We offer up a bit of food for thought this week on several topics.
- Chatham-Kent’s tiny cabins for the homeless
Well, this is one topic where everyone knows such an effort is needed, but no one wants it in their backyard.
Talk to people in the downtown core or in the Tecumseh Park neighbourhood and you will hear about issues of mental health, intoxication by drug and/or alcohol being all too regular and problematic.
And since local police executives seem allergic to the idea of having officers walk the beat in the downtown, it is truly better that the future shelter complex will be located further away from Chatham’s core.
The site is still located close enough to needed amenities for the people who make use of the tiny cabins that they can reach them with relative ease.
In short, the site seems to be the best option.
To the municipality’s credit, it’s personnel looked at more than two-dozen options.
- What to do if he wins
With East Kent Coun. Steve Pinsonneault seeking a seat at Queen’s Park for the Progressive Conservatives, there is a very, very real chance he will win. Questionable decisions Premier Doug Ford has made since his re-election don’t matter much. A look back to the McGuinty-Wynn years likely scares enough votes Pinsonneault’s way, coinciding with the traditional Conservative support in this region. No one should be surprised that come May 3 there is an open seat on municipal council.
There are options for filling the vacancy, but the simplest, smartest and least expensive move, should Pinsonneault win, would be to appoint the person who placed third in East Kent in the last election. That would be Morena McDonald, who would bring more youth to council chambers.
Not a bad option at all.
- At the back of the bus?
OK, is it just us, or is it just wrong that the likeness of two famous abolitionist and Black citizens, Mary Ann Shadd and Josiah Henson, are represented at the back of the new decorated transit bus? It was vital that they were included on the moving mural, but surely the location could have been improved.
