St. Jacobs power centre to have more rental options

The St. Jacobs big-box retail centre not powering up as expected, the township is broadening the range of uses at the site to help the developer draw in tenants. Official Plan and zoning changes approved this week provide more options at the Smart Centres site, where a decade-long delay appears to have caused typical power centre tenants to settle elsewhere. That’s limited the number of potential businesses willing to locate there, with the problem compounded by land-use restrictions that grew out of the sometimes-nasty debate over the Walmart-anchored project.

In recognition of the market conditions, director of engineering and planning Dan Kennaley suggested it’s appropriate to relax the restrictions on the property. Allowing a wider range of service commercial uses, including restaurants, opens up the possibility of more tenants, he said.

The changes approved Tuesday night by councillors meeting as a committee of the whole follow an application last spring by owner King/86 Developments. The company argued that current restrictions on the site are making it difficult to lease space there, noting only about half of the permitted 305,000 square feet has been built.

A planning and marketing report prepared for the company prior to a public meeting last May shows the requested changes would generate more business without having any negative impact on existing operations in Woolwich and Waterloo.

After reviewing the studies, Woolwich’s planners – as well as their counterparts in Waterloo – determined some extra uses would be suitable. Among the long list of new options for development are a medical clinic, photo studio, printing/copying/publishing establishment, rental/repair service (rent-all), travel agency, veterinary operation, auction centre and hotel/motel.

Controls over the number and size of restaurants have also been loosened. But the township didn’t want to provide too much leeway for fear the development would fill up with fast-food restaurant chains if smaller operations are allowed.

Originally, the goal was to have large-format restaurants, as is often the case at power centres. So far, however, the only taker has been the Arby’s, and the developer had to use up one of two exceptions to get the 1,800-square-foot restaurant built. Under the new Official Plan and zoning, the developer can have two restaurants at minimum size of 800 sq. ft., two at 1,200 sq. ft. and one at a minimum size of 1,800 sq. ft. (the existing Arby’s operation). As an incentive, the township will allow two more restaurants of at least 1,500 sq. ft. if two larger restaurants of at least 5,000 sq. ft. locate in the power centre.

“The need to consider smaller-type restaurants, recognizing that many of the larger restaurants over 5,000 sq. ft. (such as Boston Pizza, East Side Mario’s, Kelsey’s, the Keg and Swiss Chalet) are already located in the City of Waterloo within a four-kilometre radius of King/86’s development. As such, the list of larger restaurants that would normally be attracted to the King/86 development has diminished over time,” reads the staff report submitted to councillors.

Kennaley said the new arrangement strikes a balance between existing retail in Woolwich and Waterloo and the needs of the developer

“We want the King/86 development to make good use of the land that’s available to them … to allow them to develop in a reasonable fashion.”

Responding to a question from Coun. Julie-Anne Herteis, Kennaley said the decision would have few immediate implications on St. Jacobs-based Mercedes Corp., which also holds land in the stockyards area. It, too, is having trouble renting space at the outlet mall and would like to see restrictions eased there.

Kennaley, however, noted the company is looking for changes that would be better dealt with in the broader context of a secondary plan review that will look at the whole area. The process is set to begin this year, running into early 2013.

Tags: Steve Kannon

At this campground, it’s not just souls that are bared

The kids gone and no longer caught up in the hurly-burly of child rearing, empty-nesters Norman and Ruth come to an eye-opening realization: they have no idea what they’re relationship is all about. Acting on the advice of discount marriage counsellor that they revisit a spot where they remember being in love, the middle-aged couple heads for a campground they used to visit when the kids were young. So, late one night with a borrowed tent trailer in tow, they end up at the Bear Bones Campground, the scene of better days past. Trouble is, just as they’ve changed so too has the vacation spot: they wake up the next morning to find the place is now the Bare Bones Alternative Campground. To make matters worse, the trailer hitch is broken, so they can’t just up and leave.

It’s not really the right tonic for such a conservative couple. Or is it?

Well, it certainly doesn’t start out that way, which provides plenty of laughs in the Elmira Theatre Company’s presentation of Bare Bear Bones.

Written by Elmira playwright Mike Grant, the story uses the comedic setting as backdrop for a lighthearted exploration of marriage and the relationships between men and women.

“It started as a fish-out-of-water story, but it had to have more. It tells the importance of communication in a relationship,” said Grant. “The campground became a metaphor for the stripping down – the bare bones – of the relationship.”

He had plenty of fodder when penning the story, drawn from years of observing how couples interact. The relationship he created for Norman and Ruth has much in common with what he saw in his parents, and in his own marriage.

“This is exactly what my wife and I sound like when we’re arguing,” he laughed.

Being stuck in an uncomfortable environment, Norman (Brian Otto) and Ruth (Kathy Fahey) are forced to communicate for the first time in years, getting past the banter and joking to have a real heart-to-heart discussion.
But first they have to contend with being surrounded by a whole pile of people walking around wearing nothing but smiles. It’s a setting that’s a challenge not only for our uptight pair, but for those staging the play, as they had to create the illusion of a nudist resort. Campground denizens are always seen behind a hedge, a clothesline or a well-placed prop.

“It they’re expecting the Full Monty, they’re not going to get it,” laughed director Deb Deckert of audience expectations – this is the Elmira Theatre Company, after all. “We’ve had to do some creative blocking.”
She has high praise for the set designers and builders, led by Phil Dietrich, who’ve managed to recreate a campground setting to an appropriate scale for the ETC stage.
“He really does a wonderful job – all part of the magic we call theatre.”

Involving both camping and relationships, the play probably touches on two subjects familiar to most of us.

The second act of the play involves a considerable amount of time around the campfire, which provides a recognizable scenario for anyone who’s ever enjoyed the great outdoors. “Which is pretty much all of us who’ve enjoyed the Canadian institution of camping,” said Deckert.

And, as Grant noted, you don’t have to go far to see how married couples behave. The story contains plenty of slice-of-life moments sure to draw laughs and looks of recollection.
“Anyone who’s been married for any length of time will recognize this situation,” said Deckert.

The Elmira Theatre Company production of Bare Bear Bones runs Feb. 10-12, Feb. 16-19 at 76 Howard Ave. Show times are 8 p.m., except Sunday (2:30 p.m.). Tickets are $18, available from ETC (www.elmiratheatre.com or 519-669-3230) or through the Centre in the Square box office in Kitchener by calling 578-1570 or 1-800-265-8977, online at www.centre-square.com. There will also be special sweetheart supper and show on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, with dinner provided by Flow Café and Catering.  Doors open at 6:30 p.m., buffet dinner at 7 p.m., with the show to follow. Those tickets are $58 per person.

Tags: Steve Kannon

Danger of running afoul of Parkinson’s Law

Those in search of Parkinson’s Law in action need look no further than Woolwich Township, where Cyril Northcote Parkinson’s classic dictum is clearly in evidence. What is Parkinson’s Law? Even if you don’t know the term, you’re undoubtedly familiar with the sentiment behind it: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. First postulated in 1955 and expanded into the 1958 book Parkinson’s Law: The Pursuit of Progress, the theory came from the writer’s experience with the British civil service. With mathematical precision – and a large dollop of humour – he dissected the actions of bureaucrats, discovering that bureaucracies expand over time, whether they’re needed or, in most cases, not.

In a notable example, he showed that the British Colonial Office continued to grow even as the empire shrunk precipitously. In fact, the department had its largest-ever staff after it was folded into the Foreign Office because there were no longer any colonies to administer.

Two forces are at work in explaining the growth of needless bureaucracies and the costs thereof: “An official wants to multiply subordinates, not rivals” (the Law of Multiplication of Subordinates) and “Officials make work for each other” (the Law of Multiplication of Work). He notes in particular that the total of those employed inside a bureaucracy rose by five to seven per cent per year “irrespective of any variation in the amount of work (if any) to be done.”

Managers wish to appear busy, so they increase their workload by creating paper and rules, filling out evaluations and forms, and filing them. Then they hire more assistants, who in turn require more managerial time for supervision. Moreover, many bureaucratic budgets rely on the “use it or lose it” principle, meaning the current year’s expenditures determine the following year’s budget. This provides a deep incentive to spend (even waste) as much money as possible to guarantee an ever-increasing budget. Parkinson’s views remain consistent with those of conflict theorists, who hold that bureaucratic growth serves only the managers, who in turn use their increasing power to control the workers.

All of this usually adds up to little in the way of productive outcomes, either in government or the private sector (Parkinson’s Law applies to all bureaucracies, but examples are most egregious in the public sector because there’s no offsetting pressure from competitors, shareholders and the like).

What we end up with, then, is much ado about nothing – the size of the bureaucracy and the amount of paperwork don’t necessarily bear any resemblance to the actual work done.

“Granted that work (and especially paper work) is thus elastic in its demands on time, it is manifest that there need be little or no relationship between the work to be done and the size of the staff to which it may be assigned,” Parkinson argues in his original essay.

“Politicians and taxpayers have assumed (with occasional phases of doubt) that a rising total in the number of civil servants must reflect a growing volume of work to be done. Cynics, in questioning this belief, have imagined that the multiplication of officials must have left some of them idle or all of them able to work for shorter hours. But this is a matter in which faith and doubt seem equally misplaced. The fact is that the number of the officials and the quantity of the work to be done are not related to each other at all. The rise in the total of those employed is governed by Parkinson’s Law, and would be much the same whether the volume of the work were to increase, diminish or even disappear.”

What Parkinson outlines is prevalent at all levels of government, growing worse from local to federal.

While Woolwich has largely avoided the worst of the law’s impacts – there has, however, been an entrenched deference to bureaucrats on the part of council members, but that’s just part of the problem – we’re starting to see more of it here.

First off, the size of the staff has been creeping upwards, most notably with the opening of the WMC. Some of the jobs have proven unnecessary, even on the frontlines, though changes have been slow. The situation is much worse at the middle-management level. Then there’s the issue of paperwork, as Parkinson sagely warned of: we’ve seen a lot more consultants and host of over-bureaucratized report writing even for what were once simple functions, from tenders to ersatz attempts at business development projects.

Worse still, as the current budget talks have shown, the township is prone to the Law of Triviality, another Parkinson revelation whereby “the time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.”

By that he means just what we’re seeing today: some long discussions of minor budget items, leading at time to easy cutting around the edges, but little regard for the bigger items, which are glossed over quickly.
Woolwich council is not as profligate as the provincial and federal governments. It also has another advantage when it comes to reducing its size: it has no deficits to contend with, which means its cuts will translate into immediate tax savings rather than going to pay down the results of past spending decisions.

As Parkinson and other scholars following up his work have noted, there’s an inherent resistance to downsizing within bureaucracies. When cuts do come, they typically involve frontline staff, not management and other entrenched bureaucrats. Those affected tend to get lower pay while doing the actual work that is of value to the public. In that light, cuts don’t save as much money as they could, hurt services to the people paying the freight and maintain management layers that provide little if any value.

Tags: Steve Kannon

Elmira’s sidewalk snow-clearing program under review

The future of sidewalk snow clearing in Elmira may depend on a survey of residents as the township contemplates the fate of the service. The program has been the source of complaints since its inception in 2004, with residents pointing to slow service, poor clearing of snow and ice, and ripped up lawn edges. Now, with the current three-year contract expiring at the end of the season, Woolwich is looking at its options, including input from Elmira taxpayers, who are assessed a special-area levy to pay for clearing every sidewalk in town.

The township budgets $70,000 a year for the service, but the actual amount charged depends on the rolling surplus of funds in the account. Last year, for instance, some $46,000 was billed. The fund is in a surplus position again this year, thanks in part to the mild winter. That works out to about $12 for an average home with an assessed value of $254,000.

The weather has also lessened the number of complaints, but not eliminated them, as Mayor Todd Cowan noted at a Jan. 19 budget meeting. Many residents call him, upset about the service, he said, noting there are others who are happy to be relieved of shoveling their sidewalks. By law, residents everywhere else in the township have to clear their own walkways within 24 hours of a snowfall.

For Coun. Mark Bauman, that system may be just the tonic for Elmira. In discussing the matter, he asked tongue-in-cheek just how many complaints are heard from residents in other parts of the township. “It was sort of a leading question,” he joked, adding, however, that doing away with the service is a viable alternative.

“The do-nothing approach should always be an option.”

Coun. Allan Poffenroth, meanwhile, summed up the state of the service by noting when he goes for a walk every morning he uses the roads, as the sidewalks are usually still unsafe after a snowfall, even if they’ve been cleared, because snow and ice remain.

“I would not walk on the sidewalks – it’s safer on the road. You’re stupid to walk on them if you want to not break bones,” he said, offering a typically blunt assessment. It’s a sentiment not lost on director of engineering and planning Dan Kennaley, who has to deal with the complaints.

“We’re certainly aware of the concerns that have been expressed by any number of people.”

If the township does opt to continue the service, he said more caution and detail will be needed in setting up the terms of future snow-clearing contracts. The complaints have been fairly constant no matter which outside company has been doing the work, meaning tighter controls are needed, he said. Over the years, the township has had issues with the types of equipment used, for instance, making that part of the deal.

Tags: Steve Kannon

Capturing the enduring appeal of Buddy Holly

The music may have died on Feb. 3, 1959, but it will be alive and well next Sunday, two days after the 53rd anniversary of that fateful plane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper.
In celebration of their music and that of the other performers of the era, Maryhill’s Commercial Tavern presents Buddy Holly: The Anniversary Concert. The show is fronted by Jeff Giles, best known for his starring role in The Buddy Holly Story, the official musical show of the legendary rock ‘n’ roll pioneer. The musical itself has thrilled audiences worldwide since 1989, including an acclaimed Broadway production and 12 consecutive years in London’s West End with numerous subsequent tours continuing to run around the world. In Canada, Giles has starred as Buddy in Charlottetown, where he was also featured on CBC television.

Buddy Holly: The Anniversary Concert will celebrate the music of Holly’s final tour, known as The Winter Dance Party, which debuted in January 1959. It was on that tour that the three performers boarded a small chartered plane in Iowa bound for Minnesota, crashing shortly after takeoff. The death of the trio was later immortalized in the famous Don McLean song “American Pie,” and is often referred to as “the day the music died.”
To play Holly (born Charles Hardin Holley on Sept. 7, 1936 in Lubbock, Texas), Giles listened to a large assortment of recordings and watched the limited amount of available video footage of the singer, most of it from TV appearances.

“From what I’ve read, he was a lot more boisterous in concert than he was on television,” said Giles in an interview from his Toronto home, noting his own performances reflect that.
He sees the show as a tribute rather than a straight impersonation, though he’s worked hard to get the physical and vocal mannerisms down pat. He first joined a cast of The Buddy Holly Story in 2008, with things taking off in 2010.

“I’ve been working really hard on improving myself technically as a singer. I’m trying to capture his essence and do justice to his songs and the way he performs them.

“When I’m in front of an audience, I’m bringing as much as I can,” he said, adding the goal is an honest representation of the music.

Just 28, Giles grew up listening to a variety of music, including late-1950s, early ’60s rock ‘n’ roll, as well as the Motown soul and R&B. In researching for the role, he came to appreciate Holly’s pioneering efforts, both as a singer-songwriter at a time when most artists didn’t record their own music and as someone who experimented with the technical side of the recording industry.

Though only active in the industry for less than two years – he was 22 when he died – Holly continues to influence music today. He’s credited with inspiring the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. Holly was in the first group of artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at number 13 on their list of the 50 greatest artists of all time.

While Holly’s music is the centerpiece of the show, Giles and his three-piece band (drums, bass, keyboards) will be performing tunes by the Big Bopper, Valens, Dion and others important to the Winter Dance Party. The music will be interspersed with stories about the songs and artists.

On tap for the Feb. 5 show are Holly’s hits such as “Peggy Sue,” “That’ll Be the Day,” “Rave On,” “It’s So Easy,” “Everyday,” “Oh Boy!,” “Not Fade Away,” and “True Love Ways. ” Also look for the Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace” and “Running Bear,” Ritchie Valens’ “Oh Donna” and “La Bamba,” plus Dion and the Belmonts (“A Teenager in Love”).

Buddy Holly: The Anniversary Concert takes to the stage at the Commercial Tavern Feb. 5 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15, available at the venue, 1303 Maryhill Rd., or by calling 519-648-3644.

Tags: Steve Kannon

Tip public sector wages in favour of taxpayers

Premier Dalton McGuinty is being more than a little disingenuous when he calls for a public sector wage freeze without making it mandatory. We’ve been hearing the same message for two years, to little avail.
That’s not to say the goal isn’t worthwhile: wages typically make up 50 to 60 per cent of the tax dollars spent by governments, so that’s where the cuts have to be made to get spending back under control. That’s especially true if the goal is to maintain programs and avoid large tax increases, in which case something’s gotta give. That something is the civil service salaries.

The restraint advocated by both the federal and provincial governments finds a receptive audience: most of us have no problem seeing government workers as overpaid and underworked. Fair or not, that’s the perception. Layoffs and wage freezes (if not outright cuts) are an easy sell to the public. Public service compensation now outstrips the private sector by some 30 per cent when wages, benefits and pensions are factored in, and it’s now time to begin reversing that trend.

Public sector unions, seeing the writing on the wall, are quick to argue that private sector compensations should rise rather than rolling back what’s paid to government workers. A nice idea, but one detached from current economic reality, and an issue government has no direct control over, unlike their own budgets.

To be fair, governments do have to stop corporate tax cuts, increasing rates by a few percentage points. There’s no point in cutting wages only to pass the money on to large corporations that have been hording revenue rather than using it productively in the economy.

The other union tactic, painting a dire picture of service cuts, also has little credence. Indiscriminate layoffs could theoretically see needed frontline workers let go, but that’s an unlikely scenario. There are ways of judiciously reducing the size of the civil service with minimal impacts. Lowering wages would free up money to tackle deficits and to funnel money where it’s needed.

Making cuts and wage freezes work requires the public to think about service levels and what they’re getting for their money: wage increases and program spending that have routinely outstripped inflation has left us paying much more while getting little or nothing more in return. For example, look at this week’s debate in Kitchener over firefighting services. The city expects to pay $29.3 million for the fire department this year, 55 per cent more than the $18.9 million budget 10 years ago, but residents are no safer today than they were a decade ago. The same can be said about a host of other services, municipal, provincial and federal.
In short, we have government, but not a commensurate increase in service.

Between 2004 and 2011, the number of employees in the public sector grew by 20 per cent, to 3.6 million from three million.

The total number of employees in the sector is more than 20 per cent of the national workforce of 17.2 million, according to figures from Statistics Canada.

Salary figures indicate a growing gap between civil service wages and the average earnings of private-sector employees. The discrepancy is likely to increase, as average industry wages will remain stagnant or decline dramatically in some industries as layoffs take hold. Even though the recession is officially over, unemployment remains high and private-sector wages depressed.

Yet, as we’ve seen in this area, government employees continued to receive multi-year deals worth, on average, three to four per cent a year. With no bottom line – politicians seem to have few qualms about dipping deeper on their repeated trips to the well – governments simply pass the increases along to a public forced to pay taxes, a far cry from the situation faced in the private sector.

Few would begrudge civil servants a decent wage, but when those supported by public money are making more than those paying the freight, friction is bound to follow. It’s with that reality in mind that elected officials have to counter years of excess, waste and concessions. McGuinty calls for freezes, but does not make them binding. If history is any indicator, voluntary restraint will not work. Measures will not be carried out uniformly across provincial government lines, let alone translate into similar restraint at the municipal level. All the efforts will be hampered by arbitrators who’ve typically undermined the public interest.

This is not simply a tirade against government workers. We want services, so we need people to provide them. Those people should be paid a decent living wage. The trick will be to decide what services we really need – hint, fewer than we’re spending money on right now – and what constitutes “decent.” As the annual sunshine list and other revelations of public sector wages reveal, however, we’re a long way past most people’s concept of appropriate compensation. The 30 per cent overage is a good benchmark against which to measure rollbacks.

Fairness is important, certainly, but the priority is fairness to the average taxpaying resident – all other interests take a back seat.

Tags: Steve Kannon

Breslau residents push for traffic-calming on Woolwich Street

Growth in Breslau that has worsened longstanding safety concerns on Woolwich Street has residents calling for traffic-calming measures. Woolwich Street resident Jennifer Williams presented a petition signed by 30 of her neighbours to councillors Tuesday night, asking for the township to act. For its part, Woolwich plans to look at the situation, suggesting a formal traffic study would help planners decide the next steps.

This is not the first time residents have been out to council demanding action. Studies in 2005, 2006 and 2007 showed both traffic volumes and speeding to be an issue, with the council of the day ultimately deciding to reduce the speed limit on Woolwich Street to 40 km/h from 50. The township also put stop signs at the intersection of Dolman Street after considering the installation of three stop along the stretch of Woolwich Street running through the village.

Acknowledging past efforts, Williams argued this week that the problem was never fully solved. Now, with development in Breslau, especially the Riverland subdivision to the south, there’s more traffic and more speeding.
“The speed is dangerously fast,” she said, urging the installation of speed humps to slow traffic.

Asked by Mayor Todd Cowan if speed humps were the only solution, she replied “I don’t see any other way … than an obstacle so that they can’t speed.”

Attempting to nip in the bud protests about the use of the traffic-calming devices, she argued they only pose a possible damage threat to speeding vehicles, adding the same is true of noise complaints: cars travelling at the appropriate speed would have no problem.

“I am asking the township, in the face of possible opposition, to avoid a predictable tragedy and implement traffic-calming speed humps.”

Reminded by Coun. Mark Bauman that the township previously installed a temporary speed bump on Woolwich Street in 2006, director of engineering and planning Dan Kennaley said he would be looking at the information collected from previous studies.

Kennaley suggested using the township’s mobile speed trailer to measure traffic volumes and speeds along Woolwich Street, adding the caveat that the device can’t be used in winter as it interferes with snow-clearing and doesn’t work in cold winter temperatures. The study would have to wait until after May 1, subject to study locations already on the township’s list.

Cowan, however, suggested safety concerns should be the top priority rather than adding locations on a first-come, first-served basis.

Asked by Coun. Julie-Anne Herteis if possible solutions would go beyond speed humps, Kennaley said the study would cast a wider net.

“We’ll look at any and all traffic-calming measures that might be included.”

Looking at the big picture, Bauman noted the problem would also be addressed if the region would speed up completion of the Breslau bypass route, connecting Ebycrest Road with Fountain Street to channel more cars away from Woolwich Street.

Opened in the fall of 2004 at a cost of $1.6 million, the bypass – formally Reg. Rd. 17, or Fountain Street – was only slowly adopted by motorists. Five years ago, during the last studies of traffic as residents pushed for safety measures, almost three times as many drivers (7,000-9,000 a day) – used Woolwich Street versus 3,000 for Fountain Street.

Tags: Steve Kannon

Making it just like Stevie Ray

Blues-rock legend Stevie Ray Vaughan launched a thousand guys into guitar shops, so captivating was his style. Though he died more than two decades ago, his influence can be seen even in young blues players today.
Few of his acolytes likely have the same dedication as Dave Ryan, who’s spent the last decade getting the details just right as the front man of a Toronto-based tribute band, The Stevie Ray Vaughan Experience, which plays tonight (Saturday) at the Central Tavern in Elmira.

A guitar player for more than 30 years, including a stint in a Van Halen tribute band, Ryan had an epiphany about a decade ago when he saw Vaughan’s “Live at the El Mocambo,” a DVD released in 1999 featuring a 1983 concert at the storied Toronto venue.

“My jaw dropped, and I said ‘wow, that’s what I want to do.’

“I fell in love with his music – the energy, the passion.”

What followed was the practicing, and lots of it, needed to hone Vaughan’s unique and energetic guitar sound. Twenty to 25 hours a week quickly added up to thousands of hours in the years that came after.
“An awful lot of work has gone into it,” he said of the tribute show. “I’m a perfectionist to a fault.”

His dedication goes beyond the music – a signature sound that’s inspired countless players – but extends to the details of the show itself. His hats are made by the same Texas hatter that made Vaughan’s. His guitars are replicas of those famously emblazoned with the initials SRV. And even the large blue peacock tattooed on Vaughan’s chest has a doppelganger on Ryan’s chest.

At its heart, however, his efforts are all about the playing, trying to replicate the skill that puts Vaughan on just about everybody’s list of the top 15 or 20 guitarists ever to pick up the instrument.
The time and effort have propelled Ryan and his bandmates to the highest level of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble tributes. Since taking to the stage in 2008, they’ve been working at getting to the Vegas and Atlantic City circuits.

“It’s fun. It’s going places,” said Ryan of the act. “It’s been very challenging, but rewarding.

“I joke with my friends that I’m going to the Stevie Ray Vaughan school of blues. I’m probably at a masters’ level, and I’m going for my Ph.D.”

To that end, he said he’s always pushing himself to get better. A six-second hook in the song Texas Flood from that 1983 concert probably took  him a year to replicate as a playing style – “to him it just came naturally” – and that has helped make Ryan a better player while encouraging his own songwriting.

On tap for Saturday will be all of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s hits, including Pride and Joy, Crossfire, Couldn’t Stand the Weather and The House is Rockin’, along with the guitar master’s renditions of songs by Buddy Guy, Stevie Wonder and Jimi Hendrix.

The Stevie Ray Vaughan Experience takes the stage at the Central Tavern (30 Arthur St. S.) Jan. 21. Expect the band on about 10:30 p.m. There’s a cover charge of $5.

Tags: Steve Kannon

New “downloading” — paying for useless rules

Call it a form of taxation without representation: a long list of legislation that essentially downloads costs to municipalities without giving them a say in any of the decisions. And, to add insult to injury, most of the requirements provide no benefit to residents while lifting evermore dollars from their wallets. From useless paperwork demanded by the Office of the Fire Marshal to overzealous water-monitoring regulations and from accessibility requirements with few benefits to all of the downside of gravel pits, Queen’s Park has long burdened municipalities with the real-world impacts of their own bureaucratic make-work schemes.
It may be futile, but Woolwich officials hope to counter that trend by making direct pitches to the provincial ministers and senior staffers at next month’s Rural Ontario Municipal Association/Ontario Good Roads Association conference.

Tackling just some of those grievances, a list of which was approved by township councillors this week, is the priority of chief administrative officer David Brenneman, who’s seen plenty of red tape in two decades of municipal service.

A clear example of the problem can be seen in what happened following the Walkerton fiasco. Instead of treating what happened as an isolated incident, compounded by Harris government cuts to inspectors, the province instituted sweeping new measures, including excessive amounts of water testing, that collectively added millions of dollars to municipal spending. There were plenty of new rules and procedures, but not one dime to help local governments pay for them. The result: not one iota of improvement, but plenty of added expenses.
That’s no isolated incident, he says.

“Was that (Walkerton) an overreaction to a very specific circumstance? I think you’d find that most municipalities were doing just fine … with their inspection programs.
“In cases like Walkerton, in the end the legislation becomes very reactionary.”

Brenneman notes such kneejerk reactions lead to heavy-handed changes, blanket rules that force every municipality to comply whether or not there was a problem. Poor emergency response in one town, to a flood or tornado, for instance, has led to new emergency management protocols for everyone. In almost every case, they’re not needed, but municipalities are forced to spend the money anyway.
“Often, it’s a reactionary fix,” he argues, calling the resultant costs for implementing and enforcing the rule changes “a de facto form of downloading.”

He likens the provincial approach to a manager having a problem with one employee’s conduct dealing with it by sending out a thou-shall-not directive to every employee – all the others know what the problem is, and resent being lumped in with the troublemaker. Instead, the matter should be handled directly with the employee in question.

Just as such actions by a manager have consequences in the office, the province’s decisions have repercussions across the board. Even good ideas that are fine in theory – some are, many aren’t – lose credibility and effectiveness when they’re handed down willy-nilly without thought to what comes afterward in terms of implementation, compliance and enforcement.

“There are a couple of things to consider right off the bat. One, we need more funding. And two, there needs to be more dialogue before this kind of legislation is enacted.”

To date, however, municipalities get neither. In essence, they’re forced to tax without representation.

The same is true of the steps needed to comply with the Ontarians with Disabilities Act (ODA), for instance, which forces a range of measures and costs on municipalities even where it makes no sense at all. This goes beyond elevators, ramps and sidewalk cuts in new construction, but extends to such things as providing alternative document formats despite zero demand in Woolwich. Still, everyone will be forced to pay for it.
“Without an appropriate level of funding from the province for the implementation of these standards, costs are directly supported by the local taxpayer,” Brenneman says in a report discussed at council this week.
Then there’s the issue of gravel pits, a topic with which the township has become intimately acquainted, and one that he hopes to speak about when meeting with provincial representatives next month.
The process is lengthy and costly, with the concerns of municipalities often swept aside by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ontario Municipal Board. The municipality does all the work, but gets little for its efforts aside from a great deal of political grief, as we’ve seen in debates here.

To make matters worse, municipalities receive only a pittance in revenues from gravel operations. The cost-benefit analysis alone is reason enough to deny all applications. Aside from the process itself, gravel pits bring increased truck traffic that put residents at risk, create more wear-and-tear on the roads, bring environmental problems such as dust and noise, and threaten to despoil prime agricultural land and the accompanying vistas.
To offset the immediate costs, he suggests higher revenues for municipalities. In Woolwich’s case, aggregate extraction brings in about $37,000 a year in revenues. He contrasts that with the fact a single battle at the OMB could ring up $250,000 in legal costs.

Once a pit is approved, municipalities have little recourse in the event of problems. The industry is supposed to be self-regulating, but that system isn’t working. The Ministry of Natural Resources, which can make unilateral decisions about specific sites, typically sides with the operators, not the public it’s supposed to serve.
“The residents of Woolwich do not trust the system,” he notes.

What’s true of the aggregate process applies equally to the range of legislation without regard to what’s best for municipal residents and their pocketbooks. It will be difficult, however, to overcome a system where bureaucrats look to justify their positions by coming up with policy changes, regardless of whether or not changes are needed or make any sense at all.
“I understand why it happens,” said Brenneman.

But how optimistic is he that next month’s meetings will bear fruit?

“We can’t just sit back on the sidelines and not try,” he argues. “It’s always a tough hill to climb. Part of the municipal role is to be an advocate to the senior governments.”
The effort will be aided if other municipalities bring the same message to Queen’s Park, eventually swaying the government. But that’s not going to happen in short order.

Tags: Steve Kannon

Woolwich finds efficiencies in budget, but no real cuts coming

A mixture of cuts and fee hikes helped Woolwich staff find the five per cent in efficiencies requested by councillors, but taxpayers shouldn’t expect a break this year.
Some $400,000 – much of it the result of new fees, including an expected increase in parking tickets –will go into general revenues, to augment a planned 2.5-per-cent tax hike for 2012. Residents may also be digging even deeper into their pockets if council approves an additional levy to pay for infrastructure projects – no figures have been discussed at this point, but the further tax hike will be on the table during deliberations this month.

As a result, there will be no austerity measures at town hall, despite the lingering malaise in the economy, including rising unemployment. Instead, the township plans to increase spending on wages and salaries – the biggest part of its operating budget – including hiring a new engineering technician ($55,000-$66,000 a year) and expanding some part-time jobs to full-time.

The six-digit increase in salaries more than offsets planned decreases in staff hours at the Woolwich Memorial Centre as the recreation and facilities department looks to bring its budget under control.

The combination of cuts and fee increases in the rec. department amounting to $177,000 leads the way in some $395,000 in efficiencies identified by staff as councillors this week discussed the 2012 budget.

New director of recreation and facilities Karen Makela expects reduction in staffing levels and hours of work to pay big dividends this year, countering recent budget-overruns in the department. Eliminating staff from the fitness centre during the day, Mondays through Fridays, will save $41,000, while reducing aquatic staff hours adds $47,000 to the bottom-line. A further $16,000 is forecast due to cuts to arena maintenance staff.

Engineering and planning services is the second-largest contributor at $171,600, largely the result of plans to reduce works projects by at least $88,000 by going to tender earlier in the year in order to get lower bids from construction companies.

Department director Dan Kennaley said making a push to get the engineering portion of the projects done upfront would allow the tendering process to take place when contractors are “hungry for work,” estimating the savings at three per cent.

In other measures, shifting the installation of water meters to builders rather than keeping it a township responsibility will save some $20,700 a year, while raising fees and charges is expected to bring in an additional $29,000 in 2012.

The rest of the budget efficiencies identified by staff amount to much smaller amounts in other departments, including a plan to see bylaw enforcement officers work more evening and weekend hours, bringing in perhaps another $2,500 in parking ticket revenue.

A great reliance on technology, including electronic billing, is also in the works.

“We want to make sure we get the best value for our customers,” said director of finance Richard Petherick.

Tags: Steve Kannon