Wright penalty gets final vote Monday

City council will vote a final time on Monday to strip Coun. Stephen Wright of his position as economic development vicechair and to drop him as city council’s representative on the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce board.

They will also vote to prevent Wright from standing for election for a board position with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) at that meeting.

Councillors made these preliminary plans at a committee meeting on June 8 and must vote again at Monday’s council meeting to make it final.

The decisions came in the wake of Wright’s ill-fated trip in

May to New Brunswick in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic to see for himself how restaurant reopenings were working out in the province.

At the time New Brunswick’s border was closed as a safety measure to curb the spread of coronavirus.

New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs ordered an investigation in late May to find out what questions Wright was asked at the border and what answers he supplied to allow him into the province.

On Thursday it was still unclear whether that investigation is ongoing; no information was available from the office of the premier.

Earlier this month, The Canadian Press reported that the government of New Brunswick’s investigation into Wright’s trip was still being carried out.

Wright issued an apology early this month, admitting he made “an error in judgment” and he was being “overzealous.”

Mayor Diane Therrien had earlier demanded the apology after New Brunswick’s premier and the mayor of Saint John, N.B. criticized the trip for putting New Brunswick residents at risk of coronavirus.

But Therrien said June 8 that the apology wasn’t enough and moved that Wright be removed from the two positions, and councillors voted in favour.

The trip wasn’t endorsed by Therrien and wasn’t paid for by the city, she said — and that’s why she felt there needed to be some consequences for Wright on council.

But Wright said at the meeting June 8 that the mayor was being “very heavy-handed,” given that he’s apologized.

He also said it was unnecessary for the mayor to remove the possibility of his running for the FCM.

Wright said diversity is badly needed on the FCM board and as one of just 10 Black councillors across Ontario he could have potentially offered that.

But Coun. Henry Clarke said that sometimes there are still negative consequences for someone who commits an error — even after an apology.