Today is Thursday, September 5, 2019. I am your host Stone and this is The Whitby Report.
Weather
The sun is out. The kids are in school. It’s currently 21°C with just a very slight breeze. It’s such a beautiful day out, I wish it would stay this temperature forever.
On the other side of the coin, I see that Hurricane Dorian is heading directly to Nova Scotia. I have family there. My aunt and several cousins that I had seen since I was a baby. So meeting them now was like meeting a whole new side of my family that I didn’t have before. Some of the areas they live in are VERY rural with no cell reception at all. I am very worried for them.
Local News
Our mayor, Don Mitchell, once again wrote an op-ed piece for DurhamRegion.com. He outlines his meetings with three provincial ministers (Infrastructure, Municipal Affairs and Housing, and Transportation.
One thing kind of popped out at me here: we want to gain “ownership and control” of Baldwin Street through Brooklin. Brooklin is a village situated north of Whitby and is considered to under Whitby’s purvue, so how is it that we need to seek provincial assent to gain control of something that should already be ours?
Another thing is the town trying to remove the tolls from the 412 and reducing the toll rates of the 407. Yes, please. Mr. Lorne Coe added this to his campaign promises and we have yet to see any movement here from the provincial PCs. Perhaps something that could be done is keep the local toll roads free for local traffic (license plates registered to Whitby)? I agree that it would be nice to lower the rates of the 407 to entice more activity in around Whitby but how far can they really go?