Collingwood – Page 39

Legal Versus “Personal” Conflicts of Interest

In May, 2013, I wrote my thoughts about Ontario’s Municipal Conflict of Interest Act and the effect it had on the governance and procedural behaviour of municipal councillors. Back then, I wrote, The Act allows no grey areas: there are no “perceived” conflicts in law, only clearly defined legal ones. This is obviously intended by the stringent wording that lays out what construes a conflict of interest. This clarity absolves everyone of trying to second guess the intention of the Act, or trying to interpret degrees of conflict. For the MCOI Act, only pecuniary – i.e. financial – conflicts matter: ……… click below for more ↓

Running for re-election in 2014

2014-01-29 2014-01-29 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

Earlier this month, I filed my nomination papers for municipal council. I am running for a fourth term as Collingwood councillor. I will post a new election website with updated information and campaign content later this winter. I would appreciate your support, your trust and your vote. I believe I have earned them during my time on council, and will continue to do my best to serve the residents of Collingwood, and meet the needs of our growing community, when re-elected. Until the new website is available, I want to let any eligible Collingwood voters who wish to contact me ……… click below for more ↓

Brands, Buzz & Going Viral

2014-01-14 2014-01-14 Books & Reviews / Collingwood / Literary pretensions / Municipal Politics / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

My third book for Municipal World, Brands, Buzz & Going Viral, has just been published as part of the Municipal Information Series. I received my author’s copies yesterday. I am very proud of this book; it took a lot of work to research and write. I enjoyed writing it. I hope my municipal readers find it both informative and interesting. I am also delighted to be able to share my knowledge and experience with others in the municipal governance realm across Canada. It’s a humbling experience to be among the respected authors and experts in MW’s stable – authors whose books ……… click below for more ↓

Looking back on three years

2014-01-07 2014-01-07 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Urban Design & GrowthLeave a comment

If you attended the Mayor’s Levee, Jan. 5, you received a small brochure that listed some of this council’s accomplishments to date, as well as our collective plans and priorities for the remaining year of our term. It’s worth reiterating some of those notes. Keeping the public informed was identified by this council as a strategic priority in our first strategic planning session at the beginning of our term. This flyer was produced by our new Communications Officer as part of that ongoing transparency and accountability. We want to let you know what we’re doing on your behalf. Many of ……… click below for more ↓

Collingwood: 2114

2014-01-01 2014-01-01 Collingwood / Humour & Satire / Municipal PoliticsOne Comment

I had one of those odd dreams recently; a crazy mix of future and past, where rotary dial phones and smart phones co-existed, where past and future intersected. A retro-future dream. I was in Collingwood, an odd Collingwood, but it was still my home town: recognizable,familiar, but also changed. Modernized in striking ways, old-fashioned in others. A calendar told me it was 2114. It looked a bit like 1964, too. Odd how dreams do that. I thought I’d share some images of that dream, of what Collingwood might be like in a century. Using a combination of arcane and highly ……… click below for more ↓

Council’s second strategic planning session

2013-12-16 2013-12-16 Collingwood / Municipal PoliticsLeave a comment

Although there were no media reporters present to cover it, Collingwood Council held its second strategic planning session this term, on December 4. This was an important, all-day session for council because it set priorities for 2014, the last year this term. We also collectively agreed upon a list of our many accomplishments this term. Based on the goals set in our first strategic planning session, we have accomplished almost everything we set out to do back then, as well as many other things that arose since that session. The meeting was a formal council meeting and open to the ……… click below for more ↓

How to Break Your Election Promises

2013-10-25 2013-10-25 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Social Order & DisorderLeave a comment

[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqK97av7I3s] Taxman: I was thinking of this Beatles’ song, recently, after council received the pre-budget report from the treasurer at last Monday’s council meeting. It’s dated, the song that is, but still eerily appropriate (I will have to learn to play it on my ukulele). Last election, all of us who got elected ran on a platform of keeping costs and taxes low. Okay, that’s a fairly blithe promise; few candidates run on a platform of raising taxes and expenses, and fewer actually ever win a seat in any level of government. It doesn’t matter if everyone knows taxes will ……… click below for more ↓

From 7 to 29. Should I be worried? Or just keep monitoring?

2013-10-16 2013-10-16 Collingwood / Environment / Personal Reminiscences / Science & Technology2 Comments

Seven cents per hour. That’s what the energy monitor was showing me a moment before I plugged in the kettle. Then it jumped to 29 cents. Wow! And this is mid-peak time, too, my new energy monitor warns. Should I be worried? Better cut back on the tea if I want to conserve energy. It did the same last night when we turned on the microwave at dinner time, but that was off-peak. Still, that’s pretty high, compared to seven cents. Those two devices seem to be the biggest energy hogs we have. I need to do some calculating, however, ……… click below for more ↓

$35 Million Costs Confirmed in Report

2013-09-17 2014-10-09 Collingwood / Conspiracy Theories / Municipal Politics4 Comments

I was told recently that the $35 million projected capital costs for the Central Park redevelopment had been called a “red herring.” That’s verifiably untrue. The actual total amount shown in the final report is $35,251,965.11. This isn’t a made up number, an inflated number or an imaginary number. It isn’t a council number, either. In fact the two council PRC representatives did not even attend those steering committee meetings that came up with that figure. Thirty-five million dollars is what the steering committee calculated and approved themselves, working in conjunction with several consultants, planners, architects and engineers over more ……… click below for more ↓

In Wildness is the Preservation of the World

2013-09-14 2013-09-14 Atheism & Spirituality / Books & Reviews / Collingwood / Environment / Urban Design & GrowthLeave a comment

The title of this post is a quote from Henry David Thoreau’s essay, Walking, published posthumously in 1862, but which he wrote and rewrote during the 1850s. I was thinking of that line this week when Council officially opened the new Black Ash Creek Park, in the northeast of the Georgian Meadows subdivision.* I was thinking of it not in terms of the park – a pleasant, family-oriented, structured space with playground equipment, a small pavilion, basketball court and a chess table – but rather about the untamed green spaces around the park. It is this small patch of wildness ……… click below for more ↓

Reflecting on our successes this term

2013-09-08 2013-09-08 Collingwood / Municipal Politics / Personal Reminiscences / Provincial PoliticsOne Comment

With just over a year left to go in this term, I’d like to take a few minutes to consider all the accomplishments of this council over the past three years. They are not inconsiderable, and worth celebrating, I think you’ll agree. Most recent are the two new state-of-the-art recreational facilities; jewels in our community. Centennial Pool Aquatic Centre is now open, to the public’s delight and great excitement. If you haven’t seen it, stop by and look inside. Everyone who does is impressed. It certainly exceeded expectations. Bring your bathing suit and come for a swim. It proved to ……… click below for more ↓