Quit fudging

It hasn’t been a banner week for town council.
First, residents are left scratching their heads that the town has decided—in its wisdom—that perhaps a full traffic study is warranted after all with regards to the new Canada Customs and Immigration facility here.
Hello? Like, shouldn’t that have been done before the thing was built?
True, this proposed study might find the best solution to the traffic woes that already exist now, let alone what’s in store once the onslaught of American tourists shows up at our doorstep.
Still, these problems—and the sudden scrambling and second-guessing—would all be moot if everything had been done properly in the first place.
Equally mind-boggling is why council is dragging its collective feet over donating use of municipal facilities for the World Health Organization’s conference coming here next month.
Every other community in the district is bending over backwards to host conference sessions and delegates, yet here’s Fort Frances actually weighing whether to make the organizing committee cough up $14,000 to rent the space it needs.
One argument is that the committee should have approached the town sooner so this “donation” could have been budgeted. Perhaps. But on the other hand, you’d think the town would have anticipated this in-kind request given we’ve known for several years now that Fort Frances was hosting this prestigious conference.
Or better yet, already have offered it as the town’s contribution rather than make the committee come grovelling for it.
Town council must act immediately to rectify this downright embarrassing situation by approving this in-kind request. First and foremost, with the conference now less than a month away, there’s no time to left to waste.
More importantly, fudging over this reasonable request (which should have been a no-brainer) only will make us the laughingstock of the district—that is, if we aren’t already.