Hockey academy decision to leave unilateral: Academy grounds location not acceptable to federal government

An open letter to residents of Russell Township: Concerning the Canadian International Hockey Academy.

As mayor of the Township of Russell I believe it is my role to provide residents of this municipality with an explanation of current events concerning the negotiations between the Township of Russell and the Hockey School that resulted in their unilateral decision to move from our municipality to the municipality of Clarence-Rockland.
Allow me to reconfirm that economic development has been and continues to be a priority for council. Council has, since being elected, embarked on literally millions of dollars worth of projects and has aggressively sought out funding assistance from both the federal and provincial governments.
We have prioritized the completion of a water system upgrade to provide safe drinking water to you, our residents. We have prioritized the replacement of the Embrun Fire Hall to reduce response times, we have prioritized the upgrade to the Russell sewage system to reduce our impact on the environment and the Castor river, we have prioritized the construction of a new library in the Village of Russell and most recently we have prioritized the upgrades to certain facilities including the upgrade and enhancements to the Russell Arena to make it accessible to those persons with disabilities.
Every business decision is based on a strong business case and a strong foundation, as you can imagine all of these initiatives are quite expensive and ultimately become part of the strong foundation to help market our beautiful municipality.
Make no mistake, with the advancement of our water project upgrade we are on the radar of most large commercial developers from outside of our region. As I meet with these interested parties the first comment is usually “when will your water and sewer projects be ready for us”. With this in mind, we are resolved to complete the project as soon as possible so as we can start to bring these discussions to completion.
Although the announcement of the hockey school’s decision to move to Clarence-Rockland comes as a great disappointment, rest assured I am constantly starting and following up on many other initiatives.
On June 1, 2009, council directed staff to engage legal representation to act as a negotiation team in an effort to begin the negotiation to have the Township of Russell become the applicant for federal and provincial funding towards the construction of a sports complex. Our negotiation team did communicate on June 2, 2009 with the hockey school as directed by council.
While attending a conference in Whistler, BC on behalf of the municipality, I maintained and continued to advance the negotiation effort to the complete knowledge of council.
I can also confirm that council received an offer that was not reflective of the needs of the people. Council resolved to counter propose on behalf of the residents with what we believe to have been a very reasonable offer to maintain the project in our community.
I understand that there are numerous rumours and allegations flowing through the community today that council failed to secure a project that was going to cost the taxpayers of this township zero municipal dollars. If these rumours and allegations were true, believe me, we would be signed right now! The reality is that taxpayers would have had to make a significant contribution, one large enough that council through a unanimous registered public vote was not prepared to support on behalf of the community.
To put it simply , the land chosen by the hockey school in Embrun was not acceptable as presented to the federal officials. I appreciate the due diligence shown by federal officials to protect taxpayers’ monies.
My responsibility is, as I have said in the past, to the residents of Russell Township.
As mayor for the Township of Russell, words cannot express my disappointment concerning the decision that the hockey school has made to move their project to Clarence-Rockland.
Council is restricted by “in camera” discussions and cannot share openly all of the events that surround this file. But as indicated during the special council meeting held on June 29, 2009 perhaps the hockey school would find it appropriate to share the documentation with the residents of Russell Township.
I would like to conclude on a positive note, in saying that I am proud that council represented the taxpayers of the Township of Russell in good faith throughout this process. I am proud that council remained united in defending the interests of the taxpayers.
I would like to equally thank all our staff that worked diligently on this initiative and members of the community who put there efforts towards this project.

Ken Hill
Mayor, Russell Township