Squish

It was the third time Council came together to make a decision on the file. This time, it was to undo the decision it had made just a few weeks earlier. It’s how things work these days with this council. Some folks don’t like a decision—so they badger Council to reconsider. To make the decision again. And again. And again. Until they get their preferred decision. One can hardly blame the badgers; it’s their nature. Rather, it is Council itself that must be held to account for its inability to make a durable decision. And stick to it. It is Council that is rendering itself pointless in the eyes of many residents.

These aren’t good days for the municipal institution. Folks see their taxes and water bills rising far beyond the cost of living. They don’t see where the money is going or how it is being spent. They see big expenditures, for sure, and debt piled onto their backs—but for the benefit of developers. Residents struggle to see how municipal services improve their lives, streets, and communities.

Instead, they see a council buffeted by external forces while simultaneously indifferent to the needs of average residents. Council members tend to view the folks who fill the pews at Shire Hall, offering comments and asking questions, as obstacles to their deformed and lonely sense of progress.

The institution seems unable to understand, protect or nurture the economy. Folks see permanent signs in Wellington warning that Main Street is closed until July. It isn’t. But the message is clear: Go away!

The institution has seemingly no interest in ag. It is uninterested in wine and the valueadded ag sector. It has subbed out the promotion of the tourism economy to a third party while socking away half the funds collected from accommodation providers.

Residents see a council unable—or unwilling— to reform itself to be fit for purpose.

But mostly, folks see a council increasingly manipulated by special interest. They see the powerful wielding an outsized hand in municipal affairs. They are uncertain who is making decisions about the future of this place. They know it isn’t them.

They also see a council unable to push back against a province keen to dump costs, everhigher regulatory standards, and social challenges onto property taxpayers. They see an institution failing. Without resistance from our local officials.

On two previous occasions, Council had turned back a proposal for a 1,000- unit subdivision on land behind the No Frills store on the west side of Picton. There were too many holes in the story. Too many unanswered questions in the proposal.

High among them was the likely impact on the sensitive Waring’s Creek watershed. Municipalities measure such risk by requiring hydrogeological studies, essentially assessing the groundwater and water table on the subject land. No such study has been completed yet for this project.

One may come—but Council only gets one shot at planning files. Once approved, all future decision-making disappears behind closed doors. Understandably, responsible council members want to see these and other questions answered before that happens. They want due diligence completed before they are asked to apply their rubber stamp.
However, another way to understand the land is to talk to folks who use it every day. Those who walk it, till it and harvest food from it. Dan Langridge has done this for 27 years.

His testimony is that the water table is too close to the surface—that the proposed subdivision is situated on an underground lake. Langridge predicts the project could become a significant liability to the municipality as future homeowners discover they live in a perpetually sodden landscape. He presented his experience last week to a council seemingly uninterested in learning more—or performing the due diligence work they were elected to do.

Council had no questions for Mr. Langridge. Perhaps Mr. Langridge is biased. Perhaps he doesn’t want to see new homes on his horizon. But why didn’t Council ask him questions? Understand his perspective? Probe his motivations? Why weren’t they curious?

There are other big gaps in the plan, but this is a serious one. Twice before, Council denied the application because it didn’t have answers to critical questions.

But increasingly, no decision is final. If you are big enough, persistent enough, and loud enough, there isn’t much you can’t get this council to do—or undo.

It’s impossible to make progress when you continually go backwards.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca