{"id":24178,"date":"2019-07-04T18:13:27","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T22:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24178"},"modified":"2019-07-04T18:13:37","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T22:13:37","slug":"council-endorses-status-quo-on-regional-government-calls-for-environmental-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/council-endorses-status-quo-on-regional-government-calls-for-environmental-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"Council endorses \u201cstatus quo\u201d on Regional government, calls for environmental protection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Aurora Council has\ncome out in support of the status quo as the Province continues its review of\nRegional Governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local lawmakers\nunanimously supported a motion brought forward by Mayor Tom Mrakas that states\n\u201cthe Council of the Town of Aurora endorses the effectiveness of the current\ntwo-tier municipal governance structure, with continued exploration and\nimplementation of furthering efficiencies and partnerships, as has excited\nbetween York Region and our partner York local municipalities since its\ninception in 1971.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The motion went a step\nfurther and reiterated Aurora\u2019s commitment to the environment, noting that both\nCouncil and \u201cactively engaged citizens value the distinct identity of their\ncommunity of communities and are committed to being proud hosts and stewards of\nthe Oak Ridges Moraine, Greenbelt, Lake Simcoe and the Holland Marsh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Province has been\nundertaking a review of Regional Governance since last year, a move brought in\nby the then-new Progressive Conservative government. Since then, \u201cspecial\nadvisors\u201d appointed by the Province have been carrying out consultations and\nreviews on a number of key subjects including the possible move to single-tier municipalities\nand\/or amalgamating existing municipalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis [motion] is\nbasically let the Province know that we feel York Region works well as a\nRegion,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas at last week\u2019s Council meeting. \u201cWe do look for\nefficiencies currently. We work within the Northern 6 (Aurora, King, Newmarket,\nWhitchurch-Stouffville, East Gwillimbury and Georgina) for waste and for many\nother aspects and we do a great job. We think the status quo works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Council\nsupported the motion unanimously, this conclusion was not reached without\ndiscussion and questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First up was\nCouncillor Michael Thompson who wondered just when the Province was due to make\ntheir decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen the review\nprocess started, they put out a timetable and originally said they though the\nconsultants would make their recommendations towards the end of June,\u201d he said.\n\u201cI am now hearing rumours it will be held off until after the election.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Mrakas responded\nit was his understanding that due to the Provincial Government\u2019s extended\nsummer recess that there would be nothing forthcoming until after the Federal\nElection this October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this out of the\nway, Councillor Wendy Gaertner questioned whether the Mayor\u2019s motion went far\nenough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it is\ncomprehensive and it is certainly necessary to send the message,\u201d she agreed.\n\u201cI am wondering if, because this is so crucial, whether we might send an even\nstronger message and say we\u2019re \u2018absolutely opposed to this\u2019 \u2013 unless you feel\nthat the motion covers it, [and] you have covered a lot in this motion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mayor replied that\nthe motion covered all the bases and was worded similarly to other motions\nconsidered and passed in York Region\u2019s other eight municipalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re willing to sit down [with the Province]\nand work with them and have some conversations,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re opposed to\namalgamation, we think the Regional structure works well, and we want to get\nacross the point that the things we do in the Region, we\u2019re already doing the\nthings they\u2019re asking and looking to do, and that is find efficiencies. We want\nto convey that message across the Province in a diplomatic way.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora Council has come out in support of the status quo as the Province continues its review of Regional Governance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24178","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\/p3D2k4-6hY","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 14:33:14","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\/24178","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=24178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}