As I discovered back when my Dunvegan neighbours and I were fighting Cornwall Gravel’s application to open a deep-pit quarry and an asphalt and concrete plant in our little community, the amount of information out there when you start digging beneath the surface is simply amazing. A perfect example came in the form of an e-mail from Dunveganite Bob Linney. In it, he referenced a page on the Ministry of Education’s web site entitled “Guide to Pupil Accommodation Reviews.”
Linney’s take on the Review process is that, while the criteria that school boards base their decisions on may work in urban areas, they tend to penalize rural Ontario by not taking into consideration social, economic or geographic implications of school closures. The Ministry does talk about Community Planning and Partnerships with both for-profit and not-for-profit groups being a way for school boards to manage excess space. “But these opportunities were not identified or suggested in the Upper Canada District School Board’s document on school closures (Building for the Future: Pupil Accommodation Review),” Linney wrote in his e-mail to me. And he’s correct. I checked the UCDSB’s 188-page document and found only links to general information pages on the Board’s web site. However, nothing specific to the communities affected was explored.
What this brief trip down the rabbit hole did reveal was the overwhelming volume of information on the Ministry of Education and the UCDSB web sites. It’s truly staggering. It suggests that a vast army of bureaucrats is hard at work churning out an intimidating deluge of words that leave the average citizen, myself included, frozen in a state of information overload. Nevertheless, before my circuits shut down, I did spot a few tasty morsels.
Did you know, for example, that decisions about pupil accommodations, including school closures, are the sole responsibility of the school board? It’s a fact. Like it or not, our school trustees have a huge amount of influence and power. Much more than a backbench MPP. Which is disturbing when you consider how little thought the average voter puts into their selection school at election time.
And did you realize that the Ministry of Education has NO power to overturn a school board decision regarding a school closure? I didn’t. Which makes me want to rethink last week’s suggestion to put pressure on our provincial representative, given that he is utterly powerless.
About the only glimmer of hope that I stumbled across is that the Ministry of Education is of the opinion that, for the health of local democracy, it is important that school boards work with their communities (emphasis mine). It remains to be seen if the UCDSB holds the same opinion.
PS: For those of you with a sociology bent, I recommend that you drill down to the UCDSB’s “School Profiles” section and look at the Board’s stats on Glengarry District High School and Maxville Public School. The school facts and figures are illuminating, but I also found the “Community Profiles” quite revealing. For example, in Alexandria the percentage of the population with a household income less than $30,000 is 11.5%. In Maxville, it is 1.1%. The average across the Board is 10.0%.
All Aboard!
It’s interesting how, in North American culture, protest movements and buses are so closely entwined. From the Civil Rights movement in the United States to Canada’s Idle No More protests, buses have played a key role in transporting protesters and incubating feelings of camaraderie. The same holds true for Glengarry’s Save Our Schools movement.
SOS member (and Dunvegan resident) Kim Raymond tells me that the Committee is organizing buses to take concerned community members to the Public Consultation meeting being held next Monday, November 14th in Cornwall’s General Vanier High School, 1500 Cumberland Street at 6:30 PM. The SOS buses will be leaving Alexandria (likely from the parking lot of the Glengarry Sports Palace) at 4 PM and 5 PM. The departure times are a bit early but, even though the auditorium at General Vanier holds 700, seats are likely to fill up fast.
Kim says that if you want to reserve a spot on either bus, to please get in touch with her right away and tell her which departure time you want and how many seats you’d like to reserve. Kim can be reached by leaving a message at 613-527-2157. “Wear your red and black… and I hope to see you there,” said Kim.
Pull the Plug Time?
At the top of this week’s column, I briefly mentioned the Dunvegan Quarry — yes, the gravel company won the OMB appeal… surprise, surprise — and this brought to mind an encounter I had recently in our local grocery establishment. I ran into an old friend who has been gainfully employed by a regional gravel company. I realize this isn’t news, but what he told me about his employer’s response to Ontario’s scandalous electricity rates is.
In the past, this aggregate company would use diesel generators to power portable rock crushers whenever they were needed. But, according to my friend, the company has now switched over to generating their own electricity for virtually all their quarry operations. In other words they’ve done what so many of us would like to do: tell Hydro One to shove it where the sun don’t shine.
Think about this for a moment. Even with the cost of buying the huge diesel generators, and the fuel and service to run them, this business is still paying less for their electrical power than Hydro One used to charge them. And, because of their size, they used to get volume discounts the average household user can only dream about.
Xmas Ticket Mayhem
Don’t be fooled by the nice weather. Winter and, more importantly Christmas, is fast approaching. And, in Dunvegan, this means the DRA’s annual Christmas Concert is just around the corner. As I mentioned a while ago, they are bringing back an all-new Music & Mayhem revue produced by Rosemary Chatterson and featuring an incredibly talented cast of local performers. Last year’s Music & Mayhem concert was an incredible success, as those lucky enough to get a seat will attest. About the only regret was that people had to be turned away at the door.
Rosemary did not want this to happen again. So, this year, the troupe is holding THREE performances: Friday, December 2nd and Friday, December 9th at 7:30 PM… and Sunday, December 11th at 2:00 PM. She is also introducing reserved seating. Once you have bought your ticket (or tickets) in advance, you are guaranteed a seat for that performance. Tickets will be going on sale shortly at the following three community-minded organizations: The Review in Vankleek Hill, the Home Hardware in Maxville and The Quirky Carrot in Alexandria. The price per ticket is $10 and all proceeds from the concerts will go to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Bank in Alexandria. If there are any tickets left for a performance, they will be available at the door for $12 each. For ticket assistance or more information, you can reach Rosemary at 613-525-1336.
Orange & Black Report
Event organizer, Kim Raymond reports that the old DRA Hall was full to the rafters with at least 50 kids dressed for this year’s Halloween costume parade plus nearly 25 adults (some in costumes, some not). And that doesn’t include the volunteers who make this amazing event possible. “Everyone seemed to have a great time,” Kim told me. “The food was gobbled up and lots of fun was had at the various stations.”
New this year was the Li’l Spooks Obstacle Course where participants had to hold on to a Ping-Pong “eyeball” while doing the hula-hoop and the pumpkin hop… followed by shooting the eyeball into a bat cave, crawling through the back-stage tunnel and finally tossing their eyeball through the old wooden pumpkin board. The children really enjoyed this new game that used lots of the DRA’s old stuff (some from way back in my day) in a new way. Kim also introduced a new craft project whereby the kids fashioned scary bats from black spray-painted clothespins, black construction paper and silver tissue. The 2016 Costume Prize winners were Melody Bertrand, Samantha Raso, Emily Jeurond and AJ Campbell. I’m told all four young ladies had very innovative, and largely homemade costumes, which I know judges like to see.
Kim wanted to publically thank the many volunteer who helped her. Ben Williams took care of erecting the spooky Halloween Tree that Vivian Franklin, Amber Kilgour and Heather Raymond helped to decorate. Amber and Vivian did a spectacular job on the outside of the DRA hall. Isa Campbell, AJ Hay, Tyler Pritchard, Richard Quesnel, Kelly Doyle, Sean Burgess, Caleb Raymond and Erica-Rose Bugera did an excellent job of engaging the participants at the various stations. Thanks are due Mona Andre and her family for hosting the candy donation drop and assembling the loot bags. Although most of this year’s kind candy donors wished to remain anonymous, Kim would like to thank the Leduc and Trottier families, as well as Garth Franklin and Kelly Doyle.
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