McGuinty Government Nominates Expert In Accounting And Governance
Ontario has nominated business consultant and financial professional, Fay Booker, as the new Chair of the Niagara Parks Commission’s Board of Directors. The selection followed the review and interviews of applicants through an open competitive process.
The nomination is subject to review by the Standing Committee on Government Agencies and approval by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.
As the Chair of the Niagara Parks Commission, Booker would lead the overall strategic direction of the government agency responsible for preserving and enhancing the natural beauty of Niagara Falls and the Niagara River corridor for the enjoyment of current and future visitors while maintaining financial independence. Booker would replace Archie Katzman who has served as interim chair since December 10, 2009. more…
Spc. Alan N. Dikcis, 21, of Niagara Falls, N.Y., died March 5 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 630th Engineer Company (Clearance), 7th Engineer Battalion (Combat Effects), 20th Engineer Brigade (Combat) (Airborne), Fort Drum, N.Y.
Protect our Parks, an activist blog dedicated to protecting the Parks of Southern Ontario, has published this letter to the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty.
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March 2, 2010
The Honourable Dalton McGuinty Premier of Ontario
This letter will be emailed and served by Registered Mail
Re: Reasonable Apprehension of Bias in Maid of Mist Lease Negotiations
Sir.
First, please let me tell you the reason for this whole letter. It is an embarrassment to the people of the Province of Ontario and your Provincial Government to have allowed the present Board of Commissioners and General Manager of the Niagara Parks Commission to still remain in their present positions with what you and the citizens already know.
Second, I fear that if you respond to this letter you will give me a standard explanation that you are forwarding this to Minister Chan, Tourism Minister. To pass the buck again to a new Tourism Minister who has done nothing to improve the credibility of your Government, nor show the people that the process will be fair, is negligence on your behalf. You already know some of the conflicts and dirty inner workings of the Niagara Parks Commission through this ordeal and you choose not to take control and be a leader, but to hope we all go away. That’s not going to happen unless we are assured a fair, unbiased tendering is done that is transparent in its selection.
Here are some of the facts:
1. The Chairman (Jim Williams) and General Manager (John Kernahan) of NPC were involved in a meeting with the CEO of IMAX in fall of 2006 where an option was presented that IMAX will
build a new attraction at Table Rock fully financed by IMAX. This meeting and all information was suppressed from the Niagara Parks Commissioners and never exposed until I was told in May of
2008. In the mean time the NPC borrowed $38 million to renovate Table Rock and build the attraction “Fury” which has been exposed to be a dismal failure.
Now you can help The Animal Rescue Site choose which eligible Petfinder.com animal rescue organizations will receive up to $100,000 in funds to help animals! Voting is simple: just select your Country and (if U.S. or Canada) State/Province. The contest ends April 18th, 2010 and you can cast one vote every day for your favorite rescue organization.
Code of Conduct
Code of Conduct for the Commissioners and Senior Staff
January 20th, 2010
Memo to: Commissioners & Senior Staff
From: Howard Grant, Fairness Commissioner
PPI Consulting Limited Re: Restrictions on Lobbying Activities related to the Request for Proposals for Tour Boat Services
I have been hired by the Ministry of Tourism to assist the Niagara Parks Commission with the competitive process for tour boat services. In my role as Fairness Commissioner, I will provide oversight and process advice to ensure fairness throughout the competitive process.
The Niagara Parks Commission has established a Project Team comprised of John Kernahan, Nick Murphy and Joel Noden for the planning, design and advancement of this initiative. From time to time, others in the Commission may also be requested to contribute their expertise to the initiative. more…
Name: James Cameron
Date: August 16, 1954 Place of Birth:Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada Claim to Fame: Academy Award winning director, producer, screenwriter, editor, and inventor. His films Titanic and Avatar are the highest grossing films of all time ($5 billion).
James Cameron grew up in Chippawa Ontario, a municipality of Niagara Falls, and attended Stamford Collegiate Secondary School in Niagara Falls Canada.
His writing and directing work includes The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2 (1991), True Lies (1994), Titanic (1997), and Avatar (2009). He is also a co-developer of the digital 3-D Fusion Camera System, a precursor to his invention of the now popular Blu-ray Disc format. His most recent film Avatar is up for 9 Academy Award this Sunday March 7th 2010.more…
Its official. Just a few hours ago, Twitter reached its 10,000,000,000th tweet. The official tweet was “DON’T U EVER” by SheSz_FUcINgBAD. Not very profound is it?
An Atlanta businessman with eyes on tour boat operations at the base of Niagara Falls has lost a legal battle in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
In a decision rendered earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon denied motions filed by businessman William Windsor in a case involving the owners of the Maid of the Mist Corp. more…
The Killer whale shows at SeaWorld Orlando has resumed just a day after, Tillikum, killed a trainer. It’s the third time the 30-year-old whale, who was captured in Iceland when he was two years old, has been involved in a death. In 1991, when Tillikum was at Oak Bay’s Sealand of the Pacific, he was among three whales who killed 20-year-old trainer and marine biology student Keltie Byrne after she slipped into the pool. The whales, Tillikum and females Nootka and Haida, would not allow her out of the pool and she drowned. All three whales were sold to SeaWorld in 1992, the same year Sealand closed its doors. In 1999, a 27-year-old man apparently jumped into Tillikum’s pool. He died of drowning and hypothermia, but his body was also found to have bite marks.
Should Marineland continue the Killer Whale show?
One of their main attractions at Marineland Niagara Falls are the Killer Whales. The Marineland website describes the Killer Whales as affectionate and gentle: more…
I was excited to see that Canadian Gardening magazine is running an online contest dubbed “So You Think You Can Garden” on their online site canadiangardening.com. Upon further investigation I learned that the prize is $500 and a requirement to blog on their site once a week for 6 months. This sounds like a minimum salary job and not a contest.
I’m very excited about the possibility of a CANADA vs. USA men’s hockey gold medal final in the 2010 Olympics. For this to happen USA will have to defeat Finland and Canada will have to defeat Slovakia. I’m very surprised how many of the teams have performed, so rather than predicting who wins and what the score will be, I will predict this:
USA vs. Finland – Prediction: Fights
Canada vs. Slovakia – Prediction: Dives
Why? Because this is exactly what happened the last time these teams faced each other.
USA vs. Finland 2009 – Fight
Anssi Salmela, of Finland bleeds after a fight with David Backes of the United States during the IIHF World Ice Hockey Championship qualification round on May 11, 2008.
Canada vs. Slovakia Dec. 29th 2009 – Dive
Matus Rais, of Slovakia, pulls off one of the best dives against Canada during the 2010 IIHF World Junior Championships just a few weeks ago on December 29th, 2009.
Name: Steve Mesler
Birth Date: August 27, 1978 Place of Birth: Buffalo New York, USA
Claim to Fame: Member of the USA 2010 Olympics Four-Men Bobsled Team.
After graduating from the University of Florida in 2000, where the scholarship decathlete earned a degree in exercise and sport science, Mesler wasn’t ready to let go of his athletic career just yet. The Buffalo, N.Y. native reached out to the U.S. Bobsled & Skeleton Federation (USBSF) and attended bobsled tryouts in San Diego in June 2001.”My guts hurt, but I had a huge smile on my face,” Mesler says of his first trip down the track.
Mesler made his national team debut during the 2001-02 season and was named as an alternate for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. But his proper Olympic debut came in Torino, where he finished seventh in Todd Hays’ four-man sled. Upon the conclusion of the 2006 Games and four seasons with Hays, Mesler moved on to Steve Holcomb’s four-man squad. more…
Paul Henderson was a talented but unspectacular left winger who was the unlikeliest of heroes. Unlikely heroes have come to define Canadian hockey. Will there be a hero tonight as Canada takes on Russia at the Olympics?
On September 28th, 1972 Paul Henderson scored a remarkable goal that concluded the comeback victory over a Soviet hockey team that had pushed Canada to the brink of defeat. Of course, none of this was supposed to happen. Team Canada was composed of the NHL’s greatest stars, and were expected to easily defeat ‘the communists’. The success of the Soviets stunned Canadians, who had always unquestioningly believed in their country’s hockey supremacy. “The goal heard around the world” was scored at 19:26 of the final period. For a moment the world stood still, and then as the red light flickered behind Vladislav Tretiak, Canadians hearts filled with pride and joy.
Today is the last day to cast your vote to have Niagara Falls added to the latest Canadian edition of Monopoly. Don’t let a city like Kenora (formally named as the City of Rat Portage) be voted in instead of Niagara Falls. Vote here: www.monopolyvote.ca/en_CA/world
Are you vacationing to Niagara Falls any time soon and planning on taking a tour of the area? Be prepared for sticker shock when you see how much some of the tours cost!
Of course there are many reasons you would go with a large tour company when visiting the area. Perhaps you would like to go on a boat tour, or a helicopter ride. Obviously for a tour of that caliber it would be necessary to hire a professional company to show you around Niagara.
But what about if you just wanted to go site seeing? Some of the local tours in Niagara charge anywhere from $75-$150 per person for a 3-4 hour tour. So for an average family of 2 adults and 2 children you can expect to pay between $300-$600! Not only are you paying a lot of money for someone to show you around the area, but you will most likely be with a large group of people as well. Having a large group while site seeing is not always a plus. It can take longer to explore areas with a large group, and you don’t have a say if you want to skip a specific part of the tour.
If you are looking to have the tour of your life and see things you want to see, then going with a tour company might not be your best option. A better option you may want to consider would be to hire a local that lives in Niagara or even a retired tour guide from the area. more…
McGuinty Government Nominates Expert In Accounting And Governance
