{"id":17485,"date":"2017-06-07T16:10:47","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T20:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17485"},"modified":"2017-06-07T16:10:47","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T20:10:47","slug":"full-picture-needed-on-omb-hearings-says-councillor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/full-picture-needed-on-omb-hearings-says-councillor\/","title":{"rendered":"Full picture needed on OMB hearings, says Councillor"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aurora residents will soon have a fuller picture of the Town\u2019s activities at the Ontario Municipal Board.
\nCouncil has approved key components of a motion from Councillor Harold Kim asking for a report on appeals heard at the OMB involving Aurora since December 2006, but stopped short of the full details the Councillor was hoping to receive.
\nAlthough Council approved compiling a report on OMB statistics \u2013 a process staff estimate might take as much as four months \u2013 they stopped short of approving a second clause outlining the contents of the report which the Councillor proposed be included, but not be limited to number of units involved and, perhaps most contentious, the total amount of money spent by the Town.
\nFor Councillor Kim, it was all about trying to make an informed decision at the Council table.
\n\u201cWe all know the more information we have the more informed decisions we make and often when we discuss issues here at Council we ask for comparators and comparisons and look for trends,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of times trends really help us extrapolate and make informed decisions based on what\u2019s happened in the past and where we think that path may go in the future.
\n\u201cIn our two and a half years through this term we have faced a lot of planning issues and issues that have gone to the OMB and it has become more and more a hot temperature topic. I think it is important that we know the breakdown of various issues that have gone to the OMB for an appeal.\u201d
\nA broad look at OMB appeals over a 10 year period could help elected officials spot trends on decisions and allow them to make further decisions in full context and appreciate the full \u201cfinancial ramifications\u201d of an appeal.
\nThe motion was not without its share of detractors, first among them was Councillor Tom Mrakas who said he had difficulty understanding the intent of the motion as most of the information, aside from financials, is already listed on the OMB website.
\n\u201cI understand we want to be informed, but I don\u2019t understand how this information is going to change our decision-making when it comes to development applications,\u201d said Councillor Mrakas. \u201cI don\u2019t base my decisions on what the OMB is going to do or how much it is going to cost. At the end of the day, an appeal, if you look back over those 10 years, I think there is only one time a municipality actually appealed a judgement. All the other times it is a developer, a builder or a resident appealing a decision and we\u2019re either having to go and spend money defending a decision that we made as a Council to uphold our official plan.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think how much we spent defending our official plan because someone else appealed a decision we made is going to change how we make our decisions. I don\u2019t understand how this is going to inform our decision making.\u201d
\nA similar view was offered by Councillor Michael Thompson ahead of the Province\u2019s announcement of possible OMB reforms which could see the Board replaced with a tribunal. He said ongoing efforts towards that reform could result in that very different mechanism sooner rather than later.
\n\u201cIt is always good for us to have additional statistics and data to help us make an informed decision,\u201d he said, adding OMB experts he has spoken to have often cited inconsistency as one of the hallmarks of a Board decision. \u201cWe try to do that with a lot of the things we do and that is why in the budget process we keep pushing for KPIs and numerical metrics to help us make decisions. However, you do struggle with the value of information that would come back to us. It has always been my perception that it is hard to compare one scenario to another. While the OMB may still exist it could be very different in the days and months ahead.\u201d
\nAmong those supporting maximum information were Councillors John Abel and Paul Pirri, the latter of whom said any information is beneficial and he had yet to hear a compelling reason arguing against it.
\n\u201cIf the only thing that isn\u2019t readily available is the expense that has gone out I see no harm in us getting that financial figure,\u201d said Councillor Pirri. \u201cIf we\u2019re talking about reforming the OMB I think there is no easier way to demonstrate how hurtful the OMB it is than demonstrating how much municipalities have to spend to defend themselves.\u201d
\nConcluding his motion, Councillor Kim said Council members and municipal staff alike are \u201cpublic servants\u201d and 1,000 members of the public shouldn\u2019t have to go onto the website to compile the information.
\n\u201cIt is important to have the information that $250,000 was spent on this small issue, or $500,000 was spent on that \u2013 when there are real numbers attached to something it gives people pause.\u201d
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora residents will soon have a fuller picture of the Town\u2019s activities at the Ontario Municipal Board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4y1","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 19:33:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}