Water view
As snow fills my walkway for the 11th time this month, I think about my friends and neighbours who have managed to escape to warmer locales during these more trying days in Prince Edward County. It’s not envy so much as it is a desire to share the warmth emanating from their Instagram pics from […]
Letter to a developer
The lands north of the cemetery in Wellington are the subject of a public meeting next Monday evening. A consulting firm has arranged the gathering in the Rotary Room of the Wellington and District Community Centre (presentation is at 6:15 p.m.) to hear community feedback and gauge interest on how the land is developed and […]
Uncomfortable facts
The full KPMG report can be found here. My recent columns on the County budget have spurred some energetic and fair-minded pushback. This is a good thing. It is, after all, an opinion column and I release these views into the atmosphere precisely to prompt feedback and discussion. This columnist claims no special authority, nor […]
Consider first
There is a strain of economic thought snaking through academic and think tank hallways lately suggesting that our notions of the harmful effects of accumulating massive debt—specifically government debt— has been overstated. In simplistic terms these folks contend that as long as governments maintain the ability to print its own currency —underpinning strategies known as […]
Next steps
What happens next is key. It will surely define the course of County government over the next four years. The choices your council makes in these next few weeks will tell us if it can learn from its missteps or whether it will hunker down in defiance, and become a captive of the machine. It […]
Fail
The kindest thing that may be said about the County’s 2019 budget, just completed, is that a few more folks will become municipal employees. Beyond that, it is a full-on catastrophe. Never in the history of the amalgamated County has a council transferred as much wealth from its residents to the coffers of the municipality, […]
Build
For eight years we have known that the County’s population is declining. There was denial at first. We saw so many new folks arriving, it didn’t make sense. But we weren’t tracking those leaving. Then the trend was confirmed in 2016. There was no more denying it. Years have slipped by and we have failed […]
2021
Mayor Steve Ferguson admitted during his first New Year’s Levee that he is still adjusting to giving speeches. Fair-minded observers of our local government may be inclined, therefore, to make some allowance for the massive oversight in his remarks on Sunday. But the truth is, that we are running out of time to be fair […]
Go slow
My wife, Kathleen, and I own and operate a small inn in Wellington—three guest suites, growing to seven later this year. We made our original investment in 2009 based partly on my reporting on a succession of municipal studies that pointed to a shortfall of roofed accommodations in Prince Edward County. It seemed an opportunity. […]
The FTR vortex
If by luck or good management County council manages to escape the seductive allure of its tax ratios debate on March 12, staff ought to consider burying these dials into the walls at Shire Hall and bricking them over. Never permitted to lead another council astray. John Thompson and the Federation of Agriculture first dusted […]