A ‘new low’: Committee refuses councillor’s call to ask questions on Ottawa stadium baseball deal

The powerful finance and economic development committee on Wednesday refused a councillor’s call to put the new Ottawa stadium deal on the table for discussion.

Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans, who’s not a member of the committee, asked that a staff memo detailing the new stadium agreement with the Ottawa Champions be added to the agenda. The memo was included in the agenda package only for information.

No one on the committee, chaired by Mayor Jim Watson, vocally supported Deans’s request, so she was denied. The committee’s members include chairs of other committees, the chair of the library board, the chair of the transit commission and the three deputy mayors.

After the meeting, Watson said staff “were designated to come back with a plan that was more reasonable in terms of cost, and people on (the committee) obviously agreed with that.”

However, Deans said she believes the council decision in 2013 to sign a 10-year lease agreement with the Champions didn’t give staff the authority to change the terms without coming back to council for approval.

Deans this term has been questioning the amount of authority being delegated to staff to make decisions without asking for council’s blessing.

“This is delegated authority running amok, plain and simple,” Deans said.

It’s a “new low” to see a committee block a non-member councillor from asking questions, she said.

“To me, it’s more than a courtesy, it’s a right of members of council,” Deans said.

The city cancelled the lease with the Ottawa Champions to give the Can-Am League baseball club a better chance at financial health. Instead of guaranteed revenue for the city under a lease, the city is allowing the club to rent the field for practices and games like any other group.

Deans said the new deal between the city and the Champions should push council to question the future of the stadium on Coventry Road.

The stadium property could be an attractive development site since it has footbridge access to the Tremblay LRT station and is near the Vanier Parkway ramps at Highway 417. The city has eyed the land for a possible affordable housing development in the future.

However, the Champions intend to play at the stadium for several more years.

“I think council needs to set a new vision and we need to talk about the future of that stadium and if that’s the direction that we want to go,” Deans said.

Deans said she intends to put council on notice that she’ll ask for a debate and vote at the Aug. 28 council meeting.

“You’ll get to hear the entire (list of) questions and some from my colleagues as well,” Deans said.

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Source: Ottawacitizen.com

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