Council Adopts Policy For Writing Letters Of Endorsement
A staff report submitted to council on Monday, October 26th, by Collingwood CAO Kimberly Windgrove suggested that the Town of Collingwood would only endorse an outside organization's proposal for funding from a federal, provincial or external agency if the organization and its proposal met the funding criteria as outlined by the program. Town staff would evaluate the request in terms of the Town of Collingwood's collaboration with the partnering group and the benefit of the program(s) being delivered to ensure that the proposal is compatible with theTown's policies and strategic plan and endorsing the proposal would not harm the Town of Collingwood or the Town of Collingwood's reputation in any way.
The discussion to create a policy came arose following a letter of endorsement written by the town's Director of Leisure Services, Peter Dunbar, supporting the Pretty River Academy's grant application under the Recreational Infrastructure Canada Program and Recreation Ontario to construct a new soccer field at the private school.
The school was successful with the application. Simcoe-Grey MP Helena Guergis visited the school recently to announce that the Pretty River Academy will receive a provincial and federal cheque, each in the amount of $253,227.00.
Councilor Dave Labelle voted in favour of the new policy, but took the time to make it clear that he thought that Mr. Dunbar hadn't done anything out of the ordinary or anything that hadn't been done before, in writing the letter of support for the school. "I just want to assure you that during my involvement in the community over the years, from this building, several letters of support have been issued in the past 30 years" Labelle said. "It's not uncommon and I stand behind Mr. Dunbar's letter from day one. I think that there was nothing, at the time, out of sorts with it and I stood behind him immediately thereafter once I heard about it, specifically because there wasn't a program, and anything is better for anybody in the community is better for the community at large" Labelle added.
"The big controversy on this one has been blown right out of proportion. I'll be voting in favour of this as I think it's great that we finally have a policy. I can't believe we haven't in the past but I know it wasn't just this one incident, one letter over the history of the corporation of the Town of Collingwood, it's just one that came to the forefront" Labelle added.
Councilor Ian Chadwick said that he believes it is the goal of council to take the heat for any such decisions, saying that the new policy clarifies the situation.
Councilor Sonny Foley said that he is worried that implementing the new policy might make the process more political. "I don't want to see politics come into play when there is a program available like the one that has been referred to and we don't endorse a very, very valid project under the terms of reference for the grants being afraid that they may succeed where we may fail" Foley stated. "I think that the merits of such a program should be decided at a higher level of government" Foley added.
Deputy Mayor Cooper said that she doesn't like being surprised when reading news about town of Collingwood business in the local newspaper. "I enjoy sitting and reading the local newspaper but when it comes to town business, I'd rather hear about it first hand from this table rather than the newspaper" Cooper said.
.