VAMOOSE

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "THE TEAM , THE TEAM , HAS SAGGY SEAMS": 

We have so many "arms length" organizations/groups like the OMB, all with no accountability to taxpayers. All appointed by government, their own boards or hired by their own organizations. Audits done with very little change if any at all. Giving elected officials more power and responsibility would at least give taxpayers the ability to throw these people out in an election. 
Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 19 February 2017 at 18:12

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Government boards and commissions appointed by the Province should not be confused with 

the wonky board that manages the Aurora Culture Centre or the Aurora Historical Society. 

The Library Board is not the same. It is provincially legislated with legislated responsibility. 

Each member is a government appointee for a fixed term based on certain credentials which might 

simply be good reputation and recommendation from a reliable source or sources.  It might be a pay-off. Either way , it is a political appointment.  Re-appointment is never a done deal. 

Remuneration is fixed by government. Funds are provided by the government. 

The Province and the Federal governments are one hundred per cent responsible for public services provided by a myriad of boards and commissions. 

 Municipalities also exist at the pleasure of government. Except for elections, responsibility is for  services that theoretically , can be more efficiently and economically provided at the grass rots. 

The Province is still responsible for over-all effectiveness  and integrity of services provided.

The history of Boards of Education is an example. 

In the beginning , municipal councils were responsible for education. Councils were generally 

comprised of representatives from local business. 

Property owners had a vote. Non-property owners did not.

Capital spending was by plebiscite. 

Local improvements were voted with seventy- five per cent in favour. That law is still on the books.

Back In the day, Councils tended not to favour education for children of the work force. 

As a result, authority was taken from them. School boards were created.

Education taxes became the greatest part of any municipal budget. 

Councils collected the taxes. Councillors carried the can. 

They were still complaining when I was first elected. 

In the nineteen-nineties, the Province finally took responsibility for education costs but not completely. The formula was, the Province would absorb all increases.

Education boards continued to be elected with authority effectively neutered. 

At the same time, Regions surrounding Toronto were compelled to pay the cost of social services in Toronto to obscure the real cost of that city's amalgamation. 

The province negotiates education employee contracts. They decide when schools are built and by formula, when they are closed. 

School boards  take the heat. 

In every meaningful way, local autonomy, simply and suddenly, vanished from the scene.