By Doug Draper
Bob Gale, a Niagara business many on the Ontario side of the Niagara River may know as the owner of Gale’s Gas Bars, may not seem the most likely guy to get recognized nationally as a whistleblower for the public good.
Former Niagara Parks Commission board member blew the whistle on the NPC for not putting a new contract for the Maid of the Mist ride up for competitive bidding. File Photo by Doug Draper.
But he most certainly has by The Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform (FAIR), a nationally supported charity group that includes among its members David Kilgour, one of the longest-serving federal MPs from Alberta, Bob Stenhouse, a highly decorated member of the RCMP who found his future on the line a decade ago for blowing the whistle on the ineffectiveness of federal investigations into outlaw motorcycle gangs.
FAIR has appointed Gale to join Kilgour, Stenhouse and others on its advisory board in the wake of his revelations, in the wake of his service on the board of the Niagara Parks Commission, that the commission was not placing a contract for the Maid of the Mist ride out for competitive bidding in a way that might ultimately benefit a taxpaying public that is the ultimate custodian of lands along the Canadian side of the Niagara River corridor.
Since Gale blew the whistle on the Maid of the Mist business and ultimately parted ways with the NPC’s board, the provincial government has directed the commission to put the contract for that iconic ride out for competitive bidding. The commission has also opened its board meetings to the public for the first time in its 124-history as a steward of one of Canada’s natural gems. Continue reading
