 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 Niagara Falls Council authorized approximately $100,000 in temporary financing, and on March 21, 2023, Council repealed the bylaw establishing the Downtown BIA, assumed its assets and liabilities, and directed City staff to secure its records and property.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. |