Heresy
To be sure, the $7 billion the Ontario government wants to spend in its latest plan to tackle climate change is a mere drop in the bucket. Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk last year tabulated the cost of the Ontario Liberals’ energy policies. She calculated that between 2006 and 2014, Ontarians paid $37 billion more for […]
From the soil
Nearly a year has passed since a devastating late-season frost descended upon the vines and tender fruit crops of Prince Edward County. What made it a particularly cruel event was that while the icy frost ruined much of the fruit in just a few hours—growers were required to tend, prune and cultivate all season long […]
Wiggle room
There are perfectly sound reasons to leave the rewriting of the County’s official plan to others. Chief among them is that it is not really the County’s plan at all— but rather a tight little box created by the province (the parent), within which the municipality (the child) is allowed to define a little wiggle […]
Spatial disorientation
Is Shire Hall run efficiently? By this I mean, how does the County compare to other municipalities? Does it use its resources well? Are its operations run efficiently? How does it rank among its peers? What about productivity? Are we getting enough out of our human resources? Are we improving? Or getting worse? In what […]
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 […]
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, […]
Aunt Mildred
The last house in Wellington was sold last week. There is nothing left. It’s all gone. If this trend continues the village may consider a lottery to award the next chance to live in Wellington. It’s a bit of an exaggeration—but not by much. To say the resale market for homes in the village is […]