Another idea goes down well in the Dutch Oven

Councillor, I have to look good now, Bob Spooner, finally has done some thing productive. He has put his name on a story about how the local YMCA can really become the recreation department of the Town and get paid for it. The NNews in its lead story, tells of a salivating Kyle barber, the CEO of the YMCA, talking about the Y and the Town becoming partners in the proposed Community Centre. Just how productive this idea is depends on your perspective of public/private partnerships. But look at it from the Ys perspective, get a brand new building paid for by the public and then get paid to administer recreation! Look at it from BS's perspective, after finally having been woken up in Council by his "Yea/Nay" moment he has been ostensibly encouraged by his very own focus group - the Dutch Oven dead white men, to support such an idea. After all what politician wouldn't. They get all the hard work done for them by the Y and all they have to do is to shovel over taxpayers' money to let the Y run it. How the taxpayers are going to react to this will be interesting. There are some who think that the YMCA walks on water and there are others who regularly complain about everything the Y does. From the swimming pool water being too cold (that's why some people prefer to go to Port hope) to the perceived high (for some) membership fees. It will be intriguing to see how the partners balance the public/private ownership/administration but let's look at the way the Town owns the present building and the consequential bickering about the amount of money needed for the upkeep that the Town has to provide as an example of future discussions. The Town has never played hardball in its negotiations and the Y usually gets what it needs. Just look for more of the same but expect the amount of money that taxpayers have to pay for recreation to get much bigger. Personally if I have to pay more money i want more shares! And as John Draper has said before, "Why can't we just have a $2 million dollar Seniors centre?" We will be getting a $50 million dollar complex if the Y comes in and adds an aquatic centre.

Remember the posts about newspapers last week? Well here is another look. It comes from David Sirota who is the best-selling author of the books “Hostile Takeover” (2006) and “The Uprising” (2008). He is a fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future. Find his blog at OpenLeft.com or e-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com. He argues that the woes of the news industry are self-inflicted.