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It seems I just keep getting Tiny Township council wrong.
Earlier, I had expressed the hope that council would heed our call for a referendum on its new town hall project. (A major premise of the proposed referendum is that there are far less costly and more affordable ways than the new build to improve working conditions for government officials, such as renovating the existing town hall and introducing a home/hybrid work policy.)
That hope proved misguided. At council’s Aug. 7 committee of the whole meeting, Coun. Dave Brunelle presented a motion for a referendum. But none of the other councillors seconded the motion, so it was stillborn — never even made it to the discussion stage.
Disappointed but not deterred, I soon followed up with a piece that ended on yet another hopeful note. Perhaps council will eventually come to its senses and reconsider Coun. Brunelle’s motion. Why? Because holding a referendum on an issue of such magnitude as the new build is the “reasonable and highly democratic” thing to do.
Since then, I’ve learned that, unless one of the other councillors advances a similar motion — which won’t happen, given that they all really are dead-set against a referendum — this latter hope too is misguided.
Where does council’s refusal to listen leave us concerned Tiny residents? It means we have no choice but to submit a petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. The petition calls on the Government of Ontario to “intervene and require” Tiny Township to hold that referendum.
This petition is being energetically circulated by a growing group of canvassers working all across Tiny, and the number of signatures is rising rapidly. My own tracking sheets show that the proportion of people supporting and signing the petition to those rejecting and not signing it is higher than nine to one. All other canvassers I’ve communicated with so far report virtually the same ratios, which serves to falsify Mayor David Evans’s insistence that a “silent majority” backs the new build.
Although Tiny residents are the primary target of our petition-signing drive, people residing anywhere in Ontario can sign. After all, every Ontarian has a deep and abiding interest in seeing to it that municipalities throughout the province practise responsible government and fiscal restraint.
If, as per the petition, Queen’s Park decides that council must hold the proposed referendum, the force of Tiny’s example will impress upon every Ontario municipality the necessity of hewing to the same high standard of rational and democratic governance.
Circulation of the petition will end Thanksgiving weekend, Oct. 12. If you support holding the referendum and would like to sign the petition, you can go to www.stopthebuildtiny.com/download-the-petition for further information and direction.
Borys Kowalsky
Tiny Township
