After a town’s attempt to hire deeply connected lobbyists to help it secure infrastructure funding from the Ford government collapsed almost overnight, one of the premier’s senior cabinet ministers warned other municipalities against trying a similar approach.
“I think if you’re hiring a lobbyist to come talk to us, then you’re wasting your money,” Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra said Thursday at Queen’s Park, referring to the lower-level governments in Ontario.
Calandra’s comments follow a bizarre three-day saga in Brighton, where council members publicly touted a firm’s “backroom” bona fides and connections with Premier Doug Ford’s government before voting to contract it for provincially targeted “strategic communication” work.
The Municipality of Brighton is seeking funding through the Ford government’s Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund in response to a looming requirement from the province to upgrade its outdated wastewater treatment system.
Five of Brighton’s seven council members voted on Monday in favour of an agreement that’d see the municipality pay Atlas Strategic Advisors up to $60,000 over six months to help it secure provincial funding. Atlas is headed up by Ford’s ex-principal secretary Amin Massoudi, one of the premier’s longest-serving and closest former aides.
“Put plain and simple, it's a lobbyist to work the backroom,” Coun. Byron Faretis said at Brighton's council meeting on Monday. “That's what we are getting. We are not acquiring them for their technical expertise.”
Within hours of the meeting ending, some councillors were already expressing regret over the decision, The Trillium learned through conversations with several of them.
The next day, the Brighton Community Gazette first reported on the council’s decision and members’ comments. Soon after, the town’s mayor took issue with the newsletter’s reporting on Facebook, referring to it as the “Brighton Gaz.-lighter.”
On Tuesday and Wednesday, council members discussed among themselves and with municipal staff if — and how — the decision could be undone.
Late Wednesday night, Massoudi told The Trillium that his Atlas had pulled the plug.
“Given recent developments, we notified the Municipality earlier this afternoon that we will not be proceeding further with this engagement,” Massoudi wrote in an email.
On Thursday, the small-town drama was taken up a notch at Queen’s Park. Opposition MPPs blamed the Ford government for, as they put it, creating the conditions that led to Brighton’s council’s move. Meanwhile, a pair of cabinet ministers — including one whose riding includes Brighton — defended their government against the perception that it puts its friends first.
“Frankly, I don’t know where a town or any community in this province of Ontario would think that it would ever be a good idea to hire an outside lobbyist to try to connect with the government,” Calandra said in response to NDP Leader Marit Stiles in question period.
“I would suggest to our municipal partners that, should they want to meet with members of the legislature, that they pick up a phone, go to a computer, or come to this place and talk to us,” the municipal affairs minister continued.
Fourteen of Ontario’s 444 towns, counties, regions and cities currently employ consultant lobbyists to advocate for them to the province, its registry shows.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Calandra said it’s reasonable for small or northern municipalities to hire lobbyists — such as “people who do have technical expertise” — to complete certain applications. “But if you’re specifically hiring lobbyists to come speak to the government or members of parliament, I think it’s not an effective use of taxpayers’ money,” he said.
Brighton is within the riding of Northumberland–Peterborough South, which PC MPP David Piccini represents. Piccini is also Ontario’s labour minister and has been a member of Ford’s cabinet since June 2021.
Piccini said he first learned of the situation on Tuesday from a letter Brighton Mayor Brian Ostrander sent to him, and described what unfolded as “disappointing.”
Piccini said he’s reached out to Brighton’s mayor at least six times since last November and that “at no point have any of the councillors who made those derogatory remarks ever reached out to me or my office.” He added that council members’ comments on Monday “reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of even the Lobbying Act,” and that “those councillors need an education in how the system works.”
Also after question period, Stiles said the situation shows the Progressive Conservatives have given the impression “that if you want anything done by this government, you’ve got to pay their insider friends.”
“You see it, here with this community council in Brighton, making very clear putting it on the record actually, that that’s what expected,” the NDP leader said. “The government can deny all they want to… but that’s clearly the message that communities have gotten.”
“It’s not a surprise if you take a look at this government, it’s the wealthy and well-connected who get things done, and get things done for them,” Liberal parliamentary leader John Fraser said.
Green Leader Mike Schreiner said Brighton’s case shows “the Ford government has a well-earned reputation that backroom deals is what rules.”
“If you have wealthy, well-connected, insider access to the premier, you get action, and if you don’t, you don’t get action.” Schreiner said. “So I think it’s a sad statement on the way the government conducts business.”
Brighton’s dire need clear, while questions remain about town’s turn to lobbyists
Had Brighton’s agreement with Atlas been followed through with, and the firm registered to lobby the provincial government, it would have represented a first for the municipality.
Emails included in a Brighton staff report show officials with the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks and the municipality discussing terms of the town’s application to upgrade its wastewater treatment facility in late March.
“The existing lagoon-based system has experienced many compliance exceedances over the years,” another part of the municipal staff report said.
Brighton is looking to upgrade its lagoon-based wastewater treatment system to a new mechanical plant. The provincial Environment Ministry has signalled it’ll require upgrades to be completed before any new local development can go forward, the municipal staff report said.
Ministry officials’ email conversations with Brighton staff in late March included the municipality’s now-former chief administrative officer, Bob Casselman.
The town hopes to secure a sliver of the $825 million in grant funding that the province has promised will be available to municipalities through its Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund. Brighton’s plan to add the support of a lobbying firm was hatched while Casselman worked as the municipality’s top bureaucrat.
Massoudi told The Trillium that Atlas had responded to “what we understood was a competitive process to secure a consulting firm that would support ongoing priorities on behalf of the Municipality of Brighton.”
Casselman retired just a few days before Atlas officially submitted its April 9 “engagement plan” to the municipality. Casselman said over the phone on Thursday that one of the directors who reached below him had led the “initiative” to find a lobbying partner.
“I’m not sure what occurred, quite frankly,” Casselman said.
One Brighton councillor The Trillium spoke with on Thursday afternoon said that municipal staff hadn’t yet delivered them definitive answers about how Atlas was selected, nor which other companies were considered.
Leslie Whiteman, the town’s director of public works and infrastructure, said at Monday’s council meeting that municipal staff ultimately thought Atlas “would be able to present the municipality in the best light.”
Piccini promised on Thursday to “keep fighting for the community.”
