Consequences
Harrison’s Corners is a cluster of homes at an intersection of roads that go nowhere in particular—save for maybe St. Andrews West, where Simon Fraser—the explorer of BC fame—settled and was buried after his rambling days were done. My buddies’ homes were scattered along roughly two kilometres of County Road 18, straddling the Corners. My […]
Compare
Prince Edward County is surrounded by water. Fresh, clean, cold and drinkable water. It’s funny, then, that we pay so much for water from our taps. Prince Edward County residents pay among the highest water bills in Ontario. More than Toronto. More than Ottawa and Kingston. More than Muskoka. Collingwood and Cambridge. By a lot. […]
Carrot management
What do you do when the market doesn’t produce what you need? It’s not a trick question. We— speaking mostly of governments here— bump up against the limitations of the marketplace regularly. We invest in drugs, research and climate change mitigation because the market can’t see a viable return. We fund a social safety net […]
Pause
It’s a recurring nightmare. I am heading out of Wellington, up Belleville Road, past the Millennium Trail. Gone are the farm fields, once blanketed with snow in the winter, budding with fresh shoots in spring, lush with growth in the summer and golden after the harvest. Instead, in this dream state, the pastoral landscape has […]
Stuck
Nurses are exhausted, their ranks depleted by the ravages of the pandemic. As many as 12 per cent of hospitals in Ontario are working understaffed. Few are coming to relieve them. It is about to get worse. About a quarter of the remaining nurses say they are retiring or simply leaving the profession in the […]
Creatures
As governance structures go, municipal governance must surely be among the more freakish. Oddly financed, oddly organized, and oddly malleable. So odd that local governments can sometimes seem trapped in a video game, one in which the rules aren’t fully scripted (or thought through) and are thus subject to radical change midway through the challenge. […]
Rogue municipality
How shall our village grow? How shall it look 10 or 20 years from now? Will we recognize it? Forces are busy working to change our community. Decisions are being made on your behalf. By bureaucrats and administrators. By powerful developers. But not you. It is mostly out of sight. You are not part of […]
Permit holders excepted
If August is defined by dog days, perhaps the middle of July might be known as the beagle puppy days. All promise and energy. Uncaring and unaware that these days will soon be memories. The beaches are calling. Farm fields are lush. We are gathering again. For music. For comedy. For celebration. And in the […]
Grandfather must die
The success of Airbnb and the like have transformed the way we travel—mainly where we stay when we are away. It is also transforming communities such as ours. There are about 10,000 residential homes in Prince Edward County. About 900 of these are not homes at all—but instead are commercial businesses providing shortterm accommodation (STA). […]
Press pause
When Council reconvenes next week, among the files they are expected to consider is the creation of a Heritage Conservation District (HCD) in Wellington. Council is urged to defer the decision to the following term for three reasons. 1. It is a big deal; 2. There remain too many questions, and 3. Most folks who […]