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First in a Series of speaker forums focusing on Topics from a Municipal level point of view.

Tuesday April 16th -  Rotary Room in Ajax Library
55 Harwood Avenue South
Ajax, Ontario

I am very happy all speakers are confirmed for Municipalooza Tuesday April 16th
Doors open at 6pm - Panel begins 6:30 event ends 8:30 pm.

Kelly Guthrie Community Engagement Coordinator  from the City of Guelph will be sharing her knowledge of Participatory Budgeting as a concept and how the City of Guelph uses this to engage citizens”
Kelly has spoken about this topic on CBC radio in the past.

Maddie Di Muccio , Councillor Town of Newmarket, Regular Columnist  Toronto Sun  will talk about Council Transparency.

Joey Coleman , - Is Canada’s first crowdfunded journalist. Based in Hamilton, Joey covers all municipal government and board meetings, responds to reader inquiries at all hours, and livestreams from breaking news events. Prior to breaking out on his own, Joey worked for Maclean’s and The Globe and Mail. A nerd at heart, Joey is a leader in Hamilton’s Open Data movement believing that journalism is not gatekeeping, but gate-opening.
The topic of Joey’s talk is entitled “Building an Open Data ecosystem for all to access, not just elites”

How do we build open data so it is accessible to all citizens and not just those with specialized skills such as information management or coding? In Hamilton, municipal open data is being implemented because of advocacy among neighbourhood associations and community groups, not solely from the developer community, with the goal of ensuring all citizens can use open data.

It’s a unique partnership - what does it mean for open data, open government, and civic engagement?
Join this discussion as we explore the question.

(more…)

First in a Series of speaker forums focusing on Topics from a Municipal level point of view.

Tuesday April 16th -  Rotary Room in Ajax Library
55 Harwood Avenue South
Ajax, Ontario

I am very happy all speakers are confirmed for Municipalooza Tuesday April 16th
Doors open at 6pm - Panel begins 6:30 event ends 8:30 pm.

Kelly Guthrie Community Engagement Coordinator  from the City of Guelph will be sharing her knowledge of Participatory Budgeting as a concept and how the City of Guelph uses this to engage citizens”
Kelly has spoken about this topic on CBC radio in the past.

Maddie Di Muccio , Councillor Town of Newmarket, Regular Columnist  Toronto Sun  will talk about Council Transparency.

Joey Coleman , - Is Canada’s first crowdfunded journalist. Based in Hamilton, Joey covers all municipal government and board meetings, responds to reader inquiries at all hours, and livestreams from breaking news events. Prior to breaking out on his own, Joey worked for Maclean’s and The Globe and Mail. A nerd at heart, Joey is a leader in Hamilton’s Open Data movement believing that journalism is not gatekeeping, but gate-opening. 
The topic of Joey’s talk is entitled “Building an Open Data ecosystem for all to access, not just elites”
How do we build open data so it is accessible to all citizens and not just those with specialized skills such as information management or coding? In Hamilton, municipal open data is being implemented because of advocacy among neighbourhood associations and community groups, not solely from the developer community, with the goal of ensuring all citizens can use open data. It’s a unique partnership - what does it mean for open data, open government, and civic engagement?
Join this discussion as we explore the question. (more…)

Please see this new page

If you want to be involved with this, helping to find space or helping with the building of it or helping with the maintaining of a garden once it is built please contact me through the blog.

In order for the garden to be sustained over the long run, it must be housed on public land - ideal is central in Ajax and close to transit.

I emailed the Town today and it is Saturday so they really don’t know my plan yet, I did speak to Pat Brown on the phone due to the fact the park in question is in her ward.

If this location is not going to be available then it is on to Plan B, that land is publically owned also.

I emailed the Mayor of Sarnia yesterday and had a response today! , on a holiday even I will add. Sarnia is a City of about 71,149 (2006 Census) people but the Mayor has been in place for 20 years and before that he was involved in Provincial Government, here is his Bio. Here is the final excerpt from lower down on the page. I want to be sure people understand that this Mayor has an extensive background and I don’t even live in his City but he found the time to provide me a response to my question that I was seeking the perspective from someone leading a Council. When I want to know something from a Mayor’s perspective, He seems to be the one I go to! (more…)

This has nothing to do with Ajax except for the common theme of byelections that are paid for by taxpayers.

I want to know who is going to pay for the byelection in the riding Tory will run in.

This is not due to a retirement or any other reason it is a purely partisan purpose.

I expect the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario to pay the entire bill, I am a taxpayer of Ontario and I do not want to subsidise a byelection that has nothing to do with democracy of the Province.

The people in Kiwartha area already voted , we all paid for the election process already.

Any byelection that is brought about from 100% partisan political purpose should be paid for only by the parties not Elections Ontario and general tax dollars.

It also bugs me that a Woman stepped aside for him. I hope an equally strong provincial Liberal from the area runs a credible campaign and wins the seat!

That’ll look great on Mr. Tory!

I do not object to tax deductions for contributing to a political party because democracy does cost us but — I only want to pay for the services of Elections Ontario when they are needed and for legitimate byelections.

This is going to tick some people off but in my true natured self…. I don’t care.

In the 90’s when they uploaded education to the Province it was done I guess to make things more equitable across the Province, make all school boards poor so at least the child from Rosedale will be as bad off as the kid from Kapuskasing.

Whatever your thoughts on this does not matter because it will never be reversed and I bet most municipalities are happy to be rid of dictating tax increases for education. It is easier to point and blame the province for all things education and the Boards do the same thing– “we don’t get enough money” , there will never be enough I think.

However we pay a portion of our property taxes to education and the rate is set by the province. (more…)

Read the linked to post about Steve Gilchrist - who is QM I wonder

I saw today in the Star our Mayor being quoted in the property tax story in Toronto Star, I will write more on that later.

Is our Mayor for the Airport since it is a —”driving force” to draw business. Is our environmental greenbelt Mayor wanting a polluting airport overhead?

Hasn’t the Mayor been all over the media lately?? hmmm makes one think, what is he up to? quite a few recent appearances on First Take Live, manages to get himself in the Toronto Star as being a quoted Mayor on issues. Using Council to make comments about higher levels of Government.

Could he be raising his profile for something???????

I seem to recall him reminding Ward 2 candidates to not use the Council chamber question period to campaign and there would be no tolerance for it.

Well he better remember that and practice what he preaches.

See why it is important to watch the local level? very very closely I will add! This could be perfect timing and no by-election needed for Mayor either , the next person could get the job just like he did— appointed then be the incumbent. Doesn’t anyone run for Mayor in this Town and win elections or do we just appoint everyone to be Mayor?

It is far easier to be re-elected when you were appointed to the job!

This category is called Thinking outloud and it basically is — a brain dump. Brain dumps are ideas that are not thought out at all but in concept– I think could work or are something worth drilling down on or investigating to see if something worthwhile is there. Maybe a Staff report Various topics so if it fits anywhere else it will have more then one category. (more…)