George Public Hearing Process Flawed
Numbers don't add up with written submissions for the George public hearing.
An investigation has revealed serious problems and irregularities with the written submissions for the George Hotel Public Hearing process. The problems have affected submissions both in support of the George and opposed to it.
Attempts to clarify matters with the Town have failed.
Submissions were missing, numbers don’t add up, and the official record has changed. The litany of problems included ill-defined deadlines, no clear rules, and arbitrary decisions. The monitoring of different email addresses was inconsistent, and there were scanning problems. Based on these written submissions from citizens, Council approved the George Hotel and Residences OCP Amendment Bylaw and the George Hotel and Residences Zoning Amendment Bylaw at the Council meeting of October 6, 2015. At the Public Hearing on October 1, about 40 per cent of the oral submissions were in favour of the George. An unscientific poll in the Coast Reporter showed approximately the same results. Yet according to the Town, about 70 per cent of the written submissions for the Public Hearing were in support of the George.