By Lindsey Cole
The Oshawa Express
After nearly an hour of debate, council decided to keep a report with a proposal from staff regarding harbour negotiations with the federal government under wraps – for now.
In a six to four vote council decided at a special meeting to go in-camera to discuss the future of Oshawa’s harbour.
At stake are the caveated lands the city wants back from the federal government, the potential to restore the harbour to its former glory with the hope of a new marina and rail spur on the caveated lands.
The details of the negotiations report have not been released to the public, which was cause for debate at council.
According to City Solicitor David Potts the clause in the contract for privacy should be kept or the whole deal could fall through.
“If the terms are not respected then the settlement could be in jeopardy,” he says.
But Councillor Brian Nicholson says the matter needs to be in the public.
“This is not a negotiation involving the private sector,” he says, adding this is usually the reason why in-camera sessions are conducted.
He also says the Supreme Court has stipulations that usually in-camera discussions are at the discretion of the council.
“It puts the onus on us,” he says.
“It is my belief that the public has the right to know.”
Negotiations started with Transport Canada in June after Transport Minister John Baird decided to create a Canada Port Authority (CPA) in Oshawa. This means the federal government will still own the lands, creating an authority composed of representatives from the city, the province, the federal government and stakeholders.
As a result of this decision the city entered into a contract with the crown, which stipulated that if they entered into negotiations they would have to keep things behind closed doors until the negotiations were finished.
For Councillor Tito-Dante Marimpietri, who went with Councillors John Neal and John Henry to Ottawa last spring to discuss the harbour, the idea of keeping it hush-hush isn’t fair.
“It is clear that the end certainly justified the means,” he says of the trip to Ottawa.
“From the initial stages...the public has been sort of anxious to find out what the deal is. This is probably the biggest deal council has been involved in, in decades. We owe it to them to release the details. After 30 years of squabbling and failures to achieve a deal at the harbour there was no way I (along with two councillor colleagues) was ever going to give up.”
And just months after the visit several announcements were made regarding the harbour, including Minister Baird’s decision to move into a CPA.
Minister Baird said the reason for a CPA as opposed to a city-owned harbour is that the Oshawa harbour is self-sufficient. It’s linked to a major highway and rail line. It could support multiple users and is significant to Canada’s trade. This goes against a September 2008 report by David Crombie, which recommended the lands be returned to the city. A governance model was supposed to be developed from there.
According to a previous press release from Transport Canada, the idea of a city-owned harbour was not going to work because the National Marine Policy states that a local entity requires the support of all of the local stakeholders and is inclusive.
Oshawa didn’t have the support.
Such is the main reason why negotiations began between the city and the federal government, to see what could be done to better government relations as well as see if a compromise could be reached. |
