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UPSCALE RESALE R0013629023-0107

Melissa Touhey

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January 7, 2016 l 48 pages

Some drivers boil over gas prices No price gouging taking place: expert Adam Kveton

adam.kveton@metroland.com

The recent extremes in Ottawa gas prices have some Kanata residents riled over what they see as unfair pricing in their community – up to 15 cents a litre more than places like Bells Corners.

“That’s the shocker,” said Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley who has received many complaints from residents.

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Catch a wave Ottawa Senators forward Alex Chiasson gets a face full of water from his teammates while trying to complete a lap of the Canadian Tire Centre ice during the Dec. 31 Sens Skills competition. Mike Hoffman won the Play OLG fastest skater event with a time of 13.827 seconds. For the full story and more photos, see page 14.

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2 Kanata Kourier-Standard - Thursday, January 7, 2016

2015 Another Successful Year ~ Happy New Year to You in 2016

MRS. JOAN SMITHTHE JOAN SMITH REAL ESTATE FAMILY

R0013601525

Connected to your community

Broker, FRI, CMR, CRA

*based on Royal LePage

Top 1% in Ottawa & Canada for Royal LePage 2015 *

Office (613) 592-6400 Direct (613) 762-1226

www.joansmith.com mail@joansmith.com

The themes of the Ottawa market this year have been: increased supply (see the Ottawa inventory graph below), economic and election caution,

Since 1970

Since 1985

*

world concern and low inflation. Our own local market (Kanata and Stittsville) has seen a Celebrating the 2015 Announcement of Royal continued trend of new residential building and LePage National Chairman’s Club buyer scrutiny of finances and interest rates. All Mrs. Joan Smith1, Broker, Luc St-Hillaire1, Michelle have contributed to very modest gains in price and Kohlsmith (office administrator) & Victoria Smith1, generally longer days on market as buyers consider all licensed sales representatives. their options in housing, jobs and finances.

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Customized & unique plan. 4 bdrms on M/L.L/L rec.rm+games. Expansive windows in LR + fp, adj. DR. M/L famrm.

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statistics for earnings

Since 1995

Ottawa Real Estate Board MLS® Statistics, Inventory by Month — Res & Condo, Nov. 2015

*

Wishing you and your family all the best for 2016.

I would like to thank all of you for your trust and support in the Joan Smith Real Estate Family in 2015.

I am proud to once again be in the top 1% of over 16,500 Royal LePage sales representatives across Canada for 2015*, making this my 44th consecutive year.

We continue to proudly support many local organizations as well as those that touch other parts of the world.

We are proud supporters of the Ottawa Heart Institute and encourage everyone to help this great Foundation. See their recent information in the December issue of The Beat on “Too Much Sitting Impacts the Health of People with Heart Disease Even If They Exercise” - read more at: www.bit.ly/OttawaHeartTheBeat

Staying in Touch & Mortgage News

If your thinking of selling or buying, its always good to touch base with your bank and mortgage broker to review your options, terms of your present mortgage and any new lending rules.

Refinancing your mortgage to complete a renovation may be a tool to assist you in modernizing your home, increase its market value and enjoy.

For those looking to upsize, note the recent changes in mortgage rules by CMHC that requires 10% deposit for homes over $500,000.

Our services include a complete marketing plan for home Sellers using all media and our tailored searching program for Buyers to educate and update Buyers about the market quickly. We are fortunate to have many repeat clients over the years and look forward to meeting new clients in 2016.

We Live Here. We Work Here.

We Play Here.

We are pleased to support and sponsor many organizations in our community including:

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A Sincere thank you to all of our clients ~ The Joan Smith Real Estate Family1 Kanata Kourier-Standard - Thursday, January 7, 2016 3

Sudden price changes drive drivers crazy

The Petro-Canada gas station at Hazeldean Road and Carbrooke Street, seen here, has sparked many complaints about local gas prices, with Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley hearing objections to higher prices in Kanata compared to communities as close by as Bells Corners.

Adam Kveton/Metroland

Continued from page 4

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They’ve reported gas price differences of up to 15 cents per litre compared to prices just outside of Kanata, he said.

“A couple cents difference across the city, no big deal,” said Hubley. “But over the last couple of weeks we’ve noticed 10 and 15 cent differences and in my mind that’s just gouging.”

Some residents have been calling for Hubley to introduce a bylaw dealing with the price at the pump.

“That’s not our role,” he said

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4 Kanata Kourier-Standard - Thursday, January 7, 2016

of the municipal government.

“We don’t force prices on private businesses like that.”

Other residents are thinking of boycotting some Kanata gas stations, said Hubley.

“That would be in my view very disappointing if the community had to go to that extreme to get the oil companies to provide the same product to us for the price that they charge kilometres down the road.”

While Hubley suggested residents instead convey their concerns to gas station attendants for them to pass up the line to management, a representative for major gas companies instead encouraged customers to shop around for their gas, even if that means not giving their business to local gas stations.

As for the “gouging” – well there really isn’t any going on.

At least not according to Spencer Knipping at Ontario’s energy ministry.

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Knipping is a gas price analyst at the Ontario Ministry of Energy who is tasked explaining why gas prices are the way they are, and assuring consumers they aren’t being taken for a ride.

“I would say that the Ottawa gasoline market is competitive and we have no evidence that there is any gouging taking place,” he said.

He based that determination on an analysis of several numbers.

Those included the wholesale price of gas (what gas stations are paying for fuel), the tax they pay on that gas, and what the most expensive gas prices are in Ottawa currently.

The Ottawa wholesale gas price for Dec. 31 was 54.83 cents a litre. Adding taxes to that, it is 89.9 cents a litre.

That same day, according to OttawaGasPrices.com, the highest price for gas was 99.9 cents a litre, at a full serve station at Island Park Drive and Wellington Street West.

See SEARCH, page 5

Search out the best prices: expert

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Lisa Stillborn, the vicepresident of the Canadian Fuels Association, Ontario division, agreed, saying, “Generally speaking a volatile market is an indication of a very competitive market,” meaning lower gas prices.

The Canadian Fuels Association represents some of the larger energy companies in Canada, which only run about 20 per cent of gas stations, she said.

Independent owners and big box store gas stations are among those who run the rest.

Asked to comment on consumers interested in boycotting stations, she said, “There are some websites where people can check out gas prices and in fact we encourage people to shop around, as people would shop around for any product.”

As a way to lower gas prices in the Kanata area, Hubley said he would look into fast-tracking a Costco

Look inside for the

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FUEL ASSOCIATION

gas bar that the Costco on Silver Seven Road has been considering for several years.

“I will do everything I can to move it through quickly because if that’s what it takes to get the Petro-Cans and the Ultramars to treat my residents fairly as they are supposed to be doing, then that’s what we’ll do is fast-track another service provider,” he said.

Knipping said a Costco gas bar would not necessarily lower the gas prices across Kanata.

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Not including the cost of running the gas station, that owner was earning 10 cents a litre.

That’s a fair bit above the 2015 average in Ottawa, said Knipping, which is 6.2 cents a litre.

The gas price that would be in line with Ottawa’s average this year would have been 96 cents per litre, but even so, Knipping said he does not consider 99.9 cents a litre to be gouging.

“It’s not unusual to have margins like that,” he said.

On the other hand, some gas stations were selling gas on Dec. 31 for 79.9 cents a litre.

“At the low price of 79.9, dealers are losing their shirt,” said Knipping.

“They are selling gasoline for 10 cents a litre below wholesale cost, which means they are actually losing more than that because they have to cover the operating costs of the station and provide a return on investment.

“So let’s say it costs four or five cents a litre to run the station, they are losing 14 to 15 cents a litre on gasoline.”

“The only explanation I have for that is … those stations are in a price war,” he said.

A price war is when some gas stations price their gas below others, and then other stations, in a bid to get their customers back, price their gas even cheaper.

Sometimes this is done because the gas station has other goods for sale that it can use to supplement its losses, or the cheap gas prices are a way to get customers to a store and buy other products, which is what Costco does with its gas bars, said Knipping.

Other times, it’s just in response to a loss of revenue, said Knipping.

Profit margins on gas are actually fairly low, he said, so stations have to sell a lot of gas to make a decent profit.

But customers will choose one gas station over another one that’s nearby over a difference of as little as .3 cents a litre.

“The higher price station will lose volume and because it is a volume business; they can’t afford that.

They need to keep their revenue stream up to cover their costs,” he said.

The price war can’t last for too long as the stations involved will have to return to profitability eventually, said Knipping.

So drivers should not see prices like 79.9 as the norm, he said.

“Consumers are concerned about volatility especially when the price goes up sharply. But that’s almost always because there has been a price war first and they get used to that price war price,” he said.

To avoid paying higher gas prices, Knipping said consumers should search out the best prices in town

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www.OttawaHomeSite.com Kanata Kourier-Standard - Thursday, January 7, 2016 5

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opinion

Connected to your community

BRYNNA LESLIE Capital Muse cepting failure and adapting to something more realistic – but I’m really good at controlled breathing now.

Improvement one.

Then there was the time I decided I would save my entire salary for a year. I crunched the numbers upside down and sideways and figured that maybe, possibly, we could be one of those rare families that could live happily on a single salary if we didn’t buy any gifts and ate a lot of beans. It turns out, even under those circumstances, we couldn’t.

I tried. I opened an esavings account and every time I cashed a cheque or received payment from a client, I’d throw everything in there. But then somebody needed emergency dental surgery, our insurance went up, our tent got a hole in it, the engine died in the car, our daycare fees increased,

miserably.

It made me think my goal was too ambitious. What kind of person do you have to be to sit still for an hour and think about nothing anyway? Not me, evidently.

So about a year later, instead of meditation, I decided to look up various breathing techniques: some to help when I’m in the midst of a stressful moment, others to relax me at the end of the day or when I’m about to embark on a big project. I even looked into a way to breathe when I start to feel winded during exercise.

I had more success here.

The great thing about breathing practice is that you can do it anywhere. It doesn’t require the focus of meditation, yet achieves some of the same results.

It took 18 months from the time I stated my goal to ac-

we had to go on an extra visit to see family.

You name it; we needed money to cover it.

The offshoot effect, however, was that I still managed to save some money and get into the savings habit. Improvement two.

A friend in Vancouver is the only person I know who’s had a gym membership for nearly two decades straight – and one that she uses every week. Why? She tells herself that she only has to go to the gym two times per week. Anything extra is a bonus. So rather than commit to the lofty goal of doing cardio daily, she’s been able to stick to something reasonable.

I recently joined a gym for the first time, nearly a year to the day after I first established the goal to exercise daily. Although I do get there most days – generally five out of seven – I try not

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DAY, MARCH 26

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T

he temptation to “make improvements” to our lives is ever provocative, especially when it comes to New Year’s resolutions.

We want to be wealthier, healthier, kinder or more organized.

But when I think about radical change, I just feel bad that I’m not eating kale wraps for breakfast after my 5 a.m. yoga meditation, then eating homemade yogurt for lunch after commuting by winterized bike to work, which is mere blocks from my net zero home, which is mortgage-free.

To accomplish even one of those things would take all my focus, and doom me to failure.

My husband always talks about the value of the “ripping off the Band-Aid,” approach to things, but that just doesn’t work for me.

I’ve realized that by lowering the bar and introducing incremental, but manageable change, I’m much more likely to be successful, even if it takes seemingly forever.

Back in 2013, for example, I vowed I would learn to meditate. I tried a number of times over six months – I took courses, downloaded videos, read books – and frankly I failed

R0013192101-0326

Resolve to lower the bar

then eventually to milk. A year after that, I stopped taking sugar in every second cup of coffee, and finally eliminated the sweet stuff entirely. Improvement four!

So make resolutions if you must, but don’t be too hard on yourself. Past performance, they say in human resources, is often indicative of future performance.

Try something new; try lowering the bar a little.

Eventually, you’ll get there, one baby step at a time.

to beat myself up on the days I can’t make it.

I think about my friend in Vancouver, and I think about the fact that going to the gym twice a week is better than not going at all for my physical and mental health. It’s been 12 weeks and I’m still into it!

Improvement three.

I went from doubledouble to single milk in my coffee with slightly under two years of effort. I started by swapping 18 per cent cream for five per cent, and

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opinion

Connected to your community

Refugees get warm welcome

R

efugees fleeing from the Syrian conflict and the brutality and terror of ISIS in Syria and Iraq are starting to arrive, and Canadians are showing their true colours as a caring and welcoming nation.

That spirit of caring and concern is certainly on display here in the nation’s capital. Numerous organizations and individual residents have been working diligently to not only say hello to our new neighbours, but have also been hard at work coming up with ways to make their transition into Canadian society as smooth as possible.

For example, Elmvale Acres sisters Maya, 7, and Clara Pepe, 9, collected almost 500 plush toys for their Stuffies for Syria campaign so that the stuffed toys can be passed on to Syrian refugees who eventually resettle in Ottawa. Or there’s east-end resident Betty Giffin, who is taking park in a nationwide effort through the Ottawa-based Kind Canada, to knit 25,000 scarves to help keep the new arrivals warm during their first Canadian winter. Ottawa residents have been very generous in trying to ease the way for the refugees to integrate into Canadian

society.

The City of Ottawa has held public forums on how to sponsor refugees, the Catholic Centre for Immigrants has been front and centre in helping co-ordinate services here, Refugee 613 is helping coordinate private sponsorships and the University of Ottawa has been very active as well, to just name a few of those who are rising to the challenge locally.

There are many others as well.

Back on Dec. 21, the province announced that about $1.33 million will be available to assist refugee resettlement in the Ottawa area, with the possibility of more funds in the future.

The government support is good and expected, but it is the individual efforts, such as the previously mentioned Stuffies for Syria campaign by two young children, and other efforts like it, that show the generosity that Ottawa residents have in their hearts when responding to the refugee crisis.

And that bodes well for how our community will absorb the refugees who will settle here, and how well the refugees will settle into our community and enrich our city in the future.

The consequences deliver, more or less

I

t was in 1953 that Pogo, the great philosopher, first uttered the words “We have met the enemy and he is us.” More than half a century later the words still ring true.

Not that we mean to be our own worst enemy. We are always trying to make things better and, in doing so, we sometimes make things worse.

The Law of Unintended Consequences is at play here, although many of the unintended consequences could be foreseen had we been forelooking.

We created the plastic bag for the convenience of folks at the supermarket. Now plastic bags clog the landfills and, in many parts of the Earth, mar the scenery. The oceans are full of discarded plastic objects that pose a severe threat to marine life. We didn’t intend any of that.

Kourier-Standard KANATA

ottawa COMMUNITY

news

OttawaCommunityNews.com

80 Colonnade Road, Unit 4 Ottawa, ON, K2E 7L2

613-224-3330 Published weekly by:

CHARLES GORDON Funny Town

And yet we keep pumping out disposable objects, the most notable of which is the single-cup coffee thingy. Imagine how many millions of these hit the trashcan each day.

Imagine how many wouldn’t if people made coffee the traditional way. But it seemed like a convenient thing to have and we just didn’t think.

And so it goes, with ever-increasing advances for the consumer, most of them making life difficult for someone. Oops.

The Internet makes it so easy to

Vice President & Regional Publisher Mike Mount mmount@metroland.com 613-283-3182, ext. 104 Director of Advertising Cheryl Hammond cheryl.hammond@metroland.com Phone 613-221-6218 Editor-in-Chief Ryland Coyne rcoyne@metroland.com General Manager: Mike Tracy mike.tracy@metroland.com

read news and download music.

Daily newspapers are losing advertisers at a record rate and laying off staff. So are television stations.

Musicians no longer make money selling CDs. A few get much richer, most get a lot poorer. Oops.

Uber, which everybody seems to love, is threatening the livelihood of taxi drivers, who had to make a considerable investment and submit themselves to a lot more regulation than Uber folks do. Is that what we wanted? And Uber is expanding into other services where the unintended consequences may be similar.

It continues. As the new year dawns, television consumers are looking forward to the era of pickand-pay, mandated by the CRTC after years of consumer pressure.

Under the new system, cable subscribers can chooses a cheaper DISTRIBUTION INQUIRIES Graham Bragger 613-221-6252 ADMINISTRATION: Donna Therien 613-221-6233 DISplAy ADvERTISINg: Gisele Godin - Kanata - 221-6214 Dave Pennett - Ottawa West - 221-6209 Blair Kirkpatrick - Orleans - 221-6216 Cindy Gilbert - Ottawa South - 221-6211 Carly McGhie - Ottawa East - 221-6154 Geoff Hamilton - Home Builders Accounts Specialist - 221-6215 Valerie Rochon - Barrhaven - 221-6227 Jill Martin - Nepean - 221-6221 Mike Stoodley - Stittsville - 221-6231 Rico Corsi - Automotive Consultant - 221-6224 ClASSIfIED ADvERTISINg SAlES:

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8 Kanata Kourier-Standard - Thursday, January 7, 2016

basic package or select – from the multitude of existing channels – a package that suits their needs, rather than receiving, as now, a number of channels they never look at.

That makes sense. Except: under the existing system, popular channels, such as sports, support less popular channels with which they are bundled. So the special-interest channel that appeals to you – say, a foreign-language channel or one devoted to old movies – survives courtesy of the people who want to watch more hockey or more entertainment news.

When the new system comes into effect, those specialty channels are in trouble, it appears from the carefully worded comments of the people who own them. The clear inference is that some of them might be shut down if not enough people choose them in the pick-and-pay process.

Well and good, you might say, except that what we are seeing is reduced choice instead increased, a EDITORIAl: MANAgINg EDITOR: Theresa Fritz, 613-221-6261 theresa.fritz@metroland.com NEwS EDITOR: Nevil Hunt, nevil.hunt@metroland.com, 613-221-6235 REpORTER/phOTOgRAphER: Adam Kveton adam.kveton@metroland.com - 613-221-6239 pOlITICAl REpORTER: Jennifer McIntosh mcintosh@metroland.com, 613-221-6181 ThE DEADlINE fOR DISplAy ADvERTISINg IS MONDAy 5pM

system that rewards the majority at the expense of the minority. Is that what we intended?

The irony is that the much-lauded 1,000-channel universe turns out to be something that people don’t want all that much, and that our demand for more choice could give us, in the end, less.

Editorial Policy The Kanata Kourier-Standard welcomes letters to the editor. Senders must include their full name, complete address and a contact phone number. Addresses and phone numbers will not be published. We reserve the right to edit letters for space and content, both in print and online at ottawacommunitynews.com. To submit a letter to the editor, please email to theresa.fritz@ metroland.com, fax to 613-224-2265 or mail to the Kanata Kourier-Standard, 80 Colonnade Rd. N., Unit 4, Ottawa ON, K2E 7L2.

• Advertising rates and terms and conditions are according to the rate card in effect at time advertising published.

• The advertiser agrees that the publisher shall not be liable for damages arising out of errors in advertisements beyond the amount charged for the space actually occupied by that portion of the advertisement in which the error occurred, whether such error is due to negligence of its servants or otherwise... and there shall be no liability for non-insertion of any advertisement beyond the amount charged for such advertisement.

• The advertiser agrees that the copyright of all advertisements prepared by the Publisher be vested in the Publisher and that those advertisements cannot be reproduced without the permission of the Publisher.

• The Publisher reserves the right to edit, revise or reject any advertisement.

Read us online at www.ottawacommunitynews.com

sports

Connected to your community

Local teams tops at close of Bell Capital Cup Adam Kveton

adam.kveton@metroland.com

Ottawa’s international atom and peewee hockey tournament, the Bell Capital Cup, wrapped up on Jan. 2 with local teams finishing first in 10 of 18 divisions.

The tournament, which included 262 teams playing 564 games on 23 ice surfaces across the city, ended at the Canadian Tire Centre where 18 final games were played.

Finalists played for the Allen J. MacDonald Memorial Trophy, named in honour of a passionate contributor to minor hockey. The Bill Patterson Trophy, named after a CJOH-TV sportscaster and amateur sports booster, was awarded to the Stittsville Rams (Minor Atom A) and Nepean Fireballs (Atom House B) for their fair play and sportsmanship.

Coaches from those two teams will select a player from each team to receive the Ottawa Senators Summer Hockey Camps scholarship to receive a week of on-ice instruction.

This year, the tournament added a special hockey division for players with disabilities, with 14 special hockey

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SE OU N H 2-4PM E OP UN S

SE OU N H 2-4PM E OP UN S

SE OU N H 2-4PM E OP UN S

A Kanata Rangers player and a Stoney Creek Sabres player fight for the puck as they head to the Sabres net during their Bell Capital Cup game on Dec. 30 at the Bell Sensplex. games being played.

“This will really give us something to build on for the next year,” said the tournament’s general manager, Scott Lawryk.

A highlight for Lawryk is taking in the final games on Canadian Tire Centre ice, he said.

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sports

Connected to your community

17th annual international hockey tournament hosts 262 teams “It’s fun to watch teams step onto the ice and look up

at the size of the building and realize they are on the same ice as many of their heroes have played on,” said Lawryk.

The Atom House A finals and Atom House B finals were separated by a Sens practice, with the young play-

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ers greeting the team.

“They were hanging over the railing high-fiving the players and coaches as they hit the ice,” said Lawryk.

But competitive spirits quickly took over as Bell Capital Cup play resumed, he said.

Asked what he though of local teams doing so well in the tournament, Lawryk said 10 local teams making it to the top isn’t out of the ordinary.

“It just goes to show that out-of-town teams traveling to the tournament will have some great competition to face.”

Teams from Europe and the United States participated along with teams from across Canada.

After 17 years, the tournament has raised more than $2.65 million for charities and minor hockey.

The following 18 teams won the Allen J. MacDonald Memorial Trophy after winning their division: •Major Peewee AAA – Oshawa Generals •Major Peewee AA – Ottawa Valley Silver Seven •Major Peewee A – Ottawa Sting •Minor Peewee AAA – Gloucester Rangers •Minor Peewee AA – Ottawa Valley Silver Seven •Minor Peewee A – Kitchener Jr. Rangers

Adam Kveton/Metroland

Kanata Rangers player Mollie Grabe intercepts a rebound as the Stoney Creek Sabres goalie, Megan Warrener, looks on. The teams met on the ice during the first day of Bell Capital Cup competitive play where more than 250 teams competed across the city.

•Major Atom AAA – Don Mills Flyers •Major Atom AA – Voisins Papineau •Major Atom A – Quinte West Hawks •Minor Atom AAA – Nepean Raiders •Minor Atom AA – Gloucester Rangers White •Minor Atom A – Cumberland Jr. Grads

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•Peewee House A – Cumberland Dukes A3 •Atom House A – Ottawa Centre Lumberjacks •Atom House B – Aylmer Gladiators •Atom House C – Pontiac Lions •Girls Peewee AA – Nepean Wildcats •Girls Atom AA – Barrie Sharks

R0013619654_1231

Continued from page 9

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