Gordon Prentice at Large - Politics in Newmarket
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
I drop in to the Metrolinx open house on rail electrification at the Community Centre in Doug Duncan Drive, Newmarket. It is Wednesday 5 July 2017 at 7pm and there is a good crowd - mostly people who will be directly affected as they live close to the rail tracks. 
Metrolinx is planning to electrify the entire Barrie line from Toronto up to Allandale. I am very much in favour of this but it should have happened twenty years ago.
As I enter it is impossible to miss Chris Ballard, Newmarket-Aurora's smiley MPP, who is standing strategically by the entrance, making sure his constituents know he is here.
When the facilitator (with a melodious faintly Bronx accent) asks how many people actually use GO trains only five hands go up, including Chris Ballard's and mine. Oh dear! Then again, most people - including rail commuters - are getting on with their lives rather than sitting through two hours on the minutiae of electrification, overhead wires, gantries and all that stuff.
I am here to learn more about electrification and level crossings. We have four of these in Newmarket and only one will disappear as a result of grade separation - Mulock Drive.
25,000 volts
The remodelled Davis Drive is going to be a jumble of wires. The thick cables slung from the hydro poles will be joined by sizzling 25,000 volt overhead wires above the level crossing, adding to the general clutter.
Of course, 25,000 volts is no big deal. There are level crossings all over the world with live wires above them. Hmmm.
Electricity can jump or arc so you don't need to touch the wire to get electrocuted. So I suspect open top double-decker buses will be a no-no on Davis Drive. And these SUVs sporting ridiculously long wavy aerials would be well advised to find another route. 
As it happens, the questions from the audience touch on a thousand issues far removed from the main topic, electrification.
15 minute service
Some people are getting quite animated about the 15 minute service stopping at Aurora, calling for it to be extended northwards. Hear! Hear! I say, turning towards Chris Ballard.
He smiles and hints this is his next project.
Over two years ago, on 17 April 2015, he tweeted:
"Enhanced service coming to Newmarket. Need time to build a number of crossings in Newmarket before 15 minute service possible, though."
I can understand why he would want to move the 15 minute cut-off point to Newmarket, East Gwillimbury or points north. An army of commuters is going to descend on Aurora to take advantage of the 15 minute service. No doubt about it. The figures from Metrolinx' studies already predict this. 
No rush says Van Trappist
We in Newmarket, a designated Place to Grow, will have the silver service while Aurora gets the gold. Our steady-as-she-goes, don't rock the boat Mayor, Tony Van Trappist, told the Council on 9 November 2015:
"In my own mind the difference between a 15 minute and 30 minute service doesn't change the world although I think eventually we'll need to get there. But I'd rather see us easing in to that, responding to the demand as we go forward."
Someone asks why Aurora? And we get referred to a 2013 study which suggests it was all thoroughly examined. But was it?
Population up
We shall soon be seeing explosive population growth in East Gwillimbury. Newmarket's population grew by 5.3% from 2011-2016 (above the national average) while Aurora's increased by 4.2%.
I recall Leslie Woo, Metrolinx Chief Planning Officer, telling Newmarket councillors on 9 November 2015:
"Newmarket will be getting two-way all-day service every 30 minutes. When we were developing the business case for Regional Express Rail there are several markers for evaluating the extent of the ten year program. It is based upon ridership uptake and also the level of difficulty for implementation. It was felt Aurora would be the best "edge-point" for the 15 minute service and that was the business case for going to Aurora. Every 30 minutes to Newmarket."
Ballard would like to push that "edge-point" north but the cost could be cripplingly expensive. I understand that but I don't lose sleep over these things. I'm not the Minister of Finance. (As if!)
Phasing out level crossings
Transport Canada guidelines say grade separations are warranted where the "exposure index" exceeds 200,000. (The index multiplies daily road vehicle traffic by daily train traffic.)
In 2015, the index was exceeded at Mulock Drive (458,400), Davis Drive (396,000) and Green Lane (464,400).
Metrolinx say they don't have the money to do everything they want to do. Fair enough. It is a huge undertaking with lots of moving parts.
But I am left wondering how much time Chris Ballard needs before we get the grade separations that will allow a 15 minute service to Newmarket.
It is not a trick question.
Difficult. Yes.
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
All is not well in Whitchurch-Stouffville if we are to believe the Toronto Star. 
Tuesday's front page splash by Noor Javed paints a picture of a dysfunctional Council with a "CSI-style" wall in Mayor Justin Altmann's office washroom
"that displayed dozens of photos and names of fellow and former councillors, members of the public, and town staffers who have either been dismissed or resigned from their jobs in recent years."
Maybe the Mayor has trouble remembering names and this is his own - admittedly unusual - aide mémoire.
More concerning perhaps is the way the Town is going through staff. The turnover is unbelievably high. I had no idea the former Chief Administrative Officer Marc Pourvahidi has been on administrative leave for over a year and is on an eye-watering salary of $447,289.
It makes Newmarket's Bob Shelton - who gets $247,641 - look like a poor country cousin.
I am quiet and like to listen
From time to time I see Justin Altmann at York Regional Council. He says he is a quiet man who likes to listen. In fact, he contributes even less than Tony Van Trappist who snoozes through meetings, totally oblivious to what is happening around him.
Personally, I expect more from our representatives than being mute lumps of lard. The members of York Regional Council get a "stipend" of $54,337. For this, I expect them to be active participants in debates, not gawping spectators.
Of course, politicians have a duty to listen to their constituents and to others. But they cannot shelter in silence, like Newmarket's Tony Van Trappist, unwilling or unable to express a view.
At first I thought Mayor Altmann was a deep thinker, weighing the pros and cons before pronouncing. But when he refused to pronounce on anything I pretty much wrote him off.
Torrent of questions
Then there was a remarkable contribution last November when Altmann unleashed a torrent of questions about housing on the unsuspecting Chief Planner, Valerie Shuttleworth - all in one go. She couldn't possibly answer a dozen questions all rolled up into this humungous omnibus question. And she didn't try to.
At the time I thought, how strange. It was more than a stream of consciousness.
It was like the dam had burst. And after months of bottling-up his contributions and saying nothing it all came cascading out.
Update on 8 July 2017. Saturday's Toronto Star has more on the Mayor's "creepy" washroom.
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
On 20 October 2017 the Town of Newmarket will ask the Superior Court for a declaration that the land swap agreement it entered into with Michael Bryan in 2003 is binding on Bryan's successor in title, Bob Forrest's Main Street Clock Inc.
The Town's counsel, Leo Longo, served notice on Forrest's lawyer, Ira Kagan, on 14 June 2017, and filed papers with the Court. As I tap this out there has been no response from Forrest's lawyer as of this afternoon when I wandered down to the Courthouse in Eagle Street to check the files.
We learn that those who wish to oppose the application
"must forthwith prepare a notice of appearance in Form 38A"
and serve it on the Town and file it, with proof of service, in the Court office.
Form 38A simply requires Forrest to state if he is going to respond to the application. Seems pretty straightforward to me. The complicated stuff comes later.
If Forrest chooses not to respond then it is all over. The Court would undoubtedly order the land exchange that was foreshadowed in the 2003 agreement but, inexplicably, was never carried out. It would mean curtains for Bob's dream of a towering new condo in the heart of the old downtown.
We have this weird situation where the OMB appeal and the Court application are running in parallel. Yet what happens with the latter directly affects the trajectory of the first.
All the Parties have to prepare issues lists for submission to Forrest's lawyer, Ira Kagan, who will combine them all into a draft Procedural Order which must be sent to the OMB by this Friday (7 July 2017).
I am a putative Party (representing the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario) but I am also a concerned taxpayer who wants to see the costs of going to the OMB kept to the absolute minimum. The Town is right to defend its position at the OMB but should take all possible steps to bring things to a close asap.
If Forrest is going to contest the Town's application to the Superior Court he should, M'Lud, do so forthwith.
Note: The Town's application to the Superior Court of Justice is brought under Rule 14.05(3)(d), (e) and (g) of the Rules of Civil Procedure which state:
14.05 (3) A proceeding may be brought by application where these rules authorize the commencement of a proceeding by application or where the relief claimed is,
(d) the determination of rights that depend on the interpretation of a deed, will, contract or other instrument, or on the interpretation of a statute, order in council, regulation or municipal by-law or resolution;
(e) the declaration of an interest in or charge on land, including the nature and extent of the interest or charge or the boundaries of the land, or the settling of the priority of interests or charges;
(g) an injunction, mandatory order or declaration or the appointment of a receiver or other consequential relief when ancillary to relief claimed in a proceeding properly commenced by a notice of application;