2016 – Page 4 – Scripturient

Your $350,000 wasted

2016-09-26 2016-09-26 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / TaxesOne Comment

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request I filed recently shows a disturbing abuse of your tax dollars. Money was wasted that could have been spent on doing something good, something positive, something useful for Collingwood. Download the report here. In the two-year period between mid-2014 and mid-2016, the town’s administration spent $340,000 of your tax dollars on its efforts to destroy the relationship with our utility partner, Collus-PowerStream. And given the billing trends shown in the document, that amount now tops $350,000 and probably much higher. What’s equally troubling is that this effort appears to have started under the radar in July, 2014. ……… click below for more ↓

Dilbert, Dogbert and Collingwood

2016-09-26 2016-09-26 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & SatireLeave a comment

I’ve often commented that the cartoon strip Dilbert, by Scott Adams, is closer to a documentary than it is to a cartoon. Not just about the quagmire of corporate life: Dilbert applies equally to the sodden bureaucracy of government. And here are some strips to prove my hypothesis, at least on the local level. I culled these strips from around the web, from many, many sites, but the copyright and credit all belongs to Scott Adams. I hope he won’t mind me using his work as an example of how things work in Collingwood. It’s very, very instructive, after all. And ……… click below for more ↓

Dinner at the Bent Taco

2016-09-24 2021-05-15 Alcohol / Collingwood / Food & Drink / Hot Sauces & Spices / MexicoLeave a comment

We had dinner at the Bent Taco on Pine Street last night. Collingwood’s nuevo-Mexican restaurant is not exactly Mexican but influenced by it, and in a good way. Food was excellent. If you haven’t been there, you should go. Very popular place and I wondered why it took so long for us to get there. Don’t go expecting traditional Mexican fare (hint: go to Mexico and get outside your resort for that!) You won’t get huachinango a la Veracruzana or Oaxacan tamales here, but you will get recognizable choices like tacos, burritos and tortas (the latter sadly red meats only, no fish or ……… click below for more ↓

The unstrategic anti-plan returns

2016-09-22 2016-09-22 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Publicity & Communications2 Comments

Wednesday’s standing committee heard that the so-called “community-based strategic plan” has risen from the dead – a document that was committee-driven (not community; and a committee of carefully selected buddies, at that…), and was neither strategic nor a plan. See it in the agenda package. A real strategic plan would have been council-driven, based on the vision of our elected representatives. But having none, The Block turned it over to an outsider and their friends to come up with something.* Once The Block approved its creation in 2015, the resulting document, the ‘CBSP,’** became a bureaucratic zombie that never seems to die, ……… click below for more ↓

Collingwood is being investigated by OEB

2016-09-21 2016-09-27 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies3 Comments

Collingwood Council and town administration are in trouble. The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) is investigating them and their recent activities with regards to Collus-PowerStream and its board of directors. This is not good news for those at the table or those behind the scenes who guided their hands. A letter was unexpectedly added to the agenda for the Wednesday, Sept. 21 Strategic Initiatives standing committee from the OEB. It reads in part: …the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) is commencing an inspection under the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998 (Act) to review Collus (PowerStream Corp.’s (Collus) compliance with the Affiliate Relationships Code ……… click below for more ↓

Neanderthals: a love story

2016-09-16 2016-09-21 Evolution & Paleontology / History & Biography / Science & TechnologyLeave a comment

Squat, hairy, broad shoulders, a big nose, beetle-browed with a low forehead. As Blind Willie McTell wrote in his classic song, Statesboro Blues, “I know ain’t good lookin’, but I swear I’m some sweet woman’s angel child.” That line might have been written for early Neanderthal cousins. First described as dim-witted and brutish, our more recent assessment of them is far less critical, especially of their tool-making and culture. But even the most complimentary of modern descriptions still make them out to be rather lumpish, heavyset characters. Barrel-chested. Robust, we call them today. Big brains, though, and better eyesight than ……… click below for more ↓

Reading The Histories

2016-09-14 2016-09-14 Books & Reviews / Classical period / History & Biography / Translations & translating / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

I hadn’t always wanted to read Herodotus. He has a mixed reputation among historians, often cited as an unreliable source, gossip monger or simply as a fantasist. Sure, he’s the “father of history” as Cicero called him (or at least of historical writing) and penned the earliest surviving work of non-fiction, but he often doesn’t get the respect that, say, Thucydides gets for his efforts (dry as they might be at times). Herodotus has even been called the ‘father of lies‘ by some modern historians. Steve Donoghue noted: Herodotus’s widely acknowledged vulnerability has always been his affection for thomata, the ……… click below for more ↓

Hospital destruction avoided… for now

2016-09-12 2016-09-13 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

Congratulations. Your efforts worked. After getting severe backlash from the community and even from their (former) supporters, The Block was chastised enough to recant their stubborn foolishness long enough to approve the hospital redevelopment after their previous debacle caused such an uproar. That earlier motion blindsided council, the mayor and the hospital board: they had not shared with others before it was read aloud. A blatant show of partisanship and petty personal agendas over the greater good The Block always plays to its supporters, no matter how drastically that group has shrunk over the past two years. And that little group was in the ……… click below for more ↓

The News: A User’s Manual

2016-09-11 2016-09-11 Books & Reviews / Critical Thinking / Media / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

Alain de Botton attempts in his small book to give us a guide, to provide some larger, meaningful context, to the news we get 24/7 these days. I don’t think he succeeds very well. In part it’s because he sees news as something grandiose, world-moving, world-shaking. I’m more familiar with the local aspect; a much smaller scale. It may not appear to have the majestic sweep of international news, but it isn’t any less relevant. We are focused, collectively, on the US presidential campaigns and the interpersonal battles between Trump and Clinton. It’s a great drama of Homeric or Shakespearean proportion (albeit ……… click below for more ↓

Blockheads severely chastised over CG&MH motion

2016-09-09 2016-09-09 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Publicity & Communications6 Comments

The following emails were forwarded to me following my recent post on the debacle council made over the hospital redevelopment. That action has certainly upset many in the community and several people have spoken to me to express their disgust at the motion approved last week. More to the point, some residents have severely chastised those behind this scurrilous action. And you, dear reader, should know what is being said to and about our council. I take no credit for them: these are the words of others. The first email was sent to Deputy Mayor Saunderson and Councillor Kathy Jeffrey, by ……… click below for more ↓

Their secret emails, redacted

2016-09-08 2016-09-08 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Publicity & CommunicationsOne Comment

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request I recently filed shows just how devious and secretive some of our council and administration are. You can read the entire series here. The cover letter is here (it is instructive…). In late July, Council approved sending out a request for proposals (RFP) to sell our share in our publicly-owned electrical utility (without any public consultation or input, of course). On July 25, the clerk – on behalf of the interim CAO – sent an email to council members asking for input (with, of course, no public discussion or input allowed): Further to the ……… click below for more ↓

Can the mayor fire the interim CAO?

2016-09-07 2016-09-07 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviourLeave a comment

Does the mayor have the authority to fire someone by herself? The interim CAO, for example? It’s a question I’ve been asked a lot of late by residents. I think so, but it’s not clear to me in the Municipal Act. She is, after all, legally both the head of council and the chief executive officer, and while related, these two roles can be interpreted differently. The mayor doesn’t have any more political power than any other member of council (e.g. she gets one vote). But we are the Corporation of the Town of Collingwood and as such shouldn’t our officers – ……… click below for more ↓

The Wasaga Beach G&M Hospital

2016-09-03 2016-09-04 Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviour6 Comments

You’d think supporting your local hospital’s redevelopment was a no-brainer for municipal politicians. And since ‘no-brainer’ has been the exemplary style of Collingwood Council this term, they should go hand-in-glove. But apparently for The Block, ‘no-brainer’ means merely thoughtless focus on personal agendas, not the community’s well-being or future. That’s not news, of course; just signs that another disaster is brewing. The Wasaga Beach General and Marine Hospital. Like that name? Get used to it. That is likely what this council’s actions are going to result in. And Wasaga Beach council is as firmly behind making it happen as our ……… click below for more ↓

Another Collus conspiracy debunked

2016-09-02 2016-09-02 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Publicity & Communications3 Comments

As a former reporter and editor, I always feel a twinge of satisfaction when I read a well-written story in the local papers that gets all of its facts right. When everything is stated correctly, the English is good, the facts well reported, the reporting unbiased and everything clearly posited. It just makes me beam. Sadly, I haven’t felt that joy for a few years now. I too often feel our local reporters are on cruise control, and don’t work very hard at getting their stories right. They are too quick to swallow the propaganda issuing from town hall or from ……… click below for more ↓