Details

Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 28 September 2024

Tomorrow (Sunday 29 September 2024) Dawn Gallagher Murphy, Progressive Conservative MPP for Newmarket-Aurora, will be holding her third taxpayer-funded BBQ from 2pm-4pm at the Riverwalk Commons in Downtown Newmarket.

She says it is “free” but, in reality, we all pay for it.

Her first “Annual BBQ” on 16 October 2022 cost taxpayers $11,160. Her second BBQ on 22 October 2023 cost us $11,495. The costs come out of Gallagher Murphy’s “Office Operations” budget. 

She says it is an "absolutely appropriate" use of taxpayers' money and is within the rules.

Public subsidy

Gallagher Murphy - personally selected by Doug Ford as Newmarket-Aurora's PC candidate and ever since a cheerleader for FordNation - will be hoping for a much bigger attendance tomorrow than turned up last year. The event has been pulled forward from October and the weather forecast for tomorrow is sunny and warm.

Newmarket Today’s reporter at last year’s event, the highly regarded Joseph Quigley, originally estimated 200 people attended but the Editor subsequently corrected this figure to 400

“based on information provided by Dawn Gallagher Murphy's constituency office.” 

Even on Gallagher Murphy’s own figures each person attending the free BBQ was getting a public subsidy of $28.73.

Our MPP frequently talks about saving taxpayer dollars and fiscal responsibility but when it comes to managing her own office budget different considerations clearly apply.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 (Photo right: Last year's BBQ at 3pm - half way through the event.)

Details

Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 19 September 2024

Background: On 10 October 2023 the RCMP launched a criminal investigation into the Ford Government’s decision to open-up parts of the protected Greenbelt to development. Ontario’s Auditor General said the landowners could get a windfall in excess of $8.3 billion as property values skyrocket. One of the parcels of land – a 2.78sq km tract at Bathurst in rural King Township – was bought by developer Michael Rice on 15 September 2022 for $80M. On 1 November 2022 Rice offered some of his Bathurst lands to Southlake Regional Health Centre as the site of a new acute hospital. This was three days before the Government announced it would allow development in parts of the protected Greenbelt. In September 2023 Ford reversed course and dropped plans to open up the Greenbelt.

Preliminary Concept Plan

Almost two years after the Greenbelt Scandal broke Southlake Regional Health Centre  refuses to release details of their “preliminary concept plan” showing the approximate location of the proposed acute hospital at Bathurst and whether the space available could accommodate all the hospital’s requirements - the so-called “fit-test”.

Southlake insists it will not release “site sketches” and “drawings” held in their Capital Projects files even though these would help us understand what really happened. 

“Ready to Review Concepts”

On 7 November 2022 Rice wrote to Southlake’s Vice President of Capital and Facilities, John Marshman, telling him:

“We are ready to review concepts.”

And on 16 November 2022 Marshman met Michael Rice and Erin Lindsay (the Rice Group’s Vice President of Administration) at the Rice Group’s HQ in Markham.

We do not know what was said. But we know from his evidence to the Ontario Integrity Commissioner that Rice, a seasoned developer with decades of experience, believed it would be possible to build a hospital on the protected Greenbelt. He also believed the complex could accommodate a Long-Term Care facility and ancillary medical buildings. We do not know if Marshman shared this view or if he checked the position with the Ministry of Health which had examined the hospital’s Master Plan before approving its proposed two site solution. Marshman had known the Rice Group was thinking of offering of land to Southlake as early as January 2022. 

Southlake had been working on its Master Plan for a new hospital for years and submitted its proposals for a split site solution to the Ministry of Health on 31 January 2020. The existing Davis Drive site, which was overcrowded and cramped with no room to expand, would focus on ambulatory care and another site, ideally within a 10km radius, would be home to the new acute hospital. The Ministry’s Hospital Capital Planning and Policy Manual published in 2022 sets out the approvals process. 

Long-Term Care

We do not know if the Preliminary Concept Plan shows the location of the proposed Long-Term-Care facility. 

There was no mention of a Long-Term Care facility being incorporated into the acute hospital complex when Southlake’s plans were unveiled to the public in 2021. And Arden Krystal - Southlake's then Chief Executive - has never mentioned a  Long Term Care facility as being a possible add-on to the acute hospital.

Two documents

To this day, there are only two documents in the public domain showing the rough location of the new Southlake. They both show the hospital location straddling land in the protected Greenbelt owned by Rice and John Dunlap, a Southlake Board member until his resignation on 22 September 2022, a week after Rice bought the Bathurst lands for $80M.

Dunlap, a land agent by trade, facilitated the sale from the owners, Schickedanz Brothers, whose principal was Bob Schickedanz, the then President of the Ontario Home Builders Association.

We learn that Dunlap’s declaration of interest:

“related to the future site selection of the new build of a new hospital”.

Two years earlier (in July 2020) Dunlap told King Mayor Steve Pellegrini that he was prepared to donate land to Southlake for a new hospital and that if Pellegrini thought the idea had merit (which he did) he would

“continue to work with Southlake on a donation process”.

Southlake says it has no records of Dunlap ever offering land.

Rice lands shaded yellow

In any event, Rice presented the first schematic to Arden Krystal and John Marshman at the 1 November 2022 meeting. It showed the Rice lands shaded yellow. (See above right)

Both Krystal and Marshman say they took no notes, committing everything to memory. On 5 December 2022, Marshman presented his own schematic to the inaugural meeting of the Southlake Board’s Land Acquisition Sub Committee. But in this version the colour coding had been removed. If the Rice lands had been shaded in yellow in line with the original then Committee members would have asked the obvious question: why are we proposing to build on land that had not been donated to the hospital? 

We do not know if this was just a mistake by Marshman but, if so, he has not corrected the record.  (Marshman photo right and his slide, below right, which was presented to the Land Acquisition Sub Committee on 5 December 2022. My annotations are in yellow free hand.)

50 acre minimum

The heavily redacted minutes of that meeting tell us there was a discussion on the acreage required for the proposed hospital. Marshman said the 50-acre minimum was in line with Southlake’s Master Plan and the Committee was told this parcel size was 

“consistent with Ministry of Heath standard expectations”.

and that

“the test-fit exercise would validate the appropriateness of the parcel size.” 

On 16 January 2023 - Marshman chaired a meeting of architects, planners, facilities experts and senior people to discuss the “Bathurst-Davis Drive Opportunity”. A long-term care facility was now in the mix and would be part of the hospital complex.

No records

Southlake says there are no records of this meeting whose agenda included consideration of the approximate location of the new hospital, the proposed long term care facility and the scope of a possible Ministerial Zoning Order.

On 30 January 2023 Marshman emailed a senior colleague about the preliminary concept plan:  

“Please share with the Architects etc asap. Recognising this is not a sufficient parcel to meet our preliminary assessment, it at least provides a general location and preliminary configuration to block from.”

In architecture and planning, these “block plans” show how a proposed development relates to its surrounding environment. 

I am left wondering why the parcel was not big enough. Rice had all the land in the world to give to Southlake (2.78 sq km or 686 acres). And on 5 December 2022 Marshman told the LASC the 50 acres was in line with Southlake’s Master Plan.

Southlake says it cannot release its preliminary concept plan as it would reveal information about the role and involvement of (unspecified) third parties. They would have to be consulted and given the opportunity to challenge release of the material. 

Fading memories

These interminable delays have important consequences. Since the scandal first broke almost two years ago, memories have faded. Key people at the very top of the organisation have left Southlake. Their email accounts have been deleted.

We know from his interview with the Integrity Commissioner, David Wake, that Rice would never have offered land to Southlake if he had known in the summer of 2022 that the Bathurst lands would be taken out of the Greenbelt. He said 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 of a hospital on the Bathurst lands.

Rice says it was only because he had given an earlier commitment to the Southlake people that he would make land available that he stuck with his “promise”.

The preliminary concept plan of 30 January 2023 is likely to tell us what else the development might include other than the acute hospital. And, importantly, it would give us the “general location”.

For these and other reasons the plan should be made public.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Details

Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 15 September 2024

It is surprisingly difficult to get information from Newmarket Public Library about its own operations. Just basic stuff such as the type of material being borrowed. 

And this from an organisation whose Delphic new slogan promises: “Anything and Everywhere”.

For years I’ve believed the Library is simply too small and no longer fit for purpose. This was the firm view of the Library’s previous Chief Executive, Todd Kyle, who is now running Brampton’s eight libraries.

In our area Georgina and East Gwillimbury have three libraries each and Aurora and Whitchurch-Stouffville have a single library like Newmarket but with much smaller populations.

The current library board is not pressing for a new library – or, indeed, an additional branch – and one of its members, Councillor Victor Woodhouse, ridicules the very idea.

And although some members of the Town Council in the past have either championed a new library or have been sympathetic, these days are long gone. The Council decided early in its current term that a new library was not a “strategic priority”.

Who uses the Library?

But the one question that won’t go away is this: who uses the library? Is the building in Park Avenue essentially a neighbourhood library for Ward 5 and the Downtown or are its members and users spread across Newmarket?

When the Library Chief Executive, Tracy Munusami, presented her “Report to the Community 2023” to the Town Council on 8 April this year, Ward 7 councillor Christina Bisanz asked her if she tracked where people visiting the library and have library cards actually live. This might give:

“some indication of where there’s an opportunity to raise even more awareness of not only the physical library itself but the different services you provide.”

The Chief Executive said she looked at the ward split for library cards in 2022:

 “And there were some wards that did have more library card users than others and so we’ve used that data to try to target where our outreaches are in the community.”

She told councillors she hadn’t done a follow-up since then but she could find out.

I’m waiting.

Perhaps the Library Board when it meets this Wednesday (18 September 2024) can ask for this basic information and share it with the Mayor and Council and public.

Statistics

For over a decade, a full range of statistics was routinely reported to the Library Board which allowed for meaningful comparisons to be made year over year. This is no longer the case. The 2023 statistics, for example, don’t even give the total number of Newmarket Library card holders.

I asked the Town for sight of the full range of statistics for 2023 – beyond those selectively highlighted in the “Report to the Community 2023”. I was told these were not available:

“Unfortunately, the requested statistics cannot be provided. Statistics such as renewed members and number of cardholders must be pulled in real-time, and no 2023 data is available. Due to changes in the software used for booking programming we cannot provide detailed breakdowns of program and program attendance only aggregates. Circulation statistics cannot be provided in detail in the same categories as there was a cataloguing error resulting in missing data when broken down into categories.”

Back in April, the Mayor John Taylor told Tracy Munusami there was a lot of interest in Library data and he wanted her to share “some of the good news story”.

Telling us the number of Library members by Newmarket Ward would be a good start.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Details

Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 11 July 2024

I laughed out loud when I read that yesterday Conrad Black, aka Lord Black of Crossharbour, had been expelled from the House of Lords for non-attendance. 

I’ve been blogging on-and-off for years about the convicted fraudster Conrad Black, well before he threatened to sue me for defamation. 

Unaware

Black told the CBC he was unaware that his membership of the Lords had been terminated. He said it didn't really matter to him but he was surprised he wasn't notified first.

For years Black hasn't been remotely interested in what was happening in the UK Parliament - nor in keeping up with the evolving rules governing its membership.

Yesterday morning peers were told that Lord Black had ceased to be a member 

"pursuant to Section 2 of the House of Lords Reform Act 2014, by virtue of non-attendance in the last Session"

Planning to return

After he was released from prison in Florida he told the BBC in 2019 that he planned to return to the Lords but it didn’t happen.

It may have been something to do with his opaque tax status. I don’t know.

I have long been interested in his tax affairs. After the Ashcroft scandal in early 2010 the UK Parliament passed the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act which obliged all members of the UK Parliament to pay UK tax.

Unlike members of the House of Commons who, as a matter of practical politics, have to live in the UK, peers can live absolutely anywhere. Even, dare I say, in Canada.

Tax status

Years ago I pressed the House of Lords authorities to ask all peers if they paid UK tax. They refused to do so. In the genteel and trusting world of the House of Lords that was a step too far.

But they did say they would remind all peers of their obligation under the 2010 Act to pay UK tax.

Conrad Black wouldn't have liked that.

My Freedom of Information requests to HMRC and the CRA about Lord Black’s tax status predictably ran into the sands of taxpayer confidentiality and got nowhere. I found it impossible to establish if all members of the UK Parliament complied with the requirement to pay UK tax.

"Fully qualified"

In 2021 I asked Black if he satisfied the requirements for membership of the UK Parliament or if he was there under false pretences he told me:

 “Of course I am fully qualified to hold the status I do.”

Black, the convicted fraudster, is inviting us to take that on trust. (I don't.)

Black will, of course, keep his honorific title though I doubt he will use it here in Canada. 

But I suspect he will still be Lord Black when he books a restaurant table in London.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.