Court Ruling on Councillors Legal Payouts Good News for Taxpayers

by John Laforet
posted on July 21st, 2010 at 17:05:15 pm

I was pleased to see that the Divisional Court which heard Councillor Holyday’s complaint about Toronto City Council’s decision to pay the legal fees of current members of Council relating to compliance audits. The Court has said the City was wrong to pay out over $140,000 to Councillors who found themselves challenged in the legality of their conduct as candidates.

We all know Councillors have a number of advantages when running for re-election and sadly far too many are prepared to abuse taxpayer funds to fight to keep their jobs at election time. This leads to voters essentially being forced to fund incumbents efforts to attempt to prevent meaningful opposition from challenging them.

As a city we’re lucky voters are reaching a boiling point and ready to make the changes that improper use of City funds can’t stop. It will be interesting to see how many Councillors, who ignored the City’s top lawyers legal advice to them when they voted to fund Councillor’s legal expenses, will flip their votes just before the election to try to look like their on the taxpayer’s side now. That will be the best indication of just how vulnerable they are feeling.

I know in my ward residents are ready to break with the last four years and elect a new voice that will stand up and fight for our community. It’s important residents city wide back candidates who are going to act in their best interest, defend their communities and focus on the city and its residents and not lining their own pockets.

In just three months residents will have the ballot boxes to make these decisions, and if we do our job we won’t need the courts to police the next Council as well.

What a Remarkable Town Hall Meeting Last Night in Ward 43

by John Laforet
posted on July 9th, 2010 at 21:01:06 pm

I was humbled to have nearly one hundred and fifty Ward 43 residents come out to a community meeting I held last Thursday on Grey Abbey Trail. The meeting was intended to be held in the park overlooking the Lake, and Toronto Hydro’s anemometer to help educate the community on the impacts of the new offshore regulations.

Unfortunately someone, who the City will not confirm or deny was Councillor Ainslie or a member of his staff, felt the need to apply pressure to the Parks Department and have them call a resident who sent out an invitation to my meeting, telling them that it was against the law for more than twenty-five residents to meet in a park without a permit, permits were never issued for that park, and that no candidate was allowed to discuss an election in a park, wear a button or hand out materials. We asked for a copy of the by-law and asked if they were prepared to have citizens arrested – and they went silent.

They wanted us to shut down our meeting, and not have residents come together to discuss the biggest threat ever to face the community, and hear from the only candidate offering a viable solution.

I am so happy to have such strong support on Grey Abbey Trail that we were able to find a back yard, backing on to the park within a couple of hours to hold the meeting if necessary. Instead, we set up the sound equipment in the backyard, and I stayed about five feet back from the metre tall chain link fence, and spoke to residents from private property about the importance of the issue, thus I did not discuss politics in the park and I was sure to tell them why I had to stand where I was standing.

I promised residents last night that when I defeat Paul Ainslie on October 25th and become their Councillor, the political games will end, and I’ll continue my fight to ensure their rights are respected and their involvement in decision making restored.

Antoinette DiNovo – Paul Ainslie’s Executive Assistant showed up to record and take notes. Once again it appears taxpayers will be paying her to abuse our tax dollars and run his campaign. At least Antonette didn’t have any embarrassing outbursts like Councillor Ainslie did on June 14th and was kind enough to leave after being introduced and called out on her abuse of taxpayer funds to help inflict another four years of failed representation on our community, one neither of them live in. Ward 43 isn’t buying what they’re selling this time and last night’s meeting that had a crowd threefold of the meeting I held three weeks before is a strong sign of the change that’s coming.

Consider that on a night when the heat wave was on it’s forth day, there was a heat alert in place and we were holding a meeting outside, in July that nearly one hundred and fifty residents felt compelled to come out and speak about the issues near and dear to them and the opportunity we have together to reclaim our voice and restore local democracy. Consider that Paul Ainslie doesn’t have a single Ward 43 resident to send to take notes, and is instead either crashing my meetings himself or sending a member of his staff, we’re all paying to do it for him.

I am looking forward to continuing to earn residents trust and support over the coming weeks and months and know that together we can make our community and city a better place to live for all of us.

Toronto Sun: Dalton’s green dance: Goldstein

by John Laforet
posted on July 4th, 2010 at 21:45:46 pm

Dalton’s green dance: Goldstein
The premier’s making up the rules as he goes along on the energy file
By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN, TORONTO SUN

The more you examine Premier Dalton McGuinty’s “green” energy strategy, the more you come to the conclusion his government is faking it.

Making it up as it goes along, often for the sake of political expediency, complete with blatant double standards for urban versus rural Ontario.

The latest example is Ontario’s proposed minimum 5-km setback for offshore wind farms. That compares to a minimum of 550 metres and a maximum of 1.5 km away from any dwelling for land-based wind farms.

A skeptic might suggest the 5-km minimum offshore setback is intended to calm public concerns in the four urban, Liberal-held ridings, centred around Scarborough Guildwood, most directly impacted by Toronto Hydro’s proposal to build a 60-turbine wind farm in Lake Ontario off the Bluffs.

This by putting the project largely out of sight and out of mind.

In addition, Energy Minister Brad Duguid who oversees the green energy file, represents a fifth Liberal-held riding, Scarborough Centre, adjacent to Scarborough Guildwood. In that context, a comment by Duguid when the environment ministry last month proposed the 5-km minimum offshore setback, was shocking.

He told the Toronto Star: “I think it sets to rest the concerns of some moderate people, who were concerned if they go to the beach, they could be looking up at a huge wind turbine.” Huh?

A spokesman for Duguid said he was explaining opponents of the project have been citing worst case-scenarios in the absence of any setback announced by the province, and this proposal helped bring certainty to the issue.

But that doesn’t change what Duguid said. He clearly said public concerns (at least urban ones) about the aesthetics of wind turbines, specifically how they look, given that they are massive structures, are legitimate. After all, it worries even “moderate people.”

There are two problems with Duguid’s statement.

First, it flies in the face of what McGuinty has said — that the only legitimate opposition to wind farms is for environmental and safety reasons and people who object over anything else — including aesthetics — are “NIMBYS” who just don’t want the things anywhere near them for irrational reasons.

This argument has been constantly leveled at rural residents who, among many other reasons, oppose wind factories towering over their homes for aesthetic reasons and their negative impact on property values.

Funny, I don’t recall McGuinty and the Liberals ever going to war against residential neighbourhoods in Toronto, who constantly fight over the height of proposed apartment buildings for aesthetic reasons, and because of fears tall buildings will lower surrounding residential property values.

Ironically, the Liberals are supported in their selective assault on rural Ontarians by Toronto-based environmentalists and media, all from a city with one industrial wind turbine at Exhibition Place, nowhere near any homes, because wind farms aren’t practical in cities. Thus, urban self-righteousness comes easily.

The second problem with Duguid’s remark is aesthetics isn’t one of the reasons the environment ministry gives for its recommended 5-km offshore setback.

The reasons are to: (a) keep turbines clear of drinking water intakes; (b) protect sensitive ecological areas close to shore; (c) provide a sufficient buffer from noise, since it travels further over water and (d) safeguard boaters and swimmers.

Duguid and the environment ministry say Ontario’s recommended offshore setback is in line with those proposed by several U.S. states.

But objecting to wind turbines over aesthetics is legitimate or it isn’t. You can’t suggest, as the Liberals are, it’s legitimate for “moderate” urban residents, illegitimate for “NIMBY” rural ones.

Toronto Hydro is re-assessing its proposed Lake Ontario project in light of the recommended 5-km setback, which could be modified during an upcoming provincial review process.

John Laforet, president of Wind Concerns Ontario, ironically a former Liberal and acting executive assistant to Duguid, now a municipal candidate in Toronto’s ward 43, says if the Liberals hope community opposition will end with their proposed 5-km offshore setback, they’re dreaming.

Opponents don’t believe it will stop the Toronto Hydro project, and, in any event, the community is opposed to the project, period, because of pollution, noise, safety and other concerns.

In other words, the size of the setback is irrelevant.