Cornwall Ontario – Privately a few councilors have expressed frustration with this current council as there are some pretty clear blocks when it comes to voting.
Conflict of Interest Queen Elaine MacDonald leads the pack. You have to remember that while the person that mops the floor at City Hall can’t run for council somehow, the President of our Local Labour Council can.
Likewise the Labour Council’s mystic endorsements don’t seem based on positions, but rather fealty. The surprising endorsement of the near embalmed Claude McIntosh paid off again as he rubber stamped another tax increase attempt; this time to jack up water rates.
There is of course no shortage of water in Cornwall. In fact the declared reserve levels are nearly $1 million dollars over funded as I type these words.
Because of the loss of industrial user Sentient Flavours there is a shortage needed to be filled. Sound familiar? Again, because of a hit to our local economy; chiefly because of the policies and failures of various departments and lack of leadership at City Hall, tax payers are being asked to take the hit. Likewise, because of commercial property income dropping because of lower assessments taxes are going to go up.
Councilor Rivette put forth a motion to change the cubic meter water usage rate for Commercial and Industrial users whose water services are metered. Most residential users in Cornwall pay a flat rate which makes a lot of sense as there is very little evidence to show any savings for tax payers by using water meters; especially as most of the cost of delivering water services comes from infrastructure.
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Bernadette Clement bleating about how small the increase is must be galling to seniors and those on fixed incomes of which Cornwall has a higher percentage of due to our senior aged population. She being a well paid lawyer, with the means to mount expensive political campaigns, clearly is out of touch with those struggling to survive in Cornwall.
There was a line drawn at the Monday night meeting though that ended in a stalemate due to Carolyne Hebert not being present. Sadly Ms Hebert’s mentor is Elaine MacDonald so unless the voting changes we should expect a hit to our water bills in addition to the 4% tax hit being bandied around the budget table.
Is that how to attract residents and build a community?
Those that voted to take the funds out of the overages of our reserves were:
Those Voting to Not Raise Taxes
David Murphy
Maurice Dupelle
Andre Rivette
Justin Towndale,
Mark A MacDonald.
Those voting to RAISE TAXES
Denis Carr
Elaine MacDonald
Bernadette Clement
Claude McIntosh
Mayor Leslie O’Shaugnessy
Our conflicted Mayor, Leslie O’Shaughnessy actually stated he would not debate from the chair and then expressed clear positions, some of which were clearly opposed to those shared by other councilors which, I could be wrong, could certainly be concluded to be debate by a reasonable person, voted to raise taxes.
After the motion failed to raise the tax council then voted to take the funds from the bloated reserve with the voting falling to the same lines.
In other words residents of the City of Cornwall now have to pay for an extra meeting of council and have the decision for water rates go up for 2017 rest in the hands of Carolyne Hebert.
Our mayor said he’d be happy to debate his position to raise the water taxes this year with anyone on the corner of Pitt and Second.
Mayor O’Shaughnessy I call bull pucky on you sir, and would be happy to debate you at noon in Pommier Square any weekday you choose next week.
The video of the meeting is available on the city’s website. In a side note our new CFO clearly should be able to answer numerical questions. She was fumbling to many of the questions. Her first year is seeing near record tax increases.
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STOP raising our taxes! We are being taxed to DEATH! We’re working just to PAY TAXES! And we’re sick of it! All utilities are going up, as well as groceries, and everything else we buy. We’re DROWNING here.
So people that are already struggling to put food on the table and keep the lights on will be further challenged by rising municipal taxation. What barometer is the city using to gauge residents ability to pay costs continually exceeding the cost of living? Seemingly this council over estimates the affluence of their constituents. Ya think?
David I hate this term, cost of living. It’s a hustle. When higher wage earners, such as teachers or fire fighters use it their 2.5% equals closer to 10% for the average worker and higher for lower wage worker in the private sector that has to pay their wages.
At some point a job is only worth so much. Everything has a ceiling.
These are politician, and historically once elected conveniently ignore all their platforms to evoke change for all taxpayers in their daily life. They were given a wonderful opportunity to evoke change which they just ignored .
Well I guess you don’t send a politician to do a Whistleblowers work, you send a whistleblower or two or three. The next election should be interesting.
Diane there are a lot of people that want change in Cornwall. The smaller the clique gets the more people that are left out and feel that they are cheated unfairly. Each unjust act by these monkeys and their supporters reflects on the. What they did to you, the other whistle blowers, seniors that listen to Abba, kids that sell worms, businesses who are told where to advertise or else; it all reflects on this group and there is growing sentiment to not only bounce those elected to this council, but the management that support and possibly manipulate it.
The only way to see change it to actually change things.
Nobody in Cornwall should endure what you and the Whistle Blowers have, nor what this newspaper is surviving.
Diane what you, Rob, our Jamie and others went through would turn most people off moving to Cornwall or anywhere like that. I was born and raised down there unfortunately and I would never ever move back at all. Things are worse than what people think. I am relieved to not own anymore. Beautiful homes in Hunt Club and so is the price and someone said no way too much crime.
I can never ever live with the mentality of Cornwall – way too backward for me. I find it bad enough in Ottawa with the people looking like zombies with that damn cell phone glued to their ears and eyes and no brains at all. How people have changed for the worse and getting worse all the time. Can you picture them crossing mighty busy streets and not looking out for traffic – even in the malls.
Diane Shay people under Ontario Hydro are paying a great deal more money for electricity than what the sheeple of Cornwall are paying $500./month. People don’t know whether to eat or pay hydro.