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 […]
Object lesson
History is complicated. It is awash in contradictory and competing versions of events. Mostly written by the victors. What are we to make of these contradictions? Whose story are we to believe? Are we equipped to make these judgements? As a community? As individuals? Our community heard from an academic late last month, arguing that […]
Much ado…
It seems we don’t have enough to grumble about each week in Prince Edward County. Now we must invent problems. Manufacture grievances. Our American neighbours have spent much of 2020 courting with civil unrest, led by a now-clear-for-all-the-world-to-see grifter seeking to distract folks while he fills his pockets from the nation’s treasury. As that country […]
Shire Hall knows best
It took six years for this community to hammer out a new secondary plan for Wellington. After many brainstorming sessions, interactive public meetings, stacks of white papers, dozens of iterations, and revisions, the shiny new Wellington secondary plan was stamped, sealed and approved in 2016. It replaced a plan that had endured 36 years. But […]
Waste
There is a new garbage man in town. Waste Management trucks will disappear from County roads and streets next month, and shiny new trucks (or, perhaps, repainted old ones) will begin prowling our neighbourhoods. The best bit is that Shire Hall has elicited a sweet bid from upstart trash contractor Environmental 360 Solutions that could […]
Fragile things
It’s about jobs. About the dignity of work. The feeling of satisfaction of something accomplished. Something made. Today. Yet, economies are complex organisms. More natural than man-made. We may plant seeds, but with no certainty of growth. Wrong place. Wrong time. We can nurture our economies and work to protect them. But we can also […]
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 […]