The blinds of Council Chambers on the second floor of City Hall were closed as Councillors sat for a meeting on the evening of June 10th. Still, the presence of a large rally of citizens resisting the planned Bonnerworth redevelopment gathered outside was nonetheless felt. Throughout the meeting, a constant and audible barrage of honking horns, loudspeaker sirens, and crowd cheers (and many jeers) echoed throughout the Chambers.

Concerned residents are united over what they consider to be a lack of consultation and a faulty process gathered on the steps of City Hall and the crowd sprawled across the sidewalk and George Street into Confederation Square Monday evening as Council met.

Some of those in attendance take issue with the plan and that it has been declared a “done deal” despite the fact the results of outstanding studies and tests on the site have not been considered.

Professional planner and speaker at the rally, Richard Scott, told Arthur that to date, the City has “done everything in reverse.”

“You don't approve a budget on the basis of no plan, because how do you know how much it's really going to cost?” Scott said. “We're very concerned they're going to, because they're behind, they're rushing for whatever reason, and that they're going to cut corners.” 

The plans for the redevelopment are set to begin in the Fall of 2024. This timeline, and the allocation for funding—$2.035M in 2024 plus another $2.390M in 2025—was approved by Council during budget talks on December 11th, 2023.

However, the plan Council approved didn’t include a specific site plan and made no mention of outstanding tests and studies. 

Attempts by some Councillors to pass motions asking for final approval of the site plan when studies and tests have been conducted and the plans completed have been unsuccessful, leading some to question the process itself.

“They're not interested in consulting; or, they're only interested in consulting with the people they want to consult with,” Scott said. 

Likewise, Evelyn Gerelus, who grew up on Middleton Drive and who now works as a teacher in town, notes the fact that young people are increasingly distrustful of organized politics, telling Arthur that “there’s a lot of spitefulness and resentfulness against organized politicians.”

“A lot of people feel like they’ve been forgotten,” she said. “They don’t have anything to look forward to. I think that if Councillors ignore something like this, a lot more young people in the community will feel that way.”

Gerelus added that she has seen the prevalence of mental and physical health issues in children as a result of screens and inactivity and feels strongly that the loss of green space that is utilized by young people and students for free play sends the wrong message.

“For Council to ignore the obvious attitude of a huge population of the City towards doing a project like this, I think, as I said before, is absolutely shameful,” she said Monday evening. “To take away a green space that could be used for free play for children, which is what they need now more than ever, would be just a travesty.”

During a break between a special General Committee meeting concerning the implementation of a development charge by-law and the beginning of the evening’s Council meeting, Councillors Alex Bierk, Joy Lachica, and Keith Riel popped out to wave to the crowd, drawing cheers of “Where’s Jeff?”

The answer to the question, according to Leal himself, is that he was at work.

Asked by reporters after the meeting where he was and if he had anything to say to the residents outside City Hall Monday evening, Leal said simply that he “was occupied being the presiding officer of the meeting this evening.”

“I had to be here, fulfilling my responsibilities to all citizens in the City of Peterborough and that's what I'm charged to do,” he continued. 

In response to questions around the status of the tests and how they may impact the timeline for the development, Leal stated that they would be completed “in due time” but did not elaborate on whether this may cause a delay in the project’s beginning. 

In response to recently published reports and think pieces concerning the resignation of the Chair of the Arenas, Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee (APRAC), Lynn Self, Leal pushed back on the idea that the plan, as presented to the committee at a special meeting on August 31st, 2023, was a “done deal.” 

After seeing the slide presentation by Rob McAulay, the committee had decided not to ask Staff to take the proposal for the park back to the drawing table, Leal explained. 

“They had an opportunity with three options at that meeting: One was to receive for information; Two would have been to reject the proposal brought forward; Or, three, they could have insisted that they want an additional meeting, to ask more questions to get more information,” he said. 

“When you look at the slide deck that was presented, it clearly is in the slide deck that these are recommendations,” Leal stated before going on to note that for months prior to the August meeting, APRAC had been hearing presentations from various recreational and sports groups within the City and would therefore have been in a position to make an informed decision on the matter. 

Leal also took the opportunity to address what he sees as the “fabrication of information” concerning Bonnerworth including rumours of a $10M plan by an anonymous developer to “buy the lawn bowling club and turn it into a private club for pickleball players.”

Leal called this allegation and another one which contends he was a part of a secret meeting at City Hall on May 27th between the City and the Peterborough Pickleball Association (PPA) “totally false” noting, for the record, that he had been away at the Eastern Ontario Housing Forum in Ottawa on the day in question.

“One of the challenges that we do have is, in order to have a conversation, you have to have common facts,” he concluded.

Arthur has been aware of similar allegations since mid-May and had previously reached out to the City for a statement. 

In response, the City’s Director of Strategic Communications, Brendan Wedley, wrote back calling it “an outrageous, unfounded rumour” and iterating that “the City purchased the McDonnel Street Community Centre property with the intention for it to be used as a City-owned  recreation facility.”

“The property is not for sale,” he added.