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- Written by Gordon Prentice
It takes a certain resilience to run for office. Perhaps even more so second time around.
Ron Eibel got 61 votes when he stood for election in Ward 5 in 2014. I ask him how many votes this time? 
He bursts out laughing. 62!
But Ron is joking. He is in it to win although, I fear, he has a mountain to climb.
He admits Bob Kwapis has more lawn signs up than all the other candidates put together.
We talk about social media and I suggest its reach is exaggerated. More conventional campaigning is still important.
I ask if he has knocked on every door in Ward 5. (A claim made by Darryl Wolk and Bob Kwapis.) No he says with disarming candour.
That’s probably because he spends enormous amounts of time chatting with people on the doorstep. Half an hour doesn’t seem unusual. Ron likes to talk.
Ron’s website tells me his Mom’s side of the family is German and, as a boy, he spent many summers with his grandparents in Munich. Pedestrian only streets and squares were commonplace and he yearns for the same kind of traffic-free ambiance in downtown Newmarket.
The anti-politician
Ron’s big selling point is that he is the anti-politician. He is not going to make promises he can’t keep or on areas of policy – such as education – which lie outside the realm of responsibilities of a Ward councillor. I tell him this could be quite limiting. Expressing a view on Metrolinx policies for Regional Express Rail, for example, could help people understand where he is coming from.
He tells me with jaw-dropping frankness that GO Rail “is Darryl’s issue”.
I learn that Darryl Wolk has been going on about this since 2014 and Ron gives me the impression he doesn’t want to trespass on “Darryl’s issue”. What saintliness! Politicians borrow and steal good policies from others all the time providing they resonate with voters. But not Ron. He will say things that, to my delicate ears, shock and stun.
People who want to get elected are not supposed to say they have never been on a bus in Newmarket. But Ron happily confesses. If he wants to go someplace nearby he will walk. If it is further he will jump in his truck.
But at some point this won’t be an option. What happens when there are another 32,000 people living in Town?
Empty buses
He talks about the $4 fare which is way too high for short trips in Town. I agree. And, inevitably, he mentions the empty buses. I wearily tell him everyone talks about empty buses, including the Chair of York Region, Wayne Emmerson.
I heard Emmerson tell the Committee of the Whole on 8 September it would be cheaper for the Region to pay a taxi to pick someone up every other day than run an empty bus every day. (The media doesn’t cover York Region as it should so remarks like that one disappear into the ether.)
Authenticity
Authenticity is Ron’s big thing. He doesn’t pretend to be someone he is not. He prides himself in not being the smooth polished operator – although he can don the suit when he has to. As a man of the people, he tells it as it is.
He says that of all the candidates at the by-election Q&A at Newmarket Theatre he was the only one not to have notes in front of him. He says they would be distracting. And, I guess, he doesn’t want to appear rehearsed.
I sense he believes other candidates are guilty of burnishing their credentials.
Clock Tower and the 3 storey height cap
We are now talking about the Clock Tower which is the key issue facing voters in this by-election. He is one of three candidates who have stated unequivocally that the 3 storey height cap must be respected. (The others are Tracee Chambers and Darryl Wolk). 
He won great plaudits for the scale model he built for the Statutory Public Meeting on 9 May 2016 which showed the overbearing mass and scale of Bob Forrest’s development, looming over the old Main Street. I tell him his latest rendition of what people want for the Clock Tower may come across as slightly eccentric.
He laughs the criticism off, explaining how it would all work – right down to the rooftop terraces.
Ron is now talking enthusiastically about Main Street and its terrific shops. He wants to make it even better.
That’s the kind of thing politicians say.
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- Details
- Written by Gordon Prentice
Construction of York Region’s new “Administrative Centre Annex” at the intersection of Yonge and Eagle in Newmarket will start early next year and take 36 months, completing in early 2020 according to a report going the the Region’s Committee of the Whole tomorrow (13 October). The Annex will cost $172, 084, 354. 
The report says:
“The construction of the Annex will realize York Region’s long term plan to consolidate a variety of community, health and courts services into one central, fully accessible modern facility.”
We are told a Public Information Session is planned for next month which will provide updates on construction activities in the Yonge Street/Eagle Street area.
“This will include the Annex, the Rapid transit along Yonge Street and other adjacent development.”
The report says the Region’s website will be updated continuously with project and progress information.
The Annex has been in gestation for over a decade and it is good to see things are at last moving on a development which will bring people and jobs into the so-called “urban centre”.
That said, construction of the Annex will inevitably bring yet more inconvenience and hassle for the besieged residents of Glenway who are already living with the redevelopment of the former golf course lands.
Some fear the new parking lots will have lights on around the clock and that traffic will become insufferable.
Others, who are not necessarily opposed to the Annex, scratch their heads about the location. They tell me building on a flood plain is “beyond stupid”.
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- Written by Gordon Prentice
I have been following the municipal career of Mayor Tony Van Bynen long enough to know he talks the talk but doesn’t always walk the walk. 
The secretive retired banker says he wants to reform the OMB but what has he actually done to advance the cause? With the Province’s review of the OMB underway, now is the time to find out.
After spending $588,291 going to the OMB “to fight for Glenway” – and failing - he vowed he would work with others to bring real change to the municipal planning process.
Before the 2014 municipal election Van Bynen promised voters he would be:
“Bringing real change to the Ontario Municipal Board and the planning process.”
He pledged:
"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. Our Council’s decision to fight for Glenway and defend our Town’s official plan was the right thing to do. I will be working with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and a number of mayors to meet with the Province to bring about real change to the municipal planning process.” (see note 2 below)
Promising the earth, delivering dust
So has Van Bynen delivered on his promise to voters?
I formally asked the Town if the Mayor had requested a meeting with the Province to discuss OMB reform at any time since the last election in 2014. I also asked for sight of any correspondence from Van Bynen to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario or to any of the Mayors of its 444 member municipalities on OMB reform from between October 28, 2014 to September 8, 2016. Town staff reported:
“We have conducted a search of our records and have not found any records that specifically indicate that Mayor Van Bynen has requested a meeting with the Province regarding OMB Reform or correspondence sent to AMO or its members on this topic.”
Maybe it was all done by word of mouth.
Maybe there is a mountain of evidence somewhere showing he has been closely engaged in the issue for years but I haven’t found it yet.
Maybe I am doing Tony Van Bynen a terrible disservice and he has been a prime mover, diligently working behind the scenes to advance his OMB Reform agenda
“to give residents a say in shaping their community”.
There has been at least one meeting, maybe more, with Chris Ballard. I don’t know who asked for it yet. But if it was Van Bynen – and we shall find out soon enough - it would be wildly out of character.
In fact, Van Bynen ceded leadership on OMB reform to Aurora whose energetic councillor, Tom Mrakas, organized a municipal summit on the issue earlier this year. Mrakas’ initiative was enthusiastically supported by Ward 7’s Christina Bisanz, a Glenway resident herself.
Van Bynen and the Clock Tower
As is the way of the man, Van Bynen kept what he learned from the Glenway debacle to himself except for this gem that slipped out when he was talking about the Clock Tower development:
“We’ve learned through Glenway that polarity doesn’t help anybody.”
Translated, this means Van Bynen doesn’t like saying no to developers even if it means ripping up the Town’s Heritage Conservation District policy.
“I’m optimistic we can make the Clock Tower work; there may need to be some fine tuning on how we get there.”
Van Bynen, intensification junkie that he is, desperately wants to help Bob Forrest get the go-ahead for his seven storey condo.
But if the Council, led by the Mayor, votes in favour of Forrest’s planning application the decision will be appealed to the OMB by the Newmarket Branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario and other concerned residents.
As Van Bynen might have said, but didn’t…
Defending the Town’s Heritage Conservation District policy is the right thing to do.
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(Note 1) Disclosed following a request under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act for access to:
“A record indicating if at any time since October 28, 2014 the Mayor has requested a meeting with the Province to discuss OMB reform and, if so, to provide dates and details. Correspondence from the Mayor to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario or to the Mayors of its member municipalities on OMB reform from October 28, 2014 to September 8, 2016.”
On 22 January 2015, Van Bynen passed on to Chris Ballard various reports that had been prepared by the Town and York Region on OMB reform. This was a follow-up to a meeting between Chris Ballard and Tony Van Bynen and the Town’s Chief Administrative Officer Bob Shelton.
On 28 August 2015, Van Bynen passes on to Chris Ballard a letter from the AMO.
On 14 July 2016, the Mayor’s assistant, Pat Noble, on behalf of the Mayor, passes on to Council colleagues a letter from the Minister on the OMB Review.
In all, there are six records. Details of three other records (listed below) cannot be disclosed until the third parties mentioned give their consent. “These third parties have until 27 October 2016 to provide comment regarding the release of the records.”
There are two emails from Chris Ballard MPP to the Mayor, dated 5 March and 28 August 2015. The former concerns “planning reforms” and the latter is an “update on Bill 73”.
On 28 August 2016, the Mayor received an email from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing on the subject: “March GTHA Summit Summary Notes”. (Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area Mayors’ and Chairs’ Summit)
You can read the documentation here.
(Note 2) Newmarket’s Director of Planning, the ineffectual Rick Nethery, subsequently contradicted Van Bynen by saying the Town did not go to the OMB to “defend the Town’s Official Plan”.
Update on 12 October 2016: I asked the Town who organised the meeting referred to above. I am told
"it was one of the quarterly meetings with Chris Ballard organised and initiated by the Mayor's Office".
The email continued:
"The Mayor and CAO often attend these meetings together to discuss various matters."
- Details
- Written by Gordon Prentice
A Town Hall on OMB reform will be held at Trinity United Church, 461 Park Avenue, Newmarket from 6pm – 9.30pm on Tuesday 18 October 2016. 
This is a great opportunity to help shape Provincial policy on the future of an appeals body that is never far from controversy.
The Minister of Municipal Affairs, Bill Mauro, says the Government will not be scrapping the OMB but
“We are going to try as best we’re able, through the proposed changes that we’re putting forward, to show more deference for local municipal decision-making.”
You can read the consultation report here.
Who should go?
1. The Mayor, Tony Van Bynen, who, before the last municipal election in 2014, promised Newmarket 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. Our Council’s decision to fight for Glenway and defend our Town’s official plan was the right thing to do. I will be working with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and a number of mayors to meet with the Province to bring about real change to the municipal planning process.”
2. Councillors (if possible - after the Committee of the Whole 7pm session ends) and wannabe councillors.
3. People living in Glenway who were burned by the OMB’s decision and whose neighbourhood is now being utterly transformed.
4. The Town’s Director of Planning, Rick Nethery, who, with his staff, boycotted the Glenway OMB Hearing
5. People concerned about the proposed 7 storey Clock Tower development and the developer’s appeal to the OMB.
6. Anyone else who believes local democracy and good planning are being subverted by the OMB.
More to come on this.
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- Written by Gordon Prentice
The promised new GO Rail Station on Mulock will only go ahead if the Town commits itself to high density development in the area according to Metrolinx - the agency responsible for delivering Regional Express Rail. 
This means a new Secondary Plan for the Mulock area with work starting in 2017.
I support the new GO Rail station at Mulock for a thousand reasons (which I needn’t go into here) but, inevitably, it will mean major intensification along Mulock Drive. Already, the so called “centres and corridors” program on Davis and Yonge will bring another 32,000 people to the Town. The development of Mulock will add to this number.
Intensification in the old downtown not needed to meet targets
The Mayor is constantly banging on about “intensification”. He positively salivates at the prospect of more “intensification” in the old downtown. But, at the risk of stating the obvious, the Clock Tower is not needed for us to meet Provincially mandated intensification targets. (By the way, Glenway wasn’t either.)
A report that went before York Region’s Committee of the Whole today tells us
“The Town of Newmarket is evaluating transportation and land use policies to advance planning work for the Mulock GO station. It is anticipated that Secondary Plan studies will proceed for the Mulock GO station in 2017.”
and
“Expansion of the GO transit network and introduction of new GO stations has the ability to transform local communities by attracting transit-oriented, mixed use, high density development.”
The Chief Executive of Metrolinx, Bruce McQuaig, wrote to the Town’s CAO, Bob Shelton, on 4 August 2016 confirming that a new station at Mulock had been recommended as part of the GO Regional Express Rail 10 year program. (see page 133 in the York Region report.)
But McQuaig warns:
“Please note that the new station is still subject to further detailed analysis and conditions to address contextual issues.”
Metrolinx wants Newmarket to give a commitment by 30 November 2016 that it will implement
“transit supportive planning regimes around the station if such does not already exist.”
The next steps will involve reviewing
“the current land use policies in the Mulock station area and update as necessary any local policies, guidelines or by-laws to ensure transit supportive uses.”
Our Mayor, Tony Van Trappist, snoozes through this agenda item – one of the biggest issues facing the Town in a generation. It is left to the Deputy Sheriff, John Taylor, to ask some probing questions about why Aurora is getting the gold-plated all-day two-way 15 minute service when Newmarket collects the silver medal with a 30 minute service. It is, of course, better than what we have at the moment but it is still not good enough.
Taylor asks Stephen Collins, York Region’s acting Commissioner for Transportation, why the 15 minute service can’t be extended northwards to Mulock. Newmarket is a designated place to grow. Taylor says the 15 minute cut-off point at Aurora was decided before the decision was taken to have a new station at Mulock.
Collins, poker faced, says the decision has been taken and, so far as Metrolinx staff are concerned, it won’t be revisited.
We shall see.
A report is going to Newmarket’s Committee of the Whole on 18 October 2016.
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