City council may have broken the rules when it removed a publicly owned heritage property from the municipal registry and approved demolition on Monday evening, though an emergency meeting held Thursday afternoon saw that decision left standing.
Following more than an hour of in-camera discussion, which saw council receive advice from the city’s lawyer, a motion to reconsider failed to get enough support to reopen discussion on the fate of the circa. 1840 stone farmhouse at 797 Victoria Rd. N.
At issue, explained CAO Scott Stewart, is that Heritage Guelph wasn’t consulted ahead of Monday’s council decision, as required under the Ontario Heritage Act.
“We’ll do a fulsome review of how we ended up in this spot,” Stewart assured council after a motion to reconsider failed. “This is a very complicated issue.”
He went to explain it boils down to the committee consultation being missed as staff worked to fulfill the city’s obligations under both the Ontario Heritage Act and the Fire Prevention and Protection Act, under which the stone house was ordered dismantled.
“The combined circumstances happen very rarely in the life of a municipality,” Stewart added. “Not intentionally, we missed an important step of consultation with our heritage committee.”
A “super majority” of nine votes, or two-thirds of a full council, was needed for reconsideration to go ahead, but only seven council members present were in support. Councillors Phil Allt and June Hofland weren’t available for the short-notice meeting.
“The fact that we couldn’t get full attendance at the meeting, and then it meant we couldn’t get the two-thirds vote (needed for reconsideration) was extremely disappointing and disrespectful for those of us who had questions,” said Coun. Leanne Caron, who joined in support with Mayor Cam Guthrie and councillors Rodrigo Goller, Mike Salisbury, Cathy Downer, Bob Bell and James Gordon.
Caron would have liked to see the motion reconsidered so council could ask questions of staff and the Grand River Conservation Authority, which owns the property, as well as discuss alternatives and possibly extend the demolition timeline to allow for Heritage Guelph to be consulted.
“I do not accept that we had a fulsome discussion, that we had a legal public process and that we had all the necessary information before us to make the decision,” she said. “If we had those three elements, I believe we would have had a different outcome.”
Asked whether she’s planning to file a complaint with the Ontario Ombudsman’s office regarding the missed committee consultation, or if she would encourage others to do the same, Caron stressed that option is available to anyone who so chooses.
“I think it would be appropriate for a member of the public to challenge that,” she said, adding she doesn’t believe the process error was intentional. “The only way to get to the root of whether or not we acted appropriately is to ask that question of the ombudsman.
“I do believe we have something to learn from this,” the councillor continued. “Is democracy better served by having a forensic audit of the process? I believe so, and we’ll be stronger and wiser because of it.”
Notice of the 4 p.m. special council meeting was sent to GuelphToday at 2:07 p.m. on Thursday – less than two hours before the meeting was to begin. Guthrie called it under a seldom-used section of the procedural bylaw which allows meetings to be held “on extraordinary occasions” without the public notice typically required of a council meeting.
Guthrie said he called the meeting after learning of the missed committee consultation, stating earlier in the session that council needs to know things that could bring “impacts and risks” to the city as a corporation.
