Elizabethtown-Kitley mayor demands apology from Rideau Lakes councillor over ALTO claims

Elizabethtown-Kitley Mayor Brant Burrow is demanding an apology from Rideau Lakes Coun. Paula Banks, accusing her of circulating inaccurate and damaging information about his municipality amid growing debate over the proposed ALTO high-speed rail project.

In a strongly worded response sent to Banks early Friday, Aug. 7, Burrow challenged statements Banks circulated a day earlier to a broad list of recipients, including parliamentarians, municipalities and media outlets.

“You owe an apology to our CAO. You owe an apology to me. You owe an apology to Elizabethtown-Kitley,” Burrow wrote.

ALTO is the federal Crown corporation tasked with developing a high-speed passenger rail network linking Toronto and Quebec City, with stops planned in Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval and Trois-Rivières. The proposed route has become a contentious issue in Rideau Lakes and other eastern Ontario communities, where residents and municipal officials have raised concerns about potential impacts on private property, farms, roads, emergency access and rural communities.

Rideau Lakes council has formally opposed the proposed high-speed rail project and established a No ALTO working group. Council has also directed its CAO not to sign a non-disclosure agreement with ALTO and not to provide information to the corporation without council approval.

The dispute follows an Aug. 6 meeting between ALTO representatives Joel Wiebe and Alexis Doyle and Rideau Lakes Mayor Arie Hoogenboom, CAO Shellee Fournier and Banks.

Following the meeting, Banks circulated an update saying ALTO pushed for the township to support and sign a non-disclosure agreement and for ALTO staff to meet directly with township staff without council members present.

Banks also wrote that it was disclosed that ALTO meetings involving Rideau Lakes, Leeds and the Thousand Islands, Elizabethtown-Kitley and other municipalities “were discussed by the mayors at the July 17 Wardens’ Caucus.”

Mayor Burrow took exception to that characterization as it relates to Elizabethtown-Kitley.

“The July 17 meeting was a Wardens’ Caucus meeting — not a Mayors’ Caucus meeting,” he wrote. “I am not a Warden. As such, I was not present at that meeting, nor was our CAO.”

Burrow said ALTO did not speak with Elizabethtown-Kitley at that meeting and neither he nor the township’s CAO participated in any ALTO discussion at that forum.

However, the possibility that Elizabethtown-Kitley’s meeting with ALTO had been discussed at the Wardens’ Caucus was raised during Rideau Lakes council’s Aug. 4 meeting.

During that discussion, Fournier told council she was aware Elizabethtown-Kitley had already met with ALTO but did not know what had been discussed. She also said she believed the meeting had been discussed at the Wardens’ Caucus.

Fournier cautioned council during the same discussion against leaving the impression that other municipalities were withholding information because Rideau Lakes did not have the details.

“I just don’t want it left in the public that they’re not sharing or that they’re hiding information,” Fournier said. “I just don’t have the details of what it is.”

She said information could still be forthcoming and added that she did not want residents of other municipalities left with the impression information was being withheld.

Banks subsequently questioned during the Aug. 4 meeting whether Elizabethtown-Kitley could have signed a non-disclosure agreement with ALTO.

“If Elizabethtown-Kitley have already met with them, how do we know they haven’t signed an NDA?” Banks asked.

In her Aug. 6 post-meeting update, Banks described the Wardens’ Caucus information more definitively, writing that it “was also disclosed” that the municipal meetings had been discussed by the mayors at the July 17 gathering.

Burrow told Hometown News Friday morning he does not know where Banks obtained her information about the July 17 meeting.

“This whole issue of Elizabethtown-Kitley getting dragged into the drama has come completely out of the blue,” he said.

Burrow confirmed earlier this week that he and Elizabethtown-Kitley’s CAO recently met with an ALTO representative at ALTO’s request. He said it was an Elizabethtown-Kitley-specific meeting and did not include representatives from other municipalities.

The particulars of that meeting are contained in a staff report scheduled to go before Elizabethtown-Kitley council Monday, Aug. 10, in open session.

Burrow said his municipality’s first responsibility was to report to its own council and residents.

“To be clear: neither our CAO nor I have any reporting obligation to another municipality or its Council members,” he wrote.

“In fact, it would have been entirely inappropriate to brief another Council — or to report through another municipality’s CAO — before reporting to our own elected officials.”

Burrow said suggestions that he and the CAO were withholding information were false and based on assumptions about the municipal process.

He also challenged Banks over her description of whom she represented during the Aug. 6 meeting with ALTO.

Banks wrote that ALTO asked whether she was attending on behalf of Rideau Lakes council or ALT-NO, a citizen-led group opposing the high-speed rail project.

“I said I was representing every Canadian who may be affected by this project,” Banks wrote.

Burrow said Banks was entitled to advocate for her position but did not have the authority to claim such broad representation.

“You do not represent me, nor do you represent the many other Canadians who may hold different views on this matter, even though they may be ‘affected’ by the project,” he wrote.

Burrow noted Rideau Lakes operates under a ward system and said Banks’ elected mandate is to represent residents of her ward and participate in the governance of her municipality.

“Even Members of Parliament, despite being elected through the federal democratic process, do not individually speak on behalf of every Canadian,” he wrote.

Burrow said his response was not about the merits of ALTO itself, but about “process, facts, transparency, proper governance, and respect.”

He said he distributed his response, to the best of his ability, to the same parliamentarians, media outlets and other recipients who had received Banks’ correspondence.

As of Friday morning, Burrow said he had not received a response from Banks, while noting only about seven hours had passed since he sent the email.

He has called on Banks to distribute his response with the same reach and visibility as her original correspondence.

“Transparency cannot simply be a standard applied to others; it must also apply when accountability is directed inward,” Burrow wrote.

Banks has been contacted by Hometown News for comment and clarification.

Elizabethtown-Kitley is expected to release its Aug. 10 council agenda Friday. The staff report concerning its meeting with ALTO is scheduled to be considered publicly Monday night.

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