OSHAWA ROSEMARY - BLOG

OSHAWA ROSEMARY

Oshawa Ward 1 Town Hall Tonight!

9/18/2019

The Oshawa Interactive Town Hall Roadshow is touching down tonight at the Delpark Homes Centre, 1661 Harmony Rd. N. (fireside room at north entrance) 6:30 - 8:00 pm.

A great opportunity to speak one-on-one with the various Oshawa staff and Department heads who will be in attendance in one room!

Staff will be there from City branches such as: Oshawa Airport; Finance; Fire Services; Engineering; Operations Works (roads, parks, grass cutting, snow removal, waste, underground services, trees, fleet vehicles); Recreation & Culture; Municipal By-law; Planning and Building Services; together with your Ward Councillors!

Light refreshments will be available for you to enjoy!

Join with your neighbours and come to the Community Centre for this Special September Town Hall!

It's a Perfect time for Oshawa residents to ask questions, state their concerns, give input on programs and services provided by their local government. Time as well to share your views on priorities for the 2020 budget! Staff and Ward Councillors will take notes of your specific service requests and follow up afterwards.

Unable to attend? Please know that you can also share your 2020 City budget priorities online or complete the online survey at ConnectOshawa.ca or on paper at Service Oshawa (50 Centre St. S.) until 4:30 p.m. on Friday, September 20. Feedback received from the online and paper budget engagement opportunities will be shared with City Council and staff during the 2020 City budget process. Resident's responses will be kept anonymous and will only be used to summarize overall feedback received from the public.

P.S. A free iPad will be awarded from Oshawa residents 18+ who participate and enter the draw

Tour of Oshawa General Motors Plant and I was wowed!

9/17/2019

Alexander Gates, Executive Director and Curator of the Canadian Automotive Museum and Gregory Johnston, CAM Board Member organized this memorable 3 hour, 2 km walk around tour of the Oshawa GM plant, 900 Park Rd. S. Tuesday morning, September 17, 2019.

I was very impressed by what I saw and learned seeing what goes on in Plants C and D!

GM staff took the picture below of all of us in front of the Godzilla robot lowering a truck cab and box onto the underbody.

Here are some notes of interest re this great experience seeing the car and truck assembly lines in operation:

$1 Billion was spent on the Oshawa GM paint shop, which is the largest in the world! We couldn't see inside it because of hygiene controls, even deodorant can cause quality issues...

In the Flex Plant C the Impala is assembled. It has 6 body styles. The Impala line had a 100% DDR Direct Drive Rate when we were there, which means there was no stoppage and no vehicles had been pulled off the line for defects and sent to the troubleshooting inspection and correction area. (that empty station looked an ad from the lonely Maytag repair man advertisements) All Impalas we saw being assembled were pre-sold.(and it seemed the majority of these cars were painted white!) .

The Truck line has 2 shifts. All metal for the truck cab and beds come from Fort Wayne Indiana body shop. They are shipped over road. . Steel frames are supplied by Formet in St. Thomas. (GM Oshawa looked into rail but found more benefits with truck delivery.) The Flex vehicle has 6300 parts when all put together.

The car and truck bodies are spray painted first, then arrive over the roof from the paint shop and are lowered down onto the moving floor, sans door, hood, The underbody frame is worked on (that is, filled in) upside down (because it's easier that way) adding parts and then flipped over by a robot...robots also put in the chassis and the IP (instrument panel), All the parts are thoroughly inspected for defects in place.

Elsewhere on the line, fluids are added: gas, steering fluid, washer fluid; a robot injects urethane all around the edges of the glass windshields and rear windows before they are lifted and pounded into the vehicle...After several quality checks along the way, as the vehicles leave the line complete, they are driven to an inspection station for checking the wheel alignment and head light alignment..then driven into the Care Centre, where they are tested over speed bumps to check for any noise rattling, and driven through water to ensure there are no leaks.

The Oshawa GM assembly line will be done the end of this year, Then there will be a transition to making parts after for dealers, as well as creating new advanced vehicle technologies (ex. the self-driving...the autonomous test track soon coming to the land between Park Rd and Stevenson at Philip Murray since special new features need to be tested to ensure they are road worthy.

New school on Greenhill! new traffic lights Coldstream! but Grandview crosswalk gone?

9/2/2019

Oshawa's Ward 1 is bustling place! This Labor Day weekend heralds

new doors soon opening - Elsie MacGill public school at 800 Greenhill Ave. named to honour Canada's first practicing woman engineer. In 1927 MacGill was the first female graduate of electrical engineering at the University of Toronto and was also the first woman to earn her master’s degree in aeronautical engineering

new lights soon on - the much awaited traffic lights at Coldstream and Clearbrook Dr., a busy corner with two schools: St. John Bosco to the south west and Ecole Jeanne Sauve to the north east, and Mountjoy park to the north west

but curiously, to the east of Harmony Rd...
why has the Grandview/Greenhill Ave. crosswalk been removed?
(compare Google maps photo from 10 months ago with pictures taken yesterday). A constituent alerted me that this crosswalk is gone. It is a concern and really it's time this intersection has a 4 way stop! Top of my to do list tomorrow is to find out more about what's happening and report back. Happy Labour Day!

Psst..next Saturday, Sept 7th, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. is the 43rd Annual Columbus Community United Church Yard Sale (always the weekend after Labour Day) See notice

Budget process underway! Have your say!

8/28/2019

Oshawa's 2020 Budget is being developed now. Speak up in September, the places and times are below. Ask questions about tax money coming in, where it's going out, how much the City spent last year and how much it plans to spend this year. Give your opinion on priorities. where and what your money should be spent on to help strengthen your City!

Upcoming World FireFit Championships in Oshawa at Delpark Home Centre

8/26/2019

Watch firefighters compete and test their fitness in a course based on real-life emergency situations

Between Tuesday September 10 and Sunday September 15th Oshawa is hosting, for the 4th consecutive year, the Canada FireFit Championships and for the 1st time the World Championships!

Beginning Tuesday at 6;00 p.m. the competition opens with the Charity Relay, which is open to members of the public who are invited to complete in a course identical to the one the firefighters will be competing in.

All proceeds of the Charity Relay go to support the Firehouse Sub Public Safety Foundation Canada.

Over the course of the next five days more than 400 firefighters contestants will be competing individually and in teams. The finals will be held on Saturday and Sunday Sept 14th & 15th (beginning at 10:30 a.m.).

This free event is run by SCOTT FIREFIT CHAMPIONSHIPS and is open to families to attend, with the weekend's child-friendly course "Kids FireFit Zone" sponsored by Firehouse Subs and Tim Hortons, and the RS Rescue Kids Crush Zone. Participants completing the kids relay challenges will receive a Firehouse Subs fire helmet.

There will be food trucks, fire safety information and displays set up on site.

Also note: the North Oshawa Farmer's Market will run all day and the playgrounds, water parks and library branch at Delpark Homes Centre will be open throughout the event.

For more info see oshawa.ca/firefit

North Oshawa Home Depot & John Howard Society fundraise for Durham Homeless Youth

8/24/2019

A special good news story in Oshawa's Ward 1 - On Thursday August 22nd he Harmony/Taunton Rd. Oshawa Home Depot store celebrated its Orange Door Project Fundraising Campaign results, with 100% of the money raised donated to the John Howard Society of Durham Region. JHS members in attendance were Executive Director Dianna Eastwood and Managers Paul Dobbs and David Smith.

The funds raised will support local at-risk and homeless youth. The JHS has two youth residences in Durham, one in Oshawa and one in Whitby. "The JHS Residence program helps empower youth to successful independent living."
For three weeks in June, HD customers were invited to donate $2.00 at the store’s checkout or online at OrangeDoorProject.ca.

Of all the stores across Canada, the hardworking staff at the Oshawa Home Depot north store was 6th for total funds raised! Since 2014 this store alone has raised over $120,000 for this community! Through The Orange Door Project campaign, The Home Depot Canada Foundation supports 120 organizations that are committed to preventing and ending youth homelessness across the country."

"The JHS is a non-profit, social service dedicated to serving men and women, individuals and families, youth and adults with programs in areas such as counselling, employment, literacy, housing, and more. The Residence program is designed to assist youth in learning the skills necessary to live independently in the community. This includes key areas of self-sufficiency such as budgeting, time management, meal and nutrition awareness, job keeping, communication skills, goal setting, problem solving, decision making and more.See www.jhsd.ca for more info about JHS Durham."

"The Home Depot Canada Foundation is committed to preventing and ending youth homelessness in Canada. On any given night, more than 6,000 young people are without a place to call home, making youth homelessness one of the most urgent social issues facing Canadians today. Through The Orange Door Project initiative, The Foundation has pledged $50 million by the end of 2022 to improve housing options, support life-skills development programs, and invest in research that ensures funding is directed to the most effective solutions designed to help youth build brighter futures. For more information, please visit: OrangeDoorProject.ca."

Columbus Rd. East Closure for New Culvert Installation

8/21/2019

Columbus Rd. East, between Ritson and Harmony Road has been closed from the beginning of August. It should be open for traffic by October 4., 2019. The existing culvert in the creek is being replaced with a new precast box culvert. The detour path is south, down to Winchester and along on Winchester and north again back to Columbus Rd. E. It is a $461K project funded by the Federal Gas Tax Infrastructure fund.

Additional GO trains to Oshawa

8/17/2019

Metrolinx is increasing service on Lakeshore East line: "starting September 3 all stations along the Lakeshore East line will have a few more trip options during the weekday in case you need to leave work earlier:
A new 2:58 p.m. trip from Union Station will serve all stops to Oshawa GO, arriving at 3:56 p.m.
A new 3:28 p.m. trip from Union Station will serve all stops to Oshawa GO, arriving at 4:26 p.m.
An existing trip that runs express between Oshawa GO and Union Station at 1:52 p.m. will now stop at Whitby, Ajax and Pickering before running express to Union. It will depart at 1:53 p.m., arriving at 2:46 p.m.
A new 4:48 p.m. trip from Oshawa GO will serve all stops to Union Station, arriving at 5:50 p.m."

General Motors Plan to Build an Autonomous Vehicle Testing Track in Oshawa

8/15/2019

At the Oshawa Committee of Adjustments meeting last night, the application by General Motors to permit an autonomous vehicle and advanced technology test track as an additional permitted use on their property at 700-1200 Park Road S. and 855-1255 Stevenson Rd. S. was approved!

The GM representative stated the test track was not for high speed racing, and that testing would involve a couple vehicles at a time at low speeds.

One Oshawa resident. Gregory Milosh, who came forward with questions, (as anyone attending the meeting was invited to do) asked what are the expected construction start and completion times and the size of the track.

Timeline: subject to getting the various required provincial and municipal approvals they hope to start construction this fall and have the track up and running early next year.

The site is on a 55 acre parcel, fronting on 3 roads: Stevenson Rd S. and Park Rd S. and Phillip Murray Ave .
The track will be 1.6 km.

There is a 20 day appeal period for CofA decisions and if no one submits an appeal to LPAT (which requires submitting a $300 fee) then it proceeds quickly, although the GM rep did say there are conditions they will have to meet that have to do with noise attenuation reports and Conservation Authority requirements.

Below are some answers to additional questions about the track I received today:

Does General Motors have any other similar or identical test tracks and where are they located? GM has several test tracks worldwide including a test track in Milford Michigan and a track at our cold weather testing facility in Kapuskasing.

Will the public be able to come and watch the tests being performed?
No, these tests will be for vehicles or technologies under development and therefore not open to the public. I did pass along your suggestion of a community event sometime after the track opens to showcase the facility. However it should be noted that if this type of event proceeds, it would not include vehicles or technologies under development.

Will the university and/or college be significantly involved and in what capacity?
The test track is first and foremost to support GM’s research and development activities but depending on demand GM may consider permitting other users access to the test track including Universities/Colleges.

How many people will be employed specifically for the test track?
The test track will only employ a modest number of employees directly but indirectly the test track is supporting the research and innovation occurring at our technical centres in Oshawa and Markham. The current employment levels at these facilities is approximately 750 employees with a target to grow to 1000 employees.

How big a financial capital investment is this and will Durham region industry benefit?
GM has not disclosed the specific costs of the test track but the test track was part of the announcement GM made earlier this year which indicated that the total investment in Oshawa to support the transition of the Oshawa facility from automotive manufacturing to stamping, related sub-assembly and miscellaneous activities including the test track will total C$170 million.

The Delpark Home Centre Community Garden & the Two Towers

8/3/2019

There is a wonderful community garden along the north side of the Delpark Homes Centre (former Legends Centre). This week it was a pleasure to see nature's bounty there...but curious to notice nearby in the parking lot some new equipment for a telecommunication tower. On hearing machines digging at the base of the current tower and inquiring about this back at City Hall, it seems an earlier Oshawa Council approved a Second Tower to be installed beside the first.

FYI, the existing (formerly TELUS now BELL) Tower is 41 metres high, the ROGERS Tower now in process of being installed, which was approved by the previous Council in 2017, will be 50 metres high. (approx 30 feet higher)