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Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 05 February 2023

Newmarket-Aurora’s Progressive Conservative MPP, Dawn Gallagher Murphy, cruised to victory in last June’s Provincial Election in a campaign that steamrolled her rivals. 

Newmarket Today’s Joseph Quigley reports:

The Conservative wracked up $122,025 in campaign expenses as she garnered 44.9 per cent of the vote and 18,649 votes total, more than 5,000 votes clear of Liberal Sylvain Roy, who got 31.4 per cent.

In comparison, Roy’s campaign had $24,363 in expenses, less than 20 per cent of what Gallagher Murphy’s campaign spent. NDP’s Denis Heng, who came in third with 12.7 per cent of the vote, had his campaign spend $47,395.

No-show

Gallagher Murphy, the former MPP’s Office Manager, was a no-show at all election debates. But she compensated for this invisibility by splurging $43,565 on campaign advertising and $21,326 on brochures. She was everywhere.

She spent an eye-watering $5,228 on hosting meetings. I spent a modest $25 booking the Newmarket Public Library for a candidates’ debate at last October’s municipal election – even though my opponent disappointingly didn’t turn up. He too was elected, very handsomely.

Call me old fashioned but, personally, I prefer the old ways where candidates debate face-to-face on a public platform, taking the questions as they come.

Frank Klees and Michael Rice

Gallagher Murphy’s list of doners includes former MPP and now professional lobbyist Frank Klees (who donated $500) and Michael Rice ($2,000). 

I do not immediately know if this is the same Michael Rice who bought the Greenbelt lands in King on 15 September 2022 for $80M. Someone should ask her.

I was surprised to see Gallagher Murphy spend $5,802 on her Victory Party which looked quite a gentle affair.

The guidelines Gallagher Murphy would have followed when completing her election return are set out here.

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See also on (municipal) campaign finance: From the Toronto Star: Do you want to check how much money your councillor spent on the last campaign? Good luck.

 Donors to Gallagher Murphy's campaign:

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Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 05 February 2023

Doug Ford’s PC administration makes policy on the hoof. 

Bills are rushed through the legislature and enacted even before the end of the consultation period. The blanks are filled in later through Regulations – on which no-one is consulted. 

This is Ford Nation's approach to policy making and both York Region and Newmarket, as they present their draft budgets, are left to guess what’s coming next.

Our MPP, the Ford appointee, Dawn "Corn Roast" Gallagher Murphy, just parrots the Party line, offering no insights or explanations on how the legislation she votes for will impact her constituents.

Off-the-hook

As a gesture to Ford's friends, the More Homes Built Faster Act 2022 (Bill 23) exempts developers from millions of dollars of development charges (DCs). These are fees paid by the developer to the municipality to offset the costs of servicing new developments such as roads, water hook-ups and so on. That burden will now fall on the taxpayer. 

It was always a fiction that growth fully paid for growth but with the gap getting wider it is there for all to see. 

Define Affordable 

Wide ranging exemptions from DCs will cover “affordable” residential units and “attainable” residential units and some other categories of housing. But the Province still hasn’t defined what it means by “affordable” or how the homes are to remain affordable over 25 years, the stated intention. 

Regional Treasurer, the excellent Laura Mirabella, says the Region’s DC collections could be 15 to 20% lower in 2023 because of the way the phasing provisions work: 

“We collect 80% in year 1; 85% in year 2; 90% in year 3; 95% in year 4 and only 100% of the charge in year 5 and beyond.” 

The Province originally said the phasing would only apply to DC by-laws passed after June 1 2022 – which would have excluded York Region. But then Ford had second thoughts and backdated the new rules to January 2022.

$500M lost revenue

62% of York Region’s capital plan is related to growth but only 45% of the overall plan will be funded from development charges. The Treasurer forecast DC collections would be reduced by about 10% on average - nearly $500 million – which represents about 5% of the Region’s capital spending. But it could soar to 16% depending on which way Ford jumps. (see graphic right)

If there is no extra funding from the Province to cover the shortfall, a 10% reduction in DCs over the next 10 years would require an additional one time tax levy increase of 2.3% and an additional 5% increase on water and wastewater rates. 

Newmarket Mayor, John Taylor, makes the point that the projected one-off tax levy of 2.3% on the $497M does not take into account the DC exemptions for attainable and affordable housing.

“I don't want the public or the provincial government thinking the impact is 2.3% because it is clearly higher. We just don't know how much higher.” 

Laura Mirabella agrees:

“That's correct… Really simple math. A $500 million gap is 2.3% on tax and 5% on water rate. Triple that amount and you might triple those percentages.”

Taylor says:  

“We've got to assume the numbers are far closer to the triple version than the version that doesn't account for some of those huge categories.”

Wastewater servicing: back to the drawing board

At the York Region meeting on Thursday (2 February 2023) Public Works Commissioner, the impressive Erin Mahoney, tells members the capital investment for wastewater servicing in Aurora, East Gwillimbury and Newmarket was based on the former North York Sewage Solutions project which was scrapped by the Province in the run up to last year’s Provincial election. 

“This 2023 plan… defers wastewater servicing for Aurora, East Gwillimbury, Newmarket by two years due to the implications of Bill 23 requiring us to pivot and implement a new southern solution to service these communities by expanding and enlarging the York Durham Sewage System. And once we define the new capital requirements for this infrastructure solution we will quickly re-calibrate our capital plan.” 

So critically important wastewater servicing in our area has been put back two years. 

At yet, at the same time, Ford wants to see a major new development on the former Greenbelt lands next door to us in King. And this too will have to be serviced.

And then there's the additional 11,000 homes which Ford expects to see here in Newmarket by 2031.

How is this going to happen?

The details, as always with Ford, come later.

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Update on 9 February 2023: Note presented to York regional Council from York Regional Treasurer, dated 3 February 2023, on the financial impact of Bill 23

Read more: Ford slashes Developers' fees and transfers cost to Taxpayers

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Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 04 February 2023

King Mayor Steve Pellegrini no doubt has many fine qualities but consistency is not one of them. His explanations of what happened when he met the developer Michael Rice are full of contradictions. 

Did Pellegrini meet Michael Rice or one of his representatives “over the summer”? Apparently so.

The ERA newspaper reports on 3 February 2023: 

"When the Rice Group closed on the sale of the land in August, Pellegrini approached them about his idea.”

Yet the Globe and Mail reported on 1 February 2023 that at the meeting on 1 November 2022 Pellegrini asked Mike Rice if he would donate land to the hospital. 

“That’s the only time I talked to him.”

Pellegrini’s meeting with the Rice Group was “at their request”. Pellegrini says they just wanted to introduce themselves. Pellegrini says that at no stage did they discuss a housing development on the Greenbelt land. And it was Pellegrini who pushed “unprompted” for land to be made available for a new hospital.

What did the representatives from Southlake say during this 1 November 2022 meeting. Did Rice bring them along with him? Who were these representatives? Was Pellegrini told beforehand that the 1 November 2022 meeting would also involve representatives from Southlake?

Mayor Pellegrini should take time to develop a coherent narrative and one that stands scrutiny. Southlake should also be ready with its own detailed narrative of what happened when.

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“When Rice bought the King Greenbelt lands in the summer, Pellegrini said they met to talk about it. He said there was no indication at that time the Greenbelt land would be opened for housing development, and Rice did not indicate anything like that.”

Newmarket Today 1 February 2023

“Pellegrini said he met with representatives of the Rice Group at their request and discussed the possibility of them donating the land for a hospital… At no time did they discuss further development of the Greenbelt land, Pellegrini added.”

CTV News Toronto 1 February 2023

“In an interview, Pellegrini said members of the Rice Group, who made an $80M land purchase, wanted to introduced themselves and that meetings with developers who own Greenbelt land were common practice.

Pellegrini said he used the opportunity, unprompted, to push for land to develop new hospital infrastructure which, he said, could be allowed under provincial regulations”

Global News 1 February 2023

“The mayor says it (the meeting on 1 November 2022) was a routine meeting with a developer who had recently purchased land in his municipality, adding that he understood Mr Rice had made the deal months before it closed. Mr Pellegrini also says it was him, not Mr Rice, who suggested the site as a possible location for a new branch of Southlake Regional Health Centre…

“I asked Mike Rice, this is the whole thing, I asked him, would you donate land if we could get a hospital? And he said yes… That’s the only time I talked to him.”

Globe and Mail 1 February 2023: King Township Mayor says he wasn’t aware of Greenbelt plans in advance.­­

"When the Rice Group closed on the sale of the land in August, Pellegrini approached them about his idea.”

ERA 3 February 2023

The Rice lands were removed from the Greenbelt on 21 December 2022.

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Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 02 February 2023

John Dunlap, the estate agent who acted for Bob Schickedanz in the sale of 687 acres of Greenbelt land west of Bathurst on 15 September 2022, owns land immediately adjacent to the land he just sold.

In the Land Registry map below, Parcel 3, at the intersection of Bathurst and Davis Drive West, is owned by numbered company 2201506 Ontario Inc which is controlled by John Dunlap.

It is unclear to me what effect the redesignation of the Greenbelt land to the north of him will have on the value of Dunlap’s land holding. It may increase in value in the expectation that, over time, his land too will be moved out of the Greenbelt.

Mayor Steve Pellegrini of King told the media yesterday that the Township had been looking for a site for a new hospital since 2019 and had done a scan of lands in King that might be suitable. Pellegrini said a “different landowner” had offered land in the vicinity.

I do not know who that “different landowner” is or whether he or she has any formal connection with Southlake – or what conditions were attached to the offer.

This morning I lodged a Freedom of Information request with King Township asking for sight of records relating to that scan, including emails, meeting notes and internal memos.

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