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Two events under the “town hall” label were held in Tiny Township in March and June, with an invitation specific to “Councillor Dave Brunelle’s supporters” wanting to be engaged and have input regarding local municipal government issues.
In both meetings the topic was for an “introduction to iMatr”, a Burlington-based internet technology company dedicated to bridging that gap.
While the March event at the Tiny Hub in Lafontaine was RSVP only due to limited seating, the June event at the Tiny Township Community Centre was welcome to everyone.
An advertisement was shared through iMatr (pronounced: “I matter”) social media for the March event, congratulating “the Township of Tiny and Councillor Brunelle for their plan to introduce iMatr to his riding, signalling a promising step toward enhanced political engagement and transparency”.
For the June meeting, prominent protest organizer Karen Zulynik shared the event on the Tiny Township: Community Discussion All Things Council page which she administers.
Serving in his first term as a Tiny Township councillor, Brunelle has often been at odds with his fellow council members and municipal staff, in his words, actions, and voting records.
However, Zulnyik and other protestors of the proposed multi-million dollar administration centre project have thanked and embraced Brunelle at meetings, stating he was the only one representing them.
During council meetings, Brunelle often reads from prepared statements – sometimes with research from his wife instead of municipal staff – to bring up a point despite those statements sometimes catching others off guard. At times, Brunelle had been unprepared for a direct response with an opposing perspective against his line of questioning.
His involvement with external municipal matters have included attending a meeting in Penetanguishene in opposition to a proposed 5G cell tower, and more recently at an early June inaugural resident-led forum in Orillia urging residents to engage the political system.
MidlandToday reached out to Brunelle, Tiny Township CAO Robert Lamb, and the company iMatr with various questions regarding Brunelle’s activities within the town hall meetings.
“The Township has not approved, endorsed or supports iMatr as a service provider for the Township of Tiny,” Lamb wrote MidlandToday through email, in regards to iMatr providing residents ‘a seamless connectivity and engagement’ as per their website.
Lamb added: “Only official council approved meetings are promoted on the community/council calendar. The Township, however, does not have exclusive rights to use the term town hall; therefore we cannot regulate others who use the term in advertising a meeting.”
Furthermore, Lamb stated that Brunelle did not represent the township when he called for the two town hall meetings.
“The first meeting was at a private location and the most recent meeting was at a township owned facility rented and paid for by iMatr.”
Entering onto the homepage of the I.T. company iMatr, MidlandToday experienced a potential security threat warning through unverified certification, warning that users could have their personal information compromised by the website.
When asked, Lamb cautioned that although Tiny Township could not comment on how a company protects its data, “anyone signing up does so at their own risk”.
MidlandToday sent questions to iMatr regarding the content introduced at the two town hall meetings, as well as the timeline expected for the unverified certification threat to be repaired.
At the same time, many questions were sent to Coun. Brunelle regarding his activities, involvement with iMatr, transparency issues and conduct with the township’s legal and ethics staff, future of his activities, and knowledge of the potential security threat visitors to the iMatr website could be exposed to.
Brunelle had not responded to the questions at the time of publication for this article.
Instead, MidlandToday received an email from iMatr founder and CEO Joe Kutlesa that included responses to two specific questions asked solely and specifically to Brunelle, regarding transparency and ethics.
Kutlesa did reply to the questions posed to iMatr, noting that the two town hall meetings discussed the proposed Tiny Township administration centre.
“Our SaaS (software as a service) poses no security risk to municipal infrastructure nor citizens,” replied Kutlesa, offering the opposite was the case. “Our users log onto our infrastructure, utilizing our software, which we protect with robust cyber security from outside threats. Councillor Brunelle is currently using stand alone services.”
As iMatr had paid for the Tiny Township Community Centre meeting in June, MidlandToday reached out to Brunelle to ask if he had also been paid by iMatr for his participation, and if that would be transparent through submissions to the municipality’s finance department.
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