Kincardine defers decision on Bruce Telecom board until Oct. 21

Kincardine council has agreed to defer a decision on the tenure of the Bruce Telecom board, until after a closed-session discussion slated for Oct. 16.

In committee-of-the-whole last night (Oct. 7), chief administrative officer Murray Clarke pointed out that as of Dec. 31 this year, all but one member of the board is at the end of his/her term on the board. He said council could, with a certain creativity, appoint the board members for another year, while determining how the municipally-owned telecommunications company is to move forward.

Back in January, 2014, the municipality announced that Bruce Telecom had been sold to Eastlink (Bragg Communications). However, that deal was quashed by the Competition Bureau in August, 2014.

Clarke said that the tenure of the board came up during discussion about the conversion of the company to a municipal services corporation.

"The goal is to make Bruce Telecom as competitive as possible," said mayor Anne Eadie. "But we need more time to do that. It could take three to four months, maybe six months."

While that is going on, there must be a full complement of board members, she added.

"Are we making a decision on this tonight?" asked councillor Laura Haight.

"Yes, so we can start the process to get people on the board (if the current members don't wish to extend their tenure)," said Eadie. "The Oct. 16 meeting is just for receiving information. No matter what the choice, it's going to take about five to six months."

"I'm disappointed that this was just a generic item on the agenda with nothing specific," said Haight.

"We have a motion if you would like to see it," said Eadie.

"I thought we'd have a discussion next Friday, first," said Haight. "I thought we'd wait until after that meeting and then decide on the board membership at the first meeting in November."

"It's just a tight timeline if we have to go out and get more members on the board," said Eadie.

"But there are other options," said Haight.

Councillor Randy Roppel said there are other issues that are not being considered.

"There are bylaws in place on how this company is to be governed," he said. "If we make changes, we have to do them with a bylaw. The bylaw also lays out the number of people on this board. Anne (Eadie)'s right; we're running out of time. One board member can stay but the rest can leave."

Councillor Andrew White suggested putting off this decision until the Oct. 21 meeting, following the closed-door discussion Oct. 16.

"I just wanted you to know about this," said Eadie.

Council agreed to defer a decision until Oct. 21.