MEDICINE WHEEL DELAYS FULL OPERATION OF BAFN CULTURAL CENTRE

So this was the big secret that couldn’t be pried out of the hands of the gatekeepers over at Town Hall?

For a year now, I’ve been asking about the status of the Bonnechere Algonquin First Nation, or BAFN, particularly as an entity that partnered with the town to snag an indigenous-specific cultural grant as part of the Ma-Te-Way expansion effort. That partnership led to the significant presence of BAFN as part of the new Ma-Te-Way at what is now known as the yourFM Centre.

The place was always closed, and always empty, despite BAFN taking control of the premises in September 2024 and remaining there to this day, paying a rent of a single Canadian dollar a month until December of this year, where the rent will jump substantially to $25,000/year, or approximately $2,083/month, less than most folks pay for apartments here in town. Both the Town and the BAFN agree that this rent is below market value, something indicated in the founding documents released as part of an agenda dump in preparation for tonight’s council meeting.

Continue reading →

October 21, 2025

DAYCARE SAFETY: PROTECTING KIDS FROM TRAFFIC

It was less than a month ago that a man in his seventies lost control of his SUV and plowed into a daycare in Richmond Hill, killing a toddler and injuring six others.

And this isn’t the first time this has happened, either.

The man behind the wheel faces one count dangerous operation causing death and three counts of dangerous operation causing bodily harm. The parents of the 17 month-old boy killed, Liam Riazati, face a crushing loss.

Nobody will argue that, when we send our kids to schools, or daycares, they ought to be safe. Yet some of those same people design daycares, or complexes including daycares, and do so in such a manner as to be seemingly oblivious to the potential for this sort of thing happening.

Continue reading →

October 7, 2025

COUNCIL DEFERS ICE MARKING CONTRACT DECISION

Eastern Rink Services.

As the name implies, it’s a company specializing in providing services to rinks, something we have two of now with the Ma-Te-Way expansion yielding a second ice pad for community use.

Specifically, it’s a company that paints the ice, as in paints the markings on the ice, the lines, the graphics, the whole deal. If you’ve ever wondered how they get the ice so perfectly marked up in our hockey arenas far and wide, then companies like Eastern Rink Services come into the conversation.

The company came to my interest during the last Renfrew Town Council meeting when a contract came up for painting the markings on the ice at Ma-Te-Way for the 2025-26 season. Shawn Eckford, Recreation Operations Supervisor, had the item tucked into the agenda, the type of decision-making minutia that makes up a large chunk of a council meeting. These things fly past Council all the time, routine matters that often don’t provoke much discussion, just a show of hands and we’ll be on our way. If Council had a drive-thru window, it would be stuff like this that gets done there.

But this was different.

Continue reading →

April 4, 2025

THE LIGHTS AT MA-TE-WAY

It was back in October 2024 when Councillor Andrew Dick announced at Council that the ballparks at Ma-Te-Way were going to be lit in the summer of 2025 and “It doesn’t matter what it costs.”

It’s February 2025 and baseball season is just a little over three months away, so we seem to be approaching a time of critical decision-making when it comes to this issue.

There is one thing that’s generally regarded as being certain and where agreement is unanimous. The lights at Ma-Te-Way are a mess, and that mess is going to require some cash to fix. And if the fix is to include the Dog Park and a parking lot, then the cash required will be more than to just light the three fields.

Councillor Dick is a ballplayer, so he’s close to the issue. That’s not a problem in any way, as these ballparks are pretty heavily-used, and they do bring money into the community in terms of user fees and peripheral spending from ball teams on game day or on tournament weekends. So, while calling the ball fields economic engines might be a stretch to a degree, any time a ball team comes to town or stays in town, that peripheral spending does have an impact on restaurants, convenience stores, motels, pizza shops, and yes, beer and liquor stores, although that last area can now be folded into grocery and corner stores as well.

The situation regarding lighting at Ma-Te-Way involves not a crumbling infrastructure, but rather a crumbled infrastructure. In other words, the best-before date was, to put it bluntly, a long time ago, and perhaps mitigated by decisions that could have been made by past councils, but that’s a moot point in that they weren’t made, and so here we are, in the dark.

Continue reading →

February 10, 2025

SEEMING TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ANOTHER’S WEAKNESS

What do you call it when one party of a deal profits from the misfortune or disadvantage of the other party? When one party enters into the agreement with eyes wide-open, with intent, and full knowledge that the other party is in a vulnerable situation, or the other party is misrepresenting their authority, or not having the full approval of a superior person or body to exercise that authority with respect to the deal in question? When one party knows, or ought to know, that they are perhaps fleecing the other party, or the third party that person ostensibly represents?

What do you call behaviour like this?

Exploitation comes to mind as a start. Taking advantage of someone else’s stupidity or possible malfeasance or misrepresentation, recognizing the advantage you possess, and seizing the opportunity to do just that.

Maybe opportunism is the correct word instead, just for the fact that you saw the opportunity, recognized it for what it was, and looked like you jumped on it to your advantage, possibly to the disadvantage of others.

What about predatory? Where you may have recognized the situation, inserted yourself into it knowing that an unfair advantage could be obtained, and pursued that unfair advantage for your own benefit. Where maybe you actively worked in concert with the weaker party all along, creating the situation where your advantage and their disadvantage would be cemented by contract, knowing that once signed, that contract would be considered valid except for very rare circumstances.

In business, they might call this business savvy, good business acumen. They might say a deal is a deal and the other party should have known better. They might say it’s not their fault the other party was stupid, or didn’t follow the proper rules, or that the people above that person didn’t exercise their proper due diligence. They might say it’s not their fault everyone on the other side of the contract appeared to be asleep or intimidated. Business is business. If you can’t play with the big boys, get the hell out of the ring.

Continue reading →

December 23, 2024

“IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT IT COSTS, IT’S GOTTA BE DONE.”

“It doesn’t matter what it costs, it’s gotta be done.”

I have to circle back to a comment made by Renfrew councillor Andrew Dick in the most recent council meeting of October 22, 2024. It concerned the lighting available at Renfrew’s Ma-Te-Way ballfields.

The councillor was reflecting a certain frustration with the lighting situation at Ma-Te-Way, particularly in the face of a Parks and Recreation report that indicated that all underground electrical infrastructure outside at Ma-Te-Way was in a condition of complete failure and degradation. So much so that contractors have advised that the lights dependant upon the proper functioning of that infrastructure not be turned on until the failed aspects of it be replaced.

Council voted to proceed with an engineering study by engineering consultants JP2G that would culminate in recommendations as to how to proceed. The only problem with that, and of particular concern to Councillor Dick, was the fact that the engineering review wouldn’t be completed until well after the 2025 baseball season had concluded. In other words, no lights in 2025.

Continue reading →

November 10, 2024

THE LIGHTS AT MA-TE-WAY

THE LIGHTS AT MA-TE-WAY: JP2G ENGINEERING STUDY

SEGMENT 1:

The Committee of the Whole will look at a proposal by engineering and planning consultants JP2G to provide a detailed site investigation and prepare a report with recommendations and cost estimates to replace existing lighting at the Ma-Te-Way complex, and delay any work until 2025.

ACTING-DIRECTOR ECKFORD

Council directed staff in a September meeting to investigate the underground power lines and boxes that provided power for lighting for three ball fields, Tye, Seeley, and Rusheleau. Local electricians attended Ma-Te-Way as part of this inspection, and tested the lines, concluding that the majority of those lines were in need of repair or replacement.

The department recommends having JP2G totally re-design how electricity and lighting can be better provided, efficiently and cost-effectively, for users of the various facilities contained within the park.

One of the local electricians provided some possible solutions and provided estimates for those solutions, ranging from $121,000 to $171,000 before HST. In light of these figures, it was felt that it would be a reasonable move to hire JP2G to do the proposed investigation leading to a redesIgn for a shade under $4000, and that this would be a good first step.

That JP2G project would be undertaken four weeks upon the awarding of the contract, but would conclude too late in the season for any action to be taken on its recommendations this year. That pushes any actual work into the 2025 season. That would mean that “some field usage” would be impacted in the spring. A facility usage report showed that field usage from May 1, 2024 to September 30, 2024 saw only 87.5 hours of usage after 8 PM. The department would recommend a “phased-in” approach to any work, with work being done on Tye first, followed by Rusheleau, followed by Seeley, and then the toboggan hill last. If this were to be the case, a solar-based lighting system would need to be implemented to provide light for the toboggan hill until spring 2025.

Continue reading →

November 4, 2024