TVCogeco is opening their doors today for a studio tour. Come by between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. at 1111 Goodfellow Road for a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes at Cogeco!
[Contributed by PtboCanada's Julie Morris]
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Dogs have been in the news a lot of late in town with talk of a Peterborough Dog Park so we asked on our Twitter account for readers to submit their dog pics. Doggone it, check 'em out!
The lot which laid vacant for so long at the corner of Burnham and Hunter streets in East City across from Quaker Oats has officially been re-done with the completion of a new Shell station and Mac's store, which will open for business tomorrow.
[Contributed by PtboCanada's Julie Morris]
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Q: Could Peterborough set the pace as the first municipality to adopt “Gender-Based Budgeting?” –Betsy McGregor
Goyette: Betsy is the federal Liberal candidate for the Peterborough Riding and a compassionate supporter and coach of Special Olympic athletes. Her question follows on an International Women’s Day article published at Mykawartha.com by the Peterborough & County Older Women’s Network, of which she was an author.
The concept of gender-based budgeting is both innovative and challenging. The movement gained some traction in Australia in 1984 before it was shut down there in 1996. Advanced by feminists and progressives interested in gender equality, it has had occasional implementation elsewhere. The idea is that the process used to develop a budget is made to include an assessment of the impact of that budget—primarily its expenditures—on women and girls.
For example, do the expenditures set out in the City of Peterborough operating budget favour men and boys over women and girls? When the City spends tax dollars on the West 49 Skateboard Park on McDonnell Street, is that a disproportionate or unfair benefit for boys? When it spends tax dollars on parent and tot programs at the Sport and Wellness Centre, is that a disproportionate or unfair benefit for women?
Budgets are more than just the allocation of dollars to priorities; they are expressions of values. And values are never neutral. Nor are budget makers or elected decision makers. Budget making is an art as well as a science, and there is no doubt that imperfect budgets embody the imperfection of unintended bias. There is also no doubt that a budgetary lens on gender bias would serve as a tool for advocacy for women’s rights and the promotion of gender equality.
The central challenge for Peterborough is not how the City would go about viewing its budget through a gender equality lens—we could create a model for that—but how we would accommodate all the other deserving lenses at the same time, such as expenditures by neighbourhood, by age, by income, by population density, by accessibility, by ethnicity, by disability, by health or environmental impact, and on and on. That splintered house of mirrors would so blur the budgetary vision as to render it sightless.
It seems to me that the answer lies not in the creation of a better budget device, but in the promotion of a better budget lobby. Organize and advocate. Show up when budgets are being developed. Reveal the wrong. Describe a better end state. Make it real and personal. Be seen, be heard, be passionate and be compelling. Make your case to those who are elected to be the guardians of community values. In the end, social change has more cultural grip when it is motivated by reason and emotion rather than compelled by technique.
People issues are best resolved by people pressure.
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David Goyette is the Executive Assistant to Peterborough Mayor Daryl Bennett. Email your burning questions for David about City Hall to feedback@ptbocanada.com.
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It looks like Peterborough's first off-leash Dog Park will be at Farmcrest Park in the city's east end. The Committee of the Whole voted last night in favour of that location, though it needs full council approval next week. The man pictured below wasn't happy with that choice, wanting a Dog Park located closer to downtown.
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This Saturday (April 21st), Natas Cafe will be hosting an Open Mic Night. Sign up with Luke at Natas. For more details, you can give them a follow on Twitter.
[Contributed by PtboCanada's Julie Morris]
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[YouTube via @ptbosportscene]
Donate or Register a team for Pedal for Hope here.
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Breaking news... It was announced this afternoon that PCVS supporters are launching a legal challenge against the local school board's decision to close PCVS.
From a press release we received:
"Thanks to an overwhelming response from generous supporters who want to retain Peterborough Collegiate & Vocational School (PCVS) as a fully functional downtown high school, the Peterborough Needs PCVS Committee has identified sufficient financial resources to move forward with an application for an injunction and judicial review of the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board’s decision to close PCVS at the end of this school year.
After consulting with students, parents and numerous others impacted by the proposed closure of PCVS, including a recent meeting attended by more than 300 public school ratepayers, the Peterborough Needs PCVS Committee will file the necessary application and motions in the Ontario courts.
Peterborough Needs PCVS regrets the necessity for legal action, which is divisive, costly and adversarial. The committee and others have repeatedly urged the Board to work with the community in exploring alternatives to closing PCVS, which is too valuable to lose - for students, for Peterborough's downtown, and for the entire community. The Board has not responded to the suggestion of a consultative and collaborative community solution, leaving PCVS supporters with no alternative but to ask the courts to review the closure process and overturn the decision.
At the meeting of supporters on April 4, the advisability and costs of recourse to the courts was considered. In less than a week’s time support for this course of action was overwhelmingly reflected by the receipt of the required financial resources to proceed. It is expected that counsel for the applicants, Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall LLP will file be filing in the immediate future.
For more info, go to Peterboroughneedspcvs.com
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[Photo and caption bubble by PtboCanada's Evan Holt]
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There is a Bocce Tournament this Sunday at 1 p.m. at King Edward Park.
All are welcome to compete!
[Contributed by PtboCanada's Evan Holt]
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