A week's worth of reading in two hours

A pile of newspapers has produced these notes:

The "County's Growth Study"
This exercise, one that is regularly repeated every so many years (five to fifteen), is in full bloom. How can anyone be convinced that this is just not another box on the Gantt chart? Something that is required by the consultants. Because the submissions are the same, the presenters are the same but the politicians are different. Maybe that is the problem!

This particular set of politicians are upset that the Province has ignored their delusions of grandeur. Stamping their feet they have excoriated the Province for only setting out modest growth patterns in the big picture. But why should the Province send any money this way when it appears that the Mayors of the County are complaining about the estimates because if the growth patterns, put out by the Province, hold up then very little infrastructure money will be coming to the County. That's the beef - "We are going to missing out on the money".

Besides why should any of us longtooths take this exercise seriously when we can remember previous Provincial population studies predicting that hamlets, like Camborne, Cold Springs and Welcome, growing to 3,000, as they did in the 70s and 80s.

The developer led planning of Cobourg and Port Hope has little to do with Official Plans and other documents, they always get their ways by buying in by funding secondary plans, why should the next ten years be any different? Cobourg can grow to 16,000, in the East End anytime. All they, the developers, have to do is to build another Sewage Treatment Plant and go to it. Bring in the 'boomers' from Toronto and forget the need for the need to provide sustainable jobs and industry, and ignore the looming problems of a real estate deflation and housing market collapse when the boomers die and the surviving population is not large enough to buy all the empty houses.

But these issues will not be heard in the County's study because it is only an exercise to keep the politicians and bureaucrats busy.

If the truth were told the last thing the midgets of the County, the rural mayors, want is an Official Plan, it will be their demise, as it is a precursor to one tier government.

Smart Meters:
Smart Meters are back in the news. These devices, a product of active McGuinty minds, will be soon coming to a house near you. Your House! At a cost of $4 a month all these devices will do is record the amount of electricity the house uses and relay that information to a central office. Killing at least two meter reader jobs and giving the homeowner any useful information I defy the Hydro Utility to give us all one practical reason why we should pay a monthly fee to be told how much hydro we use. One more prediction - this useless fee will be the "photo radar" of the next Provincial election. The first political party to promise to abolish these redundant appendages and monthly tax grab, a la Mike Harris and photo radar, will win the next election.

Here goes my head:
Why are we, as a community deluged with celebrations of the success of Women: Businesswoman of the Year, Woman of the Year etc. I could easily live with this when we celebrate the success of winners - male or female. I fear I have a long wait.

Two pics from last week: