Earlier this year, York Region Council released a report stating that between the years 2010 and 2014, the economy in the Town of Newmarket created 100 jobs in all. This "growth" lagged well behind all other of York's nine municipalities, including those with a much lower population than ours.
Mayor Van Bynen fumed. He said publicly that this report couldn't be right and in the end he got York Region Council to revise its numbers to 500 jobs in all. Even that number was a paltry result when compared to the other York Region lower tier municipalities.
The question remains, if 2010-2014 was such a disaster, what is being done now to change this course?
We have a new Member of Parliament who sits on the government side of the house.
We have a new Member of Provincial Parliament who also sits on the government side of the house.
We have an united Town Council without any divisions in the ranks. Members of this Council are extremely tight with the Provincial and Federal level members, like never before.
Yet despite all the political cohesion between all levels of government, where are the jobs for Newmarket?
It's not a matter that Newmarket residents don't pay enough taxes to support growth initiatives. Our taxes have risen beyond the level of inflation for 10 years straight. Our mill rate sits at the second highest in York Region. Even though we lead in paying taxes, our economic growth trails everyone else.
It's not a matter that Newmarket Council isn't in sync with the Chamber of Commerce. These two groups couldn't be tighter. In fact, at the 2014 Chamber of Commerce debate for Mayor and Regional Councillor, the Chamber's president/moderator was likely the biggest supporter of the incumbent Van Bynen, Taylor campaigns, plus other members of Council too. Council and Newmarket Chambers absolutely adore each other.
It certainly isn't the fact that we don't invest public money into various businesses in town. The grants are there, even though they tend to flow towards supporters of Council first. Crony capitalism and corporate welfare are a way of life in Newmarket. It wasn't always this way, but Mayor Van Bynen has entrenched "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" as a way business gets done in this town.
We certainly have our own Newmarket Economic Development Advisory Committee (NEDAC) too. I can't tell you what this committee actually does because the committee has only met twice (once in October 2015 and then in November 2015) and the minutes of these meetings have not been published.
We seem to have all the necessary ingredients in place already. So why has our economy stalled while all the neighbouring towns and cities around us are booming?
Could one ingredient be missing?
LEADERSHIP
Without that, the jobs will never come to Newmarket.
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