The best way to describe this week’s integrity commissioner’s report on a Barrie city councillor leaking confidential information is “confusing.”
The word “bizarre” would also work.
This is through no fault of Suzanne Craig, who has the task of ensuring members of council and its various committees follow the city’s code of conduct and provincial legislation governing how municipalities operate. Much of that job involves investigating complaints from other councillors or members of the public.
During my time in office, I found Craig did a very good job, issuing extremely fair and thorough reports.
In this case, however, she was hampered by two factors.
First, much of what she was dealing with involved the report of a confidential meeting, meaning she was limited in what she could report without being at risk of violating the code of conduct herself.
Secondly, there seemed to be considerable confusion about how the documents themselves were leaked.
In a nutshell, a Barrie resident and a couple of other citizens met with Mayor Alex Nuttall and some staff in his office in June 2023 to discuss the resident’s concerns about a stop sign on Sunnidale Road, his objections over lane markings on Dunlop Street and his desire to have motorized bikes banned from the Northshore Trail.
During the meeting, the resident produced a folder with about 40 photographs of motorized bikes using the trail.
Apparently, there was also a 10-page report in the folder on a completely unrelated matter and it was clearly listed as a confidential City of Barrie staff report from October 2020. This rightly alarmed the mayor and an investigation was launched, bringing the integrity commissioner into the matter.
It wasn’t hard to figure out where the documents came from. Confidential reports, at least at the time, were on paper, and not provided electronically as are other staff reports. And they always have the name to whom they are directed written in large letters across the report.
This one had the name of Coun. Clare Riepma. The resident who had come to complain about the motorized bikes first said he had never seen the documents before. Another person at the June 2023 meeting said the resident mentioned he had received them from another person entirely, someone no longer on council.
But the integrity commission determined they had come from Riepma. Both the resident and the Ward 1 councillor acknowledged they had met sometime, they guessed, in 2020 or 2021 at a local McDonald’s to discuss motorized bikes on the Northshore Trail. Neither was sure of the date, but Riepma said he remembered getting the folder with the photographs from the resident and returning them a little bit later.
Riepma said he had no idea how the confidential staff report ended up in the folder with the photographs and I’m inclined to believe him, and not just because I have always respected him as a councillor.
Why would he consciously give such a contentious document to someone he didn’t know, especially since the document had absolutely no connection to motorized bikes? That just doesn’t make any sense.
More likely, they were sitting in a drawer and accidentally put in the resident’s folder along with the photos.
Riepma is guilty of hanging onto a confidential document he should have returned to the city’s clerk, something which is a fairly serious breach of council policy. He has admitted his mistake and apologized.
The integrity commissioner, when she first wrote her report in January, recommended Riepma be reprimanded. Then, in an addendum written last month, she recommended no disciplinary measures.
That is because it had since been determined that the documents were "inadvertently" given to the resident in April 2022. The matter didn’t come to light until that meeting in the mayor’s office in June 2023.
According to the city’s policy, there is a one-year limit on when an alleged breach of the code of conduct takes place and when a complaint can be filed.
In this case, too much time – 14 months – had passed.
Somehow, that quirk is a fitting end to what can only be described as an absurd chapter in city council history.
Barry Ward is a veteran editor and journalist who also served on Barrie city council for 22 years. His column appears regularly on BarrieToday.
