By Pepper Parr

June 3rd, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

 

They may not have known each other all that well when they were appointed but both men said yes just as soon as they were asked by the Minister of Housing and Municipalities if they would serve as Special Advisors and do the grunt work for the Provincial Review called for by Premier Doug Ford.

The choice turned out to be close to brilliant: the two men, Michael Fenn and Ken Seiling were respected in their fields, municipal government – but were significantly different: Seiling was an elected politician while Fenn was an appointed bureaucrat.

The Gazette got to watch the two when they were in Halton doing the last of the nine area meetings hearing delegations on what the two advisors should and shouldn’t include in their report.

For Burlingtonians, the issue was a possible amalgamation of Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills.

It became clear that Fenn and Seiling were looking for something different from the delegations.

Ken Seiling began his political career as a councillor for the Township of Woolwich; became Mayor several years later and then moved on to become the the Regional Chair where he served for 33 years.

A man of simple tastes, Seiling plays the organ, listens carefully and takes the position that “ the job was never about him”. He and his wife have lived in Elmira all his life where they raised their five children and now spends time with his nine grandchildren.

Ken is well known for his active support of community groups across the Region and is respected both locally and provincially. Ken has directed choirs and played in many churches across the Region. Seiling would never be described as the loudest one in the room. “That’s just not my style,” said Seiling. He long ago earned a reputation as an approachable, modest politician who did his work without burning any bridges along the way.

“If you alienate people, if you make them angry with you, at the end of the day your ability to do things is pretty limited,” he said.

“I’ve never thought the job was about me. The job was about doing things for the community, for other people. I never really worried if I had the profile or not. I was quite happy to go to an event and sit in the back row.”

Seiling is one of those prudent, small c conservative politicians who once served the province very very well.

Looking after people by improving affordable and supportive housing, increased child care, and services for seniors. This requires work with non-profit groups, the private sector and the Province to forge stronger partnerships and leverage funding.

Good financial planning which keeps taxes around inflation, maintaining an AAA credit rating which was achieved through good financial management, and work to create jobs and investment through more co-ordinated efforts at economic development.

In an age of bombastic politicians and divisive, overheated politics, Seiling has never needed to be front and centre – he’s an old-school advocate for civility and quiet diplomacy.

The issues for Seiling as a politician were managing growth, investing in infrastructure and encouraging investment and jobs to keep communities livable.

He’s especially proud of policies that have protected farmland and preserved some of the region’s rural character as it grew — an approach that early in his career drew some criticism.

“I was never anti-development. I was looking for balance,” he said. “We can’t stop the clock. We’re going to grow and we need to have economic growth … But at the same time we need to maintain the things that are really important to the community.”

Seiling works to create “ strong community rooted in good values and good people and good organizations. They need to continue to work together to continue to reinforce that,” he said.

Michael Fenn is at the same table as Seiling but not in the same position.

He has served on the administrative side – focused on policy and solid management.

Michael Fenn has been an Ontario Deputy Minister under three Premiers, municipal chief administrator in Hamilton and Burlington, and the founding CEO of both Toronto / Hamilton regional transportation authority Metrolinx and GTA regional health authority Mississauga Halton LHIN.

He is also Board Director with the C$85+ billion OMERS AC pension fund, chairing its Technology Committee, and with the Toronto Board of Education’s realty arm, the Toronto Lands Corporation.

He has served for several years as jointly appointed Facilitator for discussions between the Mushkegowuk Tribal Council of First Nations and the Ontario Government. He is a certified board director, having attained the C.Dir. designation in 2014.

He has policy written all over him.

Fenn researches and writes extensively on infrastructure and public policy. Topics of his recent major publications include: the impact of megatrends on rural infrastructure; reducing the regulatory burdens facing local business; an evaluation of public-private partnerships in building Ontario infrastructure; the role of technology committees in board governance; the evolution of the city manager position in municipal government; reform of Ontario’s water and wastewater system; and, the influence of megatrends on infrastructure investment.
Fenn is the founding CEO of the regional transportation authority Metrolinx, as well as the regional health authority Mississauga Halton LHIN.

He helped restructure Burlington’s city hall, crafted Hamilton’s amalgamation, and worked on early iterations of Ontario’s Greenbelt and Places to Grow initiatives, according to a Hamilton Spectator profile in 2008.

He researches and writes extensively on infrastructure and public policy and is now a management consultant specializing in the public sector and healthcare.

“I’m a lifelong public servant; I’m used to working with political leadership,” Fenn said.

“I understand that the elected representatives of the people have a right to give broad direction in terms of our public policy and I think that’s entirely legitimate and appropriate. I am just an advisor. Obviously, I have my point-of-view, my professional credibility and my conscience, so those things would also be engaged.”

Before taking on the task of being one of two Special Advisors for the Provincial Review Doug Ford wanted done as part of his personal drive for smaller government Fenn was a retired public service executive, providing project-based consulting for governmental, non-profit, private-sector and First Nations organizations and serving as Board Director.

What was impressive was the way the two men handled the Halton delegations. They were seldom any more than a degree or two apart – neither brought as much as a hint of political affiliation – Seiling is on record as saying he has never been a member of any political party.

The people attending the hearing on Halton did have a key concern and that was would the two Advisors release the content of their report. Both pointed out that the report was not theirs to release to the public. They were engaged as Special Advisors to the Minister and it is the Minister that will get the report.

The handing over of the document from the Advisors to the Minister is when it will take on a political hue.

Seiling says change is part of government. “My experience has been…that no government should be static, there is always change because times change,” he said. “You can’t stay frozen in time” and added that he had no preconception of what the review should conclude.
“I am going into this with an open mind. All of the regions have some nuances, some differences, so we want to hear from everybody.”

Fenn said: “It’s important work, and I’m optimistic that we will produce some results that people are going to be pleased with”.

The review will examine Ontario’s eight regional municipalities (Halton, York, Durham, Waterloo, Niagara, Peel, Muskoka District, and Oxford County), the County of Simcoe, and their lower-tier municipalities.

What can be expected from the Review?

Harry Kitchen, professor emeritus, Trent University, who has worked closely with them. said: “Neither man is the type to bend to political pressure.

“I don’t know if the premier has a preconceived notion of what needs to be done, but if he does, he’s picked the wrong two guys,” said Kitchen.

“They’re honest, thorough, fair, I’ve never seen them in a position where they got pushed around in any political manner. I don’t expect it now.”

“He has a vast knowledge of municipal affairs,” he said of Fenn.

Fenn and Seiling have been tasked with consulting municipal leaders and staff, municipal and business stakeholders, members of the public and communities and organizations if necessary, and then deliver advice to the minister of municipal affairs and housing based on their expertise and assessment of the feedback.

Seiling said the government is expecting some results by early summer. Fenn said he didn’t think the tight deadline would be a problem.

“We have been involved in and around these issues for decades. We don’t need a whole lot of background or getting up to speed.”

By Staff

May 31st, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

 

There is nothing better than an on-site witness with a camera to catch unacceptable behavior.

A Beaver street resident sent in pictures of a contractor doing what shouldn’t be done.
They show a paving contractor dumping asphalt, and his Tim’s garbage, over a storm sewer grate on Beaver Street. He then had the nerve to spray down his truck bed into the storm sewer.

They have “made an super mess of Beaver Street below East Side Crescent. Asphalt flotsam everywhere including our kitchen, stuff is being tracked in.

“No kidding, I could follow their shoddy work, asphalt truck tracks down Guelph Line from New Street to Third and over to East Side and on to Beaver Street

“Their clean-up post work completion was a joke – no professional street cleaner with a brush, no hand brushes, just shovels and a nut-bar spinning his wheels, digging up the street in a Bob-Cat sort of machine with a front end loader.

“I’m surprised the contractor workers weren’t peeing in the bushes” said the Beaver street resident.

“On the flip side, work being done, Town Home project, on New Street near Burlington Tailor’s is exemplary – they clean up their job site and street hook-ups and work – I drive by 4 time a day.”

There is a contractor getting a call from the people at city hall who let that paving contract.

The resident included the Mayor and the ward Councillor  in the information sent to the Gazette

 

By Pepper Parr

May  28th, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

 

“What happened” we asked.

“You got elected and then had a child and now you are heading into an election that looks as if it is going to be a lot different than the one in 2015.”

It had been some time since the Gazette was able to sit down with Burlington MP Karina Gould who serves as the Minister for Democratic Institutions.

She has been a busy woman. Her role as a Cabinet Minister keeps her in the public eye and we wanted to talk to her about how, as a rookie MP, she ended up in Cabinet.

We also wanted to know what she had done for Burlington during this term of office.

I said “I don’t want to talk about the election – that will come later when the Writ is dropped.

With that Gould launched into what she had done – a huge sum of money for the Joseph Brant Museum; without the federal money there would not have been the transformed Museum that is expected to be open in July.

Her role as a Cabinet Minister resulted in the federal gas tax contribution to the municipal sector being doubled.

She has played a significant role in the creation of the national housing policy; secured a $14 million loan for a Burlington corporation that has already paid dividends for the local economy.

“Will we see a Pharmacare program in the near future?” we asked. Yes – but Gould was unable to say exactly when.

Gould has delivered on waste water projects; delivered on funding for Royal Botanical Gardens.

She played a major role in the creation of the Innovation Superclusters that was launched in May of 2017

“I was able to get many of the details on that project nailed down before I had to head to the hospital to give birth: said Gould.

The Superclusters are a new and uniquely Canadian initiative. The federal government works industry through a business-led partnership model—to align the efforts of diverse industries, researchers and intermediary institutions, and build deep, ecosystem-level advantages in regions across Canada.

One of the clusters is located in Hamilton and is expected to have a significant impact on the Burlington economy.

With Climate Change now part of everyday life, flooding is something Burlington knows a lot about. Federal programs to prepare as much as we can for the damage weather will do.

Child care support is top of mind for Gould who explains that decisions made during the Paul Martin days put that program back more than a decade. $7 billion has been earmarked for a program that has had a bumpy ride.

The challenges with the Indigenous community that are in the news every day were closer to home for Gould. “There isn’t a day when I am in Burlington that the issue of what we are doing for the Indigenous community doesn’t come up. There were 85 boil water advisory lifted in the recent past.” Gould will tell you that requiring First Nations communities to have to boil the water they drink is a national shame.

With the interview about to end Gould said: “I know you didn’t want to talk about the election today but I do” and she launched into what the issues are likely to be.

She then talked about how she ended up being made a Cabinet Minister.

Elected as the MP for Burlington in October of 2015 she served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie and was then in January of 2017 appointed Minister of Democratic Institutions.

A student at M.M. Robinson, Gould attended McGill University and then the University of Oxford. She then worked as a trade and investment specialist for the Mexican Trade Commission, a consultant for the Migration and Development Program at the Organization of American States, and spent a year volunteering at an orphanage in Mexico.

Between December 2015 and January 2017, she served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, before her appointment in January 2017 as Canada’s Minister of Democratic Institutions.

Gould was an active participant in Liberal Caucus meetings. She worked hard at networking and was vocal on a lot of issues. “Someone somewhere recognized whatever I have in the way of ability and made me a Parliamentary Secretary”.

When it became evident that the person serving as Minister for Democratic Institutions needed to be replaced Gould was given the job.
It turned out to be a lot more controversial than anyone expected. The role social media has come to play in elections around the world has resulted in Gould taking on some of the biggest corporations in the world: Google, Facebook, & Twitter have all felt the sting of Gould’s words. She doesn’t believe they are doing what should be done to ensure that elections are fair and not meddled with by outside interests.

Expect to hear much more from Gould on this file.

She recently held a Town Talk meeting at Nuvo One where two specialists on what is ethical and what isn’t, when it comes to social media, debated with a respectably sized audience.

While Gould wanted to talk about the election she didn’t want to say very much about her election plans or her election team. How many of the 2015 team will she have with her?

For the most part her profile in Burlington is as good as it gets. She has delivered.

In hindsight, the election of Karina Gould to the House of Commons was probably the beginning of the change in the kind of political representation Burlington was going to have. Will that change hold in the fall election?

The problem with elections is that there are national issues that at times sweep away outstanding local members. The Prime Minister isn’t the man we saw in 2015 – he is likely to be the issue. And if that proves to be the case – can Gould hold the Burlington seat on the strength of what she has done and her strength of character.

Karina Gould is not some dewy eyed woman with a good education who has gotten lucky. She has grown into a smart, sensitive, widely aware of the issues, woman who has found her footing. She is both empathetic and personable with a good sense of humour; a person who doesn’t take herself too seriously.

Lest one get the impression that Gould walks on water the way she handled the change in the Liberal government changed its mind on the first past the post system we have for determining who will sit in the House of Commons.

There were many who wanted the federal government to take a much deeper look at ranked balloting – but the government took the position that the public will for ranked balloting was just not there and ditched the program.

That policy shift got lost when Gould found herself saddled with managing the issue of social media misusing the internet to interfere with clean, clear honest elections.

Gould chose to be a true Liberal and stick to the party line on the SNC Lavalin bribery matter that is scheduled to end up in a court room at some point.  Two fellow Cabinet Ministers chose to take a different stand and oppose the Prime Minister.  That is not a position Gould is ever likely to find herself in – unless there is a clear need for a change in the leadership.

Would she ever be a possible leadership candidate?  The woman, born in 1987, is not yet 40 – anything is possible.  So far she has shown that she can take the heat.

Her immediate task is to hold her seat even if the Liberal Party doesn’t form the next government.