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This- is Mississauga.
Boy, it's a good thing that The Corporation killed Open Public Question Period on at that June 7, 2006 Council meeting when Don Barber got arrested let me tell you.
Environics Survey, Enersource, Corporate Security, Public Question Period, Audit Committee results from last year, Audit Committee thrusts for this year, Urban Forestry Management, Accountability, Transparency on and on...
I have numerous questions about each and every one of these issues (80 kabillion questions in all) but I can't get there from here.
What? Did I hear someone say that Public Question Period is still on Council Agendas?
Sure, but you only get to ask a question of any item on the Agenda. Yes, yes, I know that someone can go up and make a special request of Council to hear a question that isn't on the Agenda.
So?
Some people on Council know me pretty well by now and in all honesty, if I were them?-- ...I'm not all that sure I'd grant myself permission to ask a question that isn't on the Agenda.
Questions. Questions. Questions. Questions. Questions about Environics Survey, Enersource, Corporate Security, Public Question Period, Audit Committee results from last year, Audit Committee thrusts for this year, etc etc --and my attendance at yesterday's first 2007 Audit Committee meeting just added more questions, like Urban Forestry Management and IT Management, to piles of questions I already feel compelled to investigate.
Just can't see the Forest for the Trees either. I've learned that emails to Public Info asking for information won't get me there. Really simple example. The 2006 Environics Survey.
The mississauga.ca website states:
"mississauga.ca states:
"Additional Information from the Environics Enhanced Survey is available upon request."
Straightforward, right? Well, I emailed and asked the following question:
"My first question for now is why would the City enter into a contract with any research company that would limit the release of the entire report?"
Among other things I also wrote:
"How were survey subjects selected? (We were one of the 1,104 Mississauga residents selected this time around. My husband answered the phone so he was the one surveyed. We're part of the 95% who approve of McCallion.
We couldn't help notice, for example, that the survey was done in English. Did that happen for all 1,104 people called?
I'm interested in results by ward. I've been researching Poverty in Peel and my, got a nasty surprise regarding certain areas of Mississauga. I'd like to know how many people were surveyed from those areas."
You guessed it. Had to fill out a Freedom of Information Request.
I really believe in Freedom of Information and since I had to plunk down five bucks and fill out a form, no one else should have to. So here's page 1 of my Freedom of Information results on the ENVIRONICS 2006 "Mississauga Tracking Survey of Residents".
Notice the date of the presentation "February 7, 2007". That was the date of a General Committee meeting --here.
I was there at that meeting and gee, I didn't remember a presentation on the Environics results. So I checked the February 7, 2007 minutes to make sure (old age related memory loss):
Here are the February 7, 2007 General Committee minutes.
Environics Presentation not there. If you're smart enough to read this sentence, you've got enough neurons to reach your own conclusion.
"Telephone survey conducted among of 1,104 residents of the City of Mississauga" Date. Margin of Error. That's all it says under "Survey Methodology".
My hypothesis is that all 1,104 telephone calls were conducted in English. I tried to have that confirmed through this first Freedom of Information request.
No soap radio.
My husband told me they asked how he felt about the Mayor. "Loved McCallion" --like 95% of other Mississaugans according to mississauga.ca.
Problem?
Freedom of Information provided me with all the Questions for the "Enhanced Survey" and unless my eyeballs are dulling with age, there's no question I can find on it specifically relating to the Mayor.
Logical conclusion then is that we were one of the 400 residents telephoned in the "Focus Ontario" 2006 survey conducted earlier in the Fall not part of the 1,104 in the Enhanced Survey.
Problem?
"October 24 and November 15, 2006"... Most of that survey was conducted in the last weeks of the 2006 Municipal Election! (Recall Vote Day was November 13th)
Naturally --intrigued-- I asked for the Focus Ontario 2006 results as part of my Environics Freedom of Information request.
Problem?
"Full Report" Denied.
To be fair, The Corporation did state:
I'm faced with a dilemma. Fill out another Freedom of Information request for just the Environics Focus Ontario 2006 questions or take a chance on getting "The Full Monty" through The Information and Privacy Commissioner for $25.00....
I'm really only interested in the actual questions but I'm truly compelled to witness what other citizens might experience when making FOI requests at the actual Commissioner level. (After all, write what you know...)
...oopsie...wait. Advice goin' off inside my head. Distinctive cultured voice of "Edward R. Murrow" whisperin' in my ear to go the five-buck route. Not giving me a reason either (he does that a lot).
How convenient, actually. Just this morning, I got my husband to sign his name to three more Freedom of Information forms.
Well. Onward. To the Third Floor...
Signed,
The (Why wasn't The Mississauga News coverin' yesterday's Audit Committee meeting) Mississauga Muse
"We must employ every possible tactic to dissuade those who try to silence us with fear"
---The Mississauga News Editorial (2007-03-24)
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