Jim Thibert
This is an open letter by Jim Thibert, general manager of the Fort Erie Economic Development and Tourism Corporation, which he also sent to members of Town Council in response to criticism leveled against him about comments he made during his 2013 budget presentation.
Gentlemen,
As I greatly respect each of you please be advised that contrary to what the press, pundits and some councillors wish to be true, there will be no apology for the presentation made Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 to council for the EDTC budget and State-of- Fort Erie economy.
There is no reason. No justification.
It is the mandate of the EDTC to deliver advice and counsel to the Fort Erie Town Council on the state of the business community.
It is my job and responsibility as general manager to deliver this information and message.
Both were achieved effectively and professionally on that date. All councillors, many senior staff, the audience and the media complimented me and my staff on the data and the effective presentation. None issued concerns or otherwise.
But several points of fact should be obvious, and, if not then I reiterate:
1) A two hour lecture on important statistics would be boring if not interdicted by anecdotes or brevity.
The importance of these messages had to be highlighted in new and interesting ways.
After all, the crux of the message is that we have been advising council on some of these issues so critical to the future of Fort Erie for several years and to no avail.
But as we have always said and practiced, it is our job to deliver the best advice. We do not judge Council if they take it or leave it – that is their peril.
So do not shoot the messenger. Deal with the issues.
2) There were no profanities. The word “bullshit” was used in the same anecdote twice – two times for literary effect.
Every dictionary defines that word as not profane.
Any further use or insinuation of same by any party is just wrong.. It was even published in the press and there are no challenges by these very same pundits to censor the media for same.
3) The misquote, or rather intentional misquoting of my reference to illiterate/uneducated/willing to work a full day, was taken completely out of context.
It relates to the fact that for the 4th year, we are telling Council that they can advise residents who complain that there are no jobs/no future in Fort Erie that we are advised firsthand that there are a number of companies that cannot fill higher tech jobs. That these good jobs can be filled by local people but they need to prepare and be trained/retrained in order to compete for these advanced jobs. They are not available to the illiterate, the uneducated or those who are unwilling to put in a full days work. Without the skills and retraining, they cannot possible meet the basic criteria.
This was an alert to council and the public that there are high paying jobs of a variety of skills but people need to plan and take training and we spoke about the variety of agencies and supports for people to do that. The sooner they start, the sooner they may improve their predicament. We offered to help.
The sensationalist promotion of the idea that these statements in any way were describing the Fort Erie labour force is preposterous and irresponsible and the councillors who pander to and promote this are identifiable and quoted in the press, They cannot run from this irresponsibility and they do more harm, and no good, to the constituents who seek advice from them.
There were many references in the presentation lauding Fort Erie work force and indeed, explaining how current layoffs at Pharmetics, DMI and Vertis had nothing to do with the quality or cost of labour in Fort Erie and were simply the collateral damage of global corporate decisions by head offices in other countries/provinces.
Shame on anyone who suggest otherwise and shame on Councillor Luberts, Steckley, Hill and Collard for perpetuating these statements they should know to be untrue. They were present at the presentation and all had zero concerns, in fact, they issued Kudos to the EDTC for the work and kudos to me and EDTC vice-president Ric Gorham and staff for the presentation.
4) we received kudos for quality , content and style Wednesday and Thursday and even many on Friday from senior staff and people who had attended, the Chamber of Commerce and from people who had subsequently listened to the audio. We also received same from several councillor reiterating their kudos.
5) the problem arose apparently when the Niagara This Week/Fort Erie Post issued the first story. The reporter himself advised us he had enjoyed the presentation but in synthesizing the story down to a few paragraphs, things certainly appeared different than in reality. Even my wife told me she could see how people reading the article could become offended, things being over emphasized by contraction, out of context etc.
I spoke to the reporter the following Monday. He advised he had already written another editorial, focusing moreso on the message we delivered.
But I suspect those residents who believe the mews account to be whole, had decided on the information they had available, not the whole information in context and likely did not take the time to hear the whole audio recording in context.
6) In the 11 years in Fort Erie I have demonstrated my concern and support for the people of Fort Erie and the workers of Fort Erie. – Fleet Canada, The Fort Erie Race Track, Patheron/Pharmetics, Vertis and the list goes on.
To say otherwise is ignorant and untrue. To perpetuate that lie as these councillors wantonly do is shameful and just plain wrong.
What is profane would be the backtracking, denial, reinvention of facts, delusional misrepresentation bent on slandering the important works of the EDTC or myself personally for political gain and manipulative vendetta.
Do you think that might be happening?
And now, let’s acknowledge the shameless self serving insensitivity of these councillors, now choosing not to demand my resignation but hold off for now because “he is too important to major critical projects and too instrumental in addressing all the economic issues’ to fire right now.
Really? One would think that a valuable asset…..wow ! A professional civil servant working hard and smartly for the constituents!
Respectfully,
James A Thibert
General Manager
Fort Erie EDTC
One Comment on "LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Embattled Fort Erie economic development chief defends his comments"
Well, there you have it! Let he whose has never used the word “bullshit” in a presentation to Fort Erie town council cast the first stone!