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To the Newmarket Public Library for their latest IdeaMarket offering:  

“Smartphones, You Tube, Infamy: Video Activism and Social Change”.

Soon after kick-off I realize the sweep of tonight’s topic is way, way too wide with nothing staying in focus for more than a few minutes before discussion is moved on.  We hear about cyber bullying and the damage it can do to a person’s self esteem. Now I am watching a promotional video for a women’s refuge. Next up is a short movie clip from a young woman expressing her feelings through the medium of a silent video. It's a jumble that seems very Art House-ish to me.

There is a panel of six (too many) including Tracy Kibble, the Editor of the Era, Newmarket’s local newspaper which is dumped unsolicited on driveways week in, week out.

She tells us that much of what is out there on the internet cannot be trusted. That’s why local newspapers are needed. They care about the truth and double check the facts. As I am listening to this, I am smiling to myself.

Now she is asked about citizen journalism, blogging and its impact on the mainstream press. She seems curiously unconcerned.

Nwkt Town Hall Watch

She mentions by name, Newmarket Town Hall Watch, brushing them aside disdainfully. They hide behind their anonymity and don’t bother to check their sources, peddling half truths and distortions as fact. (That was the gist of it.)

Now Tracy is talking about how the Era is coping in an age where news travels fast. A tweet can be sent in seconds. She concedes they are never (or rarely) going to be first with breaking news.

Indeed, I learn the Era no longer routinely publishes photographs of accidents and the like. One way or another, these go on the web instantaneously. By the time they appear in the print version they would be old news.

We are told the on-line site chalks up an impressive 500,000 page views per month. I am astonished. Clearly, there is life in the old dog yet, albeit in the digital version.

A Huge Cylindrical Roll of Bumf

In the old days, when people bought the Era, there had to be a certain percentage of news in the content. (I was told it was about 40% but this may be way off the mark.) But now the paper is a freebie there is no minimum requirement for news and editorial. What little there is is submerged under a huge mass of advertising bumf.

As I am listening to Tracy I am wondering how many people would take the Era if they had to pay good money for it. And will it exist in its current form in, say, ten years?

Nowadays, people get their news from a huge variety of sources and newspaper editors, like Tracy Kibble, are no longer the gatekeepers they once were, deciding what should be reported and when. That paradigm died years ago.

Nevertheless, I want local newspapers to survive. They could still fulfill an important function.

But they’ve got to offer more than we are getting now; which is a very thin gruel of local news and comment.

They need to become relevant again.

Here's an idea. The Era should start running stories on local issues that influential people would prefer to see going unreported.

I have a list.

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In last year’s Provincial Elections Kathleen Wynne promised to give municipalities the choice of ditching first-past-the-post and changing to the ranked ballot.*

In an interview with the Toronto Star today, the Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, Ted McMeekin, says he is to consult municipalities in the fall with a view to introducing legislation in Spring 2016.

The Premier wants the new system to be in place for the 2018 elections.

I want to see it happen too.

There are still big unanswered questions about how we get from a-to-b but the direction of travel is clear. First-past-the-post can produce spectacularly bizarre results especially when there are lots of candidates in the race. In last year’s election in Toronto, the successful candidate in Ward 16 (Eglinton-Lawrence) got 17.4% of the vote.

This is unusual but it happens more often than you would think. And of course, there are lots of first-past-the-post elections where the successful candidate gets less than 50% of the vote. The ranked ballot ensures that the winner always gets more than 50%. With that comes a measure of legitimacy.

The Ranked Ballot and Newmarket

However, here in Newmarket the ranked ballot may not make much of a difference. In last year’s election most of the incumbents were home and dry – either because of their own sterling qualities or because the opposition was less than stellar.

The ranked ballot wouldn’t help a polarising figure who is uniquely unpopular. As I tap this out, I immediately think of Maddie Di Muccio, the Ward 6 incumbent, who got 785 votes (24.6%) while her challenger attracted 2115 votes (66.5%).

By contrast, the ranked ballot may well have made a difference in Ward 3 (Twinney 45.9%; Woodhouse 37.8%; Madsen 16.2%) or in Ward 5 (Sponga 46.7%; Heckbert 30.9% and Martin 20.3%). Who knows? That said, it is clear that giving voters the opportunity to express a preference can change voting behaviour.

And candidates, too, will have to think about how their views play with voters whose first preference is for someone else. In some wards, securing lots of second preference votes is likely to be a winning strategy.

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* also known as “preferential voting” or “the alternative vote”.

 

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To the Regional HQ for the Council meeting. It is not streamed so you've gotta be there to see the whites of their eyes.

Mary-Frances Turner, President of York Region Rapid Transit Corporation, gets the ball rolling with a presentation on the Annual Report for 2014. Her delivery is relentlessly positive.

We learn that work on the Yonge Street Rapidway will start in June when construction crews will start digging up the road outside the Regional HQ. How deliciously appropriate.

John Taylor wants to know about compensation for businesses ground down by years of contruction work in Davis Drive. She tells him there will be a meeting with Metrolinx on Friday (24 April) to discuss business support and details will be posted on the website.

Now she is telling councillors about the series of “monumental announcements” made by the Province over recent days on transit infrastructure. We hear an update will go the next Committee of the Whole on Thursday 7 May.

Everyone seems happy enough with the way things are going with no discordant voices.

Tony Van Bynen says nothing (again)

Newmarket’s Mayor, Tony Van Bynen, is hunched over his desk, scribbling away. He rarely says much, if anything.

Van Bynen is also a Director of Newmarket Hydro and I learn that a report is coming to councillors on the development of a 20 year Electricity Plan for York Region. With Hydro One dominating the news this will be interesting stuff. On 28 April 2015, the “Integrated Regional Resource Plan” will be published showing how we can keep the lights on. This could become quite the political hot potato.

Now we are on to the controversial report from the Committee of the Whole meeting on 9 April 2015 which saw the recommendations from the Region’s Chief Planner,Val Shuttleworth, on the future of employment land in Markham rejected by councillors on a vote. Straight into the trash can they went.

Regional planners want a blank check

I am now listening to a lively discussion on “High Density Development within Identified Intensification Areas” where the Chief Planner seems to be asking for a blank check. She wants

“Regional staff (to) be authorized to appear before the Ontario Municipal Board in support of the Region’s position, as required, for all development proposals that seek to reduce approved densities within intensification areas.”

Markham Regional Councillor, the splendidly inquisitive Jack Heath, says he is uncomfortable with this. It could be cutting regional councillors out of the discussion for things that will happen in the distant future.

An unusually assertive John Taylor joins in. He doesn’t want regional staff trooping off to the OMB to take a position “in opposition to a lower tier position”.  He suggests a compromise. Regional staff could appear at the OMB “when in alignment with the lower tier”. The language is clunky but we all know what he means. He doesn’t want Newmarket to be shafted by York Region at the OMB.

Shuttleworth explains that the Region wouldn’t want to see a reduction in density or “down zoning” in a centre or corridor earmarked for intensification.

Open disagreement (and more of this needed)

There is a real difference of opinion and it is unusual to see it burst out into the open in such a public way.

Jack Heath wants to know if the recommendation, as worded, simply reflects existing practice. If so, he would be reassured and be content with the wording.

Shuttleworth, squirming in her seat, is forced to concede that the wording “is a little bit different”.

Not all development proposals come to the Region. She explains there are other “approval authorities” (meaning the lower tier municipalities) where the Region’s role is to comment. The Region usually leaves delegated approvals alone but there may be instances where it would wish to take a position in support of the Regional Plan and its policies.

Left out of the loop

Taylor counters by insisting that councillors should not pre-approve a course of action, years in advance, giving Regional staff wide-ranging authority to challenge a local solution which, perhaps, may involve some reduction in density. He fears being left out of the loop.

Brenda Hogg, Taylor’s ally from Richmond Hill, wants to know about high density developments, outside the centres and corridors identified for intensification, which are equally a matter of concern. They draw activity away from the very areas earmarked for high growth.

Now things are getting complicated and Shuttleworth is losing her grip on things. It is time to smooth ruffled feathers. We hear that the planners are not going to go to the OMB “guns blazing on every issue”. She says she doesn’t want to open a Pandora’s Box. Hmmmm.

The Chair, Wayne Emmerson, says councillors will be told when the Region goes to the OMB. Shuttleworth adds: “If the Region is offside with our local municipal partners then you will know about it. It would be brought to (Regional) Council.”

And this is how it is left. Some councillors clearly believe that the planners, left to their own devices, would follow their own “city building” agenda even at the expense of the clearly expressed wishes of the lower tier municipalities such as Newmarket.

Markham Employment Lands

Now we return briefly to the thorny issue of the re-designation of employment land. Markham Regional Councillor, Joe Li, who previously had concerns about putting an hotel and theatre/convention centre on employment lands, wants to change the position he took a fortnight ago. He has met the developer and it is now OK.

Taylor asks Shuttleworth if she has any comments. No.

Now the Mayor of Vaughan, Maurizio Bevilacqua, moves an amendment expanding the study area of a proposed mobility hub at the Concord GO Centre. The Secondary Plan envisages a new GO Rail Station. (So does Newmarket’s Secondary Plan though the one at Mulock Drive is a figment of Rick Nethery's imagination.)

Taylor, who admits he knows nothing about the amendment, again presses Shuttleworth for her views. She is well briefed, telling him it expands the study area to both sides of the railway track and envisages a mix of uses, not just employment.  He is right to press the planners for answers and to do so without equivocation.

Di Biase has nothing to say

Throughout all these exchanges, Newmarket’s Mayor looks on in a disinterested kind of way while the chair of Planning and Development, the disgraced Michael Di Biase, censured a few days ago by his own City of Vaughan for improperly interfering in the tendering process, stays resolutely silent. Not a word passes his lips throughout the entire meeting. He will be picking up his York Region pay cheque nonetheless.

I look at his face for signs of penitence or contrition but I see nothing.

Meanwhile Wayne Emmerson chairs the meeting with his usual jolly banter.

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Vaughan city council has voted unanimously to dock three month’s pay from Regional Councillor Michael Di Biase for breaching the City’s code of conduct by interfering in the tendering process and harassing and intimidating staff.

This means he will forfeit about $21,000 of the $84,301 he gets as Deputy Mayor of Vaughan. The Toronto Star reminds its readers that Di Biase also gets $52,000 from York Region where he chairs the sensitive Planning and Economic Development Committee, a berth which many people will now consider wholly inappropriate.

The Star says it is unclear if his pay suspension will include his pay from the region.

It should. No doubt about it.

Di Biase cannot simply shrug his shoulders and behave as if nothing has happened, business as usual.

The report from Integrity Commissioner, Suzanne Craig, makes jaw-dropping reading.

The man whose complaint triggered the investigation, Richard Lorello, alleged, amongst other things, that construction work done on Di Biase’s cottage, 90 kilometres to the north of the city, had been paid for by a company whose interests in Vaughan Di Biase was promoting.

The Integrity Commissioner didn’t investigate these allegations “which on their face are allegations of a criminal nature” advising Lorello to take the matter up with the police. The Star says he is doing just that.

Craig interviewed 32 council employees. On pages 19 and 20 of her report she quotes the tongue lashing staff received when they told Di Biase there were procedures that had to be followed when the city was awarding contracts.

Di Biase told one hapless employee to

“stop wasting time and don’t be a troublemaker and cause problems”.

To another Di Biase ordered:

“Just deal with it and make it happen”.

When Di Biase’s favoured company didn’t qualify for tendering:

“You have to be ****ing kidding me. They have to pre-qualify.”

Di Biase tells a city staffer:  

“Don’t make waves.”

And one pearl of a quote from Vaughan’s Deputy Mayor:

“Tell your boss, when I call, respond to your ****ing phone.”

Tomorrow, Thursday 23 April, York Regional Council meets at 9.30am.

This is an ideal opportunity for Regional Councillor Michael Di Biase to do the right thing.

He should request five minutes to make a personal statement, acknowledging the fact that councillors in his own municipality accept the Integrity Commissioner’s findings – even if he still protests his innocence.

He should volunteer to give up three months pay from York Region ($13,000) and stand down as Chair of Planning and Economic Development on the grounds that his integrity and impartiality have been totally compromised.

I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him.

You can read the final report of the Integrity Commissioner, dated 17 April 2015, here.

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Last week (17 April), Ontario Premier, Kathleen Wynne, gave details of the improved service we can expect to see on the Barrie line.

We are promised an all-day two-way service every 15 minutes from Union Station to Aurora and a “new two-way hourly service to Barrie during the midday, evenings and weekends”.

This is impressive – but, of course, it is not what was promised at the outset.

Newmarket – a designated growth centre slated for a 33,000 plus population increase in the Yonge/Davis corridors - now, unbelievably, lies outside the “core area” which qualifies for the 15 minute service.

I've long worried that the original commitment was morphing into something else.

Still, for all that, I see a glass half full, not half empty. It is terrific news for the Town and will bring huge positive benefits, providing, always, that it is delivered.

Local MPP, Chris Ballard, tweeted

@lynngr Enhanced service coming to Newmarket. Need time to build a number of crossings in Newmarket before 15 min. service possible, though.

2.41PM – 17 Apr 2015

Grade separations at Davis Drive and Green Lane would have cost an arm and a leg – and may be pushed back indefinitely - so who knows when we are going to get a 15 minute service? How much time does Chris Ballard need?

In the meantime, the level crossing, with its bells and flashing red lights, will remain in the heart of the growth corridor at Davis Drive, quaintly stopping traffic, including the buses on the new rapidway, every time a train rumbles by.

Last week we were told that the current 70 weekly trips on the Barrie line will grow to more than 200 over the next five years. This enhanced service from Newmarket north to Barrie requires a second track and we wait to see how this will be fitted into the programme. Land will have to be acquired for the wider rail corridor and, perhaps, there will be changes to the current alignment, straightening out the track where it snakes.

Newmarket’s Committee of the Whole has been promised a report by the end of June “reviewing the implications of all-day GO Transit service from a municipal perspective" which will address parking issues and the like. Another report – outstanding since 29 September 2014 but again expected by June – asks staff “to review GO Train operations including east-west road connections, grade separations, speed within the downtown core…” Maybe these reports will start to fill in some of the blanks.

With gridlock looming, all political parties have an obligation to spell out how they would pay for the transit improvements that are so desperately needed. Personally, I would keep Hydro One in the public sector and find the cash from elsewhere. I'd look at fuel duties, congestion charges, road tolls and more besides. 

But we are where we are. And the Liberal Government is at last doing what needs to be done.

The Province can tax more, borrow more or sell or lease its assets. But it can’t print money. Another quest for “greater efficiencies” within Government will not come up with the barrow loads of cash that is required.

If politicians spend their time loudly criticising what is on the table, fearful of offering their own alternative, I tune them out.

Best way.

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