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Era News Editor John Lott has covered York Regional Council since Its Inception 4 A years ago Here he offers a personal evaluation of the new government system His conclusion Its a good theory that Is In danger of becoming a failure In practice a Personal view- Regional government is floundering in York By JOHN News Editor NEWMARKET Years i from now people will point to then Minister of Municipal Affairs made that comment years ago at he inaugural meeting of the first York Regional Council He was referring to Hill the legislation which created the Region of York Ontarios architect of regional government was tiling when lie made the quip Today Yorks taxpayers are not amused Regional government isnt working Unveiled as an ultra modern system for improving service and efficiency Ihe York riguinal government has sabotaged by its own peculiar anatomy This view is partly personal a conclusion drawn by this reporter after covering York Regional Council since its in ception laic in Hut i growing number of regional political ill rimpiMt wis In some respects it s possible to say who is to blame inherent Some cm be solved hut without changes in philosophy and leadership The region is split philosophically between the rich urbanized south and the poorer generally rural north The south s bigspending syn drome contributes to high costs at the region figurehead county form of government and the new system There is no idI services have but in the reg has reached a crossroads the year of The Crunch How council deals with these problems may well determine whether regional government succeeds or fails in York The region offers a vast array of new and improved services But its budget has nearly doubled in five years Ill J inn III- iifli will have to decide this year if can afford all Ihe nice things theyre getting Rut the people dont know what theyre gelling And one reason regional government is in trouble is that the system has little credibility with Ihe people Ive generally fell that the concept was good that regional government was a vast im provement over the old county system I still feel that way the theory But after more than four years of close oh servalipn I can only conclude thai the theory isnt working in Lets look more closely at the reasons why its not The public cant see the difference WITH THE PUBLIC I know wc have this regional government but I cant see any difference an Aurora recently told me All I wrongly people are basically apathetic about the everyday workings of government Its difficult to inspire interest in such a system let alone sell it But this natural attitude by the people makes it doubly hard for the region to justify its existence especially when projections of a per cent lax to hit the public Council members have a in conflict of interest Lin their local and regional The region I lie leadership Staff morale is al an ail- low partly because of the council dealt with ern es salaries this year Council has repeatedly Aurora And the regional police cars are everywhere Aurora Mayor Evelyn Buck put it this way in a recent Era councillors spiff loyalty York Region have not ap preciably modified their basically parochial views since days of the county system Because they are directly elected to regional council serving instead as a result of election lo a local council their primary interest lies within the boundaries of Iheir respective A regional councilloi councillors seldom Ihink regional in critical situations Indeed it is difficult to expect them to By virtue of Iheir election their first respon sibility Is a local one York needs tough articulate leadership success this is he most delicate to evaluate It is also one of the most important Garfield Wright Yorks first and only chairman simply lacks the decisiveness and asscrtiveness necessary to lead colleagues on the nice guy He repeatedly permits such leeway in council Mr Wright simply game as he himself dubbed the region in I personally like Gar Wright He works hard and diligently at his job This month hes taking his first vacation in four years Recently he has shown signs of gross overwork York Region simply needs tougher more articulate leadership Its most effective and able operative is Chief Administrative Officer Jack Keltic But Mr is not councils elected chairman And he is forced repeatedly to battle should be the chairmans Sagging staff morale and the pay debate That isnt a valid reason for a wholesale condemnation of regional government Rightly or earthy dialect He i a veteran East and York County politician charged with directing a whole new ball Chairman Garfield Wright with framed copy of held in Richmond Hill Yorks Reel of yellow police cars represents one of the few visible manifestations of regional government In general taxpayers cant see what theyre getting for their money and thats one of the regions biggest problems particularly when big tax hikes are projected motives in chopping proposed staff salary increases the move has created unprecedented bitterness among employees Theres an apprehensive feeling around Ibis place right now one civil servant told me last week The salaries thing has had a hell of a demoralizing effect right down the line even on hose who got their proposed Union employees got a six per cent costofliving raise effective July 1 on top of their Jan increases Nonunion staff didnt Neither did department heads In fact the department heads increases on average didnt come close to matching the jump in living The overriding issue from staffs viewpoint is not Ihe amount of money approved for ii I illiii i il inconsistent way of dealing with various segments of the bureaucracy Union staff with lower salaries begin with bud the chance to negotiate Non union and department heads didnt They were told what they were getting There are other reasons for Ihe decline in morale Continual dislrust and suspicion system creating an of tension that sabotages good government This is the direct establishment of a new bureaucracy composed of highly paid experts and lots of They hold the view that theyre being paid to produce expert advice and if council Council on the other hand forced to walk the thin line between to staffs every whim and making politician at every level of government faces this dilemma to some degree But in York particularly in the regional planning Staff cynicism also was intensified in Ihe past two weeks by another ironic phenomenon a full council turned out to debate staff salaries but two of the last three committee meetings had to be cancelled for lack of a quorum of elected members The topic of those meetings departmental budgets for Regional issues give council most trouble PLANNING ON A REGIONAL BASIS Planning in this reporters view should be the Number One benefit of regional government So far Ihe taxpayers have seen few results The politicians parochialism and unwillingness lo take bold regional basis have repeatedly frustrated councils planning advisers Regional council has at this point failed to take a strong stand on one single regional planning policy except for the Big Pipe servicing scheme winch is more or less Imced on York anyway Without fail council lias responded lo staff recommendations on major policies by either receiving ihem without action or in in only The latter action of course allows council the luxury of disregarding lite policies if it so chooses Example More than a year ago a comprehensive day care study prepared by was submitted lo council The document outlines he present and needs for all kinds of day care facilities in York Ostensibly il was a tool with population projections and growth rates for the next Council response was to put Die document on lie shelf and leave il there McariWhlU Ins been with fire requests is with the needs on a sporadic basis Only this month has he study been resurrected and referred lo a committee for discussion In year Councillor Hob repeatedly pleaded with iodised list obvious for the whole region Example A report on three possible sites for a fulure regional administration centre was prepared by staff las May and updated lasl fall For some reason it was withheld from council by the bureaucrats until planning committee led by Councillor Adams demanded that it be brought forward Thursday deferred His colleagues agreed as Mr Wright and Mr looked down on council with incredulous smiles Example A regional study on the financial implications of the Ontario Housing Action Program IOHAP recently wis sent by planning committee to all nine area municipalities for comment II is a 100page document with BO pages of computer printouts Councils planning staff had not had Ihe chance to prepare a discussion paper is to put the complicated technical data into English for the regional politicians The study document should have been prepared and sent to council Instead the decided to let the local ha e first crack at it a classic example of parochialism precluding regionalism Perhaps council following its tradition ultimately will let the af fected municipalities decide their own positions on OHAP council must take firm stands vital sections of its first official plan including designation of programs win be cut COSTS York taxpayers face a 1975 lax increase of to per for regional Regional costs have doubled since the first budget in 1971 Fat provincial grants one of Hie carrots Queen used to lure York into regionalism simply arc keeping pace And now the province says he subsidy honeymoon is over It is evident that the level of service will have lo be cut in some areas Ibis year The health and social services budget and improved I be quality question as lie costs And the costs arc simply staggering Something will have to go Only the local councils collect and the local politicians get the heal from ratepayers when the lax bills go out Ironically after lying off the ind County ISn ml of the local councils only have about 2U cents of the tax dollar left for lucil try to hold be line depriving their constituents of needed services in the process in order lo partly offset big in- the region and school hi aid in ikes for a cynical attitude km regionalism by the local councillors and Iheir opinions It not rub off on electors Yorks north south have little in common THE NORTHSOUTH split Yorks southern three Richmond Hill and Vaughan have long been oriented toward Metropolitan Toronto Their Whitchurch irom Hie region One highly placed regional lhal cither local tier of is destined for extinction unless current poll he 1 it Hides change drastically and quickly hopes is jeirs tax go from he in One scheme which merits consideration is a ihal would permit direct would to decide whether The most logical approach is to is here lo stay and for council and staff lo somehow bury the hatchet and make the system work York Regional Council this year must face up to its responsibilities in terms of pi limine costs and the whole it icgionihsm Indeed i I the serve councils biweekly fervently hope wrong than their poorer neighbors to north and they bring this syndrome to regional council Their attitude seems to be If you dont have the money borrow it And they do One school of thought is hat Metro ultimately will annex Yorks southern three anyway and take over their whopping debenture debts in the process This totally different per spective on municipal spending is only one facel of the north- south split The two areas have little in common The north is basically rural with a smat tering of small towns and hamlets The soulh is heavy with industry and sprawling resident development an extent ion of Metro The pohticims and citizens think differently and have a different way of life The Regional Municipality of York is actually two regions and he differences are glaring when certain members such as Mayor Tony Roman con sistently argue for higher ex penditures than the northern members deem reasonable So where do we ALTERNATIVES New market Mayor Rob has recently spoken only of a northern Newmarket Mayor Rob Eorhan speaks only half- jokingly about Yorks northern section seceding from the