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Various Quotes From and About the Niagara Parks Commission


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“If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”
John Robert Wooden, American basketball coach

But a derived quote, more appropriate to the Niagara Parks, came from an employee;

"Why is there never enough time to do it right, but there is always enough time to do it twice?"



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“When government officials operate in secrecy, when they do not have to account for their actions, they become immune to criticism. This is an invitation to mismanagement.”

Ernest Besig


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Not a quote, but what the heck!


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Mr Bradley: If privatization were to take place -- I'll say "Heaven forbid" in parentheses -- how would you ensure that friends or people in high places were not those who would receive the benefits of the privatization? How would the commission be able to ensure that simply people in influence would not have a leg up on others in terms of privatization? That's always a concern when there's privatization.

Mr Merrett: There would have to be a process in place to deal with any privatization if it happened. If it did occur, I would expect there would be a very public process that would take place, as they do with purchasing other services now.

Excerpt from Committee Transcripts:
Standing Committee on Government Agencies,
November 10, 1997.
(Brian Merrett is the intended appointment to chair the NPC and he is being interviewed by Jim Bradley.)
 


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" What happens, as far as the Niagara Parks Commission is concerned, is that a public property is handed over to a group of men who operate it virtually as private property. It is a private club [...]."

Donald C. MacDonald, MPP,
Ontario Legislature - March 7, 1963


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“The stated mission of the Niagara Parks Commission is to preserve and enhance the natural beauty of the falls and the Niagara River corridor. You folks who don't know about it, it's the jewel in the crown of Ontario, that Niagara Parkway, and the parklands on the west side of the Niagara River.

Well, under the McGuinty government and his handpicked appointees to the commission, that valuable natural resource is being desecrated. I tell you, that's a crime to generations of Ontarians to come. McGuinty and the Liberals are hell bent on commercializing, privatizing and Disneyfying that valuable natural resource. They may find it cute that their private partners are going to make huge profits on the asphalting and the paving over of Niagara parkland, but we down in Niagara think otherwise.”

−Peter Kormos, MPP Welland
June 2008


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"The target for Ontario's Niagara Parks is the preservation of nature -- nurturing and enhancing not only the goose that is laying the golden eggs, but caring for its nesting grounds and supporting its natural environment.  As cities everywhere grow larger and denser, and as institutions become more and more alike, there will be a shift of perception. The main attraction of Canada -- and Niagara in particular -- will be nature, the majestic and breathtaking ... Falls, and delicate and subtle ... wild flowers among the rocks."

Raymond Moriyama, Architect
Ontario's Niagara Parks,
Planning the Second Century
1988


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While we retain control of all our subsidiary activities we insure the maximum of service to the travelling public at reasonable and satisfactory prices. The very fact that these activities are operated by government agencies begets a sense of security and of satisfaction in the minds of travellers that sends them away contented to all quarters of the earth from which they came, and stimulates in this way further streams of traffic. Freedom from persistent canvassing to buy and to see, and absolute insurance against the secret commission bargainings, that are inevitable under the old system of letting out concessions, are gains of great value in promoting the stream of traffic to the Park.”

−Philip W. Ellis, Chairman
The Niagara Parks Commission
1922


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“Integrity has no need of rules.”


 

-Albert Camus,

French Novelist, Essayist and Playwright,

1957 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1913-1960


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"Throughout the Commission's history, many plans and projects, the need of which was always apparent, have had to be postponed time after time because the financial situation would not permit more active growth."

Ontario's Niagara Parks, Ronald L. Way, 1946

A principle from the past that still makes sense but has been overlooked!


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"I will say this, also, that we have endeavoured not to compete to any greater extent than is absolutely necessary with business outside the park system. "

Charles Daley discussing the Niagara Parks Commission in Legislature, February 9, 1960


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"We fight at all times to maintain the dignity of the area. There is no carnival system over there, it is a dignified, restful, beautiful place for people to go."

Charles Daley discussing the Niagara Parks Commission in Legislature, February 27, 1958


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From the Hamilton Spectator, 1969

"Niagara Parks are among the most valuable gifts from one generation of Ontarians to another.  Sustaining them is a high public trust."



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