Jan Mowbray - Ward 3 Councillor

Oh Canada!

Jan — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:33:18 +0000

On Being Canadian

March 1st, 2010

I read this piece by Mike Salisbury, ward 4 councillor, City of Guelph. With his permission I offer it here as it speaks for me as well as a great many others….

Like many Canadians I spoke with over the last few weeks, I couldn’t help but draw comparisons between the opening ceremonies of the Canadian Winter Olympics and the opening ceremonies of the recent summer Olympics in Beijing.

Without a question, the Beijing opening ceremonies were flawless and awe inspiring. They were a spectacle the kind of which may never have been witnessed before. The Canadian opening ceremonies were…well, not exactly flawless.

As many of you know, the fourth ‘leg’ of the Olympic cauldron didn’t work. It failed to rise up out of the floor leaving one of our torch bearers holding the bag, or more precisely, holding the torch.

In the weeks that followed I heard many people respond critically about our opening ceremonies; it wasn’t “perfect” – it “failed” – it was an “embarrassment”. I began to contemplate how well, or how poorly, our opening ceremonies portrayed our nation to the rest of the world. It wasn’t until 17 days later watching the closing ceremonies that it became apparent just how proud I am to be a Canadian.

Perhaps one of the moments I remember most vividly about the opening ceremonies in Beijing was the little girl in the pigtails and red dress who sang the anthem. Lin Miaoke, a cute 9 year old from Beijing become a national sensation and darling to the international media following her performance; the only problem, she was a fake.

The real singer was a seven-year-old girl named Yang Peiyi. She had won a gruelling competition to perform the anthem, but was pulled at the last minute because while she had a perfect voice, she wasn’t considered pretty enough to represent her nation to the rest of the world. So on the night of the opening ceremonies, while a pre-recording of Yang Peiyi played Lin Miaoke was seen but not heard.

By contrast, our opening ceremonies were flawlessly real – warts and all.

The way I see it, life doesn’t always work out the way we want it to. Sometimes we fail, we don’t get that job we wanted, we miss the bus, or our fancy Olympic flame just doesn’t work right. As Canadians we pick each other up and we just keep going.

We also laugh about our follies. It was no surprise that our closing ceremonies opened with a three legged Olympic torch complete with a theatrical “mechanic” who after several unsuccessful attempts ultimately succeeds in pulling up the arm with an imaginary rope so that Catriona Ann Le May Doan, the athlete who was previously denied, is given the honour of lighting the cauldron.

Perseverance, tolerance, creativity, humour, helping each other to become great…THAT is being Canadian, and I am proud we shared it with the world.

Leona Boyd comes to Milton

Jan — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:41:46 +0000

Click for flyer: Leona Boyd, May 22,’10

$25 is a fabulous price to see and hear a performer of this calibre. May 22 at St Paul’s United Church in Milton. Contact Milton Concert Presentations for ticket purchasing information.

Residential Solar Power

Jan — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:30:19 +0000

On Sunday March 7, the Halton Residential Solar Project will host a Solar Tour of solar electricity (PV) installations in the Halton Region that are currently up and running.

The tour will take place at two locations near Acton between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. One site features a large PV system on top of a barn roof which has been connected by Milton Hydro and the other site features a solar-tracking installation connected by Halton Hills Hydro.

Homeowners and vendors will be present to discuss the unit, how it works, financial strategies and incentives that are associated with installing solar energy equipment and to answer any questions you may have.

For more information or to register, email hrsp.admin@gmail.com or call 905-299-2327.

Monthly solar tours are planned for installations throughout Halton Region. Dates and times will follow shortly.

Amanda Donatelli

HRSP Project Assistant

Hospital funding

Jan — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:16:26 +0000

Health Services in Our Community

Who is responsible for hospitals?

    * Public hospitals in Ontario are governed by a Board of Directors and are, for the most part, incorporated under the Corporations Act.
    * Each hospital determines its priorities to address the needs of the communities it serves and allocates its budget accordingly.
    * The Public Hospitals Act, and its regulations, provide the framework within which hospitals operate.
    * The 14 LHINS have offices throughout the province and are the local contact for area health service providers, including hospitals, with regards to funding and planning.
    * The corporate Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care office develops operational policy for the ministry, and for the hospital, regarding hospitals.

How are hospitals funded and administered by the Province?

Most Ontario hospitals are governed by a Board of Directors. The Board has legal and management responsibility for the hospital and it is accountable to the ministry for the use of its provincial subsidy grants.

The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) ensures accountability to the hospital sector through various legal, and funding mechanisms. The MOHLTC monitors hospital activity through annual Operating Plans, in-year variance reports, and a number of other data submissions.

Operating Plans describe how hospitals intend to run their operations over the coming fiscal year while the data submissions report on the outcomes. Ministry approval of Operating Plans is required before hospitals implement any changes to the services they provide.

Funding for hospital services is governed under the authority of the Public Hospitals Act. Funding is based primarily on a principle of global (or base) funding budgets provided to each hospital annually. These budget allotments are based primarily on past allocations and annual adjustments to reflect changes in costs. In addition, special program funding is available for new/expanded programs and specialized high cost services, like cardiovascular and dialysis services and treatments.

Separate funding is also provided for capital construction projects. The hospital Board and management work with their local community to determine the most appropriate use of their funding to provide hospital programs and services to their community.

Provincial payments to hospitals constitute approximately 85 % of total hospital funding. The remaining 15 % of hospital funding is provided through a variety of sources such as charges for semi-private and private accommodation, Worker’s Compensation payments, and others.

For the most part, physicians’ services provided to hospital patients are not part of the global budget but are paid through the Ontario Health Insurance Plan.

Building new schools in Milton

Jan — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:05:34 +0000

School lands. School lands are set aside – so many schools per expected population per area. There are quite a few planned. Schools are planned next to parks and trails for the benefit of the kids and the neighbourhood. All lands are owned by the developer, Mattamy for instance. The school board negotiates the purchase of the lands from Mattamy. The province will not build any schools until the current ones are at capacity (or overcrowded), and have the required enrolment for a new school.

It’s the school boards’ job to force the issue. It’s my understanding that the Halton School Board has a done a good job in that regard, as several schools are set to be built in Milton.

The province has a per capita dollar amount for schools. To any suggestion that the town buy the land and hand it over to the school board makes no sense. Taxpayers already pay an education tax (a big portion of our property tax bill) and to expect the town of Milton to raise tax money to buy land to hand over to the school boards wouldn’t lower the education tax – it would result in a double tax whammy.

Fall Nursery School-Campbellville

Jan — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:05:29 +0000

Campbellville Nursery School 2010 flyer

Spots are available for Fall, slick on the flyer for information

Lock it or Lose it!

Jan — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:43:19 +0000

For all the people, and there are many, who are leaving computers, cellphones, ipods, and other personal items in unlocked vehicles – LOCK IT or LOSE IT.

There have been many incidents of robberies from unlocked vehicles, by persons going from subdivision to subdivision, car to car and with no obstructions at all: no locks to worry about, no sirens to warn anybody, as they easily relieve you of your possessions. Police have arrested one group, but the incidents continue. If you don’t lock it, you WILL lose it.

Dinner Theatre to come to Mohawk

Jan — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:21:16 +0000

TORONTO, January 29 – Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG) today announced a partnership with Working Reel Productions to bring the excitement of dinner theatre to Mohawk this spring.

Mohawk, the mid-season home of standardbred racing, will host 18 shows through April and May. The schedule is a mix of evenings and matinees.

“The dinner theatre will provide a new form of entertainment at Mohawk,” said Joseph Araujo, WEG’s Director of Catering Sales, who forged the deal. “Our hope is this will expose Mohawk to new customers and provide them with an additional entertainment offer to compliment the existing Racing and Slots.”

Working Reel is expected to finalize script selection rights shortly. The production will be a mainstream contemporary play (comedy or farce) similar to such titles as The Love List, Run For Your Wife, Move Over Mrs. Markham and There Goes The Bride amongst others.

“Woodbine Entertainment Group offers us the perfect combination of a venue like Mohawk and the strength of their tremendous experience hosting events,” said Buddy Brennan, President of Working Reel. “Working Reel is honoured WEG chose us to be their partner in this program.”

The Mohawk racing meet begins May 20 and concludes on October 16.

-30-

for further details,
WEG Media Relations
416-675-3993 x2229
www.woodbineentertainment.com

Milton Midwifery

Jan — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:02:55 +0000

My name is Connie Fetterly and I am a registered midwife and a 2004 graduate of the midwifery program at MUMC. Currently I am working with Access Midwives in Stoney Creek, Ontario with the goal of opening a midwifery clinic in Milton in the fall of 2010.

To date the women of Milton are obligated to leave their community in order to have a midwife provide care during the course of their pregnancy and the birth process if in hospital. With this community being the fastest growing community in Canada and no midwifery services in place but a desire for it has led me to come to the decision that Milton has a lot to offer.

I am very committed to starting a midwifery practice in Milton and becoming part of this dynamic and growing community. I will submit a proposal to the government for funding this February 2010. In submitting a proposal to the government I will need to include many letters of support from the community stakeholders and members.

I have started an online petition Milton Needs Midwives. I need as much support as I can muster to ensure the government sees a clear strong demand for local midwifery services. I do anticipate that hospital privileges is going to be a bit of a challenge but I am working through that and will still run a clinic once funded without hospital privileges with the expectation of obtaining them soon thereafter.

I am also looking for letters of support. Some points of interest to include in a short letter 1-4 paragraph letter of support could include:

* midwifery is a provincially funded healthcare program therefore Milton women deserve the option of choosing midwifery care in their own community
* currently women of Milton must leave their community to get midwifery care and for hospital births some women have had to travel outside their community to be delivered
* midwifery offers another choice in health care providers throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and the 6 week postpartum period
* midwives offer choice of birth place home/hospital which allows women to stay in their own community for care
* midwifery offers access to care 24/7 until the baby is 6 weeks old
* midwives do home visits after birth with ongoing breastfeeding support
* some have written about their midwifery experience
* some have written about being on a waiting list and not getting care

The letters should be addressed to:
Ms. Mary Wilson Trider
VP Information & Systems
Halton Healthcare Services Corporation

All letters can be emailed to me at miltonmidwives@hotmail.com or mailed to my home address which is currently,
1285 Ontario St unit 1004
Burlington, Ontario L7S 1X9

Thank you all for your support in bringing midwifery to Milton.

First Class Home Care

Jan — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:29:32 +0000

If you need home care, by someone who cares, this company comes highly recommended: First Class Homecare Inc