Sunday 24th June
2001
A pictorial
commentary today I ran out of copy due to a very busy week. So I went out
early this morning looking for inspiration. it came at the waterfront.
This
sign is attached to the door of our very expensive marina building (the
fish cleaning station). We now have a Marina manager, a deputy manager
and shift leaders and minions on each shift and we still can't get to use
the fish cleaning room. I guess it says a lot about our recreational priorities.
We like nice clean sailors (who don't spend any money) but the scruffy
and messy fishers can go to Port Hope, and they have!! They get an open
fish cleaning station and cheaper slips as well as a Salmon Tournament
over there.
Another Picture with a story
Now
for some good news
There
is an event going on down at the waterfront today. It is a prelude to the
real event; the Waterfront Festival. Without getting into the source of
the event, I believe it was the original Canada Day committee that started
it and guess who organised that .... Don Kirkup. let's just enjoy the event
as developed.
Another
picture
On to other things, I was invited to lunch at the weekly Rotary club by Howie McCourt, it was enjoyable. Although I will never be invited to join I cannot but admire the amount of money that they raise every year. The lunch marked the end of the present President's, Bill Patchett, reign of office. In a glowing tribute to all concerned Billy P thanked all members of the club for a job well done. He will be, as usual, a hard act to follow.
For those who care Mr. Bill only filled up 3/4 of his column this week with his email.
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Sunday 17th July
2001
A slow
week, although my better half did venture downtown for the first time in
many weeks and she was mightily impressed. Now all she has to do is to
find something to buy!
I found
it a little disconcerting to read this week that the Mayor of Cobourg is
disappointed to discover that his council has been accused of not listening
to people. "we listened, King St the Hospital parking and others" The big
thing about listening and this comment can be addressed to all politicians,
especially the real ones at Queens Park, in order to demonstrate effective
listening you must act on some of the suggestions!!
In fact when you are presenting your case at City Hall you can judge your
success by Council's reaction. If all the Councilors jump up and congratulate
you for what you have said you are either an important person worthy of
a politician's grovel or you have said something they were going to do
and you have just validated them. If you get no response other than "Thank
you for coming we'll take what you said under advisement" you have just
been grievously insulted.
City Hall lost a bit of its case-management expertise when the committee of adjustment deferred the Royal Cobourg application for a severance for the Loblaws site. I guess nobody told Ted Harp that he has to rush this thing through and go by the script. Even with Dean MacCaughey in the back of the room the committee listened to reason and told RCCL to come back when the other business they are involved in is settled. The interesting thing was that when the flak from RCCL was asked why the application was coming now and not when the rest of the case was settled she replied, "we want to get the ball rolling" When asked, "What does that mean?" she mouthed off more jargon and failed to make her case in plain english, oh the wonders of an MBA education.
I have had a letter from a person who is extremely upset at the way the Council appears to have allowed the YMCA to become a preserve of the rich and membered whilst purporting to be community resource for the low-income. "We have a policy for subsidies, but in order to get it you have to demean yourself and allow us to pry into your financial affairs" Apparently this person is still chasing her complaints and is now convinced that the major impediment to Council's discussions is the "coordinator" system. As explained last week all of the councilors are subject to self-censorship because they do not want to intrude on the other's portfolios. So unless you can get Mr MacDonald to move on this issue it is going nowhere.
So what's the real story in Port Hope? Has Gaby Mann really found another job and decided to move on or has Mayor Rick fulfilled his election night statement. "I want an economic development department with a budget of $250,000 and an EDO"
I have discovered (perhaps others have too) another fine online newspaper with a political slant; "PunditMag" this runs the gamut of opinion a la "StraightGoods.com
I met a man I used to work with when I was walking the dog the other day. He was a resident of the Victoria College Retirement home, except that he wasn't retired yet. Noticing he had a large neck brace on I asked "what happened?" Oh I fell in my bathroom, got shipped to Sunnybrook and now I am convalescing" "So who's paying" I asked. "I am, OHIP doesn't cover this!" So now my questions about the health system. What would have happened if he said he couldn't pay? Who would? What if he didn't want to pay how would they find out if he could? And who looks after the poor without family? Something smells here but it is the normal way of doing things in this modern Province of ours
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In a comment I missed The Minister of Health was supposed to have queried why he has to pay for Conrad Black's prescription drugs. This sparked an angry warning from the self-appointed matriarch of the affluent retirees (Lillian Morganthau) otherwise known as the Canadian Association of Retired persons (CARP). I take the opposite point of view if a means test was applied to the drug plan the political repercussions would be immense and probably the only political issue that could defeat the society wreckers in Queen's Park. So let Tony Clement apply a means test and we will defeat the government on the issue and perhaps get our province back!
Still on Provincial observations let's have a guess now about your future chances of passing a driver's test first time out if the licensing system gets privatised.
On Thursday night about 40 people gathered at the Cat and Fiddle to watch a TV programme. Called "StoreWars, Walmart comes to Town!" it profiled the experiences of a town called Ashland in Virginia USA. For a background click here. The parallels between Ashland and Cobourg were uncanny and go far beyond coincidence. Anyway not wanting to overestimate the support for a discussion and possible resistance to a Walmart the fact that 40 people, on very short notice, came to watch a programme that they could have watched at home, is significant. There will be another meeting organised to plot further action.
Keen observers of the page will notice that there is now a new box (look right). This box leads you to a page where you can sign up to be notified of products that you may be interested in. This service pledges only to send you email about the products you sign up for. It is run by the same company that gives me the free counter. So this is my first entry into e-commerce give it a try. Following my policy of complete openness the information about this service and how much I make out of it can be found here.
I couldn't resist but Mr Bill's column yesterday consisted of his e-mails and three of his own sentences. Just pointing it out Don!!
First a topic close to the heart of Deputy Mayor Spooner, a raise. He has been trying to persuade his colleagues that they are underpaid and being the only person on Council who lives on a fixed income he has trouble making them realise the urgency of his case. In fact the only person who has appeared, for many years, to be without visible signs of support, Billy Mac. even had the temerity to chide accusers of "knowing what the pay was when you ran, no-one asked you to take the job!" So it seems that the issue has turned personal with most members of the Council taking the sanctimonious route. Stay tuned this one won't go away, for even the report of the 'ad-hoc committee on council remuneration' noted in its last sentence; While the comments offered herein are not unanimous, the opinion of the majority of the committee has been conveyed". More in my column today
Well say goodbye to another piece of local history; Hope Township. Will the good settlers of Welcome, Canton, Garden Hill and other rural hamlets ever get used to being part of Port Hope especially now they have lost all links to the past, their name. I guess I expected more of an outcry from the traditionalists but should have expected it as nobody evened mentioned the loss of the name of Colborne when it became Cramahe. I suppose clinging to the past, for whatever reason, marks one as a nut these days.
Those
people who expected fireworks at the latest hearing of the OMB in Cobourg
on Thursday were disappointed. Madame Marie Hubbard came in to town to
deliver her verdict of approval for the Town's new Official Plan, it passed
as all parties had compromised and an agreement was presented for approval.
The interesting thing was that she was accompanied by a sidekick, Board
Member Giles Bishop. Experienced observers are wondering if Madame Hubbard
needs to be monitored or if the OMB is expecting her previous ruling to
be defeated at the Divisional Court on July 11th and the OMB is preparing
to have someone else take over the file.
But in an ominous castaway line from the Town's solicitor, Wayne Fairbrother,
the Town has mused that they might go to the OMB and use the dreaded 'motion
to dismiss' against the appellants of OPA 54. One would expect this action
to be used by a big faceless developer (Royal Cobourg) but when a friendly
responsive democratic Town Council, like Cobourg's plays hardball there
will be a political risk. They would end up squashing their opponents and
denying them the right of appeal just to accommodate a developer.
Well they finally did it, the Town has purchased the Diversy property for $2.00 (Why $2? perhaps they thought $1 was too cheap!). Now the hard part deciding what to do with it. Everybody and their dog's will have an opinion. How will Council plan this out? Will it be a closed committee of politicians and handpicked stooges or will it be truly an open process conducted by real people and their divergent opinions? All I do know is that the last thing we need is to spend piles of money on is consultants and then allow Mr DeVeau to implement it. There are far too many good qualified people in the town that will want to become involved that we do not need consultants driving the process. The one thing that has to be understood is that the end use will govern the amount of environmental cleanup. So it is really important to decide and plan first. That planning has to be as thorough as possible. And we don't have to be in a rush, we have the next one hundred years to live with the results. And if you want to know what my idea is, here it is. We are going to build a third arena soon. We don't need it on D'Arcy st. that will do nothing for economic spinoff benefits, putting a 2500 seat community arena complex tied to public convention facilities on the waterfront will. But we have to think big, we have to have the Town involved from the start and be prepared to guarantee (not provide) the financing and we have to purchase more land. Bill Patchett's land can be got for a good price.
Now the
political biggie. Carolyn Campbell's resignation from the County administration.
This has not been unexpected, watchers have known for years that the relationship
between the CAO (lynda Mitchell) and Carolyn has been dysfunctional. The
CAO's style of micro-management has been at odds with the legislative requirements
that Carolyn had been charged with. The straw that broke the camel's back
was a dispute over the timing of the hiring of a replacement manager. Carolyn
had been given the authority, by resolution of Council, to hire immediately.
The letter of resignation says that that immediate process was stopped
by instructions from the CAO to Lealand Sibbick the acting CAO (Lynda is
on holiday until 12th June). This meant that the necessary transfer of
skills could not be carried out as the present manger would have left by
the 12th of June. Crying 'interference' Carolyn submitted a letter of resignation
effective 29th June. The County Council held a special meeting and accepted
it and said don't come in after the 31st May. I sense a good case for constructive
dismissal and perhaps a lawsuit.
The real question is, what will Council do, if anything when the CAO comes
back? Her controlling style may be questioned by more than one councillor.
Will it be deemed efficient or destructive? The resignation letter certainly
questions the veracity of the CAO. Is this going to be a "she said - she
said" incident that will be the start of a questioning of the administration
or will councillors 'let sleeping dogs lie'?. Carolyn Campbell's departure
now leaves only Mrs Shaw, of the Golden Plough, as the last surviving member
of the 'old regime' left on the island. Will she be a survivor or will
Lynda Mitchell vote her off too? My guess is that a real investigation
of the state of affairs at the County is beyond the members of that Council
due to the lack of interest and time. The real losers will be the clients
of the social services department who have been protected from the worst
of the policies of the harris regime because as a caring bureaucrat Ms
Campbell did run interference between the horrible Harris legislation and
the clients.
Finally after at least four notices in the local papers of her 'party' Carl Farren has retired from her position as manager of the Cobourg Chamber of Commerce. Beatified last friday by her adoring fans, she vowed to keep involved in community affairs. The question now is what will happen to the Chamber. Unless we study history we are doomed to repeat it, and the BF (Before Farren) the C of C was a sorry sight. Low membership and an insular attitude. Managers coming and going contributed to little stability. Under the policy of rotating Presidents into short terms the position of manager became a strong one. But how much of that strength came from Carol's strong (some say intimidating) persona and how much from others is debatable. In any case we will be watching. I suspect that the temptation to become political will not be resisted.
Another touch of whimsy, Canadian Tire has lost its battle to seize the website "www.crappytire.com" In its defense it admitted that "CrappyTire" is not a derogatory term but rather a slang expression derived from Canadian Tire trademarks. I can't wait for the TV ads extolling the virtues of "Crappy Tire"!
The Northumberland Community Coalition is sponsoring a public showing of the PBS TV programme "Store-Wars - When Walmart comes to Town!" at the Cat and Fiddle on Thursday June 7th at 10pm, please attend if you are interested in meeting others in the community who do not want a Walmart in Town.
The Burd-Report wishes to offer its condolences Dorothy Sifton and the Family of Doug Sifton in his passing. His contributions to the Arts in Cobourg will be missed.
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The Walmart petition "hack attack" has been countered, I contacted the petition hosts and had the offending posts voided (the medical term is apt for this action) and now we know how to deal with offensive comments all you have to do is to let me know which ones offend. A debate has been going on behind the scenes about the conflict between free speech, bad taste and offensiveness, I am sure good taste will prevail.
On a design note, some of you may have noticed a difference in the page size of this copy. That is because I am trying to accommodate all readers and make the copy fit the screen. Unfortunately some of you are still working with the windows default resolution size of 640x480. This means that the Burd Report leaps off your pages larger than life [and so it should!, ed] and the background image, that is supposed to represent a jotter page, doesn't work properly. So folks, and I am sure you have been advised this before, change your screen resolution to at least 800x600. For instructions on changing it yourself (if you don't want to do it print them out and let your kids do it for you!) click here.
Did anybody notice the signs of broken arms and patted backs at Council the other night when a chorus of "Well donnas" erupted during the discussion about the traffic lights at Hibernia and Albert SSTs. came up? If the resolution to the debate is to leave the traffic lights there after the traffic diversion Council had better watch out for howls of protest and cries of "me too!" from other neighbourhoods, notably the D'Arcy/ University intersection folks. Meanwhile I hear that the folks on Albert St are not too happy with the level of traffic enforcement on that road.
This week saw the publication of two thoughtful and well researched op-ed pieces in the Cobourg Daily Star: one by Prof. Robert Washburn (link here) and one by Malcolm Wardman. The piece, about the problems of the hospital construction tendering process, by Robert is the finest I have seen him do, and I have been reading him for years, it was thorough, fair and laid out the problems, and offered a solution that will probably get under Bill Patchett's skin! Malcolm's piece scanned here dealt with a subject near to my heart, the OMB planning appeals, in such a way that pensive people will understand that the issue is far more than a gut reaction about shopping in big box stores.
By the way I did contact Bill Patchett for a comment about Robert's column and he told me he had spoken to all the parties involved and told them that the issue was premature. "Wait and see if they (Kenaidan) get the job." He did admit that the tactic of using a nonunion company to lower prices was a good move, "It will save money in the long run"
On another issue the renewal of the left and the attendant democracy discussion (for a full link look up in the top left hand corner of this site) I have taken a reader's suggestion that if local people participate then what they say should be recorded locally. Submissions will quickly get buried in a National debate, so here is the start of a local record.
Turning to Mr Bill's column this Saturday: as you know I have been critical of his practice of reprinting his email as an opinion column (and getting paid for it) Well this week I hope he is working for nothing as he has reprinted a three year old column, nice work if you can get it!!
On Friday I was invited to fill a room up for a political event. Paul Macklin MP had got himself into a bit of a bind by inviting a high-powered trade official to talk to the County Council about the FTAA. Unfortunately County Council was double booked and couldn't accommodate him so a meeting was setup to talk to the locals instead. I must say (because I know the MP's office reads this column), that the exit strategy was well planned and executed. Imagine a whole bunch of leading opinion makers, mainly in the room because the MP's office asked them, listening to a bureaucrat drone on about the FTAA and you have to say to yourself, "Paul you owe me one!". But back to the presentation. This well dressed smoothie from Ottawa who has spent 20 odd years in the Civil Service now tries to present the face of 'consultation'. I am sure that as records are kept the 26 people in the room are now the latest numbers in the 'consultation' game. He kept his cool never admitting the mistakes of the past or giving any of the present fears credence. For example when asked "Why should we believe you now, this is the third round of negotiations, when evidence abounds about the duplicity of the first rounds?" He sailed forward not admitting there had been a problem with the public accepting the first round or even, despite the memoirs of Simon Reisman and Thumper MacDonald which showed just how much Canada was taken to the cleaners, admitting the public is sceptical. He just relied on his opening remarks, "70% of Canadians believe that our way of life can be preserved, let me say that again, 30% don't!"
Question
of the week
Has
anybody, especially the political scientists and the provincial pols ever
figured out how you fix bad schools by taking money away from them. Same
goes for hospital why is it that hospitals that run deficits don't get
money and those who don't do?
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