Normal

Life feels as though it is getting back to normal. (As I read these words back, I brace for admonishment—both the superstitious variety and the epidemiologically grounded.) I will admit to wandering the grocery store recently for several moments before realizing I hadn’t brought a mask. Not intentionally, just the forgetfulness that dulls the synapse response of a not-particularly-sensitive 64-year-old man.

For the first time in two years, we are making plans to travel. We are greeting visitors from Europe. Covid is fading from view. Monkeypox is still on the fringes of our collective consciousness. So too is bird flu.

It may be an illusion. Perhaps we will regret relaxing our waning vigilance. There are many serious issues for us to stew upon, but for today—these early days of summer 2022—it feels a lot like normal.

So profound has been the effect of a lethal and contagious virus that it has taken me four paragraphs to arrive at the parochial topic of this week’s column. Getting to it then, I want to encourage readers to find time to look at Shire Hall’s Quarterly Report. It is prepared and written by the County’s Chief Administrative Officer, Marcia Wallace.

In 13 concise pages, Wallace summarizes Shire Hall’s achievements in the first three months of the year. She examines big files and initiatives such as affordable housing and infrastructure projects in roads and waterworks. It also provides a window upon process improvements that may yield a payback by improved service or greater efficiency sometime into the future.

It is well written, to the point, and clear, so I won’t summarize the summary more than this. But I need you to read it. The report can be found here.

This is how participative democracy works. We need folks with knowledge about the subject material and curiosity about how things work to read the quarterly report—to assess what is written, what has been left out, and what are the looming challenges and opportunities. Same thing for waterworks. Affordable housing. Municipal processes.

Sure, we can leave it to council members, but there are many more of us. Quasi-retired. Many from jobs and experiences that lend themselves to analysis and scrutiny. There are many folks in our midst who can evaluate spending patterns, capital planning, organizational management and on and on. This expertise can help reveal challenges, gaps and potential problems before they fester into a pus-filled mess.

It is information we can use to ask informed questions—to challenge assumptions. It can also be used to recognize progress. Success. This brings me to my second point.

Shire Hall is encouraged to make an argument. To promote its achievements. To challenge views with which it disagrees. Democracy requires a conversation. Debate. To and fro.

Shire Hall is encouraged to make the case for investments in infrastructure—to present the cost-benefit calculation. The features and benefits. The social calculation. Or the reason why they chose the less obvious path. Make the case to us, residents.

They are encouraged to explain why they need to bulk up staffing or spending in a certain area. And then track and report the outcomes. Good, bad or indifferent. They are encouraged to tout their successes. Push back against wrong information. To correct the record.

There are limits, of course. But silence has the whiff of disdain. Of imperiousness.

Again, Shire Hall may leave this to elected officials, but it isn’t clear to me how they do this. Council members are good, able and well-meaning folks. But few, if any, have direct experience governing a $70 million business—or anything even approaching this scale, complexity and breadth of responsibility.

Shire Hall, too, has strong and capable communications folks in its ranks. It is encouraged to loosen the constraints that hobble their output to churning out Public Service Announcements and meeting notices.

This is the second time I have commended the CAO’s Quarterly Report to readers. It isn’t my job. It is up to Shire Hall to make its case to the residents it serves. Not necessarily to get into the “to and fro” but rather to demonstrate it has a role in the dialogue with this community.

Prince Edward County seems set to change dramatically over the next decade. All sentient residents need to be part of the conversation to ensure it doesn’t become something else—something unwanted.

It starts by reading and reflecting upon the CAO’s Quarterly Report. It is an incredibly vital window into the workings of Shire Hall, a starting point for a better understanding of an overlooked level of government—but one that touches our lives directly. Today and tomorrow.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca