Reasonable
Congratulations Steve Ferguson. We’ve been waiting for you. There is much to do, so let’s get started. Among your first calls, may we suggest you ring up Mitch Panciuk. Arrange for lunch. This week. Before Shire Hall staff jam up your schedule. Find the time to sit down over some pasta and salad, perhaps a […]
Mayor
To view Gary Mooney’s All Candidate’s Survey, please click here. Leadership is the central issue in this race for mayor. After expelling its County manager early on, council mostly floated aimlessly through the remainder of the term. What began as an illconsidered putsch of Shire Hall’s leading reformer, devolved into a sad, unfocused, undisciplined and […]
Workable
The most salient bit came four hours into the council committee meeting called to consider regulating shortterm accommodations (STAs) in Prince Edward County. After 23 deputations, mostly against the proposed rules—interspersed with voices worried about how vacation rentals were depleting housing stock and the impact on affordability—it was the County’s public works chief who provided […]
Get on with it
Correction: The print version of this comment said existing STAs would be grandfathered, meaning they would be exempt from the rules under the proposed regulations. This is incorrect. While new zoning rules will be grandfathered for existing STAs, most new licensing and property standards regulations governing occupancy levels, operational aspects and parking and such will apply to both existing and new STAs. It seems Shire […]
Time to act
The County’s proposed regulations presentation and supporting documents can be found here. There are times when winning just isn’t among the available options. Only degrees of losing. On such occasions, I will admit some sympathy for municipal folks when they stray from Shire Hall. Last week the County’s planning manager, Paul Walsh, unveiled preliminary plans […]
Rules
The trick was to discourage speculators without inflicting undue pain upon the folks renting out a room or two as a means of eking out a living in Prince Edward County. Short-term accommodations (STAs) have blossomed with the emergence of sharing services including Airbnb, VRBO and others. It’s a phenomenon that isn’t unique to the […]
Cornerstone
The Prince Edward Learning Centre works to equip individuals with literacy, numeracy and other academic and job-seeking skills in our community. A quarter of the folks who participate in the Learning Centre’s Aspire program aren’t certain where they will sleep each night. More than half live in conditions few of us would consider adequate or […]
One thing
There is only one issue. It literally defines everything else. If we fail to fix it, in this next term of council, every other issue we consider vital to our community’s health will be diminished. All the things we aspire for our County may be put out of reach. Time is running out. First, some […]
Builders
Something seems off. Construction projects, perhaps by definition, tend to defy even the most earnestly prepared plans and schedules. Pencil drawings meet hard earth. Unexpected issues arise. So contingency allowances are created—to cover both time and money. Yet they never seem to be enough. There is, however, no excuse or extenuating circumstances—at least none that […]
Carbon tax
Whatever Canada is doing, we shall do that too,” said no nation ever. Join me in this quick exercise. Let’s check off the boxes about the carbon tax proposed by Justin Trudeau’s government. Will it make a meaningful difference in global emissions of CO2? No. Will it even take us a measurable distance toward meeting […]