Discussion 58 of 365; Edit: Important update- After being posted for 24 hours, two people contacted me to say that Tim Hortons has withdrawn from being the planned concession at the TPAL. I’m sure the town will update us all if this is true. The truth about the Twin Pad Arena and Library (TPAL) financing. I bumped this [...]

Discussion 55 of 365; This coming Thursday…. councilor Belanger’s motion should be considered. He is asking Council to have his integrity Commissioner recommended sanctions from his guilty verdicts last term reversed. I want to know SPECIFICALLY why! What new information Joe? Tell us the specifics! Don’t just say it’s all confidential and hide behind closed doors. Four times, he [...]

Discussion 54 of 365; Yesterday evening, I attended the open house hosted by the Twin Creeks Developers. The attached story boards were posted in the room. They show the details they plan on moving forward with. Not surprisingly, I understand there was pretty good attendance at this open house. To everyone living in areas affected by this, you are [...]

Discussion 108 of 365; Process, Procedure… Only when it serves our Council! Some days I get tired of researching and recording dates, times, details, etc.. However, when you know that a man as powerful as our Mayor will have his people question your comments, it becomes an important part of everything you write. So having said that… I [...]

Discussion 83 of 365; Breadcrumbs lead to more breadcrumbs. Property Standards lead to profit! In reviewing Discussion 73, the focus was on discussing the big lie about Brian Smith not living in Wasaga Beach. That’s right, for those of you joining late, Mayor Smith has lived in Tiny Township for years. He even lived there when elected to be [...]

Discussion 18 of 365; Continuing yesterday’s discussion about my motivation to stay involved….. I stated that there were a couple of key events during my wife’s service on Council that motivated me. The next motivating moment involved another person who used to be a friend. It was many months after the 2014 election and Sylvia had been serving [...]

Discussion 16 of 365;Condos on the BeachWhat it is really all about! Brian Smith just nods and grins when developers say Beach One (and eventually Beach Two) will soon be a block of townhouses. FRAM has said that wooden townhouse styled structures will be first. FRAM also says this will not be a draw for families, but instead [...]

What can we do about all of the lies and deceit being displayed by our elected officials? There are a few choices; Go to the integrity Commisioner, go to the Ombudsman’s office or, ask those lying. Lies are told by some people all of the time. However, when elected officials knowingly condone those lies, they may as well [...]

Affordable housing. This is an interesting topic and just like health care, it is not our (the municipalities) jurisdiction. However there are plenty of things that can be changed. Several times a year we hear the debate about hotels and the condition of our present short term accommodation inventory. What does that have to do with affordable housing? [...]

  First it is important to understand that in most other communities, the physicians in those communities often partner up and open private clinics. These are physician operated and they bill directly to OHIP. In our area the majority of physicians are part of an organization known as the Family Health Organization or FHO. New physicians, or seasoned [...]

Yesterday, we discussed the BB attacks of the SCDSB and the history of our Mayor and CAO destroying important relationships. Apparently it is not isolated to the School boards. For years, the Mayors and CAO’s of five communities have gathered to talk about what’s going on in their community and explore possible collaborations or share ideas. I have [...]

Today’s discussion is a continuation of yesterday’s talk about scheduling and process. About a month ago, the private political group, “Wasaga Beach Ratepayers Association” (not the original Facebook group, but the one started by Councilor Fay Ego and others) had their AGM. This AGM, apparently had all members of The Wasaga Beach Council present. It was almost like a [...]

According to Google; “The consent agenda is a tool used to streamline meeting procedures by collecting routine, non-controversial items into a group whereby all are passed with a single motion and vote. This method has grown in popularity in recent years and there are many variations on the theme to meet specific needs.” I believe Wasaga Beach introduced consent [...]

I suppose they hope that stories told often enough just become the truth? Um no, it just prompts concerned people to act. As you know, I watch a few videos and read all kinds of information to generate these discussions. I recently watched videos of the Mayor and CAO McNeil at the AGM of the WBRPA. After watching the [...]

Should the law in Ontario be changed so that those seeking to run for office must “live” in the community they want to preside over? In Wasaga Beach, our current Mayor ran an election campaign that included a series of videos where he constantly referred to his “home”, his neighbours and generally portraying an image that he grew [...]

Although I do not read the Beach Booster Newsletter due to its incredible bias, I do get asked to review articles occasionally. I guess it’s a good thing School Boards typically just plow forward doing what they have learned is best for our students through the years. If they bowed to municipal pressures or bullies, where would it end? [...]

Discussion 4/365 It started with online mentions of shredding trucks, grew from that to expensive investigations and eventually a media circus saying wrongdoing “may” have occurred. From there, the accusations online from those perpetuating the lies kept growing. The carefully crafted releases from the town that included the subtle “May” qualifier, were replaced with vicious attacks from fake identities [...]

You can often judge a man by his... Those of you who were so taken with the launching last year of the Town Advocate, namely Georgio Mammoliti must be asking where he has gone?The apparently vital service has evaporated along with his office. Apparently under this new council, residents have no problems or issues. Hoorah!

Seriously though, I [...]

It is generally true that lies do not beat truth. In other words, if something is a lie, it is not true and therefore cannot defeat the truth. This is because the truth is based on facts and reality, whereas a lie is a false statement that is intended to deceive or mislead. However, it is possible for [...]

  It cannot have escaped anyone that we now live in an age of rage. We see it every day on the news, but we also witness it in our personal lives interacting with others. My own reading suggests that human society was always on a constant low simmer, brought to the boil at times of shared stress like [...]

Having spent the last twenty five years embroiled in the moral soup that is the Internet, I am by no means an expert, but I do have some observations on why there are so many untrue statements here, why social media is so fertile for the wrong kind of crop. A falsehood is quick and convenient, the truth takes [...]

Is honesty a requirement for a politician in this modern age? When Leslie Farkas the owner of Skydive Wasaga Beach announced he was running for mayor in the next and still quite distant election he drew a lot  of attention. Being a political neophyte; not having held any kind of position in the past or apparently any experience of [...]

Those who follow politics in our small town often see analogies from the larger world. Often what works in “big box politics” filters down to local level as it is tried here too. This example was recently forwarded to me. I must point out that it is publicly available information.attached is an appeal to Information and Privacy Commission concerning [...]

  Some people's souls have grown over the course of covid, they have stepped up and helped even when the risk wasn't fully understood. Many of those (but definitely not all) work for the town of Wasaga Beach. They ensured that the work got done and that the municipality supported the efforts to get over covid. A notable exception [...]