In recognition of his courage, resilience and strength, 17-year-old Wes Johnson was welcomed into the St. Thomas Police Service family as an Honourary Cadet.
At a ceremony held Thursday (March 26) at the police station, Chief Marc Roskamp observed that the St. Thomas teen embodies the core value of policing: compassion and service to others.
Johnson was born with a congenital heart condition, explained Roskamp.
“Wes was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), a serious congenital heart condition. He has undergone multiple surgeries and ongoing treatments throughout his life.
“Despite these challenges, Wes continues to demonstrate remarkable determination, positivity and strength, inspiring all those around him.”
Roskamp continued, “Granting him the title of Honorary Cadet is more than symbolic. It reflects our respect for his journey, our admiration for his strength, and our commitment to stand with Wes and his family.”
He added, “It is both humbling and inspiring to be able to stand alongside our community and recognize individuals like Wes.
“People who, through their strength and perseverance, remind us of the very best of the human spirit. These are the moments that stay with us, they are personal, they are emotional, and they are meaningful in a way that words can only begin to describe.”
The terminally ill Johnson was decked out in his St. Thomas Police Service uniform, which included his name tag. He proudly pointed to the tattoo on his left arm and spoke of the symbolism, including the skyline of Toronto, a Blue Jay feather, and his heartbeat track underneath it.
Earlier this year, Johnson spent time in Dunedin, Florida, where he met the Toronto Blue Jays at their spring training facility.
Roskamp stressed that moments like this highlight the human side of policing and reinforce the St. Thomas Police Service’s role in supporting and uplifting the community.
“Wes, your courage and your strength and your journey have not gone unnoticed. You have faced challenges that would overwhelm many, and yet, you continue to move forward with grace and determination.
“In so doing, you have inspired your family, your friends, and every member of this police service.
“We are honoured to stand with you today, and we are proud to welcome you into our family.”
Roskamp observed that the teen, “Reminds us why we wear the badge, to support, to serve, and to stand alongside members of our community in both their most difficult and most meaningful moments.
“Wes has shared his admiration for the police and, today, that sentiment is being returned with this Honourary Cadet recognition.”
ELEMENT5: FROM WOOD TO WONDERS
Last September, Element5 officially opened its new state-of-the-art glue-laminated production line and unveiled the expansion of its mass timber manufacturing facility in the north end of St. Thomas.
Element5 is the province’s first certified manufacturer of cross-laminated timber, and the expansion more than doubles the size of the plant from 130,000 square feet to over 350,000 square feet.
It will create 150 new jobs, increasing the company’s workforce to over 325 employees.
The expansion doubles the facility’s production capacity from 50,000 cubic meters annually to 100,000 cubic meters annually of cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glued-laminated timber (Glulam) products.
With little fanfare, Element5 has become a significant success story less than five years after constructing its $50 million plant on 40 acres of land on Dennis Road.
Even more impressive is the fact that the company itself has been in existence for just over a decade.
At the time, Chris Latour, Element5 president, called the plant expansion “A bold step forward.”
He continued, “Five years ago, the campus that you toured today was a greenfield site. And Element5 was just 15 passionate employees. Two years ago, the space that we sit in and dine in today was just endless potential.
“But today, this campus with our $107 million investment by Element5, Kensington Capital Partners and the Hasslacher Group makes Element 5 the most advanced wood manufacturing facility in North America.
“We are driven by a skilled workforce of passionate employees, leading change in sustainable building construction. This team has delivered over 300 mass timber projects to date using innovative building methods, and we changed the expectation on how to construct affordable housing at a rapid pace.”
In February of last year, the Hasslacher Group, based in Austria, announced it was acquiring a stake in Element5.
Hasslacher is one of Europe’s largest and most prominent timber companies and is a global innovator.
Hasslacher Group CEO and owner Christoph Kulterer explained the expansion into North America.
“We have come here with a long-term vision – to stay, and to help shape the future of building with wood.
“True to our motto: From wood to wonders.”
The latter is now a reality as Element5 begins to garner awards.
The most recent being announced this week in London, as the firm was the winner in the Industrial Category of the 9th Biennial Don Smith Commercial Building Awards.
The awards recognize the top commercial, industrial, multi-family and community buildings across the London and St. Thomas Association of Realtors (LSTAR) region.
The awards program was named after the late Don Smith, co-founder of EllisDon Corporation, with deep roots in London.
Elemen5 was recognized for its office and plant, located on Dennis Drive in St. Thomas.
It was the firm Architects Tillmann Ruth Robinson who nominated Element5 for the recognition.
We spoke with Chris Latour yesterday (Friday morning) about the Don Smith Commercial Building Award.
He had high praise for the architectural firm.
“They were a phenomenal partner to us the entire way. They really took our vision and brought it to reality, and actually made it significantly better than we could have ever envisioned ourselves.
“So I’m really proud that they’re bringing it forward as a project they’re proud of, because partnerships are at the core of our values. And I think the partnership we have with them is what signals what can be achieved with those partnerships.
“I don’t know if I ever thought it would win an award, but I always thought we were doing something unique and really kind of different from everyone else.”
Latour continued, “One of the things we tried to do was we exposed all the hidden connections that normally are hidden in a building. And we did that so that when our clients, other architects, come through, they can see all the things that are normally hidden and then they can talk about how they’re done, what they can do to make it better, and how they can improve their building.
“That was something that we tasked Tillman Ruth with, which was a challenge, but they really did a great job of it. And then the other thing is we made the building high-grade industrial on the back and all wood on the front.
“And that’s a pretty big ask for an architect, to say, I want to make a building, but I want to use two different philosophies, and I want it to be a seamless shift from one to the other.”
The spectacular head office of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has won several awards in the past couple of months, including THE PLAN magazine’s Best Overall Project of 2025, the 2025 Award of Excellence in Architecture (presented by the Canadian Chapter of the American Institute of Architects) and the building will now represent Canada in the International Societies categorgy at the AIA convention in California.
The conservation authority head office was also a finalist at the Ontario Architecture Association 2026 Design Excellence Awards.
Latour admits the building is quite the showpiece.
“It’s one of the very first buildings that we built at the inception of us as a company. It’s also one of the largest projects we’ve done to date, and we’re extremely proud of it.
“It was always going to be quite the showpiece. There was a lot of our employees’ dedicated effort that went into that, and that really raised the bar on what we could do as a company and triggered our growth, I think, overall.
“And now to see it winning these awards and coming to fruition, it’s a really nice recognition for all of our employees to look back on something that was a lot of effort and see how it’s really come full circle.”
Locally, you have to look no further than the Port Stanley fire hall for an example of their eye-catching structures.
Element5 has now constructed several other fire halls as a result.
In London, Element5 has been awarded for the offices of the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre.
And Latour advised that Element5 has recently turned its attention to the housing market.
“A couple of years ago, we entered into a partnership with a group of companies, and we did the first YWCA building in Kitchener-Waterloo, and it was a standardized building that you could extend, and you could grow in different directions, but it didn’t change the core design.
“And now I think to date we’ve completed eight of them, and we’ve got about 13 between the completed and those in progress.
“The most recent one we just completed our portion of in Hamilton is a six-story version of it. It’s become a really popular design not only for the lower cost but also for the cost certainty and the schedule certainty for everybody, so they’re completing the building in about nine months from approval to opening, which is one of the fastest opportunities for affordable housing in Canada.
“And then we’ve also got similar designs that can be expanded into different price points.”
Establishing a home base in St. Thomas has proven to be a lucrative investment for Element5, admits Latour.
“St. Thomas has been a fantastic partner for us at every step of the way, whether to support us with recognition or to introduce us to other local partners.”
While much of the focus of late is on the construction of the PowerCo EV battery gigafactory, Element5 is quietly and consistently winning awards and turning heads in the process.
Reiterating the words of Hasslacher Group CEO and owner Christoph Kulterer, “We have come here with a long-term vision – to stay, and to help shape the future of building with wood.
OUR MP IS A MEDIA MAGNET
Can’t help but notice MP Andrew Lawton will be heading west again on May 4 to attend Premier Danielle Smith’s Annual Christian Summit.
The Summit is for “All Christian Leaders in Alberta.”
It is billed as “A direct dialogue between Christian leadership and Alberta’s government. Help shape the policies affecting our families, churches and communities.”
It is an initiative of the Christian Impact Network.
The speaker line-up includes MP Lawton (seen below at a Freedom summit earlier this year), “a leading parliamentary voice opposing Bill C-9.”
So, this would appear to be another stop on Lawton’s town halls and “Faith and Freedom” summits.
He has been using these events to discuss:
- The removal of the “religious defence” in hate speech laws.
- How the bill might impact the quoting of religious texts like the Bible.
- Practical steps for faith communities to petition the government.
We wrote at length about Bill C-9 in January of this year, and that item included a conversation with Lawton.
You can read the item here,
Are we to assume Lawton is now a member of the Alberta Premier’s Christian coalition?
Are there not enough issues in Elgin-St. Thomas-London South to keep Lawton occupied here?
Meantime, from The Democracy Defender’s Substack is an article posted on Jan. 14 titled, Who’s behind the Hard-Right in Canada? A Reference Guide to Canada’s Disinformation Network.
Under the Hard-Right Members of Parliament section, a half-dozen names are referenced. A group that represents “the most aggressive push toward nationalist populism within mainstream Canadian politics.”
That group of six includes MP Lawton, who is described as “a speaker at ‘international media forums’ with U.S. conservative media connections.”
And, most recently, Lawton has started a petition to bestow the Order of Canada on Don Cherry.
Author and consultant Warren Kinsella posted recently, Don Cherry isn’t going to get the Order of Canada, with a reference to Lawton in the last paragraph.
You won’t want to miss that, and you can read the item here
ADDITIONAL PUBLIC SECTOR SALARY DISCLOSURES
Last week, we had a detailed listing of municipal employees in St. Thomas who earned in excess of $100,000 in 2025, as required information under the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, 1996.
Here are additional individuals, not associated directly with city hall in St. Thomas:
Cynthia St. John, CEO of Southwestern Public Health $242,745
Karen Davies, President and CEO, St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital $362,700
Monica Olanski, Vice-president, St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital $244,003
Tonya Sheldon, Vice-president, St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital $244,003
Craig Watkin, Vice-president, St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital $244,003
Brian Flint, Executive Director, Family and Children’s Services of St. Thomas and Elgin $217,351
Blaine Parkin, CAO, County of Elgin $231,575
Nicholas Loeb, Director of Legal Services, County of Elgin $189.046
Kyle Johnstone, Police Chief, Town of Aylmer $183,581
Andrew Grozelle. CAO, Town of Aylmer $176,690
Jeff Carswell, CAO, Township of Southwold $174,416
THE ECHO CHAMBER
In a follow-up to the dialogue last week between museum volunteer Molly Swift and the facility’s Chief Operating Officer, Wil Zufelt, Swift puts forward the claim that the Railworks Coalition – an umbrella organization representing the Elgin County Railway Museum, the CASO station and the St. Thomas Elevated Park – “is squatting in the museum.”
“The museum still will not provide the legally required (according to the CRA) operating agreement with Railworks, and the CEO/COO says it doesn’t exist and doesn’t need to ‘now’ after I was directed to get a lawyer to get the info from their lawyer by the museum when I requested that information directly from them as a member in good standing.
“We are at a factual impasse. I believe this is officially an illegal occupation of a taxpayer-funded museum.
“Strange that the city won’t give a genuine comment on this issue, and the last time the police were called to the museum (for theft and disposal of private property), the police officers reportedly didn’t know what to do.
“I wonder if that factors in here, as right now the only people with keys to the building are from Railworks, as far as the membership is aware, no one from the museum remains.
“So, Railworks appears to be squatting in the museum.”
Oh, my. The Elgin County Railway Museum is entwined in a web of conspiracy.
Can the roof possibly survive the weight of this added drama?
On the same topic, Douglas Ross suggests the entire matter needs to go to a higher authority.
“This Railworks issue needs to be brought to the attention of city council.”
In response to our item last week on the city’s transit system, Dawn Docker forwarded this comment.
“Public transit must exist so the community can collect the gas tax money!”
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And a reminder, I can be heard weekday afternoons as news anchor and reporter on 94.1 myFM in St. Thomas. As always, your comments and input are appreciated.
