NPCA, union and politicians duel in pressers
Welland MPP Cindy Forster wants to amend provincial legislation to allow Queen’s Park to appoint a supervisor to run Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority.
Forster — who said she would add the amendment to the Conservation Authorities Act which is under review — made her statement during a duel of Wednesday news conferences where opponents and defenders of NPCA fired shots at each other.
Each side accused the other of spreading misinformation, warned of their opponent’s agendas and painted themselves as victims of nasty political attacks.
The first shots were fired Wednesday morning by Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of Ontario Public Service Employees Union, who warned NPCA is trying to “break the union” that represents conservation authority staffers.
“We didn’t start this fight, but we are damn well going to finish it,” Thomas said referring to the recent termination of eight frontline workers, including two planners from watershed management, three watershed restoration workers, two ecological technicians and one event co-ordinator.
The move angered the union, and Thomas reaffirmed its commitment to having the lost jobs restored at NPCA.
A few hours later Wednesday, NPCA CAO Mark Brickell said Thomas “didn’t know Niagara.”
“I read the other day that Smokey Thomas said the NPCA was using scorched earth policies. Scorched earth? What is Smokey smoking? You have to be kidding,” said Brickell. “We live in the wettest, greenest municipality in all of southern Ontario.”
Brickell said while local media has focused on the departure of eight people, it has not paid attention to two new communications staffers NPCA recently hired.
NPCA has been under frequent criticism over its policies, practices and governance for most of the year.
The recent conflict with OPSEU follows turmoil on the NPCA board of directors, when former board member and Lincoln regional councillor Bill Hodgson was censured for allegedly “corrupting” the process to hire an external auditor. Hodgson resigned after board chairman Sandy Annunziata sent a letter announcing the councillor’s censure to several municipal governments.
During NPCA’s news conference Wednesday, Annunziata insisted the board did the right thing and what Hodgson did is beyond allegations and is proven fact. However, Annunziata refused to release a lawyer’s report which he says proves wrongdoing by Hodgson.
While Annunziata said he is personally willing to release the report, board policy prevents it, and he is not willing to ask the board to reconsider its policies.
During the morning OPSEU news conference, Forster said Hodgson is “the most honest man you could ever meet,” who was bullied by the NPCA board for saying the conservation authority should submit to a forensic audit of its operations.
Following Hodgson’s resignation, board member and Welland Mayor Frank Campion said the situation at NPCA had become so bad he considered quitting.
“If I get off the board, am I giving up my opportunity to try to change it? And what I am realizing now, despite my best efforts, it’s not changing. It’s actually getting worse,” Campion told Welland resident David Clow in August.
Board vice-chairman James Kaspersetz of Hamilton subsequently demanded an apology from Campion. Last month, Campion declined to say if he apologized when asked by The Standard.
Forster Wednesday said she has urged the provincial minister of natural resources to get involved and bring NPCA to heel. However, she said the minister said the Conservation Authorities Act does not give her the tools to do anything.
“Who does the NPCA answer to? No one,” said Forster, who said NPCA has lobbied to allow developers to build on sensitive wetlands and allow “widespread workplace harassment.”
The provincial act is now under review by the government, and a revised version of the law will be put to a vote before the end of the year, Forster said.
She said she intends to propose an amendment to the act that will give the minister the authority to appoint a supervisor to govern a conservation authority if necessary.
“I am not saying all conservation authorities need a supervisor. The vast majority of them work very well,” she said. “But something has to be done in Niagara.”
Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates, who spoke at the OPSEU news conference, said NPCA needs a supervisor just as Niagara Health System did in 2013 when Kevin Smith was brought in by Queen’s Park to overhaul the hospital system’s operations.
“Is the NHS perfect? No, but the point is it worked. They brought in a supervisor, and things got better,” said Gates.
Forster and Gates, both NDP MPPs, were highly critical of NPCA Wednesday. During the press conference, statements critical of NPCA from St. Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley and Progressive Conservative MPP Sam Oosterhoff were read aloud by a union official.
“With the loss of longtime and dedicated employees, through both firings and resignations brought on by stress and discouragement, and the silencing of (NPCA) critics with legal intimidation and retribution, the environment and public participation will be the losers,” read Bradley’s statement.
Oosterhoff’s criticism was more muted, saying he was disappointed “the NPCA has not been more forthcomingwiththereasonsbehindthese human resource changes.”
He urged NPCA to demonstrate its commitment to “the highest standards of accountability and transparency.”
During the NPCA news conference, Brickell said the organization and the board of directors are “as accountable and transparent as any board has been.”
He railed against the characterization of NPCA as harbouring a hostile work environment and also pushed back against what he said are political theatrics.
“This is supposed to be a body where politics do not come into play,” he said. “The level of political interference with a body that is neither pro-development or anti-development — we are the regulator — we are not supposed to be subject to massive political interference. We see that daily.”
Brickell also said the level of interference from “special interest groups” is “inappropriate and unacceptable.”
“This cannot continue.”
He said a provincially appointed supervisor would not be appropriate, and calls for one are being fuelled by a false narrative about NPCA by political opponents and the news media.
Also present at the NPCA news conference was Todd MacDonald, president of Performance Concepts Consulting, a firm hired by the conservation authority to do a value for money review of the organization. MacDonald said NPCA had improved across several categories since the first review was done several years ago when NPCA was poorly managed. Areas of improvement include strategic planning and communications.
His full report on the conservation authority is expected to be publicly available sometime in November. glafleche@postmedia.com twitter.com/grantrants