BayToday filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the North Bay City Clerk's office this afternoon to try and make public the contents of a letter that City Council sent to Integrity Commissioner George Valin.
A simple request to see the letter was turned down last week by the clerk Karen McIsaac, forcing the FOI rquest.
The purpose of the Freedom of Information Act is to provide a right of access to information under the control of institutions in accordance with the principle that information should be available to the public.
With that in mind, it does not seem reasonable to us that the City would hide the contents from the public of such a simple document.
See: File an FOI to see a simple invite? That's our City Hall for ya!
The legislation says a head "shall not refuse under subsection (1) to disclose a record that, among other things, contains factual material or a report or study on the performance or efficiency of an institution."
That's exactly what Integrity Commissioner George Valin had offered to do, free of charge, for Council after filing his Code of Conduct report dealing with the conduct of a member of Council and the conduct of a member of Invest North Bay.
See Valin's complete report here.
In the report, Valin revealed that Mayor Al McDonald and Canadore President George Burton had both voted in favour of giving a $1.2 million contract to local marketing company TWG, despite its owner, Bill Ferguson being McDonald's campaign manager, and Ferguson being the Chair of the Canadore Executive Committee that determined Burton's salary.
McDonald has never publicly explained his actions.
After Valin submitted the report in December 2020 it took a full year for Council to extend the invite. Even then it was a battle. It took five North Bay city councillors to stand their ground, pushing back against five fellow councillors trying to block an invitation to Valin to address council on its Code of Conduct rules.
See: Five fight, and win, against bid to silence Integrity Commissioner
Voting for Valin to appear before council, was Ed Valenti, Mark King, Scott Robertson, Chris Mayne, and George Maroosis.
Voting against Valin appearing were Mac Bain, Bill and Tanya Vrebosch, Dave Mendicino, and Johanne Brousseau.
The City has a very poor track record in releasing information.
Back in 2018 the City refused to even give attendance numbers for the ill-fated Summer in the Park, forcing a private citizen, Kevin Ferris to file a Freedom of Information request.
See: City blocks efforts to get Summer in the Park numbers
And the City earned the title of the most secretive municipality in Canada for its lack of transparency with the public.
See: An embarrassing win! North Bay most secretive municipal government in Canada says journalist's group
The question remains, what is City Hall trying to hide?
