Bancroft this Week

Silver Beach developer starts next big project in Bancroft

A veteran team of development professionals is building a new community in Bancroft’s backyard.

Policing services: municipalities still handcuffed

Let’s start with what has happened on policing costs for small rural municipalities in the past 10 years serviced by the OPP. The increases have been massive and in Hastings Highlands and Bancroft (both with about 4,000 permanent residents). We are now being charged about $2.2 million per year...and our neighbours are in similar boats. It’s a huge download of costs, but more importantly, municipalities have virtually no ability to influence the service, unlike the way it used to be some years ago. So it’s funding accountability but with no responsibility for the service, performance, staffing, compensation, operating budget, etc.

What’s the economic backbone in North Hastings?

It’s always seductive to try to think you can hit a grand slam as a municipal politician. A giant new warehouse for Wal-Mart, a Georgia-Pacific plant employing 200 highly paid workers, etc.

Bancroft’s fiscal future

I am a taxpayer in Hastings Highlands and have developed several worksheets designed to inform me about our municipal taxes and fiscal operations. Most folks ask me, “Why on Earth would you bother?”

The ice cream school

This letter is actually about public school funding, not the summer treat you enjoy so much — here is a connection to ice cream, so read on.

Ideas for North Hastings

We had a really bright spot at a recent council meeting in Hasting Highlands.

What’s the value of your vote?

When Hastings Highlands was created out of the previous townships in 2000, the townships were simply combined and no attempt was made to address opportunities for improved municipal efficiency. So Toronto ended up with 45 councillors, and Hastings Highlands (HH) ended up with six plus a mayor and deputy mayor.Reorganization didn’t happen. Many municipalities, regardless of size, have continued to operate as they did under amalgamation, when Harris took us from 815 to 445 municipalities in 2000.

Cut offs at Hydro One

I know that you are tired of these articles on the electricity fiasco in Ontario, but they continue and Premier Wynne has finally admitted it is her fault and she has no idea how to correct the problem.

Tough questions for council

If you have been a regular reader concerning Hastings Highlands council meetings this past couple of years, you would be thinking that curbside garbage pick-up was the only major issue that constituents should be concerned about as we look to the future for Hastings Highlands (HH).