{"id":5301,"date":"2014-01-22T15:47:47","date_gmt":"2014-01-22T20:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=5301"},"modified":"2014-01-29T16:38:01","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T21:38:01","slug":"politics-as-usual-meeting-of-the-mayors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-meeting-of-the-mayors\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: Meeting of the Mayors"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Mayors of the GTA\u2019s municipalities met last Friday in Mississauga to devise a plan to put forward to the provincial and federal governments to fund the cost of their respective ice storm recovery efforts.
\nNot all the municipalities\u2019 mayors were present. For example, our own Mayor Dawe, as well as East Gwillimbury Mayor Virginia Hackson, were invited but unable to attend due a closed door Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority meeting.
\nBut, a significant number were able to make it.
\nIt was reported that 19 Mayors and 3 Regional Chairs were in attendance at the meeting. (Okay 19 Mayors, three Regional Chairs \u2013 and one deputy mayor\u2026not even this important meeting could proceed without Toronto\u2019s circus pitching a tent in its midst\u2026but I digress).
\nThat is, I believe, approximately 2\/3 of the mayors of the municipalities affected by the storm. It\u2019s extraordinary that so many were able to get together so quickly. The large group met behind closed doors to discuss their plans \u2013 the outcome of which was a request for over a quarter billion in funds to help offset the municipalities\u2019 costs.
\nThe arrangement being a \u201c1\/3, 1\/3, 1\/3\u201d approach to paying the costs with a firm deadline of March 1.
\nFirst the positives: I think it is great that so many egos were put aside in the furtherance of the greater good.
\nIt\u2019s either a testament to the severity of the issue or the strength of the chair, or both, but regardless, the fact so many political leaders were able to come to a unanimous decision on something \u2013 anything! \u2013 is remarkable.
\nIn the face of such a united show of strength \u2013 including from the largest and 6th largest cities in the country no less – I think that the various governmental levels will indeed work towards resolving the funding issue associated with the storm clean up.
\nThe fact numerous elections are looming doesn\u2019t hurt either.
\nNow the negatives: I will leave aside the attempt by Ford to drag partisan politics into the mix, Mayor McCallion did a great job of smacking that down rather quickly anyway. My concern is the odd way in which we were, and are, represented and implications for the effectiveness of that representation. I could not get a list of all those who attended.
\nHowever, photos of the event show our Regional Chair Bill Fisch, representing Regional Council, one assumes. Also in attendance, in the very centre of the photo, was Markham Mayor Scarpitti, as well as Richmond Hill Mayor Barrow, ostensibly ensuring their municipalities had a voice at the table too. As Regional Council passed a motion asking for relief for the Region\u2019s municipalities and the Region is represented by the Chair, if the Mayors were also there to press their case, whose motion and whose needs take precedence?
\nDoes that not create competing demands? Regional versus Municipal relief? Who speaks for whom?
\nMaybe concern is too strong a word \u2013 confusion would be more apt. We shall see some changes at the Regional level with the election as opposed to appointment of the chair. In the interim, I think it would be beneficial to better understand just who speaks for us, and when.
\nUntil next week, stay informed, stay involved because this is, after all, Our Town.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas The Mayors of the GTA\u2019s municipalities met last Friday in Mississauga to devise a plan to put forward to the provincial and federal governments to fund the cost of their respective ice storm recovery efforts. Not all the municipalities\u2019 mayors were present. For example, our own Mayor Dawe, as well as East […]<\/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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1nv","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 15:32:57","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\/5301","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=5301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}