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Wednesday, July 12, 2017
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Private meetings among Niagara mayors called out
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Column Six So, so many bugs
BY VOICE STAFF not let you in. It's a closeddoor meeting. If a Regional councilor who wasn’t mayor tried to go in, no.”
BY NICK SALTARELLI
Special to the VOICE
T
If a Regional councillor who wasn't a mayor tried to go in, no.
What finally prompted the source to come forward, he says, was what he asserts was a clear attempt in June by Pelham CAO Darren Ottaway to influence the outcome of Regional Council’s current inquiries into Pelham’s finances. At the most recent meeting, held June 16 in Ft. Erie, the agenda notes that Ottaway requested that the group discuss the “Taxpayer Affordability Guide” under review by the Region’s Audit Committee, a measure originally tabled over concerns about debt levels in Pelham. According to the minutes, Ottaway stated that an “arbitrary” limit of 20% debt repayment to a municipality’s annual budget wasn’t workable.
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Pelham CAO lobbies Regional councillors on debt issue behind closed doors An employee of Niagara Region has come forward alleging that Regional matters are improperly discussed and strategy agreed on, out of public view, in closed-door meetings among the mayors and CAOs of Niagara’s municipalities. Together, the region’s mayors, who also serve as Regional councillors, make up 12 of the 30 votes on Niagara Regional Council. Section 239 of the Ontario Municipal Act sets out limited conditions under which meetings of officeholders may be closed to the public. The employee provided the Voice with copies of minutes taken at recent meetings. Labelled, “Municipal Mayors and Administrators Meeting,” the paper has confirmed that the gatherings occur approximately quarterly. There is no advance notice to public or press. Neither minutes nor executive summaries of past meetings are publicly available. As of last Friday, the Voice was unable to find any mention of the meetings—current, past, or future—on any of the region’s municipal websites. The employee, whose identity the paper has agreed to withhold, says that Regional councillors who are not mayors are also not informed of the gatherings and would not be permitted to attend in any case. “Even if [a member of the public] showed up at the next meeting, they would
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ALL IN A SHIFT'S WORK Constable David Brown helps reunite kids with mom. John Swart rides along with Niagara's finest for A Day in the Life, page 8. SUPPLIED PHOTO
“[Ottaway] feels that the Region is making a foray into municipal affairs,” reads the minutes. “He stated that this is a fundamental concern and asked for support from local municipalities to tell the Region this is not their jurisdiction and they should not be involved
in [Pelham’s] tax levy as it can become very destructive and a discouragement to growth.” The source asserts that previously some Regional councillors have voiced their own concerns about the closed-door sessions, but have been reluctant to
make their objections public. “I can say that those [councillors] who are aware have raised similar concerns that, ‘Hey, this looks like an illegal meeting,’” he says. See PRIVATE back page
HE GREAT NORTHERN Boreal is the largest forest on earth, blanketing the tops of North America and Eurasia, appearing from space like some giant, green planetary comforter. The Boreal captures and sequesters great gobs of carbon while generating billions of tons of oxygen, in the process helping keep the planet alive. Progressive exploitation over the centuries has reduced its scope but it still covers 10% of the planet’s, and almost two-thirds of Canada’s, land mass. It is both an irreplaceable ecological treasure and an economic resource. As a resource the Boreal is a living mosaic, neither homogeneous nor static. Individual stands of timber are natural systems that are born, mature, grow old and die. The resource management objective is to intervene before the end of the cycle and harvest the mature timber before it falls down and decays. Building access roads to mature timber stands necessitates considerable financial investment and manoeuvring through regulatory red tape, so there’s a real need to confirm what’s there before going ahead. It’s where See BUGS Page 10
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The Voice of Pelham, July 12, 2017
IN THE NEWS
PUBLISHER’S CORNER by Dave Burket
Yes, we're tired of it, too Remember when Rob Ford—may he rest in peace—was in the news, day after day, week after week? Eventually Ford Fatigue set in. The same thing happened about ten minutes after Donald Trump took the oath of office. Another Trumpian misstep? Spare us. So I share your probable dismay at seeing yet another Community Centre-slashEast Fonthill financing-related story on the front page this week. Enough, we’re crying, enough. In reality there are some stories that can’t—or shouldn’t—be dismissed because we’ve grown tired of them. Plus there’s now another factor at work— the dam has cracked. Information, they say, like water, wants to flow freely. There’s a reason we call them “leaks.” With his presentation to Regional Council at the end of June, an East Fonthill developer left a dent in Pelham’s information dam. Once information starts to flow, others who have more of it tend to come forward. The crack widened last week when we were contacted by a Niagara Region source with information about ethically questionable closed meetings among the region’s mayors. That’s what’s on the front page. Would I prefer that our Town’s finances and land acquisition methods were
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clearly above reproach, entirely undeserving of Regional or media scrutiny? Of course. But a majority of Regional Council—not the news media—decided that a second look was in order. Unfortunately, a siege mentality seems to have taken over in Town Hall. When CAO Darren Ottaway was asked directly, and then more directly, to confirm the statements attributed to him in our article, he responded instead with a scathing email challenging the legitimacy of the Voice even to ask the question— and then didn’t answer it. This is not a recipe for good-faith relations. The Town has taken the same approach with the Region, denying that it has a legitimate right to poke around Pelham’s books, or to question the level of its indebtedness. And so it goes. Also on the plate: Two readers had similar comments about recent editions. One said the paper’s the perfect length to read over breakfast (those meals may be getting longer); the other said it took him all night to read a recent issue. There’s more meat for you this week—John Swart takes us on a classic ridealong with the police, and Nick Saltarelli will leave you swatting at imaginary bloodsuckers. Best not to read it just before bedtime…
Another Town Hall departure
Fixed Asset Accountant Nick Alaimo has accepted the position of Deputy Treasurer for Niagara on the Lake. “Nick’s new position will allow him to grow and advance his career with a new scope of roles, responsibilities, and oversight,” said Public Relations and Marketing Specialist MacDonald, adding that an internal memo wished Alaimo well. Reached at work Monday morning by telephone, Alaimo declined to comment. Speaking to the Voice on Saturday, Mayor Augustyn said that Alaimo would stay on the job through the end of July. This is the third Town Hall departure since mid May, when Pelham terminated Treasurer Cari Pupo. A senior planner, Julie Hannah, quit in mid June.
Summerfest road closure
Pelham's annual Summerfest event takes place this coming weekend. Friday through Sunday, Pelham Street will be closed to vehicles from College Street north to Highway 20. For parking and shuttle information, see http://www. pelhamsummer fest.ca/ about-pelham/maps/
Regional Council approves budget guidance of 2%
At last Friday's budget committee meeting, Regional Council directed staff
Voice on vacation!
ing reducing the margin of human error as well as the amount of administrative burden involved in the process for both Niagara Regional Police staff and court staff. This means a savings of time and money for Niagara’s taxpayers, according to police. Currently, all tickets issued at the roadside for traffic violations are completed by police officers by hand. Not only is this time consuming and potentially unsafe for the officer to be standing on the side of the road, it also allows for many opportunities for errors that can result in tickets being rejected or dismissed by the Court. In the last 10 years, about 4,300 traffic tickets laid by the Niagara Regional Police have either been rejected or dismissed by the Provincial Offences Court due to late filing or errors on a ticket. The dismissal of these tickets impacts road safety efforts and represents a real loss in fine revenue for Niagara’s municipalities of as much as $40,000 a year. The eTicketing system uses technology now available in police cruisers to scan a driver’s licence for the vital details that are required to lay a charge. The system also allows a police officer to automatically select the correct charge and wording, thereby removing the opportunity for transcription errors. Newly installed printers in the cruisers will generate the Offence Notice in realtime based on the information provided.
to undertake 2018 budget preparations with tax levy increase guidance of 2 percent. When broken down, this guidance corresponds to a 1.5 per cent increase for the Region’s operating budget, and .5 per cent increase earmarked for the 2021 Canada Summer Games. The approved budget guidance of 2 percent also applies to the Region’s rate programs of Water and Waste Water and Waste Management. For the average homeowner with a property valued by MPAC at $248,200, a 2 percent increase on the Regional portion of their property taxes would equal approximately $29 annually. The average homeowner in Niagara currently pays about $1,461 (not including waste management rates) in Regional property taxes each year.
Region and NRPS roll out eTicketing
Since the last week of June, some Niagara Regional police officers traded in their hand-written traffic tickets for an advanced “eTicketing” system. The new pilot system offers many benefits, includ-
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Column Six
Growing up British Part 2 of 2: Coronation to embarkation
Vol.20 No.32
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Apple Day comes to Fonthill
BY JULIE MANNELL
Special to the VOICE
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BALLOONING INTEREST Grade 6 student Jinja Shepherd explains her experiment on static electricity at the Glynn A. Green Public School's annual science fair last Friday. See story, page 3. NATE SMELLE PHOTO
Public meeting tonight on school issues BY VOICE STAFF As questions continue to mount regarding an email that Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn quietly sent to a District School Board of Niagara trustee last summer, Augustyn has agreed to address the issue at a public meeting scheduled for this evening, Wednesday, Feb. 8, in Fenwick. Nancy Beamer, speaking for “Names Matter,” a Pelham citizens group lobbying the DSBN to reverse its decision to rename a local public school, confirms that the meeting will be held at Fire Station #2, known locally as the Fenwick Fire Hall, starting at 7:00 PM. While the Mayor has agreed to ap-
Under pressure, Mayor to address email revelation, other E. W. Farr matters pear, says Beamer, DSBN officials associated with the school-naming process have either declined to attend or have not yet responded to the group’s invitation. DSBN Chair, Dale Robinson, to whom Augustyn’s email was addressed last June, has declined to appear, says Beamer, asserting that she would be
“on holidays.” The Voice was unable to independently confirm Robinsion’s intentions. She did not respond to repeated requests for comment on E.W. Farr-related matters before presstime. Beamer, whose group maintains an email list of some 580 residents, says that all members of the public are invited and encouraged to attend the meeting. “We would especially welcome parents and children who are unhappy with the name change,” she says, referring to the contentious decision by the DSBN to consolidate two Pelham See MEETING back page
HEN I WAS young, my father and I would go for long drives along the rural routes of Pelham. We’d blast George Thurgood and roll down the windows because we loved the smell of the breeze, the sensation of crisp Niagara wind beating our cheeks and tangling our hair against our summer-kissed skin. My father was not a sentimental man. He worked in factories and had a Gordon Lightfoot mustache and never shed tears over injuries. Yet something about the Pelham landscape, the hilly backdrop to his childhood and the childhoods of our ancestors, drew him in. He’d stop by a farm or a gathering of woods and, surrendering his manly veneer, tell me a story about the town. This place is precious. This is the earth that granted us life. Here is the place where we happened upon love or here is a site of devastation. On one particular drive sometime in the late ‘90s we stopped at a tree with a plaque. “This tree looks dead,” I said to my father. “It sure is getting there, Julie.” The Comfort Maple is supposedly Canada’s oldest See COLUMN SIX Page 14
BY VOICE STAFF
A construction error was discovered following the opening of a traffic calming chicane on Haist Street north of Hwy 20 last Monday that prevented large vehicles from passing through. One resident living in the neighbourhood said he contacted the Town after seeing a small schoolbus get stuck as it tried to get through the new traffic calming measure. Later that day while driving behind a cement truck, he said that he became concerned for the public’s safety when the truck had to turn around because it couldn’t get through. “If a small school bus and a cement truck can’t make it through what about a fire
BY HEATHER McLAREN ROHRER
Special to the VOICE
A
Repair measures underway last week to correct a construction error in the chicane. truck or an ambulance?” he said. While waiting for the contractor to return to fix
the mistake, the Town has taken measures to temporarily allow passage for vehicles through the neigh-
VOICE PHOTO
bourhood in the short-term. Manager of Public Works Ryan Cook said that after discovering the issue with
the chicane the morning it first opened, the Town See CHICANE Page 5
Petition-inspired changes coming to 2017 Summerfest BY NATE SMELLE
The VOICE
Representatives from the Pelham Summerfest committee Candy Ashbee and Bill Gibson presented council with a final report on the 2016 Summerfest at the Council meeting on Monday, Nov. 21. Prompted by a story in the Voice in August about a merchant petition to move Summerfest from Pelham Street, in September Town staff met with various stakeholders to hear their complaints, promising at the time that changes in the way Summerfest was mounted would be con-
sidered. The main concerns identified during the community engagement process were security, parking, ensuring customer can access all businesses in town, and liability for damages. How to get all Pelham Street businesses to participate and finding ways to make it beneficial for them to set up a booth were also determined to be of high priority for the committee as they plan for next year’s event. Gibson told Council that the committee is addressing these concerns in a variety of ways. To improve parking, they intend to create bet-
ter signage for out-of-town visitors to designated parking areas and shuttle services. To make participation in Summerfest more enticing to local businesses, they plan to implement a tiered-charge for booths. Under the new system, Pelham Street business owners will be charged the least, other local businesses will pay a slightly higher fee, and vendors from outside Pelham will pay the most. In response to more specific issues for individual businesses, they will also slightly alter the footprint of the event and make adjustments to security. Another way the committee plans
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to improve the 2017 Summerfest is by sponsoring and working with the organizers of the Thursday Night Bandshell Concert series to select the artist performing on the first night of Summefest. They also intend to make more use of the smartphone app they launched in 2016. "We are really going to push it this year," Ashbee said. “It really helps to get people to see what events there are so they can plan out where they are going. We will be able to actually help the merchants and local businesses adSee CHANGES Page 5
FTER LUNCH ON Saturday, Mum and Dad had my afternoon cut out for me. Mum had more brass than anyone I knew, and it had to be cleaned. In addition there was the set of silver fish-knives and forks which were never used, but which had to be cleaned and put back in their velvetlined box. Next was a walk to the newsagents to pay for the daily delivery of the Daily Mirror. As I said, Dad was a printer, but when he was 37 he had been rejected for a job, as being too old, by the printers of the Beano. For that reason, my favourite comic was not allowed in the house, but while I was paying the papers, the newsagent let me have a 'shoofty' at the Beano. I'd explained my predicament and he understood completely. Sundays were different again. Dad would play golf on summer mornings and billiards in winter. Then he'd stop for a 'refresher' at the local and would pick up the prawns, cockles, winkles or whelks we'd be having for tea later. Meanwhile, Mum was roasting the 'joint' and potatoes. I got to make the Yorkshire pud, and mint
BY VOICE STAFF
See COLUMN SIX Page 14
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While shopping in Fonthill between Friday and Sunday, keep an eye out for Beavers, Cubs and Scouts in front of local stores with bushels of apples. As part of the annual Apple Day campaign, Scouting youth of all ages will be trading apples for donations. The yearly fundraising drive is an important way for young Scouts to connect with the communities they are serving, says Leah Marie of Scouts Canada. “The Apple Day campaign holds a great tradition of being able to have youth interacting within the communities they live in,” she says. “All of the Apple Day donations stay directly within the group that re-
The goal is to have these youth develop into confident and well-rounded individuals
ceives them, enabling youth to have experiences that build character, challenge them, and allow them to try new things. The goal is to have these youth develop into confident and wellrounded individuals, better prepared for success. Apple Day helps to achieve that.”
“Any money raised during Apple Day goes towards improving the Scouting program by providing more outdoor adventures for youth, camping equipment, canoes and paddles, training and many other endeavours that the youth want to experience,” says Marie. Scouts Canada has some 100,000 members across Canada, and carries out programs for boys, girls
Joining their principal, Karen Simpson, at the Sept. 19 Council meeting as part of a delegation from EL Crossley Secondary School, students Abby Loewen and Neenah Williams presented Council with a list of reasons that they should immediately approve the construction of the new sidewalk proposed along Hwy. 20. The asphalt side-
walk/trail is slated to be built between the south side of the road from Timmsdale Crescent to the high school. Because of the large volume of motor vehicle traffic travelling at high speeds through this area, and because of the necessity for students to tread this path on a daily basis, many residents would like to see the sidewalk go in sooner than later. After delivering to Council a petition containing
Many residents would like to see the sidewalk go in sooner than later the names of 450 students calling for a safer walk to school, Simpson handed the
podium over to Loewen and Williams to plead their case. Loewen told Council that because there are a lot of students who have work placements and coop placements during the school year, this is the only route for many of them to travel. As one of the students facing this predicament, Williams said she has had no other option but to walk along the dangerous highway.
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and youth ages 5-25. This year the 3rd Fonthill Group, which includes Beavers to Ventures (youth ages 5- 25) will be hitting the streets to drum-up support. Over the weekend, Scouts will be set up in Fonthill outside Sobeys, Tim Hortons, Target Gas station, Fonthill Shopping Plaza and the Pioneer Gas station at the corner of Hwys 20 and 24.
Town Council approves sidewalk to serve E. L. Crossley BY NATE SMELLE
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Second year Beaver with the 3rd Fonthill Group, Russell Letford offers a fresh apple to shoppers in Pelham during the 2015 Apple Day campaign. SUPPLIED PHOTO
A longtime Canadian tradition, Apple Day began in 1932 in Saint John, New Brunswick, when Scouts handed out 21,000 apples as a way to say thank you to the community. In return for their generosity, many people offered them donations. From then on Scouts have reached out through Apple Day to raise funds for their programs.
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Column Six It doesn’t get better than Autumn
Longtime Scouting tradition dates to 1932
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BY VOICE STAFF The District School Board of Niagara is requesting that the Town of Pelham cede a portion of Cherry Ridge Park for use as a soccer field to serve the students of the new Wellington Heights Public School, formerly the E. W. Farr Memorial Public School, in Fenwick. Currently under renovation and expansion, the new school will combine students and staff from the previous school and Pelham Centre, where classes are being held while construction continues. Two letters, containing virtually identical text but signed by different authorities, were sent last week to nearby residents of the park, as well as to parents of Pelham Centre students. “The DSBN is currently building onto Wellington Heights Public School on Alsop Drive,” states the letter. “The size of the school's addition means the existing small soccer field will be eliminated. The Town and the Board have been discussing the possibility of working together to create a field for both the school and the
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In an effort to bring further attention and deterrence to driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs, the Niagara Regional Police Service reports the names of those people who are charged with an alleged criminal impaired driving offence in the Region. None of the following charges have been proved in court. In addition to being charged, these individuals are also bound by a Ministry of Transportation 90-Day Administrative Driver’s License Suspension and are prohibited from operating a motor vehicle on a roadway. The public is encouraged to contact the Niagara Regional Police Service Traffic Safety Hotline or Crime Stoppers to report those who are driving in contravention of the suspension. The following individuals have been charged criminally with impaired driving by alcohol or drugs, driving with a blood alcohol concentration above 80 mgs of alcohol in 100 ml of blood, or refusing to provide a breath / blood sample. Joshua L. WOOD, 37, Thorold Ashley BAILEY-PHILLIPS, 34, Niagara Falls Garry G. KOSIN, 46, Buffalo NY Anton SCHERER, 63, Lincoln Roland J. BUFFI, 60, St. Catharines Jewel LEPORE, 43, Grimsby John R. GORMAN, 30, Thorold Deanna I. VANPYKEREN, 32, West Lincoln Thomas M. BUTCHER, 44, Niagara Falls Jarrett J. SOUTHARD, 30, Elma NY Fabio DUJELA, 46, Niagara Falls Allan P. BROWN, 28, Niagara Falls Ralph EADES, 70, Niagara-on-the-Lake Lamont C. WILLIAMS, 31, St. Catharines The Niagara Regional Police Service is committed to reducing impaired driving offences through education and the apprehension of offenders through enforcement programs like RIDE. Impaired driving is still the leading cause of criminal deaths in Canada and destroys thousands of lives every year.
Congratulations
Susan Mikitka, Edie Kouros, Sharon Vizbulis, and Kim Wiley at the coliseum, Rome, Italy!
NRPS impaired driving charges
“I start work at 2:30 PM and school lets out at 2:15 PM so I can’t take any other route,” Williams explained. “I have had friends, family, teachers and other community members reach out to me in the past about how this is unsafe and how there should be another alternative for us.” Looking ahead to winter, when she will need to walk this path three or four times See SIDEWALK Page 2
HERE IS NO BETTER time to cycle than Fall. It matters not whether you’re new to the sport, a seasoned recreational cyclist, racer, touring rider or mountain biker; we all have reason to look forward to autumn. Summer’s heat has faded, and the streams of sweat that ran from soggy helmets into our eyes are now just slight perspiration. Fitness is peaking from lots of saddle time, making those tough climbs of Spring a breeze in Autumn. It’s hard to beat the feeling of beginning a crisp, cool Fall ride with a slight shiver, knowing your efforts will soon warm you perfectly. The hues of Autumn are outstanding. A Pelham route as simple as following our southern boundary is one that would make most Toronto cyclists jealous, especially when our forests and fields are ablaze with colour. Begin from Harold Black Park, and zig-zag south along Effingham Rd toward the Welland River. If you’re new to cycling, it’s important to know south is the direction away from any hills. If you avoid the morning and evening weekday rush hours caused by those travelling through Pelham between Wainfleet See AUTUMN Page 3
Indulgence Bakery Mossimo’s Pelham Street Grille Sobeys Fonthill DeVries Fruit Farm Beamer’s Hardware & TV Fonthill Library Black Pearl Fish & Chips Bob’s Boys Antiques Moku’s Fonthill Fitness Curves McDonald’s Fonthill Legion Semenuk’s Gas Bar Target Store Tim Horton’s Giant Tiger Pelham Town Hall Shoppers Drug Mart Zee Lube Express Care Lazy Loon Minor Bros Stores Avondale Stores A-1 Market Sobeys South Pelham Broken Gavel Restaurant Grill on Canboro Petro Canada Mtvl. Hwy. Renewed Thrift & Vintage Ridge Berry Farm Circle-K
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The Voice of Pelham, July 12, 2017
Page 3
The Conversation
Minute by minute
Pelham's private attempt to sway Regional councillors, says source, was last straw in decision to make public his closed-door concerns BY DAVE BURKET
The VOICE
L
AST W EEK W E R A N A STORY A BOUT the developer Rainer Hummel, who effectively acted as a whistleblower relating to practices used by the Town of Pelham to acquire land in East Fonthill. The day after the paper came out, the Voice was contacted by a Niagara Region source. He asserted he had proof that private meetings were being held by the Region’s mayors to discuss Regional matters, including Pelham’s financial situation, before they came before Regional Council.
His concern that “democratic principles” were being violated is what he says prompted him to come forward. In particular he cites the efforts of Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn, and Chief Administrative Officer Darren Ottaway, to short circuit, in the source’s view, the Region’s recently begun look into Pelham’s East Fonthill financing. The source produced copies of minutes taken at two meetings of what were labelled “Municipal Mayors and Administrators,” one from Friday, June 16, in Ft. Erie, and an earlier meeting held last December in Niagara-on-the-Lake. As his request, we are withholding the source's name. We have independently verified his status and qualifications to speak authoritatively on issue. The interview was conducted face-to-face. The Voice submitted a portion of the minutes to all Regional Councillors, the Regional Chair, and to Pelham CAO Darren Ottaway, requesting comment. Mr Ottaway pointedly declined to answer our questions, just before press time. The Chair and nine out of 30 councillors did respond, and some of their comments follow the interview. The following has been editing for clarity, with some answers condensed or merged for brevity. So, Regional CAO meetings including mayors. How often does this happen. Monthly? Typically, quarterly. Sometimes more often or— Or less, depending on issues or availability and that type of thing. I haven't seen the minutes of every meeting. When they put a calendar invite out for the mayors, they call it “CAO meeting.” So if it's on someone's calendar, it's a CAO meeting, but then when they actually meet, they call it a municipal mayors and administrators meeting. So, sorry, who's taking the minutes here? The clerk in the town where the meeting's held? In this case, this is the individual who took the minutes. This is the most recent
meeting. The previous one was in the city of St. Catharines, and they move them around. And that is a Fort Erie employee? Right. So when they're in St. Catharines, it’s a St. Catharines employee. Wherever they are, they take the minutes. So if you try to [obtain these minutes with a Freedom of Information Act request] it'd be really interesting to see who would provide it, because they would all argue it's not under their custody and control. Right? Whose corporate records are they? Are these ones Fort Erie's and St. Catharines is St Catharines, etc.? So there's some logistical issues. You can see they're specifically talking Regional business. Development charges, both locally and then Regionally. Economic development, community improvement plans, inter-municipal transit, right? Which is a big Regional component. Right. The public doesn’t know, "Oh, all the 12 mayors and all the 12 CAOs are meeting regularly to advance Regional business." Then they have Regional Council meetings. And they already had their closed-door meetings about these issues. And in a couple of cases, they say, "Oh, the mayors are aligned on this," and, "The mayors are aligned on that." Well, they're advancing the agenda items before even having the opportunity to discuss in a public forum. So it's not just mayors who are sitting in this room, it's also— CAOs. Yeah. In this case, this CAO was the chair. For Lincoln? Yeah. And I think, again, they kind of rotate. Oh, I see. So there's a Regional representative there, too? Staff can meet. It's when you inject the mayors who are Regional councilors. Staff can meet, and they do regularly. And that’s not subject to the sunshine law and the ombudsman. It's when you have the mayors also present and in attendance who, again, are our Regional councilors talking about Regional business. And so in this case— so
The first pages of two sets of minutes provided to the Voice, one from a meeting held last month in Ft. Erie, the other from a meeting held last December at the White Oaks Resort, Niagara-on-the-Lake. VOICE GRAPHICS item seven, they add to the agenda. In this case, they've got the CAO of Pelham to bring it up. Basically, they're saying, "Region get out of our business," right? Which is the height of hypocrisy for me. You've got all these local mayors talking about Regional business and at the same time, they're saying, "But don't talk about local municipal business." You're saying in these meetings, in general, they're talking about various local issues? Sorry, give me the hypocrisy again. Because the mayors and CAOs are meeting to talk about Regional issues. And at the same time, this individual, in particular, is saying, "But Region, stay out of Pelham business." They can talk about Regional issues but the Region can't talk about local issues is what they're saying. But of particular concern, and it's a theme, of them trying to stop the questions surrounding Pelham's fiscal situation. This was another salvo in a secret meeting where they try to align the mayors to say, "Stop asking questions about Pelham. Let's unite and tell the Region to stay out of our business." So when I saw that, it's a flashpoint. It's another dot on the continuum of trying to shut the public up. Even when people are trying to ask questions in a public forum, these guys go behind the scenes to try to lobby people to say, "Okay, stop." So I wanted to put this in your hands to see—. I'll leave it with you to do anything with it or nothing with it, but at least you have it. To some degree you’re suggesting that this is all under the radar, that the public is not informed that these meetings even happen? There's no announcement on a website? Correct. There's no public agenda, there's no posting of an agenda on a website somewhere? Correct. Even if you showed up at the next meeting, they would not let you in. It's a closed-door meeting. If a Regional councilor who wasn’t mayor tried to go in, no. So I think there's
kind of two components here. One is a huge ombudsman red flag and then the other one is, again, going behind the scenes, trying to stop the discussion around Pelham. You can see it really irked them, right? But the reality is we have— we, the Region, has the— we're the cosigner to the loan, right? So yes, we have our own due diligence to do when it comes to borrowing on behalf of all the taxpayers in Niagara. And to say, “Just rubber stamp it and shut up and don't say anything,” it's ridiculous. We're not doing our job. So I take offence to that type of thing. So you kind of get a sense of, what. Circling the wagons. You, obviously, are not in attendance— I am not there, no. Only the CAOs and the Councillors who are mayors. No staff, really. And no Regional councilor who is not a mayor is ever even notified. Not even notified? Do the other Regional councilors— are they aware that these meetings exist? I don't know. But I can say that those who are aware have raised similar concerns that, "Hey, this looks like an illegal meeting." No one has taken action yet because they don't want to upset 12 mayors, right? Because everyone in the Regional Council chambers is friends with at least one mayor. And so if they bring it up, they think they're going to throw whoever their buddy is under the bus. I think before— and they would argue— if they were here, they would argue it's “information sharing,” “best practices,” “shared services,” which is fine if it’s talking about local municipal issues. But when you have detailed agendas and detailed minutes talking about Regional issues— in this other one they talk about the airports and inter-municipal transit and Region-heavy agenda topics. Your Regional councilors know you shouldn't be talking about those behind closed doors. By the time the mayors come to the Region, they're kind of trying to be a united front on certain issues that they already talked about. It's not right in a democratic society.
No one has taken action yet because they don't want to upset the 12 mayors, right? Because everyone in the Regional Council chambers is friends with at least one mayor.
On the Pelham issue that’s on this Fort Erie agenda, why would the CAO be speaking and not the Mayor? Because then he can hide behind his CAO and say, "Oh, it's an administrators meeting." And I mean, he pushed his CAO out in front at Regional council to answer questions. At his Meeting with the Experts, he pushed other people out to answer. So he's pushing other people out in front to kind of fight his battles, so he doesn't take any war wounds, so to speak. It's consistent with his practice. You can see here— and this is what triggered me, was him using this forum to get consensus to shut down that motion at the Region, right? And that's in essence what it is. And that's wrong. This CAO-mayor meeting happened Friday, June 16th. When was the Audit Committee meeting? That had already occurred, right? That was June 8th or something. The Audit Committee had occurred. The Pelham issue was deferred. So even some of the information in here is incorrect. Then they had this meeting, then the minutes came, and then came the Regional Council meeting. So he was trying to rally the mayors to support him here to kill it at Council. “He” being [Mayor] Augustyn? Yeah. He was trying to get it lifted to talk about it again and kill it. But you can't without two-thirds because Audit's not done their work. If the Council wants to take it back now, they have to have a reconsideration motion— Which requires two-
thirds assent. Correct. And then, so [East Fonthill developer Rainer] Hummel did his presentation [on June 29] and it was obvious to everybody, let the Committee continue its work. And so in fact, Augustyn himself referred his own correspondence to the Committee after Hummel’s presentation. His own correspondence being what? I think his attempts to demonstrate— it is on the agenda, and it's public. I don't know if you saw it. He had bar graphs and stuff like that about taxes. Right. So had Hummel not made his presentation, you're suggesting, or maybe it's on the agenda, that some councillor would have made a motion to effectively to kill the Audit Committee’s investigation. Or to amend it so it's so watered-down that it's meaningless, right? And you saw that attempt at the actual Committee meeting before. I mean, I'm sure it'll get amended a couple more times before they’re done with it. But the bottom line is [Mayor Augustyn] just wants the questions and the work to stop. And that's probably the biggest concern. Let the Committee do its work. I think we'll have good things come out of it in terms of defining better the Region's relationship with policy when it comes to debt. At the end of that [June 29] Council meeting one councillor even said, "Can we get out of that business of cosigning loans for them? Then, we have no concerns. And we're not on the hook, so to speak." See MEETINGS Page 14
Page 4
The Voice of Pelham, July 12, 2017
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
OPINION
The opinions expressed in submitted commentary and letters to the editor are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the Voice of Pelham.
The Voice of Pelham is a 1211858 Ontario Limited publication David Burket, Publisher 2-1428 Pelham St., P.O. Box 1489, Fonthill, ON L0S1E0
COMMENTARY / OP-ED Larry Coté Thank your recyclers
A
S YOU TR AV EL about Town on collection day you will notice the containers neatly lining the roadside. (As a side note, doesn’t “collection day” sound much nicer than the former “garbage day” nomenclature?) Admirably, a large percentage of households are conscientious recyclers and separate their trash into the appropriate colored containers. According to Regional recycling officials, the residents in this area are continuously improving the diversion rate —i.e. the amount of materials diverted from landfill. These officials continue to encourage even more careful sorting at the household level to reduce the damage inflicted on our good matriarch, Mother Earth. In the fall it is mind-boggling to see the number of recyclable bags overflowing with leaves and all manner of garden refuse lining the streets like a stiff-legged military honor guard saluting the end of summer. These recycled-paper bags and their contents will be mulched and reused to enrich the flower beds and gardens throughout
the region. Every environmentalist must beat their breasts with glee over the success of that particular part of the recycling program. If you want to be really impressed by the advancements in our collective efforts to protect the environment, visit one of the Regional Recycling Depots, such the one in Humberstone. You will be amazed at how organized, neat and efficient these facilities are in their operations. These collection centers are designed to effectively sort refuse into recyclable clusters or into piles destined to be disposed of in earth-friendly ways rather than left to pollute our environment. As a further win-win, some of that refuse is reclaimed for its residual values and the Region sells such materials to commercial enterprises. Perhaps you didn’t know this but there is gold, yes, real gold, in them-thar electronics you trashed. However, best not try to recover the glittery stuff as a DIY project. The gold is mixed with some toxins that will burn a hole in your kitchen counter, or worse,
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render you incontinent. A few years back, before people wizened up to the seriousness of the pollution problem, today’s recycling depots were literally called garbage dumps, or, in more polite parlance, “landfill sites.” All commercial and residential refuse was dumped into ravines and gullies to then be covered with a thin layer of soil. Out of sight, out of mind was the strategy de jour. All that toxic mix of litter was left to percolate and pollute the air with harmful gases, the underground aquifers and top soil were contaminated with indeterminate types of liquids and chemicals. Thankfully, some good progress has been made in the efforts to protect the environment. We should be eternally grateful to all who work on our behalf at all levels of recycling. Literally, we owe them our lives. On the next collection day give those much under-appreciated workers a friendly wave. It just might make their day and more properly recognize their valuable service. On second thought, why not do that every week?
Letters Not happy with the messenger Does this paper not have anything better or COMMUNITY focused to report other than conspiracy rhetoric reminiscent of Donald Trump's drunken 2 AM tweets? The direction of this "paper" is deplorable and appears to exist to do nothing but push a right-winged PC agenda. Kelly Robinson-Gojmerac Pelham Via Facebook
Apology rejected Thank you for your detailed interview and review of the June 29 Regional Council meeting regarding land purchases in Pelham. I have a string of emails between myself and the Mayor of Pelham that are very interesting. In the end the Mayor requested an apology for comments made by myself about consequences... not going to happen. Donna McIntyre Pelham
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Members of Niagara Regional Council Councillor David Augustyn mayordave@pelham.ca 905-892-2607 Ext 317 Councillor Brian Baty 742 Memorial Dr. Fenwick, ON L0S 1C0 905-892-5317 Town of Pelham 20 Pelham Town Square P.O. Box 400 Fonthill, ON L0S 1E0 905-892-2607
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The Voice of Pelham, July 12, 2017
Page 5
OPINION Letters
FOLLOW THE MONEY By Jim Pitt
continued
The trifecta: Interest rates, Niagara home sales, debt
Save Haist Street park If you want to save the Haist Street parkland everyone needs to contact all the Councillors and the Mayor. It is the Councillors and the Mayor who will vote to rezone this parkland for development, not Town staff. Everyone who values parkland needs to phone, email, or speak personally to all
the Councillors and remind them that they were elected to represent the views and wishes of the citizens of Pelham, the people who live and pay taxes here. At the “Meet the Experts” public meeting, Town staff stated that it is Council who allows this type of rezoning to take place, so take a few min-
utes and make your voice heard. Even if you don't use this park on a regular basis, support your fellow residents, because one day it may be your neighbourhood that is under attack. Lyn Davis-Brown Pelham
Vandalism at Ridgeville cemetery I’m writing to report the most ruthless act that one can do to be disrespectful to the dead. I went to the cemetery with my husband on Saturday, July 1st, as this is the day my mom passed away, on her favourite holiday. I was excited, as I had a flag to put up and a frog to place for my dad that I had just repainted. Thankfully I didn’t go before that day or they may not even be there. When we arrived, I realized that a bluejay ornament, from the side that my brothers are buried, was on the ground, and the tip of the beak had been chipped. My husband said not to worry, but I knew there were no storms in the past 10 years that had moved it, let alone taken it from the headstone. We cleared away some
weeds and I found a rainedon tissue around the roses that I had planted on my mom’s side about a month before. Noticing her rose is not doing so well, I blamed it on bugs and thought it was just perhaps a tissue that blew into the garden. Now I’m wondering if a female may have urinated there and that’s why the rose isn’t well. After some time I took a walk around to look at other headstones and realized that other things had been disturbed. Then that’s when it hit me that someone, or ones, had come through and removed things from headstones. I only went through my family’s section, however there were about 12 that were affected. Small ornaments that obviously mean
something to people. The bluejay I put represents my brother the day I found out he was deceased. It was not a pleasant situation and the bluejays made me feel better. To know someone came through and just kicked it off really upset me. Not to mention the shells my nieces and nephews brought, when their uncle passed away, to put on the headstone to help them feel better. They are all gone, except for a single small piece. I found shells scattered about at another gravesite that were obviously kicked off another headstone. It’s terrible that anyone would be so disrespectful and this needs to be made public. Melissa Ashcroft Stevensville
Wants transparency in severances, finances I just watched the online video of the Niagara Regional Council meeting from June 29 on YouTube. I commend Mr. Hummel of Hummel Properties for being honest and for taking the time to express his concerns that there are some potentially troubling dealings that have taken place in Pelham. Perhaps this would explain why so many senior staff members are leaving. Does anyone know the severance amount that they have been paid, at our expense? I’m sickened that our Mayor would sell out our lovely and quaint town of Fonthill, so that he can not
only have this “community centre” built at the taxpayer’s expense, but he can line his resume at the same time. I’ve lived in a number of communities over the course of my lifetime but I’ve never lived in a community of citizens that better exemplifies kindness, caring and a desire to protect precious land, created over 10,000 years ago. I’m disheartened that the Mayor apparently has no conscience and is willing to trade the security of Pelham residents’ current tax rate, not to mention the lives of species that will be exterminated by the current rates of development.
I encourage everyone to join the growing group debt. pelham@gmail.com, who are very concerned about the inevitable tax increases to pay for this community centre and the loss of habitat that will inevitably occur. Shame on you Mayor Augustyn! People elected you to represent them, and from what I know the majority of people no longer respect you or trust you. The only way that you can redeem yourself and the respect of Pelham’s citizens, within the Niagara Region, is to allow transparency of OUR finances. Lisa Erickson Fonthill
Want something done? Ask a busy man...a very busy man Mr. Pitt— Thank you for your remarks regarding my presentation to council, re the status of the construction of the new Community Centre — specifically the figure I quoted re the Hershey Centre.
I do agree that the figure I quoted was wrong — I misconstrued what my ‘friend’ told me and I apologize to council for this error. My apologies my friend — but you know how it is in the public sector, “no good deed
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Predictions Update A couple of weeks ago I made some predictions about interest rates. I reported that there was a 50% chance rates would start going back to normal in mid-July. That chance has now climbed to 84%. The June housing statistics show continuing sales declines— sales were down 37% yearover-year and prices are continuing to drop. Listings climbed 16%. Soon this past year's price increases will be wiped out. Here are some new predictions. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, the regulator of our banks and other financial organizations, will be changing a few rules, possibly by late fall. All mortgages, even those with 20% or more as a down payment, will have to be stress-tested at the bank rate of 4.64% to be approved. Stress-testing will have to be extended to uninsured mortgages. Co-lending arrangements, designed to circumvent regulatory requirements, will be prohibited. HELOCs (home equity loans) will be evaluated on the household's ability to pay in a regular and timely manner and not on the value of the asset. The Finance ministry and the Bank of Canada are determined to put an end to the dangerous level
of debt so many have accumulated in this country. An alarming 29% of the growth in the Ontario economy is attributed to housing, up from the historical average of 7%. Ontario manufacturing has fallen from 21% of the 2002 economy to 12% in 2015, while Quebec’s manufacturing sector has climbed to 14%, B.C.’s to 20% and Alberta’s to 40%. Over-regulation and the highest electricity rates in North America are cited as reasons. The consequences of these changes should be monitored with great interest by anyone with a lot of debt. Niagara house sales, June 2017 The prices of homes in Niagara Region continued to climb. The average home cost $457,456 in June, up from $448,225 in May. Closer to home, prices in Pelham rose from $573,913 to $588,906, May to June. Region-wide listings were up from 1,073 to 1,273 comparing June 2016 to June 2017, an in-
crease of 16.6%, while sales were down from 959 to 740, a decline of 23%. In Pelham, listings climbed from 49 to 59, or 20% up from last June, while sales fell from 43 to 34, down 20%. A mortgage broker commenting on Global News stated that the number of home owners in financial trouble has gone up tenfold. Power-of sales (foreclosures) have increased from around 250 in January to 2,500 in June, with the expectation that this is just getting started as interest rates climb and house prices drop in the GTA. He stated that many recent home buyers are in over their heads and were carrying far too much debt. We’ll see your debt and raise it I received some information from the good citizens of the DEBT group here in town. They did some calculations and their findings were as follows. They compared eight municipalities in Niagara: Fort Erie, See FOLLOW THE MONEY Page 6
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Page 6
The Voice of Pelham, July 12, 2017
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ished.” Your comment re my use of the internet — I do not disagree with your observation — however — I am a little bit busy right now — to spend a lot of time surfing the net — as I am currently contributing to making the town of Pelham a great place to live in. I am the chair of the Oversight Committee for the construction of the new Community Centre (a volunteer — no compensation). I volunteer and sit on two Town standing committees (formally on the Seniors Advisory Committee and currently on the Active Transportation Committee and the Summerfest Committee). In addition to attending — sometimes as many as six meetings a month (each lasting between 2 — 2.5+ hours) — I have over the last year give my time to: The organization, marketing, and many other aspects of the 2017 Summerfest Car Show (195+ hours); the design and construction of a bike stand that holds a bicycle and a blender—the Town is using this device at the Farmer’s Market — where the Town purchases local produce, places these in the blender and town youth peddle the bike which drives the blender — to produce a smoothie (25+ hours — plus in August I will build the final two apparatus — another 35+ hours to come); the design and construction of three rest chairs — for Church Hill (100+ hours — my labor and financing); in the fall I will be constructing the three ‘enhanced’ chairs and will be presenting
FOLLOW THE MONEY continued from Page 5 Grimsby, Lincoln, West Lincoln, Wainfleet, Thorold NOTL and Port Colborne. These municipalities have a combined debt load
I am a little bit busy right now—to spend a lot of time surfing the net
them to the Town for installation (another 80+ hours to come); the design and construction of further display apparatus for the Active Transportation Committee’s presentation at 2017 Summerfest (20+ hours); on an as-and-when-needed basis I provide the Town with professional public sector procurement strategic advice (the price of that service ranges from $700 to $1,000 a day plus expenses — I volunteer my time gratis). Etc, etc. Mr. Pitt at the end of your column you offered me some advice — keeping to this theme, if you wish to demonstrate to the citizens of Pelham of your sincerity to make the town a better community — I will give you a call in September to see if you would like to work with me — in my garage- to construct the Church Hill chairs. As the song goes, Jim, “I will see you in September.” “Citizen Bill” Gibson Fonthill
of $31,390,000 and a combined population of 157,281. Pelham has a debt load of $32,906,000 and a population of 17,100. Pelham, with 11% of the population of the above-mentioned towns, is carrying the same amount of total debt. Food for thought, if you still have an appetite.
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The Voice of Pelham, July 12, 2017
Page 7
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The Voice of Pelham, July 12, 2017
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A Day in the Life: Hitching a ride with Niagara's finest on a Satu BY JOHN SWART
VOICE Correspondent
T
HE RECEIVER SQUAWKS, AND A CALL FROM DISPATCH ends our conversation. The call identifies our cruiser, and Constable David Brown's easy chatter stops, his senses now completely focused on the message. In rapid succession Brown replies with a calm, eerily soft “10-4,” takes quick but thorough looks left, right, ahead, and in the rear view mirror, snaps on the flashing emergency lights, and smoothly forces the gas pedal toward the floor, pressing us heavily into our seats. It's 7:00 P.M. The streets of Fonthill are relatively quiet this Saturday night, and a full moon provides extra visibility. There is urgency but not frenzy in Brown's deliberate actions, although personal injury, even lives, may be at stake on this call. Brown pushes the powerful cruiser south on Pelham Street, preparing for a turn onto Highway 20 through a red light. The siren is toggled for extra safety—startled traffic instantly stops and pulls out of our path. The siren is extinguished and the cruiser bounds up the hill, Brown's hand ready at the switch, anticipating every intersection or daydreaming driver who fails to respond to the flashing lights. Dispatch continues. A John Doe, resident at a Pelham group home, age 16, is outside the home and has smashed a window with a shovel. He is extremely agitated, and staff have locked the doors in an attempt to keep him from re-entering. As we speed to the location, which Brown is familiar with, Dispatch continues to relay pertinent information, calmly, clearly, with no hyperbole— data, including Doe's police record, which will assist Brown in reacting to the incident. Brown surveys the situation as we roll into the driveway toward the rear of the home, concentrating intensely. A cement patio is strewn with fragments of destroyed electronic devices and shattered glass. Jagged edges of glass remain wedged into the frame of a steel door's obliterated window. The short stair leading to the deck is missing its top step. It lies upside down on the patio where it was pitched in rage after Doe ripped it out, four long, rusty nails protruding from it. The shovel lies on the ground randomly, temporarily out of the offender's reach. Doe is sitting on the patio, backpack on, furiously working a fidget spinner. Brown approaches, his voice sternly raised but steady. Doe stands, is patted down and searched, has his backpack removed and placed a safe distance from him, and Brown begins to question him. A young woman emerges tentatively from a second, intact door to the house, and is recognized by Brown as the caseworker in charge of the home. A second constable, Darren Barrow, arrives at the scene and assesses it before approaching, recognizing the genuine possibility that Doe might flee at any time. With back-up now in place, Brown escorts the offender into a cramped hallway, where Doe, the caseworker, both constables and myself all stand. Barrow continues with attempts to de-escalate the situation, while Brown and the caseworker leave to discuss what's happened. Doe is adamant he wants to return outside without accompaniment, a request that Barrow cannot accommodate. Both officers expend an infinite amount of patience with the young man, but it is clear he's not going to cooperate, is not yet calm enough to be left at the home. Brown repeatedly explains the options to Doe, including going to jail if he persists. At a stalemate, Brown arrests Doe for mischief, handcuffs him, and places him in the secure back seat of the cruiser. Judging the situation under control, Constable Barrow leaves. Five minutes pass with the Doe left alone in the cruiser, a strategy Brown has used before to calm offenders. This incident is not yet complete. Brown began his policing career in 1982 in London, England, with Metropol, where he served for eight years, mostly in uniform. His assignment was in a politically charged area during a time when urban centres in Britain were facing increased ethnic and racial tensions. Family in Canada inspired him to emigrate, and he joined the Regional Niagara Police Force, where he has served
for 27 years. Six years ago the Pelham assignment became open, which Brown accepted, and he now serves our community from the Welland detachment. Brown, who resides in Wainfleet, has no regrets leaving England, but admits to, "missing the guys from home occasionally." Regarding Pelham, he enjoys his detail here, yet is a Wainfleeter at heart. "Pelham is nice, and it's catching up with Wainfleet slowly," he says with a laugh. Brown is a big man, well over six feet tall, solid in his bullet-proof vest, with the ability to produce facial expressions that generate warmth or strength as required. He has received distinguished awards for his community work, including 2010 Divisional Officer of the Year in Port Colborne and again in 2016 for the Welland detachment. It's his person-to-person expertise that Brown must use on the majority of his Pelham calls, including the one we're on. Brown approaches Doe in the cruiser, and finds that he's cooled down. "The handcuffs make it real," states Brown later. Within minutes, the cuffs are off, the suspect is out of the cruiser, and Brown and he share smiles and conversation for another half hour. Doe and Brown walk to the back door of the home, where a conversation with the case worker is followed by Doe's re-admission to the residence. "He just wanted someone to listen to him," says Brown. "He doesn't know who his birth parents are, and his foster mother recently died. He didn't go to the funeral, didn't get a chance to say goodbye, and it just keeps turning over in his mind. He's frustrated and confused, and now he's destroyed his laptop." Then Brown moves to the positives. "Doe always goes to Tim Hortons to use their wifi, and last time he had a chat with the manager. She offered him a job. Now he has an incentive to work, to replace his laptop. He told me he loves being outdoors, to hear the birds sing, to get some quiet and comfort." Brown sees hope ahead. Brown explains that caseworkers generally don't want charges laid, that their main concern is de-escalation and the safety of everyone in the home. However, since he officially placed Doe under arrest, in part to snap him into reality, there will be a "caution" on his record, and a report, which will serve as a guide for future interactions. "Pelham is mostly social policing," Brown says. "Mental health issues are the most prevalent calls here. There isn't a lot of criminality in Pelham." He talks about presentations he does to school kids regarding the dangers of social media and sexting. "The kids don't get that it can be distribution of child pornography, a criminal offence," says Brown. We discuss drugs, which he considers to be mostly a mental health issue as they relate to Pelham, and the fact that Pelham contains three group homes. We roll into Centennial Park just after dark, and his comments about social policing are immediately borne out. Tucked into the most remote, darkened corner of the parking lot sits a newish SUV. We approach in the cruiser, and Brown calmly gets out and walks to the vehicle. The driver's window of the sport ute slides down, and Brown begins a conversation which is out of my earshot. After a few moments, he's back in the cruiser. "She's had a big argument with her husband, and had to leave the house to cool down, to be alone for a few moments," says Brown. "She's still crying." My mind is filled with thoughts of self-
Constable David Brown on the job.
harm, retribution, what might happen to the woman next. Brown continues, "When I asked if she was okay, if she was thinking of doing anything stupid, she told me she has a tenyear-old child at home. She'll be okay, she'll have to work things out." Brown has assessed the situation, applied his years of experience, training, and intuition, asked the right questions, and made a decision that this woman's evening will work out okay. We leave, but return shortly to check what has happened. The car is gone, and hopefully the woman is back at home as Brown anticipated. Each shift starts in the briefing room. Its walls are covered with crammed bulletin boards, sheets of information organized left to right: health and safety, memos, missing persons, drug case law, confidential informants, Hell's Angels/outlaw motorcycle gang info, drugs (subdivided into drug vehicles/drug locations/drug dealers), wanted persons/persons of interest, Mental Health Continuum - Road to Mental Readiness, and the Oath of Office. Here the officers learn of the previous shift's activities, anything they might expect on their upcoming shift, special objectives, and which bad guys are in the Region. It is very much a scene from Hill Street Blues, where Desk Sergeant Michael Conrad tried to keep order while addressing Sipowicz, Belker, Renco and the group. Briefing notebooks are at the ready, but the chatter stays light. Someone has started a new diet of sushi and Ensure. There's discussion of who's the fastest in foot chases, and Brown gets roasted over being propositioned by a ninety-year-old in her nightgown while investigating a late-night burglary. The jokes quiet when each officer confirms the identification numbers of the equipment he's chosen for the night—his cruiser, radio, taser, additional special firearms. The final words of the briefing, "Be safe," resonate deeply. These officers face potential injury, even death, every shift, and must cope with situations beyond imagination for most of us. During the night, Dispatch calls to all cruisers. A male has secured his apartment door, closed all ventilation, and turned on the gas stove without lighting it. He's called 911, and is threatening to light a match and blow himself and the apartment sky high. Would you or I be able to respond?
Do you de-escalate the situation, or smash your way into the unit, knowing there's an unstable individual inside with four unlit burners filling the air with explosive natural gas? The Welland officers assigned to the call responded by diffusing the situation without injury to anyone. There can be unexpected humour amid the chaos that is sometimes policing, as a 1:45 AM run to Wellandport proved. It's not uncommon for Brown to respond to calls west of his Pelham territory, as he may be the closest officer in the vicinity, although it is officially the Grimsby detachment's jurisdiction. Dispatch informs all units of a brawl at the Wellandport Community Centre, 30 persons involved, with one person down in the parking lot, ambulance en route. Brown pilots his cruiser west at high speed on a mostly abandoned Canboro Road, lights blazing and siren howling into the dark night. The red and blue strobes illuminate everything reflective within a huge arc as the cruiser flies, causing farm wagons, trailers, signs, tractor lenses, fence lines explode distractingly into vision then disappear. The road narrows at these speeds, shoulders become slim bands of gravel too narrow to offer room for evasive action. I pray none of the approaching cars is being driven by a drunk. Brown's hands are steady on the wheel, moving slightly right-to-left like a tennis player anticipating a serve. His shoulders are taut, eyes intent. Brown cautions me to stay in the cruiser as he approaches the crowd outside the Community Centre, but there is no active fighting visible, and guests are surreptitiously leaving the scene in ones and twos. Two Grimsby detachment cruisers arrive as Brown questions the group. Brown explains to the Grimsby officers what’s transpired so far, has a final conversation with the group milling around, and returns to the cruiser. "Some of those guys were my neighbours. They're 'fleeters. Seems a group from Dunnville were bored with their Mudcat Festival, rented a limo, and came to the Wellandport Stag and Doe to start trouble. The call to police was placed by the limo driver. The Dunnville crew took his keys so he couldn't leave until they were ready to go. They're gone, it's over now, and of course no one will talk. ‘Nothing happened here,." he says. "Just ‘fleeters and ‘catters."
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The Voice of Pelham, July 12, 2017
urday shift of policing in Pelham I think they liked being found by the police
JOHN SWART PHOTO
I notice one of the Grimsby cruisers parked among the guest's cars, and realize the officers’ job at this occurrence isn't finished. On the way back to Pelham, we hear that a taxi van has been ordered to get impaired attendees home safely. Brown excels at the social aspects of policing, a trait that shows itself throughout the shift. Before briefing, a fellow officer shared a photo on his phone of Brown walking four-year-old twins back to their Mom the day before. She'd called 911, saying that her kids were missing. The family lived just 100 metres from the recreational canal. Brown was first to arrive, and saw the pair next to a pickup, one of them trying to climb in. As he recounts the story, I imagine the kids trying to start the truck. Brown's experience took him to a darker place. "Abduction, kidnapping, or worse," was all he said, happy that he was able to return the kids to mom safely. Then the smile again, and he adds, "I think they liked being found by the police." There were two young lads at Centennial Park having a post-baseball beer, and two 20-somethings ready to roll a joint at Harold Black Park. In each case Brown appraised the situation, considered public safety and the law, and intuitively made decisions that reflected common sense and good policing. The social aspects of policing aren't easy, positive outcomes aren't always guaranteed, and Brown can become drawn-in emotionally with those whom he interacts. "Missing person, female, 16-years-old, hasn't come home tonight, and isn't responding to phone calls or texts," says the dispatcher. The 911 call was made by the girl's mother. A Pelham address is given, Brown responds to Dispatch that he'll investigate the call, acknowledging to me that he's been to this address before. Minutes later he rings the doorbell, is greeted in a friendly and enthusiastic manner by the mother, as she would a close neighbour or friend, and invited in. We learn that mother and daughter argued over new friends that are unacceptable to mom, and over an incident at school, and that daughter Jenny (not her real name) wasn't home when mom arrived this evening. Brown and mom discuss some of the history between mother and daughter, and common ground from previous visits is reviewed. Brown cautions that Jenny is now 16 and
legally does not have to respond or come home. Mom brightens to change the subject, tells Brown that Jenny now has a parttime job, and is expected to report for work the next morning, another reason Jenny should come home tonight. Although there appears to be understanding between Brown and the mother, Brown walks a fine line as he explains the law while being supportive. He suspects that Jenny has run away for the evening and is likely at a friend's, but cannot discount that something more sinister may have happened. Inside the cruiser, Brown works with Dispatch and learns that they have already contacted some of Jenny's friends, and located her at the home of the new friend in question. The friend's home is immaculate, and the new friend’s mom is standing on the porch, awaiting Brown's arrival. Brown identifies himself, and explains that he'd like to speak with Jenny. When she sees him, Jenny runs to Brown and gives him a big hug. She confirms the argument with her Mom, and says directly that she needed a break from the bickering, so she came here to her new friend's home, and was welcomed. Brown confirms this with the friend's mother, and questions Jenny. What happened at school, how's school going otherwise, I hear you've got a new job, do you want to stay here tonight? Jenny's answers are to the point and without guile. She notes with pride that she's going to graduate this year, and go on to college. Brown asks what she'll be studying, and she replies that she wants to go into law enforcement. Brown is momentarily dumbfounded, and hesitantly asks if he has anything to do with her decision. Her answer is affirmative, and Brown beams. We return to Jenny's mother's house. Brown informs her that Jenny is safe, and will not be returning home tonight. He also states that she has contacted her new employer and changed shifts so that her new job won't be in jeopardy. As mom rants, threatening to cut off Jennie's phone and employ other discipline, Brown does his best to suggest that she be conciliatory with Jenny, work things out, and try to keep the relationship such that Jenny will want to return home. It's clear that Brown wants the best for both mother and daughter, and will assert what influence he can to ensure a positive future for them. But he's a police officer, and understands the limits of the law. On this night mom won't be swayed, and Jenny doesn't have to come home; an impasse. Brown is disappointed and frustrated, but Pelham no longer has a missing teenager, and everyone is safe. He has accomplished all he can here tonight. As we cruise Pelham, anticipating the next call during this ride-along , my eyes have been opened to the incredible number of ways that Niagara Regional Police Officers, their inside teams, and their professional dispatchers interact with our community. Their Oath of Office, reading in part, "To the best of my ability, preserve the peace, prevent offence ... faithfully, impartially, and according to the law," doesn't begin to describe all the services that these men and women provide for us. The radio comes alive. "Welland hospital staff reports a naked, dripping wet man in their emergency room. Claims he was jumping in and out of the canal and lost his clothes," says the dispatcher, in her usual calm, emotionless voice. Brown laughs. "Part of the appeal of the job is just when you think you've seen it all, you're wrong.”
Page 9
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The Voice of Pelham, July 12, 2017
BUGS continued from Page 1 the “timber cruiser” enters the picture. Working in pairs, timber cruisers hike deep into the forest to count and measure individual trees by species then use the accumulated statistical data to extrapolate volumes and values over large areas. They also observe and note features of geography, terrain, and wildlife ecosys-
tems. They are first on the scene, conceivably the only human beings ever to have set foot on any given patch of ground. They are the front line of forest exploitation and associated environmental mitigation. Next will come the road builders and the loggers, followed by the silviculturalists, who re-establish the forest with new growth. But it all begins with the timber cruiser.
Which brings me to my story. If I was to tally up all the days I spent cruising timber during my early career as a professional forester it would add up to nearly a year. Early on I was part of a standard two-man crew and latterly, as scars healed over into callouses, I was made Party Chief with six to eight crew under my direction—on reflection some of the best, and least pleasant, days of my working life. Timber cruising is the domain of the young and the fit. The winter cruises were toughest. Snowmobiling weeks on end through the thick bush often left you bruised and exhausted, particularly after hours of extricating machines bogged down in deep snow and lake slush. Stands too far from the road to reach by snowmobile were accessed by helicopter. The pilot would drop us off in a small frozen lake, pond or meadow and then pick us up hours later at another, four to eight miles further along depending on terrain difficulty. The cruise lines vary from wide open mature forest, to alder or cedar thickets and blow down. The snow’s three or four feet deep. You’re on shoeshoes the entire day and working hard. It’s 25 or 30 below zero but you dare not dress too warmly. If you do you’ll be a sopping wet bag of sweat at the end of the cruise line and a shivering mess by the time you’re picked up. And if the weather closes in and the helicopter can’t pick you
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up you will at best survive a long, cold miserable night searching out dry wood to keep a fire going. There was a certain satisfaction to the job, a rush of adventure from winter endurance certainly, but oftentimes not a whole lot of fun. But, good lord, at least there weren’t any bugs. Not to put too delicate a point on it, the Boreal in late spring and summer is a buzzing, swarming, feeding and breeding ground for innumerable frenzied flying hoards of voracious, miserable, blood sucking, man-eating little monsters. You have your sandflies, your dear flies, horseflies, stable flies and horn flies, your snipe flies, midges and mosquitos and, the worst of the hateful lot, your blackflies. Blackflies are mere wriggling pinheads to the naked eye—sub-Lilliputian evil demons, living nightmares in miniature. Tiny airborne piranha in their myriad millions. At their peak in early June my partner and I once witnessed a moose crash through the forest edge, bellowing, head whipping side to side, hide hitching and convulsing, driven nearly mad by the humming, biting, merciless black cloud enveloping him, desperately seeking any puddle of water and muck in which to roll his tortured hulk. Bugs. The bane of the Boreal. And of the Boreal timber cruiser. You’ll get out of your truck, step off the gravel road into
Blackflies are mere wiggling pinheads to the naked eye—sub-Lilliputian evil demons, living nightmares in miniature
the forest edge and in the process whip up a swarm of blackflies. Over the next twenty feet or so you’ll scare up another swarm, then another and another, until the air is thick and alive with hungry, teeming millions. They’ll fly into your eyes, your ears and nostrils. They’ll chew through your skin anywhere it’s exposed or just under a seam of clothing. Their favourite dining spots are behind your ears, the edge of your scalp and your neck, your eyelids and just under the cuffs and beltline of your shirt and trousers, the anticoagulants in their saliva leaving your clothes stained red and your skin with a screaming, insatiable, polka-dot itch. And lord help you if nature should call. There were two lines of defence against blackflies, only one of which actually worked, though the other satisfied a certain burning need for revenge—coating one’s hardhat in chainsaw oil and converting it into a messy form of flypaper. At the end of the day you’d have
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just as many oozing, itching, swollen holes in your hide but you felt a bit better for having successfully murdered a few hundred thousand of the bloody little devils. You’d also have a hardhat that vaguely resembled a chia-pet, except covered in a writhing, sloppy mass of black fuzz. It was the badge of the Boreal novice. Inevitably, after a few days, resignation would set in. It was hopeless. For every blackfly you killed there were a thousand more you didn’t. All you had to show for it were the dry, unimpressed looks of the old timers back in camp and a hideous greasy hardhat with an added odoriferous mélange of chain oil and rotting bugs. The other line of defence, the one that actually helped somewhat, was DEET. We used Repex, the very same stuff issued to U.S. infantry in Vietnam. Repex was 100% pure DEET. It burned like hell when you put it on your skin but it came down to prioritising your preferred mode of suffering. One particular forestry student I’d hired for the summer decided on day two or three of the June hatch to coat his entire hardhat in Repex, reasoning it would do double duty both repelling and killing the little SOBs, but after a couple of days his hardhat started to melt and tens of thousands of bugs were now permanently glued to it. I issued him a new one and instructed him to quit wasting the repellent. I might have just as well demanded the blackflies stop chowing down on him. This particular student in
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BUGS continued from previous page that particular summer — let’s call him Alec — had just completed his sophomore year at the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Toronto. This was his first time away from the big city, his first venture into the north country and his introduction to the Boreal’s vampire blackflies. Within a week on the job he was terrified of them. He practically bathed in Repex, lending an irritated pink hue to his skin. In the sweltering heat and humidity of the spruce bogs, not the slightest lick of wind, he’d wear gloves and a hoodie drawn so tightly only his nose and eyes were visible. Two weeks into the job one of the other forestry students informed me the large box of Repex, the entire summer’s supply, was empty, but he knew where to find the bottles – squirreled away in Alec’s packsack. Only he, Alec proclaimed in his own defense, was being tortured so badly. And he was pretty much right. If you ask any old timer who’s spent his life working in the Boreal what’s most effective against blackflies he’ll look you straight in the eye and say “attitude”. He’ll scoff at the dumb city kids and their fuzzy hardhats and on the very rare occasion he puts on DEET he’ll wipe just a smidgen behind his ears, much like a burly, slightly smelly, plaid-shirt-
The Voice of Pelham, July 12, 2017
ed debutant dabbing on a bit of Channel No. 5. Just ignore ‘em, he’ll advise, and they’ll pretty much leave you alone. Have you ever been told that dogs can smell your fear? Well, it’s true. And so can blackflies. Stress triggers the release of pheromones in sweat, and the more stressed you are — and the more you are covered head to toe in the continental heat of a Boreal summer — the more you sweat. To blackflies, Alec was like a walking, talking six-foot flashing neon sign that screamed “EAT HERE!” and for that reason in particular everybody in the crew wanted to be his partner. You could go an entire day cruising with Alec and not get a single bite because the gazillion blackflies you scared up in your travels were too busy chowing down on him to notice you at all. Now, I realise that sounds a bit heartless. Machiavellian, even, but in the bush you’re responsible primarily for yourself. There’s the similar story of a pair of timber cruisers who discover they’re being shadowed by a large bear. One sits down to remove his bush boots and retrieve a pair of Nike Trainers from his backpack while the other cries despairingly “It’s no use! You can’t outrun a bear!” To which the other replies “No, but it’s not the bear I have to outrun.” Alec, the poor sod, didn’t make it to summer’s end.
...in the bush you're responsible primarily for yourself
When the heat of July killed off the blackflies there came the squadrons of deer flies. Thousands upon thousands of them. They seemed to regard DEET like some kind of gourmet sauce. They’d circle maddingly around your head while their brethren drilled down through your shirt in the middle of your back, taking a chunk of flesh out of you while you pulled your arm out of its socket trying to swat them away. But they were lightning fast and all but indestructible. The odd time you’d manage to connect they’d drop to the ground, buzz a bit and then get back up to go at you again. The kicker came in early August when the Ministry of Natural Resources released hundreds of millions of imported flesh-flies to combat a massive forest tent caterpillar infestation. Flesh-flies look like houseflies, only much larger. They lay their eggs on caterpillar See BUGS back page
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Page 11
Page 12
The Voice of Pelham, July 12, 2017
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
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Waiter, please ask my husband to stop staring at me like that. And a dry martini, thank you.
Places of Worship and Events Bethany Christian Reformed Church 1040 Balfour St., Fenwick
First Presbyterian Church 602 Metler Rd., Fenwick
Glad Tidings Church of God 1 Pancake Lane, Fonthill
Pelham Evangelical Friends Church 940 Haist St., Fonthill
Concordia Lutheran Church 105 Welland Rd., Fonthill
Fonthill Baptist Church 1414 Pelham St., Fonthill
Holy Trinity Anglican Church 1557 Pelham Street, Fonthill
Ridgeville Bible Chapel 418 Canboro Rd., Ridgeville
Fenwick Church of Christ 765 Welland Rd., Fenwick
Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses 1369 Rice Rd., Fonthill
Kirk on the Hill Presbyterian Church 1344 Haist St., Fonthill
St. Alexander’s Roman Catholic Church 50 Pelham Town Sq., Fonthill
Fenwick United Church 1050 Church St., Fenwick
Fonthill United Church 42 Church Hill, Fonthill
Pelham Community Church 461 Canboro Rd., Fenwick
St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church 834 Canboro Rd., Fenwick
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
The Voice of Pelham, July 12, 2017
Page 13
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NEW ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES Week of
CALL... Public Investing in the community—Pelham Library Endowment NEW, EXCITING WEBSITE.
adline this years exciting event. It grounds. BY KIRK WEAVER
CEO Pelham Library
little over petitive rideA taking placeone on year Sept.ago the Library Board established an enara and support Walker dowmentthe fund. Our Famgoal in set-
ting up this fund was to create an opportunity for the community to contribute to the long- term financial sustainability of the Library, limiting our overall impact m Tuesdays at the Pelham Arena on the property taxpayer. We 9-10:30 did this through the NiagaBandshell for am. There ra Community Foundation which ormation,means pleasea contact jcook@ further benefit to the community by strengthening their ability to support community initiatives. This was a new component to our overall fundraising approach. Traditionally, we seek Market or bring a non-perishable donations from the community m Farmers 4. operating to Market support on ourSept. general needs. This is still a very important aspect of our business. In addition,
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we wanted to create a way to build a consistent and ongoing non-tax revenue stream. When a member of the community makes a contribution to the Pelham Public Library Endowment Fund they are added to the larger pool of funds within the Niagara Community Foundation. In 2016 the Niagara Community Foundation managed a pool of Niagara-based endowment funds that now total over $30 million. These funds are professionally managed and invested on behalf of the various endowments funds including the Pelham Library. This approach allows for a larger return on investment than we could achieve on our own. In addition, the Niagara Community Foundation is able to provide grants to a variety of community agencies for projects designed to improve the quality of life across
Posted July 6
it manages. Follow us onthat Twitter, The amount is determined, in part, by the size of each local fund. Central Like on Facebook. As the Pelham Public Library EnTraditionally, weusseek
Region Ads included
donations from the ad is to be community to This support our general operating needs
Niagara. In 2016 the Niagara Community Foundation awarded $1.3 million in grants, enabling many in Niagara, young and old, to have opportunities they may not have had without this support. The Niagara Community Foundation also pays out an annual amount to each endowment fund
dowment Fund is in its infancy the annual amount is still relatively small. printed by all participating We encourage members Ontario of the community with a desire to support their local library, while also making a contribution to improving the broader community, to consider donating to the Pelham Public Library Endowment Fund. You can do this either through our website (www.pelhamlibrary. on.ca ) or through the Niagara Community Foundation by directing your gift to the Pelham Public Library Endowment Fund (www. niagaracommunityfoundation.org ). You can also contact us directly for more information at 905-8926443. 
KOBRYN, Linda Evelyn
Passed away on July 1, 2017 at the St. Catherines General Hospital at the age of 77 years. She has gone to join her husband of 56 years the late Donald Kobryn (2015). She is survived by her sisters Mary (Joe) and Julia.Mom will be missed by her children: Tracy (Dave), Scott (Hilary), Dave and Racheal. Cherished Grandma to Chelsea (George), Jon (Holly), Evan (Melisa) and Anna. She will be fondly remembered by her nieces and nephews. Linda was a homemaker, writer, avid bowler and gardening maven. In keeping with her wishes cremation has taken place. Funeral arrangements entrusted papers to PLEASANTVIEW FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY (2250 Hwy #20, Fonthill) 905-892-1699. A Graveside Service to honour her life will be held on Sat July 22, 2017 at 2:00pm. Memorial donations to Community Living in Welland will be appreciated by her family. You are invited to share your memories, photos and condolences on-line at www. pleasantviewcemetery. ca <http://www.pleasantviewcemetery.ca>
Page 14
MINUTES continued from Page 3 Loans to Pelham specifically, or in general. Oh, in general, for all local municipalities. What if other mayors took the same approach to spending as [Mayor Augustyn], the Region would be in trouble, right? And I don't know if you got some of the stats because there's a lot of spin and misinformation. The debt of Pelham by the end of this year will be greater than Port Colborne, Wainfleet, Lincoln, West Lincoln, Grimsby, Niagara-on-the-Lake, combined. Total debt or debt to the Region? Total debt. And more to come. I don't see it slowing down. So I'm saying, with budget experience, slow down or show us a plan that you're not going to go over 25% ARL, which then puts the Region at risk. Annual repayment limit, ARL. Okay. So Pelham can use up to 25% of their operating budget to service the debt. And they're going to be at 18 to 20%. And if you look at their capital plan, they're planning on more borrowing coming up. That, and we don't have a true understanding of what their debt limit is when you factor in what else they owe. What other encumbrances they have that were not identified. So just finding out what the true level of debt is has proven to be a difficult task. One example of that would be the buyback of the development charge credits, where that's not as— as some people have said, that's not properly accounted for as a liability? Right. They owe money, so it should be accounted for in that way. Is this the “unfunded liability”? Yes. Can you explain that, be-
The Voice of Pelham, July 12, 2017 cause I'm kind of hazy on what that means. Well, it's unfunded but they say they have a plan to fund it with future growth. They’re saying, “We'll fund this with other growth and other development charges coming in.” But what you heard in Hummel’s presentation, the type of growth they're using in that formula is beyond realistic. It's beyond the provincial policy for growth, as well. As he said, "You'd have to build the city of Welland in Pelham to get to $12 million dollars in development charges.” So it's unrealistic. I think there's just a lot of people who want just the straight goods. Show everybody where you're at, at least on the debt side. The other stuff, that's fine, that's Town business, but the debt is what impacts the Region. That's what I'm interested in. And I know on the development charges, there's a lot of people out there, developers and home-builders, in particular, that are saying, "Hey, I didn't know you could do that. If you could do that, we want to know because we'll do it." And the answer is, you can't do that. Anything else related to this or on the periphery that might be relevant? I don't know. If you're going to pick up the phone and make some calls or something, or not, I would be interested to know who kind of takes ownership of the documents, of the minutes. If you called up any mayor— or, like I said, if you file an FOI request for these mayor minutes, I think they would all say, "What are you talking about? No, those aren't ours.” So just having a level of accountability here. Especially when you see some people are using it as a forum for lobbying on Regional business in this way. They're trying to to circumvent the process. Any mayor in particular? Is anyone on this list likely
to lose his cool if we were to inquire? I think the mayor of […] would not be happy with it. I know he got really upset when he thought that the minutes were circulated to Regional council. So he absolutely demonstrated he did not want these minutes to be circulated amongst Regional councilors. [The Voice was unable to independently confirm this assertion so we’ve redacted the name of the municipality. It is not Pelham.] When did that happen? I think it was— it might have been these ones. The way the emails were circulated, he thought, "Oh my gosh. You sent this to Regional Council?" I know that there are some CAOs who have said, "This could be an illegal meeting, right?" I know that there are some mayors who are uncomfortable with it. Who would be among them, do you think? Well, I don't want to mention those names. That may not be helpful for you, but— Presumably, the mayor and CAO of Pelham would be on-board with this. What would be more interesting are comments from people who say, "I knew the jig was going to be up sooner or later. You're right. This is not a good idea. Maybe I should own it now before the crap really hits the fan." So I'm not sure it really puts anybody in a bad position. Or in a particularly compromised position that they're not already going to be in anyway next Tuesday when this hits the street. No. That's a fair approach. You may get some people digging their heels in. Like I said, I think an explanation from some of them— again, staff, they have area planners’ meetings. They have CAO meetings. They have economic development meetings. So just among staff, that's all fine. But this is something else completely, because you have all the mayors there
as Regional councilors, too. If you try to explain it as, "Oh, it's information sharing and best practices and better communication. And talking about shared services amongst local municipalities." All that's fine. But that's not what this is. You can demonstrate that they're talking about Regional business. Moving Regional agenda items forward, off-loading airports to the Region, talking about inter-municipal transit where the Region is a major player and partner, talking about specific Regional motions, talking about specific Regional councilors who are not part of this group. That's beyond simple information sharing. If it was for Parks and Rec or Fire Services, those are clearly within the realms of local municipalities. But this stuff is clearly within the realm of the Niagara Region. Yep. Interesting. Fascinating. So are we good? Yep. Thank you. Okay.
The Voice reached out to all 30 Regional Councillors, Chair Alan Caslin, and Pelham CAO Darren Ottaway for comment. Of the 12 Mayor Councillors, three responded. Seven non-Mayor Councillors responded, as did Caslin through a spokesman. The CAO declined to confirm or deny the accuracy of the comments attributed to him. In some cases the following remarks have been condensed for clarity and brevity. Dave Augustyn Mayor of Pelham The CAOs, the Treasurers, the Planners, the Public Works officials and other Staff of the local area municipalities and the Region meet periodically to share ideas, best practices, and discuss opportunities for working together better. I recall three times in the last six years where the Mayors and CAOs met. Once at City Hall in
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca St. Catharines and hosted by former Mayor McMullan; once in Niagara on the Lake at White Oaks about seven months ago; and recently at the Town Hall in Fort Erie. As the notes of the last meeting show, the discussions are about ways in which we can work more collaboratively together. [Since] my elected colleagues had already heard me at the Region address Pelham Council’s jurisdictional concerns of Regional Council getting involved in the affairs of Niagara’s cities and towns, Mr. Ottaway took the opportunity of addressing this jurisdictional concern from an administration perspective to other CAOs. Sandra Easton Mayor, Town of Lincoln I attended two meetings since 2015 with Mayors and CAOs to discuss a number of LAM matters all of which have been publicly discussed in the Town of Lincoln at Committee and or Council and reported in the media. Administrative matters were the core of these discussions. There were no deliberate or tacit decisions made beyond information sharing. Bob Bentley Mayor of Grimsby I have only attended one meeting which was about a year ago. I believe the intention of the meetings was to find common issues between municipalities and look for opportunities to share services or resources. I have not been part of any discussions promoting regional council business, nor have I attended any meetings after the first one. Brian Baty Councillor, Pelham I was aware of the CAO meetings in the past but not as currently constituted. In earlier terms, I do not recall mayors being part of it. A couple of terms back I believe the mayors themselves held meetings and concerns were expressed by the directly-elected Regional councillors. I do not receive notices, agendas or minutes of these proceedings. However, I do see the value of sharing sessions to strive for “best practices” If the meeting pattern is as suggested then they may breach protocol under the Municipal Act.
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Tony Quirk Councillor, Grimsby It is entirely inappropriate for a local area municipal staff member to be lobbying Regional elected officials about an issue pending in front of Regional Council. I would hope that, in the future, the Mayors and CAOs limit their discussions to areas of mutual concern or open the meetings to the public to make sure nothing untoward or inappropriate is happening. Sandy Annunziata Councillor, Fort Erie I was aware of informal meetings, but not to the extent of participation illustrated. I do not receive invitations, I am not privy to the decisions made in these meetings, nor do I receive minutes, or executive summaries. As such, as a Regional Councillor, I can't comment on the extent in which Regional business is discussed or conducted. But by virtue of the agenda passed on and the request from Pelham to add what I can only categorize as a Regional item, it does raise issues of propriety in my mind. I must say, I have a host of questions myself as to why the Town of Pelham felt the need to bring forward this item to be discussed in that forum? It is both odd and alarming. Was this a covert attempt by Pelham to influence a large majority of Regional Councillors? Was this a preemptive attempt to discuss and debate a Regional issue undercover from the public? I certainly hope not. If this is something the Ombudsman will be investigating, I'll reserve judgment until Mr Dube has concluded his investigation. David Barrick Councillor, Port Colborne It's one thing for mayors to meet to discuss local issues like fire services, parks and recreation, etc. But it appears some of them, Pelham in particular, are placing Regional items on that agenda to be discussed as Regional councillors to advance their own agendas on Regional business. The twelve mayors, as Regional councillors, are almost half of Regional Council and may be more than half of some Regional committees. I am deeply concerned See MINUTES next page
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The Voice of Pelham, July 12, 2017
This week in baseball BY MELISSA WELLS
Special to the VOICE
The Flames left the Sharks in the smoke at the Thursday night game this past week. Sophi Priestley was dominant in the batter’s box with two solid hits which left the Sharks scrambling to grab the ball to make the play. Trent Boyd was a solid wall at short stop with his golden glove and power throw to first. George Furness had his game face on ready to show off his skills trapping every ball that came his way. The cheers were loud, the spirits were high and the coaches were proud. The Tim Hortons Hawks are off to a fantastic start this year with everyone enjoying themselves. So far the focus has been placed on the fundamentals. Before the game, the team is split in half by age or by skill level to make sure each team member is getting the attention that they need in their development. Along with an emphasis to being an encouraging teammate the kids have shown some excellent improvement with their skills. The Pelham Peewee Orioles sponsored by Willowbrook Nurseries has had a fabulous ball season thus far. With a great bunch of ball players returning from previous years, along with some new faces, each player is making improvements each week. The Orioles have played a total of 10 games, winning 8 games, one tie and one loss, cross-
MINUTES continued from previous page with those implications, not to mention what the Ombudsman would have to say about it. Bob Gale, Councillor Niagara Falls I heard from a source that the plan for the municipalities' disposal of the two airports and a strategy to pass it through the Region was discussed in early December at a meeting, and I was told it was on their agenda. This was to challenge a motion I made to get environmental studies done on the properties before any sale, since it appeared that most of the mayors had no sound economic case for the Region to take control of these financial losers. That disturbed me, but you would hardly ever win a vote at the Region against the mayors. It baffled me that one of the mayors, representing a community far from these airports, voted to take on this debt, but now I see that deals outside of Regional Council were probably made. In the case of Pelhams finances and Councillor Barrick's motion, if this was discussed at all by the Mayors and CAOs it is wrong as they are circumventing healthy and legal debate, and it would appear that a common decision is being orchestrated. After quizzing Mr Hummel at Council last week and seeing the attempts by [Mayor Augustyn] to stop him from speaking, which went beyond reasonable, there are a lot of questions to be answered about costs per acre paid by Pelham, timing of land transactions, etc. This may or may not be a major financial problem for some of our Niagara residents and we owe it to them to challenge it—just like I would
ing home plate 132 times. With a strong group of pitchers, all bringing amazing pitching strengths to the mound, including Andrew Behring, Ethan Krick, Kaleb Dobrucki-Connelly, Tom Harrington, Trevor Heaslip, and Will Horton. Strong back catchers for the team include Finn Mitchell-Moore, Trevor Heaslip, Ethan Killins, and Ethan Krick. Fielders Gavin Morin, Hunter Ramsey, Laura Phillips and Troy Lococo have shown much improvement in different areas of the diamond. The Orioles are a great group of kids who want to play ball and have fun while doing so. The Miller Restoration Mosquito Rep team had an intense week facing off against against the Welland Majors and Niagara Falls Minors teams. Connor Jolicoeur pitched a strong five innings with Mitchell Morden closing out the game in Welland. Andy Nawrocki
and Max Veld both pounded out base hits in support of their pitcher. Chase Munn had a three up, thee down second inning while fielding one himself from the mound. Julian Rubino shut down the inning with two line drive catches against the tough Falls team. The Pelham Medical Associates Peewee Rep team went back-to-back with tournament wins this Monday, triumphing over the Niagara Falls majors. Pitcher Ethan Wells held the opposition down, missing the complete game by one batter. Cole Townson hit a two run RBI in the breakout inning that saw Pelham take the lead for good. Lucas Grant, Will Baltrusiunas and Nate Girling each took critical walks. Jake Passmore ran out an expert pickle to come around to score. Above, Pelham Medical Associates Peewee Rep Team. Beth Grant photo.
support constructive criticism of Regional projects by municipal politicians.
an email sent by Caslin to the mayors on Regional Council following our inquiry:
Selina Volpatti, Councillor Niagara Falls I fully understand the need for mayors and councillors to talk t o each other outside of Council and committee meetings to maintain and develop relationships that foster cooperation. I also think there is value in the mayors meeting if it's to discuss the potential of shared services or to increase cost efficiency among shared interests. Hearing that Mayor Augustyn has used this venue to advance certain agendas, thereby withholding information from the rest of Regional Council and the public at large, is troubling, particularly in light of some of the claims made by Mr. Rainer Hummel at the June 29 Council meeting. How many other mayors' meetings have been held in which Councillor Augustyn advanced these same issues? If there were any, such discussions and/or documentation should be released to the public as soon as is possible.
Good afternoon Mayors: For some time I have been aware of meetings of Mayors and CAOs taking place on a quarterly basis. I was under the impression that these meetings were to discuss shared priorities and opportunities for shared services between Niagara communities. I did not believe the meetings to include the furtherance of Niagara Regional Council business. As noted in past Ontario court decisions relating to informal gatherings of councillors, meetings are deemed to have taken place if “matters which would ordinarily form the basis of Council’s business are dealt with in such a way as to move them materially along the way in the overall spectrum of a Council decision.” Upon receiving a media request regarding the contents of these meetings, I have reviewed the minutes of the most recent June 16, 2017 meeting and am surprised that the agenda items are nearly all topics pertaining to the past or future business of Niagara Regional Council. It is clearly noted in the minutes of the last two meetings that decisions are being made, or at very least consensus gathered, in order to coordinate and organize how such Niagara Region business ought to be handled at Regional Council and/or Niagara Region Committees. I’m not sure these meetings of so many elected officials pass the smell test for openness and transparency, and I encourage that all such future discussion, debate and furtherance of Niagara Region Council business take place on the floor of Niagara Regional Council meetings.
Tim Rigby, Councillor St. Catharines I feel that the reply provided by the Regional Chair Alan Caslin is appropriate and reflects my take on the situation that occurred. Alan Caslin, Chair Jason Tamming, Director of Communications for the Chair, replied that Caslin was aware of meetings taking place, "but not of the contents of the agenda and how much pertained to past or future business of Niagara Region Council." Tamming copied the Voice on
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The Voice of Pelham, July 12, 2017
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
The Voice of Pelham
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PRIVATE continued from Page 1 “No one has taken action yet because they don't want to upset 12 mayors, right? Because everyone in the Regional Council chambers is friends with at least one mayor. And so if they bring it up, they think they're going to throw whoever their buddy is under the bus. I think before— and they would argue— if they were here, they would argue it's ‘information sharing,’ ‘best practices,’ ‘shared services,’ which is fine if it’s talking about local municipal issues. But when you have detailed agendas and detailed minutes talking about Regional issues— in this other one they talk about the airports and inter-municipal transit and Region-heavy agenda topics. Your Regional councilors know you shouldn't be talking about those behind closed doors. By the time the mayors come to the Region, they're kind of trying to be a united front on certain issues that they already talked about. It's not right in a democratic society.” Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn sees nothing wrong with the private gatherings. “People expect Niagara’s Cities, Towns, and Townships to share best practices, the find efficiencies, and to work together. These types of meetings should continue to help all to meet those goals,” he said. Some of Augustyn’s fellow Niagara councillors, however—particularly those who are not also mayors—are not on the same page. “I have reviewed the minutes of the most recent June 16, 2017 meeting and am surprised that the agenda items are nearly all topics pertaining to the past or future business of Niagara Regional Council,” says Regional Council Chair Alan Caslin.
“It is clearly noted in the minutes of the last two meetings that decisions are being made, or at very least consensus gathered, in order to coordinate and organize how such Niagara Region business ought to be handled at Regional Council and/or Niagara Region Committees. I’m not sure these meetings of so many elected officials pass the smell test for openness and transparency, and I encourage that all such future discussion, debate and furtherance of Niagara Region Council business take place on the floor of Niagara Regional Council meetings.” Fort Erie Councillor Sandy Annunziatta was similarly concerned. “I do not receive invitations, I am not privy to the decisions made in these meetings, nor do I receive minutes, or executive summaries,” said Annunziata. “But by virtue of the agenda passed on and the request from Pelham to add what I can only categorize as a Regional item, it does raise issues of propriety in my mind. I must say, I have a host of questions myself as to why the Town of Pelham felt the need to bring forward this item to be discussed in that forum? It is both odd and alarming. Was this a covert attempt by Pelham to influence a large majority of Regional councillors? Was this a preemptive attempt to discuss and debate a Regional issue undercover from the public? I certainly hope not.” Port Colborne Regional Councillor David Barrick, who originally tabled the motion in March that led to the Audit Committee’s investigation, said that while he had heard that the meetings took place, he was not aware that Regional political issues were discussed. “I am particularly concerned with what [the Voice] provided,” said Barrick, “It looks as though my motion
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I'm not sure these meetings of so many elected officials pass the smell test for openness and transparency
at the Region on Pelham's finances/ taxpayer affordability was added to their agenda by Pelham to be discussed. That's clearly a Regional motion being discussed/debated at this meeting prior to being considered by Regional Council.” The source who came forward speculates that Pelham’s motivation for the closed-door discussion was to rally support for a parliamentary manuever that would have either killed, or watered down, the Audit Committee’s work. Such an attempt was likely planned, he thinks, for the Regional Council meeting held two weeks later, on June 29. However, any such prospective move was derailed when developer Rainer Hummel, speaking to Council during the June 29 meeting after Mayor Augustyn objected to him doing so, introduced fresh concerns and allegations surrounding the East Fonthill development. CAO Darren Ottaway declined requests to comment directly on his remarks at the June 16 meeting, deferring to the Mayor. For an extended interview with the source who came forward, as well a more reaction from Regional councillors, see The Conversation, page 3.
cocoons and their voracious larva do the rest. They don’t bite. They do, however, land on and taste everything, including humans. When you stopped for lunch they’d be all over you, crawling into and tasting every exposed orifice. Take out a sandwich and in a heartbeat there’d be dozens crawling all over it— and when you’re burning so many calories not eating isn’t an option. You’d brush them off best you could but there was nothing you could do to prevent chomping down on a few, fishing the carcasses out of your mouth with a finger and flicking them away. Pitooie. It’s just the way it was. I was accompanying Alec and his partner on a cruise line deep into mature, dense forest, maybe six or seven miles from the road, when he finally snapped. The blackflies of June, the deer flies of July and now the flesh-flies of August had worn him down bit by inexorable bit. He’d become sullen, humourless and edgy. We’d been zigzagging through the bush for several hours using our compasses and counting our paces to stay on track but when we came to the end of the line we were not at the small clearing we’d targeted in the aerial photos but still surrounded by dense forest.
...when you're burning so many calories not eating is not an option
“We’re lost!” exclaimed Alec. “WE’RE LOST!” and in his wide-eyed panic dropped his gear and appeared about to high-tail it back in the direction from whence we came. Alec’s partner managed to calm him down while I stereoscoped the photos and established our position about twenty yards to the south of the clearing, where the three of us paused to eat our lunch, along with a flesh-fly garnish or two. Three hours later we were safely back at the truck but it was the end of Alec’s Boreal career. The bugs had won. Back in camp he asked to be taken to town with his belongings. Last I saw Alec he was at the Air Canada counter at the airport in Thunder Bay with a return ticket to the big city in hand and, for the first time in what seemed like weeks, a smile on his face. I understand he changed his major to pharmacy. ♦