Category: Collingwood

Comments, thoughts and musings about my hometown: Collingwood, Ontario. And some local politics, too, with my comments as a municipal councillor.

It’s not the town doing this: merely staff

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour4 Comments

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“Collingwood laywer (sic) says town won’t sign confidentiality agreement regarding Collus employee information” says the headline in a story in last week’s Collingwood Connection. Yes, it really does say “laywer….” (ah, proofreading…) Well, that’s wrong: it’s not “the town” that won’t sign, but rather merely three members of the administrative staff. The Block recently replaced the town’s experienced, democratically-appointed members with staffers in order to push through The Block’s destruction of the relationship with PowerStream. But it’s not “the town” behind it at all. They would sign it if instructed to by council. But council is controlled by The Block. So that ……… click below for more ↓

Opportunities Collingwood has lost

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

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I spent two days in the trade show at the AMO conference this week, looking at the booth across the aisle from me. It constantly reminded me of the opportunities for Collingwood this council has thrown away, of what great opportunities we have lost this term. The booth across from me was announcing the upcoming merger of four of the province’s top utility companies – Horizon, Enersource, Hydro One Brampton and PowerStream. This will make it the largest LDC (local distribution corporation) in Ontario. The four most innovative, customer-oriented, conservation-minded, efficient and forward-thinking utilities are merging. You remember PowerStream? They are our ……… click below for more ↓

Why is this man still working for Collingwood?

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour3 Comments

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I am appalled and disgusted, and you should be, too. In what seems only minutes after council and staff received a remedial presentation on roles and responsibilities that emphasized the MAYOR speaks for the town, no one else, the interim CAO was at it again. Speaking out about town issues and events when it is the mayor’s role and responsibility to do so. Not his. This breach of etiquette should not be tolerated. It shows no respect for the mayor, or her office, let alone the actual events. Such insubordination undermines her authority. In a story in this weekend’s Collingwood Connection, interim ……… click below for more ↓

What did the former council ever do for us?

Collingwood / Council / Humour & Satire / My WritingLeave a comment

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TIM: What exactly are the demands? BRIAN: We’re giving Powerstream two days to dismantle the entire apparatus of the Collus utility, and if they don’t agree immediately, we execute the shotgun clause. TIM: You mean, cut their nose off? DEB: Cut all our noses off. To spite our collective faces. Show them we’re not to be trifled with. BRIAN: Also, we’re demanding a ten foot mahogany statue of the former mayor with his conflicts hangin’ out. KATHY: What? They’ll never agree to that, Brian. BRIAN: That’s just a bar– a bargaining counter. And of course, we point out that they bear ……… click below for more ↓

Time for council to learn the rules? Nah…

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviourLeave a comment

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Being a councillor is hard work. You have to scurry around in dark corners looking for places in which to hold secret meetings, you have to plan the destruction of town facilities and services, you have to spend whole minutes calculating how much to raise taxes, you have to wrack your brain for hours trying to determine the best way to discourage business, offend developers (except those who are your in-laws), you have to spend countless hours listening to staff drone on and on and on about boring stuff like planning and finances before you can get back to figuring ……… click below for more ↓

The destruction of Collus

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies3 Comments

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There’s a story in the online Connection that highlights how much this council has spent on lawyers and consultants to further its vendetta against Collus-Powerstream: more than $400,000 so far. Half of it was spent in 2015 (I have seen a document that shows more than $249,000 spent in 2015) and the cash register is still ringing. By the end of this year it may well top $750,000-$1 million. That’s $400,000 of your tax dollars already spent for nothing. Not in town, not on local companies or services. We got absolutely no benefit from that expense. It wasn’t spent on anything for the greater ……… click below for more ↓

Whatever became of that angry mob?

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesLeave a comment

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Last term, council was presented with an angry, 14-page screed from the “Friends of Central Park” (aka “Build the YMCA a Taj Mahal at Taxpayers’ Expense,” later called Better Together Collingwood…yes, you know who was behind them both!). The mouthpiece attacked the honesty, the credibility, competence and the behaviour of the former council – all because we chose to build new recreational facilities that were not the expensive option a group of well-off residents demanded we build. And because we didn’t raise taxes or incur significant debt in our choice. I realize it’s not often one gets lambasted by taxpayers for not raising taxes, ……… click below for more ↓

322 reasons why we’re better off with PowerStream

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Taxes / User fees and costs4 Comments

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$322. More. Every year. $322. That’s how much MORE the average consumer household using 750 kW/month pays a year when connected to Hydro One, compared to the same household connected to Collus PowerStream. That means YOU will pay that much more, thanks to Collingwood Council. The Block, in particular. And it could be higher, if you have, say, electrical heat, air conditioning, electrical stove or dryer, or a family. A lot higher.* This council has been in secret negotiations to sell our utility to Hydro One, knowing that your bills will skyrocket. Not only will it mean higher utility bills, but you ……… click below for more ↓

Thick as a brick

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Municipal Politics / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

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You really have to watch Rogers’ coverage of Collingwood Council, July 11, 2016. Start around 2:08:00. That’s when the discussion about the upgrades to the brick at the Collingwood Curling Club begins. Another comedic episode full of zany antics and madcap mayhem brought to you by The Block. Be prepared to howl with laughter as Councillor Ecclestone attempts to justify hiding public information from view. Let’s pause for a moment to remind readers that these upgrades and repairs were approved last term, in 2014 and should have been completed by now. But this council and administration dropped the ball for almost ……… click below for more ↓

We’re Screwed. Royally.

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviourLeave a comment

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By now you know what I’ve been warning you about all along: Council is selling our public electrical utility. After harassing, bullying and hectoring our utility staff, they decided to simply get rid of a 150-year-old public institution that has served this town so well all this time. We’re screwed. And you’ve had how much input on this crucial issue? Right: exactly none. And council has no intention of giving the public a say. This is a fait accompli: an autocratic act so despicable that words fail me. These people are truly evil in the fullest sense of that word. Democracy ……… click below for more ↓

Reputation, reputation, reputation

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviourLeave a comment

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Real estate agents and retaillers have a saying: Location, location, location. But for politicians that can be amended to read: Reputation, reputation, reputation. The reputation of the whole community hinges on that of its politicians. After all, the tree is known by its fruit. Remember the Rob Ford scandals? Talk show hosts around the world used them to turn Toronto into a jokefest. People who had never visited, or never even heard of Toronto before knew about it through Rob Ford’s antics. And although it tarnished Toronto, Ford acted as if it didn’t matter. As Cicero wrote in On Obligations (De ……… click below for more ↓

Strategic planning: what we missed

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesLeave a comment

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The July 2016 issue of Municipal World has an article on the process of implementing strategic plans. It’s called, Getting from Here to There, and it’s written by a trio of experts including the president of a company specializing in municipal strategic planning, a strategic planning professional in the public sector, and a CAO from Alberta. In the short, two-page article, it outlines pretty much everything Collingwood did wrong in its so-called strategic plan – which was neither a plan nor strategic. Experts, schmexperts, eh? Who needs experts? Not Der Block! I mean, aside from all the out-of-town buddy consultants and ……… click below for more ↓

Bumble, Fumble, Stumble and Mumble

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & Satire3 Comments

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Councillor Cam Ecclestone did an unusual and unexpected thing this week at Collingwood Council. He spoke. Normally, the intrepid but mute councillor is too busy to open his mouth. Like his colleague, Councillor “Sponge Bob” Madigan, he takes seriously his duty of holding his chair in place in case gravity ever lets go, while laboriously turning oxygen into carbon dioxide. At both tasks, these two excel beyond normal expectations. Yet this meeting, they stepped out of character. Take a look at the Rogers recording of the Monday night meeting, starting at 1:35:00. Read the story in the Connection, too (the ……… click below for more ↓

Collingwood’s comedy duo

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Humour & Satire5 Comments

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Abbott and Costello. Laurel and Hardy. Pegg and Frost. Wilder and Feldman. Jeffrey and Doherty. Great comedy duos of our time. Such memorable moments they have given us. Who can forget the timeless Abbott and Costello skit, “Who’s On First?” Or Laurel and Hardy’s “Soda Fountain” skit? W.C. Fields and Jody Gilbert doing “The Diner Skit” in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break? Or Jeffrey and Doherty in “How I Spent Your Tax Dollars Partying at FCM” at the last Collingwood Council meeting? You can watch the skit here on the Rogers’ broadcast of the meeting. It starts about 1:52:58 and runs on for ……… click below for more ↓

Dirty politics takes its toll

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour3 Comments

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By now you probably have already heard that the CEO of Collus, Ed Houghton, has ‘resigned’ after 39 years of excellent, dedicated service to this community. It’s a huge loss to us, and we should be collectively embarrassed and ashamed at how it happened. Forced out is more like it; the inevitable result of another evil act by an evil group determined to destroy everything good, effective and efficient in this town. And they are succeeding all too well. Ed is only the latest casualty in The Block’s ongoing war on our utilities and their staff. The continued, unrelenting harassment finally drove him away. The COO ……… click below for more ↓

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