Access road into Island View After rain
May 18th, 2023
At Tuesday’s RM of McKillop council meeting, there was strong language when discussing upcoming mediation with the resort villages over the RM-owned access roads into the communities.
Several updates occurred - Former Councillor Gary Dixon declined the RMs invitation to represent the RM at mediation, a date had yet to be set, and the RM received a letter where the Resort Villages asked the Minister to step in by sending the matter for a binding decision at the Saskatchewan Municipal Board (SMB). “They catastrophize this whole thing,” said RM Reeve Bob Schmidt. He described the letter as a “total misinformation fest.” Disagreeing with the letter’s contents, Schmidt said, “You have to understand the ramifications of this…” saying the letter “misrepresented the truth.” The Council agreed to have the Public Works Manager prepare a report on the work done on the roads.
When discussing who would attend mediation, Reeve Schmidt said he would attend and felt Acting CAO Camille Box should also attend due to her experience with the matter.
Councilor Mark Strong said, “I’d go,” the Reeve responded, “We can’t have too many people.” During previous discussions, when it was brought up that council might attend mediation as a whole, Reeve Bob Schmidt said that the rooms at mediation were small. LMT contacted dispute resolution to ask about logistics for accommodating groups and if there were any rules around how many people could attend mediation from a party. They wrote, “The Dispute Resolution Office makes every effort to work with parties to structure meetings in a way that works for everyone and best supports resolution.
When local public bodies, such as rural municipalities, engage in mediation with the Dispute Resolution Office, the mediator assigned will work with the parties to determine who attends and all other logistics necessary to allow for efficient and effective discussion and resolution. The Dispute Resolution Office can accommodate both small and large groups as needed.”
The RM has not been happy they can’t deal with each Resort Village on their own. In 2021 one Councillor stated they took a divide-and-conquer approach, which hadn’t worked. The Villages decided to get together and appoint one person to represent them.
“The only way they will get what they want is to go and blow up mediation. I would say just on this document, they say that our grant money should be taken away from us…its ridiculous. We should demand a different person come. Because how can you go to mediation on the grounds that everybody is going to make an attempt to mediate when it’s clear they are not going to try to mediate this at all?” said Schmidt.
Councilor Howard Arndt said the RM couldn’t control who attends from the Resort Villages suggesting the RM seek legal advice so they would be able to launch a successful argument if it goes to the SMB. Council agreed.
Reeve Schmidt called the maintenance claims in the letter a “lie,” wanting to bring it to the attention of their legal counsel. “This is defamation of the RM and the Council especially.”
Councilor Howard Arndt used strong language about the Resort Villages appointed representative - Tom Fulcher. Fulcher is a Councillor and the former Mayor of the Resort Village of Sunset Cove. He is also a decorated retired police officer. “Tom’s a bully, a big time bully,” said Arndt. Councilor Strong interjected, “I don’t think we can say that kind of stuff.” Arndt continued, “..but that’s the same reputation he has as a cop…he’s a little man with a little man complex.”
Responding to Councilor Arndt’s comments, Fulcher told LMT, “I’m both surprised that personal attacks would be permitted in a public forum such as a council meeting…They can disagree with our positions as much as they want but it shouldn't resort to personal attacks.”
Councilor Strong took a different position than the rest of the Council, saying that he was “optimistic” if both sides met to talk it through, “Sometimes these mediations can be good…I’m just saying there might be a deal to be had with this; there might be some peace to be had if people come to this with open minds to this mediation.”
Reeve Schmidt said if the RM ends up with a decision from SMB that goes against them, they can still go to court. The CAO said they would go to mediation in good faith.
Fulcher told LMT, “The resort villages are very optimistic that an agreement can be reached during negotiations because we don’t feel our two sides are that far apart.”
LMT contacted Steve Mazurak, Mayor of one of the resort villages, Pelican Pointe, about the comments made about Fulcher. He didn’t want to know who made the comments but said, “I don’t know who made the comments, but we are probably days away from mediation. I will say that mediation is something both sides want. We are two years in coming to this final, final place. And really, I know I can speak for the RM and I can speak for the resort villages. All we really want through the process is a mutual understanding of the issues and a reasonable and fair resolve. And it’s really quite simple. At this juncture, now or really at any time, in a public forum, we don’t need these discussions at the end of the day at the table - we don’t want that to interrupt the proceedings because it’s really belittling the process. And again, the comments can only dismantle constructive negotiations. It’s really surprising to me, and I know alot, if not most of Council members at the RM of 220. And it just floors me that they would, or some members would, resort to this tactic. I know Tom personally and professionally and it’s sad, again, that these comments were made at this juncture.”
