Letter to the editor
Through the keen leadership of Mayor Robert Quaiff, I had the privilege of being on The County’s “team” pursuing our rural school concerns with members of the provincial Cabinet. This included meetings with Premier Kathleen Wynne and Education Minister Mitzie Hunter during the last days of January. Our Shire Hall staff prepared an excellent brief, […]
Prescribed process
An orientation session for the Accommodation Review Process (ARC) members led to some frustrations being vented by parents and community members about a timeline that gives the ARC members just five weeks to review information and make the best decision for the schools they represent. The meeting, which was meant to prepare the six groups […]
Adaptable water managers
Just weeks after drought emergency declared, beavers were splashing around Hubbs Creek Marsh Near the end of August, my 19-yearold daughter and I spent six and half days travelling back and forth from the Picton hospital every eight hours so she could get intravenous antibiotics to fight an anaerobic infection that had rapidly developed following […]
Carrot and stick
LHIN spending $1.5 million to reduce wait times The wait list for some basic hospital services remains unacceptably long, according to the head of the SouthEast Local Healthcare Integration Network (LHIN). Paul Huras wants hospitals in the region to clean up the wait lists for knee and hip surgeries as well as some diagnostic imaging, […]
Green light
Ministry gives new hospital the go-ahead Northumberland-Quinte West MPP Lou Rinaldi got right to the point during an announcement at the Prince Edward Community Centre yesterday morning. The politician visited the County, along with his counterpart Todd Smith, bearing good news from provincial health minister Eric Hoskins: the project to build a new hospital in […]
Persistent worries
Dozens of Picton Bay residents urge council to retract support for Picton Terminals. For the most part, the County’s committee of the whole meetings go unnoticed by the general public, the nave of Shire Hall’s council chambers mostly empty, save for reporters and the odd concerned citizen. That wasn’t the case last Thursday, as dozens […]
Redistribution
Council increases homeowners taxes to pay for reduction to farmland owners Andrew Stronach, heir to the Magna auto parts empire, owns several thousand acres of farmland in South Marysburgh. He and other wealthy landholders are the big winners in council’s decision last week to reduce his property tax bill and raise those of County homeowners. […]
The year ahead
Mayor Quaiff and CAO James Hepburn offer a roadmap for the year ahead Once the holiday season has wound down, and everyone is finished celebrating the new year, it’s tradition for mayors to host a new year’s levee. The meeting, held with other regional politicians, the press and the public, is a chance for the […]
Student’s voice
Pinecrest student to help guide big changes When the Hastings-Prince Edward District School Board (HPEDSB) put the Accommodation Review Committee (ARC) process into motion, schools affected by a plan to either close, merge or rebuild were asked to contribute members in the form of the principal, one teacher, one non-teaching faculty member and one student. […]
Room to grow
Waterworks utility is an underused asset There is no shortage of capacity to grow in the County—no obvious structural constraint anchoring residential development. So why does the County continue to lag Quinte West and Belleville in the race to grow our tax bases? New home building jumped nicely in the last quarter of 2016, pushing […]