Progress

I will assume that since we have lost our Economic Development Officer (EDO) we will need to hire another. There is clearly a need for a new path and this moment may provide an opportunity.

We are talking about land annexation from South West Oxford (SWOX) to allow industrial, residential increase in Ingersoll’s tax base, but annexation comes with 2 weights that make it a poor plan. First is the need once we have our new lands to install and maintain the services needed. This is good but it erodes possible dollars from the tax base. The second and more potentially potent is the need to pay SWOX for the land and the loss of their potential tax revenue. Now SWOX has to provide service as well if they want to develop these lands so it not all roses either way. What does this have to do with acquiring a new EDO?

What if we enter into a discussion with SWOX and the Township of Zorra to share an Economic Development team? We would then share the cost of remuneration and expenses, saving each municipality some cash. What if part of that would be a tax revenue and services sharing plan? This would mean that if any piece of land in any 1 of the 3 municipalities was developed the other 2 would work with them to provide the services most cost effectively, and the tax revenue would be shared. Advertising, trips, conferences would also be shared saving us further.

To potential developers this would open up a greater swath of possibility for placement of plants and subdivisions. The plan would look progressive and broad in scope to investors which can only be good.

This sort of arrangement is difficult and requires good diplomacy and good planning on the part of all parties. It is the understanding that outside people would have about how challenging such a sharing arrangement would be to establish that would make us appealing to investors. Progressiveness breeds progress?

Some will state many valid reasons why it can’t be. However valid reasons only remain valid until you clear them away allowing change.

I am a believer in small government but big thinking. Our municipalities are our personal democracies. Let’s see them stay small but think (do) big. 

Canada July 1st 2016

When I think of Canada I think first of my home, its quiet street, its gardens, and the people who it cradles, my family. I don’t think of the safety minute to minute but that’s what I mean, it’s safe. Canada is safe.

I think of community next. Ingersoll is not my birthplace but home for the majority of my life and the hometown of all my Kids. I see pitfalls in loving Ingersoll unconditionally but it’s in my heart, it’s under my skin. Ingersoll is Southern Ontario in a nutshell, industry, agriculture, infrastructure, sports, and heritage. Southern Ontario isn’t Canada, but it’s my Canada.

Summer is starting, and off to the beach this weekend. Great Lakes waters, Erie, Huron, Port Burwell, and Grand Bend, these greatest of lakes are massive in my Canada. When it is mid-September and temperature and time insist that the beach is done I gaze out over Lake Erie as the sun drops off to the west and I say a deep silent goodbye for this year, there would be a catch in my throat if I spoke and a tear might be seen in my eye. The Great Lakes are symbolic of all the fresh water that dominates Canada. Great Lakes are my Canada.

Canada is also trees to me, much of what I see in my mind’s eye is trees. When I drive to work in the morning from Ingersoll to London I see the rolling farm lands to be sure but it is the woodlots that take my attention. Algonquin Park, Grundy Lake are my tree places but so is the Lawson Tract. Highways 400, 11, 69 as they enter Muskoka. Trees are not present in many large areas of Canada, but trees do it for me.

The flag waving over our Nation is meaningful but not in itself. The flag represents our peace, our reluctant readiness to fight when needed, our self-determination. The flag represents our ideals protected by our Charter of Rights that is in turn defined by the judicial system, and that definition enshrined in law by the House of Commons elected by the people and finally when necessary the Senate forces the duly elected Parliament to think again from time to time.

We trust our cops, say what we want, and for all its imperfection can use our democratic rights to toss out governments that do not meet the ideals we cherish. We are a model for what a Nation can be, imperfect to be sure with plenty of room for improvement, but when I stand on the beach protected by our Provincial Parks system, after arriving on roads built using our collective tax dollars and I know that if I have a problem there is an entire emergency service that works. There are lots of systems protecting my family, my home, the lakes, the trees, and my community. I know that no matter who I am Canada works.

For all this Season

May you and yours have less in the new year:

Less stuff, less clutter, a cleaner existence. I wish you to empty your head and heart of things, and once things are gone, fill in in the new space with ideas, foundations for new experiences, new actions.

May your life be full of Chaos:

The chaos of a green forest untamed. Dig your hands in the dirt touch the mossy bark of some massive giant of the forest, exist in the chaos of a nature you cannot totally comprehend. Absorb the beauty of something out of your control that exists in spite of you, but in which you can be cradled if you're open.

I wish you discomfort:

Read or watch or listen to something or someone that makes you uncomfortable. Do something you have never done. Allow an idea that you have never absorbed before, an experience that will invoke some profound emotion.

May you fully experience your fears:

 You will fear, accept it, live in it, reject it, in favour of hope, of love. Fear unchallenged will become hate.

I wish you to be among strangers:

I hope you may find the time to share your family, friends, Community with other you don't yet know.

May your head be full of Peace:

Please have that quiet moment where all the stuff modern society places in your head fades.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

What is a Municipality?

As I first started to mull this over I thought what does our Town (Town implying the Municipal Corporation that is Ingersoll) do? The Town is a collection of services provided to the residents and visitors within its borders. The customer is the resident and Taxation is how we pay for the services. This means that if you are dissatisfied in the short term you must move to improve the quality of service vs the level of taxes you pay for them. In the long term you can elect a Town Council that reflects the expectations you have of what services are provided and at what cost but you have to do your homework and pay attention to the workings of council and even then? Does this scenario leave us with an ‘us and them’ feeling to the town? Is moving when things are not as they should be an option when we have family and social attachments in the town?

Is the resident a shareholder in the town? By purchasing a property or living in the community paying rent that is then used to pay taxes we buy voting rights. The council is the Board of directors, there is an expectation of growth and dividends by the shareholder. New houses, businesses and Industry are expected growth, new or better services and lower taxes are dividends. This again leaves us with the perception of them and us. This is probably a fairly accurate view of the relationship, but is it the truth?

What if the resident, the Council, and the Administration are all part of one mechanism that is the Town? The product is the happiness, health and well-being for yourself and the community as a whole. The Council is responsible for making sure the rules, regulations and the actions of the Administration and the residents are focused on keeping the happiness, health and well-being as the objective. The Administration of the town is charged with making sure the mechanics of the services provided is working efficiently as well as coming up with new ideas to spur on the product of happiness, health and well-being.

The resident is working toward the delivery of the product. They keep their property in good condition, feed and clothe themselves and follow the basic rules that allow everyone to prosper. Further the citizen pays taxes supporting the delivery of services in turn supporting the end product. Further residents support ideas and projects in the community that support, happiness, health and well-being by volunteering. A citizen stands beside others to rally against issues that threaten our objective (think Landfill). A resident pays attention to the work of Council and the Administration and speaks out and communicates with others so that checks are in place to make sure we are all producing happiness, health and well-being. Together the machine or mechanism produces.

What is the best scenario? are there others? How can these ideas drive our thought before an election?

Our Life #2

“This City is what it is because our citizens are what they are.”
Plato

As always, the greens give way to the reds, the yellows, and the browns of early October. This particular fall, the warm weather had made the transition less uniform as some trees and plants took advantage of the warmth and sun to ‘make hay’ while others followed the genetic path that their kind had followed here in Southern Ontario for millennia. The Thames flowed well with the water of a brief but fierce rainfall the night before. Randy White sat at a table in the glass cantilever room at the Ingersoll Eatery, his one hundred eighty degree view of the Thames, Lawson Park, and the re-imagined Ingersoll Train Station gave him a sense of pride.

Randy was alone for a moment while Dana had gone to ‘freshen up’ Randy sat and thought of all the birthdays of his life and how lucky he was to have had so many people to share them with and make this journey to fifty special.

Born in Ingersoll, Randy had wandered off for a couple of decades first travelling and then working in the Tar Sands until they closed in 2025 due to a lack of demand for oil.  When Randy came back home he entered a city in the process of change. Ingersoll had elected a council in 2014 that decided that the future was the only place to find the kind of Ingersoll we wanted and started to make the changes that would allow a bright future for the community.  In 2014 Ingersoll was in an identity crisis and was falling prey to the ideology of branding and tourism promotion, making the town a commodity to be sold rather than a living breathing community waiting to be born again.

Dana came back to the table, “weird to be here just the two of us on your birthday honey?” she whispered smiling at Randy.  He thought about Terry and Sheila in Toronto and North Bay respectively, he was proud of them but always felt a nagging absence.  Everyone was coming home for thanks giving though and that would be a good time. Randy had vid-texted the Kids earlier gloating about the meal he was in for tonight and how they were stuck with residence food. Terry sent him a virtual burp, “very mature”.

Randy and Dana almost missed the seven PM reservation. Dana had gone to the co-op farm to feed the calves and clean stalls and had spent too long chatting with Ira Friedman. Randy had finished a V meeting with his customer in Sydney and completed some server upgrades for the City when he realized Dana’s absence, he was about to text Dana when Joe Stephenson rolled the Electro-shuttle up to the front door, out popped Dana as Randy opened the front door, “a little off route aren't you Joe” Randy called. Joe winked and smiled and off he went.

Randy and Dana run a tech business out of the house with The City of Ingersoll being their ‘bread and butter’. Dana the ever charming marketer had drummed up some other interesting customers in Oxford County, but also in Sydney, and Nairobi.

Ingersoll had found some rebirth economically by building internet based businesses that also had store fronts in Ingersoll. Roy’s Shoes looked for all intents and purposes like a small town establishment and Nan Wilson the friendly local sales manager instinctively cultivated that feeling for the locals. Roy’s Shoes however is known as RSI.com online and had eight hundred thousand dollars in sales in 2034. Randy and Dana created the eCommerce for the shoe store and many others through a central server farm at the City Hall Annex in the old Carnegie library and supported the whole enterprise cost effectively.

The waiter brought the bill at the end of dinner, the bill was not inexpensive but most people understood that safe, sustainable local food needed to have a fair price and the payoff was a healthy Randy and Dana and a health community. He is lucky to have his birthday at harvest as the maximum of fresh produce is available and the vegetable pie that he loves is taken off the menu at points in time when fresh local veg is not available. Dana and Randy walk off down the Thames Trail to work off some of the delicious food they just enjoyed. “We might have planted some of those peppers we ate Randy” Dana mused. He smiles, “Why did you recognize one of them?” Dana slaps Randy’s behind and he feigns pain.

Randy goes to the council meeting on Monday night. He has to report on the state of the Information Technology he oversees. Randy and Dana have procured a tiny profit for the city this quarter by the eCommerce and other services they help the city sell, a profit is not always the result but a negative spreadsheet in IT is seldom.  Andy Van Riesel a long time Councillor is retiring; Andy was elected to council in 2014 and was one of the five who decided that the future was more important than re-election. Andy talked about the short lived Walker Dump, the Ingersoll Co-op, and the eCommerce proposal he forwarded in late 2015. Councillor Van Riesel is proud of what has been done and the focus on community, he holds to the wisdom of good policy, bylaw, and practices that lead to a vibrant future long term.

Randy and Dana arrive home and enter the quiet house. Dana had promised Randy a special birthday treat and he hoped he knew what that would be. He checked the schedule and sees that he’s at Armstrong’s for the final frozen blueberry packaging effort in the morning and meeting with the new marketing guy from the Ingersoll Co-op at two. He walks up the stairs and the lights go out behind him as he moves.

Our Life #1

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

“The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change”

Heraclitus

 

Mattie Riemann put her tablet on the table and ran for her shoes. Her mom hollered down the stairs “Let’s go!” “Me and Jeff are going to ride our bikes to Armstrong’s Mom” Mattie responded. Ina immediately felt fear. “It is too dangerous for you two to ride to the farm on that road, Jeffy is only eight”.  Ina knew the bike lanes were safe, but she grew up in a different world where the car was king and the old feelings die hard. “Dad let us three weeks ago Mom, and it was OK?” Ina said no more and she heard the door close, heard Jeff and Mattie in the shed, and then gone.

Ina and Daniel Riemann live in Ingersoll Ontario. Daniel works at Cami Automotive and Ina takes care of the matters that their modern life requires. Ingersoll is nestled in Southern Ontario along the MacDonald Cartier Rapid Transit Line. The Thames River bisects Ingersoll and is one of the great focuses of this beautiful city.

Ina Riemann sits on the Rural Urban Food Connections Committee of the Ingersoll Co-op. Her Dad Richard had been a founding associate member of the Co-op in 2015. The Co-op started with one small butcher and cheese shop in the old Jack’s Department Store. The idea was to start businesses that are customer/employee owned  providing a built in clientele yet allowing anyone to shop. The members have a say in the business and certain types of members share in the profits. The proposed result would be to attract more Ingersoll Citizens to the centre of town. Along with the butcher and cheese place the Co-op proposed a 5% discount for Ingersoll citizens at other local shops upon proof of residency, the BIA approved and they moved forward.

Associate membership in the Co-op was thirty five dollars a year and this gave you a vote on who held board positions and major issues as they arose and a further 5% discount. Partner memberships allowed profit sharing. The Co-op was fairly static for 3 years but was meeting its mandate of revitalizing the main street. A couple of private businesses opened and thrived, filling two sad empty store fronts.

McKim’s Hardware came up for sale in late 2017 and the Co-op bid for the franchise and the second enterprise was on the books. A grocery store on the old Liquidation World site was the next and biggest enterprise yet. In 2019 a shoe store followed. The Rural Urban Food initiative was a perfect fit for the grocery store and the butcher shop and as the local farmers and the Co-op started to do business Ingersoll saw an influx of local food in the stores and individual co-op members began to work with the farmers to increase their access to healthy safe food.

In 2020 the Ingersoll Co-op, the town, and the Cami Automotive Unions sat down to ask the question “What happens if Cami closes?” They laid the groundwork for several pathways to survival.  In 2023 General Motors announced the Plant was to shut down. The Cami Committee sprang to action and entered into talks with GM on possible scenarios. GM closed their ears to the committee until they saw the Co-ops books and they started to take them seriously. After 18 months of talks Cami was to become an employee owned company, they successfully bid on the manufacture of the new Chevrolet Electro Mini. GM made money, Cami survived and history was made.

Ina Walked down to the end of Wonham Street and after a time the shuttle came by. Ina spied Mary Tuttle immediately and settled beside her. “Why are you on the Bell St. shuttle Mary?” inquired Ina. “Been over at the West Virginia Collection Centre this morning, we got a donation from London late last night and I was sorting and grading the clothes.” Ina looked out the window of the shuttle; Daniel had gone to West Virginia last fall to help out with the implementation of the first international Ingersoll Co-op venture. The Co-op working with local support agencies started a food sharing centre allowing those producing food to sell directly to the end consumers who could afford it and to donate surpluses to those who could not. The Ingersoll Co-op also shipped any local surpluses down to this depressed area. Daniel told a horrifying tale of hunger of the sort that Ina remembered from the save the children campaigns in Africa when she was a kid. Mining companies in West Virginia had gutted the environment and left the people to fend for themselves on this raped land.

After community field work in the morning Ina and several other urban people were going to can some tomato sauce. Ina preferred doing salsa but she was out voted this time. Canning and other preserving done by the community was a pleasurable and profitable pastime.

The shuttle passed Mattie and Jeff riding their bikes, the driver, Joe Stephenson gave them a friendly honk. Ina waved and Mattie smiled, Jeff looked a little tired, Ina worried.

Jeff and Mattie goofed and weeded the carrots for an hour or so and then wandered off with some friends to eat raspberries. Ina worked with the people at the canning bee for several hours, filled her basket with produce and canned tomatoes and hopped on the shuttle for home after collecting the kids and negotiating a return home time.

The 20^th anniversary of the Ingersoll Co-op was featured on the CBC Media One Blog in September and Ina took part. She did not talk about food security or the positive economic effect the Co-op had on Ingersoll, she didn’t mention the charity work of the Co-op. She did mention community and the kinship of common purpose. Ina related that she could not imagine Ingersoll without shared community, without the Co-op. Ina had planned to leave Ingersoll after college but the Co-op had started to change the community, Ina just felt too good at home to go.

 

Perceived Community

As we walk down the road to understanding the proposed landfill and the implications to Ingersoll we need to understand that the landfill proposal is not an environmental issue first and foremost. There are aspects of grave environmental concern to be sure, but the landfill speaks mostly to the concept of what our community is.

How do we define ourselves? When you look at the satellite photo of the Ingersoll/Beachville and Zorra area you see a huge grey-white blotch that is the Carmeuse Lime Quarry. An outsider looking at this overwhelming blotch could easily make the mistake that our communities are overwhelmed by this pit. Do the decision makers at Carmeuse in Belgium and Walker Industries in Niagara only see that blotch when they see us?

We know that we are so much more that that grey hole in the ground. That hole that rocks our town, that creates dust and releases the smell of sulphur. We live with that hole, and work with that hole and give to others the gift of limestone from that hole, but it doesn’t define us. We are so much more; we exist without any sort of classification caused by that large pit.

Ingersoll and the surrounding area is agriculture, industry, sport, history, music, the arts, live theatre and good people. Oxford County works to build an identity of hard work, good family and small community pride. Oxford County builds a concept of intelligent and educated citizens with purpose and a focus on building the best community possible. This landfill seeks to change all that.

The landfill, with its stigma and risks, is an outward sign of our failure as a society to deal with our waste effectively; a sign of our greed for more and our failure to change. And in turn, it changes the social focus of what we are. It changes the big pit to a big indicator of how others perceive our community.  The environment of our daily lives shifts; the perception of our community to partners and prospective partners is compromised. We are already, at the very core, altered by the very fact there is a proposed dump on the table.

The idea of perceived community may not be covered in an Environmental Assessment; it is, however, the core component of who we are and how we are seen. Our self-view, and how we are viewed by others, is key to our progress and our future. And just who will define who we are? Will it be our community and our community leaders, our voices – or a private waste disposal company intent on making a profit at our expense and a provincial system that allows it to happen?

We will talk of water and drainage and liners and leachate, which are all very important. However, the fabric of our community of Oxford is the issue at heart. The location of the dump is the issue – not just for water and animals and the air, but for the nature of our community, who we will become, and how we will get there.