Is Mayor Bonnette 'rolling-over' for Corporations?

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July 11th, 2005

Halton Hills - Georgetown: The Mayor tells Halton Hills his new vision for our community is a  'Corporate Culture' one. At the July 11^th council meeting Councillor Davis brought up an issue that Councillor Fogal had raised in a volley of emails that had circulated amongst the rest of the councilors, with regards to an on going construction project that was well underway with foundations poured and the structural steel already erected, without a permit at 88 Todd Rd in Georgetown. Click here to see picture.

Councillor Davis asked Mr. Murdock from the town's Building, Zoning and Enforcement Department to elaborate a little about what happened there;

"I believe there was no building permit and that a stop-work order was issued, and then construction continued after the stop-work order had been issued".

 

The councillor continued asking specifically if;

"number one: is the building permit now in place; and secondly, is there a water allocation in place for this building"?   

Mr. Murdock confirmed to Councillor Davis that the property at 88 Todd Road did have a stop-work order issued for building without a building permit and that on June 30^th 2005, the Town issued the contractor a building permit and that there is now a water allocation for the project. Mr. Murdock concluded;

"so, they have a building permit".

Councillor Davis replied;

"Okay, and... my concern, of course, is that there is buildings going up when there are stop work orders in place, and I'm very concerned about that. I understand from our CAO that we are going to go after them from a legal point of view and I think that's an excellent idea".

Councillor Davis went on to add,

"I notice,... I'm very concerned that you might have been a little bit laxed with this. I see there might have been some threats to go to Brampton for existing industry space and I’m very concerned about that. I think anybody that feels they can build or they are going to leave,... we need to not roll-over for that. And I did notice in the email that there are some other, perhaps, constructions going on without the necessary permits.  My point is with this,... instead of giving in to this pressure, I think we should really be in compliance with the building permit process".

Councillor Davis addressed council stating;

"what I'd like to happen at 88 Todd road is a direction of staff to go full blast to a conviction and to report back to this council naming names of the convictions as well as the fines and all the details, using this as an example to show other developers we're not a push over. That council here cares about the building permit process".

The councillor went to add;

"there has been cases in the past where, had the proper studies been done, had the work been done properly before hand, we wouldn't have the problems we have now".

CAO Bob Austin took a moment to remind the committee that legal matters should be dealt with in-camera.

Mayor Bonnette then told council;

"I'd like to make a few comments here. The town of Halton Hills has had a reputation, don't build in Halton Hills. We’re trying to change the corporate culture here in this community".

 

Tapping his hand on his desk, the Mayor went on to explain;

"one of the companies (involved) has been in this town for 45 years and has been one of our largest employers in the community".

He continued;

"and I'll be damned if I'm going to... and to say to our staff, ... Just to say, go to Brampton. Because when they ordered their steel, they had to wait for the steel to come in.  It’s not that simple, it's not like buying a ticket to go to the show".

Bonnette continued rambling;

"And this company has 500 employees, many of them are in your (Davis's) ward, my ward, or the town, and in everybodies ward in this community".  

The mayor who came beginning to across as emotional, eluded to his true feelings with regards to companies doing business in Halton Hills;

"but we're trying to change the corporate culture in this community, to try to get industry".

The Mayor explained;

"we're trying to create jobs here. This isn't a residential place going up here. This is going to create jobs, to get industrial assessment in our town so when people get a tax bill they don't say how come my taxes are so high".

Last year Halton Hills taxpayers suffered one of the largest increases ever, 2% of it due to back-order road repairs that had accumulated over time, most of it dating back from when the now acting CAO - Bob Andrews managed that department.

The mayor went on to praising staff;

"We can be self-righteous all we want. We can be sanctimonious but were trying to make something else work here, and I defend staff for trying to work through things".

Finally the mayor acknowledged;

"There's another side to this story. There's another side were trying to do corporately to insure jobs stay in this community, and to lightly fluff them off and let them go to Brampton, I mean I'm not prepared to do this as Mayor".

Davis asked if he could "rebuttal to that", and the mayor said; "you can rebuttal until midnight, but that's fine". Davis went on to say;

"I understand your points, but everyone should be playing by the rules".

Watch video transcript ...

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