Townsman, 1991-07, Page 191
cil. Neil Lackey came on board to
represent the alliance of the town's
eight churches. Schiavone was joined
by Shelley Johnston and David
Kuepfer from the former Deilcraft
workers.
Bennett's university connections
resulted in the group getting the help
of Cari Patterson, a Wilfrid Laurier
student who used the Milverton expe-
rience as her research project.
The group worked informally at
first. The Ontario Rural Learning
Association was brought in as a facili-
tator to help the interested people
shape their ideas into a community
plan. Then in early November of last
year a public meeting was held and 66
people attended. At the meeting five
committees were set up dealing with
economic planning, communications,
beautification, youth concerns and
accessibility for the disabled.
The Revitalization Committee
served as an overall umbrella to the
community effort. It sought support
from the federal and provincial gov-
ernments for a needs and resources
study of the community and for a fea-
sibility study and formation of the
business plan for the purchase of the
factory. It also began looking for
existing businesses to locate in the
plant or expand operations there.
What Milverton wanted to do,
however, was something government
agencies weren't used to dealing with.
Mr. Bennett says Perth M.P.P. Karen
Haslam told him Milverton was
rewriting the book for the govern-
ment. There were programs in place
to help companies keep from closing,
like Algoma Steel, but the group
found out that once a company has
gone bankrupt it was very difficult to
get government support to buy it back
and do development work.
Finally the federal government,
through its Industrial Adjustment Ser-
vice promised $30,000 and the
Ontario Ministry of Labour cleared
another $30,000. It seemed the group
was on its way. It understood it could
now go ahead and hired the consul-
tants to undertake the various studies
needed. It understood it would only
take a week for its contracts to be
approved and the companies told they
could go ahead with the work.
When the Deilcraft plant closed, Milverton faced a major loss to the community.
Churches, business leaders, municipal leaders
banded together to look at alternatives.
But the frustration was only begin-
ning. The contracts would be sent to
the London office of the Industrial
Adjustment Services and seemingly
disappear. The provincial Ministry of
Labour had no trouble with its
approvals but the work couldn't go
ahead until the federal approval was
received. Weeks went by. Meetings
were held with an official from the
federal agency who could give no
explanation for the delays. The Mil-
verton group was getting frantic
because it had to start moving on the
studies so it could proceed with nego-
tiations to buy the building. Finally it
told one of the consulting companies
to proceed anyway to get things mov-
ing.
Finally on June 11, after seven
weeks of delays in approval of a key
contract, a meeting was set up with
someone from the agency as well as
someone from the provincial Ministry
of Labour. The officials were told that
the Milverton group had lined up a
tenant, a skilled craftsman from
Toronto, who would lease 23,000
square feet in the factory, and had $1
million worth of machinery to move
in. There were other possible tenants
to be negotiated with. The committee
wanted to get on with selling shares to
interested community members. They
pointed out they had proceeded in
good faith , committing hundreds of
hours of volunteer time and their own
money, on the understanding that the
government money was committed.
They asked for approval of the con-
tract then and there by the federal offi-
cial but he said he needed a week to
think about it. The provincial official
had no problems. The committee told
the official they needed an answer by
noon that Friday so they could get on
with their work. At 11:55 that Friday,
Bennett says, they received a FAX
from the federal agency saying the
committee had a different agenda than
the agency and the contract between
the two was being cancelled, even
though the contract stated that either
party must give the other 30 days
notice before cancellation. The com-
mittee now plans to provide a detailed
chronology of events for Dr. Harry
Brightwell, the Perth Member of Par-
liament to make sure he is aware of
what has happened. "we were so upset
and angry by the lack of accountable
response," Bennett says.
The timing of the FAX message,
just before the deadline suggests game
playing, Brailsford -Child says. "This
is not a game, we're playing with the
lives of people here," Bennett adds.
In the meantime, the provincial
ministry, realizing the work was in
jeopardy, agreed to fund the whole
TOWNSMAN/JULY-AUGUST 1991 17