"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

Wednesday 8 November 2017

ALL IN THE RECORD ...OR NOT

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "PEACE AND HARMONY..CIRCA 2017":

Have to love how you hang on to your altered version history and publish it as truth.

"...a town department to was evicted to make space for the regiment to survive. "

The Town determined that the building was surplus for it's use and it was offered up and eventually leased to DND for the QYR. There was no "eviction". That is hyperbole on your part that is false. The Hydro building was being used by a Town department to assemble picnic tables.

I will be honest. I do not agree that the LAV should be at the park as a monument for Afghanistan veterans. The Cenotaph is supposed to be a monument to the dead of all wars. It should memorialize all fallen soldiers of all conflicts and not make one conflict more important that an other. Having the LAV for Afghanistan singles out that conflict - which personally we should not have been involved in.

The proper place to have the LAV - if we are to have it - should be at the armouries. It is a monument to the QYR and their mission.

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 8 November 2017 at 08:54


*****************************************
No doubt the commenter believes what they heard from a person they trust. Their information is not correct. 

Legislation covering disposition of public property is clear and simple.  

Council must pass a bylaw to declare the property surplus . Then advertise and or list the 
property for sale. It did not happen.

I remember the night the CAO informed Council in closed session he had negotiated a twenty 
year lease with QYR and the amount of the rent. 

Councillor Gaertner was very complimentary and full of appreciation. 

Council had given the CAO no instruction  to proceed in that direction. 

No bylaw had been passed, no advertisement publicly declaring the property surplus to our needs. 

No listing or advertising the property for sale. 

When Council received information about the rent, no offsetting figures were provided to indicate maintenance or capital costs to meet requirements of the new tenant. Never did receive a figure
although work continued for months after parks vacated.

Nothing to indicate cost of forfeiting tax revenue or realizing a capital asset or the potential for jobs
had the property been disposed according to the law and Municipal Act requirements.

Aurora Parks Department build parks furniture to their own specifications. In the short time they'd been in the building, they had built a shelter gazebo in parts to be assembled on site.

The day the Queen's Jubilee Park was dedicated, the CAO explained why the deal was done.

The Federal government planned to close Fort York Armouries and Aurora Armouries. This meant
QYR would be archived as a separate regiment from Canadian Forces.

Adding salt to the wound, Aurora paid the Federal government half a million dollars for the
contaminated drill shed that occupied a corner of the Town Park since the reign of Queen
Victoria.

At a cost of millions, Aurora taxpayers rescued Queen's York Rangers from extinction. Rah Rah Rrr.

Cost of the JOC fiasco is not even factored into the overall expenditure.

Accusing a past Councillor of lying about municipal decisions is tricky.

A claim of advertising a property surplus and then for sale is easy to prove or disprove.

Documentation is public. Legally, both newspapers must carry the advertisement. It never
happened online, referral has never been so simple.

To the commenter's final tortuous point about display of a death machine at the Cenotaph;
the history of planning and fund-raising to build the War Memorial is written and accessible
at the library.

Federal War Memorial Act regulates care and maintenance.

The First World War was to be the War that ended all wars. November 11 is a reminder of the
promise made to those who died. "The torch was passed from falling hands" that no-one
else would ever be required to make that terrible sacrifice again.

The Second World War was an extension of the First. The same promise was made.

And since then no-one has been compelled.

Canada is not at war. No country is threatening ours.

With nuclear weaponry war is obsolescent.

There can be no victorious ending.

Only ending.




2 comments:

Anonymous said...



Obviously councils and CAO's don't know their asses from holes in the ground.

Anonymous said...

Oh yes they do. They know exactly what they're doing.