Stratford, Ont., city council declared Canada's 'most secretive' by Toronto think-tank

A Toronto-based democracy think-tank has given Stratford, Ont., city council the dubious honour of being Canada's "most secretive" municipality in 2021, citing lack of transparency and feeble public reporting on the Xinyi Glass controversy. 

The annual awards by the Centre for Free Expression (CFE) include categories for federal, provincial, municipal governments and police services.

The prizes are meant to be a tongue-in-cheek way of drawing attention to government organizations that the CFE says endeavour to hide information the public has a right to access under the law. 

The centre, based at Toronto's Ryerson University, said in a statement on its website that Stratford earned the 2021 Code of Silence Award for "outstanding achievement in government secrecy" for the way council handled a controversy that lasted more than two years over a $400-million float glass plant that was never built.

CFE director Jim Turk told CBC News that during that two-year period, Stratford council circumvented basic transparency measures.

"It held secret, in-camera meetings, and failed to properly report discussions and planning that was being undertaken by a Canadian glass company that was a subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based glass corporation.

"Relative to Stratford's size, a $400-million factory is a really big deal," he said. "There's a real problem with openness and transparency, and respect for the public."  

Chinese glassmaker Xinyi had proposed to make Stratford its hub in North America for float glass manufacturing by building a 380-job factory on the city's outskirts to produce glass for bus shelters, car windshields and skyscrapers across the continent. 

The proposal met fierce public resistance from local citizens' groups concerned about pollution, loss of farmland and the subversion of local democracy after Stratford Mayor Dan Mathieson wrote to the province requesting a Ministerial Zoning Order. The rarely used provincial power overrides local planning authority and appeals, and quashes debate. 

Mathieson did not immediately return a request for comment from CBC News on Thursday. 

Turk said a citizens' group filed a complaint with a third-party investigator about Stratford council's mulish stance on divulging even basic information about the $400-million proposal.

The third-party investigator found council broke the law in September 2018 when Mathieson offered a verbal update with early discussions with the Chinese glassmaker. A report made public by the municipality in May 2021 said council passed resolutions on the matter before moving into a closed-door session, and provided "insufficient detail" for a public discussion.

Turk said the report also shone a light on some the systemic problems when it came to council sharing information with the public and journalists. 

 "When people made requests for information, the city demanded, in our view, an exorbitant price for supplying it. In the case of one request, they wanted $8,850 to provide the information."