Veteran BLR Councillor resigns – says he is the victim of false charges

The Current has today received the following Press Release from former BLR Councillor Trevor Lidtkie:

For over 15 years I have proudly served as a member of Brudenell Lyndoch and Raglan Council (BLR) and am immensely proud of my record of demanding that our Township spend our limited money in ways that gave the taxpayers the most benefit and rooting out unnecessary expenses. It is with a very deep sense of disappointment that I have determined that I can no longer participate with this Council and want to tell you why. I was forced into a decision that came down to this: either I resign and not run in the next election or be financially exhausted in Court. That is how badly they wanted me out of my seat for asking the tough questions that needed to be answered, as happened to the other Ward 2 councillor.

The Council has changed, and not for the better. In the past, when we discussed matters it was in front of the public — at the Council table. Now there is no transparency. Sadly, resolutions now magically appear at the council table, having been decided on and discussed outside of public view. We used to be able to have actual and frank discussions. Now in the past, I may not have agreed with my fellow Councillors and they may not have agreed with me, but at least we could respect each other because we had a common goal in making BLR better. Unfortunately, I have no idea of what the goal of this Council is now, aside from silencing certain Councillors, keeping the public in the dark about decisions and expenses, and getting re-elected.

In 2019 BLR Council hired a company called E4m to be our Integrity Commissioner. I questioned their very first bill and publicly discussed firing them. I felt then, like I do now, that their motivation was financial gain. My suspicions about this organization have been confirmed by other municipalities across the Province that have also been subjected to outrageous bills and shoddy investigations by this company. Not long after voicing my concerns, I became the target of politically motivated administrative investigations designed to prevent me from asking questions. In unsworn testimony from members of Council and municipal staff, I have been accused of a host of false allegations. The investigators, who are supposed to be unbiased, were the private company I wanted to fire. Therefore, I was not surprised by the content of their reports or that they would use them as a tool to remove me from my seat on Council.

Unfortunately, the playing field is unbalanced in that a typical councillor, like myself, does not have the financial resources to fight this matter in the Court system, unlike E4m who have an unlimited supply of our taxpayer money to spend. I didn’t want taxpayers’ money being spent on lawyers instead of our roads or all the other important needs in our Township. I have never lost sight of the fact that the money discussed around the Council table came from someone else’s pocket. The people of BLR need to pay attention and become more involved in what happens at our municipal office. The expenditures of your tax dollars depend on it.

Trevor Lidtkie

Lidtkie,T.(2022,Jan.21) RESIGNATION FROM BLR COUNCIL OF COUNCILLOR TREVOR LIDTKIE [media release]