by CONNIE TABBERT
Editor
WHITEWATER REGION (Westmeath) — Foul language and accusations of badgering brought the moderator of last night’s all-candidates meeting to his feet with hopes of cooling off Mayor Hal Johnson who verbally attacked a Whitewater Region resident.
It started out like the previous three all candidates meeting for Whitewater Region – each of the 17 council candidates sitting before a large crowd with hopes of enticing them to vote for them in this municipal election.
They spoke about what they want to do if elected, and how long they’ve been on council, their back grounds and family history. (Please see Pages 8to 12 for individual write-ups on each candidate.) Following an hour of that information, it was time to let the audience ask questions directly to individual candidates, with more than one answering if they so wished.
Cell/Internet Service
The most talked about issue was the lack of cell and internet service in various areas throughout Whitewater Region, especially Westmeath, La Passe and Foresters Falls. The questions included the cost, and what has council done and what is council willing to do to get it here.
Mayor Johnson noted there is no price to get internet throughout the township, as well as cell towers, but it won’t be cheap.
“We have been pushing for better service and we will continue to push for better service,” he said. “In order to go forward, we definitely need better service.”
Councillor Dave Mackay said a cell tower will cost in the neighbourhood of $3 million.
“Big companies, like Rogers and Bell, do not want to put cell towers in,” he said.
The only way to get improved cell service is to lobby the federal government, Coun. Mackay said.
Councillor Chris Olmstead said everybody wants it, but it’s not easy to get. He recently had a cell tower erected by Rogers Communication on property he owns near the intersection at Foresters Falls Road and Hwy. 17. Prior to it being located there, three properties were turned down for a cell tower because the neighbours didn’t want it located near them, he said.
“I’ve got neighbours who are ticked off with me because I gave up a building lot…because we decided to go ahead and put up a cell tower,” he said. “We might have 90 people who are really happy that there is a beautiful cell tower going up…but I have a neighbour who will barely even speak to me now because of that situation.”
He encouraged anyone with property to step forward and look into getting a cell tower erected.
Councillor candidate John Felix Cull said cell service is definitely needed, there are just too many providers who are looking to make a profit, so won’t erect a very expensive cell tower for just a few customers. However, if every resident in the county put all their cell money to one particular company, you may grab their attention and they may erect a tower.
Councillor Daryl McLaughlin said the Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus has money to spend on cell and internet service.
“It’s not like it’s falling on deaf ears,” he said. “We realize there’s a problem and with the help of the province to get money, we may be able to put up more cell towers.”
Councillor candidate Jim Butterworth said there is no difference between cell and internet service – you get one, you get the other.
“If you keep on asking the why question, we’ll eventually get to cell and internet service come from the same device,” he said. “When we look at all the challenges we can think about for internet and cell…it’s broadband that is required.
“I think as a team, we can figure out our accomplishments and goals and get this solved,” he added.
As for erecting a cell tower at Lookout Park, since it is municipal property, Mayor Johnson noted a provider is needed to do that, but it’s too costly.
Ethics
Resident Gary Younghusband said he has a question about ethics.
“I asked a question last week (at the all candidates meeting) in Cobden, but didn’t get an answer,” he said, continuing, “I want to know why was the law suit settlement paid to Mayor Johnson from the public.”
However, he was drowned out by the audience as well as moderator Phil Cottrell, pointing out that this is a legal issue that cannot be answered.
But, Mayor Johnson wasn’t to be silenced.
“I will address ethics.
“We have a sewer plant that has been stalled at a cost of $600,000 by your organization Gary. Do you think that’s ethics?”
Mr. Younghusband shouted out, “Bullsh**” with Mayor Johnson responding, “Bullsh** to you. The people in Cobden will be paying $6,000 a piece because of that Part II Order.
“You ask about my morals! Sit down, be quiet and let the other people realize that bullsh** is bullsh**.”
Fire Services
A question to Councillor Charlene Jackson involved fire services, questioning why there is a full-time fire chief and did Mike Moore retire as deputy-fire chief or did he resign, “because there is misinformation out there.”
Councillor Charlene Jackson noted former fire chief Wayne Heubner retired followed by the resignation of Mr. Moore.
“There has been misinformation across the region by those individuals saying they were fired,” she said.
As for hiring a fire chief, Coun. Jackson said she was put in charge of the fire services committee, and as a result of all of the recommendations put forth in the fire management plan, there was a need for someone to take charge for at least five years. In order to get a good fire chief, a five-year contract wasn’t going to do that, she said.
“I struggled with it,” she said. “Do we actually need a full time fire (chief)? But after looking at all the information that needed to be done, I realized we were definitely going to need a fulltime fire (chief) for at least five years, if not longer.
“How do you hire a person on contract, and get a very qualified individual like we have now, to come forward to do a contract position – near impossible.”
She praised fire chief Johnathan Wilker in uniting the fire stations into one, although there continues to be five stations, but they are now sharing information, equipment and training and fire trucks and council is more aware of what’s going on.
Councillor candidate Ron Laronde suggested the fire chief could be shared among a few area municipalities, which would cut the cost for everyone.
Mr. Moore was questioned as to why he left the fire service after a 34-year career.
“I was called into a meeting with the CAO and another representative of the office to have a chat,” Mr. Moore said. “And in this chat, it was three days after the chief had his visit, and it was when the survey was being started to take shape by Dillon Associates.
“When I walked in and sat down in the office, the CAO, and he’s in the room tonight, told me that I was no longer covered by insurance.
“But, he would like me to stay and do the report and have my first initial report ready for September 1, being the first meeting in September, and the final report was due the first council meeting in December, at which time they would see where they stood once the report was filed.
“Why would I stay and do all that work and maybe not have a job at the end of it,” Mr. Moore questioned. “ Not only that, we have a review in play from 2006, and the only thing that had to be done with that review, is it had to be updated. And it would have shown all the facts that this Dillon report has shown.
“But, this council never looked at that report and it cost us a lot of money to have me say I’m done.
“Near as I can tell, it’s $52,000 for this to happen and the chief and I could have done the report for free, but we couldn’t do it in two months. The last report the chief and I worked on with a consultant, a retired OFM officer, took us almost two-and-a-half years.
“So, I wasn’t about to give up my days, weekends and nights to sit at the fire hall and go through paperwork, because I know what it would entail, and maybe not have a job at the end of it.
“Nor, was I covered by insurance.
“So, if one of the firefighters screwed up, I could lose my house, so that’s why I quit,” Mr. Moore concluded.
Wastewater Treatment Plant
Don Deer from Muskrat Lake questioned if there is an update on 13 recommendations from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change regarding the new wastewater treatment plant in Cobden.
Mayor Johnson said the wastewater plant is going forward because all things have been approved by MOECC. There are some conditions that will be addressed as construction occurs, he said.
“The sewer plant is going to address a great improvement to the lake in that the old system puts in 17 percent of nutrients, the new system puts in, I believe it’s .07. So, that is a great improvement for the lake just in one item,” he explained.
Later on in the meeting, Mr. Deer stood up to discuss the Cobden wastewater treatment plant again.
“…want to correct something the mayor said,” he said. “The existing plant contributes one percent of the total phosphorous going into Muskrat Lake. The new plant would reduce that to, if we’re lucky, .2 percent. It’s not a saviour for Muskrat Lake.”
The second point was why no council member responded to his emails that stated the cost of the wastewater treatment plant would not be built for $9.4 million, but instead at the cost of $13 million.
“I sent out a note to every member of council, including the mayor, on September 15, 2017…Why didn’t some of you at least phone me and ask me why I knew that?”
Mayor Johnson responded , “Donald, we didn’t have to call and ask you. You send us email after email after email after email, insulting our consultant, calling them down, telling us everything was wrong in the world and after a while, you become absolutely an obstruction to the process instead of an added bonus to the process.
“So, just in the fact that I can only read 150 emails a day, then I get nervous. If I have 150 and 10 of them are yours, guess what gets deleted immediately now? You’re not creating anything positive anymore. Please, stop. We are building our sewer plant for the people of Cobden and we’re doing it the best we can and we’re trying to recoup some of our costs from when the system got stalled.”
Arenas
Vince Gervais questioned how the services and uses of the three arenas in the township will be distributed evenly.
Councillor candidate Neil Nicholson said the three arenas serve a huge number of hockey associations, as well as pick-up leagues, and the Whitewater Kings, and the scheduling is done out of the township office.
“We’re seeing…a maximum use over the high-volume hours, from about 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.,” he said. “What we’re seeing, as an example, in our Muskrat Minor Hockey Association, our numbers are falling, in terms of number of kids who sign up.
“We’ve gone from 230 down 180/190 kids.”
With 14 to 16 players on a team, this means the MMHA is down four teams, which equals 120 hours of ice that won’t be rented in the arenas, Mr. Nicholson said.
There is a ripple effect when there is no growth and development, and minor hockey is just one of those effects, he said.
Mr. Nicholson suggested that tournaments can be held here by hockey associations from outside the region.
“There are hockey districts in Kanata, and Nepean, where they can’t get access to ice except for six o’clock in the morning for their peewees,” Mr. Nicholson said. “They come up here to our tournaments because it’s the only ice time they get.
“If we went to them and said, look, we’ll host a tournament if you want to organize it…that’s just one idea.”
Reeve candidate Cathy Regier said community centres have to be looked at as a whole.
“I think we have to start thinking…outside the box,” she said. “We have to look beyond hockey. Yes, we are hockey, everyone loves hockey, but we have to look at other alternative ways to sustain these arenas.
“We have pickleball, we have other options. Perhaps in the summer we could come up with some kind of idea that we can bring people into the arenas.”
Ms. Regier continued, “We also have to look at the halls, the Cobden arena upstairs, this hall here, packed many weekends, they’re used for exercise, for gatherings, for church suppers, we have to keep utilizing these halls.”
As for shutting down an arena, Ms. Regier said that’s a horrible idea, as they are hubs of the communities.
Coun. Olmstead, who is chair of community services, said the Westmeath Arena is the most used between the three of them. It is more than about just the ice surfaces – it’s about the community, he said.
He noted he has been criticized for finding new ways of increasing the year-round uses of the arenas, which means new users. Explaining, he said, while Petawawa has been trying to get a Junior B hockey team for 22 years, it took Whitewater council two years to bring in the Whitewater Kings, a junior B hockey team, Coun. Olmstead said.
“We found a long-term tenant for Cobden that now uses the hall every Saturday night,” he said.
Previously on almost any Saturday night the arena wasn’t used, and if it was booked at that time, it was cancelled, he added.
Please see PLENTY, Page 6
From Page 4
Mr. Laronde said he is not against the Junior B team, it’s great to have them, but he questioned why they could not practice in the Beachburg and Westmeath arenas – not just Cobden.
Randy Olmstead questioned if there is a $120,000 deficit for the Cobden arena from last year and if there is going to be natural ice going into the Westmeath Arena within five years.
“What are the facts,” he said.
Mr. Moore said shutting down an arena and natural ice going into the Westmeath Arena are both addressed in the recreation master plan, which are both on the township’s website.
As for the $120,000 deficit, that is also in the auditor’s report, which is also on the website.
Coun. Olmstead said since council took over the arenas half-way through the year, there will be a loss shown because of the different accounting systems, such as seasonal budgets versus annual budgets. He said this will all be straightened out when this year’s audited report is completed.
Retirees
Gayle Stewart questioned why a retirees’ community isn’t being encouraged for the municipality.
“Many (retirees) are still in their 50s and many are coming out of Ottawa, the largest catchment area for us, and they come with a few dollars,” she said. “They’ve often sold their home there and are buying old cottages and coming into the area year-round. It’s a real good thing, they need services.
“I’ve never heard any talk of advertising this as a retirement destination, like Elliott Lake and Meaford and Carlingwood,” she said.
Mayor Johnson said council has discussed this issue, along with holding meetings in the past, with large corporations that do communities for seniors.
“We haven’t convinced them yet, but we do have them interested,” he said. “I do believe that we need a rounding in our community, but we sure need seniors. Seniors are the people who help keep our youth motivated because of their knowledge, their interest.
“If we are going to put together all kinds of activities and make bike lanes etc., you just mentioned a group of people that would attract,” he said.
Reeve candidate Joe Kowalski said that’s why he’s running for reeve. In Niagara Falls, where he operates a business, “it is booming, and for one reason only – housing prices in Toronto are sky high. People are selling an ordinary home for lots of money and going to the Niagara peninsula.”
The same thing is happening in Ottawa, Mr. Kowalski said.
“Ottawa prices are very, very high and we could have those people move here,” he said. “We have tremendous tourism activities, but what we don’t have is favourable land severance policies, we don’t have favourable zoning bylaws. We just have roadblock, roadblock, roadblock.”
He wants to make this municipality the most dynamic place east of Banff, Alberta, he said, bringing laughter from the crowd.
Mr. Nicholson said there has to be a balance – growth is needed, but it’s not worth making it so expensive that those who have lived here for five or six generations can no longer afford to live here. This can be accomplished with a team approach of council and residents, he added.
Coun. Jackson, who is chair of the development committee, said they have met with developers and suggested there needs to be seniors housing, a seniors’ living centre. Two developers have built seniors housing now and they are sold/rented before they are finished and there is also Logos Land that provides homes for you to purchase, but you don’t have to maintain it, she explained.
“It’s very important we keep seniors here, but we also have to make sure that it’s in the proper area, that there’s services, that’s there’s medical availability, there’s bicycle paths, there’s sidewalks, entertainment for seniors.
“It’s all about planning and we are working towards that.”
Mr. Butterworth suggested this be done the Whitewater way, not the Toronto way.
“If you want to do something really well, you focus like a laser,” he said. “You try and do something as well as possible.”
Mr. Butterworth suggested focusing on each region – what is the product and what do we offer.
“We’re all in the same boat in Whitewater Region,” he said. “I believe that we can look at a product for each area and stop trying to complete against each other.”
Mr. Cull questioned where these people are going to eat.
“Yes, we need development and yes we need residents,” he said. “But, we also need the infrastructure services to service those people while they are here.
“We need gas stations, we need food, we need transportation. So, yes, we can bring a whole lot of people in here, but if there’s no grocery stores for them to buy their groceries from, where are they going to go?
“They are going to go back to Ottawa, Pembroke, Renfrew. So, they are leaving their money elsewhere, not in Whitewater Region.”
It’s important to have regulations that provide flexibility for people who want to start a business in Whitewater Region, he concluded.
Miscellaneous
Adam Burns questioned why council contracted out the water and wastewater treatment plants to OCWA (Ontario Clean Water Agency).
Mayor Johnson said it was a previous council that made this decision. However, if he remembered correctly, although he wasn’t on staff at the time, the council at the time could not hire an ORO, which is operator overall responsibility and it’s a “very, very tough job, because if you have something go wrong, like cross connections with fire trucks and so forth, you can be fined up to $3 million as an ORO.”
They could not operate the plants without one, so the best option was to go with OCWA, he said.
“And, it is actually proven to be a pretty good choice,” he said.
Coun. Olmstead was questioned what development has he alluded to on the Kerr Line.
While he was not allowed to give away too much information, he did note that council has been approached by Ontario Power Generation, who owns 500 acres of waterfront property near the intersection of Kerr Line and Magnesium Road. However, it’s not going to happen within a year or two, but hopefully by the end of the next term of council, he said. It’s been suggested that it could be a seniors active living community.
A man asked if road allowances will be opened for people to use, especially for access on and off the river.
Councillor Dave Mackay said there have been discussions about doing this, but they would have to be surveyed.
Further to that, a question was asked about managing those road allowances.
Coun. Mackay and Mayor Johnson both said that would be determined once it was agreed to open the road allowances.
Councillor candidate Don Rathwell said not only do the road allowances have to be kept clean, he said if someone were to build a home at the end of an opened road allowance, that could cause problems in future years, because if a school bus had to travel down that road to pick up children, it would then be the township’s responsibility to maintain the road, probably year-round.
A woman asked how the candidates would help the dairy farmers, who just received the news that the United States Mexico Canada Agreement has come into play, allowing more US dairy products into Ontario/Canada.
Mayor Johnson said there isn’t much a municipality can do except pass bylaws and resolutions supporting the Ontario farmers and encourage residents to write letters to the federal government encouraging them to support the farmers.
Mr. Cull noted this USMCA will have a “huge ripple affect,” because “farmers are great for making money and spending money.” Unfortunately, the farming vote is small and there is a rural versus urban mentality.
He, along with Coun. Olmstead, suggested not only writing letters, but it is far more important to buy local.
“If farmers do well, we all do well,” Coun. Olmstead said.
Councillor Donna Burns noted it’s not just the dairy farmers who are under the gun.
There is currently a private members bill that is in its second reading that will force farmers to turn fallow agricultural land into a natural eco-system, she said.
Ms. Burns noted the province has plans for the municipality that council is not aware of, or even thought about.
“That’s what they’re working against,” she said. “They have to be aware of this kind of stuff before it gets to be a bill that’s already passed and had its royal reading.
“We have to be aware of this kind of stuff and stop it before it gets to that point and the public needs to have some input,” Ms. Burns continued. “As long as you all know about it and make a lot of noise, there’s a good chance your MPP, John Yakabuski, might speak up for you and stop it.”
Beulah Wright, who resides in Beachburg, noted that the landfill is filling up quickly and wants to know if waste can be managed better than it.
Mr. Cull said, “Garbage is big business.”
He said there are a lot of items that go into the landfill that shouldn’t go there, such as used furniture, stoves, refrigerators, stuff that can be recycled, etc.
“There’s lots of people out there who will use it,” he said. “Auction sales are full of that stuff and you can get it for nothing, so why not go to the dump and bring it back home.
“There are lots of families who will use it. We have to educate the people that this is a service, that’s free of charge, that we can offer at our landfill sites, to remove that stuff from the big pile that just keeps climbing.”
Mayor Johnson said there are many things to be done within the dump, but it’s a big issue with serious decisions to be made.
In order to do recycling, … “It requires building and investment,” he said, adding, “Even the free stuff costs money.”
Ms. Regier noted there’s a group in Cobden who holds a free day on a Saturday in June at the Cobden arena, where anyone can bring their items to give away for free.
“I’d really like to perhaps see if we can’t do that throughout the entire region in different communities and maybe have it two to three times a year,” she said. “A lot of that would no longer be in the landfill, but instead going into people’s homes, people who may not afford it or people who just want it and need it.”
Westmeath resident Joey Trimm questioned if the Westmeath boat launch will be dredged, which will provide more access to the Ottawa River.
Mayor Johnson said that has been discussed and something will be done, but “we’re not sure how to do it.”
He also spoke about a presentation to council by Mr. Cottrell that more visitor-friendly areas be put in places like boat launch in Westmeath and the boat launch in La Passe.
“We also have started to plan that sort of thing,” Mayor Johnson said.
“This is the greatest thing that happens at a council. When we get a delegation that comes in front of us with positive ideas. It is amazing. We also were told we were making a huge mistake in the way we were doing brush cutting.
“Well, go look at the last bit of brush cutting that was done. It’s now changed 100 percent.
“Complaints aren’t horrible things to come in front of a council, complaints are actually a tool,” the Mayor continued. “Just bring them with respect of our people who work for us, because they are our family.”
Ms. Stewart closed the evening by thanking the candidates for attending and answering questions asked by the audience, which she also thanked for attending.
