Monthly Archives: May 2022

05.28.22
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In announcing his re-election bid, Steve Peters observes, that you can ‘move an agenda along quicker at the municipal level’


city_scope_logo-cmykHot on the heels of Joe Preston’s announcement he is seeking a second term as St. Thomas mayor, Steve Peters has made it known he too will pursue re-election.
We caught up with Peters at the end of the week and he stressed, “There is a lot of work to be done on a lot of issues and, honestly, that’s why I chose to seek re-election.”
His political career was launched at the municipal level before Peters moved on to represent Elgin-Middlesex-London at Queen’s Park.
“When I reflect on all my years in politics and my service on different fronts for me, I’ve always been a huge fan of municipal politics, where you can say it is black, I say it is white and collectively we find the gray and get on with it.
“You can make things happen and move an agenda along quicker at the municipal level.”
Sitting in the council chamber, Peters looks to provincial politicians now and is convinced there is an ongoing role shift that is leading to an imbalance for municipalities.

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05.21.22
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Is the revolving door in the chief’s office at St. Thomas Fire Department a case of the tail wagging the dog?


city_scope_logo-cmykThe question begs an answer.
What exactly is going on with the city’s fire department?
We are now working on the third St. Thomas fire chief in under a year, what gives?
First, it was Bob Davidson, who came on board in January of 2018, after serving as deputy fire chief in Chatham-Kent.
Well, he served until July of last year when it was announced he abruptly retired.
Or did he?
Was he pressured into leaving?
Remember, the St. Thomas Professional Firefighters’ Association was more than a little upset when Davidson was brought aboard after the death of popular fire chief Rob Broadbent in August of 2017.
The decision was made at city hall to hire a chief externally, rather than from within the department with then Deputy Fire Chief Ray Ormerod considered a strong candidate.
Word has it Ormerod was not even granted an interview.

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05.14.22
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Attempting to avoid an unavoidable reality: Cyberattack directed at County of Elgin network results in a data breach impacting hundreds of individuals


city_scope_logo-cmykA ‘technical disruption’ that plagued Elgin county through April was confirmed yesterday (May 13) as “a cyber security incident” in a media release.
The attack impacted the county’s website and email system.
And now the county is confirming some personal information has been breached, however, there is no evidence this data was used to commit fraud or identity theft.
We spoke with County of Elgin CAO Julie Gonyou yesterday for elaboration on the incident.
She advised, “From April 1st to the 27th, we were navigating a cyber security incident so we had our network down with the exception of a couple of critical functions for long-term care.
“We brought the network back up and our cyber security experts who we hired as consultants alerted us on May 3 to a data breach with information dumped on the dark web.
“By the time we found out we had resumed normal operations so we do believe there is a connection.”
As to how many individuals have been impacted by the breach, Gonyou responded, “in and around 330 and within that 330, there are two levels of notification.

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05.07.22
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Poverty to possibility: ensuring affordable and supportive housing is on the radar of EML candidates in the June provincial vote


city_scope_logo-cmykThe first Elgin-Middlesex-London candidate forum for the June 2 provincial election was held this past Tuesday at the St. Thomas Public Library.
Hosted by the Elgin-St. Thomas Coalition to End Poverty, the two-hour session featured 10 questions from coalition members relating to poverty, homelessness, a living wage and mental health issues.
The three hopefuls present were PC candidate Rob Flack, Liberal candidate Heather Jackson and NDP candidate Andy Kroeker.
Moderated by the myFM news team featuring Kennedy Freeman and myself, the event kicked off what will be a hectic 28-day runup to the election itself.
Not present for the forum but who have now declared their candidacy are Matt Millar from the New Blue Party of Ontario, Brigitte Belton of the Ontario Party and Amanda Stark of the Green Party of Ontario.

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