Our daily bread
Did you know that if you live on a couple acres on Gilead, Royal or Doxsee Roads you can’t raise a chicken? Or a pig? Or a goat? You may not want to do any of these things—but does it make sense to bar folks from growing food in rural Prince Edward County? Growing up […]
Wrong way around
Over the Christmas holidays wind power generators in the United Kingdom were paid more than $1.5 million to unplug their turbines from the electricity grid. It seems a steady, stiff breeze blew off the North Sea for much of the time producing lots of power—but power it couldn’t use. The British, it turns out, haven’t […]
May we help you
It should be easier. Most folks have little reason to deal with local government in their daily lives—except of course to pay taxes. We may grumble about snow clearing, sidewalk conditions or garbage pick up schedules. We may even pick up the phone and unload our grievances upon our local councillor. But that is usually […]
New days
While campaigning last year, mayoral candidate Monica Alyea used a pumpkin when talking about the County’s finances. The pumpkin was held aloft in a couple of pieces. The large portion— roughly three-quarters of the total— was meant to illustrate the size of the municipality’s mandated funding: expenses over which the local government pays the bill […]
Council does not know best
Rules matter. So does process. These are not social niceties. These are the things that separate us from more primitive groupings of mammals. And when these mechanisms don’t satisfy our personal needs or short-term desires we aren’t allowed simply to toss them aside. Yet a majority of council seems prepared to do just that. For […]
A dangerous mind
It is hard to know what will slow down Dalton’s McGuinty’s green energy ambitions. Zealots don’t typically let facts or public opinion get in their way. It likely won’t be the scathing report by the province’s Auditor General released this week. In it the AG finds McGuinty’s green energy strategies to be ill-considered, needlessly expensive […]
A forever thing
Twice I considered turning back. My footwear was marketed as a category of hiking shoe but the maker of these ankle-high lace-ups certainly wasn’t intending the wearer to be sloshing ankle deep through cold streams and soggy marsh in the closing days of November. In Canada no less. Even those better prepared, those with tall […]
A fabled land
There once was a land rich in fruits and vegetables—so bountiful it became known as the Garden of Canada. But over time mechanization changed the way food was picked, packed and processed. Local producers adapted as best they could, but the wave was too strong. Before long small growers gave way to larger, more efficient […]
Smoke, no fire
County council is regularly called upon to soften the harder edges of its bureaucracy or reconsider the brittle and at times contradictory policies it casts upon the land, particularly when it affects individuals adversely in our community. It is certainly an important role—and given the quick-and-dirty debate by which some hefty policies are imagined and […]
Cowboys
Council ought to have taken the offer. It is about to grapple with some very hard choices about what this municipality does and what it can afford to do (see story page 3). Yet a majority of council has opted to ignore its senior manager’s advice to engage residents in the decision making. Instead these […]