Campion asked to apologize for NPCA remarks
James Kaspersetz wants Welland Mayor Frank Campion to apologize to the men and women who work for Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority for comments made during a secretly taped conversation.
The vice-chairman of NPCA’s board said he wasn’t sure what Campion was alluding to in a four-and-ahalf-minute conversation posted to YouTube by David Clow, a prospective mayoral candidate in next year’s election.
In the nearly month-old recording, Campion tells Clow “the conservation authority is lost” and that he is “quite offside with the conservation authority right now.”
Campion also said, “I was considering getting off that board about a year ago. However, 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.”
Kaspersetz, an environmental consultant, wondered if some of the mayor’s comments were made in error.
“Sometimes people just say things … maybe he just slipped up,” he said in an interview, adding the mayor may have been more cautious in his wording had he known he was being recorded.
In the recording, Clow uses the word criminal first in the conversation when talking about NPCA, which takes care of the watersheds and numerous conservation areas in Niagara and parts of Hamilton and Haldimand.
“I am only going to come forward with evidence when I have it … and this is what I am saying. Right now, what I have accumulated is already pretty … I don’t want to say it’s criminal, but it seems to me that it may be criminal. And it’s something that is going to be of concern to a lot of folks,” Clow said to the mayor.
Campion replied on the recording that he has brought motions to Welland council “asking for an OPP criminal investigation into the NPCA.”
Kaspersetz said if there were some sort of criminal activity Campion was alluding to, then he should bring it forward.
“It’s something I expect our CAO would investigate. I know it would be fully investigated.”
Kaspersetz said there are a lot of great people at NPCA and added that he thinks sometimes people forget the work that is being done by the authority.
It’s those people that deserve the apology, he said.
“I think his comments went a little too far. This hurts the people who are trying to do their jobs.”
The two men recently spoke during a meeting in Ottawa, and Kaspersetz said he doesn’t believe Campion is a vindictive individual. “He’s pretty up front.” The two men will meet again when the NPCA board meets Wednesday, Sept. 20, at Ball’s Falls Conservation Area. Kaspersetz expects Campion will offer an apology. “He’s that type of character.” Reached last week, Campion said he had no comment on the issue.
“I won’t be apologizing … I stand by what I said,” he said.