Gravenhurst Recreation Debacle

GOING NATIONAL - GRAVENHURST - FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS - AND YES, THERE IS SUCH A THING AS BAD PUBLICITY BEING BAD PUBLICITY!!!

Front page exposure in the daily press!!!!!! And a two-page spread inside!!!!! All about Gravenhurst. It was a Friday for the history books. It wasn’t a promotion of Gravenhurst, by the way. It wasn’t something a potential tourist might gobble up, and then decide to visit our Ontario burg. It was memorable however, the result of a fairly damning piece of news about the refurbished recreation centre. And why its escalating costs have local ratepayers......you and I, looking for a way to stop the bleeding before we’re dry as a bone.

I’ve read the Toronto Star article three times over the day. I honestly wish it was one of those situations, that fault rested with everyone else.....just not our local council. And while blame for letting things get out of hand isn’t dumped on mayor and council, in the front-pager, it’s clear our elected officials should have stuck their oar into the situation long before this stage of crisis. They are, afterall, in place, to make sure we don’t get screwed. That we get good value for our tax investment. From what I have read, and this is only part of the story, the horse has been gone from the barn for a long, long time. I hate retrospective governance. Closing the door now is just protocol. If the Toronto Star hadn’t initiated research, and presented this detailed article, would the Town of Gravenhurst have uncovered the same information.....and if they did, would it have been made public for us to consume? I’m not confident of this. While it’s bloody embarrassing for the town, we owe gratitude to the media for making it public. I’m sure newspaper sales in our region were brisk today. Word on the street is that this is a clear case of “forced transparency,” imposed on council, like it or not, where the media is letting an elected body know what’s going on in it’s own house. I’m sure they were co-operative with the press. They should have been wildly intrusive watching this project from the get-go. If it was their private money, on their own project, bet they would have paid closer attention......and screamed out sooner and louder.

THE PRESSURE IS ON - NO FOBBING-OFF FOR COUNCIL - IF WE’RE ON THE HOOK - SO ARE THEY!

One ponders in these tumultuous local governance days, whether the pay is worth it! Consider all the chagrin being heaped onto the shoulders of municipal representatives! Even as a self-professed tight-wad myself, I believe our regional reps are under-paid. By time this coming four year term of office has concluded, these poor sods, when it comes down to a fair hourly wage, won’t be clearing much coin at all. “Workload and worry!” Possibly this title could be composed into a viral-hit song and dance number, for internet entertainment, well suited as an overview-theme for the coming term of office. Most citizens of this community won’t shed a tear however, because of the tax burdens they’ve been expected to shoulder, as directed by these same councillors. As for the headlines in the national press most recently....I have an idea we’ll be hearing a goodly amount of moaning in the coming weeks. Maybe some screaming.

Although it’s the kind of weight that every mayor and councillor should expect, and welcome as a challenge, when they “throw their hat into the ring,” to run in a municipal election, they inevitably seemed stunned when rapids appear suddenly from tranquil waters. Few of them believe, in their abundant non-clairvoyance, it can get this “ulcer-bad.”

Well, I tried to warn council hopefuls, before last year’s municipal election, that the coming four year term in Gravenhurst, and Muskoka generally, was going to be a son-of-a-bitch for those looking for remuneration, without having too many strings attached. There is too much debt, too many tapped-out ratepayers, and controversial empire building with our money, to stomach, without a little extra gnawing of the innards. So when the latest G-8 spending, and federal economic stimulus funding investigations, made headlines about Gravenhurst and Muskoka, well, you had to know it was a “train” that was going to arrive at the station on fewer wheels but a full head of steam. No one should be surprised by the carnage that happens next.

A few of us who stay up on the news, and have a little background with the press, realized that the Muskoka spending bonanza was going to inspire an investigation sooner or later. While the issue of reckless G-8 spending was being bandied about last spring, it was obvious there would be, at the very least for the patient amongst us, an eventual auditor’s overview that would expose something or other that would implode John Q. Taxpayer. The “Fake Lake” in Toronto got most of the press. We knew the spending review in Muskoka, would make the “Fake Lake” look like a single toilet in a sea of porcelain. Outside of a few letters to the editors, and the fact the local press wasn’t pissing into the wind, trying to poo-poo G-8 spending in progress, the sage watchers in the woods, just figured....hey, the fan’s on, and sooner or later it’s going to hit in a giant turd of controversy. If you think Gravenhurst and Muskoka generally are getting some bad press now.....wait until the new government is sworn-in after the May 2nd election results are known. Nothing like starting off a new term of office with a plethora of issues that aren’t going to be fobbed-off easily. I don’t care how competent the spin-folks are, those involved in this G-8 spend-fest, and the economic stimulus project, at least here in Gravenhurst, are going to face a nasty inaugural month of Parliament, if not more. For Gravenhurst, and Muskoka generally, it’s simply not true that there’s no bad publicity.

The unfortunate reality is that Gravenhurst has been swirled into this big flush, and will be part of the national headlines that will do considerable harm to a region that thought it was a great thing to host the G-8.......and a great honor being awarded economic stimulus money .to build a fine new pool. You mean you didn’t remember what your grandma told you.....about “if it’s too good to be true......don’t be a dumb ass.....it probably is too good to be true.” As I recall, with the exception of Lake of Bays turning down a building project (for a future central archives), all the municipalities were running around, tripping over themselves, trying to get a few bucks as good hosts, and a region deserving economic stimulus. Right? The only problem is, when the press finally decides to investigate projects like ours. Yup, the stuff beyond the ground-breaking “grip and grins,” the mid-construction photo-ops, the press release diarrhea, and the eventual ribbon cuttings that seem to always make at least page three in coverage. In this most recent instance of unkindly national focus, Gravenhurst may not be as pleased as they should be, when they attend the much-looked-forward-to, ceremonial, bands-a-playin’ recreation-centre opening, later this year. We may, at this point, have to wear bags over our heads, with all the controversy taking our burg from coast to coast in a most unflattering way. Wrong-doing? It sure looks like that, but I’m sure there’ll be lots more information bleeding forth in the coming weeks.

No, I wouldn’t blame a sitting Gravenhurst Council-member, from entertaining thoughts of resignation. Especially those members who were re-elected and had been a part of the recreation funding debacle from the planning stage. While I have a certain admiration for those folks who agree to stay with the ship, to weather the storm to come, it’s going to be very difficult to sidestep responsibility, or hand the bill over to the taxpayers, without enduring relentless scrutiny and public criticism. The Council of 2010 has a lot of explaining to do. As for throwing them under the bus......I’ve been advising this rigorously for the past two months, because the blame simply can’t be heaped onto the newbies. Their fault, if any, is being too kind toward the previous council.

A lot of governments these days, except in Egypt, Libya, etc., get away with “bullshitting” the citizenry. But sooner or later, it just doesn’t over-ride the issues at hand. The public starts demanding accountability and the press lets loose the hounds. What we have here is an issue that has been appropriately and necessarily exposed, that both Gravenhurst and the wider Muskoka are going to pay for, in tarnished reputation, for many years to come. The historians are making copious notes. If we thought we were rural with a teflon coating, well, we’re certainly still rural, but now we know some poop does stick.

I feel sorry for council newcomers. I feel sorry for the old gang of 2010 to be honest. I think that most of them were ill-informed about day to day stuff, and just assumed that those intimately involved would guide the ship safely to port. Ignorance is not bliss in this case, and they will be tarred by the same brush. Fair or not, they were able to question and micro-manage and if they chose not to delve beyond the spin, “and sure.....everything’s just fine,” reports, then they represent what is wrong with governments everywhere. They did not represent us as they should have.....because we, the citizens of this municipality, don’t deserve the national headline barrage we’re about to get.

You would have to have been in a state of suspended animation....literally frozen in time, (and presently re-animated), to have missed the sound of the distant train rumbling down the track. The taxpayers of this town, or any other town or city, will not graciously accept a potential ten percent tax hike.....in part due to over-runs, errors, and over-spending on new town hall facilities. Our consequential shortfall, was not knowing about other misadventures we’ve just recently become aware of, at our newly refurbished recreation centre. Are we really angry? We’ll wait to see what the evidence is, and how the resolution is handled in the coming months. Most of us feel more validated about our suspicions than startled to a sparkling enlightenment.

Without the privilege of hiding behind a single rock or tree......they’ve all been bulldozed, Gravenhurst Councillors, past and present, are either going to be our pillars of strength......representing the integrity of our community, or get unflatteringly jammed together, in the town hall exit, like the Three Stooges, fleeing in a comedic tumble of humanity from their pursuers. I’d like to think they will take their medicine, smile, and develop a new appreciation for the responsibilities of public office. We might even be owed an apology...or a few.

Of course it seems unfair. Council has had a rough start to their four year term of office. As a regional historian, I do think it is one of the most contentious periods in our short history. While we like to enter projects with a clean bill, and great expectation, present councillors were ill-advised by their supporters.......if they weren’t lectured, in advance, about the looming reality of a brutal reckoning with tax issues at the very least.....the handiwork of the previous council. I advised a few council hopefuls that they would be looking at four years of constant criticism from taxpayers, angered by the large annual increases......increases that have to occur to meet shortfalls in revenues and interest on debt, we shouldn’t have incurred in the first place. They still ran for office so I assume this warning didn’t cause them a missed heartbeat or seven. Add to this ongoing issue, the unfinished mainstreet restoration inconveniences, taking a toll on the local business community, a large fire in the commercial heartland, and delays in clean-up or re-building decisions, that have kept barricades up and motoring customers befuddled......sure, it’s a tough morning to be chipper. To say stuff is wonky, is surely an understatement. But life’s like that. Whether it is a “shingling” analogy or a “domino effect,” you choose to describe the calamity of inter-connecting current events, it is still better than getting slammed by an earthquake, a tsunami and a nuclear disaster in a few cruel moments of reckoning. So we should be able to cope with this overlapping of unpleasant, challenging situations. Of course, we’ll just have to wait and see....won’t we?

Should we blame the new interest, in both Gravenhurst and Muskoka on the mud-slinging crossfire of the Federal Election? Is it just the case we’re caught in the middle of a bigger, national power struggle? I think that’s fair to say. But regardless of the election call, the auditor’s final report on the G-8 budget regardless, would have situated us in the vortex of swirling do-do. We accepted the money. Now we have to accept the criticism of being naive. Naive to the reality the G-8 was going to be controversial, at the time, and for years after. Toronto got the violent protest and the carnage associated with civil disobedience. Muskoka. We got a protestor. We let the blackflies handle that one. And we got some really swell stuff for being good hosts.

In the meantime, we’ll be eager media watchers....to find out just where we stand in the grand scheme of national politics......national misadventures! How many council members today, with psychic knowledge of how 2011 was going to swirl away, would have kept their hats in the ring if given a chance to back-out?

It’s one thing to have a local cub reporter jamming a pen and notepad in your face, or hitting you on the end of the beak with a straight-armed microphone, for a quote or two, but quite another thing to be forced into interview-mode with the sharks of the national media......especially at this hugely critical time of election crisis-finding, and being able to represent the state of affairs effectively, honestly, and without a hint of shyness...... knowing a million viewers are also judging the outcome.....and our communities here in Muskoka!

I don’t envy them at all.