Power Politics
Trillium Fund Boss has roots in controversial dump
by Charlie Angus HighGrader Magazine May/June 1999
It is hard to believe that scandal could sweep the pristine corridors of the Trillium Foundation. Yet for the last year, the Provincial charity has been mired in controversy over white supremacists, slush funds, one-armed video bandits, strong-arm Tories and now HighGrader is detecting the faint odour of garbage.
The Foundation handles the haul from the province's lotteries. Well, that's what it did since its inception in 1982. Now, under restructuring by the Conservatives, lottery money is flowing directly into general revenues. The Trillium's budget of upwards of $100 million is to come from the controversial expansion of casinos.
Last April, Toronto gadfly John Sewell accused the government of using the Trillium to pressure communities that were resisting the government's attempt to push through 44 mini-casinos and 10,000 VLT's across Ontario. "Areas that don't permit gambling casinos won't be eligible for grants," wrote Sewell in Now Magazine, April 23, 1998.
Now followed this up with a story on how white supremacist Wolfgang Droege was supposedly bending the ear of influential Tory insiders and MPP's to put the squeeze on the Trillium for giving a grant to the group Anti-Racist Action.
These accusations come at a time of major overhaul in the Foundation. Critics accuse the Tories of trying to strong-arm Trillium into being an extension of the Common Sense agenda.
NDP boss Howard Hampton went so far as to denounce the Tories for turning the Trillium into a "$100 million slush fund to help buy the next election." He pointed out that 14 of the 19 new appointments to the Board had contributed financially to the PC party.
Just before Christmas, Trillium CEO Julie White walked the plank and this led to more Board resignations. Demands were made for a public inquiry and the press began to pay closer attention to the man at the centre of it all -- Robert G. Power. He had been handpicked by Harris to be Chairman of the Trillium.
Until the White firing, few people had heard of Robert G. Power. Parachuted in by Harris in April of 1998, he had a impressive and quick climb to the top. In what Toronto Star writer Kellie Hudson referred to as the "infamous coup of August 17", Power got himself elected Chairman of the Board. The election, according to the Star article, wasn't on the agenda and several Board members were absent. Two members resigned over the election.
The Trillium Foundation is a big step up for a man who just a few years ago was doing damage control with angry farmers in Englehart. Robert G. Power is an environmental lawyer specializing in dumps. When Metro Works were attempting to get the controversial Adams Mine garbage dump afloat, one of the players they brought on board was Robert Power. That was 1995. The ruling NDP was on the way out and the Common Sense Revolution was on its way in.
In Temiskaming, where the dump was being sited, there was overwhelming local opposition. But with the election of Harris, the smell of garbage was in the air. Harris was known to be very supportive of the North Bay-based coalition trying to turn the abandoned, water-filled pits of the Adams Mine into Canada's biggest dump. (See Power Politics -- HighGrader March 1998)
Power was brought in to represent the interests of the three host communities - Englehart, Larder Lake and Kirkland Lake - during this "public consultation" period.
Power was at the same time offered as the guy to represent the interests of the elected citizen's reveiw board - the Public Liaison Committee (the PLC). Members of the PLC felt otherwise and several skirmishes between Power and the PLC members ensued.
During that busy time, Power took time out from his environmental law duties to delve into libel litigation. He represented (then) mayor Joe Mavrinac of Kirkland Lake in a libel suit against Temiskaming MPP David Ramsay. Mavrinac was angry that Ramsay had called him a liar over a promise to hold a referendum on the controversial plan. Ramsay refused to recant and the suit fizzled.
When Metro Works washed its hands of the Adams Mine in December 1995, Power disappeared from the scene. He then surfaced as the lawyer for dump proponent Notre Development.
At the same time he was chairing the Tories' Policy Advisory Council on the Environment. As well he was on the advisory committee to the Environmental Assessment branch. It has never been made clear how much influence either group had on the rewriting of the environmental assessment laws in the province. See Done Deal.
The Adams Mine was the first case tested under the new EA rules. And who was the first lawyer to test those rules? You guessed it.
Barely had the Board given its approval to the Adams Mine when Power got the nod from on high to leave the lowly world of dump politics and move on over to the Trillium.
What does a background in garbage politics have to do with administering a $100 million fund? You tell us. One thing's for sure, our man at the Trillium would seem to have a nose for power.

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