The Great Niagara Stalemate

The ‘Standard’ headline in ‘Niagara’s largest media outlet’ says it all…

LaFleche: Heston, Barrick and Niagara Region’s House of Cards

With permission of ‘Niagara’s largest media outlet’ writer Grant LaFleche starts his rant with the equally banal question of “Have you ever sat through an entire regional council or committee meeting?

‘Niagara’s largest media outlet’ writer Grant LaFleche should ask his reporters that question because they have done just that – sat through many Council meetings but failed to report on the shocking mess that was creeping up on us.

Not only did the ‘Standard’ reporters fail to cover the many citizens that tried to apprise our Regional Councilors of looming problems thus raising the old specter of ‘You can always tell Niagara Councilors, but you can’t tell them much!’

LaFleche points to Councilor Heit damning Committee Chair Councilor Barrick for not inviting some councilors to the meeting. But the meeting wasn’t secret as clearly illustrated by the Bullett News photo and amalgamation story…

 

Councilor Heit’s unwarranted charge flies in the face of the fact that he and other decade’s long councilors have simply heated council seats, while our Niagara Region slowly diminished. The spending and waste goes back as far as the longevity of councilors. Insulting is the fact that the long-time councilors are suddenly pontificating their wisdom, enlightenment and their brand of ideology now that their crap has finally hit the fan. If they were such wise men and women why did they let this travesty happen? 

LaFleche says the Region deals with roads and sewers, but it wasn’t roads and sewers that caused the crisis. The crisis is exactly what the business people at the ‘meeting’ say it is. Too much spending! Too much Waste! Too much trying to buy prosperity! Dare we mention the preposterous funding of things not under Council control?

The writers and reporters of ‘Niagara’s largest media outlet’ blame those that are trying to do something, anything to discover the genesis of our problem, a solution to our situation and how to proceed from here. 

Instead the ‘Standard’, as usual, goes on their venal and specious attack against new councilors (some by name) that weren’t even there when our smart donkey councilors and ‘Niagara’s largest media outlet’ allowed this mess to happen!

Perhaps ‘Niagara’s largest media outlet’ could take a few lessons from Fred Bracken the bold YouTube Reporter of Liberty TV, who has the audacity and courage to hold supercilious and dismissive Niagara Officials to account!  

P.S. After all the years of media blather regarding the amalgamation of government into one City of Niagara, there was not a mention of amalgamation at the following Regional Council meeting! While the council agonized over a zero net tax increase, which in itself is, in reality, a 1% tax increase relying on new income to bring it down to zero, but nothing about amalgamation, downsizing or less spending!

But let’s not hear any more talk about eliminating any of our costly commerce-killing non-essential and feckless political positions or even our bureaucratic overload. 

The excuse is always that citizens expect good service.

Question: How does chopping deadwood mean losing expected good service?

Niagara carries 50% more government than the next highest government in all of Canada and what a wonderful job they are not doing. In fact we could double our current government and not see improvement.

 Perhaps the problem is 'CLIMATE CHANGE'!!!