I’m going to come right out and say that I know not much when it comes to a proposed housing development near the current Dragonfly Golf Links, but that said, I’m not going to let that stop me from discussing the proposal.

Jurisdictional boundary lines between municipalities are incredibly important in that they often divide two municipalities with completely different rules and different facts on the ground.  I believe that’s something that can be said with respect to the Renfrew/Admaston-Bromley line.  Plainly said, the property tax burden on one side of that line is far heavier than it is on the other, and that alone is a major reason for developers to feel skittish about building homes in Renfrew, a community where I believe nine new homes were built over the past four years, not exactly a scintillating rate of construction to be sure.

When it comes to the Board of Directors overseeing the administration of Community Living Renfrew County South, it becomes readily apparent that there are an awful lot of linkages to a long-standing local construction company, that being M. Sullivan and Sons.

Fully four of the eight-person membership have direct links to Sullivan.  Two others are connected to Magellan Aerospace.  One board member is connected to both.

I will not, in any way, make any attempt to disparage any of these people or minimize the terrific work they do behind the scenes in this community and in Arnprior.  If it were not for people like these, life would be more of a challenge for those of us beset by disadvantages, be they mental or physical.

I’ve been spending the last several days churning out articles to bring to light the important aspects of the current labour dispute between Community Living Renfrew County South and their employees belonging to Local 472 of OPSEU.

As I dig into the issues and the roadblocks, a name keeps popping up as being sort of a common denominator for everything that’s going wrong with these negotiations, which aren’t really negotiations at all, but rather a naked shakedown of employee rights.

That name belongs to CLRCS Executive Director Jennifer Lavallee.

You’ve put in the time and you’ve paid your dues.  You successfully rose through the ranks of your workplace, where now you sit in the chair where real decisions are made.  

You just secured a 10% raise.  Hell, you’re even on the Sunshine List.

Life is looking pretty good.

But then your employer, and those senior to you, hand you an assignment that has all the appearances of a bag of shit.

Honestly, what a bunch of knobs.

It seems that Ford Nation picnic fiasco is really biting into the PC government’s ability to present themselves as good stewards of government while maintaining a straight face.

You’ll recall how Ford’s political love-fest was knocked ass-over-tea kettle last week when hundreds of OPSEU members showed up and dominated the space, drowning out the premier for the entire time he spoke.  He hasn’t been this embarrassed since Toronto fans booed him during the victory parade for the NBA champion Raptors back in 2019.  My God, they even cheered Justin Trudeau, also present on the same stage.

To a conservative of any sort, that sucks big time.