Ontario mayors Whatsapp chat on housing and immigration

I love how these tech illiterate dipshits use WhatsApp (aka Facebook). There's nothing private about it lol.
 
It's the brownoids first choice of communication.
 
I wonder how a foia request was able to get this data. It's not like email, where an IT department has access to the records and can provide them on the request. Normally WhatsApp chats are out of band.

No doubt these government people will use some other chat that isn't tracked in the future.
 
Usually if they use a government device, anything done on that device is property of the government and available for foia. It’s the same for text messages, just because they aren’t stored on a central server doesn’t mean they are free from a foia or audit. Lots of low level municipal politicians and bureaucrats have been burned by that.
 
www.thecountersignal.com

Feds left municipalities in the dark on immigration: Big City Mayors

Recently disclosed WhatsApp chat logs of Ontario’s Big City Mayors show that several mayors were concerned about the affects of mass immigration, refugee intake and homelessness in their cities.
www.thecountersignal.com www.thecountersignal.com

Years after several individuals and the Toronto Star attempted to uncover what was being discussed in a WhatsApp group chat between Ontario’s “Big City Mayors,” the chat logs have been disclosed, revealing that mayors were concerned about a lack of provincial and federal support for homelessness and about increasing refugee and migrant populations.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario ruled at the end of August that the chat logs were akin to an email chain and should be available for the public to read, following three separate freedom of information requests seeking disclosure.

A look at the 101 pages of chat logs spanning about 18 months, which were provided to Juno News by one of the applicants, shows that many mayors were frustrated with the provincial and federal governments over a lack of assistance in dealing with their respective cities’ homelessness crises, an increase in asylum seekers, and a surge in immigration caused by federal Liberal policies.

The chat logs start on July 15, 2023, with representatives from Guelph asking other cities and their mayors whether they were also experiencing overwhelmed social services and a surge in refugees entering their cities.

Others discussed conversations with the then-Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, who allegedly indicated that there would be no additional assistance to deal with the influx caused by the feds’ immigration and refugee policies beyond the “existing Federal dollars and programs in the medium term.”
Click to expand...
One representative from Niagara said that the surge in refugees into Niagara has been “putting strain on our already full shelters for the last several months.”

Mayors, including Ajax Mayor Shaun Collier, acknowledged that many of Ontario’s “big cities” were experiencing capacity issues with the “recent flood of asylum seekers” that had been brought into their cities.

“Ajax has had over 200 in the last 2 weeks. Regional resources are exhausted. Of our 200, approx half are documented and in the system so the Feds have or are supposed to have provided funding for them,” Collier said in one message.

Collier also noted that social services to support and house the new refugee claimants had now been made the region’s responsibility.

Mayors and city representatives discussed homeless encampments, addictions and public disorder as well. A common theme among many mayors was that the provincial and federal governments weren’t doing enough to help cities address the issues.

Oakville Mayor Rob Burton was particularly critical of the Liberal government’s immigration and refugee intake policies, noting that mass immigration “broke the housing market” by increasing demand that municipalities were not prepared for.

“Ottawa broke the housing market with an unsustainable and unpredicted and unprepared for increase in demand from their massive increase in immigration,” Burton said in 2024.

Hamilton Mayor and former NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, on the other hand, responded that immigration was needed but that the federal and provincial governments failed to account for where all of those “needed” immigrants would live.

Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe even complained that municipalities were not adequately consulted about immigration and refugee targets before the federal government set immigration policy.

McCabe complained about Ukrainians arriving to study in Waterloo and discovering they did not qualify as refugees for purposes affecting tuition. She called the situation “untenable.”

“The federal government needs to start talking to municipalities before they set their immigration and refugee targets,” she said.

When Premier Doug Ford said Ontario was “pouring money in” for shelters, Burton, Oakville’s mayor, claimed that the money was “news to Halton,” and St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe joked that “Niagara would also like to know the location of the money spigots.”

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow pushed for immediate federal and provincial help after an influx of asylum seekers, and the other mayors discussed municipalities being left to handle accommodation and associated costs.

Health-care funding was another topic of concern, as the mayors privately discussed presenting a united position to Ontario, demanding additional hospital and health funding. Chow told the group she would support what the group decided.
Click to expand...
 
I can see why the mayors are upset. At the municipal level they don't get access to the unlimited money hack that the feds have.
 
"Hold on fellow mayors! I have a solution! Introducing the brand new OCCUPANCY TAX! It will, of course, be stacked on top of the property tax."
"Very good. But I still think we should implement a window tax."
"Of course! Door tax, cat tax, grass tax, basement tax, thumb tax!"
 
↑View previous replies…
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top