{"id":10315,"date":"2015-04-09T00:55:37","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T04:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=10315"},"modified":"2015-04-09T00:55:37","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T04:55:37","slug":"aurora-set-to-get-a-head-start-on-canadas-150th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-set-to-get-a-head-start-on-canadas-150th-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora set to get a head start on Canada\u2019s 150th birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re standing in Confederation Park or about to stroll into the Aurora Community Centre, commemorations of Canada\u2019s Centennial in 1967 are still around us \u2013 now, 50 years later, Aurora is preparing to lay the groundwork for the nation\u2019s 150th Birthday Bash in 2017.<\/p>\n

Council will soon implement a Canada 150 Committee to oversee the celebrations in a similar way Aurora celebrated its own sesquicentennial in 2013, following a motion from Councillor Jeff Thom. <\/p>\n

In his motion, Councillor Thom said the 150th anniversary of Confederation is a \u201cmajor historic milestone\u201d for the nation and a \u201ccause for celebration.\u201d Public celebrations, he said, will help bring the community closer together, demonstrate the Town\u2019s pride in the country, and also provide educational opportunities for Canada\u2019s history, culture and heritage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an important milestone that should be celebrated,\u201d he said. \u201cI am looking to maybe get ahead of the eight ball and make sure we plan for it accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The motion also calls for the Municipality to look at ways to collaborate with the Federal and Provincial governments for \u201csynergies and cost savings\u201d for commemorations. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a responsibility to protect, promote and enhance our national history, culture and heritage and I think this is a great way to do it \u2013 to join with other municipalities, other provinces and all Canadians in celebrating the 150th anniversary of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was a sentiment shared by Councillor Harold Kim.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstilling Canadian identity must start at the municipal level,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re all proud Canadians and as we celebrate multiculturalism as well, that has to fall under the umbrella of Canadian identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the motion was approved by Council last week, there was a sense that time was of the essence to get that \u201ceight ball\u201d rolling now to avoid some concerns voiced in the last term that Aurora\u2019s Sesquicentennial Committee was given too short a window to plan their activities.<\/p>\n

This was a reason Councillor John Abel said he suggested a placeholder in last year\u2019s budget for this very purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was some criticism going around that we didn\u2019t have enough time [and it was] a faux pas,\u201d said Councillor Abel. \u201cIt was a great celebration, thanks to a great committee, so I thought it would give two or three years and this Council wouldn\u2019t, in their busy schedule, let that slip by.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sesquicentennial Committee did a \u201cgreat job\u201d, according to Councillor Michael Thompson, but he agreed they felt \u201ca little bit of pressure to turn it around in a short timeframe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing wrong with planning in advance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Funding for Aurora\u2019s 150th Birthday Celebrations came out of the Town\u2019s Hydro Reserves, something Town Treasurer Dan Elliott said he would recommend follows suit for Canada 150 to avoid \u201cany pressures on the tax rate.\u201d Funding structures would need to come back to Council with a budget and funding source, added Aurora CAO Neil Garbe. <\/p>\n

Mr. Elliott added it is \u201clikely\u201d Federal funding would be made available for communities to celebrate the milestone and once that becomes clear, those opportunities would then be up for Council celebrations, whether those grand dollars would replace or augment Aurora\u2019s budget for the bash.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether you\u2019re standing in Confederation Park or about to stroll into the Aurora Community Centre, commemorations of Canada\u2019s Centennial in 1967 are still around us \u2013 now, 50 years later, Aurora is preparing to lay the groundwork for the nation\u2019s 150th Birthday Bash in 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2Gn","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-07 23:38:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}