Tag: renfrew-council

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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MFIPPA: A JOKE THAT’S NO LAUGHING MATTER

After taking a second look at the MFIPPA document — Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act — I feel about as ready as I can be to offer commentary with the attached proviso that in no way am I suggesting said commentary is an exhaustive and thorough exercise.  I do, however, feel comfortable enough in concluding that the points and examples I bring forward are more or less translatable to the entire document, and thereby serve as an honest interpretation or representation of the Act as a whole.

Remember that lawyers fight about this stuff all the time, so if there’s disagreement around my interpretation, then fair game as far as I’m concerned.

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MFIPPA: WHERE TOWN INFORMATION GOES TO DIE

This morning I read the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Then I took two extra-strength Tylenol.

Listen, if you’ve got absolutely nothing to do this Friday night, and I mean absolutely nothing to do, then you might want to nestle into your favourite chair, choose a libation that fits the mood — none that would come to mind, unless you had several of said libation —give the dog at your feet a couple of encouraging head-pats, and dig into this document.  If you felt there was nothing on television before all of this, I assure you you’ll change your mind once you start getting into it.

If you have a family member you absolutely detest but that familial protocol dictates you get them something as a stocking stuffer, print this thing out, wrap a pretty bow around it, and stick it in there.  Same for office parties where there’s a Secret Santa kind of thing going on.  If you got Bill from accounting, here’s your chance to really throw a f**k into his Christmas.

I now feel I’ve got a deeper appreciation for the intransigence that town staff, well some of them anyway, have for not being open with information.  For showing the public the hand when the public makes a request for information.  For going into closed meetings to conduct their backroom machinations away from any prying eyes that might upset their apple cart.

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RENFREW TOWN COUNCIL MEETING 10/12/24: SCOUTING REPORT

A lot of times you get what you pay for, and then sometimes you just don’t.

Some scouting report this is going to be, what with no high human drama to report on, no scandalous utterances, no gotcha moments, no fisticuffs like we see in some legislative gatherings.

Just business.  Present/discuss/vote/table/next.  Like I said, just business.

Coulda just stayed at home and watched some hoops on the tube.

Still, though, I’m glad I didn’t.

It’s not like I know everything about everything, and showing up to a Renfrew Town Council is an education of sorts, something I mean earnestly.  Democracy is a complex beast, and one of those things that seems to be viewed from a lot of different perspectives.  Braving freezing rain, like everyone else present did, is something one has to consider doing if one wants to truly understand, not just the issues and policies, but the mechanics and procedures of local democracy at work.

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RENFREW TOWN COUNCIL: MEETING PREVIEW 10/12/24

It’s Tuesday, December 10th and everyone’s phone calendar is beeping and pinging, flashing lights and spitting out confetti.  Because tonight is the next episode of a Renfrew Town Council meeting, a must-have on any self-respecting phone calendar app.

What makes tonight so special?  Well, nothing, really.  I mean there’ll be some stuff, because there’s stuff enclosed in the 200 page agenda output, so sure, there’ll be some stuff.

Will there be the push and pull, the thrust and counter-thrust of argument and ideas?  Will there be a clash of philosophical and ideological narratives?  How about giant personalities, standing out and apart from the pack, voices ringing in oratorical hyperbole, inducing tears of inspiration?

In order of appearance, the answers would be no, no, and, well,  no.

If you want that kind of thing, maybe you should just stay at home and wait for something to happen there.  Then maybe go to bed.

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RENFREW’S MASTER TRANSPORTATION PLAN: PATHWAYS TO THE FUTURE

One agenda item for Tuesday evening’s Renfrew Town Council Meeting is the formal introduction of the town’s Master Transportation Plan, a roadmap into the future development of Renfrew’s transportation network as the town grows over the next twenty to thirty years.

Organized around short, medium, and long-term time frames, the plan includes a series of maps/diagrams that display some of the transportation options being looked at. Those maps and diagrams are provided below in the gallery, while the presentation documents are located in full at the bottom of the page.

It’s not my intention here to re-write an already well-written document. BT Engineering, the engineering consultancy group preparing the document, has done a really good job of explaining the underpinning rationale behind their ideas, their scientific methodology, and taking into account the wide array of factors that need to be considered before moving forward with projects that are inextricably linked, as the short term transitions to the medium term, then the medium to the long.

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COUNCIL BRAKE-CHECKS STAFF INFO-TECH RECOMMENDATION

In a way, it seemed that Wednesday morning’s Town Council meeting, at least the open part of it, was the relative political equivalent of a McDonald’s drive-thru window, in that you got what you were looking for much quicker than had you gone for the regular in-store experience.  At least for me, anyways, since Council then went into closed session, please don’t get me started.

But in that brief period of sunshine, important work was done, and that’s not being sarcastic.

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TOWN COUNCIL AND CLOSED SESSIONS. THE RULE RATHER THAN THE EXCEPTION.

I don’t think I’ve seen Renfrew Town Council at its best.  I don’t know if it has one.

So far as I’ve been able to determine from a first-hand point of view, there is no best to be had, unless they really crank it up behind closed doors, where they kick everyone out of the room so that they can talk about the real stuff, the stuff that people want answers to.  I can only assume they’re talking about important things in there, but how would I know?  As I said, I, and anyone else present, have been shown the door.  Only the so-called primary actors remain, the inner circle, the sanctum, the privileged few.  The ones who matter.

The foxes slamming the door of the henhouse once inside.

After close to three hours of the eyeball-bleeding, public-facing facade of “openness and transparency,” this council will often go into closed session.  Top secret, hush-hush and all that.

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THE RENFREW TAX MAN COMETH. AND HE COMETH WITH A VENGEANCE

In an earlier opinion piece, I threw out the notion that in Ontario, municipalities are not allowed to run operational deficits.

They’re not.  It’s as simple as that.  I didn’t make it up, agree or disagree, I just stated that fact as it currently stands.  Check out the Municipal Act 2001 if you wish.

It’s something that is obviously concerning if you live in Renfrew, pay property tax in Renfrew, and follow Renfrew news — such as it may be, and it ain’t much, unless you enjoy dollops of self-serving platitudes and accept them as “news” — so I can certainly see and understand some degree of anxiousness around someone coming along and telling you that the corporation that you fund — the municipality — isn’t allowed to carry a deficit term over term.  Because you know that, if deficits aren’t allowed, that shortfall will have to be made up somewhere.  And that you, as the primary source of income for that municipality, may — will — be called upon to make up a big chunk of that shortfall.  In other words, through no fault of your own, you’ll be required to pony up to make right the egregious mistakes or lack of rigour that has led to that deficit situation in the first place.

And by deficit, let me be clear.  We’re not talking about slipping into maroon territory here, where you you slide gently from black ink to red ink on the balance sheet.  We’re talking full-on red, dark red, the ugliest colour of ink possible when we’re talking about money, especially if it’s your money. 

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WHEN THE DOGS AND PONIES ARE RUNNING THE SHOW

The circus comes to town every couple of weeks when Town Council has its regularly scheduled dog-and-pony-show exercise that passes itself off as municipal democracy in action.  And despite everyone performing their roles, with varying degrees of success, the production is made up seemingly of a council rubber-stamping whatever the administrative side of things wants it to rubber stamp.  Mind you, a couple of councillors will periodically raise objections to this, but will often get out-voted if they raise their concerns to the level of making a motion

That’s because here in Renfrew, we have what looks to be a chimera of democracy in play.  

Elected councillors are flummoxed by redundant and poorly organized agenda briefing documents, almost always numbering over a hundred pages, two-hundred pages, and often more.  This is how administration does it, firing smoke grenades to obfuscate things enough that councillors routinely pass what’s put in front of them because, as some have said, they trust the department heads to manage their departments with effectiveness and due diligence.

Sort of like the last council did.  

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