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HAWKESBURY – A stale debate about a waterfront development study last week turned into a display of what’s going wrong at Hawkesbury town hall: six councillors pitted against mayor Jeanne Charlebois, a scenario which is causing obvious frustration amongst business association representatives and senior municipal staff.
At last Wednesday’s (November 21) Economic Development committee meeting, councillors argued for a study that would encompass all of Hawkesbury’s riverfront, including Confederation Park, CIP lands and Hamilton Island.
Mayor Charlebois didn’t budge: she believes the study should exclude Hamilton Island and the CIP lagoon. She argues the town has already commissioned a socio-economic study with funds from the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) to examine the future of a decontaminated CIP lagoon.
“We are in negociations with the MNR to get money for the decontamination,” Charlebois pointed out, saying the study that the Hawkesbury Commercial and Touristic Development Corporation (HCTDC) would conduct should not interfere.
“Our riverfront goes from East to West. We cannot just choose one section for the study,” councillor Gilles Tessier said.
The debate deviated when Charlebois put in question the HCTDC’s mandate and credibility.
“If the HCTDC wants to take care of the downtown core and tourism, I don’t have a problem with that,” Charlebois said, implying the HCTDC should not put its nose into the highly-sensitive CIP remediation process.
“We are only talking about studies. We are not asking the HCTDC to work against anything,” said councillor Sylvain Dubé, who is also the president of the Economic Development committee.
“The riverfront is from one end of town to the other,” added Dubé. “Why shouldn’t we all work together?”
At that point, HCTDC economic development officer Jean Careau stood up to say that his organization was “not making a power trip.”
“It is the town that decides. We are only there to provide recommendations,” Careau said.
Careau explained that the HCTDC wants to gather all previous waterfront studies and to provide a global picture of possible future development.
Tension peaked when Charlebois suddenly asked treasurer Michel Thibodeau whether he had received the HCTDC’s financial statements as requested.
Thibodeau paused for few seconds, before recalling that he did receive correspondence from Careau, but due to work overload, he did not follow-up.
Thibodeau has been on leave from October 19 to November 2. The town is currently in the process of finding a new treasurer. Reports say Thibodeau wants to remain with the municipality, but at a lower-level position.
“Let go of that story,” Careau said. “I have sent the last two financial statements to Thibodeau.”
At that moment, Thibodeau asked to be excused and left the hall.
“This is what happens when we let things slip out of topic,” councillor Tessier said. “It makes us look like a bunch of buffoons.”