Details

Newmarket-Aurora MPP, Dawn Gallagher Murphy, spent $11,160 on her taxpayer funded “free” BBQ on 16 October 2022 – a staggering 24% of her annual budget for “office operations”.  

On Sunday, when I quizzed Dawn at this year’s “free” BBQ, she told me the cost would come out of her global budget. She believes it is money well spent.

She says it is an absolutely appropriate use of taxpayers’ money.

How the system works

Dawn is allocated a pot of taxpayer money for the financial year which runs from 1 April – 31 March. In her first year as an MPP she spent $235,496 on her global office support and communications budget. Dawn, like all MPPs, decides how the money is spent across the global budget’s four constituent categories. These are: 

(1) Support Staff. The explanatory notes to the Individual Members’ Expenses tell me this includes: Salaries paid to Queen's Park and Constituency office staff, includes funding for Members' staff who were away for extended sick leaves. Dawn spent $118,743 in this category.

2) Constituency Office Rent. This includes expenses such as rent, utilities and janitorial services. Dawn spent $27,718 in this category.

(3) Office Operations. This includes expenditures for urban travel and Northern (N) Members travel, office supplies, advertising, staff travel, professional services, etc. Dawn spent $46,921 in this category.

(4) Communications. This includes postage, mail preparation and distribution, and printing, typesetting, artwork and photography for newsletters, flyers, and target mailings. Dawn spent $42,115 in this category.

This information is published annually. There is no breakdown of costs within each of the above categories. 

Some expenses published quarterly

Information on travel expenses, hotel accommodation, meals and hospitality expenses is published four times a year, each covering a three month period. The releases are posted on the OLA website on 1 September, 1 December, 1 March and 1 June. 

The cost of Dawn’s second annual free BBQ held on 22 October 2023 (which counts as hospitality) will be published on 1 March 2024. 

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Postscript… I was amused to see Blake Koehler chide a Newmarket Today reader for comments the reader posted on the BBQ story. Blake says he wants dialogue and for people to listen and learn.

Blake Koehler was Chief Financial Officer in Dawn’s 2022 Provincial election campaign. I wrote to him eight months ago asking him to explain why there was a significant discrepancy in Dawn’s Campaign Return to Elections Ontario. The return gave two different figures for the expense: "Meetings Hosted". In line 034 of the return we see $5,228.60 and in Schedule 6 we see $8,228.11. I asked Blake if he could help me understand why there was a difference of $2,999.51 between the two figures. I didn’t get a reply.  

Details

My post earlier today (Ford Abandons Review of Regional Municipalities) was factually incorrect. It has been taken down.

The Government is, in fact, continuing its review of regional governance.

The new Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Paul Calandra, announced last month that facilitators would not be appointed to recommend and manage changes to the municipal map - as was the Government's original intention. Instead the job would be handed over to MPPs on the Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy Committee.

The Committee has now started its work and its web page confirms it will meet “to conduct a study on regional governance as overseen by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing”.

It goes on:

The Committee intends to hold public hearings in Barrie, Ontario on Monday, November 6, 2023.

Interested people who wish to be considered to make an oral presentation to the Committee are required to register by 12:00 p.m. (EDT) on Monday, October 30, 2023.

Those who do not wish to make an oral presentation but wish to comment on the issue may send a written submission by 7:00 p.m. (EST) on Monday, November 6, 2023.

To register or send a written submission, please visit the following link: ola.org/en/apply-committees.

The Committee will stream live from location when available. For the link to the webcast, and to find times and availability, please visit the Legislative Assembly website at ola.org.

Quite separately - and unrelated to the review on regional governance - the Toronto Star reports that the Greenbelt scandal has forced the Ford Government to scrap the municipal boundary changes and wind back changes made by the Province to official plans.

The Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, Paul Calandra, said today:

“In reviewing how decisions were made regarding official plans, it is now clear that they failed to meet this test. In response, as soon as I am able, I will be introducing legislation that would reverse the official plan decisions for Barrie, Belleville, Guelph, Hamilton, Ottawa and the City of Peterborough, the Regional Municipalities of Halton, Niagara, Peel, Waterloo and York, as well as Wellington County. This legislation would wind back provincial changes to official plans and official plan amendments, exceptin circumstances where construction has begun or where doing so would contravene existing provincial legislation and regulation. This includes winding back changes to urban boundaries.”

The Ontario press release is here.

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Details

I wander along to Doug Duncan Drive in downtown Newmarket to check out Dawn’s second free community BBQ, paid for by the taxpayers.  The first free BBQ in October 2022 cost us $11,160.

The sky is blue and there is a chill in the air.

People are a bit thin on the ground with lots of empty chairs. There is a tent where you can get your photo taken to remind you of the big day. Dawn is hovering there.

There is a face painting tent but very few children.

There is food on trestle tables provided by A Million Mouthfuls. 

But for all that, there is no electricity in the air.

I was interested in how many people would turn up and what would be on the menu, so to speak. I also wanted to chat with Dawn and, with some fancy footwork, I managed to get a minute of face-to-face time. Believe me, this is not easy. Outside BBQ season it is next to impossible to see the MPP if you want to discuss anything remotely controversial. 

Now Dawn’s helpers are moving between me and the camera but I try not to let that distract me.

Global Budget

Dawn tells me the money to pay for the BBQ will come out of her “global budget” which is allocated by the Legislative Assembly. How much she chooses to spend on “hospitality” is a matter for her. She doesn't reveal what's in her global budget.

She boasts that 500 people came along to her free BBQ last year. She is hoping for more this year.

I don’t want to rain on her parade but it looks like a lot fewer today. 

We shall have to wait until 1 March 2024 (when MPPs’ expenses for this quarter are posted on the OLA website) before we can see how much we paid for this rather limp and tepid event.

Wonderful

We get a little welcoming speech from Dawn which is nice. We are all wonderful. She points to the firefighters behind her and to their big red fire truck. What an amazing backdrop. Everyone loves firefighters!

I want her to say something about the Greenbelt or what she has been up to at Queen’s Park.

She could have told us if she was going to vote to reprimand the former Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, Steve Clark, as recommended by the Integrity Commissioner David Wake. She could have told us if she was going to press for a debate in the Legislature. The alternative - a simple vote on a Government motion without debate - appears to be the Premier’s preference.

But that doesn’t happen. She sticks to the script.

And after an hour chatting to people I wander off.

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Updated on 23 October 2023: Click "read more" to read my brief exchange with Dawn as the BBQ gets underway.

Update on 23 October 2023: From Newmarket Today: Supporters - some critics - flock to Newmarket-Aurora MPP BBQ

Details

The popular celebrity MPP for Newmarket-Aurora, Dawn Gallagher Murphy, will again be hosting a “free” BBQ this coming Sunday at 2pm at Doug Duncan Drive allowing constituents to meet their representative at Queen’s Park. 

Since Doug Ford personally selected her as the PC candidate for Newmarket-Aurora, Dawn has made a name for herself by tirelessly visiting places, handing out certificates and congratulating people for what they do.

It is busy work being a Progressive Conservative MPP.

Free Community BBQ

Last year Dawn billed the taxpayers for the full $11,160 cost of her first annual “free” BBQ.

This requires a certain kind of chutzpah.

Personally, I don’t think it's an appropriate use of public money. But that may be an old-fashioned fuddy-duddy view.

I wrote to the Speaker of the Legislature, Ted Arnott MPP, on 7 June 2023 suggesting the rules be changed to outlaw “free” BBQs, paid for out of public funds, say, in the twelve months prior to an election. 

In the circumstances, I thought my recommendation was pretty modest. I didn't want to push my luck.

Hostess with the Mostess

As I understand it, there is nothing to prevent Dawn holding one of her free BBQs in the immediate run-up to a calendared Provincial election, boosting her already stratospheric popularity as the hostess with the mostess. 

The Speaker acknowledged my email: 

“We will endeavour to review and respond to your message as soon as possible.”

But I heard nothing more.

I left it a month and I tried again with a gentle reminder and got precisely the same reply.

“We will endeavour to review and respond to your message as soon as possible.”

It looks like nothing is going to change.

Why not spend $22,000?

So I shall wander down to Doug Duncan Drive this Sunday at 2pm to see what’s happening. I won’t be eating or drinking anything paid for by the taxpayers but I want to talk to people.

Dawn believes her “free” BBQ is an appropriate use of public money. Otherwise she wouldn’t be doing this.

But, if I get the chance, I want to ask her why she is limiting her spending to only $11,160? 

What if the whole Town turns out for a free hamburger and fries?

Why not double that $11,160 and put on something really spectaclar? 

Rules

I suspect I’d be told there are rules that would prevent such a thing.

Except no-one can show me the rules.

In their entirety.

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Click “read more” to see my email exchanges with the Speaker, Ted Arnott.

Details

The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the devious Paul Calandra, has now tabled the Greenbelt Statute Law Amendment Act, 2023 which will return lands to the Greenbelt that were removed from it in December 2022.

We wait to see if the Government rushes the Bill through all its stages at breakneck speed (to get this major embarrassment put behind it asap) or if it goes into Committee for line by line scrutiny, prolonging the agony.

The NDP official opposition has asked for a debate on the Integrity Commissioner's recommendation to reprimand former Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, Steve Clark.

Provincial Land and Development Facilitator

The Provincial Land and Development Facilitator – a Government appointee little known outside planning and development circles – had a key role in negotiating development agreements with Michael Rice and those like him who bought Greenbelt land in the protected countryside in the expectation it could, at some stage, be opened up for development.

What's happened to Paula Dill?

Paula Dill has been the Provincial Land and Development Facilitator for many years with her appointment being renewed periodically. But, curiously, her name does not appear in the current list of Ontario public appointments. (see below)

Ms Dill was interviewed by the Integrity Commissioner, David Wake, in connection with his inquiry into the former Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, Steve Clark.

Development Agreements

Today I filed two Freedom of Information requests with the Municipal Affairs and Housing Ministry asking for sight of records relating to the mandate given to her by the now disgraced Steven Clark. The Integrity Commissioner tells us Paula Dill was asked:

“to facilitate discussions on the 15 sites in the Greenbelt that were removed or redesignated to achieve development agreements that would accommodate a shared vision for attaining the Government’s objectives in these sites.”

I have also asked for sight of all records relating to the agreement in principle and/or draft agreement between the Provincial Land and Development Facilitator and Michael Rice, owner of the Bathurst lands in King Township which were removed from the Greenbelt in December 2022. 

Deputation to King Council

Elsewhere… my deputation to King Council this evening was ruled out of order as the Township has no Open Forum for members of the public and what I wanted to talk about was outside the Council’s jurisdiction. The Township Clerk, Denny Timm, tells me:

“Council does not offer an open forum component during its meetings. Council’s procedural by-law precludes deputations on matters that are outside Council’s jurisdiction. Your request pertains to the Integrity Commissioner’s Report, the hospital site selection, and provincial decisions regarding the Greenbelt lands – matters that are outside of Council’s jurisdiction and within the jurisdiction of the Province. I am therefore unable to accommodate your request.” 

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