In the spirit of continuing this debate, I would like to make another suggestion about much needed studies.
We are told endlessly that development in the harbour and tourism in our town is beneficial to the downtown. And, while the proximity of the downtown to the harbour is obvious, I wonder if the benefits are the same. It is time to find out if all the development and all our tourism-related ideas truly make a difference.
It is wonderful to see our beach crowded with people each summer. And, it is equally satisfying to see all the visitors, mostly families, using Victoria Park. But, does all the activity translate into dollars for our downtown merchants.
Continuing the debate:
Last week Prof Robert Washburn and me commented on the political fact that we continue to study stuff that goes nowhere. Here is another good example of that problem. Loo (Rinaldi), the local MPP, is trumpeting a funding exercise with the sucker upper of all government funds, the local CFDC, that will study the possibility of local agricultural processing. With so much food coming from offshore, one of the flunkeys at the presser quoted the mantra, "Do you know 35% of our peas come from China", we now have to investigate the possibility of local processing.
I would suggest that the first thing that the highly paid consultant selected by the CFDC does to earn their $45,000 would be to investigate what happened to the last attempt to process locally in Northumberland. There was at one time a very expensive processing plant that sucked up oodles of government dough trying to process local crops locally. I can't remember the name of the place but it was located on Masthead Rd. in Hope Township. Went bellyup in a huge flameout of government money.
Just a suggestion look to history before treading into the future!
