Meanwhile at the Zoo…
(Feel free to scroll to the bottom to listen to “At the Zoo” by Simon and Garfunkel while reading this post.
Guildwood residents face uncertainty and a wall of silence from Councillor Ainslie on the fate of the only heritage building at the Guild Inn that was slated for preservation, in the wake of the Christmas morning fire. At the same time hundreds of Guildwood residents fight against Toronto Hydro Energy Corporation’s disgusting tactics. While this has been happening, Councillor Ainslie has been busy trying to take over the Toronto Zoo. Residents of Ward 43 have very real issues that require leadership. A guy who was doing his job would find himself hard pressed to find time for ‘power plays’ like the one at the Zoo this week.
On January 20th, the same night as the Toronto Hydro meeting where Ainslie sat quietly, never once addressing community concerns to Toronto Hydro or publicly displaying his support for or against this project, he gave a press interview to the Scarborough Mirror regarding his ambitions to mount a hostile take over of the Zoo Board. You couldn’t make this stuff up if you wanted to because it is so patently ridiculous that anyone with the kind of concerns he should be dealing with would waste time on a “Team of Me” spat like this. But he did.
What was five (spoiler alert now six) term Chair Raymond Cho’s response to the challenge? “If I were Paul Ainslie first I would come to the board meeting, get the inside story and see why the board has come to this decision – and then get some more accurate information,” he said. “I haven’t read his letter, but the zoo has been very successful in many, many ways.” Ainslie to seek Chair of Zoo Board – Scarborough Mirror
[The board has a chance to make change happen at their meeting this morning when Coun. Paul Ainslie, a new appointee, attempts to oust long-serving chairman Raymond Cho for its leadership.
Cho, considered by insiders to be compliant to White's wishes, couldn't be reached for comment.
But Ainslie said there should be turnover, especially at the chairman level. He feels turfing the foundation is "not the way to go" -- that it just needs to be restructured.
Nevertheless he recognizes it will be an uphill battle since Mayor David Miller told him flat out in December that Cho is his preferred choice for chairman (a move seen to ensure the councillor's loyalty to the mayor).
"Change is not wanted by some people ... people are happy with Raymond," he said.
Meanwhile, from the looks of it, the monkey business is far from over. ] Monkey business hurts zoo – The Toronto Sun
Curious about the result? Ainslie and his nominator were the only people who voted for him at what was both his first board meeting, and the date of his take over attempt. “I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get the chair. I still think we have a lot of issues over fundraising, in particular, and the foundation, that need to be dealt with,” Ainslie said, noting he asked to be on the board to make substantial changes. ” Calls for change ignored at zoo – Toronto Sun
I must admit I was a bit stunned when I read this and couldn’t imagine what would possess a guy who ducks from principled positions regularly, and whose record is far from distinguished, to do something like this. On his watch the Guild Inn has fallen further back, a heritage building has burned, a surprise cellphone tower came out of nowhere. Residents had to alert each other to organize its defeat and now the same thing is happening with a massive wind project. What is Ainslie doing? He is off at the Zoo duking it out with another Councillor and finding his way off Miller’s Christmas card list all at the same time. If he wanted a good reason to be in the Mayor’s dog house, he wouldn’t challenge a decent guy for his job, Ainslie would do his own job, the one he was elected to do, and stand up for the community he represents at City Hall.
No one should have time to bother trying to take over the zoo. Anyone who thinks that is a meaningful fight for a ward Councillor, particularly one who has been a board member for such a short period he hasn’t even been to a single meeting, has their priorities mixed up. Ainslie’s attempted coup demonstrated a complete lack of appreciation for what’s going on in his community, a total lack of comprehension of the nature of boards. In the process he managed to upset the mayor and alienate virtually every Councillor on the Zoo Board, none of whom supported him, all of whom are probably a little stunned by such a public and stupid move. It says something when you can’t convince even one of your peers on Council to vote for you.
If the Councillor is looking to tilt at wind mills, perhaps he could tilt at some very real and very worrying wind turbines in the pre-construction phase off the Scarborough Bluffs, it is an actual fight that needs to be fought and won.
Tags: At the Zoo, David Miller, Guild Inn Studio, Guildwood, Paul Ainslie, Paul Ainslie to seek Zoo Chair, Raymond Cho, Toronto Hydro Guildwood, Toronto Zoo Board, Ward 42, Ward 43
January 24th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Dealing with Councillor Ainsley on a regular basis with these Guildwood issues, I can say with confidence that you don’t have a clue what you are talking about. It was Paul Ainsley’s work, and his work alone, that got the Bell cell phone tower moved away from the Church parking lot in Guildwood. It was also his work that got us a third meeting date with Hydro, regarding the wind farm. It was his office that informed Hydro that the original church hall venue would be far too small, and raised the alarm that outsiders were to flood the second attempt.
Paul Ainsley also set up the community based advisory group, which has been trying to get the Guild Inn revived, and has taken great political risk, fighting with City Council and City Staff, who are constantly marginalizing Scarborough.
He got the Lamp post replacement program in Guildwood stopped, so that Guildwood’s historical nature could be recognized with historical lamps rather than the ugly generic ones.
He is available at nearly every Guildwood Village Community Association meeting, and spends time to deal with every issue that comes up.
If he is silent on the wind farm, it is likely only to wait for the local Community Associations (the absolute grass roots of democracy) to take an official position.
There have been some excellent results from Councillor Ainsley, and very few failures, and even those can not be pinned on the Councillor. The failures should rather be pinned on the Mayor and City Staff, where the road block for all Scarborough issues rests.
January 24th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
I appreciate as Vice President of the Guildwood Village Community Association you have strong views on this, perhaps our disagreement is about what constitutes being a good Councillor.
I am not talking about the Councillor’s ability to engage the GVCA by attending monthly meetings and listen to the concerns around the table. I am talking about the broader community’s level of representation and consultation. I’ve spoken to a number of residents who can’t even get an email answered from his office, and public meetings on critical community issues are not called by him.
Being a Councillor is in fact about more than attending meetings and putting committees together.
Attending Community Association meetings is important, but not nearly as powerful as engaging community residents through meaningful consultations on major issues (like the Guild Inn). Guildwood only meets on those issues when a developer holds the meeting and sets the rules. Open communication is critical to community engagement. The best way to get it going is to have a meeting where residents share their views and collaborate together with the Councillor. The Councillor then runs with it and advocates on their community’s behalf. Such a meeting has never been called on anything.
Absolute grassroots democracy in fact happens when an entire community is engaged at community meetings (something as a Councillor he could call on an issue like the wind farm if he wanted to, he hasn’t). The only meetings on this topic have been called by Toronto Hydro and the Councillor has been a spectator.
You are mistaken on the cellphone tower issue. Councillor Ainslie did not single handedly tackle the cellphone tower. That was in fact a group of residents near the church who not only got that ball rolling but did all of the heavy lifting to make it happen.
Paul Ainslie did accept $750 (maximum legal donation) from Telus lobbyists though during the 2006 election. Telus sued to the City of Toronto (and won) with the court granting ‘the delcarations that the East York By-law and the Site Plan By-laws have no affect on or do not apply to Telus’ antenna sites’. This effectly ended the site plan By-laws impact on cell tower sites. (For more information the TELUS decision read: ‘Staff Report: Appeal of Court Decision Re: Telus Communications Company Challenge to Site Plan By-law, April 16, 2007.) You are right that when Bell Canada attempted to utilize the lack of a site plan process (caused by the Telus legal victory), and hundreds of residents got involved, so did Councillor Ainslie, but he only did so after residents started up and it was certainly not single handedly.
The Guild Inn has been poorly handled. How do residents even know there was a fire or know what is happening with the site? By reading the paper and talking with their neighbours, not through their Councillor. A Councillor should be working closely with City Staff, should demand a proper investigation by the Ontario Fire Marshal, should hold a public meeting to update residents and should send out flyers to homes with detailed information. Councillor Ainslie has not publicly called for an investigation, he has not called a public meeting and he has not sent out a flyer with any updates. The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star are left to explain what is happening.
As far as blaming the Mayor and City Staff, if the Councillor was publicly fighting or even active at Council it would be more believable. Paul Ainslie regularly misses votes at Council meetings, and does not actively participate in much of the deliberations, making it quite difficult for the Mayor, short of guessing, to understand community sentiment.
An active Councillor would have regular public meetings, involve all residents, not just committees and associations, on big issues and would be active at City Hall. Councillor Ainslie has done none of that.
You can say with confidence I do not know what I’m talking about, and I can reply with as much confidence that it appears we both have our biases and perhaps that is why we do not see eye to eye.
My view is that a Councillor needs to be considerably more active within the community the represent and should be considerably more active at City Hall. Councillor Ainslie simply isn’t.
January 24th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
In my previous comment, I missed many of the points you made about the Toronto Hydro situation.
Paul Ainslie did advise that the location selected for the first meeting was too small. Community outrage and media coverage of said outrage caused the third meeting (which Toronto Hydro conducted so poorly it looks to not be a legal meeting as per the City of Toronto Act).
But how did residents find out about this process? Through an ad placed in the newspaper – not their local Councillor who sits on both the City Council (which has given $150 000 to this project) and the Toronto Atmospheric Fund (which has given $100 000 to this project). The ad gave them 30 days to provide comments in writing (In August – what a great consultation month).
A Councillor who was doing his job would have said ‘whoa’ and told Hydro to put the brakes on this long enough to allow for meaningful community consultation. If they chose not to, a principled Councillor would stand up and call them out on it. He would call his own meetings, he would educate residents about a major project with real implications on this community. he would lead. He would run a seperate consultation process if that is what it took to allow residents to be heard.
Instead he sat. He sat quietly as funding was arranged from our tax dollars. He sat quietly as Toronto Hydro tried to sneak this through, and sat silent as his residents were disenfranchised by Hydro – not providing a single public comment at a meeting of Guildwood residents.
I have trouble seeing this as an excellent performence for an elected official. Perhaps that is why the zoo thing is even more ridiculous.
January 26th, 2009 at 8:06 am
I’m inspired. After seeing the true character of much of our current government, after seeing wind companies, aggregate companies and water taking companies sneak around here, buying land and people to literally rip the physical fabric of our rural community to pieces, you come along like a breath of fresh air!
January 27th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
For what it’s worth, in Councillor Ainslie’s Ward 43 eNewsletter he stated, “(I) will continue to keep firm with my decision to not support the location choice of Toronto Hydro.”