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Tony Catches Up With John Mutton Of Municipal Solutions
189 Plays3 years ago
This week, Tony and Jodie catch up with John Mutton - President and CEO of Municipal Solutions. John discusses some interesting projects on the go, including a major development in Peterborough County.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
And another thing And another thing And another thing And another thing
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of and another thing
Guest Introduction & Sponsor Highlight
00:00:21
Speaker
podcast. I'm your co-host Tony Clement. Jody Jenkins is, uh, he's on the line, but he may be a little bit busy with some family matters. That's okay. We will, we can roll with that, but we do have our guests on the line too. So we're just going to keep on going. Of course, this podcast as usual is brought to you by municipal solutions. It is Ontario's leading MZO firm.
00:00:48
Speaker
And it is there for all of its clients, and it could be there for you as well, for development approvals, permit expediting, planning services with municipalities, engineering and architectural services, even minor variances and land severances. And of course, building permits, go to municipal solutions,
Podcast Availability & Success
00:01:08
Speaker
yay. And we're very pleased to have with us
00:01:13
Speaker
President and CEO of Municipal Solutions, John Mutton. John, welcome to the program. I'm just going to do one more plug, a couple more plugs, and then we'll have you for our conversation. Of course, Jodi would want me to indicate that we are also found on Looney Politics, LooneyPolitics.com. It's an exclusive podcast as part of their exclusive content. You can get 50% off if you mention podcast. Go to LooneyPolitics.com.
00:01:41
Speaker
And finally, this broadcast will be rebroadcast on terrestrial radio, huntersbayradio.com, 88.7 FM in Muskoka, 8 30 a.m. every Saturday morning. This podcast is rebroadcast, so go to Hunters Bay Radio.
00:02:03
Speaker
John Mutton, welcome back to the program. Thanks, Tony. Glad to be back. And I hear you're continuing to set new records with your listenership. Jody would want me to say that, yes, we continue to break all the records and we've got our numerous podcast awards, of course. And in all seriousness, we really do value the listenership we have on this podcast. We've had some great episodes of late, I think of
00:02:31
Speaker
I think, of course, Pierre Poliev, having him on was a real thrill. But Jamil Jovani is another one, an interesting fellow who's making some waves these days. So there's never a dull moment when it comes to our podcast. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. No, they've been great guests.
Peterborough County Land Development
00:02:52
Speaker
And so tell our listenership a little bit of what you're doing, what's filling your time these days.
00:02:59
Speaker
Well, um, uh, we're, uh, we just, uh, bought a property in Peterborough County, approximately 79 acres. We're developing, um, 70 of them into, um, uh, about, uh, seven, 10 acre lots. Uh, it's a job based development. Uh, we bought it from the municipality and not only was price was a point was the fact that, uh, we're basically the gatekeepers to bring in, uh, to bring in jobs there. So.
00:03:28
Speaker
We've got some memorandums of understanding signed with some really, really good manufacturing facilities and bringing some careers to the Peterborough County and Township of Kava and Monahan area and super busy with development services and also our work with the building trades as well.
Ontario Municipal Elections
00:03:51
Speaker
and we're really looking long and hard at how the landscape is going to be adjusted across Ontario with these municipal elections coming up in October. Yes, that's the big thing. What's the date of that election now?
00:04:08
Speaker
Is it October 23rd? 24th? Yeah, it's the last Monday generally. I don't know if they really did it the proper way this time. They usually have your last date of signing up in September. This time they had it in the middle of August and people are still on vacation. I see its total lack of candidates with all the acclimations across Ontario. It's been
00:04:37
Speaker
It's really problematic when you have mayors and some municipalities five out of the seven positions claimed. It's not a good way to go. So is this a common trend now in a lot of municipalities?
00:04:57
Speaker
Compesting the election.
Election Timing & Public Interest
00:04:58
Speaker
Well II am I see it and I wonder because people don't usually get interested in election and politics municipally until after August is over basically after Labor Day and The thing is is that to sign up as a candidate you had until I think it was August 19th
00:05:21
Speaker
So it really limits the time for people to sign up, but with social media, you can't do anything good if you're a politician, it doesn't matter who you are on social media, it's a negative. So I really wonder if people are that interested in running.
00:05:41
Speaker
you know it's pretty big differences when you go from GTA municipalities and what they pay mayors and counselors to other areas in Ontario where the pay is
00:05:58
Speaker
It's not much for all the call things that that you must face So it's you know, I see you know, there are some really really good candidates out there, but there's also some really crazy fringe candidates and that I saw Tony we have one that think running in Oshawa that thinks that
00:06:20
Speaker
Giant car plant says that the 401 is Chrysler doesn't know it's a General Motors So to run an Oshawa not knowing what plant is there is very interesting and there's another candidate that I've seen that's running a fundraiser every day on his front lawn, so There's some really interesting candidates as they we usually get
00:06:41
Speaker
But there's some really hot races out there, you know, I think everyone's Looking at what's going to happen up in in Brampton with right with Patrick Brown and Nikki Carr Running him, you know, it's Everything who don't know Nikki Carr She was a former employee. Is that right? I
00:07:07
Speaker
That's correct, and she was one of the main whistleblowers in the procurement scandal up there. I'm not passing an opinion, but I've been watching what's going on up there, and I see that they killed the investigation into the procurement
00:07:34
Speaker
the the the
00:07:53
Speaker
yeah and it would they would actually need like seven votes in order to get the vote reconsidered so something is awry there that it needs a reconsideration and in every municipality would need a reconsideration so you know you got to wonder what's what the heck's going on up there and
00:08:18
Speaker
with everything that happened over the federal election.
Political Career Moves in Ontario
00:08:21
Speaker
There are a lot of eyes. Patrick Brown was running for the federal leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada and then was a decision was rendered by the leadership election committee to cancel his candidacy for various infractions. And so he immediately pivoted and is now running for reelection as the mayor of Brampton just saw our
00:08:46
Speaker
listeners understand the background there. Patrick Brown, who was aspiring to be a national leader, is now trying to salvage, I suppose, his civic seat as mayor of Brampton, but is facing competition. Is that right? Yes, yes. Who wants to face an election with an investigation?
00:09:09
Speaker
Surrounding them and in the end procurements and and conflicts of pecuniary interest. I don't know it's It's it's difficult and then so and I also looking at all the former MPs MPPs and cabinet ministers that are out there Running as most of them are are like down in Hamilton, you know, he got the incumbent Bob Bertina
00:09:48
Speaker
Yeah, and Bertina enjoys the the support of the building trades down there, so She will not have total union backing and You know, it's a popular guy down there former I remember when he was in Parliament with me who we served as parliamentarians the same time pretty decent guy to work with even though he was a liberal I can say that
00:10:00
Speaker
the running in andrejo arth's running down there and
00:10:13
Speaker
We did some things together and I don't really have a bad word to say about them. Yes, and then we got, so looking at some of the other races out there, there's a really interesting theme going on in Ontario around airports and
Airport Developments & Economic Impact
00:10:28
Speaker
elections right now. So take a look at Pickering where current regional councillor Kevin Ash, I think he's going to win by a landslide in Pickering.
00:10:38
Speaker
pro-airport and and you know he's got good good counsel like longtime counselor Maurice Brenner he's like the straw that stirs a drink over there he initiates many things however in in Pickering you've got there a member of parliament a liberal member Jennifer O'Connell who's totally against the airport and and you know the billions in economic development that will be there so
00:11:06
Speaker
the U.S.
00:11:25
Speaker
decades and I think it's finally time like I say with a with a conservative government I think that I think that moves forward and on the same line and as airports is up in Peterborough
00:11:40
Speaker
Like the Peterborough Airport is a real going concern up there. There's 800 people that go there to employment every day with the flight school and there's another college up there and some other businesses around. And through one of my developments, we're going to be providing the services if they accept them in Peterborough for
00:12:01
Speaker
1500 acres, so there's a huge economic development and MP Michelle Ferreri has been Successful in getting a I think one of the first towers that's going to be located there in 30 years and they since obviously their mayor Diane Therian is is not running again
00:12:24
Speaker
the the
00:12:43
Speaker
as most larger cities move but we've they got Steven Wright up there he's a current counselor he's a chair of the airport committee and he's he's pro airport now youth they get a tower there with 1500 acres going to be serviced
00:13:01
Speaker
There's a light rail that's going to be running from Peterborough to Pearson to downtown Toronto. It's going to be one of the promised lands for growth within Peterborough County, maybe not necessarily the city of Peterborough itself, although the city of Peterborough owned the airport in the township of Caban, Monahan.
00:13:20
Speaker
So there's an airport theme going on as far as I'm concerned and I think we need that. I think we need that type of infrastructure you see with Amazon using folks like FedEx to fly in products and goods consistently. I think that those airports are warranted. If you look at the Hamilton Airport as a good case in point as well and even
00:13:48
Speaker
even when I was the MP for Perry Samuska, the Perry Sound Airport was a real jobs magnet not just for airport services but other businesses wanted to locate there because you just have access to the supply chain. Well that was one thing
00:14:03
Speaker
that Gateway airports when they were doing the Pickering study presented to a former finance minister and knows very much about it, Jim Flaherty. This is, no, this isn't just building an airport. This is, you know, a huge economic development beacon for not only for Durham region, but for Ontario. So, you know, it's time those
00:14:29
Speaker
things happen and then going along with the with the theme of former folks running I see up in Vaughan we got I see Stephen Del Duca is is running for mayor we talked about Andrea Hovarth down in in
00:14:49
Speaker
Hamilton and running against Stephen Wright and Peterborough is Jeff Lehman, another former liberal. So it seems like all these defeated opposition cabinet ministers and leaders want to become mayors now, which takes me to the topic of
Strong Mayor Systems in Ontario
00:15:11
Speaker
um the strong mare uh system that they want to put in in um talk about in Ottawa and in Toronto which basically gives the the mare's veto power as they do in uh in the USA um
00:15:27
Speaker
There was talk at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario but extending that to other municipalities, obviously they would be larger municipalities and I don't know if they really want to do that or not because I really don't think that the premier of Ontario needs to take
00:15:47
Speaker
a bunch of his former opposition who Decided to get elected as mayor so no doubt formed their own super mayor committee with powers that would Almost rival the province of Ontario Yeah, so indeed that that's a very good point that I
00:16:11
Speaker
But I think that this was all about trying to get the housing situation sorted out, that he saw individual councillors, especially at Toronto City Council. I think he threw Ottawa in because he just didn't want to make it about Toronto. But Toronto City Council, all these NIMBY councillors, most of them left wing, by the way, yes, would stop any developments.
00:16:35
Speaker
uh, where housing was needed or, or changing, uh, you know, subdivision requirements or what have you. Uh, and uh, so give that, give that power to the mayor so that you can actually get some housing built. Is that, is that what you see as well, John?
00:16:51
Speaker
That's what I see now. I think if they wrote the legislation and were very careful about it that they might have something that they can do there, as long as it's not all encompassing powers for veto and if they strictly did it in order to
00:17:11
Speaker
move housing forward quicker. You know, like we've got to consider that, you know, municipal staff are not going to be happy about that. They've got their own processes that have red tape and they're going to continue to have those processes. And it's going to mean that the mayors in those strong mayor cities are going to have to overrule their staff. And, you know, believe it or not, it's
00:17:41
Speaker
You will find that that most when they get elected are rubber stamping most of the staff Reports that come in front of them. Yeah. I mean, this is the other thing that That has been noticed. I mean Pierre poly up talks about gatekeepers. Yes. Yes example of that he's all right. Yeah, the staff reports and you know, god bless him but
00:18:07
Speaker
You've got to have some backbone if you're going to be on council. You can't just sort of take a staff report and be the courier of a staff report to council without, you know, having some intellectual rigor and in some cases overruling, right?
00:18:27
Speaker
Yes, and you know you you'll see in most universities that the the folks that are coming out of the of planning are You know, they've been in this pit with social housing and they've um, they're really far left They're really far left when they're making their decision. So it's you know, it's an influence decision on their end through their education I think you I think they used to say that that used to happen in law school Tony that
00:18:57
Speaker
Some would move left in the beginning and then move right at the end when they graduate. That's the way it used to be, but since I graduated from law school, they seem to be moving further to the left.
00:19:12
Speaker
that's
Candidate Qualifications & Political Influence
00:19:31
Speaker
He's got an outstanding platform. He wants to bring a regional agricultural fair. He supports the cross-border services from Peterborough to Caban. Caban to Peterborough is something that they've been at war with for years.
00:19:51
Speaker
you don't have to amalgamate a municipality in order to extend cross-border services and and he's really good on the economic development and so I really like to see what what he can do out there and
00:20:06
Speaker
I think that he grew up in the area. He went to court the downs since he was a young boy. He was telling us one time. He's going to be very interesting in the race. Obviously, he comes with loads of experience and knowledge. He had a bit of a rough ride as he was leaving politics, as you know. Is that going to weigh on him at all or not?
00:20:37
Speaker
Of course, people are going to talk about it. However, he was over punished for what a lot of people did with respect to those robocalls and so on. When we're taking a look at maybe a current investigation going on right now, this is just a speck of dust compared to that mountain.
00:21:03
Speaker
Right, right, right. Yeah. So I think that, you know, obviously during that time with the red wave that came in, they were defaming and trying to do everything they can to a former conservative MP. Well, that's right. He was kind of roadkill.
00:21:27
Speaker
Yeah. In the wider battle between conservatives and their adversaries, that's a very good point. Yes, yes. And then the candidate that beat him was the candidate that lied about her nationality. Right, right. So the... Yes, is she running for anything? No, no, thank God. Okay, just want to make sure, just want to make sure.
00:21:52
Speaker
So are there any other municipal races we should be aware of? Yeah, yeah down in that Belleville and I thought so Jody's at home Yeah, he's uh, he's got uh, um, uh, mayor mitch down there one term mayor has been in there but um Former liberal mp and former mayor neil ellis is trying to come back and uh and run for mayor there So that's that's going to be interesting. It's going to be a you know, a family. It's been around for years to uh
00:22:20
Speaker
a businessman who's had a successful term as Mayor. I think Dan Carter is going to get in by a landslide over there again. Former Mayor and current Councillor John Graves there, very, very solid Councillor. We got a couple other guys over there that could be new faces on the region that I think would bring the type of values that we want, Tim Dobbs and Jeff Davis.
00:22:50
Speaker
John, is there any trend that Doug Ford has premiered?
00:22:57
Speaker
should be worried about or should be zeroing in on in these races? There is, I would say, in my opinion, there is more and I would say very far left NDP type candidates out there running than I've ever seen.
00:23:21
Speaker
you know home like i don't hear anyone talking about taxes i hear them talking more about spending and more about obviously they're all issues homelessness and and so on but someone's got to talk about taxes because with the rate of inflation that we have and property taxes continuing to go up with you know you've got to hold the line at some point in time because of you know fixed incomes and and the rate of inflation being as high as it is
00:23:51
Speaker
There's got to be people talking about doing a core service or mandated service review and Staying the heck out of the non-mandated services where you're under the municipal act you're not You're you know that you don't have to find And yeah, this is a trend eh
00:24:13
Speaker
Yeah, that is a trend. And I've talked to some folks in and around municipal affairs, same thing. They mentioned me Jesus seems to be a lot of, I think that the orange machine has done it. I noticed some very active on Facebook and so on. So there seems to be a trend. Right, right. And of course, when we look in other provinces, I'm thinking of
00:24:42
Speaker
Edmonton and Calgary and of course the battle over Vancouver. It looks like the progressive left, the NDP style folks and the green folks even are very organized at the municipal level.
00:24:56
Speaker
all they they always have been and i am and uh... very very very much so especially in the larger cities not so much in your uh... in your in your some on small towns but the larger cities uh... you know the council's all seem to be uh...
00:25:14
Speaker
To move left all the time and you know I see they have all the social housing and and social assistance in in the largest municipality so those Social programs are there so I see why they they move left and then Usually the the wealthy people that live in those areas are what I call the champagne socialists
00:25:36
Speaker
They're the ones that fund the campaigns. In my municipality, we've got an interesting one out here. The council's been in place for quite some time and the current mayor's been in place. He's been there a long time, but we've got a guy by the name of Tom Dingwall. He was actually ran for the Federal Conservatives at one time.
00:25:57
Speaker
Former former police officer homicide and former He did like the internal affairs For for the police he's running and my god I think the guys everywhere on social media in driving down the streets you see you see his people at the doors Yeah, it's gonna be a really interesting one out here because I think
00:26:24
Speaker
This municipality does an anti-council vote every once in a while and cleans out almost everyone. Right. It's all been that way Tony, you know? You know, so... Some municipalities in my neck of the woods that are very similar that way and there's always an anti-incumbency feeling that wells up after a while.
00:26:47
Speaker
Yeah and the thing is that there are so many important things going on in Muskoka that you need to have the right candidates, you need to have the right people there and I see because you've got a bit of a different type of population with your cottage goers who are
Voting Dynamics in Local Elections
00:27:09
Speaker
you know, allow the vote there. Yeah, they get to vote, I was going to say, yeah, exactly. Yeah, and if they only are there at three or four months a year, you know, their vote counts the same as a person that's living there year round. Exactly, exactly. And they may have very different views, like, dare I say that they're less concerned about job growth and economic growth, they want their little piece of paradise to be pristine, right? Whereas
00:27:36
Speaker
permanent residents you know they they need jobs they need economic growth they need houses built they need uh... uh... you know uh... different businesses flourish absolutely absolutely and that there's uh... there's no training ground obviously for a uh... for municipal council i was asked about this uh... on another uh... show that i was on uh... you know what what would you say in back when i was uh... elected uh... we had uh...
00:28:03
Speaker
two guys that were elected with me, former regional councilors Jim Schell and Charlie Trim, and we were all members of service clubs, but we were members of service clubs well before we even considered running for politics. We did that because we like to give back to the community.
00:28:22
Speaker
and that's one of my big questions. You know, if a candidate comes to me, don't come to me. If you don't know what your tax rate is, what your total budget is, and what one percent of the tax levy is, and you know, just do your homework, learn a little bit about municipality, and show me that you've put a little bit of volunteer work in somewhere, at least,
00:28:47
Speaker
Um, because you know, you see a lot of folks out there that, um, Oh, there's only one person running for this position. I'm going to jump in there and, and, and, uh, run and they might not have any, uh, any type of, uh, experience. Uh, and you know, I, I'm not one for opportunities, uh, having access to public office. I like people to see people that are, uh, that.
00:29:09
Speaker
that are grassroots come right out of the community and I don't care what political color or stripe they are they've done it the right way when you get in the municipal government you're not carrying a blue red or orange card you better be in the decisions that's best for your municipality and you know in some cases I have seen I have seen folks that sit to the left
00:29:35
Speaker
make very good financial decisions in their municipality, even though they carry a different card. Exactly. Good point. So last question for you, because we're almost out of time. What can be done, if anything, to increase the voter turnout at the municipal level?
Voter Turnout & Municipal Government Importance
00:29:53
Speaker
We tried vote-by-mail down here, we tried vote-by-mail when it was, but we had an open mayor's race and so they were wondering if it was the vote-by-mail or the mayor's race said increases. So the following election they were able to compare and it was the mayor's race that did it. It was the access to, if you want to vote, you're going to vote and
00:30:20
Speaker
It's very troublesome, you know, when you go and doorknock and one in ten houses vote, it's really, really disconcerting, you know. I think that we've got to do something to increase voter turnout, maybe highlight how important municipal government is
00:30:44
Speaker
um two residents something like that they don't have budgets to do that type of thing though but um you know when you get a certain issue in a municipality tony it brings people out to vote no question and um but you can't have a big issue in every municipality but you sure as heck can educate the uh voters over the course of the term a little bit more about uh things that are going on and that might keep them coming out
00:31:11
Speaker
Well, something has to be done because it really is the lifeblood of democracy at the municipal level. Very important issues that are that are decided by your municipal government. So I'm glad that you're an expert on it. John Mutton.
00:31:25
Speaker
It's been great having you on the program again.
Closing & Gratitude
00:31:28
Speaker
Thank you for your continued support for N Another Thing podcast. Well, I'm glad to be here and I hope that this episode sets yet another record for Jodi. It must do. As you know, we were big in Ghana for a few weeks there, but I'm hoping that we can be even bigger in Canada. So thank you for helping us. No problem.