Three City Councillors won’t face penalties after they were accused of breaching their ethics rules, according to a new report from Thunder Bay’s Integrity Commissioner.
Commissioner Brian Tario released his findings after getting further legal advice on the actions of Councillors Brian Hamilton, Brian McKinnon and Albert Aiello.
He says Hamilton is allowed to participate in discussion on the Designated Truck Route. In October 2019, Councillor Trevor Giertuga filed a complaint about Hamilton, alleging Hamilton’s ownership of an Algoma Street business means he has a financial motivation to vote against the truck route by-law.
However, the report says the trucks that make deliveries to Hamilton’s business are too small to be affected by the by-law, so he wasn’t in conflict of interest by voting on it.
The McKellar Ward Councillor isn’t surprised by the findings. Hamilton says he feels vindicated, a position he has maintained since the complaint came forward.
He claims he’s been “baffled” by the accusation that he would want “to save a couple of nickels to change my vote on this extremely important issue.”
Red River Ward Councillor Brian McKinnon and McIntyre Councillor Albert Aiello won’t face any penalties relating to a Junot Avenue housing project for homeless Indigenous youth.
Aiello says they never intended to do anything wrong or breach their code of conduct.
“We didn’t even know that we were doing anything wrong, so to speak. Again, this is just vindication of that, that we never did anything wrong, and we’ll just continue with the business at hand,” Aiello notes.
The report says Aiello was not found to be in conflict, but is not allowed to vote on the housing project because he is the Executive Director of the neighbouring Boys and Girls Club.
Both Aiello and McKinnon were accused of breaking Rule 15 of the Code of Conduct, alleging they worked against “the implementation of Council’s decisions” by saying they disagreed with supporting the housing project.
The report says the rule was initially unclear, but after more deliberation it found they would have to do more than simply disagree with the project to be in violation of that rule.
McKinnon notes they have been navigating uncharted waters since the province started requiring municipalities have an Integrity Commissioner.
“It was a little ambiguous, and at the end of the day they said ‘McKinnon and Aiello didn’t do anything wrong,’ and that’s a pretty good feeling,” McKinnon says.
Previous Stories:
Conflict Delays Truck Route By-Law
Councillor Found In Conflict On Housing Project
