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The Most Secretive Municipal Government in Canada

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On August 20, 2023 in the Town of Caledon, Strong Mayor Annette Groves, after firing most excellent CAO Carey Heard, sole sourced and hired Nathan Hyde, former CAO of Erin, Ontario. During his time in Erin, Mr. Hyde made quite a reputation for himself and his style of governance, so much so that it enabled the little town of Erin to win a Canadian media award.

In 2020, The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) published this report: “OTTAWA, Feb. 24, 2020 /CNW/— The Town of Erin, Ont., is the 2019 recipient of the Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy in the category of municipal government.

The award is given annually by The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ), Centre for Free Expression at Ryerson University (CFE), News Media Canada and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) to call public attention to government departments and agencies that put extra effort into denying public access to government information to which the public has a right under access to information legislation.

The awards jury, which is comprised by representatives of the four press-freedom advocacy groups, recognized the Town of Erin with this citation:

“It has become commonplace for The Town of Erin to refuse to be transparent with the media and therefore local residents on even basic matters of public interest. Local officials regularly avoid interviews with the media, insist that all communications from media must go through a recently hired communications officer, and Chief Administrative Officer and only by email. Even these requests are then dodged or refused. Worse yet, Erin officials have failed to inform the media of meetings at which major decisions will be made.

In response to a large number of senior staff and department heads being fired a couple of years ago staff at the Wellington Advertiser submitted FOI requests for details of severance payments. Erin refused these requests and Erin Mayor Allan Alls told the media they would not release these details unless forced to by the commissioner.”

Combine the unleashed powers of a Strong Mayor with the devious secrecy of a powerful CAO and you have a match made in autocratic heaven. And democracy can go to hell. Our new Integrity Commissioner needs to open his eyes – you charged the wrong person with breaching the Town’s Code of Conduct. Take a closer look at the two people who brought forward that charge against Councillor Sheen, especially the one who, after she was charged with breaching the Code, skipped the last Commissioner’s mandatory training session on issues of ethics and integrity.

Councillor Dave “Integrity” Sheen had it absolutely right. The way I see it.

What’s the Rush?

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Some members of Caledon Town Council are in quite a rush to pass a new fill By-law for the Town. However, those same Councillors are not so keen to have legitimate public understanding of or informed input into the final version of that law. It is but another example of “developer influenced” democracy in the Town of Caledon.

Consider that a public meeting and Open House to review a new By-law dealing with procedural issues is being given five hours for presentation and discussion time. The new fill By-law, which will impact the health of Caledon for decades, is being given a two hour Open House presentation and discussion window. Someone is stacking the deck.

The Town has admitted that the urgency to pass the new By-law is being done “to accommodate a prominent developer.” The same developer for whom Premier Ford was going to change the route of the proposed 413  highway to benefit one of the developer’s projects. It seems that the philanthropic developer from Vaughan, Mr. Nicholas Cortellucci is the driving force behind Council’s rush to change the fill By-law.

The object of  his desire, in this case, is the property known locally as Swan Lake located at 0 Shaw’s Creek Road/519 Charleston Sideroad. Despite Ontario policies protecting water bodies from receiving waste soil, the developer and some members of the Caledon Town Council think it’s OK to change Caledon’s fill By-laws to allow this to happen quickly.

No, it’s not OK. It is a perversion of democracy and a betrayal of promises made to protect Caledon’s environment and greenspaces, to reduce dangerous truck traffic, and to listen to the voices of your constituents. The very successful and wonderfully philanthropic Mr. Cortellucci does not deserve to have his name dragged through the mud just because some members on Town of Caledon Council picked the wrong Lake to try to fill with waste soil.

Increase the Open House time, increase the question and answer time for this By-Law, and bring back participatory democracy.

Once upon a time our Strong Mayor, Annette Groves, said: “As part of Pits to Parks, the town would like CVC (Credit Valley Conservation Authority) to consider investigating the potential acquisition of the property at 0 Shaw’s Creek Road/519 Charleston Sideroad given this property’s proximity to the Pinchin Pit,”

Yep, time to reconsider. The way I see it.

SWAN LAKE: Swansong or Premiere

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Trumpeter Swan" Images – Browse 15,942 ...The battle over 0 Shaw’s Creek Road/519 Charleston Sideroad in Caledon will soon be over. The property, known locally as “Swan Lake” was once the Warren Gravel Pit. It was fully rehabilitated by Lafarge Canada in 2022, and is now a lush ecosystem with a 18 hectare/45 acre freshwater lake as its centrepiece.

The controversy surrounds the sale of the property to Vaughan developer Nicholas Cortellucci. Although the Credit Valley Conservation Authority (CVC) wanted to secure this land to add to their rehabilitation of the adjacent Pinchin Pit, the sale went to the developer in 2023.

Cortellucci wanted to use the land and the lake as a dumping ground for waste soil from GTHA construction projects, essentially infilling the entire freshwater lake. The dumping fees for each truckload of dirt would be worth millions of dollars. However, it would essentially turn Caledon’s Swan Lake into a disposal facility, no longer the nature sanctuary it is now.

Since the Town of Caledon’s Zoning and Fill By-laws forbid the infill of a property zoned industrial extractive, the developer approached a Town staff member to request a change to the fill by-law. That request was taken to the Mayor of Caledon. The mayor then raised it as a motion in Council. Council narrowly passed the motion, dependent on staff reports regarding impact on groundwater quality.

WHOA! Full Stop.

Three issues developed from this. First was the question, “Who would be stupid enough to even consider the destruction of a fully rehabilitated greenspace?”

Secondly, “Could the mayor have stopped the developer influenced request at her desk and not brought it forward to Council?”

Thirdly, “Prior to the Motion being introduced to Council, why were no hydrological studies or research done regarding the potential impact on neighbouring wells of filling a below water table quarry with waste soil?”

We are all downstream and downwind. Politicians are scrambling to save political face. Deals are being brokered to try to come up with an alternative solution. Credit Valley Conservation Authority has expressed renewed interest in acquiring the property. Media coverage has gone from local newspapers to CTV and CBC. Now everybody knows.

The outcome should have been simple. The fully rehabilitated greenspace becomes part of the CVC’s nature corridor. That simplicity gets complicated when power and money and politics muddy the waters. The mayor should have said “NO” immediately, but we would have needed a truly strong mayor to speak truth to power.

Now the fate of Swan Lake rests on an “expert” staff report that will make Council’s vote solely dependent on whether an infill  of the lake would negatively affect neighbouring well water. Depending on the report, this could be an easy out for Council members who voted in favour of the mayor’s motion. It should never have come down to considering the groundwater alone. This motion should never have seen the light of day.

Swansong or Premiere? The dice are loaded, the way I see it.

Colbert, Kimmel, and Kneecap

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Censorship of free speech has reached its finest moment in North American media. In the U.S.A. free speech is an endangered species. If you insult the King, or anyone or anything he likes, you are exiled because you probably  “had very bad ratings.” and “a pure lack of TALENT.” The omnipotent, narcissistic, sociopathic musings of the King determine what is allowable speech and what is not.

Stephen Colbert was taken off the air for satirizing the King’s chaotic and ridiculous behaviour. Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air for commenting on the King and his Republican enablers using the murder of Charlie Kirk to  fan the flames of their agenda.

I expected this censorship of free speech from the dictatorship south of our border. I did not expect it from our new Canadian Liberal government.

The decision to ban the Irish rap group Kneecap was based on their pro-Palestinian stance and alleged support for Hamas and Hezbollah. Reporter Mariamne Everett wrote that the band was banned from entering Canada “over accusations that it was endorsing political violence and terrorism.” There is more than a little hypocrisy at play here, as the Canada goes to the UN to support the creation of a Palestinian State.

I am not an ardent follower of the trio called Kneecap, and I am not a huge fan of rap, but I would defend to the end their right to sing songs in defence of Palestine. The greatest perpetrators of political violence and terrorism right now in the middle east are the State of Israel, the Israeli Defence Force, and the Israeli Ultra-Orthodox West Bank settlers.

Wake up! There will be no Gaza, no Gaza City, no safe haven in the West Bank because Israel is completing its ethnic cleansing of Palestine while the world fiddles with its cell phones. And the U.S.A. is complicit in this horrifying slaughter and destruction by continuing to support Israel at the UN and vote against the endorsement of a Two State Solution.

If we are going to ban terrorists from entering our country, at least make sure we get the right ones. Colbert, Kimmel, and Kneecap aren’t the problem. They are our conscience, reminding us that the dictators and mass murderers are wearing no clothes.

The way I see it.

The Dream Pave Dream Team

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I am now the proud owner of the first fully permeable Dream Pave driveway and walkway in Bolton. There is one other in Caledon, but that belongs to an owner of the company, so it doesn’t count. I get bragging rights on this one. For pictures of the finished product go to DreamPave.ca, and under “Projects” look for the “Permeable Driveway Using Resin Bound Aggregate in Caledon” … the pictures are worth a thousand words.Bolton-permeable-driveway-with-resin-bound-aggregate - resin bound aggregate permeable driveway in bolton

Tom Cordeiro is the dreamer behind Dream Pave, and Phil Pinto is the landscaper who makes the Dream come true. The two men have been friends since boyhood and their trust in each other shows in the quality of their business partnership. As an added bonus, both  men live in Caledon – home grown entrepreneurs!

Phil’s crew from Almeida Landscaping Company worked ceaselessly through high heat and thunderstorms to complete the project right on schedule. Phil excavated an almost two foot deep bed that he later filled with tons of gravel. The team tamped and levelled the surface precisely. They removed our old curbstones without breaking one, and laid them back like they were building the Temple of the Sun. I have rarely seen such workmanship and attention to detail as the Almeida team displayed.

On the final day, Tom showed up with huge bags of granite gravel that the teams combined with the bonding resin. They meticulously poured out batches that Phil smoothed to perfection with a large concrete polishing fan. The team celebrated with a group lunch and toasts at La Bomba Taco in Bolton. We couldn’t walk on it for a while or park on it for five days, but when we could, I danced on the driveway exclaiming, “This is a work of art.” You can get away with dancing on your driveway when you’re a senior.

My son, the engineer, was sceptical about the permeability paving. At the first rainstorm, he rushed to the front door and watched the water disappear. He became a believer. I have never been so happy with a home project ever: timetable kept, costs met as per contract, finished product above excellent. Yes, more expensive than the regular re-covering of a driveway, but there’s no more assfault on my turf. Our driveway is clean, green, strong, and long lasting.. Welcome to the 21st century.

This permeable Driveway will allow stormwater to filter back into the water table and divert it from polluting our rivers, lakes and ponds. There is less carbon footprint to produce permeable pavement than using asphalt or concrete, no heavy machinery, and a truly beautiful finished product.

Now, keep reading if you’d like to know the history. Tori Newton and Andy Newton of Stone Set (offspring of Michael Newton who was one of the UK founders/directors) and the brand they have now built and partnered with Dream Pave is Stone Set.

Their website says it best: “StoneSet are the TRUE pioneers of resin-bound paving. Installing for 35+ Years, from UK to Siberia to Australia. Dream Pave now offers StoneSet in Canada! The Stoneset Premium resin delivers a permeable pavement that is 100% permeable, made with Canadian natural stone, it was developed for driveways, walkways, tree and pool surrounds. StoneSet by Dream Pave, creates a durable surface, highly suitable for vehicular traffic, while also allowing water to pass through.”

Now we have StoneSet technology right here in Caledon thanks to Tom Cordeiro of Dream Pave and Phil Pinto of Almeida Landscaping, using Canadian granite and Canadian resin. Think Global, buy Local, invest in Canadian entrepreneurs!

I started lecturing about the benefits of a permeable paved community back in 1989. It took a while but I finally put my money where my water table begins. The way I see it.

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Note: StoneSet Australia’s tagline: “For more than a decade, we have demonstrated a sincere dedication to various projects, regardless of their size. As a result, we have gained the trust of local governments, businesses, and homeowners. We take pride in providing reliable services to our valued clients.

The solution we offer is not one dimensional. Our permeable paving is the product for those who want a solution that survives the test of time as much as they want stunning visual appeal that Australian sourced stone provides. All of StoneSet’s eco-friendly resin bound products are fully backed by Governments, schools, businesses & homeowners since 2008. We take pride delivering our Australian-made products to clients with customer service excellence & 10-year guarantee. Our extensive Australian wide approved installer network allows for us to ensure a high quality experience & result from start to finish.”