County condemns "intrusion" in municipal affairs
Posted Nov 19, 2009 By Chris Must
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Tweet ThisEMC News - In the words of Tay Valley Township Deputy-Reeve Susan Freeman, "the issue is back off, it's not your role."
At a special meeting Friday, Nov. 13, Lanark County councillors voted unanimously to deliver this message to their federal and provincial representatives, MP Scott Reid and MPP Randy Hillier, who they said have intruded in municipal affairs in Lanark Highlands township by lobbying individual councillors and announcing plans to send their own referendum ballots on the issue of a proposed water and sewer project to residents of the municipality.
Reid and Hillier appeared as official delegates at the meeting to justify their actions in promoting an alternate solution to the problem of contaminated wells in Lanark village to the solution voted on by township council.
Following presentations by both Reid and Hillier and input from the county council members present, council unanimously approved a motion "that County Council direct the warden to write to the Prime Minister, as leader of the federal government Conservative Party and to Mr. Tim Hudak as leader of the Provincial Conservative Party as to whether their party policy supports the direct intrusion of their party's elected members in an issue which is clearly a municipal responsibility, that no further direct involvement from the local federal and provincial members occur until a response is forthcoming." The motion will also be circulated to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and the Eastern Ontario Warden's Caucus.
"We as a collective body of Lanark County Council have no interest in proceedings on water and sewer in Lanark Village or Lanark Highlands," Warden Paul Dulmage said at the outset of the special meeting. He added that the county would never impose any ruling on the local municipality. "We're here to discuss federal and provincial politicians coming into a township and holding a referendum," he added.
"The question really is do you approve of the way your MP and MPP are conducting themselves," said Reid. "For months you have heard a steady drum-beat of public criticism of my conduct, and more recently of Randy's conduct from (Lanark Highlands Mayor Bob Fletcher) while I have maintained a self-imposed silence."
Reid said he had promised at a meeting with Fletcher July 6 to maintain that silence but began to comment publicly on the issue in September.
Referring to the specifics of the project to bring water and sewer services to the residents of Lanark village, Reid said he began to be concerned about the cost of that project which in the spring was estimated at $40 million. He said he was concerned at that time about the township's ability to pay its share of the project if two-thirds federal and provincial funding were obtained, because the township had only $7.5 million in reserve, substantially less than a third of the $40 million total cost. "On this basis the project did not receive political approval," said Reid. That decision was announced July 10.
At this time, Reid began to suggest a solution of his own, to rehabilitate individual contaminated wells in the village, which he said would be more economical.
Reid also said that prior to his July 6 meeting with mayor Fletcher and other township representatives he received a letter from Lanark resident Rene Bosman saying in reference to the drinking water in wells contaminated by leakage from neighbouring septic systems, "we are sitting on a Walkerton situation."
This, he said, was "the first time I had seen it described in terms of life and death." Reid said he felt that since full water and sewer services would take two years to implement, that individual filtration systems for each well should be installed by the municipality.
Reid then stated that at an August meeting, the township mayor said the township could have avoid spending a large amount of money on studies for the project if they had known the MP wasn't going to support their funding application.
Reiterating that the merits of one solution over another was not the issue of concern to county council, Dulmage asked whether, if his municipality, the town of Carleton Place, passed a motion Reid didn't agree with, would the MP and MPP come into town and tell him not to do it.
"What's relevant is what was the reason for involving a federal and a provincial politician in a municipal decision-making process," said Dulmage. "Is it appropriate?
"Out-and-out attacking a member of my council (Fletcher), I don't find that appropriate," he added.
According to Reid, the MP's concerns about the water and sewer issue became public after he was asked by Lanark Highlands to help approve the spending of $900,000 on the study for the project. He said he wrote a letter to the mayor expressing concerns about the spending which was never presented to council. He then sent letters to the Lanark and Perth local papers concerning that issue.
Reid also said the amount of opposition to the project by township residents made it seem appropriate to find out whether a majority of the residents support spending $900,000 on the study and approve of the water and sewer project itself which now carries an estimated price tag of $28.5 million.
The ballot he plans to mail out "is not a referendum in a formal, binding sense," he said, adding he sees it as the most accurate way of gauging public support.
Hillier said he wanted to take the opportunity to explain his and Reid's actions. He said that although "we have been strong proponents of municipal decision-making throughout our careers," he and Reid "also have a duty and responsibility to serve and represent our constituents."
Hillier said both constituency offices have received numerous calls expressing concern or opposition to the Lanark Highlands water and sewer project, adding "even council itself is divided up there."
Because federal and provincial money is being sought to fund the project, Hillier said he and Reid have to make sure the tax money is well spent. The ballot, he said, "is not a case of Scott and I imposing our views, far to the contrary, it is seeking advice."
In response, Fletcher stated that three Lanark Highlands councils have worked on the project and three councils have realized since municipal amalgamation in 1998 that the growth of Lanark village depends on municipal water and sewer services. Although Reid and Hillier's ballot asks residents if they are in favour of the "sewer and water project proposed by Mayor Fletcher," the project is not his but council's. "I just take offence to the point that you've passed out a ballot that says it's my project," he said.
What council wants to do, he added, is to complete a detailed design for the project so that its true cost can be known.
"I take great concern when I have a federal and provincial level of government undermining a municipal position on an issue," commented Perth Mayor John Fenik. This, he said, "raises incredibly concerning avenues for the future."
The citizens of Perth may not always agree with his decisions as mayor, added Fenik, "but I'm elected to lead." At the end of four years people can choose not to vote for him if they disagree, he added.
Fenik wondered if the local MP and MPP would want to hold a referendum in Perth if enough residents oppose council's position on the redevelopment of Wilson Street. "Ruling and leading with plebiscites went out with the Greeks," he concluded. "I think this is interference in the worst way."
Reid said local councils make decisions all the time he doesn't agree with, but in his nine years as MP for the area he has never before made a public comment on a municipal decision. "I think it's very different from any situation I'm likely to face in the future," he said.
Dulmage asked if it would not have been more appropriate for Reid to present his concerns to Lanark Highlands township council as a whole rather than lobbying individual MPs.
Lanark Highlands Deputy Mayor Bruce Horlin said the decision to proceed with plans for water and sewer services in the township was made by a majority of a duly-elected council, although the vote wasn't unanimous. "We had every right to do that," he said.
Mississippi Mills Mayor Al Lunney, who proposed the motion later passed by council, said "this is an issue that we as a council have to step up to the plate and say to the rest of the province, are you aware of what's going on in this community."
Tay Valley Deputy-Reeve Freeman voiced the concern that county council members might be penalized in future funding requests for supporting the motion, but went on to say, "I am appalled by the personalization of this."
The mayor of Lanark Highlands is just one vote on township council and the project is not his alone, said Freeman. "I find it the worst type of politics to personalize this."
