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bilko@rgcmail.com Vol.21 No.26
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
RE/MAX®
GARDEN CITY REALTY INC., BROKERAGE
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No NPCA audit after all
Column Six
Picking it up
Ontario Auditor General declines Conservation Authority's request BY VOICE STAFF
BY SAMUEL PICCOLO
The VOICE
Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) Board Chair, Sandy Annunziata confirmed via a news release last Friday that the office of the Auditor General of Ontario will not be conducting a value-for-money audit of the NPCA. At a special board meeting of the NPCA Board of Directors held on April 21, the Board unanimously carried a motion to engage the Auditor General of Ontario to conduct such an audit. "We are disappointed the Board's motion could not be accommodated, but we respect the Auditor General's decision," said Annunziata. "We know the Auditor General does outstanding work on behalf of the residents of Ontario. We know her time is precious and we appreciate the energy and resources she has given us in consideration of the Board's Motion." Annuniata’s reaction was echoed by board member Tony Quirk. "I am disappointed that the Auditor General has declined, said Quirk. “As Audit Chair of the NPCA, I know she would have provided confirmation that the allegations being levelled against the NPCA from some quarters are baseless and without merit. We will continue our independent review as part our Strategic Planning Process and identify any shortcomings." Activist and vocal critic
of the NPCA, Ed Smith, was also displeased.
T
door shoes. Goodwin and her assistant, Erika Bachynski, passed out rocks from a box. “Who had the hearts for eyes,” said Goodwin. “Was that you George?” George shook his head, and Goodwin tried asking someone else. The rocks, which were about child-fist in size, were covered in all sorts of different colours and designs, though almost all had a smile on them somewhere. One particularly pious boy had painted two small crosses on his, and proudly held it up for all to see. Another had put x’s and o’s, to show, he said, “love.” Finally, once the rocks were firmly in the hands of their rightful owners, the class dutifully lined up and went out the door. Outside, they joined another kindergarten class, whose students had their rocks in hand too.
HE QUESTION, “If you weren’t a _____, what would you be?” has been asked of nearly every famous person at one point or another, and the answers are typically predictable. “I’d be a tennis player,” the soccer star says, or the actress says that her parents wanted her to be a lawyer. A musician might claim that he’d still be trying to make music. This is the answer most favoured by writers—that there isn’t anything else that they could possibly be doing. “I have to write,” they like to tell us. “I’d die if I didn’t.” The American humourist David Sedaris gives a different answer. “If I weren’t writing,” he once said, “I’d probably spend even more time picking up trash by the side of the road. I do it now for about four to nine hours a day. If I didn’t write, I could be out there for a minimum of seven.” Sedaris lives in West Sussex, in England, and over the past few years he has picked up so much litter that he was invited to a public service appreciation day at Buckingham Palace. His local council even named a garbage truck after him. The “David ‘Pig-Pen’ Sedaris” now roams the streets.
See SMILE ROCKS Page 3
See COLUMN SIX Page 6
We will continue our independent review as part of our Strategic Planning process “Where do we go from here with this audit, an audit that was requested by more than 10 municipalities?” said Smith. “The Niagara Region needs a champion for the citizen and the environment on that Board. We had one in Bill Hodgson, he states he was bullied into resignation. We will all pay the price for that. There are ten elected officials on the NPCA Board and one in senior management. The time for ultimate accountability is the election of 2018.” Pelham Regional Councillor and NPCA board member Brian Baty suggested options now available include “reopening an RFP process or to search for an independent external auditing firm or to seek potential review See NPCA back page
Lily Jones leaves her ‘Smile Rock’ under a tree near a sidewalk. VOICE PHOTO
Kids rock their Smile Rocks BY VOICE STAFF If you are walking near Peace Park and come across a painted rock, you owe it to the kindergarteners at St. Alexander Elementary School—and yourself—to smile. The students painted the stones, called “Smile Rocks,” during the second week of school, and last Tuesday went on a field trip to distribute them. One teacher, Tracy Goodwin, announced to her students that they had to get ready to go outside as they were in the middle of their morning activities. The students were so excited that they stopped what they were doing without question, apart from one boy, who was reluctant to leave his building blocks. “You can finish with those when we get back,” Goodwin told him. The boy relented and hurried off to his cubby, where his classmates had already assembled, and the group put on their out-
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