Brockville’s Mayor has written an open letter to the area’s provincial and federal representatives.
Matt Wren’s letter follows an open letter signed by MP Michael Barrett and MPP Steve Clark sent on New Year’s Eve, which called on the city to donate an already-leased municipal property to Indwell for supportive housing.
Indwell is a faith-based non profit providing services like supportive housing to the unhoused in several southwestern Ontario communities.
“I was taken aback, to say the least, by the Open Letter sent out via email by MP Barrett’s office at the peculiar time of 5:35 p.m. New Year’s Eve, Sunday, December 31,” Wren wrote in his three-page open letter, dated Jan. 3.
“There will invariably be people in the community left with the impression Brockville may be a roadblock in the creation of greatly needed supportive housing in our community.”
The letter from Barrett and Clark, who represent the provincial and federal ridings of Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, seemed to imply that the city wasn’t working with Indwell fast enough.
The politicians asked the mayor and council to immediately move to provide Indwell the former administrative building for the municipality’s water pollution control plant on County Road 2. The building is currently being used by Fulford Academy for student housing.
“I was never given the indication that an immediate decision was required about a piece of property, which we were clear with MP Barrett’s staff member there were some surrounding issues about,” Wren said in an interview with Global News this week. “That’s why we didn’t want to have this discussion in public.”
Wren said Indwell toured the building in the summer, but since then the tenant has said it wants to extend it’s current lease.
The mayor said he wants the public to know it’s not the city that’s holding up progress on the supportive housing project. In his letter, Wren details repeated efforts by the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville staff to contact Indwell, even asking Barrett’s office to help connect them.
Wren said he was surprised and concerned by the letter from the local provincial and federal representatives, and says he’s not alone in the United Counties of Leeds & Grenville.
“Mr. Clark and Mr. Barrett, given our long-standing relationships, the approach taken here is highly disappointing,” Wren wrote. “Numerous other Leeds and Grenville Mayors join me in finding your unanticipated communication quite perplexing.”
The mayor’s open letter also questioned the timing of the letter from the Conservative politicians.
“Please consider speaking to your staff about how holiday publicity stunts cause damage to vital relationships,” Wren wrote.
Neither Clark nor Barrett were made available to be interviewed, but the pair issued a joint written response to say they are both concerned about the homelessness crisis and have been waiting for a response about the property since the fall.
“Since we now know this site is no longer available, we are proceeding with urgency to identify another suitable site and additional supporters,” the joint statement reads. The statement doesn’t answer Wren’s questions about why they sent open letter, particularly when the mayor says there were opportunities for the issue to be raised in a less public fashion.
“MP Barrett’s staffer is the one leading the charge, we spoke before Christmas, I explained to him there were great sensitivities around the piece of property and we didn’t want any information released to the public about it and we all know what happened on New Years Eve,” Wren told Global News.
Wren said he doesn’t want this recent issue to escalate and hopes everyone’s focus can return to what is important.
“Our focus needs to be on helping the homeless,” he said.
–With files from Global’s Shane Gibson
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