Photo: Goderich Town Hall
Members of Goderich Town Council have been cleared of any wrongdoing following complaints filed with the integrity commissioner.
In a report delivered to council during Monday’s meeting, the original complaints were filed in December 2025, stating that three council members – Deputy Mayor Leah Noel, and councillors Liz Petrie and Randy Carroll had in some way violated parts of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act during a regular meeting.
The violations, according to the complaints filed, said that the three members of council did not declare any pecuniary interest.
John Mascarin, a partner at Aird & Berlis in Toronto said that when it came to the complaints that were filed, two were dismissed right away because they did not reflect a true violation of the MCIA.
“We summarily dealt with two items which we felt there was no merit to. The first was Section 5.1, which requires members to file writted statements, which they did not need to do so because there was no pecuniary interest.”
Aird & Berlis serves as integrity commissioner to may smaller municipalities in Ontario.
Upon review of the files, Mascarin said, “The three applications essentially arise from disclosures of pencuinary interest made by the three members that were made at a regular meeting of council on December 8th. At this meeting, council considered the authorization of the execution of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Town and an entity, a non-profit corporation, the Goderich Memorial Community Centre committee. The MOU was to deal with matters relating to the lease, operation, and management of the Goderich Memorial Community Centre.”
The potential conflict stems from the fact that outside of council, the members named are also members of service groups within the community.
The discussions during the meeting in question were surrounding the lease agreement for the Goderich Memorial Community Centre, and use of the buidling and its parking lot, which is used by different community organizations, including those that have members of council as part of their organizations.
In the 19-page report, Mascarin outlined that the members of council “did not contrevene their obligations under the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act,” and that no further action would be taken.