Municipal superheroes to the rescue!
I’m not much of a bible reader but I do enjoy a great horror story so the one about the plagues of Egypt was always kind of attractive that way. I wondered this week what, in modern-day Ottawa, could count as plagues and I found a few things. Since we already have two councillors performing miracles — that’d be Ariel Troster and Shawn Menard for their success in getting staff to shovel the snow off two very well-used staircases this winter — I figured they could be sent to deal with a few of our least favourite things.
No legal writing to share this week, you’re welcome!
Actually, this roundup is lighter than usual because I’ve been travelling to Alabama to take part in a storytelling show Friday night and instead of scouring the web for stories to share I did what normal people do when they travel and spent time with friends. I know. It’s so weird to act normal. But one week every second trimester I try.
One story that caught my eye is a CBC investigation into the prices paid by the Ontario government to a seemingly very well connected private clinic to perform services (such as low-risk out-patient surgeries) that are insured by OHIP. Not to be overly cynical or anything, but I’d be prepared to bet a tidy sum this isn’t the only such clinic that gets compensated extra for doing things that hospitals used to do, at the public’s expenses. And we’re not even talking about the impact this has on staffing in the public system. You already know what I think of this government’s approach to health care and in case you forgot, it’s here.
Ottawa will install plenty more speed cameras and I say yes please. They either make people slow down (alllll the way down to the speed limit, the horror) or bring in plenty of cash that can be used to finance active transportation infrastructure. We can’t lose. I have long been a fan of speed cameras, and when we started getting numbers from the first set I remember being excited enough to engage in some I-told-you-so arm flapping.
And finally, a bit of chuckling at the committee (you know it had to be a committee) that came up with the new slogan for Renfrew: Bridging Charm and Convenience. (And not the obvious: We Have Both McD and Tim’s!) You know what, guys? Your job is not threatened by AI, and I’m pretty sure I don’t mean that in a good way. Renfrew is nice and it has good people. They deserve better.
