Collingwood – Page 38

The OPP Investigation

2014-09-19 2014-09-23 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Politics4 Comments

In order to clear up the misinformation, rumours and outright lies about the OPP investigation, spreading on social media by some candidates and among the angry bloggers, let me set the record straight. Here’s what we know: Approximately eighteen months ago, someone local went to the police and and filed a formal complaint. The police opened an investigation. The police have not interviewed the Mayor, Deputy mayor, Councillors Lloyd, Cunningham, West, Edwards or myself in that time. After more than 18 months, no one has been charged with anything. No one has gone to jail. No one has been in court. The police have not ……… click below for more ↓

Green initiatives for next term

2014-08-31 2014-08-31 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Planning & Policies / PoliticsLeave a comment

Collingwood should be in the forefront for green initiatives in Ontario, not lagging behind. There’s no reason we should not be leaders in exploring new ways to reduce greenhouse gases, reduce our carbon footprint, promote sustainable and environmentally-friendly strategies, and reduce our energy costs. These will be some of my top goals for the 2014-18 council, if I’m re-elected. In the energy world, we have a great partner with Powerstream, which has already explored many of these areas and taken steps in other municipalities. We should embrace and encourage similar projects here, and use the experience and expertise Powerstream has ……… click below for more ↓

Looking forward to 2015-18

2014-08-25 2014-08-25 Collingwood / Development & Growth / Municipal Politics / Planning & PoliciesLeave a comment

Looking forward to 2015 and beyond, here are some of the things I would like to see Collingwood Council and the town staff accomplish in the upcoming term. I have laid these out in my campaign website and literature already, but thought I should include something in my blog to complement those sources. Maintain our current fiscal stability and sustainability. This council has been very proactive in keeping taxes and spending low, without compromising on any essential services or infrastructure. We have paid down $11 of the $45 million debt we inherited, and only borrowed minimally for necessary infrastructure projects. The average ……… click below for more ↓

Our 21st Century Library

2014-06-17 2014-06-17 Collingwood / Culture / Municipal Politics / Provincial Politics2 Comments

In the 20-plus years I’ve been on the Collingwood Library board, I have watched the functions of the library and its role in the community evolve and change to keep pace with the needs and demands of its growing number of users. It’s been a remarkable, exciting journey. Of all our civic institutions, I believe the library has best adapted to the new technologies and the changing community demographics. In sheer numbers, it is our most popular, most well-used community facility. And the library continues to grow in popularity as visits, uses and borrowing expands in leaps and bounds. From the Collingwood ……… click below for more ↓

Why Term Limits Are a Bad Idea for Municipal Government

2014-06-14 2014-06-14 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / PoliticsLeave a comment

Leo Longo wrote in three recent Municipal World articles (April, May, June, 2014) that it is time to consider setting term limits on municipal politicians. I beg to disagree. Is municipal democracy in such dire straits that it needs restrictions that no provincial or federal politician faces? Are voters so ignorant and ill-informed that they need outsiders to guide their choices? Applying arbitrary term limits goes against the grain of representational democracy, suggesting the arbitrator knows what is better for the electorate than the electors themselves; that democracy needs outside control because it cannot regulate itself. What problem would such ……… click below for more ↓

Twenty years of strategic planning

2014-06-05 2014-06-05 Collingwood / Development & Growth / Municipal Politics / Planning & PoliciesLeave a comment

Twenty years ago – May, 1994 – the Town of Collingwood started a community-based strategic plan. That report was released in October, 1995. Then in October, 2000, Vision 2020 released its Blueprint Collingwood. These two documents are generally forgotten by the general public today, but they have been the basis of planning, of policy and strategic targets by councils and staff ever since. No particular council or mayor can take credit for the accomplishments; they’ve been achieved over more than two decades of effort and resolve. This post is simply to point out that these visionary documents were neither ignored nor ……… click below for more ↓

The ACDC/AVI Site Remediation

2014-05-24 2014-05-24 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / PoliticsLeave a comment

Earlier this week, members of council received this email from Ian Adams of the Enterprise Bulletin about the upcoming motion on remediation of the empty property at Hume and Hurontario Streets: I was wondering if I could get your thoughts with regard to extending/not extending the site remediation agreement for the ACDC/AVI property, and whether an extension should be granted/not granted. Ian Adams, Collingwood Enterprise-Bulletin The site remediation agreement is unique: it is, as I have been told by the Planning Department, the only one of its kind ever made on any property in this town. It was made at the ……… click below for more ↓

Irony and cognitive dissonance

2014-05-04 2014-05-04 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / PoliticsOne Comment

Politics is as full of irony as it is full of cognitive dissonance. And I don’t mean simply in politicians and their agencies: it is everyone and every group, every agency and every organization that dabbles in politics. Sooner or later, the irony comes out. And the cognitive dissonance sets in. Irony is a difference between the appearance of something and its reality. As Google brings up the definition: “a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.” Amusing may be subjective. Irony surfaced recently in local ……… click below for more ↓

Getting solid numbers makes sense

2014-03-24 2014-03-24 Collingwood / Municipal PoliticsLeave a comment

I recently was directed to read a statement that I had “…put forward a notice of motion calling on the municipality to spend the money to put a concrete floor in the building, without any kind of business case …” That is incorrect. The notice simply asked the town to put out a ‘request for proposal” (RFP). If the writer had asked me about my notice of motion (or asked any of the other councillors or senior staff with whom I discussed it), I would have been able to explain that I was simply asking for the town to get ……… click below for more ↓

CPLUG songs and more

2014-03-18 2014-03-20 Collingwood / Culture / Musical InstrumentsLeave a comment

CPLUG – the Collingwood Public Library Ukulele Group – has so far proven a very popular group. We started with 17 people at our first monthly meeting and more have attended each time: 34 people came out last month! I’m hoping to continue this trend and see as many this week at our next meeting (March 19). You can read about our group in this newspaper story, here. We are dedicated to enjoying making and learning music in a friendly, supportive community group setting. We need help! We need songs, song leaders, helpers, tuners and ukuleles. And of course ukulele ……… click below for more ↓

Conspiracy Theories: 2014 Update

2014-02-28 2014-02-28 Collingwood / Conspiracy Theories / Municipal Politics / Social Order & DisorderLeave a comment

It’s time to update a piece I wrote in December, 2012, outlining the secret deals, backroom negotiations and “barbecue politics” that our council has been involved in since that date, more than a year ago. So here comes the update, the emperor without his clothes: Secret meetings: none Backroom negotiations: none Barbecue deals: none Sorry, I know this is a disappointment to local conspiracy theorists and bloggers, coming hard on the failure of the world to end as per the Mayan Calendar, or the failure of any number of predicted ends of the world, coupled with the lack of any ……… click below for more ↓

Collingwood’s municipal debt and 2014 budget

2014-02-21 2023-10-27 Collingwood / Municipal Politics6 Comments

Tuesday, Council got a combined debt-and-budget presentation that set the stage for the upcoming, fuller 2014 budget deliberations starting next week. CAO John Brown gave us a recap of a report (produced by BMA Management Consulting) about the town’s debt situation and financial well-being. It was a mix of good news/bad news. The good is that it’s not as bad as it seems, certainly not as bad as some other municipalities, but mostly in the middle of the peer group selected for the report. The bad is that it’s not as good as we’d like it to be. But barring ……… click below for more ↓

Should councillors abstain from voting?

2014-02-17 2014-02-17 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Provincial Politics2 Comments

In an earlier post, I wrote that Collingwood’s Integrity Commissioner, Robert Swayze, proposed two changes to the town’s Procedural Bylaw: amending section 13.7 and deleting section 13.8. Last post I dealt with the former; here I will explain my concerns about the latter. Section 13.8 currently reads: 13.8 No vote – deemed negative – exception Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 13.7 of this By-law, every Member who is not disqualified from voting by reason of a declared pecuniary interest shall be deemed to be voting against the motion if he/she declines or abstains from voting. In other words, no member ……… click below for more ↓