posting
02-18-2010, 12:02 AM
COUNCIL MEETING FEB 16 2010
Jason here. Whose fault is it that the Council meeting last night went off the rails? At 11.30 PM the mayor shut the meeting down and told Council members that they would reconvene Wednesday evening at 7 PM. Councillor Smith was in the middle of trying to make a point about the closing of Harold Harvey arena. I would say that the disruptive meeting was the mayor’s problem. Does he control the agenda? Why leave the most contentious matter (Barriefield public housing) until the end of the evening? Why allow yet two more presentations on the subject plus one more petition? Councillors spent a good hour allegedly questioning long-suffering staff. Their points of view are well known. Why delay the vote? Each question of staff was a carefully put criticism on one side or the other of this issue. Could procedure not have been sorted out prior to the meeting? Perhaps we are trying too hard to accomplish transparency.
It is clear from the report of the Chief Administrative Officer that Council probably has no choice but to spend a lot of money when trying to purchase land – even at the price of $1. An upset budget of up to $250,000 is the estimated price of the investigation of the Barriefield lands in question. Most of the cost is mandated by other levels of government. It is likely given these figures that no more land will be purchased anywhere. Too bad. Maybe we can find some way around this.
On another potentially contentious subject, the Third Crossing, there was an overly long briefing on the Environmental Assessment that is ongoing. Critics may wonder why the ‘do nothing’ option isn’t being given more weight. What a complicated procedure! One can only hope that the mayor is more on board to create a meaningful discussion and early decision on this. We will undoubtedly see if this matter can be handled in a more efficient way. Is this redefining the role of the mayor? So far I don’t see the votes lined up pro and con. That will come.
Briefly mentioned last night was the possibility of asking Domino theatre to give up the move to the Cook Brothers arena to the Harold Harvey Arena. This is a transparent attempt to move ‘artsy’ things out of the North end. Want to lay bets on that succeeding? I bet it will.
I will add an addendum to this after the votes on Wednesday night, if in fact it is accomplished.
Jason here. Whose fault is it that the Council meeting last night went off the rails? At 11.30 PM the mayor shut the meeting down and told Council members that they would reconvene Wednesday evening at 7 PM. Councillor Smith was in the middle of trying to make a point about the closing of Harold Harvey arena. I would say that the disruptive meeting was the mayor’s problem. Does he control the agenda? Why leave the most contentious matter (Barriefield public housing) until the end of the evening? Why allow yet two more presentations on the subject plus one more petition? Councillors spent a good hour allegedly questioning long-suffering staff. Their points of view are well known. Why delay the vote? Each question of staff was a carefully put criticism on one side or the other of this issue. Could procedure not have been sorted out prior to the meeting? Perhaps we are trying too hard to accomplish transparency.
It is clear from the report of the Chief Administrative Officer that Council probably has no choice but to spend a lot of money when trying to purchase land – even at the price of $1. An upset budget of up to $250,000 is the estimated price of the investigation of the Barriefield lands in question. Most of the cost is mandated by other levels of government. It is likely given these figures that no more land will be purchased anywhere. Too bad. Maybe we can find some way around this.
On another potentially contentious subject, the Third Crossing, there was an overly long briefing on the Environmental Assessment that is ongoing. Critics may wonder why the ‘do nothing’ option isn’t being given more weight. What a complicated procedure! One can only hope that the mayor is more on board to create a meaningful discussion and early decision on this. We will undoubtedly see if this matter can be handled in a more efficient way. Is this redefining the role of the mayor? So far I don’t see the votes lined up pro and con. That will come.
Briefly mentioned last night was the possibility of asking Domino theatre to give up the move to the Cook Brothers arena to the Harold Harvey Arena. This is a transparent attempt to move ‘artsy’ things out of the North end. Want to lay bets on that succeeding? I bet it will.
I will add an addendum to this after the votes on Wednesday night, if in fact it is accomplished.