Feb 222013
 
Daily News

What I learned From Council

I never bothered too much with local politics in recent years having had my fill decades ago when developers and a “soft” township council threatened Boyd Island in Pigeon Lake. In the late spring of 2012 as the Ledge Road Quarry issue raised its ugly head I decided to sit in on some Galway-Cavendish and Harvey Council meetings to witness first hand the leadership and governance of our beautiful township. It was really worth the numerous visits for I learned the following:

  1. There are indeed expensive light bulbs. A debate over some $400 in light bulbs took considerably longer than any discussion of why a lawyer’s bill was for $35,000. Glad they are worried about every penny.
  2. A citizen must ask well in advance to ask a question or make a point at a Council session. A councillor, though, can raise, at any time, even personal issues. I learned that getting a reduce speed limit sign moved from in front of a councillor’s house is easy and minutes do not have to really be as accurate as the discussion or reason outlined at the Council meeting.
  3. An aggregate plan for the Township can be seen to be no more than a map of where all the aggregate rests. So thought one councillor. Must admit a one- page map in color does save on pages of verbiage that outlines the Township’s plan to manage the resource.
  4. Spending $28,000 a year for three years to study the waters of Pigeon Lake has no value since, after one-year post, the Scugog study the water looks the same! That, plus not wanting a conservation authority to have control, is enough to scuttle any hope of the Township getting involved.

I am so excited about learning even more in the next 22 months until we have a new group of councillors with their own lessons to teach.

Ross Morton
Resident on Pigeon Lake
“Stoned In Quarryville”

(Originally published in The Promoter, February 22, 2013)

Promoter, February 22, 2013

Promoter, February 22, 2013

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