Not their money
It’s a special time of year. It’s the season when we curl up before the fire with a pencil, a calculator and the County’s draft budget. Like other December celebrations, the County budget can inspire both joy and sorrow—depending on circumstances. For the wealthy, it is but a minor imposition and the opportunity to express […]
Muddling through
It was a fleeting yet revealing glimpse behind the curtain, to the frail human being contorted by overwhelming pressure and disoriented by the swirling winds that obscure a clear and decisive way forward. During a COVID-19 briefing last week, Premier Doug Ford was being pelted with questions on the rationale of his government’s decision to […]
Citizen diligence
Who owns your land? Who decides what shall be done on it? What should be built? How big or how small? Many folks assume land-use planning meetings to be dull affairs—bureaucrats and politicians poring over maps and legal definitions. Certainly, they can be all this. But some are anything but. Rarely have I witnessed such […]
Unnatural creatures
Had Frankenstein created the County’s waterworks system, it would have been less freakishly assembled. Six different water systems, from six different sources. Two wastewater plants. Few of the bits are interchangeable. Knowledge of one system informs you not-at-all about another. Operators require technical training and expertise in each of these wee and arcane plants and […]
Act of memory
We need to talk. Thundering online may feel good in the moment, and it may even earn us a few digital high fives from our like-minded friends or followers, but it doesn’t advance an argument. Shouting down those calling for more conversation seems an irony we ought not to allow to slip by unchallenged amid […]
Action, not symbols
It was a poor process. A handful of folks (Working Group) making a recommendation to another small group of folks (Prince Edward Heritage Advisory Committee), making a recommendation to another small group (Council) to decide on a consequential community matter. When exactly are the folks who live here permitted to express their view? It is […]
Faith and fact
I confess to losing my grasp on the COVID- 19 messaging of late. Part of it is surely fatigue. And part it is likely a reaction to the rising numbers and the prospect of a dark winter of isolation. But part of it is driven by the nagging feeling that we should have better information […]
Rock and hard places
The County is in a tough spot. Picton Terminals has grand (perhaps fantastical) plans to expand the revenuegenerating opportunities of its port facilities on Picton Bay. Opponents to their whack-amole plans had pinned their hopes on local government’s land use planning powers to block the developer. But that looks doubtful this week. Planning staff have […]
Guidance
Official plans should be inspirational. Like a trusted and weathered road atlas, they should inspire our dreams, hopes, ambitions about where we are going and what we shall see when we get there. It ought to set out in charts and data the facts on the ground. It should orient us to the place we […]
Incomprehensible
They don’t speak the same language. There are no interpreters. Shire Hall finance folks and council members spend budget deliberations time mostly talking past each other. They pick up snippets of the other’s dialect—but rarely enough to fully grasp the meaning. The County’s finance director, unsurprisingly, speaks finance. Her presentations are laden with numbers, ratios, […]