Will you be downtown at 4? Will there be 100? 300? 23?
There’s no question the folks rallying in front of town hall against council’s decision to build two fabric structures — one over Centennial Pool, the other over a new ice rink planned for Central Park — are driven and passionate. I may not agree with the entire premise of their petition, but I do support the general thrust: that public input is absolutely imperative (using ‘urgency’ as the argument is a canard, as delaying a decision for two months to solicit input would mean the new rink be done next July, rather than the scheduled May, in plenty of time for the next minor hockey season), and sole-sourcing a $10.6 million deal is not necessarily a best practice (though it is permitted under the town’s procurement policy).
Their petition has also gained quite a bit of favour, and it looks as though it pushed its way over the 500 mark today. As Councillor Ian Chadwick noted:
“I hoped it would be a wake-up call… I likened it (the petition and presentation) as a vote of non-confidence in the council as a whole,” Chadwick said. “I think this is a comment on council as a whole.”
Oh, wait a minute, that was in reference to the 2007 petition calling on council to overturn its decision to rescind the Heritage Impact Assessment for Admiral Collingwood Place.
I can only assume that he’s saying the same thing about this petition and its organizers:
“I like citizen engagement and debate – I encourage it – but some of what I’ve seen is simply confrontational. Angrily denouncing us and demanding council rescind its decision will not win any supporters at the table.”
It seems to me some of the language used in the Admiral debate was equally confrontational and accusatory; I recall local lawyer Scott Thomson gave council quite the tongue-lashing when he presented the petition to council. I also noted Chadwick made a Facebook comment at some point over the weekend (can’t find it now) that likened the current petition and rally organizers to Goldilocks living in some sort of fairytale.
(Then again, on the other side, I’ve noted the, uh, glee to which former VOTE Collingwood members have taken toward the rec decision petition and their support of it – when in 2007 they dismissed the Admiral Collingwood petition because it was ‘only’ signed by 2,200 people.)
The rally is too late to change the minds of councillors (the deal for the Sprung Structures, as I understand, is now a signed contract), but its organizers may succeed in pushing their message into the public consciousness. Let’s see what 4 p.m. brings…
