Roses and Thorns: Of basketball, sign thieves and housing

ROSE: To the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs, for their second championship win on Friday night in the 19th annual Standard Girls Basketball Tournament. The Bulldogs defeated the Eden Flyers 47-41 in a hardfought game, overcoming adversity in the form of injuries which required the call-up of three Grade 9 players from the school’s junior team. “For us this tournament is like gravy on the turkey, it’s always Thanksgiving weekend,” said Sir Winston coach Frank Keltos in an obvious holiday analogy.

THORN: To that inevitable election-time scourge: sign thieves. It’s municipal election time and that means the inevitable reports of stolen or vandalized campaign signs are coming forward. In Niagara Falls, regional council candidate Tim Housser estimates he’s already lost 35 large signs and 50 small ones to thieves, actions which have cost his campaign some $2,000. “They’re taking the stakes and taking the signs right out,” says Housser. “It’s not like they’re knocking them over, they’re physically picking them up and taking them.” We would advise candidates who experience this problem to contact police, as it is a crime to steal or vandalize election signs. Const. Phil Gavin of the Niagara Regional Police say they have only received one complaint so far this election season, one which was attributed to a mischievous youth. “If candidates feel they are being targeted, we would encourage them to report it to us,” said Gavin.

ROSE: To Niagara College, for the opening of its latest education investment, its state-of-the-art teaching distillery for its new artisan distilling program.

The distillery and program, run from the Niagara-onthe-Lake campus, is the next logical step for the college, which already has beer and wine programs. “We do know there is a burgeoning artisan sort of feel in distilling in cider and beer in Ontario and we wanted to be ahead of the curve and do the training,” said Craig Youdale, dean of the Niagara College Canadian Food and Wine Institute. The college has attracted industry partners from across the world to help the program get off the ground. One of those is Windsor-based Hiram Walker, one of the largest distillers in North America. Don Livermore, the company’s master blender, was on hand for the opening last week and said the event is a great day for Canadian whisky.

THORN: To the growth of poverty and social ills in Niagara. On Thursday, Niagara regional council took another step forward in revamping how its supportive housing program operates, agreeing in principle to implement a hybrid model of governance. The model would see Niagara Regional Housing continue to manage the real estate side of the operation, while the Region’s community services division would take over administration. What is disturbing is to find Niagara Regional Housing has roughly 5,000 people on a waiting list for social housing placement. That represents some 10,000 men, women and children. The organization has 2,600 public housing units in its portfolio, consisting of units in highrise and low-rise apartment buildings, townhouses and detached homes. In the private sector, the housing authority provides oversight of 65 nonprofit and co-operative housing programs in addition to rental agreements with landlords for another 1,000 units. In other words, the available housing stock is far outstripped by the need. We don’t know whether this new governance model will have any cost or operational benefits, but the goal of any changes must be to get as many new housing units available as possible. Niagara Regional Housing board vice-chair James Hyatt recognizes this. “We have to have the most efficient and effective building program in place and then have it monitored and managed with the long-term goal of producing substantially more housing,” he said.