Citizenship

Council was set to decide the fate of a proposed residential golf course development in Wellington after the Times went to press on Tuesday night.  As you are reading this the decision, or perhaps yet another deferral, will be known. There will be plenty of time and reason to comment on this later. Suffice it today to say a warm thank you to citizens Pierre LeBrun and Chris Bowles and many others who mobilized over the last week or so—surveying the community and businesses, writing letters and calling municipal leaders to let them know the views of this community. That is that most in this community want controlled and managed development in our village—specifically jobs, affordable housing and economic activity that this development will deliver.

This view isn’t unanimous. Some are, rightfully, worried about disturbing the balance that makes this village such a wonderful place to live. They are right to be cautious, we have much to protect. But neither can we ignore, nor shrink away in fear from, the need to grow this community—to offer affordably-priced homes for our elders and young families and to create perhaps two decades of well-paying construction and related jobs.

An assured, self-confident community can do both—it takes vigilance and willingness to insist that those who join us honour the traditions, history and sanctity of the place.  I’ve witnessed this in abundance these past six years.  More next week.

Quiet as church mice

Earlier this summer Council was presented with a gift—an opportunity to send a pointed message to the province that this municipality and others are growing weary of being treated irresponsible children. It was a simple but elegant maneuver that might not have accomplished much but would have sent a clear signal that all is not well between the municipalities and the McGuinty government.  But when presented with the opportunity our council chose stay quiet as a church mouse—unwilling to upset their masters.

At the end of July in Cherry Valley Council considered supporting a motion by Arran-Elderslie that called for the province to certify that industrial wind factories are safe before permitting these machines to be erected in its community.

It was a clever tactic. Lower governments complain that senior governments habitually pass down jurisdiction and costs it no longer wants on its books. Since amalgamation it has become the predictable bleat from many members of council that local budget woes are entirely the fault of a province pushing the cost of its government onto the backs of property taxpayers. To an extent they are correct—though the province usually a bit more nuanced than municipal burgers would let on. Typically the pressure takes the form of stricter guidelines in treating water, heavier regulation in roads infrastructure, tougher rules around chemicals and potential pollutants.

Too often new responsibilities arrive at the municipality’s door to enforce, monitor and measure these new standards, yet no additional funding arrives with it. It’s a story that is told over and over again—yet here was a chance to turn the tables on the province and we stayed quiet..

The Arran-Elderslie motion neatly used the province’s own trick. Preserving the health and welfare of its citizens is an entirely reasonable pre-condition of any development. It is the driver behind virtually all the regulations the province hands down to municipalities. The council of Arran-Elderslie simply demanded the province to provide the same safeguards and indemnification the province would be seeking from the municipality if the shoe were on the other foot.

As a political stunt it was brilliant—using the province’s own tactics to slow down the McGuinty governments unthinking, brutish and ultimately misguided attempt to plant industrial wind factories across rural Ontario.

In reality Arran-Elderslie’s move likely won’t slow the lumbering goliath as it wreaks havoc across our province—but it certainly had to give McGuinty pause—and perhaps others hope.

The council of Prince Edward County had the opportunity to support the Arran-Elderslie motion as proposed by Councillor Peter Mertens. It had the opportunity to stand up to the bullies who foisted the cynical Green Energy Act upon rural Ontario—a law that with a single stroke of a pen snatched responsibility for the control and management of industrial wind factories away from the municipalities.  Now council can only stand by and watch as one by one lakeshore communities are transformed into Wolfe Island.

Only Peggy Burris and Mayor Leo Finnegan supported Mertens motion—ten others voted to stay quiet—as not to upset the province. Such was our timid and frightened response.

So when one of the ten councillors comes to your door in the coming weeks seeking your vote—boasting about how they are working on your behalf, to protect this community—don’t believe them. Instead they stood by in silence.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca