harmer and producer Brett Rogers met with Mayor Rick Goldring, Regional officials and Marianne Meed Ward, the city Councillor for the downtown core of the city.
In a media release the city said:
Sarah Harmer, Rogers, Mayor Rick Goldring, Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward and city staff responsible for storm water management and communication were joined at City Hall by Halton Regional staff responsible for drinking water and public health, including testing beaches for swimming safety.
The meeting follows the posting of a video by Rogers that shows garbage near a storm water grate at the Brant Street Beach, near the Brant Street Pier.
“We had a good discussion today with Brett, Sarah and staff,” said Mayor Goldring. “As a result of today’s meeting, city and regional staff are working to further quantify elements that impact storm water management and beach water quality in Burlington in order to determine next steps. We know Lake Ontario is a tremendous asset to our community.”
A natural beach created when land jutting out into the lake was formed – some think the “mini-beach should have a boat dock dropped into place. You can see where the water discharge pipe is located on the right hand side.
“The small beach at Spencer Smith Park is well-loved and well-used,” said Councillor Meed Ward. “I’m grateful to Brett and Sarah for raising awareness about water quality and how we handle storm water, especially as more development occurs, and we lose green space.
There are lots of options for us, including low-impact development, green infrastructure and storm water utilities. I’m committed to exploring those.”
That water run off pipe is what results in part of the problem with the small beach at the foot of Brant Street. That plus the geese that foul the water. There is always a sign on this beach that tells you if the water is safe.
From the left: City Councillor Marianne Meed Ward, Sarah Harmer, Brett Rogers and Allan Magi, Executive Director of Capital works for the city. Harmer is casting a wary eye on what Magi is explaining – and well she should.
The five next steps before the group meets in September are:
• Halton Region health staff will connect with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change to determine if it is possible to do any testing of the outfall and, if possible, would testing be meaningful.
• The City of Burlington will research end-of-pipe technologies that could be possible for the storm water outlet at Brant Street Beach. Staff will also check in with the city’s roads and parks maintenance department to learn about current geese management practices.
• The City of Burlington will connect with other agencies, including Conservation Halton and Halton Region, and compile a list of current education programs related to storm water and beaches, also researching best practices for communicating.
• The City of Burlington will look at the signs created in the past year featuring halton.ca/beaches, which are posted at both Burlington Beach and Brant Street Beach. The city will look at possible additional signage related to animals on Burlington’s beaches.
• Mayor Goldring is hosting a follow-up meeting with Rogers and Harmer, Councillor Meed Ward and staff in mid-September to report back on the findings and determine possible next steps.
The Beach Brett Rogers was using was one of the bonuses that came with the $14 million pier. Sand began to form on the west side of the pier and that spot where the Naval Promenade begins yards away from the Waterfront Hotel.
When the city realized the formation of sand was going to continue they built a small walkway to the edge of the water. The location is now used by children who want to be near the water. Some small craft beach their boars there from time to time.
The testing of water quality is a Regional government responsibility. At one time the Region would issue regular water quality reports but they stopped doing that at the end of the 2015 summer season.
Brett Rogers is a producer and adventurer and co-creator of the History Channel’s 7 Days in Hell.
Sarah Harmer is the founder of PERL – Protecting Escarpment Rural Lands and a well-known singer who has won numerous awards. She was a significant witness during the Tribunal that eventually decided not to issue a permit to the Nelson Aggregate company that wanted to expand the quarry in north Burlington.
The discharge pipe has been in place for years; it was the keen eye of Brett Rogers that saw the scope of the problem.
On a web site of his own Brett Rogers gives what he calls “his rant”. It follows:
Brett Rogers – a guy who loves what he is doing.
On Saturday I went paddle boarding at my local launch point at Spencer Smith Park, in Burlington. You could make a good argument that between Spencer Smith Park and the Skyway bridge is some of the best recreational shoreline on Lake Ontario. Spencer Smith hosts some pretty awesome festivals like the Sound of Music and Rib Fest, while Burlington Beach is honestly one of the best places to swim, anywhere. Over the last four years I have spent a lot of my leisure time paddling my standup paddle board here. I love this place so much.
I’ve always had a close relationship with fresh water and I like to think that I’ve done a good job at respecting and celebrating water too. One of my News Years resolutions this year was to be a better fresh water advocate. The truth is, yeah I’ve done a good job at being a fresh water advocate over the past decade but I have not done a great job, and in this world, there are only great efforts and shitty efforts. Trust me in that I do not want to be a shitty fresh water advocate, which means I either up my game, or I shut up. And if you know me, I rarely shut up so I decided to up my game.
A big part of upping my game has been about reconnecting with an old mentor of mine, Mark Mattson. Mark is my Lake Ontario Waterkeeper. I worked for him for 9 months, 9 years ago. Looking back now, man was that an awesome job. Over the past handful of months I have really taken every opportunity of free time to help promote the work Mark is doing. A big part of that has been collecting Watermarks and exploring Burlington Bay in Annie, my York Boat. Since I’ve spent so much time with Mark lately, I’ve also learned a ton about Lake Ontario – some things that are truly out of this world cool and something, well, they just pissed me off.
Take Saturday for example. On that day I went paddle boarding with one of my best buddies. It was a wicked 3 hours on the lake. We launched and pulled out at this tiny little beach (maybe the smallest sandy beach on all of the Great Lakes) at Spencer Smith Park. As we paddled back in I noticed this huge culvert pipe between the beach and the pier. Now last year, I would had not even paid attention to such a feature, but this year I am like an eagle on the water, constantly on the lookout for a target – pollution. I notice this pipe and I think to myself, ‘I bet this dam thing is dumping storm water into my lake!’.
I guess the Lake Ontario gods had the same thought because last night, which was Sunday night, I wake up at 3 am to a huge thunder and lightning storm. I shut the windows and I can feel the mist of the rain blowing through the screen. It’s raining hard. The first thing that comes to my mind is that dam pipe! So I get out of bed, grab my video camera and drive 20 minutes down to the Lake. I have to investigate.
I love my home. I am proud of it. Both in terms of my roots in the country where I live and as a citizen of the City of Burlington. I’ve traveled a bunch and I do believe that this city is one of the best cities in all the world to live in. It’s not to big, not to small and with two totally awesome natural features that I am so proud of – the Niagara Escarpment and Lake Ontario. Plus Burlington really does has a nice downtown which we should all be proud about. But man… was I pissed off this morning. I mean, I was mad. How the hell can a great medium size City like Burlington be cutting corners like this and pull off this type of cronyism?
To deal with my anger (and utter disappointment) I felt I needed to pull some of those images and make this short video – if only for my mental well being but hopefully, to bring about change. Here’s the thing. As a Canadian, and as a member of the Burlington community, I really have no business worrying about the destruction of the Amazon rainforest when there is bull shit going on right here in my home town. Yes there are horrible things going on all over the world, but who am I to become engaged in ‘those’ issues when my own city and municipality are dumping pollution into the one of the greatest lakes on Earth, and the drinking water source for 9 million people! I don’t even drink from Lake Ontario, I am on a well, but I am still angry!
Motis, a Canadian action sports company, will be leading skateboard and longboard building workshops across Ontario at Lee Valley Tool stores.
Participants will get a hands-on education by using saws, sanders and drills to create their own skateboard or long board, which they will take home with them.
Ward Councillor Blair Lancaster and Mayor Rick Goldring put their political reputations on the line and stand on skate boards. Is there one foot on the ground there? Don’t expect t see these two at the skate board workshop.
These one-day workshops will run from 9:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Participants will use templates to draw out their unique shape on a pre-pressed Canadian maple blank, and then use a band-saw to cut out their board.
They will then router and sand their board and will drill out holes. In the afternoon, participants will create their own custom artwork. With the use of a vinyl cutter, participants will create stencils to spray paint custom images onto their deck. Grip tape will be applied to the top. Trucks, wheels, bearings and hardware are not included in the workshop fee, but participants are encouraged to bring their own so they can complete their new boards by the end of the day.
These are the guys that can get something out of the workshops being offered at Lee Valley Tools on Thursday.
When? Thursday, August 11 at the Lee Valley location in the Plaza east of Guelph Line, immediately south of Mainway.
It was a small, dignified ceremony on a lovely sunny summer afternoon at HMCS Star aboard the retired Tribal Class destroyer HMCS Haida.
There Colonel Roger Vandomm, of the French Consulate pinned a medal on the chest of Bill McConnell. The media release had Bill down as William (Bill) Basil McConnell RN (retd)
HMS Ramillies firing all four 16 inch guns
While aboard the British Battleship HMS Ramillies, Bill, as what we would call an electrician today, climbed up into the Aloft Directory of the ship to fix an electrical fitting when the four 16 inch guns of the battleship roared.
Bill was not able to put his hands over his ears because, as he put it, “you can’t cover both ears, hold the ladder and your tool kit at the same time”. He was instantly deafened, completely in on ear and seriously in the other.
Battleships were huge ships and carried four 16 inch guns that sometimes were fired so often that the paint burned off the barrels. We rattle off that phrase “16 inch guns” quickly when we are talking about a big bullet that measures more than a foot wide.
The roar of the shell coming out of a barrel, four of them at the same time, pushes that battle ship sideways.
The guns had huge range and required a crew of gunners, fitters and electrical types to maintain it. Bill was one of the electrical type, known then as an electrical artificers,
Bill joined the navy at the age of 11. He was at the Royal Hospital School, which was part of the British Navy at the time. It was basically a boarding school where the students wore uniforms. The students got seven weeks of vacation each year. Bill’s father was a Gunnery Chief Petty Officer, these were tough men.
Bill served on a number of ships – the one that he served on the longest was HMS Ramillies, a First World War battleship that was deemed to be good enough to put to sea.
The electrical types were seen as better educated than other ratings – thus when it was clear there was going to be a war in 1938, Bill found himself doing paperwork related to reserve naval types being called up. It was a situation where 15 year old boys were doing the paper work that brought men, some 60 years of age, back into the service.
HMS Ramillies was part of the naval support on DDay. She was tasked with taking out German guns at Benneville shown on the far right. They needed just 80 minutes to destroy most of the German guns
Ramillies was part of the D Day landing in June of 1944. She was to use her big guns to take out a German battery with six 6” guns at Beneville, France to the east end of Sword Beach. The Ramillies took out four of those gun batteries in 80 minutes. The British shells coming in meant the Germans had to do their best to return fire and were not able to train their guns on the troops landing on the beaches.
It was during this battle that Bill had to go aloft to the Aloft Director to repair some electrical equipment. The Aloft Director is the station high up on the ship that was used for observation.
The Allied landings on the Beaches of Normandy France were ferocious battles; thousands of men were lost. It was however the battle that turned the tide and the beginning of the Liberation of France.
Legion d’Honneur awarded by the President of the republic of France.
On the 70th Anniversary of the war ending the French government decided to make anyone who was involved in the landings a member of the Legion d’Honneur – the Legion of Honour.
During the ceremony on Sunday Colonel Vandomm read a document that said: “By order of the President of the Republic of France, you have been awarded the rank of Knight of the French National Order of the Legion of Honour.
Chief Petty Officer William Basil McConnell being awarded the French Legion of Honour by Colonel Roger Vandomm. The smile of appreciation on the Colonel’s face told the story.
“This distinction, the highest national order of France, illustrates the profound gratitude France would like to express to you in recognition of your personal involvement of the liberation of our country during World War II.”
Bill kept his eyes closed for much of the presentation – no doubt recalling the roar of those guns and the huge risk he was under.
While the guns were blazing three torpedoes sped past the battleship – two on one side, one on the other.
Bill stayed in the Navy after the war and left in 1953 after fifteen years of service.
His skills were quickly put to use as he worked for the next sixteen years in the development, installation and acceptance testing of guns and missile controls.
While on a vacation to Canada he found a job working on the “Sea Sparrow” missile control systems for the Canadian DDH280 destroyers.
Bill moved from working on ships to becoming part of the team that established sites, did equipment installation, commissioning and acceptance trials for the Anik geostationary satellite TV receive and telephone transreceiver stations in the far north and the Maritimes.
In 1977Bill joined the Canadian Department of Communications doing sub contract work for the Hermes satellite operations group,
In 1986 he was part of the Canadian Astronautics organization that designed and assembled high gain extendable array antennas.
After overseeing the construction of three satellite receiving stations in Goose Bay, Labrador, Churchill and Edmonton Bill returned to retirement.
He spent several years travelling and then spent eight years in a French Canadian farming village.
He moved to Burlington in 2008 to be nearer his only Canadian relative.
Bill McConnell, speaking to an audience after being made a Knight of the French Legion of Honour. He was aboard HMCS Haida in Hamilton. Burlington MP Karina Gould and Burlington Mayor Rick Goldring took part in th ceremony.
As a 93 year old Royal Navy retired Chief Petty Officer, William Basil McConnell climbed the steps of the gangway to board HMCS Haida where he was made a Knight of the French Legion of Honour.
A long way from his experience as an 11 years old Electrical Artificer.
The woman who badgered a Cabinet Minister to ensure that Burlington residents had access to ODRAP – Ontario Disaster Relief funds – announced Friday that Ontario is investing $237,000 in a pilot project that will help Burlington homeowners reduce the risk of basement flooding from severe weather events associated with climate change.
Eleanor McMahon was a backbencher MPP when the flood hit the city in 2014; today she is a member of the provincial Cabinet responsible for Tourism, Culture and Sport
Burlington’s MPP, Cabinet Minister Eleanor McMahon announcing the Home Adaptation Assessment Program program.
In her announcement McMahon said: “Ontario’s people and businesses are already feeling the effects of climate change. It has damaged the environment and has caused extreme weather events such as flooding, which can damage basements and homes and increase insurance rates.
“After experiencing substantial residential flooding in August 2014, Burlington was selected as the ideal location to run the first large-scale basement-flood risk reduction program. Developed by the University of Waterloo’s Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, the Home Adaptation Assessment Program will:
Assess the vulnerability of 4,000 Burlington-area homes to flood damage Make recommendations to help homeowners avoid costly damage from extreme weather Collect the data needed to inform potential expansion of the program to communities across the province.
This kind of flooding hit both the residential and the commercial community.
Lessons learned from the pilot program in Burlington will inform a broader roll-out of the program across Ontario. The joint pilot is between the provincial government, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, City of Burlington and participating homeowners who will be asked to pay a small fee for the inspection work done on their homes.
City Council has approved contributing an additional $50,000 the first year with opportunities to reassess in 2017.
The program, Home Adaptation Assessment Program (HAAP) will announce the names of the designated neighbourhoods and registration details this fall.
Basements throughout the city were cleared of wet soggy warped property and sent to the dump.
The media release added that: “Over the past decade, an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme rainfall events, aging municipal infrastructure and inadequate flood protection measures at the household level have all contributed to significant increases is basement flood damage costs across Canada. More specifically, property and casualty insurance claims have more than doubled in the past decade, with basement flooding being a central cause.”
That statement makes it sound as if the home owners were the ones to blame for problems with down spouts and letting the natural swales between houses build up.
A large part of the problem was with storm sewers that could not handle the huge and sudden flow of water. Home owners just did not know what they were supposed to do. The fire department puts out a regular flow of fire safety information – the same needed to be done about climate change.
The city knows now of a number of homes that cannot remain where they are in a specific flood plain; the information is in a city report but those specific home owners have not been informed.
The Home Adaptation Assessment Program (HAAP) is a basement-flood risk-reduction program. The program integrates international best practices for household flood prevention with input from homeowners and municipal engineers.
One-on-one support is available to individual households through a Home Adaptation Assessment. For a small fee, a trained HAAP assessor will take homeowners through a 50-point examination of potential water entry into the home and help develop a prioritized action plan to reduce risk. A customer help-line, follow-up surveys and seasonal maintenance reminders provide additional support to homeowners. HAAP’s approach is developed in consultation with local government, conservation authorities and community groups, ensuring that HAAP enhances and is complementary to existing flood-risk-mitigation programs.
Dumpster bins were in the driveways of hundreds of home in the city in August of 2014
The first large-scale phase of the development of HAAP will be carried out in Burlington where 4,000 home assessments in designated neighbourhoods will be completed by the end of 2017, with the first 500 to be completed in this year. These will be carefully selected to be representative of neighbourhoods across Ontario (based on home size and age, age and type of municipal infrastructure and past experience with flood risk). Lessons learned from HAAP delivery in Burlington will inform a broader roll-out of the program across Ontario.
The 2014 flood played no favourites. Both the Mayor and the federal member of parliament at the time had their basements flooded.
Most of us experience reasonably good health – but we all know someone whose health is not good. We hope for the best for them.
When I was a boy, just after the war (the Second World War) polio was the scourge. Dr Jonas Salk had not come up with his polio vaccine yet. Wheel chairs, braces, iron lungs were part of the news stories before the vaccine was discovered.
My Mom was a cook at a YMCA camp; she took me and my brother and sister with her every summer.
In the summer of 1946 I became ill and a smart former army nurse said: This boy just might have contracted polio. She was a tough lady and insisted that I be driven to the local train station where they stopped a freight train with fresh fruit on it and got me into Montreal where I was transferred to the Montreal Children’s Hospital where a spinal tap was done.
I can still hear myself screaming away when the stuck that needle in me. But it worked – the doctors knew what they were doing because research was being done on polio and I benefited from that research.
I was days away from becoming a cripple that would have either a brace on my legs or have to live out of a wheel chair. I still shudder when I am near a person who has to wear a brace and I hear it snap into place.
It was medical research that kept me out of a wheel chair. I have a little difficulty touching my toes but other than that I am reasonably well; at one point was a long distance runner.
Medical research matters – and now those of us who live in Burlington are going to be given a chance to support cancer research.
The man who will entertain us on the 20th of August is dying of an incurable brain cancer. He will be on the stage giving it everything he has.
Gord Downie, lead singer of the Tragically Hip, giving it everything he has. The Hips final concert on their Farewell Tour that will take place in Kingston is to be simulcast to the stage set up in Spencer Smith Park
We have an opportunity to give as well.
Go without something and put as much as you can into one of the two opportunities that have been set up.
This city raised just shy of $1 million two years ago for flood victims. The needed 100 days to make that happen. We have about 15 days – we can raise a lot of money in that time frame.
Don’t let Gord Downie down.
The huge screens will be set up on a stage immediately to the west of the Naval memorial – the event starts at 8:30 – this is a rain or shine evening – bring a blanket or a chair. There will not be any alcohol available at this event nor will there be any sponsorship announcements.
Just the best the Tragically Hip has always done – being broadcast across the nation.
To donate to the Canadian Cancer Society (Halton Chapter) click HERE or visit https://bit.ly/2azm5AN
To donate to the Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation click HEREor visit https://bit.ly/2auf6Yc
A pensive Gord Downie will entertain tens of thousands in a CBC broadcast of the final concert of the Farewell tour on August 20th.
If you want to keep up to the second on how the arrangements for the concert on the 20th are rolling out follow the #HipatSpencerSmith
This time two years ago thousands of families in the city were scrambling to recover from a rainfall that flooded their homes while the city moved into serious damage control mode.
The rain began in the early afternoon of the August holiday, it seemed at first, like just another summer rain storm but it shut down the events at LaSalle Park where Joseph Brant Day was being celebrated.– at about 4 pm people began to realize there was a serious problem.
It was a holiday weekend and a lot of people were out of town. The Mayor was at his cottage, the acting city manager was at his cottage and out of cell phone reach. Then city general manager Scott Stewart was holding the fort and pulling in all the senior people he could find.
The data available several weeks after the storm showed just how local it was.
Tony Bavota, the fire chief, was getting reports but wasn’t experiencing as much as a drop of rain where he lived.
Underpasses were filling up with water.
Every creek in the east end of the city broke its banks pushing branches and tree stumps that became battering rams that did major damage.
The creeks on the east side of the city had burst their banks and could not manager the torrent of water that was roaring down.
Tuck Creek, Sheldon Creek along with the others in the eastern part of the had burst their banks and were doing significant damage.
There was very little in the way of media. The publisher of the Gazette was bailing water from the basement of the house he lived in.
The police at the Burlington detachment had to move all their vehicles to higher ground. Officers working at the desk had to walk on squishy floors.
The city got 191 mm of rain in just hours – most of it went looking for a place to flow – the creeks were a natural route to take.
Weeks after the event all kinds of data was available but the days of the flood and several days after that there was nothing but confusion.
Drivers found the water rising far more rapidly than they expected – many had to abandon vehicles.
The Region did move very quickly and made some short term funds available to several hundred people. The city turned to the province for help and learned about a thing called ODRAP – Ontario Disaster Relied Aid Program that called for the city to declare there was an emergency and then create a committee to raise funds locally that would be matched on a two for one basis by the province.
The program rules required the city to back away and let the local community organization handle the raising of funds.
Meanwhile the city began repairing the damage to the city infrastructure – the creeks has to be cleaned up, sidewalks that were literally lifted and moved yards down the road had to be repaired. The city was responsible for fixing the infrastructure – social services was a regional responsibility.
Retired police officer Peter Hodgson took charge of the Red Cross effort which was to look at every home in the flood area and determine the level of damage.
The Red Cross was brought in to do the immediate survey work to determine what the damage was on a house by house basis. The members of council for the east end of the city found themselves wading through basements with water up to their knees – but there wasn’t much else they could do.
The Burlington Community Foundation (BCF) was given the task of raising the funds needed and in a short 100 days raised just shy of $1 million.
There was no missing the message – the city mobilized itself very quickly to help.
There were some delicate backroom differences of opinion between the city and the province over whether or not Burlington was going to get any provincial support. Newly elected MPP Eleanor McMahon had an opportunity to deliver some choice words to her provincial government peers on what Burlington needed.
The BCF did superb work helping people fill in the appropriate forms and convince dozens of corporations to write cheques. All but one of the major banks came through big time. A major consumer products company, who shall go nameless, couldn’t find as much as a dime for the people that clog their store regularly.
Fortinos turned their fund raising software over to the community and had their cashiers asking for donations.
One of the supermarket chains made their back end computer system available for the collection of donations.
There were hundreds of small kind acts done. One woman went door to door with green garbage bags offering to take in laundry for people who had lost their washers and driers.
One citizen found some warehouse space where donated furniture could be stored for those who would need it later.
The people of Elwood Street lined up to buy the cupcakes and the T shirts and the hot dogs to raise funds for their neighbours.
One street decided to hold what they thought was going to be a small fund raiser for a senior who needed some help – the Burlington Teen Tour Band came marching up the street the day of the event bringing tears to they eyes of man.
That small street managed to raise more in the way of real cash than one of the major service clubs. The city was experiencing its citizens coming out to help.
There wasn’t an arm that Ron Foxcroft didn’t twist to raise the close to $1 million needed in a 100 day period.
Ron Foxcroft began to look like that Energizer bunny in the battery advertisements – he was everywhere chasing cheques and badgering people to add a couple of zeros to what they were giving.
What was remarkable about this natural event was that it ruined some families and at the same time people just blocks away experienced nothing.
It was like one of those tornadoes that ripped through a street, tore out five or six houses and left everything else standing. The city had never experience anything like this before.
We learned that the downspouts that took rain from the eaves troughs were pouring water into a system of pipes that couldn’t manage the flow. We leaned that those catch basis in back yards that had been covered by grass really were an important part of storm water management.
We learned that those swales between our houses were there for a purpose.
And we learned how to pull together as a community to help each other.
After some of the finest work any community organization has done – the Burlington Community Foundation did a re-branding and took the word community out of their corporate name – go figure.
Candidates must have a consistent record of presenting officiating in a positive light as well as exhibiting a “service above self” attitude. Public service to officiating, having a motivating effect on others and/or strong community involvement are considered.
Who would that be in Burlington?
Ron Foxcroft – recipient of the Gold Whistle Award
Say the words sports in this town and you follow it with Ron and those whistles. The guy who knew what it means to hustle before he got out of high school – actually he didn’t really get out of high school – he gave up on them.
If you’ve been to an event that Ron Foxcroft spoke at – you know the story of the whistle that failed him in a crucial basketball game.
From that experience came the spark that lit up his entrepreneurship that rolled into a company that sells a product in more than 140 countries.
All based on a whistle that has never failed him since the morning he blew on the thing in the corridor of a hotel that was holding a conference for sports officiating types.
Of such simple ideas are strong profitable businesses built.
NASO’s Gold Whistle Award
The media release from the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) that will be recognizing Foxcroft with the Gold Whistle Award at their conference in San Antonia Texas said “A primary determinant in awarding anyone NASO’s Gold Whistle Award is this: The recipient has to have a long and meaningful history of ‘shining a positive light’ on officiating. Further, any recipient must be someone who is held with some reverence within the officiating community of which he is a part.
“Ron Foxcroft”, said Barry Mano, NASO president “was an easy choice.”
“There are precious few individuals who place the wellbeing of sports officiating well in front of personal agenda or gain,” Mano added. “Members of this group have made outsized contributions to officiating. Ron is without doubt a member of that elite and critically important group. He is one of those unique individuals who, for decades, has fulfilled all of the requirements above. And, of course, he continues to do so.”
Although Foxcroft is best known as maker of the famous pealess whistle used by officials around the world, he has made his mark in the world in many other ways. As an NCAA and international basketball official, he worked five NCAA tournaments, an Olympic final and numerous other high level international games.
He has shone a positive light on the industry through his many charitable and leadership efforts, including serving as chair of the McMaster Campaign for Athletics & Recreation, founder and former chair of the Foxcroft Family Youth Fund held at the Hamilton Community Foundation and serving on the St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation fundraising committee, the first healthcare charity in Hamilton to earn the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy’s Ethical Fundraising License.
He donated thousands of Fox 40 Classic whistles used by search and rescue professionals when they were saving lives following the San Francisco earthquake, the Oklahoma City bombing, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma. Foxcroft has received awards from B’Nai Brith Canada and the Burlington (Ontario) Rotary Club.
Foxcroft was named Hamilton’s Distinguished Citizen of the Year, received an honorary doctor of law degree from McMaster University and had an award named for him by Sports Officials Canada. The award is presented annually to recognize excellence from an official in a professional sports environment, their contribution to the development of young officials and their example as a positive role model for officials by virtue of personal involvement at the community level.
Queen Elizabeth II, in her capacity as Colonel-in-Chief of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, receives Colonel Ronald Foxcroft (Honorary Colonel) at Buckingham Palace in London.
He is an honorary colonel in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Canadian Army Reserve infantry battalion. After a member of his regiment was killed in a terrorist attack, Foxcroft met with Queen Elizabeth II and received her personal condolences.
Foxcroft sometimes found time to shoot a couple of hoops at the office.
Fox 40 received the Mel Narol Medallion Award in 2004, presented to a group or individual for outstanding contributions to NASO. Foxcroft is a former member of the NASO board of directors and currently serves as a special adviser to the board.
There is a difference in interviewing the local MPP who sits as a back bencher with a couple of pet projects and interviewing a Minister of the Crown who has also been appointed to Treasury Board and runs a Ministry that has three sections: Tourism, Sports and Culture; each important to not only the well-being of the people in the province but significant sectors of the provincial economy as well.
MPP Eleanor McMahon at her first public meeting after being named a Minister of the crown in Ontario.
It has been almost a world wind experience for Burlington MPP Eleanor McMahon and it is far from over. Recruited to the Ontario Liberal Party by Kathleen Wynne personally, McMahon went on to win the riding that had been held for more than 70 years by Conservatives. She brought the ability to connect with people on a deep personal level that was sincere and recognized immediately by people she met with. She is a formidable campaigner.
The public didn’t know all that much about McMahon other than a little about a personal tragedy in her life and a strong commitment to teaching the public to share the road with cyclists.
Her maiden speech in the legislature was pretty standard. Where the city might have seen some of the energy and drive was in August of 2014 when she worked tirelessly to bring the province onside and involve Burlington in the ODRAP – Ontario Disaster Relief and Assistance Program that matched the close to $1 million raised by citizens to aid the more than 300 home owners whose houses were severely damaged.
When the Burlington Community Foundation (since renamed the Burlington Foundation) needed a place for people to be able to donated funds, McMahon was on the telephone and within a very short period of time convinced the national offices of the United Way to let Burlington use their web site. Connections at that level are what McMahon is very good at- she had once worked at the United Way national office.
She can be partisan, listen to her at a campaign meeting, she has a positive streak that exceeds that of Mary Poppins
McMahon works from a strong relationship base with people – but don’t cross her. She has a strong Irish streak in her that remembers. That Irish streak is conditioned by a strong Catholicism and rooted in a family that is very very close. You don’t see much of the family all that often but they are there.
When the Premier let it be known that she was going to change some of the names on the Cabinet room chairs McMahon’s name got mentioned in the media. The Gazette didn’t see McMahon as Cabinet material but when the list came out her name was there.
We saw McMahon as more of a booster and wished that she would come across as more of a legislator.
There are many people that grow into opportunities that let latent skills and talent come to the surface. That seems to be the kind of experience McMahon is having.
McMahon took to a loom during a tour of the Art Gallery. she has an exceptionally strong working relationship with Member of Parliament Karina Gould – they share a number of public events – they are actually quite a tag team.
The Ministry she was given is a good fit for her. Being made a Minister of the crown brought with it a steep learning curve. As she worked her way through the briefing binders we began to see an Eleanor McMahon that hadn’t been visible before.
She wasn’t exactly a policy wonk but she wasn’t going to be a wall flower either. All the signs so far point to a woman who has rolled up her sleeves and getting into the job.
She jumped right in and became a team player picking up where her predecessor in the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and Culture had left off. In unveiling the province’s first detailed culture strategy the public heard her close to flawless French and her ability to get her tongue around the language the aboriginal world speaks when she unveiled the strategy.
“I am all about words” said McMahon in an exclusive interview with the Gazette.
McMahon wears a quiet smile as she takes part in a cheque presentation during the massive community effort to raise funds for 2014 flood victims. McMahon was a quiet, unrelenting advocate for the city.
In commenting on the province’s decision to sell a portion of Hydro McMahon said the government wanted to see a “tougher, tighter” corporation and having the private sector at the table would result in a more responsive corporation. That’s not something a lot of people in the province are going to agree with.
The belief that “change for the better” is what will improve life for everyone works itself into just about everything McMahon does.
She has bought into the advice a former head of the Toronto Dominion Bank, Ed Clarke gave the Premier when he said: Ontario needs to “catch up to keep up” which has led the provincial government into spending $160 billion on improving the transportation system so that goods and people can move efficiently.
McMahon spoke of thinking “beyond the election cycle” which is good news copy but the voters are always the big elephant in the room.
McMahon is a big picture person. Asked what the Brexit (the United Kingdom pulling out of the European Union) decision is going to mean she will tell you that isolationism is not the answer. Partnering with as many countries as possible is what will keep the Ontario economy strong as it adjusts to the changes taking place in the province’s economy and how it fits into a larger North American and world economy.
McMahon will tell you of the trade mission the Premier recently took to Israel that resulted in an agreement that will see students from that country working at the McMaster University DeGroote School of Business here in Burlington.
MPP Eleanor McMahon and MP Karina Gould do a Cogeco interview at a public meting that dealt with how Burlington would welcome the Syria refugees coming to Canada
A number of months ago McMahon sat in on a discussion with parents who had older autistic children. There are a lot of programs in place for younger autistic children but once they pass the age of 18 there is literally nothing for them.
The group of parents took part in a day long exercise to think through just what the problem was and what might be possible in the way of programs for autistic people who are in their forties with parents who are in the 60’s and 70’s.
When the parents are gone – what happens to these now middle aged people who need help? They fall between the cracks which terrifies the parents.
McMahon listened, and then worked with the group to obtain a Trillium grant that would allow them to do some research and come up with ideas and possible approaches to providing the services these autistic people need.
The provincial government has begun to make changes in the services available to young autistic people. We will follow those developments.
The practice of large corporations basically paying for access to Cabinet Ministers was brought up. McMahon said she was not on the committee that put forward the recommendations the Premier appears to want to follow.
She is however now a Cabinet Minister and there are people who will want to bend her ear. McMahon will tell you she will be transparent and adds that unions and corporations and individuals have a right to be heard. “Why shut them out?” she asked.
She points to the large sums that were raised by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in his drive to win the Democratic presidential nomination and adds that the American’s have Super Pacs – which are organizations created to raise funds and make them available to candidates that share their views.
I don’t think Ontario has heard the last of how political parties are going to handle the raising of funds to pay for their elections. It was interesting to note that McMahon didn’t talk in terms of spending less on elections.
During the 2014 flood McMahon was out into the community meeting people and listening to their concerns. she was instrumental in convincing the provincial government to march the funds raised locally. She didn’t do it all by herself but when she made those phone calls few could say no to her.
The Ministry McMahon leads has a deputy minister and four associate deputy ministers; that run a Ministry that may not seem all that vital on the surface. Tourism, culture and sports reach into every municipality in the province. It is clear to those who have thought it through that culture is an economic driver and that it is tourism that brings people to Ontario.
Canada will begin its sesquicentennial celebration in 2017 – the federal government will go nutso on this one and Ontario will be running alongside them to make the celebration a sound success.
McMahon was recently appointed to the Treasury Board – that’s the table at which the financial decisions are made. No fuzzy thinking at that table. Someone has recognized the McMahon talent.
Ontario Place is part of the file McMahon manages. She recalled riding the water slides when she was younger and wants to see the Children’s Park, which were closed some time ago, put back into Ontario Place that is going through a major upgrade.
The Toronto International Film Festival is something she has a small hand in and she is interested seeing an NHL Winter Classic take place in our part of the world.
And she mentioned that she is working on seeing more “tailgate” parties during Grey Cup week
Expect McMahon to promote local festivals; next year the promoters of the Lowville Festival might manage to get her to one of their events.
McMahon gets out into the community – she speaks straight from her hart and listen with both ears. She can also glam up when she needs to – but for the most part what you see it shat you get.
The demands of the job are close to brutal. McMahon has a very supportive family and a tight circle of friends and associates that are there to help out.
Most weekends she finds herself taking a shopping bag filled with Briefing books to her cottage where she can share time with her family, refresh and get caught up.
There is more to tell you about what McMahon wants to get done and how she thinks she can “change for the better”.
If there was any doubt as to what is going to happen to this city in the next 20 years – that doubt was dispelled in a media release issued by the city today.
We are going to grow and we are going to do it as boldly as possible.
Director of Planning coined the phrase: Bolder, Smarter, Beautiful. That is how she plans to lead development in the city and has the full support of city council behind her.
Director of Planning for the city Mary Lou Tanner underlined that point at a recent city council meeting when she said we will build “Bold, Smart, Beautiful.”
City City Council approved the Official Plan Review reports that lay the foundation for how and where the City of Burlington will grow for the next 20 years, inspired by Burlington’s 2015-40 Strategic Plan.
Two Official Plan Review reports that will help establish how and where the City of Burlington will grow over the next 20 years were given the stamp of approval.
Those reports set out where growth will take place and the kind of growth that will take place. There are a couple of locations that are intended for one type of growth when the owners of the property want to do something different. Is that another “OMB here we come?”
“This is an important time for our city,” said Mayor Rick Goldring. “We have the opportunity to plan the type of growth we want in the locations we want to ensure we continue to be a thriving city. We will grow responsibly, with detailed planning that will result in new neighbourhoods that provide public amenity space, walkability, cycling infrastructure and public transit options, while minimizing the carbon footprint.”
Getting all that done is critical if the city is to be the kind of place the public seems to want. Sitting in on public meetings and hearing what a developer wants and noting how much they vary with what the city has set out as its model points to some stiff battles ahead.
The Air Park learned that a developer cannot do whatever they choose to do nor can they apply their own interpretation to the regulations.
It has been said that you can’t beat city hall and the Air Park has certainly learned that lesson. There are developers putting up impressive, large in scale projects that are well within what the city wants to see. There are others battling the planners at almost every yard. The city asked residents what to call the new direction for growth in Burlington. Two-thirds of the hundreds of people surveyed chose “Grow Bold” over the other option, which is “We Are All In.”
“After months of engagement with the community, City Council made the decision earlier this year, in the city’s Strategic Plan, that Burlington is going to grow,” said James Ridge, Burlington’s city manager. “With this direction, the city’s planning team has been hard at work updating the city’s Official Plan, the blueprint that defines where and how growth will happen over the next 20 years.”
Of the two reports approved by City Council, the Urban Structure and Intensification Policy Directions report contains a policy direction for an intensification framework that clearly outlines the parts of the city that are being targeted for growth and those areas that will not see a significant amount of development. Among the primary locations for intensification are the areas around Burlington’s GO stations, called mobility hubs.
The second report, Burlington’s Mobility Hubs: A Work Plan for Area-Specific Planning, addresses the need for a dedicated mobility hub planning team.
Mobility hubs at the GO stations is close to a no brainer. Which of the four identified hubs should be first – thatis what planners will be figuring out in the immediate future.
City Council approved $2.5 million in funding for four full-time staff who will work to ensure future developments around the mobility hubs reflect the city’s vision for new neighbourhoods that are walkable, offer a variety of affordable housing choices and have easy access to transit, shopping, parks and recreation centres.
At one point it looked as if Aldershot was going to be the first mobility hub for the city. They seem to have backed away from that and are looking at all four hub locations to determine which should get the focus and attention
“We have the opportunity to plan the type of growth we want in the locations we want to ensure that Burlington is a vibrant 21st-century city,” said Mary Lou Tanner, chief planner and director of Planning and Building with the city. “We are going to grow bold, which means we are going to build up, we are going to build smart and we are going to build beautiful.”
These are exciting times for the planners. Will enough of the work have been done to have something to take to the public before the next election in 27 months?
It was more than a local town hall meeting to get people to think and act on climate change.
The meeting Oakville North Burlington MP Pam Damoff held at Tansley Woods Community centre Wednesday evening was part of a Canada wide program the federal government has put in place to hear what Canadians think and to learn just how much they are prepared to actually do individually to change the climate.
It didn’t sound like an awful lot at the Tansley Woods meeting
It was an audience that came to listen and then ask questions. Is this the way these meetings are going to take place across the country? Are we ready to make a real change – or will it be made for us?
Damoff knew she was speaking to the deeply converted and ensured that the message would be clear by having the lead person from both the Oakville and the Burlington Green associations at the table with her.
Damoff pretty much stuck to the script that had been prepared – asking people what they wanted to do and explaining that this wasn’t a problem the government was going to solve for them.
MP Pam Damoff, listening to people who attended the Town Hall meeting on Climate Change. Her son Fraser is on the right.
The key word that seemed to come up again and again was “adapt”. Climate change is here – and we certainly know that in Burlington where 191 mm of rain was dumped on the city in less than 12 hours and 300 homes were badly flooded in 2014.
All the creeks in the east end of the city broke their banks which brought about an incredible million dollar fund raising event within 100 days to cover some of the costs of repairing those 300 homes.
A Burlington Plaza flooded during the August 2014 rain storm.
Burlington has tasted climate change – for those that experienced the understanding is very deep. It is the rest of the community that needs to decide what it wants to do about a change that is vital if we are to survive. And so far Canada isn’t doing all that well.
The media release Damoff handed out said: Global temperatures have increased by about .85 degrees Celsius since 1880; Canada has warmed at twice the global average with Canada’s north warming even faster.
Last December Canada joined 195 countries who adopted the Paris Agreement which saw countries commit to limiting the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius in an attempt to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
CJ Martin asking a question at the Climate Change Town Hall meeting at Tansley Woods
When asked how many people attending the meeting drove to the location in a car by themselves – most of the hands in the room were raised. The MP, with a staff of four in her constituency office, apparently all arrived in different cars.
It was justified by there not being acceptable public transit. Some people did car pool.
There were some sterling examples of what can be done. A young mother mentioned the 0 household waste plan she has put in place at her home. We want to look at just how one can do that.
Vince Fiorito, a well-known environmental advocate suggested that with global warning Canada will be able to grow new and different crops in parts of northern Canada that have given us mineral resources and not much more. Fiorito suggested parts of Canada could become a banana belt. It clearly wasn’t his best night.
People from several communities took part in the Q&A part of the meeting.
The people behind the Leaf movement were in the room advocating that the fossil fuels be left in the ground and that we pour subsidies into wind, solar and geo thermal industries.
There were numerous people with their own angles and ideas. Fraser Damoff, the MP’s son wanted to see the federal subsidies given to many in the energy industry done away with. “Stop the subsidies and let them fight it out in the market place where the most effective solution will come out on top” advised Fraser Damoff.
In what was a very Canadian meeting – meaning it was polite, people were respectful of each other and Damoff didn’t cut anyone off – ran longer than was expected.
The interest was certainly there – but then a lot of people drove home, by themselves, in their own cars.
The audience was mixed, diverse and attentive.
Still a lot of work to be done – and more to say on this meeting.
Burlington MP Karina Gould will be hold her Town Hall meeting August 4th. The federal government has its members of parliament out in the field with their ears wide open. Been a long time since we’ve seen that kind of government behavior. They are listening – are we speaking?
The city is going to move to an electronic vote recording system that will put an end to the cumbersome call for recorded votes that took place at the last two meetings of city council.
Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman forced city council to record their votes on everything they did – even the accepting of the agenda. He said he was making a political point.
Councillor Sharman asked for more than a dozen recorded votes at a July 5th meeting and Councillor Meed Ward asked for almost as many recorded votes at the Council meeting last night.
Those council votes will now be done automatically by having the members of council press a button rather than have to stand up and be physically counted for each vote.
The Staff Direction was to:
Direct the City Clerk to purchase and install an electronic vote recording system in the Council Chambers, the cost to be charged to the capital budget for the Agenda Management solution; and
Hold in abeyance, sections 33.7-33.9 of Procedure By-law 37-2014 until a vote recording system is installed.
The question many have now is – which votes will the technology record?
This city council takes the position that the only votes it records are those taken at a city council meetings which is where everything done is made official.
Council during a recorded vote: Those standing were voting for the motion.
The real grunt work gets done at the Standing committee meetings – there are four different standing committees – Development and Infrastructure; Community and Corporate Services; Audit Committee and Committee of the Whole.
These are the meetings at which the public gets to speak for ten minutes if they delegate and where debate is often boisterous. It is also the meetings at which city staff attend – they speak very openly and inform council on the reports they present.
These are the meat and potatoes meetings – which this Council has decided that the votes taken are not recorded. The minutes of the meetings do say how a vote went – passed or failed to pass. The public report does not say how individual members of council voted.
The city’s procedural bylaw, which sets out how meetings are run and votes recorded has a section that is being waived while the electronic system is put in place. The section being waived says:
33.7 Any member, in Council Meetings, immediately before or after a vote is taken, may require a recorded vote to be taken on the question concerned. Recorded votes shall not be permitted in Committee Meetings.
33.8 When a recorded vote is permitted and required, the Chair shall pose the question and the Clerk will call for those members in favour to rise, at which time the Clerk shall record the name of each Member standing and his vote in favour, and upon completion of the recording, the Clerk will call for those members opposed to rise, at which time the Clerk shall record the name of each Member standing and his vote in opposition. On the appropriate form, the Clerk will also record the number of Members absent and/or abstained.
33.9 On a recorded vote, a failure to vote by a member who is present at the meeting at the time of the vote and who is qualified to vote shall be deemed a negative vote.
The Standing committees report to Council where just about everything is rubber stamped. Many council meetings take less than half an hour. The Mayor has a tendency to race through the meetings – one was pretty close to less than 15 minutes in length.
Public meetings are not the Mayor’s strength.
Ward 2 Councillor Meed Ward asked for more than seven recorded votes at the most recent city council meeting.
In February of 2013 city council decided that recording all the votes wasn’t necessary Here is the comment made at that time.
“With respect to recorded voting at standing committee meetings, members of Council on the review team expressed differing viewpoints. Acknowledging that recommendations from committee are intended to be a preliminary position on a matter, it was felt that recording a member’s vote at that stage of deliberation could inhibit a member from changing his or her position later at Council should new information become available.
“It was also noted that recorded voting would slow the transaction of business at committee meetings. As the review team did not have consensus on the matter, a recommendation on recorded voting is not included within this report and would require direction from Council. Nonetheless, the sentiment of the review team was that if recorded votes were to be permitted at Committee, these would be restricted to the main motions (and main motions as amended) but would not be applied to amendments themselves or any secondary motions tabled.
Partial view of the Board of Education screen that shows how trustees voted.
The Halton District Board of Education bought an electronic system a number of months ago that is close to perfect. There is one Burlington trustee who gets confused when it comes to determining which button to press but other than that it works very smoothly.
When there is a vote the school board chair turns on the voting system and lights show up. When all the trustees have voted all the light go out – the chair then presses a button and they know in an instant who voted which way.
The system was provide by Hamilton Audio Visual – who will hopefully let the city know what they can do them
We elect our members of council democratically and have a right to know how they vote on every issue. Many council members aren’t very keen on letting the public know how they vote at Standing Committee meetings. They forget that deciding what they are directing staff to do is not about them – it is about the people who pay the taxes – and that would be you.
Our fair city has decided to join much of Canada on August 20th when, if things work out the way a lot of people would like them to work out – thousands will be able to sit on the grass at Spencer Smith Park and watch a CBC simulcast of the final scheduled concert of The Tragically Hip.
Oh – and it is going to cost the city a cool $12,500 – the Burlington Downtown Business Association will somehow come up with the second $12,500 – for a total cost of $25,000
Council voted to go forward with this one – everyone voted for – except for Councillor Craven. He saw the event as a nice to have – which isn’t quite his cup of tea.
Gord Downie, lead of the Tragically Hip.
CBC has waived its usual licensing fee with some conditions – there can be no sponsorship – so anyone putting up dollars is going to get a thank you.
There are some conditions. No alcohol can be sold. The city does not yet have a no smoking bylaw in public parks on the books.
The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as The Hip, are a Canadian rock band from Kingston, Ontario, consisting of lead singer Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassist Gord Sinclair, and drummer Johnny Fay. Since their formation in 1984 they have released 13 studio albums, two live albums, 1 EP, and 54 singles. Nine of their albums have reached No. 1 in Canada. They have received numerous Canadian Music awards, including 14 Juno awards.
The night the country sits down in parks and arenas across the country to watch the Tragically Hip put on their final concert knowing that the lead has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer will be a hard evening. Gord Downie is in the centre with, in no particular order, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker, bassist Gord Sinclair, and drummer Johnny Fay.
As the band was getting ready to announce their summer tour they also announced that Gord Downie had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The out-pouring of public emotion led to CBC deciding to broadcast the final concert that was to be held in Kingston. CBC then decided to let other municipalities across the country simulcast the program.
Brian Dean, chief at the BDBA, delegated to council and explained what Councillor Marianne Meed Ward had put in front of Council by Memorandum earlier in the day. She pointed out that the idea had come together very quickly and it looked as if cities across the country were going to do what they could to simulcast the event.
Mead Ward is putting $1000 from her Councillor’s budget into the pot. The ad hoc committee is reaching out to the federal and provincial governments (good luck at that level).
Some thought was given to Central Arena as a location – until they realized that the Children’s Festival is going to take place the following day and that stages will have been set up with porta potties in place – Spencer Smith Park became the obvious choice.
Hamilton is in; Kingston is in, Charlottetown is in, New Westminster is in and Halifax is in.
Brian Dean with ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward the day the city got rid of the old parking meters and installed an expensive replacement that doesn’t provide better service.
Dean, who could sell ice cubes to Eskimo’s, assured council that this was really quite do-able and presented Council with an outline of the costs. When Dean doesn’t want the public to know what he is up to, he limits the information he shares; when he wants the public to know the media is showered with data.
Media were not given a copy of his cost breakdown.
It didn’t matter – the city manager sensed what council wanted and said that staff would provide oversight and that all the invoices would come to the city for payment.
A formal application has been submitted to the Special Events Team (SET) who gave approval in principle. They are also working on getting an exemption from the noise bylaw that requires events to shut down at 11:00 pm. The concert is expected to run until 11:30 pm
Meed Ward who exuded enthusiasm for the event suggested it was going to be the emotional equivalent of the winning goal Paul Henderson scored for Team Canada in 1972
The city manager wanted the cost of staff time that would be involved to be part of what the city has to come up with.
The event is 32 days away. Staff will have to hustle to make it happen and the city manager will make sure that the costs are controlled.
It took a two thirds majority vote to waive the city’s procedural by law and another vote to permit Dean to speak. If Council can do that in one meeting – the rest is a lead pipe cinch.
It has taken some time to figure out what the city manager is and what he isn’t. Observing him for the past 18 months the Gazette has found it difficult to say just what kind of an administrator he is. While he talks the talk of community engagement – he doesn’t really walk that talk. However, what is now very clear is that James Ridge is a very fiscally prudent man. Nothing is going to go seriously wrong on his watch. He may over promise from time to time – he certainly did that with a work plan he once put forward – but when it comes to watching where the dollars go – nothing disastrous is going to happen on his watch. Should that ever happen – the good Army Captain will choose to fall on his sword.
Where was he when the pier fiasco was being managed at city hall?
August 20th – mark that one on your calendar. With Meed Ward back on the BDBA as the Council representative – things like this get done.
Jim Young, a 34-year resident of Burlington is an active member of Burlington Seniors Advisory Committee; he represent them on the Integrated Transportation Advisory. Young was delegating on an issue that he is passionate about – how seniors get around the city.
Jim Young – thinks the city should consider letting seniors use buses free during off peak hours.
Council was listening to people who had thoughts on the cycling lanes that city is considering putting in on various parts of New Street.
“I delegate today” said Young “as a private citizen to offer my private thoughts on the issue at hand.”
“You will understand that for many seniors cycling is not an immediate or pressing issue, (for some of us walkability is challenging enough) though for many seniors it is a hobby that we would love to practice in the healthiest and safest manner available to us. To that end I believe most citizens are generally supportive of the concept, that moving forward, the City must look to promoting cycling as a viable transportation alternative that must be encouraged and accommodated safely, in line with its strategic plan as a ”City that Moves”.
“I would however ask that any accommodation for safer cycling be considered in a way that does not impede or reduce improvements to transit services. Transit is the mode of transport which, by the nature of aging and economic necessity, is probably more the transport mode of the future for seniors in Burlington than cycling.
“So when council comes to weigh the alternatives for bicycle lanes on New Street and the relatively high costs of some of them I would ask you to consider these two thoughts:
Accommodating the sixty cyclists identified in the New Street study for approximately ¾ of the year will cost between $121,000.00 and $4,950,000.00 depending on the alternative chosen. The staff recommended alternative is estimated at $210,000.00.
If you have not already received it, council will very soon be asked to consider a position paper from one of your citizen’s advisory committees titled “Improving Transit for Seniors Improves Transit for Everybody”.
Transit advocate would like the city to let seniors use the service free during off peak hours.
“I have worked with many of you” said Young as he addressed members of council “and city management as well preparing the paper that will recommend free transit for seniors during off peak hours between 10.00 am and 3.00 pm, Monday to Friday. The cost for this will be between $48,500.00 and $72,750.00 per year.
Young added that “even Keith Spicer, Director of Transit, will, when his arm is twisted, agree it will probably cost less than $100,000.00. to provide this service.”
“I respectfully submit that as you consider allocating considerable sums of money to make 60 New Street cyclists happy for two thirds of the year that you consider what allocating a fraction of that money to free transit for seniors in off peak hours would do to making 35,000 Burlington seniors happy on every street all year round. (The $4.95 million option would provide free transit for the next 65 years.)”
It was at this point that Committee chairman Rick Craven, councilor for Ward 1, interrupted Young and asked that he no stray too far from the purpose of the meeting – which was cycling lanes.
By Staff
The message was not from the TD Bank – it was from someone who wants the reader to think that.
