WELLAND (September, 1989) - While it normally might not be worthy of news coverage, the appearance of Freedom Party members at BIA meetings seems to be upsetting to certain interests. With a conflict surrounding the Welland downtown BIA's general manager position (145 of the BIA's members signed a petition requesting that either the general manager's position be eliminated, or the board itself be eliminated), Freedom Party's arsenal of BIA information can be most persuasive.

Thus, it was not surprising that the chairman of the downtown BIA, Marjory McPherson, announced that the BIA's September 18 meeting was "open to anyone with information to share, save persons representing political parties," according to the Guardian Express. It was a move exclusively calculated to exclude Freedom Party from being represented, a cowardly tactic, to say the least.

Fp representative Barry Fitzgerald reacted by handing out a printed statement outside the door of the BIA meeting which explained:

"The executive of the board has chosen to censor its only real political opposition under the guise of forbidding all political parties from making presentations. The issue at the root of your problem is BIA taxation. How much should you pay? What should you get in return? Do you want any part of this deal?

"The mandate of a BIA is twofold: (1) to promote the area, (2) to beautify the municipally-owned property in the area. Your executive is not within this mandate when they lobby other levels of government for or against Market Value Assessment of Transit Malls, or when they donate your tax dollars to the Festival of Arts. Did you authorize your executive to undertake these projects? Whether you agree with these projects is not at issue, but if you were not even asked, then on what authority is the BIA operating?"

Perhaps members of Welland's downtown BIA should be introduced to Mississauga's city solicitor Bruce Thom, who, in our coverage on the Clarkson BIA elsewhere in this issue, answers that question rather directly.

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