How will 4 years of integrity investigations change who gets elected to town and city councils?

Many candidates running in this municipal election across northeastern Ontario are carrying baggage from the integrity commissioner investigations that have dominated some council agendas over the last four years. 

No community has felt the impact more than Elliot Lake, which has had more integrity commissioner reports than the largest cities in the province.

The two leading mayoral candidates — incumbent Dan Marchisella and city councillor Chris Patrie — have both been called out violating the municipal code of conduct.

Ed Pearce, an Elliot Lake city councillor, was accused of conflict of interest, his case went to a Superior Court judge who ruled it a minor infraction, that decision was appealed by the integrity commissioner and then upheld. 

He is now suing the City of Elliot Lake and E4M, the firm it hired as its integrity commissioner, for $35,000 in legal costs, which Pearce says was promised would be covered, plus $19,000 in punitive damages.

"I'm not proud that when you go to a course on the Municipal Act, the very first case they talk about is Pearce v. Elliot Lake," he said at a city council meeting early this month. 

"The government of Ontario has imposed this regime on us. It is a joke. There is no other way to put it."

Pearce, who is not running for re-election, had a warning for Elliot Lake voters ahead of Monday's municipal election. 

"Think about the people you elect. Think about the kinds of people that get appointed by the people that you elect and whether or not they're the right people," he said. 

"Get involved. If you don't get involved, this kind of nonsense happens."

Luc Cyr, who is also not running again after two terms on Elliot Lake city council, asked voters to consider the $858,000 the small city has spent on integrity commissioner reports over the last four years.

"Because this is a lot of our roads that aren't being financed. This is half of our pool," Cyr said. 

"The incredible cost that weaponizing the [integrity commissioner] can have on a community."

Cyr said obviously there is a need to have some way to call out bad behaviour by elected officials, "but it shouldn't be a political retaliation tool."

Greater Sudbury city council has also busy with integrity commissioner investigations over the last term, with Councillors Michael Vagnini, Gerry Montpellier and Robert Kirwan all being reprimanded for violating the code of conduct.

"It's had a serious impact on my reputation," Kirwan told council in 2021, the second time he was reprimanded for his social media activity. 

"I don't have any more confidence in the process or in the integrity commissioner."

All three of those councillors are running for re-election and Kirwan is being challenged by political rookie Mike Parent in Ward 5.

Parent says he was partly inspired to run for council by all the meetings spent on bad behaviour rather the economy, poverty and the other serious issues facing Greater Sudbury. 

"Spending time doing investigations, accusations and arguing amongst each other to the point where police are called," he said. 

"That's just not serving our city well."

Parent says some voters do mention the integrity commissioner investigations to him when he's knocking on doors, but he hasn't made it a focus of his campaign.

Kaisha Bruetsch, a former federal and provincial government staffer and now associate principal at consulting firm Navigator, says it is best for candidates to address past controversies head on.

She says in provincial and federal politics, parties will remove problematic candidates, while in municipal elections, that is left totally up to the voters to decide who deserves a second chance. 

"People do pay attention to the big headlines and what people are saying about you. In the media in particular," said Bruetsch, who originally hails from northwestern Ontario. 

"They will pick on the juiciest story and if that happens to be you, you will be talked about."

In Timmins, former city councillor Rick Dubeau is trying to regain the seat he lost in the 2018 election, when he was facing criminal corruption charges. Those were dropped the following year. He was also censured by council in 2016 for accusing staff of deliberately withholding information from the public.

Dubeau initially agreed to an interview with CBC, but then backed out.

In Espanola, two of the four candidates running to replace the retiring mayor, Jill Beer, have had brushes with the integrity commissioner, including former mayor Ron Piche and former town councillor Maureen Van Alstine, who was removed from office earlier this year by court order.

Van Alstine declined an interview and Piche did not respond to CBC's requests. 

Rick Owen, a Kirkland Lake town councillor, was docked a month's pay in 2020 for making disrespectful comments about municipal employees.

Owen is running for another term, one of 10 candidates vying for six council seats, and says all the voters who have raised the integrity commissioner report say they plan to support him anyway.

He says he is more focused on reforming the system. Currently the complaint into his behaviour cost taxpayers $25,000.

Owen says there have been times, including during this election campaign, that he and other Kirkland Lake councillors see someone breaking the rules, but don't file a complaint. 

"And we just don't, because it's too expensive for the community. We'd rather have that money go to work for the good of the residents," he said. 

"It works in theory, but in reality, it's expensive."

If re-elected, Owen says he would like to see most complaints handled by the town's human resources department and feels that the Ontario government should be paying for costs related to the integrity commissioner, since it was the province that made them mandatory for all cities, towns and townships. 

"I can see bureaucrats fighting the change saying this brings more transparency, but if you have councillors concerned about spending money, you're not going to have integrity commissioner reports and it's not going to work."