County News
Letter to the editor
Through the keen leadership of Mayor Robert Quaiff, I had the privilege of being on The County’s “team” pursuing our rural school concerns with members of the provincial Cabinet.
This included meetings with Premier Kathleen Wynne and Education Minister Mitzie Hunter during the last days of January.
Our Shire Hall staff prepared an excellent brief, plus input from our community’s ARC participants was clear, concise and — in my own view — thoroughly convincing.
It was also good to be armed with pointed Council resolutions and the support of our Prince Edward Federation of Agriculture.
So there’s likely nothing much to be added to what our hard-working parents, business leaders, and teachers have already raised and will continue to insist upon.
But there were also 3 anecdotal takeaways, or “shareable moments”, for me as an individual, local politician and
County resident:
- The Premier made it public & clear that all co-terminus school boards in Prince Edward Hastings should be working together locally toward creative outcomes, e.g. Separate and Public, French-language and English-language.
- The Premier and the Minister expect our school board to be working closely now with our municipality – including Council, our municipal development and economic tools, and our Shire Hall staff. Councillors serving on an ARC are welcome but that alone is insufficient strategic collaboration with the municipality.
- The Minister openly insists that ARC outcomes and processes are local school board driven. Matters such as timelines should be flexible and recognize that “one size does not fit all.”
As a resident and citizen I found this trinity of senior Queens Park assertions constructive, reassuring and sensible.
Time will tell how they translate into positive refinements of the current ARC and proposed rural school closure conversation.
But I’m giving myself permission to be cautiously optimistic.
Bill Roberts
Sophiasburgh
Recently, there has been much discussion about plans for housing and development in Prince Edward County.
Some like the new housing projects planned for Wellington and other areas of the County. Others complain that new projects are changing the nature of the place where we live. The development called Base 31 on Prince Edward Heights has been called “Disneyland North.” The new water plant under construction in Wellington has been labeled as too expensive for County taxpayers. Some have said that the County is beginning to resemble a miniature Toronto.
I must agree with those who decry the rampant and rapid development of services and projects that serve manly a small proportion of residents and the perspective that sees the “Torontoization” of our area as desirable. The Port Picton development planned for Picton Harbour is an example of the drive toward remaking a pleasant rural area into a cily suburb. If one looks at the drawing that accompanied the advertisement for Port Picton in the July 19, 2023 Wellington Times newspaper, it looks just like a wealthy suburb in Toronto.
It would be very interesting to see Socrates, Plato and Aristotle come riding into the Wellington Farmer’s Market on their skateboards, robes flying in the wind. And even more interesting to hear what the have to say, especially regarding our society today. However, I don’t want to hear them or anyone else while I am visiting and shopping at a well organized, beautiful market such as is in Wellington on Saturday morning. There is a time and place for speaking out and in my humble opinion “The Market” is not one of them. This little “speech” is in reference to an article written by David Simmonds in The Times dated May 24, 2017.