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bilko@rgcmail.com Vol.21 No.35
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
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The road to $59 million
Column Six Stuck in the future It’s a brave new world, for some
Former councillor says debt is hidden; Town says financial statements are accurate. Both could be right.
BY COLIN BREZICKI
Special to the VOICE
If you don’t know where you’re going, any road can take you there.
BY SAMUEL PICCOLO
I
The VOICE
Since former Councillor Marvin Junkin’s resignation, the Town of Pelham has repeatedly asserted that its 2016 audited financial statements are not misstated, an assertion that implies a denial of Junkin’s claim that the Town has $17 million in undisclosed debt. But Bill Karner, a Pelham CPA and Chartered Accountant with some 25 years experience, argues that it’s possible that the 2016 audited financial statements are not misstated, while at the same time the Town is indeed—or shortly will be— $59 million dollars or more in debt. As you’d expect, there are a number of numbers in this story, but we’ve done our best to present Karner’s assessment in terms we can all understand. Here we go. Using the Town’s publicly available 2016 and prior year audited financial statements, 2017 and prior capital and operating budgets (and related schedules), Karner demonstrated last week how he independently arrived at his conclusion, which matches the figure that Junkin alleges was presented to Council by the accounting firm KPMG during a closed-door meeting on September 5. Karner divides his debt calculation in to five sections. (For simplicity, the following dollar amounts are rounded to the nearest whole number).
Long-term debt and bank indebtedness
The single biggest portion of the $59 million figure is in black and white, in the Town’s 2016 audited financial statements, which present $21.3 million in long-term debt and $1.8 million of bank indebtedness, for a total of $23.1 million at year end.
Cash shortfall
The next largest portion stems from what appears to be a substantial cash shortfall. According to its financial statements, the Town should have had $9.3 million in cash on hand at end of 2016. But Karner says that this cash is likely almost entirely from a loan—the first portion of a debenture received near the end of the year. The loan advance of slightly over $9 million See $59 MILLION Page 10
CAO Darren Ottaway watches as Councillor Peter Papp speaks. Story, page 13
VOICE PHOTO
Junkin doesn’t budge
Maintains audit was an “audit” not a “report” BY DAVE BURKET
The VOICE
He’s a little wobbly on a new knee, but former Ward 1 Councilor Marv Junkin is sticking by his story. It’s an account he also planned to tell the Niagara Regional Police on Monday as the Voice went to press, and the Ombudsman of Ontario, in an interview scheduled for this Friday. On November 5, Junkin
resigned his seat to protest the way Council reacted to news presented during a closed-door meeting two months earlier, in early September. At the meeting, Junkin says that the results of a financial audit delivered by KPMG revealed Pelham’s debt to be $17 million dollars more than previously disclosed. Rather than make these findings public, Junkin asserts that Council decided
to obtain an immediate $8 million dollar bank loan, then work to improve the appearance of the Town’s finances, including by delaying the release of it 2017 financial statements until late spring 2018. After falsely stating that Junkin had not taken his concerns to Council before resigning, Mayor David Augustyn has adjusted See AUDIT Page 8
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WA S T H I N K I NG OF Alice down the rabbit hole recently as I drove around another unfinished Niagara shopping mall, searching for my dentist’s new location. After 30 years in a downtown St. Catharines office, he had removed to this concrete wasteland that I remember once being an orchard. Weaving my way through a maze of untenanted offices and stores, I counted half a dozen fast-food outlets already up and running. If I get lost, at least I won’t starve to death, I think, as I cut across an empty parking lot that could safely land a 737. Though right now eating anything was a challenge, and why I needed my dentist. The two teeth on my partial bridge had snapped off on a raw carrot, and left me looking like Davey Keon when he held the Stanley Cup the last time the Maple Leafs won it. A little agitated now with my appointment time nearing, I parked outside a barebones office that had people inside and went in for asSee COLUMN SIX Page 16
Page 2
The Voice of Pelham, November 29, 2017
IN THE NEWS
PUBLISHER’S CORNER by Dave Burket
Santa’s coming to town: For the 20th year running, Mr. Claus will put in an appearance during the Fabulous Fenwick Lions’ aptly named Santa Claus Parade, Saturday, December 9, with sleighs-away at 1 PM… On the flip side: It’s not great holiday news for three hundred or so newspaper employees across Canada, whose jobs just vanished in yet another corporate media swap, or merger, or consolidation, or whatever euphemism we’re using these days. As the loss of any man (or woman) diminishes us all, so too does the loss of any newspaper diminish journalism. Locally, according to their new corporate overlords (see story, this page), only two or three Niagara employees look set to depart from what will be the former Postmedia properties, including the Pelham News. As alert readers have long recognized, the Pelham News existed primarily as an advertising extension and flyer wrapper, running news that had already appeared in either the St. Catharines Standard or the Welland Tribune. To our knowledge the paper did not have its own employees, but rather was assembled in the Postmedia graphics department. In any case, we wish anyone whose employment has fallen victim to this turn of events the best in an uncertain future… Also not great for democracy: Governments or government agencies suing civilians.
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That’s what the NPCA tried to do with the activist Ed Smith (page 14). The judge in the case properly rapped the NPCA’s knuckles, likening its approach to that of a Developing World authoritarian. The Voice has seen its share of free-speech threats over the past year or so, particularly relating to our coverage of Town Hall and the Town’s community centre arena project. Canadian law once favoured the bullies in such cases. This is changing, and democracy is the better for it… Apologies are good, too: That said, when we get it wrong we apologize. Ed Smith got it wrong, though not deliberately, according to the judge. His apology to those he mistakenly identified as wrongdoers would go a fair way to drawing a line under the affair, and letting the NPCA get back to reforming itself, a processing seemingly already well under way, in no small part due to Smith’s lobbying… When no news isn’t good news: Public expectation is widespread that tonight’s special Council Meeting at E. L. Crossley (page 14), during which the accounting firm KPMG is set to present various findings to Council related to the Town’s East Fonthill land acquisition scheme, will be a rehearsed performance devoid of actual content. Don’t be so sure. As pressure has mounted on the Town to come clean, so to has pressure mounted on any accounting firm that takes
Voice on vacation!
its ethics seriously. While we’re unlikely to get the entire tale tonight, it may be the start of the last chapter… Bill Karner, Private Eye: The Pelham accountant has come through in spectacular fashion in helping us get to grips with all these numbers floating around lately. He was instrumental this week in guiding Sam Piccolo through 59 million clues to Pelham’s mounting debt (page 1). Karner is also helping us look into a list of other Town transactions, debentures, and financial puzzlements, with such findings coming as soon as we can get straight answers from the Town, the Region, and possibly some psychics… Sitting pretty with his bionic addition: “Pretty” might overstate it, but former Councillor Marv Junkin credits opting for the epidural for his fast recovery from knee replacement surgery. His voice was tired, but his passion was as strong as ever over the weekend when speaking of the Town’s attempt to redefine the word “audit” (page 1)… It’s a Wonderful Life: One of the enduring characters from the Christmas classic is the good-hearted druggist, Mr. Gower. Such drugstores are history, of course, but this doesn’t mean you have to settle for corporate marketing manipulation, either. Glen Sisak and Zenia Winnicki offer a welcome alternative (page 3)... Hey, it’s December already! Keep cozy.
Pelham News to stop publication Four other Niagara papers to close in media shake-up The Pelham News, the weekly spin-off of the Welland Tribune and the St. Catharines Standard, will cease publication by January. On Monday, the media companies Torstar and Postmedia announced that they would be swapping ownership of a number of newspapers across the country, with Postmedia to close 21 publications and Torstar to shutter a further 11. Torstar, which also owns the Toronto Star, will acquire and close the Pelham News, the Fort Erie Times, Niagara Advance, Import News (Port Colborne), and Thorold Niagara News. Torstar will also assume control of the St. Catharines Standard, the Niagara Falls Review, and the Welland Tribune, all of which will continue to be published. Bob Hepburn, Director of Communications for the Toronto Star, said that three employees—and possibly only two—will be severed in Niagara, although Torstar’s closures will mean the loss of 46 jobs across Canada. Hepburn said that many of the papers closed by Torstar “were pretty stripped down,” and that one of the closures, 24Hours Toronto, didn’t have a single employee. Postmedia will be closing 21 of the 22 papers it acquired from Torstar, and 244 employees will be laid off as a result of these closures. The Pelham News, along with the Tribune and the Standard, were purchased by Postmedia from Quebecor in 2014. Much of the Pelham News’ content is identical or similar to that which runs in either the Tribune or the Standard.
Leaf collection delays continue Curbside leaf and yard waste collection delays are continuing across the region. Last week’s collection areas are complete and collection staff are working towards clearing collection routes for this week, according to a Niagara Region news release. In the event collection is incomplete by Friday evening, collection will continue on Saturday, and delays may continue into next week. Te Region ask that residents continue to place their leaf and yard waste material at the curb by 7 AM on their regularly scheduled collection day and ensure it is visible and accessible to collection staff. For more information, residents may call the Region’s Waste Info-Line at 905-356-4141 or 1-800-594-5542, Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM.
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Vol.20 No.48
CELEBRATING OUR 20TH YEAR
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
DSBN wants portion of Town park
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The Comfort Maple myth
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Wednesday, November 30, 2016
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Oops: No fire trucks for you
Haist Street traffic-calming measure a little too effective
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Column Six
Growing up British
Vol.20 No.32
Wednesday October 12, 2016
FREE
Apple Day comes to Fonthill
BY JULIE MANNELL
Special to the VOICE
W
BALLOONING INTEREST Grade 6 student Jinja Shepherd explains her experiment on static electricity at the Glynn A. Green Public School's annual science fair last Friday. See story, page 3. NATE SMELLE PHOTO
Public meeting tonight on school issues BY VOICE STAFF As questions continue to mount regarding an email that Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn quietly sent to a District School Board of Niagara trustee last summer, Augustyn has agreed to address the issue at a public meeting scheduled for this evening, Wednesday, Feb. 8, in Fenwick. Nancy Beamer, speaking for “Names Matter,” a Pelham citizens group lobbying the DSBN to reverse its decision to rename a local public school, confirms that the meeting will be held at Fire Station #2, known locally as the Fenwick Fire Hall, starting at 7:00 PM. While the Mayor has agreed to ap-
Under pressure, Mayor to address email revelation, other E. W. Farr matters pear, says Beamer, DSBN officials associated with the school-naming process have either declined to attend or have not yet responded to the group’s invitation. DSBN Chair, Dale Robinson, to whom Augustyn’s email was addressed last June, has declined to appear, says Beamer, asserting that she would be
“on holidays.” The Voice was unable to independently confirm Robinsion’s intentions. She did not respond to repeated requests for comment on E.W. Farr-related matters before presstime. Beamer, whose group maintains an email list of some 580 residents, says that all members of the public are invited and encouraged to attend the meeting. “We would especially welcome parents and children who are unhappy with the name change,” she says, referring to the contentious decision by the DSBN to consolidate two Pelham See MEETING back page
HEN I WAS young, my father and I would go for long drives along the rural routes of Pelham. We’d blast George Thurgood and roll down the windows because we loved the smell of the breeze, the sensation of crisp Niagara wind beating our cheeks and tangling our hair against our summer-kissed skin. My father was not a sentimental man. He worked in factories and had a Gordon Lightfoot mustache and never shed tears over injuries. Yet something about the Pelham landscape, the hilly backdrop to his childhood and the childhoods of our ancestors, drew him in. He’d stop by a farm or a gathering of woods and, surrendering his manly veneer, tell me a story about the town. This place is precious. This is the earth that granted us life. Here is the place where we happened upon love or here is a site of devastation. On one particular drive sometime in the late ‘90s we stopped at a tree with a plaque. “This tree looks dead,” I said to my father. “It sure is getting there, Julie.” The Comfort Maple is supposedly Canada’s oldest See COLUMN SIX Page 14
Part 2 of 2: Coronation to embarkation
BY VOICE STAFF
A construction error was discovered following the opening of a traffic calming chicane on Haist Street north of Hwy 20 last Monday that prevented large vehicles from passing through. One resident living in the neighbourhood said he contacted the Town after seeing a small schoolbus get stuck as it tried to get through the new traffic calming measure. Later that day while driving behind a cement truck, he said that he became concerned for the public’s safety when the truck had to turn around because it couldn’t get through. “If a small school bus and a cement truck can’t make it through what about a fire
BY HEATHER McLAREN ROHRER
Special to the VOICE
A
Repair measures underway last week to correct a construction error in the chicane. truck or an ambulance?” he said. While waiting for the contractor to return to fix
the mistake, the Town has taken measures to temporarily allow passage for vehicles through the neigh-
VOICE PHOTO
bourhood in the short-term. Manager of Public Works Ryan Cook said that after discovering the issue with
the chicane the morning it first opened, the Town See CHICANE Page 5
Petition-inspired changes coming to 2017 Summerfest BY NATE SMELLE
The VOICE
Representatives from the Pelham Summerfest committee Candy Ashbee and Bill Gibson presented council with a final report on the 2016 Summerfest at the Council meeting on Monday, Nov. 21. Prompted by a story in the Voice in August about a merchant petition to move Summerfest from Pelham Street, in September Town staff met with various stakeholders to hear their complaints, promising at the time that changes in the way Summerfest was mounted would be con-
sidered. The main concerns identified during the community engagement process were security, parking, ensuring customer can access all businesses in town, and liability for damages. How to get all Pelham Street businesses to participate and finding ways to make it beneficial for them to set up a booth were also determined to be of high priority for the committee as they plan for next year’s event. Gibson told Council that the committee is addressing these concerns in a variety of ways. To improve parking, they intend to create bet-
ter signage for out-of-town visitors to designated parking areas and shuttle services. To make participation in Summerfest more enticing to local businesses, they plan to implement a tiered-charge for booths. Under the new system, Pelham Street business owners will be charged the least, other local businesses will pay a slightly higher fee, and vendors from outside Pelham will pay the most. In response to more specific issues for individual businesses, they will also slightly alter the footprint of the event and make adjustments to security. Another way the committee plans
Debbie
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to improve the 2017 Summerfest is by sponsoring and working with the organizers of the Thursday Night Bandshell Concert series to select the artist performing on the first night of Summefest. They also intend to make more use of the smartphone app they launched in 2016. "We are really going to push it this year," Ashbee said. “It really helps to get people to see what events there are so they can plan out where they are going. We will be able to actually help the merchants and local businesses adSee CHANGES Page 5
FTER LUNCH ON Saturday, Mum and Dad had my afternoon cut out for me. Mum had more brass than anyone I knew, and it had to be cleaned. In addition there was the set of silver fish-knives and forks which were never used, but which had to be cleaned and put back in their velvetlined box. Next was a walk to the newsagents to pay for the daily delivery of the Daily Mirror. As I said, Dad was a printer, but when he was 37 he had been rejected for a job, as being too old, by the printers of the Beano. For that reason, my favourite comic was not allowed in the house, but while I was paying the papers, the newsagent let me have a 'shoofty' at the Beano. I'd explained my predicament and he understood completely. Sundays were different again. Dad would play golf on summer mornings and billiards in winter. Then he'd stop for a 'refresher' at the local and would pick up the prawns, cockles, winkles or whelks we'd be having for tea later. Meanwhile, Mum was roasting the 'joint' and potatoes. I got to make the Yorkshire pud, and mint
See COLUMN SIX Page 14
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While shopping in Fonthill between Friday and Sunday, keep an eye out for Beavers, Cubs and Scouts in front of local stores with bushels of apples. As part of the annual Apple Day campaign, Scouting youth of all ages will be trading apples for donations. The yearly fundraising drive is an important way for young Scouts to connect with the communities they are serving, says Leah Marie of Scouts Canada. “The Apple Day campaign holds a great tradition of being able to have youth interacting within the communities they live in,” she says. “All of the Apple Day donations stay directly within the group that re-
The goal is to have these youth develop into confident and well-rounded individuals
ceives them, enabling youth to have experiences that build character, challenge them, and allow them to try new things. The goal is to have these youth develop into confident and wellrounded individuals, better prepared for success. Apple Day helps to achieve that.”
“Any money raised during Apple Day goes towards improving the Scouting program by providing more outdoor adventures for youth, camping equipment, canoes and paddles, training and many other endeavours that the youth want to experience,” says Marie. Scouts Canada has some 100,000 members across Canada, and carries out programs for boys, girls
Joining their principal, Karen Simpson, at the Sept. 19 Council meeting as part of a delegation from EL Crossley Secondary School, students Abby Loewen and Neenah Williams presented Council with a list of reasons that they should immediately approve the construction of the new sidewalk proposed along Hwy. 20. The asphalt side-
walk/trail is slated to be built between the south side of the road from Timmsdale Crescent to the high school. Because of the large volume of motor vehicle traffic travelling at high speeds through this area, and because of the necessity for students to tread this path on a daily basis, many residents would like to see the sidewalk go in sooner than later. After delivering to Council a petition containing
Many residents would like to see the sidewalk go in sooner than later the names of 450 students calling for a safer walk to school, Simpson handed the
podium over to Loewen and Williams to plead their case. Loewen told Council that because there are a lot of students who have work placements and coop placements during the school year, this is the only route for many of them to travel. As one of the students facing this predicament, Williams said she has had no other option but to walk along the dangerous highway.
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and youth ages 5-25. This year the 3rd Fonthill Group, which includes Beavers to Ventures (youth ages 5- 25) will be hitting the streets to drum-up support. Over the weekend, Scouts will be set up in Fonthill outside Sobeys, Tim Hortons, Target Gas station, Fonthill Shopping Plaza and the Pioneer Gas station at the corner of Hwys 20 and 24.
Town Council approves sidewalk to serve E. L. Crossley BY NATE SMELLE
The VOICE
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Second year Beaver with the 3rd Fonthill Group, Russell Letford offers a fresh apple to shoppers in Pelham during the 2015 Apple Day campaign. SUPPLIED PHOTO A longtime Canadian tradition, Apple Day began in 1932 in Saint John, New Brunswick, when Scouts handed out 21,000 apples as a way to say thank you to the community. In return for their generosity, many people offered them donations. From then on Scouts have reached out through Apple Day to raise funds for their programs.
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Column Six It doesn’t get better than Autumn
Longtime Scouting tradition dates to 1932
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Column Six
BY VOICE STAFF The District School Board of Niagara is requesting that the Town of Pelham cede a portion of Cherry Ridge Park for use as a soccer field to serve the students of the new Wellington Heights Public School, formerly the E. W. Farr Memorial Public School, in Fenwick. Currently under renovation and expansion, the new school will combine students and staff from the previous school and Pelham Centre, where classes are being held while construction continues. Two letters, containing virtually identical text but signed by different authorities, were sent last week to nearby residents of the park, as well as to parents of Pelham Centre students. “The DSBN is currently building onto Wellington Heights Public School on Alsop Drive,” states the letter. “The size of the school's addition means the existing small soccer field will be eliminated. The Town and the Board have been discussing the possibility of working together to create a field for both the school and the
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In an effort to bring further attention and deterrence to driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs, the Niagara Regional Police Service reports the names of those people who are charged with an alleged criminal impaired driving offence in the Region. None of the following charges have been proved in court. In addition to being charged, these individuals are also bound by a Ministry of Transportation 90-Day Administrative Driver’s License Suspension and are prohibited from operating a motor vehicle on a roadway. The public is encouraged to contact the Niagara Regional Police Service Traffic Safety Hotline or Crime Stoppers to report those who are driving in contravention of the suspension. The following individuals have been charged criminally with impaired driving by alcohol or drugs, driving with a blood alcohol concentration above 80 mgs of alcohol in 100 ml of blood, or refusing to provide a breath / blood sample. Brian D. GRANGER, 57, St. Catharines Richard A. BLACK, 60, St. Catharines Melinda GURMAN, 42, Stoney Creek William K. BARADZIEJ, 56, Grimsby Danny BACIC, 61, Grimsby Stephen J. ZACCONI, 27, Buffalo NY Keith WALKER, 79, Port Colborne Kyle R. RUSSELL, 19, Killaloe Amanda WESTGATE, 40, Welland Johannes R. J. LANGEDYK, 37, Welland James A. NEELIN, 29, St. Catharines Tricia OLIVER, 35, Niagara Falls Evgeny KOTLIAROV, 26, Niagara-on-the-Lake The Niagara Regional Police Service is committed to reducing impaired driving offences through education and the apprehension of offenders through enforcement programs like RIDE. Impaired driving is still the leading cause of criminal deaths in Canada and destroys thousands of lives every year.
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John and Linda Graham in Messina, Italy. Vado al mare!
NRPS impaired driving charges
“I start work at 2:30 PM and school lets out at 2:15 PM so I can’t take any other route,” Williams explained. “I have had friends, family, teachers and other community members reach out to me in the past about how this is unsafe and how there should be another alternative for us.” Looking ahead to winter, when she will need to walk this path three or four times See SIDEWALK Page 2
HERE IS NO BETTER time to cycle than Fall. It matters not whether you’re new to the sport, a seasoned recreational cyclist, racer, touring rider or mountain biker; we all have reason to look forward to autumn. Summer’s heat has faded, and the streams of sweat that ran from soggy helmets into our eyes are now just slight perspiration. Fitness is peaking from lots of saddle time, making those tough climbs of Spring a breeze in Autumn. It’s hard to beat the feeling of beginning a crisp, cool Fall ride with a slight shiver, knowing your efforts will soon warm you perfectly. The hues of Autumn are outstanding. A Pelham route as simple as following our southern boundary is one that would make most Toronto cyclists jealous, especially when our forests and fields are ablaze with colour. Begin from Harold Black Park, and zig-zag south along Effingham Rd toward the Welland River. If you’re new to cycling, it’s important to know south is the direction away from any hills. If you avoid the morning and evening weekday rush hours caused by those travelling through Pelham between Wainfleet See AUTUMN Page 3
Indulgence Bakery Mossimo’s Pelham Street Grille Sobeys Fonthill Peter Piper’s Pubhouse DeVries Fruit Farm Beamer’s Hardware & TV Fonthill Library Black Pearl Fish & Chips Bob’s Boys Antiques Moku’s Family Health Pharmacy Fonthill Fitness Fenwick Pie Company McDonald’s Fonthill Legion Semenuk’s Gas Bar Target Store Tim Horton’s Giant Tiger Pelham Town Hall Pub on the Hill Zee Lube Express Care Lazy Loon Minor Bros Stores Avondale Stores A-1 Market Sobeys South Pelham Grill on Canboro Pelham Library Ridge Berry Farm Circle-K
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The Voice of Pelham, November 29, 2017
Page 3
Writing their own future, one prescription at a time Glen Sisak and Zenia Winnicki left Shoppers and haven’t looked back BY SAMUEL PICCOLO
The VOICE
A few weeks ago, one of the new Family Health Pharmacy’s regular customers, Bill, came in with a gift for pharmacist Glen Sisak. Sisak was for many years on staff at Shoppers Drug Mart in Fonthill, until he and his partner, Zenia Winnicki, opened Family Health in August. He had known Bill for some time. Working long hours at the new pharmacy meant that Sisak hadn’t made it to the barber, and Bill took notice. “I just can’t get used to your hair,” Bill said. “So I brought you something.” Sisak said Bill pulled out his wallet and produced a $4.99 coupon from the chain haircutting salon that had opened opposite the pharmacy in the new East Fonthill shopping plaza. “For him to plan ahead and keep that coupon for me—that’s really something,” said Sisak last week. Sisak went in for the haircut, but was worried that by the time Bill returned to the pharmacy it would have all grown back. “I hope he comes back soon. I don’t know what he’s going to do if I have long hair again. He’ll probably give me the five bucks.” Sisak laughed. “Anyway. It’s good to know that people are worried about me.” Opening Family Health may have meant forgoing his coiffing, but Sisak insisted that the first three months have been enjoyable. “We’re above our expectations, once we learned how to have real expectations,” he said, turning to Winnicki. “What did Lou from Niagara Street say? ‘Whatever your worse projection is, halve it’?” Winnicki nodded, and Sisak laughed again. “That’s it,” he said. “We’re above half of our worst projection.” Sisak, 54, speaks in low, quiet tones that are almost inaudible at times, but when he laughs, as he does with greater frequency the longer a conversation goes, his voice grows louder. Winnicki looks a decade younger than her 44 years. “Not me,” said Sisak. “I look exactly as old as I am.” While it’s true that Sisak’s hair— $4.99 trimmed, though getting longer—is mostly gray, he carries himself with the airs of a younger man. After 15 years at Shoppers, it took some audacity for Sisak and Winnicki to strike out on their own. “Maybe it would be more stressful if it were my money,” he said, and this time Winnicki laughed too. (Sisak and Winnicki do not own the pharmacy.) “Well,” she said. “You’re motivated to keep working so that you still have a job.” “That’s true. Maybe at some point we’ll be able to hire some help and take a day off—or a vacation,” Sisak said. For now, it’s just the two of them working six days a week, though both say that the size of the operation is what excited them most. Winnicki, a pharmacy technician, worked for Shoppers for two decades, and both she and Sisak liked the idea of a smaller shop that can better focus on prescriptions and medicine. “In all my time at Shoppers, I found that I was only really advising people to go to two aisles,” said Sisak. “And there are some people who come in our door here and don’t even make it past the ves-
tibule. ‘Oh,’ they’ll say. ‘I thought this was a real pharmacy.’” Despite its small size—the “floor” is barely bigger than a half-dozen vestibules—Sisak says that they generally have what customers are looking for. “They’ll come in and say, ‘You probably don’t have this,’ and I’ll challenge them and see. And ninety percent of the time we do,” he said. “That’s thanks to all the crazy things that I made you buy,” said Winnicki. “True,” said Sisak. “A while back someone came and bought all of our dental wax, which costs $2.49. He said that he had been looking all over for it, and that we’re the only ones who stocked it. We started out just ordering things ‘recommended by Glen,’ and then ‘Glen’ realized that he might not always know what people want.” “Right,” said Winnicki. “And there are those other things that people just want because they want them.” Sisak struggled to find an example. “Pepto Bismol would be one of those,” he said. “I don’t think that it really does much of anything. It’s harmless, but it’s marketed for all of those things—” “I could do the little dance,” said Winnicki. “Nausea, heartburn, diarrhea…I’d really recommend a Gravol for nausea, and an Imodium for diarrhea. But some people swear by it, so we have it,” said Sisak. He thought back to instances during the store’s first three months when someone had bought something obscure. “An older man came in to buy iodine to clean out a cut. Not something that’s often used now.” Over a month after the arrival of the flu vaccination, Sisak says that the first wave of adopters has dwindled—that the people who get vaccinated early have already suffered the flu before and don’t want to risk getting it again. “Now it’ll be those who say, ‘Everyone around me is sick: I need the vaccine!’ That’s all right. We’ll still give it to them.” Sisak and Winnicki have programmed the cash register to display, “Flu Shot Available Now.” The messaging serves as a conversation starter for Sisak, who says that while some people remain skeptical of the vaccination’s merits, most people don’t know just how bad the flu can be. “Most people who think they’ve had the flu, haven’t,” he said. “They’ve had a cold.” The flu and cold viruses have similar symptoms, but influenza is invariably more severe and can last for up to three weeks, and can kill you, a point that Sisak tries to communicate with anyone expressing skepticism. These longer conversations are one of the primary reasons that Sisak and Winnicki were attracted to the new pharmacy. “We can do more with less,” says Winnicki. “We’re trying to find a better way to practise.” Both Sisak and Winnicki seem to have enjoyed their time working for Shoppers—they worked there for a combined 35 years, after all—but both do seem pleased to be free from corporate restrictions. “There are guidelines about a lot of things,” says Sisak, from the location of products on shelves to the staffing of the store. “It’s a little bit
Glen Sisak and Zenia Winnicki behind their Family Health Pharmacy counter last week. intimidating, thinking that we have to compete with the big drug stores. But we’re not trying to be a Shoppers Drug Mart, and we’re never going to be. Part of that is because we’re right beside Food Basics. We purposefully don’t sell toilet paper or things like that. So if anyone comes in and asks, ‘Where’s the tonic water on sale?’…we won’t have it. Food Basics is that way.” At the final conference Sisak attended when he still worked for Shoppers, it was announced that a Shoppers in Toronto would start selling fresh sushi. He laments how so many corporate chains have tried to create one-stop superstores. “I think the biggest blowback came when Canadian Tire started selling food,” says Sisak. “People said: ‘There’s no way I’m buying food at Canadian Tire.’” (After a three-year trial that evidently did not meet expectations, the company stopped selling groceries in 2012.) Sisak says that several customers have come in to Family Health and said, “This is just like an old-fashioned pharmacy,” an assessment in which Sisak takes pride. “When I was younger and doing work on my house, I thought that I always had to go all the way to the Home Depot to get supplies. But one time, a piece of my underground hose was cut, and I went to Beamer’s instead,” referring to the hardware store in downtown Fonthill. “One of the guys there—who’s probably worked there forever— brought me down into the basement and cut me off a foot of the hose I needed, added two clamps, and sent me off. That’s what we want to offer here.” In many ways, Sisak says that Family Health reminds him of his first big job, as the Director of Pharmacy at the hospital in Niagara Falls. Sisak was only 26 then, and shortly out of pharmaceutical training in Toronto. During his 11 years at the hospital, much of his time was spent interacting with doctors and other employees, not patients, making the job as much about human resources as about medicine. Sisak says that he learnt his most important lesson shortly after arriving at the hospital. “Someone came in for the accrediting process. I had been through that before in Toronto— staying up all night organizing the books and paperwork and making sure you had all your ducks in a row. This guy didn’t do any of that that. He just sat next to me and asked whether I had done performance appraisals on the staff yet. I was a little intimidated, since I was twenty six and a lot of the staff were in their fifties. But the point
was that you have to hire the right people. And if you hire the right people, they’ll all do the things that they’re supposed to, and that stuff will take care of itself.” Sisak stopped and looked at Winnicki. “You learned how important human resources were,” she said, then joked, “Now you only have a staff of one.” Since Family Health shares a building with a medical practice, Sisak and Winnicky interact frequently with doctors and nurses, just as he once did in the hospital. “It makes things easier for patients, since they can immediately fill their prescriptions, and we can make changes and talk to the doctors if need be,” Sisak said. When he left the hospital in 2000, it meant that he could no refer to studies or use physician-speak. “If you’re talking to someone from the public, you can’t mention this study or that study,” said Sisak, adding that he found it rewarding to be able to talk to people about their medications in ways that were clear. Now that he’s next to the doctors, he can speak in both dialects. Last week a woman came in to ask Sisak about a certain vaccination, and when Sisak told her that a prescription was required, she said that she’d stop by her old doctor in Newmarket, where she used to live. After she left, Sisak said that the medical practice next to them had been swamped with applications once it became known that they were accepting new patients. “Between all the people new to town, those without a doctor, and patients of Doctor Pelser [the Fonthill physician whose license has been revoked due to an administrative error], the office has really been inundated. I think that they’ve had to start prioritizing patients without a doctor over those who have doctors a long way away, which is too bad.” One of the practice’s doctors, Dibyendu Goswami, heard Sisak speaking and walked over to join the conversation. He began talking about the problems in the health care system. “The biggest trouble is the bureaucracy,” he said. “They take away hospital beds and replace them with chairs—chairs for administrative employees to sit in.” Sisak smiled. “That was the idea during the amalgamation of the hospitals into the Niagara Health System. But it didn’t seem to really work. When I started at Niagara Falls, there were over four hundred beds, but that went down to somewhere in the two hundreds.” Despite this, he’s no alarmist. “When I was starting out in To-
VOICE PHOTO
ronto, it was near the beginning of the AIDS crisis,” Sisak said. “No one knew what to do—patients would be on stretchers in the hallways because we didn’t know how communicable it was. We’d usually only see them at the end, when they’d have serious sarcomas. It was really just palliative care. But in my lifetime, people [with HIV] will die of something else.” While the AIDS crisis has subsided, there are others that have taken its place. Foremost now is that of opioid addiction, which has killed more Canadians than any epidemic since the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. Though the situation has attracted greater attention in the United States, it is also a problem even in Niagara. Just after Family Health opened, it was broken into during the night, and Sisak thinks that the burglars were looking for opiates. “It was not a criminal mastermind,” he said. “The supply has been tightened, so people are getting desperate.” Sisak said the awareness now has correlated into heightened caution in the profession, and that prescriptions are associated with an individual’s health card to prevent acquisition of opiates beyond need. “It’s hard because these opiates are needed by some people. Fentanyl was great in the operating room—anesthesiologists would use it as a fast-acting agent,” he said. Sisak pointed to the efforts made to combat abuse of the drugs, including the creation of pills that cannot be crushed into a snortable powder, or which contain a neutralizer which is activated if the pills are liquidized and injected. Sisak and Winnicki see this overall concern as one consistent with their approach. In addition to the face-to-face attention they say they’re able to devote to everyone who picks up medication, Sisak highlighted the new computer system that he says is more comprehensive than at other pharmacies. “It will help us make sure that no one falls through the cracks.” After speaking to Goswami, Sisak went back to working at his computer. “Vacation, that’s a dirty word here right now.” Sisak suggested that he’ll be able to live vicariously through all of the patients he’ll be immunizing against tropical diseases. “We take the time to call people six months later and remind them to come in for a booster that will keep them immunized for ten years,” he said, and then started to laugh. “So I’ll be able to say: ‘How was your vacation? Now here, let me stab you with a needle.’”
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The Voice of Pelham, November 29, 2017
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
OPINION
The opinions expressed in submitted commentary and letters to the editor are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the Voice of Pelham.
The Voice of Pelham is a 1211858 Ontario Limited publication David Burket, Publisher 2-1428 Pelham St., P.O. Box 1489, Fonthill, ON L0S1E0
COMMENTARY / OP-ED Jim Pitt How about an unscripted Town Hall meeting?
A
MERICAN POLITICS is chaotic and dynamic. A couple of times a year highly paid powerful men and women, people that govern the most powerful nation on earth, do something you would never see a local politician in Pelham do. These people, who represent millions of voters, go back to their home districts and states, rent a large space that seats thousands of people, set up a podium or just a microphone, walk out onto a stage or wander into the middle of the crowd, and without the aid of any experts, lawyers, accountants, consultants or administrators, they answer the voters’ questions. These meetings can be loud, raucous affairs. People hold signs, yell out chants, tell stories of hardship the politicians’ policies might have caused. Generally, the politicians have a very uncomfortable time of it. They are booed, shouted down and sometimes even threatened. They must really dread these meetings, but they do it. It’s their ultimate responsibility. Sometimes politicians rise to the occasion. They
truly believe in what they are doing and, through reasoned and forceful persuasion, they convince the voters that they, the pol-
They must really dread these meetings, but they do it. It’s their ultimate responsibility. iticians, are on the right path. They are respected for their candour and even cheered for their courage. Any politician who refuses to hold this type of meeting to allow the voters their most fundamental democratic right would probably be voted out in the next election. Here in Pelham nothing of this sort is allowed. Since March 2016, when the Town held a Council meeting to approve the new arenas, each decision made by the Mayor has been accompanied with
NEED HELP? MAKE THE CALL Distress Centre For depression, distress, and crisis. 24 hour help line: 905-688-3711   Mental Health and Addictions Access 1-866-550-5205 (Toll Free) Gambler’s Anonymous 905-351-1616
Kids Help Phone Service for youth. 416-586-5437 800-668-6868 (Crisis Line) www.kidshelpphone. ca Assaulted Women’s Helpline Mobile calls to: #SAFE (#7233) 1-866-863-0511 (Toll Free)
Alcoholics Anonymous Find a Niagara meeting. 905-682-2140 Crime Stoppers 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) www.niagaratips.com Text 274637(CRIMES), keyword Niagara, then your tip
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surveys, reports, expert panels, secret in-camera meetings and misinformation. Every step of the way one gets the impression that all aspects of Town governance must go through the filters the Mayor puts in place. These filters are highly staged and extremely expensive. When a private citizen challenges a land transaction, that individual is attacked and marginalized. When a fellow Regional Councillor requests accountability on behalf of the citizens he represents, he is belittled and discounted. When Regional Council questions Town expenditures, it is accused of being political. When a respected Town Councillor resigns, he is belittled by the Mayor. He is accused of expressing, “garbled, confused and inaccurate information.” This pattern repeats itself at every turn. The Mayor is holding a meeting at E.L.Crossley tonight to release information about the Town’s finances and land deals. See MEETING next page
Letters Thanks to the Decoration Elves A heartfelt thank you to all the volunteers who helped us decorate the town in red and green last week! To Sally at the Town of Pelham for making bows, to the bow-tying gang of Sandy 1, Sandy 2, Bernice, Mike, and Doreen, to the huge group of elves who came out to help us hang the evergreen boughs —Jayne, Sandra, Jamie, Isaac, Mike, Derek, Paul, Fred, Tina, Lance, Joe, Ryan,
Still time to help The article by Samuel Piccolo was accurate and excellent [Me gusta ayuda— Fonthill man takes more than himself to Cuba, Nov. 8. p.12]. I
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received a number of positive comments, particularly offers of donations. Repairs to the roof and other structural damage of the Marcos
home in Trinidad, Cuba from Hurricane Irma are ongoing and near completion. MonSee HELP next page
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 Members of Pelham Town Council
Member of Provincial Parliament
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 Marvin Junkin mjunkin@pelham.ca 905-684-4870
Electoral District: Niagara West-Glanbrook
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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Ward 2 Councillor Catherine King cking@pelham.ca 905-658-8599
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Councillor Gary Accursi gaccursi@pelham.ca 905-892-5528
Trash, scrap, garages, clean-outs.
Ward 3 Councillor John Durley jdurley@pelham.ca 905-892-5388
302 Canboro Road @ Effingham
Call Bob at 905.736.0051
Councillor Peter Papp ppapp@pelham.ca 905-328-6008
Community Centre project updates: www.pelham.ca/pcc
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Cassie, Trina, Talon, Ryan, Trudy, John and Terry —well done! The town looks great! Warmest thanks extend to Paul Ryan for his tireless work cutting and putting together all those evergreen boughs—500 in total spread throughout the Town of Pelham! Wishing everyone the joy of the season Gayle Baltjes-Bazinet Star Tile
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The Voice of Pelham, November 29, 2017
Page 5
OPINION Letters
continued
The Dr. Pelser matter Let me get this straight, Dr. Pelser has practiced medicine for the past 10 years, has been licensed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons (C.P.S.O.) where he had to get liability insurance from the Canadian Medical Protective Association (C.M.P.A.). The history and legal structure of the C.M.P.A. was founded in 1901 and given royal assent in 1913— as a not-for-profit mutual defense organization of Physicians who practiced medicine in Canada — the C.M.P.A. is not a regulatory body such as the C.P.S.O. The C.M.P.A. does not license, regulate or retain authority over physicians in the Province of Ontario. There is a legal order: a doctor must obtain his license from the C.P.S.O. before they can apply for a membership in the C.M.P.A., clearly indicating the doctor failed to pay his membership fees to the C.M.P.A.— some $1600 dol-
lars. For the C.P.S.O. to have the doctor start all over again to get his license back —the
The threat to start over again indicates that Pelser is not a Canadian citizen doctor would have to go to an under-serviced medical area for a three-year period before he could open his new medical center. The threat to start over again indicates that Pelser is not a Canadian citizen. The people who are supporting Dr. Pelser may have to do more than writing a sanctimonious group as suggested. The doctor’s
HELP continued from previous page etary donations toward the replacement of air conditioning would be greatly appreciated. I am waiting on a medical report due Dec 5 for the replacement of an 81-year-old lady’s hearing aid that has water damage. I hope to purchase the hearing aid here in
MEETING continued from previous page This information will not be in the least enlightening. I say this because the press release indicates that an audit has now become a very sensitive “report” with legal ramifications. This tactic gives the Mayor the excuse he needs to remain silent: I can’t speak to that issue, our law yers told me so.
plight by going rogue (IE media) they have already stated their position, by demanding the doctor start all over again—(IE Foreign Policy). Margaret Rosss, is the general counsel for the C.M.P.A. and a partner with the law firm of Gowling Lafleur Henderson. She loves hearing from the public and as a lawyer she’ll answer any legal issues put to her—for example a fact that must be known to the C.M.P.A., are surgeons in teaching hospitals allowed to run two operating rooms in the team approach simultaneously, which is known, by physicians, administrators, compliance officers, booking clerks, nurses, residents and others— when the only person seemingly unaware of the practice is the patient— who is forced to sign a consent form, if they wish to be treated. Albert Solomon Fenwick
Canada. Anyone wanting to donate may do so by sending an Interact transfer to warrendmason@outlook.com I would like to thank the Voice for doing this article on Cuba. Thank you in advance to anyone who would like to help make this possible for the residents in Cuba. Warren Mason Fonthill
This is a challenge to you, Mayor. Tonight you and Council will hold a meeting that the taxpayers are invited to attend. According to the press release there will be no questions allowed. Instead of yet another controlled, managed and frustrating night of expert reports, and vague legal mumblings, try standing up in front of the voters, take questions without aid of any filters,
OPENING FOR MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Pelham Cares Inc. is a non-profit charitable organization whom has been providing food assistance, medical transportation and youth recreation subsidies to low income Pelham families, for over thirty (30) years. Applications are invited to fill Director openings on the all-volunteer Board of Directors. Interested individuals ideally will have: A commitment to help promote the vision and mandate of our organization; Experience in business management or support; or Experience in community management or leadership; or Experience in financial management. All Board members are expected to: Regularly attend all board meetings and important related meetings; Be informed about the organization’s mission, vision and programs; Be actively involved, serving on at least one (1) committee; Attend at least three (3) program events annually. Please note that Board meetings occur at 9:00 a.m. on the third (3) Tuesday of each month (excluding July and August). Interested parties are asked to submit a cover letter and resume via email info@pelhamcares.org, or delivered to our office at 191 Hwy 20 East, Fonthill, L0S 1E0. Questions can be directed to 905-892-5300. For more information refer to www.pelhamcares.org.
and tell your story in the most honest and forthright manner you can muster. Your own law yer, Donald C. DeLorenzo said, “Council should carry on
BEST EXPRESSED The winners of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 613’s Remembrance Day Poster, Poem & Essay Contest. From left, Chair Jacqueline Schwenker , Marsia Giammarco, Julia Tremeer, Mia Colangelo, Olivia Gibson, Reid Rochon, Veteran Jim Summersides. Absent Zoe Falardeau. SUPPLIED PHOTO
The truth will set you free At the latest emergency Pelham Council Threat Fest, Mayor Augustyn promised to tell us how they would punish Mr Junkin, but the Town lawyer set that straight and shot the legs out from under him. Following that it almost appeared that Councilor Papp was considering stepping up to walk tall in Mr Junkin’s footsteps. The residents were preparing to cheer him towards the light of truth but he pulled back. The chances of political life after 2018 will be very slim unless the truth is told. To all councillors, Town staff and employees, with the audit and present it an open public forum where it could respond to comments and respond with facts.” A meeting where the public must remain silent
we understand the pressure. This is your chance to step up and tell what you know. The law protects whistleblowers, and there is nothing in the Mayor’s bag of threats that can hold you liable for telling the truth. You will be protected. Your opportunity is now and in total confidentiality and anonymity, we suggest you contact Regional Chair, Alan Caslin alan. caslin@niagararegion.ca or call 905-9806000, and he will take it from there. Curt Harley Pelham D.E.B.T.
is not fulfilling your own law yer’s recommendation. If a United States senator or congressman can face his or her constituents, so can you.
Stop hiding behind the barricades you so cleverly erect, stop wasting taxpayers’ time and money, and stop erecting even more barriers to the truth.
Professional SERVICES Directory Dr. Ann Volk Dr. Randy Pauls Dr. Jeanette (Helmuth) Ngo
Optometrists
Mon, Wed, Fri • 8am - 5:30pm Tue • 8 am - 7pm Thu • 8:45am - 7pm 1405 South Pelham, Fonthill • 905.892.5191
Dr. Ken Sawatzky Dental Surgeon
905-892-5002 1428 Pelham St.
Joe Della Marina DD,LD Denturist 905-892-1414
Family Dentistry
1428 Pelham Street, Fonthill www.drkensawatzky.com
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.)
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The Voice of Pelham, November 29, 2017
www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
Pelham rider wins a first at Winter Fair Rachel Jaeger successful in “Royal” debut BY VOICE STAFF her competition was a real asset in her preparation. “It’s a completely different environment, and my horse needed to get used to it too.” The horse that Jaeger rode during the season,
I knew he would be going back to his owner and the farm where he had lived his whole life
Rachel Jaeger & Yaagobomb, winner of the Adult Amateur 18-35 Stake class at the 2017 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair horse show. SUPPLIED PHOTO be a while before I enter again.” During the season, Jaeger must travel a lot for provincial competitions— some as far away as Ottawa—and this travel involves packing up horses and ordering supplies for them for the time away.
NOW IN OUR SEVENTH SEASON FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED
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in sociology and criminology at Brock University, she is now pursuing paralegal certification at Mohawk College in Hamilton. “The drive isn’t great— it’s an hour each way,” she says. Jaeger is slated to graduate in the spring, and the recent Ontario
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Yaago, was one that she leased for nine months from a stable in Ottawa. “I just took him on a whim,” she says. “It’s hard to find the right horse, and usually you go and get to know a horse first.” With her victory, Jaeger’s gamble on Yaago evidently paid off. After the Royal, Yaago returned to Ottawa. “That was definitely a sad day,” says Jaeger. “But I knew that he was going back to his owner and the farm where he had lived his whole life, so I knew that he’d be happy there.” Competing with horses is very expensive, and Jaeger says that she won’t be competing at the Royal next year. “I’m very lucky that my parents have helped me out, but I have to save up a lot of my own money, too and it’ll probably
RS PE
Competing in her first ever Royal Agricultural Winter Fair earlier this month, Pelham’s Rachel Jaeger finished first in the Adult Amateur 18-35 State Class event. Jaeger, who is 24 and has been riding for 20 years, has been attending the Royal—as the fair is known—as a spectator since she was very young, and had worked at the Royal in years past too, so getting to compete at the event was particularly special for her. The Royal has existed since 1922 and is held at Exhibition Place in Toronto, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. “I qualified for the event from my provincial rankings throughout the season,” says Jaeger. “At the Royal, there are twelve spots for Ontario, four for Quebec, and four each for the West and the East.” Jaeger’s provincial season ran from May to September, with each individual event providing points to a rider’s overall total standing. (“There are so many points systems,” says Jaeger. “It’s very complicated.”) Jaeger rides at Sherwood Farm, in St. Catharines, and though her competition only spanned two days at the Royal, she was there for the entire week and a half to help take care of the Farm’s other horses. “There were a lot of three a.m. starts,” she says. “Actually, that’s a late start time. There were some one a.m. starts, too.” Jaeger says that arriving early to the Royal and spending time there before
colleges strike made her worried that this could be postponed. “The only good thing to come from the strike was that it went on during the competition, so I could be there without worrying about my schoolwork,” says Jaeger. Now that classes have resumed and Yaago has returned to Ottawa, Jaeger says that the winter will be much quieter than the rest of the season, though she says that she will still ride throughout. “It’s a time for the horses to rest, too. Throughout the year, we try to give them weeks off, but the winter is also when they can recover.” Sherwood Farm is home to many horses that are not ridden competitively, including 25-year-old retiree that Jaeger rides when she isn’t trying to train. “We also have some rescue horses that we got at a livestock auction in Kitchener,” she says, explaining that many of the animals at the auction are headed for slaughter. While there seem to be a lot of horse farms in Niagara, Jaeger says that most of the competitors come from the GTA, where there are big farms and “big money.” “We’re always happy when someone from Niagara competes at the Royal and does well,” she says. Though there would seem to be a divide between those from big moneyed farms and those from smaller, rural, more traditional places, Jaeger says that this doesn’t last. “You might think that,” she says. “But then you start talking to them, and you realize that the people are pretty much the same.”
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Happy Best Wishes a d a n a C for the New Year Audit: Former councillor stands by assertion that Council intended to conceal audit results Day!
Seasons Greetings Pelham The Voice of Pelham, November 29, 2017 www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
Page 8
continued from Page 1
course in recent days, asserting that the Town cannot comment on Junkin’s allegations because they relate to a “privileged report” concerning an “in-
dentifiable person.” Bunk, says Junkin. The 63-year-old retired dairy farmer spent much of last week in the hospital, where his right knee was replaced. He returned home Friday and the Voice
ANNOUNCEMENT to all patients Effective January 1, 2018, Dr. Bak and Dr. Grant, at Pelham Medical Associates, will be closing the walk-in clinic in order to concentrate on their family practices. We will continue to provide after-hours services for the patients of Drs. Bak, Grant, Lawrence, and Pauls. Thank you.
caught up with him on Saturday. With family members coming and going, and a former constituent visiting, Junkin sat in his kitchen, rehabilitation walker at the ready, a no-nonsense adhesive strip running several inches above and below his right kneecap. “How does an audit become a ‘report,’” he asked, shaking his head. “Three people talked—the Mayor, the Treasurer, and the KPMG auditor,” said Junkin. “No lawyers. There was never a single word said about the audit being connected to anyone—current employee, former employee, nobody.” Junkin stood by the account he gave in a Voice interview published the week he resigned. What prompted the audit, he said, had nothing to do with lawyers or lawsuits, but rather a puzzling discovery made by incoming Treasurer Teresa Quinlin shortly after she was hired. “She saw that the bank statements were different to the Town’s statements,” reiterated Junkin on Saturday. “That’s it. No lawyers, no lawsuits.” Junkin said that the KPMG auditor’s presentation, with Council’s questions, lasted about a half hour. While one of the Town’s attorneys was present, he did not speak. Junkin remembered another of Quinlin’s assurances to Council, that while the news was bad, the new
sip, eat, chat, repeat!
community centre arena project would still go forward, with some changes. “She said that because of what was found, the landscaping would have to be delayed by two or three years.” Junkin shook his head.
anything new. matters. (The Voice has The Town has not rebeen unable to reach Pupo sponded to Freedom of Infor comment, despite mulformation requests filed by tiple attempts.) the Voice for the KPMG auOn Saturday, Junkin dit results and other docuacknowledged that the ments pertaining to Counnext item• on the agenda cil’s September 5 meeting. during the September 5 meeting related to negotiations over a non-disclosure agreement sought for an ex-employee. The employee, dismissed earlier in the year, had been holding out for a larger severance amount. Council, he says, elected to continue negotiating with the ex-employee “in good faith.” The Town’s recent claims that the audit is a “report,”• relating to legal ◆ Town matters1 subject to soliciWard of Pelham tor-client privilege, is a smokescreen intended to prevent the public from When asked by the Voice learning the truth, said whether she had reason to Junkin. question the truthfulness What’s more, after of the Town’s financial Council was told that documents when she arTown finances were not rived on the job, Treasurer as they appeared, it had a Teresa Quinlin responded duty to inform creditors, including Infrastructure with a single, “No.” When asked who authorized the Ontario, said Junkin, of summer audit, Quinlin these changed circumsaid, “I am not able to disstances. That Council or cuss content on matters Town staff apparently which occurred in a closed did not do so may constitute •fraud, and was session meeting.” “I’m old enough to rewhat prompted Junkin to schedule his meeting with member Watergate,” said Junkin. “I remember NixNiagara Regional Police on going on television and on Monday. saying, ‘There will be no Junkin also said he whitewash at the White planned to attend tonight’s special Council House.’ Well, a few months later Nixon was on that meeting at E.L. Crossley, but didn’t expect to hear helicopter.”
Councillor
Richard Rybiak
Ward 1 Town of Pelham
Happy Three people talked Christmas Greetings! Canada day!—the Mayor, the
Treasurer, and the Councillor Councillor KPMG auditor
Gary Accursi & Family Family Marvin Junkin & Ward 2 Town of Pelham Marv Junkin.
FILE PHOTO
Happy Best of the CanadaSeason Day! Holiday
“The landscaping.” In declining to address the substance of Junkin’s allegations, the Town has alluded to ongoing legal issues as a rationale for staying silent. However, as of last Friday, the Voice was unable to find any claims filed against the Town, at either the Welland or the St. Catharines courthouses, involving current or former Town employees. Following former Treasurer Cari Pupo’s termination in May, some Councillors were heard to assure residents that her departure was entirely unrelated to financial
Councillor
CATHERINE KING Ward 2 Town of Pelham
Happy
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The Voice of Pelham, November 29, 2017
Page 9
It’s a three-peat: James Lane to be appointed to Council—again BY VOICE STAFF In what may be a first for Ontario municipal politics, the same man will soon occupy the same council seat for the third time—without ever being elected. Last Monday night, Council voted unanimously to recommend to itself that it fill the Ward One vacancy left by Marvin Junkin, who resigned on November 6, with James Lane, the third time that Lane James Lane. would be so FILE PHOTO appointed. The app oi nt ment is set for December 4. In the 2006 election, Lane finished third in Ward One, then found himself appointed to the seat when Councillor Malcolm Allen resigned to serve as Welland’s Member of Parliament. In the 2010 election, Lane finished third behind Debbie Urbanowicz and Larry Clark. When Urbanowicz resigned in 2011, Lane finished second to Richard Rybiak in the by-election to fill her seat. In 2013, Clark resigned and moved away, and Lane was once again appointed to the seat. In the 2014 election, Lane again finished one spot out,
this time behind Rybiak and Junkin. And yet again he finds himself about to represent Ward One without having been elected to do so. Lane, who lives in Fenwick and is in his early 70s, is a
retired factory manager. He said last week that until the appointment was official he preferred not to comment, but did say, “If it’s official, and I am chosen, I’m looking forward to working on behalf of
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$59 million continued from Page 1 was cash that happened to be present in the Town’s accounts when it was audited. This money was earmarked, however, for building the new community centre arena in East Fonthill. By subtracting this $9 million from the reported cash on hand of $9.3 million, Karner calculates that the Town could have had only $259,000 of cash on hand unrelated to the loan. This would make sense historically. At the end of 2015, cash on hand was reported at $554,400. The Town also claimed to have had $5.8 million in reserve funds at the end of year, money that Karner says is set aside and accumulates for future capital projects, or is used to smooth out operating costs that are subject to fluctuation, like a winter roads budget dependent on how much snow falls. Further, the Town claimed to have $3.4 million in deferred revenue. However, Karner says, theoretically numbers on a financial statement don’t equal actual number on a bank statement. “If the deferred revenue and reserves are not backed by cash in the bank, then the cash is really not readily available,” he says. In other words, if deferred revenues and reserve cash have been used for oth-
The Voice of Pelham, November 29, 2017 er purposes, then the cash isn’t really there. In effect the Town has “borrowed internally” from these accounts, instead of borrowing through debentures or other third party sources, such as banks. At the end of 2016, the reserves and deferred revenue balances should have totalled $9.2 million, according to the Town’s financials. However, after deducting the actual cash on hand— $259,000— Karner calculates there was a shortfall of $8.9 million. Junkin alleges that an emergency bank loan of $8 million was sought by the Town in September to cover a cash shortfall. In effect, such “internal borrowing” is hidden, since it is not technically part of the Town’s long-term debt or bank indebtedness, and would therefore not appear as such in the Town’s audited financial statements. The audited statements of several other Niagara municipalities reveal substantially greater consistency. These municipalities appear to have cash on hand and temporary investments roughly equal to, or greater than, their stated reserve funds and deferred revenue. Only Pelham shows a large discrepancy between its purported reserves/deferred revenue balances, and the cash purportedly on hand to back them up. Since 2012, the Town has reported no temporary in-
vestments in its financial statements—i.e., no stocks, bonds, or certificates of deposit. In the five years prior to 2016, the Town never reported possessing more than about $554,000 in cash. Wainfleet, Niagara’s least populous municipality with just one third of Pelham’s population, has consistently reported cash on hand of roughly six times that of Pelham. West Lincoln, a town of 14,000, reported combined cash and temporary investments of over $15 million in 2015, roughly 28 times greater than Pelham’s cash balance in the same year.
2017 Community Centre Arena debenture (loan) A 2017 debenture advance of $12 million for the Town’s new community centre arena was received this year, a loan which the Town asserts will be paid back with future development charges totalling approximately $19 million (principal and interest combined) over the next 30 years. This figure must be added to the Town’s long-term debt and will appear on the Town’s 2017 audited financial statements.
2018 Community Centre Arena debenture (loan) advance The Town has been approved for an additional debenture advance in 2018 of approximately $12 mil-
lion dollars, also intended to pay for construction of the new community centre arena. The Town says it plans to pay back this loan by selling its surplus East Fonthill lands, now on the market. Karner says that this loan can be considered a sort of “soft debt,“ since while the lands will probably sell, the sale may not complete before cash is required to complete construction of the community centre arena. Interestingly, when explaining the financing plan for the community centre arena in March 2016, Pelham CAO Darren Ottaway recommended that Council proceed with any such sale cautiously. “You may—and probably—want to piece it down so you’re selling areas of an acre or less to maximize the value of the land,” said Ottaway. “That’s where most of the dollars will be generated, the smaller the size of the lot that’s sold.” He noted that such an approach could take a number of years to accomplish. Instead, the Town is currently attempting to sell all 18 acres at once, using a single listing with an auction type process and a requirement that the purchaser buy all the land. Karner speculates that this change in strategy was driven by a need to remedy the cash flow shortage the Town may now be fac-
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You may—and probably want— to piece it down so you’re selling areas of an acre or less to maximize the value of the land. That’s where most of the dollars will be generated ing, even if it means giving up greater income had the sales occurred piecemeal as Ottaway suggested last year. Worse, an unknown but significant cut from the sale price—whatever it ends up being—will be paid off the top in legal and brokerage fees. Finally, over the years the Town has spent an unknown amount on servicing of these lands. While these expenses likely contributed to the value of the lands, based on the Town’s financial plan they not being covered by the net sales proceeds. The obvious question, Karner says, is: “How were these servicing costs paid for, and should a portion of the sale proceeds not cover them?”
Fundraising ture (loan)
deben-
The Town has an additional debenture of $3 million that it says will be paid back via fundraising for
the new community centre arena. Karner says that this can also be considered a “soft debt,” assuming that the Town is indeed capable of raising the $3 million. This fundraising may take many years to complete, as there can be a significant gap between the time that funds are pledged and when cash is actually received. In the event that the Town can’t raise the full $3 million, then any remaining amount will be added to long-term debt that must be financed by other means, such as rises in property taxes.
Conclusion
In sum, the figures above total $59.2 million in debt. Karner emphasizes that all of the numbers he used were taken from the Town’s audited financial statements and capital/operating budget materials and schedules, publicly available on the Town’s website. See $59 MILLION next page
Christmas in Pelham Pelham is a preferred place to live and work. Our Pelham elves, decorating the Town, provided us with another reminder why. We are grateful for our volunteers and and their community-minded focus throughout the year, allowing us to enjoy a vibrant, innovative, and caring community. Join us for Christmas in Pelham and share in the Pelham and holiday spirit.
www.pelham.ca/christmas
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$59 MILLION continued from previous page “I arrived at this figure just by looking at the Town’s financial statements and budget materials,” says Karner. “I’ve never spoken to Junkin about any ‘in camera’ Council meetings or the contents of any KPMG reports, and I got the same number that he says was given to Council.” While parts of the $59 million debt are to be repaid through land sales and fundraising, Karner remains concerned about the Town’s five-year projections for development charge revenue, and projected additional debentures to be taken out between now and 2021. Karner says that budget materials suggest that the Town intends to use some $7.6 million in Development Charges over the five year period to fund various capital projects—these are
in addition to the loans that the Town says it plans to repay, also with Development Charges. The combined total would appear to be in excess of the Development Charges the Town forecasts actually to collect in the same period— meaning there may not be sufficient cash available to carry out their capital plan. Karner’s concern over funding for the community centre arena dates back to spring 2016, before Council approved the project. After reviewing the Town’s five year Development Charge Fund projections, he says he noted a number of issues, which prompted him to dig deeper. Karner says he sent several emails to the Mayor and Council, pointing out possible flaws in the plan to pay for new arena, urging Council to defer approval, if only for a few months so that more analysis of the plan and its impact on the
The Voice of Pelham, November 29, 2017 Town’s finances could be conducted. In the end, only Councillors Peter Papp and Marvin Junkin voiced concerns about the project before the final vote was taken. Detailed questions sent last week to Mayor Augustyn and Treasurer Teresa Quinlin on the points raised above went unanswered until shortly before press time. In a two-line email, the Mayor responded: “The CAO told Council and the community that staff can account for every nickel. We understand that will form part of Ms. Quinlin’s presentation this week.” Karner, who has played hockey at the Pelham Arena for many years, says that he was never opposed to the construction of a new arena. “Everyone knows that we need a new one,” he says. “I just think that it needs to be done in a way that’s financially sound.”
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Page 11
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The Voice of Pelham, November 29, 2017
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WALKING CLUB Interested walking in Pelham? JoinEvents them Tuesdays at the Pelham Arena Places of inWorship and from 9-10 am and Thursdays at Fonthill Bandshell for 9-10:30 am. There First Presbyterian Tidings Church of God please contact jcook@ Pelham Evangelical Friends Church is no Church fee for this program. For Glad more information, 602 Metler Rd., Fenwick 1 Pancake Lane, Fonthill 940 Haist St., Fonthill pelham.ca or call 905 892-2607, ext 329. Holy Trinity Anglican Church 1557 Pelham Street, Fonthill
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TOWN COUNCIL NEWS
THREE-PEAT continued from Page 9
East Fenwick, Summerfest, building permit fees discussed BY VOICE STAFF After a week of audit-intensive meetings, Town Council did not discuss the matter during its meeting last Monday, November 20, apart from passing a motion asserting that the audit former Councillor Marvin Junkin says was presented to Council at a closed-door meeting in September was in fact a “report,” a legal distinction likely intended to keep the audit’s findings from reaching daylight. During the rest of the meeting, Council considered three major items: the East Fenwick Secondary Plan, the final report from this year’s Summerfest, and a building permit fee report. Ute Maya-Giambattista of SGL Planning & Design, the firm contracted by the Town to create the East Fenwick Secondary Plan, made a presentation similar to one she made at a public meeting in late September. A Secondary Plan is a document that provides guidelines for potential developments in an area, and since East Fenwick is not owned by the Town, the document
does not have a direct impact on when the area is developed. Maya-Giambattista spent a considerable part of her time speaking to the importance of engaging with residents. “The greenfield parts of this development in subject to the twenty units per hectare regulation,” she said. (Greenfield refers to land that has not previously been built upon.) “It’s important to get public consultations right— we have to change many preconceptions.” Maya-Giambattista outlined two options that SGL has created for the Secondary Plan. In the first, there are two dense zones of development: one in the area north of Canboro Road at Balfour Street, and one in the area south of Canboro at Balfour. In the second, there are three areas of a lesser density, with two located south of Canboro and one to the north. Maya-Giambattista’s presentation included drawings of a potential promenade connecting Fonthill and Fenwick, but
she said that Canboro Road is too narrow for such a connection at the present time. Mayor Augustyn raised the matter of development density, saying that many residents have questions about where usch figures originate. Town Director of Planning Barb Wiens responded that provincial regulation called for new development to have 50 persons per hectare, “which evens out to twenty dwellings.” Wiens said that when the Town updated its growth plan in 2012, it was required to align with this figure. “Nobody’s forcing anyone to develop any land,” said Councillor John Durley. “This is just a guideline for how it should develop.” Council next heard the final report on Summerfest 2017 from Summerfest committee Chair John Wink. Wink asserted that over the event’s three days in July, there were 40,659 attendees, and announced that it had been named one of Ontario’s Top 100 festivals and events. Wink highlighted some
changes this year that had been well-received, including the addition of traditional buskers. The new Teen Zone in Marlene Stewart Streit Park did not see attendance that met the committee’s expectations, and Wink said that the committee would work further with youth representatives to improve the zone for next year. “We’re very proud of you,” said Councillor Peter Papp to Wink. “You don’t lose any money—you make money, and the provincial recognition is significant.” Councillor Gary Accursi, who volunteered at Summerfest, spoke of the role of Town staff in the festival, saying that the work they do plays a large role in making the event feasible. “If staff doesn’t continue to embrace and support it, then we’d have a hard time,” Accursi said. “I’m not saying that as a threat, I’m just stressing the importance of staff.” Finally, Council heard a presentation from Glenn Tunnock, of Tunnock Consulting Ltd. Tunnock recommended that the Town
put building permit fees toward a cost stabilization reserve fund, to allow for stability in the Town’s building department. “We know growth will end at some point,” he said, “but you will still have a demand for building services—such as inspections—and revenues may not meet operational costs.” Accursi asked Tunnock about the recommended size of the reserve account, asking what percent of the operational cost of the building department should be accumulated. Tunnock cautioned against allowing the account to “become extraordinary,” since nothing else can be done with the funds , but advised that building permit fees be allowed to accumulate for at least five years. Council engaged in extensive discussion, finally agreeing to bring up the matter in the future. Councillor Papp, who was chairing the meeting at this point, paused before moving the agenda ahead. “Sometimes,” he said, “we refine to the point of being…immobilized.”
also had the option of calling a by-election to fill the seat, or to interview potential candidates. “In 2011, we heard loud and clear that [the interview option] was not wanted,” he said. “The most democratic is a by-election, but for logistical purposes a by-election doesn’t make sense.” Augustyn called Lane, “experienced and knowledgeable,” and said, “He’s a different voice, and diversity around the table is extremely important.” Rybiak said that the appointment was the most practical choice, “since there’s so little left in the term, and a good portion of that time would be dedicated to the campaigning.” Councillor John Durley praised Lane’s “experience and knowledge of Ward One,” saying that Lane would already know the ropes, “He can step right in.” Councillor Peter Papp said, “Serving on Council is very difficult and complicated, but at the same time very rewarding. In spite of some of the challenges that we have ahead of us, I know that we will overcome them and that we will move forward in understanding how this community has grown.”
Page 14
OBITUARY KELLER, Sharon On Thursday, November 23, 2017. Predeceased by her parents Norman and Aune. Beloved sister of Al (Cathy), Gary (Donna) and Shelly (Andy). Proud Aunt of Richard (Jacqueline), Carolyn, Michael and Melanie (Cal). Great Aunt of Mikaela. Dearest friend of Beverley Dodd, Christopher Lemieux and too many cherished friends to mention. Sharon graduated from both Laurentian University and Brock University. She spent her illustrious teaching career in excess of 30 years at E.L. Crossley Secondary School. Sharon received multiple awards and accolades for her many achievements. Throughout Sharon’s teaching career, she dedicated much time and effort to give her students the best education and get them involved in extra curricular activities. She was a positive influence and a role model to many. Besides Science, she had a love of Arts and travel. As per her wishes, cremation has taken place. A celebration of her Life will take place at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to PET SAVE , P.O. Box 2769 Station A, Sudbury, ON P3A 5J3. We have lost a precious member of our family and we will miss her dearly. Please share your condolences, photos and memories at www.pleasantviewcemetery. ca
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Special Council NPCA suit against activist dismissed meeting set at Despite tossing case, judge calls allegations against NPCA inaccurate E. L. Crossley BY VOICE STAFF
KPMG report to be one-way only; no public questions allowed BY VOICE STAFF The Town of Pelham has scheduled a special meeting of Town Council to receive a report from the accounting firm KPMG, to be held this evening, November 29, starting at 6:30, in the cafeteria at E.L. Crossley Secondary School. The Town states that the presentation will include the costs to undertake the audit, “all transactions and documents related to the 3.3 acre Parkland Over-Dedication to the Town by Fonthill Gardens and a 2015 Excess Parkland Dedication Agreement between the Town and Fonthill Gardens.” The Town also says that KPMG has “been asked,” presumably by Town Council, “to present all of its financial findings and conclusions, including pertinent updates from a Sept. 5 privileged report.” “Privileged report” is how the Town has characterized the results of a summer audit of the Town’s finances, reported to Council behind closed doors on September 5, according to former Councillor Marv Junkin, who resigned earlier this month in protest over Council’s attempt, in his view, to conceal the audit’s findings. The Town’s Public Relations and Marketing Consultant, Marc MacDonald, says that the public will not be permitted to ask questions at the meeting.
In a ruling handed down last week, Ontario Superior Court Justice James Ramsay dismissed lawsuits filed against activist Ed Smith by the NPCA, its former CAO Carmen D’Angelo (now CAO of Niagara Region), and William Montgomery of Stream Three Inc. In 2016 Smith wrote and circulated “A Call for Accountability at the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority,” in which he implied that the NPCA’s foundation had given a fundraising contract to Stream Three Inc. in exchange for a contract by the Police Services Board given to D’Angelo’s company, DPM Consulting. Smith asserted that the link between the contracts was Regional Councillor Andy Petrowski. Smith further alleged that D’Angelo’s firm did not possess a license to operate in Ontario. Calling these allegations false, both Montgomery and D’Angelo sued Smith for defamation. In dismissing the suits, Ramsay said generally that Smith’s report “constitutes an expression that relates to a matter of public interest.” He also wrote that “a government entity cannot sue an individual for defamation for criticizing it.” Ramsay concluded that D’Angelo and Montgomery “failed to show that there are grounds to believe that [Smith] has no valid defence,” and that contrary to the plaintiffs’ claim, Smith’s allegations were made without malice. Nevertheless, Ramsay did write that Smith’s allegations were based on inaccurate information. “Andy Petrowski had a previous and publicly known link to Montgomery’s operation, but it was in the past and had nothing to do with with [NPCA],” said Ramsay. Ramsay also said that D’Angelo’s business was indeed in possession of an Ontario license, and that Smith’s error stemmed from “an inaccurate listing in an on-line business directory,” and from that fact that Smith was unaware of the registered name of D’Angelo’s business. Ramsay said that Smith had good reason to believe that Petrowski was significantly associated with Mont-
gomery’s firm—even though this was not the case—and for this reason concluded that Smith displayed “no malice and no recklessness.” But Ramsay went on to add that there was not enough of a continuing connection between Petrowski and Montgomery to suspect that one contract was awarded in exchange for the other. “But that is in hindsight.” Regional Councillor and NPCA board member Tony Quirk says that, “the Judge, while pretty snippy with the NPCA, clearly vindicates the NPCA by saying the allegations made by Ed Smith were based on inaccurate allegations, inaccurate information, [and] forged documents.” Ramsay attributed Smith’s mistake regarding the registration of D’Angelo’s company to a online database error, but Quirk says that the NPCA has evidence that proves that the document was indeed forged. “The pleadings for the dismissal motion didn’t allow us to present evidence about who might have forged the document,” says Quirk. “Further, our evidence would have demonstrated that the person who printed the document was the person who modified the document.” According to Quirk, this evidence “could have shown malice on the part of Mr. Smith.” Smith disputes Quirk’s notion that the ruling vindicates the NPCA, saying, “The comments made by Tony Quirk speak to the nature of Tony Quirk. They do not speak to a full reading of Judge Ramsay’s decision. Those who understand the judge’s decision will not come to the same conclusions as Tony Quirk.” According to Smith, he has received considerable support since the decision was made, and said that he is still committed to keeping the Board of the NPCA accountable. “In the end I prefer to let Councillor Tony Quirk continue to speak unchallenged,” he said. “I believe the words that flow from him are the best thing we can ask for as we strive for accountability. The next election is October 2018.” In his statement, Smith did not directly address Judge Ramsay’s com-
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ments to the inaccuracy of his allegations, instead emphasizing the parts of the dismissal that criticize the NPCA for suing a member of the public. Of the NPCA’s threatening posture towards Smith, Ramsay wrote, “There are many places in the world where I might expect such a thing to happen, but not in our beloved Dominion.” “I believe there is a not-too-subtle message in that statement,” says Smith. “Judge Ramsay has created a mental link on the actions of the NPCA to places in the world where attacks on the liberties of citizens might be accepted as normal, and he has drawn a line. He is saying that those actions will not take place in Canada.” Smith, a retired Major from the Canadian Armed Forces, added, “Strangely enough I have served Canada in some of these countries, and I have drawn the same conclusions about NPCA actions.” Quirk concedes that the dismissal of the lawsuit has implications for how the NPCA must react to futures instances in which there are allegations made against it that the Authority disputes. “I guess the only option for the NPCA in the future, or for any government body, when false accusations are made based on inaccurate information and forged documents, is to publish those corrections in the local media,” he says, adding that the NPCA did initially publish a denial of the allegations. Quirk also expresses disappointment that Smith has not taken more seriously the judge’s conclusion that Smith’s allegations were incorrect. “Mr Smith made some pretty damning allegations against Carmen D’Angelo while he was an employee of the Authority. The judge ruled those allegations were without merit, false and based on inaccurate information,” says Quirk. “I would hope that if I made false and misleading allegations against a public servant, without malice, [and] I was found to have done so by a court of law, I would be honourable enough to apologize to that public servant.”
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The Voice of Pelham, November 29, 2017
Page 15
Glory, Glory
Performances of Handel’s Messiah coming December 2 and 3 BY SAMUEL PICCOLO
The VOICE
David Braun was standing in front of Choralis Camerata, the choir which he conducts, trying to get the singers to better enunciate a part of Handel’s Messiah. “I’m hearing, ‘Are we lie shee.’” he said. “I need, ‘Are we. Like. Sheep.’ Every syllable.” The choir, which is made up of about 40 amateur singers, repeated themselves. “Are we. Like. Sheep,” they sang over and over, crashing into the final consonant and stopping into silence. “That’s better,” said Braun, and moved on to another passage. The group was assembled for its weekly two-hour practice session in the basement of Resurrection Lutheran Church in St. Catharines, and was barely two weeks away from its first performance of the Messiah. There were few empty chairs in the arranged semi-circle, and even a singer who had laryngitis sat at the back of the room, making notes in her songbook.
Braun, 55, and in possession of a head of gray hair of formidable thickness, had begun the evening by leading the singers in warm-up exercises. “A big drink of oxygen,” he said, instructing the group to inhale deeply before having them “breath it out through a straw.” He started humming alone, deeply, and then the whole choir joined in and filled the room with a resonant buzz that sounded like an airplane landing when they trailed off. The next exercise, a hum at a higher frequency, was redolent of a UFO’s approach. Lynne Honsberger, Choralis’s pianist, joined in when Braun directed the choir to began singing phrases. “I love to sing, indeed I dododododododododo,” they chanted, running up and down the musical scale. Braun began violin lessons when he was seven and has played ever since. For nearly 30 years has been a member of the
David Braun, center, flanked by members of Choralis Camerata. Niagara Symphony Orchestra, in which his wife Deborah also performs, as the principal harpist. He has been Choralis’s director since 2012, and during this period the group has performed a number of different choral works. Choralis performs the Messiah every other year, and Braun said its audience is particularly diverse. “It’s a show where we see many generations of families—grandparents and grandchildren,” and it is evident that he feels the piece is something special. “It’s been written of the Messiah that no other musical work has done more to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, or foster the orphan,” said Braun. “There’s a power to it—a message of hope.” Such a phrase could surely be applied to many works,
though persistence of the Messiah’s popularity indicates that it is unique. Written in 1742 by the German composer Georg Friedrich Handel, the Messiah is thought to have been finished in just 24 days, a fraction of the year or two that most comparable works required. “It behooves the commoner to work hard,” said Braun of Handel’s feat. Commoners is perhaps too diminishing of a term for Choralis’ singers, but in any case, they are amateurs. “Many of them have been singing since they were teenagers,” said Braun, “be it in church choirs or other groups.” For most of Choralis’ members, those teenage years were long ago, and so they are well-practised, but there are number of
SUPPLIED PHOTO
younger singers too. “We had a lot of students from Brock’s music program last year,” said Frieda Peckham, another member of the group. “They wanted the opportunity to sing more ambitious pieces. There are fewer this year, but still we have a few.” Either way, the singers were not lacking in vigour. When Braun asked them to “stand from the waist,” two men eagerly bounded all the way to their feet. “He said, ‘From the waist!’” said several of those who had remained seated. The two who stood smiled sheepishly and sat down again. As Braun moved the group further into the rehearsal, he pushed towards ever-greater precision in his critiques.
“There’s about three of you singing slower than the rest of the team,” he said at one point. “Always move forward with confidence,” he commanded at another. Braun teaches music at Centennial Secondary School, and his manner at the rehearsal was indeed one of an amiable teacher. “The tenors are kicking some pretty serious choral butt,” he said to the altos. “So your response has to be more forceful.” The altos nodded and promised more force. “Let’s stay seated for this part,” said Braun, as he flipped to another page in his hefty conductor’s score for the Messiah. Then he changed his mind. “Wait a minute—we’re performing this in two weeks. Stand up!” (Choralis will perform Messiah at Centennial for its students this week, and then has two scheduled public performances: Saturday in St. Catharines, and Sunday at the school.) The singers stood up and sang. Braun made a few adjustments, looking at his page and encouraging various parts of the room to “dig in.” When finally they had gotten it just right and finished a phrase just how Braun had envisioned it, he clasped his hands and smiled. “Ah,” he said. “That’s glorious.”
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Page 16
The Voice of Pelham, November 29, 2017
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COLUMN SIX
30 years ago when I first entered the downtown office with rather more teeth in my head than I have now. “We were going to send out a search party,” she said, laughing. “Did you forget your cell?” I smiled. Dr. McKenzie examined my bridge and said the teeth could be re-attached. I could collect it tomorrow. He grinned, displaying a mouth that was full of his own teeth because he had never played hockey without a face-guard. Did I think I could find my way back, he asked? I laughed, then said I had planned ahead and scattered breadcrumbs along the way; if the pigeons left them alone I’d be fine. I thanked him for waiting. Driving home I felt distracted and a little lost again, but not because I couldn’t find my way or didn’t own a smartphone. This wasn’t about technology, but missing the familiar. Something I get to do a lot of these days. If the past is another country, then sometimes the present is too, with so much of the familiar replaced by the new. Almost by the minute, it seems. Nothing is spared the chop anymore, not even thinking. We’re told there are no truths now, just unreliable constructs. History is a narrative of misrule that’s best forgotten. Language doesn’t work because words mean different things to different people. Art is anyone’s guess, morality is nobody’s business, and rule has become a four-letter word. Without the familiar, why shouldn’t we feel lost in our actual world and seek asylum in a virtual one? Where are we? was once part and parcel of Who are we?, in a
continued from Page 1 sistance. The receptionist knew of the dental clinic and gave me directions that involved a lot of left turns. I thanked her, re-entered the concrete maze and drove around for another ten minutes until one of the left turns took me straight out of the mall and back onto the highway. A mile down the road, with the clock ticking, I managed a u-turn and raced back. I found the friendly receptionist again, whose smile vanished when she heard the panic in my voice. “I’m fifteen minutes late and I have to call my dentist.” What I said next was equal to telling her I was an alien who had misplaced his flying saucer. “I don’t have a cell phone. Would you be so kind?” I read her lips as she dialed the number—How does he even breathe? she seemed to be saying. “I’m definitely getting one, though. Today, in fact.” But she wasn’t listening. “Yes, he’s here with me now. I’ll draw him a map.” I felt like the kid who gets separated from his parents in a busy department store, but really I was the guy who fell asleep for 20 years and woke up in a technological age without a lifeline (think Sleeper, but with fewer laughs). I thanked her, took the map and smiled, mouth closed so my toothless grin wouldn’t further unsettle her. I found the clinic in a section of the mall I hadn’t noticed before. Perhaps it was still being built while I was busy getting lost. Linda, the dental assistant, greeted me as I walked in the door, as she had done
time when place and community helped to identify us. Where are we? is now wherever we want to be, but we go it alone and GPS won’t help us get there. One day there won’t be a there anymore because it will already be somewhere else. Change as a means to improvement is always desirable—Dr. McKenzie’s dental office downtown was getting a little long in the tooth itself—but is change all we want to know? Don’t we need to know that some things—not just the next thing—will still be around tomorrow? That tomorrow there will be neighbours and a friendly wave, libraries and bank tellers, the corner store, someone’s initials in the sidewalk, immovable feasts—and not just the memory that these things once were. “My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that,” said the Queen to Alice. My nostalgia is less for the past than it is for a future where things might not be around long enough to be missed. But for now at least, I found someone to show me the way, and someone else who waited patiently until I got there. Retired teacher Colin Brezicki has written three novels and a collection of stories. A Case for Dr. Palindrome was published this year in the UK. His short fiction has won awards in Canada and the US. Essays have appeared in The Globe and Mail and sundry journals. He lives under the radar in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
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