The school boards are at it again
On December 12, 2024, I wrote about the financial overindulgences of four trustees of the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board (BHNCDSB) on a trip to Italy to purchase religious pieces for a new school and the administrational issues of the Grand Erie District School Board (GEDSB) trustees in disagreements with one trustee.
BHNCDSB and GEDSB have been raked over the coals since then.
The BHNCDSB Chair announced he will not seek re-election. He and the other three trustees are raising donations to cover their purchases. The Brantford Expositor recently reported BHNCDSB spent $63,000 on a PR firm to manage this. The classic “just listen to this message, we will tell you what to think.”
GEDSB has been faring no better. After getting spanked in a decision from the Divisional Court of Ontario, GEDSB is appealing. Which comes as no surprise to me that board bureaucracies dance to their own tune.
It was reported recently in the Simcoe Reformer that the GEDSB Chair sent letters to two dissenters, one being a member of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association Board who went public with concerns, warning them to be careful of what they say.Obviously whomever sent these letters is not aware of, or has chosen to ignore S.2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression”.
GEDSB is stifling dissent and free speech. This is just as wrong as the BHNCDSB spending tax dollars for a PR firm to tell you how to think.
What are these “public servants” doing? This is not good stewardship of tax dollars. This showcases the need for term limits for school board trustees and politicians.
Remember these issues at the next municipal election. A new broom sweeps clean.
Allison Gowling,
Woodstock, formally of Haldimand
Look closely at who you can vote for
To the Editor,
Bobbi Ann Brady, our independent MPP currently running for re-election, appeared on Global Television’s Focus Ontario program on February 9 and declared, “I don’t see Doug Ford as a true conservative.” The implication perhaps is she is the ‘true conservative’ in the current provincial election.
What sort of conservative is she?
Brady worked for former MPP Toby Barrett as his constituency assistant for 23 years. When Barrett announced his retirement, Brady intended to run as the Progressive Conservative candidate, but was passed over when Ford appointed someone else, prompting her to run as an independent.
Barrett was first elected in 1995 as part of the Mike Harris government. The “Common Sense Revolution” led to the Highway 407 toll expressway being sold to the private sector, the closure of hospitals and firing of hundreds of nurses to save money, the Walkerton tainted water scandal, and caused our regional police to be replaced by the OPP.
Is it fair to link Brady with Barrett and therefore Harris? She was also president of the Haldimand-Norfolk riding association for 20 years and Barrett’s campaign manager over five elections. She includes an endorsement by Barrett on her website.
We have two types of conservatives fighting it out for the same voters here. A vote for Brady is one less vote for Doug Ford’s “not a true conservative” candidate.
But those two candidates are not the only choice. With the conservative vote being split, it creates an opportunity for non-conservative voters, who are the majority province-wide, to take a close look at the NDP, Liberal, and Green candidates and vote strategically for one they judge can best prevail against the two conservative candidates.
Can a non-conservative be elected in Haldimand-Norfolk? Over the past 50 years we had a Liberal, an NDP, a Progressive Conservative, and now an independent at Queen’s Park. Clearly no one has a lock on this riding and, similar to the last election, an unpredictable result is possible.
Your truly,
Greg Crone,
Caledonia
Where is the hope?
To the Editors,
Hope, as defined by Webster dictionary: “Desire accompanied by expectation of fulfillment.”
As I grew, I had hope that I would find a part time job to buy a car and cover the insurance. I had hope that job would lead to a better paying job to rent my first apartment.
I had hope that as my pay increased, I would start saving for a house. I had hope I could have a family and support them.
I had hope that if needed there would be programs to help. OHIP, welfare if I became really desperate, and Ontario Disabilities Support Program (ODSP) if critically injured. If my company pension was not enough, I would have the Ontario Pension Plan.
So, where is there hope for the next generations?
Premier Harris cut Ontario Works (welfare) in half and NO government since 1985 has made any real changes to this. OW and ODSP have been frozen. As of 2025 OW is $783 a month. ODSP is $1,381 a month. Ontario Pension Plan is in the same categories.
Premier Ford removed the Rent Control Program. Most companies do not offer pensions anymore. Minimum wage is $17.20 per hour ($2,752/month); a living wage in Ontario is $20.90 per hour, or $3,344 per month.
A one-bedroom apartment is going for $1,800 per month, so someone on OW or ODSP is already in the negative.
Cost of living just keeps increasing.
Again, where is the hope that the average person can have the same hope that I grew up with?
The Progressive Conservatives and the previous Liberal governments have not done much for the average person in Ontario to help create hope.
I will be voting for MPP Bobbi Ann Brady. She has been doing a good job and does not belong to the other two parties. Maybe she can help bring some hope back for the younger generations.
Patrick Cook,
Hagersville
An open letter to Amy Martin
Mayor Martin,
It is with great disappointment that the board of Pride Haldimand-Norfolk must write concerning your recent campaigning with current Niagara West MPP, Sam Oosterhoff, and your related social media posts where you fete Mr. Oosterhoff as your “friend”.
It would be unfair to assume you were, at the time, unaware of who Mr. Oosterhoff is. We assume you know his well-publicized positions on matters such as a woman’s right to choose and 2SLGBTQIA+ rights (not to mention unruly seniors). Perhaps you found the passage of time sufficient to ease your conscience before tacitly endorsing a “public servant” who demonizes whole swaths of Canadians, including many of your fellow residents. If so, it must be nice to be able to simply “forget” and choose to ignore ugly truths when they inconvenience you. However, members of our board, and many of those we seek to represent, do not have the luxury of simply setting aside the inconvenient views of those who seek to marginalize, silence, and control us.
Mr. Oosterhoof, despite the name of his party, is neither progressive nor conservative. He seeks to impose state control over women’s bodies, to remove the right of two people who love each other to solemnize that love in marriage, and to prevent 2SLGBTQIA+ parents from being considered true parents in the eyes of the law. He is in favour of government control and imposing state will on its citizens. He just wants the control to be the kind of control he wants, government control that favours his personal ideals. Mr. Oosterhoof, and those like him, are quick to resort to accusations of various shadowy “agendas” to malign those advocating on behalf of human rights, but he is seeking to impose his own agenda upon the rest of our society. Members of our community, and those who support them, advocate for our right to live our lives free from oppression and to push back against those who would seek to weaponize the tools of the state to suppress us and drive us to the margins of society. People just like Mr. Oosterhoff.
Amy Martin, you have a platform, and what you say and do matters to the public. There are young people who are struggling, dealing with pressure from loved ones and society. By standing by Mr. Oosterhoff and calling him your “friend” you are telling those young people where you stand: that you reject us and who we are. That you do not believe that we are entitled to the same rights as the rest of society. That we are lesser.
Maybe you believe that.
A rejection of the basic human rights of residents is incompatible with your office. If you wish to espouse those views on the campaign trail then that is certainly your prerogative, but you should not do so while cloaked in the authority of the mayor’s office.
We suspect that these are not the views you hold. After all, it would fly in the face of what you have said in the past. Just last summer we celebrated Haldimand Norfolk’s Pride Festival in Port Dover. You opened the event saying, “I’m so proud of your community for demanding your equal rights.”
If you reject the view of Mr. Oosterhoff, we call on you to publicly and firmly say so, and affirm your commitment to the rights of all Canadians.
If you do not, then it seems you are fine with saying whatever is to your personal benefit in the moment, especially if it might help you get elected.
You may say it is politics, but we know what this really makes you.
The Pride Haldimand-Norfolk Board
My proposal for a seven-ward system
To the Editors,
It was good to hear that Haldimand councillors voted to add a seventh ward, which former Caledonia Councillor Craig Grice proposed over 10 years ago.
At a meeting with Councillor Rob Shirton last week in Dunnville, he asked for a seven-ward proposal. So, friends from Dunnville accepted the challenge to get residents thinking about seven community-based wards to help economic development and tourism.
With Haldimand’s population about 54,000, that’s about 7,700 residents per ward. Because existing Caledonia Ward 3 has about 13,966 residents it needs two wards like Dunnville Wards 5 & 6 with their 13,739 residents. To achieve two wards with about 7,700 residents each in Caledonia they both need to be right-sized and split their urban and rural population between their two adjoining wards. A community-based ward unites urban and rural residents who have strong ties with their local community centre like in my attached proposal above: Hagersville Ward 1, Caledonia Wards 2 & 3, Cayuga Ward 4, Dunnville Wards 5 & 6, and Jarvis Ward 7.
Ward 1 for Hagersville hospital community includes rural areas east and west around urban Hagersville.
Ward 2 was added beside Caledonia Ward 3 where both were made slightly larger in size and split Caledonia urban and rural populations to get about 7,700 residents per ward. As seen in this example, Ward 2 includes areas around Highway 6 on the south and west side of Caledonia.
Similarly, Wards 5 & 6 need to be right sized by splitting Dunnville urban and rural hospital community to get about 7,700 residents per ward. First, Ward 5 needs about 3,000 residents from east urban Dunnville to create about 7,700 residents along with Moulton and Sherbrooke Townships. Then, Ward 6 needs about 3,200 residents from west urban Dunnville to add to Canborough, Dunn, and South Cayuga Townships extended out past Cheapside to create about 7,700 residents.
Ward 7 includes about 7,700 residents in and around Jarvis, Townsend, Selkirk, and Nanticoke in the southwest corner of Haldimand.
Cayuga Ward 4, as expected, is centrally located between the other six wards.
Robert Allen,
Dunnville
