{"id":20671,"date":"2018-02-28T08:26:06","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T13:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/?p=20671"},"modified":"2018-02-28T10:41:54","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T15:41:54","slug":"our-treasonous-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/our-treasonous-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Our treasonous council"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If Collingwood Council operated at a higher tier or government – say the federal level – they would be called treasonous and taken to court for their culture of deception, their attacks on our democratic and civic institutions, and for their ongoing betrayal of the public trust. But because they are only a municipal government, they can merely be called despicable while we await the next election.<\/p>\n

The latest act of desperation in the dungheap of this term is the recent motion to demand a judicial inquiry<\/a> into the sale of 50% of our electrical utility to PowerStream last term. At a cost of at least $1 million.<\/p>\n

Just when you think they couldn’t sink any deeper into the muck, The Block lower the bar again. And of course it followed yet another<\/em> closed-door meeting during which public business was discussed and decided on in secret.<\/p>\n

This is, of course, an attempt to head off the upcoming demand for just such an inquiry into this term’s unethical and secretive processes to sell ALL of our utilities to a private, for-profit, out-of-province corporation. Without, of course, public input.<\/p>\n

The first sale happened SIX years ago. During that process they all had the opportunity to comment, to oppose the sale, to speak up. Which, of course, none of them did.<\/p>\n

Let’s see how the processes stack up. Last term<\/strong>: open process, open meetings, public engagement, full media disclosure and coverage, transparency, all documentation published and available for public scrutiny, world-renowned consultants hired to oversee the process, all money accounted for, and a single in camera meeting held at the very end of the process to open the sealed RFPs. This term<\/strong>: secrecy from the start, deception, illegal acts, utility boards fired and replaced by puppets, OEB investigations into town actions, immoral and unethical behaviour, lies, obfuscation, personal agendas<\/a>, hidden documents<\/a>, rumours of big commissions, no public engagement, a sole-sourced lawyer, a secret deal to hand over our water utility to the same company without public input, the broken shared services agreement that cost taxpayers millions in new expenses, a promised savings of $750,000 a year from separating the water utility from the electrical but that mysteriously vanished at budget time, at least  37 closed-door meetings<\/a> about the utility,  a secret contract to keep paying the interim CAO after he retired, and secretive terms of the sale the town won’t disclose<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Which one do you<\/em> think most deserves investigation? Me, too. Secrecy, lies and the betrayal of the public trust this term SHOULD be investigated. <\/p>\n

And, I’m told, The Block secretly informed their pet CBC reporter<\/a> of the impending motion head of time, so they could get media attention and play the same sort of smear campaign they arranged for last term with their phony OPP investigation<\/a> (five years later and no charges, not even one<\/em> police interview of an alleged miscreant: it’s long been proven to have been a hoax).<\/p>\n

Hey! Guess who the CBC reporter – the same one who covered the phony OPP investigation – quoted and photographed? Why, our own Deputy Mayor Brian Saunderson! Are you surprised? Me either.<\/p>\n

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Saunderson and his fellow Blockheads aren’t quite bright enough to figure out how the funding of the last sale worked. Instead of actually looking it up, they keep bloviating about only getting $8 million – which is entirely wrong (or egregiously deceptive). The actual amount<\/a> was $14,458,559 – as has been stated in public many times before. That came from:<\/p>\n