For decades, Councils have run our town into the ground by their inaction, lack of leadership and forethought. We have lost many businesses, services and even infrastructure; among them are:
Arcade, Bakery, Barber Shop, Baseball diamond, Beer u-brew, Bingo, Bowling Lanes, Cameron wholesalers, Canadian Tire, Carter’s waste disposal, Curves, Dance-Techniques, Door factory, Driver’s Testing, Dry cleaner, Fall Fair, Feed Mill, Fish and Chip Shop, Flower Shop, Furniture Factory, Gas stations, GM Dealership, Gym, Hearing aid store, Hotel, Internet Service Provider, Jewelry stores, Lawn bowling, Lumber Yard, Meat’s and Treats, Movie Theatre, Nursery school, Nursing school, Outdoor Pool, Rail line, Retirement home, Section of community trail, Shoppers Drugmart, Triangle discount, Tv station, Vic’s Variety.
Council has decided they would like to add the Wingham Trailer Park to the list. This decision was made with no public input, or discussing it with the users of the park. This park is not living up to its potential, as it suffers from low occupancy, lack of facilities, innovation, promotion and accurate accounting. The reason originally offered to the public for the sale was a claim that it was not profitable, despite the fact the NH budget clearly shows it generates a profit.
Council’s current Wingham branding initiative is like putting lipstick on a pig. None of Wingham’s image problems can be addressed by changing the town’s logo. Our problems are more significant than the town’s sign or letterhead. If a new logo was needed, we could have received many submissions from F. E. Madill if the town had the foresight to ask. This would have generated some positive community spirit as students would have offered up artwork in the hopes of working off some of the 40 hours of community service they must do, others would have been motivated so they could have bragging rights and something to add to their resume when they seek employment.
To re-brand Wingham we need to address the root causes of our problems. Repainting the signs at the edge town will not lower taxes, stimulate business investment, or make our community safer and a more desirable place to live.
High Taxes and User Fees:
Our tax rate is embarrassingly high when compared to all surrounding areas and any other community in Ontario. This reputation has been plaguing Wingham for several decades. This can be verified by talking to any number of real estate agents in town.
In order for Wingham to be competitive, council needs to bring our tax rate inline with surrounding communities. Our user fees and access to facilities and services must be on par with the communities we are competing with. This will likely involve rightsizing in many departments.
High Crime:
Wingham has suffered from several high profile crimes in the last few years. This combined with a high youth crime rate has further stigmatized our town. We now live in a town where everyone locks their doors and only a few people feel safe walking after dark, especially after the bar closes on Friday or Saturday nights.
Our community needs to be made safer, and this needs to be part of the new branded image. Speedy adoption of Neighbourhood Watch and Block Parent programs will not only lower crime, but make families feel more comfortable about moving to Wingham and raising their children here. We recommend a “No Solicitation List†which door-to-door salespeople would have to comply with. This will protect residents from salespeople setting foot on their property if they opt into the “No Solicitation†list.
The Wingham Police Service is still not issuing press releases despite repeated requests. This has made Wingham the least embarrassing place to get caught breaking the law. Surrounding police detachments regularly issue press releases to inform the public about those that have been charged with a crime, this keeps the public informed and therefore safer.
Council has failed to become more transparent. This lack of transparency was recently demonstrated when council declared the town owned trailer park surplus and to sell it. Park patrons were blind-sided by this decision and the remainder of the town’s residents were shocked to hear the taxpayers owned the park. This clearly shows how opaque our current council is. In order to become more transparent, council must take pro-active steps to inform the public about upcoming issues. Council should get public input before the item is voted on by council. Only getting feedback after a decision is a fatally flawed process.
Council Accessibility: It has taken numerous online requests, several meetings with councillors and approximately 10 months before email addresses were made available to the public. This does not represent willingness to be accessible.
Council Accountability: There is no visible measure of accountability across the entire Corporation of North Huron. This is most prevalent in the Rec Department, Economic Development and the IT Department. Erroneous accounting and lack of transparency has made it next to impossible for even a modicum of accountability to exist. This can start to be addressed by publicly releasing job descriptions for town employees, and subjecting town employees to objective performance/productivity reviews upon which their continued employment rests.
The town’s accounting must be reconciled and those responsible for the errors should be held accountable. Charges must be publicly laid if any criminal activity has been taking place.
Council has been making decisions based on inaccurate accounting data and zero input from the public. Everyone must question the rationale of every past decision and scrutinize any future decisions Council makes for us and our future generations.
If you think it is time for Town Council to start fixing our community, please take the time to call, email or attend a council meeting. Council meets on the first and third Monday’s of each month. Committee of the Whole (COW) meetings are held on the second Monday of each month.
<a href=mailto:[email protected]”>Reeve Neil Vincent (519) 357-2336
Deputy Reeve David Riach(519) 523-4355
Councillor James Campbell(519) 523-9264
Councillor Brock Vodden(519) 523-9393
Councillor Ray Hallahan(519) 357-4798
Councillor Bernie Bailey(519) 357-9393
Councillor Alma Conn(519) 357-4740
Email All 7 At Once: All
Of Council
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