He's smart, he's 20, he wants your vote page 3 History reconstructed page 9 Gymnast stays balanced page 20 EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS
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Province declines to audit Pelham
Column Six
Stroke of luck
Decision made not on merit but on jurisdiction BY VOICE STAFF Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Bill Mauro sent a letter to the Town of Pelham late last month, advising that the province would not conduct a municipal audit of Pelham’s finances. An audit request was submitted under a little-known clause of the Municipal Affairs Act, which permits a provincial investigation of a municipality if at least 50 residents call for one. A petition in Pelham asking for a provincial audit gathered some 200 signatures, and was supported by a vote at Regional Council. The residents’ petition and some 400 pages of evidence were submitted to the Ministry in February. The letter from Mauro, included on Town Council’s agenda last week, made it clear that the reason for not auditing the Town was based on jurisdiction, not whether there were grounds for such an investigation. “The provincial government recognizes municipalities as responsible and accountable governments, with the authority to make decisions on matters within their own jurisdictions, including management of their finances,” wrote Mauro. “As such, the Ministry will not be proceeding with a provincial municipal audit.” Mauro encouraged both the Town and the Region to work together to “address these issues locally.” Mauro’s letter made reference to a letter sent to him by Mayor Dave Augustyn, with Mauro thinking Augustyn for “bringing your concerns to my attention.” Augustyn’s letter was not included on the Council agenda and Town Public Relations and Marketing Specialist Marc MacDonald did not respond when the Voice asked for a copy. The Mayor and Councillors alike hailed the minister’s letter as a victory for the Town. “I see this as closing a chapter of a story that really was never there,” said Augustyn. See AUDIT Page 17
Surviving a cardiovascular episode BY DON RICKERS
I
Proposal a third of previous estimate BY SAMUEL PICCOLO
The VOICE
construction of deep footings to support replacement pipes. Spriet said that his proposal, which would see the two current culverts replaced with three smaller ones, would cost somewhere around $350,000. “We think there is a solution,” said Spriet. “It’s called digging
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a hole, uncovering the old pipes [and putting new ones in].” Steve Burt, a subcontractor who presented with Spriet, said, “I’ve never heard of a deep foundation supporting a pipe. To put a pipe in the ground you just need a granular base there, and make sure you’ve got granular backfill around it properly compacted.” Both Spriet and Burt said that the current culvert failed because it rusted, not because it sunk into the ground.
T WAS A BRIGHT January afternoon, a Saturday, over a year ago. I was standing at the kitchen sink, drying dishes and cutlery from lunch. My mind wandered to the hockey game from the previous day, and the impending skate on Monday. Twice-a-week old-timers recreational hockey was an enjoyable part of my retirement regimen. At 60 years of age, I was in pretty decent shape (despite carrying a few extra pounds) thanks to rowing workouts and regattas April through October, skiing in the winter, regular bouts of weight training, and copious hours of outdoor chores around the house. I felt, to quote notorious Watergate burglar and political commentator G. Gordon Liddy, “Virile, vigorous, and potent…just ask Mrs. Liddy.” As I critiqued my on-ice performance, convinced that one of those $300 carbon-composite hock-
ANCHOR AWEIGH Crossley runner Sofia Labricciosa runs the anchor leg of the 4X100-metre relay at the Bulldog-Cougar Classic held at the Niagara Olympic Club. Story, page 10. BERNIE PUCHALSKI PHOTO
Over a year after the road was first closed, Town Council heard a new proposal to fix Poth Street last Monday night from an engineering firm, one that offered a significantly cheaper solution than previously offered by Town staff and a different consultant. John Spriet, from the London-based Spriet Associates Ltd., said that he “Just couldn’t imagine” why a previous consultant had recommended a solution that would have cost some $1.2 million dollars. The previous proposal presented to Council involved the
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Page 2
The Voice of Pelham, May 16 2018
IN THE NEWS
PUBLISHER’S CORNER by Dave Burket
The
Voice
Trucks gone missing
Staying afloat: That has to be one of the more creative Voice on Vacation shots in quite awhile at the bottom of this page. We just hope it isn't also a subtle message about swimmin' wid da fishes... Thieves left and right: Three trucks and some license plates stolen within just a few days earlier this month in or near Pelham—as attested to by the news briefs at right. There's also been a rash of opportunistic residential thefts, including from a neighbour's yard, where landscapers left an expensive trimmer unattended momentarily and returned to find it gone. A few days later the same property saw some spray-painted rebar, of all things, yanked out of the ground at the end of the driveway. No more snowplow guidance there!... From beasts to beauty: The 32nd annual Pelham Art Festival proceeded to dazzle last weekend, as ever. Organizers say attendance and revenue were up a bit over last year. John Swart fills us in on page 14, where you are also invited to appreciate the work of Pelham's Diane Slaight, who perfectly captured modern adolescence, and, let's face it, the phone-obsessed tendencies of more and more adults, too... Working for a living: His time in the news factory winding down, our man Sam Piccolo is still turning out the words. This week he speaks with the working man and woman's candidate, the NDP nominee for Niagara West, Curtis Fric. He's a 20-year-old Brock political science student, but make no assumptions. As the incumbent Sam Oosterhoff has impressed some on the right with his intelligence, so too does Fric impress as a man wiser than his years might suggest. It's a fine read, starting on page 3.
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Between May 5 at 10:30 PM and May 6 at 12:50 PM, police say that a white 2004 Yukon Denali was stolen from a parking lot in the 100 – 200 block of Highway 20, Pelham. This was recovered on May 9 in the 5800 block of Ferry Street in Niagara Falls. Investigators are looking at further evidence and there may possibly be follow-ups to this theft at a later time. Between May 6 at 1 PM and May 7 at 8:30 AM a white 2003 GMC Sierra pickup truck was stolen from Ker Crescent in Fenwick. Police say that this truck was recovered by Haldimand County OPP in York, Ontario.
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Theft and recovery of plates
Between May 8 and 9 in the 1000 block of Balfour Street, a set of license plates were stolen off a vehicle at a residence. At the same time, police say that the complainant found a set of stolen license plates on the property taken in April in Burlington.
Theft of commercial van
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On May 10 employees of an electrical company were working at a commercial facility in the 1600 block of Merrittville Highway, Thorold. They were putting electrical tools and equipment in their white 2019 Chevrolet cargo van at the end of the day. Between 4:50 PM and 5:20 PM they left the vehicle unattended and it was stolen.
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THAT'S A LOT OF PICKLED PEPPERS Peter Moore, owner of Peter Piper's Pubhouse, makes a $10,000 donation to the community centre at Council last week. Moore recalled his time playing at the Pelham Arena, and his parents’ days skating at the rink in The Pit, and said that he looks forward to his two young children using the community centre in years to come. Peter Piper's donation, which is to be paid over five years, will also result in a dressing room being named after the restaurant. From left, Councillor Accursi, Moore, Mayor Augustyn. VOICE PHOTO
It has distinct features such as roof racks with aluminum ladders, orange warning beacons and many electrical tools and lights.
Child porn arrest
On May 8, following a lengthy investigation, police say that 29-year-old Jon-
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Page 3
The Conversation
Curtis Fric Niagara West NDP candidate rounds out the riding's youthful contenders
If you're not a fan of young people you're going to have a real issue in this election
BY SAMUEL PICCOLO
U The VOICE
NLESS THE LIBERAL PARTY DRAFTS an elderly tortoise to run under the red flag in next month’s provincial election, Niagara West will assuredly possess the youngest average candidate age across Ontario. Progressive Conservative incumbent Sam Oosterhoff is 20. Green Party candidate Jessica Tillmanns is 18. And now the NDP is in the barely-legal game, nominating 20-year-old Curtis Fric to run for the party in the riding.
Fric, who grew up in Jordan and just completed his second year of a political science degree at Brock University, is self-evidently a politics nerd. Though his nomination was just a week before our conversation, it was obvious that he had begun learning the party platform well before, reeling off numbers and dates with an impressive fluency. In the by-election that propelled Oosterhoff to Queen’s Park, the Liberal candidate garnered just 15 percent of the vote. With anecdotal assessment of the Liberal Party’s popularity in the riding hovering at about the same as for spring ticks, it’s safe to say that if anyone has a chance to beat Oosterhoff, it’s Fric. (As of press time, less than a month before the election, the Liberal party hadn’t even bothered to nominate a candidate in Niagara West.) Fric is a worthy opponent for Oosterhoff. He is confident and knowledgeable—the policy wonk to Oosterhoff’s philosopher, a preference for polls over Plato. The debate will be on May 22. This election is an important one. The debate may prove unusually influential. PICCOLO: Is this your first-ever interview? FRIC: Yes. You were just nominated last Friday? Yep. And we got the papers in yesterday. So more or less we’re officially on Elections Ontario now. You grew up in Jordan? I grew up in Jordan, I’ve lived there my entire life. We definitely know our neighbours, we’re community people, but outside of our little area, not too much.
You were nominated pretty much right before the campaign started. Had you known for a while that you wanted to run? Was this last-minute? Politics is always something that I’ve had an interest in. I never really took it seriously until the Democratic campaign kicked off in the United States. The presidential campaign. For the primaries, yes. I followed Bernie Sanders very closely because his message was the one I preferred. I felt that if I was an American citizen I’d be very much intending to vote for him. I paid attention to the 2015 Canadian election but I wasn’t really on a side. You’re twenty now, so you’d have been seventeen then? Yeah. So you couldn’t vote. Couldn't vote. The first time I voted was in the by-election in Niagara West. Are you and Sam Oosterhoff the same age? Yes. He’s eight months older than I am. There was the Democratic primary. Had you followed politics before? On and off. I think the first time I really followed politics was the 2014 Ontario election. Still on and off. It wasn’t until the American election that I really started. It took that seismic activity. Essentially. To be fair, I think that a lot of people started paying attention to politics that way. For better or worse the American election has had an impact on Canadian politics. You’d have been graduating high school in the midst of that campaign. You go to Brock now?
Niagara West NDP candidate, Curtis Fric. I go to Brock. I just finished my second year of political science—that’s a four-year undergraduate degree. Does provincial politics especially appeal to you? Or are you involved with this because that’s where the action is going on right now? It’s a mixed bag. I take a strong interest in provincial politics because it’s much more direct than federal politics, in my opinion. But federal politics also has a lot of—when it comes to the environment, when it comes to foreign policy—things I’m really interested in. You don’t get much of that at the provincial level. That’s a good point. A lot of people are inherently attracted to federal politics, because it’s the biggest scale you can go to. On a daily basis, the most important might be municipal, because that’s your garbage and your roads, but over the course of a lifetime, it’s provincial. Education, health care—those are the two biggest things, and they’re provincial. Yeah, those are the biggest. I think it was actually Sam who told me well over a month ago that he heard that NDP was going to run someone young. We have Sam, who’s twenty. I interviewed Jessica Tillmanns from the Green Party, and she’s eighteen. The Liberal Party—do they have a candidate?
They’ve not put anyone up. They have until next Thursday, or they don’t have a candidate for this riding. Well that would be embarrassing. A little bit. We have a twenty year old, an eighteen year old, and another twenty year old. This has to be the youngest in all of Ontario. Yep. A lot of people I’ve told have said, “You’re pretty young.” And I say, “Well our sitting MPP is twenty, and the Green Party candidate is eighteen. So…you know.” If you’re not a fan of young people you’re going to have a real issue in this election. I think it was almost as if Sam broke the seal on that. So when you do tell people that, and they tell you that you’re young, does the conversation end there? Do they push a little further? Not usually. The vast majority say, “Good for you. We need more young people in politics.” I’ve heard a lot from older people who say, “It’s kind of time for our generation to get out, and your generation to get in.” I asked Jessica the same thing. Sam once told me that he meets some young people who tell him that they disagree with him on everything, but because they think there should be more young people in politics they still voted for him. And he meets some older people who say that they agree with him on everything but that because he’s so young they can’t vote for
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him. Young people like to vote for young people…older people like to vote for older people. I read an article recently about young people in this election. Young people are the great unknown when it comes to voting, whether they’re going to come out to vote or not. Of course in 2015— They turned out en masse for the Liberals. Right. But in 2011 that didn’t happen. May have happened for the NDP in Quebec, but certainly didn’t happen for the Liberals in the rest of the country. They’re this great unknown. Older people, and especially older conservatives—who make up a lot of this riding—are much more reliable. What’s your message for younger people who might not be there on election day? I think young people should know that this election at the provincial level is the first time that young people outnumber our parents’ generation. We’re the largest voting block in the province. How are you defining young people? I believe it’s 18 to 34. That general range. We are the largest voting block. Young people often say they don’t hear issues important to them being discussed. All I can say is that at least in Niagara West you have candidates from most of the major parties who are going to take care of your con-
cerns directly, because we understand what it is to be a young person in the modern age and the modern economy. What are the big concerns from young people that you’re hearing? Affordability. You hear young people say that they’ll never leave home. I’ve even said it, my brother has said it. The jobs available to most people getting out of school—you either get a well-paying job or you get stuck with lower wages, and you’re not able to afford to rent a place without rooming with two or three other people. Housing affordability is the big one. Low wages that have stagnated for the last few decades is another problem that has impacted us profoundly. Niagara used to be a pretty affordable place to buy a home. Now, at least in wide swaths of it, that’s not the case. It’s gotten very expensive. In some senses, it’s puzzling why things are so unaffordable. The economy is doing stronger than it has in a long time. Well over a hundred thousand jobs added in Ontario last year. Latest monthly unemployment numbers under six percent, the lowest in decades. And yet there are still these issues of affordability. This is when the economy’s strong. This is when the economy is probably at close to a peak. What attracts you to the NDP’s plan to make things more affordable? Definitely when it comes to low-wage workers. The one thing that’s good is increasing that minimum wage. It has not gone up over time. Up until the 1970s, when more neo-liberal policies came into place, wages started stagnating while the productivity of workers continued to sky-rocket. Before that time the two were linked together. They See FRIC Page 11
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The Voice of Pelham, May 16 2018
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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
As We See It Flushing $50,000 to prove the obvious
O
BSERVERS OF Pelham Town Council have long puzzled over a central question: How far behind are councillors? How long does it take them to understand what most other residents already know? Last Monday evening, they got their answer. A year. That’s how long it took for the Town to realize that the fix for a rusted culvert was not a high-tech bridge or pilings drilled down to the centre of the earth. When Poth Street was first closed a year ago, it was painfully obvious to everyone—local engineers, local contractors, handymen, Labrador Retrievers of average intelligence—that the culverts could simply be replaced as they were. Instead, the Town wasted an entire year in studies, leaving residents of the road with only one exit. In this time, the Town paid $50,000 to consultants who told the Town that a $1 million dollar fix was needed. To be sure, some councillors pushed back against this suggestion, incredulous that such an expense was really required by law to replace something so simple.
Yet despite their protestations, they never overruled Public Works Director Andrea Clemencio and CAO Darren Ottaway, who kept insisting that the million dollar option was needed. Last Monday night, Clemencio and Ottaway were roundly—though implicitly—rebuked by engineer John Spriet, who said that he “Just couldn’t imagine” anyone thinking that deep supports for the culverts were needed. Even though Spriet’s solution is expected to come in at just $350,000, the Town, being cash-poor, can’t afford it this year, and Poth residents will have to wait until 2019, at the earliest, to get their road back. An obvious question springs to mind. Was this 12-month delay in fact a deliberate tactical move to kick the can down the road, budget-wise? Ottaway has already demonstrated a callousness for residents of rural Pelham, calling a home in a rural area “a bad investment” and saying that issues arising as a result of location are “your problem.” Bruno Villalta, who lives on Poth with his disabled
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www.thevoiceofpelham.ca PUBLISHER & EDITOR Dave Burket publisher@thevoiceofpelham.ca NEWS WRITER Samuel Piccolo ADMINISTRATION Lori Gretsinger office@thevoiceofpelham.ca CONTRIBUTORS Don Rickers, Carolyn Botari, Larry Coté, Bernie Puchalski, Colin Brezicki, John Swart, Kirk Weaver NEWS INQUIRIES & TIPS editor@thevoiceofpelham.ca LETTERS TO THE EDITOR letters@thevoiceofpelham.ca ADVERTISING INQUIRIES advertising@thevoiceofpelham.ca
wife, asserts that Ottaway told the 75-year-old that he could sell his house and move if he was unsatisfied with the situation on the street—an assertion that Ottaway, through Town Public Relations and Marketing Specialist Marc MacDonald, disputes. All of this causes one to wonder whether senior figures in Town Hall ever really believed that a Poth repair would cost a million-plus. Was it instead a means to delay spending the actual amount needed—somewhere in the vicinity of $300,000—by a year, maybe two? Perhaps to a time when the Town actually had enough cash to spend on maintenance of its infrastructure? Poth residents now at least have a solution in sight, even if it's barely visible. No such solution is on the horizon for residents of Sulphur Spring Drive, where the road has been closed for two years. For the rest of the Town, the mostly likely date for a lasting fix comes in October, when not just councillors, but senior Town Hall figures will also be present on the ballot—in spirit, if not in ink.
Letters Minority government best outcome As a follow-up to a letter written to the Voice earlier this month, I am also hoping for a minority government. The big question is, “what two parties would best represent the interests of all Ontarians”? There is no doubt, in my mind, that the Liberals have not fully earned the trust of all Ontarians, however now is not the time to throw out the baby with the bathwater. May I suggest you best prepare yourself prior to the official election date by reading recently published books/articles that may put things in perspective. If you wish to see our wonderful country grow and prosper and become a more robust
CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS Member of Federal Parliament
Electoral District: Niagara West
Dean Allison, MP 4994 King Street Beamsville, ON L0R 1B0 Dean.Allison@parl.gc.ca 877-563-7900
Mayor of Pelham David Augustyn mayordave@pelham.ca 905-892-2607 Ext 317
Ward 1 Councillor Richard Rybiak rrybiak@pelham.ca 905-892-2105
Sam Oosterhoff, MPP 4961 King St. East, Unit M1 Beamsville, ON L0R 1B0 sam.oosterhoffco@pc.ola.org 905-563-1755
Councillor James Lane jlane@pelham.ca 905-892-2607
Members of Niagara Regional Council Councillor David Augustyn mayordave@pelham.ca 905-892-2607 Ext 317 Councillor Brian Baty brian.baty@niagararegion.ca 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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player on the world stage, then please read Maximum Canada, Doug Sanders (2017). I would think that after your read that for us to grow and prosper we would need a minority government of Liberals/New Democrats or the reverse. If you want to understand the mind set of social conservatives (the political right), then may I suggest you read Strangers in Their Own Land, by Arlie Russell Hochschild (2016). Even though this book is based on experiences in the Louisiana bayou one can easily extrapolate the message in this great read to many rural regions in Canada (think Al-
Ward 2 Councillor Catherine King cking@pelham.ca 905-658-8599
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Councillor Gary Accursi gaccursi@pelham.ca 905-892-5528 Ward 3 Councillor John Durley jdurley@pelham.ca 905-892-5388 Councillor Peter Papp ppapp@pelham.ca 905-328-6008
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Page 5
OPINION No vindication as promises remain broken, empty reserves remain unexplained
Roll on, Democracy
Recently there has been a spate of media stories highlighting our Mayor Augustyn. I am sure the press truly believe all of what they wrote. They wrote of transparency, open meetings and answering all questions, and integrity. However, from many local residents’ view, the harsh reality is somewhat different. The two public meetings that were held had boundaries set by the Mayor and the Town. At the first meeting, only certain questions were allowed to be asked, and at the second one, no questions were allowed to be asked. There was a third meeting promised, where residents were supposed to be able to address any remaining issues. The Mayor and Council decided that this
meeting was supposed to happen after we received the answers. To date, even though we have asked several times for these answers, we
If ever we get the chance to decide together our common future, we will not let any of us get a far larger part of the wealth and leave a large group with just enough to survive. Of course this call for democracy can hardly be understood these days, as everyone seems convinced, despite all evidence, that “representative democracy” is democracy. This has been repeated so many times, over such a long period of time, in the mainstream media, that even several progressive forces are buying it. I can already hear strong reactions. Oh, but this real democracy is not possible today, we are far too many. Nonsense! First, the technology is there; second, and more importantly, most decisions should be taken by the concerned people, directly or indirectly, not by absolutely everyone – concerned or not. Plus, democracy would eliminate a lot of issues raised by the actual absence of democracy in terms of peace, fairness, environment.
See BROKEN next page
See DEMOCRACY next page
MINORITY continued from previous page berta), however the message also applies in many respects to rural Ontario. Again one would probably conclude that to avoid the pitfalls of arch-conservatism one would vote again for a minority government of Liberals/New Democrats or the reverse. It is clear in my mind that Conservatives in general on both sides of the Canadian/ American border are anti-immigration, anti-gay, pro-life (a pregancy resulting from rape is a “gift from God”), pro tax cuts for industry (free market capitalism), anti-environmentalists, have no interest in /
meeting was not necessary and they cancelled it even before some of them had read the KPMG report. At no point in this whole process has there been a meeting where the general public could be heard. As to answering any and all questions—the D.E.B.T. committee instigated a sit-down meeting with the Mayor and staff on January 12. The Mayor cancelled his appearance at the last minute, as evidently he had a last-minute meeting with someone more important than the people he represents. A promising meeting was then held with staff and we thought things would move forward. On January 25, we sent the Town five questions we felt needed further clarification. A future sit- down
respect for indigenous people etc. On the file regarding immigrants, Doug Ford is trying to woo their vote by proposing changes to the present file on sex education—this is hypocritical. Remember how quickly he changed his mind on development in the Greenbelt. Please reflect on our riding of Niagara West and ask the question, “What have our federal and provincial politicians done in the last few years to make our region better.” Like a lot of homeowners, I am incensed by the high Hydro rates. I hear nothing but Wynne-bashing, however people seem to forget that the Hydro sell-off be-
At no point in this whole process has there been a meeting where the general public could be heard
gan under the Conservative government of Mike Harris. Do you remember the same premier selling off the now very profitable E.T.R.? I drive down Pelham Street and note that a resident for several years had a sign bashing Wynne over the possible closure of Welland Hospital. Where is the new sign thanking Wynne for keeping the hospital open? Where are the thank-yous for choosing Welland for a new General Electric plant? As a citizen of Ontario do you not find that you have
more disposable income than in the past? Ontario has a vibrant economy, so why would we want to change that “for the people.” Give me a break. According to two books written about the late Rob Ford, a picture is painted of Doug Ford as being impulsive, undisciplined, indiscreet and a bully. Does this remind you of anyone we know in the U.S.A/? Is there such a thing as good government? Please take time to read the website https://global-
n e w s . c a / n e w s /4 1 7 6 4 5 / p ol lut i on-f r om-c a n a d ia n-r e f i n e r i e s-a n- e mbarassment-compared-to-u.s. In this situation, if one cared about the environment, one would probably vote Green, New Democrats, or Liberal. Why are we not making corporations more accountable? Don’t expect this from Mr. Ford. As a sign that the present day government is on track to make Ontario more appealing please consider that Toronto was the only Cana-
dian city chosen to participate in a bid for a second Amazon office (50,000 new employees). Future plans for our transit systems are paramount for us to once again become the economic engine in Canada. Don’t throw all this away because someone promises to fire the C.E.O. of Hydro One (Mr. Ford cannot) or lower your taxes. Please do your homework before you vote. Art Woodruff Fonthill
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Writer Wanted Full-time staff reporter The Voice seeks to fill both staff and correspondent openings for news and feature writers. We offer long hours, low pay, and zero benefits. We also offer the satisfaction of writing for an award-winning news organization that seeks to inform its readers about people and issues that matter. Please send resume and writing samples to: publisher@thevoiceofpelham.ca
NEWSFLASH Tell us your story! Column Six presents tales of personal triumph, adventure, strange-but-true stories, life-changing events, and looks-back at our past. Did you conquer Everest or kick a bad habit? Did you meet your spouse-to-be in jail or on an African safari? Do you know where Hoffa’s buried? Write it down, send it in: publisher@thevoiceofpelham.ca (You won’t get rich, but you will get paid.)
Page 6
BROKEN continued from previous page have not received anything, nor, needless to say, has a meeting occurred. Many residents have also asked questions individually, and even filed Freedom of Information requests, all to no avail. Mayor Augustyn did not respond in an open, transparent way. In fact, many times he failed to respond at all. The KPMG reports found many incidents of misrepresentation and incorrect procedures. Anyone interested enough can find three KPMG reports on the Town’s website. Pay particular attention to: -Forensic review presentation of Nov. 29, page 60 -Forensic Review of Town’s finances 2008-2017. Pages 2 and 3, items 2.1 and 2.1; Page 15, item 8.2; Page 21, items 8.4 and 8.5 While the Ombudsman’s recent report found in the Town’s favour inasmuch as the September 5 in camera meeting was legally held, it did not address anything else. It did not deal with empty Town reserves that Council was told “were healthy.” It did not deal with paying $960,000-plus dollars an acre for unserviced land and then offering other acreage in the same area for $300,000plus an acre. It did not deal with the lack of response to residents’ questions. The fact that the ruling Liberal party passed the problem back to the Region
The Voice of Pelham, May 16 2018 after receiving a letter from Mayor Augustyn makes one wonder if due to the proximity of the election, they even took time to read the 200page residents’ report given them, or if they truly understood the scope of the issue and the lack of accountability we have in Pelham. In fact, we realize this problem does not come under the Region’s mandate. However, since we, the citizens, could not get responses from our Council, we had to go to the Region. Thankfully, they at least listened and tried to help. After all, that’s what is supposed to happen. We at D.E.B.T. have had many labels, some flattering and others not, put on us; yet, we persevered. No matter what stance one has taken, we feel that our most important achievement has been the fact that many more people are now taking an active interest in the decisions made by our elected officials. People are no longer sitting passively by and letting the political system do “whatever.” We have all learned a valuable lesson about awareness, involvement and activism. Our main goal was only to find out the true financial status of our Town and to make our residents aware of decisions made on their behalf by our Council, and to make Council realize that their actions are being scrutinized. In this we have succeeded! Goals accomplished. The only reason it has turned into the circus it has become is that questions T:5.063” went unanswered and the
citizens were ignored and marginalized. The problem of the debt our Town has been burdened with must be faced, and it will not easily be solved. The D.E.B.T. group feel it is now up to the residents of Pelham to decide the future of the town going forward. The people we elect this October will play a pivotal role in getting the Town back on track. As a community, we must elect municipal representatives who will hold true to the stated goals and values of the Town of Pelham’s mission statement: “Inspire trust in our corporation: to value openness, transparency and accountability: to be sure that all citizens are treated in an equitable and respectful manner” For many generations, our town was a peaceful, happy place, where life was not overly complicated. Unfortunately, those days are over. Like it or not, we are a growing and changing community. Such is progress and it will not be stopped! However, if we all work together in a cooperative environment, we can get to a place where trust and positive community spirit will once again be the norm. So yes, D.E.B.T. has been a strong wind blowing up a storm and just as in sailing, sometimes the wind will change direction but it does not mean that the sails are deflated forever. Although D.E.B.T. is now choosing to go dormant, it does not mean we are not there...watching. Nancy Beamer Pelham D.E.B.T.
Letters
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
continued
Calls for recall We need to vote for the politicians that are willing to represent the wishes of the people. To keep our politicians on the straight and narrow, we should have our new elected officials support RECALL, a process through which a registered voter can petition to remove a Member of the Legislative Assembly from office. Recall is unique to British Columbia. I believe it is time to implement it here—one way to get rid of insincere politicians. I strongly feel we need to bring forth Whistleblower Protection as well, for those who want to share wrongdoings (with proof) but are afraid to come forward for fear of repercussions. Our Canadian army implemented it. In fact, whistleblowers are rewarded by the army because it saves taxpayer money when corruption is dealt with immediately. To relate to the waste up to now, look no further than
DEMOCRACY continued from previous page Most of what we can do now is listening to the rich and powerful ones, laughing at us, despising us, protected by this fiction of
...one way to get rid of insincere politicians all the examples that have surfaced here in the Niagara area—the NPCA suing Ed Smith, Burgoyne Bridge with $40 million dollars missing, the City of St. Catharines deleting emails pertaining to this issue, etc. This costs us untold millions because we the people pay the outrageous legal bills. We tend to talk about what is wrong and yet do nothing about it. We need to stop allowing different levels of government to waste our hard-earned tax dollars! Come on, people, rally behind “fixing” the problem with Solutions That Will Stop Wasting Tax Dollars! Erika Furney Via Facebook
democracy – the representative democracy. A time will come, I hope, for our own collective future and the future of our planet, that democracy, real democracy, will prevail. Bruno Marquis Via Facebook
Authority: Sept 5 meeting was proper Ombudsman rules that in camera Council meeting okay BY VOICE STAFF The Ontario Ombudsman’s office has ruled that the Town of Pelham’s in camera meeting of September 5 met the legal requirements for an in camera meeting. The Ombudsman’s investigation began after former Councillor Marvin Junkin filed a complaint, alleging that the Council had discussed Town financial information that ought to have been presented in open session. Upon his resignation, Junkin alleged that Council had been shown an audit on September 5 that its reserves had been effectively drained, meaning that the Town was $17 million dollars more in debt than it appeared on the financial statements. Junkin also alleged that Treasurer Teresa Quinlin told Council that the province would not have See OMBUDSMAN next page
Election Day is June 7, 2018. Polls are open from 9:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M. ET / 8:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. CT. To vote in this election, you must be: • 18 years of age or older on June 7, 2018; and • a Canadian citizen; and • a resident of Ontario.
Each voting location will have magnifiers, Braille ballot templates and other tools to help you vote. Don’t forget to bring your ID and Voter Information Card when you go to vote.
For more information, visit elections.on.ca, email us at info@elections.on.ca or call 1.888.668.8683 (TTY: 1.888.292.2312). Disponible en français
Why trust your local library? BY KIRK WEAVER T:7.714”
To find out where you vote, visit elections.on.ca, check your Voter Information Card or call us at 1.888.668.8683 (TTY: 1.888.292.2312).
LET THE MARKETING BEGIN Delayed a week by weather, the official ribbon-cutting to open this season’s Pelham Farmers’ Market was last Thursday. From left, Ann Durst, vendor; Fred Arbour, market clerk; and Bev Yungblut, market treasurer and vendor. STACY DUNCAN PHOTO
CEO Pelham Library
Libraries remain one of the most trusted of institutions. Study after study shows that both libraries and librarians rank high in public trust. In an era where trust and reliability of information is in decline, earning and maintaining the trust of the community is vitally important to us. Understanding the reasons for this level of trust is important if we are going to be able to maintain, or even better, improve upon it. We suspect some of the trust comes from the sheer volume of information we have available and our ability and willingness to help people make sense of this volume. In the exponentially expanding digital age there were some who feel the demise of libraries was inevitable. However, we have been resilient in
being able to reinvent ourselves and will continue to meet the community’s ever-changing needs while we all face this rapid pace of technological growth. It is often a daunting task to keep up with the latest advances, but our staff are always willing to try. Another reason why people generally trust libraries is our lack of bias. When we serve members of the public, we do so without any commercial motive. Some have described it as a mission of service. There is no sales pitch or judgement on the information people are seeking. We simply want to help you find what you are seeking. This willingness to help is something we strive to achieve with all our patrons from the most junior to the most senior. We do understand that trust can be fleeting. It can be lost in a few moments
and take decades to restore. We need to honor, preserve, and protect that trust—and to be aware of the people who have not found trust in us yet. In order to maintain community trust we must remain actively engaged in the community. We must also be active listeners, being open to looking at things we have done for a long time in new ways. If we allow ourselves to become separate or aloof from the community we will lose trust. At the Pelham Public Library, we hope we are doing the right things to maintain and even grow the level of trust in the community. We are always open to constructive feedback on where we can improve. Without the trust of the community, we will not successfully fulfill our mission to engage, encourage and enrich the community.
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
The Voice of Pelham, May 16 2018
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Page 8
The Voice of Pelham, May 16 2018
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
Ombudsman: In camera, Mouse Trap meetings okay continued from previous page approved the community centre project if it had known about this $17 million. Three weeks after Junkin’s resignation, audit authors KPMG said that the $17 million dollar figure presented on September 5 was “outstanding” debt that the Town had to still acquire for past projects, not “unreported debt” as described by Junkin. KPMG also revealed the Town’s precarious financial rating from the province in 2015, with the Town receiving five “Moderate” and two “High” levels of risk. At a special Town Council meeting held in late November at E. L. Crossley high school, Town Treasurer Teresa Quinlin said that since September 5 the amount of outstanding debt had been reduced to $10 million. She has since said that it has been reduced to some $5 million. Following Junkin’s complaint to the Ombudsman, the Town defended itself by saying that the meeting had been held in camera because the KPMG report was related to potential legal action involving a former employee of the Town. In his ruling, Ombudsman Paul Dubé sided with the Town, concluding that “the discussion on September 5 was properly held
Marvin Junkin. SUPPLIED PHOTO in camera.” “The information provided by the Treasurer was sufficiently necessary to fully explore the issues covered by the legal advice to fall within the exception for solicitor-client privilege,” wrote Dubé. Dubé said that his office spoke to Town Clerk Nancy Bozzato, all Councillors including Junkin, and with the Town’s lawyer. Dubé also reviewed an audio recording of the meeting. The Town was given the opportunity to review and provide comments on a preliminary version of Dubé’s report. During last Monday’s meeting Councillors hailed the ruling as a vindication for the Town. “As a councillor you always try to do your best and live within the guidelines of the act,” said Councillor Gary Accursi. “It’s certainly heartening to hear from the upper levels that
we have fulfilled our municipal responsibilities. It’s unfortunate that some members of community felt that we were off base. It certainly gave a few of us some sleepless nights, because we do take our job seriously. I’m very satisfied with he report” Councillor Richard Rybiak echoed much of what Accursi said, adding that he was grateful for the “objective and rational review.” Mayor Dave Augustyn called the report a “comprehensive review of what happened that day.” “It’s gratifying and good to get this behind us as well,” said Augustyn. “Our community has been put through the ringer for a number of issues, so it’s heartening to get a resolution.” Marvin Junkin, who sat in the gallery during the meeting, said that he wasn’t surprised by the ruling. “I figured that they had combined the two enough that the [Ombudsman] would say that it was fine,” said Junkin. “But the bottom line is that there was no reason that they couldn’t have divided the financial information from the discussion of the person.” Proof of this, Junkin said, is that after he resigned, the Town actually did release an amended version of the report Council had
seen on September 5. “The bottom line is that the Treasurer started that meeting on September 5 by telling us that if the province had known about our debt situation we would not have been approved for the community centre,” said Junkin. “You could’ve looked around the Council table and seen the closest thing to jaws dropping.” Junkin said that he does not regret resigning from Council. “I had no choice, unless I wanted to be lying to the people who elected me,” he said. “It would have been nice to have had some support from the other Councillors after I did. I know that some of them were uncomfortable keeping it secret. But I don’t regret it. There was no option.” Particularly galling to Junkin is CAO Darren Ottaway’s repeated claim that he made his allegations “without evidence.” “I didn’t have any evidence because they wouldn’t let us keep the report on September 5. They wouldn’t even let us take notes. I started writing some down on a legal pad, and [Clerk Nancy] Bozzato told me that I’d have to hand them in,” said Junkin. “I was told later that they had no right to force me to turn in my notes, but I was acting in good faith. I thought that we’d hear the information, think on it for
You could've looked around the Council table and seen the closest thing to jaws dropping
a while, and then [make it public]. But that didn’t happen.” According to Junkin, Councillors had never before been prevented from taking notes during an in-camera meeting. Junkin said that he was happy to hear that the Treasurer had reduced the Town’s outstanding debt from $17 million on September 5 to some $5 million today, though said that all of it should have been done publicly from the start. Junkin said that he believes that if he hadn’t resigned, the Town wouldn’t have revealed any of these detail, or would have revealed the province’s negative assessments of Pelham’s financial challenges—assessments that were received before Council voted to approve the community centre in 2016. During the Council meeting last Monday, the Town received its 2017 audited
financial statements from Deloitte, a month earlier than usual. According to Junkin, Treasurer Quinlin told Council on September 5 that it would be best for the Town to release its financial statements later so that they could be made to look better. “I noticed during the meeting that they made a big deal of releasing the statements early, because I said that she said they should be released later,” said Junkin. “That’s just another way for them to further discredit me.” The Ombudsman also ruled in favour of the Town on a complaint that Council had inappropriately discussed Town business during an informal gathering at the Mouse Trap following the September 5 meeting. It is unknown who filed this complaint against the Town, as Junkin says that it was not him.
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The Voice of Pelham, May 16 2018
Page 9
Crossley students reconstruct a piece of Canadian history WWI Model-T ambulance gets new lease on life BY DON RICKERS
Special to the VOICE
With “high-tech” the current buzz words in progressive schools, it is noteworthy that some students at E. L. Crossley Secondary School have decidedly gone in the opposite direction. Under the direction of auto shop teacher Gerald Etten, a Model-T Ford chassis which served Canadian soldiers in WWI as an army ambulance and troop carrier is being rebuilt by Crossley students. Adrian Rittner, of the Canadian Military Heritage Society, contacted Etten with a proposal to renew the vehicle from the ground up in honour of the centennial of the Great War. With Armistice Day coming on November 11th, 2018, marking the end of WWI, the goal is to have a fully restored and running vehicle ready to attend events and ceremonies. During the war, starting in late 1914, Ford of Canada provided some 41,000 Canadian-made vehicles that supported the Commonwealth Expeditionary troops. The Canadian Army acquired "rolling chasses" and built wooden bodies on them for field uses during the war. The “universal car” concept by Henry Ford was well-suited to be a basic and rugged platform for a variety of military vehicles. The school received its first
Model-T frame and powertrain, which Etten called “a complete basket case.” But the wheels began to turn as students got busy cleaning parts, sandblasting the frame, and pulling the engine and transmission apart. “Luckily we were able to source another Model-T out of Cleveland in much better shape. So we now have two incomplete vehicles that we will reconstruct into one functional unit,” said Etten. A wooden cab and bed will be built from scratch later to be mounted directly onto the base vehicle. Etten noted that they hope to sell some unused parts to finance the project. New tires and tubes alone for the vehicle will run over $1000, and many other costs will need to be defrayed. The project has a modest budget, and members of the community are invited to support the project with donations and materials. Lucas Bastien is a student teacher at Crossley via Brock University’s Faculty of Education, and a mechanic by trade. He has taken the lead from Etten to supervise the rebuild of the Model-T. “It’s a piece of Canadian history,” he said. “One has to marvel at how far the technology has advanced since this truck came
Above, E. L. Crossley students with their restoration project. Left, an example of the type. DON RICKERS and SUPPLIED PHOTOS
off the assembly line. It was considered cutting edge technology a hundred years ago.” Grade 11 student Leonard Sheath wants to be a career mechanic, and is one of the students dedicating an hour a day to the project. “I love all things mechanical. Tearing stuff apart to see how it works is a real passion of mine. And this old truck is so different from all the other machines I have worked on,” said Sheath.
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Page 10
The Voice of Pelham, May 16 2018
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
E. L. Crossley runner sets high standard Five SOSSA golds and counting for Sofia Labricciosa BY BERNIE PUCHALSKI
BPSPORTSNIAGARA.CA
Sofia Labricciosa will be hard-pressed to match the results she had during last year’s high school track and field season. The Grade 10 student at E. L. Crossley won Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association gold medals in the 400 metres, 300-metre hurdles, 80-metre hurdles, 4X100-metre relay and 4X400-metre relay and followed that up with a silver medal in the 300-metre hurdles and a bronze medal in the 400 metres at the On-
tario Federation of School Athletic Associations championships. And while the 15-year-old Fonthill resident isn't guaranteeing another unbelievable year, she’s not going to rest on her laurels. “It definitely takes a lot of training but you can always improve,” she said, following a race Wednesday at the Bulldog-Cougar Classic held at the Niagara Olympic Club. “Even with my successes last year, I wasn't going for the success. I was always going for the times. How I improve is my beating my best times.
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That’s how I look at it.” Going into last season, Sofia wasn't expecting to perform as well as she did. “I didn't think I would medal at OFSAA, but my hurdles coach was telling me that I could,” she said. “I was kind of nervous about that because I had never really done any provincial meets. But I ran really hard and I medalled.” She attributes her success to a number of factors. “My parents really push me, but just to the extent of how much I push myself and definitely training,” the Niagara Regional Athletics member said. “I trained really, really hard last year and of course this year. I have been training throughout
the winter.” Labricciosa is on the track four or five times a week. It also involves being mentally prepared. “Even if you are physically strong, it’s all about the mental strength you have when you run,” she said. She is driven by the goal of pushing herself to the limit. “It’s the feeling of finishing and knowing that you did the absolute best that you could,” she said. “Especially my 400 at OFSAA. I could not have pushed any further than I did that day. “I was so tired and that’s how I should feel after every race.” Winning is only part of it. “It’s not only the suc-
cess, but knowing that you pushed yourself,” she said. Her goals for this year are a continuation of pushing for personal bests and seeing where that takes her. Excellent results would also be nice. “It’s a bit of both, but I think my goal is shaving a few seconds off of my times every year,” Labricciosa said. “I am looking at all the senior times and training to get to where they are because I know in my [senior] year that is what I am going to want to run.” Judging by her times, she is not that far away. She ran 58 seconds in the 400 metres last year and the top senior times are between 54 and 55 seconds.
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The biggest step she wants to take this season is improving the mental side of her game. “Going into last year's track season I didn’t think I would be where I was and it’s reminding myself that success only comes with hard work,” she said. “I have to be mentally prepared and be pushing myself at practices too.” Crossley track and field coach Maryann Mergl feels it's Sofia’s determination that will lead to success at the track and in life. “That is going to help her achieve all the goals that she has set,” Mergl said. “Whether it’s injuries or other stuff, that won’t stop her.”
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FRIC
The Voice of Pelham, May 16 2018 but I like to say that the Liberals take half measures while the NDP takes a full step forward. Pharmacare will save us money in the long run. But the Liberals are doing it by age groups, instead of all at once. It’s great that they want to cover people under 25, and it’s great that they want to cover people over 65. But you’re missing a giant chunk of the population. There’s a lot of people that need prescriptions there. The NDP wants to the first 125 most common prescription drugs. We would bulk buy it, and because we’re bulk buying for the entire population, not just small segments—the Liberals plan doesn’t really cost effect very well. In regards to how it differentiates, it’s that half step versus the full measure. Now we see with Hydro One, or more recently with the Liberals talking about privatizing part of the TTC in Toronto, or transit in general, that’s another place where the Liberals and NDP differ greatly. We know that public services are for the people, and that when the government controls public services such as transit and the electricity board, things that people rely on, it makes things cheaper. We’ve seen the impact of the selloff of Hydro One. We now have a CEO at a mostly privatized corporation, where the CEO is making six million dollars a year. People are mad about that, and rightfully so, because no one was in support of selling off Hydro One. I think the Liberals have taken some very strong liberties. Leaving aside hydro, and focussing on your ‘half-measure’ comment with pharmacare. I think a lot of people would say that it’s easy for the NDP to be on the outside and say that the Liberals are only doing half-measures. When you’re not in power you don’t have to make hard decisions. You
continued from Page 2 went up at the same time. We haven’t seen that, and that’s why we have such disparity in wages and income inequality. The NDP has the place for low-wage workers, to hike minimum wage to closer to a living wage, so that at least people making minimum wage can get by and not be considered working poor. Affordability issues—pharmacare’s a big issue, as is dental care. Paying for prescriptions out of pocket can get very expensive, especially if you have medication that you need to take daily. It’s either you take your medication or you get sick and end up in the hospital. That strains our hospital resources. That goes in to another issue, with our health care funding not being where it should be. Of course the same thing with dental coverage. It’s good for your health, and preventative health care is always the cheapest. It’s little things that the NDP wants to do to save money in people’s lives, that we believe the government can take on as a whole and make cheaper while being very effective. In this election it seems that the Liberals are trying to crowd out the NDP in the same way that the Liberals very effectively crowded out the NDP in 2015 federally. Other than saying, as Andrea Horwath has said consistently, that the Liberals have had fifteen years to do this sort of thing and only now are getting around to ideas that the NDP has always propagated, how does the NDP effectively differentiate itself from the Liberals? The sentiments are the same. Take pharmacare as an example. When people ask me what the differences are between the Liberals and the NDP when it comes to it—yeah we have a similar goal,
don’t have limited resources and have to divvy them up between all these different things. If you look to NDP governments that have been elected—in Ontario we really only have one example. Bob Rae gets elected in 1990, and he comes in with a very full NDP platform. Within a few years, he’s abandoned some of his pledges. He gets Peter Kormos very angry with him. I don’t think that relationship ever recovered. Probably not. Then Rae gets voted out of office and throws up his hands and becomes a Liberal. If you look at a place like Alberta, where I imagine the NDP was at one point more roundly opposed to the oil sector. Once elected the necessities of operating a government take over. In Ontario it’s not the oil sector—but the point is that: Is it too easy for the NDP to make these half-measure arguments when, within your lifetime, they’ve never had to be in the driver’s seat? I think when it comes to the NDP or any party that’s not in power, it’s easier to judge than to actually be the ones running things. But at least the NDP, we judge something that the Liberals are doing wrong, but we come forward with a policy point to say, this is why it’s wrong, but here’s what we would do. Here’s why. Some parties just go off and say, “What you’re doing is wrong, it doesn’t work.” And then people will say, “What do you want to do in replacement?” And they say they’ll find six billion in efficiencies? Essentially. I think that’s how we’d describe it. Bob Rae had the unfortunate situation—and the same thing with [Alberta Premier] Rachel Notley—came into power and then major recessions hit. Well with Notley it had already started before. It had started. But the point is
Page 11
It’s little things that the NDP wants to do to save money in people's lives, that we believe the government can take on as a whole and make cheaper while being very effective
that NDP governments have this bad habit of getting elected as the economy tanks. They get blamed. And then people use that as a justification to say, “We can’t have an NDP government, because the last time the economy tanked,” even though it wasn't their fault. You could probably say the same thing about the federal Conservatives. They take power in 2006, the economy tanks in 2007 and 2008. They sort of boomeranged that to their advantage. But fair enough. Certainly with Rae, the shock treatment from NAFTA, the recession of the early nineties, that all worked against him. On the NDP’s platform, going back to the higher minimum wage, pharmacare, and dental coverage—in talking to people all around, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered anyone who said that they thought pharmacare was a bad idea, or that dental care was a bad idea. Always they return to the idea of paying for it. People look at the debt of the province, and they see that already eight cents of every tax dollar is put towards interest payments. Might as well be trashed. It’s not going towards any program. And that’s when rates are low. They’re creeping up, and inevitably they’ll be higher. Maybe not to eighties levels,
but higher. So people say that we already have thirty-six percent of our provincial GDP in debt. And it keeps going up. Pre-recession it was in the twenties, and then it jumps up when governments have to stimulate the economy. But it never goes down again. Eventually we’re going to have another recession and the provincial government’s going to have to spend a lot again, and it will jump up. People do not think that the NDP is fiscally responsible. I’m not saying they’re necessarily right, but that’s the perception. How can you counter that? That’s been great talking points for the Liberals and the Conservatives for the longest time. At the provincial level across the country—you can’t do it too well in Ontario, because we’ve only had one NDP government—I believe the track record for NDP governments is that about fifty percent of the time we end up balancing the budget. Conservatives and Liberals balance the budget about thirty-six or thirty-seven and thirty percent of the time. So technically speaking we have had a better time at balancing the budget at the provincial level. Never had to do it at the federal level. But we’re See FRIC Page 13
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The Voice of Pelham, May 16 2018
POTH PRICE
$60,000—spent on the consultants who soil-tested and want those deep piles is just dust in the wind,” he said. “We’re not going to get that back.” Junkin said that he still doesn’t understand why it has taken so long for the Town to come to a sensible solution to the problem. “This whole time I’ve had contractors asking me, ‘What are they doing over there on Poth?’” said Junkin. The delays have also frustrated Poth Street residents. A windstorm in December felled a tree across the road a ways down from the culvert, temporarily blocking some residents in on both sides. The next day one of these residents, Bruno Villalta, who is 75, went to Town Hall to speak with staff about the issue. “I talked to [Director of Public Works] Andrea Clemencio and the CAO [Darren Ottaway],” says Villalta. “And I was told that there wasn’t any money, and that it wouldn’t be done until 2019.” Villalta says that he asked the two what he was supposed to do, explaining that his wife is in a wheelchair and that he has a heart condition. A fallen tree or heavy snowfall could mean that an ambulance couldn’t reach them. There are currently several precarious looking trees along the same section of road. “And the CAO told me, ‘Well, you could sell your house and move.'” Ottaway did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Pelham’s Public Relations and Marketing Specialist, Marc Macdonald, confirmed that Ottaway and Villalta spoke, but that the CAO asserted he did not tell Villalta that he could sell his house if he was unhappy. But despite Ottaway’s denial, he expressed a similar lack of interest in a Poth repair at other moments. In written comments to Council, Ottaway asked, “Is this repair going to create wealth? Do the nine parcels generate wealth?” In an audio recording of a meeting with several Pelham residents in January, Ottaway is heard to say, “Even if we had fifty billion in the bank, I’d be hard pressed to recommend that project to Council at this point. It doesn’t make any practical sense, whatsoever…Sulphur Springs is not a priority for us right now, and neither is Poth.”
continued from Page 1 “I wouldn’t think that a new pipe would settle any more than [the current one] did,” said Burt. The culverts on Poth Street near Webber Road collapsed last April. By last summer Town staff had spent some $40,000 on studies. In August, Director of Public Works Andrea Clemencio asked Council to approve a further $5,000 to $10,000 for soil testing. At the time, then-Councillor Marvin Junkin was the most forceful in pushing back against the proposed testing. “I’m a little puzzled,” he said. “Why [do] we have to spend more money on a geotechnical investigation…the reason those culverts failed didn’t have anything to do with twisting or leaning. The fact of the matter is that after forty years they rusted out, their life was done.” Clemencio told Junkin and the rest of Council that bedrock needed to be found that could support provincially legislated loads. “I’ve lived out in the country, I’ve been a farmer my whole life. You have something that lasted for forty years—and I’m sure they didn’t do geotechnical studies at that time. They probably just went down to what they thought was solid ground, put two feet of gravel, and put in these culverts,” said Junkin. “It just blows my mind that something that was done forty years ago without all these surveys…lasted its lifetime.” Despite the initial protestations of Junkin and others on Council, Clemencio received the extra money for testing. In November, Council heard a report from GMBluePlan Engineering on the project, and Clemencio recommended that $1.2 million in the 2018 budget be considered to cover the cost of replacing the structure. The cheapest proposed solution, said Clemencio, was a steel bridge, plate-box culvert on footings and piles. Council elected not to fund the project in the 2018 budget. Junkin, who was in the public gallery at Council last Monday night, said that he couldn’t help but smile during Spriet’s presentation. “All that money—$50,000 or
John Spriet prepares to recommend a $350,000 solution for Poth Street to Council. VOICE PHOTO Ottaway said that residents of Poth need only turn the other way out of their driveways. “In order to meet the regulation, we’ve got to spend a million bucks.” Ottaway said that he’s just posing a question: “Is it a responsible use of taxpayers’ money to replace a culvert for one person because they chose to live in an area that is in a rural setting?” Ottaway asserted that he was only asking the question, not responding to it. But in the same meeting, he seemed to give an answer. “They’ve exercised their constitutional right to live wherever they want, and yet now their expectation is that everyone else has to pay for that,” he said. “I don’t think that’s fair.” Ottaway called a home in the area a “bad investment.” “You chose to live there,” he said, addressing a hypothetical Poth resident. “That’s your problem. I’m sorry, that may sound harsh.” Ottaway said that residents in rural areas are subsidized by Fonthill residents, since the taxes paid by rural residents aren’t even enough to cover the cost of plowing snow on their streets. Villalta and his neighbour, Steve Jevcak, take issue with the suggestion that the repair boils down to whether spending the money in a rural area is a responsible in-
vestment. “It’s not the Township of Fonthill, it’s the Town of Pelham. We’re in Pelham,” says Jevcak, calling it a reasonable expectation that the Town maintain all of its roads, regardless of where they are inside of the boundaries. The road was first closed when a crack opened. The Town erected wooden barriers to stop cars from driving over it. Months later, a resident of the area filled in the gap with loose asphalt. “Someone did that so that it would be passable for emergency vehicles,” said Jevcak. “The wooden barriers were still there. But then when the Town saw that it had been temporarily repaired, they came and put concrete barriers up so that no one can pass.” When Council voted against repairing the culvert in 2018, the Mayor suggested that residents of Poth could “find solace” in trying to have their homes reassessed and their taxes reduced. According to a former Town staffer, whose name the Voice has agreed to withhold, there was a proposal last spring through the Planning Department to fix the culvert for roughly $200,000 dollars, but this plan was quashed for unknown reasons. The newspaper has filed a freedom of information request for the proposal. A week after the Voice’s story on Villalta was printed in January,
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www.thevoiceofpelham.ca Councillor Peter Papp said at Council that another solution was being investigated, though no specifics were provided. Last Monday night Councillors questioned John Spriet and Steve Burt about their plan. “You’ve looked at geotechnical information produced by [a previous] consulting firm that examined soils,” said Councillor Gary Accursi. “And yet their recommendation is so diametrically opposed to yours. How do we rationalize that?” Burt replied that Accursi would have to ask the other consultant. “I don’t understand the recommendation,” he said. Accursi also asked the two about whether there was a catastrophic risk involved in their proposed solution. “If it’s done properly, then there’s little risk of a catastrophic failure,” said Bert. “They’re not going to put garbage in the ground,” said Spriet. Clemencio provided Council with a new timeline for the repair of the road, saying that a fix this year is not going to happen. “In consultation with the Treasurer and CAO, proceeding with any unplanned construction at this site is not financially feasible at this time,” she wrote in her report.” “Mr. Spriet has been very generous and hasn’t billed us yet,” said Clemencio. “The set-up budget is to be paid from the emergency Poth design [money]. We’re going to continue with this, nail down with the design so we are shovel-ready for 2019. We can have a tender in January or February for a repair next year.” “At least they came to their senses,” said Bruno Villalta, who was in the audience on Monday. Villalta said that it was obvious to him—and all other Poth residents—that deep pilings in the ground were unnecessary to replace the culvert. An employee of a Niagara-based construction firm consulted by the Voice said that it was obvious from the very beginning that the culverts should’ve been replaced and that soil study wasn’t needed. “[We] picked up on it right away,” said the employee. “The Town let it go too long.” “Give me a break—it’s only two pieces of steel,” said Villalta. “Where are they going to go? They should’ve done it a year ago, but Ottaway has other priorities.”
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
OBITUARY BROOKS, Margaret Jean (nee Sutherland) In her 87th year passed peacefully with her favourite Cardiac Care Nurse by her side at the Niagara Health St. Catharines Site Tuesday April 17, 2018. Predeceased by her husband and best friend of 50 years Roy (2006). Survived by her two sisters Ruth Symons and Janet Edmondstone. Margaret was a very proud mother to her five children. Catherine Kuckyt (David), Barbara Baines (Ross), Bonnie Brooks, George Brooks (Suelyn) and her youngest Jonathan Brooks (Cindy). During her stay at Niagara Health she was surrounded by her whole family including her Grandchildren, Margaret Rozenszajn-Baines (Yonatan), Katie Kuckyt (Jonathan King), Janet Baines, Jonathan Kuckyt, Heather Cadogan (Kyle), Ian Kuckyt (Traci), Elizabeth Carmichael, Kortni-Anne Moreash (AJ Reimer), Jake Moreash, Isaiah Brooks, Jacob Brooks, Abigail Brooks and her Great Grandson George Rozenszajn. After graduating from the St. Catharines Collegiate she attended The Mack Training School for Nurses graduating in 1953. She worked in the Operating Room, C4 East and Mills 4 as an Assistant Head Nurse and then Evening Supervisor at the St. Catharines General Hospital. Later she worked at the Pen Centre Eaton’s store as a Staff Nurse. Margaret’s dedication to nursing inspired a legacy of Nurses in the family. Her Niece Janet Melville, Daughters Catherine and Bonnie and Grand-Daughters Katie and Heather have all pursued careers in Nursing. Margaret was very involved in St John Ambulance serving as the Lincoln Corps Superintendent, Southern Area Supervisor and St John Fellowship Member. She was decorated a Serving Sister and an Officer Sister in the Order of St John by the Governor General of Canada. Margaret was baptised at Knox Presbyterian Church and a member for over 70 years. She served on many committees and belonged to a number of church groups. She was honoured as an Elder Emeritus. Margaret’s Family would like to thank Dr. Clyde Ervine of Knox Church for his time in their hour of need. The Nurses, Doctors and especially Nurses of the Niagara Health Greater Niagara General Site (Niagara Falls) Emergency Room Department, Niagara Health Welland Site Intensive Care Department and the Niagara Health St. Catharines Site Cardiac Care Unit. Friends and Family will be received at Knox Presbyterian Church, 53 Church Street St. Catharines on Friday May 18th from 7 to 9 p.m. and a Celebration of Life for Margaret will be held at Knox Church 11 a.m. Saturday May 19th with a reception in the Church Hall to follow. Donations in Margaret’s name may be made to Knox Presbyterian Church St. Catharines and Niagara Health.
FRIC continued from Page 11 not going in to this election saying that the money we have now is what we’re going to use to pay everything. We have a fiscal plan. Raising taxes for those making $220,000 or more a year by one percent, those making $300,000 or more a year by two percent. The corporate tax rate we’d raise from the current twelve percent to thirteen percent, so a one percent increase. We’d tax tobacco by value, not volume. The way it works now is that if tobacco prices go up we don’t tax according to the value, we just do it by how much comes in. Cars worth $90,000 or more, we will put in a surcharge. I believe it’s four percent. We would close tax loopholes so that large corporations can’t take advantage of tax breaks meant for small businesses. We have a wide array of tools that we want to bring to raise the money. We’re still going to have a deficit. It’s the situation that we’re in. When the Auditor General comes out and says that the Liberal government either mismanaged or lied about the $6 billion dollar difference—when you get that information afterwards…you’re going to have issues. We’ll make it work. To the NDP’s credit, I think that you’ve said that you’re going to take the Auditor General’s recommendation about how they account. Yeah. We’ve said that if we’re elected to government we’ll restore the Auditor General’s powers what they were before the Liberals basically stripped the position of all its power. The key point that jumps out to me in the NDP’s tax plan is that it hits only the upper tier. They are for the very wealthy. One percent. That can add up over time, but you’re saying basically that those people won't notice too
The Voice of Pelham, May 16 2018 much of a hit. Yeah. We’re not going to raise taxes on those people struggling to get by, the low income, the working families. They don’t need a tax increase on them. If there is a tax increase, and again our plan is for the very wealthy, it’ll be the people that can afford to pay for it, who aren’t feeling what it's like to rub dimes together to get bread on the table. On the corporate rate, a lot of economists have said that you have to be careful, especially with the reduction of rates in the US. In the past, manufacturing corporations have made very big investments in factories. Very stationary capital investments. But capital is now more mobile than ever. You have corporate work that’s all intellectual—they can very easily up and move somewhere else. Is the NDP confident that the one percent increase and the closed loopholes isn’t going to dissuade— If we were going to say that we were going to jump it by ten percent, then sure I could see the concern. The idea is that when you lower the corporate tax rate, they’ll take that money and invest it. But we have seen big corporate CEOs, like Mark Cuban, who have said, “When you lower the corporate tax rate, we give it to our shareholders. Period. It doesn’t go into investment, and if it does, it’s extremely small and it doesn’t create the jobs that the idea is supposed to bring.” To be fair, Ontario has the lowest corporate tax rate in the country. So by saying we’re going to raise it one percent, I don’t think we’re scared about scaring off large corporation. For small businesses, I believe that we’ll have some sort of tax incentive. In the article about young people voting I referenced earlier, it alluded to some polling that showed the young people are by in large much more interested in
social issues. Very much so. That’s probably always been the case. That’s why you have this perception of people doing a shuffle to the right as they get older. They have savings accounts, and mortgages, and real estate investments. When you talk to them, do you find that young people are interested in the nuts and bolts of finances, and the taxes? Because the perception among older voters is that young people want to spend all this money and want to cover social issues. But when they get older… they’ll see. It’s always, you’ll become a conservative when you’re older. But for some it’s like, “No, we’re going to go further left than that.” Young people on the whole, at least in my friend group, are are little more politically knowledgable. We don’t disregard the economics of things. We know that things have to be paid for, and that we have to be reasonable when it comes to it. Yet we are much more focussed on social issues because, you can make the argument we aren’t really paying that much in taxes. We want to know how things will be paid for. It’s on our minds. On social issues, we talked about the 2016 American election—there’s a very disturbing polarization of politics. Very divisive politics. There’s been a fair bit of conjecture that Doug Ford is the Ontarian Donald Trump. I briefly interviewed Doug when he was here a month ago, and I went to one of his rallies. I think that there’s reason to be bothered by some of what he said, but to be honest I didn’t feel that Trumpian vibe. In the GTA, especially, Ford supporters are very diverse. In 2014, when he ran for mayor of Toronto, his support among immigrant Canadians was higher than among what you would call “white Canadians.” How do you see the
Page 13
If there is a tax increase, and again our plan is for the very wealthy, it'll be the people who can afford to pay it, who aren't feeling what it's like to rub dimes together to get your bread on the table Doug Ford phenomenon? All—or at least most—polls indicate now that he’s going to be the next premier. I would argue that there are plenty of Doug Ford supporters like there are Trump supporters on the social issues much more conservative— But is Doug socially conservative? He said, “I’m not a Bible-thumper.” It’s weird. Doug may not come off that way, but you have to see who he’s surrounding himself with. You had Tanya Granac-Allen for a while. Even before she got let off the ballot by Doug— the things that she was let off for, she’s said them before. The guy that Doug Ford appointed in London West, the former Rebel Media host, who said a plethora of different things, from being Islamophobic, I believe he was anti-Semitic in some cases, he was sexist. It’s very bothersome. So Doug Ford may not personally be that. But you definitely have to pay attention to the people that a leader surrounds himself with. To the point before, many Ontarians are worried about affordability. In the south in the United States—when Hillary Clinton came out and said about half of them were “deplorables” I think she was talking about those people who follow those crazy ideas that Obama was a muslim, oh, Obama’s a terrorist. I’m sure it’s a choice of words she regrets. I’m sure she does. You look at the polls that were
done, and it’s about fifty percent of Trump supporters who think Obama’s a muslim, Obama’s a terrorist. I don’t know. Maybe technically she was right. She definitely could’ve chosen her words a lot better. The other half of Trump supporters, like Doug Ford supporters, they’re middle-income, they’re low-income, they’re worried about the affordability of things. It’s debatable to say that there are quite a lot of people who park their vote with the PCs. That’s why we see them where they are in the polls right now. But we’ve seen over the last twelve days or so, from April 30 to today, the NDP has jumped four percent in the polling averages. The Liberals dropped one percent, the PCs have dropped 2.8 percent. A lot of the shift in polls there went from the PCs to the NDP, so maybe people just parked their vote with the PCs and that’s why there as high as they are. Who knows, right. It seems as though there’s more flexibility between the NDP and the PCs. A Liberal voter might become an NDP voter, and an NDP voter might become a Liberal voter. And a PC voter might become an NDP voter. But a PC voter won’t become a Liberal voter. I guess it really depends on the situation. Now with Kathleen Wynne being as personally unpopular as she is— Kathleen Wynne is very See FRIC next page
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The Voice of Pelham, May 16 2018
BEAUTY IN THE ARENA It's hard to imagine Mother's Day Weekend in Pelham without the Art Festival—they've been together for 32 years now. This year some 1500 people attended the festival during its three-day run. For local supporters of the arts, it was a chance to engage 75 of Southern Ontario's best artists in a variety of mediums without travelling outside Pelham. For local artists, the Festival provided an opportunity to display their work in a professionally staged and juried show that is respected throughout Ontario. For friends
FRIC continued from previous page personally unpopular. You can argue that Doug Ford is also very personally unpopular. The NDP has this nice storm brewing where people want a change government, but at the same time one of the two change parties is not an option. We’ve heard a lot from very conservative individuals, who have said that either they’re not going
and families of Niagara residents, it was an opportunity to combine returning home with sharing an afternoon or evening enjoying the great live music, art and food that the Festival offers. It takes a community of volunteers, more than 80 this year, to stage the Pelham Art Festival. Local students and adults worked together, and long-time Pelham residents shared volunteer duties with those that have recently moved to Pelham and want to be involved. Many local businesses sponsor the Festival
to vote because they don’t like Doug Ford, or they’re voting NDP. I remember when Patrick Brown was the leader, and there was the issues with the PCs and their nomination meetings, where some of them were pretty rigged in how they were done. And you had riding presidents from the PCs saying, “We’re voting for the NDP, because we know what’s going on in our party, and this is not what we
signed up for.” So you have the core voters, who’ll only ever vote for one party. But there’s a lot of lean voters in each group. It’s a matter of how the leaders present themselves. Now that we’re about a month away from the election, what does the next four weeks look like for you? Debates? Are you going to be door-knocking? A lot of door-knocking. That’s predominantly what
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in various ways, or may be involved as suppliers. Rose City Kids, a Welland volunteer organization that helps kids with role-modelling and building relationships, receives a generous donation from the Festival to provide and serve the Friday evening cheese, cakes, and fruit snacks. The Pelham Garden Club assisted in decorating the arena this year, further developing intra-community links. Each year, the Pelham Art Festival donates a minimum of $10,000 to our local libraries to purchase items not included in regular
we’ll be doing. There are going to be debates—the first one was supposed to be yesterday for Cogeco, but that got pushed back to the twenty-second of May. There’s also a health care debate put on by the health care coalition. Are you looking forward to the debates? I was talking to Jessica about this too. She was hoping that there would be two so that she’d be able to improve. Have you debated before? Is that something you’ve done? Plenty of online debates. We all know how those go. Very non-formal debates
budgets. Festival proceeds will also provide arts-related scholarships to students from E. L. Crossley, Notre Dame, and Niagara College this year. Top left, a painting by Pelham artist Diane Slaight. Top right, Fonthill painter Maria Cozzi. Above, Welland aluminum artist Alex Baxo. By John Swart DAVE BURKET PHOTOS
among friends. In that case it’ll definitely be a step up. Sam has the advantage of having practised in the legislature for a year and a half, so he’s gotten a lot better. You’d hope so. We’ll see. Are you looking forward to it? I’m looking forward to it. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about it. I’m sure all of us are nervous about debates, even for those of us who are much older, like Jeff Burch or Wayne Gates. Anything we didn’t talk about that you think is important? If you’re unsuc-
cessful will you be back at Brock? I will definitely be back at Brock if I’m unsuccessful. I would be looking towards the municipal elections, possibly running there— In Lincoln? In Lincoln. I don’t know what I’d run as if I’m unsuccessful here. Probably Alderman. Best case scenario, I’ll be successful here and I’ll represent the people of Niagara West. We’ll see. Not making any permanent long-term plans just yet. Okay. Thanks for your time. Thank you. ◆
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Places of Worship and Events Bethany Christian Reformed Church 1040 Balfour St., Fenwick
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Kirk on the Hill Presbyterian Church 1344 Haist St., Fonthill
St. Alexander’s Roman Catholic Church 50 Pelham Town Sq., Fonthill
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the Voice. “I ask that the terms of reference be dictated by the Region and that the Region choose a non-partisan, independent, forensic auditor to review the issues presented at Regional council with respect to land transactions and actions taken by the Town of Pelham on behalf of its taxpayers in the East Fonthill secondary plan.” Council rejected Hummel’s offer to pay for the audit. Mayor
Dave Augustyn asserted at the time that it was an instance of a wealthy individual using money to buy influence. Members of the advocacy group DEBT, made up of Pelham residents, also offered to contribute to the cost of the audit. The accountancy expert consulted by the Voice said that the fact that the Town rejected money for the audit before it was commissioned, only to ask for it after, indicates that
CASH BACK continued from Page 17 $50,000 to pay for it. Hummel made a cheque out to the Region and took it to a meeting of the Audit Committee. “I am willing to pay the $50,000-dollar estimated cost of a forensic audit from my own pocket, so not to further burden the ratepayers of Pelham,” wrote Hummel in an op-ed in
the Town wanted to ensure that only it could control the terms of reference for the audit. “For starters, the Region would have insisted that KPMG talk to lawyers other than the Town’s own,” said the expert. “And then KPMG could have gotten a second opinion on whether it was appropriate for the Town to create an offsetting accounts receivable for the money spent on the land.”
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The Voice of Pelham, May 16 2018
COLUMN SIX continued from Page 18 Coffeee!” This went on for hours. I pleaded with the nurse, “In the name of God, bring this man a steaming latte!” I texted my wife to inform her that I planned to crawl out of bed around midnight and smother Lars with his own pillow. Justifiable homicide, to be sure. Mercifully, the nurses moved Lars across the hall the next day. His new roommate was apparently incapable of speech, but I could hear him in the darkness, hammering on the nightstand with his fist in submission, as Lars continued his evening soliloquy. I attended a rehabilitation session with a wheeled walker the next day, and progressed quickly to a cane. My balance improved daily, and soon I was walking somewhat haltingly without any aid. The doctors gave me the standard meds: low-dose aspirin to thin my blood, Coversyl (an ACE inhibitor generically called Perindopril) to make my arteries more pliable and bring down my blood pressure, and the statin Lipitor (which is prescribed to control cholesterol). My cholesterol levels were actually within the normal range, although my triglycerides (fat in the blood) were marginally elevated. Subsequent CT scans detected a cardiac anomaly called a PFO, or patent foramen ovale, which is a small flap-like opening in the wall between the right and left upper chambers of the heart (atria). It normally closes during infancy. PFOs occur in about 25 percent of the population, but most people with the condition never know they have it. The danger is that blood clots can travel from any part of the body along the
Moving forward, I gobble my pills dutifully, like an obedient soldier
Audit request denied
Page 17
Town considers billing Region Despite previously refusing money, Council mulls reimbursement request
continued from Page 1
cardiovascular highway and through the PFO and get to the brain, causing a stroke. Kind of like a driveby shooting. Moving forward, I gobble my pills dutifully like an obedient soldier. I developed tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and am not sure whether it was a result of the stroke or the medication. It’s a bloody nuisance. But my balance has been restored, and I’m back playing hockey, and skiing, and pretty much doing most of what I enjoyed prestroke. As to what exactly caused the stroke, the doctors all shrugged. The PFO? “Maybe.” Too many Dominican robustos? “Certainly didn’t help.” My weekly pilgrimage to Harvey’s for an angus burger and onion rings? “Should go easy on those.” Too much booze? “Hey, it’s five o’clock somewhere, twice a day.” Workplace stress? “You’re probably not paranoid, chances are they really are out to get you.” Bad genetics? “Sure, blame the family tree you fell out of.” So what have I learned from this experience? What modifications will I make in my life to delay shuffling off this mortal coil? It’s easy to play Monday-morning quarterback, and profess with evangelical fervor that I am
steering clear of fast food, potent potables, the evil tobacco, and other vices. Truth be told, I now make less-frequent appearances at the Harvey’s drivethrough window. And yes, I gave away two humidors filled with my favorite cigars. I’m trying, dammit. I’m making an effort. But once you hit your sixties, you don’t want to give up that last slice of strawberry-rhubarb pie. Double espresso? Absolutely. Another Chivas, sir? Make it a small one. All things in moderation and try to leave a good-looking corpse, that’s my credo. I like to think I have become more appreciative of the truly important people and events in my life. I worry less about the things I can’t control, and don’t dwell on missteps of the past. I take more time to enjoy a crimson sunset, and my granddaughter’s smile. One piece of advice I can offer…and you can take this to the bank. Should any stroke-like symptoms befall you, don’t flutter around like I did. Call 9-11 and let the paramedics whisk you to the hospital pronto. That way, you bypass the waiting room, and go face-to-face with a doctor. Hopefully you’ll get a shot of that medicinal Drano to blast through the arterial blockage, blood flow will be restored, and you’ll be back on the street in no time. ◆
“It’s sad that so much energy and time was spent proving something that was never there to begin with. I think the community will recognize this as that end to that chapter. The public didn’t deserve this. I’m very pleased that we’re receiving this now. We have been cleared by the ministry as well.” Augustyn’s assertion that the ministry had “cleared” Pelham irked some residents. “They weren’t cleared of anything,” said Bernie Law, who spoke to the Region’s audit committee and urged the Region to support the petition. “With the election here, the ministry just washed their hands of it.” The Ministry of Municipal Affairs, which first said that it would provide comment to the Voice, later declined. “During the writ period it is not appropriate for the ministry to be providing comment on this matter. As stated in the letter, municipalities are responsible and accountable governments with the authority to make decisions on matters within their jurisdictions,” wrote Praveen Senthinathan, a ministry spokesperson. Councillor Gary Accursi blamed Region Council, saying that “This is what happens when they get involved in things they don’t understand, or the business cases that local governments have considered in great depth.” “It is now up to the citizens of Pelham to decide if the Town Council is ‘in the clear’,” said Audit Committee Chair Tony Quirk.
BY VOICE STAFF At the end of its meeting last Monday, Council discussed billing the Region of Niagara for costs incurred by the Town as a result, in its view, of motions made by Regional Council. The approach was recommended by CAO Darren Ottaway, and includes $117,000 paid to KPMG, as well as funds spent on lawyers, all totalling some $160,000. Councillor Richard Rybiak spearheaded the motion. “I think that the entire episode was completely unnecessary. It was unnecessary because when information or complaints were made to Region was that it should have been directly back here,” said Rybiak. “There was no basis that any response made by the Town of Pelham would be anything but accurate… We’re not going to get back the sleepless nights, get back the arguments, get back the stress. The only thing we can get back is the money. We should make the attempt to recover it.” Mayor Dave Augustyn supported Rybiak’s motion, and said that he’d “be interested to know what the community thinks. I think people will go crazy [and say], ‘What are we doing paying all this.’ I want to hear from the public. I want to hear from people. We heard from the people on the other side, and we reacted.” Council voted to ask staff to factor-in the cost of staff time to the $160,000 figure, and return with an updated number. But notable was what Council did not discuss when it considered sending
RENOVATE
a bill to the Region. As a result of KPMG’s investigation, it was found that the Town overpaid the Allen Group by $32,500, money that the developer then agreed to repay to the Town.
I think that the entire episode was completely unnecessary
KPMG also found another error in which the Allen Group owed money to the Town. KPMG wrote, “We understand it could be in excess of $50,000.” Town Public Relations and Marketing Specialist Marc MacDonald said last week that a meeting with the Allen Group will soon be held to determine the final amount. “The Town should be embarrassed that KPMG found that it lost out $83,000,” said an accountancy expert consulted by the Voice, whose name the paper has agreed to withhold. Last September, real estate developer Rainer Hummel, who first raised questions about the Town’s land deal with the Allen Group that was the focus of the audit, offered the Town See CASH BACK Page 16
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The Voice of Pelham, May 16 2018
COLUMN SIX
couch, and attempted to comprehend my predicament. Heart attack? No way. I had never had chest pain in my life. No distress during vigorous exercise. I had always sweated like a race horse in heat, but that was normal for me. My heart was A-1, for sure. Stroke? Nope. I couldn’t recall ever suffering a headache. Ever. I had no paralysis or weakness in my limbs, no speech impairment, no mental fog. So definitely not a stroke. Gotta be food poisoning. Right. Once I purge the offending toxin churning away in my stomach, it will be back to blue skies and rainbows. I felt drunk, like I had gone a dozen rounds with Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, and Jose Cuervo. (Three against one; not a fair fight.) Anne insisted I go to the hospital. Ever the stubborn fool, I declined. This dizziness will pass, and my balance will return after a short nap. Plus we’re going out for dinner with friends tonight, remember? The phone rang a few minutes later. It was my friend Dave. Anne had called him to try to convince me to seek medical attention. Dave admonished me for my delaying tactic, and instructed me see a doctor immediately. You worry too much, I told him. No headache, no chest pain, just dizziness and nausea. It’s a virus or some polysyllabic bacterial infection. I’ll be back in the pink before you know it. We had to cancel our sup-
continued from Page 1 ey sticks would add a few miles-per-hour to my wrist shot, it happened. I felt a dense, grey wave wash over me. My vision dulled; my hearing faded. It’s as if my head was immersed in a tub of Jello. I sensed a pop in the back of my skull, and things got fuzzy fast. I managed to place the plate and dish towel on the counter before they fell from my hand. The room was spinning faster than a politician’s press release, and my balance became precarious. “Something’s wrong with me," I muttered to my wife, Anne. She turned to see me stagger across the kitchen like a drunken sailor and plop myself on a nearby stool. Just to ensure she knew I wasn’t kidding around, I proceeded to upchuck the pasta carbonara she had served for lunch. “Must be food poisoning,” I groaned to Anne, failing to recall that she had eaten the same meal. Besides, she was pretty much a gourmet cook; subpar ingredients would never pass muster. She charitably let the insult pass. Our Cocker Spaniel, Sam, stared at me with a quizzical expression. He had shared our meal, and his pasta had tasted just fine, thank you very much. In fact, Sam had gone back for seconds. I made my way haltingly to the living room, bouncing off the occasional wall en route. I collapsed on the
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per plans on account of my malady, but I was sure a good night’s sleep was all I needed. By 4 AM I was still wobbly on my pegs, and the dizziness had not abated. Okay. Mea culpa. Maybe I should pop in to the hospital. They might be able to prescribe some pills for whatever is ailing me. But if the waiting room is full, I’m not sticking around all day. I was not delayed long in the St. Catharines emergency waiting room, probably because upon arrival I projectile vomited all over the floor. That surely impressed the hell out of them. Let’s move this guy to the head of the line, the nurse on duty decided. After a brief chat with a very pleasant but rather frenetic emergency room doctor, I was piled onto a gurney and wheeled over to the radiology department for a CT scan. They blasted me with x-rays to create cross-sectional, three-dimensional images, kind of a like digital slicing, no Ginsu knife needed. The animated ER doctor (whose coffee breath explained his reservoir of energy) proceeded to give me the news: congratulations, you have just delivered a fully-blocked vertebral artery. Also known as an ischemic stroke. That’s the first time he had used the word. Stroke. A chill ran down my spine. Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability in Canada, and the third leading cause of death. Some 14,000 of us strokers meet the Grim Reaper annually, with 50,000 suffering new strokes (one every ten minutes) per year. A quarter of stroke victims in this country are under the age of 65, with risk rising dramati-
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icals quickly penetrate soft tissue and enter the bloodstream. How long had my blood pressure been so high, they inquired? A while, I responded. Quite a while, actually. Okay, maybe throughout the last decade. I had a home unit and tested my blood pressure on occasion, and knew that I was well north of 120 over 80. I concluded that I was in the “pre-hypertensive” category, and would be fine if I shed a few pounds, cut back on my salt intake, moderated my fondness for cigars and cabernet, ramped up my exercise program, and worried less about stressors at work. No doubt some of my blood pressure issues were hereditary. But my parents and grandparents had all lived into their late 80s and early 90s. No early heart attacks or strokes. My dad used to say that he gave heart attacks, he didn’t get them. I realized I was going to be here for a while, and grudgingly accepted my fate. The orderly wheeled me into the residential room which was to be my home for the next five days. I thought my insurance plan upgraded me to single accommodation, but here I was, staring across at my new roomie: a lean, 80-something fellow I’ll call Lars, who had suffered a stroke much more debilitating than my own. His doting wife was pleasant and considerate of my wish for privacy: Lars, not so much. He had a rather annoying quirk. As soon as his wife departed, he called out in a raspy baritone every 30 seconds or so, “Darling? See COLUMN SIX Page 17
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that I had dodged a bullet (well, actually it just grazed me) and should make a full recovery. But just to be on the safe side, they were going to transfer me to the Niagara Region’s stroke centre at the Niagara Falls GeneraI. Upon my arrival at the Niagara Falls site, I underwent additional CT scans, and met with more doctors. They did not paint the rosy picture that Dr. Espresso in St. Catharines had. A dour older MD opined that I would never play hockey or ski again, fearing my balance might be impaired permanently. Another doctor chastised me quite sternly for being a regular cigar smoker. (Jeez, a guy needs a hobby… what’s wrong with a daily Macanudo?) She lectured that even though one does not generally inhale cigar smoke into the lungs, nicotine and other toxic chem-
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Face plant doesn't deter this gymnast Fonthill's Emilie Hamilton a double medalist at provincials BY BERNIE PUCHALSKI
BPSPORTSNIAGARA.CA
Things were going extremely well for Emilie Hamilton until the final 10 seconds of her floor routine at the provincial gymnastics championships. Then disaster struck. “I kind of face-planted,” she said, with a laugh. “I had too much adrenaline.” The 16-year-old Fonthill resident was disappointed in the moment, but quickly recovered. “I looked at my other events and realized that I had done really well.” Competing in the Level 7 age 16-plus division, the Grade 11 student at E. L. Crossley was second on bars, third on vault, 11th on beam
and was 15th all around. She was also in the event finals for bars and finished seventh. Gymnastics Energy coach Amy Cranch was impressed with how well Hamilton handled the adversity. “It was disappointing, but she is very a positive athlete, she accomplished so much this year and made great strides this year and I think she was still happy with how she did,” Cranch said. “We were proud of how she handled it with her sportsmanship and still cheering on her teammates.” And two medals at provincials is nothing to sneeze at. “I’m delighted with that, but I also stuck my beam routine," said Hamilton, who competes in cross country and track and field at Cross-
ley and last year was part of a 4X100-metre relay team that made it to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations regionals. “It was a hit routine. There were no wobbles, steps or anything.” It was a big improvement on that apparatus. “The beam has sort of been her nemesis this year,” Cranch said. “She has had a few falls and she finally put her routine together.” Hamilton is looking at the provincials as another learning experience in her gymnastics career. “Everything happens for a reason,” she said. “Maybe it wasn't my chance this time and maybe it will happen next year.” It will certainly provide her with motivation for next season as she trains five hours a day, three times a week at the gym. She loves what gymnas-
tics does for her. “It pushes me and makes me do my best and it helps me overcome challenges and stuff.” And her gymnastics training spills over to other areas of her life. “The lessons learned help with school and determination,” she said. Entering her final year of high school in the fall, Hamilton expects next year to be her final year of competing in gymnastics. “She’s motivated and she has big goals for next year,” Cranch said. “I know she's going to work hard and we will see how far it takes her.” Her success won't be from a lacking of trying. “Because it is my last year, I want to try and do the best I can and then know I finished well,” Hamilton said. This past year, she feels the biggest stride she has
Hunter is our Lazyboy!
Emilie Hamilton practices her beam routine. BERNIE PUCHALSKI PHOTO taken has come on the bars. “At the start of the year, my scores weren’t the greatest and then they increased,” she said. Her scores were enhanced by learning a new skill called
a giant, which is when a gymnast rotates 360 degrees around an axis in a fully extended position. “It was difficult mentally because it was scary,” she said.