‘Keep us in the loop’ Markham tells region

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 26, 2016
By Amanda Persico

Local Markham councillors want more information from regional council - especially when it involves decisions on roads that impact their residents.

“The communication is cut off between the municipality and the region,” said local councillor Logan Kanapathi during yesterday’s council meeting. “This doesn’t happen just once.”

Kanapathi referred to several intersections, where decisions were made without input from the local community.

Examples include traffic lights in the Box Grove area, as well as signals at the Ninth Line and 19th Avenue intersection.

Once an intersection is studied, there is no progress report from the region on whether or not a traffic light would work there, he said.

Mayor Frank Scarpitti agreed, there needs to be a process in place whereby local councillors are better kept in the loop.

He plans to meet with the CAO’s from the city and the region to discuss the issue.

It could be as simple as sending a running list to counicllors of Markham’s eight wards of regional projects, the mayor added.

But onus should not fall on regional councillors alone, who represent Markham as a whole, said Regional Councillor Nirmala Armstrong.

Last year, Armstrong printed off regional council agendas and provided briefing notes on the meetings to local councillors.

“I was told it was too much to read,” she said. “So what process should we use?”

Councillor Karen Rea wants the issue taken one step further, where local councillors are notified by proposed changes prior to it being voted on at the regional level.

This allows local councillors to inform the local community and get their input.

“We should be notified before it gets voted on. Not after,” she said. “I was not notified. My residents weren’t notified.”

Rea referred to the region’s decision to remove its truck ban along Ninth Line.

But hosting community meetings on every mater that comes before regional council will undoubtedly slow down the process, Scarpitti argued.

Not to mention, meeting agendas are often not made public until the Friday before a meeting, making meeting with local councillors difficult, he added.