A pamphlet titled Getting the FACTS Straight was delivered to mailboxes across the city during the campaign. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Campaign contention

P.A. city councillor vows to ‘find’ and ‘expose’ authors of controversial pamphlet

Dec 17, 2020 | 5:29 PM

The municipal election may be over, but at least one Prince Albert city councillor is not ready to let one of the campaign’s most controversial incidents go. Meanwhile, the mayor says he’d rather leave the past in the past.

Coun. Dennis Ogrodnick told Monday’s council meeting he is determined to expose the authors of an anonymous pamphlet that was distributed city-wide in the lead up to voting day.

“Just so that people know, I haven’t let that issue die,” said Ogrodnick, who made the comments during a discussion on a new audiovisual system for the council chamber. “I know three names of people that are behind that pamphlet and we will find them and we will expose them, so if people think they want to do that, they will be found out.”

paNOW asked Ogrodnick to elaborate further after the meeting, but he declined comment.

The pamphlet alleged the city had severely overpaid for the $6.5 million parcel of land purchased for Prince Albert’s new recreation complex, claiming to be possession of an appraisal indicating it was worth half of that. It also questioned the motives of city administration, the mayor and the four councillors who supported the land deal.

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The authors of the pamphlet never came forward. It was widely condemned by several councillors named in it.

Mayor Greg Dionne told paNOW he doesn’t want to dwell on the incident.

“So we find out who put the pamphlet together, what’s that going to do for us? It’s not going to help us today,” he said. “Some people [councillors] felt it was a personal attack on them… if they think it’s personal and if they want to take legal action, I can’t discourage that. But for me, I’m moving on.”

Reflecting on other aspects of what he called the “weirdest election” he’s ever been a part of, Dionne said there were some campaign controversies that would need to be dealt with, like a disagreement with a non-profit over an offer to purchase land.

“We still have to do business with those organizations so I’m going to ask them to come to a meeting and ask them ‘where do we go from here?'” he said. “I’d sooner try to build a bridge like that than try to figure out who put the pamphlet together.”

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom