Renfrew’s downtown Business Improvement Area is expanding, pushing its borders outwards into the ancillary streets, or streets secondary to the main drag of Raglan Street.

This is no small thing, especially if you happen to live, and/or do business within this tertiary area that is now to be annexed by this entity that derives its authority through Renfrew Town Council, and through them from the Municipal Act of 2001.

My assertion that the Municipal Act is a deeply flawed piece of legislation is not abated by recent events, and this is just another one of those recent events under discussion. It makes me wonder if the authors of that piece of legislation had drafted it while at their local pub, since it causes as many problems as it sets out to solve, and satisfies the argument that the crafters were either egregiously distracted, had agendas to satisfy, or were just functionally incompetent.

The BIA invasion into the surrounding environs is another one of those seemingly endless staff-driven things that appears before a somewhat perplexed Council for approval, almost after-the-fact, because the timelines tend to be pretty tight.  I wonder what the actual reasoning is?

Is the tax levy that members pay into the organization not enough to fund their projects?  Is it an attempt to broaden their tax base to beef up their financials?

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