When John Hornstein called for an independent audit of the Sault Ste. Marie Regional Conservation Authority yesterday, many of the 80 or so people gathered in the civic centre's Russ Ramsay room applauded.
Hornstein said believes the conservation authority is managing the lands entrusted to it in its own interests.
"It is clear that the contentious nature of this debate has resulted from a lack of understanding ... as to the intent of the conservation authority to actually act in the best interests of the public," Hornstein told SooToday.com.
Sault Ste. Marie Mayor John Rowswell, who's also a member of the conservation authority board, responded to Hornstein's question by saying that an attempt was being made to divert the meeting to areas that were not in the mandate to be dealt with that day.
Rowswell said the intent of the meeting was strictly to deal with the issue of skiing in the Hiawatha Highlands area managed by the conservation authority.
"Just like at a [City] Council meeting where a councillor wanders off topic, you've wandered off topic," said the mayor.
Several people in the meeting erupted in protest at that point but the mayor continued.
"We're here to advance the issue of cross-country skiing," he said. "If you go into all that's going on it just sends us down another road."
The mayor assured those in attendance that the other issues raised about the conservation authority raised at the meeting would be looked at after the skiing issue was resolved.
Ward 4 Councillor Neil DelBianco, who chaired the meeting, also promised that he would not let those issues go away.
He said that the issue of skiing must be dealt with first, though, because the proponents competing for the opportunity to operate conservation authority managed ski trails in Hiawatha Highlands need enough time to prepare for the season ahead.
Others at the meeting questioned the conservation authority's role in creating a request for proposals (RFP) that asked for someone to manage the ski trails in question.
"Who wrote that RFP?" asked Mike Barbeau.
DelBianco said that conservation authority staff made recommendations to the board that were accepted and passed unanimously.
The mayor said he would have done it differently in hindsight.
Rowswell said that, if he had another kick at the cat, he would have thought twice about including the parking lot in the proposal, he would have placed more emphasis on proponents' experience in ski trail management and on their commitment to improving quality of life through skiing.
Rowswell also said that legal advisors told the board that they do have a legal option to accept any or no proposals or to negotiate with the proponents before them under a request for proposals because it is much less formal than other agreements.
This means that anything could happen at Tuesday's meeting of the conservation authority board, but a decision must be made at that meeting because time is running out, he said.
Hornstein wasn't convinced that the conservation authority will act in the best interests of skiing or the greater community of Sault Ste. Marie.
"Obviously there are members and aspects of the public that have lost faith in the conservation authority's position in this partnership," said Hornstein. "The passion and reaction of this whole situation is a clear demonstration that the public is very much concerned and frustrated about the future of public lands, not just ski trails but also all public lands that are being administered by the authority. We must have assurances that it is being handled with the best interests of the public."
After yesterday's meeting, several other people in attendance also approached SooToday.com to voice their support for a call for an independent audit of the Sault Ste. Marie Region Conservation Authority.
They voiced concern about logging operations on conservation authority lands and other land management issues as well as skiing.
