SHERWOOD COUNCILLOR OUT
Court removes Probe from position
A Court of Queen’s Bench judge has ruled Tim Probe be removed as a councillor for the RM of Sherwood.
The longtime local politician is also currently awaiting a verdict, expected in June, on two charges: Municipal corruption and breach of trust. They stem from a Feb. 1, 2016, coffee shop conversation between him and current Sherwood reeve Jeff Poissant.
The reeve testified earlier this year that Probe offered him a vote trade — Probe’s support on a proposed Suncor development on land owned by Poissant’s parents in exchange for the reeve doing what he could to bring an end to an issue involving the reimbursement of legal fees to several councillors.
Probe and other councillors were reimbursed legal fees incurred during the course of the 2014 Barclay Inquiry into the Sherwood’s proposed residential development, Wascana Village.
(Barclay’s final report found “horrendous” conflict of interest issues and led to the removal of former reeve Kevin Eberle, who owns land on which the development was proposed and stood to make as much as $57 million in the deal.)
Probe was reimbursed about $50,000 for legal fees incurred during the inquiry; but the Saskatchewan Ombudsman found Probe was involved in a conflict of interest, which he failed to declare, when he took part in an RM meeting in January 2016 that included a vote on whether or not the RM should pay those fees or not.
Probe’s representatives insisted in March last year that he would not resign his position but would step aside during his criminal court proceedings.
The RM responded in July by taking civil court action in a bid to remove him entirely.
Court of Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Martel Popescul recently ruled in favour of the RM, resulting in Probe’s removal from council. His seat is now open. Popescul’s Jan. 18 decision ordered Probe disqualified from the RM council because of the conflict of interest.
EBERLE LAWYER DISCIPLINED
Meanwhile, fallout from the Sherwood inquiry continues, with the Law Society of Saskatchewan disciplining a Regina lawyer for professional misconduct.
In its recent decision, a law society hearing committee ordered Daniel Kwochka be reprimanded and fined $20,000 fine — double the largest fine previously imposed in Saskatchewan — and also pay costs of $35,000.
Kwochka pleaded guilty last month to conduct unbecoming a lawyer. In an agreed statement of facts, the veteran lawyer admitted representing or providing advice to the RM of Sherwood, Eberle, and the Great Prairie Development Corporation, which was attempting to develop Wascana Village with the RM. Eberle and his wife entered into agreements with the developer to sell it land.
The agreements provided that Eberle would receive a percentage of the net profits realized by the development. But for the development to proceed, the RM needed to get approval for an official community plan and needed to amend zoning bylaws.
Kwochka prepared the agreements between Eberle and the developer but did not disclose the existence of the profit-sharing plan to the RM, according to the decision.
The hearing committee noted, “If Mr. Kwochka had disclosed the information to the RM that he improperly withheld, the RM’s approach to the development may have been different and may not have resulted in the investigation and Barclay Report.”