Category: Planning & Policies

Policies, plans, economic development, strategic planning, sustainability and future-looking ideas for local municipal politics.

Sidewalk Ethics and Etiquette

Collingwood / Council / Legal issues / Planning & Policies / Publicity & CommunicationsLeave a comment

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There is a theory that a person’s moral compass may be judged by how they deal with shopping carts. Those with even a modicum sense of ethics and morality return them to the store or its corral. Those who leave them in the parking lot or steal them are immoral and unethical, and probably sociopaths who support Trump or PoiLIEvre. Back in 2020, I wrote about this theory, and quoted from a website that included this statement: “The shopping cart is the ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing.” And another site I quoted had this … click below for more ↓

Council Screws Collingwood Residents. Again.

Collingwood / Council / Ineptitude and bungling / Planning & Policies / Wacky WTF ideas5 Comments

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Like many other residents in council chamber yesterday, I was deeply disappointed but not surprised by our council’s decision to continue with staff’s anti-resident/anti-environment plan to deforest Sixth Street to make it a better speedway for cars passing through town. The council chamber was full to capacity with people upset with the plan, hoping council would recognize their anger and distress, hoping council would listen, would prefer 21st-century pro-resident, green-street planning, and reconsider the previous pro-vehicle/anti-tree plan. But they didn’t. The majority of council sided with the archaic 1950s’ cars-before-people staff plan to chop down all the beautiful, mature trees … click below for more ↓

The Anti-Environmentalists in Town Hall are at it Again

Collingwood / Council / Ineptitude and bungling / Planning & Policies / Wacky WTF ideas7 Comments

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WTF is wrong with town hall these days? Why do they dislike trees so much? Last week town staff presented another plan to make Sixth Street even more of a speedway than it already is, and in doing so they want to remove three dozen mature trees along the north side. The technical term for that is “deforestation.” You might remember how last term, staff had more than 50 mature trees chopped down along Hurontario Street so they could build a sidewalk on the east side because it was too inconvenient for one of the councillors to cross the street … click below for more ↓

Higher Taxes, But Fewer Services in Collingwood

Collingwood / Council / Financial follies / Planning & PoliciesLeave a comment

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Collingwood Council is currently debating some major changes to the town’s bylaws, many of which appear to mean fewer services and less support for our residents. This council has once again increased our property taxes and user fees (while giving themselves yet another pay raise as their reward for doing so!). There have been annual tax hikes in Collingwood every year for the past decade. And where has all that money gone if not to providing more and better services to residents? The town is proposing a gobsmacking 26 changes to the way bylaw handles calls and complaints, all of … click below for more ↓

Council’s Affordable Housing Con

Collingwood / Council / Housing / Planning & Policies / User fees and costsOne Comment

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A recent story in CollingwoodToday has the headline, “Town considering increases to development charges.” Everyone knows that increasing the development charges (DCs) adds to the cost of a new home, making housing even more expensive and less affordable. Right now, it’s extremely difficult to find anything even close to “affordable” in Collingwood. Apparently, the town wants to make it even harder and more expensive to buy new homes… unless, of course, you’re already a millionaire with money to burn.* The proposed increases include (emphasis added): For urban rates development charges for single/semi detached dwellings will increase by $2,653 to $42,855, … click below for more ↓

Council’s First Year Considered

Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Publicity & CommunicationsOne Comment

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I did a few facepalms while reading CollingwoodToday’s four-part piece on Collingwood Council’s first year in office.  CwoodToday approached each of them with questions “about their accomplishments so far, to how this council feels they’ve set themselves apart, and to surprises they’ve experienced so far as elected officials.” No similar coverage was in the increasingly irrelevant Collingwood Connection. Given the ineffective communication techniques the town currently has to reach residents (not to mention the abysmally awkward, user-hostile website…) it is good for readers to hear from the council members themselves, although I think the reporter could have questioned them a … click below for more ↓

The Subservience of Council

Collingwood / Council / Ineptitude and bungling / Planning & Policies / Staff and administration / Wacky WTF ideasLeave a comment

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Late last month, council was presented with a revised, six-page council-staff relations policy, which, according to the story in CollingwoodToday, “seeks to formalize how council and staff should interact with each other.” The story notes the first draft of the policy, a 14-page document, was presented to council in mid-September, but approval was deferred while councillors considered if it meant their impending emasculation.* Councillors Jeffrey and Doherty, and DM Fryer expressed concerns about the policy when it was first presented, mostly about the size it had ballooned to. Jeffery commented, pointedly, the new policy was “building walls instead of (adding) … click below for more ↓

Our Troubled Urban Forest

Collingwood / Council / Election 2022 / Ineptitude and bungling / Planning & Policies / Staff and administration / Wacky WTF ideas3 Comments

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On August 8, Collingwood council will “consider” a proposal to spend “up to $100,000 to retain a consultant to inform the next council on how Collingwood can better protect [our] tree canopy,” according to a story in CollingwoodToday. The article says, “With Collingwood’s population rapidly increasing, the town is behind when it comes to its policies around [our] tree canopy.” (This is an expanded version of a post I put on my Campaign for Council website) Given how poorly the town maintains those few trees it does plant, it’s not surprising: there are dead trees in the Second Street dog … click below for more ↓

What is Council Doing to Our BIA?

Collingwood / Council / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Ineptitude and bungling / Planning & Policies / Publicity & Communications / Uncategorized / Wacky WTF ideasLeave a comment

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Last week, the chair of our BIA (Business Improvement Area: our association of downtown merchants and businesses) resigned from the organization he has served on for the past seven years. In his letter (quoted in CollingwoodToday) of resignation, David Conning wrote (emphasis added): Following last evening’s council discussion, I continue to have no faith that the town councillors will support any major initiative of the BIA, even when presented with expert documentation recommending the project… I have neither the time nor the inclination to invest in championing projects that will ultimately fall to political decision-makers, The project he refers to … click below for more ↓

Collingwood and Copyright Law

Collingwood / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Publicity & Communications / Staff and administrationLeave a comment

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I was disappointed to learn that, after my exposing our mayor for breaking copyright law on his campaign website (by unauthorized publication of copyright material), that the town itself has probably also done so. I wasn’t surprised that our hypocritical mayor ignored our laws despite being a lawyer himself (look at how often he’s ignored his precious inquiry’s recommendations to avoid apparent conflicts of interest by voting to hire his former employers!), but I was surprised that the town would do so. And that neither of the two lawyers we have on council spotted or questioned it (perhaps they don’t … click below for more ↓

Heritage District Rules Need Repair

Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Planning & Policies / Publicity & CommunicationsOne Comment

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A November story in CollingwoodToday about a new homeowner who got caught in the quagmire of our heritage district rules underscores the need for a thorough overhaul of the rules, a review of how the district is managed, and serious improvements in how the town and the heritage committee communicate information about the zone to both new and existing property owners. And how they treat homeowners. According to the story in CollingwoodToday, the new owners of a 1930 house on Fourth Street, renovated and painted the building in violation of the district’s rules, but claim they were not fully informed about the requirements of those … click below for more ↓

Our Council’s Reprehensible Greed

Collingwood / Conflicts of Interest / Council / deception & secrecy / Disrespect and bad behaviour / Entitlement / Ineptitude and bungling / Planning & Policies / Taxes2 Comments

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Our council’s sense of entitlement again came to light this week. A report from a consultant tabled in the Nov.1 meeting of the Strategic Initiatives Standing Committee recommends that the mayor receive a 9.5% increase, while councillors get a 5% increase (page five of the report). Nine-point-five percent? Who gets a raise like that these days? Even five percent is over the top. The justification for this egregious salary boost is stated in the report: Remuneration traditionally is intended to provide some form of compensation to recognize the time commitment required to meet the needs of constituents and apply municipal … click below for more ↓

Council Considers Possibly Thinking About Maybe Doing Something Important Sometime in the Future

Collingwood / Council / COVID-19 responses / Ineptitude and bungling / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

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We’re almost two years into an ongoing pandemic, yet all the lessons learned in jurisdictions worldwide about vaccinations and public safety have apparently simply drifted past our inept and gormless council. People are still getting ill and dying even in our own community, but our council is sort-of thinking about possibly sometime maybe in the future considering the potential to discuss the likelihood of looking at having a municipal vaccination policy. Or not to have one. And maybe they’ll even think about discussing the possibility of the likelihood of perhaps doing it before the pandemic ends. According to a recent … click below for more ↓

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