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

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

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

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?

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

Holdco is the holding company for Lakefront Utilities and Lakefront Utility Services Inc. which provide water and electricity to Cobourg and is owned by the Towns of Cobourg (most shares) and Cramahe (one share).  Although Holdco issued annual reports in 2017 and 2016 for the previous years, these reports have minimal financial information.  It may be possible to obtain their financial reports but they do not make it easy and I have not yet seen a report for 2017. Personally, I have not been able to find any Holdco Financial reports online. In addition, they have had esoteric battles with the Cobourg Taxpayers Association (CTA) over details of their activity.  But they do pay a dividend to Cobourg each year –… Read complete articleHoldco – Should their finances be Public?