Category: Planning & Policies

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

It’s Official: Collingwood is Closed for Business

Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Taxes2 Comments

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As I predicted, Collingwood Council officially closed the town to business, growth and development, last Monday night. And just for good measure, council sprinkled the ground with the salt of malice, just to further deter a particular developer from building here. Which sends a message to everyone about how this town respects and values development. Anyone who doesn’t think this is about ideology or doesn’t know this is a personal and petty vendetta hasn’t been paying attention to local politics this past decade. The process of closing our municipal doors to business started earlier this year when council raised our taxes and our ……… click below for more ↓

Collingwood Turns a Blind Eye to Hydro One Sale

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

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It would seem that much of Ontario, and many of its stronger municipal councils, are voicing opposition to the province’s ill-advised plan to sell Hydro One to a private, for-profit group, and are writing to the premier to protest.* The popular sentiment is that selling an essential utility like hydro – that brings the province almost $340 million annually – makes about as much sense as throwing your paycheque out the car window while giving the car keys to a total stranger. It will only make us less competitive and less attractive to business and industry. It will hurt small ……… click below for more ↓

Connection Got It Wrong

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

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The story in this weekend’s Connection about Block 9 underground parking incorrectly suggests council is doing something right when it was actually trying to do something wrong. But they tried to take credit for doing good when their efforts at malice failed. I expect mistakes like this from the Enterprise-Bulletin because it doesn’t have anyone on staff with a history that goes back very far (aside, that is, from the generally bad, mistake-prone writing that makes it painful to read…), but not the Connection. The story notes: After a short in-camera session, council voted unanimously to allow the developer to build underground ……… click below for more ↓

Block Nine Revisited

Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies5 Comments

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I went down to the harbour today to take a couple of photographs of the piece of town land known as “Block 9.” I wanted to show my readers just how little a piece it is and what condition it’s in now. The aerial photo above shows the property outlined in orange (the photograph is several years out of date, but the property lines remain the same). The photograph below shows the land from the northwest corner, looking southeast. Notice the water that has collected because the land lies much lower than surrounding properties and has no drainage (no, it isn’t ……… click below for more ↓

Sit on Your Hands

Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies2 Comments

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Sit on your hands and don’t do anything. That’s in essence the advice in the editorial of the Enterprise-Bulletin, June 3. It’s a strongly anti-business message: telling the business community, the municipality, developers, and everyone around us that Collingwood is, once again, closed for business. Which coincides with the anti-business attitude of several members of the current council, but is hardly good for the community’s economic health. The editorial concludes: By all means, let the waterfront plan and the strategic plan pursue their course and hold off any decision’s (sic) on Assaff’s Block 9 ask until after that time…* Hold off developing ……… click below for more ↓

Good News for the Rec Facilities

Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Planning & Policies / User fees and costsLeave a comment

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A story in this week’s Collingwood Connection vindicates the decision to build the two new rec facilities last term. According to the story, usage of the two facilities – the new arena at Central Park and the renovated Centennial Pool – is soaring. Plus as an added benefit, Centennial pool is able to host competitions all year round – and it does. Just drive by it on a swim meet weekend and you’ll see the parking lot full; dozens of families attend, many of them staying here for shopping, food or even overnight. It’s a great economic benefit, not merely ……… click below for more ↓

Propaganda?

Collingwood / Council / Planning & Policies3 Comments

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Last term, when council sent out community newsletters to keep residents informed, the illiterati screamed these were ‘propaganda’ and a waste of tax dollars.* Now this council has done the same thing and these nattering nabobs of negativity have raised their voices and screamed… nothing. Their silence is deafening. Well, they wouldn’t want to embarrass their friends on council, would they? Even if this council repeats the same practice as those they reviled last term… Let’s not dwell on the hypocrisy of the sycophants and bloggers, else we will never get further (it would fill pages and pages to recount…). Let’s instead look at ……… click below for more ↓

Illegal or Just Inappropriate Meetings?

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

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Collingwood’s three standing committees consist solely of three members of council, each.* These committees of three each hold regular, published monthly meetings, hear public delegations, address public issues, post an agenda, receive staff reports, vote on issues, have recorded minutes, have staff to record them, and make recommendations back to council. In other words they are treated identically to any regular council meeting.  Their recommendations are read into the council minutes and voted upon. Yet none of these committees has a quorum (majority) of council on it. When one person is absent, as has happened several times since they were struck, the committee consists of ……… click below for more ↓

Signs – of the Apocalypse?

Collingwood / Council / Critical Thinking / Development & Growth / Planning & PoliciesLeave a comment

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Councillor Cam Ecclestone made a comment at council earlier this month that he had been contacted by several residents concerned about the new sign on the Rexall Drug store on Huron Street, its size and colours. Coun. Doherty chimed in about it with similar comments. Aside from the question why anyone would contact a member of council whose sluggish performance at the table would win an award for best impersonation of a somnambulist, one has to wonder who these residents are who are so concerned about a rather ordinary corporate/franchise sign. Well, I mean aside from the handful of petty ideologues ……… click below for more ↓

Rethinking Parking

Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Municipal Politics / Planning & PoliciesLeave a comment

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Parking in Collingwood – especially downtown – has been a contentious issue since at least the mid-1980s. Numerous studies have been done advocating a variety of answers, none of them entirely satisfactory to everyone. The factions of free versus paid parking have been warring as long as I can recall. No council has managed to fully come to grips with the issue. To compound the issue, town staff have tended to weigh in on the side of paid parking in no small part because of the revenue it brings in, which helps offset the expenses of the bylaw department (and justifies ……… click below for more ↓

Someone’s Paying Attention

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

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I was glad to see the Connection is attending and reporting on some of the council standing committee meetings. The media need to be there to shine a light on what seems to the rest of the town as a secretive, unaccountable process. At least the Connection is paying attention. The story that came out of the meeting is titled, “Lobbyist registry could make things complicated: Collingwood town clerk.” Apparently the EB didn’t think it was worth writing about. The EB doesn’t get it. Clerk Sara Almas told the committee: “Not only does it capture developers and contractors, it could include ……… click below for more ↓

Turning Positives into Negatives

Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Planning & PoliciesLeave a comment

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Once upon a time, when George Czerny was the publisher, the Enterprise-Bulletin newspaper was an avid and active local promoter: the indefatigable cheerleader for the town; for its events, activities, clubs and organizations. It was the proud voice of Collingwood. Not so, today. The paper seems to have lost that community passion. Today it comes across as bitter, ideologically-driven, full of negativity and hidden agendas. Take a look at the EB’s story about the Curling Club renovations. Here should be a positive story about the collaboration between the town and the Curling Club to share costs, renovate and restore one of the town’s most ……… click below for more ↓

Why Elvis Matters to Collingwood

Collingwood / Council / Development & Growth / Planning & Policies / Social Order & DisorderLeave a comment

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There are some things that are pointless to argue, it seems. Creationism with a fundamentalist. Anti-vaccination with a New Age wingnut. Reason and logic with local  bloggers. The value of the Elvis Festival to Collingwood with a closed-minded resident. I recently heard complaints about the cost of the 2014 festival: $74,000. More than double what the Integrity Commissioner cost taxpayers to investigate bogus, politically-motivated claims last year. And what did we get for that $74,000? International recognition and widespread media coverage, more than 30,000 visitors, increased revenue for our hospitality sector, a full downtown, busy restaurants and hotels, people shopping ……… click below for more ↓

Whitewash

Collingwood / Council / Municipal Politics / Planning & Policies5 Comments

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In early January, Council was presented with a report by outside consultants on the state of the shared service agreement between Collus/Powerstream and the town. The report, however, was rejected by council as flawed – wisely, it turns out – and the following motion was made (emphasis added) that night: THAT the motion be deferred for one month to allow the president and CEO of Collus/Powerstream to review and comment on the report, and that the report be further circulated to the interview participants and CPUSB to provide any corrections/clarifications that may be reflected in an updated report. This report, however, ……… click below for more ↓

Open for Business, But Not For Your Input

Collingwood / Council / Municipal Politics / Planning & Policies / Politics4 Comments

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Did you happen to read the town ad on the inside page in the Enterprise Bulletin this weekend? February 6, top of page D7? I’m betting you didn’t because no one I’ve spoken to seems to have read it. And since you can’t find the ad on the EB’s website, you won’t have read it online, either. But you should because it likely affects you and possibly in a big way.  It may change your life and not in a positive manner. It’s on the town’s website, buried under a user-unfriendly URL here: www.collingwood.ca/node/11875. It looks innocuous enough at the start: ……… click below for more ↓

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