My first seven months reporting for BradfordToday have certainly been interesting.
Since starting on May 23, there have been many different issues to cover from a variety of different categories, demonstrating that there’s always something happening in Bradford.
The town always seems to be growing and expanding, which is reflected in new amenities at a reopened Taylor Park and a new cricket pitch, not to mention an important update to the town’s leisure services master plan, which set new goals for parks, recreation facilities and services to the year 2032, by which time the town’s population is estimated to have reached 60,000.
Of course, the business community also continues to grow with grand openings for Unite Barber Shop, Women’s Lifestyle Clinic, New Mega Furniture, Bond Head Pharmacy, BioPed and Popular Pizza among others.
As owners retired, the town also lost some long-time businesses including Bianchi’s Auto Centre and Dick’s Bargain Barn.
Another fixture in town, Bradford United Church, closed its doors on June 18, but the building will largely be protected after receiving heritage designation from the town on Oct. 17.
Still, other long-lasting local establishments celebrated milestones including Kumi Canada’s 25th anniversary, Cavros Hair Studio’s 20th anniversary, Bradford Valley’s 20th anniversary, long-time resident Stanley Rak’s 100th birthday, Times Designs change of owners, the newly renamed Paul Dossey Memorial Tournament and the newly renamed Constable Devon Northrup Memorial Park.
In addition to the more public milestones, many locals are also busy with their own personal journeys, some of whom were kind enough to share those with us, including firefighter Nicole Higgins who saved a man’s life, swim instructor Tara Andrews who runs her own swim school while also battling cancer, child amputee Michaela Blakslee who promotes positive acceptance, RV enthusiast Carlos Costa who brought the community together online, Walter Armstrong who is advocating for seniors access to vaccines, Linda Szoldatits who shares the harmony of art and agriculture, and Jonathan Andrews who is searching the globe for a cure while fighting an unknown illness.
Long-time town councillor Peter Dykie also shared his experience trying to protect his employees during an attempted armed robbery at his downtown jewellery store in early July.
That followed soon after a shooting incident on the Canada Day long weekend that had neighbours shaken up.
Both incidents are part of an overall increase in calls to which South Simcoe police officers have been responding this year, which is just one of several reasons why the service wants to hire more officers and is asking for an increased budget.
In the courts, a lawsuit against the County of Simcoe over a 2011 crash seems to have finally come to an end, while a class-action suit against Gwillimdale Farms is just beginning.
Of course the meat and potatoes of local reporting is what happens around the local council table and how those decision impact residents.
Luckily for me, Bradford always seems to have plenty on the agenda including the Catalyst Centre, future town hall, plans for roads and the downtown revitalization, cab fare changes, plans for Celebration Square, strong mayor powers, dealing with heritage buildings, a controversial cemetery, a green initiatives work plan, balancing the books and more.
The last seven months also saw the mayor defend his election campaign before the joint compliance audit committee, and a councillor dealing with the fallout from breaching the code of conduct.
With so much going on, it would normally be difficult to pick one issue that felt the most impactful, but compared to everything else, the 71-day strike of workers at the Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library clearly stood out.
Workers certified as a union with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 905 in September 2021 and bargaining over their first collective agreement began in September 2022, but after 27 bargaining dates, negotiations came to a head on July 21 when workers took to the picket line and the library was closed.
Workers expressed frustration over wages and hours, while the library (which is the employer) felt their offer was fair.
During the prolonged back and forth, workers continued to hold storytime events in the library parking lot on the picket line and were visited by politicians and union leaders pledging their support.
As the strike dragged on, more details came out about negotiations, but both sides remained divided.
Negotiations briefly resumed in mid August, but broke down again after just two days.
Tensions came to a boil in a few incidents, including when police were called on picketers twice, and when a council meeting was shut down after workers clamoured to be heard.
A little more than one week after publicly stating his support for the workers, one library board member then declared his resignation, but declined to provide the reason.
By Aug. 25, the employer applied to the Ontario Labour Relations Board for binding ambition to resolve the dispute, and the board issued a decision on Sept. 29 agreeing to the request, which put an end to the strike, but not the dispute.
Workers were mandated back to the library on Oct. 4, and have since been working without a collective agreement while waiting for the results of the arbitration which is set for Jan. 8 and 11.
In the meantime, the union has already filed an application with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to have the request for arbitration dismissed and the Sept. 29 decision quashed.
The union has no anticipated timeline for when the court will make a determination on the application, but suspects it likely won’t be until well after arbitration concludes.
Hopefully, I'll have the opportunity to cover that and much more in 2024.
