Walking the dog in St. Davids, Geoff Fisher says the conversation lately is all about the election. And developers — who probably buy politicians.
“One thing I have heard often is that many of the candidates are too aligned with developers (leading to council decisions that favour developers over current residents’ interests) because council is under the influence of the big developers,” he tells me. “I haven’t studied the council’s decision history on developments, and likely neither have my neighbours, but what does stand out to me is this situation where people think that council members can be ‘bought’ in some manner.”
He asks if that’s true. If so, how would a developer, like whipping boy Benny Marotta, come to “own” council members, getting them to greenlight his big deals? Like the Parliament Oak hotel. Or the sprawling hotel/spa/condo development on the Rand Estate.
As far as the town and the cops are concerned, there’s no corruption. That was the verdict after Marotta gave a councillor ten grand in an envelope, saying it was for “campaign expenses.” The recipient, Gary Burroughs, turned it over to the municipality and was eventually cleared of any grift. But that memory lives on.
Everyone running in this election has a personal agenda. Nobody gets into municipal politics for the pathetic money they receive. And every day means dealing with more crap and grief from pesky constituents. The job sucks. Yet people are begging you to give it to them.
Why? Because being elected means influencing decisions that can impact millions, or hundreds of millions, of dollars. It’s how we got the Big Dig on King Street, those godawful buildings beside atmospheric Garrison Village and a 50,000-square-foot Mississauga-clone theatrical box going up in the heart of the Old Town.
Most people living here would have voted against one or all. But here they be. And now it seems we’re close to the biggest project of all, the Ritz-Rand.
Of the three running to be our lord mayor (with super powers), two have no issue with the latest Marotta mega-dig, so long as development rules are followed. Erwin Wiens (now deputy mayor) said as much in this column. Now Andrea Kaiser (currently a regional councillor) tells me she’ll openly consider a Ritz-Carlton hotel, plus 170 condos in five buildings, a spa, conference centre and 514-car parking garage.
“I do not take positions in favour or against any planning application before the proper planning process has been completed with full transparency, appropriate heritage and technical reviews as well as meaningful public input,” she says. So let the process rip.
“Any plan must respect and follow the findings of the Ontario Land Tribunal. That includes protecting the significant heritage buildings, the cultural heritage landscape and important landscape features, as well as preserving the mature trees and natural heritage features identified through the tribunal process.”
Vaughn Goettler, in contrast, is a hard no. He’d slap a moratorium on development since NOTL can’t swallow more — certainly not when this summer’s floods showed basic infrastructure may already be taxed.
And while Wiens and Kaiser say they’d be guided by the expertise and decisions of town staff, Goettler suggests we’re already paying the price for elected people handing power to NOTL employees.
Oh, and this brings us to water. Specifically dewatering.
It took our largest citizen group 161 days and a freedom of information process to get details on the amount of water being pumped out of Marotta’s deep hotel hole, to gauge the impact on our pipes and flooding of basements.
There’s apparently been no co-operation from the town on whether rules are being followed. “Why this is such a deep, dark secret,” says group director Ron Simkus. “Beats me.”
For citizens who can’t add a small porch without a permit (that will likely be denied), cut a nuisance shrub without a tree permit or replace an old broken window without a heritage permit, watching builders and developers raze entire historic structures, erect hulking developments in sensitive areas and enjoy almost-free use of public infrastructure seems wrong. Privileged. Suspect. Especially when done in the dark.
This makes people like Geoff and his dog buddies wonder. Me too.
Perception, in politics, is reality.
Garth Turner is a NOTL resident, journalist, author, wealth manager and former federal MP and minister. garth@garth.ca
