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A hundred and fifty people were in attendance, including newly-elected local MP? Helena laczek. Funds were raised through live and silent auctions, and financial donations were received An Evening in Wine Country, which took place at VVilIow Springs Winery Nov. 8, kicked off the fundraising campaign for the restoration of 19 Civic Avenue. The event raised close to $300,000, which represents a third of the current campaign goal. The report was presented on the agenda for the Nov. 20 meet- ing. If the intent was to make the EA process understandable to the general public, it failed miserably. First, the report is written in that dense, dry gov- At the end of the mayor’s speech, right on cue, CAO David Cash suggested that staff might put together a report on the EA process to give the public a better understanding. Councillor Hargrave completed the mini-play by suggesting that the report be published in the newspaper for the public to read. It seems that those in atten- dance at the EA: for the new town operations centre and the elimination of the Ninth Line jog do not seem to understand this process. When people start asking political questions and wanting political answers, what they want is a public meeting, not an EA At the end of the council in committee meeting, Mayor Emmerson gave a long speech about how some of the public and some of the media (read me) do not seem to under- stand what a Muructpal Class Environmental Assessment (EA) is all about. He Went on to say that an EA is a chance for the Kublic to have some Input mto ow municipal infrastructure projects are carried out, play, with all the actors know- ing that role: and petforming (hem well. The Nov. 6 meeting was one of the bum. Sometimes council meetings are boring. es ' y since most council mem rs prefer not to speak on any issue most of the time. It's hard to stay interested when the majority of what hap- pens is just the administration of the meeting without much discussion of agenda items. But sometimes council meetings a pear to be a wellvrehearsed D v. with all the actors know- Nineteen on the Park! fundraiser a huge success Where is the public input? By Pam Mandich On Nov. 6, Mayor Emmerson stated that while he was stand- ing at the back of the room dur- ing the operations centre EA, the meeting was held specifically by the consultants to get pub- And while the EA is pre- sented to get their feedback on how to proceed with a project, for many it is the project itself they are questioning, not how it is done. While it is true that anyone can be a delegation to council to state their concerns, it is equally true that nine times out of ten, council will sim- ply accept a delegation with- out comment. The EA may be their only chance to get a direct answer to their questions. Third, the issue is not that the ublic does not understand the EA process; the issue is that the public feels impotent and frus- trated when political decisions that affect their lives directly are made without their input. People raise political questions at the EA meetings because they see it as their first public opportunity to do so. For instance, class environ- mental assessments, such as the one being done for the operations centre, are described as 'those projects which are approved subject to compliance with an approved class envi- ronmental assessment process with respect to a class of under- takings. If an ne out there understands t this means, pig“ call, write or email me, use it makes no sense to me. Second, I am at a loss to understand why public money (Le. taxes) would be spent on staff time to produce a report for public information that few W1” read, and the few that do Will not understand. errunentese that has the same effect on the bod as eating a large meal - it it difficult to stay awake. If you do man- age to at: awake long enough to read e re rt, you won’t necessarily un emand it. Nineteen Civic Avenue, one of the oldest and most culturally significant buildings in the downtown core, will serve as a community arts and culture centre. Information abort future fundraisers will be posted online at townofwscom/nineteenasp. from Smart Centres and Geranium Corporation, Cassels, Brock and Blackwell, and Bigioni LLP, as well as the mayor '5 charity golf tournament. Home 0 Auto 0 Life 0 Health 0 Business A‘dhmmfiw Datum-Within lwfinbdpm" .. .z mhmflfifid o g . r fibrin-audit 4 "Lydtafi'sfim “manhunt“: Cm' strengths W" “an advantage 20FreelLaIe.UnN5 Compass Insurance Brokers '11