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Mayor Jeff Leal briefly addressed a large demonstration outside of Peterborough City Hall — organized by the Coalition to Save Bonnerworth Park — on Monday evening after months of avoiding direct recognition of citizens’ concerns about the $4.4 million park redevelopment.
Emerging from the front doors of city hall to a chorus of boos and chants of “shame” just before 6 p.m. during a break in a scheduled city council meeting alongside councillors Gary Baldwin, Dave Haacke, and Kevin Duguay, Leal accepted a printed copy of a petition — containing 8,100 signatures — in opposition to the project.
Father Leo Coughlin, who had been addressing the crowd at the time the mayor and councillors appeared, vehemently discouraged the crowd from booing.
“The men standing here, they are beloved councillors — we love you,” he said. “You represent us and we have given you a voice, and so I’m glad to see you come out this evening.”
Asked by coalition spokesperson, John Gerelus, if he would like to comment on the positions of some councillors who support the project, including those three standing with him, Leal simply said that he could not comment.
“Petitions are a key integral part of our democracy,” Leal said to the crowd, repeating a point he has continually used with reporters when asked about the existence of a petition and growing discontent in the community about the redevelopment plan.
“I will file (the petition) with the clerk shortly,” Leal continued.
Coughlin continued after the mayor and councillors had returned to council chambers to outline the necessity of fostering respect for elected officials while also holding them accountable for bad decisions.
“We want to make our voice heard with power so we make them realize they’re here to serve us — that’s why we put them there,” Coughlin said. “We come with power to say, ‘No, absolutely not. You’re not going to pave over Bonnerworth, not at all!’”
The coalition’s focus in recent weeks has shifted from concerns strictly about the redevelopment and loss of green space to a greater emphasis on wider capital funding issues within the city.
This shift is in keeping with a motion Coun. Keith Riel proposed in August to defer nearly $16 million in pre-approved projects for 2025 in order to divert the funds to housing and homelessness.
What has not changed is the opposition’s insistence that the project has been mishandled by councillors and city staff from the point of view of process — a point that was reiterated by Gerelus on Monday evening.
“The city’s handling of this project has revealed the profound dysfunction at city hall — tax dollars, lack of transparency, pandering to special interests, insincere consultation, conflict of interest, and deeply flawed planning processes,” he said.
Leal has continuously denied any real or perceived conflict of interest in the redevelopment of Bonnerworth Park. However, some critics of the plan have repeatedly pointed to his wife’s membership in the Peterborough Pickleball Association as reason for him to recuse himself in any votes.
Leal is currently the subject of an integrity commissioner investigation following an incident during an April general committee meeting where Leal told Coun. Alex Bierk that he would “carve (him) like a Thanksgiving turkey” after Bierk stated that in a private conversation the mayor’s wife had offered to “lend (him) a racket.”
Leal would later apologize for what he called the “intemperate language” he directed at Bierk.
The coalition recently placed a full-page advertisement in the Examiner, which included a heavily redacted copy of a draft budget for Bonnerworth obtained through a Freedom of Information request.
The documents obtained through FOI, which have been reviewed by the Examiner, also revealed the existence of a draft plan for Bonnerworth, proposed by Basterfield and Associates in April of 2023 — six months prior to council’s approval of the project.
Correspondence obtained through the request shows that director of recreation and parks, Rob McAulay, told Bierk prior to council approving the redevelopment in October 2023 that “there is no set site plan for Bonnerworth, as elements will be finalized with community/neighbourhood.”
It would not be until March 2024 when the public and councillors would see a fit plan for the redevelopment, prepared by Landscape Planning, which included the full footprint of 16 pickleball courts and 80 parking spots, leading to widespread calls, including from some councillors, to rethink the project in light of community response and feedback.
The current, revised plan — also prepared by Landscape Planning — includes 14 pickleball courts, a pump bike track, renovated skate park, and 44 parking spaces, as the city does away with tennis courts and two baseball diamonds.
The new plan also includes the city’s intention to plant 275 trees, which Leal has suggested could be sugar maples, creating an “urban sugar bush” and “carbon sink.”
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