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Is there any indication whether or not Councillor-Elect Carmichael Gerb will have to declare a conflict of interest on the Island Jets vote given that she was an employee of Bombardier, the manufacturer of the CS100s and Q400s?
 
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I expect as a former employee, he will not have to declare a conflict of interest, just like Lisa Rait, the former Port Authority chair, although she kept close relations afterwards, and even coordinated her political fundraiser through the Port Authority. There is no cooling off period from going from employee or lobbyist to politician although there is a year cooling off period from going from politician to lobbyist, both of which are very common. Unusually Lisa Raitt waded into two municipal races, endorsing both Carmichael and Tory, who also both endorsed each other.
On the other hand Tory's son is a lobbyist and owns an airline that flies out of Porter, which is considered an official conflict of interest. He has not announced what he will do about various corporate conflicts, saying he will follow precedent. This isn't encouraging following the Ford years, who considered the extent of their business activities and alliances a personal matter, even though these private conflicts appeared to influence their public duties on numerous occasions.
 
He has not announced what he will do about various corporate conflicts, saying he will follow precedent. This isn't encouraging following the Ford years,

Actually, he has said he will take the advice of the integrity commissioner, not "follow precedent". If the IC comes back saying there is no conflict of interest, then Tory is safe. I doubt that will be the outcome though. It will likely be seen as a conflict of interest.

In Tory's case, this would actually be a good thing, as it distances himself from the debate.
 
On the other hand Tory's son is a lobbyist and owns an airline that flies out of Porter, which is considered an official conflict of interest. He has not announced what he will do about various corporate conflicts, saying he will follow precedent. This isn't encouraging following the Ford years, who considered the extent of their business activities and alliances a personal matter, even though these private conflicts appeared to influence their public duties on numerous occasions.

I presume you mean Tory's son owns an airline that flies out of billy bishop? Which airline is that?
 
Which airline?
Private Air Inc. John A.D Tory
http://www.citynews.ca/2014/10/27/bio-mayor-elect-john-tory-finally-gets-his-win/

Actually, he has said he will take the advice of the integrity commissioner, not "follow precedent".
Tory has said on numerous occasions throughout the campaign that he will "rely on precedent" in deciding what to do about his numerous conflicts, such as sitting on the boards of Rogers and other business conflicts & shareholdings.
http://www.thestar.com/news/city_ha..._business_holdings_if_he_wins_mayors_job.html
Relying on precedent is very different from asking the integrity commissioner for how to avoid any 'perceived' conflicts of interest and meeting the 'highest ethical standards' and agreeing to follow that advice. For the most part the integrity commissioner, as a legal expert, outlines the bare minimum required to avoid legal conflicts of interest, and the likely consequences of various offences. Legally speaking, a municipal politician (Shiner) can even be a registered government lobbyist, while serving. Following precedent, essentially means doing what you want, considering the wide variety of approaches past politicians have taken. Even the Fords claim they consulted the integrity commissioner before taking actions.
 

Thanks.....but I have to ask, how does that put him in conflict on the island airport issue?

1. They are not a scheduled airline....they do charters.....so they don't "flie out of ..." any airport. They go where their clients want them to go if they can arrange a landing gate/space at that airport.

2. They are based out of thunder bay....not toronto

3. Even if they did fly in and out of YTZ (in the sense that Air Canada and Porter does) on a scheduled basis their fleet consists of Pilatus PC-12 aircraft. They are single engined prop planes...no? As far as I can tell these planes can land at YTZ now and would be able to land at YTZ in the future (irrespective of the decision to expand or not expand).

If we want to rule the Mayor out of such important decisions on such a fringy hair of technicality.....then we really don't have much hope in fixing the decision making/planning in this city.
 
Their headquarters is in Thunder Bay, but Porter Airport is their regional headquarters and source of many of the Canadian airline's business passengers.
http://www.privateair.ca/contact/
They can't just fly out of Pearson, because they need to rent small runways at a cheap price, that are close to the business passengers and companies they target. The people who support Tory are also jet supporters, so I expect Tory is already going to quietly ensure Jets are approved. Having John Tory jr. own an Island Airport based airline is not a fringy issue.
Airlines are huge and fickle investments, and the jet decision will have a huge impact on their Island airport location in ways only people in the know, know for sure. On the surface it would appear that jet expansion would be a negative for Tory's son, but I expect he'll be covered, particularly as the Mayor's well connected brother, at a patronage appointee run airport that has long prospered thanks to Liberal and now Conservative politicians.
Despite conflict laws, there also ways to work around them to stack the decks in private. As mayor, one vote out of 45 is not Tory's biggest tool.
 
Is there any indication whether or not Councillor-Elect Carmichael Gerb will have to declare a conflict of interest on the Island Jets vote given that she was an employee of Bombardier, the manufacturer of the CS100s and Q400s?

Why is it that if you use to work for an airline or you or your family owns a business you have to declare a conflict and abstain. But if you are/were a card carrying member of a union that negotiates with the city you don't have to abstain from any part of the budget vote?
 
Tory has said on numerous occasions throughout the campaign that he will "rely on precedent" in deciding what to do about his numerous conflicts, such as sitting on the boards of Rogers and other business conflicts & shareholdings.

Might want to actually read what he has said since the campaign... you do realize the campaign is over right?:

"Tory said he plans to meet with the City’s integrity commissioner, Janet Leiper, to make sure none of his board memberships and extracurricular activities will conflict with his mayoral duties. "

http://torontoist.com/2014/10/john-tory-delivers-first-press-conference-as-mayor-elect/

The Ford's did not go to the Integrity Commissioner as you say. They regularly avoided her, and criticized her when she warned them of improper conduct. They even went against her advice on many occasions. Claiming you have spoken to the IC and not taking the advice is what the Ford's chose to do. There is absolutely no evidence that Tory will be ignoring the advice of the IC, and quite the opposite since he's already making an effort to speak with her before he is even sworn in.
 
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Hmmm I would agree with TOAreaFan's comments here. It would seem that the airline actually operates within the rules of the Tripartite agreement, it's not commercial scheduled traffic, it's prop not jet, etc. So at first blush you would think that a runway expansion and additional jet aircraft would squeeze them out of the airport.

Raising concerns about the relationship between mayor elect Tory, and airline prez Tory seems to reveal a bias towards shutting down the airport completely (not in the tripartite agreement) vs continued operation of the airport.
 
Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport Pedestrian Tunnel Enters Final Stages of Construction

Toronto (November 13, 2014) – The pedestrian tunnel that is being constructed under the Western Gap to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport is now entering its final stages of construction. The pouring of the concrete floor at grade for the tunnel’s mainland pavilion was completed today, and the hook-up of the first of two City of Toronto water mains – built into the tunnel’s design to save Toronto taxpayers an estimated $10 million in duplicate construction efforts – is scheduled to occur later this week. These milestones in the tunnel’s construction follow a number of advancements that have been made in the last six months, including the completion of the tunnel’s concrete liner and the island-side atrium’s roofing system, as well as the lowering of the escalator frames into place. The opening date for the tunnel will be announced in the coming weeks, once the construction completion schedule is finalized.
...https://www.torontoport.com/Airport/News/Billy-Bishop-Toronto-City-Airport-Pedestrian-T-(2).aspx
 
Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport Pedestrian Tunnel Enters Final Stages of Construction

Toronto (November 13, 2014) – The pedestrian tunnel that is being constructed under the Western Gap to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport is now entering its final stages of construction. The pouring of the concrete floor at grade for the tunnel’s mainland pavilion was completed today, and the hook-up of the first of two City of Toronto water mains – built into the tunnel’s design to save Toronto taxpayers an estimated $10 million in duplicate construction efforts – is scheduled to occur later this week. These milestones in the tunnel’s construction follow a number of advancements that have been made in the last six months, including the completion of the tunnel’s concrete liner and the island-side atrium’s roofing system, as well as the lowering of the escalator frames into place. The opening date for the tunnel will be announced in the coming weeks, once the construction completion schedule is finalized.
...https://www.torontoport.com/Airport/News/Billy-Bishop-Toronto-City-Airport-Pedestrian-T-(2).aspx

wow, 3 years for this 100 meter tunnel.
They might try to win the slowest built tunnel Guinness record.
The Millau Viaduct, an engineering wonder in the world spanning 2.5km with all the technical challenges, with 4 lane traffic 250 meters in the sky, took about the same time.

The 50km Channel Tunnel took 6 years.
I am so impressed.
 
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wow, 3 years for this 100 meter tunnel.
They might try to win the slowest built tunnel Guinness record.
The Millau Viaduct, an engineering wonder in the world spanning 2.5km with all the technical challenges, with 4 lane traffic 250 meters in the sky, took about the same time.

The 50km Channel Tunnel took 6 years.
I am so impressed.

The tunnel is 800 ft/245 mt long, not 100 mt. For the Channel Tunnel they used 11 TBMs from both the English side and the French side of the Channel. Boring the Airport Tunnel took 8 months (January - August 2013), but they had to relocate underground services + dig a 100 ft excavation for the elevator shafts before been able to lower the TBM into the tunnel shaft.
 
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The tunnel is 800 ft/245 mt long, not 100 mt. For the Channel Tunnel they used 11 TBMs from both the English side and the French side of the Channel. Boring the Airport Tunnel took 8 months (January - August 2013), but they had to relocate underground services + dig a 100 ft excavation for the elevator shafts before been able to lower the TBM into the tunnel shaft.

Channel tunnel had plenty of its problems too, including fires, diplomatic issues due to illegal entry to the UK, and death of 8 construction workers.
You talk as if the small airport tunnel has its unique technical challenges that somehow justify its tardiness. They used 11 boring machine because it is a much bigger tunnel allowing cars and express trains to go through, not a small pedestrian tunnel.
 

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