Search - Gordon Prentice at Large - Politics in Newmarket

1. Housing the homeless: the case against Tom "not in my patch" Mraka: (Blog); On 13 February 2024, Aurora council considered a proposal from York Regional Council to locate a new 55-unit transitional housing/ emergency shelter for men at 14452 Yonge Street on land owned by the Region. ...; Created on 13 April 2024
2. Allow municipalities to build new homes for people in housing need says Richmond Hill’s Joe DiPaola: (Blog); Why shouldn’t municipalities be given powers to build homes for those in housing need? That’s the question being asked by Richmond Hill’s Joe DiPaola, and why not? Governments have long since left ...; Created on 07 April 2024
3. Tom Mrakas and Emergency Housing: (Blog); It is difficult not to feel disappointed with Aurora Mayor Tom Mrakas who, last week, voted against York Region’s proposed 55-unit transitional housing/ emergency shelter for men at 14452 Yonge Street. ...; Created on 19 February 2024
4. York Region has enough housing approved or in the pipeline to meet Ford's targets without building on the Greenbelt: (Blog); Ontario's beleaguered Premier, Doug Ford, maintains the pretence that he needs Greenbelt land to tackle the Province’s housing crisis. Yet the task force which he himself appointed makes it clear Greenbelt ...; Created on 02 September 2023
5. The Greenbelt Scandal: Steve Clark cuts a pathetic figure as he clings on as Housing Minister: (Blog); ... Amongst other things, the Auditor General wanted to talk to Rice to find out more about his approaches to servicing housing developments and whether land recently removed from the Greenbelt would be ...; Created on 31 August 2023
6. Former Steve Clark aide, Luca Bucci, boasts that Ford’s planning and housing policies are now written by home builders association: (Blog); Luca Bucci, the former Chief of Staff to Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, Steve Clark, and now Chief Executive of the Ontario Home Builders Association (OMBA), told "industry leaders" in a state ...; Created on 15 July 2023
7. Affordable Housing: (Blog); I want to see more affordable housing in Newmarket - and across York Region. We are in the middle of a housing crisis. Too many people can't afford to put a roof over their head. House prices here ...; Created on 02 October 2022
8. Deerfield Road and affordable housing in Newmarket: (Blog); We all know there is a housing affordability crisis in Newmarket. Redwood on Yonge. On the old Slessor site. The question is: what can we do about it? In 2016 a fifth of all residential ...; Created on 16 April 2018
9. Affordable Housing and the Green Lane Secondary Plan: (Blog); The lack of affordable housing in Newmarket and elsewhere in York Region is a big issue that is not going to disappear any time soon. Newmarket’s planners say the 35% affordable target set by the Region ...; Created on 26 February 2018
10. Redwood on Yonge and Affordable Housing: (Blog); ... The Town's Secondary Plan reflects regional policy by stipulating that a minimum of 35% of new housing units in the Urban Centre (which includes 17645 Yonge Street) shall be affordable to low and moderate ...; Created on 13 November 2017
11. Housing, Prices and Availability: (Blog); Tomorrow (29 May) York Region's Chief Planner, Valerie Shuttleworth, and Rick Farrell, General Manager Housing Services, will be giving a presentation to Newmarket's Committee of the Whole on housing initiatives ...; Created on 28 May 2017
12. Housing Supply and Sewage Treatment in York Region: (Blog); New housing developments will grind to a halt in Aurora in 2019 because of water and wastewater capacity constraints that won't be resolved until the Upper York Sewage Solutions (UYSS) project is completed ...; Created on 24 May 2017
13. Newmarket's scorching housing market is unsustainabl: (Blog); ... the street. Jay Miller cautiously adds - "to date of sale". Housing hysteria House prices are spinning wildly out of control. And it cannot go on. This madness is infecting the entire GTA. The prices ...; Created on 15 April 2017
14. Affordable Housing - a little less conversation, a little more action: (Blog); There is something surreal about watching a debate in York Regional Council about affordable housing. It is a very clubby atmosphere and disagreements, where these exist, are expressed gently. The ...; Created on 13 November 2016
15. Unaffordable Housing: (Blog); At York Region’s Committee of the Whole (11 June) The Region’s Chief Planner, Valerie Shuttleworth, takes us through the paper “Affordable Housing Measuring and Monitoring Guidelines”. But first, her ...; Created on 12 June 2015
16. Affordable housing in Newmarket is simply unaffordable: (Blog); Only 8% (or 21) out of 277 new housing units completed and sold in Newmarket last year were deemed “affordable” according to a report going to York Region’s Committee of the Whole this week (11 June 2015). ...; Created on 08 June 2015
17. Is Affordable Housing Unaffordable?: (Blog); A new “Guideline Document” on housing affordability in York Region will be published “before June” according to Valerie Shuttleworth, the Region's Director of Long Range Planning. She told Regional Councillors ...; Created on 09 March 2014
18. Affordable Housing that is out of reach: (Blog); Slessor Square says it is making proper provision for affordable housing in its proposed giant development on Yonge opposite Upper Canada Mall. They are simply following the provincial definition of affordability. ...; Created on 09 May 2012
19. Affordable housing?: (Blog); Does the Slessor Square development deliver affordable housing? Curiously, there was no mention of affordable housing in the original Slessor application that went before the Council in November last ...; Created on 23 February 2012
20. Affordable housing must be part of Slessor Square: (News); Marion Plaunt Planning Department Town of Newmarket Dear Ms. Plaunt, Here are the themes I mentioned on Tuesday night during the public meeting about the proposed Slessor Square development. I ...; Created on 15 February 2012
21. The Greenbelt Scandal: A Postscript on Southlake’s Acute Hospital at Bathurst that never got off the ground: (Blog); ... On 4 November 2022, the Housing minister, Steve Clark, announced that certain Greenbelt lands were to be opened for development. Backlash Ford’s Greenbelt policy generated a huge backlash from the ...; Created on 24 March 2026
22. Whatever happened to… the RCMP investigation into the Greenbelt scandal?: (Blog); ... Queen's Park reporter, Robert Benzie, told us: “…former housing minister Steve Clark, former business minister Kaleed Rasheed, and Clark’s former chief of staff, Ryan Amato — have not been interviewed ...; Created on 22 December 2025
23. Tony Van Bynen plots regime change at tomorrow's Liberal Association AGM ...: (Blog); ... has now doubled. Instead of restoring discipline, the government is rewriting the rules and stretching the definition of capital investment so far that even subsidies, tax breaks and housing incentives ...; Created on 18 October 2025
24. The Homelessness Crisis: Time to License Lodging Houses: (Blog); Background: Tomorrow (Thursday (11 September 2025) York Region's Housing and Homelessness Committee will consider a new report on the characteristics of homeless people living in the Region. Who are they? ...; Created on 09 September 2025
25. Regulating Lodging Houses: the case of "Pastor" Saeid Rezae: (Blog); ... at housing and housing affordability but there is no mention of lodging houses and the role, if any, they could play. Unregulated and unlicensed lodging (or rooming) houses currently fly under the municipal ...; Created on 20 August 2025
26. Who are the homeless in Newmarket?: (Blog); Next month, on 11 September, a report to York Region’s new Housing and Homelessness Committee will paint a picture of homeless people who were living in the Region late last year. This “point-in-time” ...; Created on 12 August 2025
27. Postscript: "Extraordinary assumptions" and the valuation of land at Glenway Wes: (Blog); ... “like-to-like” housing forms where adjacent to existing single detached dwellings, or use intervening parkland where a more intensive housing form isintroduced. Use of special zoning provisions, where ...; Created on 16 June 2025
28. Why doesn't the Town license Boarding Houses in Newmarket: (Blog); ... Generally, the clientele are transitioning between housing tenures or locations, and have no other place of residence.” I have no idea how many boarding houses there are in Newmarket but the 2021 census ...; Created on 18 May 2025
29. Bogus land valuation nets developer a multi-million dollar tax windfall: (Blog); ... housing. It was the deal of the century which generated a huge profit for the developer who (successfully) gambled on being able to change the land use designation from open space to housing. The Town ...; Created on 03 May 2025
30. Liberal wannabe MP Jennifer McLachlan wins hands down: (Blog); ... housing; zero emission vehicles, expanded public transit systems, ten new national parks and all the rest. And you can’t talk about the environment these days and shut out the unfolding disaster in the ...; Created on 16 April 2025
31. All Candidates Forum in Newmarket-Aurora planned for this Tuesday, 15 April: (Blog); ... writes: While some NDP, Green and Liberal candidates have endorsed the platform, including former Liberal minister of housing Nate Erskine-Smith, local candidates have not yet done so. Liberal candidate ...; Created on 13 April 2025
32. The Federal election in Newmarket-Aurora is too close to call: (Blog); ... I recall Newmarket Mayor John Taylor demanding a debate in 2022 with Ford’s then Housing Minister, Steve Clark, who later presided over the Greenbelt scandal (and claimed ignorance of what was going on ...; Created on 26 March 2025
33. “Dawn Gallagher Murphy is a horrible person”: (Blog); ... reality. Chris Ballard is authentic in a way that Gallagher Murphy isn’t. He has pledged to focus on big local issues such as Southlake, affordable housing and transport. He knows the climate change ...; Created on 23 February 2025
34. The Election in Newmarket Aurora: 10 days to go and time to consider tactical voting: (Blog); ... Wake, recommended the Ontario Legislature reprimand the former Housing Minister, Steve Clark, for his role in the Greenbelt scandal. The Ford Government never brought the recommendation to the floor of ...; Created on 17 February 2025
35. Southlake aims to make up lost ground after two years mired in Greenbelt controversy: (Blog); ... the end of 2022 by proposing to restore all of the properties that were redesignated or removed from the greenbelt.” "Not supported by the people of Ontario" Paul Calandra who took over the Housing ...; Created on 29 November 2024
36. The Greenbelt Scandal: Southlake Appeals go to Adjudicator: (Blog); ... HQ, Michael Rice handed over documents, maps and plans to Ryan Amato, then Chief of Staff to Housing Minister, Steve Clark. There was no mention of a hospital on the Bathurst lands. Rice apparently had ...; Created on 04 November 2024
37. Doug Ford the surprise guest at Dawn Gallagher Murphy's third tax-payer funded BB: (Blog); ... the Government’s housing policy. Undeliverable Taylor had impertinently dismissed Ford’s housing targets as “undeliverable” and accused the Premier of planning to transfer huge infrastructure costs ...; Created on 30 September 2024
38. The Greenbelt Scandal: Southlake refuses to release "preliminary concept plan" for the now abandoned acute hospital in Kin: (Blog); ... he would have developed the land for housing. Indeed, the material he handed over to Ryan Amato – the Chief of Staff to the former Housing Minister Steve Clark - at the end of September 2022 makes no mention ...; Created on 18 September 2024
39. Steve Clark: Disgraced, Promoted... and Waiting to be Reprimanded: (Blog); ... back into the inner circle. Clark - the disgraced former Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing – is currently outside the Cabinet but that won’t last for long. As the Government House Leader, ...; Created on 09 June 2024
40. Southlake struggling to find a new site for its acute hospital complex: (Blog); ... scandal grinds on. To this day, the disgraced former Housing Minister Steve Clark has still not offered an apology to the Legislative Assembly for his role in the Greenbelt scandal. The recommendation ...; Created on 27 March 2024
41. Aurora Mayor Tom Mrakas wants to house homeless men in York Region’s underused HQ: (Blog); ... that can be potentially repurposed for other regional priorities including supportive housing. Cack-handed We shall see in due course if Tom is the leader that gets things done or if this is just a ...; Created on 05 March 2024
42. Frank Scarpitti and his dreams of a Mega City: (Blog); ... Ford ridiculed the idea. In September the new Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, Paul Calandra, asked the Provincial Parliament’s Heritage and Infrastructure Committee to take on the work of assessing ...; Created on 10 February 2024
43. The Greenbelt Scandal: Michael Rice, John Dunlap, Steve Pellegrini and the new Southlake: (Blog); In 2023 the developer Michael Rice was interviewed under oath by the Integrity Commissioner, David Wake, who was conducting an investigation into the conduct of the former municipal affairs and housing ...; Created on 29 December 2023
44. It’s no secret: our Freedom of Information laws need an overhaul: (Blog); ... Hospital and with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and hit road blocks at every turn. Endless delays. Staggering costs. Hoping I just go away. I have been told no records exist when they ...; Created on 17 December 2023
45. Ford to deliver on his Beer Store promise after eight years: (Blog); ... and Housing Minister, Steve Clark, used to complain about the way in which the (then) Liberal Government was constantly trying to curtail debate. On 28 May 2015 he fumed: “Time after time, we’ve had ...; Created on 15 December 2023
46. Calandra abandons plans to dissolve Peel Region: (Blog); Another screeching U-turn from the Ford Government as Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra abandons plans to dissolve Peel Region. In a news release earlier today Calandra talks about ...; Created on 13 December 2023
47. We have a Government that stifles debate, ignores rules, trashes conventions and breaks the law. What is to be done?: (Blog); ... The Acting Auditor General Nick Stavropoulos says the Government made: “significant changes to energy, land-use planning and housing policies without meaningful consultation, undermining Ontarians’ ...; Created on 06 December 2023
48. The Greenbelt Scandal in King: Understanding what really happened and why: (Blog); ... that on 27 or 28 September 2022 - after Rice met the then Housing Minister’s Chief of Staff, Ryan Amato, at his Markham head office - he (Rice) concluded that Government policy on the Greenbelt was going ...; Created on 30 November 2023
49. Ford rules out public hearings on Bill which returns lands to the Greenbelt: (Blog); ... him grounded and in touch with ordinary folks. This is "buck-a-beer" fiction. Ford’s consigliere, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, Government House Leader and Minister of Legislative Affairs, Paul ...; Created on 21 November 2023
50. Paul Calandra: “We made a public policy decision that was not supported by the people of the Province of Ontario.": (Blog); PLBNpH1eUSmIozIdoWyvmn7jFEuPUP5Ept Paul Calandra, the new Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, endlessly repeats the line: "We made a public policy decision that was not supported by the people ...; Created on 13 November 2023