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economist suntribune in our community saturday may 25 2002 yorks new top dog wants to keep economy humming by jeff mitchell staff writer meet the new boss york regions new top bureau crat comes to his post with a desire to ensure its ongoing economic vitality i really welcome the opportu nity to be part of the challenge of a highgrowth municipality michael garrett said thursday morning when he was introduced as york regions new chief admin istrative officer at a special council meeting in newmarket mr garrett who has held similar posts in toronto and peel region starts his job here in july he replaces alan wells cao since 1995 mr wells retires next month after 27 years with the region mr garrett will manage a staff of trating industry business and resi dential growth in welldefined serviced communities that jibes with a vision for growth embraced by the regions planning depart ment mr garrett said he plans to join the chorus of voices calling on queens park for a new deal for ontarios growing urban areas the funding base for munici pal government is not sustain able he said mr garrett was recruited by the region with the help of a corporate headhunted he has amassed a lengthy resume in munici pal government arid public administra tion most notably and most recent ly mr garrett was the cao of the city of toronto a post he left amid controver sy last june mr garretts tenure with the city lfflhsd regional mc h york j ended acrimo- with new c ed smilar p m niously and pub- toronto and peel region licly with council lors debating a sev government an annual budget in excess of 1 billion the new caos salary has not been agreed upon yet but the current range is 145145 to 170711 mr garrett said sustaining york regions economy will be the pri mary focus when he takes the reins this summer one of the key things for me is to be sure the region continues to attract good jobs and an employ ment base he said if you have a good employ ment base a lot of the other prob lems will fall away mr garrett said providing serv ices such as transit and infrastruc ture and attracting business by offering good value for their tax dollars will help to secure yorks economic future hes in favour of strategic nodal development aimed at concen- erance package that was reported ly 500000 despite the unhappy ending in toronto mr garrett gained wide recognition and respect for the job he did in amalgamating seven existing municipalities into the new city an entity created by provincial edict york region chairperson bill fisch said positive references were received from right across this province as due diligence checks on mr garrett were carried out prior to the hiring mr garrett served as cao in peel region for eight years he also has a background in engi neering and water management and was once administrator of the toronto region conservation authority if you have a good employment base a lot of the other problems will fall away staff photorob alary bill lishman whose exploits in guiding birds with ultralight planes spoke in stouffville this week about his accomplishments and the need to preserve the environment c away home hero still guiding migratory birds michael garrett new cao of the region of york by mike adler staff writer long before bill lishman became wildly famous for showing birds how to fly south he was known in stouffville as the man who sculpted the metal goat standing outside the latcham gallery on main street mr lishman grew up on a fam ily farm in pickering and for a time lived south of the town beside a scale replica of the apollo 11 lunar lander he might still reside there he said this week if the federal gov ernment had not expropriated 18500 acres of land in pickering uxbridge and markham in the 1970s for an airport that has still not been built after joining with other locals to fight the airport mr lishman moved east to scugog township where he started flying ultralight planes and one morning found himself airborne surrounded by flocks of ducks it was a magical moment that caused him to see the world in a different way it was like being in a river of birds mr lishman told a stouffville audience wednesday night in one of a series of public meetings sponsored by the towns environmental advisory commit tee it took three years for mr lishman to train a flock of geese to follow him in his slowmoving craft a 1988 film he circulated of this feat caught the attention of bird experts who told mr lishman it could be important for rare birds reintroduced to the wild without a learned pattern of migration if mr lishman could teach endangered whooping cranes to migrate they said he could help save the species from extinction mr lishman still hopes the vast green spaces held by the government can be kept free of development the sculptor who had always wanted to fly i think most young people are envious of birds brought a flock of 18 canada geese to virginia in 1993 after he managed to reach south carolina the following year with a larger flock mr lishman became the subject of a hollywood film fly away home the geese returned home on their own as did the sandhill cranes that mr lishmans operation migration raised and guided south in more recent years all those journeys were test runs for a flight with whooping cranes a species that in the 1940s was down to 15 or 16 birds last spring mr lishman and two other ultralight pilots flew seven of the cranes south to help scientists establish a new migrato ry route only one migratory flock of whooping cranes currently exists that one flock could be deci mated very easily said mr lishman who will continue imprinting the route on whooping cranes for several years they have an amazing sense of navigation but they have to be shown the way once formerly the head of the cre ative department for people or planes the resourceful grass- roots group which battled the air port to a standstill mr lishman still hopes the vast green spaces held by the government can be kept free of development an area of that size that close to an urban area would be such a boon to toronto and southern ontario he said were going to wind up like los angeles if we dont do things like that more details of mr lishmans birdguiding mission are at wwwoperationmigrationorg