Flip-flop on decision from last week
Mar 02, 2010 - 02:57 PM
By Jennifer Stone
CLARINGTON -- Council no longer wishes to hear what concerns its lawyer may have had about the host community agreement on the proposed incinerator.
Councillors had given preliminary approval last week to receive a report from Municipal Solicitor Dennis Hefferon about a number of legal-technical concerns he had with the document.
But Monday, Councillor Gord Robinson flipped on the matter, saying he no longer feels such a report is necessary, since he saw no difference between the final draft, received late last week, and the original document, which council had agreed to months ago.
Regional Councillor Mary Novak and Mayor Jim Abernethy had voted against hearing from the solicitor last week, and maintained their stance Monday, joined by Coun. Robinson and Regional Councillor Charlie Trim, who was absent last week, to vote the report down 4-3.
Mr. Hefferon had been asked to provide comments to Clarington CAO Franklin Wu on the deal, which is to lay out what the Municipality will receive in exchange for the garbage burner proposed for Courtice. The incinerator is to burn Durham and York's residual waste left over from recycling and other diversion programs.
But though he said he did detail concerns about the document to the CAO, Mr. Wu overrode those misgivings, saying he felt they did not significantly alter the deal.
Some councillors felt they still should know what those concerns were.
"It mystifies me that this is a difficult issue," Councillor Adrian Foster said. "This wasn't a matter of the contract being different, this was a matter of a concern with legal-technical issues . . . I was looking for a legal opinion.
Mr. Hefferon said he could not comment on how significant his concerns were, and Mr. Wu told councillors he couldn't tell them what issues were raised by the solicitor, citing solicitor-client privilege -- even though council is the client.
There's simply no good reason councillors shouldn't hear the details of Mr. Hefferon's concerns, Coun. Foster argued.
"While I appreciate there was nothing in (Coun. Robinson's) opinion that altered (the agreement), I was really looking for a legal opinion," he said. "If it turns out there aren't any concerns, well, I'm good.
"Why are we afraid to ask this question? Why we would be afraid to have the comments from our solicitor on a legal-technical question is completely beyond me. Why are we afraid to ask him?"
But Mayor Abernethy said the deal was Mr. Wu's to negotiate and sign.
"The bottom line is that this council charged the CAO with the responsibility of negotiating," he said. "Our CAO did what we asked him to do . . . we cannot give direction to our staff, then turn around and criticize them later."
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