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NEMI budget meeting turns sour
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by Cheryl Waugh
NORTHEASTERN MANITOULIN and the ISLANDS (NEMI) --- While the public
meeting on the 2002 NEMI budget was marred with bad behaviour,
council did manage to present its budget - with tax increases for all
wards - amid the spectacle.
When combined with the education tax, Ward 1 residents can expect to
see a tax increase of about 9.87 percent, Ward 2 taxes will increase
by about 1.87 percent, and Wards 3 and 4 by approximately 6.07
percent. Per $100,000 assessment, that works out to an increase of
$89 for Ward 1, $30 for Ward 2, and $80 for Wards 3 and 4.
Mayor Ken Ferguson said increases in a budget is something "nobody is
happy with, especially those who have to pay the bills."
He told the crowd gathered at the Little Current Howland Recreation
Centre that there was still one outstanding issue that the
municipality must deal with. "What to do about recycling and waste in
Wards 3 and 4," he said. "There will be pick-up of recyclables in
Ward 2. There is money earmarked in the budget."
Clerk Ned Martin, who presented the budget to the ratepayers Friday
night, also announced that NEMI had a $280,000 surplus in 2001. He
said the surplus was created because NEMI had a better than
anticipated return on supplementary taxes, and they got more than
they expected from the province through the Community Reinvestment
Fund (CRF) grant.
On top of that NEMI also received a $78,000 refund from the District
Social Services Administration Board (DSSAB) this year.
"We've taken steps to ensure the surplus doesn't have an adverse
effect on taxes this year or next year," said Mr. Martin.
To that end, $154,000 of the surplus, and the $78,000 from the DSSAB
are going towards reducing the financing on the new landfill site.
The rest of the surplus, about $125,000, will be used to pay one time
capital costs in the four wards in 2002.
The public meeting on the budget - which had all of council present
when it began but had three councilors missing when it ended -
started easily enough as Mayor Ken Ferguson welcomed everyone and set
ground rules for discussion for the 75-100 people that filled the
upper hall of the recreation centre.
"We would like to keep some semblance of control," said Mayor
Ferguson. "We will try to be generous with everyone, but sometimes it
can get out of hand."
Mayor Ferguson would later be proven prophetic, as the meeting's tone
slowly degenerated. The evening culminated with councilors Al
MacNevin, Ann McGregor and Jim Stringer walking out on the public
meeting - which only further incited the angry crowd.
But before the dramatic ending, the public meeting stayed relatively civil.
Little Current resident Doug Wuksinic said applying the $154,000 to
reduce the financing on the landfill was "a great idea", but also
wanted to insure that the rest of the surplus wasn't being used
against the levy. After he was assured that it wasn't being applied
to the levy, Mr. Wuksinic also stated he thought council was being
conservative , by about $100,000, in its CRF estimates again. "Which
to this municipality is about five percent to the levy," said Mr.
Wuksinic. He suggested council needs to review its CRF figure.
(The CRF is a grant that the province provides to municipalities to
pay for services, such as land ambulance, policing and social
services. The province though doesn't provide for CRF funding until
the fall. Councils are expected to estimate how much they think they
will get in revenue from the province. Last year, NEMI guessed low
and ended up with a surplus.)
White's Point resident Stu Harris, a former director with the
Manitoulin Board of Education, defended council when questions arose
about whether council had made a decision on building a new municipal
office, or if they planned to continue to rent at the Island Business
Centre.
Mr. Harris pointed out that council's decision to rent office space
may not have been the worse possible scenario it's been made out to
be. He noted that as long as the board of education owned the
building, NEMI could not collect taxes on it. But since it was
purchased, renovated, and turned into a business, NEMI is collecting
large taxes from the property. He acknowledged that NEMI is also
paying a hefty price in rent. "Whether that is a break even
proposition, a loss, or a profit for us, I don't know, but it's not
necessarily the worse thing that could have happened," said Mr.
Harris.
As the meeting continued, the crowd started to become frustrated, and
then angry, as questions that were posed were either not being
answered the way the crowd seemed to expect, or were not being
answered properly. That resulted in catcalls from the audience when
an attempt to answer a question was made. Since it ended up that the
majority of questions were being posed to Mr. Martin, he took the
brunt of the crowd's anger rather than council.
The contentious issue of the night was Mr. Wuksinic's involvement
with the budget process - or lack thereof.
That topic was opened from the first moment question period started.
Tony Ferro, of Bay Estates, stood up and told council that the budget
this year is "a lot better than last year's, but it is still a dog's
breakfast." He also questioned why Mr. Wuksinic wasn't consulted
during the budget process when council voted in June that Mr.
Wuksinic should be allowed to review the budget. "There are at least
two councilors, Bill Koehler and Carl Ziegler, who are adamant that
we get help with this budget," said Mr. Ferro.
When the meeting later returned to that topic, the crowd became
incensed with Mr. Martin, who wasn't ready to meet with Mr. Wuksinic
at his chosen time, and commented that "he couldn't do his job",
"that maybe it was a time for a change in staff", and during one
catcall, called him council's "slave".
That's when the three councilors left the public meeting.
After they had left, Councilor Koehler addressed the crowd, stating
that if Mr. Wuksinic did not get a chance to review the budget, he
would not vote on it. "Despite the fact things look pretty good for
Ward 2," said Councilor Koehler.
Mr. Wuksinic and Mr. Martin did meet to discuss the budget this past
Monday morning. Council has to create and then pass a budget bylaw,
which is expected to happen at its second meeting in August.
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Three councillors walk out of public
meeting
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by Cheryl Waugh
NORTHEASTERN MANITOULIN and the ISLANDS (NEMI) --- The three NEMI
councilors who walked out on a raucous public meeting on the 2002
Budget Friday night, say they left because the meeting had turned
into a "disgrace" and was no longer productive.
Councilors Al MacNevin, Ann McGregor, and Jim Stringer left the
public meeting after an exchange took place between members of the
crowd, which numbered about 75 people, ratepayer Doug Wuksinic and
Mayor Ken Ferguson over Clerk Ned Martin's responsibilities.
"A couple of the participants were getting out of control, and the
meeting didn't seem like it would come back under control," said
Councilor Stringer. "There was a small group that was out for blood -
whose blood it didn't seem to matter."
"The comments about Ned (Martin) were not called for," said Councilor
MacNevin. He explained that at a budget meeting on Thursday night
prior to the public meeting, it was agreed that Mayor Ken Ferguson
would field questions on behalf of council. He said Mayor Ferguson
was also asked to keep a strong hand on the meeting so that it didn't
get out of order, as it did in 2001; Councilor MacNevin added that he
also warned council that if it did get out of hand - he would leave
the public meeting.
"I'm disgusted about how some of our citizens went after Ned (Martin)
- they were attacking our staff. I'll live with them attacking me...I
just got fed up. I left at 8:30 pm, and if people read the agenda
that's what time it called for adjournment. The meeting should have
been adjourned," said Mr. MacNevin.
Mr. MacNevin also expressed frustration with some council members. He
said all of council had agreed on the budget that would be presented
at the public meeting.
"This is my fourth term on council, and there have always been
disagreements between councilors - sometimes very strong
disagreements - but this council...is very dysfunctional," said
Councilor MacNevin. "Bill Koehler won't make a decision on the budget
without (Doug) Wuksinic."
Mr. Wuksinic's involvement with the budget process is what started
the exchange that led to the councilors leaving. At a council meeting
on June 18, council voted to involve Mr. Wuksinic, who is general
manager of corporate services for the Greater City of Sudbury, in the
budget process, and Clerk Ned Martin was asked to share whatever
information Mr. Wuksinic asked for, as well as to meet with him.
(Both Councilors MacNevin and Stringer voted against involving Mr.
Wuksinic, while Councilor McGregor was absent at that council
meeting. Councilors Bill Koehler, Marcel Gauthier, Kathleen Bowerman,
Ron Lewis, Carl Ziegler and Mayor Ken Ferguson voted for involving
Mr. Wuksinic in the budget process when the issue went to a recorded
vote.)
As of the Friday night public meeting, Mr. Martin had yet to meet
with Mr. Wuksinic, because explained Mr. Martin, "Council had just
finished the budget (Thursday) night."
Mr. Wuksinic then said he could meet with Mr. Martin at 11 am Monday
morning (July 29). Mr. Martin's response was that he was not
available until 11 am Wednesday.
"I'm on vacation," said Mr. Wuksinic, angrily. "It's either 11 am
Monday or it's never."
That's when some members of the crowd angrily shouted to Mayor
Ferguson that he should order Mr. Martin to hold the meeting with Mr.
Wuksinic on Monday.
"He's our clerk, not our slave," said Mayor Ferguson.
"Yes, he is," yelled out a member of the audience.
That's when Councilors MacNevin and Stringer got up and left,
followed a few seconds later by Councilor McGregor.
Ultimately, Mr. Martin and Mr. Wuksinic did meet this past Monday at
11 am. Mr. Wuksinic called the meeting "very productive". He said he
and Mr. Martin looked at other alternatives for paying one time
costs, as well as looking at matching the community reinvestment fund
(CRF) better.
(The CRF is funding the municipality gets from the province for
social services, land ambulance and policing, but the province
doesn't reconcile the grant until late fall, or sometimes the
following year, so it has to be estimated what the municipality would
receive.)
Mr. Wuksinic said the public meeting did get out of control a bit,
but added that the purpose of a public meeting was to inform the
public and to get the public's opinion. "Those councilors that did
remain did hear from the public that they want to be involved in the
process."
Mayor Ken Ferguson called the incident that immediately preceded the
three councilors walk out, as well as some other insults from the
crowd directed towards Mr. Martin, as 'unfortunate'. He blamed
himself for not doing a better job of handling the crowd, and said
the things that Mr. Martin is being blamed for - the late budget,
losing the docks, and the proposal to hire Ed Bond one day a week -
are things that council is responsible for.
"Ned (Martin) is the obvious Chief of Staff, the one who is seen all
the time, whereas council members are temporary. We're elected
officials and can get changed at election time, so Ned ends up being
the person who gets the grief when it is council's responsibility,"
said Mayor Ferguson.
Members of the audience were not impressed with the three councilors
walk-out, several members stood up to call the councilors actions
"disgraceful", "insulting", and "disgusting", and told Mayor Ferguson
that the three should be "severely reprimanded".
Mayor Ferguson said he really doesn't have a lot of power in that
regard. "They're elected officials. They can leave a meeting whenever
they want, be it before, during, or after a meeting." He added that
he was told prior to the meeting that if he couldn't keep control of
the public meeting, they would leave.
"Nothing positive was coming out of that meeting at that time," said
Councilor McGregor. "It was all negative. Common courtesy, respect
for their neighbours, it all went out the door. I didn't want to be a
witness to the disrespectful manner with which the public was
treating their elected officials and staff."
Council Stringer said the whole audience was not like that, and said
there was a definite group of quieter individuals, who if they were
allowed to speak, might've made the meeting more productive. "As a
councilor, you're never happy to bring tax increases forward,
although some people may not want to believe that, they seem to think
we enjoy it; we try our best to be responsible."
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Repeated
power outages prompt talks with hydro
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by Cheryl Waugh
MANITOULIN --- Marc Clement, acting lines superintendent for Hydro
One, said he understands the frustration Islanders have been
experiencing at the number of power outages affecting Manitoulin this
summer, and added that he is already preparing a maintenance report
for when local municipal officials meet with Hydro One officials to
discuss the issue.
Mr. Clement said he oversees an area from James Bay/Lake Superior,
east to the Quebec border, and south to the Sudbury area, including
the Manitoulin. Of all of them, the Island, he said, has been the
most difficult place to maintain power recently.
"There have been some very violent lightning storms in the Manitoulin
area this summer. Lightning is terrible to our equipment. It doesn't
even have to touch a line to blow it apart," he said.
He said eight of the last nine power outages affecting Manitoulin
were due to lightning hits - that includes the most recent unplanned
power outage on Sunday, July 21 when power was out for 11 hours in
many parts of Manitoulin. Some areas experienced even a longer outage.
He said that day lightning struck a 44,000 volt line in Little
Current, "literally blowing it apart." The outage affected Little
Current down to Manitowaning and all of the east end of Manitoulin,
as well as Killarney and the Islands.
Mr. Clement said Hydro One has not changed its maintenance schedule
when it comes to pole testing, and regularly conducts helicopter
patrols of its lines. Last year, he said Hydro One replaced a number
of poles which resulted in Manitoulin and the surrounding area
experiencing a couple of 12 hour planned outages, there will be more
pole replacements in 2003.
He added his worse nightmare is something happening to the main line
that comes down from Espanola. A 115,000 volt line, it serves the
entire Island, as well as the Bay of Islands, Birch Island, McGregor
Bay, and Killarney. "If something happens to that line we lose
Manitoulin, so we do a lot of repairs on the major line. If anything
needs to be repaired, we repair it right away, we don't wait."
If there is a local power outage, Hydro One does have the ability to
back feed, but on the main line it doesn't. "It's an one-way line
only, so we try to prevent outages on the main line from Espanola by
doing planned outages to take care of potential problems."
McGregor Bay, which over a 15 day span experienced 69 hours without
power, including one outage which lasted 54 hours (from July 8 to
July 10), had a planned outage scheduled on Monday (July 29).
On a recent patrol of the line from Birch Island out to McGregor Bay,
Hydro One crews found a problem with a pole. "It was temporarily
fixed, but we need to do further repairs. If we don't fix the
problem, it'll take a lot longer to repair it if it goes down by
itself rather than through a planned outage," said Mr. Clement.
He said he, along with other departments from Hydro One, such as
forestry, are putting together a maintenance report which will be
sent to the Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands (NEMI) Community
Development Corporation (CDC), who have requested such documents as
well as a meeting with Hydro officials to discuss the recent power
outages affecting Manitoulin.
At council last week, NEMI Mayor Ken Ferguson discussed the need for
a meeting with Hydro. "We've had four power outages this summer,
which have prevented restaurants from feeding people, and some
residents from pumping water. It's just been a mass inconvenience and
is leaving a bad taste in people's mouths. These days, we really
depend on power and we can't really get off that dependency," said
Mayor Ferguson. He said council has to demand better maintenance of
the system.
He also notified council that he had received a letter from the
Centennial Manor describing their problems with the most recent power
outages.
Kathy Deacon, administrator for the Manor, said the manor threw out
an estimated $1000 just in food during that 11-hour outage.
While the manor does have a generator, it covers only heating,
lighting, and some refrigeration for medication. The elevators and
the kitchen are out of service during a power outage.
"We don't have a full-time food supervisor who might be able to
arrange cold meals during an outage, and we have great difficulty
with the fact our elevator doesn't run when the power is out," said
Ms. Deacon.
The elevator is used to transport residents as well as in food
preparation and delivery.
Ms. Deacon said she'll bring the issue before the board of directors
for discussion on "what can be done, if anything, to prevent the
power outages."
NEMI councilor Al MacNevin said when compared to outages such as what
Quebec experienced during that ice storm onslaught a few years back
when people didn't have Hydro for weeks, what Manitoulin experienced
was minor. He added that people should expect more and longer outages
as Hydro One moves to privatization.
"Once they privatize they're going to be driven by costs and
profitability. That means they're going to be moving more and more
towards the private sector over the public one. We've seen that
happen in other places, such as California. There things just got
worse, worse and worse. I don't think we'll see less of these
interruptions, we'll see more and they'll be longer," said Councilor
MacNevin, adding that people may need to prepare for that eventuality.
"I hope you're wrong about it getting much worse," said Mayor
Ferguson. "That's a horrible thought."
Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Mike Brown agreed that it is a horrible
thought, which is why the Liberal party is against the privatization
of Hydro.
"At the moment, it's still solely owned by the people of Ontario, but
the Tories seem to change their minds on that issue every day - in
the morning they're not privatizing, in the afternoon they are," he
said.
He said because of the drive for profitability Hydro One would have
less interest in rural public areas. There are more and longer lines
and fewer customers, he explained. "I think what we've been seeing in
the last little while is a precursor to what would happen during
privatization."
Mr. Brown said he has talked to Hydro One and they are more than
willing to meet with local officials. "They are quite willing to come
and meet with concerned people about what has happened and what steps
they are taking to ensure it doesn't happen again," he said.
He said any meeting is likely to take place in August.
The CDC is certainly interested in a meeting, as well as ensuring
Hydro One understands the problems confronted by area businesses, as
such they have started a letter writing campaign. Two form letters,
one addressed to Mr. Clement and one to Mayor Ferguson, have been
sent out to encourage businesses to write and complain about their
recent experiences with the power outages, and to detail the exact
costs to their business.
If anyone wishes to take part in the letter writing campaign, but has
not received a form letter, they should call the CDC at 368-0999.
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