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Good things done well
In this, the final column of 2017, permit me to cast an approving nod to some of the good bits about Shire Hall. There are many, and I won’t touch on every one, nor will I make this a regular habit. Most weeks, I tend to pull apart the broken bits, the dysfunction and massive gulf that exists between council and its management team. This week, perhaps intoxicated by holiday fumes and warmed by a Christmas cardigan, I pursue a different tack.
First—and I should say or allude to this more often—the folks running the County’s business and representing your interests at the council table, are decent people. Each and every one of them—from Dave at the dump, to the folks tending our rinks, to those managing our under-funded infrastructure, to those tasked with asking questions on our behalf—are good, wellintentioned people.
Despite my predilection for throwing stones at Shire Hall for these past 15 years, I am always greeted with a smile, and accorded with civility and responsiveness when I walk through those doors—even when it must surely be painfully difficult to do so. Even when such a simple act must run counter to every primal instinct.
It must surely be an endless frustration to work, manage and govern in a fish bowl. To have your decisions and actions scrutinized, second guessed and regularly judged to be deficient—mostly by folks who, like me, lack the requisite context or working knowledge of the issues, pressures and forces at work inside those walls, to make such judgements with absolute confidence.
That these folks do this every day—and remain decent human beings—is a testament to their character, stamina and resilience. It also speaks well of the municipal institution that is the County.
I wish it did more. That it was more responsive. More agile. More of a great deal of things. But to yearn comes with a responsibility to recognize achievements. To see what has been done already. And to see how this foundation might serve the pursuit of better things ahead.
While I have talked about it before, it cannot be overstated how much improved the County’s financial reporting is since 2009. For a decade after amalgamation, it was next to impossible for council members—let alone the average ratepayer—to peer into, and make sense of, the County’s finances or how it spent your money. We were not able to discern trends, to match budgets to actual expenditures and to cypher basic information.
Folks like James Hepburn, Susan Turnbull and Amanda Carter brought clarity and accountability to places where only fog and mire existed before. What this means is that each of us now has the power to examine the County’s business, assess trends and measure performance—at least as they are expressed in the numbers. They have given us the tools—we 25,000 residents of Prince Edward County—to understand the business better than we ever did before. To ask better questions.
It is up to us, now, to do so.
Whenever they are asked, residents regularly tell surveyors that among the things they value most about life in the County is its traditions, its heritage and the story of this place. We saw it most viscerally expressed when a lunatic with a wrecking ball punched a gaping, fatal wound into the side of the old brick church on Picton’s main street in 2010. But it is evident in numerous other ways—the way we all sit a bit straighter when Peter Lockyer’s History Lives Here vignettes appear before the movie at the Regent Theatre.
Few have moved this file further within Shire Hall, than has South Marysburgh councillor Steve Ferguson. While many have spoken of showcasing the County’s history—both as a cultural touchstone and to unleash its commercial potential—Ferguson has used his first term in council to make real progress in elevating the County story. He helped resurrect the Prince Edward Historical Society to become a vital and prudent voice for architectural heritage, though not without some controversy. The truth is, however, that for this agency to be effective, a measure of public debate and disagreement is part of its mandate. It is how we know it is working.
Ferguson is also the driver of Two Days About Yesterday— a trade show of sorts, showcasing the County’s historic and cultural assets with a view to encouraging greater public interest, forging marketing links and attracting investment.
Ferguson has found a place of prominence for the County story at Shire Hall and beyond. We are all wellserved by his energy and enthusiasm for the County’s story.
When Dan Taylor left Shire Hall (or was pushed out) in 2011, I would have bet money we would not have spoken about economic development at Shire Hall for a decade. So toxic was the subject, so poorly understood were the goals and the successes of this department, that I believed the term would be excised from council members’ lips for a long, long time.
So it is remarkable, six years later, to see the resurrection of, and remarkable achievements racked up by, the Community and Economic Development Department, headed by Neil Carbone. Carbone and his department are ably guided by a commission of the same name, populated by business leaders, council members and led by Councillor Bill Roberts.
Not only did these folks safely navigate the treacherous waters that was the economic development debate, they also set a course to consolidate the County’s various marketing voices—eliminating overlap and compounding the power of the message as it resonated beyond our shores. There were certainly other factors— but it is undeniable that the County’s brand and the economic engine it propels, is the envy of every other municipality in Ontario. This doesn’t happen by accident. Nor did it begin in 2012.
But it could have died then. It could have faded away. There are avaricious forces just beyond our edges that strive to subsume the County’s brand and harvest its power to market their communities and their services. The brand could have drifted into irrelevance.
That it is stronger now than ever is due to the thoughtful and tenacious work of Carbone, Roberts and their team. But it goes far beyond the brand.
When new homebuilders made it clear it was more cost effective and easier to do business in Quinte West and Belleville, it was Carbone’s team tasked with finding out what was wrong and find ways to fix it. Earlier this year this group presented a long list of recommendations that are currently reshaping the development landscape in the County.
The team talks to dozens of County businesses each year to understand how the municipality can help to recruit new people and retain existing staff. These findings then make their way into municipal policies that respond to the gaps identified.
As I said at the beginning, this isn’t a comprehensive list, there just isn’t enough space. It is, however, an invitation to share your positive experiences with Shire Hall.
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