Category: News 2019

Special Olympics – Cobourg Fundraising

John Draper

As well as the better known ParaOlympics held in conjunction with the summer Olympic Games, there is also the Special Olympics which has year round sports training and competitions for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.  This year, Ontario is holding a Special Olympics Invitational Youth Games which will bring together 2,000 student-athletes aged 13-21 from around the world to Toronto.  On Monday, March 25, Cobourg Police symbolically raised a flag to show their support for the games and the effort in Cobourg to raise money to help local athletes participate.  A Special Constable (Amy) helped organize this – both the Police and the Town showed their support with Chief Kai Liu leading the ceremony and Deputy Mayor Suzanne Séguin… Read complete articleSpecial Olympics – Cobourg Fundraising

Petition to Keep Northumberland Mall

John Draper

In August 2018, Northumberland Mall announced that they had a new owner and that they had plans to at least do a facelift and more likely do a major upgrade.  The planned expansion of the cinema was put on hold and we were told that there should be some news by January but this did not happen.  Meanwhile a few stores have closed although others are continuing.  Not content with waiting for something to happen, Kim Goebel has started an online petition at Change.org asking management to keep it the way it is and to not turn it into a strip mall. Kim is concerned that poor management has caused traffic to drop so that stores then move out.  After… Read complete articlePetition to Keep Northumberland Mall

Cobourg Council gets update from the County

John Draper

Last Monday’s Cobourg Council meeting saw Northumberland County report on their 2018 accomplishments and their approved 2019 budget.  CAO Jennifer Moore and Director of Finance/Treasurer Glenn Dees made the information understandable with some simple graphics and bullet points.  For example, of the total budget of $123 Million, taxes supply only $56.2M, grants and subsidies $39.2M and garbage fees $6M.  Most of the tax money gets spent on roads ($17.9M) with social services second at $9.5M although the total spent on social services is $28.7M – the rest mostly comes from the Province.  The Golden Plough lodge is a major part of the County’s operational and Capital costs – it will be rebuilt over the next few years at a total… Read complete articleCobourg Council gets update from the County

First Public Meeting on Cultural Plan

John Draper

About 80 people came to the CCC for the “Launch Event” for the Cultural Plan being conducted by Consultant MDB Insight.  After a good natured introduction by Councillor Adam Bureau, MDB Insight’s Executive VP Lauren Miller gave a 20 minute summary of what the Cultural Plan is and what it hopes to achieve.  The current status is that 1) a Background report has been issued (see Links below) which identified over 400 cultural assets; 2) Cultural Mapping has been done and 3) Telephone and online surveys have been completed.  In the second part of the meeting, citizens were asked to give feedback on what they wanted.  They did this in workshop style and a representative from each of the 12… Read complete articleFirst Public Meeting on Cultural Plan

Should water bottles be banned?

John Draper

At Monday’s Council meeting Petra Hartwig and Gigi Ludorf-Weaver asked Council to do three things: 1) declare that water and sanitation services are fundamental human rights, 2) ban bottled water in municipal facilities and municipal events and 3) install outside water bottle filling stations strategically placed around the Town. Councillor Nicole Beatty showed support by drinking from a flask and Mayor John Henderson pointed out that Victoria Hall had already replaced two drinking fountains with bottle filling stations. Petra and Gigi were primarily representing the Blue Communities Organization but were also representing the Northumberland Chapter of the Council of Canadians, Sustainable Cobourg and Blue Dot.  Petra and Gigi pointed to the enormous profits made by water bottlers who anyway often… Read complete articleShould water bottles be banned?

County Plans Expansion of Affordable Housing

John Draper

Northumberland County has the responsibility of providing affordable housing and currently owns and operates 344 social housing units.  But there is a problem, the waitlist for RGI (Rent Geared to Income) housing is currently “nearly 700 households … in Cobourg”.  A newly developed Affordable Housing Strategy points to 4 goals and 44 actions to solve the problem and will be presented at the County Council meeting on March 20.  Also at that meeting, Council will be asked to approve a project to add 22 units to the existing 18 at their current Elgin Street property.  These duplex houses are now 50 years old so it’s proposed to re-develop the complex into higher density.  Because of the need to rezone and… Read complete articleCounty Plans Expansion of Affordable Housing

Housing in Cobourg, 2019

John Draper

During the last municipal election campaign, councillors heard that there was a lot of support for affordable housing.  Responding to this, the Town’s budget now has a line item of $250,000 to support housing even though it’s really a county responsibility.  There are two ways people provide housing for themselves: renting and buying a house, and both are a concern.  The rental vacancy rate in Cobourg is 0.3% and the average price of a home in Cobourg is now $455,000, up from $300,000 just four years ago.  According to the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, “affordable” rents must be no more than 80% of average market rents.  In Northumberland in 2018, the average rent for a two bedroom… Read complete articleHousing in Cobourg, 2019

Budget Approved for 2019

John Draper

After a  long meeting, Council approved the budget for 2019 with an increase in overall spending of 4%. But because of growth in the Town (more properties paying taxes), the increase in your taxes will be 2%.  So if your property had an MPAC valuation increase the same as the average for the Town, the Town’s portion of your taxes will increase by 2% from last year.  But in the process of managing the budget, Councillors made some decisions – or maybe they were more like statements – about priorities and direction.  Some issues were covered under the heading Community Grants as reported yesterday (e.g. AGN, Santa Parade) but also discussed were IT (Information Technology) planning, Accessible Transit, Affordable Housing,… Read complete articleBudget Approved for 2019