A FESTIVAL OF ERRORS?

In conversation with all the gossip-mongers out there who specialize in small-town hogwash, perhaps the topic that comes up most often, outside of Ma-Te-Way of course, is the Renfrew Bluegrass Festival, or more particularly, the cancellation of the Bluegrass Festival once hosted by the Town of Renfrew.

This festival, and its cancellation, appears to have been in the gunsights of Mayor Tom Sidney from the get-go after his election as mayor in the 2022 municipal elections.

Landslide Tom — he won by 13 votes — apparently told his newly assembled Council that the Renfrew Bluegrass Festival was no longer going to be a thing, and that he was going to be putting the boots to what a lot of other people seem to think was a wildly successful venture.

Why?

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February 21, 2025

FORMER CAO A MYSTERY MAN

Who is Rob Tremblay?

Over the past several months, I’ve had plenty of conversations with numerous locals regarding local government, local governance, the administration of local governance, and the general way in which things are done or not done when it comes to this sleepy little town along the banks of the mighty Bonnechere.

It’s amazing, though, how often that name pops into the conversation on its own. I don’t know Rob Tremblay from a head of lettuce, and similar to a head of lettuce, information on him seems hard to come by.

I know he was the CAO —Chief Administrative Officer — of Renfrew. And then he wasn’t.

Just like that, poof, a lingering puff of smoke, and there he was, gone. Surely not enough time in that office to leave a footprint. And yet, from the conversations I’m having, you would think that he not only left a footprint, but a bootprint with a bruise.

I didn’t meet anyone who really pumped his tires, I can tell you that. And as I said, I don’t know the fellow, or know of the fellow, other than he kept coming up unbidden in conversations. Not that I’m an elite investigator or anything, but it surely means something.

It means there’s either something more out there to be known or there’s an individual in desperate need of a reputational reboot, at least as it pertains to a sleepy little town along the banks of the mighty Bonnechere.

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February 19, 2025

SATURDAY AFTERNOON AT THE LIBRARY

A Saturday afternoon at the library is something special.

I once pulled that trick quite a bit back in the day, back when I was in university, and quite frankly the boys in residence were starting to get on my nerves.

Off to the campus library I would go, and I’d usually park myself at one of the big tables which, on the weekend, were usually there for the taking. During the week, you’d either share one of these with several others, often in groups, or you would go for the semi-privacy of a study carrel, where you could sort of slice yourself off from the rest of the world inside your own little demi-cubicle.

I will say that I managed to get a ton of work done on these occasions, since you’re at the library, and, well, why not? But it was also an exercise in people watching, something I’ve always been keen to do, the student of humanity that I like to think that I am.

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January 26, 2025

THIRD PARTY REPORT: SCRATCHING THE SURFACE

In a previous article I referred to the Third Party Report by WSCS Consulting into the Ma-Te-Way situation as a flawed document.

I should be clear that in no way am I questioning the integrity of the authors of the document, nor am I diminishing the level of rigour, depth, and detail that was put into what was, essentially, a very difficult job. I want to make sure that I come across as applauding the work done, and the report proffered.

There can be no such thing as a perfect document because there’s no such thing as a perfect investigator, author, or subject matter, all involving three heavily involving human elements. In the case of this report, it’s the third part, the subject part, that made the compilation of information and the cobbling together of that information more than just your average challenge. It made it virtually impossible to get down to the absolute brass tacks of the issue, although the authors did successfully pull back the curtain on much of what transpired in what has to be the Town of Renfrew’s biggest debacle ever.

One needs to be careful when bandying about allegations regarding others, and that need for care can often lead to an extraordinary level of caution when attempting to report on items that may involve measures of incompetence, negligence, and malfeasance. And sometimes that can lead to a report that hovers around the periphery rather than drilling into the potentially dangerous areas. This report navigates those difficulties about as well as one might hope for.

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January 15, 2025

RADIO STATION DEAL REVIEWED AFTER FIVE YEARS

In four years, the deal a local radio station signed with an apparently unauthorized and unsupervised member of Renfrew Town staff will come under review, with the town having the opportunity to back out of the deal.

It’s my opinion the town should do just that.

I won’t get into the ins and outs of it, but that radio station should not have their name on that building, Ma-Te-Way, nor should they be allowed to refer to it as they currently do, like it’s theirs. Because it’s not.

This will become an issue in the next municipal election, whether the status-quo types like that or not. The sun shines for us as it shines for them, and I’d like to see God’s will and testament where he bequeathed all of that to any fast-one artists who think they run the place. You may read into that the possibility of town elites, town staff, or town politicians. Those running outside their lanes need to be shown their lanes, or disqualified from the event altogether.

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January 10, 2025

SMALL TOWN ELITES

Honestly, they’re just people, no different from you and I.

If all goes right, they wake up in the morning blessed with a new day. Some get the kids ready before hustling them off to wherever it is the kids go for the day. Some take out the trash before heading to work, because it’s, well, Tuesday. Some get up earlier because that new hair straightener from Amazon was on the step yesterday when they got home. A few wake up crusty, regretting those last few drinks that had them crawling into bed mere hours before and now crawling out of bed looking for the Tylenol.

It’s all pretty normal stuff, the kind of life tapestry that’s unfolding all around as others do the same things more or less, except for the night shift folks, who I won’t talk about because they wreck my narrative.

People, getting a start to their day, one foot after the next, inexorably leading to wherever it is they themselves go for the day. Almost an old-school Norman Rockwell feel to it.

Some work for others, some work for themselves. Some are part of the workforce, some provide jobs for that workforce. Some have their own businesses, some own their own businesses with storefronts along the downtown corridor. Some work for the public sector, most for the private. And every single one of them, a lot of them anyway, are salt of the earth types, the people you see at Walmart or No Frills or Timmies, or the rink on a Saturday morning. Their kids mix with yours, they mix with you, and it’s all a beautiful tableau of everyday life here in The Valley.

What could possibly upset all this, and transform these very same people into something less than a beautiful slice of everyday life?

Giving them a faint sniff of something they mistake for power. That’ll do it almost every time.

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December 20, 2024

NAMING AND SPONSORHIP RIGHTS AT MA-TE-WAY: WHO GETS WHAT, HOW, WHEN, AND FOR HOW MUCH?

The bonanza is on.

The Town of Renfrew is in the business now of selling naming rights to anything that doesn’t move, and really, if you count the ice-resurfacer at Ma-Te-Way, things that do move as well. Just don’t get your eyes on that ice-resurfacer just yet, because I think somebody might have scooped you on that.

But fear not, perhaps in the future, rolling stock like snowplows and public works trucks may be up for sponsorship, along with park benches, various un-spoken-for rooms at Ma-Te-Way, perhaps even the waste receptacle at the Dog Park. For pennies on the dollar, you could adorn such a receptacle with the name, perhaps even the image, of your worst enemy.

But before you start coming up with a short-list of enemies, you’d do well to understand that these naming/sponsorship rights are to be awarded on a first-come-first serve basis, yet the Town attempts to cover itself by claiming it has the right to reject any applicant for any number of vaguely defined reasons.

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December 19, 2024