Ho Hum!!!

Comments about his blondness........


Anyone who has followed my campaign related to the failures of the leftists at Toronto Silly Hall will know that one of my major complaints was the fact the Comrade Miller and his predecessors have failed to do the harmonization as required under amalgamation.

City Hall blame game fires up Mayor says having an industrial propane site so close to houses isn't the city's fault. Big surprise

I could have predicted the spin from City Hall long before yesterday's briefing in the mayor's inner sanctum.

In the aftermath of Sunday's explosion at Sunrise Propane that rocked the Keele St.-Wilson Ave. neighbourhood and displaced thousands of residents from their homes, Mayor David Miller wasted no time playing the Blame Anybody But His Own Regime Game yesterday.

He claimed his officials had no control over whether the propane facility could operate in a heavily populated residential area of the city.

"This business was regulated through the province of Ontario through the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA)," he said, insisting more than once it is not the job of the city to "give permission" for such a facility.

"The city does not licence propane sites ... it has no legal authority to do so ... it's complicated," he said.

In fact, Miller said, all the city can do is provide a letter clarifying whether the zoning in that area of the city permits such a facility.

The zoning for this site -- located in the old North York (which the mayor repeated many times, in my view, to take a shot at his predecessor Mel Lastman) -- was a general industrial bylaw that did "permit this kind of facility."

The city's chief building official, Jim Laughlin, added the company asked if zoning was allowed for the site in 2004 and 2006 and the response given was the "zoning did permit an industrial use such as this."

But here's the catch. As both Laughlin and the mayor confirmed, the city's zoning bylaws predate amalgamation and have yet to be harmonized after more than 10 years!

We were of course assured work is being done on the harmonization of said bylaws. "There is an action underway to harmonize all the zoning bylaws across the city and clearly this is an issue that will be at the forefront of a review to determine what is the appropriate zoning that should apply across the city," said Laughlin, referring to the distance residential homes should be from an industrial site.

But there's more, even though it took some persistent questioning -- in between all the backpatting on how quickly people were returned to their homes (and the emergency service personnel all did a fine job) -- to pull the information out.

Apparently there are zoning bylaws that are more "restrictive" in terms of where such facilities should be located in the former city of Toronto, Etobicoke and the old city of York. "In some parts of Toronto this would be permitted ... in others it would not be," Miller said of the propane facility.

If only the bylaw had been harmonized sooner.

That didn't stop the mayor from pretending he was really on top of things -- a laugh in itself since he seems only to be able to fight fires, certainly not prevent them.

He said he's not only asked city staff to review what can be done under the as-yet-to-be-harmonized bylaw to make sure propane facilities and the like are not within 1.6 km of a residential area, but he will check what can be done under the City of Toronto Act to "ensure people are safe."

Such bafflegab. It is inexcusable, in my view, that King David would lay the blame on the province when he sees fit to use his powers whenever he so chooses -- like putting in place a new city manager or deciding to ban legal handguns in the city.

MILLERITES

Under the Millerites we've seen new bylaws and rules for virtually everything but the air we breathe -- from a ban on pesticides to whether we can cut down our own trees to when we can walk our "licensed" pets off-leash. If Coun. Adam Vaughan has his way, we'll soon pay for using public sidewalks outside of bars and nightclubs.

The fact the zoning bylaws have yet to be harmonized -- especially ones that will better regulate where hazardous facilities are located in this city -- proves how misplaced this regime's priorities really are.

City officials don't even know where these facilities are located, which is even more troublesome.

When questioned as to how many similar sites are located across the city, Laughlin said they don't know. "The reason for that is these facilities are regulated through the TSSA," he said, indicating they are now seeking information on such sites.

The bottom, bottom line is this was an accident waiting to happen -- a clear case of Nero fiddling as Rome burned.