"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Sunday 12 July 2015

NOTE TO SELF

A comment notes nothing could  be said to persuade Magna to stay in Aurora  because of the value of land. 

That's true but we could chat about the spurned offer to build a church on donated acreage.

And  refer to a generous giift of an ecology park for town lbenefit.

The  Environmental  Advisory Committee recommended  before the gift be approved,the plan be brought back to the committee for approval of the trail alignment. 

The utterly nonsensical recommendation was accepted by  equally ridiculous Mayor and Council. 

No hint of concern was expressed by the  Division of Retention and Expansion. 

The proponent did not respond. In fact, the ecology park seems to have faded into the distance.

We might consider what on earth a municipal bureaucrat could have to say that would convince Magna they should not maximize the value of their property. 

The long succession of opened and closed business during the tenure of the former CAO is hardly testament to effectiveness of a Division  of Retention and Expansion within the Economic Development Department.

But all of that is beside the point.

Value of development lands in urban Aurora far surpasses value In agricultural King. 

Despite the Ontario Premier's aim to protect agricultural land and prevent urban sprawl, Intervention is unlikely from that quarter and yet another golf course wont likely exist either in the not too distant future. 

But we have all the fol-de-rols and fur-belows and corresponding operating costs with little 
to show for it. 

When town business is run efficiently perhaps we can charge a fee and offer advice to others. 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

They should have just said "? Thank you so very much " when the ecology park was proposed.
Instead Cllr Gaertner was on about the possibility of " light pollution " from the parking area.
I do hope that Mr Stronach does not think the entire town lack manners.

Anonymous said...

We already pay more for services than comparable towns.
And we paid for a company to tell us about it.

Anonymous said...

I remember Mayor Dawe going on about how this Town running like a corporation/business. He then talked about how he didn't want to "micromanage". Well if this Corporation was run like a private business or a business with shareholders, the board would have been gone long ago and all vp's, directors would have been shown the door. We had 30% of the shareholders in this Corporation show up last October. Why would anyone want to invest here? Newmarket was at the bottom of the pile last year in empoyment growth, looks like we'll be getting that title next.