It is a very nice town, in a very nice province, in a very nice country. Is it special? No. Is it any better than any other town in Ontario? Yes. Better than most, but certainly not better than many. It has some lovely homes, some excellent shops, some very good restaurants, some great doctors, but if we are honest, so does practically every other like sized community. What we are gifted with is pretty nice scenery that is better than what most Ontarians enjoy, but you don't have to go very far abroad to find towns that make Huntsville look like just what it is - a nice small northern town. We are very special to ourselves and don't mind boasting about it. We are not very special to others. All sorts of people live here, most of them nice . . . at least the ones I know.
We pride ourselves on the response to the Empire disaster. That was admirable, but no better than what I would expect from any other town. To think otherwise is fooling oneself. If a fire destroyed the Pines in Bracebridge don't you think the community there would do as good a job as we did with the Empire relief? To me there isn't any question about it.
One thing we have an abundance of in Huntsville is talent, and in so many areas. What I find frustrating is that we are not taking full advantage of that resource. I blame it on a lack of leadership and vision. Here's a for-instance.
There is an event happening Wednesday night, at Partner's Hall that you should know about. Lura, the consultants hired to provide the research, analysis, recommendations and implementation strategies for a Sustainability Plan is hosting a meeting to get your input. I'm concerned that in typical mediocre fashion, in a town where rarely anything remarkable happens, the ones who always turn out for these sorts of things are going to be there to repeat themselves. A couple of months ago these same individuals gathered in the same hall to tell a bunch of Ryerson students doing the same sort of thing Lura are commissioned to produce what Huntsville needed. Out of a population of over 18,000 the fact that the meeting is planned for Partner's Hall is a tacit admission that it will be poorly attended.
How many turned out for the torch relay? Thousands. Why? Because it was a major attraction. That is what is needed for this project and what is missing from the planning. It needs broad participation. And anyway, those usual suspects, who will leave their TV's to venture out in the cold tomorrow, are not the individuals that Lura need. They should be hearing from out-of-work machinists laid off from Algonquin Automotive, a single mom who works cleaning houses so she can house and feed two kids, the Huntsville youth who dropped out of school and is now working part time for his dad in construction, his friend, the girl in art college, who wouldn't be caught dead returning to Huntsville after graduation and the ex boyfriend of a woman working in Huntsville - a business consultant who left because he couldn't find a job at even half his usual salary. None of these people will be there tomorrow night. Those and many others are who Lura need to interview.
It's not just me. Michael Lowe in a comment a week or so ago stated that, " . . . and full participation of the community, however, is likely not going to happen. First of all, I think you will find that a lot of people don't have the interest and anything done to get their interest will not make much difference. Secondly, in every community there are those who get actively involved and those who don't." He may be right. Perhaps I was naive to share my vision of what should and could have been. I thought that the people I have met here in Huntsville and have grown to respect and admire were capable of so much more. While I never expected everyone to get involved, I thought many more could have been brought into the fold.
Breckenridge, Colorado, one of the leading communities in the quest for sustainability.
Lura are only going to produce as good a report as the direction they receive and in their notes they state they are taking the lead from Council. Heaven help them. There is no direction from Council. They are a nice bunch of well meaning folk who I hope would beg the excuse they have other things on their minds and are just not incapable.
The Mayor, in his infinite wisdom, has continued to rely on Mary Jane Fletcher, the chair of the Environment Committee to provide the leadership. By all accounts she is a very nice person who is quite competent in her job at a seniors' home. The problem is she is not anyone to whom you should entrust what could be the most significant accomplishment of this Council. I have to believe she is trying to the best of her ability. I emailed her asking for information and admit I didn't expect a response. To her credit, she replied. I get no pleasure being critical of her political talents. On a personal level she seems quite likable. In my opinion, for anything other than the simplest political task she is way over her head. As for the rest of Council they are either too busy with outside distractions or just not interested or committed enough to do anything other than watch.
Mike Greaves, says he's put in quite an effort and I acknowledge him as one of the hardest working councillors. But he actually stated in a Forester 2009 round-up article that his proudest accomplishment of the year was getting a flag up on top of Lion's Lookout. Oh my God. Save us from another council like this. While Mike has been an easy target and a source for a lot of my fodder, I want to, in all sincerity, wish him the best outcome with his current heart problems. It shouldn't be personal, though it sometimes is. So this time it's very personal. "Mike, I truly offer you, Nancy's and my best wishes."
The Mayor in my opinion is the best positioned to provide the leadership necessary for this Sustainability Plan to be anything other than a feel good document. He has shown his abilities with the Summit Centre and the Waterloo building. It would have been nice if he showed that sort of involement with this project.
You've probably noticed the recurring theme of the word 'nice' in this piece. That's been intentional. It's all nice. Huntsville is a nice town, full of nice people, trying to do nice things. But I'm sick of nice, and maybe I'm not nice in stating we need to be better than nice. We need to aim for exceptional.
Tomorrow I will give you my take on what that might be. In the meantime . . . have a nice day.
David Harris is the editor and publisher of the Huntsville Online.
The meeting to get input, from as many people as possible, on making Huntsville an, economically, environmentally and socio-culturally sustainable community is on Wednesday, February 3rd rather than tomorrow.
I share your concerns about not reaching many of the people we really need to reach for what they want in a wonderful, healthy community in future.. After studying the successful sustainability plans of some other towns in Canada and elsewhere on the planet, I see that the opportunities to make Huntsville an exceptional place in future, are huge.
There are just not enough people involved in the planning stages even before public input. Whistler had 18 different task forces, each working on various aspects of creating the plan and then on initiatives to bring the plan to fruition. We have one small group at the top, called the "Working Group" The Green Plan Task Force that was a sub-committee of the town's Environment Committee was disbanded by the EC last week. Well, "you can be an advisory group", this group of knowledgeable and passionate volunteers was told. Talk about a lost opportunity to officially tap into this group of citizens. I think there was some myth that the group was too "environmentally" focused. But, better than many council members, we understand the "big picture" interconnectedness of economic, environmental and social well-being.
While I have been impressed with the LURA consultants so far, I fear we do lack the vision and leadership to take all the steps needed to get different groups to work together and to take full advantage of this planning process.
The plan creation is funded by the federal government and the town has matched the funding, so is committed in that sense. Will the outcome just sit on the shelf and collect dust while we watch more unaesthetic, energy-intensive development occur in town?
Affordable housing [really affordable] is one the essentials for a sustainable community. One new affordable housing building in town is so unpleasantly designed it just screams "affordable housing" - it is just plain ugly as it sits on one of our main streets. Don't the people who have the need for this housing deserve better?
It is in my nature to be optimistic, but much more "out-of-the-box" thinking is required. We need to be more creative before we will be successful in gaining a stronger economy. An economy that pays people living wages, with jobs based on, among many other forward looking things, a cleaner energy future and the knowledge economy. Not all these jobs should require higher education.
Huntsville could be a place where people have greater created opportunities to get out of their cars for walking or biking to work, shopping or the library, a place where we TRULY value and protect the natural setting and ecosystem on which we all depend.
Yes,some big steps have been made, especially by groups such as the Muskoka Watershed Council, but there is no co-ordinated vision for the future. In the town's decision-making, the economic bottom line is almost always king. For a healthy, sustainable future, this bottom line has to be more in balance with the other two components of sustainability: a high quality way of life for EVERYONE in town, and environmental protection.
Well, I did not intend towrite an essay so will quit, now...and don't get me started on changing the name of the plan from sustainablity to unity...HUH? someone decided that people in town wouldn't understand the term sustainability. Ridiculous. Patronizing. Sustainability is a commonly used term, simply meaning to last long into the future without taking away the ability for even more generations to live well. It IMPLIES a beneficial future, despite the fact that it is used by all sorts of people in business and elsewhere to mean just about whatever they want.
But Unity plan? Try using a search engine and plugging in sustainability plan - you will get all kinds of pertinent useful information. Now try searching Unity Plan....what comes up? A dog's breakfast [well not my dog's, but anyway...]
Rick