Report of the President - Peter Macklem, 29 August, 2009

Unfortunately I could not be with you today, because of an unavoidable commitment elsewhere. However,TIARA has been unusually busy because of its concerns about actions of TLTI’s Municipal Council that are not in the best interests of the citizenry. These include: 1) systematic violations of the official plan and the township’s zoning by-laws: 2) profligate spending on the new municipal building  with no information on its maintenance costs and the costs of maintaining and detoxifying contaminated grounds of buildings vacated that will be accommodated in the new facility; 3) the plans to develop a volunteer firemen’s training facility  at a cost to taxpayers of more than $600,000 without a business plan or firm commitments from neighbouring municipalities that they would use the facility. Furthermore a much larger training centre in Kingston is scheduled to open in the near future The TLTI argument that the Kingston facility is poorly equipped to train volunteer firemen is, we believe specious. Kingston , in fact has more volunteer firemen working for them than we have in TLTI and their program will include training of volunteers.

A bedrock of the democratic parliamentary system is the official opposition. A strong opposition makes for good government, not because it blocks legislation, but because it ensures that government acts in the best interests of the electorate, that the legislation passed by parliament is well thought out, and most importantly that government actions are transparent and accountable to the public. Municipal governments do not have official opposition unless there is internal opposition within the Council. This is lacking in TLTI. Therefore on TIARA took the initiative and contacted organizations broadly distributed within our township to form a Coalition of Area Residents which would assume the role of an official opposition. CAR has been successfully formed; its President is a feisty and very active lady, Barbara Jones. Douglas Mackintosh is its treasurer and I am the Vice President. Following a unanimous vote by your Board of Directors, TIARA officially joined CAR so we are now all members of the coalition, and I would urge you to participate actively in its activities.

CAR has asked Council to respond to more than 20 questions about the new municipal building dealing with hidden costs and how Council’s decisions will impact upon township’s taxpayers. Council has not responded. Barb Jones and Douglas Mackintosh have made presentations at Council meetings requesting that Council respond to the questions posed about the costs of the new municipal building; that the awarding of a contract to construct the municipal buildings be delayed; and that Council delay the decision to proceed with the fireman’s training facility until a business plan is developed and firm commitments made by neighbouring municipalities to use the facility. Without this information there is great uncertainty that it will be able to operate on a cost recovery basis. If not, operating costs will be borne by the taxpayers.

 Council listened to these presentations but did not hear. The points made by CAR presenters were greeted by total silence and when it came to a vote CAR’s requests were totally ignored and the motions passed without discussion.

Our municipal government has become an autocracy. Neither TIARA nor CAR will submit to arbitrary and autocratic measures. A municipal council which ignores the concerns of those that pay their salaries and that payfor projects inimical to the interests of the citizenry is unacceptable.  We will continue to use all legal means available to ensure that our Municipal Council is responsive to our concerns, that its activities are transparent and that they are accountable to us for everything they do.

The economic recession has slowed progress on our project to have the Saint Lawrence recognized as a Canadian Heritage River . Two grant applications to the Eastern Ontario Economic Development Corporation was turned down because of lack of funds. We need this money to hire an individual who will collate the vast amount of information gathered last summer by the two students we hired, and to prepare the written application. We are confidant that we will have sufficient funds in the near future to make substantial progress in this task. Volunteers from the Board will continue to meet with stakeholders along the river between Kingston and the Quebec border in order to develop a management plan for the river to protect its heritage status and to form a management committee of stakeholders to oversee and monitor developments to ensure that they are in accord with the management plan.

TIARA will continue to be vigilant with regard to the activities of Council and as part of CAR will attempt to act as an ‘official’ opposition. We will continue our efforts to obtain Canadian Heritage River status for the St Lawrence. We will take necessary action to preserve the natural and cultural status of the 1000 Islands region and to protect its environment. TIARA’s Board is grateful to our membership for their continuing support and we assure you that we will continue to act on your behalf in your best interests.

Respectively submitted,

Peter Macklem, President