Collingwood Council is currently debating some major changes to the town’s bylaws, many of which appear to mean fewer services and less support for our residents. This council has once again increased our property taxes and user fees (while giving themselves yet another pay raise as their reward for doing
Continue readingTag: taxes
Scripturient: Collingwood Needs a Communications Director and Plan
Yesterday, the Town of Collingwood sent out an email trying to rationalize the town’s budget and tax increase. That release underscores in so many ways why townhall desperately needs both a person and a plan to oversee and guide its communications. And this is coming from someone who also believes
Continue readingScripturient: Councillor Shits on Democracy
In a recent story in CollingwoodToday, Councillor Jeffrey is reported shitting on the democratic process. Rather than respecting a previous decision of council as policy requires, she chose to bring back a vote to add another staff person to our already overstaffed townhall. In doing so, I am confident she
Continue readingScripturient: More Oppressive Budget Bullshit
Council is still eyeing a massive hike to Collingwood property taxes, proving they lack any concern about the problems facing seniors and others on fixed incomes, low-income earners, and the many working-class people simply trying to make ends meet in an increasingly expensive town. Every tax increase, every utility increase,
Continue readingScripturient: 4.25% Tax Increase! WTF Is Council Thinking?
A story in CollingwoodToday says the latest draft of the town budget puts a 4.25% increase on property taxes for 2024! WTF is council thinking, adding more costs to residents during a period of high inflation? People are already struggling with rising costs for food, electricity (the Saunderson-privatized EPCOR got a
Continue readingScripturient: The Affordable Housing Myth
Let me start with a few basic, uncomfortable truths about housing. It’s a myth that municipal politicians can, without a coordinated and regional approach that includes private developers and upper-tier levels as well as stakeholders and advocates, solve anything related to housing. And even then, it requires the involvement of
Continue readingScripturient: Let Them Eat Cake
The Continued Arrogance of Brian Saunderson Our gormless backbencher CONservative MPP, Brian Saunderson, recently exposed his egregious arrogance in a comment to CollingwoodToday about the province again burdening municipalities by downloading more costs onto them. For Collingwood, that means another $615,000 added to our expenses.* He didn’t even bother trying
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Dismissing the low taxes myth with a word
If there’s a common refrain in Conservative election platforms it’s lower taxes. No matter the current tax level, Conservatives believe it must be lower. If this is simply a belief that more money should be spent individually and less collectively, so be it. A reasonable sentiment. But we also constantly
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Alberta’s very own tax cut fiasco
A recent tax cut for the rich managed to achieve international notoriety. Former British Prime Minster Liz Truss, a neo-liberal zealot à la her idol Margaret Thatcher, ushered in her term with a generous tax cut for Britain’s high income earners. It got quite the response: the exchange rate of
Continue readingScripturient: Council’s Inappropriate Pay-Raise Decision
Late last month — less than three months before the next municipal election — council made significant decisions about their own pay and the role of the mayor. Given that four of them have filed to run again (and a fifth is pending), and two of those are vying for
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Now Comes The Necessary Part Ontario Edition
Nevertheless, and irrregardless of and notwithstanding that federal-provincial jurisdiction exists the actions that are necessary for the next Ontario government to take are the same as those the newly elected federal government needs to take. It’s the same electorate and the same Canadians and the same solutions that are required.
Continue readingScripturient: Greed: Council Votes Itself More Money. Again
NB. This is a repost from Dec. 16, 2021 At its Dec. 13 budget meeting our perpetually greedy, self-serving council voted 5-3 to increase their own individual expense accounts from $4,000 a year to a staggering $5,500. That’s $2,000 more than councillors were allowed for expenses in 2014. That’s a
Continue readingScripturient: More Greed: Council Votes Itself More Money Again
At its most recent budget meeting, Dec. 13, our perpetually greedy council voted 5-3 to increase their own individual expense accounts from $4,000 a year to a staggering $5,500. That’s a LOT of money for a council that has spent the last two years in virtual meetings, not attending events,
Continue readingScripturient: Our Council’s Reprehensible Greed
Our council’s sense of entitlement again came to light this week. A report from a consultant tabled in the Nov.1 meeting of the Strategic Initiatives Standing Committee recommends that the mayor receive a 9.5% increase, while councillors get a 5% increase (page five of the report). Nine-point-five percent? Who gets
Continue readingScripturient: How Can Anyone Afford a New House Here?
My sources suggest that a local retailer recently bought the Blue Shores house shown on the right, paying more than $100,000 over the asking price, for a total of $1.15 million By my standards, that’s a helluva lot of money. Where would anyone working in retail get the funds to
Continue readingScripturient: Why is Millennium Park so Poorly Maintained?
We took a walk along the sidewalk and trail into the inappropriately-named “Millennium” Park* this week and were deeply disappointed by the lack of maintenance there. Aside from seeing a private pickup truck driving on the sidewalk for 100 or more metres before turning onto Waterside Lane (where were the
Continue readingScripturient: Can Collingwood Pass the Strong Towns’ Test?
Back in 2014, the USA-based Strong Towns group posted a test to “measure a successful Strong Town.” The ten questions or conditions posed include: Take a photo of your main street at midday. Does the picture show more people than cars? If there were a revolution in your town, would
Continue readingScripturient: Yet Another WTF Were They Smoking Decision from Council
Council has decided to close Maple Street to vehicular traffic at the end of this month, to make the street safe for bicycles as a one-month trial. Yes, I’m serious: they’re closing Maple Street, and it’s being done without even the pretense of consulting with the residents. But, in their
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: More evidence to support taxing the rich
As nations reset their economies following the Covid crisis, one focus is on reducing the inequality that has become an increasing threat to political stability. An obvious instrument to achieving this is higher taxes on the rich. However, conservative economists say we must keep taxes on high income earners relatively
Continue readingScripturient: Council Votes to Waste More Tax Dollars on Personal Vendetta
Just when you thought our council could not get any more petty or puerile, they lower the bar again. Last night, in a 7-2 vote, our punishment-obsessed council voted to spend yet more of your tax dollars on the Saunderson Vindictive Judicial Inquiry (aka the SVJI). Yes, that’s right: they
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