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...
The outdoor temperature might have plummeted over the past week, but tensions among most everyone certainly seem to be rising. I have noticed it on social media, in the news, and in my own circle of friends, many are just plain fed up. With everything.
Pandemic fatigue is a reality for many, and it is causing nerves to be frazzled...
Welcome to 2022, a year that we are kicking off with a step backward. Like many parts of the world, Ontario has been grappling with the alarming speed with which the Omicron variant is spreading, and on Monday Premier Doug Ford made a very unpopular announcement – we are moving back to 'Step 2' of Ontario's reopening plan.
Our Premier...
It has been a long year, a long two years in fact, and with 2021 winding down, it is time for this scribe, and our Meaford Independent team, to take a little break.
On Monday the final council meeting of the year was held at Meaford Hall, an important meeting to close out the year as the draft budgets for...
Words are important. The words we choose to use, how we choose to use them, and the context in which we choose to use them are all critical to clear and accurate communication. As someone who writes for a living, I have noticed that many words we use have lost their true meaning, they have lost their true value;...
From time to time, while taking in a council meeting from my spot at the media table I am reminded of just how frustrating and thankless the job of a municipal councillor can be.
During this Monday's council meeting, I was thinking just that – the job of a local councillor can certainly be an exercise in frustration, and that...
I don't know anyone that has anything overwhelmingly positive to say about the experience of the past two years, and I think it is safe to say that most of us have had enough of it all, particularly the ongoing friction between 'us' and 'them', whatever that means these days.
We all need a break from the news and issues...
Back in May, I penned an editorial entitled 'Proposed Development Would Overwhelm Existing Neighbourhood', and on Tuesday afternoon (November 9) during a nearly four hour public planning meeting, Meaford residents turned out en masse to express overwhelming opposition to the SkyDev proposal for the Boucher Street property, formerly the Knights flooring factory.
With Meaford Hall's opera house, the temporary location...
