Cornwall Ontario – The problem with a lack of community leadership is that issues can bite you in the bum before you realize what hit you. Corruption and political impotence do not lead to a successful community.
While the ol rumours and allegations about a certain former mayor’s love for a good game of cards may have led to Chem tanks on Cornwall’s waterfront and eventually a city partnership with Akwesasne over some of our waterfront lands; with the $200M plus Dundee land settlement, Akwesasne, or the MCA, is now sitting at a game of Texas Holdem with the City of Cornwall with bags of case while Cornwall would have to borrow to play as the Federal government opens up our waterfront to the highest bidder. And that doesn’t count private business that may want to play their hand as well.
It’s something that should be putting a huge fear into those that actually realize that the future development of Cornwall’s mostly unused waterfront is critical to the success of this community for generations on.
Essentially the Canadian Government under Justin Trudeau is giving a big bag of money to the MCA at the same time it’s putting up lands that it clearly is not using to the highest bidder leaving Cornwall in no man’s land when it comes to its waterfront.
The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne just had its elections. It’s Grand Chief, Abram Benedict, earned a grand total of approximately 788 votes to get re elected as the prime leader behind this potential takeover of Cornwall’s lands(out of a population of about 14,000).
Ironically he feels that land claims to our shore still belong to Akwesasne. What that means is that it seems in his opinion that the MCA can either get more cash from the Trudeau government or gain actual lands that currently are part of Cornwall.
Too date nothing really has been done with the joint venture between Cornwall and Akwesasne. The city really has 
no direct leverage in this game, and with the history of poor management and even poorer elected officials is there any defense for the taxpayers in Cornwall?
Is this extreme Liberal payback for this riding supporting the Conservatives the last few elections?
Ultimately this can simply being the Canadian government sending one bag of money to the MCA who will then send it back to the Trudeau government for surplus lands that aren’t being fiscally beneficial to the Feds.
Our corrupt and ineffective MP Guy Lauzon was of no use or voice when the Chem tanks hit Cornwall and shouldn’t he be the one to sound this alarm?
Likewise other media have also not covered this very dangerous issue for the future of this community and region.
The committee covering our waterfront just cancelled their July meeting. Shouldn’t they be having emergency meetings about this with the Dundee development? The reason given for the July cancellation is that both Planning Division Manager and General Manager are away and on conference. That simply isn’t good enough.
Where is the leadership from those listed below?
Waterfront Committee
Current Composition:
Councillor Denis Carr
Councillor André Rivette
Stephen Alexander
William Beattie
Todd Bennett
Kyle Bergeron
Edward Castle
Gerald Flaherty
Francois Marineau
Chris Markell
Étienne Saint-Aubin
Bernard Terrence
What do you think dear CFN viewers? Is it time for the public to be more aware of the danger to our waterfront future? As we’ve seen from POW Cornwall which defeated plans for a waterfront condo that our very elected officials seem to be far unaware and inactive in protecting the investment and future of the residents of Cornwall Ontario.
You can post your comments below.