Comment
Economic dementia
There was a time when I would open the hood of my car, confident that I could fix whatever was in there. I could adjust something. Turn a screw. Tap a solenoid. No longer. I don’t know anything in there anymore. Once there was air around the oily motory bits—some room to move around. Now it’s as if the blueberry girl in Willy Wonka’s factory has exploded and filled the cavity where the engine once was. Car repair is beyond my grasp.
I imagine it is how some council members feel when asked to consider the local economy. Some open the hood with exuberance— an artifact of false memory or of simpler times—but when they fail to recognize a single component, they slam it shut quickly. Others instinctively turn up the radio. The prudent ones will turn to a pro. The more dangerous among them, however, will plow ahead, believing they’ve still got it— though they likely never did. They will keep tinkering until they are left with a bucket of bolts, shards of plastic bits and a crankcase of regret. These folks are the subject of my column this week.
Like me and car engines, these council members have lost any curiosity about the local economy they may have once had. They are stuck with baked-in delusions about how things used to be. Complaints they heard at the coffee shop or in line at the grocery store. They are okay with their limitations. After all, how would they know if they were tinkering the County economy right off a cliff? They don’t measure it. They don’t keep data. They have nothing at stake. Oblivious.
Last week, a handful of council members attempted to dismiss an initiative that sought to bring various industry groups together to discuss issues periodically. The notion was to include leaders of groups such as Visit the County, the Chamber of Commerce, the Bay of Quinte Marketing Board, and the business associations in Wellington and Picton. PECWA and the Federation of Agriculture.
A quarterly how-do-you-do session. A chance to share information, coordinate activities and collaborate. Perhaps such conversations might catalyze new opportunities, new marketing channels, or reveal wasteful redundancies. Perhaps together, they might produce something more than the sum of their parts. It would cost nothing. A worthy idea.
But not so fast. For a pair of councillors, the notion sounded too much like the former Community and Economic Development Corporation (CEDC), which, according to Phil St-Jean and John Hirsch, “achieved absolutely nothing.”
The councillors are dead wrong. Worse, the record is easy to find and easy to quantify. It was not a perfect, nor a particularly effective, government agency—not for the quality of its output, its deliberations or its membership, but rather due to Council’s inability to understand it. To grasp the issues. To put its ideas to work. (Full disclosure: I sat on the CEDC for a year from March 2019. I had a front row seat at the sausage-making table.)
One example: By 2016, new homebuilding in the County was lagging badly behind Belleville, Quinte West, Brighton and Napanee. It had been doing so since the financial meltdown in 2009. But while our neighbours’ homebuilding recovered, Prince Edward County stagnated, drifted lower. It was harder to build in the County than elsewhere. And more expensive. Shire Hall was the problem. But nothing was getting through to Council.
Under the guidance of the CEDC, the Development Framework Subcommittee was formed, comprising municipal building officials, developers, and residents. After a year of meetings, the group produced 32 recommendations to streamline development processes and attract new homebuilding. These were tangible and practical actions that promised to put the County on a more competitive footing relative to its neighbours.
Council moved on. A shiny new grand infrastructure fantasy was packaged up and dangled in front of them. Right here in River City. The pitch was blindingly simple: ‘Spend millions of dollars you don’t have and builders will come streaming into the County’.
Meanwhile, the recommendations of the Development Framework group were filed away in a dark drawer at Shire Hall. Never to be seen again.
None of this was the fault of the Subcommittee or the failure of the CEDC. It was entirely and exclusively due to the short attention span of Council and its eagerness to chase a pipe dream—a fantasy that promised to double the size of the County’s population in a generation and attract a million square feet of commerce to Wellington.
Council was given the tools to seize the market opportunity that existed at the time. It was, instead, dazzled by a shiny spending spree and the promise of a glorious new future. It wasted another decade. Now the market has dried up and blown away.
Some elected folks are stuck in a time loop, eager to continue making the same mistakes over and over again—content to wallow in their own delusions. It is, sadly, a self-limiting feature of our economy.
Teena; the following was the recorded vote to dissolve the Housing Corporation.
In Favor; Englesdorfer, Prinzen, Harrison, Braney, Penell, Branderhorst
Opposed; Grosso, Maynard, McNaughton, Roberts, St.Jean, Hirsch
Tie vote 6 – 6 so it failed.
Thank you!
“Grosso, Maynard, McNaughton, Roberts, St.Jean, Hirsch”
Ferguy’s fan club, the same who people who voted to give Ferguy strong mayor powers…
Council was One vote short of dissolving the Housing Corporation as presented by Councilor Englesdorfer, as it resulted in a tie vote. So the Housing Corporation lives on to bleed the taxpayer with absolutely no results to date. We’re all paying!
A huge delegation? Where?
No Mayor present. A lot of residents have succumbed! How long can you demand change with no recognition?
Did any residents show up with you?
More to the point, where the HELL was the Mayor when a vote was being conducted on the PEHAHC (Prince Edward County Affordable Housing Corporation)? And was this a Recorded Vote? Which Councillors voted in favour/against? To the best of my knowledge, the Mayor is obligated to vote in every Recorded Vote, and is obliged to act as the Tie Breaker vote. What the hell is going on in Shire Hall?
The Mayor obviously can’t vote if he is not present . We have 14 on Council so tie votes, stay tied.
I understand that, but for any vote of this importance (and let’s face it, ALL votes are important), either he should have been present (isn’t Zoom available?), or this vote should have been deferred until ALL of Council was present. The Mayors position is “full time”. His vote should be present and accounted for.
I just watched the Council Meeting last night at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Dni7RfKIgM
No members of the public commented on anything.
There was one Deputation from Paul Allen regarding what appears to be a stealth usage of a sand pit on Ridge Road, disturbing and concerning neighbours, despite the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources assuring everyone that the pit is “dormant”. Council said the deputant should contact the MPP. The deputant did contact the MPP and nothing happened. The deputant will try again and copy Council.
The bulk of the meeting seemed to be about the PEHAHC (Prince Edward County Affordable Housing Corporation), which has blown through over a million dollars of public money over its 7 YEAR history and delivered NOTHING. Councilor Engelsdorfer presented a motion to ask Staff what it would take to wind up this money-losing operation, seconded by Councilor Prinzen. The motion lost on a 6-6 tie, with unsurprisingly the Councilors who are also PECAHC Board members voting to oppose the motion and keep the enterprise rolling along.
Apparently, business as usual. And no concerns at all about financial responsibility by any members of the public.
There was one Deputation from Paul Allen regarding what appears to be a stealth usage of a sand pit on Excerpt: “Ridge Road, disturbing and concerning neighbours, despite the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources assuring everyone that the pit is “dormant”. Council said the deputant should contact the MPP. The deputant did contact the MPP and nothing happened. The deputant will try again and copy Council.”
This sand pit resides within the PEC borders, and it is the responsibility of THIS Council to do the followup – Paul Allen already did “his bit” and contacted our MPP with no result. Council should get off its collective backsides and take care of this. Immediately.
Picton Terminals disregard for the Residents and County as a whole does tend to come to mind here. Seriously “bad neighbours”.
I’m missing something here [re PECAHC] vote. If this was a tie, with the tie-breaker AWOL, shouldn’t this go before council again in the next meeting? This is wrong on so many levels, it’s worrying. But then, much at Shire Hall is.
OK. Our Mayor was busy:
https://inquinte.ca/story/local-politicians-take-part-in-eowc-parliament-hill-advocacy-day
I still believe a Zoom call should have been made possible.
You are assuming that would have made a difference in the outcome. Most likely not. Councilor Neiman was also absent. Good chance the vote would have been 7 – 7 instead of 6 – 6.
I guess my point is, if there is a vote of any kind, but in particular the lack of oversight with the taxpayers money as evidenced in this instances, the ALL of Council should be present for a vote – if that is not possible, then the vote should be deferred. I still don’t know if this was a recorded vote, and who voted for what. Can anyone tell me, please?
On October 17, 2025; 4:12pm, I sent a third email to Tyler Allsopp. In all fairness, I had received a reply from his assistant concerning my first email (sent October 9th), but have heard nothing since then. As a courtesy, I had copied his assistant (Adam Bramburger), as well as Rick Conroy (W-T). Mr. Conroy has been cc’d throughout. In the third email, I had also bcc’d those emails to a select few residents of PEC who may choose to engage in this conversation directly with our Bay of Quinte MPP. Below is an “excerpt” from my last contact with our MPP’s office.
xxxxx
DATED: October 17, 2025; 4:12pm
SUBJECT: Public Inquiry – The Corporation of The County of Prince Edward – An Addition to my previous “Additional Request”
Hello. Again, Member Allsopp,
As our local Member of Provincial Parliament, as I have already mentioned in my original emails to you dated October 9th, 2025, as well as October 13, 2025, would you please publicly address the issues mentioned in the [now] three latest Wellington Times articles [see links below, dated October 2, 2025 @ 10:52am; decade-of-excess; as well as the article dated October 9, 2025 @ 9:28am; baseline; and now the article dated October 16, 2025 @ 10:29am; Economic dementia].
Again, in each article you will also notice Comments made by various Residents who, I am very sure, would wish to have their own concerns addressed within this same response by yourself.”
xxxxxx
I had also endeavoured to draw our MPP – Tyler Allsopp’s attention to a particular comment [Oct 17, 2025 at 2:24 pm Fulltime Taxpayer].
For the sake of every Resident of PEC, keep the pressure on, please. As for the latest from “Fulltime Taxpayer”, I, also, will not be in attendance. As the saying goes, “Been there. Done that.”. My own Councillor has made it quite clear he no longer represents me in any way, and will accept no further contact from me, as he apparently took exception to my one and only Deputation, where I called him out, in a Council meeting, for failing to represent the residents wishes concerning the TRAE Resort being proposed in our Ward. Silly me. I thought that was what he was elected for. It took eighteen months after my Deputation to discover that I wasn’t being given representation in Council by my elected official – perhaps I should request a refund in my property taxes [unfortunately our Mint has discontinued “pennies” as coin of the realm]. Sorry. I digress.
A full-on Public Inquiry is called for here – finances, staffing (previous CAO was giving a grand performance in Empire Building, which we have no way of supporting financially), Picton Terminals and the all out cock-up they made by not heading to the Ontario Land Tribunal on the residents behalf concerning the Waring Creek Watershed. Unfortunately, we would stand to lose some very valuable members in Council as a result. Hopefully those very select few will consider running again in 2026.
Hello. A friend just sent this along to me, and you may be interested.
And yet another fine mess…
https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/prince-edward-county-bureaucrats-bungle-heritage-override?itm_source=index
From Teena to Michelle:
I suggest everyone immediately send our MPP Tyler Allsopp (tyler.allsopp@pc.ola.org) an email, demanding his attendance at this Council meeting. He can then report to Minister Flack on the abject situation in the County. Ideally, the Minister would then dissolve Council and appoint a Ministry Administrator until at least the 2026 municipal election.
Huge delegation coming to Council Meeting, Tuesday Oct 21st to demand financial responsibility. Just the start of citizens saying enough is enough!
If people are indeed coming to Tuesday’s Council meeting, why not prepare by looking specifically at the Audited Financial Statements for the year ended Dec 31, 2024, at https://www.thecounty.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Consolidated-Financial-Statements-2024.pdf
Sample questions might be:
Pg. 5, Temporary Borrowing is over $40.7 MILLION, up over 36.2% from a year earlier. Yet, Cash pile sitting at over $64.5 MILLION, up over 17.5% from a year earlier. In what universe is building a cash pile with borrowed money, financial responsibility?
Pg. 5, Net Debt (Net Worth) is over MINUS $54.9 MILLION, a DEEPER hole by 43% then the previous year. What’s driving the acceleration deeper underwater?
Pg. 6, EXPENSES: “General government” over $12.2 MILLION, up over 41.1% from previous year. “Transportation services” over $22.9 MILLION, up over 23.3% from year earlier. What’s driving the massive spikes in these departments?
But, don’t stop there. Look at Pg. 26, “Supplementary Information”, where you can see the categories of what the OVER $96.1 MILLION was spent on during the year 2024.
“Materials and supplies ” –> over $20.5 MILLION, up 40.8% from prior year. What is all this for?
“Interest on long-term debt ” –> over $2.7 MILLION, up over 32.9% from prior year. Interest is an expense that is delivering no value except revenue for the Provincial Government. Why are we increasing this so much by more and more borrowing, especially with a “Cash pile”?
“Salaries, wages and employee benefits ” –> over $34.7 MILLION, up over 13.5% from prior year. And this does not include what are sure to be large number spikes from the severance packages paid out for departing “leadership” positions in 2025. Why does a largely rural County of 25,000 souls need so many people, and why are the numbers so high? Does the County think it’s their role to singlehandedly generate income for some of its citizens by borrowing and taxing other citizens?
The total spend was over $96.1 MILLION, up over 14.8% from the prior year, and over 8.8% HIGHER THAN WHAT WAS BUDGETED. Why has there been no explanation for this, and has there been any discussion or concern by any Councilors in any of their “Closed” meetings about this?
I am sure that the answers will be a series of “word salads” that attempt to soothe and calm …. “everything is fine, adults are in charge, nothing to see here”.
These numbers say differently. And the source of the numbers is the County’s own Web site, public information, at the link provided.
If anyone is interested, the site has the past 10 years for comparison also.
At least someone other than me should be asking. I will not be attending, my previous questions over the years having been dismissed, denied, and deflected.
Good luck. You will need it.
Michelle, I sincerely hope this delegation has made this an “Official Delegation” and doesn’t just show up and hope the will be heard. Otherwise I can envision our Mayor “shutting this down”, just because he thinks he can. Don’t let him.
Alright. Where was this Huge Delegation, then?
If this Council doesn’t conduct an independent Staffing Review in the view of providing only core essential services (no fluff) then they are clearly iresponsible!
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs have the legal authority to remove a Council and takeover control of operations.
Agreed. And yet the taxpayers, who pay the piper, have no clear access to demand “Municipal Recall Legislation” without jumping through hoops.
While that is true, Fred, two things.
First, the bar for such an action is very high. According to the Ontario Ombudsman, the remedies for citizens who don’t like what is going on, is either a) Hire a lawyer and launch a legal action (which would be defended by the County WITH TAXPAYER DOLLARS), or b) Elect a new Mayor and Council in the next election. Municipal Affairs is a Provincial Ministry, and the Province is benefitting mightily by collecting so much interest income off the debt they have lent to the County.
Second, there is ample evidence over time that a) citizens don’t care sufficiently to make a big enough noise, and b) the Mayor, Council and Staff have proof through experience that they can simply ignore citizen concerns and reward the interests of developers, consultants and outside interests.
There are still many people who believe the narratives of the “borrow, spend and hope” crowd, which unfortunately is a majority of Council and Staff and the Mayor. And the march towards becoming a GTA suburb continues.
Next year’s election is the potential turning point. The only incumbents that should be considered for re-election should be the people who consistently stood up for County residents and taxpayers, which is a small minority of the Council, and certainly not the Mayor.
Maybe you will run. Maybe others will run. But if not, we all can look forward to the continued trend of borrow, spend, and hope, and the spiking property taxes that will result.
The current Staff, Council and Mayor, behave as if they have considerable skills and knowledge in areas such as business, finance, and industry, but the evidence seems clear that their belief is misguided.
Meanwhile, there are many residents and taxpayers who actually do have skills and knowledge in areas such as business, finance, and industry, and these people have tried over and over again to transfer those skills and knowledge to Council, the Mayor, and Staff. Those efforts have been met with scorn and derision, to the point where people have correctly concluded that there is no point in trying anymore.
The most effective Councils, Mayors and Staff, “know what they don’t know”, and listen to others to get information that will lead them to better decisions.
Based on history, that will never happen with this Council, Mayor and Staff,
Petitions will be ignored. The concerns of residents and taxpayers will continue to be politely listened to, then discarded. There will be many initiatives launched and continued by Council and Staff to give the citizenry the illusion that they care, when they do not. They think they know better, and we know nothing.
The only solution is to have a clean slate of candidates for Mayor and every eligible Council seat in the next election, a year from now. As it states in the Provincial link (https://www.ontario.ca/document/ontario-municipal-councillors-guide/1-role-council-councillor-and-staff):
The role of council is outlined in section 224:
224. It is the role of council,
a. to represent the public and to consider the well-being and interests of the municipality;
b. to develop and evaluate the policies and programs of the municipality;
c. to determine which services the municipality provides;
d. to ensure that administrative policies, practices and procedures and controllership policies, practices and procedures are in place to implement the decisions of council;
d.1) to ensure the accountability and transparency of the operations of the municipality, including the activities of the senior management of the municipality;
e. to maintain the financial integrity of the municipality; and
f. to carry out the duties of council under this or any other Act.
There is no requirement for any particular educational or work background.
As long as you can think critically, ask questions and insist on clear answers, and are willing to say “NO” when you know something feels wrong, you would do much better than the current crowd.
“Petitions will be ignored.” ?!
Apparently, some Deputations are being summarily dismissed as well? Perhaps we would receive answers to our individual questions if our petitions were just sent directly to Off-County Media, with a “courtesy copy” to Council.
An excellent analysis………as usual. Rick. Keep up the good work. Hold their feet to the fire.
What’s Ferguson’s back ground? Any economic or management background?
The County is not only flying blind but on projections of population pulled out of a hat, projects are way over budget and take longer than estimated and we have all theses Shire Hall bureaucrats with high salaries paid by “us truly”. Where are the controls???
I understand that once a project has been approved by council there’s no supervision or tracking from the council on how the project is progressing. Is that right?
My understanding is that once Council has approved a project, usually on the advice of Staff, by the way, then it is taken out of their hands. Completely. They are not allowed a say by the municipal rules and regulations. They are not allowed to re-engage. They (and as a result we as residents) are out of the picture. This is wrong on so many levels, but there you have it in a nutshell. Just take a closer look at the subdivision approved on Warings Creek because the developer threatened Council with the Ontario Land Tribunal. We haven’t the finances to fight a Tribunal.
Follow this link and it will provide some information regarding Mr Ferguson’s background. https://pictongazette.ca/post/ferguson-to-run-for-mayor-in-october-municipal-election
Thank you SM.
Funny enough Ferguy and I have very similar backgrounds; he was in entertainment, I was in architectural products.
It sure appears our mayor is the living proof that the easiest people one can sell anything to are salesmen.
The list of County Employees is astounding. This small Municipality does not require this. Time for a Community Petition that will require Council to act upon and conduct a Staffing Review.
Council appears to make their decisions in advance of our deputations. What makes anyone think a Community Petition will force their hand for a full on Staffing Review – and have them actually act on it? I, for one, would sign that petition in a heartbeat. Is there anyone around who has the knowledge to set this up?
7 high paid employees in the Community Programs Dep’t. There is no need for this Department at all. A good starting point in an independent Staffing Review. Let’s get on with it.