Niagara-Welland Power Company Limited fonds, 1833, 1852, 1904-1906, 1909, n.d.

The Welland Power and Supply Canal Company Limited, established in 1893 and incorporated in 1894 with a capital stock of $500,000. The aim of the company was to harness the natural water supply of the Niagara and Welland Rivers. In 1898 the Canadian Electrical News published a report by Henry Symons, QC outlining the main project of the company. This project involves the construction of a canal from the Welland River to the brow of the mountain at Thorold, a distance of 8 miles; the construction at Thorold of a power house, and from Thorold to Lake Ontario, a raceway by which to carry water into the lake. The estimate for the machinery to generate 100,000 horse power is £125,000; for transmission line to Toronto at a voltage of 10,000….The total estimate therefore amounts to £2,452,162, or roughly speaking, $12,000,000. Source: Canadian Electrical News, August 1898, p. 172. In 1899 the company officers petitioned the federal government desiring a name change to the Niagara-Welland Power Company Limited. Officers of the company were Harry Symons, President; Charles A. Hesson, Vice-President; and M.R. O’Loughlin, James B. Sheehan, James S. Haydon, Frederick K. Foster, directors; John S. Campbell, secretary-treasurer. The company’s head offices were located in St. Catharines, with a New York (City) office on Broad Street. In 1905 and 1909 the company petitioned the federal government for additional time to construct its works, which was granted. The company had until May 16, 1915 to complete construction. John S. Campbell (1860-1950) was a graduate of the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall. During his university years John began his military career first in "K" Company, Queens Own rifles and then later as Commanding Officer of the 19th Lincoln Regiment, from 1906 to 1910. Upon his return to St. Catharines John Campbell served as secretary in the St. Catharines Garrison Club, a social club for military men begun in 1899. After being called to the Bar, he became a partner in the firm of Campbell and McCarron and was appointed to the bench in 1916, serving until retirement in 1934. Judge Campbell served as an alderman for several terms and was the mayor of St. Catharines in 1908 and 1909. He also served as the first chairman of the St. Catharines Public Utilities in 1914. John S. Campbell was married to Elizabeth Oille, daughter of Jerome B. and Charlotte (St. John) Oille. The family home "Cruachan" was located at 32 Church St.

Niagara Editorial Bureau/Ontario Editorial Bureau Administrative Records

Fonds contains materials related to the St. Catharines, Hamilton and Toronto Offices of the Ontario Editorial Bureau, from the early 1940s to 2008. All invoices and personal documents (life insurance plans, T4 slips, vacation pay, doctor's notes etc.) have been removed from this collection. Resumes have been removed and, if appropriate, placed in the biographical file. Duplicates have been removed.

Ontario Paper Company Limited

On February 29, 1912 The Ontario Paper Company Limited was incorporated under the leadership of Col. Robert R. McCormick. Four months later construction began in Thorold, Ontario as this location was best for the abundance of power and water and water transportation. The first machine was started at the mill on September 5, 1913. The mill was one of the most advanced of its era, using electricity instead of water power. The mill was also the first of its kind as it combined pulp and paper making instead of separating the two operations.

Ontario Tender Fruit Grower’s Marketing Board Fonds, 1960, 1967, 1969-1977, 1980-1981, 1987

The Ontario Tender Fruit Marketing Board operates under the Farm Producers Marketing Act. It covers all tender fruit farmers who produce either fresh or canned products. Today the board has over 500 grower-members. Tender fruit in the Niagara region includes: peaches, pears, plums, grapes and cherries. The fruits are used in a number of different ways, from jams and jellies to desserts, sauces and wine. Peaches were first harvested along the Niagara river in 1779. Peter Secord (Laura Secord’s uncle) is thought to be the first farmer to plant fruit trees when he took a land grant near Niagara in the mid 1780s. Since the beginnings of Secord’s farm, peaches, pears and plums have been grown in the Niagara region ever since. However, none of the original varities of peach trees remain today. Peaches were often used for more than eating by early settlers. The leaves and bark of the tree was used to make teas for conditions such as chronic bronchitis, coughs and gastritis. Cherries have been known to have anti-inflammatory and pain relieving properties. Like peaches and cherries, pears had many uses for the early pioneers. The wood was used to make furniture. The juice made excellent ciders and the leaves provided yellow dyes. Plums have been around for centuries, not only in the Niagara region, but throughout the world. They have appeared in pre-historic writings and were present for the first Thanksgiving in 1621. The grape industry in Ontario has also been around for centuries. It began in 1798 when land was granted to Major David Secord (brother-in-law to Laura Secord) slightly east of St. David’s, on what is Highway No. 8 today. Major Secord’s son James was given a part of the land in 1818 and in 1857 passed it onto Porter Adams. Adams is known to be the first person to plant grapes in Ontario1. Tender fruits are best grown in warm temperate climates. The Niagara fruit belt, stretching 65km from Hamilton to Niagara on the Lake, provides the climate necessary for this fruit production. This belt produces 90% of Ontario’s annual tender fruit crop. It is one of the largest fruit producing regions in all of Canada.

Ontario Medical Association fonds, 1972-1973, 1977-1978, 1980-1982, 1984-1985

This archive contains materials relating to the Ontario Medical Association. The bulk of the materials are correspondence. A complete administrative history of the association is available from, The first 100 years : a history of the Ontario Medical Association / Glenn Sawyer, Toronto : The Association, 1980? (R15 O58 S39 1980).

Fairview School class photograph, ca. 1930

Individuals in the photograph are identified as follows: Front Row, L to R: Stuart McDonald, Pete Burtch, Carl Schwenker, Bill Davey, Jim Barnes, ? McDonald, Marie Youngblutt, Lorraine Havens, Margaret Sinclair, Carla Prince, Verna Sinclair, Helen Welsh, Margaret Welsh, Elsie Backshall, Smith girl, Amy McDonald. 2nd Row, L to R: Nelson Sinclair, Gordon Wilson, Ivan Burtch, ? Smith, George Corman, Roy Burtch, Mort Corman, Bob Bell, ?Wilson, Jim Combe, Murray Combe, Jack High, George Welsh, Larry Downes, Gordon Schwenker, Albert Davey, Harvey Davey. Back Row, L to R: Bert Sinclair, Jim Mason, Len Corman, Johnny Corman, David Hallett, Lloyd Graham, Paul Harndon?, Gordon Dormes, George Bell, Doug Garriock, ?McDonald, Mary? Honsberger, Mary Backus, Hilda Wilson. The teacher may be Beatrice Armstrong. Fairview School was built in 1919 in Louth Township, Lincoln County, Ont. It may have been built around the time the county constructed other schools, namely, Grapeview and Glenridge. Nicholson and Macbeth may have been the architects of this school, as some features on the building, ie. the carved stone children’s faces below the lintel of the front door , appear in another known and proven Nicholson and Macbeth building, the former YMCA on Queen Street in St. Catharines. The school remained in operation until 1979 when it was purchased for a church, the Fairview-Louth Community church, which later became Southridge Community church, now located on Glenridge Avenue, St. Catharines, Ont. Today the building is occupied by the Niagara Korean Presbyterian Church.

George H. Cornish Fonds

George Henry Cornish (1834-1912) was a Methodist minister whose circuits included Clinton, Ont. (1859), Newcastle, Ont. (1861), and Caledonia/Binbrook/Glanford, Ont. (1864- 1865). He wrote several books on the Methodist Church in Canada, including the Cyclopaedia of Methodism in Canada (1881) and the Handbook of Canadian Methodism (1867).

A needs assessment of public health professionals: supporting the implementation of Ontario 2010 revised elementary health and physical education curriculum

Based on the Comprehensive School Health framework, Ontario's Foundations for a Healthy School (2009) outlines an integrated approach to school health promotion. In this approach the school, community and partners (including public health) are fully engaged With a common goal of youth health. With the recent introductions of the Ontario Public Health Standards (2009) and the revised elementary health and physical education curriculum (2010), the timing for a greater integration of public health with schools is ideal. A needs assessment was conducted to identify the perceived support required by public health professionals to implement the mandates of both policy documents in Ontario. Data was collected for the needs assessment through facilitated discussions at a provincial roundtable event, regional focus groups and individual interviews with public health professionals representing Ontario's 36 public health units. Findings suggest that public health professionals perceive that they require increased resources, greater communication, a clear vision of public health and a suitable understanding of the professional cultures in which they are surrounded in order to effectively support schools. This study expands upon these four categories and the corresponding seventeen themes that were uncovered during the research process.

Contraband tobacco on post-secondary campuses in Ontario

In Ontario 27% of young adults smoke, and annual surveillance data suggests tobacco use is plateauing after years of decline. The availability of inexpensive contraband tobacco products maybe contributing to this situation. Limited research has been conducted on the use of contraband tobacco and despite the increasing availability of contraband 'Native cigarettes', no studies to date have examined their use among young adults. Accordingly, this study examines: (a) what proportion of cigarette butts discarded on post-secondary campuses are contraband; and (b) whether the proportion of contraband butts varies between colleges and universities, across seven geographical regions in the province and based on proximity First Nations reserves. In March and April 2009, discarded cigarette butts were collected from the grounds of 25 post-secondary institutions across Ontario. At each school, cigarette butts were collected on a single day from four locations. The collected cigarette butts were reliably sorted into five categories according to their filtertip logos: legal, contraband First NationslNative cigarettes, international and suspected counterfeit cigarettes, unidentifiable and unknown. Contraband use was apparent on all campuses, but varied considerably from school to school. Data suggest that contraband Native cigarettes account for as little as 1 % to as much as 38 % of the total cigarette consumption at a particular school. The highest proportion of contraband was found on campuses in the Northern part of the province. Consumption of Native contraband was generally higher on colleges compared to universities. The presence of contraband tobacco on all campuses suggests that strategies to reduce smoking among young adults must respond to this cohort's use of these products.

Predictors of primary health care utilization by former residents of institutions in Ontario

For years institutionalization has been the primary method of service delivery for persons with developmental disabilities (DD). However, in Ontario the last institution was closed on March 31, 2009 with former residents now residing in small, communitybased homes. This study investigated potential predictors of primary health care utilization by former residents. Several indirect measures were employed to gather information from 60 participants on their age, health status, adaptive functioning level, problem behaviour, mental health status and, total psychotropic medication use. A direct measure was used to gather primary health care utilization information, which served as the dependent variable. A stepwise linear regression failed to reveal significant predictors of health care utilization. The data were subsequently dichotomized and the outcomes of a logistic regression analysis indicated that mental health status, psychotropic medication use and, an interaction between mental health status and health status significantly predicted higher primary health care usage.

Deinstitutionalization and community inclusion of individuals with intellectual disabilities in Ontario : a case analysis

In the last few decades, there have been significant changes in the way people with intellectual disabilities (ID) live in many countries around the world. Large isolated institutions have been replaced by community-based housing. This study examined the deinstitutionalization process in Ontario and it's effects on the lives of three individuals with ID. A case analysis approach was used allowing for in depth evaluation of the quality of life of these participants following their discharge with a focus on family involvement, community engagement, and choice making. A discrepancy analysis between the Essential Elements Plan (EEP), constructed when they were entering the community placement, and the current living arrangements was also done. The results of this study suggested that with community living comes improvements in family interactions, community engagement, and decision-making. However, these improvements were found to be minimal. Also, little discrepancy was found between the EEPs and their actual placements.

Closing the summer learning gap for vulnerable junior kindergarten students

Under current academic calendars across North America, summer vacation creates a significant gap in the learning cycle. I t has been argued that this gap actually decreases student achievement levels over the course of the summer. In a synthesis of 39 studies Cooper, Nye, Charlton, Lindsay, & Greathouse (1996) indicated that summer learning loss equaled at least one month of instruction as measured by grade level equivalents on standardized test scores whereby children's test scores were at least one month lower when they returned to school in the fall than scores were when students left in the summer. Specifically, Cooper et aI., (1996) found that the summer learning loss phenomena may be particularly troublesome for less advantaged children including those with speech and language delays, children at-risk for reading disabilities, children from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and children learning English as a second language. In general, research illustrated clearly that the summer learning gap can be particularly problematic for vulnerable children and furthermore, that literacy skills may be the area of achievement that is most affected. A foundational pillar to this research project is including primary caregivers as authentic partners in a summer literacy program designed to support their children's literacy needs. This pillar led the research team to use the Learning Begins at Home: A Research-Based Family Literacy Program Curriculum designed by Antoinette Doyle, Kathleen Hipfner-Boucher, and Janette Pelletier from the Ontario Institute for the Studies of Education. The LBH program is designed to be flexibly adapted to suit the needs of each individual participating family. As indicated by Timmons (2008) literacy interventions are most powerful when they include authentic family involvement. Based on this research, a requirement for participating in the summer literacy program was involvement of a child and one of their primary caregivers. The participating caregiver was integrally involved in the program, participating in workshop activities prior to and following hands-on literacy work with their child. By including primary caregivers as authentic partners, the research team encouraged a paradigmatic shift in the family whereby literacy activities become routine within their household. 5 Participants in this study were 14 children from junior kindergarten classrooms within the Niagara Catholic District School Board. As children were referred to the program, they were assessed by a trained emergent literacy specialist (from Speech Services Niagara) to identify whether they met the eligibility requirements for participation in the summer program. To be eligible to participate, children demonstrated significant literacy needs (i.e. below 25%ile on the Test of Preschool Early Literacy described below). Children with low incidence disabilities (i.e. profound sensory impairments, severe intellectual impairments, developmental disabilities, etc) were excluded as participants. The research team used a standard pre- and posttest design whereby all participating children were assessed with the Test of Preschool Early Literacy (Lonigan et aI., 2007), and a standard measure of letter names and sounds. Pretests were administered two weeks prior to the commencement of the program and the first set of posttests was administered immediately following the program. A second set of posttests was administered in December 2009 to measure the sustainability of the program. As a result of the program, all children scored statistically significantly higher on their literacy scores at the post-program assessment point immediately following the program and also at the Dec-post-program assessment point. These results in general indicated that the summer family literacy program made an immediate impact on the emergent literacy skills of participating children. All participating children demonstrated significant increases in print and phonological awareness as well as their letter sound understanding.

Ontario's curriculum for individuals with disabilities : a textual analysis

The purpose of this study was to examine the disability discourses present in Ontario elementary schools curriculum. The study used a critical social analysis perspective to employ a textual discourse analysis on the Planning [title of subject] Programs for Students with Special Education Needs (PPSSEN) section of the curriculum. The present study utilized Parker's (1992) seven criteria for distinguishing discourses and discovered five main discourses; Independent, dependent, legal, scientific and agency discourses. The second step to this research was the placement and discussion of these five discourses on three diverse texts, Paulo Freire's (2008) Pedagogy o/ the Oppressed, Psychiatry Inside Out, Selected writings of Franco Basaglia, written by Scheper-Huges and Lovell (1987) and Aronowitz and Giroux's (1985) Education Under Siege: The Conservative, Liberal and Radical Debate over Schooling. These unique perspectives were used as methods of analysis tools to further analyze the dominate disability discourses. The texts provided textual support in three major areas; dialectics, critical education and structural conditions of power and language of traditional roles and responsibilities. The findings and discussions presented in this project contain significant implications for anyone involved with students with disabilities in any education system.

Effectiveness of personal planning for residents re-entering the community during the facility initiative in Ontario

This paper reports on the relocation of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) from large-scale provincially run institutions that took place in Ontario as part of the Facility Initiative. Three case studies were examined in order to report on this process as experienced by those who lived and worked through it. Specifically, the planning process conducted by the Ministry of Community and Social Services (MCSS) to assist each person with hislher transition to community living was examined using the current standard of practice in person- centered planning approaches. Effectiveness was evaluated as the ability to apply a person-centered approach across settings and people, as well as what factors facilitated or hindered its application. Results show that, in general, the personal plans do not appear to reflect the pre-transition experience of the person. Also, the transitional planning process did not appear person-centered nor facilitate further person-centered planning in the community.

The use of lichens as indicators of ambient air quality in Southern Ontario

The inverse relationship between arboreal lichen species richness and sulphur dioxide in ambient air has been thoroughly documented in the literature. Previous work in southern Ontario has shown that lichen bioindication can identify areas of potential concern regarding air quality. The EMAN suite of l i chens was applied in the City of Samia by surveying 458 Sugar Maple trees, in order to test the applicability of lichen bioindication under conditions of high mean S02 levels and high species richness values. The results of the survey were explored using Geographic Information Systems. A spatial relationship between lichen community variables, the Bluewater Bridge and the highway was identified. Lichen species richness, lichen percent cover and Index of Atmospheric Purity values were higher along the bridge and highway. No strong gradients were found between other known pollution sources and no lichen deserts were identified. The most common community grouping consisted of Physcia millegrana Degel, Candelaria concolor (Dicks) B. Stein, Physcia aipolia (Ehrh ex Humb.) Furnrohr; all of which are known nitrophytes. The relationship between substrate pH and lichen species richness was examined. Sites with a known source of anthropogenic chemical contamination were found to have a correlation of l=0.8 between lichen species richness and pH. The inverse was found for sites with no known source of contamination with a correlation of r 2 =-0.72. The findings suggest that species richness may be influenced by altering substrate pH which promotes the growth of nitrophytic species capable of tolerating high S02 levels.