Mayor Greg Dionne during a November council meeting. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Civic election

Dionne challenges Hickie’s record on consultation

Sep 24, 2020 | 3:00 PM

Prince Albert Mayor Greg Dionne is suggesting mayoral election rival Darryl Hickie is being hypocritical regarding his ongoing criticism of the new recreation centre land deal. Hickie rejects the criticism.

Hickie has blasted the city for failing to consult the public on the location of the new recreation centre or fully vet alternative options in public.

At Monday night’s city council meeting, Dionne read a paragraph of a 2008 letter from the office of then Mayor Jim Scarrow to the Chairperson of the Parkland Health Authority. The passage references a recent meeting between the two parties and Hickie, who was then MLA for Prince Albert Carlton. The correspondence discusses potential benefits for both parties if the city were able to build the Field House on 18 acres of land owned by Parkland Regional Health Authority.

Dionne interprets the letter as evidence there was no public consultation on where the Alfred Jenkins Field House would be built and that Hickie was involved.

Dionne said he decided to look into previous city facility builds after being criticized by his competitor for a lack of public consultation on the new recreation centre location.

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“I did my research,” Dionne told paNOW after the meeting. “And I was surprised when I found this letter that one of the people that was barking participated with the previous mayor in locating the soccer centre where it was without a public meeting.”

Meanwhile, Hickie says the mayor is “barking up the wrong tree.”

“I don’t know what he’s trying to do here at all,” he told paNOW. “I’m not in his head, so I’m not sure what his premise is.”

Hickie said as the MLA for the area, he was asked to simply bring the two parties together because the city was interested in the land.

He said he verified in Regina that the government health authority could do a land swap with the city, but at the end of the day the Health Authority had the final authority to make the decision. Hickie suggested consultation on the field house location would have been up to the city and not up to him as a provincial MLA.

Aside from what he views as his limited participation in the process, Hickie said the land deal in 2008 was completely different than the one city council approved in June. In 2008 the city and the Health Authority swapped taxpayer land for taxpayer land, unlike the more recent deal that involved a $6.5 million purchase from a private company.

“I don’t know what his point is here because it’s definitely not an apple to apples comparison whatsoever,” said Hickie.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom