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Published: 15 November 2020

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The Cobourg waterfront is a “jewel” on the lake that we all enjoy and that attracts new residents and visitors to the Town.

As a long time Cobourg boater, and former executive member of the Cobourg Yacht Club, I have some ideas that could significantly improve the marina operation and the waterfront use and enjoyment of all residents.

Here are two of them.

Free Docks

Currently, the marina provide free docks for the use of boating friends of the CYC. It is called a “reciprocal arrangement”. The potential revenue from these free docks is $15-$20,000/yr. The marina should stop this practice, collect this revenue, and use it to address the safety, maintenance and infrastructure needs at the marina, for the benefit of all boaters.

Read more: Marina and Waterfront

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Published: 15 November 2020

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Lakefront's presentation on Monday's Council agenda proposes a project that seriously undermines Council's objectives of fighting climate change and ensuring transparency in procurement. I applaud any efforts to reduce the operating costs for the CCC. However this project will not be effective.

Consider the following:

• This is a sole source procurement and the supplied justification is essentially generic marketing hype. There are dozens of companies offering similar systems and they should all be considered if we want to pursue a possible installation. Why not request proposals via a public RFP?
• Ontario's public electricity system is one of the few “green” portions of our economy; the vast majority of Ontario's power comes from zero emissions hydroelectric and nuclear generation with some from solar and wind. 100% of the power from the proposed CCC project will come from burning CO2 producing fossil fuels..
• Cost savings depend on electricity from the CCC's small generator being cheaper than electricity from the grid. Conspicuously absent from the presentation is any discussion of the sensitivity of benefits to future natural gas prices, future electricity prices and planned carbon taxes. Solar and wind power is widely believed to soon be much cheaper than fossil fuels. If true Cobourg will be saddled with an expensive, fossil fuel eating, white elephant!

I urge that Council reject this proposal.

Ken Strauss
Cobourg Resident

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Published: 13 November 2020

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By MPP David Piccini

This week, our government announced that we will be making a historic $1 billion investment to improve broadband and cellular access across Ontario as a part of Budget 2020, providing many more people with better ways to connect, to work, to learn, and to stay in touch during these unprecedented times.

COVID-19 has made us all even more aware of how important it is to remain connected to our businesses, friends and loved ones. These connections were made all the more difficult for residents right here in Northumberland-Peterborough South by unreliable internet connections. At a time when social distancing is being encouraged, many of our friends and neighbours who live outside Clarington, the wandering hills of Northumberland and the north shores of rice lake in Peterborough South are further isolated from us because of inadequate access to the internet. More importantly, we have a moral and economic imperative to act now. For our region to succeed, we must address internet shortages.

That is why, as part of the plan to recover from the pandemic Ontario’s vision is to connect every home, business and farm in Ontario to broadband services by investing an additional $680 million in the upcoming 2020 Ontario budget. We know we cannot do this alone, to succeed we will need support from all levels of Government. To date, our Federal Government has been embarrassingly silent on this issue and we will need their support and commitment to expanding the spectrum to increased competition. Regardless, Ontario will not wait and is working closely with our municipalities to address the digital gap.

We want to make sure that those of us who need to work from home can do so reliably, while those back to working in person can take advantage of the opportunities that high speed internet can provide a rural sole proprietor, our many farms or a small business looking to expand its reach to new clients. This significant investment will help build up communities across Ontario, supporting increased economic development and providing more opportunities for young people and businesses to grow. For Ontario to recover, we need strong, sustained economic growth. This investment is welcome action to removing long-standing structural barriers to this growth. Better broadband is not just about getting us back on track, it's about putting the pieces in place to make us more productive, competitive and connected than we were before. 

MPP David Piccini