Municipal Politics – Page 32

Welcome to Babel: Pay up.

May 2, 2012 by Peter Lowry

One thing that attracted us to Babel was the beautiful bay and the waterfront parks. Summer and winter, there are always people enjoying the water or ice of the bay and providing a scenic balance with nature. We certainly love to see the many visitors who come to enjoy this wonderful scenery. Regrettably, City Council only sees them as another revenue source.

The city’s plan is to charge our visitors (but not city residents) $3 an hour, up to $15 a day, to park a vehicle while they enjoy our parks and waterfront. With that charge for parking at the waterfront, visitors will soon find cheaper places to park—on our street next to the waterfront or in our condo’s visitor parking. We used to have the problem when there were special weekend events in the summer that forced latecomers to park further from the lakeshore. Now it will be all the time.

Maybe we should have complained when we saw the plans for the additional waterfront park area. There will be less parking than is now available. And what is this parking money supposed to pay for? Are there to be more facilities in the park for the visitors? Or is the money going to paying for a parking building in the business district, three blocks from the waterfront?

People complain because they believe these out-of-town visitors to our waterfront bring their own picnic and do not spend money in Babel. Do we make much available to them? Do we have beachfront shopping to attract their loonies? Do we have the food vendors enticing them with the smells of sizzling hot dogs and other foods? Are we merchandising our beautiful waterfront properly?

Our unimaginative city councillors will not be able to collect their tithes from the out of town visitors as soon as they would like. They put off finishing the new Lakeshore road for another year. And then it will take two years to finish the job. Those of us who have put up with years of pile-driving and dusty construction will have to wait another three years to really enjoy the peace and beauty of our lakeshore.

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Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

Blowing Babel’s bugle.

April 11, 2012 by Peter Lowry

Big doing’s in Babel. IBM is coming, the news media tell us. City hall has issued a press release to share the excitement. As the federal and provincial governments are sharing some of the cost, they also issued news releases. Despite the news conference by federal and provincial politicians being held at the University of Toronto, the Babel media played the story up big. There will be jobs for locals when the large data centre in Babel is completed in the fall, they tell us.

But nobody seems to know how many jobs will be created in Babel.

The answer is not many. The entire 10,170 square meter (109,468 square foot) complex can be run remotely from Toronto. The most work around the centre will be checking the water filters for the chillers and cutting the grass. It might be a big data centre, with special computers, but it is still just a data centre.

Not many data centres can handle data coming to it at 10 billion bits per second, nor compute at trillions of floating point operations per second. That is the scale of super-computing these days. There are not too many IBM Blue Gene/Q centres available and Ontario’s universities are expected to make good use of this one. That is the reason the federal government has contributed $20 million to the project and the Ontario government has contributed $15 million. They are supporting university research.

The real jobs—as many as 145—that this project creates will be with IBM in facilities mainly in Markham, Ontario. That is why IBM Canada expects to spend as much as $175 million on the project over the next three years.

According to the city press release, the choice of Babel was determined by such things as the ready availability of electricity and water. Many Ontario locations have that. What is unique to Babel is that it is a crossroads of communications. This centre needs a private 10 Gigabit Ethernet connection to seven of Ontario’s major universities. Being central to this capability in Ontario’s communications structure is why Babel-on-the-bay recommended this city as a permanent site for a National Command Centre back in November 2010.

The new IBM centre will use what is called cloud computing technology for storage and retrieval of vast amounts of data. Software needs will be developed under the Agile technology approach which was first proposed in 2000. The system uses the Linux operating system.

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Political hypocrisy is always with us.

April 5, 2012 by Peter Lowry

This is an old story. It was over 30 years ago and the head table group was meeting in a room off the ballroom in the Sheraton Hotel across from Toronto city hall. An Ontario cabinet minister and the writer were enjoying a drink and having an interesting discussion about when we expected to have casinos in Ontario. At the time, we were just starting to have ‘charity casinos’ in the province and there was concern about where these events were headed.

We were joined by a young politician from North York who had already cut a swath for himself in municipal politics and was soon to be named Metropolitan Toronto chairman. “You are discussing one of my favourite topics,” he told us. “In fact, I just got back from a weekend junket to Las Vegas.”

“Well Paul,” I said to him, “We’re discussing having casinos in Toronto so that you do not have to go so far. How do you feel about having casinos here?”

Today, Paul Godfrey is chair of Ontario Lottery and Gaming and he might not be amused to be reminded of what he said as a politician, so long ago. Suffice to say, he rejected the idea of having casinos in Toronto. It was political hypocrisy at its finest! (Political hypocrisy is when you put down the voters as needing protection when what they really need is protection from this type of politician.)

But he is hardly alone in that. Toronto city hall has politicians today calling for a vote on whether to allow casinos. Where do they get off telling Torontonians if they can go to a casino? Where do they get off, telling us we do not want the jobs, the attraction for tourism and the opportunity to have a world-class casino?

While they are at it, maybe they should also have a vote on which churches we should go to, whether convenience stores should sell beer or if they should ban lotteries. There is no end to opportunities for the bigots and hypocrites among us to make sure people do not do anything they dislike—or are just being hypocrites about.

It seems the Ford brothers in Toronto might just be the rare exception as politicians. They might have some really strange ideas for Toronto transit and to be very bad at voter relations but you know that, with them, what you see is what you get—all 550 pounds (250 kilos) of them!

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Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

Why is the Toronto Star against casinos?

March 21, 2012 by Peter Lowry

You never want to be on the wrong side of an issue with the Toronto Daily Star. The editors show no mercy. They will stomp you. They will grind you down. They go after you full blast on both editorial and news pages. They have no patience for fact or pleas for an open mind. The Star likes to be a crusader. It makes them feel close to the roots of the paper’s founder, Joseph Atkinson.

Yet the Star’s current crusade makes no sense. Why are they damning a casino for Toronto? If the casino is sanctioned by the Ontario government, it is not illegal. It is just another entertainment centre. Is this some false morality? Do they really think they will change anything?

To be fair, it should be noted that a few centimetres of editorial space were allocated to the pro side of the debate today—in the Toronto Star.

But their owned-and-operated grocery store advertising wraps around the province have been turned loose to carry on the fight against the demon Toronto casino. Our own Babel Backward provided a scathing attack today in an editorial intended to enrage the populous. Full of confused claims and erroneous facts, the editorial was an outcry about local employment.

The editorial claims that three casinos in Windsor, Fort Erie and Sarnia are to be padlocked (sic). The fact that these were money-losing slot operations was glossed over. It was then claimed that all slots at racetrack operations would be gone next year. That was not only wrong but completely misrepresented the situation.

What it boils down to in the editorial is local jobs. Rama (which is not on the market, as stated in the editorial) has about 2500 employees. If Torontonians stop coming to Central Ontario because there is a casino in Toronto, a lot more people than the Casino Rama managers are going to be very surprised.

While slots are hardly our thing, Georgian Downs is a very nice little facility. It is quite likely to keep hiring people in Innisfil and paying the municipality for being there. It will not be getting more grants to keep the horses running but that was a luxury the province could ill afford. That racing money was a separate issue.

It all boils down to small town myopia. You should have felt the chill in the air when we told our favourite local council member that the best use for Babel’s Lakeshore train station lands was a casino. And he also ignored the suggestion of a concert hall.

Maybe those of us who choose to live in small-town Ontario deserve this. The positive thought is that we will soon have a world-class casino just an hour away in Toronto!

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We call it Babel time.

March 9, 2012 by Peter Lowry

Like the legendary Brigadoon that fades into the mists of the Scottish Highlands, Ontario’s Babel rejects time as a measure of its progress. It marches to its own drummers. It sets its own clocks. It prints its own calendars. And they all run slow.

Babel time is when things happen in Babel. An interesting example is the new library branch that opens next week. We will ignore the promises that it would open last year. Babel calendars never do get the year right.

But the main library in Babel is one of the redeeming features of this town. It is an excellent building in Babel’s downtown. It is bright and airy and modern. The librarians are friendly and helpful. They delight in a challenging bit of research. The collection reflects more sophisticated readers than one would expect in a provincial backwater.

Mind you, they have been refurbishing the main library branch for so long, they might as well use the construction barriers to display the collection. Whether building a new branch or refurbishing the old, it is all done on Babel time. Someone, somewhere in the Sleepy Hollow that Babel calls a city hall, there was a promise of speedy, on-time construction. It was a promise, soon forgotten.

But next week, the usual political suspects will line up to cut the ribbon for the new Painswick Branch. Named for a long-gone village in the area, this new branch of the Babel library is carefully hidden away on a street named Dean. Just drive south between Zehrs food market and the LCBO store from Big Bay Point and you will not miss it.

The Painswick branch is Babel’s first attempt at branch library operations. Hopefully they will get it right and people in the north end and in the south west of Babel will also have their own libraries. They will, in Babel’s own time.

It is not as though anyone would come to Babel and not be infected by Babel time. The province rebuilt a two-lane bridge across Highway 400 for St. Vincent Street—and the province was only about a year late.

Refurbishing Babel’s historic train station to nowhere is still not complete. That hardly matters when the town has absolutely no idea what to do with it. Babel time, it infects all your plans.

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Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

Mayor Ford’s dilemma.

March 8, 2012 by Peter Lowry

It is obvious that Ontario Conservative leader ‘Tiny Tim’ Hudak has never served on a municipal council. He seems to have absolutely no idea how the mayor and council interrelate. This must be causing confusion for those of his Conservative members who got their political start in municipal politics. Some of them have also served as mayors. They could explain to Tiny Tim the mistakes Toronto Mayor Ford has made with his city’s councillors.

Tiny Tim has been suggesting to Premier McGuinty that the Ontario government should only support Mayor Ford’s vision of subways. McGuinty has been smart enough to say no and that he will abide by the council’s decision between Light Rapid Transit or subways. McGuinty has enough problems without taking on a rebellious Toronto council.

There is certainly no need for anyone to be surprised that city council has had enough of Toronto’s abrasive mayor. Ford was always odd man out as a councillor. It was like his promise to Toronto voters that he would end the gravy train at city hall. They voted for him and then found out he was the gravy train.

It was obvious a year ago last summer that Ford was set to win the mayor’s chair in Toronto. The only viable opponent was George Smitherman, the openly gay former minister in the McGuinty government. Smitherman was an easy winner downtown while Ford reaped the conservatism of the suburbs. The suburbs are bigger. It was no contest.

But the mayoralty is no holy grail. The job has residual power but it is power that has to be exercised with care and flair. The mayor has to build an alliance with the city officials because s/he works closely with them. If the mayor exercises the power well, the mayor gets more done. The mayor also chairs council and the executive committee. If you know how to wield the gavel, it is power.

But the mayor is still just one vote. To wield power, you need allies. You need to build bridges to former opponents. You have to make nice and work toward the possible. Making new enemies on council just bares your back for more knives.

Looking at it another way, you have to remember that council is the mayor’s mob. The mayor just has to be smart enough to lead that mob to where both sides want to go.

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Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

No, education in Ontario is not big enough.

March 6, 2012 by Peter Lowry

It sometimes seems that the Toronto Star editors enjoy setting pontificating eggheads up for a fall. Professor George Fallis of York University appears to be their latest victim. Professor Fallis writes in today’s Star that Ontario does not need three new university campuses. He makes the argument, in an opinion page piece, that Ontario has enough campus capacity now. He believes that future growth in capacity will only force existing facilities to compete for enrolment. An attitude such as that can only draw derision from across the province.

The professor’s mindset seems to be off. First of all, we need more competition in Ontario. We hardly need to encourage any academics who believe that they do not have to work hard for the attention and attendance of their students. Professors also have a responsibility to keep fees and costs of higher education affordable for students. Academic tenure is not designed to encourage the lazy but to allow challenge and freedom of thinking. Learning must challenge minds not wallets.

The purpose behind the three new campuses is to bring university training and learning to more students across Ontario. We have to bring education to the students and that means going where the growth in population is happening. The day our universities have to compete for enrolment is when we can truly say we are doing the job of educating. Until then, we are denying higher education to those who want it. Education is not just for the professor’s elite.

Babel is one of those three academic centres that will benefit from the province’s promise of growth. Georgian College, based here, has successfully partnered with various universities across the province to bring expanded learning capabilities to central Ontario. Babel (or Barrie, if you insist) is not demanding another university of its own. The city believes that it is the breadth of learning that must be encouraged to help build a strong and varied economy.

Babel’s current mayor, started five years ago to build higher education possibilities. He worked on it before he was even in city politics. He created what is known as the Growing by Degrees task force to expand post-secondary opportunities in the city. The task force has been very successful in bringing more universities to partner in higher education in the city.

Babel respects learning. The city has recently joined with Sudbury-based Laurentian University to develop multi-million plans for a downtown campus that will not only help revitalize Babel’s downtown but build a new style of learning environment. Plans will hopefully include education facilities from kindergarten to PhD. Nor is the planning just for the young. Babel knows that learning is no longer a pastime but a lifetime.

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Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

Does the Rotman School have a degree for prigs?

March 3, 2012 by Peter Lowry

Who would have thought of the Rotman School of Management promoting a prurient position? The director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School writes in the Toronto Star the other day that a casino in Toronto would be a “costly, socially destructive boondoggle.” Instead of offering serious economic studies to make his case, the author tells us of the supposed glitz, tackiness, misery and crime that goes with casinos. This is hardly a very scholarly approach to the question.

We can assure the writer that to not build a casino in Toronto is more socially destructive than he seems to understand. Maybe if he knew of the scope and conditions of the illegal casinos that are operating in the Toronto area and the criminality that these operations generate, he would have a far greater appreciation of the need for legal outlets. And to suggest that a casino is a boondoggle—a waste of time and money—could only be made by someone with no idea of what is involved.

The writer needs to understand that Toronto is a major tourist destination. The city attracts visitors from around the world. The city is a year-round convention location. That is why Toronto is also a very successful North American entertainment centre. It is a major league sports town and a world class business and financial centre. To not have a casino is to degrade us in the eyes of sophisticated tourists and business visitors.

To be fair to the writer, he did make one statement with which many experts agree. He said that building casinos “in an already thriving downtown, is a truly terrible idea.” The best example of this is the bad planning that put a young adult ‘entertainment district’ in the John and Richmond Street area in Toronto. It attracts the wrong crowd, at the wrong times in an area that did not need that much more traffic.

What the writer does not seem to understand is that casinos are an entertainment venue. You go there to be entertained. Most of us, who go to casinos, go to have fun. That money you lay on a craps table or stuff in a slot is part of your cost. The few people who win get some added fun. Humans have been gambling since the dawn of time and only the foolish and prurient think they can stop it.

The Rotman School writer also seems concerned that some people want to turn Ontario Place into a casino. That is a very bad idea for the wrong location. Ontario Place works as a family entertainment area. A casino might be a viable tenant at the west end of the Exhibition grounds if other year-round entertainment besides Medieval Times can also be located there. It is not ideal but, at least, there is good access.

The best location in all of Metropolitan Toronto for a casino is probably Woodbine Racetrack. The track is already in the entertainment business. The operators clearly understand that good food, services, excitement and entertainment are part of the glamour and attraction of a full-scale casino.

But Woodbine is not the only location. The Greater Toronto area can probably sustain as many as four casinos if the proper mix of entertainment and tourist attractions are included. And as managers for these casinos, there might even be some spots for Rotman School of Management graduates.

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Babel’s police board chair pays the bill.

February 16, 2012 by Peter Lowry

The reporters at the Babel Backward seem to act as though they are bit players from Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s classic play The Front Page. They seem to sit around the news room and keep hoping for a story but settle for being told, there is no story. Their problem is that they believe what they are told.

Real reporters would keep digging. Real reporters would wonder what rules allow the Police Board chair to take a financial action that is not backed up by the board minutes. If the chair is allowed to pay over $7000 without any record, what is to stop him from paying us some of that free stuff? Is city council that trusting? The Police Board is there to represent the citizens and to manage the affairs of the local police. Should the board not manage them in a responsible manner?

This is not to suggest that the payment in question was wrong. It is perfectly acceptable for the board to decide not to embarrass the former mayor any further. He has been made to look silly for his poor grammar and other errors in the Globe and Mail advertisement that he ran on his own authority. It is appropriate for the board to end the matter.

The voters of Babel made it very clear what they thought of the former mayor’s actions. He is no longer mayor. The matter is settled.

But contrary to the opinion of the chair of the board—as reported in the Babel Backward–motions or directions of the board have to be recorded. Motions or directions that are not recorded are worth the paper they are written on. And the chair is usually responsible for the minutes of meetings that he chairs. To take a financial action that is not supported by the board minutes could be considered a breach of trust.

And that is where this whole silly business started.

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Oh Lord, the union journey is long.

February 5, 2012 by Peter Lowry

How far have we come in the last hundred years? Nobody expects nirvana but can we not expect some progress? We know why unions were created. They were needed to contend with employers who exploited their employees. The unions fought for laws to ensure the right to association, to collective bargaining, to strike. And the union movement became one long endless battle for those rights.

But in the swinging of the pendulum, unions did themselves harm. They got a lock on public sector and major industry jobs. When they dug in their heels and withdrew their labour as a negotiating tool, they most often hurt the public. They became the pariahs who only cared about themselves. They lost the public relations wars.

As business retaliated and politicians got even, the pendulum swung back in its arc. The Rand Formula (making all who benefit pay the union dues) had made many Canadian unions lazy and they had lost the edge to organize. Stelco workers achieved the record of being the highest paid steelworkers in North America and today there are no jobs for them. At the same time, Canada has been steadily stripped of manufacturing jobs as American states pass anti-union laws and lower their minimum wage. The Mexicans created sweat shops on the American border to suck the blood of the unskilled labour market. And the orient provided the skilled labour needed for electronics manufacturing.

But not all unions are greedy; not all manufacturers callous. Caring unions contribute. They save money for the employers by developing safety standards, worker training, managing benefits and helping in the logistics of growth. Companies found that better relations with the union members improves productivity and quality. Companies and unions learned to work together. They were too few.

In the municipal end of the public sector union-management, there has been too little cooperation. Municipal politicians are chosen by the voters more for their braggado than their expertise. They are supposed to listen to experts but choose the experts to whom they listen. They take bluster and baseball bats to union negotiations. Too often, they lay their ideology on the table and fail to listen.

The municipal unions have learned that eventually the senior level of government will take pity on the citizens and force arbitration on both sides. Arbitration will not solve the problems but gives the unions breathing room to wait for a new set of politicians. The warfare can become constant.

We have to learn. We have to have fairness between union and management. We have to have labour laws that can see both sides. We also have to protect Canadian jobs that it makes sense to keep here. We have to make sure that we are not exporting Canadian technology along with jobs. There is no place for ideology that destroys our economy.

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