Previous Issues
Meet 'n greet
?There’s a reason Uxbridge has a ward system. It’s because the municipality has areas with widely varying issues. The concerns on Kirton Court, in behind the new Vince’s/Shoppers Drug Mart plaza on Toronto Street South, are a whole lot different from what’s bothering the residents along Concession 6 south of Hwy. 21.
But because the people living in those places have their personal representatives on Township Council - their ward councillors - they don’t have to face the often-intimidating prospect of appearing before the entire Council, or gamble that their letter or e-mail won’t get lost in the sea of correspondence that Township staff open each and every day.
All they have to do is pick up their phone and call Bev, Ted, Pat, Jack or Gord, have a heart-to-heart right then, or set up a face-to-face meeting wherever the problem lies.
The Cosmos has not heard a single complaint over the last two and a half years that any one of these five ladies and gentlemen has been unresponsive in dealing with their constituents’ concerns. As you’ll read elsewhere in this issue, they may not always be very good at listening to each other, which is a shame. They may not always be as careful as they ought to be in consulting the citizen volunteers who are supposed to advise them on particular matters, which is an even greater shame, because as Roger Varley points out in his column opposite, volunteers who are badly treated may go home and not be replaced.
But in terms of listening to Joe or Jill Citizen, and acting conscientiously on their behalf, we believe that the five ward councillors are doing their jobs well. Our sense, however, is that they’re not being asked to work hard enough.
There’s no doubt that most of our readers have concerns about things in the municipal sphere. But they’re not taking advantage of the delightful fact that their elected representative in this case (unlike their MP or MPP) is so darned accessible!
Even when their reps come to them, as the mayor and councillors did early on in the term in town hall meetings held in each ward, the attendance was usually underwhelming. You may have noticed there haven’t been many of these meetings of late. The mayor’s a busy guy; he’s not going to waste his time holding court in the Zephyr Hall if no one wants to talk to him.
Speaking of which, you’ll note on page 3 that the mayor has temporarily suspended his Saturday morning Meet ‘N Greet, which over the past couple of months, he reports, has been attended by an average of six people per Saturday.
Was he disappointed in the turnout? Yes, because he’d hoped for more, but no because he was able to spend some quality time with each person that showed up. And he was sufficiently encouraged that he’s going to renew the experiment in the fall.
So the opportunity is certainly present for you, dear reader, no matter how reticent you may be, to make your voice heard. Take the initiative to call up your ward rep. (if you don’t know how to get hold of them, call us at the number below and we’ll help you) and invite him or her for scones and tea some Wednesday evening or Saturday morning. Ask the questions you need answers to, and we promise you’ll feel in the end that you have an “in” at city hall.
And to Council, we’d say this. Maybe you’d have more success at these meet-’n’greets if you didn’t ask citizens to come to your office, or to a cold community hall with a hundred empty chairs. Maybe you should try popping into Tim’s, or sit at the picnic table outside the Leaskdale Store, and talk to people where they already gather.
We hear that kind of approach has worked before.
