All posts by SHLF

Simcoe North’s Dunlop takes aim at skilled trades stigma

On the night Jill Dunlop secured the win to represent Simcoe North, the daughter of Garfield Dunlop vowed to advocate for the skilled trades, just as her father had done during his years in office.

In the ensuing months, the recently minted Progressive Conservative MPP has taken up the cause at Queen’s Park with a resolution that garnered unanimous support.

“There is a major and growing shortage of skilled employees to create and/or grow businesses and industries in Ontario,” Dunlop said. “As we execute our plan to make Ontario open for business, we need skilled labour to fill the jobs that a thriving economy will generate.”

According to Dunlop, 10 per cent of Ontario’s youth are pursuing careers in the skilled trades at a time when 20 per cent of workers in that same sector are over age 54 and will retire within the decade.

In presenting her resolution to reform and promote the skilled trades, Dunlop stressed a need for immediate action to fill the trades gap.

“Skilled labour jobs are good jobs and provide a meaningful, financially stable career path for many Ontarians, including young people, newcomers and individuals looking for a career change,” she added.

Part of the challenge in steering students into the skilled trades, Dunlop said, is overcoming the negative stigma associated with the sector, “whereby people believe that skilled trades are not a career to aspire or to be proud of.

“Our youth deserve to be presented with as many career options as possible, and the skilled trades should be at the top of that list,” she added.

Dunlop recommended the government take the lead in improving education, training and job creation in the skilled-trades sector.

She is encouraging collaboration between Ontario’s education ministry, the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities and the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.

Dunlop suggested they work toward solutions to reduce the stigma surrounding the trades and address the shortage of skilled labour.

Family, staff, Simcoe North business owners, and area mayors were on hand to support Dunlop during her recent address at Queen’s Park.

Beattie’s Distillers in Alliston makes addition to liquor lineup

Beattie’s Distillers in Alliston introduced its latest libation at an open house held June 22.

Distillery owners Ken and Liz Beattie are making history by becoming the first distillery in Canada to make gin from potatoes.

A small batch of strawberry vodka was also sold exclusively at the event.

Guests were able to sample the new products at the cocktail bar and they were also treated to free snacks and other goodies, including mashed potatoes served in martini glasses, topped with cheese, gravy and other mouth-watering fixings.

The gin will be hitting LCBO shelves very soon.

Beatties Distiller’s began selling potato vodka in April 2016, and in the fall of last year they introduced two more products, sweet-potato vodka and an Irish moonshine called Poitin.

28-year-old man dies in fatal crash on Highway 400 near Tay Township

A 28-year-old Halton Hills man died after his vehicle crashed into the southbound shoulder on Highway 400 on the evening of Aug. 5.

The Southern Georgian Bay OPP were dispatched to Highway 400 just north of Fesserton Side Road shortly after 5 p.m. on Sunday. Responding officers, along with County of Simcoe paramedics and the Tay Township Fire Department, attended the scene and located the driver and lone occupant of the vehicle.

Christopher Violo was pronounced dead at the scene.

Members of the OPP traffic collision investigation unit attended the scene to assist in the investigation into the cause of the crash, which closed southbound lanes of Highway 400 until shortly after 9:30 p.m.

An official cause of the collision has yet to be determined.


Innisfil exploring the meaning of home for Culture Days

Like Dorothy clicking her heels thinking there’s no place like home, Innisfil staff wants residents to think about shoes and home for the latest Culture Days project.

“It started in the spring with the Teen Involvement Group. We wanted to get the whole community involved in a neighbourhood project,” Innisfil IdeaLAB and library community engagement co-ordinator Kathryn Schoutsen said.

The town ended up getting multiple pairs of canvas sneakers and can hand one out to each new artist.

“The project is painting a memory of what does home mean to you,” she said. “We’ve had one person who drew the Toronto skyline because Toronto used to be home and now they’ve moved to Innisfil.”

And a pair of sisters painted their individual sneaker either pink or purple, to represent the colour of their rooms, Schoutsen added.

The sneaker project will be popping up at various community events this summer, wrapping with the nationally celebrated Culture Days Saturday, Sept. 29.

“We will be celebrating the event and will unveil a display of all the shoes,” Schoutsen said.

To participate in the program, visit a branch of the library and inquire at the front desk.

Inflatable boat, trailer stolen from Tay Township store

The Southern Georgian Bay OPP are investigating the theft of a boat and trailer from a recreational vehicle store on Highway 12 in the Township of Tay.

The boat and trailer were removed from its parked location between 6 p.m. on Aug. 11 and 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 12.

It is an 11.8-foot Gala inflatable boat with a black Tohatsu 30 HP outboard motor on a 14-foot Lode-Rite galvanized steel trailer.

The trailer did not have a licence plate at the time of the theft.

Anyone who knows the whereabouts of this boat or trailer is asked to contact the OPP at or Crime Stoppers at . You can submit information online at .


An ’emotional’ return to Ramara-based leadership camp 70 years on

Alex Saunders stood before a roomful of students seated in a spacious dining hall overlooking Lake Couchiching.

Seventy years ago this month, Saunders was just like them: young, full of promise and wondering what lay ahead.

His time here, at the Ontario Educational Leadership Centre on Rama Road in Longford Mills, would prove pivotal during a life that included 26 years in the military and a stint with the Canadian Football League.

“This is a very emotional trip for me,” the 89-year-old told his audience, all of them dressed in matching blue-and-white uniforms bearing the camp’s emblem, the province’s coat of arms.

Saunders attended the first course at the leadership centre in July 1948 and returned for the 70th anniversary of the nonprofit camp that draws students in grades six through 12 from across the province.

He was there to tell his story and pass along wisdom earned over the intervening decades, which included time with the Royal Canadian Air Force and a season playing for the Ottawa Rough Riders.

“Find the things in life that you give your total commitment to, because it is never ending,” Saunders advised. “What you commit yourself to has a tendency to carry on, from day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year — you carry it on.”

Each of the camp’s 16 courses focuses on engaging and educating youth to maximize their potential as leaders, while encouraging them to become participating citizens in their schools, communities and beyond.

Courses are delivered primarily by teachers and range in interest from the arts and athletics to school governance and global issues.

“You create a safe environment for people to take risks, and, personally that’s where growth is going to happen, when people are taking risks,” said Ian DeCoste, centre manager.

Saunders, in his closing remarks, told the students that each of them has goals and aspirations, “the things that are precious to you in your lives.”

Then, he urged them to “look for what’s important, look for what touches your heart and follows those things.”

To learn more about the Ontario Educational Leadership Centre, go to .

Wasaga store contributes to cross-Canada cycling cause

A Wasaga Beach grocery store held a charity barbecue event for two local teachers who will be cycling across Canada next summer, raising more than $600.

James Carson and Nancy Newman will be setting off from St. John’s on July 1 on a campaign to raise awareness about youth mental health issues they’ve named From the Rock to the Rockies.

On June 30, Mike and Cheri Dopp of Foodland held a charity barbecue for the pair.


Province to ‘start from scratch’ as it moves forward with Angus seed plant review

The future of the Angus seed plant is still up in the air, but the PC government has promised to halt the Liberal government’s plan to close the facility until conducts a comprehensive review and consultation process.

Local residents, including members of AWARE Essa, lauded the announcement made July 18 by Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry Jeff Yurek.

Anne Learne Sharpe said this gives “hope” for the future of forests in the province.

“With the September closure deadline approaching, we are relieved and thankful that our representatives in this new government are giving the Ontario Tree Seed Plant the consideration it deserves,” she said.

Simcoe-Grey MPP Jim Wilson, who promised the closure would be reviewed during his re-election campaign, said the government will be seeking advice from growers, forestry companies and tree associations.

“We will be doing a consultation with them, which the Liberals didn’t do,” he said. “They didn’t consult with anyone, so we are going to start from scratch to figure out what this thing should look like and what the future of the property will be.”

OPSEU president Smokey Thomas said two employees are working part-time at the facility, while four others were redeployed elsewhere in the ministry.

He said nothing has been moved or sold from the facility since the closure was made public last September.

Thomas never bought the former government’s line about the private sector being able to step in to replace the seeds grown at the plant.

“You couldn’t replicate this in the private sector, it would take you years,” he said. “They do 50 native species and there are a billion seeds a year that go around the word. It’s very efficient and I’ve never heard anything but good stuff about it. And it just makes no financial sense to close it.”

Wilson said the Liberals didn’t have all the facts.

“The ministry was convinced that 95 to 98 per cent of growers and nurseries that rely on the plant have found private sector sources, but that is exactly the opposite,” he said.

One possible solution has already been presented. Wilson said Forests Ontario, the nonprofit charity that oversees the 50 Million Tree Program, has proposed to take over the facility with a “slight” grant from the province.

If the facility cannot be saved, Wilson said steps have to be taken to ensure Ontario’s seed archive is maintained in some other capacity. He would also oppose any attempt to sell the land to developers.

While the Liberal government said it was building a modern seed archive, Wilson said there is no evidence one actually exists.

Fred Sommerville, owner of Sommerville Nurseries in Everett, also fought against the closure.

“It’s really forward thinking, because forestry is a legacy in Ontario, and that would have pretty much knocked it out, because that’s the genesis of it, the seed,” he said.

Meanwhile, AWARE Essa continues to ask residents to sign their petition to keep the facility open.

For more information visit .


From a basement to Orillia’s main street, Gilbert Guitars rocks on

Jeff Gilbert had a dream.

“I wanted to be a rock star, like everybody else,” said Gilbert, whose namesake guitar store occupies a prominent place in Orillia’s downtown.

Although youthful visions of world tours and sold-out concerts would never materialize, the local man found other avenues to satisfy his passion for music and the gleaming six-string beauties that today adorn the walls of his shop.

“There are lots of other guitar players that are way better than me,” he said. “This still keeps me in that realm.”

It was time in a Grade 10 wood-shop class at the former Orillia District Collegiate and Vocational Institute that first nudged Gilbert toward his chosen path.

Building an electric guitar based on the hot-rodded, whammy-bar-equipped, solid bodies that were all the rage at the time proved he had a knack for creating and, eventually, fixing these sleek instruments.

The guitar was finished in an eye-catching hue of red and today occupies pride of place on a wall at his store, alongside models by the likes of Fender and other big-name builders.

“It’s not a wicked guitar, but I built it,” he said.

After high school, he enrolled in a business program at Georgian College and, as part of a class project, registered Gilbert Guitars as a business.

That set him on the road to building and selling his creations from home.

Customers came calling. Among them was local blues master Ronnie Douglas, for whom Gilbert would build a Telecaster-style model with Fender pickups ordered directly from the manufacturer.

Opening an account with Fender allowed him to bring in the parts players sought and, later, guitars.

After selling instruments out of his basement — by day he had a job cutting lenses for an optometrist — Gilbert would set up shop along Mississaga Street East, in the mid-1990s.

Initially, the store shared space with Round Again Records in the lower floor of the building that houses Becker Shoes.

He moved twice again within the same block, before a fire in an apartment above his store precipitated yet another move.

He remembers, vividly, local firefighters pitching in to rescue guitars from the walls of his shop and forming a human chain to pass the instruments to the crowd of onlookers who offered help.

“They put a helmet on me, I started grabbing guitars and giving them to the firefighters,” he said.

Gilbert then relocated to his current location, at , buying the building and doubling his floor space.

Although guitar retailers face increasingly stiff competition, as many buyers turn to online sales, commitment to service and a diverse range of offerings  — from high-end and limited edition guitars to budget-friendly student models, along with an array of other offerings — has stood Gilbert in good stead.

“You can buy it here; you can take lessons here,” he said. “You come in, and you need your strings changed — we do that.”

The business remains family-run, with Gilbert’s wife and one of four sons helping out part time, along with a nephew.

Ron LePage – Penetanguishene councillor

I am running for Town Council as I care deeply for the Town of Penetanguishene and want to make a positive impact on the future growth and direction of the town. I want to give back to the town in appreciation for the benefits given my family over the last 6 generations as citizens of the area.

I have witnessed the value that strong jobs, strong housing, and strong leadership have on our community and want to be a voice for all three in council. When I say that I am “Committed To Community, Dedicated To Progress,” I mean it. I have been working in healthcare since 1978, and, for the past 21 years, I have been proud to serve as a Registered Practical Nurse at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care. I have witnessed the tremendous impact care has on bettering the lives and the health of our community. It is this level of care and passion for our community that I want to bring to town council.

I have a proven track record of leadership experience and giving back to the community through volunteering. I have served as the Vice-President of OPSEU Local 329 at Waypoint for the past six years. I have also served on the Council of the College of Nurses of Ontario for 8 years. My community involvement has spanned a wide variety of organizations including with the Georgian Bay Métis Council, the Villa Care Centre and the The Penetanguishene Centennial Museum Board Advisory Committee. Through all of these experiences I have gained valuable knowledge dealing with budgets, long term planning, and policy development.

I will be a voice for economic development and community revitalization at town council. My core values are built on a foundation of care that will serve you, your family, and the generations to come:

➔ Building local tourism

➔ Advocating for local business

➔ Supporting our senior community

➔ Strengthening housing options for families

➔ Building better roads and direct traffic routes

If you have questions, comments, want to get involved in my campaign, or just share your passion for our community, please contact me; you can visit me online at voteronlepage.ca, email or call .

Thank you for reading; please remember to vote.