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- Written by Gordon Prentice
Backstory: York Region’s Broadband Strategy Advisory Task Force had its first meeting on 9 October 2015, electing Newmarket Mayor, Tony Van Bynen, as Chair and Aurora’s Geoff Dawe as Vice Chair. The meeting looked at ultra-high speed broadband in the GTA. On 16 December 2015 the task force got an update on the York Telecom Network (YTN) and looked at broadband case studies. On 3 February 2016 members learn more about how York Region uses broadband and what its needs are. They also hear from Bell. On 30 March 2016 they consider the future of YTN and hear from Rogers and Telus. They get a presentation from the Intelligent Community Movement.
The Broadband Advisory Task Force is supposed to complete its work within 24 months. It will then be wound up.
Van Bynen promises ultra-fast affordable broadband
A year ago, huge chunks of Tony Van Bynen’s speech to the Town’s Chamber of Commerce focused on ultra fast broadband and the benefits it would bring. He told his audience he was inviting internet service providers to partner with the Town to create a more competitive high speed broadband corridor in the pilot area of Main Street, Davis Drive, Leslie Street and the Harry Walker Parkway employment areas. We heard talk of partners. But it seems to have gone terribly quiet. How close is he to delivering his vision?
This is the question in my mind as I make my way to the York Regional Administrative Centre. It is Wednesday 30 March and I want to see the Broadband Advisory Task Force in action with Newmarket’s Mayor, Tony Van Bynen, presiding.
Committee Room A is jam packed with telecoms and internet people. We are told MPs’ assistants are in the room, listening and taking notes. Outside, the visitors’ car park is full.
Broadband fills the room
York Region’s indirectly elected Chair, Wayne Emmerson, drily observes:
“We can pass a $3 billion budget and no-one shows up. But have a meeting on broadband and we fill the room.”
The irony of his own observation is lost on Emmerson. York Region does not broadcast or live stream its Committee meetings and Council meetings are live streamed but only on audio. There is no video and, shockingly, no archive record. It’s no wonder members of the public are thin on the ground.
In the 2014 election, Van Bynen promised to “invest in high-speed internet to create technology based jobs and opportunities”. Now “creating affordable broadband” is one of the Town’s strategic priorities for 2014-18.
So, how is it going? When will blazing fast broadband be delivered and at what cost? Who is going to be providing it? The Region wants to focus on its centres and corridors, places such as Davis Drive. (I am assuming the conduits for carrying the fibre-optics we shall need in future are already buried under Davis Drive.)
Selling off public assets
Are public assets such as the York Telecom Network going to be sold off or leased to the private sector and for what reason and at what cost? What does the private sector bring to the table? If there are no-go areas for the private sector (such as taking broadband into rural areas where costs exceed anticipated profits) what role should the public sector play?
First up is Doug Lindeblom, York Region’s Director of Economic Strategy. He gives us an update on the York Telecommunications Network (YTN). I learn that YTN has grown from a single connection in 2002 to a 157km network in 2015. It links York Region buildings and provides communications between, say, Southlake Hospital and York University. More prosaically, it also allows Viva bus stops to provide information to bus users and it controls traffic signals across the region. Lindeblom tells us it has the potential for much more growth.
What should happen to it in the future? Lindeblom cautions against selling it off. Consultants brought in by the Region recommend the Region partners with MUSH (municipalities, universities, schools and hospitals). Now I am looking at a giant screen on the wall which tells me eight of the nine local municipalities expressed a preference for the Region+MUSH partnership option. The outlier is Newmarket which, apparently, called for a public/private partnership of this publicly owned and operated asset. What does this mean in practice?
Lindeblom tells us there are lots of examples of public networks being sold off at a loss just to get out of the business. Operating in the private sector realm “is a dangerous place to go for municipalities”. But it is not unknown. On the slide I see Rhyzome, an internet service offered by Stratford.
Now Lindeblom is asking for “policy direction”. (Translated, this usually means staff have made up their minds and are ready to guide elected officials to precisely the same destination.)
Lindeblom says the network should be kept within York Region and operated at arm’s length. I hear there are opportunities for future private sector involvement (through, for example, leasing fibre owned by the Region but unused, the so-called “dark fibre”. But he clearly takes the view the publicly owned network should not be sold.
Working from home
King’s Mayor, Steve Pellegrini, is now thinking aloud. He says that going in with the private sector could allow an expansion of the network. He tells us an astonishing 25% of people in King work from home and need broadband. The Region’s Commissioner for Corporate Services, Dino Basso, wants to know how we can best get the private sector to the table. “We want to get to the businesses in the basement.”
It is not impossible. In rural areas, fibre can be carried above ground on poles.
Tony Van Bynen is now talking about ownership and access to the network. He wants to know why municipalities can’t make the backbone of the network available to other providers. He tells us Newmarket has already done an analysis of the benefits of fibre and wants the Region to do the same. (I make a note to myself to dig this out. It is elusive.) He says affordability is also an issue. They should be taking to the swift project and others.
Embracing the private sector
The folksy Wayne Emmerson, fresh from his trip to Ottawa, wants to know where the Federal Government fits in “if they were to drop a pail of money at our doorstep”. He wants (unspecified) policy changes to make things happen more quickly. “I still don’t want to push the private sector away”.
On cue, it is time for pitches from the private sector. John Armstrong from Rogers gives an amusing presentation, punctuated by the occasional unguarded comment. “We’ve been absolutely terrible at getting back to customers by phone but that’s improving.”
He asks the question: What does York Region Broadband want to be? An end-to-end provider with a complete broadband network and content? Or, perhaps, leasing optical fibres to third parties? Or providing the network only, not going into the home or business (no “last mile”) This is jargon to the uninitiated but mother tongue to those in the room. Now we hear from Telus.
Emmerson says the private sector may be ahead of us and asks rhetorically: why are we in this business? “I have some concerns and this will come out in our report… It is concerning how far we go with taxpayers’ dollars.”
Aurora’s Mayor, Geoff Dawe, who always gives me the impression he hasn’t taken the trouble to read the paperwork, wants to know how the Region can partner with the private sector. Hasn't he any ideas?
Planning for broadband
Van Bynen is now pulling things together as he closes the meeting. How can broadband terminology and language be standardized and used across key planning documents, such as official plans and subdivision agreements? He wants a report.
It makes sense to bring broadband into the world of Planning. Conduits for fibre should be going into all new subdivisions as a condition of planning approval – even if, for the moment, they are left empty. When roads are dug up and resurfaced, the conduits should go in.
The next meeting on 1 June 2016 will look at the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission’s forthcoming review of basic telecommunications services including those available in rural areas. Public hearings starting on April 11 will be held in Ottawa.
The Task Force will also be returning to the big issue of the York Telecom Network and its future.
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- Written by Gordon Prentice
A front page story in today’s Toronto Star under the headline TEED OFF tells us
“GTA homeowners seething as developers gobble up golf courses and turn them into massive subdivisions”
The story focuses on Highland Gate in Aurora but the threat of losing valued open space to predatory developers is happening everywhere. Glenn Abbey in Oakville – which hosts this year’s Canadian Open - is slated to be turned into a subdivision with 3,000 homes.
The sclerotic Ontario Municipal Board will adjudicate on Highland Gate in March next year, further evidence, if such is needed, on how the planning process is completely silted up.
A spokesman from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing tells the Star the Provincial Government “hopes to launch a review of the OMB this spring.”
In theory, the Mayor of Newmarket, Tony Van Bynen, is well placed to challenge the developers and campaign to retain open space in urban neighbourhoods. But to believe that is to misunderstand the man and how he operates. By his silence and slothful inactivity he has ceded leadership to Tom Mrakas, a councillor in Aurora, who has been energetically putting together a coalition of municipalities who are determined to reshape the OMB and our planning laws.
Van Trappist has never given an honest account of what happened at Glenway; what he knew, when he knew it and what he did about it. Instead he mouths platitudes.
He won the Mayorality on a platform promising reform of the OMB. But, since then, he has said nothing of any consequence on the issue. In 2014 he promised voters:
“Bringing reform to the Ontario Municipal Board and the Planning Act to ensure our residents have a say in shaping their community will be a priority in the next term.”
So, specifically, how does he intend to give residents a say in shaping their community?
It is not a trick question.
We may get the answer vicariously from Glenway councillor, Christina Bisanz, who pledged last month to bring motions to the Council on OMB reform.
But I am interested in Van Bynen’s detailed views which are about as difficult to access as one of his old bank vaults. He doesn’t need to keep his thinking under lock and key.
Why not inform the debate by having a council workshop beforehand, open to the public, dedicated to OMB reform? The Town’s planning chief, Rick Nethery, can brief us from his perspective as a professional planner. The Mayor can tell us how his thinking has evolved over three council terms and what lessons he learned from Glenway. And everyone can consider the issues likely to be raised in the forthcoming Provincial review.
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Update on 3 April 2016: Readers' letters in today's Sunday Star. "OMB not protecting the public interest."
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- Written by Gordon Prentice
Regional Councillor Michael Di Biase collected his full remuneration from York Region in 2015 despite having three months pay docked by his home council of Vaughan as a penalty for improperly interfering in the Council’s tendering process.
Figures released today by York Region confirm that Di Biase received his full $54, 071 remuneration from York Region last year together with $8, 949 in benefits.
Personally, I take the view that the three months loss of pay imposed on Di Biase by Vaughan Council should also have been applied by York Region. This “double whammy” may appear a tad unfair, but interfering in Council contracts is a very big deal. Last year, York Regional Council simply averted its gaze from the shocking revelations coming out of Vaughan and made no comment whatsoever.
As we know, York Region famously does not have a Code of Conduct for its members believing this would simply duplicate those of the constituent municipalities.
However, the indirectly elected Chair of the Regional Council, Wayne Emmerson, does not have a “home municipality” and is therefore not covered by any code whatsoever. Last year Emmerson received $226,825 in remuneration plus $41,624 in benefits. He claimed $10,509 in expenses.
The former Chair of York Regional Council, Bill Fisch, who voluntarily retired from his Regional post in 2014, received $314,101 in 2015. An explanatory note says this figure includes severances paid out in 2015.
The 2015 sunshine list is also published today. If the $100,000 threshold had been linked to inflation, the list today would only capture people earning over $145,000. To leave the figure unchanged at $100,000 since 1996 represents a kind of salary voyeurism at odds with the original intent.
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Update on 31 March 2016: Di Biase goes to Court in May in an attempt to salvage what is left of his reputation.
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- Written by Gordon Prentice
The President of the prestigious Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (ACO), Catherine Nasmith, is to speak in Newmarket next month about the looming threat to the Town’s Heritage Conservation District. She will also describe similar struggles elsewhere in Ontario where developers and local communities have locked horns.
The meeting will be held at 7pm on Thursday 14 April 2016 at Trinity United Church, 461 Park Avenue, Newmarket. The venue is directly opposite the site of Bob Forrest’s proposed seven storey Clock Tower development. The location is in the heart of the heritage district where a Town-mandated three storey height cap ostensibly applies.
Forrest backs the Heritage Conservation District but says it should not apply to the lands in his ownership. He has appealed to the OMB on this point.
The meeting is open to the public. All are welcome.
Councillors to debate Forrest’s plan
The race to preserve Newmarket’s unique panoramas and vistas in one of Ontario’s most immediately recognisable historic Main Streets will move up a gear when two key committees meet to consider Forrest’s plans.
The influential Heritage Newmarket Advisory Committee meets at 7pm on 5 April 2016 at the Town’s HQ at 395 Mulock Drive. Then the Town’s Committee of the Whole meets at 1.30pm on Monday 18 April 2016. Councillors will receive a detailed report from the Town’s planners and will decide whether the proposal should go out for the second time to a public meeting.
Chronology: Bob Forrest and the Clock Tower
30. Forrest’s Clock Tower up for decision on 18 April 2016
Dave Ruggle, the senior planner responsible for the Clock Tower file, told the Heritage Newmarket Advisory Committee last night that Bob Forrest’s proposed redevelopment on Main Street will likely be considered ...
Created on 09 March 2016
... HQ at 395 Mulock Drive. The agenda at item 8(b) under “Designated property Maintenance and Concerns” refers to Main Street Clock Tower – 178-180 Main Street. These heritage properties have been boarded ...
Created on 05 March 2016
28. The Clock Tower and Land Ownership
As we all know, Bob Forrest’s proposed seven storey apartment block in the heart of Newmarket’s heritage conservation district can only go ahead if the Town agrees to a land swap. In documents lodged ...
Created on 23 February 2016
27. Bob Forrest and the Clock Tower Redevelopment
Bob Forrest has spent five long years on the Clock Tower project. Patiently assembling the land he needs for his giant disfiguring condo in the heart of Newmarket’s historic downtown. But has he bitten ...
Created on 05 January 2016
Back Story: 1 March 2011 the Clock Tower on Newmarket's historic Main Street was purchased from Premier Retirement Residences Inc for $2,340,000 by 2259613 Ontario Inc also known as Main Street Clock ...
Created on 20 December 2015
25. Van Bynen set to give approval to condo blighting Newmarket’s historic Main Street
Backstory: The developer Bob Forrest bought the Clock Tower (the old Post Office) in the Town’s Lower Main Street Heritage Conservation District in 2011 for $2.3m and the adjacent properties at 184-194 ...
Created on 16 November 2015
24. Clock Tower Condo is coming back again - and other matters
... whispers are. Forrest has told the Town that a resubmission of the Clock Tower proposal is on the way. But it is too soon to say if planning staff will recommend a new statutory public meeting. Given ...
Created on 05 June 2015
23. The Clock Tower: here we go again
Bob Forrest's monstrous application for a condo in the heart of Newmarket's historic downtown could be on its way back. Forrest put the Clock Tower up for sale in June last year but the last time I checked ...
Created on 09 April 2015
22. Tony Van Bynen
... The Clock Tower on Main Street South Hundreds of hours of Newmarket planning staff time (paid for by the taxpayers) have been devoted to Bob Forrest’s notorious condo project which, had it been allowed ...
Created on 06 October 2014
21. The Clock Tower and Joe Sponga
... downtown. But all we ever heard were mumbles. Forrest put the Clock Tower and his other Main Street properties up for sale on 19 June 2014. 26 days to the election (Just after this blog was posted ...
Created on 01 October 2014
20. Whatever happened to… King George School?
... might relocate some of his business tenants on Main Street South to the old school with the idea of making it some kind of “community hub”. (This was before he decided to cut his losses and put the Clock ...
Created on 09 September 2014
19. The Clock Tower is up for sale
The Clock Tower and adjacent buildings owned by developer and self-styled entrepreneur, Bob Forrest, is up for sale. An ad in the Business Section (page B13) of today's Globe and Mail states this: FOR ...
Created on 19 June 2014
18. The Clock Tower, Joe Sponga and where are we now?
Why is the Clock Tower saga dragging on with no resolution in sight? Almost two months ago, members of the public blew a giant raspberry at Bob Forrest’s plan to dump a nine storey condo in the middle ...
Created on 26 April 2014
17. Clock Tower eviction threat lifted – for now
... be putting a report on the Clock Tower to the Committee of the Whole in April. Councillors should reject the Forrest condo plan outright. The question then is how long will Forrest want to hold on to ...
Created on 04 March 2014
16. Nine Storey Clock Tower condo gets the thumbs down
... always insist it has got to be done their way or they can’t make money. He sees the pattern repeating in Slessor Square, Glenway and now the Clock Tower. Dave Kerwin, a Newmarket councillor since Confederation, ...
Created on 05 February 2014
15. Council can veto Clock Tower development
... ground, that the developer needs from the Town. There are a million reasons for rejecting Forrest’s Clock Tower development and these will be raised tomorrow at the Statutory Public Meeting. But it ...
Created on 02 February 2014
14. NINE Storey Condo planned for Newmarket’s historic Main Street
A last minute revision of plans for the Clock Tower development in Newmarket’s Main Street South will plant a 9 storey condo in the heart of the historic downtown, utterly destroying its character. The ...
Created on 23 January 2014
13. Clock Tower Statutory Meeting
The Statutory Public Meeting on the proposed Clock Tower development on Newmarket's historic Main Street will take place at 7pm on Monday 3 February 2014 in the Council Chamber at 395 Mulock Drive. Anticipating ...
Created on 17 January 2014
12. The Clock Tower
Bob Forrest’s plans to build a seven story condo on Main Street South, demolishing historic commercial properties in the process, could be stopped dead in its tracks if the Town refuses to make land available ...
Created on 26 November 2013
11. Heritage District gets go ahead despite plea from developer to delay
The Town’s historic Main Street South received heritage status at the Council meeting on 21 October despite an eleventh hour plea by Clock Tower owner Bob Forrest to defer the decision. Forrest wants ...
Created on 27 October 2013
... owner, Main Street Clock Inc, (aka the Forrest Group) is terminating the lease, citing demolition and redevelopment as a reason, even though there is no certainty the Council will give approval to demolish. ...
Created on 02 October 2013
9. Clock Tower developer needs Town owned land
... Michael Bryan who owns properties on Main Street that are needed if the monster Clock Tower development is to go ahead. My spies tell me that Bryan has been offered $1.7m – but only on condition that ...
Created on 16 July 2013
8. We need a Heritage By Law now - not when it is too late to matter
... on the proposed Clock Tower development given by Chris Bobyk (see earlier blog post). Councillors now know what is in the developer’s mind even though no formal application has been lodged. The Clock ...
Created on 21 June 2013
7. Clock Tower plans get rough ride
... immediately behind and dwarfing the iconic Clock Tower. With a straight face, Bobyk assures councillors his goal is “to preserve the historic character of Main Street”. His boss, the close cropped self ...
Created on 18 June 2013
6. Developer to give presentation on plans to transform Newmarket's historic downtown on Monday 17 June
The Forrest Group - the developers who are determined to wreck Newmarket's historic downtown by erecting a condo on the iconic Clock Tower site - will be addressing a special Committee of the Whole at ...
Created on 14 June 2013
5. The Clock Tower redevelopment on Main Street
... the Clock Tower site in Main Street South (see earlier posts below). In January 2011 the Clock Tower Inn Retirement Residence was offered for sale at $3,275,000. On 1 March 2011 it was snapped up for ...
Created on 30 May 2013
4. Historic Newmarket needs a By Law now - before it is wrecked by developers
... Street, the Forrest Group, is methodically putting together plans to redevelop the Clock Tower site and demolish irreplaceable historic commercial buildings in the heart of the old downtown. Councillors ...
Created on 30 April 2013
3. Developers are taking us all for fools
... behind the proposed Clock Tower redevelopment – the Forrest Group - are taking us all for fools. Chris Bobyk (see below) and his colleagues want us to believe it is possible to dump a huge condo in the ...
Created on 16 April 2013
2. Developer promises to bring "vitality" to Newmarket's historic downtown
I am in the Community Hall at Doug Duncan Drive waiting for the Clock Tower developer to tell us why Newmarket’s historic Main Street needs a giant condo building as a backdrop. The meeting has not been ...
Created on 04 April 2013
1. Developers are out to wreck Newmarket's historic Main Street
Newmarket's delightful Main Street is about to get an unwanted make-over. The Clock Tower Development, if councillors give it the go ahead, will superimpose a brutal new addition to the skyline in one ...
Created on 01 April 2013
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- Written by Gordon Prentice
These arresting figures come from a survey of employment and industry that York Region has carried out across all nine municipalities since 1998.
In March last year I broke a story (if that doesn’t sound too immodest) about Newmarket generating a paltry 100 new jobs between 2009 and 2014 compared with Aurora’s 5, 700. After a storm of controversy the figures were subsequently revised upwards giving Newmarket 570 new jobs and Aurora 5,920.
I only picked up on this last year because I was physically present in the Regional Council Chamber listening to the debate in the Committee of the Whole which is neither broadcast nor streamed.
So today I go along to the Regional HQ to learn about the Employment and Industry Report for 2015.
Local statistics
Paul Bottomley, the Manager of Policy, Research and Forecasting, goes to the lectern to give his presentation. All the key points are projected onto a giant screen. In his preamble he tells us the details for the individual nine municipalities do not form part of the presentation but council members have been given a handout and the information will be sent on to the constituent municipalities. Hmmmm.
This is information that is not available to the public. Why?
Mr Bottomley completes his tour d’horizon and takes one or two questions. Later, as he gets up to leave the Council Chamber, I follow him out.
Excuse me, Sir
Excuse me, I say, as I sidle up alongside him. I ask him why the information on individual municipalities has not been included in this year’s report. Was it because of the huge kerfuffle last year? He tells me they wanted to focus on what is happening Region-wide. Fair enough, I say. But can I see a copy?
Mr Bottomley agrees this is public information but, rather quaintly, it is not made available to the public. You’ve got to ask. He politely gives me his card and I email him with a request. I get the information an hour later. (Open York Region Municipal Profiles 2015 at the bottom of the page.) I am impressed.
The details of employment growth by municipality show Newmarket gained 570 jobs (or 1.5%) in 2014-15 and Aurora 201 jobs (or 1%).
The average annual employment growth over the period 2005-2014 was 0.2% in Newmarket and 3.2% in Aurora.
Business growth over the period 2005-2014 was 1.4% in Newmarket and 2.3% in Aurora.
I learn that in Newmarket
“employment in health care and social assistance sector was the primary driver of growth, adding close to 2,000 jobs to the Town’s employment base since 2005. This sector also experienced the most growth between 2014 and 2015.”
Across the Region employment is growing, outpacing national and provincial growth rates. York Region is the second biggest business hub in Ontario (after Toronto) with 48,910 businesses. Manufacturing is still the largest single sector in York Region. It has rebounded to 79,000 jobs in 2015, up from 73,000 jobs in 2010.
Working at home
I hear that work-at-home employment is on the rise. It is estimated there were 43,000 home based jobs in York Region in 2015, up from 29,400 in 2001. This trend is, I think, likely to accelerate given the changes in technology.
Curiously, there are only a few desultory questions from council members. The Chair wants to know about the impact of internet shopping. Georgina’s Margaret Quirk asks about employment in agriculture. And Newmarket’s regional councillor John Taylor wants to know if the Region is on track to deliver on the jobs/population ratio. He wants this information every year. Paul Bottomley tells him they are just a little shy of reaching the targets in the growth plan for jobs/population but not so much as you would notice the difference.
All fascinating stuff.
No need to keep the local statistics under wraps.
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