Haldimand County held a meeting last night (Monday) with many people coming forward to speak on the issue of MPP Bobbi Ann Brady being barred from attending any AMO discussions with the county.
That cheer you heard above was following the first of many deputations that night on the issue, with the crowd becoming a bit unruly, cheering and yelling out at council.
Things appeared tense between council and the crowd, and even amongst themselves.
Patrick O’Neil asked Mayor Shelley Ann Bentley if something would be done about this crowd, and some councillors didn’t take kindly to what they believed was a laugh from Bentley on the matter.
After speaking on the matter, the crowd did quiet down for the most part moving forward – though a few reminders needed to be given.
While many people spoke on behalf of MPP Brady, Brady herself was also there to speak on the matter.
Brady also spoke about her relationships with ministers at Queen’s Park and the idea that Brady being at these meetings would be detrimental to their funding requests.
She also spoke about speaking with the Minister of Infrastructure about coming to Haldimand County to look at their water woes and, after doing so, a meeting will now be happening.
While she touched on a number of issues, some of them address in an interview we did recently, she summed up most of the issues at the tail end of her speech and her concerns.
Following this, there was an extended back-and-forth between Brady and O’Neil where O’Neil asked several questions to prove a point – that point he wanted to prove is that while Brady has been vocally opposed to council’s decisions through columns and social media posts, she is often silent when it comes to any support for those sitting around the table.
Brady disagreed with this picture.
It then went to Mayor Shelley Ann Bentley, who was not as vocal on the subject as she was in the previous meeting but reiterated her stance.
The motion from last week, to ask Brady not to attend these meetings, was pulled for further discussion following the deputations.
Councillor Stewart Patterson, who put forward the motion, spoke about Brady’s strong character but how his decision still remains the same.
O’Neil then had the floor to address several issues he was holding off on.
One of the issues that was brought up over and over again was with the councillors who voted in favour of the new MZO request for the Nanticoke development.
It was said multiple times that this was an issue important to residents of Haldimand and that three elections were won on this issue alone, but O’Neil said there is more to that story.
O’Neil went on to say if the MZO was that important to Haldimand, why don’t the votes add up?
He also took issue with the ongoing claim that he and other councillors were pushing an “agenda” and doing anything other than voting for what he believes is best for residents in his riding and all over Haldimand County.
He concluded by explaining why he still felt Brady should not attend these meetings.
It went back to a vote, where once again 5-2 voted in favour of telling Brady not to attend future AMO meetings with Haldimand County.
To see the full meeting, and hear from all deputations, you can watch the meeting here.
Written by Matt LeBlanc