Challenges remain for the Fort Frances Council

Fort Frances council continues to face more challenges following the resignation of a council member and now the mayor’s temporary leave of absence.

Last week, the city announced in a news release that Mayor Andrew Hallikas will take a leave of absence to focus on his health and that Deputy Mayor Michael Behan will assume mayoral duties effective immediately.

“This decision was not taken lightly as Mayor Hallikas has been managing health concerns since the end of July,” the press release said.

“He is currently receiving care in hospital and is working on recovery. Mayor Hallikas sincerely thanks the community for their understanding and support during this time.”

Earlier this month, Mandi Olson-Walton resigned from her position on the City Council, citing the challenges of working with the council and trying to implement actions when it comes to reconciliation in the city.

In a statement, Olson-Walton said the council was offered and encouraged to provide recommendations and feedback as part of an update to the committee’s internal policies, which inform committees of the council “including any ad hoc committees that are formed or meet when necessary”.

Olson-Walton said policies determine the reporting mechanisms, mandates and overall direction of each committee, and she was charged with reviewing the Indigenous Relations Advisory Committee.

“I was faced with many challenges and sometimes confusion. To make sure I didn’t miss this, I emailed the Mayor, Clerk and CEO expressing my views on current policies and concerns that I experienced with that,” Olson-Walton said in her statement.

“Overall, I found it outdated, noting that there were significant disparities between committees, and that many committees were purposeless because the mandate was not followed or was unnecessary due to the newly implemented governance changes.”

Olson-Walton said she has presented recommendations to council, including the importance of rewards such as tobacco and a gift and the importance of language and the way Indigenous people are addressed, including changing from “Aboriginal” to “Indigenous” in future policies and more.

But when Olson-Walton brought it up in council, the conversation brought her to tears.

“It was then that I realized that even though I had done my best for almost two years to make room for discussion in the real world, it was met with a deafening response of ‘speeding up’ and ‘wordsmithing’. It is now clear that my intention to have robust and meaningful discussions is not welcome at this table,” said Olson-Walton.

“This meeting confirmed for me that conversations of relevance or intention must be superficial and quick. ‘Discussion’ and/or healthy debate does not take place at this table.”

Mike Behan is the deputy mayor of Fort Frances and said he was surprised and disappointed that Olson-Walton chose to resign from her position on the council.

“I found her to be an effective counselor in her two years and I certainly appreciated her input and her opinions at the council table over the past two years,” Behan said.

“She certainly represents three demographics that will be missed. She’s one of our youngest council members, she’s a woman and of course she has an Indigenous background. So those perspectives will be missed and I wish her all the best for the future.”

The Fort Frances council will hold a meeting Monday evening to discuss how to fill Olson-Walton’s vacancy, either by appointing someone to the position or calling a by-election.

“I want to make sure that people don’t say, oh yeah, sure, you’re going to appoint someone who looks like you or who shares your views. And so I think it’s important that people have a decision about who they want to be. ” wants to be on the council,” Behan said.

But with the challenges, Behan said they are doing their best to move forward and acknowledges that there will be more challenges ahead, but that they will address them as they arise.

Douglas Judson is an attorney in Fort Frances and served as a council member from 2018 to 2022, and said he felt “somewhat validated” in Olson-Walton’s description of her experiences at the council table and reflected his own experiences working on the council.

“My experience was that you are actually a diverse person at the table who is putting forward views that I think are contrary to the will of the majority, which I will be very clear: it is an older white majority in almost every city council in Northwestern Ontario. , they don’t appreciate it,” Judson said.

“When I started asking the council to do more to address symbols of systemic racism in our community, like Colonization Road. And when I encouraged initiatives to improve the representation of working families in the municipal decision-making process, I was sidelined for those initiatives and labeled as an issue at the table.”

Judson said it is sad that Olson-Walton has resigned and what the community has lost, and that she is one of the few voices for young people and families in civic government. He also said it was refreshing to have someone on that platform who could talk about issues in the community regarding addiction crises and more.

Judson said it will be interesting to see what the Fort Frances council decides to do and that it is an opportunity for them to show they are responsive to the community’s concerns.