Dear editor,
The following is a letter sent to Mayor June Caul and Deputy Mayor Andrew Halikas ahead of the November 22 Town of Fort Frances Council meeting:
Good Morning Mayor Caul and Deputy Mayor Hallikas,
I have not received a formal response to my request for Council to seek a judicial investigation into the matters set out in my emails with attachments of November 14, 15 and 16, 2021.
I understand the Kraft Mill is scheduled to be Imploded sometime between 5:00 – 7:00 am this Saturday November 27/21. Therefore, tonight’s meeting may be the last opportunity for Council to consider a resolution to request a judicial investigation. As such, I am, with all due respect, asking Mayor and Council to amend the Agenda of this meeting to include a resolution to request a judicial investigation and suspend the demolition permits of both the former Kraft mill building and Biomass.
In late January early February 2019, a working group of select members of Council and a few staff and advisors received the Legal Opinion that included a premise of whether or not Resolute was complying with the terms and conditions of SFL No. 542245.
The law firm stated that Resolute, in its annual report to the MNRF, indicated a 2017 Crossroute IFA had been completed. However the law firm reported it could not find the alleged 2017 Crossroute IFA report – it was not public. The firm explained the significance of the IFA’s “… if the minister is not satisfied that Resolute has complied with the terms of the Crossroute SFL, the Licence will not be extended.”
In the July 14 2021 edition of the Fort Frances Times the spokesperson for this working group stated they “… could never find anyone in the legal community that was writing us opinions that would back up our premise…We wish we could. But we could not.”
The legal opinion clearly identified the significance of the alleged report not being public, as it related to the extension of the SFL.
October 7 2019 the MNRF filed documents represented to be the 2017 Crossroute IFA report in the Archives of the Legislative Library only.
July 2019 the Fort Frances mill was sold to the community developer.
The Corporation of the Town of Fort Frances has a contract with Rainy River Future Development Corporation related to economic development, the working group included member(s) of Council, as such Section 274 (1) of the Municipal Act 2001 is appropriate for Council to consider tonight.
Thank you,
David Kircher
