Steve McGuinness
Special to Niagara Now/The Lake Report

My recent column explaining how government actions are accelerating the residential real estate market decline (“Bottom Line: How governments are harming the housing market,” Aug. 28) provoked significant online comment, including from our lord mayor.

He hailed my “talent for creating confusion and distrust by providing incomplete information,” calling it “alarming.”

At the risk of sounding more alarms, allow me to complete my observations:

Let’s focus on Benny Marotta. Earlier this council term, the prominent developer handed a large cash gift to a councillor during a meeting at his winery, requiring police and integrity commissioner investigations (The Lake Report, “No charges laid after developer gave NOTL councillor $10,000 in cash,” April 20, 2023).

Recently, excavation began for the underground garage below Mr. Marotta’s Two Sisters resort hotel at Parliament Oak.

In a split decision, the town council approved a motion imploring the region to waive a portion of the development fee on that parkade. The lord mayor was absent for that vote. Why this request was not routed directly to the region remains unexplained. (The Lake Report, “Council backs developer’s fight against regional fees — with dissent,” July 24)

Next, consider Marotta’s townhouse development on the former Rand Estate.

This proposal was rejected by the town and successfully defended on appeal up to the Ontario Land Tribunal, which imposed conditions for the development to proceed (The Lake Report, “Tribunal sends Rand Estate plan ‘back to drawing board,’” Oct. 17, 2024).

These were rejected by the developer despite the town expending significant unbudgeted and unreimbursed legal costs supporting the appeal.

SORE (Save Our Rand Estate) recently sought a zoning change on that Randwood property. The lord mayor previously declared a conflict of interest (because he resides close to Rand), on the advice of the town’s prior integrity commissioner.

The mayor is now apparently awaiting a new ruling from the replacement integrity commissioner, although no facts or rules have changed.

This did not prevent him from supporting a staff decision (based on an external legal opinion) ruling the SORE application incomplete without a land owner’s signature. Further, he called for documents identifying the SORE principals.

Let’s contrast this zeal for revealing an applicant’s complete identity to another recent land request involving Mr Marotta.

This one involved his acquisition of a severed lakefront land fragment to merge with a property he owns next to the lot where the Glencairn Estate was destroyed by a potential act of arson (a crime still unsolved) back in April.

That application was submitted to our committee of adjustment by the director of a numbered Ontario corporation, which acquired title to Glencairn in a 2024 transfer.

Yet, echoing the lord mayor’s identity confusion about SORE, we also do not know the identity of the numbered corporation’s shareholder(s), who are the beneficial owners of the Glencairn property.

Ontario corporate transparency legislation (designed to combat illicit activities like money laundering) requires directors to provide the names of significant shareholders to certain parties.

This share register should be maintained at the registered place of business, which in the case of the Glencairn holding company is a commercial unit in Humber Bay Shores, Etobicoke. It is currently operating as a cannabis dispensary called Pluto Plants.

Nevertheless, our committee of adjustment approved the merger of the Glencairn property with Mr. Marotta’s in a 4-1 decision.

In response to queries from the dissenting committee member, the applicant’s representative and our town planner suggested there were two distinct landowners, although they were not privy to the private agreement between them.

We require more applicant identity clarity to assess whether the neighbours are truly acting at arms’ length.

Two of the parties eligible to obtain the identity of a numbered corporation’s shareholder(s) are a regulatory agency and the police.

I asked our town CAO, Nick Ruller, whether our planning department qualifies as a regulator entitled to this information. That query remains unanswered as at our publication deadline.

Likewise, the editor-in-chief of this paper contacted the Niagara Regional Police about this and its reply is also outstanding.

In his Bay Street career, Steve McGuinness was a senior advisor to large financial institutions and is now retired in NOTL. Send your personal financial planning questions to him at smcgfinplan@gmail.com.