Niagara Parks Commission Finally Swings Doors Open For ‘Historic’ Public Meeting

By Doug Draper

So what if the commissioners of one of the oldest government agencies in the greater Niagara region – in the wake of years of public pressure – at long last held their first ever meeting in the open and survived?

Oak Hall in Niagara Falls, Ont. was the site this January of the first open meeting the Niagara Parks Commission has held in its 124-year history. Photo by Doug Draper

And survive they did.

More than 50 members of the public squeezed in to a room on the first floor of the Niagara Parks Commission’s stately Oak Hall headquarters in Niagara Falls this Jan. 22 where 10 of its commissioners and about half a dozen of its senior staff were meeting.

There were no outbursts from the public gallery as the commissioners worked their way through the agenda. People sat back quietly listening to the proceedings and taking the odd note. And at the end of it all, Archie Katzman, a longtime commissioner and the NPC’s acting chairman, seemed to have a look of relief on his face as he thanked the people in attendance for being “a great audience.”

It was enough to make one wonder why it took 124 years since the NPC was created by an act of provincial parliament to protect and preserve parklands along the Ontario side of the Niagara River to swing its meeting doors open in the first place!

“This is a milestone moment for the Niagara Parks Commission as we hold our first open meeting in 124 years,” said Katzman as the Friday morning session got underway. The commission, which has been under the gun in recent years for what many members of the public believe is a lack of openness and ‘old boys’ cronyism, will “work through these bumpy times,” stressed Katzman, and “we are committed to sharing information about the parks with you.”

Margaret Dunn, a Niagara Falls resident and head of a citizens group called Preserve Our Parks, told reporters at the end of it all that the open meeting “is a step in the right direction.”

Acting NPC chairman Archie Katzman

Howevert he group, which has been pressing for open meetings and more public accountability from the NPC for years, still wants to see better provincial oversight of the commission, she said.

“These parklands belong to us, the people of Ontario,” she said, “and public scrutiny (of the commission) is our right and duty.” Kim Craitor, a Niagara Falls provincial member of parliament, told commissioners at the beginning of the meeting that it was a “long road” to the NPC’s decision last December to open its meetings to the public and he congratulated the commission for making it.

“This (the Niagara River corridor) is a special place and the public and employees (of the NPC) have some great suggestions for it,” Craitor said. “I think you will be amazed at how many great ideas people have out there (to) make these parks even better (so) let’s work together.”

On a more critical note, Craitor said he would still like to see the Liberal government he is a member of establish term limits for individuals appointed to the commission so it doesn’t continue as what he has heard his constituents describe as an “old boys club.”

That same description appeared in the headline of a full-page article on the commission published in The Globe and Mail earlier this January. A focus of the article was Katzman, whose appointed to the NPC has been renewed by one provincial government after another since 1971.

The same article reported that Katzman, a longtime St. Catharines businessman who has suffered some serious financial turndowns over the past decade or so, received an interest-free mortgage of $208,450 in 1999 for a new condo in St. Catharines with a price tag of $177,567.

According to the article, the mortgage came from a Niagara area builder and old friend of Katzman, Don Ward who less than a year later won a $5.7-million bid to build the clubhouse at the NPC’s Legends golf course. Ward was quoted in the article saying the loan to Katzman was paid back and was only a gesture to a friend during a time of need, and had nothing to do with commission business.

Katzman has told reporters for the local media more recently that the loan from Ward was personal business and there was nothing untoward about it. However, Dunn said the Globe article “clearly shows the personal financial gain that is possible as an NCP commissioner” and speaks to the need for more scrutiny of commission business.

A few days before the NPC held its first open meeting, it launched a “community website” http://community.niagaraparks.com “as part of its on-going commitment to openness and transparency.” The site includes information about dates, times and places for future public meetings as well as how the public can do business with the NPC and about the commission’s governance and operations. The next meeting of the commission is scheduled for sometime in February.

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