Mayor Brian Smith has on two occasions produced campaign videos where he declares that he has never voted to sell Wasaga Distribution.

I put that in caps to emphasize the importance of this lie. He has a team of Social Media supporters who are at the ready to attack anyone who says otherwise. In fact since the last election, there has been a barrage of insults and attacks directed at myself and others who helped organize the resistance against his actions.

To steal one of his regular lines… let me be perfectly clear; From the day the entire situation started, until the day he realized he was defeated, he and his supporters spent thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to convince everyone that selling was in the best interests of the community.

After he lost and after he measured the damage he had done to his reputation, THAT was when he created his new “truth”. Hey… I will admit he told “a” truth, but not “the” truth. He claimed that the entire idea was the CAO’s and that it was recommended to the CAO during a meeting at a conference. That may be true, but it’s not the whole story. While the CAO may have had pressures at a conference, Mayor Smith had his own motivations and strategies planted. The other truth that he leaves out is that someone saw him having an out of town, clandestine lunch one day with two other Mayors (who eventually sold their utility) and a high powered lawyer who acts as a consultant in the Hydro Utility sale Sector. It’s a pretty important meeting to neglect reporting to his council or the public.

Actually, both other Mayors reported this lunch to their Councils. Our Mayor had his attendance talked about extensively in Social media but never reported it.

Brian Smith has become a bit of a wordsmith. He fought for months trying to convince enough people that selling was the best choice. He failed at that because of some very special people and their true dedication to Wasaga Beach. Then he found the words to indicate that it all was just due diligence. Back to this due diligence thing in a bit.

Some time before the next election, a video will be produced that shows two very specific things. 1) Wasaga Distribution was going to be sold unless the public stepped in. 2) Brian Smith and his followers took the cowardly stance that it was never for sale and they were simply doing their due diligence. However, they did this ONLY after they were defeated.

I have time this year to concentrate on the important things, so I look forward to assembling the photos, newspaper articles and a wide variety of other content that will shine a light on the lies. When Smith and Belanger truly thought they would win, they were sloppy in what they said and it is all very well documented.

Above, we discussed that Brian Smith wants everyone to believe his version of the WDI truth, which claims that he had nothing to do with initiating the sell activity. He is so confident in his ability to sell this version that he made his calculated, deliberately misleading videos.

During Brian Smiths first term in office, as Mayor he automatically sat on the Board of Directors for WDI. That board put together a detailed report partially authored by that lawyer ev

eryone believes was at the initial secret lunch meeting mentioned above. The board meetings leading up to the final report became so tumultuous that one board member actually resigned. In the end, that board voted to sell Wasaga Distribution. The recommendation is printed in the report from WDI that was presented in the October 25, 2016 Council Meeting. In the legal (reviewed and approved by Brian Smith) minutes of that meeting, Mayor Smith declared that the recommendation was voted on three times by the board and it was unanimous each time. For those who want further reminders of that, despite now saying he NEVER voted to sell, back in the day his story was much different. He gave speeches where he said he had a fiduciary duty to vote to sell as a board member, but he could and did vote differently as a Council Member.

But which was it Brian? Did you abandon your fiduciary duty with the Board vote or the Council Vote?

I said we would get back to his comments about due diligence. During the presentation of the report that said sell, it was emphasized that all due dilligence was exhausted, all research was done, every stone turned over in order to arrive at the “sell” option. So…. If that was true, WHY did our council spend thousands of hours and dollars after that report was presented to convince us it was the best. They then called all of THAT further “due dilligence”.

Which was it Brian and Joe? Was it sloppy due diligence that led to the sell report, or was it sloppy due diligence that changed your minds?

Brian Smith wants everyone to ignore all of the media reports, council videos, Facebook activity and all of the public demonstrations. He doesn’t want everyone to recall the crowd of Wasaga Beach citizens demonstrating on the lawn at Queens Park. He certainly doesn’t want people researching my testimony at a provincial enquiry into the privatization of our utility. He doesn’t want people remembering the THOUSANDS of signs your neighbours put on their lawns to support keeping Hydro Public! He doesn’t want to see the bumper stickers or hear the honking horns of support at the various demonstrations as Wasaga Beach Residents backed each other up.

Instead, Brian Smith and Joe Belanger want people to simply believe that because they didn’t pound a real estate for sale sign in the lawn and put it on MLS, that our Hydro Utility was not for sale. It surely was and he even quoted a confidential appraisal amount on air during a radio interview. This blunder actually weakened any negotiating power our Community may have had if it had proceeded. He was found guilty by the integrity Commisioner of revealing confidential information.

More secret meetings are happening.

WHY?

 

For now, please just consider the two screenshots I have shared today and try to reconcile them with his contention that he never voted to sell our utility!

There is lots more on this issue moving forward. I promise to squeeze in more on my hopes for the future of WDI.

I have said it before and I will repeat it often, rallying behind the men and women who keep our lights on is a great cause.