Wilmot councillors skeptical of Prime Ministers Path report and want to see the data for themselves

Some Wilmot Township councillors are questioning a new recommendations on the Prime Ministers Path. CTV’s Jeff Pickel finds out why.

Wilmot Township councillors have been presented the latest report on what to do with the Prime Ministers Path project.

The collection of statues has been in storage after the last council voted to remove the installation in 2021.

The current council is considering bringing the project back and hired a third party to lead a public consultation process and draft a list of recommendations.

“This is not a yes to statues or no to statues. The idea is the statues can come back if these conditions or if these recommendations are accounted for and met,” said Denise Soueidan-O’Leary, a project facilitator with LURA, the group contracted for the job.

So far, the process has taken eight months and cost over $100,000.

On Monday LURA presented six recommendations from a working group.

While councillors showed appreciation for the work done by the facilitators, some were concerned about bias from those leading the process.

“There has been a bit of concern about lack of information or information that was left out or opinions that were left out, and the allegation is one that the process was very controlled and almost had bias or somewhat of controlled narrative,” said Councillor Kris Wilkinson at the meeting Monday evening.

For their part, LURA said that is not the case, but added managing a diverse set of opinions was a challenge.

“[We] did not enter this process with a pre-set outcome. Our role was to create the conditions for honest, constructive, and often difficult conversations, with the shared goal of finding a path that the community could, at the very least, live with,” Soueidan-O’Leary said.

Councillor Lillianne Dunstall raised similar concerns.

“It’s not that they felt their voices were silenced, they just perhaps felt that their voices may have been diminished when other people’s voices or thought patterns were promoted, and so I just want to see if I can see that in the data,” Dunstall said.

Council requested the facilitators provide the raw data from their roughly 10,000 engagements with the community.

This led some in the community to wonder why bother hiring a third-party if council was going to do the work themselves.

“I understand that viewpoint,” said Dunstall adding “It’s me doing my own homework. This has been such a contentious issue. You know it, I know it. Everybody knows that if I’m going to make a decision on this, and this decision will be my legacy.”

LURA said they welcome the request for transparency.

‘We are happy to work with township staff to provide access to raw engagement data, including survey results, coded notes, and summaries — all of which reinforce the integrity of this process.,” said Soueidan-O’Leary.

A community gathering is set for May 28 at the Wilmot Community Centre.

The topic will be back at council July 28th.