The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, N ov em be r 25 ,2 02 1 | 10 oakville.ca Berta Point West Bank Sea- wall Improvements, Bronte Inner Harbour Municipal Class Environmental Assessment Study Online Public Information aCentre (PIC) - No. 2 December 8 - December 22, 2021 The Study The Town of Oakville has initiated a Municipal Class Environmental Assessment (EA) for the shoreline improvements at Berta Point located within Bronte Inner Harbour. The purpose of this project is to provide shoreline improvements that provide shore stability, an overall enhancement of the environmental conditions, and improved public access to the shoreline. The Town of Oakville is therefore considering ways and means of achieving this goal. The study is being carried out in accordance with the requirements of a Schedule 'B' project as outlined in the Municipal Engineers Association (MEA) Municipal Class EA document (October 2000, as amended in 2015), which is an approved process under the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act. The EA process includes public and agency consultation, an evaluation of alternative solutions, an assessment of the potential environmental effects of the alternative solutions, selection of the preferred solution and identification of reasonable measures to mitigate any adverse impacts. Public Information Centre A key component of the study will involve consultation with interested stakeholders, the public and regulatory agencies. The Public Information Centre (PIC) No. 2 will be held in an online format. Information about the study and the improvements will be posted on oakville.ca from December 8 to December 22, 2021. This is the second of two PICs planned for this study and this PIC will demonstrate the preferred option. You can provide your input by reviewing the study information presented. Following public consultation, the EA study team will review all the comments received and incorporate them into the Environmental Study Report (ESR). Please contact the study team if you would like further information on the project, have any questions, or if you would like to be added to the study mailing list. Your Input is Important! The Town of Oakville appreciates your feedback and we encourage you to get involved. Rakesh Mistry, OALA, CSLA Town of Oakville, 1225 Trafalgar Road Oakville, Ontario L6H 0H3 905-845-6601 Ext. 3664 rakesh.mistry@oakville.ca Jane Graham, P. Eng Shoreplan Engineering Limited 20 Holly Street, Suite 202 Toronto, Ontario M4S 3B1 416-487-4756 Ext. 223 jgraham@shoreplan.com The pandemic was a huge disruption for the ed- ucation system. To name just a few of the changes: there were total school shutdowns, a wide- spread rollout of online learning, and a complete overhaul of the semester system. The way education was delivered within the region had to be rethought and that meant a lot of tra- ditional staples of the sys- tem were removed. Now, a group of parents at the Halton Catholic Dis- trict School Board (HCDSB) -- including those in Oakville -- are shining a light on one CO- VID-19-caused cancellation that they say must now be reversed for the sake of the students. Traditional formal ex- ams have not been held at the HCDSB secondary level since March 2020, with the single exception of Grade 12 anatomy and physiology. Maria Lourenco, a mother with a child in the Catholic secondary school system and another now in university, believes that's a real problem. "For kids that are in Grade 12 right now that are going to university in Sep- tember, they will be going off to university with no ex- ams for two and a half years. Their last exam writing experience will be a Grade 10 test in semester one -- that's the issue," said Lourenco, a Burlington resident. To replace the exams, staff with the board point out that many of the culmi- nating performance tasks for classes do contain ex- am-style questions that are timed. Critics of that strat- egy claim that's not enough. For students going into university, many will be facing situations in their first year where a large per- centage of their overall grade will come from a tra- ditional final exam. It's not unheard of for final exams to be worth as much as 50 per cent of a total grade. Lourenco said she be- lieves many of the students at the board have not re- ceived adequate prepara- tion for the kind of conse- quential testing they will be experiencing at the post- secondary level. "I still don't think they're accustomed to the university experience. It's something these kids are going to be going into hav- PARENTS CONCERNED ABOUT IMPACT OF CANCELLED EXAMS Maria Lourenco is among many parents who feel the Halton Catholic District School Board must bring back traditional final exams. Graham Paine/Metroland ROLAND CILLIERS rcilliers@metroland.com NEWS GROUP PUSHING FOR RETURN OF TRADITIONAL TESTING AT CATHOLIC SCHOOLS See - page 11 "If you go off to university and you fail your first year, that's not success." - Maria Lourenco