Hi Bill;
I wanted to get in touch with you regarding the invitation to the Common
Voice meeting. I spoke with Paul Hogan as well as a few others in the
local
area, and there seems to be little enthusiasm for the idea. There seems
to
be absolutely no support for paying any dues/taxes to have a seat at the
table.
My personal opinion is that there are several problems with the organization
as planned, particularly from the unincorporated viewpoint. The first is
the level of representation. There are twenty proposed votes for founding
members: four for the municipalities, three for teachers, two for
business,
two for labour, and only one for the entire district
unincorporated areas.
(This is the same voice as the multi-cultural organization.)
Unincorporated
areas cover a larger geographic area and have more ratepayers and more
assessment base than any other body outside the city of
vote out of twenty gives us very little voice, and that voice is sure to be
further diluted as more groups join. (Paul Hogan also pointed out that
the
labour reps were to be chosen by the
north' solution.)
From these twenty or so founding members a board of seven will be chosen.
This board has the right to levy dues on each member as the board sees fit.
It's highly unlikely an unincorporated rep would make it to the board.
Therefore we would be liable to pay dues (from where?) without any say in
the matter. At the moment Kenora's initial dues
were $5,000 (this was just
to get the ball rolling). I would expect our share would be more.
Will we
receive benefits commensurate with those costs?
The second problem is with the overall purpose of the group: this is a
lobby organization which will try to get money out of Queen's Park for the
'North'. Money for whom? For what purposes? Will any funds benefit the
unincorporated areas? How? Clearly this board has its' eyes on the
monies
available from FedNor and the Heritage Fund.
But any money given to Common
Voice will be money that is unavailable for other projects in the North.
Overall this appears to be the same cast of characters with a new script
to
create another body funded by the taxpayers. The structure of the board
is
designed to be run by the 'old boy's network' making it difficult to change
leadership or to get dissenting opinions heard. At the same time this
board
will claim to be representing all of the 'North'. They will wave around
the
Rosehart report and try to scoop some of the extra
money allocated to the
Heritage Fund to fund pet studies and projects. They will try to get
media
coverage on their issues, but it's doubtful they will create any new jobs
outside of their organization.
On the other hand, I think it also important that the unincorporated
areas should stick together. Our problems and viewpoints tend to follow
the
same paths. If your group/area really wants to be a part of this Common
Voice, then I would want to support you and help push the issues for our
areas as best we can.
If you don't want to join the Common Voice, maybe we should be vocal about
staying outside the group. Emphasize that they don't speak for us and
that
we're a large part of the area. That would diminish their thunder, but it
would also provide an opportunity to be heard (in the media) when we
dissent. We would have to define what issues are important to us and what
our approach would be so that any spokesperson has some credibility.
Or we can just stay quiet, send our regrets to their invitation, and say
nothing. I don't want to impose my personal opinion on either our group
or
yours, so I'm reluctant to say anything publicly unless there seems to be
some consensus on our position.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks!
Fred Mueller