Spring has sprung, the birds are chirping, and nearly all of the pandemic restrictions under which we've been living for more than two years have been lifted. And while we might expect to be collectively chuffed with all of these positive developments, instead, no matter where we turn, we are seeing and hearing division amongst us.
While we should be...
As the pandemic has turned endemic, most COVID restrictions have recently been lifted with the remaining restrictions to be lifted in the near future, allowing us to live our lives in a new normal. As of March 21, we will even be free of the often contentious mask mandate in most situations, welcome news to many.
At the start of...
With a municipal election to be held in October, we will soon see candidates announce their intentions to seek a seat on council, and voters will be faced with the task of sorting through the candidates in hopes of finding some that suit their needs as municipal councillors. But what should we be looking for? What makes for a...
I had a conversation with a friend recently and he expressed frustration with the municipal tax increase for this year. He suggested to me that it is nonsense that members of council couldn't find areas to cut, and he suggested further that they should begin with their salaries.
“How much do you think they make?” I asked, a little shocked...
Like others, I was taken by surprise with the news of the Meaford Library Board's decision to appoint municipal CAO Rob Armstrong as CEO for the library.
In Ontario per the Public Libraries Act (PLA), it is not local councils who make the decisions regarding library operations, it is the Library Board that holds that responsibility. So though I have...
It would not be unfair to suggest that Council's paid parking pilot project has been a muddled mess since its very inception, and this week Council yet again reversed course on their own plan.
In November of 2021, I wrote that members of Council were requesting so many exemptions from their planned expansion of the program from Memorial Park last...
If you've been feeling like the entire world has gone crazy, you are not alone.
Protests on Parliament Hill, a potential war brewing on the Russia-Ukraine border, continued friction over pandemic protocols, volcanoes erupting, outrage over the latest statements by celebrities or politicians, everywhere we turn there seems to be chaos, confusion, and frustration.
Perhaps what we are seeing is extreme...
The annual statutory public budget meeting is an opportunity for ratepayers to learn about the coming year's municipal budget and to offer their input before Council votes to approve the 2022 budgets. Monday's statutory public meeting saw just a handful of folks taking in the live-stream of the meeting, and not one resident registered to speak to Council about...
With the first month of 2022 nearly finished, our pandemic life continues, but if the recent announcement by the Province holds true, by the middle of March many of the pandemic restrictions under which we have been living for more than two years will be lifted.
I doubt there is anyone in Ontario who is not looking forward to the...
Budget time is a time of heightened anxiety for those who serve on municipal councils. No matter what a council does there are going to be complaints; either a council is spending too much, or they aren't providing enough funding for this, or for that. Budgets can be a no-win endeavour for members of council.
Over the more than a...
