Time Will Tell

Councillor Thompson gave us  his reason for supporting culture as  an appropriate tax burden. He notes  all museums, art galleries and such facilities get some kind of support from  taxpayers.
Like that's news. Aurora's museum existed for twenty-five years with tax support. 
There's a chapter in  the historyof which Councillor Thompson is  ignorant. 
The Children's Aid Society began as a group of volunteers who recognised  a serious need. They organised, raised funds and went about  meeting  the need. Neglected, abused and starving children were taken into care.
Because  the need  was established  by numbers and  public support.was established by donations, government eventually provided tax support for the program. Now it is one hundred per cent publicly funded.
Before the County school boards  in 1969, Fairmead School was    built,  staffed and  board management  by volunteer  parents of children with special needs; Newmarket/Aurora  Association for the Mentally Retarded. 
Before that, there was no place for their  children in  public schools.
When County boards were created, the province made them responsible to  provide education for all.
The need had been  established and public support made evident  by voluntary financial support.
Students with special needs are now entitled to spend the same number of years in school as any other  student.
In time, Ontario Hospitals were closed. 
In the fifties,the Aurora Historical Society came into being.;  literally a handful of residents.
The town provided meeting space.
Residents contributed artifacts.
The town purchased artifacts when they  became available. 
When  local police department vacated their space in the old waterworks building,the Aurora Historical Society  group were given access and the pottery group space for a kiln. 
When  Church Street School became vacant,  a museum was created. A volunteer provided curator services for a time but eventually the town provided a grant that allowed for a full-time curator who also provided research services to the town's planning department.
Public support for the new service was  thereby established .
In 2002,  fund-raising was undertaken  by the Historical Society for renovations expected to cost one million dollars.
Public support was established by  success of the fund-raising.
The figure reached $750.000. Time  went by. The facility still stood  gutted  and empty.
$250,000 were spent on plans 
In 2006, things had  come to a halt.
Hydro was sold .Funds were available.that allowed the renovation to be undertaken WITHOUT  adding a burden to  taxpayers.
We all know the skulduggery that followed.If anyone doesn't, it's not for the want of me telling it.
Without public support  sought or established, the former Council and administration, with sleight of  hand  foisted the cost of culture on the backs of  taxpayers.
The difference between  what happened here and tax support provided  for museums, art galleries  elsewhere across Ontario is the avoidance of  opportunity for public input and deliberate subterfuge. 
Elsewhere,  no doubt. as always happened in the past, volunteers with a passion, saw a need or a desire and  went about meeting it,   
Voluntary financial support established the public's will. . Then government funds were  forthcoming. 
When lotteries were approved, even more funds were available and things got easier.
Bingo funds allowed Councillor Gaertner to run a small  not- for- profit business providing a  club for teens. Bingo funds vanished ,so did the  club.
At the same time, a building with millions invested, intended for a 
dual  purpose, was given away rent and maintenance free, with hundreds of thousands of financial  support  to an organisation that didn't  even  exist  until the Mormac Crew  created it.
Now we have  a Mayor and seven  members of  a new Council
who  think that's just fine.
We don't  believe  the community shares that  conviction.