City council correct to discipline Wright

Coun. Stephen Wright has been disciplined for his maverick fact-finding trip to New Brunswick during a COVID-19 lockdown, but that might not be the end of the story.

On Monday, Peterborough city council voted 8-3 strip Wright of his position as vice-chair of economic development and his seat as a city representative on the chamber of commerce board of directors.

Given the known facts and the options available to council, a limited defrocking of Coun. Wright feels like fair punishment.

While Wright called Mayor Diane Therrien’s recommended punishment “heavy handed,” a majority of council would likely have agreed to take away even more of his public responsibilities.

To recap, Wright drove 1,200 kilometres to see how New Brunswick restaurants are faring under restricted opening rules.

At a time when all Canadians are being asked to restrict non-essential travel, he talked his way into New Brunswick despite an Emergency Act decree closing the province to outsiders.

When caught out he claimed it was just a three-day dash, later admitting he’d been in the province for 10 days.

The trip showed bad judgment in the extreme. Wright ignored the community responsibility pact that has largely kept this pandemic in check and created a interprovincial controversy. The premier of New Brunswick is angry and an investigation is continuing there.

So, some disciplinary action was necessary.

Taking away committee responsibilities was the only immediate punishment available, and it was used at medium force.

Losing the vice-chair role is fairly stiff. Council operates on a “one-person” committee system where the title “chair” generally means sole responsibility for overseeing an area of city business. Being a chair is the most senior responsibility for councillors. Wright, a rookie, didn’t have a chair position. Vice-chair of economic development was as close as he got and that role is now gone. He will also no longer sit as a city representative on the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce.

However, he keeps his appointments to the Peterborough Utilities Commission, Fairhaven home for seniors and the Peterborough Agricultural Society.

Council appointments are reviewed annually in December. If Wright stays out of trouble until then it would reasonable for the mayor to give him back some lost responsibility.

All that, however, assumes no further damning evidence from the New Brunswick investigation. There are questions about what Wright said to authorities at the border and how much contact he had with others while in New Brunswick. If new facts surface, council might be forced to consider stiffer punishment. That could include further stripping of appointments or, under council’s Code of Conduct, docking his pay.

Wright was handed one other sanction. Council will not support his bid for election to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities board of directors. That decision was unanimous. Even Wright’s supporters understand he has embarrassed the city and cannot be endorsed on a national platform.

Wright, who is Black, suggested council is wrong to squash the possibility of adding a person of colour to the FCM board. Council didn’t bring that result about, Wright did. He was a long-shot candidate before the trip and an unelectable one after it.

Wright defended himself as a councillor of “overwhelming zeal.” When he shows he can temper zeal with good judgment he might get his positions back.