Long read
Worst streets first, every outside dollar chased: the roads plan
What the Town's own plan says, who is responsible for each piece of the fix, and the seven moves a mayor can actually make with council.
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Long read
The tourism line in the budget reads $0. Here is who fixes that.
The tourism line in the Town's budget reads $0. The plan puts the street, the river and the events calendar under one person in charge, one set of rules, and one clear list of what a sponsor gets.
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Long read
The typical resident is thirteen years older than twenty years ago. The plan to turn that around.
The typical person in town today is thirteen years older than the typical person here twenty years ago. A first job at town hall, a real seat at the table, and the young talent already carrying this campaign.
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Long read
Nearly two parking spaces for a bachelor apartment: the rules that stop homes here
For twenty years our population went down while the towns around us grew. The land being cleaned right now, the town rules a council can change on its own, and the people Denis will get on the phone himself.
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Long read
130 acres next door wait on our pipes. A builder's plan to finish them.
Next door in Champlain, 130 acres of zoned industrial land waits on one thing: our water and sewer. The two towns signed a first agreement in December, the deadline for the final one slipped, and finishing is a builder's trade.
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Long read
Months inside the Town's budgets: what checks out, and what nobody can check
We spent months inside the Town's budgets and its own rules. Here is what checks out, what cannot be checked, and the commitments that would let anyone here check the Town's numbers for themselves.
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Long read
Town Hall costs 37 percent more than five years ago. The audit that finds out why.
Running Town Hall costs 37 percent more than five years ago. No line in the books says what technology costs. The audit that counts the hours, the services going online, and a counter that stays open.
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Long read
The mayor has one vote of seven. Here is what the job can actually do.
One vote of seven. The pen that writes the budget. A seat on the county council. And powers sitting in a drawer. The parts of the job nobody campaigns on, plus a test to hold every candidate to.
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Long read
Six years of council records, and not one vote shows who voted which way
Six years of council records, and not one vote shows who voted which way. It is entirely lawful, and it can end the day somebody asks. The plan to put every vote on the big things on the record, with names, where you can look it up.
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An idea · in the open
The college already trains here. The hospital already hires. The campus that connects them.
Points 2, 3 and 4 taken all the way. What a bilingual trades and health-care campus could be, built on the training that already happens here. And an honest account of what a mayor could and could not do about it.
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Long read
We share a bridge. Let's share a table.
What Hawkesbury already signs with the Counties, Champlain and the Quebec side, where nobody sits at a table yet, and the five moves a mayor can make with council toward Ottawa and Montreal.
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Long read
Zero buses. One law. Four votes.
The intercity bus left and never came back, the Counties' bus shut down, and a lot of people here do not drive. The one by-law a mayor can fix from inside Town Hall, the study money that exists, and five moves in the order I will try them.
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Long read
Half full on a dry day: what our pipes and our power can really take
The sewage plant ran at about half of its rating last year, the water plant used less than a third on its busiest day, and Hydro One sees room for homes until 2037. The real limits are storms, one big factory and the lights. And the one number nobody has printed.
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Long read
My test for Alto: if it crosses our region, it has to serve our region.
Opposed in its current form, the same as our council. Alto lists no station in Prescott and Russell, and a town cannot force one. The case for a stop or a real connection, built with our neighbours in the open, every Alto request to the Town published as far as the law allows, and no Town permission for Alto unless it pays for road wear and staff time.
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Long read
Little Souls: Someone has to answer the phone
Here is what the Town actually has for animals, what other towns do, and a plan written with Stéphanie Portelance, who rescues cats in our region. Compassion, with a written limit on every budget line.
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