Bill to elect Durham Region chairman passes second reading
Apr 5, 2007
By Erin Hatfield ehatfield@durhamregion.com
TORONTO -- A bill that would mean the direct election of Durham's Regional chairman passed second reading at Queen's Park today.
"The way many of the Liberals were speaking I thought they were going to whip it," said Oshawa MPP Jerry Ouellette minutes after the vote. "But, I went over, talked to the minister (of municipal affairs and housing) and he said they had free reign to vote how they wanted."Bill 172, an Act to amend the Municipal Act, 2001 to Provide for the Direct Election of the Durham Regional Council chairman, was introduced by Mr. Ouellette in December 2006.
During the debate at Queen's Park Thursday morning, Mr. Ouellette said he tried to dispel concerns that a large municipality would control a direct election.
"In Waterloo the chair is a person from one of the small townships," he said. He also addressed concerns about the potential cost of running for the Region's top spot.
"I gave figures from last term which indicated that the most money spent was half of what we can spend as an MPP," he said.
Those who rose to support Mr. Ouellette's bill included Joyce Savoline, MPP for Burlington. Ms. Savoline previously served as the Halton Region chairwoman, the first time the top spot at an Ontario regional government was directly elected.
"When she spoke she tried to dispel a lot of the concerns," Mr. Ouellette said. "A lot of it is concern over party politics and she dispelled that."
Mr. Ouellette introduced the bill at Queen's Park on Dec. 12 after the results of a referendum question on the election ballots in Ajax, Pickering and Oshawa overwhelmingly supported direct election. At present, Durham Regional councillors choose the chairman.
On Feb. 14 Regional council voted 15 to 13 to endorse Bill 172 and Mr. Ouellette said that endorsement likely made a difference in the vote at Queen's Park.
"I just think this is a good way of moving forward in democracy," he said.
The bill has been referred to the general government committee, which gives municipalities an opportunity to voice concerns.
Of course our municipal government in Clarington has already sent a strongly worded letter to the Province declaring their "vehement" opposition to this bill. And they did this without bothering or even wanting to hear from residents on the issue. After repeated attempts at requesting a public meeting be held on the issue so the local residents can have their say, they are still being either flatly turned down or ignored. Remember that Clarington was one of the local municipalities within Durham Region who's residents were denied a chance to have their voices heard in a referendum. In the only 3 municipalities in Durham Region that did put it on the ballot, the public overwhelmingly supported direct election of the regional chair position. Overwhelmingly being approx. 85% of the public. That is pretty overwhelming. In spite of this, our council pushed forward their own agenda in saying that they opposed it, and have continued to deny residents of Clarington the opportunity to have their say.
But why should we be surprised at that? They made a big show of wanting resident's input on the Hospital funding issue, then totally ignored it. We believe they only made that "show" because of all the noise about their denying any input on direct election of the chair. We now wonder how much input residents of Clarington will have on the incinerator issue. If past performance is any indicator, we'll have about zero input. Or at least zero that will be actually considered by this we-know-better-than-you council.
At least we still have a chance at having Bill 172 pass and become law. Everyone should take the time to write, phone, or email their MPP as well as the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and let them know how you feel about direct election of our regional chair. To contact the Minister:
Hon. John Gerretsen, Phone: 416-585-7000 Fax: 416-585-6470 Address: Hon. John Gerretsen, Minister of Municipal Affairs & Housing
MINISTER'S OFFICE, 17th Flr
777 Bay St, Toronto ON M5G 2E5
or use their feedback page on the MMAH website at: http://www.mah.gov.on.ca/userfiles/HTML/nts_1_11051_1.html
The few reasons given by our Councillors for so "vehemently" opposing this bill were lacking in fact. I hope those who have objections to their objection will write in with comments. For example, the $250,000 amount given as what would be needed for a campaign for regional chair is incorrect, and is an amount pulled out of the air. Did our council bother to check with those few elected regional chairs in Ontario? No, they obviously did not. Maybe it's time they did.
For more on the "Elect The Chair" topic see previous blog items, both discussion and comments.
Our council talks about consensus. Since Durham Regional Council voted to support Bill 172, where is the acquiescence of our to the consensus of the Region?
ReplyDeleteNot only do they continue to oppose direct election with not one valid reason given as of yet to the residents of Clarington, but they also continue to deny the value of listening to the opinions or wishes of their constituents on this matter.
They don't care about the opinions or wishes of their constituents on this or any OTHER matter (hospital funding). They've proven that over and over already in just the first few months of their new term.
ReplyDeleteJust as Dalton McGuinty has had no luck in shedding his image of breaking campaign promises over and over again, and the label of Fiberal has stuck to him, this council is making the same mistake. They are treating their residents like imbeciles. We are not.
This is wonderful news. I will be phoning my MPP and writing to MMAH. Thank you for providing the links.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting the contact information. I will be writing to the Province. Not much use in writing to our Councillors as they have proven they don't care and won't change their steel-trap minds.
ReplyDeleteTrue, most of our councillors don't seem to care what we think but we should let them know anyway. Better than to let them go on thinking they're right without even questioning it.
ReplyDeleteSince our council won't speak FOR us, we must speak FOR ourselves. Right now they speak only for themselves and that is not what we elected them for.
ReplyDeletedo you really want the regional chair answering to the largest population groups in durham, oshawa, whitby, pickering, ajax, and then tiny little clarington. Thousands of voices trying to get heard. Or would you rather the regional chairman report to a tiny group of people with representation from clarington. think about it. Three voices over a hand full of people is is to hear then a group of 75,000 over half a million.
ReplyDeletethink before you get what you are asking for.
I want the regional chair to have to answer to SOMEBODY other than his cronies at the Region. Tiny little Clarington isn't all that tiny, but in the scheme of things, we have little (if any) real representation at regional council. We have much stronger voices within the population of our municipality. Who says the residents of o
ReplyDeleteOshawa, Whitby, Pickering, and Ajax don't what the same things we want in Clarington? Remember it was because of the residents that Anderson changed his mind finally and gave up on his intrusion into the greenbelt. It was NOT because of regional councillors. As it stands now, Mr. Anderson feels he is accountable to no one. He is ready to force Clarington to host the incinerator if we are not a willing host. Why does he care? We don't have a say in electing him. He doesn't answer to us. And having to answer to 3 people... most of whom agree with whatever he says anyway - what is that? No pressure there. And Abernethy, Novak and Trim are not strong voices for Clarington residents anyway. They don't listen to residents on this issue or on hospital funding. Who says they speak for us at the region either?
Answer those questions for me and I'll reconsider my feelings on direct election of the regional chair.
We don't elect 6 councillors and then have them appoint a mayor who was never even elected by anyone (or who lost an election bid and then asked to be appointed). That is exactly what Durham Regional Council does. They are elected and then they choose someone who doesn't even have to run for election except to campaign to 28 people to get elected. That's democracy?
ReplyDeleteAnd what if the residents of Clarington wanted a particular person to be chosen as regional chair. Do you for one minute think our 3 representatives at the region would listen to us, or would they go ahead and vote for whoever THEY wanted, ignoring us all once again?
I think we all know the answer to that question.
If Durham Region does not change it's path from an Incinerator facility then we the public may have to consider a class action suit and get an injunction to stop the incinerator from proceeding against the well fare of all of Clarington. Further we will have to start organizing rallies and protests outside of Durham Region headquarters. We are standing today in defense of ourselves, our children, the environment and the majority of the future
ReplyDelete