Category Archives: Suggestions

A varied collection of posts looking at current situations and providing some thoughts on what might be considered.

Council Deputation Update

06 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Parry Sound, Suggestions, Town Council

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

I had the opportunity to speak to Parry Sound Town Council last night regarding my request for media privileges. It was agenda item 9.2.2. The text of my deputation is provided below in italicized text.

My request for media privileges was denied following some debate. More debate than I have heard for other, more important, and more controversial issues. But in the end they largely felt that this would be opening the door for others to request similar privileges. These privileges would be limited to the right to make recordings of council proceedings without prior request of the mayor, and the right to attend media only council events. Not much I must confess, but an important statement concerning council’s desire to maintain a policy of open and transparent government.

Well, you can’t get want what you want if you don’t ask. I have no problem with the decision but I have a couple requests of council that I will send them in a formal letter. They are:

1. Will the town provide residents of Parry Sound with no cost access to the proceedings of council if these residents are unable to attend council meetings because of poor health, work and/or family obligations, travel issues or other reasons? Right now the only way a person can review the meetings is if they subscribe to Cogeco cable which implies a $300 to $400 annual cost. This seems an excessive burden to ensure transparency. There are options, see my comment about Sudbury in the text of the deputation below. (Full disclosure: I don’t subscribe to cable, satellite or other television service, so this would save me some money in case I were to miss a meeting of council, or not permitted to attend a council meeting that was restricted to traditional media.)

2. Will the town make a commitment to improving the user friendliness of the town’s website? As it stands now it is difficult to find recent announcements on the website. Too often important announcements are buried and hard to find while months old announcements are still posted on the site’s homepage. Tip – there are two ways to find things on the town’s website. Do a Google search using the following phrase – townofparrysound.com “searched term”. The “searched term” shouldn’t be in quotes. So for example if I want to find information on the recently approved retirement residence I would put into the Google search engine: “townofparrysound.com retirement” (no quotes). The search results will start with the results from the town’s website. Another approach is to click on ‘Site Map’ in the menu on the top left of the homepage. The menu bar at the top of the page is mostly useless. The link for Site Map will take you to a page that provides much more detail on the site’s contents. (Update: I was asked why not use the search box on the left hand side of the home page. Because it doesn’t work as well, not nearly as well! Try it. Do a search for retirement as I suggested above and then search the same word using the search box below the Home Menu. You tell me which does a better job.)

Here’s the text of my deposition. In it I also take council to task for the apparent hypocrisy of criticizing the Near North School Board for their lack of transparency and public involvement while doing exactly the same thing with their recent ‘Age in Place’ by-law. My deputation provides the details.

Deputation to Parry Sound town Council, February 5th, 2013. All text that was read at the meeting is presented in italics below. The section in bold is the resolution from the minutes of the Town of Parry Sound council meeting that I made reference to.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak to council.

This deputation concerns two issues. The first of which is my request for media privileges related to town council activities.

I made application a couple of weeks ago for media privileges so that I would be able to better cover council proceedings. I limited this request to, access to meetings that were limited to media, and the privilege to record portions of the town council, as is permitted traditional media outlets.

On Friday I received a copy of the council report and recommendation prepared by town staff on this issue. It recommended my request be denied.

In part the recommendation rested on the staff observation that Toronto does not extend such privileges to non-traditional media. While the report did note that the comparison was not perfect they still felt it was appropriate. I beg to differ.

Not only does Toronto have a population some 500 times greater than that of Parry Sound, it is home to dozens of traditional and possibly hundreds of nontraditional media. I can understand their policy. They already have considerable coverage of their events at the local, provincial, national and international levels. But, Toronto does have a significant program of outreach to the public that we do not have in Parry Sound. For example, Toronto offers email updates on council and committee activities that can be subscribed to. This provides email delivery of meeting agendas, announcements of changes, meeting minutes, a summary of key decisions and much more. The Toronto city clerk also provides the public with council updates using Twitter. These are programs which I have asked staff and council to consider as part of making it easier for residents to understand what is happening at council.

I would ask that my request for media privileges be held to the same standard that council and staff holds themselves with respect to media outreach. If you are willing to provide the services offered by Toronto I am willing to accept their non-traditional media policy.

I was particularly surprised that staff would have benchmarked Parry Sound against a Southern Ontario city. We are a proud Northern Ontario city. I suggest we be careful about identifying ourselves as anything but.

Turning to Northern Ontario, I do note that Sudbury offers next day webcasts of their council meetings. This means that residents can see the very next day what is going on without having to subscribe to a service that costs on the order of $400 per year. Those without internet service in Sudbury would be able to go to their local library and watch the webcast at no cost, and on their schedule. And Sudbury has 5 years of council meetings available for viewing on demand. In Parry Sound I am unable to see the proceedings of an earlier council meeting without a cable TV subscription. Offering a Sudbury type service in Parry Sound would mean that I could ‘attend’ all council meetings, even those that are restricted to ‘traditional media’ so long as they are recorded and streamed over the internet.

The second topic of this deputation relates to council’s decision to review and de facto approve the ‘Age in Place’ proposal in a closed session of council.

This is a multi-million dollar project for which town residents have received very little information and no opportunity to provide input. I have seen council discuss and debate in great detail pennies on the ton differences in costs for road salt, and plowing responsibilities for rental properties. Yet on this multi-million dollar project we get a reading of the by-law and essentially a unanimous vote of approval. Has council lost its voice?

Why wasn’t this item reviewed in closed session, if necessary to ensure confidentiality, and then put on the agenda for the following session of council with the appropriate supporting materials included in the council package for public review? This would have given the public the opportunity to review and provide input.

Is it a good deal for Parry Sound? Quite possibly. But we really can’t be sure because we are not provided the necessary information to understand what’s involved. What do we really know about the project and the developer and the local impact if all we are provided is a press release. And even this press release is only made available as a Word document, not the much more accessible Adobe Acrobat format, and it’s not posted on the front page on the town’s website where it could be easily found by interested residents.

It’s likely that council feels they were following the normal council procedures, and that any complaints about how the process and approval were handled are unwarranted.

What then does council have to say about the recent controversy concerning the decision made by the Near North School Board to move Grade 7 & 8 students to the high school? I’m sure the school board followed the approved process for reviewing and making a decision. But it was this council that passed a resolution on the matter. I will read you your resolution:

RESOLUTION 2012 – 214

WHEREAS the Near North District School Board passed a motion at its recent Board meeting to move Grades 7 & 8’s from local public schools to Parry Sound High School; and

WHEREAS the Board at this meeting added this item to the agenda as a last minute agenda item without any public notification; and WHEREAS the local Board trustee who represents the parents in the affected area was also unaware until the Chair requested the addition of the items to the agenda; and

WHEREAS the Board has not provided any justification or documentation showing the benefits to their decision or any plan showing how it is to be implemented; and

WHEREAS the whole process has been done without involving or seeking input from affected parents and students;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Council for the Town of Parry Sound supports the Township of Carling’s request that the Minister of Education, the Honourable Laurel Broten, intervene in this case and send Ministry staff in to review and report to the local communities on how the Near North District School Board conducts its meetings and it financial business; and

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that the Chair of the Near North School Board, Kathy Hewitt be forced to resign her position as Chair over the way this issue has been handled under her leadership; and

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be provided to Jim Beatty, School Board Trustee, Norm Miller, M.P.P., Parry Sound-Muskoka, Vic Fedeli, M. P. P., Nipissing and to the West Parry Sound Municipalities, to request their support.

CARRIED

I would suggest that the school board’s decision was no less transparent than council’s regarding the ‘Age in Place’ approval. Where was the public information, where was the discussion, where was the opportunity to provide public input? Where was this scheduled? This is not a simple pennies on a ton type decision for which we were provided much more information and an opportunity to input.

And this council asked for a person to be removed from their elected office. Is council willing to hold themselves to the same standards of conduct?

Of particular concern is the decision to sell the property for this development for $250,000, and then waive the by-law requiring a market assessment of its real value. No concessions were offered to the developer? We’ll never know will we?

All of this leads me to ask what council plans to do regarding an upcoming decision to invest $10 to $20 million in new generating capacity at the Cascade Street Generating Station. Will this be another closed session discussion and decision then added at the last minute to the open council agenda for a unanimous vote with no review and debate? I certainly hope not. And I’m not sure the traditional media has yet recognized that this issue is in the offing.

I believe there is a role in Parry Sound for non-traditional media. I hope you will reject the staff recommendation and approve my request. And in the near future I hope you will ask staff to review and update their policy and procedures for communicating council activities with town residents. The current procedures are in dire need of updating.

And let’s all of us hold ourselves to the same standards that we hold others.

Suggestions for Staff and Council

22 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Parry Sound, Suggestions, Town Council

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, , ,

I think it’s only fair to offer a suggestion of how I might imagine the whole issue of the ‘age in place’ review and approval by council might have been handled. Actually I have two suggestions. I prefer the first approach.

The better way to have handled the review and approval would have been to discuss the matter in closed session if that was the preferred approach to determine if there was support for bringing it to the open council meeting. From there it would have been appropriate to schedule it for formal review and vote at the following session of open council, generally two weeks later. That would have meant the item would have been put on the agenda for the open meeting allowing the public to see that it was to be discussed. It would have also included the proposed by-law. The council meeting package would have included the proposal(s) and the usual staff review and recommendation. Now that would have been transparency. At the open meeting of council there would have been open discussion and a vote. People wishing to comment on the proposal could have written a letter or made a deputation during the open portion of the council meeting.

A less attractive alternative, if there was some sense of urgency, would have been to review the proposal in closed session of council and then place it on the open session of council that immediately followed. But, council would have at that point advised the public that the late addition to the agenda was an exceptional issue that required expedited review. Then, when the item was reviewed, council could have provided the public with the outlines of the proposal, the reasons for the expedited review process, and then openly discussed the proposal as they do almost all other proposals. The public would have been able to understand the issues and the considerations impacting the decision and the limited review time permitted the public. After a vote council could have directed staff to hold a public meeting in the next few days to provide the community with more detailed information on the nature and impact of the proposal. The ‘age in place’ development is in fact a very big deal, one that could have significant impact on further development in the town, for good or for ill, and one the voters and taxpayers should be given the opportunity to fully understand.

But I guess council and staff assume the public really doesn’t care about, or pay attention to, what they do. Perhaps they feel that as long as the roads are plowed, taxes aren’t raised too high, and there is heat in the BOCC they have no real responsibility to communicate their actions and decisions. (Trust us! Does government ever lie?) But we do care, and we watch what happens.

So, what and when are you going to tell us more about a big investment in power generation capacity at the Cascade Street Generating Station? That’s the real biggie, about $15 to 20 million worth. We will get some opportunity to review, discuss and provide input, won’t we?

We’re not deaf or dumb. If we don’t understand the what and why of what you are doing it means you aren’t getting your message across. If we don’t understand we can’t trust.

Spilling Water – January 22, 2013Cascade Generating Station - 2013-01-22

Local/Regional Property Crime and Vandalism

26 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by in Parry Sound, Reflections, Suggestions

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, , ,

There are recent reports that the rate of property crime in Parry Sound has increased significantly relative to 2011, about 60%. Year-to-date there have been 95 break-ins in versus 60 last year. This is a big increase, but we need to better understand what these numbers relate to. It’s not easy to understand if these figures are for the Town of Parry Sound or the District of West Parry Sound. I assume it is the latter but I’ll see if the local OPP office will provide more clarification on this. Looking at a half-dozen regional news reports of the figures it’s not clear exactly what they refer to.

If they refer to the Town of Parry Sound, and we extrapolate the numbers we would be looking at about 150 to 200 break-ins for the full year. With about 3,000 residences in town it would suggest about 1 in 20 homes will be vandalized this year. This is an unrealistically high number, so the property crime figures probably apply to the District of Parry Sound. If it is I’d like to see the news outlets appropriately qualify their news stories, it’s too easy for them to pick up news on the wire, reword it slightly and never look at what it really implies and applies to.

The general regional increase is not a surprise if you have been ‘flower watching’ this summer. For the last couple of summers the Town of Parry Sound has planted petunias in the flower boxes on the Bowes Street bridge. Perhaps you have noted how this year, much more than last, flowers from these boxes have been torn out on a too regular basis. This is vandalism and petty crime that makes little sense but may be an indicator of a more systemic problem. One year of increased ‘flower pulling’ doesn’t define a breakdown in the local social fabric, nor does one year of increased district property crimes.

If you have been exposed to the ‘Broken Windows Theory‘ you can see where I am headed. The theory suggests two concepts: proactively dealing with petty crime (graffiti, littering) can reduce the incidence of more serious crime, and quickly dealing with petty crime can prevent it from continuing or becoming a ‘habit’. For example, removing graffiti quickly generally reduces its proliferation, and keeping a street litter free results in less littering. The net/net is that if a town is clean and tidy people will tend to keep it clean and tidy. If it’s messy, people have a tendency not to think twice when littering. This is also why the police tend to monitor and ticket for simple things like seat belt infractions. People are more likely to pay attention to the rules of the road, red lights, drunk driving, speeding if they know that it matters and it’s being watched.

The flowers on the bridge may be our way of gauging the town’s petty crime ‘temperature’. The increase in flower pulling and a general sense of civic ‘disobedience’ is not a good sign when understood in the context of the larger district crime increase.

So what’s to be done? In terms of the regional picture this is an issue that needs to be monitored and addressed by the many communities, the OPP and regional officials if the recent increase in ‘crime’ is more than an aberration. In terms of Parry Sound we need to stay on top of things like the ripped out flowers, littering and petty vandalism, and address them quickly. The Broken Windows Theory suggests the best way to prevent littering is to pick up the litter right away, and the way to reduce graffiti is to remove it right away.

If the town wants to have flowers on the bridge where they can be torn out there needs to be a commitment to replacing them; right away. Better no flowers than pillaged flower boxes.

The Scene of the Ongoing Crime

The Politics and Nature of Energy Production

08 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by in Budget/Financial, Parry Sound, Suggestions, Town Council

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, , , ,

As regular readers of this blog probably know I have been interested and concerned about what Parry Sound Power and Parry Sound town council have been discussing with respect to a major investment in power generation at the Cascade Street facility.

Rather than review these concerns I’d like to address a couple of more recent developments that I hope are part of the discussion related to the investment.

The first concerns nature. This is not meant to be a cheap shot, but it’s been pretty obvious that there has been little or no revenue from power generation at the Cascade Street facility for at least the last couple of months. Nature is like that, even if you don’t believe in Climate Change. You may be able to ‘make hay while the sun shines’ but you can’t generate hydroelectric power without rainy days, preferably lots of them. Unfortunately principal and interest costs are payable whether or not you are generating income. That’s the rub with any multimillion dollar investment in expanded power generation. In theory and practice there should be a positive payback over the long term based on historical flow data and favourable prices for the power generated. But as many investors have found you may have been right in the long term but you went bankrupt in the short term as expenses exceeded revenue and your financial reserves.

Parry Sound unfortunately doesn’t have the ability to ‘inventory’ water and release it as required to optimize revenue. There is no large reservoir that can be tapped. Water levels in the lakes upstream of the dam need to be carefully managed to prevent flooding and can’t be used as reservoirs. This means we need to generate power when there is flow. This is perhaps why an investment in additional power generation is being considered, to capture the very large flow that arises every spring with the winter snow melt. It doesn’t do any good the rest of the year, and needs to pay for itself in a relatively short period, at most two months every spring.

I’m sure the cost/benefit analysis of a power generation upgrade is based on precipitation levels for the past fifty years or so. To quote the standard disclaimer for brokerage firms “past performance is no promise of future returns”. In the same way we can no longer rely on past climate data as a reliable indicator of future weather. There is no doubt there are real changes in our climate, possibly a ‘celestial’ related event outside of our control and current understanding, or human activity related global warming. The net/net is that precipitation levels and temperatures are not as reliable as they once were. Less water would mean less power generation, more would mean more. But warming is more of a concern. If our winters continue to stay warmer there will be much less of a snow pack to melt and yield the spring runoff that supports an increased power generation capacity. Rather there will probably be a more continuous flow of water all winter that should not exceed our current generating capacity. But who knows what will and won’t happen going forward. Are you willing to bet $15 million that it will all work out in the short as well as long term?

And then there is the politics, not local but provincial. The only way that a major investment in power generation can pay off is if Parry Sound Power receives a higher price per kilowatt hour generated than the current market prices. The Ontario Government, to stimulate the construction of new renewable power generating capacity, has promised to pay a higher than market price for power from these sources. But this promise and these prices may not be as reliable as once thought based on complaints related to their promises to the solar power community (CBC article link).

Despite promises, and even contracts, it is clear that governments are not always able or willing to meet their obligations. People change, governments change, and markets change. This means that any investment based on a government commitment to subsidize, or support initiatives must be carefully scrutinized to ensure there is the possibility of life even without government support. Parry Sound finds itself even now dealing with challenging budget issues not because of unreasonable cost increases, or reckless spending, but rather a loss of provincial and federal funding.

Weather and politics are perhaps the two most unpredictable forces that we face. Depending on both for a favourable outcome seems a little too risky.

Here’s a recent photo of the “Festival Tree”. As the days grow shorter and the Festival of the Sound approaches the end of its season we are reminded that summer is a limited time opportunity. It’s time to head outside and enjoy the summer for all it has to offer before it’s gone.

Another spectacular sunset at the Stockey Centre

Council Agenda Preview – July 17th, 2012 Meeting

14 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by in Green Shoots, Parry Sound, Suggestions, Town Council

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

What seemed like a short and relatively non-controversial agenda became much more interesting once I had a chance to review the council package at the library. Here are some of the highlights and my comments. To get the full story I’d advise town residents to review the agenda that is available online and the council package that is made available at the library and the town office. A reminder: the library is closed Mondays.

Item 5.1 – a deputation on the upcoming province wide property reassessment is worth seeing live or catching later on Cogeco. It is unlikely there is a systematic plan to lower assessments, so expect more tax increases.

Item 9.1.1 – concerns a review of service delivery. This is scary, from a tax payer’s perspective. The town is considering hiring a consultant, probably KPMG, to audit the town’s services and identify opportunities to reduce expenses and/or raise revenues by about $900,000 per year. We’ll probably end up paying about $50,000 to be told that the town is already doing a good job and the only opportunities are those town residents are unlikely to accept. But town staff and council will have done the necessary audit and we will all be a little poorer. (Disclosure – I work as a consultant, albeit not is the financial sector, and have first hand experience on what consultants can do and why they are hired. In most cases it’s a CYA exercise.)

Item 9.1.2 – concerns water and waste water arrears. I wondered what this was all about and why we received three separate bills (water, waste water, and water heater rental). I’m not sure I really get it but it seems to be related to the fact that if you have it all on one bill, and only a portion is paid, you can’t be sure what service is in arrears and should be shut off. I hope the new proposals will address the problem. We seem to have an issue with deadbeats who don’t pay their bills. It’s especially a problem when they are renters. Suggestion – require a deposit on the start of service. I’ve lived in many different municipalities and we were always required to put up a $100 or $200 deposit for service to be turned on. Yes, it’s not fair for those who pay their bills. The alternative is paying higher rates to compensate for those people who ‘stiff’ the town.

Item 9.2.2 – offers direction for staff follow up concerning the Ranger Cabin on Tower Hill. (Disclosure – the Anne Bossart of the Tower Hill group is my wife, so I have some additional insights and probably some biases. Take this into consideration.)

My reading of the direction seems to indicate the Director of Public Works is suggesting the cabin is dilapidated and in need of repairs that would cost on the order of $15,000 to $30,000. His preferred approach, which he has presented previously, seems to be to tear down the cabin and replace it with a gazebo. He does not provide a budget for what this might cost.

A philosophy of recycle, reuse and repair is seemingly being exchanged for a philosophy of replace, replace and replace. That may, or may not, be the right thing to do when it comes to trucks and plows, but it really isn’t the right thing to do when it comes to our history and our heritage. It’s a bit like taking Buddy behind the shed to be shot because well, he’s a bit slow on the hunt, the vet bills are adding up, and we’d rather have a younger dog, preferably a different breed.

How about adding a recommendation that the town residents who support rehabilitation of the cabin be given until the end of the year to put together a plan? They’ll get it done, and it will be for much less than the cost of tearing down the cabin and replacing it with a gazebo. With public funding sources identified, a heritage property at stake, and a motivated volunteer group, it may cost the town nothing. Doing the right thing for less – now that’s a bargain that the consultants wouldn’t be able to come up with.

Item 9.5.1 – concerns the charitable waste grant. It looks as though the money budgeted by the town for charitable waste will be disbursed to the groups that have filed requests. This is good.

See you Tuesday.

Parry Sound – Investing for the Common Good

28 Monday May 2012

Posted by in Budget/Financial, Events/Activities, Parry Sound, Suggestions, Urban Development

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

I read in the Beacon Star on Friday about how McKellar Township is once again debt free. Again and again I hear criticism from the surrounding municipalities about how Parry Sound has ‘soooo’ much debt. I’m getting tired of it.

Debt by definition is not inherently bad. If we as individuals never took on debt we would never be able to buy a house, or a cottage, or even a car until well after we were able to make the best use of them. Imagine not being able to take a job a few miles away because you refused to take on the debt to purchase a car. Or imagine a nation of renters where the only person who cared about property improvement was the landlord. We’d be controlled by mega-corporations because a private landlord couldn’t or wouldn’t take on the debt to purchase and develop a property. Debt is not bad, poorly managed debt is bad.

So Parry Sound has more debt that the surrounding municipalities. So what? If we can afford it there shouldn’t be any criticism. But people like to suggest that the town’s debt has been taken on for frivolous purposes. I guess this would include the renovation of town hall and the Bobby Orr Community Centre and construction of the the Stockey Centre a decade ago. I suppose they think the town would be better off with a couple thousand septic tanks next to Georgian Bay and a couple thousand wells drawing water rather than a first class water treatment plant.

My sense is that people feel Parry Sound has been extravagant in its capital investments. If things were done properly there should be little or no debt. But as I have noted above debt is not only not a bad thing, it actually can be a good thing. The Great Depression was caused not so much by the stock market crash as it was by the precipitous drop in spending and the clamping down on the money supply. If no one was taking on a prudent amount of debt there would be a much higher level of unemployment.

So what have these ‘frivolous’ expenses contributed to Parry Sound and the surrounding communities? If you live in Parry Sound you surely have a sense of the value of the many investments the town has made in infrastructure and quality of life facilities. But let’s take a look at how the surrounding communities have benefited from the generosity of Parry Sound.

For starters McDougall would not have their municipal water supply if it were not for Parry Sound. There is no way they could afford to build and operate a similar first class water supply operation.

How popular would the West Parry Sound area be for permanent and seasonal residents if the closest retail centre was Bracebridge or Huntsville? For Carling, McDougall, McKellar and most Seguin residents it would mean an 80 km drive one-way to get more than the most basic of supplies or a restaurant meal and entertainment. That would really increase the cost of living here. And do you think these retailers would be willing to locate in areas where they had to depend on wells and sewers and there was not a core population to service and draw employees from?

And what would the local cottagers and residents do for entertainment on a wet weekday or weekend, or a fine spring, summer or fall weekend? You can take only so much of the outdoors in black fly and mosquito season. I wonder how many of the people attending the free events at the Stockey Centre (Bands on the Bay) and the town dock, or using Wabuno Beach, or free skating at the BOCC, or launching their boats at municipal ramps, are the people who pay Parry Sound taxes. At other towns they charge $5 to $10 to launch a runabout. And how about the ‘out of town’ seasonal residents who drop by to pick up a few gallons of drinking water from the Parry Sound municipal taps? The tourists who stay at the hotels, motels and campgrounds in the surrounding municipalities probably would not be staying there if it weren’t for the availability of Parry Sound’s investments.

So get over it McKellar, McDougall, Carling, Seguin and Archipelago. If you are able to deny reasonable services and facilities to your permanent residents in order to keep your seasonal residents from complaining about taxes, go ahead and do it. But please don’t shake your head in dismay about the debt that Parry Sound is carrying.

I have an idea, how about the bunch of you get together and build a regional swimming pool? We can’t afford it but we would be more than happy to use yours for free, or for a nominal charge, the same way you use many of our facilities. We’d be delighted to drive a few kilometers to use it. We promise not to chastise you for your debt. We will actually thank you for helping to stimulate the local economy, some of which might even trickle down to Parry Sound.

The Charitable Waste Challenge

07 Monday May 2012

Posted by in Parry Sound, Suggestions

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, ,

I have commented several times on the need and challenge related to addressing the issue of charitable organization waste. I won’t repeat my arguments on why the town needs to take on a more active role in the disposal except to offer the picture below.

Driving by the Salvation Army this morning I stopped to see what had been ‘donated’ over the weekend and took the picture above. As you can see someone had ‘considerately’ donated an old three-section sofa. And because the individual(s) didn’t want to have their generosity acknowledged it seems they decided to drop it off over the weekend when the store was closed.

So what does the Salvation Army do with this donation? The really don’t have the space to inventory it. And how can they in good conscience sell it without a proper cleaning? Who knows where and what the couch was used for prior to the drop off. I find it a little bit scary to think about taking it home, even in an unfinished basement.

The answer is of course is to pay to dispose of it. What the cost might be for this type of ‘commercial’ waste I don’t know. If a Parry Sound resident were to bring it to the transfer station the cost would be three ‘dump tickets’, or $9.00.

But a donation sure beats paying $9.

The town needs to help address this situation. This is not a charitable waste issue, it’s a town littering problem. What would the town do if the sofa were dumped at the corner of James and Mary Streets? They would pick it up and bring it to the transfer station, whether the anonymous ‘dumper’ was from Parry Sound, McDougall, McKellar, Seguin or any of the other surrounding municipalities.

Let’s see how the town chooses to handle this challenge. It’s people who are generating the waste, not our charitable organizations.

Incense and Bath Salts – Not What They Seem

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Parry Sound, Safety, Suggestions

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

,

This is a strange little post, but one that has been brewing for a few weeks. With a bit of a break between regular and special council meetings and town presentations this seems a good time to put together a few words.

As some of you may know I have a graduate degree from the College of Pharmacy of The Ohio State University, and I have spent my career in the pharmaceutical business, never far from the research and development teams. As a result of education and career I have kept a close eye on the recreational use of pharmaceuticals.

While there is much public discussion of the abuse of prescription narcotics and sedative/hypnotics, as well as recreational use of methamphetamine, there is little local awareness of designer hallucinogens. This was brought to my attention when raising this issue with people in town who are connected in one way or another to mental health services or law enforcement. In all cases I needed to explain what I meant by designer drugs and the terms “bath salts”, “incense” and “plant food”.

These designer drugs are variations on well known, and for the most part well understood, hallucinogens such as LSD, MDA and cannabinoids. In many cases these designer drugs are similar to the better ‘studied’ hallucinogens in terms of ‘psychedelic’ activity. The attraction to these designer drugs is that they are so new that in many cases legislation has not caught up to make them illegal. But because they are so new the dangers associated with their use is also not properly understood. While some might disagree, the better known psychedelics/stimulants – such as LSD, mescaline, and MDA, for the most part are not associated with significant toxicity if taken infrequently and in reasonable doses. This is because they are inherently not remarkably toxic, and over the past 50 years (yes it’s been that long) considerable experience has been gained in their reasonably safe recreational use.

What about “incense”, “bath salts” and “plant food”? Well these are the terms used for designer drugs sold at retail in convenience stores, mini-marts and ‘smoke’ shops. Because these designer drugs are not necessarily illegal (yet), and there are limited tests to verify their composition, they are often brazenly sold over the counter in single dose packages with labeling stating they are not for human use. But they most certainly are intended for recreational use.

These designer drugs carry a number of risks. There may be as many as fifty different designer drugs available worldwide, all of them different in terms of proper dosing, type of experience and length of intoxication. The exact product in the package and the dose can be very variable. While users have some reasonable sense of what they can expect from the more commonly used, and illegal, drugs, this is not the case with designer drugs. There are reports of users being totally overwhelmed by the experience and making very poor decisions that have led to death and injury.

Another major risk relates to dose and contamination. In many cases these designer drugs are sloppily manufactured and subjected to little or no quality control. This can lead to significant variation in quality and contamination with manufacturing chemicals and intermediates. These contaminants can have significant safety issues associated with their use.

I am not aware of “incense”, “bath salts” and “plant food” being sold in Parry Sound. But then again I don’t often frequent the type of stores that would be stocking these products. With reported prices of $10 to $20 per single dose package, they can be a real bargain for someone looking for something ‘different’, and a profitable product for the retailer.

You now know a little more about designer drugs. Check out this additional link, Discovery Magazine, to learn a little more about the problem. Perhaps we should all be on the lookout for these products. And if it’s a problem south of the border, it will be a problem sooner rather than later. Here’s a very recent news item about designer drugs in Owen Sound.

Garbage – A Different Side of the Issue

14 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Parry Sound, Suggestions

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, ,

As you know I have been a proponent of giving the Salvation Army and other non-profit organizations a break in dealing with the garbage that is generated as part of their community services. This posting looks to the people of Parry Sound to do the right thing themselves.

Exhibit A – Taken 2012-02-14 (Valentine’s Day)


Exhibit B – A Close Up

Yes it’s what you think it is. While people are good enough to pick it up, it would be appreciated if they would carry it out with them. I know there are no garbage cans along the fitness trail once the snow flies, but it really isn’t too much trouble to carry it in the hand not holding the leash.

If your dog was able to carry it to the trail, you should be able to carry it out.

This is not a problem unique to Parry Sound. A trail close to where I lived in Austin was regularly dotted with these packages. In that case I wonder if it wouldn’t have been better to leave it where it landed and not bag it. It would have returned to nature in short order.

It’s a different issue here, where the snow provides a delightful contrast. But please let’s pick it up and take it home. It all ends up in the same place.

Salvation Army – Letter to the Editor

28 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by in Parry Sound, Suggestions

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

, ,

My letter to the editor concerning the Salvation Army’s challenges dealing with the junk dropped on their premises was published yesterday in the Beacon Star. Here’s a link to the letter as well as a front page article reporting on the same issue.

I won’t repeat my arguments here but I’ll offer a little more information regarding my perspective. I tried to keep the letter short, well sort of, and didn’t go into some related issues that others have raised. I suggest you read the letter to get some perspective on the comments that follow.

1. Yes some of the junk is surely being dumped by people outside of Parry Sound. But that’s a problem not ‘fixable’ by Parry Sound council and staff, at least not until we take care of our part of the problem. At that point we can ask surrounding communities to address their part of the problem.

2. We need to remember that the garbage disposal rules and regulations are intended to benefit the community, not be a punishment or torture. If as a community we need more service we need to ask for it. It may imply a higher cost, but on balance that may be worth the price. I’m in no position to judge whether this is something Parry Sound should consider, but it is obvious from the challenges faced by the Salvation Army that disposing of garbage is an issue for at least some people in our community.

3. Yes some people may ‘abuse’ the system. The strict limits on how much garbage can be set at the curb weekly is intended to limit the amount of waste and the cost. I’m not suggesting we raise the two bag (items?) limit, rather I’d like to see some flexibility on what is picked up. If the town doesn’t arrange to have the garbage picked up it will be dumped – at the Salvation Army, a ditch or in a municipal garbage pail. Garbage doesn’t disappear, it get’s hidden. And unless Parry Sound becomes a ‘transfer station’ for garbage, that is people ‘smuggle’ garbage into town to dispose of it, we are only likely to be taking care of our own mess. Abuse of the system shouldn’t be too hard to detect.

4. Having once or twice yearly pickup of larger items could be a real help to people in clearing out their junk. At best it makes for tidier homes, at worse it stimulates people to dump something old and get something new. And I will bet that people will be happy to dispose of old electronics they are unable to ‘carry’ or ‘cart’ to the transfer station’s e-recycling bin. That old 75 pound TV perhaps?

5. We need to acknowledge that the Salvation Army does reduce the town’s garbage by recycling items that are no longer needed and others can use. There are many people downsizing their homes, or dealing with an estate, who are more than happy to see items are passed on to those who can use them. If not for the Salvation Army what would people do? I suspect much of it would end up in the garbage and that’s not good for the town or the environment, especially when there are others who could use the items.

About the Salvation Army; they and a number of other organizations provide valuable support to the Town of Parry Sound. Let’s not make their job any more difficult by requiring them to become experts in garbage disposal.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.