Councillors need to be held more accountable

November 29, 2013 · 0 Comments

At a recent Canadian Tire (CT) meeting, more information came surfacing to the top, and questions concerning other problems we were told need to be studied and will be addressed at a later date.
Questions raised by the residents, and answers given by the councillors and CT representatives came out of thin air, changing information as times goes by. The 800 trucks a day entering and leaving the warehouse and 35 to 40 trucks running on site was given by a CT executive, and is now constantly disputed by the CT real estate spokesperson.
Why a CT real estate person is answering all operational and process procedures is to me a puzzle. Usually, real estate persons select a site to accommodate a certain size building and that is the end of their work. Operational and process procedures are the responsibility of an operation, and process executive, and not a real estate person.
In the meantime, the mayor asked Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Linda Jeffrey to expedite the approval to grant CT an Ministerial Zoning Order (MZO) and it was signed, Dufferin-Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones endorsed Caledon council’s approval of the CT warehouse location, while Jeffrey, Jones, council, and Bolton residents and businesses haven’t had a clue what’s still changing and hidden by CT.
If residents are not asking CT what’s coming right now, they will not tell us, and the results may be disastrous for generations if the CT warehouse is build. In my opinion, the whole procedure for such an incredibly big issue that will be affecting thousands of people, including established businesses, and approving it without knowing what is coming and (most important of all) without Bolton residents’ knowledge, is like signing a blank cheque, or revealing your credit card number, complete with password, and mailing it to someone, you don’t even know. We are warned not to blindly sign on the dotted line when a gas or other contractor comes along promising cheaper prices, but yet this CT warehouse, so full of holes, and so dangerous (diesel exhaust, noise, traffic), is endorsed and signed in a flash.
The endorsement by Jones and the approval of an MZO should be immediately withdrawn and revoked, and Caledon council should be taken to task for ignoring the residents. In my opinion, the Municipal Act and the voting laws should be changed before the next municipal elections to allow mayor and councillors to serve only one four-year term, and that at anytime during those four years, the residents can petition to have a councillor voted out. The four-year term would prevent an elected mayor or councillor from going through the motions, becoming arrogant, not consulting the residents on important issues that will be affecting them. The present Caledon council is not only ignoring the residents and businesses, but incredibly they ignore Ontario Provincial laws, rules and regulations.
“All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (Lord Acton)
When human beings are in a position to exercise absolute power over others without accountability, disaster usually follows.
John Van Eeden,
Bolton