Category: News 2018

Gil Brocanier Gives Advice in Farewell Speech

John Draper

At his final Council meeting, Mayor Gil Brocanier gave a farewell speech which included advice to the incoming Council – and he pulled no punches.  The opportunity was his Economic Development Coordinator report which is scheduled at the end of every regular Council meeting.  As his last report, he said that he and John Henderson, together with Manufacturing Attraction Specialist T.J. Flynn, are being sent on an all expenses paid trip to China by William Academy from October 10 to 18.  As well as being at a twinning with a city just outside Beijing and the setting up of a Hockey training centre like the CCC, they will pursue “business opportunities”.  Gil then thanked Councillors and Staff for helping achieve… Read complete articleGil Brocanier Gives Advice in Farewell Speech

Police Report – October 2018

John Draper

On Tuesday morning at the DBIA Board meeting, Deputy Chief Paul VandeGraaf addressed some concerns about a rash of break-ins in the Downtown Area.  Since the beginning of August, 12 of 14 break and enter incidents in the Town of Cobourg  occurred downtown.  This can be seen graphically in their crime-plot web page  – see link below.  And on Monday at the Council Meeting, Police Chief Kai Liu presented his Plan for the next three years.  Although described as a Business Plan, there is no financial report but it does include some limited statistics and a lot of detail on the direction and focus.  Also included are the results of a survey of residents indicating what we thought of the… Read complete articlePolice Report – October 2018

Tourism Metrics

John Draper

In March of this year, tourism contract employee Bryan Mercer presented a plan to increase tourism in Cobourg and presented a new printed guide that focused on experiences.  In June, he launched a new web site – experiencecobourg.ca (link below) and summer students were hired as “Experience Ambassadors” – one of their jobs was to conduct surveys by asking visitors some leading questions.  Other methods of collecting data were also employed and now the results have been tabulated and we have some good data on visitors and tourists.  Bryan presented this data to Cobourg Council at their meeting on October 1st and the results show that although the beach is Cobourg’s prime attraction, visitors do spend money and do come… Read complete articleTourism Metrics

Cobourg Remembers the Great War

John Draper

Along with a program of events happening over the next six weeks, Victoria Hall will host displays to commemorate the end of the first World War.  To launch these events and displays, a grand opening ceremony was held in the Concert Hall at Victoria Hall on Sunday afternoon with over 100 people coming to see two videos (see below), some speakers, a sample of two of the plays being presented and displays of banners, photographs and artifacts.  The collection of events was primarily driven by Dean Hustwick – the Town’s Director of Community Services – with help from his staff and inspiration from Hugh Brewster.  Randy Barber recently moved to Cobourg and has provided a large number of WWI artifacts … Read complete articleCobourg Remembers the Great War

Harvest Festival 2018

John Draper

Each year, Cobourg’s Downtown Business Improvement Association puts on a Harvest festival in the Fall. This year was perfect Fall weather; crisp but sunny and not cold. Paige Wiggans, Event and Communications Coordinator for the DBIA, worked hard to organize the Festival which included a Chili Cookoff competition. There were 6 chilis available for tasting for a $20 fee which included a local craft beer or a pop.  Because of the beer, the area on Second Street was fenced off and quite popular. On King Street, as well as merchant booths, attractions included axe throwing, a mechanical bull with free rides, a scarecrow competition (there were four entries), entertainment and a couple of offerings for the kids. In the morning… Read complete articleHarvest Festival 2018

Candidates answer open question

John Draper

In asking leading “hot” questions of candidates, it seemed best to not be too limiting so the seventh question was open: Are there any other issues you want to address?  This provided an opportunity to mention anything else that they wanted to fix or that had been brought to their attention by their campaign.  I don’t know if all candidates are planning to knock on every door in Cobourg, but I know many are.  It’s acknowledged as the best way to get themselves known.  In doing so, they would hear what people are concerned about.  One issue mentioned by several candidates is the need for affordable housing – but this has been the subject of an all-candidates meeting (see link… Read complete articleCandidates answer open question

Should Council Meetings have an open Q & A Session?

John Draper

Last September, Bill Thompson emailed Mayor Gil Brocanier and said that five out of the seven municipalities in Northumberland County have a Question period so why can’t Cobourg do the same? Gil’s response was that legal advice was that it would open up Council to litigation.  Further he said that “Some municipalities have ignored their advice and allowed question periods that often turn into shouting matches and even Police enforcement. You need to look no further than Port Hope to see evidence of this.”  (See links below for more on this). But given that other Councils allow Questions, you have to believe that there is a way to allow for an open Question period in addition to the current delegation… Read complete articleShould Council Meetings have an open Q & A Session?

First Public All-Candidates Meeting

John Draper

Sponsored by the Northumberland Affordable Housing Committee, the first public all-candidates meeting this morning focused, as expected, on affordable housing.  There were about 80 people in the Salvation Army Hall – the early start time of 8:00 am may have kept numbers down.  All candidates except Emily Chorley were in attendance – Emily had a family commitment in Vancouver but did submit a statement via a representative. Although subsidized housing is the responsibility of the county, zoning and planning are a municipal responsibility and all candidates made it clear that they thought the Town should spend time and effort working on the problem which John Henderson called a crisis. The meeting started with all candidates providing their written responses to… Read complete articleFirst Public All-Candidates Meeting