Erosion - The Nature Conservancy of Canada's Norfolk Plan

Erosion : the act or process of eroding or the state of being eroded.

There's been a lot of talk from Citizen's in Norfolk County with regards to The Nature Conservancy of Canada's penchant for buying farms, tearing down the buildings and how it affects the tax base of the County.  A concerned Citizen has taken it upon themselves to delve a little deeper into the equation and has sent us some much needed information to produce hard results.

The loss of these farms is irreparable to our community.  The jobs, production, and family's are gone forever.  Money churn cannot be calculated.  If it could the results would be staggering.

Hastings Drive Down Zone Meeting Highlights

In case you missed the Hastings Drive Downzone Meeting on April 15th, 2014 at Norfolk County Council and don't want to spend the $22.50 for the DVD we've taken a few highlights on the discussion and posted them on www.youtube.com for you.

For those of you coming into the game late there's a pretty serious battle going on over property uses on a small piece of beach properties in Norfolk County.  In the mid 1980's a storm hit Long Point and caused serious destruction.  According to Long Point Biosphere there were 40 cottages destroyed on Long Point and another 15 on Hastings Drive.  The owners of the destroyed cottages on Hastings Drive were not allowed to rebuild after that and a temporary road was put in to allow the remaining cottage owners access.

Norfolk County's Reserves Are In The Toilet.

Last nights Norfolk County Council meeting exposed yet another financial boondoggle that will surely cost Citizens.  The upgrades at the Simcoe Wastewater Treatment Facility will now come in at a cost of $3,851,845.98

The pre-tender estimate provided by Muhannad Bagajati of RV Anderson & Associates was $2,650,000 but it was a lower amount that went into the actual budget.  The original budget had a provision of $2,375,000.  We're not exactly clear why it was posted short by $275,000 to start with.  Is this what Mayor Dennis Travale meant when he said 'we have a very very very tight budget to deal with' at the budget meeting?

Hastings Drive and the Hazard Land Zone

The infamous Hastings Drive lot owners vs double standards has just taken another turn.

This was posted late so that no Citizen's can be deputized to fight for their rights which was also the case in the 4th Concession closing.  Up in front of Council tomorrow evening is another zoning debacle known as the Hasting Drive Property Rights Removal.  Make a note Council also starts early for this one in an effort to avoid Citizen's being able to make it on time.  It's a 4PM start and in the agenda is the Hastings Drive rezoning issue.


Agenda :

https://norfolk.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=144128

Hastings Drive Issue :

https://norfolk.civicweb.net/FileStorage/F1F0529A64D44B0FA0477C4BB3E43702-DCS%2014-42.pdf

Losing faith in Canadian Charities.

This is an email that we received from a concerned Citizen who has been following the work that we have been doing where we expose practices by certain charities that we consider - regifting.

Our work on educating Citizen's by using data obtained from the Canada Revenue Agency will continue.  We are working on a grading system so people can see how efficient their money is being spent once it's been sent to these charities.  There are many charities that do great work but there are also some that appear to exist only for their own benefit.  Stay tuned.

I spend a lot of time reading Canadian newspapers and can’t believe what I am reading lately regarding our charitable organizations.   The face of most of our large charities has changed and I begin to question the integrity of even those that have managed to stay out of the papers.  

Norfolk Council Meeting - April Fools Day

A very interesting Council Meeting last night and, unfortunately if you missed it, you will now have to pay the $22.50 for the DVD copy.  It's really too bad that Citizen's in Norfolk are not able to watch their County Councilors performance at their own leisure.  We're sure that the existence of the Cloud and other forms of storing data could be utilized to alleviate this inconvenience.   It's a great way for Citizen's to keep abreast of what is happening in their respective Ward.

One comment that we must make is, that if you only have a short time to watch the episode, that round table discussion at the conclusion of the meeting is likely your best bet.  It was great to watch as the Councilors explained their Ward's successes and issues.  Hearing Mr. Geysens invite Citizen's to the Langton Figure Skating Events and Mayor Travale mention the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Bowl for Kids Sake events were a refreshing change from the mundane bylaw issues of norm.  Seeing our elected officials promoting our local events is exactly the kind of sales pitches needed to sell people on rural living and bringing together our community.