Haldimand "Councillor Totally Out Of Line"

I attended tonight's Council Of the Whole Meeting, for those of you that are not familiar with the agenda, this is the "formal meeting" where all the bylaws are passed by Haldimand County Council.

I have not attended a Council meeting in some time and I am appalled at what I heard a member of council say "publicly".

Before I get to what was said, I want to state that in my opinion the "image" of Haldimand County is in direct relation to the "attitude" of our members of council. I for one believe that our "elected officials" should be "respectful" of each other and the residents of this county.

Council was discussing the issue of the Braund House in Dunnville (the old library) when Councillor Bartlett stood up to have his say he started out by saying "I Can't Suck and Blow at the Same Time". Now I want to tell you that I am still thinking to myself, he couldn't have said that, BUT HE DID! I really don't know what his comment was after that because I think I was somewhat in shock of what had come out of his mouth.

A few members of council thought this was very "amusing" as their laughter was quite hardy.

Mayor Trainer should have stepped in at that point and let Councillor Bartlett know that his behaviour was indeed "inappropriate and disgusting"!

I would certainly be interested in exactly what Councillor Bartlett meant by his statement. "I Can't Suck and Blow at the Same Time".

I wonder was there some kind of "inside joke" between council members?

Regardless some may think that I am tied a bit tight, but this kind of behaviour in my opinion is not going to get Haldimand County anywhere.

I truly believe that Councillor Bartlett owes the residents of Haldimand County that were in attendance at tonight's meeting an apology for his lack of respect and his disgusting comment.

Haldimand "A Little Respect goes a Long Way"

In May of this year I wrote a blog about Janet Fraser a resident from Cayuga. This was in response to the lack of communications between a resident and Council. Janet had requested to speak to council in regards to the nuclear issue in Haldimand County. This issue had been on several agendas and money had actually changed hands in regards to a report that was done for council. To read the whole article you can click onto this link; http://haldimandsunheardvoice.blogspot.com/2008/05/haldimand-here-is-another-unheard-voice.html

On Tuesday August 5th at the same council meeting that Council decided to hire a "Communications Manager" Council decided in a vote of 5-2 that Janet Fraser does not have the right to speak to Council.

This is in regards to Janet’s concerns over the direction that she feels Haldimand Council is taking in regards to Nuclear Power in Haldimand County.

For those that are not familiar with Janet’s story, this was the third request that Janet had made to appear as a delegation to Council. Janet was asking for a very simple thing…..Her Voice to be Heard…..I would like to say that I am actually shocked that Janet was denied. I had thought that once this was on an agenda that council would vote in favour and Janet would have her "10 minutes" to have her say.

Now in light of the fact that this vote took place at the very same council meeting that council voted 5-2 in favour of hiring a "Communications Manager", would you not think that there is a definite problem here with our "Elected Officials"?

Did Council even give Janet a chance to "Communicate" with them in an open forum?

So where do you think the problem is? Was Janet denied her right to speak because Haldimand County does not currently have a Communications Manager?

I personally believe that Janet was denied her right to speak simply because 5 members of council are not the "least bit interested in what she has to say". If Janet was to speak as a delegation the press would also pick up on this and Council wouldn't like that either.

Until we have council members that respect the residents that pay their salaries, nothing will change in Haldimand County. I just hope that people like Janet Fraser do not give up!

Haldimand "Job Opening, Pays Big, You just need to know How to Communicate"

As I was quietly playing a game of solitaire on my computer my husband called out to me that he found the perfect job for me! It seems that Haldimand County is going to be advertising a new position in a few weeks. Haldimand will be looking for a "Communications Manager". This position pays extremely well.....$86,000.00 a year salary....plus....$8,600.00 a year for travel and professional development and a cell phone! Total cost to the taxpayer for this new position $94,600.00 a year...not bad! Oh and this individual will also receive $5,000.00 for office furniture.

Karen Best of the Chronicle wrote a story regarding this and it is on the front page of this weeks Chronicle. (I will provide the link at the bottom) The editor of the Chronicle also wrote "Miscommunication" that appears on page 4. This is also a must read. Here are a few of his comments on this issue; The hiring of a specialized communication officer in the County of Haldimand is one giant step in the "wrong direction"! (I couldn't have said it better myself!) In a municipality like Haldimand with a population of just over 45,000, this is completely out of line! (Again I couldn't have said it better myself!) Haldimand has to look to the future. By paying a generous wage within a fairly small tax base, council is setting the bar very high for future employees and setting itself up for much higher operating costs in the future. Another interesting article in the Chronicle this week..."Native land claims dispute "clouds" county's future". "Council members react to economic impacts". Now the way I see it is that our Council is creating an "economic impact" for it's residents by once again "hiring" another person that is not needed in a county our size.

This is a new position as currently we do not have anyone in any such position, or do we? Well I can think of just a few. Our "7" "Elected Officials". But it seems that they are not "communicating" with their constituents.

Huge Kudos to Councillor Boyko and Grice as they voted against this proposal!

When I was writing this something came to me, A Manager has to "Manage" someone, so in saying that there will more than likely be yet another new position coming open in Haldimand County, an "Assistant" to the new "Manager".

So what exactly is this new position? What is this new managers job description? Well according to the Council "endorsed" job description, the communications manager will manage "media relations" and release "emergency information". This new manager will also "inform" the public about "county programs", services, and emergency issues in order to encourage "participation" in "Municipal government"! This new manager will also develop county "Polices" and procedures including "media relations protocol", "advertising policies" and will "train" people how to talk to the media and provide communication advice to council members and staff!

This is an outrage and I would hope that I am not the only one that feels this way! This position is nothing more than an "overlap" of high paying positions that already exist in Haldimand County!

I did a bit of research and checked the websites for Norfolk County and the County of Brant and neither of them have a "Communications Manager". So I have a suggestion for Haldimand County, why not call someone in one of these counties and ask them for a few suggestions!

In my opinion this current council in "Haldimand County" is "not" being fiscally responsible to it's ratepayers, and I believe that a few of these members of council should start worrying now about their positions in 2010! It is time for a big change, I hope that it will not be too late come 2010!

Here is the link to the article by Karen Best, it is a must read! http://www.dunnvillechronicle.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1147882

Here is the article by the editor called "Miscommunication", it is also a must read!
http://www.dunnvillechronicle.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1147906

Haldimand "Congrats to McGuinty he finally Tells the Truth"

Well it seems that Premier Dalton McGuinty finally stuck to one of his promises!

The Heath Tax is here to stay!

One of the interesting comments was the fact that the money collected under the Health Tax doesn't necessarily go to the Health Care System. I don't know about you but maybe it is high time that the Provincial Government bring down legislation that protects how and where "our" hard earned dollars are collected and directed!

After all the Provincial Government were the ones that legislated to the Municipalities how and where the dollars they collect from our property taxes go, this is called "reserves".

It is high time that the Provincial Government do as they tell others to do and be "Accountable". But that is another promise that McGuinty has forgotten about!


Review of Ontario health tax a ‘sham'

The Canadian Press
August 5, 2008 at 5:23 PM EDT

TORONTO — A forced review of Ontario's controversial health tax is little more than a "sham" because the province has no intention of scrapping it, critics charged Tuesday as public hearings abruptly ended after only a few short hours of testimony.

Premier Dalton McGuinty has already made it clear he won't kill or phase out the tax, which critics say is overburdening municipalities and taxpayers. That means recommendations from the legislative committee that's reviewing it will be ignored, opposition parties said.

"The problem is that Dalton McGuinty already has his hands over his ears," said Progressive Conservative Tim Hudak, who dismissed the entire exercise as a "sham" once the hearings were over.

"He has no intention of giving working families in Ontario or seniors a break."

Mr. McGuinty came under heavy fire from his political rivals early in his first term in 2004 when he brought in the so-called health "premium," defending it as a necessary evil aimed at tackling a $5.6-billion deficit inherited by the previous Conservative government.

The Premier has only added insult to injury by effectively ending the committee's work before it began, dashing any faint hope that the tax might be scrapped, Mr. Hudak said.

The Liberals must find a way to finance public services without punishing lower and average income families with a regressive tax, which can cost each eligible taxpayer as much as $900 a year, said NDP critic Peter Tabuns.

"If the government was interested in changing things, they could change things," he said.

"They're very clear: they've made a decision. They're going to continue with that decision and they're going through the motions with these hearings."

Mr. McGuinty admitted in December that the tax review was only going ahead because it was required by law. He's repeatedly dismissed calls to repeal the health premium, arguing that the billions in revenue would buttress Ontario's health-care system against the stresses of an aging population.

But the health tax is also hurting municipalities and workers who are already facing tough economic times, the committee heard.

London, Ont., Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best said the city is paying more than $800,000 a year to cover the health tax for some of its employees — a rising cost that's being absorbed by taxpayers who are already shelling out for their own health premiums.

"Whatever the details, there have been clearly unintended consequences to local property taxpayers," she told the committee.

"We are asking you this morning that you recommend a legislated remedy — that the province adopt legislation to clearly state that the Ontario Health Premium is an employee responsibility and not the responsibility of employers."

The government should give the tax another name, since it's under no obligation to spend any of the money on health care, said Kevin Gaudet, Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

"There is no doubt that this tax would have been eliminated had it been named differently — perhaps the Bureaucrat Salary Enhancement Tax," Mr. Gaudet said.

Others, such as Mary Lou Ambrogio of the Forest City Institute, a think tank based in London, Ont., expressed frustration that any recommendations the committee makes will fall on deaf ears.

"Dalton McGuinty has already explicitly stated that regardless of the outcome of this review, the tax will not be eliminated," Ms. Ambrogio said.

"Unfortunately, this may be one promise he intends to keep."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080805.whealthtax0805/BNStory/National/home?cid=al_gam_mostview

Haldimand "Is Nuclear Power a Bad Bet"

The following is a Letter to the Editor from a resident. It is a good read and I certainly learned a few things reading this letter. It also left me asking more questions. This is an issue that we should all be paying close attention too. I would like to thank Grand Erie Energy Quest for sending me this information. Please visit this site by clicking on the interesting links!

Going nuclear is a bad bet

The Kingston Whig-Standard
Monday, June 23, 2008

Section: Editorial/Opinion

Column: Letters to the Editor

Premier Dalton McGuinty's plan to increase Ontario's dependency on nuclear power smacks of the actions of an inveterate gambler poised to roll the dice one last time for that elusive "big score." Why else would he bet the farm on a technology that could bankrupt the entire country in the event of a single catastrophic accident?

The minimum bid to get into McGuinty's high-stakes game, $45 billion, could easily top a mind-boggling $135 billion given the nuclear industry's history of at least tripling initial cost projections.

But what makes the optics of McGuinty's gamble especially egregious is that he is rolling the dice on the health of unsuspecting Ontarians, since he is betting that a Chernobyltype explosion will not occur on his watch.

Since investing in conservation creates seven times more jobs, causes a four-times-greater reduction in greenhouse gases and conserves seven times more electricity than his nukes will ever produce, Ontarians should ask their premier some tough questions.

For example, if nuclear power is such a "sure thing," why have investors avoided it like the plague for the past 30 years?

Why did McGuinty choose to announce his plan to the highly secretive Bilderberg Group rather than to the people of Ontario who will foot the bill for his roll of the dice? Unless it was to assure these well-heeled high rollers that this nuclear pie is so enormous that everyone will get a piece of the action?

Why has McGuinty exempted his new nukes from those pesky environmental assessments unless it was to avoid the inevitable findings that the hazards of nuclear power far outweigh its benefits?

And what about the odds of a reactor meltdown? Two of the world's 439 operating nuclear reactors have already experienced a meltdown, a fact that makes a mockery of the industry's claim of only one in 100 000 years of operation.

Even more worrisome are the 22 major accidents that have occurred since Chernobyl, many of which have released cancer-causing isotopes into the air we breathe and the water we drink.

There have been seven major nuclear incidents in Ontario alone, including, most recently, this May when highly toxic arsenic and uranium haxafluoride leaked from Cameco's nuclear waste storage site into the groundwater in Port Hope.

If nuclear power plants are as safe as the experts claim, why do insurance companies refuse to underwrite their liability? What do they know that McGuinty is not sharing with Ontarians? Could it be that the damage from just a single nuclear catastrophe is so enormous that it would bankrupt the entire industry? Is that why the government of Canada enacted the Nuclear Liability Act in 1974, which exempts the nuclear industry from all but token liability? The data from Chernobyl certainly supports that hypothesis.

The effect of the Nuclear Liability Act, incidentally, was to make Canadian taxpayers the "insurers of last resort," since it is you and I who will pay the bills in the event of a catastrophic nuclear accident -and they will be enormous.

More than 371,000 people were evacuated from within Chernobyl's 37- kilometre "exclusion zone." and damage estimates range to an astronomical $235 billion.

An explosion at Pickering would render most of the Greater Toronto Area a nuclear wasteland and would necessitate the immediate evacuation of between three and four million people, 10 times the number displaced by Chernobyl. A staggering 10 per cent of the population of Canada would require new housing, new jobs, new hospitals, etc.

The cost of a nuclear explosion at Pickering could run as high as $3 trillion, nearly three times Canada's gross domestic product. It could literally bankrupt the entire country. That is the "inconvenient truth" about nuclear energy that the insurance industry has known all along, and the "inconvenient truth" that Ontarians will never hear from their premier's lips, since he knows it would "nuke" his misguided gamble to build more nukes.

Yelda Miedema Simcoe Island

Let's follow Germany's example

It distresses me that Ontario is headed toward an increasingly nuclear-powered future. Nuclear power is not green. Uranium mining releases toxic effluent into waterways and leaves behind highly dangerous tailings that remain radioactive for centuries. A great deal of energy is required to mine, separate and process the uranium extracted.

The building of nuclear power plants requires enormous amounts of cement, and it is generally acknowledged that producing cement creates a lot of greenhouse gases. These plants release enormous amounts of heat. Lake Ontario water is used as a coolant. There is also the radioactive waste that is produced. The latest scenario is to seal it in containers and bury it in deep pits. This has yet to be done anywhere in the world.

It is worth noting that Areva, one of the companies that will submit a bid to build Ontario's new reactor, is two years behind schedule and incurring huge overruns on the construction of a new power generator in Finland. There have been problems with the quality of the cement and the metal used. Areva has also run into problems with the cement in the construction of a nuclear generator in France. And Atomic Energy Canada Limited has finally shelved its Maple reactor project because it couldn't solve the technical problems.

The suggestion is that whichever company wins the Ontario contract, the government will have to pay at least some of any cost overruns incurred.

TheWhigstory "New nuclear reactors to be built near Toronto" (June 17) quotes the provincial energy minister as saying in reference to the various bids: "They will give us firm costs on reasonable parts of the project. There will be opportunities for change where no reasonable person could expect to have anticipated that change."

We are being put on notice. The more than $600 million in cost overruns at the Bruce project doesn't inspire confidence.

My biggest concern is for what we are leaving behind for our children and grandchildren. Is it not enough that we have depleted the ozone layer?

There are alternatives to nuclear power. Germany has put more renewable power on its grid than our fossil fuel, nuclear and renewable power generation combined. It has built a thriving industry that employs 230,000 people. The Germans have decided to go nuclear-free and carbon-free.

To move to a sustainable future, we need political vision. Let's find out how Germany is doing it. I want energy that offers my grandchildren a healthy and sustainable future.

Eleanor Archer Westport

Kudo's to Eleanor! Great Letter!

Haldimand "Defacing the Canadian Flag is Just Wrong"

********************UPDATE TUESDAY JUNE 27, 2008************

This morning around 9:50 am the "defaced" Canadian Flag in Caledonia was taken down! Thank you to the individuals that did the right thing today!

*****************************************************************

Well I had an interesting Sunday morning. It all started when I checked my e-mail. A friend in Dunnville had sent me an e-mail in regards to a Canadian flag that was flying at the entrance of DCE in Caledonia and the flag was "defaced"! This flag had apparently being there since Thursday.

I have a thing about the Canadian Flag! I happen to be proud of the Canadian Flag! There are certain "protocols" to the hanging and disposing of the Canadian flag, but when the Canadian Flag is "defaced" that is another story.

So I made a phone call to someone I know in Caledonia, I didn’t want to go there alone, so we were to meet at DCE around 11:30am.

I decided once I was there, I would speak to someone and request that the flag come down and I would dispose of it properly. Well that didn’t happen!

I arrived at 11:30am and there was the Canadian Flag blowing in the wind. Someone had painted a black circle around the maple leaf and put a black line through it. I have never seen a "defaced" Canadian Flag and I certainly was not impressed!

I sat in my truck on Argyle St. right in front of DCE for about 5 minutes, I could see that someone was watching me and I had hoped that they would come and ask me what I was doing there. About 5 minutes later I got out of my truck and walked across the road. Within in a few minutes someone came out of the house on DCE and started walking towards me. I in return started walking to meet them. I introduced myself, shook his hand and asked if he could take down the "defaced" Canadian Flag that was flying. He didn’t answer me we just starting walking towards the flag. I talked about "protocols" and again asked if I could have the flag to dispose of it properly. This individual told me that he was not responsible for the flags that were flying and he personally could not take it down.

A couple of minutes into our conversation another individual came to see what was going on, I once again introduced myself, shook his hand and asked to have the "defaced" Canadian flag taken down so I could dispose of it properly. I was told no.

We talked back and forth for about 15 minutes. I was told at one point that I could put a flag up if I wanted too. My response was that they already had a Canadian Flag flying and it was "defaced". I offered to replace the "defaced" flag with a new one, and was told no. I also asked how many people so far had come over and asked them to remove the flag and I was told no one, so my response was, I came on my own and my only intent was to have the "defaced" flag removed. It was just that simple!

I also asked what if I just removed the flag myself? I was told that they would have to stop me, and I responded by saying how would you stop me, I didn’t get an answer. I wasn’t in fear of anything happening to me but I didn’t want to push the issue of me taking down the flag myself.

Some may say that what I did was pretty stupid, or petty, but to me this was just the right thing to do. It had nothing to do with land claims, or any other issue, it was simply wrong that the Canadian Flag was blowing in the wind "defaced". I really did believe that the right thing would have been done today, and I am truly disappointed.

I will go back and try again. Flying a "defaced" Canadian Flag in my mind makes no point at all. It dosen't prove anything. What is does is show "disrespect". I showed no "disrespect" today and I am hopeful that the right thing will still be done!

Haldimand "Have Your Say"

I thought I would do something different on my blog. I would like to hear what you have to say on the issues. I am often called by someone who's letter never gets into the local papers, or when someone simply asks me to post on their behalf. Here is your opportunity to have your voice heard.

If you are going to post a long letter, the best way to do it is copy and paste your document into the comment section. Sometimes you will get disconnected if you have the comments box open too long. Blogger does not have spellcheck.

If you do not have a Blogger account and you want to sign your name, click the anonymous box and sign your name on the bottom of your post.

We look forward to hearing what you have to say!