POLITICS: GO ALONG (WITH CRAP) TO GET ALONG (WITH SOMETHING A LITTLE BETTER?)

So what exactly are the Region of Waterloo buying with the freebies they've tossed around to the Townships with their "Rationalization" initiative? Allowing the Townships to change their minds on development locations based on newer political realities is quite the perk. Could that be for their relative quiet on the LRT front? Was that the deal? We the Region will give you and your favourite developers a one time freebie to make more money in exchange for if not support at least not outright political and legal opposition to our spending a billion dollars on Light Rail Transit which doesn't benefit the Townships at all? Maybe there are other quid pro quos involved whether past support for pet projects, legacy projects or whatever regional politicians have their little hearts set on. Maybe the payoff for the region is being kept carefully out of sight so as to make it difficult for alert citizens to see/smell what's going on.

Keep something clearly in mind. Politicians always assume that their government revenue is a bottomless barrel. After all they have a monopoly in what they are selling to the public. Be it water, sewers, garbage collection, police services etc., sidewalks or firefighters; where else are you going to be able to get those services from? Therefore it's only about scheduling. Keep your employees and managers well paid and you will have much less worries about nasty whistle blowers embarrassing you publicly about your profligacy and bad decisions. Maybe your project won't get off the ground this year but next year, short of something like a Covid crisis, should be just fine.

Woolwich Township are planning on developing industrial/commercial employment lands on the east side as well as putting the long hoped for Elmira By-Pass over there. As an additional bonus they will also give lanxess/Uniroyal Chemical a sweetner by burying both the complaints from activists along with the soil contamination on the east side of the world class polluter, namely the Stroh and Martin farms. True all guilty parties have been hiding that contamination for decades including refusing to test soils and waters in the most appropriate areas. Woolwich have long catered to the chemical company on their east side and they sure aren't about to change that if they can help it. It's better however to hide their support for Uniroyal/Lanxess behind the need (?) for employment lands and for an Elmira By-Pass.