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 […]
Case study
Let’s say you sell widgets. You’ve sold them for a long time. Every year you earn about one per cent of the value of each widget sold. But suddenly, your costs are spiralling upward. You increase your cut each year, but it is still not enough. So you decide to add a couple of big […]
Silent shareholders
The municipality of Prince Edward County has its share of challenges. But contrary to the election-time claims of would-be council members, the County does not have a debt problem. The County owes about $16 million in taxpayer- funded debt. That’s about $640 per person, or approximately $1,400 per household. Measured against cash flow and assets, […]
Fair is fair
It’s fair game. If you live alongside a powerful, innovative and dynamic economy, it makes sense to leverage your proximity to that market’s energy—to your economy’s benefit. It is why we spend gazillions building bridges— both literally and figuratively—to the U.S. market. We do this to ensure commerce flows easily back and forth. It’s the […]
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 […]