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Developers buy influence: Chapman
September 8, 2006
Joanna Chapman. May 2005. |
The woman who forced a compliance audit of Mayor Larry Di Ianni's election finances, says developer interests control Hamilton politics – at least partly by financing election campaigns of some councillors.
“Developers are not stupid,” Joanna Chapman told a Citizens at City Hall (CATCH) public meeting last week. “They do not donate to candidates because they like the colour of their eyes or the way they tie their shoes. They donate large sums of money for control and influence.”
She argued further that the land development sector supports multiple candidates to ensure that the overall council will be friendly to development. “It's complete and utter rubbish for anyone to say that politicians are not influenced by the money that got them elected,” she declared, “Of course they are.”
Chapman was a guest at the August 31 CATCH meeting where she was asked to speak about the need for reforms to provincial legislation on campaign finances.
She stressed that she isn't opposed to development and doesn't think developers are evil people, but argued that their interest are not necessarily the same as the public interest.
“Their specific interest is making money for their shareholders and themselves, not to enhance the community,” she said. “If politicians are foolish enough to approve any development that comes before them, no matter how negative the impact will be, developers will be pretty happy.”
Developer domination in Hamilton, she maintained, has meant a downtown sacrificed for big box centres and farmland paved over for subdivisions. And for that she blamed city politicians “who are ready and willing to make the changes to official plans and zoning by-laws so that farm land worth a few thousand an acre one day becomes worth hundreds of thousands the next.”
In response, the Dundas businesswoman called for firm rules to be established and enforced on behalf of the community interest. As evidence she noted recent media comments by a major developer in response to proposals for tougher legislation to protect heritage properties. The developer indicated he was willing to abide by clear rules that he said “would give us a guideline and impetus to do things” to work within the rules.
She also stressed the importance of banning corporate and union donations to municipal candidates and a string of other changes to the Municipal Elections Act to limit influence and ensure transparency and accountability.
“Corporations cannot vote, so why should they donate?” she demanded. “One person, one vote, one contribution, period!”
Chapman's full speech  is available on the CATCH website.
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