Falls council will not reveal details of Ryerson discussion
Politicians provide direction to staff; mayor will not offer specifics, citing ongoing negotiations
The City of Niagara Falls will state publicly what direction council provided staff regarding a federal funding application involving a proposed partnership with Ryerson University — just not yet, says Mayor Jim Diodati.
A special in-camera council meeting was held Monday at city hall to discuss information supplied in confidence to the municipality.
About an hour after the closed-door session was called, chief administrative officer Ken Todd told The Niagara Falls Review council would not reconvene in open council that evening to rise and report what direction, if any, politicians gave to staff.
Diodati was not immediately available for comment but has since confirmed to The Review that direction was given by council, but he “can’t say” yet what it was.
“I can’t say what the direction was, but, yes, there was direction given to staff — I’d say there was a strong direction given to staff,” he said.
Diodati also would not say whether council made any financial commitment to the project.
“I can’t go there because we’re in a partnership, we have to respect our other partners. I can’t divulge that at this point.”
The city and Ryerson are working on a five-year plan for a $33-million project
Niagara Falls city council has provided direction to staff regarding a proposed partnership with Ryerson University for an innovation hub .
called the Niagara Falls Ryerson Innovation Hub.
The cost of the innovation centre would be split between the city, Ryerson, private investors and a federal grant. According to information posted to the city’s business development website, the municipality would contribute $4.2 million over five years to support the project.
The first application for funding from FedDev Ontario, a federal agency, was rejected and a second, revised submission was filed.
Asked about Monday’s closeddoor meeting, Diodati pointed to the Municipal Act, which “clearly outlines certain times when city council has to go into a private or in-camera meeting and this was one of those times.”
“Reason being that we’re in negotiations with another level of government, in this case the federal government, and it’s both their request and the Municipal Act that allows us to have in-camera, confidential discussions until an agreement is reached.”
Diodati said he would “love to go on the roof of city hall and tell everybody what happened” but “we’re not allowed to yet.”
“We will rise and report and we will tell the public exactly what happened, but we are required by law to follow the Municipal Act in doing it,” he said, adding he doesn’t want to jeopardize the project by releasing information too soon.
While he wouldn’t go into specifics, Diodati said council is “strongly supportive of the idea of a partnership with Ryerson if it all makes sense.”
The project calls for equipping and operating a downtown stateof-the-art hub to focus on accelerating the growth of companies, developing new skills and driving innovation in various sectors leading to the creation of new jobs.
All councillors were present for the vote to go in-camera, except for Coun. Carolynn Ioannoni, a long-time critic of the proposal and the way the mayor and staff have handled it.
Ioannoni said she believes information posted June 17 to the city’s business development website insinuated council was all in on the proposal.
The announcement states: “Council has poised Niagara Falls, with a committed contribution of $4.2 million over five years for operating costs and building space/land, to engage Ryerson University for FedDev funding to help meet strategic objectives such as youth retention and attraction, diversifying the economy and downtown redevelopment.”
The website states the project would be proposed to the public if the second application/submission to the FedDev investment fund is approved.
Ioannoni said council never voted on committing $4.2 million to the project prior to the June 17 announcement.
Diodati said the information on the website referred to council’s “tentative” commitment to the “process,” rather than to the actual project.
Ioannoni said she sent council an email telling them why she would not attend Monday’s incamera meeting, citing concerns she has with the process.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the issues are covered under incamera, but I will just say this — (Monday) morning, I had asked a number of questions for clarification about going in-camera and I didn’t get a response,” she said.
Ioannoni said she has also not received a response to an email she sent last week asking about the information posted to the website about the $4.2 million commitment.
The veteran councillor said while she believes the federal portion of the proposal “must be discussed in-camera,” she didn’t believe council’s direction to staff should have been.
Ioannoni said she was told because she did not attend Monday’s in-camera meeting, she’s “not allowed to know what happened (during the session).”