Details

This morning an email comes winging in from Newmarket-Aurora’s timid Liberal MP, Tony Van Bynen, reminding us of the government’s tax break 

“making essentially all food and many holiday essentials tax-free for two months.” 

Van Bynen lists the tax exempt items which include beer, wine and cider, chips, candy, granola bars, Christmas trees and decorations.  Van Bynen says this will 

“put between $100 and $300 more in workers’ pockets on a basket of $2,000 in purchases over the next two months.”

Tony Van Bynen is, of course, programmed to parrot the Party line. Always has been.

Costly Political Gimmicks

So I wonder what he makes of the Deputy Prime Minister’s resignation letter which I thought was pretty brutal, directly criticizing Trudeau. 

Chrystia Freeland says the challenges of a second Trump term and the threat of 25% tariffs mean:

“eschewing costly political gimmicks.”

So is the tax-free holiday a gimmick?

No point asking Tony Van Bynen who would never say anything that could generate acrimonious criticism. On 26 January 2021 he told the House of Commons

“I have been a banker for almost 30 years and have seen our economy endure things like sovereign debt crisis, the tech bubble, the real estate bubble and interest rates at 18%. One thing I have learned throughout all of these crises is it is important for us to work together toward a common goal and avoid acrimonious criticism, which is counterproductive for everyone.” 

Doomed

The Federal Liberals are doomed. The wheels are coming off the wagon.

The Liberal caucus increasingly indulges in acrimonious criticism - and to hell with the consequences. They just want Justin gone.

It has been as plain as a pikestaff for months that the Liberals would be better off changing their leader. But, for the moment, he is staying put. Trudeau has faced his critics down before. 

But this time is different.

Sell-by date

All politicians have a shelf life. And the longer they stay, the more people will become disaffected for policy and for other reasons. This is just the nature of the beast in open democracies.

Trudeau promised electoral reform in 2015 but that was quickly jettisoned. He should have banned handguns after the massacre at Portapique. But he didn't. Instead, a long drawn out inquiry which reported years after the anger had subsided. And no ban.

I have a growing list of things that Trudeau should have done but didn't as he endlessly triangulates in the best Bill Clinton fashion.

Morneau's assessment

But reading Bill Morneau's book about his time as Trudeau's Finance Minister was a revelation.

The meeting Morneau had with Trudeau - when he was leaving the Government - was the longest he had ever had, one to one, with the Prime Minister.

Trudeau is just not that interested in policy making.

It's the performative aspects of the job of Prime Minister that appeals.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Details

Dawn Gallagher Murphy’s third “free” BBQ on 29 September 2024 at Newmarket's Riverwalk Commons has cost the taxpayers a modest $881 - so far. 

We shall have to wait until 1 March 2025 to find the true cost. 

Personally, I find these so-called “free” BBQs a scandalous waste of public money. They are designed with one aim in mind: to butter up the voters.

These extravagant events - billed to the taxpayers - are becoming normalised. And that's a problem.

Giving money away

In the old days Doug Ford used to hand people $20 bills from his own wallet. Now he prefers the public purse.

Gallagher Murphy’s first annual “free” BBQ on 16 October 2022 cost taxpayers a whopping $11,160 - almost one quarter of her annual budget for “office operations”.

The second free BBQ on 22 October 2023, where people were noticeably thin on the ground, cost us $9,376.

The MPP’s travel and hospitality expense claims for the period 1 July 2024 – 30 September 2024 were published by the Ontario Legislature earlier today (2 December 2024). Her other expenses are reported separately.

The balance of her BBQ costs will be claimed in the reporting period 1 October 2024 – 31 December 2024 with the details published by 1 March 2025. 

The Legislative Assembly website explains why some expenses are posted months after the transaction date.

"Expenses are reported after they are approved and processed in the financial system. An individual may incur an expense on a specific date, but the expense might not be submitted or approved until a later date."

After the dust has settled.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Details

One year ago today, on 29 November 2023, the developer Michael Rice was making a last-ditch effort to persuade the Ford Government to permit development on the protected Greenbelt lands at Bathurst in King which he purchased on 15 September 2022 for $80M. (Photo Right)

At the time the Government was reversing its catastrophic decision to permit development on parts of the protected Greenbelt – including the huge 2.7 sq km tract of land at Bathurst. In November 2022 Rice said he wanted to give Southlake some of his newly acquired land for a new hospital.

Ontario’s then Auditor General, Bonnie Lysyk, said the owners of the lands removed from the Greenbelt, which included the Rice lands at Bathurst, could have seen an $8.3B increase in the value of their properties.

Michael Rice declined to meet Lysyk but she didn’t pursue the matter. She thought it would make no material difference to the report she was about to publish. It was scathing and condemnatory.

Southlake still searching for a second site

Now Southlake Health is making renewed efforts to find a site for its proposed acute hospital. 

The Greenbelt scandal has been hugely damaging to Southlake, putting back by years its quest for a suitable second site. 

Rice offers 51 acres

A letter from Rice’s lawyers to Paul Calandra dated 29 November 2023 (photo right) says if the lands are returned to the Greenbelt the development:

“as currently proposed would be largely impossible”.

Rice’s pitch for his new, reworked development would include 51 acres of land for a new Southlake. The hospital did not feature in the earlier plans which Rice handed over to Steve Clark’s Chief of Staff, Ryan Amato, on 28 or 29 September 2022. There is also no mention of a Long-Term Care facility which featured in discussions at Southlake in early 2023.

21,000 people 

The proposed development – home to an estimated 21,000 people but probably closer to 30,000 - would have had a massive impact on Newmarket and also on King, a largely rural municipality. Rice was proposing 9,000 residential units consisting of a mixture of singles/semis and townhouses in a medium density development together with “affordable” apartment units and secondary units. There would be a fire station and land for three elementary schools as well as commercial and retail – all in what was the Protected Greenbelt.

Rice’s lawyer tells Calandra:

“I note that the process that was undertaken leading up to the removal of the subject lands (ie the Bathurst lands in the Protected Greenbelt) was thoroughly investigated by the Integrity Commissioner in his report dated 30 August 2023 which cleared my client of any wrongdoing. In particular, the allegations that my client was “tipped off” about the removal of the lands from the Greenbelt Plan Area in advance of their purchase was found to not have been borne out by the evidence. My client is, in short, not part of the problem and returning the lands to the Greenbelt Plan Area and revoking the “settlement Area” designation in the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan Area is not necessary or justified.”

Mistaken 

The Integrity Commissioner, David Wake, a highly respected former Associate Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Justice, was told by King’s Mayor Pellegrini and by Rice himself that a hospital could be built in the protected greenbelt. Rice said he was going ahead because he believed he would be able to locate ancillary medical buildings and a long-term care facility alongside. 

The Integrity Commissioner – a jurist not a planner - did not challenge this view which was then - and is now - clearly mistaken.

Ford had earlier offered a humiliating apology for his Greenbelt "mistake" and Rice’s pleas went nowhere.

The Greenbelt Statute Law Amendment Act 2023:

“resets decisions made by the government at the end of 2022 by proposing to restore all of the properties that were redesignated or removed from the greenbelt.”

"Not supported by the people of Ontario"

Paul Calandra who took over the Housing and Municipal Affairs portfolio from Steve Clark defended the volte face, brazenly declaring:

“We made a public policy decision that was not supported by the people of Ontario.”

I laughed out loud.

More accurately, the voters at the last Provincial election in June 2022 were never told about Ford’s plans to open-up the Greenbelt to development.

Solemn vow

On the contrary, Steve Clark, vowed to protect the Greenbelt. In February 2021 he said this:

“I want to be clear: We will not in any way entertain any proposals that will move lands in the Greenbelt, or open the Greenbelt lands to any kind of development.”

The Integrity Commissioner recommended the Legislature reprimand Clark. Astonishingly, that hasn’t happened. The Ford Government refuses to bring the motion forward for debate and a vote. 

Ironically Steve Clark was brought back into the Government by Ford and is now the House Leader, responsible for scheduling Government business on the floor of the House.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Details

This morning I wander down to Newmarket Public Library to get some new information from Metrolinx on their much hyped plans for a 15 minute all-day two-way GO Train service on the Barrie Corridor. The first phase would bring the fast service to Aurora on our southern border. 

I am a big fan of GO train expansion plans. What’s the alternative? Ford’s fantasy tunnel? 

We need fast trains but we also want more details from Metrolinx. They can’t keep kicking the can down the road, promising answers tomorrow. And, in the meantime, serving up endlessly reheated announcements. (Graphic right: Newmarket GO station: the vision in 2017)

At the Metrolinx table I am joined by a little group of people pressing for answers on a variety of topics.

Questions (not difficult)

I have three straightforward questions to put to the Metrolinx staff which, unfortunately, they are unable to answer:

When will the Aurora-Toronto 15-minute service start?

When will Newmarket get the 15-minute service?

And how is it possible to get a 15-minute service to Newmarket without a grade separation at Davis Drive?

I’ve been asking these questions in one form or another for over a decade. And, astonishingly, still no answers. I am yelling into the void.

Timelines and deadlines

Metrolinx won’t commit to giving timelines or deadlines, But why not?

Are there capacity problems? Do they need more engineers? More construction workers? Are we dealing with another Eglinton Crosstown?

Or does Metrolinx need more money from the Province? If so, why is Ford giving away $3B next year to everyone in Ontario? Couldn’t that money be better spent? (Yes)

Do we need Grade Separations?

A few years ago, Metrolinx said it hoped to avoid hugely expensive grade separations by using sophisticated signalling allowing the barriers at the level crossings to stay down for relatively short periods. The trains will be electric with rapid acceleration and they will be shorter. Traffic would not back up significantly.

So, show us the math as it applies to the level crossing at Davis Drive. Metrolinx knows the trains will be shorter, faster and more frequent. So how long will the barriers stay down at Davis Drive with a 15-minute service?

Stumped for answers, the Metrolinx people say they could bring in the experts for a local Town Hall here in Newmarket. I am enthusiastic. I am standing next to Bob Kwapis, the affable councillor for Ward 5, who seems to like the idea. And now I am talking to someone from the Mayor’s Office who doesn’t rule it out but says local venues are booked up months in advance. 

Just set a date.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Click "read more" below for Me and Metrolinx: A Ten Year Engagement

Details

On 24 October 2024 the long serving chair of York Regional Council, Wayne Emmerson, announced his retirement, two years early.

In an emotional farewell to members of the Regional Council he said his last day would be 29 November 2024. 

So, why is he going now?

Emmerson, clearly exhausted, sees battles ahead with the Ford Government.  And he no longer has the stamina for it. He says the Regional Council needs someone to:

“lead you through those changes for the next two years and the four years to come… these are going to be difficult for you all… so don’t dig your heels in. Work with it.”

Oh dear! That's his parting advice: Go with the flow.

Sounds like Ford has more plans up his sleeve for York Region - a big player whose population is greater than five Canadian provinces. 

Power to appoint

The Better Municipal Governance Act 2022 gives the Province powers to appoint:

"The Head of Council for Niagara, Peel and York for the term of office beginning in 2022" (see Schedule 3)

The excuse for this power grab was a municipal reorganisation that never materialised.

Emmerson was appointed for a four year term but is hanging his hat up with two years still to go. 

So will Doug Ford appoint a new Chair of York Regional Council or leave it to the Regional Council to pick one of their own?

Either way, it will be a moment of high drama in municipal politics.

Ambush

Chris Raynor, the Regional Clerk, sets out the procedure for replacing Emmerson following the next Council meeting on 28 November 2024 but others fear a Ford ambush.

Markham Regional Councillor, Joe Li, who challenged Emmerson in 2022, tells the Regional Council on 7 November 2024 there are “rumours on the street” that Doug Ford is going to step in and appoint a new Chair.

Emmerson wearily tells Li:

“We will wait till the 28th and 29th at the end of this month and see where the chips fall. But I wouldn't listen to any rumours.”

A strong self confident Regional Council with views of its own has, from time to time, caused problems for Ford and his developer friends. That’s why the Province stripped the Regional Council of its planning powers on 1 July this year.

Ford will appoint

Newmarket Mayor, John Taylor, and former Newmarket-Aurora MPP, Chris Ballard, predict Ford will appoint Emmerson's successor.

I don't know.

Ford could go for someone already on the Regional Council or, more likely, bring in a new face from outside. 

Many members of the Regional Council are non starters. Markham's Mayor, Frank Scarpitti, bizarrely wants to abolish all nine lower tier municipalities and create a new megacity. With these outlandish views no-one is betting on him. Former Provincial Liberal Leader and now Vaughan Mayor, the lacklustre Steven Del Duca, wants a full-scale municipal reorganisation with his Council taking over many services currently run by York Region. He, too, could never be a Ford pick in a million years. King's Mayor Steve Pellegrini is against Highway 413 so that rules him out. Newmarket Mayor, John Taylor, could do the job with his eyes closed. But his fellow Regional Councillors see him as dangerously progressive on some issues. He wouldn't be a Ford pick.

Who will Ford tap on the shoulder?

Who knows?

Ford is influenced by the last person he spoke to.

As we've seen over the years, he makes it up as he goes along.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Update on 2 December 2024: From the Ontario Newsroom: Ford Government appoints former Police Chief Eric Jolliffe as new Chair of York Regional Councl. and from Newmarket Today: Appointment reeks of cronyism

Update on 3 December 2024: From the Era: Jolliffe was appointed to Committee to dismantle Peel

Click "Read more" on how we got here.

  • You are here:  
  • Home