Queen’s Park says NPCA order is moot
The legislative library of Queen’s Park says an obscure and never used procedure to select a Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority board of directors may not be valid, despite the insistence of the authority’s outgoing chair.
In a letter to Welland NDP MPP Jeff Burch, the Legislative Library and Research Service says a 1994 order in council laying out how the board is to be selected, has long been rendered moot by municipal amalgamations.
In the letter, a library researcher says the 24-year-old order refers to the Regional Municipality of Haldimand-Norfolk and the Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth, both of which have since been dissolved.
Haldimand-Norfolk was replaced by the Town of Haldimand and Hamilton-Wentworth with the City of Hamilton.
“As a result of these amalgamations,
(The order in council) may no longer be in effect,” the letter says.
It is the second expert opinion suggesting NPCA chair Sandy Annunziata and a lawyer hired by the agency are wrong.
On Monday Brock University political science professor David Siegel said orders in council only refer to specific legislation — in this case the Conservation Authorities Act. When that legislation is amended, the order can be rendered invalid without a government actively revoking it.
The Conservation Authorities Act was last amended in 2017.
On Nov. 23, Annunziata — also the outgoing Fort Erie regional councillor — sent a letter to Niagara Region and area municipalities saying he and the NPCA board will remain in their seats until a new board is selected using the never-before-used process found in the 1994 directive. That process would see Annunziata as the board chair preside over a series of selection meetings to choose the new board. It is not clear how much influence Annunziata would have over the process, which he has declined to speak about.
Past practice has been that Niagara regional council appoints NPCA board members, either from among regional councillors or by appointing a person selected by a town or city council. The suggestion rankled Niagara mayors and incoming regional councillors, who viewed Annunziata’s letter as an attempt to insert himself in the selection process.
Welland Mayor Frank Campion resigned from the NPCA board this week, and asked all other Niagara representatives to do the same.
St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik said Annunziata was playing games and the current board “had to go.”
Annunziata, in a fiery Thursday interview with CKTB 610 AM host Tim Denis repeatedly said he “didn’t care” who is on the next board and has no “dog in the fight.”
However, he said he was not stepping down and was following the instruction of the board’s lawyer Paul DeMelo, who provided the opinion that the 1994 selection process must be followed is spite of it never having been used before. During his interview with CKTB Annunziata attacked the local news media and suggested there was a scheme afoot.
“I am telling you right now, there are a lot of people trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes. They already have their people picked that they want to sit on the board, and I am saying, no. Open it up. Put as many candidates as possible,” said Annunziata.
He sidestepped a question from Denis about who he thinks is “pulling the wool over people’s eyes.”
After Annunziata’s letter became public, Burch contacted the legislative library to get information about the 1994 directive and learn if it was still valid. Burch said Friday he is also seeking legal advice from the legislature itself. Annunziata also told CKTB that NPCA board members, under the Act, stay in power until the agency’s annual general meeting in January.
However, the 2014 motion that appointed the current board says that they are appointed to a three-year term as prescribed under the Act, and also extended by another year to coincide with the end of regional council’s term in office.
That term ended Friday. The new council is sworn in Dec. 6.