In what was seen as a surprise move by Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, debate over funding the city’s various business improvement associations has been deferred for a week.

Council met in-camera ahead of Monday’s meeting to discuss a legal matter revolving around whether to subtract funding from a handful of BIAs after their decisions to donate to or pledge money to help fund the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal of the city’s decision to rezone land for the acute care hospital on county road 42.

“I want those BIA heads to at least have the same information that we have so they have an opportunity to understand where we're coming from and gain compliance,” said mayor Dilkens two hours into the meeting. “At the end of the day, all we want is compliance here."

A few weeks ago, Dilkens called out the Downtown, Erie Street, Wyandotte Town Centre and Ford City BIAs for their financial contributions – ranging from $250 to $5,000 – to the LPAT appeal launched by the Citizens for an Accountable Mega-hospital Planning Process (CAMPP). Both the Downtown BIA and Erie Street have already donated $5,000 and $2,500, respectively. The Wyandotte Town Centre only pledged a contribution and Ford City tells CTV Windsor their pledge will not be going forwrad.

“If we have to go to the next meeting here and they refuse to comply, then we can take the action we think is appropriate. But let’s at least give them a week to receive the information we’ve seen as a city council,” Dilkens said.

According to Dilkens, a donation to a third-party appeal by the organizations violates the Municipal Act.

“The distinction here is that the BIA is an organization that is set up as a creature of council. And so it’s set up by city council and is given certain powers under the Municipal Act,” Dilkens says. “The belief here is that they’ve crossed the line with respect to those powers.”

But the BIAs have also retained a lawyer, who argues the BIA are protected by their expression rights protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“The BIAs have expressed their views with respect to the downtown core and the planning process by donating a very small but important amount to express their opinion on development in the city of Windsor and planning,” says lawyer Richard Pollock.

Pollock argues their interpretation of the Municipal Act provides for BIAs to promote their distinct business districts.

“They are simply promoting their business district, that is the downtown core, by advocating for a planning process that includes a major hospital in their area,” Pollock says. “That’s why the BIA is here to express themselves and is willing to cooperate with the city in order to get the result that is in the best interest of the city and the best interest of their memberships.”

The heads of the various BIAs which are impacted by the deferral were very surprised by the move, but are keeping an open mind and say they’re willing to meet with city administration.

"We requested a sit down with them to see what their stance is and to get the facts and their basis for the accusations so it's good to sit down and try to resolve the matter before we get into a public session, probably," noted Wyandotte Town Centre Chair Wade Griffith after the deferral. “The entire matter could have been resolved by sitting down with all the BIAs from the beginning. Now we’re all lawyering up we’re spending a lot of tax dollars that were unnecessary that we could have bought benches, planters, other things with that would have been more productive.”

“This becomes a political show that didn’t need to happen in the first place,” Griffith says.

Downtown BIA Chair Brian Yeomans says they were taken aback by the deferral.

“It’s interesting. I don’t know if it’s negative, positive or indifferent. It was just a surprise to go about it this way,” Yeomans says. “We’re waiting to hear the conversation they want to have. They have things they want to discuss, and we’re happy to listen.”

Erie Street BIA Vice-Chair Pietro DiPonio voiced frustration over the fact that the meeting wasn’t held earlier.

"If administration had concerns on this subject, they certainly could have met with or discussed this with the BIAs before now, and we think it's overdue," DiPonio says. "But we're happy to talk to them, and we can talk about the various opinions that exist over the issue."

The city and BIA heads will schedule a meeting sometime this week, ahead of the next council meeting on June 3.