Mississauga Musings

Mean while back on Peel Region’s “ Farm-fare” Municipal Bill 130, venturing into Ed Morrow and McCarthyism ethics of censorship brings up Wajid Khan’s Mid East “willful knowledge experience” and the space between our light armored military floor boards that road side bombs penetrate after Mulroney had shut down our Streetsville armed forces plasma cutting operations, Fathom Oceanology ” in 1989.

Adding further skepticisms to Mississauga’s Saga and the role armed forces specialist Andre’ Marin played whilst the east coast was principally under the watch of the USA Loring Air Force Base that closed after 1994, rebounded as our 1995 Streetsville Snoble-rises that lost all of our vital statistics?

Nor does the most recent conflict between Carolyn Parrish and WCIB Steve Mahoney bring “Fairness for Military Families” when Mississauga machinists and tool makers are blocked out from McGuinty’s Bill 2 hearing’s [Ed: snip] Clement just before the same October 2001 [Ed: snip] might have easily added to another $15 million public hearing project inherited from $54 billion surplus accumulated through the disappearance of HRDC Occupational codes if the Ombudsman’s proposals are rejected.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=k7t2eK0P4IA

Dec 28, 2007 10:04 ET
Ombudsman Can Investigate Secrecy Complaints in Hundreds of Municipalities
New "era of accountability" begins New Year's Day
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Dec. 28, 2007) - Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin will be able to investigate public complaints about closed-door meetings in most municipalities across the province after changes to the Municipal Act take effect on New Year's Day.

Under the Act, the Ombudsman is the default investigator for complaints about all municipal meetings that are held behind closed doors after Jan. 1, 2008 - except in those municipalities that have decided to appoint their own investigators. "As of today, only 72 of Ontario's 445 municipalities have informed us that they have chosen their own investigator," said Mr. Marin. "All others will fall under my Office's jurisdiction as of next week.

"This means that in the New Year, most Ontarians will be able to complain to us about any municipal meeting they feel was inappropriately closed to the public," he said. "It's the start of a new era of local accountability in Ontario, and we're eager to let people know about it."

New provisions to the Municipal Act and the City of Toronto Act subject all municipal councils and most boards and committees to an investigation if their members meet behind closed doors, unless specific exceptions set out in the Act are met. As with all complaints handled by the Ombudsman regarding provincial government organizations, the Ombudsman's services in this new area of jurisdiction will be free of charge. There is no fee for complainants or municipalities and the Ombudsman's findings and recommendations will be made public.

These changes represent the first expansion of the Ombudsman's mandate into the so-called MUSH sector (municipalities, universities, school boards, hospitals and long-term care facilities, children's aid societies, etc.) in 32 years, although some 80% of provincial spending goes to this sector. Ontario lags behind all other provinces in allowing ombudsman oversight of these areas, and Mr. Marin's office turns away hundreds of complaints about this sector every year.

Municipalities may still choose to appoint their own investigators at any time after Jan. 1, but any complaints made prior to such appointments must be handled by the Ombudsman. More information on the new legislative changes - including Frequently Asked Questions, a list of municipalities that have chosen investigators, and a new complaint form - is available on the Ombudsman's website at www.ombudsman.on.ca.

Marin lashes out at council; 'Hysterical debate' a disservice to city residents: Ombudsman
Brockville Recorder and Times
Sat 29 Dec 2007
Page: A1
Section: News
Byline: BY KIM LUNMAN, STAFF WRITER

Brockville's council has demonstrated its ignorance by hiring its own investigator to probe complaints about closed-door meetings, Ontario's ombudsman said in an interview Friday.

The province's watchdog, Andre Marin, said the city's choice to use a private investigator instead of the office of the ombudsman to investigate such complaints "does a disservice to the citizens of Brockville."

"The city of Brockville blew it by having this catty debate," Marin said in a telephone interview from his office in Toronto. "They made the decision in complete darkness."

Marin made the comments after his office announced the ombudsman will be able to investigate public complaints about closed-door meetings in most municipalities across the province after changes to the Municipal Act take effect on New Year's Day.

Under the Act, the ombudsman is the default investigator for complaints about all municipal meetings that are held behind closed doors after Jan. 1, 2008.

"You've had this hysterical debate in Brockville," he said. "The debate has gone off the rails ... I don't have any horns here. They've whipped themselves into a frenzy. It just shows ignorance."

He said the municipality never contacted his office for information and he accused civic officials of "living in a fantasy land and thinking 'What's next? The province is taking over the city.'"

Brockville city Councillor Stu Williams called Marin's comments Friday "absolutely ludicrous," adding that council discussed the issue on several occasions.

"I've been around municipal politics for over 20 years," said the 15-year veteran of Brockville city council who served for eight years as a city councillor in Montreal. "We've never had a complaint or a criticism. All these rules and regulation are coming down from Toronto."

It is the second time in as many months that Marin has publicly lambasted Brockville over the new regulations. In October, Marin said a "base" and "uninformed" debate by a Brockville council committee meeting brought his office into disrepute. The committee endorsed the staff's recommendation for council to hire an investigator instead of utilizing the ombudsman's services for free, with Councillor Henry Noble saying the ombudsman's office should be kept out "at all costs."

Earlier this month, the war of words escalated when Noble accused Marin of having "a hidden agenda" and said his comments regarding municipalities made the ombudsman unfit to probe citizen complaints about closed-door meetings. Noble made the remarks as city council moved to undo an earlier decision that left the office of the Ontario ombudsman to investigate closed-meeting complaints.

Instead, council voted to retain former provincial official Brian Donaldson as its investigator, as required by the new Municipal Act regulations. Donaldson's municipal expertise includes three decades as senior policy adviser to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. He will cost the city $100 annually with investigative fees of $50 an hour to a maximum $350 a day.

Under the Act, a council is entitled to meet behind closed doors (in camera) but only for specific reasons such as to discuss personnel matters relating to an identifiable individual, pending land deals, employee negotiations and issues of litigation or potential litigation.

The revised legislation leaves municipalities with the choice of hiring their own investigator on retainer should a complaint be filed or leaves the probe to the province's ombudsman.

But Marin said such in-house investigators will not provide the same "arms-length" approach to complaints.

Among the 72 municipalities in the province that have chosen to hire their own investigator are Elizabethtown-Kitley Township and the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville.

Elizabethtown-Kitley Mayor Jim Pickard, also warden of the United Counties, said the decision to hire an investigator instead of using the ombudsman is more efficient and less disruptive.

"It's a much more efficient way, in our opinion, of doing the investigation," he said, emphasizing that the local councils are open and transparent in their proceedings.

But Brockville Councillor Jason Baker, who voted against council's recommendation to hire an investigator, said he is baffled as to why some municipalities are paying for investigators when the ombudsman provides the service for free.

"I can't understand it. It doesn't make any sense financially and logistically," he said. "At the end of the day, I was embarrassed by the debate.

"I know that City Hall doesn't have anything to hide."

Cities including Hamilton, London and Sarnia are among the majority of municipalities in Ontario that will fall under the jurisdiction of the provincial ombudsman's office as of Jan. 1.