More than three years after filing a complaint with the Ontario Professional Planners Institute (OPPI) regarding conflict of interest concerns about a planner and his work with both a Chinese-based business and the City of Stratford, Get Concerned Stratford has an answer.
Mike Sullivan, a member of the local grass roots group that champions democracy and open government, attended an OPPI discipline hearing Jan. 5 for planner Chris Pidgeon, founder of GSP group, a planning, landscape design and landscape architecture company with extensive business dealings.
Pidgeon admitted he violated two sections of the OPPI code of conduct, Sullivan told StratfordToday. Part of a section (the sections are listed at the bottom of this story) reads that he engaged in "dishonourable or questionable conduct that may cast doubt on the member's professional competence or integrity or that may reflect adversely on the integrity of the profession."
Pidgeon was in attendance at the meeting. The disciplinary committee decided on a one-month suspension, Sullivan said.
StratfordToday reached out to Pidgeon for comment but did not get a response.
Sullivan, a former NDP MP, said Get Concerned Stratford was initially concerned about secrecy and lack of democratic process around a proposed glass manufacturing facility for the city. Xinyi, the Chinese company, was interested in building a facility, with a projected cost reported at nearly $400 million.
The facility would employ more than 350 people, according to reports.
Sullivan said Pidgeon was essentially working for both Xinyi and the City of Stratford at the same time, specifically on annexing land for the project.
Annexation of lands was ultimately successful.
According to a newsletter circulated by the group through email and posted on the Get Concerned Stratford website, the tribunal agreed that the conduct was a "violation of the rules and the parties agreed on discipline."
"It took three years from filing the complaint to them actually doing anything," Sullivan said. "I suspect everything was agreed to. There was no actual evidence, or witnesses. They had an agreed statement of facts, and an agreed statement of discipline."
A panel at the hearing approved the suspension, Sullivan said.
OPPI gets up to 15 complaints a year but they very rarely go to a hearing, Sullivan said.
Sullivan said it was agreed to that the decision would be published, however, both Pidgeon's name and the city involved will be removed from publication.
Sullivan was also unsure when the suspension starts. He was informed at the hearing that Pidgeon resigned from GSP group at the end of last year.
The GSP group website said Pidgeon "retired" on Dec. 31, 2023.
The proposed Xinyi project was controversial in Stratford. Critics of the project noted a lack of transparency from city council and little available public information, as well as closed-door meetings. There were also environmental concerns related to the nature of glass manufacturing.
Xinyi Canada suspended plans in early 2021, and city council voted to ask the province to revoke a ministerial zoning order (MZO) that would have allowed development.
Pidgeon was president of GSP group when the complaint was filed with OPPI.
Sullivan was told that to file a complaint with OPPI, he had to find violations of their codes of conduct. The retired MP has extensive experience filing freedom of information requests. Sullivan did the lions share of the work on his own for the complaint.
In his written complaint to OPPI, Sullivan said the Stratford zoning issue was complex and took over two years, mostly happening behind closed doors.
Pidgeon has worked on numerous projects in a planning consultancy capacity.
According to his biography on the GSP group website, he began his career working at the City of Waterloo and the City of Cambridge and then switched to private land-use planning, specializing in coordinating complex greenfield and infill development projects.
Pidgeon delegated for GSP group at Waterloo City Council as recently as mid-December, for a housing development project.
StratfordToday reached out to OPPI for comment, and received an email from StrategyCorp, a company that specializes in providing strategic advisory services - government relations, strategic communications, and management consulting.
Comments in that email were attributed to OPPI.
"OPPI is unable to comment on any specific cases at this time. OPPI takes all complaints against its members seriously and has a fair and thorough process in place to accept, investigate, and review complaints. When warranted, OPPI will convene a hearing before its independent Disciplinary Committee to determine whether a member is guilty of professional misconduct and, if so, the appropriate penalty."
The email said OPPI does not comment on or publish details related to a case until it has received a written and "final" decision from its discipline committee.
"As part of this process, on a case-by-case basis, the discipline committee provides direction on where the decision will be published as well as whether it can identify the member who was the subject of a hearing."
Summaries of all decisions are included as part of OPPI’s annual reports, available on its website.
The next annual report is not expected until Fall, 2024.
Sullivan and the Get Concerned Stratford group, meanwhile, are still lobbying to have the lands that were annexed returned to the County of Perth and the Township of Perth South and seeking to find out what the city paid Pidgeon for his work, through Freedom of Information requests.
In a recent Letter to the Editor to StratfordToday, the group noted that events surrounding the province’s decisions around the Greenbelt have shown that "these types of secretive processes are a significant cause for concern. Like the Greenbelt take-outs, this annexation needs to be rolled back."
The city could address it while updating their Official Plan, which is in the works, the group contends.
"This action will right the last wrong of the Xinyi episode and allow the Official Plan review to proceed unencumbered by the Xinyi legacy," the letter stated.
"It is only through such action that this council can re-establish the level of trust required to govern properly."
*The sections of the OPPI Code of Conduct that Pidgeon admitted to violating, according to Sullivan:
Section 2.12: not, as a consultant to a public planning agency during the period of contract with the agency, give professional planning advice for compensation to others within the jurisdiction of the agency without written consent and disclosure to the agency in situations where there is the possibility of a conflict of interest arising.
Section 3.5: not in professional practice, extra-professional activities or private life, engage in dishonourable or questionable conduct that may cast doubt on the Member's professional competence or integrity or that may reflect adversely on the integrity of the profession;
