THE BAFN MYSTERY

Who are the Bonnechere Algonquin First Nation, or BAFN?

To the uninformed or less-informed eye, the title suggests an aboriginal group of some sort, more than likely a First Nation. The word Bonnechere suggests a group who calls elements of, or the entirety of the Bonnechere River watershed their home, their ancestral home. And if you’re from around this part of the 613, you might understandably conclude that they have some affiliation with, or are actually part of the Algonquins of Golden Lake, or Pikwakanagan.

And although BAFN and Pikwakanagan are both listed as members of the AOO, or Algonquins of Ontario, the two barely talk to one another, if at all. Phone calls to the Band leadership in Golden Lake were initially warm and friendly, until I mentioned BAFN as my point of enquiry.

There’s been no communication since.

So who are these mystery people and what’s the reason for my interest in them?

Continue reading →

March 25, 2025

COUNCIL EXHIBITING HR PERPLEXION

Town Council has been struggling with the composition of an HR — Human Resources — committee, or panel, or tribunal, or whatever other term they might come up with to adequately describe a small group of people tasked with representing the town in grievance procedures involving town employees.

There are a plenty of big-ticket, red-seal, five-alarm topics and issues that our seven elected politicians can grapple with, and disagree over, some involving millions of dollars, even tens of millions of dollars. But it’s this HR issue, a veritable fart in a mitten, that has them contorting themselves with lines of reasoning that shift as easily as the tall verdant grass in a jaunty spring breeze.

Ma-Te-Way, the Town Hall renovation, construction overages, lights for ballfields, integrity investigations, demands for resignations, demands for defenestration from committees, all of this pales in comparison with the steep and rocky slope that leads to the top of Mount HR.

Continue reading →

March 24, 2025

BUILDING HOMES TO BEAT TARIFFS

Ontario’s municipalities want to build houses. Lots of them.

They also want to tackle the problem of housing by taking existing buildings and infrastructure and bringing them up to speed so as to enhance efforts to add to affordable and supportive housing in the province.

All of this is ambitious, and all of this costs money, plenty of it. And in the face of an economic downturn brought about by reckless and negligent trade policies originating south of the border, it may seem to be a hill with a slope that’s too tough to climb.

But that’s the point.

The Association of Municipalities in Ontario, or AMO, believes that this is precisely the time to beef up investment in housing starts and housing completions, along with upgrades to existing stock and buildings that seem to be lacking purpose.

The municipalities feel that this proposed injection of stimulus money, over and above current levels of funding, is just what the province and its citizens need in the face of troubling economic times.

It’s not a new concept, and it has worked before.

Continue reading →

March 14, 2025

THOSE DAMNED CAMERAS

I was right, in that I knew I was wrong.

At least partially. Maybe even more than partially. But even with the tiniest sliver of potential accuracy, I still seemed to be way out in front of just about everyone other than staff when it came to those bloody cameras. I have no idea about the car, as in how many, what type, where it/they might be, and what the plan, if any, might be moving forward.

To me, it was almost as if most of council had no idea about much to do with these cameras, certainly already purchased, and that car(s), almost as if they were hearing about it for the first time.

It’s disconcerting. After watching in disbelief as they waded through a can of crushed armpits on the HR Liaison issue, another treat lay in front of me, as well as the edge-of-the-couch crowd watching live on YouTube, a number that may well have approached the teens. Not the kids, but the numbers.

Along came the the cars and camera thing. And while the discussion was much more lucid, it was a discussion where there was a dearth of information available for Council to make a responsible decision. And I get that. There’s plenty of detail not included, or not forthcoming, or just plain not there. So on this point, I’ll grant them a political mulligan, just out of a sense of trying to be a good sport.

Continue reading →

March 13, 2025

HR LIASON: A PIÑATA THAT ISN’T THERE

Oh my God.

I can’t think of anything better to really say as the HR Liaison issue came up a third time, and for a third time it was like wading in a pool full of absolute muck.

I’ve never encountered brick-think on such a scale as I witnessed Tuesday night at the Renfrew Town Council meeting.

These people seemingly have a huge degree of difficulty when it comes to determining how Stage 3 grievances are to be heard. It’s not the most complicated of things, but you’d never know it from sitting in this room for what seems like hours talking about the same thing over and over and over again, all the while cancelling out options with votes as the back-and-forth debate rages, and heads shake.

All of the very worst things that come to mind when criticizing Council come to the forefront on this particular issue. Add to that the usual ambiguity and imperfection from certain staff by way of explanations that don’t address the question.

It’s like watching a blind-folded kid swinging wildly at a piñata, only there’s no piñata. Or if you prefer, taking a bunch of cats for a walk without a leash. Walking through a cornfield?

Continue reading →

March 12, 2025

CARS AND CAMERAS: AGAIN

I’m going to get some of this wrong, I’m sure of it. But I’m going to go ahead and report what I can, and if anyone out there wants to educate me, I’m easy enough to find. I’d ask the official types for verification, but they don’t have a strong history of returning messages or email enquiries.

If I was to wait for them to help me along, I’d be left stranded without a guide. So as best I can, the story moves forward.

In a previous article, I mentioned something about surveillance cameras and cars left in storage, the product of a provincial grant worked out between the former Police Services Board and the province to provide Renfrew with equipment to be used to combat car theft, both here in Renfrew and in the province at large.

Continue reading →

March 11, 2025

EMPLOYEE MONITORING / RIGHT TO DISCONNECT

Technology plays a huge role in just about any endeavour, and that holds true with the administration of corporations and how they go about their day-to-day business.

It’s not just limited to correspondence, financial spreadsheets, word and number processing, and the creation of snappy graphs and other visuals for presentations. Technology also has a significant role in the area of property and employee management and supervision.

It may sound a little Orwellian, a bit Big Brotherish, as in the novel 1984, and it kind of is, but it’s also kind of necessary given the number of employees and the number of tasks those employees are charged with carrying out.

Continue reading →

March 7, 2025

THE ROAD TO 2035

“Seventy-five percent of this job is half mental.”

I think it was that great American thinker Yogi Berra who came up with that line, in all seriousness, when asked a question by a reporter. This from a man who said when you come to a fork in the road, you should take it.

It’s why, maybe, we shouldn’t hang our hats on philosophy laid down by tobacco-chewing baseball players, although Berra himself was more of a cigarette and cigar kind of guy.

Yogi is my inspiration today, although I’m not sure his utterance is a true fit for my commentary, but honestly, any time you have the opportunity to quote such a sage person as he, you go for it, whether it fits or not.

The Town of Renfrew, at least the administrative side of it, is in the middle of a journey, as all corporations are, along with other institutional entities, like schools, hospitals, prisons, etc.

Entities cannot remain static, that much is true. They are living beasts that need to keep abreast of, or remain relevant to the ever-present requirement for change and nimbleness against a backdrop of near universal and enduring uncertainty. In English, that means that things are constantly changing, and to remain relevant in the face of that fact, corporations like our town need to respond and adapt.

So standing still is not an option.

Continue reading →

March 6, 2025

COUNCIL TO PICK UP COY SLACK FROM CHAMBER

My congratulations in advance to the winner of this year’s Citizen of the Year Award.

Whoever it may turn out to be, the selection for such a prestigious award, and I mean that, is reflective of the fact that you’ve had a tremendous positive impact in your community, and for your community. And unlike hockey rinks where you can just “buy” your name recognition, the Citizen of the Year accolade is awarded by others, hopefully objective others, who see and witness the impact of your efforts on things, movements, and people.

It represents positive recognition to a person who wasn’t hell bent on getting the recognition in the first place. And so, in that sense, it’s a terrific and legitimate honour.

But it won’t have the stamp of approval from the local Chamber of Commerce.

Continue reading →

March 5, 2025

COUNCIL SCRAPS OVER HR COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP

The background to this is fairly simple.

Council, until recently, would receive reports from the various committees and departments that undertook the business of the municipality. One of those committees was an HR Committee. The head of that committee would be part of any employee grievance process.

When Council transitioned to a Committee of the Whole format, those individual committees went by the wayside. As for human resources matters, Council still had an HR Liaison in place, but that person wasn’t formally designated as being the replacement for the “committee” that made up the town’s part of a grievance complaint. That’s a requirement in the collective agreement that exists between the town and its employees, and a requirement that’s not currently being fulfilled after the disbanding of the committee structure.

Staff recommended that, to close this gap, a motion was needed designating what this grievance team might look like, and several options were tendered to Council, and one of those options was recommended.

In my opinion, the staff recommendation was flawed in the first place.

It may have cemented or concretized the protocol as it currently exists, but that’s not a good enough reason to hammer forward with it.

I’m talking, again, about what form of council/staff representation takes the reins in a human resources situation involving a contract grievance brought forward by an employee.

Continue reading →

March 4, 2025