Mayor says NPCA board has to ‘go away’
City council asks Niagara Region to appoint new members ASAP
St. Catharines is asking regional council to appoint interim members to the troubled Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority board on inauguration day next week — the earliest they can legally swap out the current board.
The request by city council Monday comes after NPCA chair Sandy Annunziata, a Fort Erie regional councillor defeated in the Oct. 22 election, indicated he won’t step down until a board is chosen through a process that involves him overseeing the selection.
“Considering what came out recently from the current chair, I think it’s important that that board just go away,” said Mayor Walter Sendzik, who suggested regional council appoint the board at its inaugural council meeting of Dec. 6, instead of later on Dec. 13 as normal.
Port Dalhousie Coun. Carlos Garcia agreed.
“I don’t think we want the current board to play any games,” Garcia said, adding the municipal election clearly showed the public wants change at NPCA.
Eleven of Niagara’s 12 NPCA board members last term were Niagara regional councillors. St. Catharines opened applications last week for a citizen to represent the city on the board.
The motion passed by city council Monday asks regional council at its first meeting to appoint an NPCA board of directors for the interim until all citizen appointments have been made.
It also asks that the new board look into the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Foundation, which the Auditor General identified as having some issues with procurement practices.
Council is also urging the province to create the ability for the Ministry of Natural Resources to appoint a supervisor for conservation authorities.
The moves stemmed from a discussion about whether to endorse a City of Thorold motion from October requesting the province immediately appoint a supervisor for NPCA for a period not to exceed two years.
Garcia had asked council to support the Thorold motion on Nov. 12, but it was deferred to Nov. 26 to give NPCA time to comment.
NPCA CAO Mark Brickell told council Monday the motion for a supervisor was unnecessary because NPCA has a new board coming in and council will have more direct input into the selection of board members.
“They shouldn’t be facing a supervisor,” Brickell said. “It doesn’t even make sense. This is the whole process, every four years you get to renew that board and put in some people to bring about the changes you feel are necessary.”
Brickell added that legislation does not allow a supervisor for a conservation authority because the province only provides four per cent of the funding and doesn’t want political interference. That realization led council to tweak the motion and ask the province to create the ability of the ministry to appoint a supervisor.
A special report by Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk in September found weak governance and operational practices at NPCA and made 24 recommendations. Brickell said the agency has addressed problems.
“We have reached a new point of stability,” he said. “My staff have said what they’re looking for is certainty. They don’t want to go through the stuff that they’ve been going through. It’s time for the politics to quiet down and let us just do the good work we do.”
But St. Catharines resident Ed Smith, who was sued by NPCA for defamation — later dismissed by a judge who was sharply critical of the agency’s actions — said there’s an erosion of public trust in the agency.
“To ask any of us to rely solely on the very management and leadership that created the situation at the NPCA to rebuild it into what it should be is folly,” Smith told council. “There’s a lack of credibility.”