Today a Hamilton court upheld the appointment of 12 board members to the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) recently made by Niagara Regional Council.
The NPCA has been in turmoil and under intense criticism for its methods of operation and, with the new Regional council, the old board was turfed and a new interim board was put in place.
However, a few members of the outgoing board refused to step down gracefully and have argued they should choose their successors. They went as far as hiring a new CAO in David Barrick, who was previously fired from the board by the former CAO Mark Brickell. Fort Erie Regional representative Sandy Annunziata was defeated in the election but has been the most combative, saying, through his lawyer, he would not step down.
The NPCA is the custodian of a watershed that extends from Halton to the Niagara River.
The City of Hamilton was concerned about its governance as well and went to court to protect its interests while a private citizens' group, A Better Niagara, argued that the Niagara Region’s appointment of the 12 members be upheld.
Newly-elected Thorold Regional Councillor Tim Whalen is one of those appointed to the interim board.
Whalen told the Thorold News, “I’m on the temporary board for three months. It’s frustrating because we had a meeting scheduled for Dec. but it was cancelled. We just want to get in there and get somebody controlling it. Right now, the dog is being wagged by the tail.”
He explained that, “Haldimand and Hamilton want representation by population. They’re (Hamilton) pushing for four representatives from Hamilton; two from Haldimand and five from Niagara. But I think it should be representation by area of Conservation property within the municipality, not representation by population.”
Up until now, the NPCA consisted of 11 political appointees and one at-large member from the public.
The matter came before the courts very quickly and was resolved in its first session.
In making his ruling, Judge J.A. Ramsay said, "The present situation is intolerable. The constitutional order needs to be restored. The governance of the Conservation Authority cannot remain in chaos."
Ramsay put an end to the chaos, for now, when he issued the following ruling:
1. I declare that as of December 6, 2018, Councillors Bylsma, Chiocchio, Foster, Gibson, Greenwood, Heit, Huson, lnsinna, Jordan, Steele, Whalen and Zalepa are members of the board of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, and S. Annunziata, B. Baty, F. Campion, P. Darte, M. DiFruscio, A. Jeffs, P. MacPherson, J. Maloney, T. Quirk and B. Timms are not.
2. All remaining relief is adjourned to January 2, 2019 at to be spoken to. Once the new board is seated it will be in a position to advise counsel as to its position.
With the ruling, the path has been cleared for the temporary board to get back to business and proceed with filling the board positions with permanent members early in the new year.
And that's fine with Whalen, “We don’t want to take over. We just want to get a board that’s going to look after the best interests of the people of Niagara,” he said.
