Premier Doug Ford 'undid will of York Region residents': Markham activist

Premier scrapped voters electing regional chair

Yorkregion.com
August 9, 2018
Lisa Queen

Last November, York Region councillors passed a bylaw allowing all stores to open their doors every day of the year except Christmas Day.

Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti’s plea to consult with residents and retail workers fell on deaf ears, as did later attempts by labour activists to revisit the controversial bylaw.

Toronto and York Region Labour Council president John Cartwright accused councillors of passing the policy in “obscene haste.”

Marilyn Ginsburg, a director of the Markham Citizens Coalition for Responsive Government, can’t help but wonder if the public would have been consulted if York Region had an elected chair.

On July 27, Premier Doug Ford pulled the plug on electing chairs in York, Peel, Niagara and Muskoka regions in this fall’s municipal elections.

“I was shocked. I think what Doug Ford did was to basically undo the will of the people of York Region,” Ginsburg, a retired human rights lawyer and executive member of Thornhill’s Grandview Area Residents Association, said.

“The effort to try to get the chair of York Region elected went on for years. It wasn’t like it was a snap decision of anybody. Ratepayer groups did deputations on it right across York Region to their respective councils and the majority of (local) councils did want it to be an elected position. Many of us did deputations to the legislative committee (at Queen’s Park), including myself.”

There are “a lot of very, very good reasons” for electing the chair and no good reasons for the current system, where 20 mayors and regional councillors select the winning candidate after private discussions, Ginsburg said.

Of every dollar collected in property taxes, 43 per cent on average goes to the region. Meanwhile, the region functions on an annual budget of $3 billion, had a debt of $2.9 billion as of last year and pays the chair more than $200,000 a year, she said.

“Regional council is no more accessible to the people of York Region than it’s ever been. Compared to municipal councils, it’s like they live in a fortress up there,” she said.

“The chair has never been accountable to anybody except for the little cadre of people who appointed him. I think that’s a very bad scenario because it leads to all sorts of horse trading. It was time for York Region to grow up and become a responsible tier municipality answerable to the people of York Region.”

Although most mayors and regional councillors argue residents indirectly choose the chair because they are elected, the majority of local councils see things differently.

In 2016, Newmarket, Aurora, Whitchurch-Stouffville, East Gwillimbury and Markham councils voted for a directly elected chair.

Markham Coun. Karen Rea, Newmarket Coun Christina Bisanz and Aurora Coun. John Abel are disappointed with Ford’s decision.

Under the current system, candidates for chair never have to share their platform with voters, Rea said.

“I have no idea what Wayne (Emmerson) believes in or doesn’t believe in,” Rea said.

Bisanz said Ford’s decision “flies in the face” of the legislative process that had established an elected chair following considerable public consultation.