Windsor Council urges province to create AG position

Windsor city councillors has voted for an auditor general, just not at the municipal level.

That was the decision after four hours of sometimes heated debate over a motion put forward by Ward 10 Coun. Paul Borrelli. The decision was supported by five councillors and Mayor Drew Dilkens.

The motion put to the floor for the vote by Borrelli and seconded by Ward 2 Coun. John Elliott was to “support the creation of municipal auditor general’s office at a provincial level, similar to the models in British Columbia and Nova Scotia, where audits are done in an objective, independent and systemic manor at no cost to municipalities.”

Close to 30 people filled council chambers to listen to the debate regarding a municipal auditor general office at City Hall. Five delegations were all in support of option two contained in a 24-page report before council. That option, if it had passed, would have facilitated an auditor general position be implemented and paid for by the City of Windsor. The report which contained that option was often referred to as biased and full of misinformation by concerned residents.

Borrelli frequently contributed to the conversation. He questioned delegations and highlighted examples of British Columbia and Nova Scotia where a municipal auditor is provincially employed, to oversee communities.

“I’ve always said I’m in favour of a good working auditor general’s office for the city of Windsor,” said Borrelli. “A rush in my opinion to implement a full AG or even the proposed hybrid AG at this point is not economically prudent.”

Ward 7 Coun. Irek Kusmierczyk argued against the motion. He said an internal auditor general would have powers which currently don’t exist. They would be able to subpoena and be able to dictate what would be audited, rather than council telling them what they could look at. He said although the services they have right now through a third party company are good, they are insufficient.

“A provincial auditor general brings value to this council but again is insufficient,” said Kusmierczyk. “If we rely on a provincial auditor general, we better be prepared to get in line because there are 443 other municipalities that will be vying for that auditor general’s attention.”

In the end, councillors John Elliott, Jo-Anne Gignac, Borrelli, Fred Francis and Hillary Payne voted with Mayor Drew Dilkens in support of the motion. While Kusmierczyk, Ed Sleiman, Bill Marra and Chris Holt voted against. Rino Bortolin abstained from the vote.

After the vote, Kusmierczyk vowed to continue the fight to get an auditor general at the municipal level. For now administration was asked to forward a letter to the province by Oct. 31 to petition them to create the position.

 

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