Diodati denies lobbying Wynne
Letters from Falls mayor to the premier obtained through Freedom of Information refer to development at Thundering Waters
Mayor Jim Diodati says he was not lobbying on behalf of the developer of a $1.5-billion development proposed to be built adjacent to Thundering Waters golf course in Niagara Falls when he sent two letters to Premier Kathleen Wynne in late 2016 and early 2017.
“For clarity, I wasn’t lobbying for the developer. That’s inaccurate,” Diodati said to Coun. Carolynn Ioannoni during Tuesday’s Niagara Falls city council meeting.
Diodati said he asked Wynne to appoint a provincial development facilitator to deal with the issue, which has been bogged down by provincially significant wetlands that cover much of the 197.6-hectare property west of Marineland.
During a discussion about whether to allow a delegation from an environmentalist who wanted to update council on last week’s camp-out at the proposed development by a group of concerned citizens, Ioannoni said she did not know Diodati was “lobbying the premier.”
“I haven’t seen one letter from you to the premier — they haven’t been copied to council. We didn’t give a motion to direct letters to the premier lobbying for the developer. So if we could, as a council, get a copy of those letters, that would be fantastic.”
Owen Bjorgan, the organizer of the group that camped along a trail on Dorchester Road near the Chippawa Parkway calling for the protection of the environmentally sensitive property, presented council at the end of his delegation with several documents obtained through Freedom of Information requests to the province.
Included in the documents were two letters Diodati sent to Wynne, one dated Dec. 2, 2016, and the other Jan. 12, 2017.
In the Dec. 2 letter, Diodati said he met with Wynne’s chief of staff, Andrew Bevan and Kathryn McGarry, minister of natural resources and forestry, on Nov. 21, 2016, concerning the GR (CAN) Investment Co. Ltd.’s proposal for a mixed-use, real-estate development in Niagara Falls.
“Further to our discussion, the purpose of this letter is to confirm our request with Mr. Bevan that you appoint the provincial development facilitator to work with local, regional and provincial officials to ensure the timely review of the project,” wrote Diodati.
He described GR (CAN) as a Chinese investment and development company that has extensive experience in large-scale, leisure-oriented and mixed-use development projects in Beijing and Tianjin, China.
“Ontario has identified China as an important partner for investment, and made repeated efforts to induce investors from China to invest here. In part, as a result of your leadership in this regard, the City of Niagara Falls has entered into an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with GR (CAN).”
Diodati said the project would advance the strategic interests of the province, city and region by creating economic development and employment opportunities, add to Niagara’s destination vacation and tourism infrastructure, and demonstrate Ontario’s “progressive land-use policies, including protection of natural heritage system, integrated live-work communities, new affordable housing opportunities, and support for local and regional transit initiatives, including the extension of GO Transit services.”
He said the project site has been included in the urban-area boundary for development since the inception of Niagara Region’s official plan in the 1970s.
The project is complex in scope, and requires “complicated” inter-agency co-operation among the city, Niagara Region, Niagara Conservation Authority and several Ontario ministries, wrote Diodati.
“I am writing because in spite of the best efforts of all involved so far, the process runs the risk of coming to a standstill. Niagara Falls is working collaboratively with Niagara Region to resolve this problem and advance the process. We need your assistance because we cannot further process this application without first reconciling the competing and potentially conflicting interests of various provincial and other regulatory agencies.”
Diodati said without improving the co-ordination of “our joint interests, this project may be at risk.”
“Process delays and uncertainty have eroded confidence in the project to the point that GR (CAN) and its investors have indicated that they are now reconsidering their investment. The City of Niagara Falls is keen to signal its continuing support for the project.”
He said the mandate of a facilitator would be to guide the “timely review” of the project by all mandated agencies on the basis of an agreed-upon schedule, and determine the appropriate provincial interest in accordance with the “balanced objectives” of provincial policy statements.
In his Jan. 12 letter to Wynne, Diodati said he was “very disturbed” to learn the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry had recently changed its environmental characterization of the project site.
He said the ministry had previously completed comprehensive evaluations of environmental features on the site in 2008 and 2010.
In 2012, a municipal comprehensive review concluded the site was one of the future urban-growth areas in the city, said Diodati.
“Since 2015, Niagara Falls and Niagara Region have been working with the project proponent … relying on MNRF mapping, which indicated that roughly 60 per cent of the site was usable. By contract, MNRF’s new mapping would prevent development on 95 per cent of the site. If the new mapping were allowed to stand as accurate and binding, the project would be at an end.”
He said through her trade missions, Wynne promoted Ontario to international investors as being “open for business.”
“The surprise public release of this drastically changed mapping, without consultation, even after the City of Niagara Falls had requested the appointment of the provincial facilitator, is very concerning.”
Diodati asked for the “expedited appointment” of the facilitator “given the recent actions by MNR.”
In a Jan. 9 letter sent to Bill Mauro, minister of municipal affairs, Diodati said it has “become more urgent” for a facilitator to be appointed, noting the GR (CAN) investment is “one of the results of the efforts by the premier and provincial government to attract Chinese investment to Ontario.”
He described the new mapping done by the province as “highly questionable given the degree to which it conflicts with local studies during the municipal comprehensive review.”
In a recent email to the Niagara Falls Review, Jolanta Kowalski, a senior media relations officer with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, said there are approximately 94 hectares of provincially significant wetlands on the property.
She said the ministry has approved the wetlands and identified them in the Land Information Ontario database, where they are available for municipalities to include in their official plans and zoning bylaws.
When asked how much of the property can be developed, Kowalski said: “That is a determination that will be made by the municipality, after the proponent has addressed impacts from the proposed development on the wetland(s), to ensure consistency with the provincial policy statement.”
She said Niagara Region asked the ministry to provide comment on the Region’s own environmental impact study, which included previously unidentified wetlands areas, in the proposed project area.
Ministry staff reviewed the wetlands on the property again, and determined them to be provincially significant wetlands, said Kowalski.
However, of the additional 20.8 hectares of wetlands identified on site in the environmental impact study by the Region’s consultant, the ministry determined only 17.6 hectares was provincially significant wetlands, she said.
“The proposed development in Niagara Falls is subject to the provincial policy statement, under the Planning Act. Municipal planning decisions must be consistent with this policy direction.”
Also included in the FOI documents was the MOU signed in November 2015 by the city and GR (CAN), witnessed by Wynne.
In the MOU, the parties agreed to, among other objectives, to create “favourable conditions and supportable policies for the investment by Party A or its related parties in the territory of Party B.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, Ioannoni said she “didn’t know our staff was working with the planners, the developer.”
“We really don’t know anything about this, other than the MOU was signed.”
Alex Herlovich, the city’s director of planning, building and development, said his department presented a report to council last August about the proposal.
“Council deferred the application at that time, so I take exception to the statement that council is not aware of this application,” he said.
Ioannoni said she didn’t mean to “insult” Herlovich, and was directing her concerns with the political approach being taken on the project.
Coun. Kim Craitor said council has never made any decisions on the project, and that “we haven’t endorsed anything about Thundering Waters.”
Herlovich said the developer outlined their vision for the project to council “on more than one occasion.”
“It’s an active planning file. We’re waiting for the reports to come in (including environmental impact and servicing studies),” he said.
“All of these things are needed to make a complete application, so we can bring full information to council.”
Herlovich said under the Planning Act, the city is required to give the public 30-day notice prior to the next public meeting.
He said a “full list” of people who are interested in the project have left their names with the planning department.
“There will be a full public meeting, and everybody will have an opportunity to speak — both those for, those against, and those representing the development.”
Herlovich said the earliest the issue would likely next come before council would be the end of October, but it could November or December, depending on when additional reports and studies are submitted.
‘I am writing because in spite of the best efforts of all involved so far, the process runs the risk of coming to a standstill.’ Mayor Jim Diodati to Premier Kathleen Wynne