Tag Archives: Town of Caledon

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.

The Swan and The Developer

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Many of us will remember one of the most riveting short stories we read in high school, “The Lady or the Tiger” written by Frank R, Stockton in 1882, but published in almost every collection of short stories read by students in the coming decades. Why?

Because …Summary, Review and Reflection: The Lady or the Tiger by Frank Stockton – THINK . WRITE . INSPIRE

… the ending created such a quandary for students that we debated it for months. The story basically centres around a King who held absolute authority over his lands. He had a way of determining justice by placing the accused in an arena filled with an engaged and excited public. The arena had two doors on the side opposite the King, Behind one door stood a beautiful youth, behind the other a starving tiger. One either became wed or devoured depending on their choice,

The King discovers that the Queen has been visited by a handsome youth, and hears rumours that they are in love. The King has the young man arrested and taken to the arena.

Bear with me now because this story affects the future of Swan Lake.

Once upon a time there was a Strong Mayor who dealt out decisions in their Council Chambers with a public audience. The decision facing their Council this month was to choose between two doors. Behind one was a Swan living in a beautiful lake and lush ecosystem; behind the other was  a Developer with trucks and construction fill to destroy the lake.

Now, in the original story, the Queen knows behind which door they both are waiting, the lady and the tiger. She is torn between her desire to see her loved one live and her jealousy that he will wed another. On the other hand, she is horrified by the thought of seeing him torn apart by the tiger. Her lover glances up at her and with the slightest gesture she indicates the door to her right.

Without hesitation he walks to the door and opens it. So, what door did she choose, the Lady or the Tiger? And the story ends. WTF? We debated her decision for weeks.

Caledon Council will soon walk into an arena filled with an engaged and excited public. Behind one door awaits The Swan. Behind the other door awaits a hungry Developer. The Swan represents the promises the Mayor made to protect the communities greenspaces, The Developer represents destruction and greed.

So which door will the Council choose? For which door will the Mayor cast a Strong Vote? The Mayor glanced to the door of their choice, The Councillors all saw the glance. Now they each had to make a choice.

And so I leave it with all of you: Which came out of the opened door,  — The Swan, or The Developer?

A Brief History of the 413

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Once upon a time in Ontario, way back in 2002, a Premier named Michael Deane Harris was promoting what he called “A Common Sense Revolution.” Part of that common sense was recognizing that very wealthy and influential developers have lots of money to grease the wheels of industry and fill political war chests.

So, in order to help them boost the value of their lands in north Brampton and south Caledon, Mike and his friends came up with the concept of the GTA East West Economic Corridor. This was the birth of what would become the proposed 413 highway. The original concept morphed into the GTA West Corridor, until the plan was canned by the Kathleen Wynne Liberal government.

Enter Doug Ford and his cohort of developers who still want to boost the value of their lands. Now we have the proposed 413 Highway and extension that originally was intended to connect to Guelph, and Kitchener-Waterloo with their universities. That was shortened to become a route that would link Vaughan to Caledon through Brampton to Halton Hills.

The most recent “developer influenced” request to reroute the 413 in order to boost the value of  his lands came straight to Premier Ford and he said, “Yes.” Then he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar (AGAIN) and in a recent press conference had to admit to his misdemeanour and go back to the pre- developer influenced plan for the proposed 413. And right beside him, in his public admission of the developer influencers, was the Mayor of Caledon, “bang on” in agreement with the Premier, according to him.

Also witnessing this spectacle  was Conservative MPP Sylvia Jones, she who was an absentee landlord during the Covid epidemic, claiming that this would provide more time for families to be together. Well, the studies are mixed on whether or not the proposed 413 extension will provide any gridlock relief whatsoever. Sylvia, your warm and fuzzy family time stories may make good optics, but they have no basis in reality. Your story has no plot. You are selling a pipe dream, and no dream catcher in the world will help you when the public wakes up.

Dear constituent, you are being fed one of the biggest lies of the decade, next to Donald Trump being the Second Coming. “We are building this highway to help reduce your travel time, and increase your family time, and prevent gridlock. Actually, if I must be truthful Ontario, we, your government, are promoting this proposed highway so that friends of mine can make a whole lot of money.” Quote from an unnamed Ontario Conservative politician who can neither  confirm nor deny that they were part of this interview.

And that’s just the tip of the “developer influenced” iceberg. The way I see it.

 

The “WHY” before the “WHAT”

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Often in education, dealing with discipline problems, we avoid the WHY question and concentrate instead on WHAT did you do? It’s the Barbara Coloroso school of classroom management. And it worked.

The WHY question leads to, “My father drinks,” or “My mother beats me.” None of that solves the behaviour problem. The WHAT is simple: “I hit Jasmean.” If we had asked WHY did you hit Jasmean, we could have had a myriad of answers. “Is it acceptable to hit someone else in a discussion?” “No.” “How will you avoid this the next time you and Jasmean have a disagreement?” “We will talk it out or I will come to see you.”

Problem solving 101. It’s easy in the classroom with fresh minds. It’s not the same in civics with ambitious politicians. If you need to track down the root of an issue, you have to go to the WHY first. Why is Doug Ford pushing a housing crisis? Why are all of his developer friends supporting this push to unaffordable housing? Why was Bill 3 attached to cash incentives for municipalities to build more homes? Follow the money trail.

This isn’t just a Caledon  issue. This is a southern Ontario issue. Wherever there is liveable real estate available someone is going to make a bundle. Unless you get kicked out of messing with Niagara-on-the-Lake, So, why re-route the 413 extension? WHY? Who stands to benefit from housing and close to smooth transportation in those areas? No way it could be the the influential developers who flock to Ford’s fundraisers?  From one hand to the other.

This issue isn’t about our little Mayor. This issue is about the Ford’s government’s passing of Bills that allowed this to happen. From Bill 3 onward there’s the “WHY” and then we can get to the WHAT. What do we do about a system that is so corrupted in self aggrandizing greed that it destroys communities and ecosystems.

None of the developers involved are to be condemned. Most are hard working individuals who have struggled through immigration, from construction to development, and have built financial empires. They all give back generously from their profits to local groups, Especially at Doug Ford  events. And they put their names on medical facilities and just so we don’t forget how caring they are. I would have preferred The Vaughan General Hospital, but there’s no community adulation to my family’s name in that.

If you want to know the WHAT is happening here, you have to trace the WHY. Follow the money trail. Billions are about to be made on the reroute of the 413, and our abandoned Science Centre is a sign of things to come. Swan Lake is our a canary in a developer’s coal mine.

Yes indeed, It’s like Leonard Cohen sings, “Everybody knows!”

The way I see it.