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Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 22 October 2021

Zoom is everywhere.

Yet only a few years ago a majority of members of York Regional Council actively resisted allowing the cameras into their meetings. They feared the cameras.

Markham’s Mayor, Frank Scarpitti, didn’t think he was pretty enough. He said he would have to remember to get his hair done before meetings.

Not that there is much left to comb.

In 2017 Scarpitti thought presentations by staff using slides and graphics could be streamed but then the plug would be pulled, leaving the screen blank. He insisted audio was

“more than adequate”

No close-ups

When York Regional Council finally bit the bullet and agreed to cameras in the Council Chamber he said he didn’t want close-ups.

"I don't think we should be zooming in."

He warned that visuals could be used for political purposes.

I thought about that remark last week when Scarpitti was the lone vote against investigating a possible tax on empty properties in York Region.

He is shown holding up his red NO voting card.

Years ago he warned his colleagues on York Regional Council that images could be used against them:

"The material can be manipulated for political purposes!"

Yup. He was right on that one.

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Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 20 October 2021

Colin Powell, 84, who died on Monday (18 October), regretted the part he played in persuading so many people that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction. He said it was a blot on his record.  

Powell’s presentation to the UN Security Council on 5 February 2003 paved the way for the invasion. (Photo: Powell making his case at the UN)

I wasn’t persuaded. 

On 18 March 2003, I was one of 139 Labour MPs in the UK House of Commons who voted against the war with Iraq. But there weren't enough of us.  

The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, won the Commons vote with the help of the Conservative Opposition and got the war he wanted.

The British Foreign Secretary at the time, Jack Straw, like Colin Powell, later regretted the intelligence failures that led to war.

In his autobiography, Last Man Standing, Jack writes: 

“I have been asked a million times since the invasion whether, knowing then what I know now, I would have made the same decision. No, I wouldn’t. How could we have agreed to invade Iraq if we had known that there were no WMD there? But the question serves no purpose. We made a decision based on what we believed to be the case at the time.”

"I couldn't have done it without you."

He goes on:

“Tony thanked me immediately after the vote, adding, “I couldn’t have done it without you.”  This was gracious of him, as I told him, but it made my sense of responsibility all the greater because if I had argued publicly against the war, the UK would not have been involved. This is not conceit. It’s true.” 

Jack’s predecessor as Foreign Secretary, the late Robin Cook, resigned from the Government over the Iraq war. Robin said that by the time of the Commons vote on 18 March 2003, Blair no longer believed there were WMDs in Iraq.

No Weapons of Mass Destruction

In his memoir, The Point of Departure, Robin recalls a conversation with Blair just days before the crucial Commons vote. 

“Tony did not try to argue me out of the view I expressed that Saddam did not have real weapons of mass destruction that were designed for strategic use against city populations and capable of being delivered with reliability over long distances. I had now expressed that view to both the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee and to the Prime Minister and both had assented in it.” 

He goes on:

“I have no reason to doubt that Tony Blair believed in September (2002) that Saddam really had weapons of mass destruction ready for firing within forty-five minutes. What was clear from this conversation was that he did not believe it himself in March (2003).”   

Canada made the right call

Canada’s Prime Minister at the time, Jean Chrétien, made the right call in keeping Canada out of it all.

He never believed the intelligence the United States claimed to have that Iraq had amassed weapons of mass destruction.

The Iraq War was a terrible mistake. 

Tragically, we are still living with the consequences.

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The Report of the Iraq Inquiry was published in 2016. The summary of its findings is here. The US invasion of Iraq started on 20 March 2003.

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Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 18 October 2021

Markham's Mayor, the bald baritone, Frank Scarpitti, surprised many last week when he was the sole vote against a proposal to develop a feasibility study which could result in a vacant homes tax for York Region. 

Scarpitti, one of the highest paid Mayors in Canada, tells his colleagues on York Region’s Committee of the Whole that a Vacant Property Tax would infringe property rights and could be the thin end of the wedge.

“I mean what is next? If someone owns a cottage in York region and it is sitting empty half the year are we going to start taxing that because it could be used during the winter months to potentially house someone?”

“If someone's an empty nester, a single widow in a single family home, are we going to start saying that's way too much space for someone and they should be taxed because they're not fully (occupying it)?” 

His colleagues guffaw when he says this.

He tells them not to laugh.

A Tax to Support Affordable Housing

The staff report recommends that revenues from a Vacant Homes Tax, net of costs, should be earmarked to support affordable housing initiatives. Sounds OK to me.

The report estimates that a 1% - 2% Region-wide Tax could generate between $15M - $90M in gross revenues in the first year although the tax take would be expected to decline in future years as owners sell or rent out their properties rather than keep them empty.

York Region is crying out for more affordable housing.

The Region’s 2020 housing affordability analysis says only 8% of new housing is affordable. The report tells us: 

“Housing costs should not exceed 30% of gross income to be affordable. York Region has the highest proportion of households in the GTHA spending over 30% and over 50% of their income on housing costs. One of the key factors impacting housing affordability is that increases to housing prices have far outpaced increases to average incomes. Since 2007 average resale home prices in York Region have increased by over 150% whereas average family income has increased by less than 20%.”  

Newmarket is a hotspot

We know that Newmarket is one of the country’s housing hotspots. In 2016 a report in Macleans magazine told us a staggering 20.6% of home sales in Newmarket were purchased as investment properties. It’s old data but I’m pretty sure things haven’t changed that much. Investors from China and from all over the world see Canada as a safe berth for their money. Canada is a stable democracy governed by the rule of law. Why not use property as a store of wealth even if it is kept empty? Frank thinks that's OK.

The one saving grace in Frank’s absurd little speech is his call for development approvals to lapse if they are not acted on:

“I think development approvals should only last for so long. If someone's gonna sit on a draft plan and not build anything for 10 years unless there's some really extraordinary circumstances, they should maybe lose their right, or at least defer their right to build, and let someone else go ahead.”

Development approvals must be acted upon

Why hasn’t he pushed for this before now? He is influential. He hogs the limelight. He has something to say about everything. He is a big beast in the municipal jungle. What is he going to do about it? I’ve been pressing for this for years, with Newmarket examples, but no politician has picked up the ball and run with it.

My advice to Frank is simple enough. Drop your opposition to the Vacant Homes Tax and make the lapsing of development approvals your top priority.

If you do this you may begin to justify your wildly inflated and extravagant salary. 

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Update on 18 October 2021: In my comments on development approvals I unfairly lumped all politicians together when I wrote that "no politician has picked up the ball and run with it". John Taylor reminds me that he had York Region's 2016 submission to the OMB Review include the concept of a sunset clause for planning approvals. On 5 July 2017 he suggested I follow up with Chris Ballard who was, at that time, MPP for Newmarket-Aurora. He says:

"I may not have run with it as fully as you would have hoped but I did ‘pick it up’ at the very least."

Update on 19 October 2021: from Newmarket Today: York Region taking a closer look at tax on vacant properties.

Below: Frank Scarpitti is the only vote against studying the phenomenon of vacant homes and how they might be taxed. 

Read more: Frank Talking about Taxing Empty Properties

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Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 15 October 2021

The murder earlier today of UK Conservative MP, Sir David Amess, at his constituency surgery is truly shocking news. 

I am still trying to come to terms with what happened.

The MP, who had been in Parliament since 1983, was stabbed repeatedly in front of others by a 25 year old man who is now in police custody.

I knew David Amess and I liked him. And although we were at opposite ends of the political spectrum our paths occasionally crossed. He was one of the few Conservative MPs who campaigned to ban foxhunting with dogs – something I too supported. He was well known for his work on animal welfare issues.

Violence against MPs 

Britain is a very safe country. But it is a sobering thought that in my life I have only known three people who have been violently attacked by someone with a weapon. And all three were MPs.

In 2010, Labour MP Stephen Timms was stabbed in the stomach at his constituency surgery and survived. 

In 2000, my good friend Nigel Jones was attacked by a sword wielding constituent at his surgery in Cheltenham. His assistant, Andrew Pennington, who tried to protect the MP was killed. Nigel had wounds to his hands as he fought the man off.

In 2016, Jo Cox – whom I didn’t know - was on her way to her surgery in her north of England Batley and Spen constituency when she was shot and stabbed, dying from her injuries. 

Open Democracy

Here in Canada, as in the UK, we live in an open democracy where people can meet their MPs face to face and raise concerns about any issue under the sun. This is as it should be. We don't want MPs to live and work, barricaded from the public, in fortresses. 

I remember David Amess as outgoing and sociable and always with a ready smile. He treated political adversaries as opponents who hadn’t quite seen the light, not as sworn enemies.

For him to be murdered in this brutal way is beyond comprehension. 

It is a truly terrible thing.

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Update on Sunday 17 October 2021: from the Observer: UK Home Secretary considers police protection for MPs

Update on 24 October 2021: From the UK's Observer: Our Democracy will be Impoverished if MPs are too Scared to do their Jobs

Below: David Amess speaking in the UK Parliament last year