Last night’s (October 5, 2017) North Hatley Town Council meeting was a demonstration of the wonders of the democracy in which we are living. This was a special meeting to approve the demolition of the heritage part of the Connaught Home and to accept the proposed 25-apartment project that will replace the existing building. The meeting seemed to have been hastily called, although the councillors and the mayor certainly already knew about it at the regular council meeting on October 3. Why hadn’t citizens been informed at that time? “It seems we forgot …,” replied the mayor. And why were citizens notified electronically about the meeting only 3 ½ hours before it was to take place? The town manager maintained proper legal notice had been given – it didn’t seem to matter that few had actually seen the notice. In a town of some 650 people, ‘community’ should be at least as important as ‘legality.’
Nor did it seem to matter that the council was going against the recommendation of the ‘Heritage Committee’ (the CCUP), whose function is to evaluate new projects and proposals. Council, of course, ‘legally’ once again, has the power to override the committee – but it should be noted that it has done so only three or four times in the past ten years. Why now, rather than try to arrive at a better proposal? There was no attempt at the meeting to explain why council was not accepting the recommendation of its committee.
Nor did it seem to matter that there has been no public consultation on this important project, that the plans have not been made available to the public, that the potential costs to the town have not been calculated. In an e-mail to a concerned citizen, the town manager made the claim that “a public consultation has been held on the 19th of September.” This is not even ‘legally’ the case, since – according to the mayor – the meeting on September 19 was specifically not on the demolition or on the project. Pictures of the project were shown to those who happened to be present once the public consultation on the zoning change had taken place, but that can in no sense be considered a proper ‘public consultation’ – which would have required notification of citizens.
Nor did it seem to matter that at its August 7 2017 meeting the council adopted a by-law “respecting the demolition of buildings on the territory of the Municipality of the Village of North Hatley, in order to exert a level of control over demolition projects” and stipulated that the by-law “be presented for adoption at the next regular council meeting.” The intention of the council was clear in August, and became somewhat murkier later – the by-law has not as yet been presented for final adoption. And so, ‘legally,’ the council is not bound by it. But clearly, council felt such a by-law was necessary, a by-law whose principal aim is to render public the process through which permits are awarded to demolish structures within the town.
The by-law states that a public hearing must be held when a demolition permit is requested and that there is a possibility of appealing the decision. Such transparency of process and involvement of the community in decisions that are vital to it have unfortunately been set aside by the present council in its approval of the demolition of the heritage part of the Connaught Home.
During their mandate, our present councillors have repeatedly stated that they were elected to make decisions and that if we do not like what they decide then we can make this known through our votes. Well, that time has come – the elections to be held on November 5 make change – and true democracy – possible.
- Paul St-Pierre
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