Beddows criticizes bridge removal as ‘bad policy’; councillors push back

Gananoque Mayor John Beddows said he would have vetoed council’s decision to remove the King Street bridge, if the law had allowed it, arguing the $800,000 removal was approved without the necessary data to justify the expense.

Following a narrow 4–3 vote by Gananoque council to remove the old railway and pedestrian bridge, Beddows sought a legal opinion to determine whether he could use strong mayor veto powers to reverse the decision. Legal counsel advised he could not.

“I consulted Mr. Fleming of Cunningham Swan following the decision,” said Beddows. “It wasn’t clear whether the motion was eligible for veto. Mr. Fleming is of the opinion that it was not.”

Beddows said his concern lies not with the outcome itself, but with the lack of information provided to council prior to the decision. He noted that in winter 2024, a majority of council rejected his recommendation to gather both removal and repair costs. At the time, council earmarked $2.25 million for removal without knowing if that option was the most cost-effective.

“Council made a decision to spend a lot of money, without knowing whether it’s the best option on the table,” he said. “Paying $800,000 instead of $2.25 million for the removal just means we’re spending less on an uninformed decision — not that we’re saving money.”

Beddows said he is not advocating for keeping or removing the bridge, but for data-driven decisions.

“This isn’t how good public policy happens,” he added.

Despite opposing the decision, Beddows said he will now work to implement council’s direction and ensure the bridge removal is carried out in a way that minimizes costs and traffic disruptions.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, several councillors expressed frustration over Beddows’ approach.

“I am stunned, stunned that barely a day after the ink is dry on a motion from council, that strong mayor powers appear to be a solution to reverse council’s will,” said Coun. Anne-Marie Koiner. “This situation is disturbing.”

Coun. Matt Harper called the timing “convenient” following the recent release of the integrity commissioner’s report into Beddows’ conduct.

“To me, it’s a slap in the face to the democracy we’re all here to work for,” he said.

Beddows rejected those claims.

“I’m not an advocate for keeping or getting rid of the bridge,” he said. “I’m an advocate for data-driven decisions. My track record is consistent.”

In a lengthy comment, Coun. David Osmond also responded strongly to the mayor’s criticisms.

“Opinions are like playing Plinko, we all get hit with information on the way down, we have different priorities and our chips can end up in different spots when we hit the bottom and some need to hit a few extra pins before they reach the bottom. We all still participated in the same process,” he said.

“I’ve been part of several contentious matters and been on the unpopular side more often than not and received my fair share of hate and nasty comments over the years. I’m no martyr by any means but anyone who follows Gananoque on social media knows I take the brunt of the blows defending Town Hall, staff and council.

“In the mayor’s latest post on this subject I was the only member of ‘his’ council he directly called out. It’s an interesting coincidence this happened only a few days after an article that demonstrated my support for staff based on other recent events at Town Hall connected to the mayor.”

Osmond said he shared the costs for removing the bridge on social media, in the interests of transparency. He said figures provided by the Save the Bridge group still pointed to the bidge being seasonal, and remaining a costly item to be funded by the town.

“I can also say if the vote went to save the bridge I would not have labelled it bad policy and would not have called out my peers. That’s democracy and how this system works. I’d walk, sashay and even skip across that bridge like I owned it,” said Osmond.

“With all the unwanted attention Town Hall has been getting the deflection and rhetoric is unnerving. I’m not interested in making this personal, not interested in making it worse, not interested in spending/wasting more tax dollars which is exactly what all this is going to do. I will defend myself when called out and will continue to support staff, Town Hall and do what I think is best for our community.

“This keeps me up all night and hopefully doesn’t become the circus that I can see a bit on the horizon.”

Deputy Mayor Vicki Leakey also weighed in on Beddows’ attempt to explore veto power:

“For an individual that identifies as being wise to learn and follow policy, I was surprised that he thought that project could have been manipulated to fall into the acceptable criteria for him to suggest use (of) Strong Mayor powers. I won’t speculate on any reason he may have had, maybe proving to the group that he tried to use what he could to veto the vote. Really I don’t know but it seemed out of character for the research he does on many issues that he was unaware of what this outcome was likely to be.”