The Ontario Ombudsman’s office is taking no action after investigating complaints against the township by a developer.
A Jan. 26 letter to Mapleton CAO Brad McRoberts from Patrick Martin, an investigator with the Ombudsman’s office, was included with correspondence at the March 14 council meeting.
The letter indicates the office “will not be taking further action” regarding concerns raised by a developer, who is not named in the letter, about:
– the decision of council to not allocate wastewater capacity units in the township of Mapleton; and
– the township not acknowledging emails within two business days as required by the township’s email standards policy as set out in the township’s corporate policy.
In the letter, Martin explains the office reviewed the minutes and agenda from council meetings and other relevant documentation, including the engineering reports on wastewater capacity and the township’s corporate policy manual.
“Our review confirmed that council has decided not to allocate any further units of wastewater capacity because of capacity issues with the Drayton Wastewater Pollution Control Plant,” Martin states.
“It is our understanding that the township is currently undergoing a Municipal Class Environmental Assessment process with the Ministry of the Environment to increase wastewater capacity.
“With respect to concerns that the township was not acknowledging emails within two business days, the township advised that it had looked into this concern and found that the developer had ultimately been provided with responses.
“Our review found that in some instances, the developer did not receive an acknowledgement of receipt of email correspondence within two business days, but the majority of these emails were in reply to previous township correspondence. Our understanding is that the township is planning to review this policy in the near future.”
Mayor Neil Driscoll commended township staff for assisting with the Ombudsman’s investigation.
“I’d like to thank staff, our CAO and our clerk’s department,” the mayor stated.
“He couldn’t have had better words for the quick correspondence and the cooperation that they received.
“It’s great to see we have staff that can get the job done for something as important as this.”
