Happy Valentine's Day Clarington!

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One of the hottest topics of debate these days concerning Clarington is pay rates for municipal staff.

Who knew staff made so much/little?

Where you sit on that question really depends on your ideology concerning taxes and who should pay for what but one thing is for sure - this council is acting exactly as many residents figure politicians usually do - get the controversial topics dealt with early.

Think forward to 2014 for a moment.

Who really is going to remember what the pay increases were in 2011 except die-hard political observers or those prompted by a bar chart?

Common wisdom on the street is that if a council is going to do something unpopular - or costly - get it done early in the term because memories are short. And this is exactly what seems to be happening.

If staff pay increases end up being zero in 2014 that's the only thing we'll see on campaign brochures and election charts - not whatever happened in 2011.

So voters - pledge to remember what's happening now - this matters as much or more as what happens in 2014.

Winter WonderLearn

For years now, like many of my fellow residents in Courtice and surround area, I've taken my family in the middle of February to Winter WonderLearn at the Courtice Community Complex.

But not this year.

The municipality has decided to move the event out of Courtice to Newcastle after eight fun years. Newcastle will definitely enjoy the activities and they will definitely be good hosts. But Courtice has lost something here - one of the few 'Clarington' events that it hosts.

The town claims the event in Courtice is a victim of its own success.

It's grown to over 1,400 participants and there simply isn't room, apparently. If you  attended the Courtice Kids of Steel Triathalon this past summer you know that the complex can clearly handle events of this size and larger.

There's more room at the South Courtice Arena - how about moving it there?

I'm not sure my family will be able to make the trek out to Newcastle this year and it's ironic that now the province has officially recognized Family Day in Ontario we suddenly don't have a local event.

In my next blog I'll take a look at events leading up to the last council meeting before our representatives take a rest for March Break. It's been four months since the election so I'll have my first trimester report cards ready.