COMMUNITY CALENDAR

THE CELTIC TRIO – Sunday, May 28th at Burford United Church at 137 King St at 2 pm Featuring Allison Lupton, Shane Cook and Kyle Waymouth. Adults, $30, children under 12 $10. Tickets available at Betty’s Place, Harris Jewelers and Burford United Church.

TODAY! THE WRITER’S VISION BOARD- Hosted by the County of Brant Library on Saturday, May 27th at 1:30 pm. Join us and explore the creative processes behind good storytelling (fiction and nonfiction), and create individual vision boards that will encourage, motivate, and energize you and your writing Register for the workshop at or connect with staff at your local branch to sign up This is a free event.

CARA SMITH BAND PRESENTED BY THE BURFORD

OPTIMIST CLUB- A night of country music and classic rock covers, with 100% of proceeds going to the new skatepark in Burford Saturday, June 3 from 8 pm to 12 am at the Burford Community Centre. Learn more and get your tickets online.

PARIS LIONS CLUB WALK FOR DOG GUIDES – Sunday, June 4th meeting at Lion’s Park Paris for registration at 1 pm Everyone welcome to participate Check out the story in this edition!

ROYAL STORY TIME

– On Saturday, June 17th at Telfer Place, 245 Grand River St N at 1 pm The Midnight Princess from the Glass Slipper Company will be at Telfer Place to share stories, sign songs and take pictures Interact with a princess and all the Telfer Place residents. Everyone is welcome. Tickets are $5 / person and are available online

PARIS MUSEUM & HISTORICAL SOCIETY SPEAKER SERIES – The final speaker in the three-part series happens on Sunday, May 28th at the Paris Museum from 2 pm to 4 pm James Christison will talk about how pottery was reused and repaired with care. Examples of different techniques will be shared.

PARIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY GARDEN TOURSaturday & Sunday, June 3 & 4th from 10 am - 4 pm in Paris. Come and visit behind the gates of six beautiful Paris and area gardens. Live Musician’s and Local Artist’s will be performing. In the gardens. Tickets $15.00 per person. Tickets may be purchased in advance at Sobey's Floral Department in Paris, Green Heron Books, Walter’s Greenhouse or at the Gardens on the day of the event Please call Anne Vernon 905-536-2037 for more information.

PARIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY JUNE MEETING - June 7th at the Paris Fairgrounds at 7:30 pm. Our guest speaker is truly Anna Leggatt from York on June 7th(last minute switch happened in May), her topic is ‘Shade Gardens’. Anna writes for several magazines on topics which include her travels abroad, and subjects that reflect her vast interest and passion for gardening. We welcome visitors. Come and join your local Garden Club!

PARKS AND REC OPEN HOUSE – Wednesday, June 7th from 6 pm to 8 pm at the Brant Sports Complex. Share your input to help shape the Parks & Rec programs offered by the County. More information on this engagement online.

ANNUAL BIKE RODEO –

Hosted by the Paris Community Safety Group on Saturday June 10th, at the Syl App’s Community Centre, side parking lot from 10 am 12 pm. Free! Everyone ages 4-12 are welcome to attend There is a chance to win a bicycle, courtesy of Robin McNaughton from the Co-Operators

Friday evening a crowd gathered to celebrate hometown hockey hero Jay Wells as a new park in a subdivision off Rest Acres Road was named after him. Jay attended the event with his family and said he was honoured to be back in Paris to see the park open. The spacious park features a play structure, basketball nets and an enclosed court for sports such as ball hockey. Mayor David Bailey called it a beautiful park and was happy to put Jay’s name on it.

Jay thanked the crowd and offered some invaluable advice to never give up and dream big.

Jay made his mark in the NHL but one of his career highlights was helping to lead the Rangers to a Stanley Cup title in 1994. Jay brought the Stanley Cup to Paris. Want to know more about Jay? Catch Chris Whelan’s article in last week’s Independent.

Paris Rail Trail dog attack leads to charges

MEDIA RELEASE - The County of Brant Bylaw Enforcement team responded to an incident on May 23, 2023 with the OPP regarding an aggressive dog on the Rail Trail between Paris and Glen Morris. “We would like to assure the public that action has been taken and the Rail Trail is safe to use. One individual has been charged under the County’s Animal Control By-law. The matter remains under investigation, and we are working to ensure that our trail system remains safe for use. Additional charges or proceedings are pending the outcome of the investigation,” according to the media release Numerous posts popped up online this week discussing the incident where one person was taken to the hospital following a dog attack on the rail trail Many people weighed in on the topic stating they’ve come across a particular man and his aggressive dogs many times, leaving people feeling uncomfortable on the trail. The outpour in community discussion on rail trail safety led the County to issue the media release. The County wants to remind people to keep your dogs leashed and under control at all times when in public spaces for the safety of everyone and other animals. People are encouraged to call Bylaw Enforcement to report dogs at large, dog bites or owners not taking reasonable precaution with their dogs.

Bylaw Enforcement is available Monday to Friday, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm at 519 44BRANT (519 442 7268), 1.855.44BRANT. If the issue occurs after hours and needs to be addressed immediately, please contact the County of Brant OPP at 1 888 310 1122

Councillors say ‘no’ to more rapid development Administration and Operations Committee passes on funding opportunity that would mean ‘hitting the gas pedal’ on more growth & development

By Casandra Turnbull

Brant County councillors are not sold on the idea of federal funding if it means rapidly building more houses than we are already rapidly building.

This discussion took place during the May 16th Administration and Operations Committee meeting as members discussed the federal government’s National Housing Strategy and a new funding opportunity available to municipalities who are willing to hit the gas pedal and speed up residential development.

The Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), administered through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, is a $4 billion fund designed to entice municipalities to build more homes faster The quicker the community builds, the more lucrative the funding will be, to meeting the government’s goal of creating 100,000 net new housing units by 2026-2027.

The framework for the funding would see the county receive approximately $20,000 per unit plus top up funding between $7,000 to $15,000 if other factors are met, such as housing type and proximity to services like transit and housing related infrastructure

The funding doesn’t come without strings attached. In addition to a commitment to quicker growth, municipalities will also need additional staff to keep up with the growth demand and complete the extensive clerical work required to obtain the funding – develop an action plan, commit to a housing supply growth target, complete/update a housing needs assessment and stay on top of required reports.

“I’m looking for confirmation or if there’s a way to take advantage of this funding opportunity but control the type of dwellings we are going to accelerate. Or if we dive into this, are we stuck accepting all types of housing will have to happen faster?” asked Paris Councillor Steve Howes Heather Boyd, General Manager of Corporate Services, addressed Howes’ question, noting it was a difficult one to answer.

“(We would be) committing to a great deal more of housing. We would still have planning control, but we would have to move forward a lot of projects of some fairly significant density to achieve these projections,” said Boyd.

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Howes noted this plan goes against the previous council’s commitment four years ago of tapping the brakes when it comes to development and residential growth. “This would be putting our foot on the gas,” he said.

Councillor David Miller stated he is always leery of federal governments bearing gifts. He questioned how many hours of staff resources would be required to apply for this funding and wondered if there’s a ballpark figure of how much money the County of Brant would be eligible for if it applied

Boyd confirmed it would take significant staff resources just to complete the action plan as she noted that the County must adopt at least seven growth initiatives just to be considered for the funding. “It’s not just about the numbers (of houses), but where they are, what types of housing - all have different bonuses. Everything has a scoring system. There would be lots of decisions that need to be made before we could come up with an answer,” Boyd said in response to Miller’s questions

If the county does apply, based on population from the

2021 census data, Brant would apply under the large/urban area category and that would mean committing to a housing supply growth target that increases the average annual rate of growth by at least 10%. The application window for funding opens this summer for 45 days only and if approved the first advance of funding would be received by winter.

“I would be leery of committing to it, not having all the answers in front of us. We would be committing to something we don’t know is going to cost us at the end of the day,” said Miller

Howes doubled down on his stance to say no to more rapid growth. “I don’t support the idea of us taking more action on this. It does seem like one of those ‘too many strings attached’ (initiatives). Anything that is going to make us build houses faster and not just the types of houses we specify is too much for our communities and is too much for our staff. All my instincts are saying this not a good idea for us.” Howes put the motion on the floor to receive the HAF incentive as information only, but not act on it His motion was unanimously supported

Standing ovation as Mary Poppins flies out of Paris!!

That’s a wrap! Mary Poppins has flown out of town as Playful Fox Productions celebrates the finale of another successful weekend of performances. The cast and crew have a lot of reasons to celebrate following two sold out shows and four standing ovations. Meredith Wood and Sean Hauk were the stars of the show as Mary Poppins and Bert. Mary Poppins is based on the beloved movie starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Everyone who took part in the production, both on stage and off, are said to be grateful for the wonderful responses from the incredible audiences. The local theatre group is now preparing for a special event –A Garden Concert Tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber, taking place June 17th at 4 pm at Whistling Gardens. This licensed event is one day only with a rain date scheduled for June 18th . Tickets are available online www.pfpwebber.ceventbrite.ca

Letter To The Editor

“Embers are Awesome!” Don’t believe us? Sign up today!

Mounties Report

To the Editor:

As another season of Girl Guides is wrapping up, the units are busy preparing for the coveted year-end sleepover at Camp Impeesa in June. This past week, the 5th Paris Ember Group learned a little bit about media, particularly print/digital media at their weekly unit meeting. The girls took the opportunity to create their own letter to the Editor sharing the many reasons why they love Guiding, what they’ve learned this past year and why they would encourage new members to join!

We really enjoyed participating in and learning about the following events/activities:

-Making crafts, like stain glass art!

-Going on trips such as the one to the Bell Homestead

-Learning lots of poems and songs (a lot of songs!)

-Playing with friends

-Celebrating birthdays

-Welcoming special guests like the Brant OPP and County and Brant Fire Department

-Learning about the World Guiding Centres and historical Guide uniforms

-Learning Yoga

-Learning how to use power tools

-Celebrating the bridging up ceremony called the Sweet Success

-And selling cookies!

Most of all, we really enjoyed making new friends. We would encourage new members because Embers are awesome and we have a lot of fun!

If you’d like to learn more about Girl Guides of Canada, and the opportunities available for all Paris units, please visit them online. Registration for 2023-/2024 opens on Monday, May 29. Adult volunteers are welcome. Unit guides are crucial to ensuring the program continues to operate in Paris for years to come.