Some questions have been raised about the blog post I published before Monday night’s Council meeting.

What I wrote was deliberately conditional:

“If this Council moves tonight to lock in the sale of municipal lands or establish binding contracts connected with the Municipal Hall project…”

That was my position then, and it remains my position now.

I've maintained confidentiality about matters in-camera.

What I will continue to discuss openly is my position on the Municipal Hall project.

We are in an election. Tonight we have an all-candidates meeting, and residents deserve to hear where candidates stand on an issue as significant as the Municipal Hall.

I opposed the expropriation. I have not supported the current plan for the Hovey site. I believe Council needs to return to the community, rebuild public buy-in, and reconsider the way forward.

There is one more scheduled regular Council meeting in this term, on October 5. My position applies to that meeting as well.

I do not believe the outgoing Council should bind the incoming Council through major contracts or land-sale agreements connected with this project.

A project of this magnitude will affect our community, its finances and its public lands for many years. In the middle of an election, residents should have the opportunity to hear where candidates stand before decisions are made that could bind the next Council.

Councillors can disagree. Candidates can disagree. That is democracy.

But residents deserve to know where we stand.