Report before Council is Misleading.

When the staff that advise Newmarket Council are less than honest with in their advice, then there should be consequences.  Let's see if our Council members can ignore this one. 

On Monday's Council agenda, there is a report from the Clerk and Deputy Clerk advising Council on the Audit Committee.  One paragraph in the Corporate Services - Legislative Services 2015-09 report conspicuously stands out:

"At the April 20, 2014 Council meeting, Council approved the committee structure for for the 2014-2018 term.  The Audit Committee was included in that structure and Council also recommended that the citizen members of the Audit Committee 2010-2014 be permitted to meet until new members have been appointed, being Mark Foerster, Mark Holland and Cristine Prattas."

Now, compare the paragraph above to the actual minutes of the Council meeting on April 20, 2015 as posted on the Town of Newmarket's own web site:

"Section 24 Item v)  AND THAT the Audit Committee members from the 2010-2014 term be permitted to meet until new members have been appointed."

The actual direction from Council did not reference 'citizen" members exclusively. 

Is there a distinction?

Yes. 

The Audit Committee from the 2010-2014 term included former Ward 6 Councillor Maddie Di Muccio and there is no way in hell the senior administration at the Town of Newmarket wants her scrutiny on something as potentially revealing as the audit committee. 

In short, she knows where the bodies are buried and she has nothing to lose politically in exposing the administration. 

Now if this report were to be submitted to Queens Park or the House of Commons, misleading Parliament is considered a criminal offense and the OPP or the RCMP would be looking into the matter. 

I don't know if the same holds true for a town council. 

But certainly the Clerk and Deputy Clerk have been caught modifying Council direction with the word "citizen" in the report before Council on Monday. 

Will there be any consequences for their actions? 

Who should vote for the York Region Chair?

In the United States, the Vice President also serves as the President or Chairperson of the Senate.  The framers of the American constitution gave the Veep that job out of concern that otherwise he or she would have nothing else to do.  The writers of the constitution didn't want to leave the Veep unemployed until such a time as his boss dies.   

But other than chairing Senate sessions, the Vice President has no other official government responsibilities except in the rare occasion that a Senate vote ends in a tie.  If there is a tied vote, then the Vice President votes as the tie breaker.   

The Chair of York Region Council is a position that is voted on by members of the Council.  Wayne Emerson currently presides in this position which pays him in the range of $270,000 per year.  He chairs the meetings and he votes in the event of a tie.  But the York Chairperson has more responsibilities than that.  Wayne Emerson is the essentially the Chief Executive Officer of York Region.  He is the spokesperson and has a considerable amount of influence over the Regional government.   

Chris Ballard MPP for Newmarket-Aurora and before him, Reza Morida MPP for Richmond Hill have been pushing to have our Regional Chair elected by the people and not by the council members of York Region.   

I think this is a bad idea for a number of reasons: 

1) The most votes are in the south of York Region so each election will be about Southern-York Region issues.  With smaller numbers of voters, issues involving Georgina, East Gwillimbury, Newmarket and Aurora won't matter to southern voters at election time so they won't be addressed by candidates.   

2) We already have an imbalance on York Council with southern 3 city councillors outnumbering the remaining 6 smaller municipalities.  We would essentially be giving this imbalance even more emphasis with an elected Chair.   

3) It will cost several millions to run an election campaign for a Regional Chair.  Someone like current our Chair Wayne Emmerson, who is capable in his job but lacks the means to finance a multi million dollar election campaign, just won't be a credible candidate under Chris Ballard's proposal.  Due to the cost of a campaign, the Regional Chair, once elected, will become beholden to the large corporate and union campaign donors and not necessarily to the people.

While it might seem undemocratic, a Chair voted on by the Mayors and Regional Councillors may be better municipal government because: 

1) To be re-elected, the Chair has to be sensitive to the entire Region.  He/she cannot focus exclusively on Southern York Region issues.   

2) The Chair does not owe any outside influences (such as developers) any favours for their financial support in the election.   

3) While most Mayors and Regional Councillors get distracted in the fourth year of any term, the Regional Chair can continue on with running the municipality during all four years of a council term, unaffected by election campaigns.  

Before proceeding with a plan to elect a Chair, I hope that residents of the smaller York Region communities, such as King, Whitchurch Stouffville, Aurora, Georgina, East Gwillimbury and Newmarket, will think about the consequences of this change will be in our communities.  We all rely on York Regional services.  Will the services be there for us if the balance of power shifts southward?   

MPP Chris Ballard is O for 2 this Week.

This week voters in Newmarket-Aurora got a taste of what it means to have Chris Ballard MPP representing us provincially on the government side of the legislature when a new post secondary campus was announced for Markham and Magna announced it is moving to King.

He is deomstrating that he is just as effective as a MPP as he was as an Aurora Councillor.

The truth is, we really could have used the jobs in this riding but Ballard didn't deliver.

Although still 3 years away, I am excited for Newmarket-Aurora's prospects in the next provincial election.

As the new leader of PC Party, Patrick Brown has close ties to this riding.  He has represented Barrie both federally and municipally and he knows the ins and outs of Central Ontario well.

He knows that the Markham York campus is a bad idea.  The Markham area has many post secondary options within a short commute - York (main and Glendon campuses), U of T (Scarborough, Downtown, and Mississauga campuses), Ryerson, UOIT, Centennial College, George Brown College, Durham College, Humber College, Seneca College and so on.

Placing a campus in Markham was a 'gas plant' move by Kathleen Wynne.  Wynne's government is more concerned with retaining a Liberal seat than they are serving the needs of the province.

Real leaders look beyond elections but then again nobody would ever mistake the current crop of Liberals at Queens Park for Winston Churchill.

The PCs wanted the campus further north and supported plans a campus servicing Central Ontario.

Unfortunately our Mayor and Council went off in pursuit of a Seneca/ York campus partnership last year when perhaps they didn't comprehend the Liberal Arts "fit" that York was seeking.  York passed over Newmarket for the southern York Region cities when creating it's shortlist of hosts.  Ultimately, York decided on Markham.

From reading the pitches under consideration by the province, I personally believe that the Lakehead University - Georgian College partnership would have been a much better choice for our town.

Specifically, we could have leveraged Newmarket's highly anticipated broadband internet service with Lakehead's proposed "Design and Advanced Technology" campus.  Ultimately Lakehead-Georgian chose Barrie but I personally believe Newmarket could have fit the bill and given the York-Seneca bid some real competition.  

The jobs of tomorrow are in design and advanced technology.  Innovation is something our workforce is good at.  Such a campus would have helped ensure that our workforce continues to excel.

But the Ontario Liberals have opted for another liberal arts university/ college campus instead.

Chalk it up as another wasted opportunity for Newmarket and the province due to failed leadership.

The Truth About Darryl Wolk and Jane Twinney.

I have been sitting on this story for a while.  While it is loosely connected to Newmarket council, it is mostly an example of what is wrong with this town where unsubstantiated allegations receive headlines in the Era.  After the accuser is found out to have lied, he needs to be exposed and denounced.  Liars should never prosper from their actions.

On April 3rd, I received an email that I know some of my loyal readers also received.  This email included social media postings from Darryl Wolk, where he is describing a meeting he had with Ward 3 Councillor Jane Twinney at the Sunset Grill in Newmarket.  Wolk alleges that Twinney asked him to not run against John Taylor.  According to Darryl, if he agreed not to run against Taylor, Twinney would have delivered a "fully funded" campaign for Wolk to run in a ward race.

Under the Muncipal Elections Act, if what Wolk claims is true, then a crime has occurred. Specifically, the Act  describes it as follows:

Corrupt Practices: Bribery
No person shall, directly or indirectly, give, procure or promise or agree to procure an office or employment to induce a person to become a candidate, refrain from becoming a candidate or withdraw his or her candidacy. 1996, c. 32, Sched., s. 90 (3).

The April 3rd email stated that the police were called and provided a case number.

The challenge to Wolk was clear:  When it comes to making allegations against people in elected office, he has to make a choice.  Either shit or get off the pot.  

According to sources, when the police asked for a statement from Wolk, he backed down from the allegations he made on social media.  He told police that what he wrote just days before was not factual.  In other words, he lied about one of our elected officials.

Wolk is what he is.  He uses lies as an opportunity to elevate his profile.  But I believe Newmarket is better than that.  Isn't it time we call him out for his lying?  

Hinder Counter Punch Re: Law Suit

Local newspapers, The Era, The Banner, The Auroran and Snap'd (which is published by Steve Hinder, coincidentally) continue to publish photos of Mr. Hinder at various local events, while ignoring the serious allegations that have been made about him in Newmarket Superior Court.

For those readers who are newcomers to this allegation, on the evening of March 20th, 2014, Steve Hinder is alleged to have hit PC member Anthony Pullano in the chest because he believed Mr. Pullano didn't support Jane Twinney. The strike was allegedly strong enough to put Pullano in the hospital.

Even though the newspapers don't want to report on the court documents, this blog carries on in pursuit of this story.

The Defendants' lawyer, Steven Stieber of Stieber Berlach LLP, has filed a four page Statement of Defence that is scant on detail.

We do learn a few interesting tidbits though.

Mr. Hinder is employed by Magna Inc. to manage community programs, which is well known.  But he also works in Government Relations (also known as a "lobbyist") for Stronach Group, which I don't believe many people in the public know about.

When Mayor Van Bynen, Regional Councillor Taylor, Councillors Bisanz and Broome-Plumley received 2014 campaign donations from Stronach Group, this was "$ Lobbyist Money $."

It is well known that Stronach Group is involved in Horse Racing.  What may not be so well known is that Stronach Group also is involved in the business of real estate development - according to the papers filed in Newmarket Court.

Newmarket residents need to ask why are four members of our Council consorting with and accepting campaign money from a lobbyist pushing for real estate development interests?  Are these Council members representing the interests of their constituents or have they been conspiring with a lobbyist with very deep pockets and working on behalf of the land developers?

The statement of defence also reveals that Mr. Hinder was at the Newmarket-Aurora PC nomination event in support of Jane Twinney, who was acclaimed as the PC candidate that evening.  According to Elections Ontario, the Stronach Group made a large donation to Jane Twinney's MPP campaign.  (Although the Stronach Group did not donate to Ms. Twinney's municipal campaign).

On the allegation that Mr. Hinder punched Anthony Pullano in the chest causing the defibrillator that was surgically implanted in his chest to malfunction, Hinder denies it.  According to Hinder, he merely shook hands with Pullano.

The statement of defence does not provide an alternate explanation of what might have struck Mr. Pullano, and that is going to be a challenge for Hinder's lawyers.  Pullano can provide evidence of being struck in the chest, and the resulting consequences are indisputable.  Pullano suffered a life threatening event and needed emergency surgery to save him.  By claiming he simply shook hands, Hinder is asking the Court to take a chasm-like leap of faith to believe that Pullano fabricated his version of events.    

The statement of defence denies that Mr. Hinder has a history of bullying and aggressive behaviour. Various members of the public will probably want to weigh in on that claim.

The next steps in a typical court case will be discoveries and typically these happen soon after the statement of defence is filed.  The lawyers for both sides will begin deposing Pullano and Hinder - and perhaps others at some point over the next couple of months.

Members of the public who are interested in reading the actually Statement of Claim and Statement of Defence filed with Newmarket Court can request a copy for $10 at the Yonge/Eagle Street Courthouse referencing case # CV-15-121907.