"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Thursday 28 August 2014

Thomas had a doubt too

I had to read the story  all the wy through twice on the snow tretementn facility to confirm I had attended the meeting.

The headline was decision delayed until a different location can be found.

The award of a contract  for  a treatment facility  for melting snow was before Council.

The  vote tied.

It did not pass.

The contract was not awarded.

 No direction went to staff to find a new location. No indication of decision delayed.

A treatment facility  for melting snow  was not approved.

Eight members were present  at the meeting.  All gave reasons  for their vote. Seven were quoted

Expense of snow  removal to a  holding place or melting spot was not part of the debate  nor the contract.

Yet there it was in the story along with a powerful  impression the matter had  again not been
concluded.

After the previous Council meeting  a story about affordable housing emanated.

A  site plan was recommended for signatures if the Mayotr and Clerk.

Councillor Gaertner raised a quuestion about affordable housing.
The planner responded with a range of prices.
I was not planning to speak but the idea the prices were affordable triggered a response.
I noted the Town to the north had been successful with affordable housing by providing the Region with land for sites.
Aurora has small sites available. I cited  a  partcularly suitable site.

Councillor Abel called a point of order. The Mayor upheld the point Little was added to the debate.

When the story appeared it ended with  Mayoralty comments about how willing the Region.

A small note sounded. More of a clunk than a ping.

Paranoia is never so severe  than around election time. I waved  away the suspicion.I have seen nothing to indicate hostility.

I don't register as a candidate until  I have to. Until the end , I am a Councillor completing my commitment from the last election. These last clear opportunities are precious.

I am not looking for contrivance in news stories.

And yet...and yet....and yet ???











6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It gets a little confusing when information is filtered through staff to be printed in the papers. There were a couple of issues before Council where a senior staffer became the spoke-person for the town. The bid for the university town was one. That did not reflect what I believed to have occurred and the actual news story was accurate. Only the comments were wrong.

Anonymous said...

What I derived from the " debate " was that it was an expensive plan to treat a small amount of snow for a problem that might exist in order to satisfy a possible concern from the province some time in the future.

Anonymous said...

I must have missed the motion to delay the project. Thought it had been defeated. Which should mean it will not be turning up again this term.
An interesting question for candidates given the hefty price tag with nothing to back it up IMO

Anonymous said...


YOU'RE IN GOOD HANDS WHEN YOU'RE WITH HARPER-STATE

ARTICLE HEADLINE TODAY'S GLOBE AND MAIL

"TORY CRIME BILL ENDANGERED AFTER SENATE DEBATES WRONG VERSION"

"The fate of one of the federal government's toughest crime bills is in doubt after the House of Commons sent the wrong version on to the Senate, which debated that version and sent it on to a committee for further study.
The Commons's mistake affects a key government priority - victim rights - by leaving out four amendments approved for the Fairness for Victims Act. Parliamentary experts say they have never heard of such an error being made before.
The revelation comes at a time the government is focused on crime, and new crime laws may not always receive careful study. Thirty criminal-justice bills are currently before Parliament or were passed in June; of those, 25 are private member's bills, which do not receive Charter scrutiny or a detailed backgrounder from the Library of Parliament. Research staff in the Justice Department have also been cut sharply, while Public Safety staff are given as little as one week to draft news laws."

I think this sucks, the Prime Minister sucks and the Justice Minister sucks

And yet they will receive nothing more than a tch! tch!

The above duo has already washed their hands off any approach dealing with the more than 1,000 deaths of aboriginal women over the past 30 years, as has the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. What's another dead 15 year-old?

There is something dramatically wrong in this country where crime bills are screwed up, and a sociological phenomenon is just another crime.

I think its time to change the players as the ones we have have turned out to be dim-witted dismal failures,

Anonymous said...

12:53
The error seem to have been made by whoever/whatever sent the wrong version of the bill.
But there are supposed to be people who do nothing but shepherd legislation.

Anonymous said...


12:53

President Harry Truman said: "The buck stops here."

If you're at the top of the totem pole everything that goes on below is your responsibility.

Some politicians/executives actually resign when something wrong is done by an underling.