Concerned citizens Kevin Ferris and Nicole Peltier have set a deadline of Friday for Invest North Bay (INB) to make public all documents required under the Municipal Act.
If not, the pair will file a Freedom of Information request to force INB to do so.
The two sent a letter to INB Executive director Ian Kilgour today.
"We are very disappointed with your responses to us. As you are aware, Invest North Bay Development Corporation is a local Board and is subject to s.239 of The Municipal Act. Justice Valin made this determination on page 18 item (59) of his report to Invest North Bay Development Corporation as Acting Integrity Commissioner.
Invest North Bay has argued in the past it does not fall under the Municipal Act."This determination is not up for debate," reads the Ferris/Peltier letter. "In fact, INBDC has been a local Board since its inception but has never acted accordingly. As such, it has been conducting closed meetings in violation of s.239 for the last 5 years. Yet you were still prepared to conduct another improper closed meeting last week on January 26, 2021 knowing full well what Justice Valin had ruled. We also learned that yet another improper closed meeting was held February 1, 2021."
Last week's meeting was cancelled as the Board could not attract a quorum. The hastily-called closed meeting last night resulted in the Board deciding not to renew its agreement with Council.
"We will be filing a formal complaint with the Closed Meeting Investigator over the repeated disregard for s.239 that governs how meetings of INBDC may be conducted," adds the letter. "In addition, we would urge you to immediately post all agendas, minutes, resolutions and by-laws, including your Conflict of Interest Policy, to INBDC’s active websites as these are public documents. If you fail to do so we will be filing an FOI for them. If we do not see these items published online by Friday, Feb 5, 2021, we will be proceeding with the FOI."
Ferris and Peltier had previously written a letter to the Board alleging that George Burton and Mayor Al McDonald broke its conflict of interest policy, but the Board has not responded.
See: Invest North Bay must enforce its own conflict of interest policy or disband says Ferris
"We have still not been advised how you will be enforcing your very own conflict of interest policy against Mayor McDonald and George Burton. This issue will not go away and we will be pursuing it until it has been handled as per the steps provided in your very own policy," adds the letter.
"This was an improperly held closed meeting," Ferris told BayToday. "We will be filing a complaint with the Closed Meeting Investigator about this meeting. I did not see in the press release from North Bay where they have addressed their conflict of interest policy and the enforcement of that policy against two members, George Burton and Mayor McDonald. We need that policy enforced and we are not going to back off until that happens."
A letter has also been sent to members of Council.
"As I am sure you are aware, as per section 6 of the Operating Agreement between the City and INBDC, the development corporation is responsible to the Council of North Bay. Despite what happened last night, that OA is still in effect until July 202," it reads.
"As such, I would ask you to ensure that the Board of INBDC enforce their very own Conflict of Interest Policy, which Mr. Kilgour has to date refused to release publicly. The conduct of Mayor McDonald and Mr. Burton regarding the TWG matter cannot simply be left as is and we will otherwise be pursuing this matter to its rightful conclusion."
