Sherwood reeve testifies at councillor's corruption trial about alleged vote-trade offer, secret recording
Reeve Jeff Poissant says Coun. Tim Probe offered him a vote trade during secretly recorded conversation
When the reeve of the rural municipality of Sherwood, Jeffrey Poissant, met with RM councillor Tim Probe at a coffee shop in early 2016, he says he anticipated it would be to smooth over issues facing the greatly divided council.
He alleges that instead, the meeting turned into a situation where Probe offered him a trade of votes — and he says he secretly recorded the conversation where that happened.
That audio recording is the main evidence being presented against Probe at his trial, which began Monday at the Court of Queen's Bench in Regina and continued Tuesday.
Probe has pleaded not guilty to charges of municipal corruption and breach of trust.
Both he and Poissant are still members of the RM council.
In early 2016, the municipal council was facing a decision regarding a Suncor truck-stop development for the area.
It's alleged that Probe told Poissant he would change his vote, and vote in favour of the development, if Poissant voted against a move to collect legal fees from Probe and another councillor, which they had racked up in another case and for which they had been reimbursed by the municipality.
Probe had amassed nearly $50,000 in legal fees during the Barclay Inquiry, looking into conflict of interest issues revolving around the municipality's former reeve, Kevin Eberle, and the Wascana Village development.
In order to appear as a witness in that case, Probe had hired a lawyer. Council had passed a bylaw saying the RM would pay for those fees. The bylaw was later quashed, with ratepayers demanding that the RM be reimbursed.
Poissant testified Tuesday that Probe had expressed he was not ready to pay back the legal fees.
Traffic concerns
Probe's defence lawyers suggested Tuesday that safety concerns over the truck-stop development were top of mind for Probe during his meeting with Poissant.
On the audio tape of the meeting, Probe can allegedly be heard saying many times that he had concerns over the traffic around the proposed truck stop. He said that's because his 16-year-old son would be driving in the area.
Poissant had recused himself from any decision on the matter, as his family stood to gain from the development because it would be on their land.
The defence suggested that Probe's vote on the truck stop was conditional on his traffic concerns being addressed.
Audio recording
Poissant testified that he had been recording many of his meetings at the time, as he was new to the role as reeve. He said he didn't tell anyone involved in the conversations that he was recording.
He said he had hoped to use the recordings to keep up with his tasks, and for posterity purposes. But he only kept two of the recordings.
On the recording, the two men allegedly left the meeting saying they would consider it all and get back to each other.
However, after seeking legal counsel, Poissant turned the tape over to police the next day.
Probe's trial will resume Wednesday morning.