With Rideau Lakes council in turmoil, mayor calls for a new election

After months of turmoil and an explosive council meeting, the mayor of Rideau Lakes is calling for a new municipal election. CTV’s Tyler Fleming reports.

After months of turmoil, the mayor of the Township of Rideau Lakes is calling on the provincial government to vacate all seats and call a new election.

The council, made up of eight councillors and the mayor, has become one of Ontario’s most divided municipal governments, with nearly 30 integrity commissioner reports filed this term over code of conduct breaches, confidentiality issues and personal disputes.

After tempers flared at an Oct. 6 meeting, Mayor Arie Hoogenboom called on the province to step, and in a statement to council on Oct. 10, said:

“This is to advise that earlier today I went public with a call to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Rob Flack, to declare all seats on council, including my own, vacant and authorize an immediate new election in Rideau Lakes.”

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Hoogenboom also wrote that the continued behaviour of this council, and the feedback from the public, suggests that only a new council will be able to restore civility and confidence, adding, “Our citizens and taxpayers deserve better, and the divide on council is now beyond repair.”

Meeting erupts into shouting match

The Oct. 6 meeting, which focused partly on seven integrity commissioner reports, erupted when a member of the public shouted from the gallery.

“I’m sorry, but this is enough bull****,” the public member said. “I just can’t believe the behaviour of you five.”

Councillor Deborah Hutchings responded by raising her voice and crossing the floor to confront the resident face-to-face, in an exchange captured on the township’s council recording.

“You don’t tell me what to do,” Hutchings said. “Do I need to call 911 … I’m calling 911. I don’t back down from nobody.”

After another outburst from a separate public member, township staff later cut the meeting short, saying the environment had become unsafe.

Following the Oct. 6 outburst, the township confirmed all council and committee meetings will now be held virtually under workplace safety rules, a temporary move while the situation is reviewed.

Residents frustrated with council

In Forfar, Ont., longtime resident Brian Reil says council has forgotten its purpose.

“The infighting is just bad, it’s not good. I agree with the mayor. Dissolving council is the right thing to do in this case,” he says. “You’re not providing the service they were elected to do.”

Margo Sortberg, who has lived in Portland, Ont, for 40 years, says she’s never seen anything like it.

“You go and you vote every year, and you assume that they’re going to do their job, but they can’t even function,” she says. “They cannot do the job. You can’t even pass one thing at a meeting how can the township function and we’re paying taxes.”

She says the dysfunction has gone on long enough.

“We’ve given them all the fair chances I think that they need, and they just need to be done.”

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Other residents share her frustration.

Brad Ohler, of Portland, says while it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on because of closed door conversations, he feels the situation is a “clash of a lot of egos on all sides.”

“Definitely there is a lot of fractures going on, so I don’t know if any of that can be mended,” he says. “In some ways. I feel like it’s best to start fresh but in other ways, I feel like those who are in the seat really should just find a way to work together.”