At the January 23 special meeting, Grenville-sur-la-Rouge (GSLR) council approved numerous amendments to the agreement between the municipality and Camping des Chutes de la Rouge (CCR). Numerous citizens attended to express their concerns about some of the changes impacting transparency.
The 140-lot camping site is situated on Route 148 where the Rouge and Ottawa rivers meet and was the main topic of debate for the special session. Many residents questioned the reasoning for removing certain articles from the agreement with CCR during the first question period.
“Why are you removing the financial statements from the agreement?” one citizen asked.
“We are not removing everything; there are still accounts to be given to council,” Mayor Tom Arnold assured attendees.
Multiple items were withdrawn from the agreement. Many dealt with requiring CCR to submit financial statements, plans for operating the campsite, and budget estimates. An additional amendment was also made to the maximum length of the rental contract. The length was originally 14 months, but now the agreement does not specify a new maximum length of contracts moving forward.
Another resident suggested, “It is not adequately transparent because we would like to know, as citizens, whether these funds are really put back into the campground. For me, it is a main asset of my camping town. We have the right as citizens to access information, especially for transparency.”
Arnold responded by saying that the non-profit must reinvest surplus funds into the campsite and reassured that council had two members on the CCR’s board of directors, granting them access to this financial information. He affirmed that council represents its citizens and is still being represented at the campground with the new amendments.
“The amendment is to regularize a situation that caused a legality issue at the level of the municipality’s taxation. Since the non-profit organization is managed and the campsite is operated by an independent entity, council wanted to remove the non-profit organization from the municipality’s accounting scope”, Director General François Rioux explained.
Prior to the vote, councillor Manon Jutras stated, “With my experience of more than 30 years in business management, I know that if you reduce the obligations so that the municipality does not support itself, that the campground is well managed, it will be the taxpayers who will have to pay the bill.”
Council approved all of the amendments, with Jutras against and councillors Patrice Deslongchamps, Natalia Czarnecka, and Isabelle Brisson absent.
