Angus Canadian Tire deal could be revived

Essa Mayor declares conflict on NVCA discussion
By Matthew Talbot Alliston Herald
ANGUS – It looks like the Canadian Tire deal is back on the table in Angus. The company was mentioned at a recent Essa Township council meeting.
Last month, the Herald learned Canadian Tire Corp. was looking to build a store on a piece of property belonging to Leesa Turnbull-Guergis on Highway 90 near the No Frills store.
Turnbull-Guergis refused to comment about the mention of the company at a Nov. 4 meeting, repeatedly responding with “no comment” to questions about the deal.
Late last month, Essa Mayor David Guergis, Turnbull-Guergis’ husband, said in an interview about his family’s ownership of the land and his desire to dissolve the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority (NVCA), that the deal with Canadian Tire was off.
However, he declared a conlict of interest and excused himself from the council chambers on Nov. 4 when the meeting turned to the Township of Essa and Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority Flood Remediation Study.
Guergis said he was doing so because he and his wife owned development land in a flood plain. According to NVCA maps, the land on Highway 90 is in a flood plain.
Essa planning and development manager Colleen Healey said at the Nov. 4 meeting that the study, prepared by Greenland Consulting, “is being used on the Canadian Tire site.”
The study was finalized in 2004 and revised in 2005. Healey said it is still a work in progress, however it is being used as a guideline by the NVCA, and has been accepted by the Ministry of Environment.
Last month, Guergis and his wife came under scrutiny after they attended a meeting of the NVCA board of directors discussing planning hindrances imposed by the conservation authority.
Guergis has denied the relationship between his move to dissolve the NVCA, which he has since withdrawn, and his family’s ownership of the Highway 90 land, is a conflict of interest.
Calls to Canadian Tire about the proposed development went unreturned.