OH NO: Two Lost Posts

I have a confession to make. Two really. First, I sometimes help out the Burd Report by moderating comments when the Master is away working.

Second, this morning, I rejected two comments that I should have published. One was about Town Councillors retiring, the other about the hospital cuts. I have learned that once you hit the reject button, there is no "do-over".

So, would the two posters care to re-post their items? I promise to pay closer attention to which button I am using and offer my sincere apologies for my mistake.

All eyes were on this guy last night

Robert Biron, the CAO of the Northumberland Hills Hospital appeared at last night's Council meeting in Cobourg to explain his case. Saying nothing new he just followed his flashy powerpoint presentation and basically said that because we have done what the LHIN has asked the hospital to do - cut costs and redefine core services the hospital can now move forward as good little boys. Like a school monitor seeking the approval of the headmaster Mr Biron now thinks, and he said many times, "We are in a stronger position to deal with the LHIN." But when asked by Bob Spooner "What will you be able to do in the next round of cuts?" Biron fobbed that of to the MPP - "That's Mr Rinaldi's problem"
In a stunning admission he stated that the Board made the decision to cut Outpatient Rehab knowing that low and fixed income earners would not be able to access services in the community. And he also admitted that the Diabetes Clinic will not be able to serve all of its pressent clients - offered no solution as he felt cutting costs was more important than saving healthcare. "If we don't balance the budget the Board will be taken over and we will have supervision imposed on us." Mr Biron received enthusiastic applause from the six supporters, including Directors Lynda Kay and Dean Pepper, in the front row. The rest of the romm sat in stunned silence.

The next phase of the campaign to keep the services will be to elect friendly Directors at the AGM and some members have already targeted the Directors who should not be re-elected. John Hudson and Lynda Kay are two prominent Directors seeking re-election wearing bullseyes. With new people seeking nomination the procedural; battles will be most interesting. All prospective Directors have to be nominated by the present Board's nomination committee, only those people who meet the "qualifications" will be nominated. So it is entirely possible that only "Board friendly" will be nominated setting the stage for a very nasty AGM.

Another one quits

Saying that he wants to have his winters in the sun, Dean McCaughey announced that he will not be seeking re-election in October. So two down and two to go - that will leave four vacancies for Council, enough to make a clean sweep of the place.

As Stan Frost watches the announcement (penny for your thoughts, Stan), will he make his announcement soon? And what will he choose to do?

A follow up to a comment

Anonymous said...For those of us who have missed the news could you let us know which two former teachers have announced they are leaving council? Also can you fill us in about the bad old days of Kay and Clement ?

In fairness the quote was: I suppose with two pension laden former teachers leaving the Council the complement should be filled by Mr Henderson, another former teacher - nothing against John but do we really want another teacher on Council? - I didn't "announce" but speculated.

The first question: Dean McCaughey, a career teacher is highly rumoured not to be running, I guess playing on his boat beats sitting in Council anyday! The bush drums beat larger gossip everyday about the Mayor's intentions, He is in the States sitting on some beach contemplating his navel and deciding whether he should be running for Mayor or not. The best indications that he is leaning towards NO is the big rumour that Gil Brocanier is assembling a campaign team. Oh, the Mayor is also a former teacher. They leave and two former teachers are gone.

A bit of history as the BR sees it, it may be called revuisionist by some so be prepared. John Kay was the Chief of Police after Dan McDougal and Gary Clement was the Chief after John Kay. Both men came in with great flourish, promised great things and left the place in tatters. John Kay's time was marked by the controversy over one of his Deputy's impaired charge after a Council event in Port Hope. Gary Clement's time was marked by huge budget increases and bad PR over the botched attempts to establish a West Northumberland Police Service.

A couple of personnel issues

Monday evening Council will nominate former CAO Bryan Baxter as the Town's representative on the Police Services Board. Bryan has done a great job as the Chair and a Provincial rep. But the Province has been tardy in reappointing its reps and both have run over their time. Now the Town has taken advantage of a vacancy in its own representation to appoint Bryan. A good choice but it does put the boots to Dean "I want to be top cop" Pepper in his bid for a spot. His braunnosing of Chief Sweet obviously means nothing as there are only Provincial spots left and as a Tory Dean is on the wrong side for a Lib appointment.
In another announcement former Police Services Board member and Chair, John Henderson who sat on the Board during the bad old days of Kay and Clement wants to be on Council. I suppose with two pension laden former teachers leaving the Council the complement should be filled by Mr Henderson, another former teacher - nothing against John but do we really want another teacher on Council?

post deleted

I have just deleted a post because I couldn't make it work, maybe with more time to play I will bring it back, but it was about the Hitler parodies, look here for background.

Reading between the lines

In his stirring defence of the new plans to cut hospital services here, the Chief of Medical Staff, Dr. David Broderick, makes many points. The main one being is that in order to protect the hospital it must cut services to save costs.

By making self-preservation the main ideal the Doctors' Chief is only protecting the status quo of having Doctors maintain their juicy investment in the system. He repeats the mantra: "Health care, already consuming approximately 46 per cent of current government spending, could balloon to 70% in the next 15 years." Perhaps if Doctor's pay was controlled, and they as a group have received far more of the health pie than any other group, health costs wouldn't rise so much. Hospital share of the pie has gone down over the last few years so why would the Doctors blame them for the cumulative increase?

So folks the fight is still on. Mr Biron will defend his moves on Monday evening and the rest of us will stand amazed that he could be following orders so well. The fight here is not with Biron and the Board but with the Central government, and to that end the first phase of our local message will take place tomorrow when a petition containing nearly 5,000 names - surely a local record and one that is easily twice as big as the last local petition, will be handed over to Queen's Park. The fight continues!

So what do the "truthers" think now?

With the many explanations about the SEC filing a charge against Goldman Sachs how does one sort it all out. The conspiracy theorist will jump all over this and shout, "We knew it" the Free-marketeers will say "No big deal it all has to be proven" and the great unwashed will simply shrug it off as another thing they don't want to think about.

So what really went down here? How could one of the largest investment banks get so messy? If one believes the banks they will say it's the fault of one man -a Mr Paulson, we have heard this before when one rogue trader called Nick Leeson nearly destroyed the british trading system a few years ago. But who allowed Paulson to benfit? The bank of course.

There have been many pundits looking at this and here a couple that try to put it in simple terms: the Guardian, and this one using the used car industry as an explanation Even so this move will do one thing - embolden the conspiracy theorists and as you, the good readers know, we at the BurdReport love a good conspiracy theory!

Another message for Cobourg Council

Last night the members of "Citizens for an Alternative Solution" spoke at Council. Mr Tony Farren, immaculately dressed as usual, complete with a brightly coloured tie impressed the assembly with his usual poise and eloquence. Flanked by his supporters, who included former Mayor Angus Read, organisor Bill Patchett local good guy and booster of Cobourg Rod Baker and others who included the former CAO of NHH Joan Ross, and a previous Chair of the Board Eva Nichols. Wow what a turnout.
Tony did not disappoint. Speaking from the same set of facts as last week's delegation he emphasised once again that he Hospital is a big engine of economic growth.and took exception to Mr Biron's insistence that we have the facts wrong, "The lack of dialogue from the Board has alienated both users and donors." he said he had two points to make: one was that the budget cuts had to be balanced and that we must solve the Long term Care problem. He stated that if the local health care issue in the past had been left up to government we would not have a hospital at all but would have been part of regionalisation. Finishing with the statement, "There are alternative solutions in the community and we do believe that Cobourg Council must express its concern."

Another speaker after Mr Farren was a former KPR schoolboard Trustee, Nancy Blakey. Mrs Blakely outlined her views based on her personal experiences over the last year dealing with both ailing parents and the NHH. Her position was simple: the amount of money required to keep the Rehab outpatients service open only costs $245K a year - peanuts in a $60 million budget, Cost savings must be found to offset the cut. She proposed that Council pass five motions.

In response to both speakers, and last week's delegation the Deputy Mayor stated, in the absence of the Mayor, that after hearing Mr Biron next week and on television, as Council is covered by cable, Council will have a position and make a resolution.

Funny things "over 'ome"

The British are in an election campaign, one which all Canadian parties will be watching with anticipation fully believing that conditions are so similar here that our election will mirror theirs.

But up until the TV debate, the first ever for the UK, electoral politics was pretty boring. A Conservative leader viewed with much suspicion for he might be concealing a hidden agenda, a Labour leader who had campaigned for many years for the top spot and when he finally got it proceeded to blow away his political capital and a Lib-Dem who nobody really took much notice of.

Enter the TV debate where the Tory and Labour guys failed to impress and even turned people off by resorting to form, and POW, Nick Clegg a Lib-Dem was not the other two and immediately stood out as a contrast. Up went the opinion polls and now he leads for now. But Why?

With an apathetic and jaded electorate the British appear to be grasping at straws for leadership. Nick Clegg, sometimes known in the past as "cleggover" because of his boasts about his conquests, has caught the imagination of the Country. But is it because the Country really believes it is Clegg's time or is it because the other two are so bloody awful?

It will be interesting to see if the polls hold up for the next three weeks and what the reaction of the Cons and Labs will be as they try to tear down the upstart. More interestingly enough will the contest produce more people at the polls. Or is it just retail politics turned into entertainment?

The BurdReport will keep watching but in the meantime if you want a humourous slant on the campaign follow this page: Two minutes of satire produced daily here