 By Scott Bird
Grimsby BIA Watch Grimsby, ON, Mayoral candidate Simon Duong has made respecting taxpayers part of his campaign message. In a recent social media post promoting the Happening in Grimsby Festival, Duong claimed, “We raise every single dollar ourselves” and he praised the Happening Festival as a shining example of funding community initiatives without “Always reaching into the pockets of our taxpayers,” The post event financial report submitted to the Building Communities Through Arts & Heritage (BCAH) makes that claim extremely difficult for Simon to defend. In 2025, the Happening Festival received $18,600 from the federal BCAH program, $8,000 directly from the Town of Grimsby, $12,000 in Town funded services, and $30,000 through the Downtown BIA levy. The Town services included staffing, garbage removal, road closures, barricades, online promotion, and assistance with permits. Those are not privately raised dollars. They are public resources supporting the festival. Together, the documented taxpayer and BIA levy support totalled $68,600. Happening reported $91,157.69 in expenses that year, meaning [tax-based] support was equivalent to approximately 75.3 percent of the festival’s reported expenses. A festival receiving support equal to three quarters of its annual expenses cannot credibly be presented to taxpayers and downtown merchants as an event that “raises every single dollar ourselves.” Public funding is not the issue. Transparency is. Simon is asking Grimsby voters to trust him with their tax dollars while presenting a version of the Happening Festival finances that downplays the taxpayer contribution. That matters because he chaired the BIA that provided public money as well as the Happening Festival that received it. If Simon wants voters to trust his judgment with municipal finances, then the numbers he presents should be transparent. Taxpayers should not have to dig through public records to discover how much of the bill they are actually paying. Did you know that the Grimsby BIA under Mark Wood and Simon Duong has spent almost $100,000 of BIA levy tax dollars towards the Happening Festival since 2023? And 2026 was the only time there was any documentation to support it? (Sources: GDBIA Minutes, BCAH Application, BCAH post event reports)  By Scott Bird
Grimsby BIA Watch GRIMSBY, ON In spring 2025, the Grimsby Downtown BIA began looking for someone to redevelop its website. On April 30, 2025, the Board directed Executive Director Amanda MacDonald to obtain quotes for the work. BIA director Ben Burns had expressed an interest in pursuing the website contract, according to records available to Grimsby BIA Watch. When the website RFP came before the Board on June 25, 2025, the official minutes recorded no declarations of pecuniary interest. Burns remained at the table and seconded the motion receiving the RFP and authorizing the Executive Director to procure a website vendor for up to $5,000. Burns did not get the contract. By August 13, 2025, the BIA was publicly reporting that the website redevelopment had been awarded to Civiconnect and that work was already underway. Then, at the next Board meeting on September 10, 2025, Burns’ own business entered the discussion. An advertising opportunity involving Benchside Niagara Magazine was added to the agenda under New Business. Burns himself seconded the motion adding the item to the agenda. This time, he declared a pecuniary interest. The reason recorded in the minutes was straightforward: Burns was the owner and editor of Benchside Niagara. But the declaration did not end his involvement. According to the official minutes, Burns presented the advertising opportunity to the Board, explained that other Niagara BIAs had approached Benchside, and provided the publication’s pricing: $900 for one full-page advertisement or $1,500 for two. Only after presenting the opportunity and pricing did Burns withdraw from the discussion and vote. The remaining directors then considered the purchase. Christine Kempf moved the motion, Lisa Sproston seconded it, and the Board approved $1,500 for two Benchside advertisements from the BIA advertising budget. Burns did not vote on that motion. There is no evidence establishing that the advertising purchase was compensation for Burns not receiving the website work. But the chronology is clear: Burns was interested in BIA website work, the contract went to Civiconnect, and less than one month after that award was publicly reported, Burns presented his own publication’s advertising opportunity and pricing before the Board approved $1,500 for Benchside Niagara. For businesses funding the BIA through the levy, that sequence deserves scrutiny.  By Scott Bird
Grimsby BIA Watch GRIMSBY, August 13, 2025 — The Grimsby BIA told the public that its new website contract had been awarded to Civiconnect. What the public record did not disclose was that Grimsby BIA Executive Director Amanda MacDonald’s brother worked for the company receiving the contract. The website project had already gone through several iterations. On June 7, 2023, Daniel Vandersteen presented the BIA’s completed website. The official minutes state it was ‘finished and ready to launch,’ and the Board voted unanimously to launch it immediately. After MacDonald became Executive Director, the BIA returned to the market for website development. On June 25, 2025, the Grimsby BIA Board authorized MacDonald to procure a website vendor for up to $5,000. Less than two months later, at the August 13, 2025 Grimsby BIA meeting, Vandersteen reported that Civiconnect had been awarded the project and work was underway. That was the public disclosure. The family connection was not. Amanda MacDonald’s brother worked as a Manager for Civiconnect. The public minutes announcing the successful vendor did not identify that relationship, record a disclosure by MacDonald, or tell Grimsby BIA levy payers that a close family connection existed between the Executive Director overseeing the procurement and the company receiving the work. For a levy funded public board, that is not a minor detail. The Grimsby BIA found room in its minutes to tell members the name of the successful company. It left out the part that mattered most.  By Scott Bird
Grimsby BIA Watch Amanda MacDonald’s BIA history deserves a closer look. Not simply because of where she worked, but because of what happened financially and organizationally during that history. MacDonald became Executive Director of the Oshawa Downtown BIA in 2019. At the time, the BIA had been operating with a budget of roughly $251,000. During her tenure, the organization advanced a $649,000 budget for 2020, more than two-and-a-half times that amount. The increase generated significant opposition from downtown levy payers, and Oshawa Council ultimately intervened, imposing a $268,375 spending cap. MacDonald’s employment was terminated in August 2020. Months later, Oshawa Council voted to dissolve the BIA, effective February 28, 2021. MacDonald subsequently filed a wrongful-dismissal lawsuit against the City of Oshawa after the municipality assumed the dissolved BIA’s liabilities. That litigation was ultimately dismissed on consent in June 2026, without a finding on the underlying allegations. MacDonald then became Executive Director of the Downtown Niagara Falls BIA. In December 2021, she personally appeared before Niagara Falls Council to present the BIA’s proposed 2022 operating budget of $591,604, including a $406,604 levy on downtown property owners. By early 2023, the BIA was facing serious financial and governance problems. Niagara Falls Council authorized approximately $100,000 in temporary financing, and on March 21, 2023, Council repealed the bylaw establishing the Downtown BIA, assumed its assets and liabilities, and directed City staff to secure its records and property. And now she works for Grimsby. Since Amanda was hired by the current Grimsby Downtown BIA board, levy payers have watched budgets and spending grow substantially while questions have continued over grants, sponsorships, procurement, financial reporting, control and transparency. MacDonald is now the Executive Director responsible for administering that organization. None of this proves that Amanda MacDonald personally caused the dissolution of either Oshawa or Niagara Falls. But the chronology does not disappear because causation cannot be assigned to one person. Oshawa: major budget expansion, Council intervention, termination, dissolution and litigation. Niagara Falls: a nearly $600,000 budget, financial intervention by Council, then dissolution. Now: Grimsby. For Grimsby businesses being asked to fund an increasingly expensive BIA, that history is worth knowing. The question is not where Amanda MacDonald has worked. The question is whether Grimsby should be paying attention to what happened where she worked before.  By Scott Bird
Grimsby BIA Watch On January 25, 2023, Mark Wood, who owns The Forty Public House, nominated himself as BIA Chair and Simon Duong, who owns Teddy's Restaurant, as Vice-Chair. Roughly five weeks later, Duong asked his fellow board members for $10,000 for Happening in Grimsby (a 25% increase from 2022). Because both Wood and Duong were involved with the Happening Festival, they stepped out for the vote after asking for additional funds. Treasurer Daniel Vandersteen then moved the $10,000 motion, and the remaining board members approved it. (including Christine Kempf, Kendra Wintels, Jeff Jordan, Chris Mindorff and Delight Davoli) So the concern is not whether Wood and Duong voted on their own request. They did not. The concern is how quickly the request arrived after the new BIA leadership took control, and how closely that leadership was connected to the Happening Board asking downtown merchants for more money. DID YOU KNOW? During the same March 1, 2023 meeting where Mark Wood and Simon Duong stepped out over their Happening/BIA conflict, Simon later moved a motion supporting the Farmers’ Market that is also financially tied to the Happening Festival, with no conflict recorded. (Source 2023-03-01 GDBIA Meeting Minutes) |