Over the last month there have been a couple of postings here on PuslinchToday about the timing of the release of information regarding the highway 6 bypass announcement.
After the Rec Committee meeting Tuesday night I asked the Mayor if he would forward the original statement he read to council so that it may clear things up a little for everyone. He graciously did, and here is what I received:
Dennis Lever, Mayor of Puslinch
Attached is the statement that I read to Council on April 20th.
One Councillor decided to ignore the commitment to me about keeping the information confidential and sent out a broadcast email within a couple of hours of our conversation. In fact, the information was released to the public before I had a chance to talk to Councillor Roth about the planned event.
When a commitment is made to keep something confidential I trusted it would be honoured.
Statement Read To Council:
The week before the announcement on Hwy 6, I was contacted by the Ministry to advise me of
what was being planned. I was also told there was an information embargo in effect and that as
such, it was to be kept confidential. I asked if it would be alright to tell my Council and the
response was "as long as it will remain confidential"
It was decided that a media advisory of a Highway announcement was planned for Monday and I
explained that I was going to call each Council member and explain the situation at that time.
The media advisory came out on Saturday so I called each Councillor on Saturday. Each
Councillor committed to keep the information confidential.
Within a couple of hours the information was released to the public and my credibility with the
Ministry was undermined.
I am very disappointed in this outcome.
As such, I am advising you that when a similar situation arises, I now have no alternative but to
keep the information to myself until it is made public.
