Author: John Draper

Announcement re Federal MP candidate

John Draper

In the middle of this Covid-19 crisis, there has been continual talk of the performance of Federal and Provincial politicians with particular speculation about the possibility of a Federal election because of the minority Government.  The current Federal MP for Northumberland Peterborough South (NPS) is Conservative Philip Lawrence and if a federal election were to be held, many have assumed that he would be running against the previous incumbent, Liberal Kim Rudd.  But today, Kim announced that because of health reasons, she would not be running again.  Given the possibility of an election at any time, that means the Liberal Party will need to find a candidate quickly.  Kim’s announcement today did not discuss who might run in her place… Read complete articleAnnouncement re Federal MP candidate

Should the Town Buy the Brookside property?

John Draper

At tonight’s regular Council meeting, Council received a memo from the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee which recommended that Council “consider making an attempt to acquire the Brookside property as a community benefit”.  Although this memo was terse, it was triggered by a letter to the Committee by member Richard Pope who included more rationale as well as some suggested uses for the property.  It’s hard to know what the property might be sold for by the Province but at a cost of $40,000 per acre, the reported 70 acres would cost $2.8M.  (The $40k figure is based on recent sales at Lucas Point Industrial Park).  Since at least some of the land is described as being in a flood… Read complete articleShould the Town Buy the Brookside property?

Nicole Beatty Seeks Provincial Liberal Nomination

John Draper

Cobourg Councillor Nicole Beatty today announced that she will seek the nomination of the Liberal party as its candidate for Northumberland Peterborough South in the June 2022 Provincial election. The MPP currently in the riding is Conservative David Piccini – at the last election he was opposed by Liberal candidate Loui Rinaldi who had held the seat off and on since 2007 and I’d guess he won’t want to run again. In the last Municipal election, Nicole received the most votes and has been quite active in her role as Councillor so looks like a strong candidate. The next Council election will be October 2022 so if she wins the nomination and wins the Provincial vote, she would be leaving… Read complete articleNicole Beatty Seeks Provincial Liberal Nomination

Vaccine Update – 21 April

John Draper

At her first media “scrum”, Dr. Natalie Bocking, the new HKPR Medical Officer of Health, provided a comprehensive update on what is being done to cope with the pandemic.  A good part of the statistical data she provided is available online at the HKPR DHU website (That’s the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit web site) but she also provided additional details about variants, vaccines, demographics, clinics, vaccine distribution and appointment availability.  It was open to the media and local media people did ask some questions. This report will provide a summary of information provided but in the interest of transparency, the one hour session was recorded on You-Tube and is available via links below. If you have the… Read complete articleVaccine Update – 21 April

West Harbour Concerns Close to Resolution

John Draper

In 2019, Town staff commissioned the Lifesaving Society to conduct an audit of activities in the West Harbour to ensure they were safe.  The report recommended some changes but their overall report was criticised by Harbour User groups because they were not consulted and some recommendations would mean they would have to shut down.  Council asked Staff for a report which Director (at the time) Dean Hustwick provided but this just seemed to inflame the situation. (See links below).  One key issue raised by users was that the Town did not have jurisdiction in the harbour.  Instead it was a Federal responsibility because the Harbour included “navigable waters”.  Most recently (July 2020), Council passed a resolution that included a request… Read complete articleWest Harbour Concerns Close to Resolution

Possible Town Land for Affordable Housing

John Draper

Cobourg has a Town-wide Community Improvement Plan that targets affordable housing. Clause 3.8.8 says that the Town could provide some of the land it owns at a low price so as to effectively subsidize such housing and at meetings in November 2020,  Council asked staff to “put together an inventory of potential municipal-owned surplus lands, buildings and/or facilities” to potentially be used for this purpose.  At the Committee of the Whole meeting on April 19, Staff will be providing this requested report.  Based on information in the Town’s GIS System (Geographical Information System), the Town owns “a total of ~226 ha (558 ac) of land within the municipal boundary or just over 10% of the total land area of the… Read complete articlePossible Town Land for Affordable Housing

Two re-zonings requested

John Draper

At a “virtual” public meeting on April 12, about 10 citizens showed up to hear about two applications for re-zoning.  The first was for land on the southwest corner of Burnham St. and DePalma Dr. – the request was to allow a Medical Clinic to be built there although there are no current plans to do so – it would just make the land more attractive for developers.  There were no comments by any of the online public.  The second was to allow a new housing and commercial development on the southwest corner of Albert and Division: stores on the ground floor and residences above.  Details of the plan buildings were presented and a couple of concerns were expressed:  insufficient… Read complete articleTwo re-zonings requested

Police Responding to Public Concerns about Demonstrators

John Draper

Cobourg Police seem to now be responding to complaints from the Public about demonstrators not following the same rules as everyone else.  At a Press conference today (see video below), Chief Paul VandeGraaf, Police Board Chair and Mayor John Henderson re-iterated that they are now enforcing the rules.  Last Saturday, seven offenders got tickets and two got Court summons for obstructing Police.  When asked why now and not earlier, Chief VandeGraaf said that it was his decision. Police attempts to educate were being ignored and people were refusing to comply.  He said their behaviour was bordering on criminal. Mayor Henderson commented that he had received a large number of calls wanting enforcement and he communicated that to the Chief.  It… Read complete articlePolice Responding to Public Concerns about Demonstrators