Province to review Aggregate Resources Act
On Mar. 22 the Ontario Legislature unanimously passed a motion to review the Aggregate Resources Act, a move that Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Michael Harris believes is a step in the right direction. “Although specific questions on the review’s timeline and expected impacted on existing quarry applications are still pending, the unanimous approval in the Legislature is an important first step.” The motion came just days before the minister of natural resources was required to respond to a formal request made by Harris on Dec. 6 in which he asked for specific details on the promised review. In that request, Harris asked for a detailed timeline for completion of the review, an indication of the areas of the Act to be examined, and details of the review’s impact on existing quarry applications currently in front of local councils or the Ontario Municipal Board.
The motion passed last week provides few details, other than explaining that the standing committee on general government would review the Aggregate Resources Act and report to the House its observations and recommendations with respect to strengthening the act.
In developing those recommendations, the committee’s focus shall include, but not be limited to, “the Act’s consultation process; how siting, operations, and rehabilitation are addressed in the Act, best practices and new developments in the industry, fees/royalties, and aggregate resource development and protection, including conservation/ recycling.”
While the minister of the environment will still be required to respond to Harris’ request before Apr. 3, the MPP suspects that response will make reference to this unanimous passing of the review as proof that the government is moving forward.
He said he hopes their response will have a more defined timeline for the review than was supplied in the motion, and wants to see all stakeholders involved – including opponents such as the BridgeKeepers and the Conestoga-Winterbourne Residents Association as well as proponents such as gravel companies – will be consulted by the government throughout the review.
“(Those groups) could possibly think about getting a submission or a presentation together to present to the committee,” said Harris. “We’re still reviewing whether this would be a travelling committee so that it could come out to our community. I think that’s something that our community would welcome.”
Two weeks before last fall’s election, former Liberal MPP Leeanna Pendergast announced that her government intended to review the Aggregate Resources Act and to “put pits in their place” by finding a more sustainable balance between the needs of rural citizens with the demands of the aggregate industry.
The announcement followed through on a promise made two months earlier that the government would review the act, though up until now there have been few moves towards actually completing that review, prompting Harris’ request for more details on Dec. 6.
Currently, Woolwich has five gravel applications on the books, three of them larger projects within the vicinity of Conestogo, Winterbourne and West Montrose.
Two of those projects – the proposed Jigs Hollow gravel pit, and an application by Hunder Developments at 128 Katherine St. S. and 1081 Hunsberger Rd. – are subject to OMB talks next month, while a third bid to extract aggregate from 115 acres near West Montrose and its historic covered bridge by Guelph-based Capital Paving is on hold pending the township’s decision to designate the bridge and its surroundings as a cultural heritage landscape.
Harris has no direct involvement in the sub-committee that is conducting the review, though he said he has been in talks with colleagues to swap into it. The Liberals also hold a majority position within that committee, meaning the timing of the review is ultimately in their hands.
He also reminds those involved that this is merely a review of the act, with no revisions guaranteed.
“It’s a very large scope,” he said. “A very significant scope, but lets see how much detail actually comes out of it.”
Harris says he can’t support Ontario budget
On Tuesday, Ontario got its first glimpse of the province’s economic future from Finance Minister Dwight Duncan’s 2012 budget, but it’s a vision that the Conservative Party and Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Michael Harris cannot support.
“My first reaction was that I was obviously disappointed with this budget,” said Harris on Wednesday afternoon over the phone from his office at the Legislature, indicating that the province continues to struggle to get its economic house in order and help get 600,000 unemployed Ontarians back to work.
“(There is) no real plan to address the massive deficit that we’re faced with to reduce the overall size and cost to government, and the jobs crisis.”
Ontario’s total spending is pegged at $127 billion this year (with an extra $1 billion in reserves), an increase of 2.5 per cent over last year, with the promise of eliminating the deficit in the next five years without sacrificing education or healthcare.
In the budget delivered on Tuesday afternoon, the Liberal government forecast a deficit of $15.3 billion for the coming year, which is about $1 billion less than was forecast a year ago, but still too high for Harris and the Tories to stomach.
“Families have to live within their means and consider family budgets when making big decisions, and so should this government as well,” he said, pointing out the fact that 14 of 24 ministries will see a budget increase year-over-year, representing 82 per cent of the overall budget.
“That’s not austerity. That’s not reducing the size and cost of government. That’s making it bigger.”
The Liberals have also “cherry picked” from the Drummond Report released last month, Harris said, picking and choosing which suggestions to adopt and which ones to ignore.
In total, the province has outright rejected nine of the 362 suggestions, including recommendations to scrap all-day kindergarten and to cut Ontario’s 10 per cent price break on electricity bills for those using less than 3,000 kwh per month.
Duncan said that he didn’t agree that all of former TD bank chief economist Don Drummond’s recommendations needed to be followed in order to balance the provincial books by 2017-2018 – an assessment that Harris disagrees with.
“We paid an astronomical amount of money to have him put this big report together and the government ignores it,” Harris said.
“If you’re going to pull off and backtrack on these recommendations, you need to put something back on the table that would make up for that cost.”
Trying to work within a minority government, there are hints of the Liberals trying to appease both parties in this budget – for example a public-sector wage freeze for the Tories, and a refusal to drop the corporate tax rate to 10 per cent from its current rate of 11.5 per cent until the budget is balanced for the NDP – but the Conservatives say that they simply cannot accept the current budget as it stands today.
The government plan calls for per capita spending in 2011-2012 to be $8,560, the lowest among the provinces, and the government says that $17.7 billion in savings and cost containment will be realized over the next three years. Yet with money-wasting boondoggles like eHealth and ORNGE still fresh in Ontarians’ minds, Harris said that most people will find it hard to make sacrifices in their own lives when the government is unwilling to do the same. With the Conservatives refusal to pass the budget, should the NDP also refuse to pass it – a decision they’ll likely come to in the next week or so – Ontarians could be headed back to the polls, something that is undesirable but may be necessary, Harris said.
“We don’t want an election – that’s the last thing Ontarians want and the last thing the people in my riding want, and I don’t want an election – but they also don’t want a $30-billion deficit,” said Harris.
“Enough is enough. The only way we can stop this bleeding and stop this government from spending is by getting rid of them.”
Elmira contingent gearing up to host Senior Games
The annual Senior Games are headed for Elmira this summer, though they will be played under a slightly different format this year. Previously associated with District 26 of the Senior Games Association of Ontario for nearly 30 years, the two have severed their partnership this year, meaning the games will take on a new moniker as the Woolwich 55+ Invitational Games. “The format is the same. The rules and everything are all the same, it’s just that we’re on our own,” said chairperson George Read.
The games are open to all seniors 55 years of age and older living within the seven areas of the Golden Triangle of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, New Hamburg, Fergus, Elmira and Guelph, and participants do not need to be a part of any seniors group or association to participate.
Read said that registration forms, along with a full schedule of events and information on how to register, will be distributed to seniors’ activity centres throughout those seven cities soon, and the deadline for registration is May 16.
The games include 21 events, ranging from golf and horseshoes to darts and swimming, and they will almost all be played right here in Elmira, save for 10-pin bowling, which will be played in Guelph. When asked what the most popular games were at the event, there was no hesitation in his answer.
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“Card games. Euchre, bid euchre and bridge,” he said. Bridge in particular has really picked up in popularity since the last time Woolwich hosted the games back in 2005, nearly tripling in numbers since then.
“I haven’t a clue how to play it, but I watch sometimes,” Read said with a laugh.
Despite being in preparation mode for more than six months, Read said the group has had difficulty in fundraising for the event. He said in 2005 it cost $16,000 to operate the games, and he expects the same this time around. Many of those fees are to cover the rental of the ice pad and the swimming pool at the Woolwich Memorial Centre, as well as other facilities. “Fundraising isn’t as easy as it used to be. Everything is tight, so we’ve had to work a little harder on that.”
He said the games are not only a great way for seniors to get involved in their community and to meet new people, they will also provide a boost to local businesses. He said they had about 700 athletes come to town in 2005, along with their families.
He also said that despite the age of the participants, the competitive juices are still flowing. “They take it seriously. Especially cards,” he said. “If you make a mistake, they’ll let you know.”
The Woolwich 55+ Invitational Games are set for June 4-12. Registration is $8 for the first event entered and $3 for any additional event. Return completed registration forms and cheques (payable to 55+ Invitational Games) to; 55+ Invitational Games, 24 Snyder Ave. S., Elmira, N3B 1Y9.
Elmira’s Erin Zach
Elmira resident Erin Zach helped make NCAA history on Mar. 17 when her Rochester Institute of Technology teammates captured the school’s first Division III women’s ice hockey national championship. “It’s an indescribable feeling. It was amazing,” said an elated Zach from her parent’s home in Elmira, where she is recovering from an illness. The RIT Tigers scored three third-period goals in front of a home crowd of nearly 1,200 fans to snap a 1-1 tie and defeat the defending national championship team from Norwich University. Zach also said the presence of her parents, who make the three-and-a-half hour drive to Rochester for almost all of her games, was a big boost.
“The fans were amazing and it was great being at home and not having to travel and everyone was cheering so loudly when we won,” she said, adding it was nice to get revenge on the Norwich team that had beaten RIT in last year’s championship game.
Elmira’s Erin Zach helped the RIT Tigers claim the Division III NCAA national championship earlier this month. Zach, a former EDSS star, contributed six goals and eight assists this year and the team is preparing to make the move to Division I play next season. [submitted
In the finals Zach said the coaches and players stressed keeping the game simple and just continue to play their own style of game.
“We just talked about how we should play our game and not take any dumb penalties,” she said. “Just keep up the good work that we had done all year, and go out and do what we can do.”
“This is a team that played hard thoughout the season. Going into the third period tonight at 1-1, we knew we weren’t losing,” said RIT head coach Scott McDonald. “We wanted it more, blocked shots, got in lanes, did all the little things that allowed us to win.”
The Tigers are now 54-3-3 over the past two seasons and shortly after the championship win announced they would be moving up to Division I play starting next season. Normally a two-year process, the team was admitted due to Niagara University dropping its women’s hockey program, a move announced last week.
Zach said that her coaches and teammates are taking a realistic approach to the move to the more competitive level of hockey. They’ve just won the national championships but are hard at work training for next season, she said.
“It’s definitely going to be different,” she said. “We’re hoping to be at least in the middle of the pack. It’s going to be hard but we’re in spring training right now and doing some hard lifting to hopefully bulk up a little bit and play on the big stage.”
Now in her second year of studying media arts and technology, the sophomore was accepted to RIT on financial assistance after starring for the Cambridge Fury and the EDSS Lancers, and was named the Central Western Ontario Secondary School Association MVP in 2010.
Jacks undergoing a major rebuild
When Andrew Richard of the Ayr Centennials beat goaltender Josh Heer of the Wellesley Applejacks at 18:01 of the first overtime period back on Mar. 1, the Game 5 victory sealed the fate of the Jacks for another year, as they were ousted from the Sothern Ontario Junior Hockey League playoffs.
The finish was a frustrating one for players and management alike, as they had hoped to not only avoid a repeat of last year’s opening-round five-game defeat (also at the hand of the Centennials), but advance to the second round for the first time in more than four years.
The Wellesley Applejacks are preparing for an offseason of rebuilding as their roster is set for a major shakeup following a five-game round one defeat to Ayr. Players from this year’s squad include: Josh Heer, Derek Lebold, James Mildon, Mark Detzler, Bobby Gray, Justin Lebold, Kevin Howorth, Shawn Fitzpatrick, Mitch Metzger, Reid Denstedt, Rob Hinschberger, Jake Steenson, Josh Herd, Geoff Parr, Mark Hamilton, Connor McLeod, Corey Way, Blair Witmer, Spencer Geoffrey, Brett Vickers, Chris Bauman, Matt Sovereign, Tyler Eckert, Jordan Bauman, Trevor Olender. Head coach Kevin Fitzpatrick, assistant coach Jim Olender, manager Terry Brick, trainer Al Jones, assistant trainer Dan Hartung, volunteer Verna Metcalfe.. [heidi m. faul/images photography|
“We’ve talked to a lot of players for next year, and there are a few that we’re really interested in,” said Jacks head coach and general manager Kevin Fitzpatrick earlier this week. He said that the recruitment process was an ongoing on, and that they had targeted a handful of players that they are pursuing for next season.
In the Junior hockey ranks, the process of planning for “next season” is a perennial one, with the uncertainty surrounding call-ups to more competitive leagues, players leaving for school or work, and the ever-present reality of age.
With 19 players on the current roster 20 years of age or older in 2012, next year’s team will have a much different look than the squad that left the ice a month ago.
Each team is only permitted four over-age players, and while they carried two this past year, Fitzpatrick said they will certainly fill all four positions for the upcoming season – though he gave no indication of who those players might be.
Another source of uncertainty is the proposed merger of the Junior D and Junior C leagues, and Fitzpatrick is on that merger committee. He said they plan to meet a couple of times in April, and that there are about 25 points that need to be worked out, with league alignment being the biggest issue, but the list also includes league rivalries and potential rivalries, transportation costs, and the scheduling of home games.
“There are still a lot of variables,” Fitzpatrick said.
The timing for training camp for next season still has to be finalized, as it hinges on the outcome of the merger discussions, but as always, Fitzpatrick said the Jacks will ice a competitive team that can hopefully build on some of their success earlier this season.
Major Atom AA squad capture OMHA title
The Woolwich Major Atom AA hockey team laid claim to their second consecutive Ontario Minor Hockey Association championship thanks to a three-game sweep of Whitby on Mar. 23. The team is virtually the same lineup as the Minor Atom A team that took home the OMHA title last season, one of four Woolwich teams to make it to the finals. “It’s nice to put a bit of a stamp on this year where we were maybe a bit of an underdog,” said head coach Tony Code. The team made the jump to the AA level of play this season, and Code said many teams may have overlooked Woolwich with the assumption that they were in over their heads.
The team responded to the higher level of competition by wrapping up the OMHA title in just three games.
The Woolwich Major Atom AA team won their second consecutive OMHA title by sweeping their 3-game series against Whitby. They advance to the OHF championships in Kitchener from April 13-15. Back row: John Robertson (coach), Tony Code (coach), Rob Cousineau (coach), Tim Rollins (coach). Second row: Kurtis Hoover, Owen Harnock, Josh Martin, Brody Waters, Austin Cousineau, Justin Taylor, Eli Baldin. Third row: Kayden Zacharczuk, Lukas Shantz, Jake Code, Griffen Rollins, Mackenzie (Bubba) Willms, Sam Davidson. Front: goalies Cyrus Martin and Riley Demers. [james jackson/observer
The coach said the two teams were actually quite evenly matched, and that is reflected in the score of the opening two games played in Elmira. In Game 1 on Mar. 17 Woolwich managed a 2-0 win with both goals coming in the second period courtesy of Lukas Shantz and Justin Taylor. Goaltender Cyrus Martin had the shutout.
Not to be outdone, Martin’s goaltending partner Riley Demers had his own shutout in Game 2 the next day in a 1-0 win over Whitby, and the lone goal came off the stick of Brody Waters.
In Game 3, with the teams tied 1-1 after the first period, Woolwich responded with two goals in the second and two more in the third to seal the 5-1 win and the 3-0 series sweep. Goals came courtesy of Josh Martin, Lukas Shantz, Griffen Rollins, and a pair from Jake Code.
For the head coach, sealing the deal in Game 3 was important, because in the semi-finals against Oakville the Woolwich team managed to erase a 2-0 series deficit by winning the next three to advance to the finals.
“From a coaching standpoint it allowed me to talk to that and say ‘you can’t take your foot off the gas against this team because we were down and somebody allowed us to get back into it,’” said Code.
Remarkably the team’s season still isn’t finished. They are now preparing to compete in the Ontario Hockey Federation finals that will see them faceoff against the best teams in the rest of the province from Apr. 13-15 in Kitchener. The OHF is the largest of three Hockey Canada branches that govern hockey in Ontario.
“We’re still going. It was a big deal to win the OMHA’s but hopefully we can get re-focused and continue on.”
Kids today … not really much different from those of yesterday
Teenagers are now one of the most powerful demographic groups in the world. Multi-million dollar ad campaigns are designed around their tastes in music and fashion as corporations the world round fight tooth and nail for their business. Yet this term is relatively new, having been coined near the start of the last century and rising to prominence by the 1950s. To help better understand this sometimes confusing period of all our lives, and to help draw parallels between our parents’ teenage years and our own, the Waterloo Region Museum has recently launched a new exhibit called Coming of Age that examines the lives and the culture of adolescents in Waterloo Region from the 1920s to today.
“This notion of a four- or five-year period where you continued on in high school and had a life of your own separate from your family and parents is a fairly recent phenomenon,” said James Jensen, curator of exhibits at the museum.
James Jensen of the Waterloo Region Museum says the new Coming of Age display is a far cry from what many people may associate with typical museum exhibits, and should help bring together multiple generations of family members. [james jackson / the observerç
The exhibit spans nearly a century of teenage life, from the fashion of the roaring ’20s to video game consoles from the late-’70s and early-’80s. It fills nearly 2,000 square feet of space at the museum, and Jensen said they made a real effort to set it apart from typical museum displays.
“It’s very colourful,” he said. “People think of museums as dark and grey, with lots of old, rusty items, so it’s bright and it’s colourful.”
Items ranging from old phonographs and record players, to televisions and sporting equipment fill the display cases, and period music plays in speakers overhead to give visitors a better sense of what each era sounded like.
“When you walk in its big-band and crooners, and when you walk out it’s the Black Eyed Peas,” Jensen laughed.
The museum consulted with Cynthia Comacchio, a professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier University who specializes in social history and is the author of The Dominion of Youth: Adolescence and the Making of a Modern Canada, 1920-50.
She has been working with the museum for the past two years to get the exhibit ready, and said the task presented her with a unique test.
“The stuff I write is dense and academic, so it was a challenge to write for a mainstream audience without dumbing it down because that is really offensive to the audience, because they’re not idiots.
“They did a wonderful job with the exhibit.”
So how did teens rise up to become such an influencing factor in everything from the music on the radio to the clothes on our backs?
Comacchio said that a major shift occurred in the 1920s where instead of looking to adults to set trends, teens were the ones dictating the direction of fashion and popular culture. She said that was largely due to new technology, such as the phonograph, the automobile, radio, and later, television.
“Young people are really the forerunners in adapting technology and applying it to popular culture. Because they’re young they’re the first to grab on to the ‘new’ and then the ‘new’ goes mainstream.”
That phenomenon has a direct link to Waterloo Region, home to one of Canada’s most active and thriving technology sectors. Comacchio admits she was surprised by just how tech-savvy the region has been for the past century; despite the popular misconception that the rural area stifled technological advances, the opposite occurred.
Fashion that was being worn in Montreal and Toronto was easily accessible in Waterloo Region, the area was home to one of the first privately-owned private radio stations, and cinema caught on quickly, she said.
In turn, that inspired and contributed to the growth of the tech industry that now calls Waterloo home during the latter half of the 20th century.
“That’s nothing new. That’s not just about the digital revolution by any means. The historical roots go way back,” she said.
“It’s not all about RIM,” she added with a laugh.
Ironically, the hardest part of the entire exhibit was collecting artifacts from closer to the modern era. Jensen said that museums tend to “forget” to collect those items until 30 or 40 years has passed, meaning some of the items from the ’80s and ’90s were trickier to find – and more difficult for Comacchio to research.
They both are optimistic that the exhibit, which will be on display for the next couple of years, will help bridge a gap between youth, their parents, and their grandparents.
“There is so much that we have in common that tends to go out of focus because we start saying ‘the youth of today’ in a negative way, but we’ve always said that,” said Comacchio.
“Adults have always said that, and young people have always said that their parents don’t understand them.”
The Waterloo Region Museum is located at 10 Huron Rd. in Kitchener. For more information call 519-748-1914 or visit www.waterlooregionmuseum.com.
Wellesley nears completion of new strategic plan
The future of Wellesley Township over the next decade became a little clearer on Tuesday night when councillors were presented with the draft version of their new strategic plan. Fire chief Andrew Lillico made the presentation and provided an update on the process that got underway last fall. The 28-page document provides an overview of strategic goals, program managers, objectives, timelines and progress indicators for a range of projects that fall under six distinct categories; human resources, healthy communities and environments, growth management and sustainable growth, infrastructure, public engagement and partnerships, and customer service. Lillico received input from staff, councillors, and other municipalities when putting together the report, which he hopes will act as a blueprint for the next 10 years.
“We chose 2012 to 2022 because it falls in line with our 10-year capital budget,” he explained.
The vision statement that will be used to develop all future plans is clearly a homage to the historical past of Wellesley, but with an eye forward as well: “The Township of Wellesley is a sustainable community that preserves its heritage while shaping its future,” while the mission statement will be “To deliver quality services through leadership, innovation, partnership and community engagement in a fair and cost-effective manner.”
Without providing any specifics, each of the six categories was given their own guiding objectives, which should help facilitate the decision-making process moving forward.
For example, the strategic objective for customer service is “To ensure quality and accountability in providing effective and efficient customer services that match or exceed our customer’s expectations for our residents and businesses.”
The timelines for each objective range from a few months all the way to the end of 2022, a moving target that Lillico said allows for flexibility and fluidity in the decision making process moving forward.
“I feel that the plan is fairly accurate where we sit today, however, we’re sitting in a situation where the provincial government may make some changes to our environment that could impact the municipality,” he said. “Certainly going into next year when we know the impacts from the budget and the Drummond Report, we could adjust the strategic plan as an ongoing document.”
Councillors praised the work of Lillico and staff, saying the document should be a valuable resources moving forward.
“I think it hits all the objectives we have as a council and hit all the points, and it’s something that we can do indicators on every year to see where we stand,” said Coun. Jim Olender. “I think we have a framework to work with now, and I think that’s great.”
A public meeting to review the strategic plan is scheduled for Apr. 17 to allow public comment, and Lillico is aiming for final council approval in June.
Wellesley facing delays in review of proposed new position
Wellesley council will have to wait until May for the final consultants report on whether or not they should hire a new tax collector – a timeline that has some councillors seeing red. “I have an issue with how long it’s taking,” said Coun. Shelley Wagner. “May 15th (they) will be coming back to council, and so we’ve been sitting in a position for two months having somebody evaluate this.
“Was there anyone else who could come sooner?”
The New Hamburg-based financial consultant Barcon was contacted following the Mar. 5 council meeting, and has scheduled a series of interviews with township staff on Apr. 12, and the review process will take an additional four weeks.
Township operations manager Willis McLaughlin explained to Wagner that there was no one else who had the same experience with the township as Barcon, and if they had hired someone else, it likely would have taken longer for the review to be completed while they got up to speed with the situation.
“We weren’t happy with the timeline either, but the alternatives aren’t too rosy,” he said. “It’s the best we could do.”
The consultant has been hired to review the township’s need to employ a new tax collector, a position that has gone unfilled since the end of December and has forced other staff to pick up the slack in the meantime.
But the workload is so high that the position needs to be filled quickly and made full-time, director of finance Diane Lorbetski told councillors at the Mar. 5 meeting, saying they were short 1,820 hours of work per year that current staff couldn’t cover.
In a split vote, 3-2, councillors decided to hire a consultant to determine the necessity of hiring a new tax collector at the recommended starting hourly rate of $25.75, or $46,865.00 annually.
The consultant will cost between $8,400 and $9,600 for seven to eight days of consulting time, plus HST and mileage, which will come from the 2012 HR Committee budget of $30,000.
Coun. Jim Olender also expressed his frustration with the township’s lack of foresight in the situation.
“We could have had a part-timer in there from December until now,” he said. “Knowing this was coming up and that we didn’t have a replacement for the person that was leaving, that person could have been asked to stay on until this was resolved.”
The consultant will conduct 30-minute interviews on Apr. 12 with key members of council, the finance department, finance staff, and internal customers of the finance department. At the Mar. 27 meeting the consultant will provide more details on timelines and costs, along with an interview schedule.
Airshow sets June date for this year’s outing
Aviation fans will have the opportunity to kick-start their summer season when the annual Waterloo Air Show takes to the skies on June 2-3, two months earlier than last year’s show. This is the fourth year for the show, which has been held on a different weekend each year for one simple reason.
“We do it to accommodate the Snowbirds schedule,” said Diana Spremo, the event’s director of marketing and media relations. The nine-plane team is known internationally for their high-flying stunts and breathtaking aerial acrobatics.
“They tell us when they’re going to be in the region, and say ‘if you’d like us, this is when you’re going to have to put on the show.’”
The Snowbirds will be making an appearance again this year, as the Waterloo Air Show has been scheduled to coordinate with the team's availabilty. This year's event is set for June 2-3. [observer file photo
There is also going to be an exciting array of new acts this year, said Spremo, which includes OTTO the Helicopter to entertain children, and Red Bull racing pilot Pete McLeod who in 2009 became the first Canadian to participate in the elite air racing championship, finishing fifth overall in 2010.
Spremo also said that this year the air show will provide free on-site parking at the airport, unlike last year where they had to run shuttle buses to ferry spectators to off-site parking.
“People can just park and walk to the show site and not have to deal with shuttle buses,” she said, adding the walk could still be up to half a kilometre – depending how early fans get arrive.
Last year’s event saw between 20,000-25,000 spectators, a significant drop from the 40,000 that attended two years ago, and Spremo attributed that drop to the poor weather.
“On the Sunday of our airshow was the same day as the tornado in Goderich,” she said. “We managed to get most of the planes up, but we had to call them down because of the poor weather and it was coming in very quickly.”
Tickets will be on sale soon, and this year the air show will charge for seniors and children under 10 years old, when in previous years their entry was free. Spremo said that was to give them a better idea of how many people are attending.
Gates will open at 10 a.m. both days of the event, with the show starting at 1 p.m. and there will be food vendors, static displays with airplanes and their crews available for fans to interact with, and there will be autographs and merchandise available.
“We do encourage people to come spend the day with us. We’re trying to create more of a festival atmosphere.”
Visit www.waterlooairshow.com for more information.
