Champagne's bubble burst

East Ferris deputy mayor Donald Champagne speaks at Wednesday night's meeting of the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority meeting.
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East Ferris deputy mayor Donald Champagne says he will ask his council to withhold sending a motion to the Municipal Affairs and Housing Ministry calling for a judicial inquiry into the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority finances.

Champagne, who authored the motion, received "a tongue lashing," he said, at last night's CA board meeting over the motion's first paragraph.
It stated area residents had lost faith in the board's ability to deal with its current financial boondoggle.

Dave Mendicino, one of two North Bay councillors on the CA board, said he hoped the paragraph was just "poorly worded"
rather than an attack.

Mayor Bill Vrebosch, of East Ferris, said the motion, passed Tuesday night, has already been sent to the ministry.

The board voted to assemble a special committee made up of accountants to look into its books and decide by Aug. 25 what course of action to recommend, including a forensic audit and/or a judicial inquiry.

So far the authority's debt could be as high as $7.2 million, but is no lower than $5.4 million.

BayToday.ca will have more on this story later this morning.