The Blue Mountains Councillor Paula Hope spit sparks at a recent council meeting over the mayor's vote to support TC Energy's pumped storage proposal in Meaford at county council contrary to town council's previous vote against the project.
Hope raised the issue at council’s committee of the whole meeting on April 29 and she expressed her disappointment that Mayor Andrea Matrosovs, at Grey County council, had voted in favour of conditional support for the controversial energy generation project that is proposed on a military base.
On April 25, Grey County council, in a near unanimous vote, supported a resolution to offer conditional support to the pumped storage project. The lone opposing vote was The Blue Mountains Deputy Mayor Peter Bordignon. Matrosovs voted in favour. Full details about the Grey County vote can be found on CollingwoodToday here.
The county’s vote prompted Hope to add an item to the agenda for the April 29 meeting regarding the town’s response to the county’s position on the matter.
Hope pointed out that in December, The Blue Mountains council had voted unanimously to support – in principle – a resolution from the Township of Archipelago opposing the pumped storage project. She questioned why Matrosovs would then vote in favour of conditional support for the project at the county council table.
“Who is representing this council’s point of view?” she challenged. “Who is going to protect our municipality with this particular situation? We’re next door to this. What are we going to do to protect our economy and environment?”
Her comments caused some procedural confusion, with questions about what kind of action council could take in response to a vote at Grey County.
“I’d like to know what we’re doing,” Bordignon said at one point.
Sparks flew for a couple of moments when Hope requested that Matrosovs vacate the chair during the discussion about the topic.
“If we’re going to be talking about the mayor’s actions, it’s not appropriate for her to have the chair,” she said.
The mayor, however, remained in the chair and noted that she and Bordignon “have our county hats on” when attending county council meetings.
As the discussion continued, the county’s resolution on the pumped storage was read and displayed on the big screen, followed by the town’s vote on the Archipelago resolution and then the Archipelago motion itself was displayed.
The ensuing discussion featured multiple points of orders and a couple of brief breaks for town staff to ensure updated information was available for council’s consideration. A question emerged during the discussion over whether or not the town’s support of the Archipelago motion had been sent to Grey County.
During one break in the action, town staff confirmed that council’s support of the Archipelago resolution had not been sent to Grey County. As per council’s direction, the town’s resolution of support had been circulated to the same municipalities that Archipelago had sent its original motion, which did not include upper-tier counties.
At one point, Clerk Corrina Giles cautioned council that a significant debate on the town’s position on the pumped storage project would not be appropriate since the public had not been given notice that the topic was up for discussion, as it had been added to the agenda at the beginning of the meeting.
Ultimately, Hope said council’s earlier position on the Archipelago resolution needed to be conveyed directly to county council.
“There seems to be some confusion in our message to Grey County. I think it’s unfortunate we’ve been put in this position,” said Hope, who advised that she would bring a notice of motion at council’s next committee of the whole meeting on April 30 to clarify the town’s position on the pumped storage project. Hope could not give notice for her motion at the April 29 meeting because that section of the agenda had passed.
“The question is: what is the Town of The Blue Mountains position on the TC Energy project?” Hope asked.
Following a discussion that lasted close to an hour, council voted unanimously to share its support of the Archipelago resolution with Grey County council.
