When Bob Schmidt finally suspended his court action against the RM, he told me that he had no problem with SWF being on title, but he was only against the process. Unfortunately for Reeve Schmidt, his actions and words over the last few years do not match that statement. This is best demonstrated by his words at the February 2018 public meeting in Bulyea, where he came up with multiple reasons why the RM should not enter into a partnership with the SWF. Schmidt claimed that there are other legal interests on the property; that there were groups more suitable than SWF to partner with to ensure that Fox’s point is forever protected from commercial development; and also said that the best way would be for the RM to maintain the current situation and simply manage the property themselves.
Council did not change its course so with mere days left in the allowable time to take legal action to stop Council Bob Schmidt, and his RPA buddies moved forward with two separate actions. Firstly he petitioned the courts to reverse the council resolution to enter into an agreement with the SWF to protect the property. Secondly, he and his buddies canvassed the resort hamlets for signatures on a petition asking Council to keep the title of Fox’s Point in RM of McKillop’s name only and failing that there be a referendum on the question. The public must understand that from the time of the initial presentation in 2016 to the RM Council by the SWF on how Fox’s Point could be protected, misinformation about the SWF, it’s management plan, and local SWF’s members was circulated through the resort hamlets and was used to entice petition signatures. Schmidt’s reply was to say that he was not responsible for what people were being told when questioned about this deceptive activity.
One really has to shake their head, this is now our Reeve. What does a comment like that say about him taking responsibility for anything as the Reeve or a member of Council? Further, he stated that they (I presume “they” means the RPA) had Fox’s Point appraised at 1.3 million dollars. What was his point of the statement? If he genuinely believed the property should be fully protected, it has only one of two values, $0.00 - as it will never be on the market, or it is priceless and again never on the market. These guys are certainly not particularly good businessmen or negotiators. By even mentioning a value, they tipped their hand. It is apparent they were trying their damnedest to ensure the property did not become fully protected so that the property could be made available for sale in the future to local developers.
When the current RPA council took power, they suspended the RM’s legal defence to Mr. Schmidt’s court action. Ostensibly, they didn’t know about the details of the Fox’s Point situation. Meanwhile, many we’re still spewing the same misinformation as before including that the RM sold half of Fox’s Point to the SWF who intended to sell that property and that the SWF closed Fox’s Point to the public, and they claimed there was no agreement for the management of the property.
Are you confused? It’s not surprising as there was so much bad information out there; one could not help but be confused.
The sad part of that whole exercise was that Marilyn LaBatte was on Council through the whole process and knew everything that was happening, including the ownership arrangement with SWF. They were to be added to the title as a joint owner whereby they are not able to do anything without the express consent of the RM, nor do they own a particular piece or parcel of the property. The RM had a draft management and operations agreement with SWF, which only needed a few minor adjustments before it could be finally executed.
Before being elected to Council, Garry Dixon sat in the gallery and was very aware of all the actions being taken by Council, including that the SWF was being added to the title as a joint owner to ensure the RM’s control of the property.
Mr. Dixon was one of the loudest voices claiming the RM sold half of Fox’s Point to the SWF and continued to make that statement even after he was elected to Council.
To ensure that the RM was ready to defend itself against Bob Schmidt’s ridiculous law suite, tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees were being expended to chase down every false claim that Dixon, Schmidt and other members of the RPA were making. As now council members, both LaBatte and Dixon were aware of this.
Councillors like Ms. LaBatte and Mr. Dixon, if they had a shred of integrity and decency, would have provided the real facts and information to their fellow councillors rather than sit back as a protracted process of meetings occurred. Which, by the way, councillors received additional per diems at a cost to you, the ratepayers, to continue. This ultimately led to an agreement with SWF virtually no different from what had been completed before this new RPA council being elected.
To quote Mr. Dixon, who once described the work the previous Council was doing to protect Fox’s Point, what the current Council did and especially the actions of Reeve Schmidt, Councillors LaBatte and Dixon have been just “despicable.”
In my closing thoughts, I have to add that in all the time I’ve known Bob Schmidt, he has spoken in favour of every development proposal that was presented to the RM Council. The score in the RM of McKillop #220 now stands at developments - 25 (5 resort villages, 20 hamlets), RM conservation projects - 1 (Fox’s Point conservation property). Something that Bob Schmidt did everything in his power to stop and now claims that he never really objected.
No one on current Council, including Schmidt, Dixon or Labatte, nor anyone who signed Mr. Schmidt’s petitions, at any time offered a single word of opposition to then-Councillor and Developer Andy Kuderewko’s plan to have the RM of McKillop develop Fox’s Point.
- Bob Wilson. Bob Wilson is a former RM 220 Councillor, a lifelong resident of the RM of McKillop, and a proud member of the SWF.
- Disclaimer - Opinions expressed are those of the writers. Comments can be made at lmtimes.ca
