Category: News 2018

Highway of Heroes Tree Planting

John Draper

A crew of volunteers participated today in planting some of the 117,000 trees that will remember the 117,000 Canadians who have “died for freedom” since confederation.  The event took place on the Highway of Heroes right of way just west of Burnham Street. There were about 40 volunteers including military personnel, Home Hardware staff and others. The idea is to plant a living memorial to all those Canadians who died to preserve Canada’s values. Although Pete Fisher says he didn’t really start the Highway of Heroes idea – he was certainly instrumental in spreading the word and making it happen. During the Afghan conflict, the convoy conveying the bodies of fallen soldiers from Trenton to Toronto was honoured by people standing on 401… Read complete articleHighway of Heroes Tree Planting

Trudeau Visits Cobourg

John Draper

With no-one contesting the nomination of Kim Rudd as the Liberal Candidate for the 2019 Federal Election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came to her nomination meeting to declare her the official Candidate.  No other party has yet had a nomination meeting in the Riding so Kim is off to an early start.  The meeting tonight at the LiUNA hall on Dodge Street in Cobourg was full with an estimated 350-400 people.  Most were Liberal supporters but not all; there were some Conservatives, notably Candidate Philip Lawrence with some supporters (see photo) plus some protesters (who were barely heard) and of course the National and local media.  The event was billed as open to all and starting at 6:00 p.m.  At… Read complete articleTrudeau Visits Cobourg

Hospital Opens for Tours

John Draper

Today, Northumberland Hills Hospital (NHH) celebrated their 15th anniversary by giving tours of their outpatient area.  That included a look at their Dialysis unit, Diagnostic Imagery, the Birthing Unit as well as providing some general information about their services.  NHH employs over 600 people and is a $71M/year operation; it’s twice the size of the previous hospital and provides a wide range of services.  In addition they have a satellite Mental Health Clinic that features a walk-in clinic.  During the tour, the Directors of each unit provided statistics and were open for questions.  The point of the exercise was to help get the word out what services the hospital  provides but it was also clear that staff were very happy… Read complete articleHospital Opens for Tours

Voting Starts in Cobourg

John Draper

I voted today and my experience was positive although some problems voting by phone have already been reported (more under Links).  I’m reporting my experience in detail below so people know what to expect. Like any voting process, it has faults in the registering of who is eligible – the list is not perfect and to some extent relies on people not abusing the system by reporting errors or simply not voting twice when they receive two notices!  The basic list is generated by MPAC “principally based on property assessment data and the results of previous enumeration efforts”.  It seems that this is the principal source of errors and would apply to any technology used for voting.  One concern is… Read complete articleVoting Starts in Cobourg

All-Candidates “Speed Campaigning” event

John Draper

On October 10 the Northumberland Central Chamber of Commerce held their All-Candidates meeting using their “Speed Campaigning” format which had proved successful in 2014. The idea was that citizens would be seated at 16 tables and one at a time the Candidates would join them for 6 minutes to answer questions. Nine candidates for Council, the two candidates for Deputy Mayor and three of the Candidates for English Public School trustee participated.  There were 16 tables and each table could accommodate 8 so capacity was 128.  All participants had to pre-register but in the end, there were 12 no-shows so many tables had only 7 voters.  Room rental at the Best Western was donated by the Cobourg Taxpayers Association when… Read complete articleAll-Candidates “Speed Campaigning” event

FSD Pharma Announces Restoration of Certo building

John Draper

At a Press Conference on Tuesday Oct 9, Thomas Fairfull, President and CEO of FSD Pharma had a ribbon cutting ceremony as he announced the start of work on “converting the historic Certo building … into a heritage museum and on-site dispensary. The Certo building is an important part of Cobourg’s history and the Company intends to preserve this unique building.”  But they are seemingly not interested in local media, only “national media with media credentials” were invited – so the photo below was taken later in the day.  Mayor Brocanier and Mayor Elect John Henderson were at the ribbon cutting but MP Kim Rudd was not although she was invited.  The Certo building on the old Kraft property was… Read complete articleFSD Pharma Announces Restoration of Certo building

Cultural Plan Update

John Draper

On June 25, 2018 Council decided to award a contract for $65,000 to consultant MDB Insight to prepare a Cultural Master Plan.  The first progress report on this was presented at Council’s meeting on October 1st. There were no decisions or recommendations – it was just about what had been done so far and where it was going.  Chris Elliott, Manager of Recreation and Culture, went through the objectives, community engagement (both input and messages to the community) and target audiences.  At least two public meetings and a survey are planned although there are no dates yet for those. The steering committee appears to be a good representation of Cobourg’s cultural community – hopefully they will point the consultant in the… Read complete articleCultural Plan Update

Cobourg to Hold Public Meeting on Cannabis Stores

John Draper

With the legalization of recreational Cannabis in Canada, the Province has introduced legislation to allow privately owned retail stores to sell the product and to establish regulations on its sale and use.  That could potentially mean that there would be stores in Cobourg that would sell marijuana starting April 1, 2019.  After public consultation, the Province has decided to allow Municipalities to ban or regulate such stores with a decision on this required by January 22, 2019.  Brent Larmer, Cobourg’s Municipal Clerk, has recommended a meeting to consult with the public and will then report to the new Council before the due date.  At their meeting on October 1st, Council agreed with this proposal (without any discussion), although no date… Read complete articleCobourg to Hold Public Meeting on Cannabis Stores