Richmond Hill’s new council has full plate

Newly elected representatives took no time to get down to business, make their stances clear

YorkRegion.com
January 2, 2019
Sheila Wang

If the fully packed agenda at their first meeting was any indication, Richmond Hill’s new council is going to have a full plate in the next four years.

New council members met at the council meeting for the first time on Dec. 17, heading directly into a long list of hard-hitting issues facing the town.

As some new councillors in other municipalities might still be learning the ropes, Richmond Hill’s newly-elected representatives--seven re-elected and two returning--took no time to get down to business and make their stances clear.

Since council devoted much of its three-hour meeting to an Integrity Commissioner’s report regarding Ward 5 Karen Cilevitz, quite a few critical issues on the table had to be either rushed through or brushed off.

Ward 4 Councillor David West introduced the first motion of the meeting, asking council to look at the proposed environmental changes in Bill 66 which may pose a potential impact on the green space in Richmond Hill.

“I think it is pretty clear from what I’ve heard so far that the public does expect a fairly firm stand on this,” West said.

Coun. West proposed to add it to the agenda as “an emergency or time-sensitive matter” in order to provide a response before the deadline for comment period regarding the bill on Jan. 20, 2019.

It failed to pass as a majority of councillors--Greg Beros, Tom Muench, Carmine Perrelli and Joe DiPaola--voted against the motion. Ward 5 Councillor Karen Cilevitz and Ward 3 Councillor Castro Liu were absent.

Ontario tabled Bill 66 on Dec. 6. If passed, it would allow commercial development to bypass several long-standing laws meant to protect the natural environment and the health of residents.

It means if a development has the support of both the municipal government and the province and can demonstrate it would create 50 new jobs in areas with populations under 250,000, or 100 jobs for bigger cities, it could get the green light despite possibly being detrimental to the environment.

Instead, another motion, proposed by Beros, was successfully added to the agenda as a time-sensitive matter which was proposed to include “Banshee” in the list of approved street names, as the year of 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of 778 Banshee Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Cadets.

Council voted in favour of adding the street name to the list afterwards.

The newly-elected also voted on a slew of other motions, including appointing Regional Councillor Joe DiPaola and Carmine Perrelli as deputy mayors, opting out of hosting private cannabis outlets, taking no further action on the closure of the air traffic control tower at Buttonville, and receiving a staff report on council community event policy.

It was not hard to see that councillors did not see eye to eye on certain matters. There were some heated moments as the meeting approached the end.

“I’d like to suspend the procedural bylaw. I have two additional items that should have been mentioned earlier in the evening, but unfortunately (were not),” Coun. Beros said as council deliberated on the street-name motion.

Mayor Dave Barrow seemed to be confused by the unexpected request.

“We don’t do this very often. We usually talk to each other about what is going on,” Barrow said.

By waiving the bylaw, councillors are allowed to introduce their motions without adding them to the council agenda in advance.

The two motions Beros would like to introduce were: singing O Canada at the beginning of the council meetings and renaming the town "the City of Richmond Hill."

He then decided to withdraw after Barrow and Coun. Godwin Chan spoke in opposition.

Two-thirds votes are required to waive the procedure bylaw, according to the town clerk.

Click here to see what the new council plans to accomplish in four years.