Last updated May 25th 2003

• A Cobourg perspective on the Port Hope school closing
• Paul Macklin's flu'
• The ghosts of Whitehall
• Dragging the Cobourg police into the 21st century
• The disappearing space problem
• Questions about the 'Early Years' hiring
• The picture of decorum
• Another newspaper in Port Hope?

Port Hope finally won one this week. The Public School Board defied prediction and actually supported an earlier vote by the committee of the whole and decided to keep the Dr. Powers elementary school open. In a year that the trustees have to face the electorate nothing was more obvious than the attitude displayed by Port Hope trustee Erin Brown. In an interview with the BurdReport when asked to explain why the Thomas Gilbard school in Cobourg was closed last year and Dr Powers was kept open this year, she answered, "I can't tell you that - talk to the other trustees! I voted to keep the school open because that is what my constituency  wanted" I just hope that when Ms Brown campaigns in Cobourg this year as she has to do she doesn't say that, there are a lot of people who blame her, as a member of the Gilbard review committee for less than stellar support of the community. She now has to campaign in this community! Another peculiar aspect of this situation was put to the Burdreport by former Reeve John Floyd. He finds it odd that the future growth in the South East part of Town was cited as a ground to keep the school open because of the potential number students coming from expansion. He says that the only growth in that part of town is his proposed development and Council has refused to allow it so far!

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When this edition received a newsletter from the NDP containing the following statements they just had to be followed up: 
NDP MP Svend Robinson is accusing Justice Minister Martin Cauchon of purposely sending a homophobic Liberal MP to the Justice Committee in order to kill his Private Members Bill on hate propaganda laws.
Robinson says Liberal MP Tom Wappel was sent in to replace Cauchon's Parliamentary Secretary in order to kill the bill. Cauchon is also accused of ordering the replacement of two other Liberal MPs- Montreal's Marlene Jennings and Irwin Cotler- because they are known to support the bill.
     The Parliamentary Sec referred to is none other than our own hometown boy - Paul Macklin. Jumping on the phone I contacted Paul's EA another hometown boy - Ryan O'Grady. So here is the official recollection of the events as Ryan saw them. On the day of the vote Paul had a violent dose of the flu or stomach upset (food poisoning) and called in sick [reasonable enough ed!] because he had to go to bed that afternoon. One of the duties of an EA is to schedule people to attend votes and committees, Ryan then had to find a replacement for Paul, he just happened to find a member hanging around the committee room, the alleged homophobe Tom Wappell. The other members of the committee also were absent, being out of the country, so Ryan still had to find replacements and did. How was he to know the feelings of the members all he had to do was find 'warm bodies' and put their bums in the seats, he did. The BurdReport is told that because of the way committees work bills get passed faster if they don't get voted on in committee as you can only vote them down, this bill will never be voted on as it is on the fast track and will be back before the house after the next committee meeting on Tuesday, so perhaps Svend is jumping the gun although any supporter of the bill would be worried if Tom Wappell turned up as a sitting member. If the Justice Minister could order Tom to vote for it that would be news.

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The Ghosts of 'WHitehall' are still lingering. The more Cobourg Council allocates money to the site of the new Jubilee Park, you know the one, the Old one cut in half so that local developer can erect 15,000 sf of commercial space on cheap land that Council gave away, the more some people ache for the original plan that asked Council to help move the oldest dwelling in Cobourg to that site to be used as a tourist centre. Of course the price of the move was right judged by the final cost of the present project, but obviously such a plan was not to be and now the house sits in some lawyers barn awaiting, like the Phoenix, to rise again. Of course the reason we get to hear about this topic is that the project, carparks and a tourist kiosk, came in over budget and now Council is scrambling to find some more money to finish this year.

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Talking about money, how much extra we will have to pay for a 'realistic budget' will soon be obvious. The new Chief of Police, in his mandate to drag the best small police force in the country into the 21st century, has revised the budget to include items that the Board, in its wisdom,  decided not place emphasis upon, like asbestos remediation and prisoner comforts. I guess having an unrealistic budget could be blamed on the consultant that the Board hired at a huge per diem just to work on the budget. Nice work if you can get it - build a budget that doesn't work and get paid big bucks and walk away.

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The Commercial Space inventory was in the news again this week. Now we have somebody saying that the study takes into account too much inventory. So some say too much in and other say too much left out. Kinda makes it easy to leave it the way it is!! Either way this thing has dragged on too long and even I feel that Royal Cobourg is getting yanked around. They want to build they should be told NO soon enough and then they can go somewhere else. Anyway we are all supposed to wait until the Town's consultant (somebody picked by Royal Cobourg) gets its report in and then it will be peer reviewed by another consultant (somebody picked by Royal Cobourg) and then Council will get to see the final report  and then Council (the majority of whom received campaign donations from Royal Cobourg) will use this report to make a decision on an application by Royal Cobourg for more commercial space. Still we have to take Council's assertion that this is an independent process!!

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More questions about the "Early Years" project. Late last week rumours were heard about the identity of the new Executive Director of the Early Years project. Yet to be confirmed is Linda Hunter. Her last position was doing  communications for the local hospital foundation. Previous to that she was the Downtown coordinator doing promotions and events. She is a trained journalist and has worked at the Cobourg Star. Her obvious lack of recent management experience and dearth of social work links makes some wonder about the quality of the other candidates or her exceptional qualifications that make her the best candidate to run a half a million dollar operation with some fourteen employees. We wish her luck!

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This memorable picture has to be re-run for a couple of reasons: our overseas readers did not see it and this MPP is our neighbour to the east, Durham East. Do you want neighbours like this? I bet a majority of his constituents don't even want him any more.
     The ironic feature about this picture is that this gesture was made by the man in the Legislature and then he denied he did it, only admitting to it when he was informed that it was on tape; in a debate about political decorum!

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Will there be another effort to produce a local paper in Port Hope? The recent move to close the offices of the "Port Hope Guide" and move the paper to Cobourg (kinda funny producing a 'local' paper in another location and then try to sell it as a community paper), while only leaving the bill collector in place has annoyed more than a few people. Councilor Jeff Lees was heard to say in public that he is canceling his subscription - now he will have to find another paper with pictures in it! . Anyway one commentary on the affair was received this week:

"For Burd Report:

It is rumoured that at least two of the old Port Hope Town Crier crew are going to take another kick at the publishing cat. As of last week, the working title for their new venture is simply Box 231 Port Hope.
    The festering malcontents are upset because Michael Sifton's Osprey Media is moving Port Hope Evening Guide offices to Cobourg, leaving behind a token staffer sharing space in the Ganaraska Art premise on Walton Street. It should come as no surprise that Ganaraska Art is run by the wife of Doug James, who, during the recent strike, continued to file copy and photos to both the Port Hope Evening Guide and the Cobourg Daily Star. Nothing fishy about that.     
   As well, the ageless duo (rumoured to be former Guide columnist Daniel J. Christie and ascerbic scribe Mike Wladyka) are said to have it from inside sources that certain locally written letters-to-the-editor objecting to Mike Walsh's stewardship of the once-proud paper are routinely trashed, usually in favour of smiley-faced lost-and-found thank-you notes and dreary right wing boilerplate  rants from places as far off as Winnipeg or Edmonton.     
   Box 231 will be comprised mainly of the letters that the Guide won't print, or so the rumours go."

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The last edition's posting of the amounts of money donated to our MPP was apt. The Toronto Star did an expose of election campaign money laundering on Saturday. The Burdreport claims no credit for this but the question is this: was the Northumberland Riding the largest recipient of this funny money and if so why? 

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Last updated May 11th2003

• A new Police Chief
• The big push for a new County Empire
• Is there a conflict of interest here?
  
• Electioneering has started in the Provincial election despite no call
• A Cobourg Councilor humiliates a standing committee
• An editor at the Cobourg Star bites the dust
• The 'commercial space inventory' schemozzle
  

In a flurry of press releases and a very public introduction Cobourg met its new Chief of Police. But has this guy been sold a bill of goods?
To his credit in three interviews he has kept on message: "Cobourg's force is the best" (we know that!), "I want to set up a public focus group to discover what the the public is thinking" and "A Regional Police Force is the only future". It is this last remark that is likely to get him in political trouble. Any politician with an eye on the County, as opposed to being stuck up the rear end of Cobourg's superiority complex, will know that anything that plays well in Cobourg usually bombs out in Port Hope and the nether land. For anybody to harp on about a Regional Police Force only reinforces the fact that Cobourg wants it. And that is enough reason for the other municipalities to deny it. Chief Clement has been told by someone that he will be the Regional Chief. If he keeps this up the region will fail to materialise. On another matter those interested in how much we are paying the new Chief should keep an eye on the annual published list of people making more than $100,000. It is rumoured that if he is not on it he is very close to being on it. Incidentally it is also rumoured that Chief Hoath, of Port Hope, has just signed a new contract for a rumoured $94,000. If that is the case forming a Regional Force could be problematic with two very expensive Chiefs for one position! I wish all lots of luck and welcome Chief Clement to Town

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On Wednesday the 14th, this week, the County Council will debate a resolution that will set in motion another empire to be built at the County level. This debate has shades of the amalgamation debate; just how much power and services do we want to give the upper level of government? The debate has been preceded by a report that was written by the interim Economic Developer - Norm Leigh and the ad-hoc committee of the existing development officers of Cobourg and Port Hope and the mastermind behind all of the County's efforts - Dan Borowec. This man is the manager of the Northumberland Business Assistance, an agency devoted to helping business develop and is also a third level local bank that lends money at usurious rates because it is the 'banker of last resort' However because this agency has access to pots of Federal economic development money it is able to hide in the shadows and pull strings at the County level. So the stage is set: Cobourg, Port Hope and Brighton already pay to support municipal development agencies, Campbellford is in the process of setting one up and the others don't have one. The votes at the County are weighted and so if Cobourg, Brighton and Port Hope vote no it will fail by a couple of votes. Just to complicate the isue and apply pressure on the urban votes both the MP and the MPP have decided to inject themselves into the debate saying that a counth department is essential and if they vote for one perhaps money may be supplied to start up.Therein lies the rub no matter how much money is put in to start it up Cobourg will end up paying 27% of the operating costs. And it still hasn't been proven that the new department is going to be any better than the services we get now without paying more money!!
There is a whiff of a conflict of interest in all of this. A couple of weeks ago two senior officers of the Cobourg and District Chamber of Commerce stood before Cobourg Council and tried to persuade Council to vote for a County wide department of economic Development. When one looks at the documentation and the recommendations the one tangible item that is proposed is the establishment and coordination of a database. Well guess what kind of company Ms Susan Hale, one of the speakers owns? A website design company that specialises in database construction!!

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The local MPP, Doug Galt, has had his people phoning madly in the latter part of last week trying to get people to attend an event billed as an "economic summit". This event is pitched at local politicians and business people. However what the topics of discussion are are unknown and it is suspected that this gathering will be an outreach of the budget. I wonder just how many Liberal business people are going to see through this effort and render the event useless and expose it for what it is.

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At the last regular Council Meeting one of the councilors, whilst making a motion decided to humiliate and render a committee decision useless. thus probably leaving the members of the committee wondering why they bother serving. The topic of the motion was to deny an application by a commercial enterprise permission to place their chip truck in the Marina parking lot. Standing up to make the motion Councilor Bill MacDonald, who really didn't have to say anything and no-one would have been the wiser, decided to preface his remarks with the comment, "Although this decision by the committee was to unanimously grant permission, I feel that was wrong and I recommend the opposite!" I wonder if he realised the arrogance this displayed? He has effectively written off all the work done by the committee, in this case the Parks and Rec., and now leaves them wondering just what kind of support they will get at Council. To have councilors ignore the advise of the committees that are supposed to provide advise is dangerous and shows one of two things. Either the councilor did not explain Council's position very clearly in committee or he doesn't care about what the committee thinks or does. A very strange position for a councilor who espouses, in public, a position of listening to the grassroots but in practice does the opposite.

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On Thursday of last week Don Horne the editor of the Cobourg Daily Star was called into the publisher's office and Mike Walsh handed him his walking papers. The newsrooms of the Cobourg Daily Star and the Port Hope Evening Guide are being merged and consequently management thinks they only need one editor - Francis Bacon. So Don gets the heave-ho. Sad really when you consider this guy sweated bullets during the strike trying to straddle the middle line between Walsh's orders that he stop drinking beer with his friends and fending off accusations from the workers that he too much manaagement. Still it is rumoured that he has a couple of offers so perhaps his resume will not be needed after all!

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The big story of the week is the release of the 'commercial space inventory' this is a calculation of just how much commercial space (square footage) exists in Cobourg. This is important because this is the base data that consultants use in market studies that demonstrate whether the Town can handle any more commercial development. Thus if the data is incorrect the market studies are skewed and inaccurate. The study just released shows that the amount of commercial space has been understated by 50%. An amazing discrepency. Just how the politicians are going to handle this is anybody's guess but it sure looks as though the objectors to the Walmart development's market study are right in their position that the market study was flawed. It also means that all of the planning decisions that required a market study have been based on faulty data. Stay tuned as the application by Royal Cobourg for another 50,000 sf is in the pipeline and depends on a market study. We live in interesting times indeed. To read the study click here

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Something to round out the week. Culled from various sources and which I find interesting.

Swear it is not true
But bullshit has become respectable
Leader
Tuesday May 6, 2003
The Guardian

bullshit vulgar slang n. nonsense v. (-shitted, -shitting) talk nonsense in an attempt to deceive
It is not often that a word found in the playground or passing between barstools crosses over into the public conversations of the rich and the powerful. Yet bullshit has done just that.

On Sunday, billionaire investors Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger told reporters that American companies were befuddling the markets with "bullshit earnings". Days before, Rupert Murdoch, the media tycoon, had described the Australian education system as "bullshit".

Iain Duncan Smith is another purveyor of bovine excreta. The leader of the Tories, the party of Disraeli and Churchill, used distinctly unparliamentary language in one interview: "We are going to win the next election. I am not bullshitting." And not so long ago Kim Howells, the minister for broadcasting, described the Turner Prize for modern art as "conceptual bullshit".

All this marks a definable shift for the word bullshit. Politicians have reached for the phrase because they recognise it is vulgar enough to shock, thereby generating headlines, but not coarse enough to repel voters. Actors and pop stars, who casually drop le mot bullshit, help to encourage the word's use as an expression of candid opinion. The accommodation of bullshit could be seen as symptomatic of a degradation of the English language.

But it is not. A nation addicted to football and the roughly hewn words of pundits and players might expect to have its lexicon changed. It is worth noting that British English takes its cue from America, where bullshit is a relatively mild admonishment.

Fittingly, bullshit originated partly from the new worlds of Australia and America and partly from the undiplomatic exchanges between soldiers in the first world war. Accepting expletives into everyday English may seem like bad news. But it would be worse not to chart and record the shifting shape of language in people's mouths.
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This URL came to me in an email very interesting but a bit dated as it is being run by University Students www.electionprediction.com
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> Subject: W H O adviresry for New York, Los Angelas and Miami
>
> The World Health Organization announced in a briefing today that it
> had placed a travel ban for three major U.S. cities.
> As pointed out in the report these three US cities poses a very real
> health risk to visitors and should be avoided where ever possible.
>
> The city of Miami was named as a major health risk due the number of
> deaths due to S.B.S (severe bullet syndrome)
> Representatives of the WHO quoted statistics that In just the three
> years, Miami -Dade experienced 1,079
> gun deaths , in which 109 of the victims were 19 years of age or
> younger. The WHO recommends kevlar vests for any travel in this > region.
>
> Los-Angeles was put on the list for a old threat that the WHO now
> thinks is on the verge of leveling the city. E.S.B.C.S. (earth shaking
> buildings collapsing syndrome) last killed 51 people and wounded over
> 9000 in under one minute in 1994. The WHO advises anyone who must
> travel to anywhere in California to wear protective head gear.
>
> Finally New York was placed on the list for a health risk the US has
> been fighting for over a year. Apparently A.T.A. (acute terrorism
> attack) is not yet under control and the WHO believes travelers to the
> big apple are at risk. Total avoidance is recommended for the whole
> NYC region.
>
> The mayors of the three cities reacted with anger saying they were
> actively working to control these serious health problems. The WHO
> concluded that not enough was being done, as all of these problems
> have been out of control for a number of years.
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Monday night at Cobourg Council they will discuss buying voting machines, but the process leaves something to be desired. Three weeks ago the Director of Administration produced a report that posed the question; do you want voting machines or a 'mail-in' balloting system. It costs approximately $75,000 to run the local elections every three years. As a cost cutting measure all kinds of schemes come to mind. Thus the report from Rick Stinson. At an executive meeting, three weeks ago members of council did give their opinions about the choice, mail or machines. Having listened to the opinions, I hesitate to say discussion because all councilors approached the topic as an election platform, very little questioning and discussion just pat answers designed to impress the gallery, Rick then told the council that he would rewrite his report and come back to council. Now there lies the rub. The report has now come back to this week's regular meeting with a recommendation that a bylaw be adopted and voting machines be purchased. A very definitive position and one that did not come from the previous executive meeting. Who made the decision to take it directly to council in this manner and why doesn't anyone point out that this is 'rubber-stamping' an administrative decision rather than council making a proper decision? Obviously critics of this position will point out that this is streamlining decisionmaking. This can be dangerous and lead to uninformed councilors just going along instead of deliberation.

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The Ontario Early Year's Centre project is certainly getting bogged down by local politics. This initiative is the centerpiece of the Provincial government's parenting policies. Oodles of money is coming down to the riding to be distributed by the local MP (Almost $1 million to date). However as always the devil is in the details. A bit of background, a coalition of local agencies, including the Family Resource Centres and the County of Northumberland, put together a proposal to run the project. As the proposals were received it is alleged that the Cobourg Family YMCA, as a countywide agency, was asked to put in a proposal. They subsequently won the bid and was awarded the project. Then the feet went into the cow patties. Some of the services were being run by an existing and successful agency based in Port Hope. This agency then announced that as they were losing their funding, some from the Province and some from the County they had to shut down. People then rounded on the Cobourg YMCA as the bad guy and the Y has been playing catch-up since. Trying to allay fears of parents and workers they have said that the services will continue to be provided by the Y. Port Hope went into its usual 'victim' mode and complained that they were losing an agency and big bad old Cobourg is taking another institution from Port Hope. In another wrinkle pundits and watchers are now questioning if the promised funding from the County will go to the Y, now that the Y has the project and the County doesn't and also if the process was fixed in the first place noting that the local MP's executive assistant, the infamous Lynda Mitchell, must have been in on the process and after all every one knows what she thinks of the County these days! (New readers should be aware that Lynda Mitchell resigned as the County's CAO in a black cloud of ignominy before landing on her feet in Doug Galt's office)

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Last Friday the Police Department had a visitor - Superintendent Clement formerly of the RCMP. This personage will be shortly introduced as the new Chief of Police in Cobourg, despite the rantings of Deputy Mayor Spooner, who had the political balls to state that he is not the Chief until Council says he is, Supt. Clement met all the right people at the Police Station on Friday. Even the former Chief, John Kay was in Town (the first John Kay sighting by most people for months!). It is supposed that a new era of protocol is in place as the new guy didn't have a lunchtime beer with the old guy whohad to put up with Dean McCaughey and Bill MacDonald as lunchmates at the Cat and Fiddle Friday afternoon.

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Any one who is so interested is invited to become members of the Cobourg Police Services Board. This advertisement was only seen by the editor in the Cobourg Daily Star and only for one issue. Obviously if that was the case it was intended that very few people would be aware of the ad. From what we hear potential members have already been approached and resumes received. The smart money is on former Police Services Board Chair Dean Pepper. Dean is a cop's cop getting his jollies riding in the car and taking the midnight shift. He served on the PSB (and was coordinator of protection services on Council before there was a PSB) for many years and then hit the sunset limit and had to step down. Anyway all those interested should be submitting their CVs to the Ministry and just for good measure talk to Doug Galt's office. John Boreham is the guy to talk to. And if past history is any guide you won't make it past the post unless you a Tory (and there aren't many of those left these days).

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Reading the international papers there was a snippett about an Iraqi's point of view on how to invade a country. A reporter was visiting an oilfield and came across a group of workers and decided to talk to one of them. However, he (a portly man standing in the lobby), declined to give his name: "I was a DG (director general) in the old administration, and no one has told me I'm not a DG anymore"), lamented the whole US approach to dealing with post-war Iraq. "We have a lot of experience with coups d'etat and this one is the worst" he said. "Any colonel in the Iraqi army will tell you that when he does a coup he goes to the broadcasting station with five announcements.
"The first one is long live this, down with that. The second one is your new government is this and that. The third is the list of the people to go on retirement. The fourth one, every other official is to report back to work tomorrow morning. The fifth is the curfew." This is usually done within one hour, he added. "Now we are waiting more than a week and still we hear nothing from them." Very interesting but who says the Americans are listening to the Iraqis.

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The Northumberland Orchestra & Choir are holding another Gala on Saturday May 30th. Tickets for the event to be held at the St Mary's School in Cobourg are $30 for an Adult, $28 for a Senior and $25 for a student. click here for the poster

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It has been noticed that the former Mayor of Port Hope, Ron Smith, is making public pronouncements and appearances, ending a two year absence from such things. Some pundits have been wondering if he intends to make it a three way race for the Mayor' job in the Fall. Citizens are awaiting from the incumbent Mayor and Deputy Mayor to enter the same lists, Ron would make it three and very interesting.

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Still in Port Hope. I wonder how some of the supporters of the Thomas Gillbard school are feeling when they observe the behaviour of local trustee Erin Brown. Ms Brown who was saying nothing but, "I have to look after the interests of the student's education!" and ended up voting to close the school last year in Cobourg. Now she is the chair of the school closing committee studying the the closure of Dr. Powers elementary school where the circumstances are almost identical has decided that she will support the parents and supporters of the school and vote to keep it open. One wonders about two things with this attitude, something that should have emerged last year in Cobourg, is the looming election campaign swaying her mind or is the fact that she knows that the rest of the Board will vote to close a school that each one of them has no connection with.

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A pamphlet landed on our doorsteps with a big thud this week. The household flyer from Doug Galt. Inside this four pager Doug boasts about the amount of money spent by his government in Northumberland in the last three years. One question from this edition - how much money would have been delivered by an MPP as part of his job just filling the seat? We fail to believe that the Provincial Ministry of Transportation would not have built a wall on the 401 if Doug Galt had not been the MPP. Similarly with all this money, can the sitting member tell us just how much of this tally is 'new money' and how much is 'programme money'

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Talking about the MPP, here is the pic on the back page of the flyer. Just who is in the audience watching this setup?

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Other political news The BurdReport is still hearing that the Liberal candidate for Norhumberland Lou Rinaldi is still having trouble drawing supporters to his fundraisers. One in Hope Township,usually a big and good one has been rumoured to be canceled due to lack of donors. The NDPers nominated their candidate - Murray Weppler, a good turnout and a lot of money raised going into this election, good omens for the run.

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