Newmarket Regional Councillor John Taylor tells us no land will be sold or transferred in relation to the Clock Tower site “unless in relation to a Council approved and endorsed development and only after the project has significantly advanced”. This is reassuring.

Taylor also says

“the potential for a land sale or transfer has been in public Council reports going back to 2013 – so it has been no secret.”

True. But we are not mindreaders.

We do not know what goes on in closed session until someone decides to tell us. Glenway is a case in point. The Town considered acquiring the Glenway lands in 2008. This fact was kept secret for years, not just from us, the great unwashed, but also from the OMB.

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The Reform of the OMB

Ward 7 councillor Christina Bisanz deserves hearty congratulations and a big round of applause for setting the Town's policy on OMB reform (See agenda item 25 of the Committee of the Whole of 18 April 2016).

OMB reform was the Mayor's top priority for his third term but if we had waited for Van Bynen to act, we would still be waiting.

It took Bisanz, seared by the Glenway experience, to get the ball rolling. In so many key areas of policy - and this is one - Van Bynen simply floats above it all, mouthing platitudes, waiting for others to take the initiative.

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