Oshawa City Council November 7th/2010

“I want to see every kid play”

That was spoken several times during the discussion with Steve Lines at the Oshawa City council the evening of Monday November 7. 

Lines, President of the Oshawa Central Council Neighbourhood Association (O.C.C.N.A.) spoke with Oshawa council to try and understand why his committee has been, in his words, “brushed off” by council.

Since 1946, the O.C.C.N.A has helped lower income households within the city of Oshawa, get the chance to play in local house leagues. From 4 to 19 years old, boys and girls can have the opportunity to play; whether it be sports, or be a part of Girl Guides of Canada. This committee runs only on the help of volunteers, “the only one if itʼs kind” expresses Lines.

Lines added that the O.C.C.N.A. creates revenue for the city, but not explaining how much, as well as helping parents in all lower income divisions of the city let their children play.  “A lot of families that come through this committee donʼt make the same amount of income that me and my wife make working at [General Motors].”

The question from Lines to council on Monday evening started as user fees. The costs that participants pay to join are too high, and not letting the committee work at itʼs best for the community. However, by the end of the night, it ended in a greater accomplishment.

The first official letter was sent October 30, 2011, just days before the meeting occurred. Lines expressed that other letters were sent a little over three weeks ago, however it was only sent to one city councillor and not forwarded to the rest of council.

“We have not received anything [on this issue] for a regional councillor,” Nancy Diamond said on the floor. Her and Doug Sanders, another council member of Oshawa, were both interested in the topic, and agreed that this committee, which has created many milestones for young children, needed to have a member from council involved with the O.C.C.N.A. John Aker, another regional councillor, dabbled the idea of having two councillors.

One small step for Lines, one giant leap for children of Oshawa.

With all jokes aside, an unrecorded vote showed a unanimous decision among council; O.C.C.N.A. got itʼs member of council to be apart of this established Oshawa committee. ! User fee costs were not discussed the rest of the meeting.

A Day of Remembrance 11/11/11

Today all over Canada, people of all different backgrounds were remembering those who had served this country, for this generation to live the way it lives today.

Which brings me to the topic: How does the new breakout of society treat the country today?  If the veterans then knew what society was going to be like now, would they have still fought as hard?

Let's take a look on the last few decades.

After the First World War, people were coming back from overseas to a new world, and a new decade.  The 1920s, also known as the Roaring Twenties to historians, were known for there materialistic lifestyle and optimistic ways of life, heavily influenced by Europe's way if living.

It was a celebration to most, but disappointment to others.  Soldiers coming home were not ready for the joyous celebration so soon, after seeing what they had seen overseas.  They wanted the entire world to be as strict on society as they had been, and they did not see that in any shape in the Roaring Twenties.

After the Second World War, and defeating Hitler and his world domination plans, soldiers again came home from being overseas for x amount of years.  They returned to create their own offspring, ones that can keep the steady tradition of serving their country.

However, that "new generation", known to demographics as the Baby Boomers, created a new way of living in Canada.  Starting in the fifties, when the thought of being a teenager came into affect, to the hippies of the sixties and beyond, the ideals of the greatest generation have slowly leaked into modern day society.  Making the once proud veterans of the wars question what they had done wrong as parents.

Flash forward to 2011.  The occupied movement has been scaling across North America and all over the world.  Media sources from radio to print have been on 24-hour watch on what exactly?  not even the protesters know.

I bet you Shelby the border collie in Denver knows.  But no one speaks dog.

I digress, thinking that the future soldiers of Canada have to fight to protect the people here now.
I find that ridiculous.

"When asked by my grade 12 history teacher why I wanted to fight for a country who doesn't seem to care about patriotism and sense of duty," said Brett Huckstep, a current applicant for the Canadian Forces.  "I replied 'I will fight for their right not to care'."

And I hope he and the rest of those soldiers fight for my right to report on this new and outlandish society.

Interview on October 18th @ City Hall

This interview was done on October 18th, 2011.  The assignment was to interview anyone you wanted and write a story with tht person incorporated into it.  I thought that with all the new developments going on within the city of Pickering, I thought the best person to ask was the mayor himself.

.............

Pickering, Ontario has seen some drastic changes over the last eight years because our present mayor Dave Ryan knows there is more to come in our city’s future.

“Roughly a million people are suppose to come into the GTA over the next 25 years, and we are going to get our share of that.”


And he’s right. Approximately 60,000 people will be moving to Pickering, making it a challenge on the mayor and council to make room for everyone.

“We are already seeing people moving out of the condominium development in Toronto and moving into single family homes.” With all the growth that has happened to the west and the north of Toronto, Durham Region is the next place for growth to happen, the mayor is expecting it.“Pickering is the first municipality in the eastern region, so we know that this is the growth area for the next decade.”


Responsible growth is the first layer to this Scarborough born mayor’s two main points to his platform. He and his council are working on figuring the best way to help those future residents. “What that means to us is that we have to find a way to best manage that growth. What built form is that going to go into; residential lots, single family homes, semi detached townhouses? What portions and responsible housing are they going to want?”


A much known example of this is shy west of the downtown core, on Bayly Street. The new “San Francisco by the Bay” condominium and town home community is in production, but not everyone agreed that this was “responsible growth”. “The toughest issue we have dealt with is trying to get the city to agree with what we feel would benefit them. When we started to build the ‘San Francisco by the Bay’...not everyone thought that was responsible growth.”


Business development is the second layer to Dave Ryan’s platform, which he says is a major component to responsible growth. “The real job of this council...is going to bring jobs to support those new residents. It doesn’t make any sense to have 60,000 people move in and not be able to employ a good portion of them.” Ryan added, “If people have to leave Pickering to go and work somewhere it puts a huge strain on our infrastructure, a transportation structure in particular.


To help with this future problem, council has helped local businesses expand. Dave Ryan doesn’t want to see history repeat itself. “We had a company in the office towers on the corner of Liverpool and Pickering Parkway called ClearNet. They told the council at the time that they needed to expand and if we couldn’t do it, they were going to move.” At the time Pickering didn’t have the money to expand, so the company moved, and years later they turned into Telus. “Imagine the business development we should have had if they stayed in Pickering.”


Mr. Ryan never stops thinking about his own family when he’s changing the once unknown town. “When I’m doing what I’m doing here in the city, thinking about growing it and thinking about the things that are needed to be done, I quite often find myself thinking about what that’s going to mean for my grandkids and the future generation.”

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