Gordon Prentice at Large - Politics in Newmarket
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
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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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
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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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
The Toronto Star has today published this correction to a news story it ran on 11 April 2015.
- "An April 11 article about what municipal leaders were paid in 2014 misstated the salary of Newmarket mayor Tony Van Bynen. Van Bynen’s salary was not $182, 000.
"In fact, Van Bynen’s total compensation was $159.856.84 in 2014. That included $91,164.26 in salary for his role as mayor (which includes a tax-free portion of $30,379) and $53,165.58 salary for serving as a representative of York council. His compensation also included taxable benefits of $6,762 from the town and $8,794 in benefits from the region.
"The article also mistakenly said that Winnipeg mayor Brian Bowman was paid $178,114 in 2014. In fact, Bowman only became mayor in November of 2014."
Tony Van Bynen is also a director of Newmarket Hydro by virtue of his office as Mayor. We must assume this is not remunerated.