Cobourg Blog

Cobourg’s council is still ignoring the public

John Draper — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:23:30 +0000

Before the last Municipal Election, it was commonly said by many - including me - that the council was arrogant and ignored the public’s request for information. Presentations were largely ignored, information was meagre and the only justification I heard was that “we can’t help it if the papers don’t publish what we give them”. So we elected a new council with two new faces Miriam Mutton and Stan Frost. So what do we have now? Basically the same except that Miriam asks the questions for us inside the council but gets the same response - deathly silence. The council publishes a small newsletter every few months but it gives virtually no detail on the contentious issues like policing and the Frink.

Since the council obviously thinks it has money to spare (spending big on the Police and the Frink), perhaps they could spend a bit on communications. Perhaps a paid ad in the paper or a much larger newsletter. Or a low cost way would be their web site - for example detailed answers to questions publicly asked. If they “can’t afford this” for some reason, I’d be happy to post answers on this blog!

I support Martin Partridge’s submission to the Minister of Environment on the Frink issue mostly because I think there are still unanswered questions which the council is arrogantly ignoring.

For example:

What is the full true cost - start to finish plus maintenance?
How many people truly support it as it currently stands - with no pond but instead a large concrete slab for most of the year. I suspect most support disappeared when it became just a rink.
Why do the council think it will be used enough to make it worth all this money? What study was done? Hopefully it was better than the recent parking study which was an utter waste of money - but I suspect there was no study at all.

I’m sure there are more questions, but those are mine. And the biggest question of all, why does the council ignore all these questions and related submissions to council on the subject?

To download Martin’s submission to the MOE, click here.

County Wide Policing is right for Cobourg

John Draper — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:01:38 +0000

Tomorrow will be the last Public Meeting in Cobourg on the subject of the Cobourg Police Force being replaced by County wide policing by the OPP . As Mike Hick has succinctly described in the Cobourg Star today, there are three reasons why this is a good idea:

Cost saving - Cobourg would save $1.9M out of a total town budget of $17M or 11%. Since the OPP will be providing the same service, it would be irresponsible of the council to vote against the OPP. If they voted in favour of keeping the status quo, they would be in effect voting for a tax increase of that amount. There would be an appeal to the Province to replace them as incompetent if they brought in such an increase in a normal budget session!
Improved management - the Police services boards over the past several years cannot point to any success in hring a Police Chief nor in getting co-operation with nearby Police Forces. So it’s clear that it needs to go up one level to the County. Recruiting a chief from the ranks of the much larger OPP and recruiting the board from the larger area of the county can only be major improvements.
Better job environment for the police officers resulting in even better police performance. Whether in a Police Force or in Government or in any type of employment, there are more job opportunities, more learning and more training in a larger pool than in a group as small as the Cobourg Police Force.

The items still being discussed do not change this overall picture - just the fine detail. And the objections being raised about degraded service are all speculation. Let’s hope the council does the right thing this time at least - if not, hopefully the county will do it for them. Their vote is June 16 and the County vote is scheduled for July.

Global Warming is not Man Made

John Draper — Sat, 17 May 2008 19:14:00 +0000

Although Global warming is undeniable as proved by Arctic Ocean and glaciers melting, there is yet no proof that man has been the reason for it. Nor is there any evidence that the best efforts of the human race will make any difference. There have been several statments by Scientists that have stated this but the media establishment has mostly ignored them. The first major one was after the 1992 earth summit with 4000 signatures including 72 Nobel Prize winners. [source: Lawrence Solomon - web site www.energyprobe.org]

Further, implementing the Kyoto protocol would be harmful because Carbon Dioxide is actually beneficial. This was the subject of another petition/statement organized by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine and has 19,000 signatures as of today [www.oism.org/pproject/]

So why do people like the idea that man is causing global warming and can fix it? To me there are three reasons: First, few people understand science and the scientific method and many think global warming is a popularity or political contest; second, it gets confused with the environment in general - cloth grocery bags are good but not because of global warming; and third, people are vain - they like to believe humans are significant.

So let’s by all means work towards a better environment (and also conserving earth’s resources such as oil) but if we want to do something about global warming, we should focus on coping with the coming changes.

So the Rink is happening but the Pond is not

John Draper — Sun, 11 May 2008 14:53:13 +0000

The votes have been consistently 4 in favour and 3 against. Mayor Delanty, Bob Spooner, Dean McCaughey and Bill MacDonald in favour; with Miriam Mutton, Stan Frost and Gil Brocanier against. Agree with them or not, it’s interesting to analyze why they vote this way. Why would they vote as they do?
I suggest it breaks down as follows:

Peter Delanty asked his Liberal friends for money, got it and now has to follow through or lose face.
Bob Spooner is a big hockey fan and the more chances for people to play hockey the better
Dean McCaughey - probably believes he is supporting the silent majority (the only acceptable reason)
Bill MacDonald - maybe the same as Dean - who knows.
Deputy Mayor Gil Brocanier - thinks it’s a waste of money - he manages the budget so is more attuned.
Miriam Mutton - wants to delay to be sure the council really knows what the majority wants - a good thing in this case.
Stan Frost - seems to share Gil and Miriam’s concerns.

The Rink is certainly not what was originally suggested. Originally a park was suggested with space for a natural rink with no concrete. Then the Fountain, Pond and Artificial rink were suggested when we got the grant (courtesy of Peter’s connections).

Let’s see what happens. The upside is that the Rink may turn out to be a big success - I’d be interested in a count of users through the next winter. We may even get bus tours with people marveling at the “”Rink in a Park”"! More likely it will be mostly deserted except for one or two families on one or two weekends in winter. With no fence, I can’t see hockey being played there.

Another upside is that the next council could spend a few bucks and add a border to the concrete and create our pond after all. Council changing its mind implies the majority would (hopefully) vote for new councilors. However, I understand that at least two of the frink supporters are not expected to run again next time. Something to look forward to!

Ontario a Have-Not Province?

John Draper — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:33:40 +0000

Has anyone noticed a trend in the last few years about what jobs are available? In general, there are fewer manufacturing jobs and more service jobs. Every few years I read an article that talks about that in general terms and it’s happening right before our eyes. Workers who are in manufacturing are being replaced by automation and by off-shore workers who are paid less. Unions can slow down the process but not stop the trend. The best thing unions can do is to stay away from the factories - witness the Japanese factories in Ontario. The next thing they can do is offer concessions - witness the recent concessions at Ford. But eventually, there will be fewer manufacturing jobs.
To cope with the coming change, we need to direct our energies at service jobs. These include financial, call centres, construction, retail, travel, health, and more. Some very specialized manufacturing that benefits by being very close to the end market will survive but automotive manufacturing in Canada will basically get to be quite a small industry.
Since Ontario depends more on manufacturing than western provinces, Ontario is truly in danger of becoming a “have-not” province. So instead of subsidizing industries with little future, Governments should be developing new ones. Focus should be on retraining and support for new small businesses. Why throw good taxpayer money at a lost cause? Buzz Hargrove is already trying to convince politicians to support the CAW - um, sorry, support auto manufacturing. But I bet Buzz is pleased that he’s not too far from retiring from this losing game.
John Draper

Verdict on Brenda Martin

John Draper — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

First of all, you have to wonder about Brenda Martin’s common sense - why did she not leave when her boss was charged. Did she have faith in the Mexican Justice system? Maybe hindsight is why we know better but it seems she wanted to stay in Mexico for some reason we don’t understand.

And now, it seems clear why the verdict had to be guilty. No judge in Canada , US or Western Europe would find her guilty based purely on what the Mexicans admitted was purely circumstantial evidence - or do I have too much faith in our system? But if evidence is only that “she must have known” - it’s ludicrous that she would be found guilty. So why then? It can only be because the Mexican judge wanted to support his peers who had imprisoned her for 2 years. How else to justify this? If innocent, then they would have to explain why they imprisoned an innocent person for 2 years? This way Mexico “saves face”! The judge makes/keeps friends and he keeps his job. I’m not usually this cynical but I am when it comes to third world countries and their rampant corruption. Looks like Mexico just proved it really is a third world banana republic. Why would I want to holiday there? Big risk!!

Hopefully, she can now be transferred to Canada to serve her sentence and for once, Canada’s lenient prison laws are a benefit and she can be released immediately. But the Mexicans will want their money (fine) first - where else will the bribe money come from? Maybe the Canadian Government can “lend” it to her and get it back from the taxpayers. But wait, that’s a “gift”. I’m sure the Mexicans do equally devious things - so why shouldn’t we in this case?

John Draper

And now for something completely different

John Draper — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:27:30 +0000

In about 1995 I started lugging around a laptop as part of my job for the obvious benefit of taking most of your office with you. When I got home or checked into a hotel, I would plug into the phone jack and download emails at about 20kbps. There were no social sites like Facebook and no home video sites like YouTube but we were a lot more connected than only a few years earlier. Even in 2000, this was the situation. Today, I went to the Human Bean and used their free wireless network to do the same thing except at much higher speeds. There are 3 places I know of where you can do this in Cobourg. But I am behind the “mobility times” - many people have Blackberries and do the same thing anywhere - not just in a cafe or hotel.

This is an incredibly fast change - I can’t think of all the social implications but they will come. This is as certain as the fact that Tibet is now in the Internet world and Chinese actions cannot be hidden from the world like they could when the Dalai Lama was forced to leave. Technology sometimes changes the way we live as well as the way we work. Examples: Telegraph, phone, TV, Internet, High speed Internet, Social networks…. What will be next? Biological technology has also made big social changes - antibiotics, effective birth control and more.

Hiding from technology does not help. Saying “I don’t need or want to participate” is not like insisting that radio is just as good as TV - it’s more like saying that being a hermit is better than living in a town. The world will change - you can either participate and benefit or live in a world that no longer exists.

But human nature is such that change is resisted - by some more than others. Some change should be resisted (e.g. pulling down historical buildings) but other changes both technological and social are inevitable. We should try to cope with them rather than try to stop them. This is a wide ranging comment - I don’t want to colour it (yet) by picking on a particular “change” but I’m sure others will!

John Draper

A Project Revised can become Totally Different

John Draper — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 15:25:32 +0000

When the Fountain/Rink project was proposed, it was a plus for Summer and a plus for Winter. In summer, the green space would be enhanced with a moderate sized shallow pool with a small fountain in the middle. No one imagined a large fountain (e.g. like in Las Vegas) - so the pool was the main feature. In winter, the pool would become ice and there would be skating. At all times, an attractive feature in our “downtown” park. Budget issues were covered by the Provincial Government grant (except for maintenance). We can argue about the actual usage of the rink but it would not be ugly.

Now, because of budget restrictions, the winter part stays much the same but the summer part becomes ugly - a large slab of concrete will certainly be ugly unless it is 100% covered with planters - I think the plan is just some planters. And lots of planters adds significantly to the maintenence cost (do we know the number?). I’d rather spend the extra cash up front to save on maintenance and end up with the original project. The bastardized version now proposed is no longer the original project - it will be plain ugly and awful in summer. We’ll start to look forward to the Rotary tent covering it!

All we need is one more councillor to recognize this situation and speak up.

John Draper

Oppression? In Peterborough?

cobourgcurmudgeon — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:09:03 +0000

This in the Star, “along with demanding his resignation, Mr. Ma said he will be calling on Mr. Gilchrist to take anti-oppression training.”
Mr. Ma is the ‘co-ordinator of something called ‘Community and Race Relations Committee’, a professional Racism Finder General.
“See we got racism, I say racism, right here, right here in River City”.
Peterborough a hotbed of racial strife? Always seemed a rather dull town to me.

Gordon Gilchrist and comments about immigrants

Daniel J. Christie — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:53:24 +0000

The Great Gilchrist has been much in the news lately over his comments in the local press about immigrants. There are calls for his resignation before the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. If El Gordo does exit ungracefully and under a cloud it won’t be the first time. Check this link from the Parliament of Canada. On the left side there’s a heading called ‘Deaths and Resignation’. Click on it and up comes alist of the dead and disgraced. Gordon Gilchrist falls into the latter catagory because of his conviction on income tax evasion. Ergo, Gordo’s a convicted criminal. So….how is it he ever managed to get himself on the schoolboard in the first place? Secondly, what kind of ego does a convicted criminal have to have to (a) demand that those under his command -like teachers- undergo criminal record checks, but not him and (b) make blanket public accusations connecting immigrants and criminal activity.Here’s your hat, Gorf. What’s your rush?