Details

My post earlier today (Ford Abandons Review of Regional Municipalities) was factually incorrect. It has been taken down.

The Government is, in fact, continuing its review of regional governance.

The new Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Paul Calandra, announced last month that facilitators would not be appointed to recommend and manage changes to the municipal map - as was the Government's original intention. Instead the job would be handed over to MPPs on the Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy Committee.

The Committee has now started its work and its web page confirms it will meet “to conduct a study on regional governance as overseen by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing”.

It goes on:

The Committee intends to hold public hearings in Barrie, Ontario on Monday, November 6, 2023.

Interested people who wish to be considered to make an oral presentation to the Committee are required to register by 12:00 p.m. (EDT) on Monday, October 30, 2023.

Those who do not wish to make an oral presentation but wish to comment on the issue may send a written submission by 7:00 p.m. (EST) on Monday, November 6, 2023.

To register or send a written submission, please visit the following link: ola.org/en/apply-committees.

The Committee will stream live from location when available. For the link to the webcast, and to find times and availability, please visit the Legislative Assembly website at ola.org.

Quite separately - and unrelated to the review on regional governance - the Toronto Star reports that the Greenbelt scandal has forced the Ford Government to scrap the municipal boundary changes and wind back changes made by the Province to official plans.

The Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, Paul Calandra, said today:

“In reviewing how decisions were made regarding official plans, it is now clear that they failed to meet this test. In response, as soon as I am able, I will be introducing legislation that would reverse the official plan decisions for Barrie, Belleville, Guelph, Hamilton, Ottawa and the City of Peterborough, the Regional Municipalities of Halton, Niagara, Peel, Waterloo and York, as well as Wellington County. This legislation would wind back provincial changes to official plans and official plan amendments, exceptin circumstances where construction has begun or where doing so would contravene existing provincial legislation and regulation. This includes winding back changes to urban boundaries.”

The Ontario press release is here.

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Details

I wander along to Doug Duncan Drive in downtown Newmarket to check out Dawn’s second free community BBQ, paid for by the taxpayers.  The first free BBQ in October 2022 cost us $11,160.

The sky is blue and there is a chill in the air.

People are a bit thin on the ground with lots of empty chairs. There is a tent where you can get your photo taken to remind you of the big day. Dawn is hovering there.

There is a face painting tent but very few children.

There is food on trestle tables provided by A Million Mouthfuls. 

But for all that, there is no electricity in the air.

I was interested in how many people would turn up and what would be on the menu, so to speak. I also wanted to chat with Dawn and, with some fancy footwork, I managed to get a minute of face-to-face time. Believe me, this is not easy. Outside BBQ season it is next to impossible to see the MPP if you want to discuss anything remotely controversial. 

Now Dawn’s helpers are moving between me and the camera but I try not to let that distract me.

Global Budget

Dawn tells me the money to pay for the BBQ will come out of her “global budget” which is allocated by the Legislative Assembly. How much she chooses to spend on “hospitality” is a matter for her. She doesn't reveal what's in her global budget.

She boasts that 500 people came along to her free BBQ last year. She is hoping for more this year.

I don’t want to rain on her parade but it looks like a lot fewer today. 

We shall have to wait until 1 March 2024 (when MPPs’ expenses for this quarter are posted on the OLA website) before we can see how much we paid for this rather limp and tepid event.

Wonderful

We get a little welcoming speech from Dawn which is nice. We are all wonderful. She points to the firefighters behind her and to their big red fire truck. What an amazing backdrop. Everyone loves firefighters!

I want her to say something about the Greenbelt or what she has been up to at Queen’s Park.

She could have told us if she was going to vote to reprimand the former Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, Steve Clark, as recommended by the Integrity Commissioner David Wake. She could have told us if she was going to press for a debate in the Legislature. The alternative - a simple vote on a Government motion without debate - appears to be the Premier’s preference.

But that doesn’t happen. She sticks to the script.

And after an hour chatting to people I wander off.

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Updated on 23 October 2023: Click "read more" to read my brief exchange with Dawn as the BBQ gets underway.

Update on 23 October 2023: From Newmarket Today: Supporters - some critics - flock to Newmarket-Aurora MPP BBQ

Details

The popular celebrity MPP for Newmarket-Aurora, Dawn Gallagher Murphy, will again be hosting a “free” BBQ this coming Sunday at 2pm at Doug Duncan Drive allowing constituents to meet their representative at Queen’s Park. 

Since Doug Ford personally selected her as the PC candidate for Newmarket-Aurora, Dawn has made a name for herself by tirelessly visiting places, handing out certificates and congratulating people for what they do.

It is busy work being a Progressive Conservative MPP.

Free Community BBQ

Last year Dawn billed the taxpayers for the full $11,160 cost of her first annual “free” BBQ.

This requires a certain kind of chutzpah.

Personally, I don’t think it's an appropriate use of public money. But that may be an old-fashioned fuddy-duddy view.

I wrote to the Speaker of the Legislature, Ted Arnott MPP, on 7 June 2023 suggesting the rules be changed to outlaw “free” BBQs, paid for out of public funds, say, in the twelve months prior to an election. 

In the circumstances, I thought my recommendation was pretty modest. I didn't want to push my luck.

Hostess with the Mostess

As I understand it, there is nothing to prevent Dawn holding one of her free BBQs in the immediate run-up to a calendared Provincial election, boosting her already stratospheric popularity as the hostess with the mostess. 

The Speaker acknowledged my email: 

“We will endeavour to review and respond to your message as soon as possible.”

But I heard nothing more.

I left it a month and I tried again with a gentle reminder and got precisely the same reply.

“We will endeavour to review and respond to your message as soon as possible.”

It looks like nothing is going to change.

Why not spend $22,000?

So I shall wander down to Doug Duncan Drive this Sunday at 2pm to see what’s happening. I won’t be eating or drinking anything paid for by the taxpayers but I want to talk to people.

Dawn believes her “free” BBQ is an appropriate use of public money. Otherwise she wouldn’t be doing this.

But, if I get the chance, I want to ask her why she is limiting her spending to only $11,160? 

What if the whole Town turns out for a free hamburger and fries?

Why not double that $11,160 and put on something really spectaclar? 

Rules

I suspect I’d be told there are rules that would prevent such a thing.

Except no-one can show me the rules.

In their entirety.

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Click “read more” to see my email exchanges with the Speaker, Ted Arnott.

Details

The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the devious Paul Calandra, has now tabled the Greenbelt Statute Law Amendment Act, 2023 which will return lands to the Greenbelt that were removed from it in December 2022.

We wait to see if the Government rushes the Bill through all its stages at breakneck speed (to get this major embarrassment put behind it asap) or if it goes into Committee for line by line scrutiny, prolonging the agony.

The NDP official opposition has asked for a debate on the Integrity Commissioner's recommendation to reprimand former Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, Steve Clark.

Provincial Land and Development Facilitator

The Provincial Land and Development Facilitator – a Government appointee little known outside planning and development circles – had a key role in negotiating development agreements with Michael Rice and those like him who bought Greenbelt land in the protected countryside in the expectation it could, at some stage, be opened up for development.

What's happened to Paula Dill?

Paula Dill has been the Provincial Land and Development Facilitator for many years with her appointment being renewed periodically. But, curiously, her name does not appear in the current list of Ontario public appointments. (see below)

Ms Dill was interviewed by the Integrity Commissioner, David Wake, in connection with his inquiry into the former Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, Steve Clark.

Development Agreements

Today I filed two Freedom of Information requests with the Municipal Affairs and Housing Ministry asking for sight of records relating to the mandate given to her by the now disgraced Steven Clark. The Integrity Commissioner tells us Paula Dill was asked:

“to facilitate discussions on the 15 sites in the Greenbelt that were removed or redesignated to achieve development agreements that would accommodate a shared vision for attaining the Government’s objectives in these sites.”

I have also asked for sight of all records relating to the agreement in principle and/or draft agreement between the Provincial Land and Development Facilitator and Michael Rice, owner of the Bathurst lands in King Township which were removed from the Greenbelt in December 2022. 

Deputation to King Council

Elsewhere… my deputation to King Council this evening was ruled out of order as the Township has no Open Forum for members of the public and what I wanted to talk about was outside the Council’s jurisdiction. The Township Clerk, Denny Timm, tells me:

“Council does not offer an open forum component during its meetings. Council’s procedural by-law precludes deputations on matters that are outside Council’s jurisdiction. Your request pertains to the Integrity Commissioner’s Report, the hospital site selection, and provincial decisions regarding the Greenbelt lands – matters that are outside of Council’s jurisdiction and within the jurisdiction of the Province. I am therefore unable to accommodate your request.” 

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Details

The Mayor of King Township, Steve Pellegrini, knows a lot more about the Greenbelt scandal than he is letting on.  

It seems to me he keeps his own Council in the dark.

And, for some unfathomable reason, they are terrified to ask about his role in trying to get a new hospital built on prime agricultural land in King’s protected Greenbelt.

The evidence shows Mayor Pellegrini cannot be relied upon to tell the truth. He said the first time he spoke to the developer Michael Rice was at a meeting on 1 November 2022 when Rice offered Southlake Chief Executive, Arden Krystal, land in the protected Greenbelt for a new hospital for a nominal fee. Pellegrini’s statement was false. And, to this day, he continues to dissemble.

Pellegrini's lunch with Rice

Pellegrini had lunch with Michael Rice at the Terra Restaurant in Vaughan on 10 August 2022 and had a meeting with the developer on 17 October 2022 to discuss the presentation to Southlake on 1 November 2022. Why did Pellegrini lie? It is inconceivable he would have forgotten meeting Michael Rice earlier.

On 19 April 2023, Pellegrini told me by email:

"I ask(ed) Mr. Rice at our lunch if he would be interested in donating land for the proposed 2nd Southlake. The follow-up meeting was to deal with this matter."

The follow-up meeting on 17 October 2022 included King's Director of Growth Management, Stephen Naylor.

"Moving this idea forward since 2019"

Pellegrini told the King Sentinel in February that he had been intimately involved in the search for a suitable site for a second Southlake:

“I have been moving this idea forward since 2019 – on different lands, with different landowners. At the time of our meeting, I brought the idea of a hospital forward to the Rice Group and they were open to discussion.”

But now, fearful where this Greenbelt scandal is going, he is furiously back-peddling, portraying himself as an interested bystander, insisting the real decisions will be taken by the Province and Southlake. (Click “read more” below for Pellegrini interview with Kelly Cutrara)

"Other lands"

In his report of 30 August 2023, the Integrity Commissioner, David Wake, wrote in paragraph 288:

“… the Mayor explained that other lands in the vicinity (of the Bathurst site) had already been discussed as a possible hospital site and that if Mr Rice contributed land from his recently purchased property, he believed it would potentially be a viable option for the hospital and a significant benefit for King Township.”

No-one on King Council – neither elected officials nor senior staff – will admit to knowing where these “other lands” are. Nor will they say who was involved in the discussions on whether these lands would be suitable for a new hospital. The Township has no records of any search for land suitable for a new hospital. Their Director of Growth Management, the tight-lipped Stephen Naylor, says nothing. There are no records of meetings where these “other lands” were considered. And no-one on King Council is curious enough to ask him.

Why doesn’t someone just ask him? 

I would love to have an hour on a public platform with Mayor Pellegrini, just the two of us, taking him through the Greenbelt scandal in his own municipality, asking him what he knew and when he knew it. But I doubt that’s going to happen.

Deputation turned down

So I put in for a deputation to speak to King Council on either 16 or 30 October 2023, whichever was the more convenient for them. In the five minutes allocated, I intended to put one or two simple and straightforward questions directly to Mayor Pellegrini, asking him to identify the “other lands” suitable for a new hospital and who was involved in the discussions. And who was the other party?

Was it John Dunlap, the (now former) Southlake Board Member, landowner and land agent who facilitated the sale of the Greenbelt lands from Bob Schickedanz to Michael Rice?

Unhappily, the Township Clerk, Denny Timm, tells me a deputation is not possible as:

“Council does not offer an open forum component during its meetings. Council’s procedural by-law precludes deputations on matters that are outside Council’s jurisdiction. Your request pertains to the Integrity Commissioner’s Report, the hospital site selection, and provincial decisions regarding the Greenbelt lands – matters that are outside of Council’s jurisdiction and within the jurisdiction of the Province. I am therefore unable to accommodate your request.”

It's too bad there is no open forum. Nor any report from staff updating Council members on the Province's change of heart on developing the Greenbelt. Perhaps I would have been able to hang a deputation on the back of that.

Code of Conduct. 

King Township’s Code of Conduct tells me:

“Members shall act and are expected to perform their functions with honesty, integrity, accountability and transparency.”

and

“in all respects, a member shall refrain from making statements known to be false or with intent to mislead Council or the public.”

I have been in touch with some other members of King Council about Pellegrini’s “other lands’ but they cannot shed any light on these discussions – when they happened and who was involved. I wrote to elected officials on 25 September 2023 (Click “read more” to see email) but all I get is radio silence.

Silence no longer an option

With the RCMP now involved, looking the other way is no longer a sustainable or defensible position. 

On Tuesday 10 October 2023, the RCMP announced it was launching a criminal investigation into

“allegations associated to the decision from the Province of Ontario to open parts of the Greenbelt for development.”

Yet less than two months ago - on 25 August 2023 - Doug Ford, the archetypal wide boy, told reporters he was confident nothing criminal took place in the lead up to the decision to open-up parts of the protected Greenbelt to development.

The RCMP should interview Steve Pellegrini under caution to find out what he knew about the deal to build on prime agricultural land in the protected Greenbelt in his own municipality and when he knew it.

Pellegrini should break the habit of a lifetime and tell the truth.

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See Timeline which shows who was involved and when. See also: King Township Official Plan September 2019

Click "read more" below for Pellegrini's interview with Kelly Cutrara and for my email to King Township's elected Officials.

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