Politics and money
When she was running for her party’s leadership four years ago, Kathleen Wynne was the only candidate, of the seven running for the job, who understood the issues at stake at Ostrander Point. Four candidates flat-out refused to answer my questions, three offered prepared generic statements about how renewable energy was critical to Ontario’s future. […]
Irreversible
Heavy equipment began chewing up the landscape this week. They’ve begun on Army Reserve Road near the boundary between Athol and North Marysburgh. Workers are preparing the ground for the construction of turbines 16 and 17 of the White Pines industrial wind energy development. There are 27 turbines to be built as part of this […]
There’s always a catch
“Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can’t stop them from doing,” wailed the old woman. “What the hell are you talking about?” Yossarian shouted in bewilderment. Joseph Heller set Catch-22 on a dusty Mediterranean island during World War II, presenting both a tragic and funny window into the bureaucratic absurdity of […]
The constant
Jim Dunlop was wearing many hats in December 2010. He still worked part time at the cement plant as a safety officer. He had recently been re-elected as councillor to represent Wellington. And he was working hard to see that a magnificent new arena was built in the village. On this particular December day, however, […]
A year later
It has been a year since a group on council ousted its top manager, Merlin Dewing. Dewing had been hired to fix the County’s serious structural problems—runaway costs, broken infrastructure, poor accountability and moribund marketing and economic development. He made enemies along the way. He knew that. He had come here to do a job—not […]
Unbound
It was remarkable—the speed with which the developer skipped past what must have been a shattering decision, pivoting smoothly to plans to uproot and cart away the vegetation upon which the Blanding’s turtle clings to survival. As if they hadn’t heard the news. Two Fridays ago, wpd Canada learned that the Tribunal had upheld an […]
Restore environmental safeguards
It strikes them when they hibernate. A white fungus appears around their mouth, noses, ears and wings. It takes so much energy for the bat’s immune system to combat the infection, they use up their available fat stores. Some die in their roost; others fly hungry into the winter sky empty of insects upon which […]
Cliffhanger
I saw The Big Short at the Regent Theatre over the weekend. The movie, based on Michael Lewis’s book, purports to tell the story of the collapse of the housing market bubble in the US in 2007 and 2008 which very nearly took down the world’s banking system with it. As entertainment, it was mildly […]
Permanent fix
Should it be made permanent? That is the top agenda item that ought to be considered when the committee looking into the County’s waterworks system sits for the first time, likely next month. We’ve been here before. In 2010, another ad hoc committee was formed to look at waterworks rates. The crushing reality of some […]
Misled
One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.- George Orwell They didn’t come to talk about industrial wind turbines. Rather, the two emissaries from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC)—an agency of the province of Ontario—came to apologize. MPAC is the […]