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.  The Mayor, Tom Mrakas, voted against the proposal and the new shelter - which had been in the works for years - was rejected by Aurora Council 4-3.  In an on-line post the day after the vote, Mrakas claims he asked the Regional Council a year before – in January 2023 – to look for alternative sites. Where is the evidence for this?   No Objections In fact, for long enou ..read more

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 the field to the private sector which is, for a million and one reasons, happier building monster homes rather than the more modest affordable ones.  The Man with the Plan Step forward Joe Di Paola, the man with the plan. DiPaola is married to Charity McGrath who was once a wannabe Progressive Conservative MPP for Newmarket-Aurora. But her Parliamentary ambitions turned to dust afte ..read more

Background: On 1 November 2022 the developer Michael Rice offered to gift land at Bathurst in the protected Greenbelt in the Township of King to Southlake for a new acute hospital. This was three days before the Government publicly announced it would be opening-up parts of the Greenbelt to development. King and Southlake have long insisted they have no records of that meeting.  Drawing a line On 27 November 2023, Southlake’s former Chief Executive, Arden Krystal, sought to draw a line under the year-long controversy about building a new hospital in rural King Township.  In exasp ..read more

Today (27 March 2024) the new Chief Executive of Southlake, Dr Paul Woods, tells Newmarket Today the hospital is struggling to find a new site for its proposed new acute hospital.  It is a tragedy it has come to this. From the outset Southlake and King Township should have been transparent about Michael Rice's gift of land and the conditions attached to it. Southlake should have worked closely with York Region and with the other lower tier municipalities such as Newmarket in their search for a suitable site for a new acute hospital instead of keeping them at arm's length. Withheld The sto ..read more

Last week's UK Budget tells us the Conservative Government is abolishing “Non-Dom” (non-domiciled) tax status. For me it is a bitter sweet moment.  I wanted to see an incoming Labour Government get rid of this crazy hangover from colonial days. Instead we have this weird paradox of a dying Conservative Government abolishing a tax device which, over the years, has benefitted thousands of its own well-heeled supporters. Non-Dom status allows the super-rich – who claim their true home is elsewhere – to pay UK tax only on the money they choose "to remit" or bring into the country - not on th ..read more

On 1 November 2022 the developer Michael Rice offered land in the protected Greenbelt to Southlake for its proposed new acute hospital.   Neither Southlake Regional Health Centre nor King Township admit to having any records of that consequential meeting at King Municipal Centre. Hospitals (and municipalities) have a duty in law to keep records. We have some graphics from Rice’s presentation but nothing else.  No need to take notes Southlake’s former Chief Executive, Arden Krystal, who was there with the hospital’s Director of Capital and Facilities, John Marshman (photo below right ..read more

 Photo above: 22 October 2023 BBQ at Riverwalk Commons Second Annual Free Community BBQ Newmarket-Aurora Progressive Conservative MPP, Dawn Gallagher Murphy, billed taxpayers $9,376.75 for her “second annual community BBQ” held at the Riverwalk Commons in Newmarket last October.  Her first annual BBQ in 2022 cost the taxpayers $11,160. This was almost one quarter of her entire annual budget for “office operations”. Last October when I quizzed her about the use of taxpayers' money to fund her BBQ she told me it was an absolutely appropriate use of public money. Thin on the Ground The ..read more

Is Dawn Gallagher Murphy MPP happy or sad that Ontario’s Court of Appeal has struck down Bill 124 as unconstitutional? I only ask because Dawn is a Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health and I suppose she must have a view. Looking out for the nurses is part of her job description. It's her day job. Wage Suppression The Ontario Nurses Association says Bill 124 was "wage suppression legislation" that limited nurses’ pay rises to 1% for three years. Dawn is everywhere on social media, opening things, shaking hands, congratulating people, awarding certificates and giving the offic ..read more

It has taken over a year to establish in broad outline what happened when Michael Rice and John Dunlap offered land in the protected Greenbelt to Southlake for a new acute hospital.  On 4 November 2022 Doug Ford gambled on opening up parts of the Greenbelt to development. Ford believed he could ride out the storm. Instead, his plan backfired spectacularly. The Greenbelt became a radioactive issue for the Progressive Conservatives. But it took the Premier until September 2023 to admit his “mistake” and formally abandon the policy. And while we still don’t have the full picture we are, bit ..read more

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.   His vote made all the difference and the shelter was rejected 4-3. Bad Faith Mrakas, Mayor since 2018, accuses York Region of bad faith. He claims that a year ago in January 2023 the Region put forward an application for housing on the site already earmarked for a wastewater pumping station. He fumed that the Region’s new application “completely reneges on their already approved site plan ..read more