The long-standing battle about Thorold’s involvement with the not-yet constructed Canada Summer Games Park came to its peak in city council on Tuesday night, as the bylaw binding the city to the consortium agreement was voted in amid accusations of censorship and secrecy.
The multi-million dollar project, which Thorold entered into in exchange for access to the arena once the games are concluded, has been the subject of a number of closed meetings in city council recently, with some councillors saying that important financial details in the deal are being kept from the public’s eye, and that it could pose a massive long-term economical risk to the city.
“Mr Mayor, I want the public to know what is going on in camera,” Coun. Anthony Longo said, right before council passed the bylaw in a 6-3 vote.
“We are committing to a consortium agreement, yet we will not let the public see the details, because we are giving the other parties the right to block them from seeing it,” Longo said right before the bylaw was to be read.
Longo referred to a section in the bylaw that he found particularly troubling, as it requires all partners in the consortium, which includes the city of St Catharines, Brock Universiy and Niagara Region, to agree to release the documents around the agreements, before the public or anyone else can see them.
“We are not supposed to be open and transparent, Mr. mayor?” Longo asked, and claimed council had never really seen the actual agreement in its entirety.
“We are voting on something we haven’t even seen.”
Coun. Carmen DeRose, another long-time critic of the deal, called the agreement ‘the biggest steal in Thorold’s history,’ before he was ordered to limit his commentary with reference to procedure.
“Why are you censoring me?!” asked DeRose, and said the decision to not let him speak on the matter was upsetting.
“Disgusting,” said DeRose, who, together with Anthony Longo and Jim Handley voted no to pass the bylaw.
The meeting got so heated that Mayor Terry Ugulini banged the hammer at three separate occasions, to calm the situation in the virtual council chambers.
Ugulini, who in discussions with ThoroldToday.ca has refused to comment on the mounting tensions over the Canada Summer Games issue, said that the process has been open and transparent right from the start, and that nothing has been hidden from councillors, and that the public hasn’t been kept from knowing anything critical to the deal.
“To say you have never seen anything, I disagree. Those agreements were put out for a long period of time. You know that, and I know that,” said Ugulini when asked by Coun. Longo.
“The process we followed was the one that was recommended to us by our legal team,” he continued, but did not provide an answer to wether the documents in question had been openly available for the public to review during a 30-day period that council voted on late last year.
The newly-signed agreement binds Thorold to be a part of the consortium that manages the facility until at least year 2050.
In a news release sent out on Wednesday about the striking of the agreement, the newly formed consortium said that the construction of the park is coming along well, with the building being finished in late January 2022.
