Category: Editorials

In the weeks leading up to the Vankleek Hill Fair, the excitement about the return of the event...

Some of you may be reading this on an actual piece of paper. And although there are some avid readers of books and newspapers, many of you do research online. Many of you search out videos to watch. Online research has become a regular thing for most people. We look up how to do things […]

There has always been a fine line about what one can speak of and that which should not be mentioned. But in recent years, those lines have become blurry.  As we fret our way through this pandemic (which some still deny or consciously select information which becomes misleading in the way it is presented), even […]

Canadians are feeling the brunt of bureaucratic inertia, inefficiency, and underfunding when it comes to how federal public services are delivered. It seems as if the provision of services provided or regulated by the federal government is in a state of decay. In recent weeks, we have seen and heard of numerous examples of depressingly […]

It was the parade we had all been waiting for. But we had to go to the parade, when we learned it wasn’t coming to us, after all. A new event protocol introduced by Champlain Township, assurances that seemed to vaporize, a Rogers outage and ensuing miscommunications all contributed to details that some felt were […]

Does seeing the Canadian flag make you cringe and wonder about those who are displaying it? During last winter’s freedom convoy events, the vehicles with Canadian flags waving from windows of trucks, along with F— Trudeau signs conveyed several messages. Depending upon your point of view, the signs indicated a fight for freedom and the view […]

The biggest problems are easiest to ignore Our news cycle seems to focus on two polarities: What our local society is doing and on the flip side: what it is not doing. And as this action versus non-action pendulum swings, there is that which is beyond our control. Some issues are easy for us to […]

Looking at what is legal through the lens of time can be enlightening. Whether something is illegal or legal matters when it comes to government management and the costs associated with it. If we do not allow some type of activity or behaviour, we pay for policing costs and create legislation to punish those who […]

Local governments are in a difficult financial position when it comes to maintaining road and bridge infrastructure. Tax revenue and available grant funding from the provincial and federal level cannot keep up with the cost of repairing and replacing large public works, especially in the present economy of inflation coupled with the rising cost of […]

Well, we’re right into it, aren’t we? Those of us on social media see these phrases daily: “I’m new to the area…” or: “We just moved here…” It is a wave of growth that crept up on us. Seems as if it was not that long ago that our provincial government was ordering up studies […]

Municipal administrators and councillors in small towns across Canada can commiserate easily about aging infrastructure and the cost of building new facilities and systems. Whether it is the need for new drinking water sources, water treatment systems, sewage treatment facilities, sanitary sewers, storm sewers and water main replacement, they all have one thing in common: […]