Motion to investigate Amherstburg councillors over policing meeting fails

Amherstburg Town Hall.

A motion to have Amherstburg’s integrity commissioner investigate two members of council has failed.

Council met Monday with one report providing an update on where the town currently stood on the policing issue.

The topic of policing in the town was rehashed after council voted during their previous meeting to have all in-camera discussions and votes made public. This came following a recent meeting between councillor Linden Crain and deputy mayor Chris Gibb and Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens, where policing was discussed. Council felt the meeting was “secretive”.

Councillor Diane Pouget wanted the integrity commissioner to review whether Crain and Gibb violated any rules after meeting with Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens to discuss policing. The motion failed with only Pouget and mayor Michael Prue in favour.

Crain and Gibb told council they did nothing wrong, and they are allowed to have conversations with other members of municipal councils.

Amherstburg continues to explore future policing options after Windsor announced it will end its policing agreement with the town at the end of 2028. Council voted in-camera to cease all discussions with Windsor after the city stated they weren’t interested in negotiating a new deal.

An option to go with LaSalle Police was turned down by the town, leaving Amherstburg exploring re-establishing their own service, or going to the Ontario Provincial Police to provide service. The town is awaiting cost estimates from the OPP before making a final decision.

Councillor Diane Pouget says the “secretive” meeting needs to be investigated.

“And ask them to investigate the fact that two members of our council went behind our backs and met with the City of Windsor, Mr. mayor Drew Dilkens, and put us in a very vulnerable situation.”

Mayor Michael Prue says the integrity commissioner has a role in looking at the facts.

“When an issue is put before, the integrity commissioner decides one of two ways: is the person... was he correct in his actions or her actions, or were they wrong in their actions? If the integrity commissioner comes back and says they were blameless in their reaction, I think that’s far better.”

Meanwhile, councillor Don McArthur was opposed to going to the integrity commissioner and says the public has all the facts to make their own opinions of council.

“We did what councils do, what councils should do, back and forth, we debated this issue, we all stated our honestly held opinions, and I think we should let the dust settle and let the people decide because the people are never wrong.”

Councillor Linden Crain says he’s been transparent on this topic since the beginning.

“I did nothing wrong here. I had a conversation with another elected official. And if members of this council are willing to spend more money to investigate something that is a non-issue, that has no merit, that is frivolous in my opinion, that’s being done before an election... please go right ahead. Spend taxpayer money to find out information that I’ve already shared.”

Deputy mayor Chris Gibb says everything was done right.

“I wanted to have this public conversation, and we got this public conversation. We got ourselves all on record. And if anybody thinks that I did anything wrong, come at me. Come at me now because I’m going to tell you, this was done right, and if you want to invest more money on a political witch-hunt, go right ahead.”

A motion to defer the decision to the next council failed as this would put council in a position where they couldn’t receive information about OPP costs later this year.

Administration estimates that going with the OPP would cost approximately $4-million, while starting up their own service again is estimated around the $12-million mark.