Yourway
May 23, 2013
Vol. 13, No. 20
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North Frontenac wins granting sweepstakes
M
embers of North Frontenac Council were all smiles this week as they announced that the long-awaited reconstruction of the Mississippi Bridge on Road 509 at Mississippi Station, currently a one-lane structure, will finally be rebuilt as a two-lane bridge. The township’s application to the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Initiative (MIII), a relatively small (in provincial terms) infrastructure program that was announced last year, has resulted in a grant for $1.89 million, enough to fund 90% of the $2.01 million project. The township will have to cover the other $189,000. In the last 10 years, the township has applied for funding to rebuild the bridge, which sits on the township’s most important arterial road, at least four times, with no success. The difference this time around may have something to do with the proactive efforts North Frontenac has made in developing Asset Management and Service Delivery Review protocols. When the MIII program was announced last fall, the province indicated that municipalities that had not initiated those kinds of long-term financial planning tools would not be eligible for infrastructure grants in the future. “While some other townships are just now starting to put their Asset Management Pro-
grams in place, we have ours completed, as well as our service review,” said North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton, indicating that the government is sending a message to other municipalities that they should get on with adopting the long term planning protocols in short order. The $1.8 million grant represents only 0.4% of the $450 million MIII program. However, on a population basis, North Frontenac Township, with 1,900 people in a province of 13.5 million, has only 0.007% of the total population. This makes North Frontenac one of the big winners in this latest round of infrastructure funding. Township Public Works Manager Jim Phillips said that the detailed engineering and design work on the project will take the rest of this year to complete, and he expects that construction will start next spring. The approval of the project is unofficial until such time as the provincial funding is formally announced and is subject to the passage of the 2013 provincial budget. Coincidentally, it was confirmed on Tuesday that a budget deal has been reached between Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath and Premier Kathleen Wynne, ensuring that the Ontario budget will be approved by the legislature and there will be no election this spring or summer.
by Jeff Green
orth Frontenac Council has accepted one of the options presented to them by Steve Sunderland, the volunteer chair of the Ompah Fire Hall Design team. The option calls for repairs to the floor of the building, and changes in orientation and entranceways, which will facilitate its use as a fire hall as well as a public space and the home of the Ompah Library. Because it calls for a new entranceway that juts out from the existing building, the preferred option does not conform to Council’s original stipulation that the renovations not include any changes in the footprint of the building. Nevertheless, the estimated cost of construction is less than the $180,000 maximum that has been set for the project. Cost has always been the key issue for Council. It was the cost that kept Council from delaying their acceptance of the $180,000 proposal in order to consider another option that might end up bringing in savings in the long run. Sunderland presented an alternative option, which would see the building being expanded at the front in order to create extra garage space to provide storage capacity for the rescue boat and other items that will not fit in the $180,000 design. If the township agreed to the alternative design now it would cost $67,000 extra. However, if it becomes necessary to build the addition at some time in the future the cost would go up to $112,000. “The reason for that is there would be savings in other parts of the project if we build
Circulation: 9177 households
by Jeff Green
Ompah fire hall renovations set for this year N
the addition now, and I estimated added costs having to do with increasing construction costs over time,” said Sunderland. “I think it would be silly not to consider building the expansion now,” said Councilor Lonnie Watkins. “It would be a waste to see in five years that our needs have changed and we have to start spending twice as much money. Better to do it now. Didn’t the firefighters have $50,000 available for the fire hall?” “The $50,000 was a commitment that was made for a new fire hall only, not for a renovation,” said Chief Administrative Officer Cheryl Robson. “We are going to have lessening needs, not increased needs,” said Councilor Wayne Good. In a straw vote to see if the expansion had any support among councilors, only John Inglis and Lonnie Watkins said they favoured it. Deputy Mayor Fred Perry asked Steve Sunderland if the Ompah Hall and library users had been contacted about the proposed changes. “Yes they have, and they seemed excited about the prospects for the future of the space. They really saw the benefit of the changes that are being proposed,” Sunderland said. In terms of the time frame for construction, Sunderland said that it was only in the last few days that the design team for the project has been finalised and “it will take about 4-6 weeks for that part to be done, and then we
Contnued on page 3
Zoran Zelic, Theo Fleury and Michael Lynch on Fleury's Victor Walk to Ottawa.
NHL hockey great Theo Fleury passes through Sharbot Lake on “Victor Walk” by Julie Druker ormer NHL Hockey great, Theo Fleury, passed through Sharbot Lake on his “Victor Walk”, an effort to bring attention to the issues surrounding childhood sexual abuse. Fleury, 44 years old, wrote about his own experience of childhood sexual abuse in his 2009 autobiography titled Playing with Fire in which he wrote of the sexual abuse he experienced by his former junior hockey coach Graham James, who is currently serving jail time for abusing Fleury and also former junior player Sheldon Kennedy (who also went on to play in the NHL). James had his sentence increased from two to five years by an appeals court in February 2013. Fleury, who since writing his book has become a vocal advocate for childhood sexual abuse survivors, believes that awareness is critical to promoting healing. Fleury last played in the NHL with the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2002/2003 season and he is best known for his career with the Calgary Flames where he played on and off for 11 seasons. It was with the Flames that Fleury won the Stanley Cup in 1989. He also played with the Colorado Avalanche and the New York Rangers and he was part of the Canadian team that won the gold medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Fleury's Victor Walk began in Toronto at the Child Abuse Monument there on May 13 and it will end at Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 23 where he said he aims to get the attention of politicians there and in doing so, hopes to see stricter child sexual abuse laws passed in this country. “When it comes to childhood sexual abuse, we have been sweeping it under the carpet for 100,000 years. In this country alone there are eight million survivors of childhood sexual abuse, 63 million in the U.S. and almost one billion world wide,” Fleury said when I spoke to him by the side of Highway 7 on May 20 near
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Sharbot Lake Provincial Park. “The system in Canada is backwards. It protects the perpetrators and re-victimizes the survivors. The reason we are calling this walk the ‘Victor Movement’ is because it's the opposite of victim. The experience that happened to me occurred when I was young and innocent and I now consider myself a victor over it.” Upon his arrival in Ottawa Fleury will be reading his Victor Impact Statement along with others. When I came across him on Victoria Day, Fleury was flanked by a large Winnebago, a jeep and by fellow walkers, best friend Zoran Zelic of Calgary and Los Angeles film maker Michael Lynch. Lynch is shooting a documentary film about the walk. Fleury, who has been walking 50-60km a day since the walk began, said that some of the best conversations he has had in his life have happened while walking and that that is what inspired him to hit the highway with his cause. “I thought, ‘Let's just go for a walk and see what happens', and it's really been life changing. People all along the way are seeking us out and are telling us their own personal stories.” Asked why it is so important to get these stories out, Fleury said, “It's part of the healing process. It gets rid of the shame, shame that we have been carrying around for years and that really is not our shame to bear. The shame belongs to the people that abused us and to the politicians in Ottawa for not doing enough and to the judges who give out lenient sentences.” Proceeds raised from Fleury's Victor Walk will go to supporting an expansion at Siksika Health Services in the Siksika Nation in Alberta, who have partnered with Fleury on the walk, as well as to Edmonton’s Little Warriors Foundation and the Sexual Assault Centre for Quinte and District in Belleville, Ont. For more information or to donate to the cause visit www.victorwalk.com.
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