In an article in the Citizen, our great little weekly paper, we learned today that the Ontario Ministry of Education has acknowledged that this community's complaints about the Avon Maitland School Board's accommodation review process may be justified.
They are in the process of selecting a facilitator to handle this case. The article describes the intention of this step as "reviewing the ARC process and its consistency with the board's accommodation review policy".
This is a very significant step since most people in this community had pretty well resigned themselves to the fact that there was no hope of saving our school. The Ministry has heard us.
It's too soon to declare victory. I would feel more confident if I knew more about the facilitation process to be followed. Will the board bring in a gaggle of lawyers? Will the facilitator also consider whether the ARC process was in line with the Province's stated policy - not just that they conformed to their own self serving policy. I would also like to know what power the facilitator has to bring the parties together and to resolve the matters.
But for the present, I think we can enjoy the fact that the Ministry is paying attention to our plight.
One suspects that the outrage expressed by people all across the province has helped to put our complaints into a larger context. It stands as a lesson to us that we don't need to meekly accept arbitrary decisions from on high. No more "Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full" while clutching the forelock.
About a remarkable Ontario village
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
BETRAYAL BY OUR PUBLIC SERVANTS
If you have read my other blog items, you may have gathered that I am fed up with the antics of the Avon Maitland District School Board, and their decision to close the Blyth Public School. I admit that it is not just the Board that is at fault, but they have not even had the decency to speak to our community and tell us why they reached that devastating conclusion. The representative for North Huron has also been strangely absent, but of course it may be that she does not know where Blyth is. In any case, it doesn’t really matter; she is of no use to us anyway since she has done nothing but harm to this community.
This kind of bureaucratic assault is becoming increasingly common in fields other than education. We were dragged into an amalgamation with Wingham without consultation. Our own village council did that to us. Many of us were of the view that if amalgamation was obligatory, the smart move would be to create a single tier municipality of the entire county. Our local councillors had decided that at the public meeting, they would allow no discussion of single tier. There was no consultation – only an announcement that we were getting hitched to Wingham. A bad choice for Blyth. Even if we had good representatives on Council, we would still have a diluted representation!
Our health care system has taken some equally negative turns. We had the Community Care Access Centre for Huron for a short time. Then the directive came from on high that Huron CCAC must merge with the Perth CCAC. Once again our local representation was watered down. From personal experience as a patient returning home in Huron from a Perth hospital, the merger was a disaster. From what I hear the service has never recovered at least for Huron patients.
People in the Ministry of Health seem to have a great sense of humour. They have made us part of a LOCAL planning area which extends some 470 km from Tobermory in the north to Lake Erie in the south. Surely they are joking when they call this a local network. On their website they refer to their current board members as LOCAL people. The closest person to us is from Stratford. There are no representatives from Huron county on this board. Many other counties have no representation either. These strangers are charged with making critical, strategic decisions about the health care of our community and of the health facilities in this area. This does not instill confidence.
Business has provided all kinds of evidence that mergers, alliances, amalgamations, acquisitions most often fail. A few years ago, a study revealed that almost 70% of mergers of two or more companies end up in either a serious decline in productivity or an outright failure.
We have a local recent example. A longstanding Huron County heavy equipment business after many decades as an industrial leader, was purchased by a huge international corporation. After a very few years of operation, this company decides to pull out, leaving hundreds of people out of work, and a huge empty place in this county.
That action by that company is almost identical to what AMDSB did to Blyth. They took over our school system and then shut down our school. The company will make their graders elsewhere and AMDSB will educate our children –but elsewhere. Huron County means nothing to that company. Blyth means nothing to AMDSB, Southwest LHIN, CCAC, and I am not sure about North Huron.
The analogies are obvious and accurate.
In my next blog item, I am going to tackle (but probably not solve) the problem of creating a strategy to “make the bums pay” for trampling on us. A good dose of public embarrassment might work in some cases. We'll need a different strategy for those who are without conscience or shame.
This kind of bureaucratic assault is becoming increasingly common in fields other than education. We were dragged into an amalgamation with Wingham without consultation. Our own village council did that to us. Many of us were of the view that if amalgamation was obligatory, the smart move would be to create a single tier municipality of the entire county. Our local councillors had decided that at the public meeting, they would allow no discussion of single tier. There was no consultation – only an announcement that we were getting hitched to Wingham. A bad choice for Blyth. Even if we had good representatives on Council, we would still have a diluted representation!
Our health care system has taken some equally negative turns. We had the Community Care Access Centre for Huron for a short time. Then the directive came from on high that Huron CCAC must merge with the Perth CCAC. Once again our local representation was watered down. From personal experience as a patient returning home in Huron from a Perth hospital, the merger was a disaster. From what I hear the service has never recovered at least for Huron patients.
People in the Ministry of Health seem to have a great sense of humour. They have made us part of a LOCAL planning area which extends some 470 km from Tobermory in the north to Lake Erie in the south. Surely they are joking when they call this a local network. On their website they refer to their current board members as LOCAL people. The closest person to us is from Stratford. There are no representatives from Huron county on this board. Many other counties have no representation either. These strangers are charged with making critical, strategic decisions about the health care of our community and of the health facilities in this area. This does not instill confidence.
Business has provided all kinds of evidence that mergers, alliances, amalgamations, acquisitions most often fail. A few years ago, a study revealed that almost 70% of mergers of two or more companies end up in either a serious decline in productivity or an outright failure.
We have a local recent example. A longstanding Huron County heavy equipment business after many decades as an industrial leader, was purchased by a huge international corporation. After a very few years of operation, this company decides to pull out, leaving hundreds of people out of work, and a huge empty place in this county.
That action by that company is almost identical to what AMDSB did to Blyth. They took over our school system and then shut down our school. The company will make their graders elsewhere and AMDSB will educate our children –but elsewhere. Huron County means nothing to that company. Blyth means nothing to AMDSB, Southwest LHIN, CCAC, and I am not sure about North Huron.
The analogies are obvious and accurate.
In my next blog item, I am going to tackle (but probably not solve) the problem of creating a strategy to “make the bums pay” for trampling on us. A good dose of public embarrassment might work in some cases. We'll need a different strategy for those who are without conscience or shame.
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